Tavern of Hell

[The_Witching_Hour]

Sometimes I would venture from my sepulchre to the jazz of night Paris, where having gathered the colours, I would think them over in front of the fire. I could be seen walking through a funeral corridor of my house and descending down a black spiral of steep stairs; rushing underground to Montmartre, all impatience to see the fiery rubies of the Moulin Rouge cross. I wondered thereabouts, then bought a ticket to watch frenzied delirium of feathers, vulgar painted lips and eyelashes of black and blue.

Naked feet, and thighs, and arms, and breasts were being flung on me from bloody-red foam of translucent clothes. The tuxedoed goatees and crooked noses in white vests and toppers would line the hall, with their hands posed on canes. Then I found myself in a pub, where the liqueurs were served on a coffin (not a table) by the nickering devil: "Drink it, you wretched!" Having drunk, I returned under the black sky split by the flaming vanes, which the radiant needles of my eyelashes cross-hatched. In front of my nose a stream of bowler hats and black veils was still pulsing, foamy with bluish green and warm orange of feathers worn by the night beauties: to me they were all one, as I had to narrow my eyes for insupportable radiance of electric lamps, whose hectic fires would be dancing beneath my nervous eyelids for many a night to come.

White gardenia, ambergris bouquet, lavender fougere, orange blossom, melissa, tobacco flower, coriander, ebony wood, ylang ylang, absinthe and aged whiskey.

First sniff:
Oh God, I'm going to be ordering MORE of this...I can tell already. This is beautiful; complex bouquets and woodsy, but not overpoweringly so.

Wet On Skin:
The tobacco flower comes out and plays in this mix along with what I would know as 'melissa' and orange blossom. Not overly floral at all, which is surprising me with all the bouquets and single floral listings. Maybe the coriander and ebony wood are balancing this out?

Dry down:
Ahhhhhhh.....the aged whiskey and (must be) absinthe are finally giving this gorgeous blend an air of power and sillage. This is a very well rounded blend and one that I will never have to be in the 'mood' to wear. So far this has been the surprise blend of my newer GC releases. I expected Tavern Of Hell to be so much heavier but am speeachless with the beauty of this blend!

The bottom line:

Had the 10mL's not have disappeared already I would have been purchasing a much bigger supply!

Added description, and changed title to match Lab site ("Tavern of Hell" rather than "The Tavern of Hell"). --Shollin

[Nekomata]

In the bottle Tavern of Hell is very woody and sweet. It's much different than anything I've tested so far. The florals become sweeter and more complex as the oil dries down, and the whiskey comes out in the background. In the final stages nothing is left but a sweet, floral and fresh scent. I'm with The_Witching_Hour, this is really great, and I need more.

[GypsyRoseRed]

I can't be quite as articulate as the_witching_hour (my scent twin!) right now, but I have to agree with everything she said . This scent was a big surprise to me. The first time I tested it, it was initially a little acrid, so I washed it off before it really had a chance to dry. The second time... hoo boy. This stuff is fabulous. It smells lovely, sexy and *expensive*, and I'm definitely going to be ordering more of this.

Edited August 28, 2006 by GypsyRoseRed

[Em-]

Tavern of Hell is a rich, complex scent - I'm very glad I bought a bottle right off, as it will be getting a lot of wear.

 

On me it goes on with a rush of burnished florals, which quickly fade into the background and the whiskey, tobacco and dark "tavern" notes start to come out. This is a sweet whiskey, though, not a dry scotch whiskey, and it is nicely aged. This doesn't smell boozy on me, so much as rich and carmeley.

 

It is a really sophisticated, rich layered blend.

[sarada]

The sheer complexity of this blend attracted me to it even though most of the ingredients don't appeal...but those often work out to be the best scents, unexpectedly!

 

At first I'm struck by sharp, smoky wine-damp wood. It's a dark room lit only by the glint of lamp light, distorted through glass bottles tinted dark amber and violet.

 

It reminds me of The Black Tower for a moment...something about smoky wood, wine and something sharp and green. Then it transitions into Fortunato's wine cellar.

 

In just minutes though the dark curtains part and the main attraction is unveiled in the gloomy tavern: La Fee Verte, just visible through a shroud of murk and smoke. She is sparkling green and sugared. This settles into a steady wave of darkened La Fee Verte for the rest of the trip, with wafts of the wine caskets drifting up on a smoky breeze every time someone opens the door to the cellar.

