Sheol

[Indigo78]

The final burst of the soul’s light and joy before passing into the depths of the earth, and into the cords of Sheol; Sheol, who is never satisfied, and who makes wide her soul to all. Vibrant gladiola, graceful stargazer lily, triumphant iris and bright heliotrope flare, and is finally made somber by heavy copal, a drop of labdanum, and tonka.

I've been meaning to review this one since I received an imp about two years ago. I'm not certain which note caught my attention, but I bottle-listed Sheol the second I smelled it.

I didn't realize this was such a floral blend until I read the note list just now. Copal is the star of the show on my skin, and I catch whiffs of smoky labdanum and tonka, but the florals really do seem to be absent for me-- at least in the typical "I SMELL LIKE FLOWERS" way. That's a good thing.

I'd describe this as a cozy, slightly vanillic and dusty incense. Like an affectionate death hug?

I'm struggling, here. All I can say is that, even if you're not a fan of florals, Sheol is a must try. It's a one of a kind member of the catalog, for sure... Glad I have a bottle, since it seems to be getting richer and more beautiful with age.

[ellebelle]

Dark, resinous, beauty. My "bottle" is a rollerbottle in which I dump all of the Sheol frimps I am given. It must not be popular, because I get it swap packages frequently! As a result, my bottle is probably of mixed ages.

 

I got NO bright florals at all. If I didn't know better, I would think this has amber because of the resinous undertone. I do get some of the lily, but it is no happy floral. This is a seductive floral for an evening out.

[angelamaria]

In imp: oooh, something floral but masculine to my nose. This is a deep floral, dark and heady, with a bit of spice. Spicy floral, I guess?

 

Wet on skin: I can't really pinpoint the spice note here. It's herbal, slightly medicinal, almost "clinical". I'd guess it's either copal or labdanum. Heady, the floral quality here is a bit boozy, right there in the background, and as it dries on my skin I'm getting an almost definitive rootbeer-y note.

 

Dry: O_O;; yes, this is definitely a rootbeer sort of sweetness. Dusty, almost making me sneeze, and with an incensey quality, almost resinous. I'm not entirely sure which component is the culprit here.

 

Verdict: well, definitely a morpher for me, the dry smell is a surprise. I do like a nice rootbeer note, but something here is rather wrong on my skin.

[hanabi]

I used up my frimp and had to get a full size, and I think they smell different. My impression from the frimp was that Sheol is a lovely light fresh floral with something a little shadowy in the background. It always reminds me of taking walks in the graveyard in my town on summer evenings. It's fresh and slightly green, but with a sense of evening shadows and coolness (I know this sounds weird but that's the impression it gives me). In my full size, I get more of the smoky resin and it's a bit more warm. It's not bad, but it's not quite the perfume I thought I was getting.

[Eschezhivet]

I received a frimp of Sheol today -- it's rather a pleasant sort of scent, all things considered I'm hopeless at telling flowers from one another, even considering that I'm no perfume maven person in the first place, but it's definitely that kind of sweet -- some kind of mellow, powdery, creamy-sweet flower. Slightly honeyish. Not the sort of thing I would have looked for on my own, but if it were a person I would definitely smile at it and attempt to initiate benevolent interaction.

[Monday]

On wet: this is green green green. Spicy sharp green. Like a plucked stem of a vicious plant kind of green. Drying down there's a kind of bananary floral scent emerging.

It's still rather sharp and green. Not at all what I had expected.

Dry: the florals have amped to huge quantities, this has a bit of a dryer sheet quality to it which combined with the vicious green is giving me a headache. Sheol has lots of throw but isn't quite for me.

[becca_s]

This is a strong, heady scent. It starts out quite floral and then as it dries I get alot of the labdanum, which has a tendency to be quite sharp on me. I find this scent to strong for my tastes - but I am happy that I tried it.

[84trillion]

This is a very beautiful floral that smells realistic, not like a flowery perfume. Definitely a keeper, not sure if I need a bottle though.

[stellamaris]

Wow this is really amazing. It has lushness and greenness, but no particular flowery scent comes up. I really like this and think it would be a great hot summer scent.

 

I do love this one, however I had a strange experience with it, I put some on before a nap and I dreamed a very intense dream about my late mother, so strange.

Edited August 22, 2012 by stellamaris

[impolight]

Sheol has been one of the unfortunates to have JUST missed a slot in past orders, and the accompanying Frimps have provided others for the marvelling over. Well, Bat's Day this year put a stop to all that nonsense when a Frimp of Sheol had been included with the other loot. The most intriguing note, conceptually, so far has been the Copal. When it has been icluded in any other fromula from past experience, the result of it, when introduced to the body chemistry, has been nothing short of stellar. So the levels of excitement were high and mighty for this one. Now to compare the theatre of the npse with the theatre of the imagination.

