Ichabod Crane

[Lethran]

The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock, perched upon his spindle neck, to tell which way the wind blew. To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield.

. . .

From his half itinerant life, also, he was a kind of travelling gazette, carrying the whole budget of local gossip from house to house; so that his appearance was always greeted with satisfaction. He was, moreover, esteemed by the women as a man of great erudition, for he had read several books quite through, and was a perfect master of Cotton Mather's history of New England Witchcraft, in which, by the way, he most firmly and potently believed.

He was, in fact, an odd mixture of small shrewdness and simple credulity. His appetite for the marvellous, and his powers of digesting it, were equally extraordinary; and both had been increased by his residence in this spellbound region. No tale was too gross or monstrous for his capacious swallow. It was often his delight, after his school was dismissed in the afternoon, to stretch himself on the rich bed of clover, bordering the little brook that whimpered by his school-house, and there con over old Mather's direful tales, until the gathering dusk of the evening made the printed page a mere mist before his eyes. Then, as he wended his way, by swamp and stream and awful woodland, to the farmhouse where he happened to be quartered, every sound of nature, at that witching hour, fluttered his excited imagination: the moan of the whip-poor-will from the hill-side; the boding cry of the tree-toad, that harbinger of storm; the dreary hooting of the screech-owl, or the sudden rustling in the thicket of birds frightened from their roost. The fire-flies, too, which sparkled most vividly in the darkest places, now and then startled him, as one of uncommon brightness would stream across his path; and if, by chance, a huge blockhead of a beetle came winging his blundering flight against him, the poor varlet was ready to give up the ghost, with the idea that he was struck with a witch's token. His only resource on such occasions, either to drown thought, or drive away evil spirits, was to sing psalm tunes;-and the good people of Sleepy Hollow, as they sat by their doors of an evening, were often filled with awe, at hearing his nasal melody, "in linked sweetness long drawn out," floating from the distant hill, or along the dusky road.

Dusty black wool, tea with cream, black pepper, muguet, and beeswax candle drippings.

In bottle: Deliciously insencey. The pepper lends edge. The wool, tea, cream combination is very pleasant. The label is insanely cute, BTW. Wet: Edgier with a bit more muget. I am thinking it’s actually the lily of the valley that was coming off as incense in the bottle when mixed with the beeswax. This stunning, really in a quiet sneak up on you sort of way. It is more floral than I was expecting, but the whole is so well blended, I don’t particularly mind. Dry: heartbreakingly beautiful floral that simply won’t suit me. This is very sad indeed as it’s that yummy.

[greenranger]

In the bottle I smelled wool.

 

On me, wet, I smell the beeswax first. Then the muguet comes way forward. I think I can also detect the pepper and the tea.

 

This is very, very nice...and I don't usually like florals all that much.

[suki]

in the bottle: the muguet and the beeswax are combining to make this fascinating combination that smells like melon rinds somehow. but don't be alarmed- this part passes quickly.

 

wet on skin: the wool makes an appearance at this point, strangely enough. this scent is as peculiar as old Ichabod himself!

 

dry down: paydirt: once it has a chance to settle, the milky tea makes itself known, mixes with the spicy pepper and becomes a sweeter version of Chrysanthemum Moon!

 

in all: worth every penny, and the wait, this is a great scent. SO glad i got a bottle!

 

 

 

[TooMuchTemptation]

Ichabod was one of the Halloweenie bottles I ordered unsniffed.

 

When I sniff at the bottle I smell tea, what I'm guessing is the wool, and a slight after bite of pepper. I'm on board.

 

Wet on my skin, Ichabod Crane puts on a wool sweater, busts down my door with an axe and says "Heeeere's Lily!" Lily is almost all I can smell. I have lily of the valley growing in my yard, and it's a very pleasant smell outdoors, but on my person it's very loud. The smell that I think is wool is there, and way under I get a hint of spiciness, but Muguet is out in front, big mean and oppressive. Everything else is cowering in fear. This is killingly floral for me.

 

Later on my skin the lily recovers from it's psychotic episode and falls off some. It's still quite present but now the tea with a touch of cream, wool, and yes a honey-esque base smell that must be the beeswax. It's quite pretty and nice actually, but I don't think I can put up with the initial floral attack to get to the this stage. At this point it makes me think of having tea with a maiden aunt. She's in her apartment with candles burning, the heat turned up to 80, wearing her Sunday perfume and a wool sweater and serving cup after cup of tea with milk. It's a cool concept, but not the scent for me.

 

Edited to use complete sentences.

