Midnight on the Midway (2006)

[MCS4096]

Lightning splits the sky, illuminating the skeletal skyline of the carnival rides: sugared incense and night-blooming flowers.

In the Bottle: Cotton candy, but slightly sour with a smoky aspect.

Wet: The night blooming flowers immediately amp, like you've stepped off the midway into a tent featuring giant carnivorous plants! The cotton candy is still lingering in the background, and right now the overall affect is a little cloying and sour, but very fascinating.

Dry: The incense comes out and the balance is perfect and exactly as described.. it's not so much cotton candy anymore, as the sugary soles of your shoes and a whiff of incense mixing with a heavy cloud of florals. This one is pretty boisterous with a lot of throw for about 4 hours on me (impressive this time of year when my skin is so dry!) but when it fades some it's a beautiful lighter version.. sweet smoky florals.

Overall: I LOOOVE this one, and am so glad I bought a bottle unsniffed. There are a LOT of the CD scent's I'd like to try as I'm new to BPAL, but this might definitely qualify for a second bottle before the carnival leaves town! Edited December 13, 2008 by MCS4096

[blacklacestatic]

In the bottle: Slightly sharp, resiny, lush floral. Strange, fascinatingly weird.

 

Wet on skin: Sharp frankincense type smell, with flowers in the background. There's something that is teasing me with the threat of jasmine, but it's not overwhelming like most jasmine blends. I think the flowers are just getting stronger.

 

Drydown: Kind of flat. There is a sweet floral that is trying to peek out, but is being smothered by something resiny. I'm not getting a lot of sweetness, but it feels like it wants to be sweet. I do seem to be getting the soapy floral thing though. If it were a color it would be lilac.

 

Overall: I don't get the sweetness that everyone else seems to get from this. It is sweet for an incense blend, but I was expecting more. I will try it again when it ages to see if it's any sweeter.

[cinderfallen]

This turned into generic incense on me. I didn't know what that would smell like until I smelled this. "Oh! Cheap, generic incense! Named something like Blue India!" And a bit of soapiness.

 

ETA 1.23.09: Hey there, split personality skin chemistry! This smells nothing like what it smelled like on me before. (Understatement.) Now that my stress, cortisol levels, etc., are down, and my diet has completely changed....

 

I think this might have a component that's in Dorian, perhaps a musk? It's that sugar-gritty musk that gives depth to the scent. The scent is interesting--it IS a brooding sort of scent, but not in a true Gothic way, but a romanticized vampire midnight sky kind of way. There is sugar and just the insinuation of flowers which form the light top notes. Sometimes, it interacts with the base musk in a weird way and I smell fresh laundry, hot out of the dryer. But overall, a clinging skin scent, warm and sweet. Wafts sometime make me think of an exotic tea, sugared and creamed with a floral infusion.

 

Looking at reviews, it looks like I might have a decant from a batch made around Aug of '08. The current batch looks more flower-heavy.

 

ETA 9.29.09: Skin chemistry never fails to surprise me. Procured a bottle, which on me smelled very much the imp I had (YES no batch difference!!!!). I tried it on today at the end of my period and I smell a floral-dominated scent, not nearly as musky and rich as it usually is on me. It's usually incense sweet musk, where the flowers are almost an afterthought, but it's completely the opposite this time. I can almost see the delicate petals of the flowers--and they're not a white floral like jasmine, but something that has less oils and more delicate leaves, crushed. Behind that is just a hint of incense, sugar and vanilla, and then the warmth of musk pulling everything together. This is quite a pretty scent! I wish my body liked to do pretty rather than resin/dark/musky all the time like this!

Edited September 30, 2009 by cinderfallen

[sharybaby]

Pretty floral incense... sliiiightly generic Dollar Store-ish if I put too much on.

[MisterShrapnel]

Champaca? Is that you?

This is almost sharp at first and was veering towards disappointment and bad floral aerosol, but more and more it begins to remind me of cotton candy, if it were to taste of tiny flowers that only open at night, and if you were eating this treat by the ghostly light of the full moon. or something. Which is to say, it's quite pretty and unusual, and a good introduction to the whole Carnaval. Sweet and light incense, and a floral that I can actually handle. I will need to investigate more thoroughly, but I'm glad I have it!

[jencallisto]

In the imp: Sweet, dark, delicate floral.

Fresh on the skin: Very sweet, very dark (incense, dry and just a touch smoky), very much a delicate floral. There's almost an aquatic note to it, like rain hissing against the glowing end of the incense stick.

5 minutes later: This just gets more and more incensey, but it's incense with a sweet floral waft within the smoke. I'm not at all sure how often I'd wear it but it's quite pretty, sweet but not too cloying.

10 minutes later: Okay, maybe a little cloying.

