Headless Hearsemen

[doomsday_disco]

A bottomless swirl of black leather, dead branches, and flaming pumpkin guts.

[SmellsPrettyGood2Me]

Bought despite my crushingly bad personal track record with the Lab's "dead" note, whether it manifests in either leaf or branch form. I have (mostly) given up on the Leaves variants, but as an aforementioned ho-bag for the Lab's leather note I consoled myself with the possibility that it may overpower the dead branches in ways that I would ultimately find appealing. 

 

I did not even have to open the bottle to catch the initial whiff here, and it was all decay, all day. Untwisting the cap, that scorched, acrid, dirty-in-a-truly-not-ok-way dead pungency gave my nose a full frontal assault, while some barely spiced, slightly rindy pumpkin came along for the ride. Mercifully, it did not even take 15 minutes for that dead branches note to abandon it's dank campaign and instead let the pumpkin get a little smoke-y for me. And then, at about minute 30, the leather arrives with a chewy thickness, like the Hearseman is wearing a vintage Wilson's bomber jacket. Hello, friend! When fully dried down, this is the spooky fall festival scent of your dreams. Now I'm enjoying myself, digging through my streaming services to find some place to watch Hocus Pocus and feeling like I need to bake a pumpkin bread pudding in a cast iron pot over a campfire on the night of a full moon. Sillage starts to soften after an hour, and after 4 hours I find myself having to get much closer to my wrist to catch more than a passing whiff. 

 

I really like every aspect of this other than having that dead note smell pollute my bottle storage space and torment my turbinates for that opening run when applied to skin. It really settles down fast and gets surprisingly soft. It was worth it in the end!

 

 

 

 

[wilhelmscream]

He's so cool.

 

A very woody, rich black leather. The pumpkin isn't too dominant. It warms everything up and gives it some earthy spice. Sexy and dark.

[RoseThornAndOak]

SmellsPrettyGood2Me and I are of like-mind on the whole hoping the dead leaf note won't slide into our DMs like it does, but yep, that's exactly what it done did. This is heavy dead leaves, and darkness and decay, with dark sinister spices and none more black leather. The drydown is mostly a dark vetiver. Does it fit the vibe? I mean, yeah. There are others that make me feel more like I am in Sleepy Hollow, though. Oddly, I'm really enjoying the dead leaves opening more than the woodsy drydown? Can some esplaing? Is anomaly? I think it would layer well with Sidewalk Apples though, for a cemetery in Sleepy Hollow vibe, at least in the decants, although I don't think the drydowns would flesh out that way. I think a decant is enough for me, but we'll see. Honestly I'm just pining for Katrina and the rest of the Sleepy Hollow line to come back and filling in the time til it does. If we all together think it will come back, will it come to pass? Like the Order of The Dragons, I summon thee to return! Lol.