Edited September 4, 2008 by TooMuchTemptation

[cam]

In the bottle, there's a very strong beeswax scent, with a hint of tea. On wet, I get beeswax, tea and pepper. There's sort of a popcorn scent. Dry, it's strongly beeswax, with cream, pepper and a hint of tea. I really like this, but unfortunately my husband thinks it smells weird and a little like pee, so I won't be wearing this much.

[iiinterstate]

In the bottle (and when its wet on me) I smell mostly wool and pepper with a little beeswax. Strangely enough, no muguet at all, and I usually amp it.

 

After a few minutes, there's definitely tea. Still pepper, less wool, less beeswax.

 

In the drydown, I get mostly tea. In fact, its all tea. Not a bad thing, its a nice scent, but either my skin is eating the other notes or this needs some time to settle.

[galahad]

In The Bottle

Beeswax. I have loved all of the scents with beeswax so far.

 

On Application

Herbally pungent

 

Dry Down

Surprisingly green on initial application. Takes a while for any floral notes to come out at about the same time as the wool. Kind of odd but stunnigly beautiful at the same time. Definitely best after 20 minutes or so. Like it.

 

Rating (0-5)

4

[jehrichardson]

In the Bottle: Pepper and tea, sweet and incensy. Just the barest hint of honeywax

 

On the Skin: Pepper and honeywax! Not a spicy pepper though, mellow and smooth.

 

After a While: Pepper honeywax. No floral at all... The tea is subtle, but it always is on me *sigh*. I'm not getting wool, but that's just fine. I'm also not getting the cream, and again that's fine since it usually turns into Yankee Candle var Muffin on me, which I don't like I'm sad to say.

 

Verdict: Quite lovely and unusual, not one of my favorites but it will definitely find a place in the rotation!

 

ADDED Nov. 8:

 

Wet, this is all wool and pepper. Very unusual!

 

As it dries I start to get the waxy notes and some of that creamy sweetness. The faintest floral note then appears, but it is mainly musty wooly pepper.

 

This is unusual, and pleasant, but I'm just not sure that I like it. Perhaps aging with mellow this out a bit.

[Brianne]

Ahh bpal cream note strikes again with the terrible scent of soured milk/urine. I don't know what it is, but that note just goes all wrong on my skin chemistry. Both Milk Moons did the same thing on me :/ LUCKY for me though, that note disappears after about 2 minutes. Which I'm very thankful for because underneath it is a soft, comforting tea scent with a gentle beeswax smell. It's very soft and close to the skin but quite pleasant.

[inurbanus]

This is very similar to White Rabbit, except it's a little bit creamier and more floral. Since I love White Rabbit, I'm really digging this. I do wish I got more of the muguet, since I love lilies, but other than that this is really nice. The beeswax does some interesting things here - it has almost a glowing quality that's very pretty. As for the wool that I was worried about, I could smell it in the bottle (and I have to say, I didn't think it was very appealing), but not after putting it on. Lastly, I just wanted to say that I love the artwork on the label!

 

4/5

[ivyandpeony]

A unique scent - I pick up on a slight resemblance to White Rabbit as well (WR is a favorite of mine so that's wonderful) although it's more of the creamy-pepper notes than the tea. In fact, I get no wool, no muguet and very little tea from Ichabod. What I get is a sweet and wistful, creamy and slightly spicy beeswax I have no interest in figuring out why, I love it just the way it is and must have a bottle!

[sookster]

straight sniff from imp is veeeeeeery similar to milk moon which i love

 

once applied lily of the valley comes forefront and i get a touch of beeswax...

this has a short wearlength with my chemistry...pretty but i think i can pass

on a big bottle and let others show the love ...

[olive]

After testing all my Halloween oils, this is the one I decided on wearing today. It's so soft yet mysterious in an inviting way. Though this does share a little similarity with White Rabbit (Ichabod is much better imo), Ichabod is still one of those scents that smells completely original compared to any other bpal. To me this smells just like tea, pepper and lots of heavy cream.. and something (it smells like neither lily nor beeswax, though I'm guessing it's the combination of the two) sweetens things just barely, but it's a powdery/dusty sweetness.. and when this contrasts with the milk/pepper it creates something wonderful, subdued, unisex and very hard to stop sniffing.. easily in my top 5.

 

(ETA: 8.5 hours later and its still there.. faded, but there, and true to its original scent. Ichabod is fantastic!)

Edited September 14, 2008 by olive

[vultureguy]

I need to address Mr Crane. I had high hopes for the man but sadly they have not been full filled. When I received my bottle it smelled like he had spilled his tea (with cream) on his rough wool jacket and left it to sour. Not one to judge by first-sniff I dabbed a bit on. He transforms from some ugly dirty smelling brute into a refined dandy. The sourness and rough wool go away to be replaced by a sweet floral in a respectible marino sweater.

