Nyarlathotep

[Quanta]

Brooding, yet electric: the scent of buried secrets, roiling nightmares, the essence of the Crawling Chaos, the Father of Knives and Locusts, the Hunter in the Dark. This is the blackest of ritual incenses charged with flashes of ozone.

Frimp, huzzah!

In vial: Very incensey. Not a big fan.

Wet on skin: A very dark, spicy incense.

Dry: The sweet, more "traditional" incensey smell has been replaced by something dark, almost woody, and a bit spicy. Mmmm. Me likes. It's a bit one-note on me, but a very fitting scent for my favorite Outer God; intoxicatingly dark.

[KakashiMorph]

This is the blackest of ritual incenses charged with flashes of ozone.

In the bottle: Mmm, black incense.

On my skin: Mmm, more black incense! And a faint whiff of something bright and almost citrusy which must be the ozone. The incense soon fades away though and I am left with the ozone.

Drydown: Faint ozone. It fades fast though and that is a pity.

[FragranceLush]

The ozone notes would have scared me off ever trying this on my own, but I received a frimp (thank you Werekitten!) so naturally I had to see. Well, I was very pleasantly surprised! I really enjoy this, and despite the incense aspect, it seems bright and energetic to me. I am sitting here drinking a smokey Earl Grey tea, and can't believe it took me about 10 minutes to recognize the bright citrusy note as bergamot. I can see many guys wearing this, but it'd then be that icky twang I hate on guys. It's hard for me to describe, but in most commercial fragrances it comes with a sharp silver colored metallic point that makes my skin crawl. Fortunately, that metallic note is missing here. I could easily see myself wearing this in warm weather. Very interesting scent indeed.

[vthesiren]

Starts off as a really bright, citrusy scent, then calms down to a somewhat smokey incense note right next to my skin. Wonderful.

[BoneBone24]

Wet: This is exactly as simple and awesome as it sounds. Two parts deep, spicy incense to one part sheer, aquatic ozone.

 

Drydown/Dry: More ozone comes out as it dries until it hits about 60-40, in ozone’s favor. High-pitched, citrussy ozone pouring over crumbly, smoky incense. Fresh and deep at the same time. Beachy, dark, and gender-neutral. A beautifully versatile and attractive scent. It’s very similar to R’Lyeh, but a tad darker and less complex. I already know I’ll get a lot of use out of this!

 

 

 

 

8.5 out of 10 bones

[milo]

In the imp, kind of smoky. Reminds me of vetiver. Dries to a floral incense to me, only just slightly aquatic. It's almost fruity in a way. I don't mind this, it's quite nice, but fades fast.

[LateOne]

Got a bottle of this on a recommendation. I won't say no to incense, so bring it on.

 

Wet/in bottle: Lemony and sharp ozone with a bit of woods and incense.

Drydown: The strong lemon/ozone dies down fast to a subtle incense.

Dry: Dark incense with a low throw. A few hints of ozone.

 

I personally like this one, particularly with a thrity-minute hike to work in the morning - lets the lemon fade into the more complex and intended description. Could work on either men or women.

[nihil]

Didn't like it so much in the bottle, because I don't browse the Lab for "fresh" scents. Once dried on my skin however, it is indeed the incense that prevails and makes me smell of a ruined church overgrown with ivy. One of my favourites so far.

[kajacana]

Got this as a frimp and it is boggling my mind!!

 

From the imp, wet on my skin, and straight through drydown - this is LEMON.

 

Sugary lemon, very similar to the way Lolita and Whitechapel smell on me. Also reminds me of Lemonhead candies. I'm not getting smoke or incense AT ALL. Super weird, considering the description - I expected this one to be very dark! Does not compute.

 

It's not an unpleasant smell by any means - I quite like sweet citrusy blends - I'm just experiencing some cognitive dissonance because I was not expecting "the blackest of ritual incenses" to smell like I rubbed lemon candies on my arm!

[Magycmyste]

In the imp: Interesting.I get lemon juice out of the imp.

 

Wet on skin: Make that citronella. Which isn't bad, but I don't really want to smell like bug repelling plants and candles, so I'm kind of hopping this morphs.

 

Dried down: The incense comes out to play a bit more as it dries down. Still a little citronella-heavy for me.

 

Throw: Tiny bit, but I went a bit light on this application.

 

Verdict: *** I don't feel the need to wash it off, but I don't think this scent's for me.

[theredkilt]

The blackest ritual incense is the only this left on my skin and is truly scary. It's dense and smothering. I'm very impressed with the final result, yet i'm afraid to put it on my skin again

Edited May 2, 2014 by theredkilt

[Atrous]

Heavy ritual incense + citronella. As this dries down the citronella aspect becomes more and more prominent and I'm not liking it.

I don't want to smell like a bug repelling candle plus it doesn't resonate all that well with the incense.

Its just not for me.

[Psuke]

In the bottle: warm, sharp and woodsy.

 

Wet on skin: something spicy. Not cinnamon. Clove maybe? Or one of the spicier woods/resins, and a hint of bergamot playing in the back.

 

Drydown: this becomes pretty much a spicy resin on me, and I'm quite happy with that.

[Veronica]

So strange, I feel like what I'm getting isn't fitting the other reviews at all.

 

In the imp, this is sharp ozone. On me, I get lemon and saltwater--not at all harsh, just fresh and clean and sweet. After a bit the incense pokes out a bit, but it is very light and tame--soft sandalwood, a sweet incense note and clean lemon. A refreshing, calming scent.

