The Hell of Great Heat

[joyfulgirl]

Indonesian patchouli, tonka bean, red musk, natural hedoine accord, black opium, cassis, styrax, costus, oakmoss, frankincense, and kief accord.

in the bottle: cinnamon, spicy!

wet on my skin: ungh...all cinnamon, all the time. a little dusty, musky undertone to it, but mostly: lots 'o cinnamon.

dry on my skin: wow, i guess my skin has just decided to amp the hell out of the cassis, because i really can't smell anything besides cinnamon. it's a vaguely sexy cinnamon, and my boyfriend really likes it, but it's a bit overwhelming to think about wearing it all day. i am going to give it a few days to recover from shipping and try it again to see if it calms down a little bit.

[violetblue]

On, this smelled super cologney at first. I usually amp cinnamon, even things that don't have cinnamon listed, but though I smelled a hint of it, it wasn't too strong and didn't burn the skin. Oil wasn't fire red as I had expected either. I was on the fence on this once. Right after I applied to my wrists, I went to do an errand, and the check out lady at Walgreens exclaimed that I smelled amazing and what was I wearing. That hasn't happened to me in ages, so I am still on the fence and am going to test it another time or 2 before I decide if it's a keeper. It's got that cola thing too going on I find a lot of the darker blends have.

[Andalei]

In the bottle:A sort of coke/cherry/cinnamon scent.

 

Wet: Very cinnamon with a slightly dirty background.

 

Dry: Cherry cough syrup mixed with potting soil. Sometimes I'd catch a whiff of a nice cinnamon/cherry incense kind of scent but other times it was just too overpowering. I washed it off after about an hour. Not sure if I'll be keeping this one.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Andalei

[Roogna]

wow - that's some strong cinnamon. reminds me Uranus.

there something black in there, and (now that I saw someone else mention it) Coke.

but mainly cinnamon

I do think I'm getting little hints of the incense notes, but if I didn't know to "look" for them I might not be...

 

it's not totally overpowering, but too strong of a candy-cinnamon for me

 

*edit it fades down a lot after about 30 minutes. I can tell there are other notes besides cinnamon now, but I can't pick them out individually; the cinnamon is a bit sweeter/lighter

but now the whol thing is very close to teh skin

Edited February 9, 2012 by Roogna

[Invidiana]

I amp cinnamon. To hell. Which is why it's not much of a surprise that despite all the wonderful warm, sensual elements I can detect in the wet stage of this--most notably the patchouli and red musk backed by thick resins--it ultimately dries down to cinnamon gum with a tinge of red musk. Damn my skin chemistry.

[Mellifluous]

Warm cinnamon-y red musk with an equal punch of patchouli. Oakmoss in this feels a little wonky for some reason, and I think is whats keeping this from being a bottle purchase for me. Warm dark and interesting otherwise.

[Heavenlyrabbit]

The one word out of mouth upon applying this to my skin without sniffing it in the imp first was "No".

 

Actually, it was more like NO! Nononononono.

 

Dank, musty filthy Patchouli.

 

There have been miraculous BPAL perfumes where the Patchouli worked wonders on me. This is not one of them.

 

Just. No.

[surf-tormented]

Cinnamon Brimstone.

 

It has the smokey dirty quality of Brimstone with a strong burning cinnamon in the beginning of it.

I feel this perfume and Brimstone must share a note or two, though Brimstone doesn't have any description of notes.

 

It's dark, smokey and HOT!!!

If you have allergic reactions to cinnamon notes, I would not recommend this one.

Edited February 28, 2012 by surf-tormented

[theseagrows]

this is a very spicy scent with a dusty, wooden undertone. i think i am mostly getting tanka and the kief accord (after googling that) along with some patchouli maybe? i don't really know. it's a fairly woody-earthy scent that starts out with a kind of cinnamony spice. this is an alright scent, but not really my thing. i kind of want to try it on my boyfriend though.

[sunshinedaisybliss]

I notice a lot of the previous reviews are talking about cinnamon.. but it's not a listed note I actually have no idea what hedoine accord smells like - is that a cinnamon-like spice, perhaps? I checked google but didn't find much.. except that hedoine is one of the listed notes in Angel. Curious and curiouser. There definitely is something spicy in here though - I actually thought it was cassia, but since everyone else is saying cinnamon then I guess that's it.

 

Ten minutes later, when the spice had calmed down, the red musk emerged - it's lovely here.. I think that the combo of red musk + patchouli gives everything a fairly soft, earthy and warm feel. There's a very soft smokiness from the opium, but nothing obvious. I expected more of a dark fruit tone with cassis being here, but nope - not getting anything fruity from this at all. I wonder if 'cassis' is actually supposed to be 'cassia'? That would explain the cinnamon vibe.

 

I'm not noticing anything floral-like from the styrax, and thankfully the costus isn't rubbery or overly musky. Frankincense.. not picking that up. Oakmoss.. yeah, but it's faint. Kief.. well, no - can't find that either.. there's nothing green or herb-ish in here at all as far as I can tell.

 

After about an hour, I'm left with softly spicy red musk with a hint of oakmoss. This one doesn't really have anything unique enough about it to make me need it, and overall I just feel a bit ambivalent about it - it's just.. not that exciting.

