Horreur Sympathique

[Deiicide]

From livid skies that, without end,
As stormy as your future roll,
What thoughts into your empty soul
(Answer me, libertine!) descend?

— Insatiable yet for all
That turns on darkness, doom, or dice,
I'll not, like Ovid, mourn my fall,
Chased from the Latin paradise.

Skies, torn like seacoasts by the storm!
In you I see my pride take form,
And the huge clouds that rush in streams

Are the black hearses of my dreams,
And your red rays reflect the hell,
In which my heart is pleased to dwell.

The perfume of a hellbound soul, gleefully lost to iniquity: blood musk, golden honey, thick black wine, champagne grapes, tobacco flower, plum blossom, tonka bean, oakmoss, carnation, benzoin, opoponax, and sugar cane.

Such simple sweetness. This is just simply divine. I /adore/ Beth's wine notes and they adore me too and just the simple sweetness of the fruits with the tabacco, I knew just knew that this would not disappoint.

From the bottle the thick black wine and the grapes is the most appartent. There is a hint of musk but it doesn't levy itself until it hits the skin. And then it transforms. Rich, decedant and layered into a wonderous tapestry. The wine like all things leaps off my skin but it doesn't over power everything like it normally does. No no, it tempered immediatly by the musk, honey, grapes and the opoponax. It's rich musky honeyed wine with hints of fruits and spice. I'm getting much more fruit and wine from this then any of the other notes but that's alright by me for I love those two. The blend doesn't really change much from dry to wet, except the tabacco flower adds depth with the musk.

More throw when wet then dry.

If you are turned off my musk, give this a try as there is enough ingredients to smooth and sweeten the blend. This gives enough sweet, and enough rawr. Like the poem states before, this does seem to imply the darkness hiding within the hearts of us all. Evil smells damn good. Edited September 16, 2007 by Shollin

[zenvodunista]

In the bottle: Hmm. Some kinda funk is residing in there

 

On: well, that burnt away quick. BAM! Now we gots the fruits. And that wine? THat's fruity red ya got goin' on. Yup.

 

THere's a lot of different kinds of sweetness happening in the scent, and I can faintly pick them out. I think that funk might have been the honey which to my nose is very... shall we say... feminine?

 

I'd love to see how this one ages. Right now the resins are lingering at the edges of the party. I wonder if they will deepen with age. I'll be keeping the imp for testing, me thinks.

 

This is definitely one for those of you that like Lady MacBeth.

 

n.

[sookster]

straight sniff from imp is something soury...like aqua net hairspray from

the 80's....almost like spit...

once applied it is the honey/wine/champagne combo that gives that saliva scent...

too soury for me to like ... or so i think

after 30 minutes or so, this is almost like fresh flowers in a meadow...can u stand that?! .... i know i can't but right as rain...it is all about that...

craziness ... love the morphing!!! the very end is all about honey & florals...

what a great blend....and who woulda thunk?...

[sixthsentinel]

Oh, man am I glad I got a bottle of this based on the description!

 

It is wet, full-bodied & sweet. At first it smells a whole lot like grape koolaid on me, but soon I am getting the plum. A little later, I'm am picking up something reminiscent of Hellion beneath the grapes & plum. After a few hours it kind of all blends together in a perfumy dissonance, a sweet cacophony of unrecognizable notes.

 

I have no idea why, but for the first few seconds after application...I get a really sexy, brazen feeling from it. Maybe it's the grapes....it just smells so....voluptuous. I actually got a rush of naughty thoughts right after I put in on, both this afternoon & again tonight. Oh well, go figure.

 

ETA: I can really smell the honey in this. I don't know how I could have missed it before. Unfortunately it makes this too sweet, & I can't see myself wearing it very often, so off to swaps, I guess.

Edited November 12, 2006 by sixthsentinel

[blackheartedangel]

omg this smells so good ... instant love!!! this is one sexy blend, in my opinion. it is very well blended, so it's hard to pick out individual notes. i get the muskiness, plum and the champagne grapes sweetened (sugar cane & honey) but the rest of the notes aren't jumping out at me ... it just smells goooood. i was afraid of the honey turning funny on me, but it didn't. i also feared the wine, because i haven't had any luck with wine blends before (they make me feel ill) but this one is working out fine. i definatly reccomend at least checking out an imp if it sounds even slightly interesting to you.

