Goblin

[Scorianelle]

Dab a bit behind each ear, and you'll be instantly inspired to alter street signs, shake fruit from your neighbor's trees, and hide your roommate's car keys. Black coconut, gnarly patchouli, and sweet benzoin.

First Sniff From the Bottle

My sister: It smells like mown grass.

Me: It smells like soil.

This is definitely an earthy scent. It caught our attention with how smooth it was. There was just a hint of sweetness that kept it from being muddy.

On

Her: The patchouli is really strong, but slightly tempered by the other scents. Can't pick out the coconut.

Me: The sweetness comes out and it ends up smelling like chocolate. Which is totally fine!

Neither of us had been exposed to patchouli much before this, and I can understand why some people might not like it, but I personally love how down-to-earth it is. However if you were getting this perfume for the coconut then I'd recommend looking elsewhere. I picked for my sister as her surprise scent because she loves coconut and there was absolutely nothing of it in the imp. I'm not sure what benzoin smells like, but I'm sure that's what the sweet edge was. Pity this was my sister's and not mine.

[SkySamuelle]

Nice sweet-like liqueur in the imp, it becomes a bit piney and a bit musky on the skin, THEN BABY POWDER SNEAKS IN AFTER ONE HOUR OR SO.

 

I guess this scent dislikes me so much it alters completely its essence... where's the coconut? where's the patchouli?

 

Oh, well...

[stardreamer]

In the imp and fresh on: Strong and sharp!

 

Drydown: The sharpness fades, and the coconut comes up; the patchouli makes its presence known, but stays politely in the background.

 

Long-term: Stays nicely spicy. The sweet benzoin starts to make an appearance after an hour or so. The coconut and patchouli go together surprisingly well, and for a change they seem to fade at about the same rate -- the patchouli isn't the last thing left long after every other note disappears. Also, it's a nice deep coconut, reminiscent of the coconut note in Upa Upa (for those who remember that LE). Staying power is pretty good -- after 12 hours it's still fairly present on my wrists.

 

Bottom line: I didn't observe any of the claimed effects -- but as far as scents go, this one's definitely a keeper.

Edited November 14, 2012 by stardreamer

[witchling]

i was hoping to like this one after i read reviews about creamy vanilla coconut patchouli...

i think im going to let it age a bit and retest. i love patchouli but the patchouli in this is just too much. its a dry overwhelming dark patchouli and i get the pencil shavings comparison. it calms down a little bit after a few hours and its better but still not quite there. when i went to bed that night my boyfriend said it smells like cigarettes in our room and i think it was mr. goblin that he was smelling

[ladymeag]

I had a similar hope and dashing as witchling - I was hoping for patchouli vanilla coconut in kind of a creamy way.

 

In the bottle: OMG patchouli. However, that's true of most patchouli BPAL for me.

On Me: Wet, it's definitely patchouli - very dirty. Coconut starts coming forward some but doesn't make it very far. The benzoin is completely missing but that happens with me. The patchouli/coconut combination doesn't quite work for me without what I'd hoped would be the balancing effect of the benzoin.

Spouse says: Dirty macaroon with cocoa.

[boomtownrat]

Goblin, in perfume form, is my swooning high school love for the edgy, wonderfully weird boy who probably grew up to write code and go to Burning Man. This transports me back 23 years, to exploring the local head shop and New Age store, to nights of Skinny Puppy and Bauhaus and candles and cyberpunk everything. I put Goblin on and I'm 17, feeling for the first time like I could live a life of excitement and endless intellectual curiosity. It's exhilarating and yet it makes me imagine the road I chose not to take - an intellectual exercise in itself, and one that I welcome.

 

This was a generous frimp from the Lab. The coconut and patchouli in Goblin are addictively fantastic together and the benzoin is the sweet, beautiful glue that binds them. It reminds me of Banshee Beat and will be the bottle I buy instead of hunting down an expensive bottle of BB. This is also similar to #occupywallstreet, but mellower and sweeter. Its bottled nostalgia is a comforting hug.

 

Even fresh from the mailbox while I'm hormonal, Goblin is gorgeous. I can only imagine how much better it could get. Lately I've been obsessed with the Lab's patchouli note. With scents like this available, that probably isn't going to change.

 

(Edited because I finally realized what this scent truly evokes for me and what makes it so magical.)

Edited March 17, 2013 by boomtownrat

[revinn]

This is mostly yummy patchouli, with just a touch of dry coconut. The benzoin doesn't seem too apparent at this point. There's a slight rubbery note which I'm not fond of, but it seems to burn off pretty quickly.

 

It's an outdoorsy, non-traditional summer scent. Quite lovely!

[mari4212]

On wet: It's the patchouli dirt scent that I was expecting, with a hint of benzoin sweetness underneath.

 

Initial drydown: The scents have muted and blended together, with the patchouli still the predominant note. It's a sweet, earthy scent.

 

Later drydown: As it dries it continues to mellow and sweeten out. Whereas on the initial drydown the emphasis was on the patchouli, the lingering note here is benzoin/vanilla, with just a bit of depth to keep it from being simple. It ages into a scent I'd love to nuzzle in closer to, with not much throw.