From the Imp: Copal wins, most definitely. Stargazer is also richl, heady, cloying, and somnolent... There is something distinctly metallic here as well? Might simply be the morning nose. There is a firm impression of jewel-toned raiments, swirling in an ecstatic and nonstop pirohuette (sp?) Of the wearer. Definitely an altered consciousness encapsulated in a 1/32 oz. vial.

On the Skin: This has softened significantly. There are loftier, more powdery strata of the Heliotrope and the Tonka Bean. Sheol still manages to be rich and luxuriant. The longer it wears, the more transendent, abstract, and dreamlike it becomes. Wordly cares and motivations slip away like a fistful of fog.

Sheol is a masterfully crafted formula. This has likely been designed with Her in mind, but the Copal makes this perfectly safe and even charismatic on Him.

A 5 out of 5.

[neuilly]

I'm rather at a loss on how to describe this one! It's just overall really intriguing. There's something light about it (perhaps it's the florals but I don't really get floral at all from this). There's a smooth slightly smoky (but still light) element. For me it feels like a very mysterious scent. It's not really a "me" scent but it's gorgeous and I can see a lot of women being able to pull this off. It's sensual yet light. Really lovely.

[ajodasso]

The heliotrope, lily, and copal really make this one a keeper for me. Just enough florals, just enough resin.

 

If they weren't such a lovely triumvirate, I'd be disappointed that those three overpower everything else for me!

[oncominbeige]

Like others have said, this is a wonderful, dark, understated floral. It does, in fact, start off fresh and light before gaining depth and darkness. I think I can smell the heliotrope and tonka, but I'm not advanced enough to tease out distinct florals.

 

Unfortunately, on me a powdery, sour note crept in about half an hour into the dry-down/dry stage, and kept making itself known. I wish it hadn't because I so wanted to like Sheol, and it was very close to making it onto the bottle list. Oh well, off to swaps for you.

[sonderland]

In the imp:

 

Smoke and dried flowers.

 

First time on:

 

The plant scents are coming out a little more, but there’s still smoke in the background. I’m getting more of the lily and the iris, as well as some of the resinyness from the copal and the labdanum. It’s turning a little sweeter.

 

After a while:

 

It’s back to mostly smelling like dried flowers, with just a little bit of the resin and tonka. It doesn’t have much throw, and it’s been fading pretty quickly.

 

Overall review:

 

My overall reaction to this one is…meh. It’s not as bad as I expected; smoky smells and I do not have the best of histories, and the first time I ever opened this, smoke was all I got. It was more interesting than that, with the sweetness of the flowers and the resin notes, but smoke and flower-based scents are not really for me, and this perfume was essentially all smoke and flowers. Not only that, but it didn’t have much staying power on me, and the tonka was never that strong. Looks like this is another imp for the giveaway pile.

[Erinofhere]

frimp from the lab

Well...I tried a few times to make this one work for me. Unfortunetly Sheol and I do not get along. My little sister loved this, so it's hers now. The description sounds lovely. Lily, gladiola, heliotrope and tonka. But on me, it turns into onions. Most 'green" smells do. In the imp it smelled wonderful, like dried flowers with a bit of herbs and resins. As soon as I applied it to my skin it went straight to green onions and grass.

It did have pretty good throw and it lasted quit awhile. I just have a strange chemistry when it comes to 'green" smells.

[JuliskaMarie]

In the imp: This smells really dirty & muddy. The flowers are there, but they've been trampled into the mud & covered with the copal, labdanum & tonka! The oil looks really murky too, to match the scent.

Wet on skin: The flowers are much fresher now, but I'm starting to suspect I just don't like stargazer lily & iris (&, to a lesser extent, heliotrope) as I never seem to review them particularly fondly even with other things, so all mixed in together it's a bit... unpleasant for me!

Dry on skin: It's almost like someone tried to create some sort of medicine/tincture with the aforementioned ingredients. If I was sick, I'd probably be ok with smelling like this if it helped me get better, but... I'm not enjoying this!

After a few hours: Same as dry, only (thankfully) much more faded. Ew.

Verdict: Swapping this. It's most definitely not for me!

[lady_pandora]

Sheol is a blend I've long procrastinated trying, simply because I'm unfamiliar with a lot of the ingredients. I finally decided to order an imp after reading another forumite's passionate love of it. This review will contain some guesswork, and a lot of hedging comparisons to other things.

 

The dominant note when it's wet is sort of a sharp lemony floral. When I was a kid, we had this hollow spindle for the toilet paper that had crystals of air freshener in it. That's what this reminds me of. It's also the note that sometimes gives me pause in Brides of Dracula. They have almost nothing in common, so I'm pointing a tentative accusatory finger at lily. I don't even think it actually smells bad--it's just an off-putting scent memory of something that I think probably smells just fine, objectively.

