The Death-Horse

[edenssixthday]

Lily of the Valley and opopponax.

The Death-Horse - First, let me say: I am not a lover of Lily of the Valley. I think it's a gorgeous flower and I love filling a tiny vase with clippings of the dainty little bells, but on my skin, it's gross, no matter if the scent is BPAL or from some other company. And so, it goes without saying, that on me, this stinks. It smells like floral must and bitter resin. Even the opoponax, which I usually love, is completely tainted by the poor little Lily of the Valley. Must wash it off now...

[Blood onmy hands]

This does not age well at all. My original bottle is almost two years old now and has gone from smelling like heavy, dark, sticky resins and creamy lily to smelling like baby powder and fecal matter. It has just turned intensely powdery and off. I tried to wear this last night, craving a resin & floral blend, and it made me so sick that I had to scrub my skin a dozen times to get rid of it.

Edited June 24, 2013 by Little Bird

[Iceblink]

A miss. The lily turns to old funky powder on me almost instantly and that plus the heavy opoponax makes this smell really off.

[crebbsgirl]

This is exactly lily-of-the-valley and oppoponax. It's a powdery, sharp floral combined with a sweet dark resin. It's not so nice on my skin because my skin does horrible things to white florals, but I can see how this would be absolutely gorgeous on someone with different skin chemistry.

Edited November 9, 2010 by crebbsgirl

[reconditarmonia]

Admittedly this was bound to be a fail on me because it's a nice, simple blend of two notes I don't like, but it's worse than I expected. Really sharp and awful. Gets a little better in drydown, but not enough to prevent me from going to wash this off right now.

[hkhm]

imp: very strong lily.

 

wet: pretty strong lily, i can occasionally catch hints of opopponax but it's faint.

 

dry: lily. not too strong, but still... lily.

[milo]

I really like the actual floral smell of lily of the valley, but not on me. I really don't get the oppononax, just the heady lily. For those of you who love or like lily of the valley, this doesn't go powdery at all. This reminds me of a lily of the valley powder my mom used to own and ended up throwing out. This really smells like something grandma would like.

[SophieCedar]

1st thought: "death horses are pretty"

 

Wet: lily of the valley. Pure. White. Clean. Ethereal.

Drydown: takes a while but the oppoponax comes out. Debating a bottle. It's simple, clean, and eerie-but-you-don't-know-why goodness. The combination translates in my mind to a spectre wearing a jovial mask with tiny bits of rotting flesh peeking out from underneath... that you can only see if you strain your eyes. *shudder* Awesome! Lily of the valley does well with my skin, fortunately. I was afraid, reading the other reviews, but this is perfect.

Edited January 17, 2011 by SophieCedar

[zankoku_zen]

I really get a LOT of lily out of this. In some ways, it reminds me as a more lily-version of Host of Air, which means I must amp up lilies. It's very pure, white, clean floral. I'm not sure about the oppoponax in this, as it seems to be just very light, more like grounding the lily.

 

Erm. This like... LILY LOVE. Hearts are aflutter.

[donnatron]

Imp: You know, I like myrrh as a supporting note, but it's not really my bag when it's all up in my grill and telling me that it's myrrh. Especially sweet myrrh. Like I feel about many sweet things: in moderation. Strict moderation.

 

Wet: SO MUCH GD MYRRH! WHY? Very little bit of lily of the valley. I like the soapiness of lily of the valley. It reminds me of when I used to work at Crabtree and Evelyn.

 

Dry: Opoponax wins. Also: Opoponax sounds like the name of a deep sea monster in the vein of the Ogopogo. This winds up a deliriously sweet myrrh with a bit of lily of the valley swirling in the back and kind of smelling like public bathroom hand soap. Not pretty.

 

Throw: Of course it's strong. It hates me. Why would it keep that to the world?

 

Overall: This was not a great match for me. Love one of the ingredients. The other? Not so much.