Edited March 9, 2012 by sunshinedaisybliss

[HerbGirl]

I LOVE this. There is an initial blast of what my nose interprets as Cinnamon, but it is lovely and unfortunately doesn't stick around long. Then it becomes a Red Musk/Patchouli fest and I cannot stop sniffing my wrists...I'm a big fan of Red Musk AND Patchouli seperately and together. This feels like Hygeia a bit and Lust a bit, but isn't the same as either...wow I love this stuff. I feel very centered when I smell this on my skin and that's a welcome change. 9.5/10 only because it doesn't really stick around as long as I'd like.

[filigree_shadow]

I definitely get a big blast of the cassis note straight away, which is how that note always acts on me. Oddly, I smell something that reminds me of bread with it. Well, no. Not bread exactly. More like a grain. Something that was like that grainy note that I smelled in the first Blood Moon and in Silk Road. However... while those ones smelled kind of like moldy bread on me (I didn't like either of them), this one smells gooooooood.

 

I can tell there's frankincense in here because when my nose is up close I do smell something high-pitched. However, when my nose is in regular whiffing distance, it smells like a musky, slightly patchouli-ish, cinnamon scent. Red musk usually amps up like no one's business on my skin, but to be honest it's really buried under the cassis in this, and I can't smell it very well.

 

I like this one.

[ami226]

Very spicy! Reminds me of the Old Demons scent. Has a hint of sassafras? Might be the red musk actually. I get them confused sometimes since they smell quite similar to me! The cassis in this one is way too strong for me. It's a very woody cinnamon type smell. It's not for me.

[mymymai]

In the Bottle (ITB): It’s calmed down from when I first smelled it right after shipping (it was cinnamon all the time). However, cinnamon is still incredibly strong, but now I can smell some oakmoss, musk, and a bit of patchouli.

 

Wet: While I know cinnamon is not one of the notes, cinnamon here is super strong. Mixed with the other notes, it’s not appealing to my nose. I can smell some of the musk and perhaps the hedoine or costus accord.

 

Dry: After several hours, the cinnamon is behaving itself and playing nice with the other notes, specifically hedoine, oakmoss, costus,and a bit of tonka and musk. It’s warm and exotic with a hint of spiciness; however, I just feel ill smelling it in the previous stages. Too bad.

[milo]

Spicy cinnamon-like patchouli or resins. This smells exactly like Sin on me.

[zankoku_zen]

Resins, patchouli, cinnamon and a heavy dose of red musk. This is the sort of sexy redolent blend, along the lines of Mme Moriarty/Smut for all you red musk lovers out there.

 

Dirty, sex, red.

[Little Bird]

Yeah, I think the 'cassis' was supposed to be 'cassia' in the description for this one. This smells a lot like cassia on me, in any case. Cassia is similar to cinnamon, but darker and with an earthy/woody tone to it. The Hell of Great Heat smells like tons of cassia and hints of dry, earthy patchouli. I agree that it's reminiscent of Sin, but this is spicier on my skin and makes my skin red & itchy.

[JazzieCazzie]

I had this on my wishlist and an amaaaaaaaaaaazing forumite from whom I bought a different bottle gifted me with a half-bottle of this ... my first FROTTLE!

 

IN THE IMP: Patchouli

 

Dabbed in crook of one arm.

 

WET: OMGOMSGFSKNSDKBKDBKJABKJA. Delicious cola scent!!! The patchouli is joined by the musk and resins that make my arm smell like shmexy Coca-cola, and whatever that slightly sweet note is (the one that I think we're all ID-ing as cinnamon) kind of makes it a coke float! The frankincense also mellows out the dark and scary notes.

 

DRYDOWN: Dare I say that this hell is absolutely heavenly??? It's just divine. It dries into a beautifully complex, spicy, resiny awesomeness.

 

OVERALL: I am in lurve. The surprise winner of my batch of sought-after testers so far.

 

On a scale of 1-5, a 4.9.

[lady_pandora]

In the bottle, wet on my skin, and for hours thereafter, Hell of Great Heat smells like one thing to me: GC Sin. I think there may be some differences, but I don't have any Sin here to compare, and I can't see past the similarity. I get that same warm cinnamon note and the wet funkiness (this sounds gross, but it's not, and I can't think of another way to describe it) of the patchouli underneath it. It doesn't morph and doesn't fade. It's Sin. This is actually pretty handy, as I've always liked Sin and am out of it. And when I run out this decant of Hell of Great Heat, I don't have to hunt for more--I'll just buy more Sin from the Lab!

 

ETA: It's still here this morning and it's still Sin. I smell amazing.

Edited December 2, 2014 by lady_pandora

[Aveya]

Wet; unimpressive cologne

Wet on Skin; Musky-ish "dry" mess of scents

 

Drydown on skin: SIN a MON. Yeah it's spicy spice. It's like dry Bengal. There's other stuff in there so it's not quite big-red gum on me. But there's no doubt. I made my eye water when I wafted it too close to my face, whew.

 

That said, I think this is a very unisex scent. It's masculine without being overwhelmingly so. It's feminine if you like leather and stilletos, that Tonka I think is creeping in and softening all the edges deliciously. It's pretty powerful but my head really can't get licking flames imagery to go away. Feels really apt. I want to layer it on something for a little more depth, but if I do that I just venture into a different scent BPAL offers instead.

 

Like it, but will trade it for someone more appropriate to adore to.