[Beatrice33]

This one is a surprising winner for me. I was worried it would be too "grapey" which is a no-no for my skin, or I should say my skin amps grape to the Kool Aid level very easily. This is sweet and musky, but something is also giving it a brightness that I just love. This is definitely going on my big bottle list.

[themerrybaker]

I'm not fond of wine or grape scents, but tried this because there are so many other components. At first it was Evil Jonestown Kool-Aide tm - a real olfactory horror. But then a smell reminiscent of Mum Moon began to evolve. I think it was the tobacco flower - which smelled like hay to me at first.

 

After about an hour, Horreur grows up to be a perfume: fruity and bright, but amazingly good.

 

Probably no big bottle for me, but I'm very very happy to see a grape/wine blend that I can almost wear. People who love the wine oils should be head over heels for this one.

[Kittyflop]

Fruit. Sweet, candy-like. Not the slightest bit hellish or hellbound.

 

Not sure if it's just my nose, but this is a total miss. It's a nice scent for the fruit fans, but nothing like I expected from the description. Too.... sweet and fruity. Exactly the opposite of hellbound, I'm afraid.

 

*pout*

[Heavenlyrabbit]

Whoa Nelly, this is intoxicating.

 

Just the perfect blend of sweet, booze with resins and a touch of fruit.

 

This is a silk velvet dressing gown of a scent.

[slave1]

HORROR SYMPATHIQUE

 

In Bottle: Honey and grapes

 

On Skin: Yay! Honey is the first note I smell! The beautiful BPAL honey! Then the grapes come out, tart and juicy. There are so many notes in this and they blend beautifully. I can smell the wine, dark and thick mixed with the gorgeous purple feel of the plum, the musk is deep and sexy, the carnation slightly bitter but sweetened up by the tonka and sugar cane. The benzoin and opoponax are resinous and sticky sweet as well. I don’t really smell the oakmoss though which is odd because it usually comes across very earthy in scents it’s in. While this scent has rather strong notes listed, the scent itself is quite mellow and soft. All in all a sweet honey and wine boozy blend full of fruitiness but deepened by sweet resins and musk. Very sexy, very subtle, very nice. Glad I bought a bottle! Light throw and short to average wearlength.

[Tallulah]

In the bottle - honey and wine

 

On the skin - sweet and boozy. My skin loves wine notes, particularly red or dark, it is stunning this scent. After a while the plum begins to mingle with the honey and wine, the resinous notes linger around the periphery of the mix giving a depth and strength. The blood musk adds a pelvic grunt (i know what i mean by that, it is the only way to describe it!) into the feeling i get from this scent. If this is the scent of the hellbound soul, then i am beauitifully damned. Bottle for sure.

[edenssixthday]

Horreur Sympathique - The only way I can describe this is as something of a cross between Bon Vivant and Freak Show. In the vial and when freshly applied to my skin, the effervescent scent of champagne grapes is the dominant note, and it reminds me of the strong champagne note in Bon Vivant. As the blend begins to warm up on my skin, however, the tonka becomes quite prevalent, and mutes the strong, crisp, bubbly scent of the champagne grapes. There are a lot of individual notes in this blend that are very sweet on their own (honey, wine, benzoin, sugar cane, opoponax), yet the tonka and oakmoss work together to mute that sweetness so that it's more of an underlying facet of this blend, while the more dominant notes are creamy, warm, and a touch earthy. This is a truly impeccably-blended scent. I would have never imagined that all of these notes could work together so well, but they really do. It's the scent of a strong and confident (but not haughty) woman who knows who she is, what she stands for, and where she's going. Sadly, the sillage is very light and the scent doesn't last on my skin very long at all. But it's still nice and one I imagine I'll find myself wearing a lot to work.

[Blood onmy hands]

In the bottle... Horreur Sympathique smells like grape bubblegum and sugar.

 

On me... grape bubblegum, sugar, and some goldeny sweet, warm honey. It loses some of its bubblegum sweetness after a few minutes, and then just smells of sweet grapes and honey. It's lighter and more upbeat than I was expecting.

 

15 minutes into the drydown... rather perfumey honey. Honey musk and tooth-aching sugar notes.

