All Souls

[waffelo13]

... An incense blend that invokes the higher qualities of mercy and compassion, mingled with the soft, sugared currant scent of offertory soul cakes.

In the bottle - it was very cakey and buttery, a little too buttery - I was a little worried...
On my skin, wet - still very buttery and cakey, but a spicy sweetness starts to emerge.
Drydown - beautiful sweet incense, with yes - currants and cake.
This is a beautiful scent, one of my favorites yet. I'm so glad I purchased this! I think another bottle is in my future...

[Little Bird]

In the bottle, this is all the sweet, velvety incense of Midnight Mass... with the cake and tart currant of Monster Bait: Closet.

 

On me, the incense/woods go much dryer and it loses that Midnight Mass comparison. There's just a hint of dry cake and tart fruit.

 

After about 15 minutes, a sharp wood note overwhelms the cake and fruits. Then this is just a light incense and sharp, masculine woods. This is such a dry blend to me, making me feel like I need a drink of water when I smell it.

 

I actually wish that the cake and currant were stronger; and I still like Midnight Mass for my perfect incense blend. All Souls is just too dry and masculine-woods on me.

[Reinaluna]

All Souls: Love it!! This smells just like Gonesh incense on me, the one that says perfumed oils and spices. It is exotic and a little sexy. I may get another bottle of this.

[Gale]

This is another Halloweenie keeper!

 

In the bottle: Sweet and buttery.

 

On wet: Still sweet, but the butteriness slips way back. Very nice.

 

Dry: The incense comes forward, the currants appear, and the background is soft and cakey. As a whole, it's gorgeous.

 

It doesn't last super-long, but I have no qualms about re-applying!!

[Inanna9]

I almost gave up on this one, until it finished drying.

 

The first stage was "baked goods", the second was "what the ... where did it go?", but the last stage was gorgeous dark incense -- the same incense note in Hellion as a matter of fact. (just a caveat - I smell Hellion in everything, so YMMV.)

 

But, yes, this smells exactly like the occult shop where I bought my first deck of tarot cards. Doesn't have much throw, but I will slather and see if that helps.

 

Bottle for me!

[savage_rose]

This scent is so sweet, but you can almost smell the dryness of the cake, and the musky fruitiness of the currant. Each scent is still present, yet distinct. Mmmm!

 

And oddly enough, the left wrist smells more like smoky, sweet incense--the right wrist smells more strongly of the fruity cake. Wacky body chemistry!

[angharad]

Softly sugared incense. It's lovely in the imp. There's definitely a slight foody note behind the incense from the "offertory soul cakes." Within seconds of this oil hitting my skin, however, it goes to powder and stays that way for hours. I'll try it again in a few days, and if it's any different I'll update here, but for now I'd have to say that All Souls 2006 does not want me to love it.

[supremegoddessofall]

Pure currant on me. The sugar is sweetening it *a little*, but the currant really is beating everything else into submission.

[metaldog32]

All Souls....

 

I have always been partial to both All Saints and especially All Souls Day..although not a holy day of obligation, All Souls is a nice way to remember all of our loved ones and the ones we don't know..so this purchase was strictly out of pure sentiment.

 

On to the review:

 

Initial sniff from bottle:Hmmm..this is kind of hard to describe...it is sort of foody...a bit like a baked good..not overly sweet or anything like that..a touch buttery..but again..this isn't really overt when sniffing..and maybe I get a touch of incense..but that's it. No currant to speak of..

 

Applied wet on skin:The baked/buttery note is first there...and then in the course of a couple of seconds I get the currant note....it shows up and then settles behind the baked good note. It's definitely got the the ofertory cake vibe going..and all of this on my skin although not invisible is quiet...it's a quiet fragrance on me..which isn't a bad thing at all. This sort of reminds me of All Saints but isn't as incense/floral forward.

 

Couple of minutes on skin:It's the quiet duo of the cake and currant...and the cake isn't sweet. I like this very much...even if it is at this point a bit linear on me.

 

When I was wearing this yesterday..all throughout the day I kept getting whiffs of me..and I swore..I swore I was also getting a bit of floral..maybe a lily/jasmine note??? Of course..I could be just imagining this..but that's what I was registering. As of right now..again..it's just the cake/currant duo.

 

Drying on skin:Now the currant is in tandem with the cake note..and I am also getting a touch of the incense..it's not super heavy that incense note..but I am convinced that it is the note that rounds out the fragrance and also is giving me that "floral" touch I thought I was hallucinating about. It's really subtle..and I think it works well with the fruit/bread/cake notes.

 

Throw is soft on me...and lasting power is good...5+hours .

 

Drydown:Notes softened so that they are all just faint echoes on my skin.

