Old Demons of the First Class

[milo]

Siberian musk, black clove, opoponax, tonka, black pepper, and neroli.

This is pretty much a warm, dark musk. It smells very much like Panther Moon to me, but the musk is slightly different. I think that one was black musk and this one is Siberian. I maybe get a touch of clove, which is good because clove usually amps on me. This is very well blended and fans of Panther Moon should give this one a whirl, or those who never got to try it, as this one would be a close cousin. I just may spring for a bottle, as I think this will age magnificently.

[theseagrows]

hrm, i haven't tried a scent of this type in quite some time! i think i am getting mainly musk and clove. this reminds me of the musk in haunted, a clear, pale brown musk, or, that's what color comes to mind. not a red, white or black musk. i think perhaps i can sense a slight pepperiness too. not sure i am getting any of the other notes though. this is very musky, incensy and clovey on my skin. i used to really be into scents like this, but not as much anymore. a nice spicy musk though, and quite unisex.

[calivianya]

I received this as a frimp from the Lab.

 

The first thing that I notice about this oil is how thick and dark it is. If you are fair skinned, like I am, you will really need to apply it somewhere it doesn't show because it is very noticeable on the skin. All I can smell is the black pepper, which totally and completely overwhelms all other notes in this blend and is starting to give me a headache. Sadly, this one isn't for me.

[saralaughs]

Very much a darker, maybe a bit peppery, Paudan Killer Swarm. Even though coconut is not a listed note, that is what it smells like to me. Go figure.

[Ryokumuji]

Woody and spicy with a strange untone of sweetness. I'm not sure about how most of the notes in this one smell on an individual level, unforunately. This scent is not me at all.

[ami226]

On the skin: Mmmmm, smooth and spicy. Warm, musky, and comforting. I think this one fades a bit too quickly for me though. I will have to try wearing this a full day and see how it lasts!

 

Uh, oh. The clove is completely dominating. Eep. I want the original scent back!

 

Hmmm, I will definitely need to try this one again!

[strahlend]

I am genuinely surprised to see people saying that this blend comes across as peppery. I've smelled peppery bpal blends and this isn't one of them. This reminds me much more of Smut. It's incensy and seems to have more than a little red musk in it. There's something about it that makes me think of musky corn. I totally believe that's something weird about me, but the association is so strong that I couldn't review it without saying so - I have that same issue with Smut. It seems a little salty too. It's not a scent I would normally think I would like, but I've felt compelled to dab a little on every day for about a week now. It's one of those scents that against all odds seems to call out to me loud and clear. I'm glad to have a bottle and will consider obtaining a back up for sure.

[Gael]

The lovechild of Snake Oil and Smut? Anyway, got it as a frimp and now it's going to be a bottle thank you very much.

[rayvn1]

This is a great musk blend! Not too surprising since I love every note that's listed except for clove which thankfully doesn't rear it's unwelcome head (I'm surprised Siberian musk doesn't show up in other blends I've seen since I collect almost all the musk scents but the spreadsheet says no.) Dark and a little menacing with a great grounding in oppoponax and tonka. Lurve. I'm excited to see how it stacks up against my other musk blends!

[morganlise]

This perfume is HEAVEN. It's literally why I keep ordering BPAL, is because I'm hoping that there will be scents like this that knock my socks off. This to me is related to two of my other favorites, Smut and Shadowy and the Sublime, but takes its own unique path from there. It's not as sweet as either, but there's a similar note that just makes me swooooooooooooon. I am pretty sure that I primarily get the opoponax, neroli, musk and tonka. It's deliciously dark. LOVE IT. It's in my next order for sure, possibly with a backup, which I never do.

[Celtic Goddess]

Heavenly incense. Dark, spicy, and smoky. Can’t tell with my untrained nose what the individual notes are but swirled together they are flat out amazing. Thrown in my last order…big thanks as this one was on my list of the things to try!

[Maleficium]

What a sexy scent!

 

Musky, clovey and I do smell a hint of pepper. It's very woody and smells a tad like a wooden box that incense is kept in.

 

Will totally buy a bottle!

[parrot_suspect]

Oh my god. I have totally fallen in love with this oil.

