Deathrock

[Mellifluous]

DEATHROCK
Hairspray, cigarette smoke, hair dye over wisps of olibanum, styrax, and benzoin.

Wet: I get the hairspray and dye. Not much else. And mainly just hairspray. That generic, almost grape-y, chemical hairspray. I'm hoping this morphs like I remember on my way home from the event. :/

Dry: 15 min in I am still getting hairspray, although it is sweetening up nicely, and climbing toward that bright rock candy I remember. Still not a complex scent to my nose. Just sweet hairspray

Final drydown: It is just like I remember! I get all the benzoiny goodness without any noticeable chemicals. actually maybe its just that theres no strong chemical scent left. Just enough to create a sparkling, or effervescent, rock candy scent.

I should note, I never picked up one bit of cigarette smoke, not even out of the bottle. And I have never smoked, and no one in my family smokes, so i usually notice even the smallest amount. Just in case that note was scaring people..

[suki]

A very warm thank you again to my Witch and Angel, Gypsy Rose Red for making all my Bat's Day wishes come true this year! xoxo

 

In the Bottle: Yep- that's AquaNet, alright! It's a sweet, sticky chemical floral that makes me surprisingly nostalgic for LA's Helter Skelter, the first goth club I ever went to, some 20 years ago...sigh.

 

*ahem!* pulled from reverie, here's the rest of the review

 

Wet On Skin: This light green oil has gotten very, very herby, actually. i think it's the olibanum note. Very green and sharp, like BPAL's Fern note. It's a bit of a surprise from what it was in the bottle, but I'm intrigued.

 

Dry Down: Ah yes, there's the spicy benzoin. It reminds me a tad of carnation and also of the spice one gets from heliotrope, where it almost feels like the back of my throat is scratchy, if that makes sense.

 

In All: A real morpher. Sweetly sexy, like Slade doing Ballroom Blitz. This oil strikes me as in the same family as Et Lux Fuit and Tarot: The Sun. Extremely high throw, the type that starts off quiet but gets stronger as the moments pass- do NOT slather or you will be in for a long day. This is one for late spring and throughout the summer. I can't personally decide if this scent is "me" but I'll hold onto it and see how I feel when Seattle actually warms up in another month.

 

 

ETA- throw changes!

Edited May 12, 2011 by VioletChaos

[violetblue]

I've never smelled one like this. I agree with the fern reference and the hair spray when first applied. It reminds me of a of a lotion or bath product I've used in the past but can't put my finger on it. Almost a clean smell if that makes sense but not soapy - quite high end. No smoke and the benzoin does seem to be strong in this blend too.

 

ETA I just decanted this for someone and omg the oil is the most gorgeous blue green color.

Edited September 26, 2011 by violetblue

[Ondine]

So interesting! I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's a slightly sweet-tinged scent, somewhat green, like others said above. I don't know if I'm getting "hairspray" but it's a nice scent.

[janelle_hell]

Does anyone else remember spending all night at goth/deathrock clubs in CA before the ban on indoor smoking happened? I do!

 

BPAL's Deathrock blend smells EXACTLY like coming back from the dead the afternoon after dancing all night at *name of much-beloved club goes here*. Minus the sweat and the subtle whiff of vomit from overindulging in the "festivities", of course. Stardust, with its Aquanet, champagne & opium effervescence is glamrock; Deathrock, with its Aquanet, cigarette smoke & incense is, well...deathrock.

 

Upon first applying, it is "all Aquanet, all the time". After a few minutes, the smoke comes out. This isn't the scary "wet ashtray full of old cigarette butts" that the description conjured up for me, thankfully. It's more like the smell of a well-loved, studded-and-safetypinned-semimoldering-battlescarred leather jacket with the Christian Death logo handpainted somewhere on it & the smell of 1,000 or so nights in dark clubs full of smoke from both cigarettes and fog machines soaked into it. "Old leather" isn't listed in the scent description, but I could swear it's in this oil.

 

After it's been on for a few hours, the hairspray note and the cigarette smoke mellow out to let some of the resin notes through. It's like waking up with one's hairdo matted against the pillow, in the home of a friend (or someone you just met that night ) who's fond of burning incense.

 

Then after several hours, it smells just like Manic Panic hair dye and a little bit of cigarette smoke.

 

This is definitely the most spot-on BPAL oil I've ever tried...if pointy, black leather witch boots with skull buckles down the side were a perfume and not an article of clothing, THIS would be IT.

Edited May 18, 2011 by janelle_hell

[cfrancesca]

On my skin, all I get a sharp, chemical-like, cheap detergent and hair dye scent. I find this too heavy on the chemical-like smells and I really can't get past that.

