Sonnet D'Automne

[EphemeralFey]

Tenebrous Love: a shivering white musk with vanilla-infused white cocoa, amber incense, and dead, dry leaves.

 

2014 Version:

 

Purchase: Directly from the Lab

 

In the bottle: I get mint hot cocoa with dry autumn leaves in the background, my BF gets vanilla spices. I’m actually not minding this, even though it smells rather foodie to me. Maybe white cocoa is an exception note.

 

Test Area: Inside crook of elbow

 

Wet: A mellower, almost dry, mint cocoa from the bottle.

 

Dry down: The amber incense has finally come out! There is a very cool, ethereal, mint with a hint of sweet dry leaves scent that plays nicely with the incense in the background. Pretty average throw.

 

1 hour later: During the hour the amber incense and minty (which I am thinking is really the White Musk note) cocoa notes trade places a lot. One minute I got warm incensy amber goodness, the next the cool minty scent was back. Though in the end, Sonnet D’Automne settled for a cool dry vanilla sweetness with hints of the dry leaves. Throw remained about average

 

Thoughts: Very happy that I got a blind bottle of this! I was a little worried that the vanilla-infused white cocoa note would make this blend to foodie, but I actually really like it. Possibly because it is sweet instead of super sugar sweet. I’m very curious to see how this bottle ages. Also, this smells amazing when combined with Visions of Autumn IV!

[Arden Ivy]

Decanted by Mellifluous. 6th BPAL

In Imp: Like breathing in cold autumn air. Mint and leaves and chill.

Wet: Oh okay something is going to dove soap on me. Minty Dove soap. With something unpleasant underneath. Could be my first experience with notes turning sour. Something here isn't working.

One Hour Later: This would probably be gorgeous on others, but on me it's minty soap left to mildew. No cocoa in sight. Ah well. Win some, lose some.

EDIT: So I never washed this off, and at about five o' clock I started smelling something amazing. Seriously, it is white cocoa and crumbly leaves and is lovely. I suspect this is how it would smell on most people, it just goes wonky on me. Such a pity, sniffing what could have been.

Edited November 7, 2014 by Arden Ivy

[schneagl]

2014 Version:

In the bottle: Leafy, a bit earthy, a bit airy. A sharp note of some kind cutting through the others.

Wet on my skin: That sharp note is totally gone; the first thing I smell is ozone. The leafiness comes back, with a bit of sweet or floral background - that's the closest I'm getting to cocoa. It settles down to a sap smell.

Drydown: Ozone (which is apparently how I'm interpreting the white musk here) plus dry leaf, and a hint of lingering fire or embers - I think that's where the amber incense is coming out most.

This one's not quite what I was expecting, but still very nice. I like the individual notes, though they don't ever all blend together; they keep swapping places until the final burndown. The throw was fairly low for me, and lasted about average, a few hours. Didn't turn out to be my favorite of the Weenies like I was expecting, but glad I got a chance to try it.

[brilliantcat]

2014 edition

 

I immediately thought "hay" when I sniffed the decant but after I read the notes, that's gotta be the leaves. I get a sort of minty-ness that's very ephemeral. Early in the drydown, the white musk makes this go all old lady soap and perfume on me. It pretty much ends up smelling like clean laundry. White musk, why must you hate me?

Edited November 25, 2014 by brilliantcat

[zankoku_zen]

2014 version

 

Leaves, white musk, cocoa incense. On wet, I get more of the dry leaves bit, but as it dries, the white musk and cocoa and incense come out. I think it ends up less foodie than the previous incarnation of Sonnet which I tried, and more into the dusty cocoa/incense arena.

 

Dark, dusty, incense.

[Teaker]

Very soapy, unfortunately. I'm thinking it must be the leaves. If I really huff, I can pick up a touch of sweetness from the vanilla-infused cocoa, but overall this is just leafy soap. Beautiful soap, but not great as a perfume. This does seem to have a silky quality that is really lovely, though.

[Atrous]

With these notes I thought this blend was gonna be a win for me.

I get no white musk, no cocoa, no incense, no leaves.

I have hay scented soap on my skin. That's it for about 10 minutes and gone.

[stellamaris]

Well, I did not think it possible, but I like this years version even better than the last one. The vanilla/cocoa are very lush, it's less dead leafy, but just leafy enough.