 

In the bottle, this smells like a spicy, musky, masculine, *almost* (but not quite) unpleasant chemical scent. I get why someone compared it to WD-40. Not that I think it smells like that, but at first whiff, there is something about this that's almost scary -- like it's going to be too much to handle. Once applied on the skin, however, everything changes. The Siberian musk, clove and pepper mingle and create a dark, spicy, musky, unisex sort of scent. However, this is not super spicy or "peppery" in the sense that some oils are; it's smooth, not harsh. As it continues to dry down, the neroli, tonka and opoponax combine to help sweeten the Siberian musk (which is the dominant note, by far, in this oil, and is noticeably present at every stage) and the most delicious animalic, dark, sweet, sexy musk comes out, with a beautiful sillage that surrounds you like a sweet, sinister cloud. There's something slightly redolent of root beer, cola or Dr. Pepper, but not overly so. It's simply gorgeous, and very sophisticated.

 

Old Demons is so evocative. Here are some of the images it brings to mind:

-A black cashmere sweater

-A beautiful Russian spy wearing a fur coat and hat, high heels and red lipstick

-The dance floor at a goth nightclub, with people on the sidelines dressed in black, smoking clove cigarettes

-A black and white film noir

 

I could see men wearing this; it would certainly qualify as unisex. But to me it's more of a feminine fragrance overall, with that sweet-ish, dark musk and resin, cola/root beer drydown. Very femme fatale; but on the flip side, there's also something "clean" and just plain good-smelling here. It's the perfect fragrance to complement, and yet help warm, a cold, dark winter's night.

 

Try Old Demons if you like any of these oils (and be sure to give it time to develop and settle down on your skin; you will be amazed at the drydown): Siberian Musk Single Note, Event Horizon, Debauchery, Vixen, Schwarzer Mond, Tarot: Judgment, The Anti-Saloon League

[impolight]

:::OLD DEMONS OF THE FIRST CLASS:::

 

An Imp of this arrived as a whimsical component in the old Christmas stocking. While it is difficult to tell which is worse; the tachycardia or the crazy-leg, both are sure signs that good things are afoot! Disturbingly enough, despite countless hours of obsessive and repeated perusals of the ENTIRE BPAL catalogue, Old Demons of the First Class has, somehow, managed to evade any sort of recollection. Not a single disagreeable note is worthy of suspicion in this blend. The moniker of this formula does have an appeal to those latent, naughty, non-conformist impulses that lurk moistly. How serendipitous that this would arrive during the season of cheer and goodwill! In fact, the title did provide an eerie sort of flashback of curling atop a faux-tiger hide covered pillow and reading a newly opened Hans Christian Andersen book by the glow of a strand of multi-colored Christmas lights while the tv droned in the background. Cweepy!

From the Imp: This one zips straight up the nose and zigzags between the primal fear and the pleasure centers of the brain… How very CLEVER! Thoughts amble between a ride on some enchanted ferris wheel; set to ethereal calliope music, and slowly descending under pale lavender constellations, and a pants-wettingly sightless wander through the woods where you don’t hear scampering, scurrying, or a rustle of leaves, but the snapping of a branch as thick as your wrist. Plus, whatever did that is hot and hungry.

For a second, this fragrance veers wildly off topic and smells like an enormous Cedar tree wearing AquaNet… o_O. This eventually resolves into a focus of a shrill and hyper-intelligent harmony of the Myrrh, Musk, and Piper Nigrum. Darkling divinity.

The sweeter elements are effectively subdued by this stygian trinity. Pale and ghostly, the effect is almost that of something traitorously synthetic in nature. There is something a wee bit out of place at the gathering. As all the revenants swirl together in the air as an afterthought, a broader and more beautifully sinister masterpiece swims up from the depths and fills the room with a silent breath; every hair on the nape of the neck stands up acutely as you realize that this thing knows your name.

On the Skin: Scream bloody-Myrrhdur! Old Demons of the First Class morphs like Hell (No pun intended) at first; this has become a stadium-sized pane of stained glass infinite in citrus hue. This is molten and flaming topaz. Of course there are refugees of the groves in Old Demons of the First Class, but the Myrrh briefly takes on the same sort of characteristic that fills the nose as that superfine mist a person sees when the rind of an orange is torn away with the fingers.

The Clove is the fleeting face seen out the window of a night time trip by train. Though Orange Blossoms are much beloved, they are quite hard to indentify both from the Imp, freshly on the skin, and well into the dry down phase. For lovers of Vetiver out there, Old Demons of the First Class would be complimented by Khus on a magical magnitude.

On Her, Old Demons of the First Class would be worrisome. This stuff is crazy, but not the fun kind. This is the try not to let your voice crack, don’t blink, chew your arm off in the morning and leave in your underwear kind of crazy. Tears of a kitten with its throat cut.

On Him Old Demons of the First Class continues to present the most potent variety of thrill and peril. This is 120 mph on the 5 with all the windows down; holding hands, gazing into each other’s eyes while smiling… never mind the gin, silly.