 

A rather simple, sweet musk sort of fragrance. The honey is really dominating on my skin.

 

Horreur Sympathique isn't a blend that I'll ever find myself wearing, but I'd recommend it to anyone who is a fan of BPAL's honey.

[minnalavender]

Yay~!!! A GC alternative to my beloved Montressor!

 

I am such a gleefully hellbound soul, how could I not try this?

 

In the vial: ripe grapes, wine, and honey. Mmmmmm. On my skin: this doesn't morph on me, but remains true to the imp. The wine and honey are so lovely! I can detect the faintest musk note and maybe a little spicy tonka, but it's really all about the grape on me. I love it. The note smells exactly like the Muscat grapes that grow in wild profusion over our arbor, when they ripen from fruit to sugar.

 

A def. big bottle purchase!

[Loligo]

Evil Grape Kool-Ade, indeed. Over the first half hour or so, the scent layers itself like this: first grape Kool-Ade, then booze, then florals, then blood musk, and the layers just never mesh for me. They fight with each other, and the overall effect is nauseating. I haven't been having any luck lately with things containing liquor notes.

[valentina]

In the imp, Horreur Sympathique is redolent of honey and wine. Very heady and sweet. Once it hits my skin, it's very round, sweet and grapey. This scent has a lot of elements that I very much enjoy in other blends, but this combination simply morphs in an odd way on my skin. Honey can turn a bit sour on my skin and wine smells can go heavily sweet, and this happens with HS, and the other elements of the scent are simply overwhelmed. I smell like really sweet skunky wine, not too attractive unless I'm out courting a wino. I think for skin types that hold all the elements of the blend, this would be a rich, sweet-fruity-winey smell that would be deep and intriguing.

[Nepthys]

The description sounded so enticing but unfortunately this turns to a winey kool-aid on me. I wait and wait in vain for the honey and musk but they never show. Eventually I detect what I think is the oakmoss and that brings some much needed gravity to the scent. But then it disappears and this just hangs around as fruity sweetness.

[LiberAmoris]

Horreur Sympathique totally exceeded my expectations. Blood musk is always so-so on me, honey can be a dealbreaker, and wine and grapes get amped to high heaven. But Horreur Sympathique is actually pretty lovely, and it's such a gorgeous late autumn kind of blend, warm and resiny and smoky. If you liked Chrysanthemum Moon, this is definitely worth a try.

 

This is such a perfect blend for this time of year. I think I'll be wearing this one to work tomorrow.

[Eros]

In the imp and first applied this does what all blends with grape and/or wine notes do...Powdery grape Koolaid. It quickly morphs into a beautiful, sweetened-with honey-incense(I'm a sucker for BPAL's honey notes), with a *hint* of rich, succulent purple grapes. The throw isn't overwhelming, more like a breathy, come hither whisper. No one note stands out, they swirl around in perfect harmony.

Definitely see a bottle in my future

 

If you're a fan of Urd, Hellion or Lilith, to name a few, this one should be right up your alley

 

LOVE this one!!

[euterpe414]

This is a lot more fruity on me than I expected! Usually my skin amps honey (which is fine by me) but in this blend the grapes/wine are reallllyy taking over! This actually smells very very similar to Lady Macbeth on my skin. Strange. I do like it, but it is not as complex (on my skin) as I expected it to be.

 

If I didn't already have Lady Macbeth, I would buy a bottle of this. However, I am going to age my imp and see if that helps the other notes strengthen a bit. I'm not going to give up on this yet!

[lookingglass]

This is like the lovechild of Skuld, Blood Kiss, Kali and Brides of Dracula on me. The honey is predominant, with the grapes and light floral close behind. I generally fear grape scents, but this is not at all the grape-kool-aid/lollipop/artificial. It's tangy sweet and dense. The earthy tonka/musk accord grounds it all and remains rich through the drydown. I was hoping this would be stronger on the base notes (there are a lot listed), but it fades quickly.

Edited June 11, 2011 by lookingglass

[yeahbutnobut]

Horreur Sympathique

 

In the imp: thick honeyed wine, very similar to Athens, but darker.

Wet on skin: honey-wine but now other, sweeter notes come out…

Dry: this is really good! It’s predominantly champagne and wine and lots of sharp honey, this is like drunken O, initially. But underneath I smell a hint of the delicate plum blossom and tobacco flower, attempting to lift the scent and make it pretty, and I think the sweet resins, the tonka and musk are there too, adding depth and broadness to the sweetness, whilst carnation adds a light spicy touch. This is honeyed wine but with complexity behind it.

After a while: the sharpness of the champagne tones down a little and the wine note smells more like sweet grapes, the plum blossom and sugar cane enhance the sugary fruitiness of this scent. It now smells like pale sugar plums and grapes drizzled in honey with hints of wine, resins and tonka. This scent is decadent and sweet. Mmm. But I’m surprised at how strong the plum blossom is here-gives the scent a lighter side.

Eventually the sharpness of the wine returns, along with the honey…there’s an oddly salty scent to it now, reminiscent of the almost salty honey I got in O. but it’s not bad. The salty stage doesn’t last, thankfully, and soon it becomes a scent of crystallised honey with fruit syrup, which is really nice. I don’t get as much musk or opoponax as I hoped…

Verdict: I really like this fruity, full, sweet honeyed wine scent. It’s mainly honey and sweet wine and grapes, very fruity and dark. It is rich and deep and there are times when it smells really complex, and other times when it’s a very pretty sugary fruit and honey scent. It seems perfect for autumn and winter, I think, a warm, boozy and indulgently sweet fragrance. Surprisingly for the scent’s theme it’s also got an unusually light, playful side to it from the floral/fruit notes, I was hoping for more resins and musk and I certainly wasn’t expecting sugar plums to appear with the wine and honey-an unexpected but very pleasant reaction. However it’s not the ‘wow!’ scent I was expecting but I’m definitely keeping the imp I have of this scent.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? Yes, the imp, for now.

If you like this, try: Athens, Madrid, The Masque, Skuld, Sed Non Satiata, Tum, O, Death of Sardapanal

[Precis]

Right upon application, my first impression was that Horreur Sympathique was a lot foodier than I expected. The first thing that comes to mind is "fruity purple honey." It smells good enough to eat (or drink)! As it dries, it becomes less foody and more wearable, I think, and the musk emerges. It also becomes increasingly heady and almost intoxicating! The tobacco and resins give it a sultry thickness that keeps the oil from being overwhelmingly girly despite the sweetness. It reminds me of the decadence of Bordello, but it doesn't turn to nerds candy like Bordello does on me.

 

This scent seems a little... upbeat for the accompanying poem, but it's far too awesome for me to question the inspiration involved. Conclusion: A winning oil!

[birdiefu]

Yet another new GC winner for me! This is much lighter and fruiter than I expected from the description, but still awesome. Wet, it's very grapey, but that tones down as it dries and turns more into wine. Deep plum joins the winey grapes in dark, drunken, fruity bliss. The honey in this is divine and complements the grape/wine/plum and the touch of musk nicely without being sickly sweet. I wish I could pick out the darker elements (like tobacco, opoponax, and oakmoss) a little more, but it feels like they are giving a deeper edge to the blend without being obvious. There is also just the tiniest bit of spice to this blend, which I'm guessing is from the carnation, but doesn't smell 'floral' at all. Overall, a very beautiful bottle-worthy blend that I enjoy.

Edited November 15, 2006 by birdiefu

[shelldoo]

this one jumped on to the big bottle list after just reading the description...i am hoping it works, it has so many things in it i adore.

 

in the bottle:grapes, plum blossoms...fruity and fun.

 

wet:when it first touches my skin it is all grapes, like squishing grapes w/ your feet at a winery, that warm juicy grape smell...but almost immediately it begins to morph, i get the honey definitely which is awesome as i love bpal's honey.

 

as it dries i get a honey, musky, sexy blend w/ a sensual grape background,we have been drizzled w/ honey we are not squishing the grapes w/ our feet anymore, instead we are now rolling in them giving sloppy, wet kisses, on a warm sensuous summer night. i can vaguely detect the tobacco flower, and carnation but more in feel then really hey there it is, if that makes sense. on me it is definitely sexy, slinky musk, and honey w/ a fun fruity fling. i am so delighted w/ this one, i will be wearing it tomorrow.