[ModderRhu]

if this didn't have the leaf note, it would be awesome. it smells like delicious minty cocoa butter. unfortunately the leaf note gives it an undercurrent of bell peppers

[boomtownrat]

I get mostly the leaf note, which my nose and/or brain also interpret as bell peppers. There's a hint of ambery, musky sweetness underneath, teasing me with suggestions of how I wanted it to smell. With age, maybe the leaves will settle down a bit and this might become what I wanted it to be.

 

ETA: I tried it again yesterday, 1/17/2015. The leaves are still pretty peppery and they still dominate the scent while it's wet, but once it's dry I get powdery sweetness. Amber doesn't normally go powdery on me, but I guess it does when it's mixed with white cocoa, vanilla, and white musk. I'm sad about the lack of leaves and incense. It sort of reminds me of Coco Chanel and babies, of all things, and there couldn't be a scent that is more antithetical to what I like or who I am. Sadly, this doesn't make me think of autumn at all.

 

ETA: It's 9/29/2016. All this time, Sonnet has been awaiting a sell or swap in the bottom drawer of my BPAL cabinet. Today I decided to bring it out for a test because I wanted a soft, cuddly, Weenie-summoning scent for a rainy day. Now it's just what I hoped it would be! The green of the leaves is still there, especially in the bottle, but it's no longer reading as green pepper. It's a lot more like sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of a mountain cabin in a cuddly sweater, watching the October rain and drinking a hot vanilla-spiked white chocolate.

 

My skin chemistry is changing, but I'm also sure that the scent itself has aged well. Now I've gone from pulling it out of the swap/sell drawer to considering a new bottle if it returns, so I'll have another one to age. This is a scent that required patience from me, but it's worth it.

Edited September 29, 2016 by boomtownrat

[Missy_killer]

2014 Version

 

In the imp: Now this is odd. It smells like outdoor air, but it's soapy. Very soapy. Could it be the white musk doing this? I really doubt that the leaves would smell soapy and clean. What else is odd is the amber, usually that's always one of the first notes to greet me in a scent, but so far it's nowhere to be seen. and no cocoa or vanilla goodness either.

 

On: Oh, this really has a leafy quality to it. It doesn't smell dead or crunchy at all, it smells soft and newly washed. It has a light creamy ivory or baby blue colour to it. I got a faint whiff of cocoa/vanilla before the soap once again took over the show. I read "mint" in other peoples reviews of this, but I'm not getting any mint in mine. The only thing I get is SOAP.

 

Asked my mother what she thought it smelled like... She gagged and proclaimed that this smells like a really old lady. She didn't get any soap at all. So sadly, this is not for me. No vanilla or cocoa that I was hoping for, and no amber.

[Ina Garten Davita]

2014 version~

 

I did not like this at first sniff, popped it in the swap box but decided to give it another try this morning. WOW! So happy I did!

 

Wet on the skin smells like dead leaves floating on chilled autumn air. Then it warms and opens into a creamy, gorgeous incensey vanilla. The dry down is familiar, reminds me of Dorian. Autumnal Dorian!

 

Love.

[Soupy Twist]

(2011 version) Pretty much all the notes in the description. Leaves in the bottle, and it goes on as leaves and white cocoa (and it's definitely a white cocoa). There's a moment of musk and another of vanilla. The cocoa comes back, and it and amber and vanilla all move in and out of the leaves background. Finishes with a faint vanilla note.

[agirlnamedfury]

2015 version:

 

Cool and refreshing. Very lightly musky (I'm not super familiar with white musk but I guess this is what I'd expect it to smell like) and just the faintest hint of foodiness from the cocoa and vanilla. Very unique, unlike any of the other perfumes I own (and I own quite a few BPALs at this point).

[verystarry]

2015 version:

This is my third time with it on so I can give it a fair impression. When I first wear it, it feels crisp and wet like damp leaves and I smell that for about half an hour and then it turns musky and warm. It wears off pretty fast for me and the vanilla lingers, leaving a bit of a baby powder scent but in a sexier way. While I love the scent and the dry down too, I wish it lasted longer but I don't mind reapplying!

[lazymerricat]

2015 edition.

