[shriekingviolet]

Category: Not sure (it disappeared from the site :P ) Sin & Salvation maybe?

Site Description:

Orgiastic sophistication, well-bred debauch. Named in honor of Sir Francis Dashwood's Hellfire Club: black musk, buttered bourbon, allspice and heavy cream.

Initial Impression:
I was a bit concerned when I first ordered both hellfire and hellcat that they'd smell too similar, but that's not the case at all. Despite the bourbon listed on the ingredients, I don't think it smells all that boozy. Except maybe in a holiday eggnog kind of way. It reminds me of christmas parties with lots of spiked eggnog and butter cookies. Very sweet and very yummy. It does smell very indulgent, like someone who's not familiar with the concept of restraint.

After Wearing It:
This one is SWEET. When I first put it on, it made me think of butterscotch and carmel popcorn. As it developed during the day, it became a less distinct but very foody type smell. Sweet, but in a rich buttery way rather than a sticky sugary kind of way. Definitely a bakery scent, indulgent but not necessarily sophisticated like the description said. I could see this fragrance being comforting to small children. After all, who can be afraid of someone who smells like cookies?

Final Thoughts:
I like this, though not as much as I liked Hellcat. Sweet and comforting, though the initial popcorn scent is a bit off-putting. I'd still buy a bottle of this eventually if it reappears on the site. Good for days when I want to smell sweet and foody, good as a room scent too.

EDIT: Please note that this thread is for the original formulation of Hellfire, which was discontinued in February 2004. If you're looking for reviews of the new formula, which smells like leather and booze, head over here. --Shollin

[Tesseljoan]

Buttery and foody smell. I'm not too overly fond of wearing scents that are THIS foodlike, but in a lamp- or oilburner it is divine.
After wearing this for a few hours, the butter has worn off a bit and it's a very creamy, vanilla-like smell. Will be getting a bottle for the oil-burner, I think.

[quantum spice]

it was sin & salvation

it smelled like buttered popcorn, both in the bottle and on me. totally not what i want to smell like.

[Gothabillywench]

This smells just like jelly belly toasted marshmallow & buttered popcorn beans- my two faves :D

Gave it to boy so he can smell edible :D *nibble nibble* :P

Bit too sweet for me but very yummy none the less

[Confection]

Does anyone know if this scent has been discontinued?

My review: love it!

[edited to add: the above posts were of the original hellfire, which was discontinued before this forum existed. it was reformulated and returned a few months later ~qs]

This post has been edited by quantum spice: 04 April 2005 - 09:02 PM

[Penance]

I got lucky enough to get an imp of the old formulation of Hellfire from a fellow forumite, and I'm in love. :D

Origin:

Imp from provacateur. Thank you! :D

Preconceived notions:

This is my holy grail scent. The one I've been desperate to try since I found BPAL...I have such high hopes for this one even if everyone else says it smells like buttered popcorn. I love the smell of bourbon and everything else in this formulation sounds heavenly, so I'm very excited to get to try this! :P

First sniff:

Butter...not buttered popcorn, just butter. It's not bad, either. This is intense smelling...as in I can smell it without opening the imp intense. I knew this was the right formulation before I even unwrapped the bubble wrap on this one.

Wet on skin:

Oh, God, there we go...butter and bourbon and a touch of cream. I have no idea how Beth did it, but this is unbelieveable. So realistic and so good! I'm about to lick my wrists here in a minute.

Dry down:

I barely dabbed any on because I want to conserve this, but it's plenty intense as it is. Bourbon and cream with a soft butter note lingering in the background. This is decadent and delicious and so, sooooo good. I don't get any allspice, but that's fine because this is good as is. I love the smell of bourbon and it really comes through beautifully in this. :D

The bottom line:

I've lusted after this ever since I found BPAL and this does not disappoint. I need more...I'd bathe in this if I could. I'm almost afraid to wear it for fear of using up the half imp that I have. :D

[UltraViolet]

In the bottle
spicy, creamy, drunken wonderfullness

On
This is divine. It's a perfect blend of fresh, lovely allspice, and bourbon with that wonderful eggnog like creaminess to it.

30 minutes
Sweeter, more powdery. Still heavenly. It has faded, but not too much to where it's pissing me off.

Throw:
medium

Scent category:
foody/spicy

Summary
Oh my goodness, this is just so good, it's as good as "Three Witches" or Eclipse or even "Eggnog" but more drunken and foody. Not more foody in a Hellcat way though and not as drunken as "Glog".

