The Goblin Rider

[Dark Alice]

The scent of fear, and terrifying pursuit: wind-whipped, chilly night air, oppressive black pine, globs of dark opopponax, and bleak cedar, and distant, unreachable church incense.

This smells like very fresh green moss to me. I don't know where I get moss from, but that's what this smells like. On the drydown, it smells like green moss mixed with very perfumey incense. I am not a fan, but I do love the concept. I the lab and it's creativity and for paying such Homage to my favorite Halloween story!!!!

[forspecial_plate]

It took a few tries, but I've decided I like this scent. The problem is that it's so faint I can barely smell it, unless I sniff up close. But that's not always a bad thing. Here and there I get just the lightest wafts, teasing and tantalizing, but dark.

 

The first time I tried it, I thought of Pit And The Pendulum right away, but much softer. I still smell the woods and incense, but this is actually different from Pit And Pendulum, and most other incensey oils. I think what I'm smelling is the same opoponax that's in Ligur, underneath sophisticated woods. It's kind of a classy scent, and makes me think of formal occasions. One thing is for sure....if I decide that I really like it, I'm going to need more than just a decant. Like I said, it's extremely faint on my skin, so I have to decide if it would be worth it. It's a little stronger than Heavenly Love And Earthly Love (which, although beautiful, was so faint there's no point in me even wearing it), but not by much.

 

Edit: I forgot to mention that 'chill air'. It's definitely there, but I don't think of ozone. If so, it's so masterfully blended that it's nearly undectable.....just enough to lend a swirl of chilly air. This scent is elegant and dark.

Edited October 21, 2008 by Forspecial Plate

[anastasia]

when i got this, it and several other bottles, seemed too fresh and green. really sharp and perfumey.

so going with a theory that these perfumes are like wine, i let them breathe a while last night because i had noticed that each time i opened a bottle they smelled a little different. then i really let my skin touch the scent in the bottle when i put it on so the oils on my skin could get in there and on the bottle neck etc. because it seems like my smell and the perfume's smell really need to get to know each other sometimes.

i was very afraid because i had my heart set on liking this one and i was determined to work with it and let it have a real chance. put it on liberally to go check the mail and sniffing outside with the wind blowing like madness today and sun and bright yellow leaves, it is going to work!!!

 

it is still a lot brighter than i would have expected from the components. i am beginning to suspect that the lab's pine is very sweet on me. but it is getting airier and is definitely cool and under everything just starting to happen for me is what i was looking for which is kind of sulpher-ey or brimstone-ey like a just lit match! it is light but i think my relationship with this one will grow.

 

this is a lit match and the air that is feeding the flame

Edited October 25, 2008 by novak69

[gingiemay]

Wet in imp - Pine, chilled night air, cedar and church incense.

 

Wet on skin - Cedar and pine, very strong. A tiny bit of church incense.

 

Dry on skin - The pine/cedar knockout combo has calmed down some, and have pleasantly blended with the church incense. If this weren't so similar to Cathedral I'd probably get a bottle.

[zankoku_zen]

I get the piney incense from this - it's dark, chilly and just the right amount of spooky.

 

This is like breaking into a church on Halloween or Devil's Night and finding out it's haunted. You, smell like pine and the outside, but inside the church, the lingering smoke of the incense lets you know that it's being ... used... at the moment and you *might* be interrupting something...

[Wwindy]

I should start out by noting that my skin apparently does not do "cold" or "chilly" or "snowy." I don't know if it's because I'm a brunette or a Leo or what, but my chemistry will do backflips to keep any of the Lab's wintry notes from having anything like their intended effect.

 

Having said that... When I put this on, I get a faint fleeting hint of pine and something slightly masculine -- but within five minutes it's turned into 100% cedar and sandalwood. It reminds me a lot of the Pit & the Pendulum, as mentioned above. Sniffing the vial I can indeed smell the dark and chill... but my skin just isn't having any of that. *sigh*

[savage_rose]

The pine is going CRAZY on this blend...at first this smells like port-a-potty air freshener, and then that dies down and it smells like old lady perfume. I'm thinking this one isn't for me!

[Schmoozy]

The Goblin Rider would have been a big hit, if it didn't have unreachable church incense.

Unfortunately the incense overpowers everything else. It starts off with damp cold air, black pine, cedar and opopponax. It is heavy and gloomy, woodsy and bleak, and then incense prevails and ruins it. It is a touch masculine and while it starts off wonderful it goes very funky on dry down.

