The Obsidian Widow

[roseus]

Pinot noir, dark myrrh, red sandalwood, black patchouli, night-blooming jasmine, and attar of rose.

 

In the imp and wet all I got was wine. It was a nice wine, dark and grape-y. But dry is MAGIC. The pinot noir, rose, and jasmine blend wonderfully into something that's somewhere between fruity and floral, but entirely sultry and mysterious. The myrrh and patchouli add depth and nice grounding aspect, with the red sandalwood adding a little sweetness. Normally these notes read as warmth to me, but not in this blend. It's not cool toned either, but somewhere in the middle. It makes me think of running through the city at night, red lipstick, the adventure not quite over.

[Bassmastadroog]

Definitely a well blended oil. Upon opening cap, as well as application, the Pinot noir is immediately evident. I don't love that part, but it faded almost immediately. Jasmine is the next strongest note on my skin, and I believe I'm actually pretty okay with that note! I've never smelled it knowing what it is before. The attar of rose, interesting scent from Grooming Scene in a Brothel, also pokes out, but overall it stays pretty balanced. Perfumey, warm, dark red in color with a speck of white floral, and it dries down into a red incense and breath of jasmine for me. Nice. I'll use the imp, but definitely not an every day scent so I'm not sure if I'm get a bottle.

[Coldfire]

Imp: dark, red and foreboding
Wet On Me: getting slight traces of the wine and sandalwood
Drying Down: oh the rose is doing me a heckin pls to be stop amping on my skin and doing me an ewwwww
Dry: Rose. drat that damn rose on my skin

To the trade bag

[lizabelle]

Oh no. I've found another rose blend to love. BPAL is just so good at them, but I had no idea how much it would hurt my wallet when I first started trying them.

 

In general I'm a sucker for a good jasmine/rose mix and this is a beautiful one; it starts out with cool, sweet jasmine and the rose slowly amps to an exactly perfect 50/50 mix with it. Before the rose really hits the wine is very present and fruity, making a very interesting mix with the jasmine. Over time the wine fades into a lovely dark base, almost taking the place of a resin, and the sandalwood and spices make it feel sexy and surprising. The final result is like Rakshasa but turned darker; since Rakshasa is one of my favorites, I basically have to get this.

[LizziesLuck]

I love the sound of this, but in reality, wine is pretty iffy, and jasmine is a no-go. Still, I wanted to give it a shot.

 

 

Wet: I can detect both the wine and jasmine, but they swirl amongst the other notes, and so far aren't an issue. This is quite interesting. I get rose the strongest, which is not what I expected. I should have though, I amp rose to high heaven. Good thing I like it.

 

 

Dry: I think I like this!!!! Which is crazy. It's mostly a rich, heady rose. I get faint hints of jasmine, but it doesn't smell like cat pee or feces. Faint hints of wine, but it doesn't smell like sickly sweet grape candy. This is kind of a miracle, and I am tempted to get a bottle simple for the fact that I can WEAR this!! And there's jasmine!! So crazy.

[Pixie-elf]

So, I have Black Widow on one wrist, and Obsidian Widow on the other, to see how they compare.

 

In the Imp: WIIIIINE!

The Wine note says "Hey there!" and pretty much just crawled up my nose, a lot like Black Widow's did. I feel kind of like I could actually have drank this Pinot Noir, with as strong as this smells. Then a little Rose rears it's head. Oh please don't dominate...

Thankfully it isn't, and the Jasmine is also entering the stage. Along with a little of a sweet, almost fruit note I noticed in Black Widow? It's not taking center stage, it's just there, anchoring the roses and Jasmine. It's really gorgeous.

Oh God, after like 20 minutes I'm amping roses again. If you like roses, you'll love this.

It's really a lovely blend, where I said Black Widow was Nyx's little sister, Obsidian seems to be perfectly capable of throw. She has way more roses than Nyx. Less Jasmine. Still nice!

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

Given my feelings about both spiders and jasmine, it was definitely "impish" of the Lab to include an imp of this with my last order! However, you just never know until you try it on. I don't smell jasmine at all: on me, the Widow is rose blended with the wine note I associate with Lady MacBeth. There's a hint of myrrh on the drydown, but it doesn't have a great deal of throw. I like it but do not love--I generally prefer the "fresh" rose scents to the murkier ones, if that makes sense.

[Nikki Scarlet]

This was originally an imp ordered by a friend of mine that, in the end, she decided wasn't what she'd hoped it would be, so she said I could add it to my swap pile. Before I do that, though, I wanted to give it a try. It's not really something I would normally think to order for myself (oh no, patchouli is one of the notes . . . ), but you never know you'll like something until you try it!

In the imp:
Immediate first sniff reaction is "WHUF, WINE." I'm not a drinker and wine in particular tends to give me a bit of a headache. However, after the first sniff I start getting some of the florals, which are nice.

On me, wet:
Boozy. Headachey. But then nice flowers. But then wine again.

On me, dry:
Roses floating in wine. . . . Aaaand something sour. Yecch. I like rose but there are other rose scents that don't make my head hurt.

Verdict:
Not for me. To swaps you go!

[gloame]

Grape? Rose? Grape-y roses. I can't decide if I love this or hate it. As it dries, the grape goes more wine (thankfully) and there's this really unusual mix of dry rose and jasmine. Rose is usually a death note for me, but I love jasmine. Here, the rose is really working and I think I like this a lot. Maybe not enough for a bottle, but I'll keep the imp.

 

Where I'd wear this: A long, dark walk home in a women-kicking-ass movie

[achildoftime]

I'm not crazy about any of the notes listed, but this almost works for me. I get a lot of red wine, but the patchouli makes it deeper and more wearable for me. When I sniff it, my nose doesn't immediately register the flowers. After a second of lingering, though, I notice some jasmine. It's a little heavier than the scents I usually wear, so I had my beloved sniff and he mostly just got talcum powder. Sure enough the myrrh had made everything turn to powder. That makes the decision easy, I guess.

[cassiejaynebunk]

This is almost all rose on me, mixed with the scent of nail polish. I can start to smell the wine on the dry down and the jasmine, but it stays strong on the rose, until at the end it dries down into powder. *sad face* i love patchouli, but i get none of it here.

Edited February 17, 2018 by cassiejaynebunk