Quirkiest, most bizarre oils

[lacyjae]

Hmm. Weird for me tends to be less what I think of the smell and more how I react to it.

 

Bad weird? Malediction and anything with a lot of vetiver. It's all pure shrimp sauce. Malediction is evil shrimp sauce... but.. lotsa vetiver = sooo not cool.

 

Blood Kiss is sexy and vampish and perfect for its name. It's bloody bursting cherries and clove and wine and rrrrgh.

 

Al Azif is sexy dangerous Elder God-summoning incense.

 

Most of the Arkham scents are really weird. Night-Gaunt is bright and quirky. Azathoth makes my head feel weird, off, and wrong, the scent is /odd/ and.. weird. R'lyeh, Cthulhu, The Music of Erich Zahn.. they're all off and weird, but not in a bad way. Shub-Niggurath is one of the few foody scents I like, and yes, evil gingerbread.

 

Hellfire is a strange, lovely one.

 

Squirting Cucumber is SO weird to me, because it's exactly the smell of a freshly-bit cucumber. With some greens and herbs. The latter of which I don't usually like, but I adore this.

 

Bloodlust makes me... uh... want to kill people. lol. It really is very bloodlusty. Fantastic.

 

Tenochtitlan makes me feel like I'm running through warm golden sunlit fields of gold.. dandelions, or wheat, or.. anything gold really. It's like I can smell the dust on the flowers and the breeze. Lovely! Very odd.

 

And to me, La Belle Dame Sans Merci makes me look around for bouquets of fresh flowers, constantly.

 

 

A few LEs that I love, though?

 

Moai. It's like my skin is made of smoke. Wet ash and smoke. SO fantastic.

Famine. I wanted to crawl inside the scent and live in it. Felt very animalistic. Rrrrgh.

Blue Fire is fruity fruity with an adult pop from the gin. It doesn't smell alcoholic to me, but so freaking amazingly fantastic wonderful OMG it spilled in my bag and I don't even care cos I love it so much. (Must...find...bottle...omg.)

Blood Garden,

 

And, if you like FLOWER smell, not floral perfumes but like burying your face in actual real flowers, I highly recommend anything I've tried from Rapaccinni's Garden - I'm not sure how exact they are to representing the flowers they are named after, but they are the most wonderful flower scents I've got my grubby little paws on. I'm not a floral person, at all, and I just ADORE them.

 

*shifty-eyes* Not that I'm wanting to bathe in my BPAL now that I've sniffed a bunch to recommend, or anything, I swear.... o_o

[galahad]

I have just tried Destroying Angel and it is the oddest thing. A "thin" soil scent. Initial sniff from the imp is definitely fungal. I like it but where would you wear it?

A funeral. LARPing a sluagh.

 

Ah, of course. Hopefully, I don't have to attend one of those any time soon

[odalisque]

I nominate Crossroads. I've been babbling about it constantly since I tried it yesterday. Opens with ZOMG true-to-life dirt'n'moss, and suddenly blooms into this ethereal, smoky spicy incensey sweetness. The shift between the two qualifies it for the "most bizarre" list, it broke my brain.

[Czarina]

Let me nominate Hand of Glory (or second the nomination).

[hellomoonglow]

Pickled Imp. It is just weird weird weird. It smells like Christmas with menthol.Oooo, I have another one! Tokyo Stomp! In the bottle it smelled like delicious Thin Mint cookies but on me it smelled like straight up CAT URINE!!! It was so freaking bizzare, I swear!

[butcherbaby]

i'm going to be repeating some already listed, so bear with me :-)

 

not all of the bizaare scents are ones that i actually *like*...YMMV

 

number one on my list: the newly re-released GRAVEYARD DIRT! it really, REALLY smells like wet, slightly fungal dirt. really. it is incredible. i bought it for my husband who is probably going to go apeshit when i give it to him, so i'm getting a second bottle for him as well while it's still around. if you can't get a decant, just buy it, i don't think you'll have any problem re-selling or swapping if you don't like it.

 

WORM MOON is an LE, and a more perfumey version of dirt.

