Halloween In Innsmouth

[fiddlehead]

When I was little, a summoning went awry at the standing stones in the grove by my house, and the ensuing carnage in the neighborhood effectively ruled out the possibility of trick or treating locally that year. My parents didn't want me to be disappointed, so they drove my brother and m'self to Innsmouth for the night. The people manning the festively decked-out skiffs that were moored in the sand-clogged harbor were incredibly generous with their candy, and my brother and I ended the night as happy as two sugar-high little kids could be.

The strange beauty of the crumbling Georgian houses and their widow's walks is forever etched in my memory, along with the distinct scent of fish and kelpy incense.

Innsmouth: Halloween, 1983. Fish and ceremonial incense.

Cthulhu F'tagn! Don't be afraid of Halloween in Innsmouth. To me, it's a very wear-able incense scent and reminds me very much of other BPAL incense scents I've smelled. If you've been into BPAL for awhile you'll recognize this. There's a "cool" element to this that is like the note I caught in the first year edition of Samhainophobia. Maybe it's meant to be the sea air.

Does it smell fishy/kelp-y? If I use my imagination, it does a bit, especially right at the beginning. And now that I've had it on for about 30 minutes I can still smell that note on one wrist. That being said, I'm very suggestible and do my best to smell what Beth is attempting to evoke in her scents. It's a big part of the fun of BPAL to me.

I like this quite a lot and will wear it during Cthulhu Christmas as well!

Edit: I love this. It reminds me of Arcana, which was a favorite when I first discovered BPAL. If you like Arcana you will probably like this!

[Lycanthrope]

Oh, this is like Pit and the Pendulum incense + Hatmethit (that fishy Egyptian river scent).

 

 

 

 

 

 

...

 

OH, GOD. This is like incense and Hatmethit, neither of which worked well on me.

 

The incense is dark, spicy, dry, rough, and resinous. Leaning on the myrrh side of things. The fishy scent is more of a soft, metallic, glinty aquatic suggestion, but tied in with that strange slitheryness that Hatmethit had on me. Together, this smells like... mushroom soup.

 

Please, do not use this as any type of frightening review, because what I obviously can't wear may be someone's HG!

 

Try this if your fish is Catholic and enjoys attending Church.

 

I can't wear this, sadly. My fish is a damned atheist!

[bheansidhe]

Try this if your fish is Catholic and enjoys attending Church.

 

I can't wear this, sadly. My fish is a damned atheist!

 

ROTFL.

 

Let's see. How far can I push the "review by emoticon" window?

 

Fish. Incense. Fish incense.

 

At first I was all:

 

 

 

And *dab* and it was all:

 

 

 

And I was all:

 

 

And then it came up with:

 

 

 

And I was all:

 

???

 

 

But it assured me:

 

 

 

Verdict: Starts out a scary, pungent, but actually un-fishlike incense, with murky aquatics. Quickly mellows to cold mist, incense, and (I swear) slightly scorched coffee. Since I quite like the smell of burnt coffee, this was all right in the end.

 

Quite the bait (sic) and switch, Beth!

Edited October 19, 2012 by bheansidhe

[jolarocknrolla]

This is a weird one. Really ... odd. It does smell kelpy, salty, incense-y/resiny and dark. the aquatic is not the high piercing aquatic note we usually get but very ... funky? Definately more atmospheric rather than something i want to smell like, though dry-down is a lot better and leaning more towards a spicy sort of incense. Well, at least it isn't FISHY

[zankoku_zen]

Kelpy, salty incense. It smells watery and very silty, like Hatmehit, with a very rich incense background.

 

Odd fish, this one.

[miss_rynn]

This smells to me like salty lillies. It's not a soapy aquatic, and it's not really an incense scent either. I think I like it as an oddity rather than something I'd wear frequently.

[Dark Alice]

Gross fishy incense. The incense from Midnight Mass which is lovely mixed with some kind of off putting fishy perfume. Beth nailed this one perfectly. But it is horrible on me.

[brilliantcat]

I get salty, aquatic, slightly sweet... it reminds me of the breeze across the water or perhaps very, very fresh seafood. It certainly doesn't smell fishy, it smells of the sea. No incense yet, shall see what occurs with this very interesting concoction as it warms. Oddly enough, I never really get any incense. It remains a tantalizingly sweet/salty aquatic. I rather like it!

