Death of the Grave Digger

[sarada]

 

Death of the Grave Digger, Carlos Schwabe.

Snow, soil, opoponax and myrrh.

 

I bought a bottle of this unsniffed because of the art, and because of snow and soil -- two of my favorite types of scents.

 

This was the first bottle that I opened in my package, I was so eager to see how it turned out.

 

Slush. Crisp, fresh, slush. Pine. Faintly minty-limey pine and a deep, pale blue breath of frost. This is very much like Skadi or Snow Moon...a touch like Talvikuu or Snow Bunny. In other words, if you love the snowy/slushy scents that the lab does so very well at winter time, here is the year-round version!

 

The earthy-woods element reminds me a bit of the trees in Nocnitsa, but covered in crystalline snow. This is gorgeous. I love every one of the snowy/icy scents and this is no exception. I think that the opoponax and myrrh might be helping this to be even a little bit stronger and longer-lasting than its more ethereal, misty counterparts.

 

As it dries the initial flurry of crushed pine and snow notes give way to a gritty, crystalline and slightly spicy earthy scent that must be those resins, spiked with cold pine.

 

Absolutely gorgeous!

Edited September 15, 2007 by Shollin

[wolfie13]

Yes!!! I ordered this hoping beyond hope...........

 

Hoping that this would smell like dirt and snow - for real - and it does!

 

See, here's my problem - I have tried EVERY one of the "snow" and "winter" scents and while many of them smell fantastic in the bottle, they ALL change on me. My skin chooses one of the components to amp and all the blends turn either

sickly sweet or fruity - seriously, like you'd be shocked to smell them on me (I'm looking at you, Snow Moon, Snow Bunny, Skadi - and Nocnitsa for that matter!) or totally floral (Frost Moon, Wolf Moon, Nuclear Winter, etc)

 

Death of the Gravedigger smells pretty much the same in the bottle and wearing and during the drydown, which I couldn't be happier about.

 

For reference: To me, this smells like Graveyard Dirt and Talvikuu - (the"snow" blend that stayed the truest on me), with a hint of resin - and the combination is more wearable on me than I find either to be alone. It will be a fantastic room scent as well.

Edited September 6, 2006 by wolfie13

[shelldoo]

in the bottle: resinous, slightly soilish, and something a hint sweet.

 

wow, i don't usually care that much for soil scents, yet this is nice mostly myrrh, i also get something slightly clove like, and pineish. it does remind me a bit of skadi soft, snow and myrrh. yay i found a dirt scent i can actually wear

[Inanna9]

Dirthead that I am, I'm always on the hunt for the Holy Grail of soil scents (well, Graveyard Dirt LE is the actual HG of soil scents, so maybe I mean another HG of soil scents to replace it, since it may never return. But I digress...).

 

This held a lot of promise in the bottle, as a distinctly wet soil aroma wafted and I swooned. However, upon application, the dirt was quickly lost on me (typical - it's like crack, I swear), but what remained was really, really lovely and a very close twin to my bottle of Snow Moon. This is a little heavier on the myrrh while Snow Moon has a stronger berry note, but otherwise they are so close with their cold piney-slushy goodness.

 

The drydown however, is markedly different from Snow Moon, very earthy and sweet, and I'm really impressed with the complexity and nuance of this blend.

[Blood onmy hands]

In the bottle... this smells exactly like Snow Moon with a little black dirt added. Exactly what I was hoping for from this blend.

 

On me... this is a bit sharper and less sweet than Snow Moon was on me. Menthol-pine-and slush...

 

In the drydown, this turns on me. Sharp snow and something that smells like charred wood and rotten fruit . It's so nice in the bottle, and so bad on me.

[blackheartedangel]

This is like Skadi or Snow Moon meets Nocnitsa. Piney, snowy, dirty. This smells like walking through a pine forest in mid winter. I like it - this will probably be a bottle purchase sometime in the future.

[Jerre]

Death of the Gravedigger

 

At last! A scent that is true to it's name (one I can finally fully detect anyway!)

 

It's earthy- sweet earth:, choice top soil that has had honey-sweet flowers (jasmine? sweat pea?) baked into it. The clove appears later, a moderate waft but it's there!

 

Snow! A cold snap hides here too: like when you "feel" it's going to snow soon...reminds me of my time in Alaska..brisk, free....

 

This is better than cinnamon filled food scents! My mouth waters everytime I sniff the back of my hand...I need more of this stuff.......Mmmmmmm.....

Edited October 1, 2006 by Darkwriter

[yeahbutnobut]

Death of the Gravedigger

 

In the imp: smells like the other snow scents-Skadi, Snow Bunny, Snow Moon-and also Dublin. It’s that citrus-pine-menthol snow accord. Mmm.

