But Men Loved Darkness Rather Than Light

[Lethran]

BUT MEN LOVED DARKNESS RATHER THAN LIGHT
The world's light shines, shine as it will,
The world will love its darkness still.
I doubt though when the world's in hell,
It will not love its darkness half so well.

The world will love its darkness: cistus labdanum, ginger, East Indian patchouli, pimento berry, oakmoss, saffron, smoky vanilla, sage, myrrh, and bitter clove.

In Bottle: This is lovely. The spice and the incense are bridged by the rich smokey vanilla. There is a touch more patchouli than I like, but honestly, the blend is so interesting and complex, I don’t much care. Wet: It reminds be a little of ventriloquist dummy, with that odd combination of food and dust, but the berry and vanilla are really it’s saving grace, as it warms, it transforms the patchouli and the dryer of the incenses back into something soft and wet. I’m not a big fan of berry, but this is unusual and modest, supporting and strengthening the other elements and helping the clove, sage, and myrrh to really shine here. The longer it wears, the less like Dummy it gets. It reminds me of church after services in Advent, the lights dim, but the air still warm from all those bodies and filled with spice, bayberry candle scent, and expectation. And then the oakmoss comes out and were in a mossy dark cave with incense and eggnog, and those strange, glorious berries. Dry: The berries end up strongest at the end. It still has a lovely spice edge and a hint of incense. Whether you’ll like this probably depends on if you like the less sweet, somewhat sour type of berries common in Christmas scents. I really did like this, but if you’re expecting sweeter berries, you’ll be disappointed.

[thekittenkat]

All I got out of this was smokey vanilla and bitter clove, to be sure. I am wondering where the sage and ginger and myrrh have run off to. Will re-test and then amend this review.

[greenranger]

Yum.

 

I have so many blends with myrrh, patchouli, vanilla...this is nothing like any of them.

 

Nothing. Like. Any. Of. Them.

 

Complex, bitter, dark, spicy and sweet. I suppose I am surprised at the sweetness.

 

I have nothing to compare this to. It is itself.

[IronMollyBlack]

This is the surprise standout of the Yules so far. It is lovely. Dark, spicy, incensey, definitely sweet, yet somehow not too heavy. Definitely a bottle.

[angelicruin]

This starts out as stinky patchouli and very bitter, but within 10 minutes morphs into this gorgeous sweetened clove, woodsy incense, and vanilla scent. Quite a surprise hit for me.

[Pottersville]

I was convinced that this was love at first sniff, because in the decant it was all beeswax and church incense and delicious spices with a lovely underpinning of woody patchouli. On, it did a really weird morphing where it smelled really plasticky ... like a newly acquired Hannah Montana doll. ICK! Several hours later it's settled down into a lovely slightly smoky vanilla with spices. Very nice, but NOT worth the trip!

[marared]

This is weirdly sweet, an effect that I'm supposing is from the pimento berry (or possibly the labdanum?) and a bit soapy from the myrrh, and the combined effect makes this smell like hippie air freshener - the sort of thing you'd hang in a dorm room to try to disguise the smell of pot. I don't really get the ginger or even the patchouli, but the clove is there, behaving itself for once. I can smell the vanilla in the imp (and it's definitely smoky!) but it disappears under the myrrh once it's on my skin. I don't really *amp* myrrh per se, but it masks everything else. It's nice in the imp, just not all that exciting on me.

[veronicafranco]

ohhhhhh yeah. this is what i used to wish commercial perfumes would smell like. rich and warm, with the spicy edge i can only get from clove + patchouli (maybe the ginger is helping here). this is my first testing, but if i get a bottle of a yule, i think it'll be this one. just YOM.

 

eta: ok, after further testing this has a weird kind of fruitiness when it's first applied. i think it's the vanilla-saffron combo. anyway, it still dries down awesomely spicy and i still think i may need a bottle...

Edited December 15, 2009 by veronicafranco

[crebbsgirl]

This is vaguely reminscent of The Deserted Village on me. Both have labdanum, oakmoss and patchouli in them. This scent is a little sharp at first, but as it wears it smooths out a lot! It's rather dark and rich, but it doesn't come across as masculine. I think it could definitely benefit from some aging, and I'm very interested to see what this does in a year or so. The clove is not overpowering on me, in fact, I have to really sniff to find it. And the ginger lends just a hint of spicy/sweetness to this blend. It's nice enough, but I think it will get amazing with some age.