15 minutes later: Huh, powdering down to something softer, sweet and a little spicy.

30 minutes later: Yup, soft, sweet, spicy, a little smoky, a little cloying.

1 hour later: Yup yup, soft, slightly cloying incense.

4 hours later: Sweet, incensey laundry.

 

Verdict: Okay. Don't love or hate. Will try again.

 

One phrase: Sweet, dark, soft incense.

[NixieCakes]

Delicious dryer sheets. Great for laundry, but not my wrists. Darn.

[WidgetAlley]

I got super-excited about this, because jasmine and I get along, incense and I get along, and I had just discovered I loved the sugary floral of Fairy Market. I was hoping that MotM would be the nighttime cousin.

 

Bottle: A very odd, artificial smell, like pink bubblegum Bazookas, sugared musk and the faintest of cloying florals. What the hell? The bubblegum note is definitely strongest, but I don't think it's lotus-- lotus only smells LIKE bubblegum to me, this IS bubblegum. So. Weird.

 

Wet: Bubblegum and dryer sheets, which is strange, but better than the bubblegum and soap that it was the first time I tested it. After a minute, sugar and incense emerge more strongly, and the bubblegum dies away. The florals are honeysuckle, muguet, jasmine, poppy-- strong, heady, Southern warm-weather blooms. There is a clean musk underneath it all. It's fuzzy and very light, despite the huge glob of oil I accidentally dabbed on. It almost kinda smells like... nothing. Fuzzy, sweet, nothing. I guess it could be due to it being That Time of the Month... *shrug* There's the slightest tang of smokey incense in the back.

 

Dry: This dies down to a soft sugary bubblegum with hints of floral and sweet, ashy incense. I don't actually dislike any of these components, but it seems very disparate and strange right now. I'm going to chuck this in the cellaring box for a few months and hopefully by the time it comes back out it will be one unified scent full of spun sugar incense floral magic.

 

Edit: Hurrah! After sitting at the back of my box for a while, I'm pleased to announce that the bubblegum has died down, the dryersheet is now a bit player, and most of this is lovely nag champa ash with hints of flowers, night air, fried foods. It's gorgeous and very purple-smelling-- a great summer blend! Glad I held onto it.

Edited May 3, 2009 by WidgetAlley

[SeaLady]

I think I've tried this before, and I didn't hate it enough to put it in the swaps box. But this time it is making an impression.

 

It's cotton candy, a flask of stealth alcohol, incense, sticky burned-sugar sweets, and summery nighttime flowers. I can't usually wear florals, especially jasmine (note of doom), but at least today, I'm liking this. It's a hot kind of scent, and it's been the warmest day so far this spring, so that might have something to do with it. I don't know if I'll wear more than just my decant, but I'll definitely have to try it more and see. I agree about the light, clean musk. Stronger and it might be soap, but the way it's mellow, it smells like warm clean skin.

[asciident]

Wet: Soap.

 

First on: Incense...soap. :/

 

Dry: Sweet, creamy incense soap. Strange. I almost like it, but not as perfume.

[CreamyJade]

In the bottle: Sugared jasmin.

Wet on skin: I get the same sugar note that's in Temple Viper, it must be nag champa.

Dry on skin: Sugared flowers, nag champa, incense.

Final thoughts: I can't believe I've never reviewed this blend! I really enjoy it, despite being quite volatile on my skin and needing to be slathered all over. It definately bears a ressemblance to Temple Viper, with the nag champa & overall sweetness. Very nice! I already have a back-up bottle that's aging.

[ShadowsDance]

In the bottle it's a sweet scent, slightly floral.

Wet on my skin it's a little like bug spray, but that fades as it dries down. There is something in this that is similar to Thalassa or Thunder Moon.. something slightly ozone or aquatic.. Hmm.. At times it does get a little powdery on my skin thanks to the florals, but it never stays in that stage. This scent reminds me of a hot summer night, it is thick (yet light on my skin at the same time) and slightly sticky, yet light and airy from the florals and incense as well. It's a very interesting, sweet scent. Great for the summer months.

[Babette]

In the bottle, it smells like lightly sugared floral water.

 

On wet, it smells like... soap powder. Not a bad thing, really. I can definitely smell jasmine but it's not the strong, in-your-face type. It's delicate, yet obvious. There's another smoky scent that I can't identify and it makes me choke when I breathe in too deeply. It gets smokier with every minute.

 

Very interesting! It keeps changing and I can't wait to find out how it smells like after a few hours.

 

ETA: This is gorgeous! Backup bottle for me, please!

Edited May 5, 2009 by Babette

[Gin]

Midnight on the Midway

 

Cotton candy incense! This smells really familiar, but I don't know why. (OMG, Dorian! That's what it is! But pink. Thanks cinderfallen!) It's sort of sweetly sexy--maybe flirty is a better word. Not only is it a keeper, but I might need a backup bottle.