Wet on skin: still snowy, slushy citrus-pine, but slightly more earthy.

Dry: this smells like a darker, earthier, greener variety of the winter snow scents. It smells almost like Snow Moon without the flowers, with more of a pine/fir note to it. Cold and chilly, and slightly sweet. I can’t smell the resins yet, but I can make out a tiny amount of soil, but it is covered with a lot of snow. But I love those snowy scents anyway so it’s all good.

After a while: there’s something decaying to this scent. Not in a bad way, but I certainly smell decay here-like decomposing leaves, fruits and woods, that sweet, fermented scent, the scent of autumn covered with winter (the piney snow scent still going strong here). Eventually this earthy decay starts to remind me fermenting fruits in soil and snow. I just hope it doesn’t turn to rotting fruits (fermentation I can handle, but not downright rotting) I still can’t make out the resins though. The soil note here seems different to the ‘rained-on soil’ ones in Penny Dreadful, Death Cap, or Queen of Clubs-this is much more like good compost and wood chips to me. The snow note eventually thaws away to reveal more of the fruity soil scent with hints of pine. The disappointing thing is that I still can’t smell those resins!

The scent thankfully never goes rotten and the drydown is actually a very pleasant wine-like scent. Like very chilled wine, with the snowy bits still lingering. Also some tart berries thrown into the mix. I also get a dark scent, almost incense like, maybe that’s the myrrh trying to show itself at last?

Verdict: out of all the winter scents with that pine-citrus-menthol scent evocative of snowy forests, this is the darkest. Skadi was the ultimate snowy-spice, Snow Bunny was effervescent, fun and lively, Snow Moon was a beautifully glacial floral scent, and this is the earthy, decaying variant on the snow theme. Under this heavy layer of snow, there’s a soil note that’s much more decomposed than the usual wet soil-this is like decayed plant matter-mainly bark, leaves and fruits, and this fruitiness eventually ferments to wine in this scent, wine with a hint of pine and snow. At times I thought this decayed fruit and evergreen scent would turn rotten like it did in Hemlock, but it didn’t. It’s a very unusual scent, very evocative of death, decay, coldness, but in a very different way to Cloister Graveyard-this is much more shadowed, and CGitS is full of light. It’s a shame the resins don’t really come out as much as I hoped they would though. I like this scent but I prefer the lighter snowy scents-I’m still unsure of the decaying note I get here.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? The imp, possibly. It bears a resemblance to many of the winter scents so I may get some once my Snow Bunny/Snow Moon runs out.

If you like this, try: Snow Bunny, Snow Moon, Talvikuu, Nocnitsa, Dublin

Edited October 10, 2006 by yeahbutnobut

[maijasu]

This scent is really evocative of the image it represents. I smell snow, fresh cold air, and soil. The soil is sweet, not dry and dusty. The throw is light and the wear length rather fleeting, but it's wonderful up close and while it lasts.

[bristlecone]

I don't know if I can say much that hasn't already been said, but I really like this. It walks a fine line for a few minutes there, almost becoming too menthol-y for me (Snow Moon, a similar scent, didn't work at all for me because the menthol-like fir completely drowned out all the other notes).

 

I guess if I had to find something negative to say about this scent, it's that while it's in the middle stages, it reminds me so much of Talvikuu (a scent I already own) that at first I wasn't sure if it made sense to keep both. However, Death of the Grave Digger seems to head in a different direction as it dries down, probably because of the myrrh. And now I'm starting to feel all warm and tingly, like I did with Dublin... another scent in this general "family".

 

I just love the slushy/evergreen/cold scents.

[Honeywhip]

I second the comparison with Talvikuu, which is my fave snowy scent ever. This seems a bit drier though, less slushy. The kind of snow that crunches on your boots but doesn't stick. This is strangely compelling...on first whiff it's fresh & clean, but then there's that warm dirt note, very uni-sexy, quiet and aloof, laying very close to my skin like a whispered secret. I have a feeling I'll be wearing it a lot this winter.

[ND¢]

I didn't get menthol from this at all (and this comes from someone who has traveled on the BPAL carriage through the lands of Ben-Gay and Icy Hot.) On me it's a deep herbal with a gritty edge and a lighter herbal top note with a touch of sweetness.

[euterpe414]

OK, so far this is my favorite of the Salon scents! I thought that BPAL's snow note would be soapy on me, but it absolutely doesn't in this blend! As I apply I smell lots of fresh dirt, cold fresh dirt ot be exact. There is some greenery, but it is frozen beneath the snow. I am not at all a winter person, but this scent draws me in and seems to hold my attention.