[heathercaley]

From an imp that's at least 2 if not 3 years old:

 

Coconut and sweet patchouli - oh my!!!

 

As it dries down, the patchouli starts to really dominate. This is a deep and rooty patchouli. Though aged, there's still a little bit of fang in it's bite.

 

Once dry, I'm left picturing a goblin on vacation in Goblin Paradise. Sipping vanilla coconut smoothies and watching the sun set over a simmering sea of black oil while his little demon offspring fight over a raging octopus plucked from his oily rock cave.

[Alethia]

Thoughts before testing: I see a lot of love for black coconut mentioned here on the forums, but I've never sniffed anything with it before so I'm excited to try Goblin. Benzoin always reads as a strong vanilla on my skin, so I'm curious to see how this stacks up to Banshee Beat (my forever love).

 

Wet: Strong sweet patchouli. It's slightly dirty and rooty, but mostly sweet and smooth. The benzoin backing is really lovely and is reading (as per usual) as strong vanilla to my nose.

 

Dry down: The coconut comes through about 15 minutes into the dry down. I've never smelled black coconut before, and it is FABULOUS. It's not a tropical-drink coconut, it's sexy and hippie-ish. The patch and benzoin are reminding me of a less-sweet Banshee Beat.

 

Dry: The coconut fades after about an hour, leaving behind the vanilla-sweetness of the benzoin and smooth pretty patch. Beautiful.

 

Final thoughts: This is very reminiscent of Banshee Beat on my skin, with the lovely addition of the fabulous black coconut. But since the coconut doesn't stick around for the whole time (Goblin lasted nearly 6 hours), I don't know that this is different enough to warrant having both in my collection. I think I need to test this against BB to see which one I like best.

 

Verdict: This needs a death match with Banshee Beat! Verdict to follow

[tharsei-thanate]

I have been on a quest to find a coconut that works. A few months ago some helpful forumites suggested I try black coconut, and I snagged an imp of Goblin. I misplaced it for a while but I just found it again so I think now's a good time to try it.

 

In the imp: That's coconut, all right! Like suntan lotion smeared over patch and benzoin. This is really nice.

 

Wet: Sweet, slightly plastic coconut and vanilla-y benzoin. Certainly not as bad as other coconut blends, even with the plastic. At least it's not sour?

 

Drydown: Smooth, sweet patch starts to emerge and it blends nicely with the coconut and benzoin. The plastic is more subtle now, and I'm sure if someone sniffed me it would smell like coconut to them, but my noise has been trained to find plastic in certain notes and as much as I want to ignore it I can't.

 

Dry: The coconut is a touch sour now. Slightly sour plastic, sigh. It's really not as strong as in regular coconut blends but it's still here all the same. Other than that, the patch is well-behaved and benzoin is perfect.

 

Furhter on: The plastic becomes even more subdued which is a yay but. Still. It's there.

 

Verdict? Well, I'm conflicted. I want to like this because the patch/benzoin combo is really nice and the coconut could be worse but still. Slighty sour plastic. Juuust enough to bother me. I'll try aging it some more but if there's even a hint of plastic next time I try it I'm gonna have to get rid of it. :/

[lookingglass]

Yeah...I don't know why all the Banshee Beat freaks aren't just beating down the Lab's door for Goblin. It's very, very close, and truly, I like it better! Goblin is more woody, and less sweet/powdery/weed seeds than Banshee Beat. The patchouli is dark and dank like in my beloved Depraved (yuuuuummy, nasty, freaky stuff!). I thought (fearfully) that the coconut would smell like suntan lotion, or a coconut scented hair product but it does NOT; the black coconut is not a typical one...I wouldn't even guess coconut if I didn't know it was there, I'd truly say black vanilla and benzoin, maybe another resin. Knowing it's there, it's more like the husk instead of the meat or milk of the stuff. Goblin is a dry, dark, woody, slightly sweet, sexy scent. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE eeeeet!!!

Edited October 18, 2013 by lookingglass

[lucycat]

In the imp: Earthy patchouli: that is, actually like soil.

 

Wet: Cedar pencil shavings.

 

Dry: The coconut appears, and the sweetness that must be benzoin. Earlier this week I tested Hope and Fear Set Free, and I noticed that many of the reviews mentioned a benzoin note, though it wasn't listed in that blend. Now I know what they were talking about, and I realize that I was smelling it too, though I didn't know what to call it. BPAL is very educational!

 

Goblin is warm, dark, and sweet. It lasts for hours, and I think it will be even better after some aging.

[Zii]

Hello patchouli! Good thing we're friends because that's all I'm getting. There's a creaminess that must be the coconut or maybe benzoin, though I don't know that note well.

 

This is just a wonderful spicy earthy patch on me.

[ajcj213499]

This is wonderful. It's a warm patchouli, so it must be the red patchouli as opposed to black. The coconut gives it a little bit of woody foodiness while being not at all suntan lotion-like. This has pushed its way towards the top of my most worn bpals. I don't really get much benzoin from it, just delicious patchouli and coconut.