 

Bottom Line:All Souls is a good fragrance for fall/winter. On me it is a quiet and contemplative scent....and although the notes are a bit "foody" they do translate on my skin nicely. A welcome addition to my fall/winter rotation.

 

[zenvodunista]

Pretty, but more incense than cake. Actually, last night I tried Haloa, and I think I like it more than All Souls. All Souls on me is all incense and no cake. The Haloa is far more complex with a lot more depth.

 

I'm glad I got to sniff this though.

 

n.

[em_h]

Wet, it seems both floral and a bit foody, which is an interesting combination. The floral-seeming note then quickly becomes more green and sharp -- actually almost unpleasantly sharp -- and the cakey note recedes well into the background; then it goes all floral again. Curious. This one seems to have a lot of throw, and it's not bad, but on me it's conventional-perfumey and a little soapy, and really very floral. Don't know what's up with my skin and this one. It's too bad, because it sounded like my kind of thing from the description.

[Emma2403]

In the bottle: butter and erm… what's that… something acid… yep butter and red berries.

 

On my skin: totally different… more like rosy incense. But there's still something foody there too (like maybe some sort of brioche).

 

After a couple of hours: spicy rose. Quite nice.

 

Verdict: interesting combination of rose, foody and incense. Not "me", but nice.

[LiberAmoris]

All Souls is like a subtler Midnight Mass on me---plus a smidge of cake. I really like the incensey part, but the woods come forward on my skin to the point that it gets a little overwhelming. I think this would be fantastic with just a dab of Eat Me to counteract my skin's proclivity to amp woods like it's going out of style.

 

Late in the drydown All Souls gets very dusty on my skin and dry. I'm not sure this will work on me, but I'll definitely try it again.

[sterlingspider]

Bottle: buttery cake and myrrh

 

Wet: burning cake and soap. Seriously for about 5 minutes it smelled like someone left a cake in the oven for too long. Makes my skin tingle.

 

Drydown: kind of a floral incense with a faint buttercreme hint in the background, the floral is fairly soapy and is taking this scent over by the second. The throw is entirely buttercake tinged floral, but if I sniff really close to my skin I get a faint whisper of incense afterwards.

 

Slightly later: smells like "rack o incense" with a heavy floral componant and makes me sneeze. This alas goes into the "get it offa me!" pile.

 

Even after washing it off as much as I could I smell exactly like a head shop (at least that part I don't find unpleasant) which leads me to believe that if I could have sat through the floral there would have been a really nice incense scent holding on for the long haul, but alas the floral as usual did me in.

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 2/5

Summarised in a few words/smilie: Berry incense.

 

In the imp: Unsurprisingly, I detect currants, cake, and incense.

 

On skin, wet: Myrrh, and plenty of it. Also, an almost floral currant. Nary a sign of cakes, however.

 

On skin, dry: As is wont to happen, the currant's turned sour, and the myrrh is doing whatever evil thing myrrh does on my skin. All Souls is now a cry, dusty, plastic-ly fruity incense blend, which doesn't agree with me at all.

 

Conclusion/Notes: I didn't hold out much hope, given the notes, but I was curious enough to snag a decant. As expected, All Souls just isn't for me.

[jesvet]

Cake frosted with sawdust. Interesting, but not for me.

[ND¢]

Sweet-incensey, not curranty (unlike, say, MB:Closet) and not pleasant on my skin- almost dusty and sharp. Unfortunately not my style; I had high hopes for this one.

[Dinerdulcinea]

imp: buttery goodness and autumn leaves

 

wet: a little more perfume-y, but still buttery and now more warm.

 

dry: becomes more and more incence-y until that is all I smell. Very nice all said, but I don't know that I WANT to smell LIKE incence. Undecided.

[deleahrium]

This is vaguely sweet but I am not picking up on any sugary, buttery, cookie/cake notes that others are. It's just a very balanced incense scent.

[juniperus]

Bottle: sweet cake

Wet: same, clearly with currants..reminds me of a currant scone with a sugared top

Dry: the incense has really come forward, it's mingling with the cake nicely.

Later: the currant and incense with a sweet edge are what remains, very lovely, not at all foody..a more subtle, adult version of how the Lush 'Twas the Night Before Christmas soap smells on my skin after a shower...in other words, I love it!

[azhure]

In the vial: Very foody to me - it smells like cake!

 

Wet: The incense comes out now - it's lovely and light. I can still smell the cakes as well, but there is a burgeoning scent of smoke in the background. Uh oh.

 

Drydown: The smoke takes over. The incense is still there, but it's very bitter.

[jewelbug]

Imp: I have to say, in the imp, this is one of the most exciting scents…Icing and cake with a bit of incense. A really cool combo, and one I can’t wait to try!

