Samhain

[goddessrobyn]

Truly the scent of autumn itself -- damp woods, fir needle, and black patchouli with the gentlest touches of warm pumpkin, clove, nutmeg, allspice, sweet red apple and mullein.

So... I must be a suck reviewer but I'm going to give it my shot anyway...

I got my Samhain (2004) in the mail yesterday and I really LOVE this scent... on me, its warm spiced apple cider... and the smell of the plate you just ate pumpkin pie off of... mostly spicy apple... just a hint of the other things in the description... but soooooo yummy and comforting...

definatley a good one for fall...

I was disappointed to not get this in time for Samhain but once I smelled it it didn't really matter b/c this was NOTHING like a Samhain smell for me... this is the fall carnival... homecoming... or someother occassion to hang out in the changing leaves in a favorite scarf and sweater (which I can only imagine doing as its still in the 70-80 range during the day here...)

I really like this one!!! And the hubby does too...

[riddel]

Samhain

 

Oh. My. Gosh. This one is so taking me back to those chilly nights I huddled around a wood pit with all of my best girlfriends at 6th grade camp. I almost can't believe how strongly it's bringing back those memories for me, and the nostalgia is welcome, as 6th grade camp was one of the best times of my entire life. I felt so safe there, surrounded by forest as far as the eye could see. I came home and felt like a stranger in my own bedroom, feeling like nothing fit me there anymore. It's a feeling I never really shook, as overly dramatic as that may sound.

 

Samhain is all tree bark and fallen leaves and pine cones and fir needles and wood smoke on me, with just the smallest touch of spicy, organic sweetness, like cinnamon and nutmeg and, yes, apples.

 

Thank you, Beth.

Edited November 5, 2004 by riddel

[lorajc]

I finally got my Samhain and I'm wearing it today. When I first put it on, there was an acrid, bitter note coming thru and I didn't think it was going to wear well on me, but that faded and now it's just beautiful. The strangest thing is that I can't pick out any of the notes. I know what patchouli, pumpkin, clove and apple smell like but this is so well blended, I can't place them. It has a buttery or creamy background with spice on me....not cinnamon spice but like a pumpkin spice and it turns a bit sweet on me after a while (which I like a lot). I really like this and I'm glad I have 2 bottles. This is quite yummy. The first thing my coworker said when she walked in this morning was that I smelled really good.

[Lady_Ell]

Samhain 2004: It's so balanced, and perfect in every way. I'm not getting a lot of the fruity apple or pumpkin smell that others are, but I am getting dry, dead, fallen oak/maple leaves that crunch when you walk through them, and pumpkin pie like spices. It smells just like Samhain 2003, but maybe a bit sweeter. I have to say I am adoring the bitterness and dryness in here, though.

 

OK, so this is now my new favorite. I say that all the time, I know, but for real this time! ... none of you will ever take me seriously again...

[Sara]

I don't review nearly as much as I should, but for Samhain - I pretty much had to.

 

I was initally expecting Jack only deeper, darker, and spicier. After first sniff, though, I couldn't have been more wrong.

 

Sniff: Warm spice that borders on powdery

 

Application: Kind of strong-ish, yet mellow if that makes sense, spice comes out much stronger now..but there's this overall meld of scents that makes it terribly difficult for me to pick out anything other than "spice."

 

Dry down: Hours later it's not really faded..but..light. It felt like after application, so it's not like it has worn off any. I catch whiffs of it every once in a while, but nothing overpowering (good!). When I sniff my wrists it's sitting there waiting in all its deliciousness.

 

Overall: Sorry I'm not more helpful! It will definitely take many more wearings before I can actually pick out any notes. Everything is so smooth and wonderful - instant winner. Instant mellow winner. It's just a nice, spicy comforting blend that hugs close to my body and almost becomes a sort of "skin spice (I know! too much use of the word 'spice!')" that just "fits." I can totally see wearing this on Halloween.

 

Edit: I re-applied a little while ago (even though it was unnecessary) and this time around I can pick up on the apple spice. Definitely making this a wonderful blend. And my bf said it smelled good!

Edited November 5, 2004 by Aijin

[Jezebel873]

Fantastic!!! Oh my god. This is my new favorite BPAL scent, for sure.

This is the smell of fall from my childhood in the country. The woods, dried leaves, woodsmoke, spiced cider, and something baking in the oven. It kind of makes me feel choked up, it brings so many good memories out.

This scent is so well balanced on me... nothing really predominates, it's just a beautiful blend.