Spectrally, Old Demons of the First Class is magma-chamber, bed of coals, cigarette-cherry, pyrotechnics, boot leather, broken glass, hair dye, and July night sky.

Old Demons of the First Class is really first rate. Excelsior stuff, this.

 

4.5 out of 5

[Amoraexcena]

I don't smoke anything, but this is what I imagine clove cigarettes to be like. Sweet, dark and spicy. I read somewhere that this is a red-musk-dominant blend, and I'm happy to say it's not. Siberian musk is nothing like red musk, the latter which I can't wear. I'd say Siberian musk is closer to black musk. I agree with parrot_suspect: this scent is evocative of a leggy blonde Russian woman in a drapey-sexy cashmere sweater with a black lace bra-strap peeking out. In farther drydown the resin comes out, tonka sweetens a little more, the clove and musk lingers.

 

I'd say it's the lovechild of Hellhound on my Trail and Schwarzer Mond. If this was a LE blend, it's the sleeper hit kind that's overlooked until it's aged a few months, then goes for $50+ on ebay.

 

It also reminds me of the sloowwwwww, sensual sex. The thorough, fulfilling-all-your-darkest-desires kind.

[Dusk]

I have to say, this one scared me a bit at first because it had much more sweetness than I expected - I was hit in the face with tonka. Luckily, that dissipated significantly and was replaced with a more softly sweet resin, woods, and something that reminds me of patchouli. My skin has a love affair with cedar (there must be some in here, or maybe sandalwood?), so that and a general headshop incense-y scent are the dominant notes for me. The spices are strong but smooth, I really had to dig for the sharpness of pepper. Neroli surfaced early on and added an interesting extra level, a sort of brightness among the deep, heavy scents, but disappeared after half an hour or so. Perhaps because of that and the tonka (of which I still think there's a bit too much), it started out as a more feminine scent, but though it's not overtly masculine now, it's definitely settled into unisex territory. It's a lovely scent and I really wish it had more throw - as it is, it's wearing very close to my skin. It's also fading rather quickly.

 

ETA: A week later, and this has completely changed on me. Oh, wow. The minute it touched my skin, neroli was the predominant note, sharp and clear. A touch of tonka, but nothing like what there had been before. After a few minutes, pepper (the same pepper I could barely even find before) rapidly rose up and took over, ditching the citrus entirely and leading to an almost powdery stage until the other spices emerged. A very, very strong note of clove, almost cloying. A touch of woodiness, but it's almost pure spice now. Lots of black pepper. Maybe a hint of the bitterness of neroli. Fascinating. It's powerful, too. It smells like demons this time - angry, bitter, restless demons longing to devour the innocent. This is more like what I expected. I like it.

Edited April 7, 2012 by Dusk

[ResinManiac]

Peppery patchouli. And upon second glance at the components I find not a drop of actual patchouli present at all, go figure. Needless to say I don't fancy patchouli and so will not be coming back to this scent in the future.

[KindKit]

I found this scent gentlemanly and warm, not demonic at all. It's very nice. Wet on my wrists I got a myrrh-like note that I suppose was opoponax, and a slight dry, barely-sweet hint from the neroli. But it's a very blended, discreet scent (not much sillage) whose individual notes don't stand out much, I found. As it dried down it was warm, rich, woodsy/earthy, slightly resinous, with the clove emerging a bit after thirty minutes or so. It began to be a bit powdery after a couple of hours, but then the tonka finally showed and balanced that out. There's nothing about this scent I don't like, but nothing that I desperately love, either.

[whitsunweddings]

In the imp: This reminds me a lot of other spice/musk blends, particularly Morocco.

Wet: Sweet, musky, smoky clove. I like it!

Dry: The clove is nice, but it's kind of drowned out by the musk elements. Meh.

[BoneBone24]

Wet: Lightly spicy with a bit of zing from the neroli.

 

Drydown: Peppery and more masculine. It smells like there’s a dark, dry wood note in there, like cedar or burnt sandalwood. The clove, pepper, and opoponax come together to create a beastly deep and dark vibe.

 

Dry: Masculine spice that is slightly mellowed by the tonka as it joins in. Peppery spice and cream. Like a masculine version of Snake Oil except this actually works on my skin. I like it on me, but I think I might like it even more on the hubby.

 

 

 

 

7 out of 10 bones

Edited July 11, 2013 by BoneBone24

[WidgetAlley]

Imp: Spicy, musky, peppery with a hint of bubblegum. I smell clove, pepper, tonka, neroli, and the same sort of musk as Smut, which ended up smelling great but not being something I wore often. Let's see what this is like.

