BPAL Reviews XXII: Halloweenies!
Happy Halloween!
Join me in a celebratory perfume revel with more reviews from the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. These are all Limited Editions, most of them Halloween themed. Some are re-issued each year, some aren't, but the current Halloween update at the Lab is up until December 1st.
Pumpkin Queen, Lab description: "The Glorious Grand Dame of the Pumpkin Patch! Regal Egyptian Amber, red ginger, orange peel, mandarin, cardamom, fig leaf and warm pumpkin."
2006 Limited Edition.
Just you try and pry this out of my cold, dead hands! In the bottle it smells just gloriously of pumpkin and spices, with just a hint of razzy orange and a faint draft of husky amber.
It goes on biteable, yummy, ferociously tasty! The orange peel is the genius note here. I'll be damned, this may be one of the most warmly perfect blends I've smelled yet.
I was in Bath and Body Works the other day, sniffing at their pumpkin-flavored stuff, but this slaps the knockoff bottom shelf pumpkin perfumes right to the floor. I need to order another bottle!
It's diabolically grand, a warm, biteable cookie of a smell with a huge jack o'lantern grin. I love it. Not for those who don't like pumpkin, but for those who do, it may well be the ultimate Halloween scent.
Hexennacht, Lab description: "This perfume is the scent of the witches’ revel: German fir and forest herbs, incense and bonfire smoke, and the wet, glimmering scent of skin warmed by dance."
This is a Limited Edition, and technically it's a Beltane scent. I'm throwing it in here, though, because, well, there's witches. And I want to clear it off my reviews list.
This is sweet and hazy in the bottle, fruity and herbal with just a hint of incense smoke and musk, no overt green scent of any kind.
It smokes up when it goes on, and the fir comes out faintly, but not obnoxiously. This is rich and layered, and very golden. The herbs and smoke keep it from smelling too feminine but the throw is a sweet musk tinged with a hint of greenery that is definitely rather girly. I like it quite a bit, though I'm not sure where exactly the persistent fruity note I'm getting is coming from. It smells a bit like apples and a bit like melon. I'm guessing it's the incense mixed with the musk.
Three Witches, Lab description: "Warm cinnamon, husky clove and white pepper."
Limited Edition.
What a fiercely funny scent! The cinnamon and pepper front this in the bottle; this is a spicy blend with a real kick to it. It zip, zip, zips right out of the bottle. With a scent like this, it seems like the oil should be a bright color, but it's not - just pale yellow.
It goes on like a holiday air freshener - sharply cinnamon with a warmer, subtler undertone of cloves and a flick of pepper that takes it from sweet to sassy. It's bold, interesting, and just a little reminiscent of hard candy.
Once it settles, the pepper fades a bit and the cinnamon and clove settle into a swirly, spicy dance. This one is all heat and fire and warmth, the perfect scent to liven up a chilly October evening, or one to rock in the new holiday season with a red-hot punch of saucy spice.
This isn't currently available, so you'll have to find someone to sell you a decant or a secondhand bottle, but it's definitely recommended for those who love cinnamon-based scents. This is very brash and intense.
Spooky, Lab description: "A maddeningly festive blend of warm, buttery rum, cocoa, coconut, vanilla and a jolt of peppermint. It’s a sweet, decadent, slightly silly scent, reminicent of rum-laced holiday cookies."
This is a completely crazy scent - butter rum coconut peppermint cookies! Tasty, tasty, tasty-smelling; festive holiday fun.
Minty! This is super-minty on, warm and smooth, like those little butter mints they serve at weddings. One of those tasty smells that just begs you to take a nibble here, a nibble there. It settles down to a really neat scent that is equal parts rum and coconut with just a dusting of cocoa; the mint is almost all gone.
I like this. It's cheerful, playful, frisky, and fun, and it evokes lots of nice holiday memories. Mmm! Cookies!
Sugar Skull, Lab description: "Vibrant with the joy and sweetness of life in death! A blend of five sugars, lightly dusted with candied fruits."
Limited Edition, currently available, but I'm reviewing the '05 version.
Sugar! Caramel sugar, sweet white sugar, rich brown sugar, I can smell them all, straight out of the bottle!
It goes on a little more smoky than I thought it would, this is definitely a sweet smell but it does have some depth. The fruit notes, if there are any, are very light and very faint, politely in the background. Mostly this is delicious sugar - it smells like cake batter or cookie dough before you've added the flour, when it's just the wet ingredients and sugar all creamed together.
With time, it does indeed develop a slightly fruity tang, but it's a faint one, and it is indeed quite candylike.