 

Looking at the ingredient list, I'm rather amazed that there are so many florals in this. I really don't smell any at all. I love anything with a fougere in it though so this isn't surprising. This takes some of my favorite elements from other wine and wood-soaked blends and recombines them into something new.

 

I can't justify any more bottles right now until I really prove that I need to wear something on a regular basis...and there just aren't enough days in a year! But this is a serious contender, and I hope it sticks around for a long time. If you yearn for something like La Fee Verte but enjoy a slightly darker, smokier version with a hint of wood, this would definitely fit the bill.

[lushiejane]

I smell dark smokiness and dark ambergris in this one, both in the bottle and wet on my skin. I cannot detect florals at this point. I, like sarada, find the sharpness and damp wood in it right off. Yes, unexpected.

There is a sharpness to it- it is not a sweet little girl floral, so don't be misled by the white gardenia, melissa, and orange blossom- they hover in the background and speak meekly from the dark smoky corner as it dries.

As the potion settles, more of the corners are visible, but it is still not some happy little floral. I still smell ambergis, wood, maybe smoke, with some small dusky flowers that are dying on the table of the dim tavern.

I don't know that it works on my skin- but I wish it would because it is sooo different and unexpected. I know it's fantastic on someone.

 

LushieJane

[LiberAmoris]

Tavern of Hell has an amazing note list, and I was more than curious to smell how those notes would work in conjunction. What's strange is that I'm smelling notes that aren't even in here, like lemon. How on earth could I get lemon from this? But that's what I smell. As it dries down, I can smell the ambergris and lavender fougere, along with something that smells like caramel. There's a smoky side to this that reminds me of Carnavale Diabolique.

 

An hour later, this is a hazy floral with that same bright note that somehow my nose reads as lemon. It must be a combo of the gardenia and the orange blossom. And the caramelly base is still going strong.

 

This is one that will require additional testing. I like the complexity but there's something too sweet at the top, on this wearing, at least.

[filigree_shadow]

There's a sharpness to this one, like an edge. It's not at all soft and round. It smells a bit peppery to me, and I'm not sure which note is giving it that quality.

 

I would never in a million years be able to pick out any of the notes just from smelling it. But since I know what's in it, I can tell there's a little bit of lavender (thankfully not amped crazily like lavender usually does on me), and I think that's the whiskey I smell. It smells crisp without smelling clean. Spicy without smelling hot. Sweet without smelling foody or floral. A little bit smoky without smelling like incense.

 

This is another one of those blends that makes me think, "This could only be BPAL." It's complex, interesting, and unusual. I would never have to worry that I smell like anyone else when I wear this.

 

Also, my husband sniffed it, said he liked it a lot, proclaimed that it smells better on him than on me, and confiscated my imp.

[Kittyflop]

On wet: something smells like.... celery? fermented celery. yep.

 

Drying down - soapy florals and celery. WTF??

 

Oh dear I am waiting desperately for the scent everyone else is getting to come through. But this is just weird. It is very strong, though. Good throw. I think it's the odd combination of notes that's throwing me - I can't recognize anything specifically and it's turning into this odd bouquet. Oh... ok - wait. Some woodsiness is coming through as the celery burns off. It's settling down a bit. Things are smoothing out and becoming actually quite... tolerable. If this keeps up we may actually hit 'nice' in a half-hour, and if I'm lucky it'll get to 'great' before too long. I think what I need to do is get my nose out of it and see what it smells like indirectly - when I'm not paying attention. Cuz this stuff is strooooong.

 

An hour later. Humm. This will need a retest. It's morphed quite a bit, and is very interesting - but I still can't really describe notes. I'm afraid this may not be for me, as desperately as I wanted it to be. another example of an amazingly talented and complex oil - for someone.

[zenvodunista]

In the bottle: Hoof. That is *funky* smelling. I guess it's the ambergris or something but... Man, I do NOT like this in the bottle. It's very marine/funk. Hoo boy.

 

On: The marine funk evaporates within 5 minutes and I'm left with a long lasting lovely musk and floral combination. The wood and whisky is gone on my skin but it's lovely and I can't pick out a single note. It doesn't smell "like" something ---- it smells like skin but better. Like flowers but like skin. ON me there is relatively little throw, this is an intimate scent, one that's right up against the skin but hard to reisist once your nose is there.