 

Wet : Incense dust. It’s a bit sweet/foody, but not nearly as much as in the imp, and I’m getting mostly incense.

 

Drying: There appears to be a bit of spiciness to this, whether its the incense or the cakes, I couldn’t say. This seems like a strong dusty floral incense to me, with a brush of sweet. I was hoping the balance would lie the other direction. And whatever floral component it is….its not one I’m too fond of.

 

Dry: Okay, REALLY dry floral incense, and I’m still not a fan of this floral note (its treacherously close to jasmine, though if this is jasmine is a relatively good one compared to what it usually does on my skin). Florals aside, this does have that spicy sweet component. In feel, this reminds me of Dia De Los Muertoes (incensey floral with a slight tiny bit of food). Overtime, the floral in the incense smells more rosey to me, and the slight bits of cake go away. But the currant comes out about 1:30 in, giving a fruity sweet floral incense. And on the complete late drydown, there are notes of honey and champaca in this too.

 

Overall: Its actaully really pretty after the flower I don't like fades out. But this isn't something that I would wear much, if at all. Glad I got to try it, though! Lasts 8+ hrs.

Edited November 24, 2006 by jewelbug

[Em-]

So, wow...I realized last year with Midnight Mass that I can actually wear incense scents. Not all of them mind you, but the sweeter, non-florally ones.

 

So I was sooooooo happy to see All Souls this year - because incense and soul cakes - how can you go wrong? This was easily the Weener blend that I was most excited about and it does not disappoint. On first whiff it is all church incense, then the dry currenty cakes come out - not rich creamy Monster Bait kind of cakes - these are offrenda. Someone above described the scent as "current scone" and that is very apt, imo.

 

I absolutely loved spelling this on my wrists all day long - it was a soft sweetness and very comforting and warm. Just delightful.

[gingersnapp]

In the bottle, this is all buttery cake. But as soon as it hit my skin, the incense bloomed and joined the cake note. A short while later, the light fruitiness of the currant joined in. This is gorgeous and smells absolutely delicious.

[Miss Lynx]

I tried a wee dab of this at the Halloween Meet'n'Sniff, and quickly afterwards decided I would likely need a bottle. This one and the ill-fated Samainophobia were the main two I was looking forward to the Halloweenies/Order of the Dragon decant order, and thought I was most likely to end up getting bottles of. Now, where Samhainophobia is concerned that was a terrible mistake (see my review of that one for the full horror story), but All Souls was another story.

 

In the imp, it smelled surprisingly floral. I didn't think there were supposed to be any flowers in it, but there they were. Now, I am somewhat afraid of florals, since my skin loves to amp them, but I'll try almost anything, and I had remembered it as being quite different, so on it went.

 

And at first, it really did turn into floral overkill on my skin. Where on earth was the lovely light incense scent I remembered?! Maybe I wouldn't need a bottle of this after all...

 

But then, I sniffed it again a little later, and WHOA! Totally different. The florals -- white roses, I keep thinking -- had faded down to just a soft background presence, and what I mainly smelled was a beautiful, soft, ethereal incense scent. Not at all a heavy church incense kind of scent like Cathedral -- this one was delicate and light and a bit otherwordly. And awesomely beautiful. I am also pleased to say there was barely a trace of the nasty, cloying fake-butter smell a lot of the food-themed scents I have -- just a bit at the beginniing, before the florals blast it out of existence -- althought I think there was a soft trace of currant, and maybe a touch of vanilla.

 

And that gorgeous scent is what remained for the next several hours, until it softly faded out. It doesn't have a huge amount of throw -- it's just a very soft, sweet, delicate, close-to-the-skin scent, but it's lovely, and really does seem appropriate to its name. It smells like something a soul would wear. Like spiritual purity, but not in a churchy way. It smells like the light of the full moon coming through clouds on a misty night, or like a trace of scent left somewhere that fairies have danced.

 

The sweetness makes it almost a bit too perfumey for me, but it's breathtakingly lovely, and I think I may very well need a bottle.

 

Grade: A

 

ETA (Dec 1): A few more notes after further experimentation... I didn't end up ordering a bottle last night after all, although now part of me is wishing I had. It actually takes about an hour for it to develop fully into the phase I really love, and during that first hour it's way sweeter and more strongly floral than I really like. Plus it has a bit of that buttery nastiness at the very beginning, thought not too much. And I realized that the phase of it I like best is not unlike Al Azif, which is now a GC scent, so maybe I should just get that. All of this talked me out of ordering it last night.

 

And yet... now I'm having regrets. I think I'm going to e-mail the Lab and see if I can add it to my order after all. It may not be perfect, but stages of it are pretty damn close.

Edited December 1, 2006 by Miss Lynx