 

Wet: Heavy, smoky, warm, woody musk with a hint of sugary sex. Very Smut-like, but whereas Smut was screamingly sweet on me, this is much more balanced by some of the darker aspects. It has a lot of splintered wood and something that's registering as campfire smoke to keep that diva musk in check.

 

Dry: A sweet, cedary (without actual cedar, I think) musk full of soft incense smoke, wood, and spice. It's much much tamer than the "loud" musks like Smut, and I like it a lot better. I'll hang on to this and see how much I use it.

[Wren12]

In the imp: Spicy, yet sweet, a soothing intermingling of clove and musk. Love this so far.

 

On wet: The cloves bloom first, bolstered by the musk which ignites a warm sweetness to their spice. I'm not sure what opopnox is (a resin?) but there is a faint incense behind the spicy top notes.

 

On dry: Yum, cloves and musk. The spice remains, becoming more assertive as the pepper makes itself known. It tickles my nose a little, like sniffing pepper from the pot, not a bad thing. The musk and cloves blend amazingly well in this. The incense notes waft through the background, giving this scent an almost smoky quality.

 

I love this scent. It is more masculine than quite a few of the labs offerings, not a problem here. I wouldn't mind too bad if I happened to get a bottle of this!

[Mechanical Death]

It smells like smoky sexy nutmeg. Mmmm!

[Ranna]

In the imp: smells smoky, spicy, and sweet...a bit syrupy, maybe? So far, so good.

 

On wet: Almost as soon as it hits the skin, it turns into diet Dr. Pepper. What on Earth happened here? It stays firmly in the real of diet Dr. Pepper for a good while, too. It's much sweeter than it was in the imp, when it was more spicy. Kind of disappointed and hoping it improves.

 

Dry: Diet Dr. Pepper is gone, and it's more smoky now. Unfortunately it's not a good smoky. It smells a bit like BBQ, almost. I'm pretty sure my skin chemistry is to blame and I suspect this would smell much better on someone else, especially on a man. It's going to the swap box.

[JazzieCazzie]

Working my way through my BPAL box, reviewing and revisiting scents old, new and new-to-me in alphabetical order (give or take an added frimp or acquisition that allows me to double back). When done, I will have a comprehensive list of imps and bottles to swap away ... safe to say that Old Demons will NOT be on that list (though getting more more more WILL be on the complementary wishlist!)

 

A little background. When Cazzie Lite moved to West Hollywood after she graduated college, the fact that she was now 2000 miles and three time zones away from me was made slightly more palatable by the fact that she was also just a short ride up the 101 to Burbank and Dark Delicacies. On our first visit out, in January 2012, I made my first pilgrimage there with a few hours on my hands. I had a list of every scent I ALREADY had or had tried so as not to "waste time" with anything except those scents that were "new to me."

 

This? Blew me away. Because money was tight and there were several scents I wanted to acquire, I only bought two imps instead of a bottle. Testing from one of those imps here, dated probably late 2011.

 

IN THE IMP: Pure and simple -- Coca Cola. And I ADORE the cola note. I believe it's been suggested that it is the opoponax and since I have no idea what opoponax actually is but find that it is always a winner for me, that makes sense (hmmmmmm ... opoponax single note would be very high on my wish list, I think).

 

Dabbed on pretty generously on wrist and into crook of arm. Only applied on one arm because my initial plan had been to double-test-drive this with Oblivion on the other arm ... but, see below.

 

WET: Just. Absolutely. Blow-your-socks-off-DIVINE. Coca Cola with a slightly medicinal touch (which makes sense since IIRC Coca Cola was originally medicinal anyway ... and by the way, if I use "medicinal" it's usually a positive adjective for me in the BPAL sphere). It's really hard at first for me to put my nose-finger on a single note, unless of course the Coca Cola is the opoponax. It's just lovely deep yet light resins and spices ...

 

SO divine, in fact, that I decide to postpone the Oblivion application so I can simply savor Old Demons by itself ...

 

DRYDOWN: The pepper rises more in the drydown, making it just a little less sweet but still savory and delicious. That savory note only lasts for a few minutes before it subsides into the complex blend that is Old Demons. It's a deep golden brown scent, spicy, sweet but not TOO sweet, comforting and enveloping.

 

OVERALL: This could totally be a signature scent for me. A big bottle purchase has been added to the to-do list though I am on a no-buy for now (it will certainly top my GC wish list once I finalize my swap page). I would call this a Top 10, though those are so hard to narrow down. CERTAINLY among the most amazing GCs ever.

 

On a scale of 1-5, pretty obviously a 5 for me.