On Darkness

[Heavenlyrabbit]

You darkness, that I come from,
I love you more than all the fires
that fence in the world,
for the fire makes
a circle of light for everyone,
and then no one outside learns of you.
But the darkness pulls in everything;
shapes and fires, animals and myself,
how easily it gathers them! --
powers and people --
and it is possible a great energy
is moving near me.
I have faith in nights.

An embrace: black poppy, lavender, thick black incense, black amber, rose geranium, Brazilian rosewood, and benzoin.

This is pretty close to a signature scent for me. After all these years of BPAL, it's still a special feeling when you find a perfume that works so well. And to think I wavered on reading "lavender". Every other note reached out beckoning me.

This is indeed dark, in a deeply Victorian way. It's like carved Whitby jet.

Smelling this, it draws me in. Benzoin seems to be a Magical Agent. Not so pronounced on its own, but it gives other notes more resonance.

A unisex blend, too. Not girly or masculine. Just.... Victorian (can't think of a better adjective, sorry).

[coldandsleepy]

This is really rather gorgeous. I'm having a little trouble pinning down exactly what it smells like, but let me give you a few impressions.

 

It's got a sweetness to it-- more than I expected, but far from overwhelming.

 

There's lavender in here, but it's not RAAAAGH LAVENDER-- it sort of just adds a touch of herbal/floral to the whole thing. I can't pick out the other floral notes in here, I think they just kinda roll into the lavender smell.

 

I'm getting amber and incense... that combined with the lavender really OUGHT to equal heaviness... but this is light, light, light. And so beautiful.

 

Like Heavenlyrabbit said, I rarely pick out the smell of benzoin, but tend to love scents it's in. This scent is no exception!

 

This is reminding me hugely of making cone incense with my mother when I was a child. Can't remember what scent, but they were (very appropriately!) black in color. I'm kind of getting nostalgia tears thinking about it. I love this, though. Excellent work, lab!

[Dark Alice]

Somewhere in this I smell a little eucalyptus and grapefruit. Wonderful grapefruit. This is a grapefruit with something else dark that I like! I am so glad that I have a bottle of this on the way and I can't wait for it to get here!!!!

[dluszcz]

The love-child of Schwartzer Mond and Penumbra.

[Lamia]

This is incredible.

 

In the bottle it's vaguely floral and slicingly clear, and wet smells like cocoa butter with orange peel.

 

But drydown pulls out a fruit, and it's a dark buttery red fruit. After about 2 hours, a bite of something low and harsh sneaks in, but you have to work hard to find it. I can't stop sniffing this, it's intoxicating. I may need a second bottle of this, it's probably one of my new favorites, right up there with Blood and Lucifer NOM!

 

I can't believe there aren't more reviews of this - this scent is staggeringly good.

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Strong and complex mixture of poppy and herbs with a distinct sharp sweetness.

 

Immediately on skin: This is herbal and darkly floral, but more sharp than smooth with almost a minty twinge to it. The poppy is the most identifiable note but it’s almost drowned out by the herbal nature of the blend. It reminds me of cough drops a bit with a clear floral note kind of poking through.

 

After a little while: Wow, this gets super sweet, and rather quick too. The black poppy and amber make this thick, warm and very sugary floral which is backed up by hints of lavender and a little incense. The herbs in this try to balance out the sweetness, but they can’t reign in the thick syrupy sweetness.

 

Overall Impressions: This is a very dark, purple-smelling blend. It’s floral and herbal at first, but then just syrupy and sweetly floral at the end with the herbal notes barely keeping up. This blend changed so much on my skin, so if you smell this in a decant or bottle before putting it on, don’t make judgements until you actually try it.

[Pottersville]

This is much, much sweeter than I expected, with surprisingly little "darkness". I purchased a bottle unsniffed because the lavender, incense, and rosewood in particular beckoned to me. Those are usually pretty deep, strong scents on me. Amber can be iffy (it tends to go powdery on me), but I figured black amber would be able to hold its own. Is it the black poppy throwing a curveball into the mix? There's no fruit note listed, but I keep getting whiffs of overripe plums and currants. The scent overall is ok, but not what I expected. There's not a lot of throw, and what there is is fading fast.

