Dead Leaves and Blackberries

[Leopard403]

[No additional description given.]

 

Dead Leaves & Blackberries was a blind bottle purchase for me, and I rarely do that. So glad that I did, because this is lovely! The lab's dead leaves scent is so evocative of fall, though it can turn a little too masculine/cologne-y depending on what else is in the blend. Here, when you add a fresh (read: juicy and just barely candy-ish) blackberry scent (no green stem there, just Berry), it is just perfect. It really is dead leaves and blackberries! This will be nice in cold AND warm weather!

[Klepz]

I mentioned this in the BPAL Chatter weenie thread, but the Lab's dead leaf note usually ruins blends for me. Most of the time, it ends up being an overpoweringly perfumey wet grass smell that takes over a blend. Here, it isn't. It's PERFECT. This is a juicy, syruppy blackberry - it doesn't smell like candy at all - laid over crunchy brown leaves.

 

I wasn't sure if I loved it at first, and then it hit the drydown. Wow. This is stunning. It's an elegant, deep autumnal berry. It's exactly what I wanted Abduction of Prosperpine to smell like. Amazing!

[Dark Alice]

Tested: NYCC wet: Dead LEaves and blackberries. Dry: Dead leaves and bitter blackberry on my skin. *sigh* Blackberry is just not my friend.

[izile]

Tested at NYCC (so sad it was sold out!)

In the bottle: Dead leaves, somewhere in the background, but mostly super-sweet candy blackberry

 

Wet on skin: The blackberry is less candy and more syrupy, but the dead leaves are still waaay back in the background

 

Dry down: This is LOVELY! The dead leaves have stepped up to balance the blackberry, and the blackberry has calmed down from candy, to syrup, to fruity and sweet but not too sweet. It's lovely and very well balanced. My favorite of all the dead leaves!

[puddingirl]

I have never tried a blackberry scent and only one dead leaves scent (Falling Leaf Moon) and I wasn't a fan. When I sniffed this in the bottle it was an intoxicating syrupy, almost boozy smell, like a blackberry liqueur. During the dry down I had a phase of the sharp/perfumed dead leaves scent, but that was thankfully short lasting. The blackberry won out with the hint of dead leaves in the background to make it suitable for warmer or colder weather. It reminds me of blackberry picking with my toddler. She always smells faintly of berries, so I knew this was a must buy, and I am so glad I bought a bottle. It doesn't last too long on me, medium duration, but I can smell it when I sniff my wrist (although average noses may not be able to).

[MCS4096]

The "Dead Leaves and X" blends all feature a leaf note I find different than that found in other leaf containing blends (October, Falling Leaf Moon, etc) because none of those dry down to the high-pitched, rather sharp traditional perfume note these all feature. Once you get over that it smells nothing like leaves when it dries down, the important part is how prominent it is compared with the other featured notes. My selections last year featured much too much of that note. This blend features a lot of purple-red blackberry though, so the end result is really nicely balanced. It's certainly not earthy, crunchy leaves and juicy berries however. It's like.. sophisticated purple berry incense.

[bheansidhe]

I don't specifically get "blackberries" at first sniff, but I do get an astringent-sweet dark berry note, crisp green leaves, and soft wet leaves. I think she may be using different DL formulas, because this one smells much more herbal and much less like the oakmoss base in DL Lavender and DL Cardamom. Here, it's the blackberries that sing.

 

DL and Blackberries is sweeter, fruitier, and more summery than DL Blackcurrant and Tobacco Tar, but not candy-girlish. There's still a wistful feel of early autumn and of gathering a ripe final harvest before the cold sets in. It does sweeten up as it wears, but it doesn't lose the realistic berry-ness.

 

I love this the most after several hours of wear; it's like a lingering berry lip stain of a scent.

[lookingglass]

This was my favorite of the Dead Leaves at Will Call. Blackberry usually goes very sour on me, but I tried it anyway because I kept feeling a pull to go back and sniff it again and again. It really does smell like the last of the blackberries for the season, combined with dead leaves: bright, sweet, and juicy, almost like wine, with a touch of dusty, dry woodiness.

[Casablanca]

The first impression of this on my skin is of blackberries and a weird, thin musky cologne that many have mentioned for the Dead Leaves perfumes.

