In Doubt and In Dread

[doomsday_disco]

Sore trembled the father; he spurr’d thro’ the wild,
Clasping close to his bosom his shuddering child;
He reaches his dwelling in doubt and in dread,
But, clasp’d to his bosom, the infant was dead!

The death of innocence, a dirge for joy: black currant, labdanum tar, and myrrh.

[Assimbya]

Wet on my skin this starts as pretty much entirely blackcurrant, very fruity and inching towards feeling artificial, as fruit scents unfortunately often can on me. As it dries, it becomes much more centrally a myrrh blend, and a lovely myrrh it is too - it feels to me like the same one from Black Butterfly Moon, and the effect with the still strong blackcurrant is similar to the blackberry + myrrh in that other blend, but without the florals which are a big part of Black Butterfly. The labdanum tar seems to be adding a sticky resinous depth and a bit of darkness, but overall this is all about the myrrh and blackcurrant on me. For that reason, it's a much more friendly, approachable blend than the description would suggest; it has a contemplative feel, but it definitely does not evoke a dirge to me.

 

I enjoy this, and would recommend it as a relatively straightforward dark fruit + resin blend, but I have enough beautiful myrrh scents already. I would be more interested in this probably if it were a little darker and more uncomfortable, which it might be if the labdanum tar note were turned up a bit; I wonder if aging might bring that out and will keep my imp to find out.

[Saeva]

Once again a scent with multiple notes I tend to really like, once again a miss for me. I guess I wanted this to be something in the vein of a black currant version of 'In Night When Colors All To Black Are Cast', the way that scent brings out the plum honey and then blends down into a lovely dark plumy resin blend. 

 

Instead, on sniffing I get a very sweet black currant and on skin it turns entirely sweet. Many blends do turn sweeter on me than they are in the bottle/others. In fact, from Yule I've already had that happen with Faithfully Yours, Charles Dickens and Snake OIl & Candied Pomegranate , but In Doubt & In Dread is the first time so far that the sweetness became the dominant feature. Once applied it smells like a syrupy myrrh, distilled down to its stickiest parts, without any of the black currant tartness or cistus ladanifer (rockrose) earthiness that might make it interesting. Like Assimbya, I already have enough myrrh-forward scents that this one fails to distinguish itself at all. For now, it's a pass.