Pumpkin Patch IV (2005, 2006)

[coulrophobe]

Pumpkin with sandalwood and orris.

Preconceived notions: Pumpkin Patch IV was the one I was most intrigued with, because of the unusual pumpkin-orris pairing; orris is one of my favorite notes (as is sandalwood), but I couldn't imagine how it would smell with pumpkin.

In the bottle: faintly incensy pumpkin

On: Definitely still pumpkin, but more smoky than foody, thanks to the sandalwood. As the oil dries on my skin, I can smell the orris - it adds an unusual and unexpected velvety purpleness to the blend. This P-Patch is smoky and rich; decadent-smelling to my nose, but not in an overtly foody way. The richness is almost buttery, but not in the rancid or cloying way that buttery scents end up with my chemistry. Truly an amazing scent - kudos to Beth for formulating such a unique and wonderful blend!

[Lorencita]

This is what I want everything to smell like this time of year! Soothing samdalwood with yummy punkin. I am in love with the pumpkin patch & I might even buy another one.

[Lycanthrope]

Who else would have thought to put sandalwood and orris with pumpkin?

 

On my skin, it's definitely a crisp and dry sandalwood from the start, and the earthy pumpkin just creeps up beneath and the entire blend becomes an uber-creamy, super calming scent. It's very, very warm. I actually don't detect the orris, it must be very subtly blended. It's quite tasty, edible, almost.

[Imbrium]

Ooh! This is the member of the Patch that I expected not to work on my skin. Instead, it's been a wonderful surprise.

 

I expected, strong, incensy pumpkin, instead, I got light pumpkin, with a chilly smokiness.

It smells, in every stage, like standing outside in the middle of a field of pumpkins, with chilly autumn air all around, and the smell of fires in the distance.

 

This is absolutely perfect.

[Finny]

This is my second favorite, if one can have favorites when they are all so damn good!

 

Smoky sandalwood, over a warm pumpkin base, and the orris sweetens it a touch as it dries down. It has a buttery feel, without being buttery, a very rich smell. It is the most incensy of the pumpkin scents.

 

Mmm, pumpkin.

[miss apple]

Sandalwood + Orris + Pumpkin = pumpkin incense! Exotic and comforting, this is pure deliciousness in a bottle. At times it seems at though all I can detect is sandalwood but if I sniff again I can smell the sweetness of the pumpkin shifting underneath which grounds the scent and gives it depth. I imagine a pile of pumpkins with sweetend smoke drifitng lazily in the air. This is a fantastic oil!

Edited October 20, 2005 by miss apple

[Blood onmy hands]

I'm always the odd one out on these things... but this pumpkin blend was very bland on me. It was the last one that I picked out to try. And it was the one that I was least impressed with on my skin.

 

I loved the woods/ivy pumpkin, the apple cider pumpkin, and the cocoa pumpkin (in that order), I didn't like the pomegranate pumpkin, and this one is just boring on me.

 

When trying to describe it, all I can think is that this really smells dry. Like dry woods and dry nuts. I'm actually not smelling any pumpkin or spice. It's rather light and sinks into my skin too. While the other blends in the patch have a lot of throw and last for hours on me, this one disappears within an hour.

 

Oh well. Overall, I am in love with the patch and think it was worth every penny.

[LiberAmoris]

Mmmm, I swear this smells like delicious buttery pumpkin with dry violets and sandalwood on me...not sure how that is possible, but it smells great. There's a rooty note that blends well with the sandalwood to create a very earthy pumpkin, like a real pumpkin patch at nightfall. Very enjoyable.

[shelldoo]

in the bottle somewhat smokey pumpkin

 

wet: yup sandalwood, and pumpkin

 

as it dries it balances out very nicely. it is smokey sweet incensey, like a holloween incense. there is a certain "dustiness" to it also. and i am thinking this is actually my favorite of the patch it is just comforting, beautiful, deep, and somewhat dark

[pranashakti]

Oh, yum.

 

I don't think I get alot of orris from this, but then again it's not a note I'm very familiar with. It's a bit buttery/foody on first application but quickly mellows out to sweetly pumpkiny sandalwood. And stays that way - for a long, lovely time. There's a fabulous warm woody darkness that keeps this from being too sweet. It's rich in a very grounded way, and that woody darkness borders on spice. I must get some of this.