 

At about 30 minutes, there's a split between the throw and the on-skin scent. On my skin, the air freshener is still there along with something kind of fizzy, reminiscent of the hedione in She Whose Handmaiden Was Love. The throw is simply gorgeous, a nuttyfruitygolden glowy thing that puts me in mind of one facet of a favorite, Bijoux Y'ha-nthlei, and comparing those two note lists, I'm coming up with the heliotrope plus probably the labdanum, since I know that's used in amber.

 

BPALs normally take about an hour to reach their full promise on me, but Sheol actually takes a little longer--it was at about 1:20 that I noticed the shift. Oh, hello, copal. I most recently smelled and liked this in Gas Lamps' Flare. In the throw, it adds a beautiful incensey layer to the nuttyfruitygolden thing. On the skin, it's intoxicatingly smoky and also a little sweet, and all but drowns out the air freshener note.

 

I...actually think I love this. It ends up so amazingly beautiful, and it tells its story perfectly--here are these bright things, and in comes smoke to turn out the light (and thankfully, not all of the light; the thing I think is heliotrope is still around). I haven't quite figured out what to wear it for yet. It seems too carefully crafted to be a casual fragrance and too odd for a lot of formal events. But I'll figure something out.

[wheresyourshoe]

Huh. First on, this smells exactly like a greenhouse, not even a garden shop because I'm not really getting the potting soil or dusty lawn decorations. Instead, the gladiola is really really happy to be blooming, and the green is just everywhere, dewy and fresh, sun-drenched... and making my nose itch. I would have thought that I'd love to smell like a greenhouse, but I was really very wrong. I think I like the smell of perfume flowers better than real flowers, with the exception of jasmine. BPAL's jasmine is just horrible on me.

After about half an hour, the flowers do start drying out, or perhaps the sun is setting and I am distracted by the array of colors, because there is definitely something creamy golden orange here- I can't imagine what. The tonka and labdanum start lurking in the background. About time, guys. There is thankfully still none of the smoke anybody is describing. I'm getting fonder of the fragrance though, and I love the storytelling element of its evolution. The story is going a little faster for me than for most, because my skin chemistry is generally on overdrive.

My nose is still twitching gently, though, so while this is a stunning scent, and one which I would and probably will totally wear at one if not both outdoor weddings this summer, for everyday use it is for just about anybody else at all. When it comes to BPAL, I'm just not a flowery scent kind of girl. If there are any wedding planners out there, they should totally wear this all the time, though. It is intensely romantic- the way it starts out so exuberantly fresh, and then evolves, retaining its original beauty even as that beauty transitions into another phase of life, and then ultimately, inevitably, into death.

Edited February 15, 2015 by wheresyourshoe

[DiesMali]

In the imp: Powerful wet flowers.

 

Wet on me: SO MUCH IRIS and some lily and gladiola. Nothing but flowers at this point.

 

Dry: This remains very floral on me as it dries. It's mostly purple iris and white lily on me, with little wisps of the gladiola and heliotrope. The copal, labdanum, and tonka are close to the skin and soften the floral just enough that it's not cloying or headache-inducing. I usually amp incensey notes, but in this one it's the flowers that want to come out and play. This is probably one of the two strongest BPAL scents I have tried so far, with the throw being this purple haze of flowers floating around me and leaving a trail wherever I walk. It's actually quite nice, but I wouldn't call it pretty in the normal light and happy sense one usually associates with lilies and irises. It's a deep and rich floral, and it lets you know it means business.

[psychocygnet]

in the imp: a delightful spicy floral

on me: musty and vaguely floral. Reminds me of my adoptive grandmother's apartment, which smelled like dust with an overlay of musk, Neutrogena and burnt popcorn. Ugh.

After a while, something polleny starts to come out. It's nicer, at least; it smells like outdoors. The part of the outdoors that makes me sneeze.

...Gah, who am I kidding, this is flaying my nose. With the way that it smells in the imp, though, can I just say I'm totally jealous of all y'all with compliant skin chemistry?

[Veronica]

This is bitter and dark on me, mostly just copal, the floral notes are lurking in the background, but they're dark and sap and stickiness.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Whew! Bitter, dark florals. Then the labdanum kind of takes over. This is an odd, murky sort of floral. It's not working for me so far.

 

 

Dry: Weird bitter smoky, yet also soapy, floral. Not for me!

[roseus]

My skin chem kind of just muddled this one up. It was softly sweet, but nothing stood out on my skin unfortunately.

[Lucchesa]

Sheol is another of Beth's gorgeous lily blends that work so well on my skin. It is a beautiful bright floral on first application, and as it dries the resins darken the scent, making it richer and deeper. A sophisticated floral -- it never gets muddled as it seems to on other users. And I love the idea of the scent, the reminder that all we have is the brightness of this world which is fleeting.

[achildoftime]

It might be my nose that's being neglectful, but all I'm really getting here is the lily. It's an absolutely beautiful lily, but it doen't give be much to work with. Frankly, I'm fine with this as I really like lilies and prefer them to be the star of a scent as opposed to support. It does smell a bit old-fashioned, so I'd probably only wear it in a few circumstances.