 

I'm unsure about a bottle mostly because I don't know when/if I'd wear this. But it's extraoirdinarily pretty. Floral without being FLORAL, and musky without being MUSKY. I plan to revisit it for sure. For now though, I'll be keeping the imp, and maybe investing in a bottle later.

 

Wonderful work though, and I highly recommend that folk try it. I think you will be surprised. It was nothing like what I expected, and nothing like it was in the bottle.

 

n.

[slave1]

In Bottle: Floral and wood

 

On Skin: The florals are strongest and very sharp. I get a soapy not right away that is also a bit sour. This scent is very white but there is a soft darker base that gorunds the scent and keeps it from being overwhelmingly floral. It is very perfumey and I like that although it is an elegant floral it has the darker notes that give a sexy and naughty edge… like a woman all dressed up who finally lets her hair down and rips the slit in her skirt a little higher. The notes blend so well it’s hard for me to say which one is dominant. I can say that the florals are sharp with the gardenia giving a very slight milky white feel that balances them, the wood is soft and dark and the whiskey sweetens and deepens the scent. The absinthe is a note I really love and I smell it right away from Absinthe, La Fee Verte and other BPAL blends. This is a gorgeous scent with medium to strong throw and average wearlength.

[sookster]

straight sniff from imp this is stunning!! slightly woodsy and slightly floral...an elegant combo

 

once applied this turns into something so incredible!! i was afraid the ylang ylang in this would be overpowering but it is just blended to such perfection...

woody, floral, boozy...what i love most is that everything about this perfume is so well balanced ... a definite big bottle purchase

[edenssixthday]

The Tavern of Hell - This is most certainly a unique scent. The “aged whisky” is definitely the dominant note on my skin, followed by the gardenia, lavender, and tobacco flower, which make it a heady, yet slightly earthy scent. The orange blossom gives it the slightest touch of a powdery note. The coriander note gets stronger as the scent dries down on my skin, and smells exactly like the coriander in my kitchen cupboard! As it dries down, the ylang ylang also becomes much more evident and the whisky and gardenia begin to move into the background and the overall scent takes on an almost citrus-like scent to it. I don’t particularly like this scent on me as it seems fairly masculine to me, but not in the traditional sense. I would absolutely love to smell this on my husband and probably wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off him if he were wearing it. It’s a gorgeous scent, and the more I think about how sexy this would smell on my husband, the more I think maybe I will choose to wear it as a personal fragrance for myself after all! Mmm… yes. I think I will. This is one blend that just gets sexier and sexier on the skin as I wear it. The throw and wear length are both about average.

[storme]

In the imp: a big complicated glutch of indistinguishable notes, smoky and woody and heady and slightly acrid.

 

On me, wet: wood! lavender! tobacco! coriander! orange blossom! Man, this is weird - my brain can't seem to pick out more than a couple of notes with each sniff, but they're different notes each time.

 

On me, dry: At the base of the scent is these dark woods with caramel, then sharp herbs and floral heaped on top of that, and then the musky ambergris over it all. It's slightly masculine to my nose, and totally weird, and damned near impossible to describe pithily. My brain keeps throwing phrases like 'peppery dryer sheets' into the mix, for a start.

 

Verdict: Very complex, very interesting, and not at all what I expected it to be from the smell of the bit that had leaked in the box on the way here, somehow. But I don't think I will ever wear this, no matter how headspinningly weird it is to wear.

[oedipa]

Wet on skin: GUH. I have no idea what note is making this smell, but I wish it would stop! It's almost like pavement, but sour...I have to admit, it easily brings to mind a tavern - one where the floors are unswept, the glasses are dirty, and the waitresses are mean. From the note description I'm guessing it's the whiskey. Note to self: no whiskey.

 

5 minutes: Buh? Flowers? Very nice floar-y scent that is being undercut by sour pavement scent. This warrants further investigation!

 

10 minutes: Mmm, flowers. And a light musk (for the record: we hates musk, preciouss), which is surprisingly not trying to dominate the crap out of the florals. The sour pavement smell is nearly gone.

 

2 hours +: The scent is totally gone by hour 3.

 

Final verdict? Wow, what a morpher! This changed more than any other BPAL I've yet worn and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Definitely not a big bottle purchase, but I might keep the imp.

[Little Bird]

In the imp vial and first on my skin, this smells bitter and green and reminds me of dandelion stems. Over the next few minutes after application, the bitter green smell remains but a sugary note also comes out to play. Dandelion stems coated in sugar. There's also something crisp going on here that smells slightly floral and slightly of limes on me.