[Monday]

Sweet smoke and something that feels like fish but doesn't smell like fish. How ...fascinating.

[stellamaris]

OK then, this one is weeeeeeeeeeird. I was trying to decide if I liked it or hated it so I figured What the Heck and threw some on, and went off to Ikea to buy a bookcase. On the checkout line the lady behind me said "What is that wonderful smell? Is that your perfume?" and proceeded to tell me she hates perfume, but mine was amazing.

Clearly I gave her an imp that was flying around my purse.

 

What does this smell like? It's blue-green, watery, incensey, deep, interesting, strange...

[patina]

At first sniff, I get something weirdly bitter, like burned nuts.

However, as soon as this goes on my skin, the burned smell turns into frankincense and salt. I wouldn't be surprised if ambergris accord was involved too.

 

I get billowing clouds of frankincense smoke and damp, salty ocean air. And stone? Maybe?

 

This has a medium throw and sticks around for a good while on my skin.

 

Similar scents include Halloween: San Francisco.

[Blood onmy hands]

On me, this is like a dusty, sweet incense mixed with something salty and sharply clean (almost metallic smelling), plus a little bit of something dark and murky that makes me think of mud (but it doesn't really smell like dirt, soo..). It's actually not bad on me, but it's not really good either...

[milo]

Kind of fishy incense, kind of like cod liver oil with church resins. It then dries to something to neither fishy nor incense, but kind of a light, fresh airy blend, but with a touch of that cod liver oil. While eating my breakfast, I noticed that something smelled like vitamins, not the chewable kind, but those big yellow ones, or how a health food store smells like. Up close, nice and airy, and the throw is vitamins. Not for me, but an interesting blend to try.

[thekittenkat]

In the decant: Cold, wet, incense, and something like fresh scales off a fish.

 

Wet: Much as when sniffed, only that fish has been around for a while, and is getting a little musky.

 

The dry-down: Yeah, fishy incense. I was told to try this while fishing for a Cold Winter fish moon scent. Skipping that wish. However, the scent is very evocative of the concept, but not anything that I can imagine wearing.

[fufu_berry]

...And the one person who actually kind of wanted fishiness gets flowers. ;_; No incense, no fish or saltiness, just light inoffensive florals. I'm hoping that this is just because it's that time of the month and when I try it again I'll get fishy weirdness, but for now, yeah, just a generic flower smell. Yuck.

 

ETA: Took a while, but now it's kind of a tangy salty smell - not quite the ocean incense I was hoping for, but definitely better than flowers!

Edited December 8, 2012 by fufu_berry

[Poenari]

I received a sniffy of this as an extra included with my decant circle order from ralenth. There was barely enough left in the imp to sniff, but just enough on the little wand apparently to apply to skin- unfortunately for me, as it turns out. This was all FISH - nothing but wet fish smell, and unbelievably strong, especially considering how little I applied. I had to scrub it off. Not a good scent for me at all. I was definitely bitch-slapped, not just trout-slapped, by this one.

[mymymai]

ITI: Oh yeah, that's brined fish with some copal and something else. My

 

Wet: I'm getting wet kelp now with my brined fished. There is also a strange and unsettling dusty tone to the scent.

 

Dry: It's more incense than anything else, but the wet scent is enough to scare me off.

[Quillifer]

I love this, but it does appeal to the "odd scent fancier" in me

 

In the bottle it smells rather of real fish - fresh, sweet fish, halibut maybe - white fish, not oily, and definitely not off.

 

Wet, it's at its most challenging. It reminds me of a fish&chip shop only without the really heavy greasy aspect. I don't get any incense at this stage.

 

As it dries, I'm really rewarded. It makes me think of an old house by a salt-marsh with its windows open. Old scrubbed wooden floorboards, fresh air, something softly softly metallic, and something else that's tenderly, slightly sweet - again like really good fresh white fish.

 

I have to be in the mood, but when I am, I'd hate to be without it.

Edited March 3, 2013 by Quillifer

[aquazoo]

I get them both, but first it kind of smells like cleanser. A little bleach, a little grit.

[gloame]

Sniffing this 5 years later from an imp and I'm getting a lot of patchouli and green dirt. No fish. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing because it's not everyday you get the chance to smell fish perfume.

 

Where I'd wear this: Daytime in autumn