The blackberries smell tart and dark and pretty. Their tartness reminds me of black currants. Maybe there are also black currants in this. Either way, I like that part of the mix.

As this dries, the chemical-smelling musk burns off and I smell blackberries with a hint of leaves, with the leaves mainly giving a rustic edge to the berries, as if a part of them.

In a half hour or so, it's a subtle blackberry skin scent.

[Coldfire]

Decant: OOOO Bright Blackberry!!!!
Wet on Me: Blackberry with something spice-y wafting underneath.
Drying Down: sharp blackberry but good sharp blackberry
Dry: almost a boozy blackberry. not getting a dead leaves or rot note at all. Love this!!!

[cherrycherry]

With all of the dead leaf scents, I always get the leaf as a top note. This time, I'm getting the blackberry. I didn't expect that. Certainly not complaining though, because this blackberry is sweet and dark and juicy in all the right ways. I get a sort of musky spiciness in there too, which balances everything out and rounds it off nicely. Great addition to the dead leaf collection.

Edited November 8, 2016 by cherrycherry

[Aviatrix]

This opens with a blast of blackberries - but not syrupy like some others have experienced, more fresh and invigorating. But then - poof, it vanishes almost entirely from my skin within fifteen minutes

There is a faint lingering sense of blackberry left, with no dead leaf note, but it's almost gone.

 

Sad panda.

[patina]

This starts off very tart and a little like a berry candle, but on the drydown the leaves come out, just enough to give some depth to the scent. It's a little candy-ish but not too sweet. I'm getting a strong impression of fuscia? magenta? whichever one of those colors is more purple than pink.

[marared]

I was hoping for this to be a cousin of Glasgow, which is one of my favorite GCs (at least when it's fresh and you can still smell the blackberry), It's very slightly sweet, but not disgustingly so. It almost comes off as a dry, dark, dusty grape, and it gets more syrupy on the drydown. It's not bad, but I would have liked this better with more dead leaf balancing it out.

[LizziesLuck]

I am a sucker for blackberries, and am just learning I love dead leaves when mixed with a sweeter note, so I HAD to try this!

 

Wet: Bright, tangy blackberry, sweet but also tart. Dead leaves are present, but secondary. There's something a bit "off" about it, dry and dusty. Hoping it settles on my skin.

 

 

Dry: Really good. Tangy/sweet blackberry and hints of dead leaves. The weird note I was smelling fades away. I am a bit stuffed up today, making it hard to decide for sure, but I think this is on the short list for a bottle. I love blackberry and this is a really simple, lovely, autumnal blackberry scent.

[zankoku_zen]

Sweet fruity blackberries, green leaves and a hint of dry leaves. This one is fruitier and sweeter than I expected. There's an almost red wine note to the blackberries. I am digging this more than I expected. Good throw and wear length.

[reynardine]

Lots of dead leaves with a hint of blackberry in the background. As it dries down, the blackberry comes forward, very tart, well-balanced with the dead leaves. Very woody scent, dead on for the description. Interesting scent! Glad to have tried it, but I'm going to pass on getting a bottle. Not quite me.

[torikitty]

Not overly sweet, and not overly blackberryish. I was hoping for something like LaVanila's Blackberry, but this is sweeter, and not as clean. And my skin chemistry sucked it up after 40 mins, so hardly anything was left. Overall, I think it's a great scent for someone looking for something fruity without being juvenile.

[lizabelle]

The blackberry note in this is incredible! It's all I smell right at the beginning, to the point that I was wondering if I misread what I had put on my hand somehow. They're juicy and yet somehow also a bit perfumey--there's this airy quality to it that's hard to describe. Over time the berries actually get more juicy, which I didn't think was possible! The leaf note does seem to develop over time, too, although it's soft and stays firmly in the background. There's a dusty earthiness that deepens the blackberries and makes this feel like a scent with more than two notes. I tend not to be a fruit-heavy perfume person so I'm shocked by how much I like this! It's perfectly autumnal and that berry note is amazing.

Edited January 29, 2017 by lizabelle

[thekittenkat]

In the bottle: juicy berries on green leaves

 

Wet: much the same as on cold sniff--hope this calms down a bit!

 

The dry-down: the yummy blackberry note is more present, but the leaves are still green, alas.