Hades

[taramarie]

... A dark, palpably sacred chthonic blend: black narcissus and cypress, stephanotis, opoponax, labdanum, onycha and ambergris.

Hades is my favorite Greek god (thank you, Disney), so I would've bought this no matter what was in it.

In the imp and on my skin, Hades smells like dark floral and woods. It's like stumbling across a cavern full of flowers and trees that never see the sunlight, but are beautiful in the darkness. As it dries, it turns into a darker, more masculine version of Asphodel. Hades is a good complement to Persephone, naturally, but definitely a gender neutral scent. I love it and I'll put a bottle on my wishlist.

[filigree_shadow]

The black narcissus is lovely in this and smells great with the opoponax and labdanum. It's dark and hazy without being smoky. It smells kind of lazy and languid to me.

 

Narcissus has a very particular scent, and I can see how some people might not like this if they don't like narcissus. However, I like that flower -- it's one of the few I do like.

 

This one's a keeper.

[aquazoo]

Wierdly spicy/lemony. The lemon fades quickly and I get a nice spicy floral. Thick flowers, tropical. Hades seems like a very nice place. It’s a keeper.

[Severuslovesme]

In the bottle and wet Hades smells sharply of cypress, almost like furniture polish. Once it's dry though the florals emerge and are lovely. It's floral without being powdery, and has some smokiness to it.

[YoakeNoKami]

Damp, flat wood--a nutshell over cool, dark, flamelit open space, with a hint of extinguished resin torches. A smugly dangerous, sleepy, disastrous hint of an unending and final kind of sleep.

 

What is the heavy damp wood note?

[slave1]

HADES

 

In Bottle: Planty and resinous

 

On Skin: The opoponax is dark and sticky and it reminds me of Schwarzer Mond at first. But it is even more earthy and not as sweet. It also has a nice floral in the background as the narcissus makes itself known. To me this is a much lighter version of Schwarzer Mond, kind of Schwarzer Mond Light if you will. It also fades super quick and doesn’t have the dark depth of Schwarzer Mond. I also notice a bit of spice to it. As it fades the resins drop to the back and the floral element becomes stronger, it’s very pretty! I love it! The resins and florals work so well together, I just wish it was stronger. This is a perfume I will wear a lot. It starts with a medium to heavy throw, but fades quite quickly and has a short wearlength.

[Christine Daae]

asfdasdfasasdfasdf

Edited April 4, 2016 by Christine Daae

[HatterRenoAxel]

Bought for the shear fact Hades is my favorite god

 

Bottle: Kind of floral, a little earthy

 

Dry and wet: Fresh turned earth, I wanted to roll in it smelt so good.

[hkhm]

imp: sweet, flowery woods. this is far more delicate and pretty than i thought it would be.

 

wet: mmmmm... cypress. this is a very soft, sweet cypress with a background swirl of florals. lovely.

 

dry: this dries to a very soft, sweet cypress. very lovely if you like woods. i think i may get a bottle.

[bryghtrose]

This is so rich! Opulent, heady, thick, earthy. Very nice

[lainevierge]

Wow, I love this. It's spicy without being heavy and floral without being sickening sweet. I wish I could pinpoint which of the notes listed I like best, but I have no idea what I'm smelling here. I am going to seek out more opoponax blends in the future!

 

I highly recommend this for people who want to like florals but don't and who think scents like Bathsheba, Wolf's Heart & Blood Amber are too heavy.

[brsis]

Frimped to me by Tartchef!

 

In the imp: Warm, a touch spicy, reminiscent of incense (Must be the ambergris)

 

Fresh on the wrist (Well, elbow, actually): Slightly sharp – not citrus, but the same kind of freshness. That’ll be the cypress, then. Slightly cooler on the skin. Definitely still the pale gold incense note which I’m assuming is the ambergris, and a hint of a non-sweet floral. Only a hint. The floral gets stronger over the next five minutes or so, but it doesn’t last long.

 

Fifteen minutes later: Lovely, warm, spicy ambergris. The cypress has warmed down to just a hint of a tang. I don’t really get the narcissus – from time to time there’s a wiff that makes me thing of it, but it’s never there long enough to examine.