[DoktorDandy]

Oh man, I really wanted to like this one as Nyarlathotep is my favorite Lovecraftian elder god, and although it didn't quite work out, I'm going to let it rest a little more, then try it again and see what I think.

 

In the Imp- Curious, green, citrus-y scent, green and curling. Fragrant green sensation, like pinching fresh lemon verbena.

 

Wet: Lemon lemon lemon, like biting into a lemon, lemon rind rubbed on your gums. Lemony and old lady, oh no. Completely unexpected powdery note. Something like soft, demure violets sulking in the background, but the citrus doesn't want to share. Pointy, spinky, yellow scent. Nothing like the description on me.At least it's clean and springy.

 

Dry- Fades and then sulks some more. The citrus starts to wither up and there is a murky, amber colored note now.,Swirly, hazy, indistinct. Citrus reminds me more of orange now, or rather, bitter orange. There's a weird, shy, leathery note, slightly dusty and half hidden. Sort of... furry?

 

Couple of hours later: Fuzzier still, more floral blooms hidden in there, somewhere. My skin seems to be eating it, though the green is making a little of a surprise comeback.

 

Many hours later: All that's left is the faintest sort of warm, fuzzy incense, sweet and very faint.

[LexieBlom]

Nyarlathrotep imp

 

Wet/Bottle - Citrus? VERY strong wood, almost like freshly cut Birch. Followed by light incense. I really like this in the imp, but the citrus could turn this to lemon pledge very quickly.

 

Wet/Skin (5 minutes) - Lemon pledge sprayed on a freshly cut birch tree. Citrus, please please die down!

 

Dry/Skin (30 minutes) - Lemon pledge sprayed on a freshly cut birch tree.

 

DAMN YOU, CITRUS! I loved this in the imp, so maybe I'll keep it and try it in a scent locket eventually.

[Cali]

Ooh! I get lots of citrus and dirt. Very interesting.
I'd say it's more of a masculine scent, probably cause there's an aquatic/wet undertone.
Wet: Ahh, there's the incense. There's also something else light in there. Almost pink.
Dry: The citrus is tuling alongside the incense.

Nailed the description!

[brettashley]

Lab frimp. Lemony woods. The incense comes through as it dries down. I'm not getting any ozone, but that might be good for me, as ozone tends to read as "soap" in my nose. This smells like Lemonheads to me, actually.

[Casablanca]

I ordered this one -- not a freebie -- because I'm enjoying incense and usually like whatever the lab calls ozone. Unfortunately, in this case, "flashes of ozone" seems to mean "streaks left behind from Lemon Pledge."

This might be my lately nemesis, lemon verbena, smelling extra chemical-medicinal. Waiting for any incense to appear.

It's a long wait. When it finally emerges, it smells like incense mixed with a little stinky pit. Weird.

 

Nope.

[SkeletalRoses]

Dang. I wanted to love this one—I love the mythos, I love Nyarlathotep, I loved the way the notes sounded, and I was hoping for a dark, mean, scary scent. Sadly, it was slightly lemony soap on me from the get-go.

As it gets well into the drydown, the soapy harshness backs off a bit and I get a hint of something vaguely vanilla-like (almost…banana?) coming through. Still fairly soapy, though, not something I care for, and definitely not what I hoped for.

I ordered this imp in a Facebook sale, since the description has always intrigued me and I'd been wanting to try it. I think I’ll wait a few weeks, give this one another shot, and update my review if anything changes. Because I still really want to like it.

Edited November 12, 2016 by SkeletalRoses

[lizabelle]

I think something in here didn't like me, because in less than an hour it's gone. It had a promising start, with citrusy notes and a light smoky undertone, but it was a bit too sweet. There is a very soft drydown left, with a smoky vanillia-esque something, but I'm not wowed by the start or the finish.

[Bassmastadroog]

WHOA OZONE!

 

I don't get any citrus. I understand that ozone and incense here might read as citrus, but actual citrus itself is nonexistent to me.

 

Strooooong ozone. Incense. Exactly as it says. This is a very black scent to me, definitely occasionally struck through with garish lightning.

 

I think I sense a little of the ritual incense that is also used in Shub Niggurath, because my nose is wanting to pair it with ginger and is trying to seek out the ginger in this one even though there is none to be found. Which would make sense if it was the same type- HP Lovecraft <3.

 

I think I kind of like it! I don't know if I need any, but it would smell as a fantastic counterpart on my boyfriend since I have Shub for myself!!

[achildoftime]

I get more ozone than I was expecting out of this. It's airy, but a little smoky. I was anticipating something much darker based on the description. This one was so airy that it completely vanished on me in under ten minutes. That's never happened before. How odd.

[Bones613]

This scent on me was just thick, sweet incense - although my skin boosts anything that's sweet. I got a lot of citrus/ozone in the very beginning, but on drydown, the incense overwhelmed everything else. It's not a bad incense scent and I like incense in small doses, so I'll be keeping this one.

[doomsday_disco]

In the imp: I thought this one was going to be menacing, dark incense and ozone? But I'm getting orange peels from this. Is this citrus-y incense???

 

Wet: I'm actually getting a ton of citrus from this. It's either orange or bergamot. It's making my stomach growl whenever I smell it, which probably was not intended.

 

Dry: This is still citrus-dominant on me for a long time. It doesn't end up turning into an ozonic incense scent until much, much later, when the scent is rather faint... and even then, the citrus is still present, although not as much as before.

 

Verdict: This one was unexpected! It's not something I feel the need to grab more of, but it was a lot more pleasant than I thought it was going to be, thanks to the citrus.