 

I can see this man aging well. If you are a floral person I'd say give him a few months before swapping and don't be put off by his initial crude impressions.

 

Sadly, florals aren't my thing so I am going to head over to the slave market swap list.

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Pepper and lily with a mildewy background.

 

Immediately on skin: This smells very off on me. It really does smell dusty and slightly mildewed. Along with that is the pepper and lily, plus a warmth from the beeswax. This smells like peppered mildew and lily. It’s very off to my nose.

 

After a little while: Ick. This is not good on me at all. Mostly now it’s soap and pepper with some beeswax thrown in. Not nice at all.

 

Overall Impressions: This scent had so much potential, but the notes really clashed badly on me. The combo of pepper with lily and beeswax is what did it I think. It was spicy and floral but smelled warm and spoiled at the same time.

Edited September 14, 2008 by Delirium1009

[kikithepirate]

Oh man, I LOVE this - so glad I trusted my instincts and bought a bottle without sniffing. Immediately I smell the dusty wool and black pepper - and it certainly has the tea and cream backing it up. As it dries, the light florals come out, but they are certainly still grounded by the other, more solid scents. The beeswax starts to float up toward the end, too. This scent is pure comfort for me - like being wrapped up in a warm blanket in front of a fire. Simply lovely.

[goblinshark]

In the bottle: Oh crap. This smells a lot like White Rabbit, which I absolutely LOATHED because it smelled like rotten fruit and sour milk on me. Noooooooo!

 

On me: OK, thankfully it tranforms into something much nicer than White Rabbit did on my skin. It definitely smells like Earl Grey + milk, with a bit of mustiness lurking in the background.

 

I'm undecided. I'll give it a few more tries, but I may end up putting this bottle up to swap. I was really hoping for something a bit more woolly.

[foxroses]

This smells like someone left a cream and tea soaked wool sweater out and it got wet and rotted. Bleurgh.

[jizatt]

There is a strong semblance to White Rabbit (which I loved btw). This one is a stronger version of that though. I didn't smell any tea or pepper. I did get a very creamy sweet that alternated over what had to be wool, and then lily, and then combined by the end. This took about three hours. It's still very soft on my hand now, very understated and pretty. I'm debating a bottle, but will have to test it side by side with the Rabbit first to be sure.

[savage_rose]

First sniff: Sweet. Creamy. And strange!

 

On: Ooh, THERE'S the tea. With a sweetness, and a creaminess. There's a hint of floral there, but mmmm...overall it's a warm, sweet, comforting tea scent with a happy burst of flowers. What a nice comfort scent! It makes me wish it was in the GC, so I could snuggle up with this when I need to hide from the world and can't. I like this. A lot!

[plunderparlour]

On wet this was a loud floral that i almost washed off. dry i really love this. the floral went away and out came honey/beeswax cream yumminess.

[Blood onmy hands]

In the bottle, this is like peppered cream with a hint of musty wool. On my skin, it's canned milk, a bit of warm tea, and a sweet, honeyed quality from the beeswax. This actually smells a lot like the original Milk Moon did on me, but not quite as sweet. There's also a hint of perfumey floral in the drydown, which I suppose is the muguet.

 

I'm not as crazy about Ichabod Crane as I thought I would be. It's an okay, milky scent on me, but I have similar scents that I like more than this one.

[yewberry]

I'm so excited to find a floral with enough depth to keep me sniffing. The lily of the valley is tempered by something sweet and nutty (beeswax?) and sharpened by pepper. I may have finally found a floral that will work for Beltane!

[fairnymph]

Sniffed at EC Will Call: Actually does smell like wool; also peppery and a bit creamy, and quite sour - really convoluted and discordant. While I must say it's very true to the note description, I would never want to smell this on a person or in a room. I dislike this one intensely. Asexual, or more accurately, anti-sexual perhaps.

Edited September 21, 2008 by fairnymph

[empi girl]

In the decant, this didn't smell very good-sharp, bitter, and I immediately put it in the pile of ones I didn't think I'd like.

 

But once on, it completely changes to a soft sweet muguet with cream and sugar. After a bit, the beeswax comes out and gives the scent more depth. It actually gives the scent the "feel" of fabric, a thick comforting weight, without in any way actually having the scent of "wool". Most interesting. I didn't really get the tea, or the wool, or even the pepper. Which is fine, because what I get is lovely.

 

And it has good staying power, too.

 

I ended up really liking this, and will probably be getting a bottle.

 

edited to add: I tried wearing it today, and the beeswax note just doesn't sit well with me. I had the same problem with Luperci. Sort of a heavy, almost muddy-musk quality, just under the muguet, but present enough to throw off the blend for me. I'm a little sad. I was hoping to have both Katrina and Ichabod!

Edited September 23, 2008 by empi girl