The Witch Bride

[annemathematics]

A fair witch crept to a young man's side,
And he kiss'd her and took her for his bride.

But a Shape came in at the dead of night,
And fill'd the room with snowy light.

And he saw how in his arms there lay
A thing more frightful than mouth may say.

And he rose in haste, and follow'd the Shape
Till morning crown'd an eastern cape.

And he girded himself, and follow'd still
When sunset sainted the western hill.

But, mocking and thwarting, clung to his side,
Weary day!-the foul Witch-Bride.

(Aw, c'mon, Allingham. Foul is a pretty strong choice of words, dontcha think?)

Pale and lovely, with eyes belladonna-wide: hemlock blossoms and ghostly nightshade veiled by wisteria, white frankincense, black amber, and narcissus resin.

I'm at a loss as to how to translate the scent experience of witch bride to words so that you, the reader, could gain some understanding of how it smells and decide if it's something you want to seek out. sorry!

I blind bought my bottle based upon the label art and the theme and the notes and I adore it. I don't tend to go for straight up florals, and this isn't that. there's a sweet and warm resiny base, and some light florals (my favorite bpal narcissus experience to date!) on top, and it's just a nice beautiful blend. I only detect the herbal notes if I look for them, and I may only be sensing them because I read them in the description. they are subtle and add a nice bit of complexity (spoken by someone who loves very herby winter stars and the waters of the well of wisdom).
witch bride is light to moderate in strength. very addciting.

[Atrous]

This is indeed a pale, lovely scent. I'm getting Wisteria which I'm happy about because I love the scent. Thankfully it doesn't go bad on me.

There is something aquatic and herbal swirling around the floral. The water/herbal element smells fresh.

A resinous base supports the blend but I don't get any distinct resins. I can't pick up the amber or frankincense individually but rather combine to give a sense that there are resins in this blend.

A beautiful, non offending scent perfect for those times when you don't want a smell cloud knocking people over.

[EphemeralFey]

Purchase: Directly from the Lab

 

In the bottle: Woah, florals! It’s a bit pale, cold, and has an astringent quality to it. I can’t pick out any individual notes in this, but it smells wonderful so far!

 

Test Area: Inside crook of elbow

 

Wet: The astringent quality has gone away, and the amber and frankincense are starting to warm up the florals.

 

Dry down: The amber is starting to make itself known with a wonderful pale flower backdrop. I’m getting a medium amount of throw so far.

 

1 hour later: The florals paraded to the front, while the amber and frankincense took a breather in the back. It’s such a warm resiny floral with a great amount of throw now!

 

Thoughts: I am so happy that I got a blind bottle of this!! It’s such a morpher, but I love every phase that it goes through! I’m looking forward to this bottle aging. This is a wonderful scent for floral lovers. If you were hoping that the amber and frankincense would beat back the flowers, you’ll be disappointed at the end result.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

This is gorgeous! White florals can skew too sweet or, worse, too astringent, but Witch Bride is perfectly blended and smells like an expensive designer perfume--a great choice for those new to BPAL who like Chanel et al. It's a complex blend, with slight incense undertones, good throw but not overpowering. It would actually make an awesome wedding scent, true to the name!

[Arden Ivy]

Decanted by Mellifluous.

 

In Bottle: Kind of astringent, but also very feminine.

 

First Applied: Ooooh. This is very interesting. I don't think it smells heavily of white florals. They are there, but it smells equal parts sultry and innocent and feminine and smoky with a hint of green. Very complex.

 

After an hour: I want to repeat pretty much everything Laurel wrote. It smells expensive and is very well blended that I can't decipher individual notes, although this may also be my lack of experience. I think this would be insanely perfect on a bride-to-be. Witch Bride could not be a more accurate name. Does not scream "floral" at all to me, but rather just a lovely, complex scent that is chilly without being cold, like an unapproachable woman that keeps throwing "come hither" smiles.

 

It is gorgeous. I'm not sure if it is me, but I am definitely glad that I got to smell it because it really is lovely. As my second ever BPAL, this speaks heaps of promise on what is to come.