 

FAUSTUS: this one is heavy and really unusual, and beautiful, though it didn't work for me. i realized i don't like violet, but in this blend it's awesome. violet is an unusual floral- to me they smell dank & rotten and not floral at all.

SATURNALIA: likewise on the violet. i think this is an either love it or hate it one. i hate it, but the blend is SUPER heavy and deep.

 

UMBRA- ditto on the underrated, though it smells better on my husband than me.

SLOTH- another underrated scent. on me it smells like hell at first and then turns really lovely. absolutely like nothing else i've tried

 

STEAMWORKS- smells like it was distilled like actual metal. amazing.

OBSIDIAN WIDOW: wine flavored incense. wine doesn't work on my skin, butthis scent is utterly gorgeous anyway.

NO 93 ENGINE: another great steamworks.

 

SCHRODINGER'S CAT: not one for me, but it's weird and it works.

MANIA- also weird, also not my style.

ZOMBI- works on my husband, not on me, earthy with slight floral.

 

for the really heavy scents try:

CZERNOBOG: i've heard this called cat pee, poop, vomit, bad breath, urine, and every other horrid name you can think of. on me it smells sweeter than heaven. another love it or hate it scent, but well worth a try.

VOODOO: again a heavy scent, doesn't smell like any other's i've tried. vey sexy too. one of the few i was sure of the instant i put it on.

SCHWARZER MOND: LE- any year. heavy, almost dirty musk. just wonderful. SMUT (LE) falls into this category but doesn't smell the same.

BLACK ANNIS- heavy, and very weird. smells just like the story makes me expect it would, but i didn't know evil could be this sweet.

 

I second LAUDANUM not because i like it, but because it smells exactly like a brand new rubber tire on me. so does GOBLIN. my husband says goblin was "too floral" on him. ummmm, what?

DEPRAVED- dirt and apricots. not your everyday scent.

INTRIGUE- almost chocolate/coconut candy, but not quite. unless candy can be sinister. earthy as well.

 

RED LANTERN (LE): i hated it, others love. unusual either way- tobacco & burnt caramal & opium.

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS (LE): another that bit the dust for me, but it smelled wonderful in the bottle and again, not like anything else.

 

THREE GORGONS- peppery! and then a bunch of other things that shouldn't work together -fruit, pepper, tobacco-but smell beautiful and rich together. this is full of notes that are iffy for me, i don't know how that works.

salon imp packs are a good choice- you get to try some of Beth's most complex, mature and unusual scents, and if you don't like them they are highly swappable.

 

i may think of others later, hope this helps some!

[eanewsom]

Gunpowder. I was in love with it in the bottle while I was decanting, and I just put on a little of the leftovers, and I now smell like cumin. I'm used to scents changing from how they smell in the bottle, but that was quite unexpected.

[forspecial_plate]

The Shattered Pumpkin is another one of those uniquely odd scents. I've never smelled anything like it in a perfume! (unfortunately, this wasn't in a good way at all for me, but I can imagine others liking it a lot)

[Juushika]

I just tested this today, and struck me as so unusual that I had to put in another word for it here:

 

Gunpowder: Molasses and oats with a touch of wood and apple, and it's incredibly distinctive and unusual for perfume. It smells like a cider house, or a maple syrup house, or a warm barn: the scent of food preparation, but not actually foody. I love it, even if I'm never sure when I'll actually wear it...

 

And to make a more complete post, other BPAL which I'd call quirky, or bizarre, or unusual:

 

Destroying Angel: Thin dry acrid dirt, and white fungus. If you had asked me before I discovered BPAL, I would say there was no way a perfume could ever smell like that.

 

Death Cap: Sweet pale-purple vanilla ... dirt. It's incredible, and unusual, and I adore it.

 

Enraged Groundhog Musk: Strong sweet cherries coated in brown cocoa-and-cardamom fuzz. It's bright and sweet and fuzzy and soft. A very distinctive combination, and definitely not an average perfume.

 

White Rabbit: A drop of tea, a shake of pepper, and a linen napkin. It's pale, white, and more than a little odd.