[Dymphna]

In the bottle: Pine. I was hoping for opopponax and fearing cologne-y ozone (from the "night air" note). I forgot about the pine. I used to like pine, but it went so horrifyingly WRONG in The Illustrated Woman that it kind of scares me now. Okay, deep breath (not right over the bottle). There's something dark and mysterious lurking behind that pine tree. Could it be opopponax on horseback? Let's find out.

 

Wet: Oh, it IS opopponax! Dark and sort of cola-like, with something in there that reminds me of vanilla. Hmm. Well, that's new and different. Nice, though. Of course, the pine is trying to crowd everything else out, but those other notes are no slouches. I think the ozone is somehow keeping the darker, heavier notes light and making the scent...this is going to sound weird...kind of bubbly. Seriously, there's something here that's a bit sour and murky, possibly the cedar (*shakes fist*), but the cola-licious opopponax and the light, refreshingly un-cologne-like ozone are combining to smell like fizzy cola. In the woods. At night.

 

Dry: It gets a lot masculine as it dries, but it's a really sexy masculine scent, light yet deep. It reminds me of a cologne I picked out for my husband from The Body Shop many years ago when we were dating. I think it was called Activist. (Ah, The Body Shop in the 90s. ) It smelled fantastic on him when I could get him to wear it. Fortunately, he wears the BPAL oils I give him a lot more often than he ever wore cologne. I hope this smells as good on him as it does on me. I'd wear it myself, but the ozone finally did come out enough to make it too masculine for me. But it sure brings back some lovely memories.

[Reaver]

I was expecting dark and oppresive. I GOT REFRESHERS!

Seriously. Refreshers. Swizzells candy. Or it might be Love Hearts? It's fizzy and bright and candy-ish and incredibly worrying but I love it and I need another bottle.

Unexpected candy scents are nice.

[PurringPulsar]

The Goblin Rider

 

In the imp: gorgeous pine sap and sweet resins!

Wet on skin: pine and opoponax! This is lovely!

Dry on skin: mmm, this is beautiful. This is the kind of pine scent I like-a pine scent that smells of resin, enhanced by yet more resins. This smells of a mix of crushed pine needles and sap, with sweet opoponax and a hint of frankincense, a touch of cedar too. I don’t smell much ozone/air yet, just rich resinous pine. It reminds me a bit of Geek, but without the smoke and leather, and I prefer it to Geek. There’s a touch of sophisticated (and sexy) manly perfume to it, but it doesn’t distract from the resinous loveliness.

After a while: the initial burst of pine and opoponax then tones down and mingles with the distant incense. now the scent turns into something else as equally delightful as the wet stage…it reminds me of the Illustrated Woman but not as smoky, and with more of an incense slant to it, not a tobacco one. This now smells like wafts of incense smoke in a dark forest, a touch of autumn smoke (reminds me of the subtle smoke in Devil’s Night) and pine, and though the scent is warm and almost inviting, there’s a hint of something chilly and crisp, the night air note perhaps?

Verdict: this is a more wearable Geek, a darker Hexennacht, a masculine yet sexy pine and resin scent. at first I get a lot of sap and resins, and I love that. warm pine resin dripping down pine needles with a fantastic base of incense resins smouldering gently. I love that! the drydown is a little more perfumey and masculine, the resins losing their edge and the pine turning into something a little like cologne, but I still like it. it’s one of those ‘if I smelt this on a guy I would shag him senseless’ scents, really dark and sexy, shadowy yet approachable. I’m glad I bought a bottle.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? Yup.

If you like this, try: Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Illustrated Woman, Black Forest, Pickled Imp, Stranger in Camp, Capricorn 07, Geek

[Monster]

I'm reviewing a bottle that is nearly empty. Needless to say, this is a household favorite

 

The Goblin Rider is a wonderfuly masculine smelling cedar incense on me. When I first apply this to my skin I get a huge, fresh burst of pine needles.

As it settles in, the pine softens up and is replaced by a wondefully woody cedar note. Dancing thrugh all of this is the Labs perfect incense note (the one from All Souls and Midnight Mass).

Note only does this smell fantastic, but the art on the bottle is abolutely gorgeous.

 

I really hope the Sleepy Hollow scents make it for 'round 2 this year. There are back-ups I need to purchase!