[Teaker]

I have never worn patchouli in my life, it always smelled like dirt to me. And the first time I tried Goblin, that's exactly what I thought: coconut and dirt. Gross, right? Practically made me sick. So I crammed it in the very back of my "things that I hate" bag and forgot about it. Then one day I thought, meh, might as well give it a second chance. So I did, and it was... kind of ok. I didn't really like it, but it was weirdly compelling and I kept sniffing my arm.

 

Fast forward a few weeks and my imp is nearly empty because I wear it almost every night. It just grew on me so much, and totally changed my mind about patchouli! When this dries the coconut becomes a sweet scent more akin to vanilla than actual coconut. It is blended perfectly with the warm, rich patchouli. It is just so comforting and snuggly. I don't know if I'm brave enough to wear this out and about, since it is a very strong and sharp patchouli. But it's a perfect bedtime scent for me, and I will be buying a bottle of this soon.

 

Long story short, Goblin cured my fear of patchouli!

[Monday]

On my skin wet: Super sweet coconut and patchouli. Not digging the sugary-ness, it's like the blend isn't taking itself serious.

On my skin dry: Still the same only the patchouli has come to the foreground and makes it smell rather dry.

It's ok but the sweetness is a bit too much for me after a while.

[Deliciousness]

In the imp: Sweet patchouli

Wet on skin: Patchouli

Drydown: A slightly creamy, soft patchouli

 

Well, I was hooping for more sweet coconut and benzoin, but I got patchouli instead. The patchouli in this blend is a little woody, and dry - but not terrible considering I amp this note. I think the coconut does tone down the "wood shavings" I normally get with a strong patch blend. I'll let my imp age a bit and see what it smells like in a few months - maybe the sweetness will come out with a bit of aging.

[BoneBone24]

Wet: Toasted coconut. Deep and smoky.

 

Drydown/Dry: Lots of charred material layered over somewhat-artificial smelling coconut. I thinks there’s a drop of vetiver in there. Quite earthy and smoky. Languid but sort of sneaky too. This goblin smells like he’s up to no good.

 

 

 

 

6.5 out of 10 bones

[PumpkinGuts]

Coconut and patchouli apparently equal crack on my skin, and I'm not even a patch fan. Neither note overwhelms the other, amazingly.

I agree with the dirty macaroon description further up in the thread (sans cocoa), and I feel like goblin teatime would consist of them.

This very well may be my first patchouli-dominant bottle purchase!

Edited August 27, 2014 by PumpkinGuts

[maija]

Eek! My first review! Here it goes..

 

First: strong patchouli, dry coconut (kind of like dried coconut flakes) and sweet benzoin.

 

As it dries it becomes softer, like vanilla-coconut incense. It's dry, sweet and woody, and it does somehow smell a bit like chocolate. Goblin is soothing and lovely. I have an year old bottle, and it is now much sweeter than when it was fresh from the lab. Coconut and benzoin have come forward and patchouli is now smoother. It lasts about 4 hours on my skin and it stays the same even in very hot weather (sometimes sweeter notes turn super cloying on me when it's summer.). But I still mostly use it during autumn and winter time when I crave for darker and more comforting scents.

[Myria Jean]

Goblin has a reputation of being a bit rough, but when I found out I don't dislike patchouli I got an imp from the Lab with the intention of aging it.

That was two weeks ago. My imp is half gone. I'm gonna need lots.

I can tell I will like it better aged, but even after two weeks the patchouli has smoothed out a lot. It's also starting to last longer - it was disappearing after about an hour and leaving me with only coconut and benzoin. Now I get lovely smoky patchouli for hours. It's a smooth, sweet,velvety smell that two different people have insisted to me must be amber. Far from being too much patchouli, I want more of it. It's my new favorite cuddly scent.

[unxolve]

Right on my wrist it's a sweet cinnamony(?)-bready smell that I loooove. I can tell why the lab mixed this with gingerbread in the Yules this year. This disappears after the first couple seconds though, and I'm left with a heavy old undergrowth soil wood planty patchouli (which I'm not sure I like) with a drop of sweetness.

 

Strangely, I can catch occasional whiffs of that first delicious smell when my nose is nowhere near my wrist, and smell it strongly if I hold my wrist a couple of inches away from my nose. Buried in my wrist, however, the smell is back to that dark patchouli.

 

Dried down it's more balanced with the coconut, and +sweet. Unfortunately, still too much patchouli for me.

 

 

[Ishtar]

Very earthy at first, almost aggressively so, but it doesn't take long for it to mellow and for the patchouli to bloom, immediately followed by lashings of coconut. This is a fairly straightforward blend, craggy, warm, and bone dry. Interestingly, I would have thought it'd have more body than it does - even though it's definitely not a "thin" scent, it gives off a very white/off-white aura and has far less throw than I would have expected.

 

The patchouli here strongly reminds me of the one in Anne Bonny. I may have to do a side-by-side comparison to see if it's worth keeping both, although the coconut certainly adds an interesting twist!

[beakerwill]

Hmm. It was a lovely patchouli coconut in the imp and wet on my skin...

But within twenty minutes of application, it was sweet pencil shavings. Meh.