*goes back to sniffing*

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Very sweet - totally not what i expected. Reminds me of candy corn twisted in smoke.

 

On me: Spiced apple cider and pumpkins. I can also smell the wood. It makes me think of standing in a forest holding a mug of hot cider and waiting for a party to begin. This fragrance is much lighter than I ever expected; it seemed so heavy and dark in the description that it really surprised me when I finally got it.

[eclecticaurora]

Samhain 2004! Oh, how I love thee...let me count the ways...wait, there's only a few minutes I can use to type this out, so I probably shouldn't use it up. Anyways, it's amazing! Absolutely amazing! It's light, but spicy at the same time. On me it smells like apples dipped in cinnamon and sugar (could be the fact that the other night I WAS doing that! ). I smell the apples and the spices (cloves and whatnot) the most, but every now and then a whiff of pumpkin or wood comes through. It's definitely not a heavy scent, but it is long lasting. I will be wearing this one probably non-stop for quite some time...then again I may end up rationing it out so I can have it until maybe next time it is out?! If it ever comes back out again...

 

~eclecticaura~

Edited November 8, 2004 by eclecticaura

[TygherRayn]

OMG! I'm so utterly delighted to have given in and purchased Samhain 2004 .. and I almost regret not getting more of it when I had the chance! This time around it is everything I hoped it would be, not at all sour or rotten like the first incarnation did on my skin, and even more the scent of a crisp october evening than it was before.

 

In the bottle, this has a creamy and yet fruity smell to it, something that evokes the image of sitting at the table while my mother doid my makeup for trick-or-treating, sipping on hot cocoa because it was bound to actually be cold, while mom and dad drank wine. It has the scent of falling leaves, and grass that was cut for the last time of the year, and pumpkins sitting on every doorstep.

 

Putting it on, I hoped beyond hope that this incarnation wouldn't do what the first one did .. and my prayers were answered.!Immediately it becomes a heartier verson of the bottle scent, creamy and rich and incredibly delicious. As it mellows, spreading into my skin like a delicious blanket, it draws out an apple scent that is to-die-for. Crisp Macintosh apples, fresh from the local orchards, biting into one while I hunt for the perfect pumpkin. It's simply dreamy .. everything I hoped this scent would be, and it gives me chills to think about it.

 

It wears all night long, and even after 8-10 hours I still get a dreamy scent from my wrists when I sniff them, though the lovely cloud of scent is gone from around me. After all this time, it's become smokey and soft, a bonfire in an open field around which witches dance and sing and seek the wisdom of their ancestors.

 

*shivers* I have chills again. God, I love this scent.

[antimony]

I'm not overly excited about Samhain, but my boyfriend loves it, so it'll go into heavy rotation.

 

It's definately a spicy cidery scent, but, on me, it smells just like Three Witches, but a little sweeter and more apple (though I'm almost the only person who smells apples in Three Witches in the first place) I like it, but I like Three Witches better.

 

---

 

Dec 31st: Nevermind, I was wrong. It grew on me and it is now one of my top 5 BPAL's *ever*

Edited December 31, 2004 by antimony

[TrayLynn]

I am so in love with my 2004 Samhain. I'm so glad I got two bottles of this lovely stuff. I've never been a big fan of patchouli before but I love it in this. It just adds a bit of earthyness to the spicy apple smell. It doesn't smell foody to me at all either, just like warm homeyness in a bottle. This is the fall comfort scent that I've been looking for. Cooler weather in Louisiana accompanied by the arrival of Samhain...coincidence...I think not.

[asa805]

I dont really have much to add to all the reviews thus far for 2004 samhain but i will try.

 

First on my skin it does have a bit of a fresh pine scent but as it dries down it sweetens up a lot and the apple and pumpkin come out and behind it is something dark that warms up the fruits (presumable the patchouli) that just makes this sooo evocative of fall. The interesting thing i find with this oil is that when i lightly sniff my wrists i smell the piney/apple smell but when i deeply inhale (and also when i get wafts) i smell the foody caramel apple/pumpkin spice scent . I prefer the latter but both are gorgeous. I also get light undercurrents of fresh crisp autumn air, and crunchy leaves underfoot. All in all a masterpiece. This blend definatley lives up to the hype and i will savor the two bottles i have and pray that Beth decides to revisit this scent every year.

 

update: I just made my mom sniff my wrist and im shocked that she actually LIKES it.... ok this may not seem liek a big deal but this is first perfume that she likes out of the over 150 scents i have made her sniff!!! So yeah.. this stuff is gooood .... very very goood!