Devil's Night, Lab description: Devil's Eve, Devil's Night, Gate Night, Trick Night, Mischief Night; whatever your name for it might be, the chaos is still the same. Contrary to popular belief, this festival of pandemonium isn't unique to Detroit. Falling on October 30th, it is an evening of mayhem and destruction. On the gentler side, it may be celebrated by practical jokes, an egging, Ding-Dong-Ditch, or enthusiastic TP'ing of your most hated neighbor's trees, and on the more violent side, arson and vandalism. This is the scent of autumn night, fires in the distance, with a touch of boozy swoon, playful sugar and thuggish musk.
I'm reviewing the '05 or '04 version, but it's available again right now.
This scent really sounds like a good match for me. Full of piss and vinegar. It's an odd scent, very odd, musky and smoky with just a trace of sugar-cookie sweetness. A lingering scent, one that gets caught in the nose, at once fresh and dirty.
On, wow, I can't really describe this adequately. This is a fast and furious foxtrot of booze, spice, and woodsmoke, wild, sexy, and just a little dangerous. The throw is appealing, booze and sugar, but close in it's not so friendly. The spices mingle with booze for a real kick, and the musk is a livewire jolt to the sinuses - this is a very alive and active scent, energetic. Like doing flaming shots of carbonated alcohol.
It's a light scent, not heavy or earthy, but that shouldn't be mistaken for lightness of tone. This is a dusky, shadowy scent all the way, firelight and leaping shadows, and crazy, hard partying.
The drier it gets, the spicier it becomes, and yes, there's a resemblance to fresh autumn air. This is a perfect fall scent, wild and a little dangerous, slightly wistful the way you feel wistful when you know the fun has to end and the night's winding down, and sexy like cuddling up with someone who's been in the woodsmoke. I get a strong dose of apple cider from this, too, rum-laced. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking. I could go with a mug or two of spiced cider right about now.
God, this is glorious. Just glorious.
Samhain, Lab description: Revisited! 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.
Limited Edition. This is the '05 or '04 version, but it's available every year.
Oh, man. This is . . . wow. A holiday smell, for sure. It's all hot spice and greenery, actually rather Christmasy. I like it very much in the bottle, though it strikes me as more of a room scent than a body scent.
On, it's pure luxury. I cannot imagine a more comforting smell. Yes, I can smell the pumpkin, and I can smell the apple, too. The patchouli is very soft and very dark, a subtle infusion more than an overt scent. The spices are warm and drifting, mixing freely with the smell of live evergreens.
As it wears, it becomes more perfume-y, much more spicy and sweet, with the apple and pumpkin taking center stage along with the spices, and something that is really wonderfully sweet and round and smooth and not at all familiar to me - the mullein, perhaps?
Such a friendly holiday scent. Beautiful and comforting.
Pumpkin Patch #1, Lab description: "Pumpkin with apple cider and mulling spice."
Limited Edition.
This is warm, spiced pumpkin and sweet apple spice all swirled together. It smells in the bottle exactly like it smells on my skin: sweet, spicy, edible. The spices actually come out a lot as it heats up, pushing the pumpkin and the apple back a little bit. A very festive holiday scent that's ideal for warming you up on a cold, cold October night!
The pumpkin wears to a smooth, warm pumkin that's more like a candle or a candle-warmed real pumpkin than a pie pumpkin.
Pumpkin Patch #2, Lab description: "Pumpkin with cocoa, hazelnut and walnut."
Of course this is chocolatey and pumpkin-y in the bottle, but once it goes on a heady nutty aroma comes out, very much like nutty chocolate spice cookies. It's a tasty, lickable, biteable smell that makes me hungry. The nut scent is very toasty, and not at all almondy (in other words, it does not smell like cherries). I like this one the best so far, of the 3 I've tried. It's very, very delicious-smelling!
I love the spiced pumpkin note the Lab uses - it's such a perfect balance between food/not food.
Pumpkin Patch #3, Lab description: "Pumpkin and pomegranate."
Buttery! Spicy! Pumpkin-y! And . . . fruity! How playful this is in the bottle!
And how amazing it is on! This combination should not work, but it does. I remember having scratch and sniff stickers as a kid that smelled like this. I don't remember what the stickers were supposed to smell like, but this is the smell of them.
Warm pumpkin combines very naturally with pomegranate's perfumey fruitiness to create a sweet scent that is warm as laughter.
On drydown it becomes more stable - a warm spiced pumpkin scent underneath a strong fruity blast of pomegranate. This smell is very candylike, and also candle-like, which is far from unpleasant. The extreme weardown is the most yummy and comforting warm pumpkin smell, perfectly between foody, spicy, and earthy.
I really like this one, even if it's not a scent I think I'd wear every day. It's a trifle candylike for me, but it's still really pretty.
That's all for now! I'm still working on your questions from the last entry, and I hope to post the answers to the first half later today, between bouts of trudging through the freezing cold and writing porn.
Tiny scent icons are courtesy of me, Penance's BPAL Icons, Diana's BPAL icons, and Storme's BPAL icons.