[Invidiana]

This one starts out deceptively cold and almost evergreen-ish and then warms up and just bursts with depth and spice. I'm definitely getting the clove, which I love and also amp The labdanum adds a lovely dark bitterness, the ginger and saffron and pimento berry spice it up, the smoky vanilla gives it an enticing sweetness, and the myrrh adds a hazy, incensy quality, the patchouli and sage and moss ground it in earthiness. So complex and so beautiful

[surlygurl]

This is lovely on me. As soon as I read the scent description, I knew it would be MINE.

 

I agree with the Deserted Village comparison. This is sweeter and deeper. I'm getting mostly labdanum, and the throw is quite sweet. Too bad the clove is understated; the sage & pimento berry are apparent. This is lovely and may be a bottle purchase.

 

[patina]

Strawberries? Why do I smell strawberries? Must be pimento mixed with vanilla. Such a surprise- I expected something darker, like Melainis. Not that this isn't dark, but it's somewhat red-tinged in my mind.

 

The patcholi shows itself too, and the labdanum. This will probably get better with age, but right now I'm not a fan of the "hippie air-freshener" effect.

 

Edit: This is insanely long lasting, even after a bath and two days it's still there. The labdanum, patcholi and ginger have become more prominent, but it still smells too much like strawberries for my liking.

Edited December 5, 2009 by patina

[strahlend]

Woodsy, earthy, incense... but surprisingly light in feeling. I'm not detecting vanilla as a specific note but the spices are here and very smooth.

If you like patchouli but it's usually too heavy for you, if you like spices but don't like them being overly foody or incense-ish, this would be a good blend to try. It's not too sweet, not too strong, not too heavy... it's juuuust right.

Edited December 6, 2009 by strahlend

[EmpressPixie]

I'm wondering if I'm going insane -- here is what I'm getting from this:

 

Bubblegum. In the bottle and then on my skin, bubblegum. As it dries down, I'm getting some woodsy soap in the background. And some lovely clove. The bubblegum fades pretty quickly into a woodsy, incense-y soap. Which is more what I expected (minus the soap, sigh, something isn't working) but the bubblegum threw me off terribly at first.

[midnight_aeval]

This one was all pickle scented wood at first. Now it reminds me of how my great grandmother's house used to smell. She'd have jars filled of old fashioned candies all around; her old wooden sewing machine always covered with quilts; the ancient fireplace in the house that must have been over 100 years old.

 

It's a great memory to invoke, but there was a lot of pain surrounding the time she died and this is probably not a scent I could wear with any regularity.

[septima_pica]

Goes on with an odd almost melony sweetness, but quickly dries down to expose patchouli and spices. After a while, it's developed into something really nice -- it's dark and bittersweet and spicy, with a great deal of depth. The vanilla, thankfully, behaves itself; I think there's hardly any of it. There's an unidentifiable tart top note; I would guess some kind of sour fruit, but I don't see it in the notes list -- consider me puzzled. The ginger-allspice-clove coalition dominates the middle notes, and the patchouli and myrrh (two of my favourite notes) are their reliably lovely selves. The sour-fruit topnote and the spices manage to evoke holiday associations in a way that's not really there unless you think about it, which is about as much as I want. And it lasts for a really long time -- I tried it on last night and could still smell it after my shower this morning.

 

I really like this, and I think it's going to age exceptionally well too. My favourite of the Yules, I think.

[Diva Urd]

This is beautiful, spicy and almost-but-not-quite fruity patchouli. I put some on my hands and it incredibly lasted through multiple handwashes with soap (no, I wasn't trying to wash it off, I was cleaning around the house) for over 24 hours! Bottle currently strongly contemplated.

[hlemonds]

Let me start by saying that i adore Beth's Smoky Vanilla (i think of it exactly that way in my head, all capitalized), so perhaps i was destined to adore this scent. I was a bit frightened of the pimento berry and sage, but thankfully the pimento berry, after the initial "Hello, i'm pimento berry, pleased to meetcha!" stage, steps back into the loving embrace of the spices and smooths out. I should also say though, i am *assuming* that it's the pimento berry i'm getting initially. To my nose it is very tart, bright, and fruity (but not sweet). Since I don't see any other notes in the blend that would make me think fruity, i'm going with the pimento berry.