[saralaughs]

This really surprised me. First applied, it's very green smelling, like stems or perhaps grass. I dunno why I think balsam is in everything these days but perhaps, perhaps it makes an appearance here? I dunno but it's not chemical-like on me at all. It like a whiff of sweet body sweat from dancing too much. It does have a sort of calogne like vibe going on but a good one. About an hour after dry down though, that is when magic happens. You remember your teenage crush and how he/she smelt after a good make out session? Musky and sweet and a bit sweaty? Like skin only better? This is it.

[theseagrows]

this was my most coveted of the gothy scents! this reminds me a lot of stardust, which also has a hairspray note, but since i swapped my bottle, i can't really compare them to one another. this scent feels richer and darker than stardust though (if memory serves.) it's kind of like a smoky-floral with incense, though i can't place the floral, it seems kind of orchid like? there is definitely a hair dye element, but in a good way. this scent really does epitomize a female deathrocker to me, just because the floral component makes it a more typically "feminine" scent. i love dark, incensy florals, so i really do love this one. i am SO glad i was able to get some of this!

 

 

ETA: trying again years later and it smells like dior's poison, if memory serves.

Edited January 12, 2017 by theseagrows

[sarandipitee]

Clean, expensive hair product. Reminds me of a shampoo or styling agent a friend used to use back in high school.

 

There is the barest whiff of cigarette smoke but pretty much this is shampoo. But fail on me.

 

Thanks to freneticfloetry for letting me sample!

 

ETA: and this one's a morpher. Still has the hair product essence but it's now a very faint, very girly almost like a skin musk on me. Hmm. Better, but still not something I'm likely to wear.

Edited May 31, 2011 by sarandipitee

[zankoku_zen]

Deathrock smells like expensive hair dye. On wet, I get more of the hairspray smell and its like Aquanet.

 

As it dries, I get orchids and something that just smells like hair dye. Plain and simple.

 

Not my cup of tea.

[stellans]

On me, the hairspray scent is very strong, and sick-making. It never morphs into anything else, and I don't smell anything other than hairspray. And cheap hairspray, at that. Not for me, sadly.

[Blood onmy hands]

I am majorly heartbroken by Deathrock. I thought that this would be sort of an edgy incense/resin scent, and I lovelovelove benzoin. But this is all sharp hairspray, strange chemicals, and... grass clippings? It reminds me of the cheap, metallic sharpness that I got from Stardust (which might be my least favorite bpal scent ever), which makes me think of high school lockerrooms full of cheap, suffocating hair products. There's a hint of something that's almost fruity-sweet in here as well, but mostly this just makes my stomach turn. I had to scrub this off after about fifteen minutes, because it was starting to give me a headache. Boo I might keep my partial decant of this to see if this ages any better, but I won't need more of this one.

[midnight_aeval]

Totally unique! No other BPAL is like this one. I actually think this is my favorite of the 2011 Bat's Day scents (Fetish.Goth being a close second). It smells familiar, but I can't put my finger on it - I'm sure it was some hair product I used in Jr. High or something. Or my mom who sprayed up the Aquanet in the late 80s I must be weird, because I like it. A lot.

[milo]

This oil is green! At first, it even smells green, like stems in a floral shop. Dry, there is more musk, of the cheap department spray variety, so yeah, kind of like hairspray. If I sniff hard, I get some lovely benzoin in the background, but it's mostly cheap musk. For some strange reason, I don't mind it, and may use my imp on occasion.

[yeahbutnobut]

Deathrock

 

In the imp: perfume-y and sharp but with promising hints of incense. This oil has a very unusual colour-it’s teal!

Wet on skin: I don’t smell hair dye but I smell expensive shampoo here-and I like that! There’s a hint of smoke but it’s not the smell of obnoxious cigarettes.

Dry on skin: this one is really unusual but also quite wearable! I definitely smell the hairspray and there is a scent like hair dye-a very, very subtle hint of chemicals but not the really strong fumes you get when dyeing hair-I’d actually say this smells more like hairspray and post-dye shampoo/conditioner with floral and musk notes, the kind used in hair salons. There is a bit of smoke but it is subtle, and the resins add depth and a hint of incense. There’s also a wash of perfume over the whole scent-a bright yet slightly sharp/cologne-y scent. There’s a note, sweet and amber-musky and airy, here that reminds me of Night’s Bridge (which I love).

After a while: the hair dye note is still there, and it’s a little unnerving! The scent of that expensive shampoo and amber-musk-floral perfume which I like is still there, as are the resins (I guess it’s the styrax and benzoin I smell most of, that’s probably where the amber note comes from) and the cigarette smoke is actually behaving, which is unusual. But the hair dye is a bit annoying and gets in the way of me enjoying the smoky, haunting, resin-touched perfume.