 

After ten minutes or so of settling on my skin, this is rather bright & sweet and not at all hellish. It's not smoky or dark at all on me. It morphs into a sort of fizzy, boozy floral with a white sharpness that reminds me of the dreaded tuberose.

 

Definitely not a scent for me.

[theseagrows]

tavern of hell is VERY strong on me and very perfumey. it's a sweet floral with an herbal sharpness to it with woods in the background. my skin and woods often don't get along, and it's happening here too. though one or more notes could be the culprit. i am (mostly) getting a very sharp herbal-floral that's giving me a headache, much like ides of march did.

 

i am so disappointed, i really wanted this one to work for me.

[olympia301]

 

It's hard to know what to say about Tavern of Hell. All of it is put together so well that there is no way you can pick out one particular ingredient and go on about that. I love the wet phase the best of all when the "booziness" is sharpest and the hint of perfume rises in the background but isn't all there is...yet. When Tavern is dry, that is a very perfumy blend, but with this one, the top, middle, and bottom notes are very very well done. Tavern is a real good one.

[sofiaviolet]

In the imp, this smells like high-end shampoo. Exactly like. It's really weird.

 

On me, the gardenia pops up immediately, unfortunately because it turns to plastic on me and is thus instantly recognisable. I also smell tobacco flower, which is giving me a headache.

 

Eurgh. This could have gone either way, and it picked the icky one.

[Medox]

There was some tossing and turning before this scent settled, but it's ended up lying sweet and low on my wrist. Gently floral, with the whiskey spiked through.

[Alchemy21599]

In the vial: booze and aged wood.

 

Wet on skin: musk, booze and wood. This is much more masculine than I expected.

 

Dry: This honestly smells like I've walked into a tavern. A swirl of co-mingled perfumes, musk, booze and wood. Love the scent, but I don't think I will wear it as perfume. I think this will be an interesting scent for the oil burner.

[melrose]

In imp, and on, wet: Gardenia (gardenia and I don't get along), something dark underneath grounding it (I can't pick out the notes), and rancid mop bucket water that's making me queasy. (not sure what this is - I've had no problems with ambergris in other blends).

 

Near drydown: Yummy spiciness, then, uh-oh - a yucky nutty smell.

 

Far drydown: Lovely spices and tobacco, but I don't think the first 2 stages are worth it.

[jesvet]

In the vial: ugh! Sharp peppery rancid something. It's overpowering any other scent that may be in there. But in the name of science I put some on anyway.

 

wet: still sharp and sour, like someone was downing Tabasco and vodka then started breathing all over you. Gardenia! Where are you? Under the wood?

 

dry: finally, the drunkard passed out on the floor and let the florals peep through, but only a peep. Gardenia and a bit of tobacco flower. It was nice enough after all that, but not an experience I'm going to repeat.

[Lucretia]

I wasn't crazy about this one at first, but I'm very glad I gave it another shot. This reminds me a lot of what hamadryad used to smell like before got all piney and crazy smelling. It's a woodsey scent on me, rather like traditional perfumes in the floral notes. This is really nice, I love the woods and florals combo, especially with the spices to tie all together. It starts with a lot of lavender for me, which fades to boozy woods and a hint of florals. I just wish it were a little bit stronger. This will very possibly go on the big bottle list since I miss hamadryad so much, but we'll have to see how long it lasts on me. It's a bit faint after 3 hours so far.

Edited October 25, 2006 by Lucretia

[zankoku_zen]

In the imp: Peppery and flowery.

 

On Skin: The peppery smell lingered there for a while before it morphed into a flowery bouquet. I can't smell anything other than the florals and nothing really jumps out at me.

 

On the Boy: Still mostly florals. I can smell some of the booze on him

 

Drydown: Again, mostly floral.

 

On the Boy: There is something woodsy coming up from under the florals, so that they are tempered but it's still has a pretty white floral smell

 

Verdict: I thought this would be more boozey. It's a very complex floral smell but I didn't get any whiskey/absinthe undertones or wood. It just settled into a nice white floral. Nuts

 

The Boy's Opinion: "It smells like Old Spice... and Woman. A small woman.... a thin woman... It smells like Old Spice and white flowers"

 

I don't know why the Boy's opinion cracked me up. But he's used to smelling me being all floral, a number of the BPAL's I own are in the soft floral category and he just thought it smelled like me mixed in with Old Spice.

 

So I think this imp will definitely end up somewhere else...