forspecial_plate

I've smelled a couple other scents like this before, and at first I wasn't all that impressed. It felt a little "been there, done that". But then last week I had a bad headache and this was the only scent I felt like I could wear. I ended up really liking it. Graveyard Dirt, although I really like it and always want to have some available, is a little too close to "damp mildew" for me to wear in my day-to-day life. HC&HS however is something I could comfortably wear any time, but especially right now when we just had snow in the past week, but it's warming up and everything's melting. That's the impression I get - forest floor with melting slush and with the dirt starting to peek through. It has a very spa-like feel for me personally. Then I can just barely pick out the white musk, and that comes out stronger over time. I agree with the previous reviewer, this white musk is somehow reminding me of a faint coconut note around the edges of the scent. I do not smell the steel note or anything blackened about this. I'm glad I took a chance on this one!

Ahhh good point, lol - I forgot they used to always have chocolate or cocoa! That one in the pic looks like the one that I smelled, and for some reason I remembered it was in May, but not sure on the year. 2011 could be right! Hopefully someone else will know.

Does it smell like chocolate? It might be the one from May 2016: "This 13 is a blend of blackened cacao and thirteen sacred oils: Siamese red benzoin, olibanum, black copal, fossilized amber oil, sweet myrrh, Coptic rose resin, guggul gum, dragon’s blood resin , Palo Santo, bdellium, dammar gum, and attar of onycha". That label sounds like one that I bought to split with a friend, around that time - but there are lots of them that I haven't tried, so I could be wrong. (Also I didn't keep my half, so I don't have it any more).

I am familiar with a couple bpal marshmallow scents but not an expert. This scent seems a little deeper, although there is definitely a fluffy sugary note standing out. I'm getting some spicy incensey extra goodness and there is something almost a little fruity about it. The recent marshmallow + grapefruit scent (La Dame Aux Pamplemousses) smells great to me but it's extremely light on my skin and fades fast. In contrast, So Devilish Hard is pretty potent on me and lasts a good few hours. I am reminded a lot of Mischief hair gloss, and a little bit of Midnight On the Midway. And I would venture to say the cinnamon is not really strong or harsh but ymmv. I might need a full 5ml of this! Edit: after aging for just a couple weeks, I think the cinnamon is a little stronger now. Still strongly reminds me of Mischief hair gloss.

Something in this isn't playing nice on my skin. The coconut smells flat and kind of dusty, and it almost reads as soapy but not quite. I'm blaming coconut, it doesn't always work for me. I'm jealous of what the other people smell!

This was a success for me, it started put kind of weird and chemical-like for a few seconds but as soon as it settles on my skin it smooths out tremendously. The frankincense is very polite and is there just enough to provide a nice backdrop for the merlot. After a while the wine note is becoming fuller and rounder, with a little more fruity sweetness. I think wine scents are good but I don't often reach for them. I will enjoy wearing this from time to time. I have Montresor from years ago and I suppose it will eventually lose potency or age out, and this scent will be a good stand-in (I haven't tried them side by side, they are probably more different than I'm perceiving right now).

I was wary of honey but lured in by everything else and just the idea of a cozy SO variant. This smells pretty good at first, and for about a half hour it is indeed a cozy SO variant. For me it kind of falls flat after that and turns into a blurry faint kind of scent that just sits on my skin and doesn't really project or do anything exciting for me. There is nothing bad or off-putting about it, it just doesn't really do anything, I guess this is a case where my skin just eats up most of the scent. There's a little bit of whiskey and SO in there but overall not a success for me.

Decant from last year - this is intensely sour at first, and I'm blaming the rosey rosé, as some rose notes do this to me. I really didn't like it for the first hour or more but then eventually it calmed down and some sweet orange peel came through. At this point it's a slightly sour sparkly citrusy scent, I feel like I'm not even sure if rose is here, and no clove to be found which is unusual for me. It's not bad but Welcome Unto Thee is my favorite champagne/sparkling wine scent so I will stick with that. I do wish I got some of the good qualities some of the other people here described!