Verdict: this smells a lot nicer than I expected. It does have a scent of hair spray and dye but it’s also got a good amount of resin and a glorious blend of something like musk and amber with a waft of floral perfume. I love the resinous notes and whatever it is that makes the sweet, ambery, slightly floral warm musk scent with a hint of cool air, like the scent of warm, sensual perfume wafting through a sultry smoky night, but the hair dye/spray note is a little annoying. I think I prefer Night’s Bridge-I’m sure the two scents share components (they both have an unusual blueish colour) but NB lacks the smoke and hair product scents in here.

Is it a keeper? no.

If you like this, try: Night’s Bridge, Stardust, Tavern of Hell, Midnight on the Midway

Edited July 16, 2011 by yeahbutnobut

[CreamyJade]

In the decant: Tobacco, something akin to cologne.

Wet on skin: Tobacco, no hair dyes, but something sweet and slightly soapy, almost chemical, a bit of resins.

Dry on skin: Sweet florals, tobacco smoke, a hint of resins.

Final thoughts: I was surprised when I received my Bats Day 2011 decants, because, as it's been mentionned, the oil is a greenish blue hue! This is oddly nice for something with "hair dyes" in it, but a bit too floral for my tastes at drydown. It's unlike anything I've ever tried from BPAL though...

[tielan]

Deathrock...doesn't smell like anything. Chemicals, maybe, which is probably the point? Not my scent.

[dicyfer]

I love this scent to death (aha, pun!), but it takes a while for it's true beauty to flourish. When first applied, it is the true equivalent of spraying yourself with hairspray. I patiently sit through this phase, which lasts about an hour or so. Then, the chemical nature of the hairspray fades away and a gorgeous resin begins to take its place. The resin slowly (ever so slowly) gains in strength, and then the true smokey crown-jewel begins to emerge. After about 5 hours this scent is simply glorious. I recall when I first tested it at Bat's Day that I could definitely smell "cigarette smoke," but in my recent tests I can only really detect a generic smokiness (but I'm not that great at distinguishing scents yet).

 

Unfortunately I am young enough that I can't speak to the smell of goth clubs when they allowed indoor smoking, but if it was anything like this, then I am sad that I missed it! This scent is a perfect representation of Deathrock.

[Invidiana]

This is one of those scents that's just very strangely addictive for me. It could be that it has a good deal of the nostalgia factor of walking through Harmon as a kid and inhaling the scents of half a million hair products, but there's something more here. Wet it's very much like hair gloop but it dries down into something much softer and pleasantly powdery, odd but really intriguing in its oddness, very difficult to describe. It still retains that nostalgic whiff of Harmon all the way through but manages to be very wearable at the same time. A surprise winner!

[mymymai]

In the Imp (ITI): It's rather chemically, but pleasantly so. It does smell like a combination of hair spray and dye with a little bit of resinous undertones from the benzoin and styrax.

 

Wet: It very much strikes me as an individual with fresh dye in his or her hair in a medical-type setting. It smells a little like night and the entrance to a spooky club burning incense in the background.

 

Dry: Lovely benzoin with the slightly sweet and ever so slightly chemically scent of hair spray and dye (Manic Panic). It's a scent that makes me nostalgic for my heavily goth clubbing days and something I would wear when dancing all night.

[brilliantcat]

Ah, Aquanet, how I remember the giant, ozone-eating cans of hairspray required to get your bangs as sky-high as possible It starts developing a background of incense. I can picture getting ready to hit the club with incense burning in your room for atmosphere and spraying that Aquanet, maybe dancing around a bit in preparation. As it warms, the benzoin adds a nice waft of vanilla.

[porcelina]

can i say, first of all, that i love that the deathrock oil is GREEN? it's amazing. i don't have any other bpals with this awesome color. anyway, it also smells really good, too. i think maybe the hairspray/dye components are making me think of bath products somehow, because there is sort of a soapy clean quality here which is really unique when layered with the beautiful resins. it's a sweet and effervescent scent (though not at all like bpal's champagne note) and i'm kind of at a loss for words to really describe it but it smells really good and is really unlike anything else in my collection!

[Anne Taylor]

THE OIL IS FREAKIN GREEN!!!! What more do you need to know?

On me, Deathrock is mostly florals and smoke. I think the florals are a mix of the hairdye and hairspray? It reminds me a lot of Rave hairspray everyone I knew used to use. The smoke is there but not overwhelming. I honestly would have loved more smoke.

A little DEFINITELY goes a long way so no need to slather.