Midnight on the Midway (2006)

[abyluv]

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

Oh my, this smells great!
It definitely smells like sugar florals as earlier described! No soap note here tho. It also immediatly evokes images of strolling along a late night summer faire/carnival and walking past funnel cake sellers, rides and games. I love this scent. ^^

[reynardine]

Rather pretty upon first application. The sugar is very evident and blends well with the “night-blooming flowers”. However, something about it is too high-pitched for me and actually irritates my eyes (?). Incense maybe set off my allergies? Wash off. (What I could smell of it was very pretty, but this is just not going to work for me!)

[lunchboxmonkey]

In the bottle its all yummy sugary incense with the night blooming flowers lurking in the backgroud. Its so delicious, I immediately slather it all over my wrists, in an OMG haze of love.

And it turns to soap. Not just soap, but sharp, slap you in the face, headache inducing SOAP OF DOOM. I could cry. But as I'm sitting, in the depths of bpal despair, something magical happens. About ten minutes later, any hint of soap is gone and its even better than it was in the bottle.

This is amazing. People have said this is the grown up version of Midway, and I've never tried that, but this is WAY grown up. This is hanging around the carnival until after it closes and waiting for the gorgeous roustabout who was assembling the ferris wheel earlier to meet you behind the cotton candy stand and doing wicked, unspeakable things to each other amidst the flowers there while the stormclouds gather overhead and the scent of incense and spun sugar hangs in the opressive, electric-charged night air. *ahem*

Anyway, this is gorgeous, edible (but not foodie in the slightest), and dead sexy

[girasol]

Mmm... so good. Rich, sweet, softly spicy and just a faint hint of smoke - this quite the sexy carnival! It's sugary, but somehow not really in a foody way - just a sweetess behind the florals and the incense. I love this.

[b00cat]

Midnight on the Midway broke my heart ..I stalked it..worshiped it from afar, finally got my hands on some and then.......WTH?? In the vial...sugar foody floral??? On my skin, rancid candy apples ....WHY, WHY WHY??!! I keep trying, hoping things will change between us but eventually I gotta scrub it off in a frenzy. Sniff.

 

[SophieCedar]

This smells amazing in the bottle. however when I apply it to my skin, a baby powder smell comes through w/the lovely smoky, sweet, languid florals. I think my chemistry isn't liking it, in this heat. I'll wait until it cools down outside...

[Sultaana]

I swear I can almost smell bananas on the drydown on this one! You really need to let this one settle in. It is delicious sweet incense in the bottle with a swirl of florals. I thought this was going to nosedive into soap and it was nearly there, but it recovered and has remained delicious. I often like to wear this one to bed because it is a really relaxing, comforting smell.

[swtlilqtk]

This may be one of my favorite bottles I own from BPAL. It smells just like sugared lillies on me. Sweet and floral with a touch on incense. The throw on this is wonderful on me and the staying power is AMAZING, this last a good 10 hours and still goes strong. I will probably buy a back up bottle of this soon just in case this sells out. This is one of my first bottles from BPAL and this scent is what really got me into the line. I would def. reccomend this to anyone who is a fan of a sweet, different floral scent.

[whisperstilled]

I happened to get a half decant of this one just last night, bizarrely enough, and it was discontinued today. Figured I would review it and then pass it on!

 

In Imp: Sugary, floral, with some resin and incense in the background. There's also a surprising touch of ozone for the lightning which is quite nice.

 

Wet: This is very much a grown up lady perfume. On my skin the floral elements come out - and I definitely smell some orchid in there, though I'm not sure what else. It's going a little powdery as it dries.

 

Dry: This one goes painfully soft and powdery over time, but it's still a very nice scent. 3/5

[Venneh]

Thanks to Ellebelle for helping me try this! Initial sniff gives me sugary florals, definitely similar to Fairy Market. On my skin, this is definitely some kind of bright floral, but I can't quite place it, and the sugar's further underneath. Hrm. There's a definite sugar note, but it's buried under a soapy floral and incenseish note. At least I don't have to worry about falling for another BPALicorn!

Edited December 7, 2010 by Venneh

[grrrlennyl]

Midnight on the Midway

 

On: Gorgeous nighttime flowers. Some sweet, some a bit soapy. A bit heady.

Half an hour in: Gorgeous, creamy, heady flowers.

1 hour in: A little soapy now, but still mostly creamy flowers.

2 hours in: Pretty, but soapy, flowers.

2.5 hours in: Soapy, powdery flowers.

4 hours in: Soap.

Overall. These flowers just don't work on me.

[Icekitten]

From bottle: soft but fresh scent with sugar.

 

Wet: Dusty sweet flowers

 

Dry: Soft scent, sweet flowery

 

After 6 hours: this morfed to soft sweet cakes on me!

Happy i did not sell this away.

[Invidiana]

This is the most awesome purple incense blend ever. I had this aging nicely in the shadows for almost a year and it only seems to have gotten better. It isn't foody from the sugar, but slightly sweetened just enough; I don't think the nature of this one calls for something foody anyway. It's not necessarily "flowery", but more of a sinister dark incensey floral that actually puts me right in the middle of the scene depicted on the label. Really enigmatic and sexy.

Edited January 14, 2011 by Invidiana

[cherrycherry]

A fresh and floral Midway. I'm so glad I bought a bottle of this when I did, but now I wish I'd picked up more! It's had the time to settle and is now probably one of my favourite BPAL blends of all time. Sugary, sweet, citrussy, it makes me think of looking up at the sky in the middle of the night. A very haunting and yet pleasing scent all round.

[cfrancesca]

Since I just spilled some allover myself, I thought it would be a good time to write a review. Without reading the notes, I thought this was sugary bubble gum, a little grass and soft florals with a slight smokey haze in the background. So I was surprised to read this has sugared incense and night-blooming flowers as notes. I think this has lotus because I get a soft pink bubble gum scent, it does have a clean feel with time, not exactly soapy but more like the scent of fresh, clean clothes with soft floral detergent feel plus the smokey haze and bubble gum, it's so interesting. I wish I'd tested this before it got discontinued, but thankfully I was able to find some. I just love it.

[calivianya]

Wet on my skin, Midnight on the Midway is an absolute dead ringer for the Harney and Sons dragon pearl jasmine tea with sugar. It is uncannily similar - my mouth is watering in anticipation of the tea while I'm smelling it. It's unfortunate that I am totally out of this tea.

 

Unfortunately, the wet stage doesn't last very long and Midnight on the Midway goes a bit soapy on my skin after five minutes. It's drinking a cup of that tea in the bathroom after washing your hands. Oh well. I'm glad I got to try it.

[yakiguri]

Another heart-breakingly beautiful blend that I wouldn't have bought on my own, discovered through a frimp, fell in love with, and OF COURSE is DC'd. >_<

 

Midnight on the Midway is a soft, beautiful blend with candied florals and sweet incense. Normally any incense note goes wet dog on me--hence me not even giving this blend a glance before--but here its sweetness adds to the blend's femininity without going high-pitched or cloying. It gets even softer and slightly smokey upon dry down, and I'm envisioning more of a bordello or seraglio than a carnival. I wonder why this wasn't part of the Grindhouse instead, as soft and sultry as it is. Will definitely have to hunt down a bottle!

[angelamaria]

In tester: yes, just as it is's described. Night blooming cool flowers, and sugared incense. Beautiful!

 

Wet on skin: whoa, for a second it went crazily soapy! It's still a little soapy, it must be something in the flower mix. The incense note is actually rather pleasing--I might have to find more of this "sugared incense" because this feels like an incense I could wear! Under the soap (argh, I wonder what flower is doing this, I will avoid it), I get the incense--deep, musky, rich incense that is, well, sugared! It's rich, but sweet and light. Let's see if the soap dies down and what comes out of it.

 

Dry: sadly, the soap does kind of...not die down. Doesn't morph on my skin; I hoped that maybe in an hour or more the incense would come out more, and the soap note would burn off, but alas, no. The soap is here to stay, tramping all over the other flowers and that beautiful sugared incense.

 

Verdict: well, I saved myself a bit of heartache! This is definitely very pretty, and if my skin had not done that soapy thing, I would have added this to my bottle list.

[sunlitgarden]

Was frimped a decant of this!

 

In the imp: ....bubblegum? o_O

 

Wet on my skin, it's still bubblegum-ish, though the sweet part smells a bit more floral now.

 

It's not a bad scent, but the florals are VERY sweet here -- too much so for my taste. Sad I'm not getting much incense here at all. Mostly just flowers.

[sharkdiver]

Can anyone tell me if the night blooming flowers in this are at all similar to the night blooming flowers in snow white?? Thanks!!

 

(I just won a bottle on Ebay, and I will probably answer this question myself when it arrives, and will add my review!)

 

ETA: just got my bottle, the flowers do not smell similar to snow white at all, but it smells exactly as described! Sweet flowers and sugared incense! A very beautiful scent!!

Edited August 19, 2012 by sharkdiver

[lilyblissful]

My bottle is almost empty and I'm saving the scent for "special occasions." This was my first BPAL purchase (I lost my cherry on the midway--ha!) and I'm always checking Ebay to see if I can find another bottle. Any word on when the Carnival will return?

[tharsei-thanate]

I just got a partial imp of this in the mail from a forums purchase and I tried a dab and it's SO AMAZINGLY GOOD. There's no soap, there's no powder, there's no artificiality... it's just gorgeously warm, sugar-sweet incense and the most beautiful flowers. This is literally the best floral perfume I've ever tried. I'm both extremely upset I don't have more and extremely happy I have any of it at all.

 

This is a precious treasure, and I'm glad that I can add it to my collection.

[Aviatrix]

In the vial it is heavy on the florals. At first I was a bit disappointed, since I had been looking so much forward to the sugared incense.

 

But as soon as I put it on, it started changing, and the flowers became more subdued. After a while I am really getting the sweet, sweet incense I was hoping for! There is still a floral backdrop, but the whole blend has become sweeter and smokier and kind of "murkier". It is absolutely gorgeous.

 

I will treasure my little decant for a long time to come!

[freyasfae]

Oh, hello gorgeous! This is the kind of incense I can handle, it's sugary spice than incense and with the night-blooming flowers, it takes on a slightly fruity component - all wrapped in ozone. I like it a lot!

[celestia]

♔ Midnight on the Midway (2006)

In the Bottle: A burst of sweet effervescent florals and the trailing waft of sugary cotton candy-esque incense carried by the midnight summer heat air

 

Wet: This smells perfumey, sweet, and a little grassy. It smells super close to the beloved Fairy Market scent from Neil Gaiman's Stardust line up. There is definitely something quite shimmery and fairydust-like about it. The perfumey sweet florals have this effervescent powdery complexity that also brings to mind tuberose and freesia when they get blended with sheer and pearl-like, pale vanilla musk- like in Ava. Only this is more sharper and a tad greener smelling.

 

Drydown: The drydown for this blend reminds me a lot of BFJA- sugared effervescent florals from another colour spectrum...perhaps even a few touches more sugary and sweet. The sweetness from the sugared incense also smells akin to cotton candy incense or cotton candyish musk, which is absolutely glorious. It honestly evokes the scent of warm summer heat out at a really beautiful midnight fairy market, eating cotton candy...with fireflies and magical lights speckled through the indigo night, and children gasping sticks of cotton candy as they chase each other.

 

TL;DR: Sugary cotton candy incense, effervescent powdery sweet perfume-y florals

Edited May 20, 2017 by celestia