The dead leaves give this a little bit of a "chilly" effect and combined with the earthy patchouli, it's kind of like an autumn walk in the forest. Red musk is more of a background note for me but there is something hay-like going on around the edges, not sure where that's coming from. This really needed to sit and rest after traveling, it kind of shifted around for the first week or two - but I liked it from the start. After a few hours the patchouli takes me into the study with a robe and slippers which I'm ok with, and this could be a skin chemistry thing that patchouli does sometimes. The next day this left a delightful scent on my sweater. I felt this scent was a pretty safe bet for me and I'm happy with it!

When I wore this there was a light fruity whipped element struggling to come out from under a suffocating belch of indolic decay. When I don't go chasing after it, the light pleasant part is like orange or sweet melon with whipped vanilla, with something vaguely chalky or crumbling, teasing the air around me. But when I bring my wrist up to sniff closely I'm overwhelmed by gasses of decay. This goes on for a few hours and then thankfully the decaying part does fade away. But unfortunately the scent as a whole is almost gone at this point. There is still a hint of vanilla that is kind of toasty and ashy now. I think the scary part of this scent is just too much for me! Edit to add: I have the weirdest urge to put this on again. Also I forgot to mention something in this reminds me of Pumpkin Tanning Oil. I have no idea what they could have in common but it was there for a little while.

Up until now I was only familiar with the '06 and '08 versions. This 2025 version is quite different to my nose, but I like it a lot. The older ones are dark and murky, but this year's Schwarzer Mond is much more light and playful. There seems to be an anise or absinthe note going on but I don't know where that's coming from. I am not really picking up on the patchouli. What I mostly smell is musk, anise, and maybe some myrrh that comes off a little papery somehow. I like this because it's versatile, I can wear it just about anywhere. It's really light and just feels "comfy" on me. I think it will smell good in the spring time, too. It does fade pretty quickly on my skin.

I'd like to do the 31 day scary movie challenge or whatever you may call it. I will keep track here. 10/1 Nightmare On Elm St 10/2 Deadly Spawn (also watched Ghostbusters) 10/3 Friday the 13th and It Follows, double feature

Is that the 3 Women with Shelly Duvall? I saw that a long time ago.

I am silly - it didn't occur to me other people would want to play along! I'll start a topic in the Entertainment forum 😃

The Isle of Demons, maybe? "The scent is of wet, dark greenery, carnivorous flowers, volcanic gas, and the hot black musk of the demons and wild beasts that populated the islands".

FIRE FOR THY STEPMOTHER’S DAUGHTERS Vasilissa ran to the yard, and behind her she heard the old witch shouting to the locks and the gate. The locks opened, the gate swung wide, and she ran out on to the lawn. The Baba Yaga seized from the wall one of the skulls with burning eyes and flung it after her. "There," she howled, "is the fire for thy stepmother's daughters. Take it. That is what they sent thee here for, and may they have joy of it!" Flaming coals, hellfire, and blackened bone. First of all, Djinn is one of my favorite bpal scents, so I was definitely intrigued by the notes listed for this scent, and I even thought I had an idea of what it might smell like. How wrong I was! This goes on like a fruity floral, almost like lotus. If I sniff up close I can tell there's some fire and coals to the scent, but for whatever reason, my brain translates it into dusky, fruity floral. It's a little spicy, too, which becomes more apparent as it dries. How in the world does that fit this scent, given the notes, you might ask? Well, it works. It's a low and smoldering scent, very subtle but definitely 'there'. I'm sure this will vary from person to person, though (it might be really strong to someone else). But for me, it's subtle. Even though it's very floral, it has the mood of glowing coals. I think the 'blackened bone' comes out as it dries. It becomes kind of sneezy and spicy, and I wonder if it actually has a little black pepper, which is a note I don't care a lot for. Overall the scent doesn't change much from wet to dry, though. This reminds me of Corazon, without the herbs. They both have that low, smoldering, subtle quality. Stepmother's Daughters is a really fascinating scent. After having it on for a few hours, I started to get a little weary of it, so I'm not sure how often I will actually wear it, but it was really interesting to try. I don't know where I would wear this......definitely not to work. I'm really interested to read other reviews, because I know some people are really going to like this one.

Oh shoot - I was hoping that was it! : (

@sudenmorsian How new is your new backup bottle? I've had brand new bottles smell strange at first but smelled better after a week or two of rest.