Edited March 28, 2011 by paperrose

[ACVail24]

The Death-Horse

 

In the Imp:

dark & ominous - I smell mostly smoky, gritty resin

 

On my Skin, Wet:

An overwhelming blast of Lily of the Valley!

and that's about it.

 

On my Skin, Dry:

Lily of the Valley, made of resins.

this is a strange blend in the dry stage.

I don't know how I feel about it in the dry stage...I certainly was not expecting such a presence from the florals.

 

Verdict:

it's OK, but I was just expecting something more resinous.

[lilyliza]

In the bottle: I guess what I'm smelling is oppoponax- this has an even worse nauseating tang than the myrrh note that messed up my enjoyment of Nefertiti. I think oppoponax and I aren't going to be getting along.

 

Wet: Lots of lily and lots of oppoponax. Even though I don't like the smell, I have to admit they go well together. And then the lily promptly goes super-bland and soapy. I was expecting this after what happened with Viola...oh, well.

 

Dry: Hours later, the lily note goes back to smelling like it's supposed to, and it's a pretty nice combination, even if I personally dislike it.

 

I have learned from this frimp to avoid BPAL scents with lily and oppoponax from now on- it probably won't end well. And I really like the smell of lilies too...maybe someday I'll happen upon one that doesn't go bland soap on me.

[DeCuvieri]

This was a frimp from the Lab, and I can say that I never would have ordered this based on the description and reviews. I don’t like flowery scents at all, but the name intrigued me.

 

In Bottle: Two layers to this one. The first is very floral-sweet, but the second is almost rancid. Smells like a pile of decaying flowers and... something. The concept works with the oil’s namesake, but it really makes me reconsider putting this on my skin. But some of my favorite scents smell awful in the bottle too, so let’s hope for a morpher.

 

Wet: That ugly tone, whatever its origin, smoothens out. Guessing it’s the oppoponax? Anyway, it and the softer florals begin to blend. Not sure into what exactly, but it’s an improvement compared to the first impression. That doesn’t say much.

 

Dry: Virtually no throw, but I was pretty stingy on the application site so that may be the cause. The lily takes over and the stink note dissipates. What I’m left with is eau de funeral home: A sort of light, musty floral that is closer to the sad sense of loss that follows death than the occurrence itself. Death-Horse is a beautiful animal that wears a wreathe of old, rotting flowers.

 

Conclusion: I didn’t like this until the dry-down, and while my first instinct is to get rid of this imp ASAP, I think age might do this oil some good. I’m going to shove this one in a dark box for a month or two, see what comes of it. I think it has the potential to be something good down the road, and I'll amend this after the second run.

[cinnamonster]

It's a strong lily of the valley, not usually my thing, but it's not quite the brain drilling type, there's a soft almost rotting undertone to this. It's by no means unpleasant. I'll probably keep this for an occasional wear if I feel deathly-floral

[theseagrows]

this was a frimp from the lab.

 

this is sour lily of the valley and something gross and sour-smelling underneath. i thought opoponax worked on me, but i'm not sure i've ever really smelled it as a prominent note, like it is in this scent. all i know is, this is a wet sour-floral on me...it smells like a bouquet of dying flowers when they get that sour, but at the same time, sickly- sweet smell. no thank you!

Edited June 23, 2011 by theseagrows

[stellamaris]

This was a frimp, I think I would have not lit on this one just on my own, but wow is this cool. very rich, I don't know which note is so heavy, but it's heady and fantastic.

[grrrlennyl]

The Death-Horse

 

On: Incredibly dark opoponax. Earthy and slightly sour. Heady.

5 hours in: Very sweet. Powdery and a bit odd.

6.5 hours in: The opoponax is the main scent I'm getting. Sweet and powdery.

Overall: I didn't really like this on me.

[Honey]

How can there be only one page of reviews?

 

 

Imp: Wow.. that is.. unexpected? Very spicy, salty and foody. Like.. curry? I detect notes of curry and curcuma.. perhaps lovage as well. Strange.

 

Wet: Pure lovage. Huh?!