 

[wildgratitude]

I just got my hands on a partial bottle of this, and I love it. I definitely smell the incense, pine and cedar, though my nose is missing the ozone.

[tajana]

Wet: Dark, dark pine, with a gust of cold ozone. The cedar, always a favorite of mine, strengthens after just a moment. Mm, woods! There's a strong incensey undertone to it, though.

 

Dry: The ozone has backed down, but the cedar remains pretty strong and pleasant, just a tad spicy, and mixing with opopponax and what I think is frankincense to create a smooth, dark incense. The pine lays pretty low, but adds a great hint of green boughs. Incense scents are a mixed bag on me, but this is just beautiful. I keep taking whiffs of my wrist.

 

Overall: I know this was released as a Halloween scent, but it feels super appropriate for December! I didn't really have high expectations for this scent, but the decant is staying with me for sure, and I may eventually hunt down some more of it. It's a lovely, shadowy, gloomy scent.

[Invidiana]

If you're a fan of dark resins like am, this one wont' leave you disapointed. The globs of dark myrrh in this just have an awesome mysterious depth. Thankfully because my skin amps resins (and other sweeter notes in general) they come to the forefront and the pine and cedar behave themselves and stay in the background, keeping this from becoming too masculine. Though the resins and added incense are warm notes, there is also a chill feeling countering them here, which is probably the wind note. This is dark and alluring and very true to the concept.

[Redillon]

This was one of the first scents I ever bought from BPAL and I never reviewed it. Well, I'm changing that!

 

In the bottle: Defintite pine. Green. Almost a lemony pine. With a hint of resin. I dig green scents but this isn't quite what I was hoping for.

 

On the skin: The resins dance a bit with the pine but turns sharp. I'm not liking where this is going. Sharp turns into BO on my skin.

 

Dry down: It doesn't have much throw but that's okay. It doesn't make my skin happy. The cedar is there but isn't in the mood to play nice with me. I love each individual note but together it's not that wonderful. I love the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but the Goblin Rider doesn't love me......

[starfish327]

i like this one, and it's one of the few air scents that i can wear. i could swear that there's leather in this though. i think it's the pine working with something else that's giving that impression. the incense in this is much closer to what i wanted midnight mass to smell like. there is something sour lurking underneath it but far, far down. my skin does seem to eat it but i don't think that's a bad thing for incense when i want to wear it to work.

[84trillion]

Oh man, this is beautiful! A dark, strong but not strictly masculine scent. I agree that there is a leathery note, and luckily the incense isn't too powerful. Love it! 4/5.

[JazzieCazzie]

Bought a bottle off the Lab's Etsy site (which I love so much) ... I knew it could go one of two ways on me. I hoped for oppoponax and incense or even just cedar, but worried about that "night air" note ...

 

IN THE IMP: Pine, yes, but night air for sure.

 

Dabbed on wrist and in crook of arm.

 

WET: Really all night air and pine. I do get a little cedar but not enough to offset the ozone of the air. No oppoponax or incense for me when wet. It's not bad but it's not what I would have preferred.

 

DRYDOWN: Still no oppo. I do get a little bit of smoky incense along with the other notes on drydown. It's a very clean scent, about two steps short of cleanser.

 

OVERALL: I don't NOT like it. But I can't see reaching for it among other blends. It's not quite piney-evergreen enough to be pine, and it's definitely not cedar enough to be cedar.

 

On a scale of 1-5, a 3 but into the swap pile it goes, imp and bottle both.

[Lucchesa]

Hmm, the Goblin Rider in my imp must be almost a decade old by now. It still smells great, still a little sharp ITI with pine and cedar. On my skin I get more opoponax, and a hint of ozone which doesn't bother me here because it's so perfect with the concept. The woods are lovely, dark and deep...

[batsy]

In the 5ml bottle: darkness. I'm getting tiny whiffs of incense and oppoponax, I guess that's the "smoke"?

 

Wet on skin: there's cedar. Not too strong, thankfully. Smells kind of like a wet pine forest; basically where I reside. Quite calming and pleasant

 

Dry down: There isn't much throw for me, so it's difficult to discern notes. It's smokey and dark, with a hit of cedar and pine. Quite masculine, tbh, but again very pleasant.

 

Verdict: Lovely scent but not for me. I wouldn't wear it often enough to justify keeping the 5ml.