[angelicruin]

In the imp: Incense, amber, and a bit of floral though not dominant

 

Wet on skin: same as in the imp, but something creamy too

 

Drydown: smooth vanilla amber incense

[violetblue]

Pottersville said what I wanted to. I love the scent, but it seems to disappear 30 seconds after putting it on, which totally freaks me out. I thought it would have more throw and be somewhat darker, not so watered down seeming. It is sweet, pleasant, fruity, and very purple. If the throw was better I'd love it a lot more.

[Wwindy]

Very evocative! It does smell dark: a hazy, purple kind of darkness. The clean herbal lavender and grounding rosewood balance it nicely at first, but as it dries down the thick sweet poppy comes out more and more, and I wind up with a lot of heavy perfume-y sweetness over a little powder from the amber. This is a very sophisticated, interesting blend -- not quite working for me, though.

[Ohmaude]

This is strongly dark and bitter, yet sweet and warm at the same time.

 

The thick black incense is the most prominent. Hovering in the background is the poppy and rosewood, and then a fruity sweetness from the benzoin and rose geranium.

 

The bitterness fades over time, still this has a touch of tarry blackness to it, like a tire, but it's not unpleasant. This strangely, is Mme. Moriarty in funeral attire, I swear.

[sookster]

straight sniff from bottle is geranium incense...sooooooooooooo incredible

 

once applied this amps up and i am in serious love!!

 

the lavender melds with the incense and geranium and a hint of amber...works like a dream

with me...i need a big bottle for sure!!

[blu°]

This totally doesn't work for me. The poppy, black amber and thick black incense combine to form a thick lump of sweetness that seems to hover closely above an otherwise perfect blanket of rose geranium, rosewood, lavender and benzoe. I think I might have liked this with a less black incense, quite less poppy and without black amber.

Somehow the (very!) sweet poppy together with the thick black incense and black amber makes me think of plum.

[wolfie13]

Yikes.

 

This smelled sort of interesting in the bottle and for initial wear but I couldn't really quite describe it to you - sort of a jumble of things.

 

But after a short amount of wear, this became just so heavy, cloying and just, well, THICK, on me that sniffing myself

closely was actually causing my throat to close up. I'm not quite sure I've ever had that reaction.

 

I agree with the above poster that there is something vaguely plummy about it but aside from that it's a weird, heavy sweetness, that I can't really describe, but just does not work on me AT ALL.

[Blood onmy hands]

When I smell this in the decant vial, I'm instantly transported to being a small girl, helping my mother stain our deck. Something about this smells like the stain that we used, and reminds me of glossy wood. When I shake off that memory and force myself to try to pick out specific notes, I think that I can smell a gorgeous, golden sort of amber, the rosewood, and a sweet, dark incense.

 

On my skin, it's much the same, but I'm getting an impression of something purple and almost fruity-sweet (the lavender, perhaps?). I don't smell any poppy, which I am grateful for, but I can smell the spicy, almost herbal rose geranium poking out from the dark incense and amber. I'm really enjoying the sweetness of this scent.

 

I'm really intrigued by On Darkness. It smells sweet, dark, thick and yet airy. The amber isn't turning to powder or dust on me as it usually does. In the drydown, it smells of sweet, dark resins and incense, rose geranium, vanilla-amber, and something like the darkest, softest plum note ever.

 

I'm definitely going to upgrade my decant of this to a full bottle or three

[Persephone76]

Wow, this stuff is gorgeous! I have to agree with Ohmaude--it IS Mme Moriarty is funeral attire, what a fabulous comparison.

 

It starts off sharp and medicinal and oddly green on me. After applying, I resisted a strong urge to scrub, and I am so glad I did! After 10 minutes or so, the sharpness fades and it morphs into a gorgeous, creamy poppy/amber/incense. A dark blend, indeed, but dark in mood rather than scent. This is the bastard child of Opium Poppy and Snake Charmer on me and I WILL be getting a bottle!

[Iceblink]

If I hadn't seen a couple of other reviews mention fruit here, I'd think my decant was mislabeled--On Darkness is deeeeeeeply fruity on me and I have no idea what's doing that. I really don't smell most of the listed notes at all. It's lovely but wow, this is odd. I'm going to give it some aging time and revisit this one.