 

Dry: OK.. still sour, salty and full of lovage. I don't know.. did anyone mess with this frimp? I'd put it in my soup, but not on my skin!

[Circaea]

Goes on faintly sweet and floral, but with an herby, or spicy base, like curry or sage. Eventually the curry/sage wins out, and reminds me of riding horses on a hot dusty, sunburned, thirsty, boring day through desert sage, dill and fennel. Only not as nice. This scent can't decide if it wants to be flowers or curry. I can't decide whether to toss it, or let someone else try it.

[calivianya]

This turned pure nasty lily on me. I was hoping for more sweet oppoponax, but it stayed well-hidden in the background. I ended up washing this off because the lily was so rancid.

[holborne]

Ok, I have to say I don't quite understand this one. Lily of the Valley and Opoponax are, honest to god, my two favorite notes. But I don't get either one in this. It smells to me like dirt or some sort of root. If anything, it smells like vetiver to me. I might let it age and see how it does in a month or two; maybe this is one that doesn't do so well right from the Lab.

 

Updated June 2012

I decided to try this one again, since I was expecting to love it and I hated it. This seemed so wrong to me -- my two favorite notes are lily of the valley and opoponax and I figured maybe I was at the wrong time of the month or something. So I tried it again and had a totally different experience.

 

This time, Death-Horse started out as a kind of a weird floral-resin hybrid, really neither lily of the valley nor opoponax. As it dries down, it goes right from that to lily of the valley; I don't get a whole lot of opoponax. For me, this is fine, because if I had to pick out a single note to wear for the rest of my life, it would be lily of the valley; opoponax would be my second choice (truly -- Death-Horse was basically made for me). If you're looking for a scent that's got a heavy resin note, this may not suit you, if your skin chemistry is anything like mine.

Edited April 8, 2013 by Silvertree
Merged separate review posts into one

[OctoberGwen]

What a bizarre smell this is. It's sour and sharp and weird...but oddly familiar. My mother grew masses of Lily of the Valley beside our front stoop when I was little. That must be why this is familiar, but it's a corrupted version of that scent I remember. Creepy, strange, and sort of compelling. I don't really want to smell like this, but I might burn it in a diffuser on a rainy, windswept night when I'm summoning the dead. You know, if I summoned the dead on a regular basis.

Edited October 15, 2011 by OctoberGwen

[maika]

In the imp: it's clean fresh lily. Nothing more, nothing less. Gorgeous!

 

Wet: Well hello there opoponax. The Lily is still there, but it's being grounded by the opoponax. It's a tiny bit soapy, but not in a bad way, and it's got a strong throw, but it's not unpleasant. I'm enjoying wafts from my wrists while I type.

 

Dry: It's predominately a floral...it's like walking through my Grandmother's garden in spring time...but there's enough of an undertone from the opoponax to stop it being a Lily SN...and that base it what makes it so lovely.

[WidgetAlley]

Imp: Strong, strong, strong soapy floral and dark resin.

 

Wet: Stale florals and rich dark opium-like resin without the smoke. Cloyingly strong and sweet.

 

Dry: Didn't make it... the lily of the valley rises up and overwhelms, becoming a hugely strong, sweet cloud of soap that gives me a headache. This one will be moving on to a new home.

[stardreamer]

In the imp and fresh on: Very masculine, with a flowery undernote. I can catch the lily-of-the-valley, but the opopponax (alternate spellings: opoponax, opopanax) seems to be dominant. It's rather bitter-smelling, which makes sense if it's a variety of myrrh.

 

Drydown: The lily-of-the-valley becomes a lot more apparent. I'm used to thinking of it as a light floral, but this is strong, almost cloying. It's threatening to give me a headache, which BPAL oils almost never do.

 

Long-term: Stays pretty much the same -- strong floral with a bitter undernote. The headache never materialized, possibly because the scent started fading back. Staying power is surprisingly low for something with a resin; after 8 hours, it's nearly gone, and what lingers is not the resin but the floral.

 

Bottom line: I just don't like this scent. Swap pile.