 

Did I say yum yet?

[joseybird]

Dark, smokey, very dry, but with buttery pumpkin to give the blend some bright moisture. It's a very sophisticated scent, and it's one of my faves of the batch =)

[zenvodunista]

i think my skin must hate wood. this one is sharp and acrid on me with a slight BO tinge to it.

 

n.

[sarahmarie]

Oh - I think my skin hates orris! I've smelled this note before in something, and it strongly disagreed with me then, too - but now I guess I know what it is! It's very sharp, very very strong, and biting to my nose, and it's really headache-inducing. So PP #4 and I really do not get along, and I'll be swapping this bottle for sure.

[harmonyfb]

In the bottle, this is a slightly spicy pumpkiny scent.

 

Wet, the orris jumps out to the forefront, making it a very candyish sweet pumpkin scent. I can't even identify what the orris smell reminds me of because it's so perfectly married with the pumpkin.

 

Dry, the scent is remarkably stable for hours. My husband swore he could smell sandalwood, which must have to do with the throw, because up close I couldn't smell any at all until hours and hours later.

 

This is incredibly long-lasting - even after six hours, I could still smell spicy sandalwood.

 

But - I'm not sure I like it. It's such an unusual scent, and such a new combination to my nose that I think it'll take a wearing or two to really figure out whether it's for me.

[Xiabelle]

This is one of the patches I was most looking forward to, since I adore sandalwood and orris. Mmm.

 

In the imp, it's sweet pumpkin, darkened by the orris and sandalwood. So lovely. It has a soft, spicy kick.

 

When I first put it on, it immediately blooms into sweet, buttery pumpkin. Almost too sweet, and buttery, really. Fortunately, this stage doesn't last too long and it settles down some into sandalwood-smeared pumpkin (or is it the other way around?)

 

Sometimes it will drift towards too sharp, but this it comes back softer again... It's a really nice blend, very understated and elegant, I think. It does have a lot of throw, too, amazingly (most things don't throw on me) and I keep getting hints of it as I sit at my desk. It's really come into its own after being on my skin for 4-5 hours.

 

It's also absolutely gorgeous where it's on the collar of my shirt, with the orris more prominent. I always associate a slightly... open... scent with orris, and I get that a lot where it's on my clothes, but not as much on my skin.

 

I was so afraid these weren't going to be versatile, and this is really amazingly versatile, and could be worn year-round. Yum.

 

ETA: I wore this today, at a different time in my cycle, and... OMG! Started out very woody, then faded into what I wrote above... but now, NOW... the drydown is reminding me of chocolate pumpkin bread. Why, I don't know, but this is so freakin' gorgeous. It's absolutely unfair. I must find a bottle of this.

Edited December 5, 2005 by Xiabelle

[aidenraine]

This is the only one of the Patch that isn't a pale yellow color (like Jack), but rather an orange-soda orange color.

 

Oooooh it's the sweet pumpkin of Jack, but with a woody undertone. Sandalwood, my old friend!

the dryness of the sandalwood tempers the overly sweet pumpkin.

 

I really smell both notes evenly - the pumpkin and the sandalwood. They're sitting next to each other, holding hands, swinging their little feet back and forth.

 

I smell one, then the other.

 

Dry, ashy sandalwood, sweet sweet pumpkin syrup (BPAL's "pumpkin" always smells most like pumpkin cheesecake to me.)

 

I like the combination of the two quite a bit... by george, I think this one might be a success with me,

 

So far, I like #3 and #4.

[cupide430]

This one is much warmer in tone than the others I've tried so far. There's something deep and a bit incensy going on here with a woodsy note sliding around in the background. So far I like this one best, though I don't think it is something I'd wear often as I'm not generally a woodsy gal.

After a bit this gets more sandalwood-y and less woodsy overall. It also is starting to get a bit powdery.

Edited October 29, 2005 by cupide430

[darkitysnark]

Pumpkin Patch 4

 

Standard Snarky Disclaimer: Got decant set for friend, have been allowed to educate my nose by testing first even though I do not seem to care for pumpkin.