Edited November 7, 2004 by asa805

[Nadirah]

04'

Wow oh wow, really this is a masterpeice. Out of the bottle I smell a warm pumkin, not overbearing it is very comforting. Once I put it on my skin and I smell the smoke out of a chimney on a cool night, theres a breeze and a warm cup of apple cider. This is beautiful! Beautiful!! An hour or so later it has becaome a late night walk in the forest trodding on fir needles to come home to a warm house. I do smell the apple, its like a fresh pressed hot apple cider. I feel so Blessed to have this!! Thank you Beth for creating it!!

[grrrlennyl]

samhain 2004

 

at first: sweet, spicy, and foody with a definite whiff of black patchouli. great.

on: very nice. a warm and spicy fall blend. i think i smell a bit of pumpkin and maybe someting like pine. gorgeous.

1 hour later: very floral, light, and fruity. gorgeous.

2 hours later: still very autumnal. fruity and spices, but not too heavy or foody.

3 hours later: this lasts really well. a perfect fall scent.

overall: i'm so glad i got a bottle of this. it's really beautiful. it somehow avoids being too sweet or too foody, while still smelling like autumn.

[blackrayne]

I have both versions (editions?) of Samhain, and have already reviewed the first a while ago (back on page one of this thread)... to me, Samhain 2004 is a lot lighter, and more subtle when first putting it on... for the last two days I have been wearing last year's on my right arm, and this year's on the left... and last year's is definitely stronger and crisper, as opposed to this year's being more mellow. After several hours (I am thinking it has been about 5 hours since putting them on) they smell almost identical, though there are still ever-so-subtle differences (oh how I wish my nose wasn't stuffed up so I could smell them better).

[Northernminx]

Bottled. Autumn.

 

I said this once about Hesperidies too, but simply because it smells like the apple orchard near me.

 

This?

 

This is a cold october morning in the forest, connifers and wet leaves and earth as the trees lose their leaves in chill air. Someone baking in the distance, apples and pumpkins and fall fruit, but overall a sense of stillness and calm. A touch of spice, a touch of forest, and I'm in heaven.

 

I am so infinitly glad that I spent so much on the order I got a 10ml upgrade, because I want to wrap this scent around me. Beautiful beautiful beatiful.

[Ina Garten Davita]

First Impression: Fir needles and eucalyptus.

 

Second Impression: I get very strong leaves and fir for the longest time. Only after long while does any sort of sweet autumn spice start to appear. I put this on the second I had it out of the package, so it's been on for about 3 hours and only now and I'm getting a faint sweet apple scent mixed with the fading fir and eucalyptus fragrance.

 

Final Analysis: I don't get as much autumn from Samhain as I get from Harvest Moon. I was really expecting to be over the moon about this, but no. It's lovely but it's not the "holy grail" of autumn that I thought it was going to be.

[Nepthys]

After hearing about the magic of Samhain ever since I got here, I was afraid the real thing couldn't possibly live up to the hype. And when I first opened the bottle I was so sad - it smelled quite close to Jack, which absolutely didn't work on me.

 

Then I put it on. That plastic-pumpkin smell came right through, muted by a smokiness. Then - thank god - that vanished within ten minutes and what came through was a smoky smell of apples; it smelled like a warm fall evening, like those September nights when the earth is still warm enough to really itensify the smell of pine needles and fallen apples... It was a very cozy scent, and then it turned suddenly spooky and almost sinister with a crisp dry scent of dead leaves. Then that went into a burning-leaf smell (which I love) and now after about 3 hours, it's all one cozy autumn-night blend. All in all, I adore this - but it is quite subtle, and if I hadn't monitored it with constant sniffing, I think I would have missed the above changes. This may be one I have to apply a lot of.

 

ETA: I've realized that I don't love this quite as much as I originally thought. I have to sniff it closely to get all of complexities, and if I don't, the overall aura of it is a simpler dark buttery pumpkin that just isn't as nice.

Edited November 21, 2004 by Nepthys

[Lorencita]

This is really deliscious!!!!! I tried Jack not too long ago, I thought I was in love.... oh no, now I am! This is more complex than Jack. I love the apple smell, with the dried leaves and hint of pumpkin! This is so great, I am going to make a lotion right away!

[Caitfish]

In the bottle:

Dominant notes: Pumpkin more prominent than on, it smells almost baked. Very spicy, and the apples come in last.

Impressions: This smells creamy, spicy, and very strong.

Initial On:

Dominant notes: WOAH SPICY. The clove, nutmeg and allspice are all apparent here.