Purchase again?
Hell yeah. A 10ml if I could.

1-5 rating (5 being best)
5

This post has been edited by UltraViolet: 24 May 2005 - 06:09 AM

[OriginalWacky]

This is a second review.. because I've gotten an imp of the original, and reviewed it all on it's own. It's way different than the one out now.

Bottle (Imp): OMFG! I *know* why Penance is going so nuts to get this! It's freaking awesome! Buttery sweet yummyness.

Just On: Oh gods, it's so smooth, buttery and creamy. This is *so* different from the new formulation.

An hour or two later: Oooh, this is delicious. It's starting to fade into a creamy sweet butter, and it's wafting beautifully when I move my arm.

Around 6 hours: Oooooh, this is sooo wonderful sweet creamy beautiful buttery gorgeous.

12 hours: It's finally starting to fade down a lot, and I'm going to miss it terribly.

Overall: This is drop dead beautifully gorgeous.

[Little Bird]

This has been one of my most sought after BPAL fragrances ever since I found the site. Unfortunately, by then, this little gem had been discontinued for over a year. So when a friend gifted me with a wee drop of this, I practically did a cartwheel in my room. And it literally was just a wee drop in an imp vial, enough for one glorious use.

I love buttery scents. Shill is one of my favorites, as is the buttery toast note in Drink Me. Hellfire is the most perfect of buttery, creamy scents.

I wore the wee drop in my cleavage on a day that I spent with my boy. It wasn't terribly strong, but I kept catching sweet whiffs of it for about 8 hours. It smells like smooth butter, ultra creamy vanilla, and a tiny pinch of sweet spice on me. So comforting and delicious. After about the first four hours, it was more of a faint, buttery sweetness with a slightly powdery smell to it. I found it really comforting and very 'me'.

The boy loved it as well, and kept nibbling on me.

This old Hellfire is nothing like the new one (but I so wish that it was). If I knew someone that had more of this, I might beat them up and steal it :P

[zankoku_zen]

Okay... Black musk can be either a) powdery or smell like B.O. on my skin. In this case, it smells powdery and combined with the butter, it smells like a buttery powder musk with a dash of spices. At least the cream is gone. Since cream rarely ever smells creamy on me.

After a few hours, I remember thinking it smelled like a nice musky blend, warm, but that was about it. Nothing too descript and it smelled just that... kinda musky with no throw.

Dodged a bullet here, I see.

[cfrancesca]

This one starts off like a mix of Hearth 05 and black musk on me, it's a browned, slightly roasted, sugary nutty scent with a hint of spice. As it dries, I start to get the creamy buttered bourbon, it smells like salted toffee caramel to me, which sounds good but goes all wrong on my skin. There's something brown sugary here that's not working for me at all. Though this doesn't have much throw on me, I find the overall scent cloying and too rich and foody for taste.

[sunshinedaisybliss]

First up - I must give some big love to mimers99 who gifted a little bit of this rare beauty to me :smile:

When I first put it on, I was in a haze of buttery spiciness - on me, it's not a popcorn-like smell.. it's just not that sweet. About one minute in, I realised it was reminding me of another BPAL so of course then I spent the next fifteen minutes trying to remember what I've smelled recently that's like this original Hellfire.

I think it's a lot like two BPALs - one is Paper Kite (which on me is a slightly burned cream and brown sugar-ish smell that I really didn't like at all), and the other is Bread and Butterfly (which on me, is buttered raisin toast). I also very much agree with the lovely cfrancesca's review above - it definitely has a similar feel to Hearth '05, and maybe even slightly Sugar Skull-ish (old SS, that is) - there really does seem to be some brown sugar element in here. After a full dry-down, it ends up being somewhere in between the two - buttery raisin toast with brown sugar and cream. Much later in the piece - a soft muskiness does come out and the 'raisin toast' vibe has significantly mellowed, but it's almost completely gone from my skin in less than two hours.

Not what I was expecting at all - from the description, I was hoping for a musky/spicy bourbon-ish scent with a smooth cream feel.. but nope, it's nothing like that on me. I'm really happy that I've been able to try this - as one of the BPAL unicorns, it's been on my wishlist for ages, but thankfully I won't need to sell a kidney or an eyeball so that I can find any more of it :smile: