When Halloween comes to Montreal, winter doesn’t lag far behind. Trick-or-treating is done in mad, giddy dashes between houses, an exhilarated rush in the darkness. The air is crisp, sometimes biting, and more than one toddler waddles through the eve, bundled in a snowsuit beneath their inevitably rotund costumes. Chimney smoke and woodstove fires, and all the classic scents of Halloween – loads of candy, leaves, cold earth, smashed pumpkins left over from Mat Night’s debauchery – are sharp and clear in the frosty air. La fumée de cheminée et toutes les odeurs de l'Halloween - bonbons en masse, feuilles mortes, terre gelée, citrouilles écrasées - parfument l'air glacial.
Being a native montrealer I of course had to purchase this scent. When I first opened the bottle I got almost everything that is listed with the candy sweetness on top. As soon as I put it on it morphed instantaneously into a scent i am very familiar with. Imagine being out in the country during fall in the northeast, if you ever have been it's the smell of piles of fallen leaves being burned in the backyard. It's a smoky scent that does contain a pumpkin note but not in the least a sweet one, it's more the smell of being in a pumpkin patch. I would have preferred a little more of the sweetness to linger on the skin but as it is the scent really does evoke fall. It may not be the city of Montreal on Halloween but I have to say I'd prefer to smell this in the air rather than what we do actually get. If you like smokey warm scents than give it a try, maybe you'll get more candy than me