I got mine on etsy as well! To my nose this is lots of patchouli and hay, and it reminds me of Jaunty Tater, which is great because I love that scent. This particular kind of patchouli can sometimes get a little harsh on me but it's really harmonious with the other notes here. Very nice.

This is really nice! It goes on almost soapy but not quite - just on the edge of soapy, maybe the leaves? But then the tea note comes in and whatever was soapy fades back. I agree it has a cologne-like aspect. Eventually the woods come through stronger and I'm getting a seaside feeling I wasn't expecting, kind of like the lab's cypress note that turns up in some oceanic scents. But mostly this is in the same general family as Autumn Sun I, Autumn Landscape with Flock of Turkeys, and also October 32, from memory. Might have to do some death-matching but I love all these scents and each one has its own little differences, so I'm happy to wear all of them, from spring all the way up to late fall.

The neroli is STRONG at first but that's just for a short while, it's a bit sharp and raspy. After that it smooths out and becomes more like the orange sunset scent I was hoping for. I think with some aging the neroli might calm down even more, my bottle is brand new. Like the reviewer before me, I don't get a lot of myrrh, and that's good because I tend to amp it more often than not.

This is doing the exact thing that deters me from trying most "red" scents, something bitter and medicinal that lingers for hours - I first smelled it in Voluminous Red Blanket. I took a chance on a decant because the notes sounded so yummy and nice but alas, this isn't for me. For the first half hour I smell the good things I was hoping for, red fruit, candy and marshmallow, but it turns bitter on me over time. I'm blaming my skin chemistry on this phenomenon.

This is unfortunate, it has the strange "bleach musk" note that I get with bpal from time to time. It reminds me of the feeling of having bleach fumes in your nasal passages, and I might be the only person who smells it but it's pretty much a deal-breaker for me, it dominates any scent that it's in and makes me feel very headachey. (see also Apple Butter Rum and Gentle Hands). I can smell the other notes in the background trying to come out. I don't know if it's some kind of fixative component, but whatever it is, none of these scents appear to have notes in common so it's something not in the description. Ah well, I guess I have a death-note after all, I just have to be very cautious of foody scents. And to be fair, I have lots of foody bpal scents that I absolutely love.

Right away I can smell lilies and blue lilac, as expected. But there is also something a little grassy about this, and after a while I swear there was something faintly ashy and smokey, like just a hint of woodsmoke in the air. Nobody else has mentioned this so maybe it's just my nose or my skin chemistry, not sure. After that I do get some of the soapiness coming in, and it teeters on the edge of too soapy for a while. Then, a long while later, the green tea is the strongest note and it pretty much stays that way. Never did pick up on much of anything milky. I really love this, I love how the notes interact over time and I'm really thinking about getting a 5ml bottle. I'll try it a few more times before I decide.

More ideas... Activism section: Nasty Woman - black fig and patchouli, filthy bourbon vanilla, honeyed amber oud, and loukhoum Snakes In the Berry Sonker - Snake Oil slithering into a pan of baked blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries in a warm pastry crust, topped with vanilla ice cream and molasses Through the Gloom the Sisters Rose - Blackened pomegranate, tobacco absolute, benzoin, brown sugar, and droplets of inky wine Felis Silvestris Catus section: By Day She Made Herself into a Cat - A feral eyeshine of amber gleaming through a pool of ink-black musk. (If ya like black musk!) GC: Bathsheba - carnation, sensual plum, and Arabian musk Black Phoenix - no notes given - Promotes hedonistic tendencies and extreme self-love. You won’t stop kissing mirrors for a month Fenris Wolf - Rosewood, amber, red musk and a dribble of red sandalwood Hell's Belle - Oleander with wet, sweet mandarin, lush magnolia, a rush of deep musk and a touch of spice Horreur Sympathique - blood musk, golden honey, thick black wine, champagne grapes, tobacco flower, plum blossom, tonka bean, oakmoss, carnation, benzoin, opoponax, and sugar cane Kabuki - a luxuriant, exotic blend of cherry, red musk, and star anise Sin - Thouroughly corrupted: amber, sandalwood, black patchouli and cinnamon. (Ok it might be a stretch to compare this to Smut but I feel like it fits the theme of sultry and sexy) Urd - Muscadine, black and red patchouli, cereus and nag champa.