 

The best part about this blend is it's wear length for me. most dirt scents do not last very long on my skin. This, however, clings and holds on for at least four hours, which beats all the other ones by a longshot! The scent also stays true the entire time for me, which is rare because forest green scents tend to disappear in layers on my skin.

 

Overall a fantastic scent, and, like others, I see myself reaching for this often in the coming winter!

[arabella]

First Impression: Ozone and sweet dirt.

 

Dries down to: Stays pretty much the same.

 

Additional Comments: Surprisingly, this one wasn't as bad as it sounded to me. I wouldn't wear it out but the sweetness makes it tolerable enough to use occasionally. In fact, there's an addictive quality to it that'll keep me coming back.

 

Lasted: Several hours.

 

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

[Emma2403]

Most of the snow scents absolutely don't work on me and I still haven't made up my mind about opoponax, but let's try it!

 

In the bottle: agh horribly sharp. No idea of what it is, but it doesn't agree with my nose!

 

On my skin: the usual bathroom scent I get from "snow". It's pine, I suppose. There's soil too. And as much as soil may be comforting to smell in a forest, I don't want to smell like that myself.

 

After a couple of hours: it gets more and more earthy. But I can't get rid of this toilet-cleaner scent.

 

Verdict: one more Salon absolutely horrible on me.

[edenssixthday]

Death of a Gravedigger - The scent is sweet, slightly gritty soil. I think it may possibly be the first "dirt/soil" scent that I've actually liked...and then I notice the nose-clearing, distinct scent of a winter evergreens that really starts to burst forth as the blend begins to warm up on my skin. A little after that, the opoponax begins to get cloyingly sweet, and the blend starts causing me to completely recoil. Definitely not one I see myself using as a personal fragrance or room scent -- I had to wash it off.

[Voleuse]

Oh, this is gorgeous. Snow and evergreen and dirt. Along the lines of Skadi and Talvikuu and Snow Bunny and Snow Moon and Dublin, though less sweet than any of them, and a smidgen less cold. I love this scent. I love it.

[supremegoddessofall]

Holy opoponax, Batman! Getting that ozone/cole note I get from most things that list "snow" as a note. Kind of leather-like in a way, too. Not getting much soil or myrrh.

[forspecial_plate]

This is nice, smells chilly and kind of tart to me. Can't really pick out notes...I would say the 'snow' is the strongest note, then a little sweetness/tartness which I guess is the resins. I would say the soil is a very subtle supporting note. I like this. I don't think I need a whole lot of scents in this category, but it's nice to have a few imps around.

 

edit to add: This vial had another faulty cap that somehow got past my ruthless scrutiny. The result is one of the best smelling imp-boxes around. I think this would make a wonderful, POTENT room scent and I might just use the rest of it for that.

 

Edit: I have to edit this again to say that Death of the Grave Digger has become one of my favorite of the Salon blends. I like this just a little more than Cloister Graveyard, although they're both great. I like this enough to get a full bottle some day, even though I don't wear it a whole lot.

Edited April 11, 2007 by Forspecial Plate

[siddal]

Wet, this smells almost exactly like Snow Moon on me. On the drydown, it is softer and slightly musky (myrrh?) and less floral than Snow Moon. I barely pick up any hint of earth, but it is there.

An interesting blend!

[grrrlennyl]

at first: lots of myrrh.

on: tons of myrrh. this actually smells a bit pine-y on me.

2 hours later: earthy and pine-y.

4.5 hours later: a vague incense scent.

overall: this just isn't my sort of scent.

[jiggahava]

Fairly straightforward. I get snow, soil, and a bit of the oppoponax(sp?). It is cool and refreshing, and it is a great wintertime scent. Throw is very faint, but that's alright. I like it, but won't be needing a bottle. Very evocative and fitting for the concept. Beth did a great job with this!

[emzebel]

This is a very chilly snow/pine/juniper blend. Gorgeous for that combination.

[Shollin]

First sniff: There’s a similarity between the two graveyard scents in the first Salon exhibit… they both have the same sort of cold, stark outdoors-in-winter feel. Grave Digger seems to have a piney tinge, and it’s a little more substantial than Cloister Graveyard.

 

Wearing: Based on the listed notes, this should be airy and resinous, but all I’m getting is evergreen. Cold snowy evergreen.

[Myotis]

Why I didn't get myself a bottle of this sooner I'll never know!

I wasn't sure what to expect upon opening my bottle. I must admit, it was the name that got my attention most and I just HAD to try it.

And WOW am I glad I did!

Very piney upon sniffing.....something woodsy in there too, like a pine forest.

As it dries down, it sweetens just a bit but not too much. Earthy.

Reminds me of a greenhouse, all the different greens and the smell of soil.

This one is definitely right up there along side my absolute favourite Snow Bunny!!!!!!