Hellfire

[Anna Marina]

A scent celebrating Sir Francis Dashwood's Order of the Knights of St. Francis of Wycombe, also known as the Hellfire Club. A swirl of pipe tobacco, hot leather, ambergris, dark musk and the lingering incense smoke from their Black Mass.

 

In the imp: I can smell a composition of the described notes.

Wet on skin: Upon application, I am only picking up incense, powder and a slight tinge of the ambergris.

Drydown: Incense and powder.

 

I wish I could get the leather and tobacco out of this. I did try layering it with Highwayman and that achieved the leather I was looking for. Despite this being entirely different on my skin, I did order a FB as the incense and powder are quite lovely. It's very long lasting on my skin.

[Lucchesa]

I tried Hellfire yesterday and am retrying this morning to see if I get the same result. (For the record, I haven't showered yet.) Hellfire just disappears on me, within minutes. I think the notes are beautiful, but after a quarter of an hour I have to make wrist contact with my nose and really concentrate to smell anything at all. Apparently my skin wants all the hellfire for itself. This just doesn't work for me, alas.

[ramblingrambler]

Hellfire smells like I slept—just slept!—next to a gorgeous man who is all sorts of bad in just the right ways. I can pull out each note by itself if I want to, but I would rather smell it blended together, not concentrating on what's what because hot damn is it delicious. It's just a mish-mash of sexy smells!

[achildoftime]

Hellfire is wonderful. Which is an admittedly odd sentence, but I stand by it. It's is very beautifully blended and feels nice and unified.

 

I get pipe tobacco and ambergris, with a side of leather. I get the sweet side of these scents. For once, the sweet amping chemistry of mine works for me and makes this more unisex for me. Not that I don't like traditionally masculine scents, they are just a little heavy for me sometimes. This works perfectly and I adore it.

[Joyleaf_]

In the imp I get this dark tapestry of scent, really can smell the pipe tobacco and th leather and the musk. On my skin I get nothing, nada. A whisper that a scent was ever there. If shove my nose on my wrist and huff with all my might I do get this smokey sweet scent. Leathery ambergris and smoke. I wish with all my heart that I could get it to throw on me like some of my more hated blends. Why is it that the ones I think I will most like disappear instantly while vile things like banana stick around for hours with sadistic glee?

I will keep the imp with a heart full of hope that someday Hellfire will get louder on my skin.

[VetchVesper]

I don't quite get this one. I have multiple imps of this, one of which is obviously old, and I love it. It's got the spiced woody sweetness of Dee, Bow and Crown of Conquest, and Black Rider that I just love. Warm, wonderful, and unabashedly masculine, and very close to what many happy reviewers are describing.

 

But the newer imps smell very different. Higher pitched, sweeter, more ambergris, less depth underneath. Less warm and lived in. Closer to scents like Djinn. Not unpleasant, but definitely not the same, and not really something I would hold on to.

 

So now my quandary and my dilemma. Do these just need to age? Is this batch variation? Was there a 2nd reformulation? (I don't think this is the original butter bourbon one.) Should I keep these extra imps in hopes they shall metamorphose into deliciousness? Or are they what they are and need new loving homes? I'd love to know if anyone has answers.