 

I didn't expect to love this as much as I do. In the bottle I got such a fresh mint note that I thought I'd misread the notes. On my skin, it burst instantly into that shimmering, shivering, soapy white musk. I do love a bit of white musk, but for a while that was all I could smell - with a hint of vanilla if I concentrated - and thought, well, it's nice but I can get this sort of smell anywhere (eg. from the bar of the Body Shop's 'White Musk' I have in my shower). BUT THEN, I start to notice a lot more going on - there's a sepulchral magic happening. Dead leaves and vanilla are conjuring a Baudelairean ghost on my wrist. AND THEN, suddenly, the white cocoa comes to play, and everything becomes radiant, and I'm in love.

 

I sense that this won't last long, it's so delicate and ghostly. But I really love it. And may have to get a bottle.

[tziporra]

2015

 

This started out very promising in the decant - a very cool sparkling white musk and the lovely dry leaf note I adore. Alas, I think it's the "Amber incense" that mucks this up for me. It's much like Bastet or other primarily Amber blends on drydown. Cozy and vanillin and golden, which are all not things I wanted nor expected given the top notes and description. Could very well be someone else's bag.

 

Tzi

Edited November 3, 2015 by tziporra

[LizziesLuck]

2015

 

This is almost aquatic on me, which is weird. Maybe that's the 'shivering' bit. The musk goes a bit powdery. I'm not really getting any of the other notes I was expecting. It's a bit sweet, a bit floral, which makes no sense to me. Can't smell the cocoa or leaves. This actually smells a bit like laundry on me. Which I don't much care for. Hmmm, too bad! I would say it needed to settle, but it has for some time.

[rix]

Sonnet 2015

 

I like the opening burst of leaves. Not as overpowering as some of the other Dead Leaves this year, not as dead, either! Seem to have a little moisture, makes it softer. But after that...? No real development from that, and then gone completely in less than 10 minutes. I had high hopes upon smelling the opening, but no luck. Off to swaps with you.

[Gateau]

I think I order a decant of Sonnet d'Automne every year and then promptly forget how it smelled on me. Hence, i will write a review so I can remember for next year!

 

White musk is not a great note for me, tends to go sharp and soapy. It's doing that again here, and it doesn't bring out the best in the dead leaves note either, which already tends to be a little aquatic and floral on my skin. I'm really not getting any of the amber incense, vanilla, or white cocoa, either. It's a shame, because in theory this one should work very well for me, but it just gets off balance on my skin.

 

Verdict: will keep the decant so I can remind myself next year that I don't need another!

[Argentwolf]

2015 version:

 

Initially this was quite startling -- a blast of vanilla and cocoa, yes, but with something that just amped the heck out of it. Now that I think about it, that would be the 'minty' tone that people are talking about. Something like ozone, or wintermint, something definitely very white, for that 'shivering' aspect. About an hour later I now notice that amber and a bit of a dry leaf note have come out to balance it, though that strong, bracing vanilla-smell is still present. It smells very traditionally-perfumey to my nose. It appears to have pretty decent staying power, but stays close to the skin. Overall it is pleasant, if not a must-have for me.

[freyasfae]

I can tell this has BPAL's fall leaves note like in A World Where There Are Octobers (a personal favorite), but this is drier and sharper - less youthful and whimsical (which makes sense since AWWTAO is an Anne Shirley inspired scent!). As it dries down, the musk, vanilla, and amber come through more. It's a very sophisticated fall scent.

[Cali]

Hmm, it's so sweet it's almost like there's honey in here. A soft, swift vanilla, the white notes turn this into something really cold. And there's that lovely bpal dead leaves note. Enlightening but dark!

EDIT: Ew, this goes all kinds of nasty on me when it's completely dry... too bad.

Edited July 28, 2016 by Cali

[bunnyechoes]

It starts out as a wave of white musk, accompanied with dry leaves. There is some detectable sweetness in this blend. There is perhaps a hint of incense but my skin mostly screams MUSK, which turns out to be just a little bit soapy. That’s a bummer. However, the soapiness is sweetend by a minty freshness that is later somewhat masked by vanilla/cocoa combination. It gives the scent a certain, although faint, creaminess that becomes more prominent for a smidge while the soapiness finally fades. When the blend is totally dry it turns into a full-on laundry detergent. Not a keeper.

[Vaporeon]

2011- yayyyyyyy it opens strongly leafy and stays there for awhile. Then it mellows a but and and becomes Velvet-esque with delicate mint and musk overlaying, very subdued and complex. How people describe Zorya Polunochnaya as ghostly and ethereal, this is that for me while she is just an okay amber. Im in love