[OctoberGwen]

First applied and for some time afterwards, Witch-Bride isn't so much astringent as it is medicinal: it smells like an old fashioned apothecary shop's mixture of tinctures and powders and roots. The resins don't do anything to deepen the pale, wispy quality of the scent, even into the far drydown when that medicinal smell has gone and the florals begin to shine a bit. These florals are witchy and greenish-white and mysterious; more sexual than sexy, if that makes sense, but in a slightly spooky way.

 

Witch-Bride is interesting and evocative; pretty, even, but ultimately too pale for me.

[Jangzonrice]

in imp: mostly floral for me with a little bit of herbs...meh....

 

will update when I get to try it on!

[zankoku_zen]

Giant blooming flowers! This is a ton of wisteria, hints of other flowers and a base of amber and frankincense. Giant throw, giant wearlength.

 

This smells like a Southern plantation in autumn. If you can handle wisteria, which I can't, give this a whirl.

 

Heavy, floral, wisteria.

[Hattress]

I still can't decide if I like The Witch-Bride. It's very floral for me, though I can pick out the herbal notes. When I first apply it, it's alllllll floral. Very strong, to the point of being almost overwhelming. After a while, it fades down to a lighter, softer scent. Unfortunately for me, I think it takes a little too long to calm down, and it spends most of its time a little too strong a floral on me.

[Elisa Ford]

Wisteria, and a lot of it, in bottle, wet on skin and an hour after. Frankincense is also decidedly present dried, but is late in comming. Fills me with visions of a romantic night on the town circa the 1950s, but a twee bit to flowery for my tastes.

[lady_pandora]

The Witch-Bride starts out with a big whiff of what I think is narcissus; this note is a heady sweet nectary flower that's also in Darkness, though the version in Witch-Bride is better, I think, since it doesn't go through a baby lotion phase. Underneath that is a green note that I've smelled in a number of perfumes and always reminds me of celery. It's greenery, leaves and stems rather than flowers.

 

It morphs then and something really heavy and bitter takes over. I wonder if this is hemlock; I think a much more subdued version of this might be in Poisoned Apple. Behind that I can still smell the narcissus and the green note. I can feel an acrid sensation in my nose and the back of my throat. Definitely evokes the concept of poison, of a witch's poison garden. It could be in the Rappaccini collection.

 

At about 20 minutes, the big bitterness is fading and there's more of the celery thing. Then at about 30, something sharp comes out, kind of like when opium does the hairspray thing.

 

A little while after that, there's a somewhat dry floral I think is wisteria. Still the sharp floral and the celery. My nose is still burning.

 

I washed this off at about the one-hour mark. It might well do something amazing after that, but something in here is an irritant to me and feels burny in my nose. It's a big decadent floral with a "poison" vibe and could be great on the right person. It's not for me, however. The closest GC to this that I've experienced is Darkness (which works better on me).

[milo]

Rather cologney smelling. Sharp, heady and acrid. Not for me.

[Teaker]

Cologny and overwhelming, the kind of scent that gives me a headache. Super strong floral, heavy and perfumey and cloying. I thought there must be oakmoss here since it goes bitter and flat when it dries on my skin, but the culprit must be one of the florals. Just really, really not me. Wearing this would be olfactory torture for me!

[Blood onmy hands]

I love wisteria (pale blue, cool, sweet, and reminiscent of lilac to me), but I don't love the other notes that wrap around the wisteria in this blend. The narcissus is very sharp and perfumey, and threatens to go soapy. The hemlock is thick, heavy, green, and herbal-medicinal. And something about the resin in this is sharply smoky and keeps making me think of cigarette smoke.

[PrinceofcatS]

This is a strong, heavy perfume and has bombastic throw, so the second time I wore it i dabbed it on only very lightly, and it's more wearable this way.

 

The comment that it's like a Southern plantation is spot-on. This opens with that sweet, fresh narcissus note but quickly becomes more of an oriental floral. I don't think this is quite a generic department store perfume, but it wouldn't be out of place there. It's witchy and poisonous, but ladylike and sweet.

 

I was hoping for light flowers over dark herbs and dry, warm resins, and all of those things are technically here, it's just lacking a fresh quality I expected or hoped for. This is a really gorgeous scent, though, for someone who likes that sort of thing (which I do, but not all the time).