Join me in a celebratory perfume revel with more reviews from the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. These are all Limited Editions, most of them Halloween themed. Some are re-issued each year, some aren't, but the current Halloween update at the Lab is up until December 1st.
Pumpkin Queen, Lab description: "The Glorious Grand Dame of the Pumpkin Patch! Regal Egyptian Amber, red ginger, orange peel, mandarin, cardamom, fig leaf and warm pumpkin."
2006 Limited Edition.
Just you try and pry this out of my cold, dead hands! In the bottle it smells just gloriously of pumpkin and spices, with just a hint of razzy orange and a faint draft of husky amber.
It goes on biteable, yummy, ferociously tasty! The orange peel is the genius note here. I'll be damned, this may be one of the most warmly perfect blends I've smelled yet.
I was in Bath and Body Works the other day, sniffing at their pumpkin-flavored stuff, but this slaps the knockoff bottom shelf pumpkin perfumes right to the floor. I need to order another bottle!
It's diabolically grand, a warm, biteable cookie of a smell with a huge jack o'lantern grin. I love it. Not for those who don't like pumpkin, but for those who do, it may well be the ultimate Halloween scent.
Hexennacht, Lab description: "This perfume is the scent of the witches’ revel: German fir and forest herbs, incense and bonfire smoke, and the wet, glimmering scent of skin warmed by dance."
This is a Limited Edition, and technically it's a Beltane scent. I'm throwing it in here, though, because, well, there's witches. And I want to clear it off my reviews list.
This is sweet and hazy in the bottle, fruity and herbal with just a hint of incense smoke and musk, no overt green scent of any kind.
It smokes up when it goes on, and the fir comes out faintly, but not obnoxiously. This is rich and layered, and very golden. The herbs and smoke keep it from smelling too feminine but the throw is a sweet musk tinged with a hint of greenery that is definitely rather girly. I like it quite a bit, though I'm not sure where exactly the persistent fruity note I'm getting is coming from. It smells a bit like apples and a bit like melon. I'm guessing it's the incense mixed with the musk.
Three Witches, Lab description: "Warm cinnamon, husky clove and white pepper."
Limited Edition.
What a fiercely funny scent! The cinnamon and pepper front this in the bottle; this is a spicy blend with a real kick to it. It zip, zip, zips right out of the bottle. With a scent like this, it seems like the oil should be a bright color, but it's not - just pale yellow.
It goes on like a holiday air freshener - sharply cinnamon with a warmer, subtler undertone of cloves and a flick of pepper that takes it from sweet to sassy. It's bold, interesting, and just a little reminiscent of hard candy.
Once it settles, the pepper fades a bit and the cinnamon and clove settle into a swirly, spicy dance. This one is all heat and fire and warmth, the perfect scent to liven up a chilly October evening, or one to rock in the new holiday season with a red-hot punch of saucy spice.
This isn't currently available, so you'll have to find someone to sell you a decant or a secondhand bottle, but it's definitely recommended for those who love cinnamon-based scents. This is very brash and intense.
Spooky, Lab description: "A maddeningly festive blend of warm, buttery rum, cocoa, coconut, vanilla and a jolt of peppermint. It’s a sweet, decadent, slightly silly scent, reminicent of rum-laced holiday cookies."
This is a completely crazy scent - butter rum coconut peppermint cookies! Tasty, tasty, tasty-smelling; festive holiday fun.
Minty! This is super-minty on, warm and smooth, like those little butter mints they serve at weddings. One of those tasty smells that just begs you to take a nibble here, a nibble there. It settles down to a really neat scent that is equal parts rum and coconut with just a dusting of cocoa; the mint is almost all gone.
I like this. It's cheerful, playful, frisky, and fun, and it evokes lots of nice holiday memories. Mmm! Cookies!
Sugar Skull, Lab description: "Vibrant with the joy and sweetness of life in death! A blend of five sugars, lightly dusted with candied fruits."
Limited Edition, currently available, but I'm reviewing the '05 version.
Sugar! Caramel sugar, sweet white sugar, rich brown sugar, I can smell them all, straight out of the bottle!
It goes on a little more smoky than I thought it would, this is definitely a sweet smell but it does have some depth. The fruit notes, if there are any, are very light and very faint, politely in the background. Mostly this is delicious sugar - it smells like cake batter or cookie dough before you've added the flour, when it's just the wet ingredients and sugar all creamed together.
With time, it does indeed develop a slightly fruity tang, but it's a faint one, and it is indeed quite candylike.