Edited September 26, 2008 by Juushika

[laeticia]

I love this thread -- great idea.

I second Schwarzer Mond 08 for being strange but also wonderful, compelling and completely wearable (to me it's a chocolate cake in a voodoo shop).

The House is also unusual -- on me it has a dusty attic smell and a sweet sharp greeness. Hemlock I can barely begin to describe -- earth, subtle pine forest, mushrooms crushed under foot.

[Aldercy]

Tweedledee is one of my favorite scents and also one of the strangest. It's maybe fruity, but definitely not "light." When I reviewed it, I don't think I was even able to think of anything to compare it to and had to resort to talking in terms of abstract impressions and colors. It's gorgeously insane.

 

Since you said you like darker bizarre oils, I might also suggest Devil's Claw (blackest black weirdness), The Antikythera Mechanism (very odd-- "chocolate bug-spray" is what I think of), Miskatonic University, or The Jersey Devil. I didn't actually like any of these very much, but they would probably have potential on someone else. None of them are remotely conventional.

[femmefatale]

One of the quirkiest scents I've tried is Banana Peel in a Graveyard. It's also one of the most realistic. I loooove it.

[odalisque]

You know, don't shoot me, but I think Eisheth Zenunim is pretty weird. Peach and cocoa? But it works. I love it.

[ModderRhu]

Nosferatu is a weirdo for sure. I don't get crypt, I don't get wine, I get coziness. What's wrong with me? This scent seems to be something different for everyone, though. I've heard bananas, I've heard jasmine, dirt, mint, etc...whatever it is, it's faaaaabulous!

 

No. 93 Engine is indescribable and amazing and weird. EVERYONE should try this. I can also say everyone must buy a bottle of this. It is incredible.

 

I'm sure there's more, but I'm sleepy and can't think.

Will update when I can...

 

[mazikeen]

I'm happy that I have bottles of the two weirdest BPALs I've encountered. Even if they don't get worn much, due to said weirdness:

 

--War, which is ZOMGPEPPERSPLOSION. Beware: sniffing the bottle too closely may set your brain on fire. Or at least singe your eyebrows.

 

--Faeu Boulanger, which I think is carbonated, and may in fact contain helium &/or neon gas. It is the smell of Smurfs.

[skyelyric]

It is the smell of Smurfs.

 

 

 

[ModderRhu]

It is the smell of Smurfs.

 

This intrigues me.

*updates wish list*

[melrose]

The Coil smells like energy. Don't ask me to explain that.

[cyanidenoir]

Gore-Shock. It smells like rotten, buttery barbecued pork. It totally turns my stomach

[meaganola]

Common Jezebel. It's spiky pears. Not spicy pears, not prickly pears. Spiky pears. Like dry sticks shoved into a pear. I don't know how else to describe it or how I get *pears* out of its notes. And most of the notes are things that usually cause me pain and nausea, not near-obsession. A very odd combination, but I'm finding myself really digging it, although it's headed to the do-not-wear-this-one-at-work section of my collection.

[brilliantcat]

At some point between wet and drydown, Gypsy Moth smelled distinctly like pickles. I have no idea how this is possible, but it did. I love it anyway and am buying a bottle

[starfish327]

gore shock was all severed limbs and running blood. the music of eric zahn is summer. hemlock honey smells like eddie bauer.

[Anita]

Bread and butterfly. It's some weird licorice. There is no licorice or anise in the scent description, but, that's what I get. Weird.

[Sultaana]

My weirdest of the weird so far:

 

The Chicken-Legged Hut - Have you ever been inside a chicken coop? Chickens have this weird sweet bird smell. Yeah, this scent TOTALLY captures it. BIZARRE.

The Witch's Repast - It's foody, but really you'll smell like you're in a hall full of vikings dunking your bread into wine and tearing turkey off the bone with your teeth.

 

[Geminirubyshoes]

One of the quirkiest scents I've tried is Banana Peel in a Graveyard. It's also one of the most realistic. I loooove it.

 

Seconded!