 

Darkness is not entirely dissimilar, but that one is much more fresh and spring-y on me than this one.

[Moranna_Morgaine]

I adored this, it's a little on the heavy side wet but in the dry-down it was just a lovely poison garden!

[Kay Torres]

On me this is a very strong, white floral perfume. Traditionally perfume-y and incredibly overwhelming. There's something in here that doesn't like my skin. It goes bitter and flat, but the throw smells like a perfume I was gifted before discovering bpal and promptly threw away. I wish I could remember the name because lovers of whatever that was would love this.

[gloame]

This is a white floral, but it's not a sneezy floral. It smells both womanly and innocent, both sexy and relaxed. I find it very pretty, and I think I'll wear it a lot during spring. Very happy blind purchase.

[AColeman]

I am slightly confused, but oddly still drawn to this creation. Admittedly, I am not familiar with a number of notes here so this is out of my comfort zone and I have no idea of what it is I'm picking out.

 

This is most definitely a sheer white color invoking scent, but yet a hint of mystery remains from such an innocent seeming scent. On initial sniff, it is most certainly floral...and a floral that I am not accustomed to. I can not decided if I actually enjoy that particular opening or not. My immediate reaction is to recoil...but after a moment, it's not that bad? The confusion! As another user has mentioned, there is a hint of celery in there. Thank goodness someone else said it or I would have thought I was crazy! I am not a celery fan, but this is just a fleeting note, thankfully, because that could have been a disaster. After 30 minutes or so, this is becoming more lovely...okay, now I can do this. This is unique...unsuspecting and almost slightly cold. This is another addition to my collection that I will be setting back for a while to test again before I decide if I truly want to rehome her.

[LizziesLuck]

2017 version

 

Wet: Oh that's different. I wasn't sure what to expect. The hemlock (pretty sure that's what I am smelling) is very dark and green. Almost spicy? Or maybe herbal is a better word. Man that's an interesting smell. Compelling. As it dries it gets lighter and sweeter, a touch perfumier and less green. It smells cold, forbidding, haunting, beautiful. It's different each time I sniff it, constantly morphing. It smells vaguely familiar - I had something unrelated to BPAL that smelled like this. Couldn't tell you what. I LIKE this.

 

 

Dry: Once dry I get that same alluring green herbal note, with a floral note I can't quite pin down - it smells kind of like gardenia to me...or maybe magnolia? I confuse the two sometimes. Either way, I figure it's the narcissus, because I seem to recall disliking wisteria, so I don't think it's that I am smelling. Anyway, I enjoy this, I am just having a really hard time imagining reaching it for it and wearing it. I may keep the decant and give it some thought, or a full day test.

[khazakant]

This is a really interesting scent and hard to pin down. It's almost floral, but it's resinous. It's almost feminine, but it's androgynous. It's almost clean, but it's earthy and herbal. The lab's hemlock note is strong (I always really liked that note, it reminds me a bit of burying my nose into the pet rat I had as a teenager, a furry little smell).

I bought this mostly for the concept, but I'm very happy I have a bottle, it's a winner.

[achildoftime]

I have the 2014 blend.

 

I get a lot of wisteria from this blend. It's wisteria plus hemlock on me, with a bit of amber warming it up. The first time I tried it, I thought it was a little bland, but now it's really beautiful. It has some nice stem and sap notes along with the beautiful wisteria. It almost feels romantic. The bride title seems quite accurate.

[mandragora369]

2017 version

 

OMG I am glad I blind bought this one, it is such a gorgeous scent, like a designer perfume like someone wrote.

Normally I hate flower Scents but wanted to try this cause of the hemlock and nightshade. On the other side I love amber and frankincense, I cannot detect one of them, but all together they are gorgeous.

It is floral, sweet and heavy. Thankfully it lasts all day on my skin.

[tinyvulture]

A sweet, resinous floral blend. I'd say the narcissus resin is the most prominent note, followed by frankincense. I'm not getting any amber. It's astringent at first, almost like nail polish remover, but nice once it dries down.