Devil's Night, Lab description: Devil's Eve, Devil's Night, Gate Night, Trick Night, Mischief Night; whatever your name for it might be, the chaos is still the same. Contrary to popular belief, this festival of pandemonium isn't unique to Detroit. Falling on October 30th, it is an evening of mayhem and destruction. On the gentler side, it may be celebrated by practical jokes, an egging, Ding-Dong-Ditch, or enthusiastic TP'ing of your most hated neighbor's trees, and on the more violent side, arson and vandalism. This is the scent of autumn night, fires in the distance, with a touch of boozy swoon, playful sugar and thuggish musk.
I'm reviewing the '05 or '04 version, but it's available again right now.
This scent really sounds like a good match for me. Full of piss and vinegar. It's an odd scent, very odd, musky and smoky with just a trace of sugar-cookie sweetness. A lingering scent, one that gets caught in the nose, at once fresh and dirty.
On, wow, I can't really describe this adequately. This is a fast and furious foxtrot of booze, spice, and woodsmoke, wild, sexy, and just a little dangerous. The throw is appealing, booze and sugar, but close in it's not so friendly. The spices mingle with booze for a real kick, and the musk is a livewire jolt to the sinuses - this is a very alive and active scent, energetic. Like doing flaming shots of carbonated alcohol.
It's a light scent, not heavy or earthy, but that shouldn't be mistaken for lightness of tone. This is a dusky, shadowy scent all the way, firelight and leaping shadows, and crazy, hard partying.
The drier it gets, the spicier it becomes, and yes, there's a resemblance to fresh autumn air. This is a perfect fall scent, wild and a little dangerous, slightly wistful the way you feel wistful when you know the fun has to end and the night's winding down, and sexy like cuddling up with someone who's been in the woodsmoke. I get a strong dose of apple cider from this, too, rum-laced. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking. I could go with a mug or two of spiced cider right about now.
God, this is glorious. Just glorious.
Samhain, Lab description: Revisited! 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.
Limited Edition. This is the '05 or '04 version, but it's available every year.
Oh, man. This is . . . wow. A holiday smell, for sure. It's all hot spice and greenery, actually rather Christmasy. I like it very much in the bottle, though it strikes me as more of a room scent than a body scent.
On, it's pure luxury. I cannot imagine a more comforting smell. Yes, I can smell the pumpkin, and I can smell the apple, too. The patchouli is very soft and very dark, a subtle infusion more than an overt scent. The spices are warm and drifting, mixing freely with the smell of live evergreens.
As it wears, it becomes more perfume-y, much more spicy and sweet, with the apple and pumpkin taking center stage along with the spices, and something that is really wonderfully sweet and round and smooth and not at all familiar to me - the mullein, perhaps?
Such a friendly holiday scent. Beautiful and comforting.
Pumpkin Patch #1, Lab description: "Pumpkin with apple cider and mulling spice."
Limited Edition.
This is warm, spiced pumpkin and sweet apple spice all swirled together. It smells in the bottle exactly like it smells on my skin: sweet, spicy, edible. The spices actually come out a lot as it heats up, pushing the pumpkin and the apple back a little bit. A very festive holiday scent that's ideal for warming you up on a cold, cold October night!
The pumpkin wears to a smooth, warm pumkin that's more like a candle or a candle-warmed real pumpkin than a pie pumpkin.
Pumpkin Patch #2, Lab description: "Pumpkin with cocoa, hazelnut and walnut."
Of course this is chocolatey and pumpkin-y in the bottle, but once it goes on a heady nutty aroma comes out, very much like nutty chocolate spice cookies. It's a tasty, lickable, biteable smell that makes me hungry. The nut scent is very toasty, and not at all almondy (in other words, it does not smell like cherries). I like this one the best so far, of the 3 I've tried. It's very, very delicious-smelling!
I love the spiced pumpkin note the Lab uses - it's such a perfect balance between food/not food.
Pumpkin Patch #3, Lab description: "Pumpkin and pomegranate."
Buttery! Spicy! Pumpkin-y! And . . . fruity! How playful this is in the bottle!
And how amazing it is on! This combination should not work, but it does. I remember having scratch and sniff stickers as a kid that smelled like this. I don't remember what the stickers were supposed to smell like, but this is the smell of them.
Warm pumpkin combines very naturally with pomegranate's perfumey fruitiness to create a sweet scent that is warm as laughter.
On drydown it becomes more stable - a warm spiced pumpkin scent underneath a strong fruity blast of pomegranate. This smell is very candylike, and also candle-like, which is far from unpleasant. The extreme weardown is the most yummy and comforting warm pumpkin smell, perfectly between foody, spicy, and earthy.
I really like this one, even if it's not a scent I think I'd wear every day. It's a trifle candylike for me, but it's still really pretty.
That's all for now! I'm still working on your questions from the last entry, and I hope to post the answers to the first half later today, between bouts of trudging through the freezing cold and writing porn.
Tiny scent icons are courtesy of me, Penance's BPAL Icons, Diana's BPAL icons, and Storme's BPAL icons.