 

In the bottle: buttery pumpkin Jackishness, with a gritty earthy background. This is probably the most abruptly buttery of the bunch so far (I still have to test #5).

 

Wet/drydown: the butter flares then dissipates as it has on the other blends, the sweet sweet pumpkin rolls forward, but it is darkened with another type of sweetness which I assume is the orris. I'm not too familiar with it but I luurve me some sandalwood and it has not yet made an appearance (other than the grittiness of "in-the-bottle")

 

Then I start sneezing--violently, and often. I'm beginning to suspect this is my standard reaction to pumpkin.

 

Finally, about 15 minutes later the incensey goodness of sandalwood comes out to play, but it's a cacaphony of smells. I'm a little bewildered by it.

 

Then I went home and took a nap and five hours later there's almost nothing left.

 

This blend had the least throw and staying power of the four I've tried so far. Oddly enough, the other pumpkin blends always ended similarly with a vague incense-feel to them... but this one is sweeter. Like sugared sandalwood? Interesting.

[wickedgoddess]

Wet - Initially I don't get sandalwood so much as dryness. It smells like a dried out pumpkin.

 

Dry - After awhile the sandalwood really comes out, and I get a bit of orris as well. The pumpkin fades but the sandalwood and orris last and last. Hours later I can still smell this on me, and that's unusual with my chemistry. A lovely, dry scent, where the pumpkin is quite subtle.

 

On the wickedgoddess scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being best, this rates a 3.

[brownbear]

MMMMMMM This one smells the most pumpkiny to me. It's a very interesting blend. Very different. It gets a little smoky later. It's really nice paired with devil's night.

[darkling]

I am not sure what orris smells like so I can't vouch for its presence.

 

In the bottle and on my skin this was almost pure sandalwood. There is an extremely faint hint of pumpkin underneath but it is largely subsumed by the sandalwood.

 

This is a fairly strong, long-lasting scent and I am sure that any sandalwood fans would love it.

[UltraViolet]

3

 

In the bottle

Lovely, it smells vaguely incensey and dry wood smelling, and oddly, similar to the hazelnut and pumpkin blend except with the chocolate of course. It's a bit sexier than that other blend though.

 

On

Sandalwood is one of my favorite things on earth.

#4 smells foody mostly but only a teeny bit incensey.

 

30 minutes

It hasn't morphed at all.

It smells more like toasted pumpkin seeds now with a bit of that lovely scented wood.

 

Throw:

average

 

Scent category:

foody/incensey

 

Summary

It's nice, and soft and airy incensey wood, like sandalwood is. I like my sandalwood straight up mostly because it's so good, or sometimes mixed with florals.

It lasts a bit better than average amount of time.

 

Purchase again?

No. I'd get some other BPAl blend else with sandalwood in it.

 

1-5 rating (5 being best)

3

Edited November 28, 2005 by UltraViolet

[Northernminx]

Soft, woodsiness that's almost nutty beneath a layer of pumpkin. The pumpkin on this faded quickly leaving some woody sandalwood which is really just not my favorite. I'm sort of ambivalent which given that I love three out of five of the patch, is okay. Off to swaps on this one.

[puck_nc]

Origin: Imp from a decant circle

 

In the Bottle: Spicy, sensual, intoxicating. I can find the pumpkin and the sandalwood; since I have no idea what orris smells like, I'm thinking it might be the spicy note.

 

Wet: LOTS of sandalwood.

 

Drydown: Interesting...I get a musk-like combination, without the MUSK!!!! that I would normally get from a blend with real musk in it. It's very sexy.

 

Verdict: Me likey! Can't wait for my bottle of this!

[Galen]

When I first apply this, I can smell both the sandalwood - dry and a little sharp - and pumpkin - warm and rounded.

 

a wonderful combination as they hold each other in check; the warm and the dry play off each other wonderfully giving almost as nutty a combination as chocolatey Pumpkin Patch #2, but not as sweet or warm, and the warmth that is there makes the sandalwood more wearble than it often is on its own.

 

A study in contrasts like several of the other pumpkin patches, in particular PP#5 - the woods and ivy - but I think that this one is my favourite - sophisticated and balanced, and more traditionally perfume-like than the other pumkin blends which are more foody/fruity/woody.