[revinn]

In the Imp: Jasmine! Bluhhh. Oh no.

 

Wet: It's gone! Good. It smells like the nag champa incense I burn when I shower, with something almost fruity-sweet.

 

Dry: It smells JUST like a store in downtown Halifax called the Black Market. Wow, that's so evocative, it's freaky. Very much incense, with just the right hit of sweetness. I might have to buy a bottle of this for my "exotic" days. And yes, it is sad that this is just about as exotic as I get.

 

Out of 10: 9!

[crebbsgirl]

Sugary sweet incense to start with. As this dries, there's a definite white floral vibe that comes out here. I think jasmine for sure, but it's not amping all to hell like jasmine usually does on my skin. This is really nice. Then, about an hour in, this goes soapy. There is a distinctly "clean" edge to this. Hmmm, I'm really on the fence for this one. I like it, but I don't know how often I'd wear it.

[Eucatastrophe]

Dagnabbit! Dear Midnight on the Midway - It was going so well! You were all sweet and lovely, but then as soon as you dried you turned into soap. I wanted to love you - I DID, but I'm afraid you're just going to have to leave. *sniffle*

[ElinaMakropulos]

Ok, right out of the bottle I smell bubblegum, which I always associate with lotus. TBH for the first hour it's bubblegum and bathroom air freshener, which is not exactly appealing. It does calm down as it dries though and ends up smelling almost exactly like Flowering Chrysanthemums. Very nice, but not really me, and I already have a bottle of FC.

[NoinHime]

In the bottle and wet on me I got very strong florals.

 

Dry on me I am still getting strong florals but with a sharpness that is the lightning. I can smell the incense but only slightly. I get no sugar from this at all.

 

Overall I like it. Florals and ozone are two notes that I am particularly fond of. I also like incense so I think that this one is a keeper.

[devilot]

Midnight on the Midway

In the Bottle: Wow, for once, I agree w/ the lab's notes-- sugary incense and florals, too!

 

Wet: HOLY FLOWERS! This on my skin is all sharp florals. Where did the sugared incense go?

 

Drydown: Super duper soapy. Retch.

 

Verdict: This will be the second, yes, the second bottle of MotM that I've procured and tried and then rehomed. I just keep hoping something will change, but I'm thinking I should learn to give up on this blend. It's just an insanely sharp, perfumey soap on my skin. Sigh.

[swtlilqtk]

This smells like a jasmine/lavender soap on me. Something you would find at Crabtree and Evelyn but classier. Not a bad scent but def. SOAP. Very clean smelling. I get nothing but the soap.... Not something I need a whole bottle of but nice and clean. Good for someone who really doesn't like perfume but just wants to smell fresh. Different than most BPAL scents. Glad I got a chance to try it!

 

 

EDIT-I don' know what happened overnight but when I woke up in the morning this smelt gorgeous! I could smell the sugar and the flowers were deeper, more exotic and the soap smell was gone. Lovely, I need a whole bottle now!

Edited November 20, 2009 by swtlilqtk

[silver_springs]

I bought this from a forum member unsniffed because I really loved the idea of sugary incense. Unfortunately there was no sugar to be had for me .

 

In bottle: Wet flowers. Bleh, bleh, bleh.

Wet: All floral with a tinge of incense.

Dry: Soap, soap and more soap.

 

I knew I risked this chance when buying this one. 80% of florals don't work on me and either fastly go soap or baby powder. This unfortunately was one of those. I liked the bottle art though. Ah well off to the swap pile.

[donnatron]

Imp: Sweet incense and floral. A touch of lemon.

 

Wet: Nag champa? Yeah, nag champa. Nag champa like hell. And some sugar. Maybe a touch of... lily? Orchid? Daffodil? Some sort of sappy floral.

 

Dry: Dries down to nag champa, sugar and drier sheets. Not just any drier sheets, the Western Family brand drier sheets from my grandmother's laundry room. It's actually kind of pleasant. It's hard to find milder nag champa blends. This is a soft, sugared nag champa with a touch of clean, dry scent from whatever is creating that drier sheet smell. It kind of smells like a companion blend to Hope and Faith. But with nag champa. Totally not what I expected this oil to smell like but pleasantly surprising.

 

Throw: Moderate.

 

Overall: I do love me some nag champa. Not sure if I like this enough to upgrade the bottle but will use the imp.

[DeltaCat]

Very sugary. I get Pink Sugar with this one with a slight floral. Sugary goodness!

[fieryredhead]

This one smells exactly like the description; sugary florals & incense. Not a combination that i thought I/'d like as I didn't like florals (before I found the Lab) but this is amazing. Currently looking for a backup bottle of this!