Impressions: Very, very spicy at first, though this quickly calms down a lot and the lovely sweet apples come back strong, with the creamy baked pumpkin scent lulling behind them. The mullein gives this an air of mulled cider, hot on the stove. Lovely.

After a while:

Persistent notes: All of them! The apples really stick, though the pumpkin becomes a bit more difficult to detect, it's still there. The delicious, foody spices all stick around.

Notes that fade: None.

Staying power? Fantastic. Hours, probably all day without a reapply.

Summary: This is truly the embodiment of the classic autumn scent. I can't think of a more perfect blend. Creamy, spicy, sweet - all at once. A triumph. I wish I had ordered twice what I did so that I would have a 10ml now, but I'll really treasure this one.

 

ETA: This is also a scent that my boyfriend enjoys, WHICH IS RARE, unless it's the smell of gun solvent or grilling red meat.

[aessedai]

To be brief:

In the bottle: Just like last year's Samhain.

On me wet: Smells like last year's Samhain with a bit of HM's buttery spice.

On the drydown: Just like last year's Samhain!

[hypothermya]

Samhain, 2004

 

I've already posted a review for 2003, so I'll keep this one as short as possible and focus on the differences.

 

Initial Impression

 

In the bottle, it smells lighter than 2003. Almost smells exactly like Jack II, for that matter. Yummy, buttery pumpkin.

 

Wearing It

 

I was almost disappointed when I put this on, because at first is was just pure pumpkin and smelled just like Jack II. Which is nice, but not quite what I wanted from Samhain revisited. But, just to show me that I was jumping to conclusions, it morphed, and became that gorgeous pine/woodsmoke scent with pumpkin at the back. And then, apples last just like 2003, the cider/mullein scent emerged.

 

Overall, this is very, very similar to last year's. The only real difference I can smell is that the pumpkins are more buttery and the apples are less prevalent. I still love this one with all my heart, and am currently slathered with it.

 

One thing that I did notice, though, which I suspect I never had enough oil of 2003 to discover, was that when I applied it to my neck, I got a burning sensation. It lasted for about five minutes. So...from now on, I'm applying it lightly on my neck.

[SoapyRN]

I was so excited to get this. I think in my excitement, I overlooked the fact that this was FOOD based. What a knucklehead I am.

 

Too buttery, too wet, too much like the spiced pumpkin I make during the holidays.

 

Silly me!

Chemistry is such an odd thing, as it is a lovely scent on other people.

[cuervosueno]

I was so delighted to get this in the mail today...then very puzzled, because in the bottle, Samhain and Dia De Los Muertos smelled exactly the same.....I really wondered if there'd been a mix-up.

Maybe....I'm not entirely convinced that what I have labled dia de los muertos really is that...it so exactly matches everyone's descrips of Sugar Skull...

But on to Samhain.

I was beginning to think I was crazy, so I'm glad I read through all the reviews. I get no pine notes at all, no pumpkin. No apples..so far anyway, though its only been on for an hour.

What I do get is the creamy sweetness others mentioned. Very sweet, very creamy, with a definate powdery note which on me could be pachouli...sometimes it turns powdery on me. its lovely and light, but not at all what I expected, so I'm not disappointed I didn't get it for Samhain...it doesn't bring that to mind to me at all, but is rather a sweet baking smell I associate more with Christmas...though the powder adds some sophistication.

I'll add more later, see if it changes on me. It is lovely, and I really can't pick out any individual notes, but it is not at all what I expected from the description. Still, I see I'm not the only one who got a very different scent from what is described, so I guess its just my body chemistry.

 

eta: I wanted to add a note on how Samhain changes as it ages (and also as I've learned to pick out scents better). Here it is, Aug, almost a year later, and Samhain has become a favorite scent of mine. Definately no pachouli (what was I thinking?) but there is a slighty almost cinnamon note that is lovely--probably allspice because it is softer than cinnamon. But the biggest change is that this is very lovely and appley now--when I open the bottle and when I wear it I most definately get a spiced apple smell that is gorgeous. I LOVE Samhain!

Edited August 16, 2005 by cuervosueno

[omly]

Samhain smells like autumn leaves, the brown crunchy ones that we would make into enormous piles before jumping in and scattering them to the far corners of the yard. When I hold my wrist up to my nose to get a closer smell, it smells slightly more foody than when I don't, although it isn't very even still. The spices are there, but like a good mulled wine you don't pick out individual notes, just a melange of spices. This is very nice and I could see how many people like it. It isn't something I am drooling over though so I will probably let this one pass on to someone who is more passionate about it.