[mgrazulis]

Somehow--I knew I would love this one. An immediate fire to this one, it hits all at once, herbally and sharp from the lavender and the rose geranium with a backdraft of wicked black amber. The benzoin cools the blend down allowing the murky black poppy and rosewood resins to seep out through even more black amber. A deep dark purple haze of smokiness that grows creamier and softer over time hugging the air and drawing me in deeper. Swoonworthy and yes, a bottle is in order. This decant will be used up in no time.

[livingdead71]

This scent is really beautiful. I can't pick out any individual notes, but it smells like dark purple to me. I agree with the person who compared it with Penumbra. It is a similar type of purple scent. One of my co-workers really loved it, and I will probably get her a bottle for Christmas...one for her, one for me...

[Myrrha]

This is amazing.

 

Edit: in the week since I got the decant the scent has mellowed and is no longer soapy when I first put it on.

 

Wet -- when first applied it is all lavender and poppy making at a little soapy. In under ten minutes the softest, swooniest scent comes out. When I sniff my wrist directly it is still a little soapy but the scent that wafts around me is just lovely.

 

As it dries -- after fifteen minutes it no longer smells soapy when I sniff my wrist directly. Poppy is the dominant note on me, as well as something sweet and “musky“ smelling, although not actually like musk. Perhaps this is benzoin interacting with a very sweet amber. It does not go at all powdery on me.

 

Drydown -- it gets still sweeter and softer after about 25 minutes. Now it smells like my own skin but much more delicious and sweet with a veil of poppy over it.

 

This is the scent of “darkness” as experienced by people who are stressed by bright lights, love the night, and find darkness calmer and sweeter than light. It makes me feel relaxed and safe which makes sense because in aromatherapy lavender, poppy and rose geranium are all used to aid relaxation.

 

I love, love, love, this one.

 

 

Edited to add: I wish it lasted longer. After a couple of hours it is all but gone (my skin eats scent). My boyfriend loved this one and said "there's something intoxicating about it". I also got a nice compliment from a co-worker.

Edited December 12, 2008 by Myrrha

[lefthandmade]

Immediate reaction:

It's dark and sweet and when wet I get roses way back there but it's not really roses, more like a cousin of roses. There is a sharp note in here that could probably be lavender. I'm waiting for it to calm down a little because it's kinda overpowering. Behind it I can sense some smoother notes though and it may be worth the wait.

 

Oh yeah it certainly is.

Oh man this my be bottle worthy goodness. No more rose-cousins but sweet and warm and delicious.

[butcherbaby]

WTF!?

 

this one should have a been a NO BRAINER. i was expecting dark opiate incense, but instead i am getting some sort of weird bubble gummy *fruit*. it smells more true close to the skin, but i don't want to smell like a pack of hubba bubba all day.

 

i seem to be striking out hard on *all* the yules i thought would be faboo. i think i'm going to wait a week and try them all again, just to be sure, but so far only one out of six is even remotely what i expected.

[themerrybaker]

Right On, Darkness!! (And all you other Gothic Reindeer):

 

After a while, you get a sense of deja sniff when trying a new perfume. On Darkness is a horse of a different color - it it smells nothing like any other Lab scent I've tried.

 

OD is also surprisingly herbal and more "winter-berry-ish" than I would have expected. A bottle purchase would be a done deal if we weren't in a recession right now.

 

Really, really, good. Two nostrils up.

Edited December 5, 2008 by themerrybaker

[femmefatale]

At first this is rather sharp, medicinal, thick, and sweet. Not sure if I like it. As it dries down it for some reason reminds me of Schwarzer Mond and something else. I have no idea why.

After about 10-15 the sharpness calm a bit. I still can't really pick out any of the individual notes. It has a slightly fruity incense feel to it.

I can't seem to keep my nose out of my wrist and it is much much better after the 15 min. mark.

 

I'm really trying to figure this one out and can't decide whether to get a bottle or not. I think I'll have to try this a couple times, but so far I'm definitely keeping the decant.

[lioness]

In the imp I wasn't sure what my thoughts were on this, it smells kinda like soap.

 

But once on I took a liking to it.

 

It's kinda sweet, and all the notes blend to me not one really stands out. Except maybe the Lavender, but it just kinda pokes it's head up and says "I'm here" and then goes back to blending.

 

On the fence with this, Not sure what I was expecting, but it's def. not that!