 

I can see that many might be frightened upon their first sniff of this from the bottle/decant, that fruit/berry smell is all up in your nose, like WHOA. But as i alluded to earlier in this post, it does back down, and very quickly at that. In early drydown the throw is primarily a lovely blend of spices, with the fruit/berry note blended amongst them, and beneath that is the star of the show....SMOKY VANILLA! Damn, she is one sexy biatch, i tell you what! I know that the labdanum, myrrh, sage, and patchouli are present, but my nose is too uneducated to pick them apart from that lovely smoky vanilla base. Based on how some of Beth's other Smoky Vanilla blends have aged, my prediction would be that this blend is only going to get better given time. My guess would be that the berry/fruit top note is going to calm down a bit, allowing the smoky vanilla to come further to the forefront and shine even more beautifully.

 

Dang, i'm having great luck with these Yules! Go Beth! You Rock!

[tartchef]

Yow. This is... this is really interesting! I totally get the cold fresh melon at first, but then a bitter spiciness emerges, giving me this lovely hot/cool scent. It's a touch "festive potpourri" at times, but I think given some time to relax, this will end up a lovely deep non-foody spice & patchouli blend...

[Prism]

in bottle - ginger, patchouli, vanilla, and an odd berry. This is a very complicated scent to say the least. I want to say cocoa, and know it's not, but there's definately some dark herb scent here that's sort of halfway trying to be .

 

wet - this stings a little on me. i get a clean patchouli, thankfully, the kind I like, I was worried when I saw it in the list. I can pick out the myrrh and sage however. and oakmoss. then berry and vanilla and smoke and herbs. The ginger and the clove dont really show up anymore. It's going kinda dusty on me though.

 

dry - huh. berry. kinda reminds me of the grape in shivering boy, but the rest of the notes dont. it's dusty on me for sure. mostly really it's dust. i'm wondering if it's not oakmoss that does it on me. *hrrm*

later - it's less dusty. more berry and spice.

 

rating - 5/10

Edited December 8, 2009 by Prism

[Altaira]

I like this a lot. The clove is most prominent, but it is not like the forceful clove of Gacela of the Dark Death. It is just enough spice to make it a unisex scent. The rest of the blend has a sweetness that to me is feminine; the clove adds enough kick to push it into neutral territory.

 

I feel it would be a good scent to wear to a business meeting. It is forceful without being overpowering, sexy without being weak or bashful.

[abejita]

This scent should be awesome on me. However, something in it is amping sweet like nothing ever amps on me. Holy moly. I usually have cooperative skin chemistry and smoky vanilla is one of my favorite things. But I'm getting nothing but a sickly sweet note. Pimento berry? I have no idea.

[wl552]

I wonder if my decant is weird, cause I've got nothing that any of the other reviewers got.

 

This is the second time I've skin tested this. Results were the same.

 

From start to finish, (I've had this on for hours now), I've gotten nothing but smoked/charred wood. That's it.

 

No sweetness. No clove. No spice. Nothing but bleck charred wood.

 

I wanted all that is missing in this, but no such luck for me.

 

I believe this is the first time I've been this severely disappointed in a scent.

[Blood onmy hands]

In the bottle, this smells like damp, sweet, fragrant wood, leaves, and earth, and a bit of spice.

 

On my skin, I can smell the patchouli, oakmoss, and spices, for sure. They combine together in this soft, earthy, spicy sort of way that reminds me of fall leaves (and Falling Leaf Moon). But Men Loved Darkness Rather Than Light actually smells like a warmer Falling Leaf Moon to me, at first. I don't exactly love the warm spiciness though, and the spice gets stronger on me in the drydown. It's like Falling Leaf Moon meets cheap, spicy craft store potpourri, and it just gets spicier the longer that it's on my skin.

 

I thought that I would love this (I love ginger, patchouli, oakmoss, saffron, vanilla, and resins), but it smells like cheap room fragrance on me . It gives me a headache after a while.

[pinkusmaximus]

This is lovely--warm, woody, spicy, and dark without being masculine or "dirty" smelling. It's really well blended--I can't pick out any individual notes except for perhaps a bit of clove, and it's not overwhelming as it can be in other clove scents. This is my favorite "family" of fragrance and I know I'll reach for this again and again, especially in the winter months. I bet it will age beautifully, too. I'm definitely going to buy a bottle and just need to decide whether it's multiple-worthy.