An Autumn Stroll for a Pumpkin Man

[zankoku_zen]

Russet dried maple leaves crunching around a jack o’lantern splashed with bay rum, curling with cigar smoke.

[deadlyves]

The only Weenie I blind bottled this year and it was a good choice. Its very autumn evening atmospheric, a bit dark and fairly dry. I don't get leaves out of it (bummer for me, but maybe a good thing for others), but the rum and tobacco from the smoke and a hint of pumpkin come through. At first, it was hard to pull the notes aside from the tobacco because its very well blended. The rum isn't super boozy, and the blend has a very slight sweetness. It feels like its in the same family as Everyday is Halloween or Morrocan Pumpkin but much less sweet than either of the two.

 

I loved the concept for the nightmare novellas, and this blend lives up to what I hoped it would be!

Edited October 10, 2023 by deadlyves

[mothknits]

I may have been a bit over eager in applying this one today, as I’m new to oil fragrances. In the bottle it smells like dried leaves to me. I applied it with a wand to the inner bends of each elbow, and a bit where my neck and collar bones meet on both sides. An hour with it on, the only note I’m noticing is leaves. As I’m typing this (15 hours later), those cronchy dried leaves are still the main note, but I’m finally getting a bit more depth. Like I’ve been frolicking in piles of dried, fallen maple leaves, sweetened by the warmth of the sun. 

 

i was hoping to get cigar/tobacco and rum scents more prominently, but that may be my body chemistry. It’s a fairly neutral scent, so gender ambiguous enough i would give it another whirl. 

[Haltija]

This dapper gentleman is everything I knew I would love. 

Immediately it's chewy, vaguely sweet tobacco with a soft curl of smoke. I don't get any of the maple leaves until it's fully dry and so therefore blended with that tobacco and smokes makes it so gorgeous and atmospheric, exactly what I wanted to mimic a crisp Autumn night. The rum hardly comes out to play, but that's okay. 

 

My brain feels like it's similar to my baby French Tobacco with just the addition of leaves and smoke, which I love so very much. 

I didn't want to get backup bottles this year, but I might have to break that ban with this. 

[elissamay]

This is the kind of dead leaf note I can get down with right away. I usually have to either shy away from that note or let it settle for a good long while before it works for me.

 

This one, on the other hand, delivers the dry, crunchy leaves with some maple-sugar sweetness. Not a ton, but just enough to allow it to work for me. (That might actually be the pumpkin that I'm mixing up with the maple leaves, but whatever it is, it's just enough sweetness.) The Bay Rum is a sensational combination with these dry, crunchy leaves, and the overall scent blend is evoking a well-dressed man strolling ominously through an autumn path, smoking a fine cigar, with possibly spurious intentions. I mean, he's got a pumpkin on his head, so how spurious can he be?! 🤣

 

There was a mention once of a Bay Rum Snake Oil maybe existing, back when the Purge scents were introduced, and this is one that makes me want to smell something like that desperately!

Edited October 18, 2023 by elissamay

[Poenari]

Very autumnal sweet maple leaves with pumpkin, very little smoke or rum. It's a very clever blend of notes that work very nicely on my skin. Not a pumpkin spice, very much a carved pumpkin, but the other notes keep it from going to foodie or vegetal stages. Nice!

[Little Bird]

Starts off a little plasticy, a little spicy, and creamy/buttery, reminding me of a craft store in fall, so I was disappointed.  The drydown, however, is more what I was hoping for.  I love baking in autumn, making cookies and cakes with the windows open to get the cool air and crunchy leaf scent all through the house.  That's what this reminds me of.  Creaming butter and sugar together with the scent of crisp air, crunchy leaves (no green bell pepper leaves here, thankfully), and hints of fresh pumpkin.  As it dries down, the cigar smoke's sweet smokiness just adds to the illusion, like I've removed cookies from the oven and can smell the smokiness of their browned edges.  It has a toffee-ish scent over time.  I was hoping for masculine, fresh pumpkin, but I'm not mad about this burnt sugary, buttery treats in autumn thing that Pumpkin Man is doing on my skin.