 

Decent throw, although I was pretty generous with it this morning, and seems like pretty good staying power so far – it’s morphed but not lessened. Not sold on a big bottle yet, but definitely one to try again.

 

Half an hour later: Oooh, the ‘incense’ mustiness (In a good way – you know what I mean >.<) is backing off now and while the cypress is still lingering in the background, I think the black narcissus is blooming properly. It’s still not a ‘proper’ floral, but it’s fresh, not sweet, and nicely softened round the edges with the ambergris.

 

Many hours later (Seriously, like, seven hours): The two main notes I get have blended into a yummy, soft, pale golden narcissus incense. I think this might be going into the ‘big bottle’ category fairly pronto-ish.

 

Overall, if I can avoid associating Hades with Japanese oral exams (Guess what I had today >.<) then he might soon become one of my favourites.

 

TL;DR: Incensey ambergris, with tinges of sharp cypress that fade on the dry down and a fresh spring floral that builds over time. Reasonable strength and throw.

[Enferdame]

I don’t wear scents often, my nose isn’t trained super well, and I probably can’t describe it as well as others, but I thought I’d put in my two cents.

 

In the bottle- My first impression was celery. Like, bad celery. Really grossed out by it. I want to swap it right away but then decided to give it a chance.

 

On- Not as bad. Floral notes come out really strong, but they’re definitely of the dark variety. Quite a throw, my mom said it was overpowering her ice cream.

 

Hour later- Oooo, it gets nice and spicy. I can see why they threw this in as an extra imp with all the dragon’s blood variations I ordered. Sweet, woodsy, spicy, dusty. I love the smell.

 

Final verdict- I can’t decide whether or not I like it. I don’t really want to, especially since I really hate the first moments of it. I like the result, I think, because it’s nice and dark and spicy. I don’t think I’d wear this though, it’s still a little too floral heavy to be as sexy as I like. I have a feeling I’ll swap it at some point, but I’m going to hang on to it for a bit longer.

Edited June 24, 2008 by Enferdame

[Andrea912]

This came as a free imp in my order.

 

I don't really know what I smell: it's floral, but a dark floral. I don't like it.

 

What bothers me most is that I don't recognize any of these smells; I suppose the above are all exotic flowers? It reminds me of a rotten lilac stem from a lilac bush: moldy violet and purple.

 

Not for me at all.

[Nimthiriel]

Initial impression:

An oddly ”cool” floral! Friendly, but distanced.

 

First on:

Mm. Cypress and something else – it's simultaneously cold/dark and friendly/welcoming, to me. It's pretty unisex as well.

 

Dry:

After about 10 mins, it's oddly masculine, all of a sudden. How can it be a manly floral? I'm confused. Another 20 mins later, it's a fresh and masculine scent – dark but oddly comforting. Not a dangerous sort of darkness.

 

Finally:

Peculiar, but good! Passing it on, though.

[Iceblink]

I smell cypress and opopanax. And powdery narcissus. This is way too men's-cologne for me though and is making my head ache.

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Dark, resinous cypress with a hint of florals.

 

Immediately on skin: This is light cypress with subtle, sweet florals blending in. The ambergris gives this a slightly salty, powdery edge.

 

After a little while: The drydown of this on me is dry smelling and slightly resinous with a dark but soft floral undertone and a finish of powdery ambergris. This has a sweetness to it, but it’s balanced with the resins and dry, powdery notes.

 

Overall Impressions: This is definitely a unisex blend. It’s a bit dark and dry with resins, light flowers, and salty ambergris. It isn’t overwhelmingly strong or dark… the resins, floral notes, and ambergris are well balanced.

[Allumina]

Once again a complicated perfume smells like nothing but florals to me. Ugh, girl smell. These are dark, mysterious, headachy-strong florals- interesting, but still too floral for me. Someday I'll find a floral I get along with...

[OhioSky]

This smells weird... First time I wore it, I couldn't even decide if I liked it or not.

 

Second time wearing it, still weird, I don't really recognize any of the scents I smell but I'm not that familiar with the ones listed so I guess that's why. To describe this without the aid of the scent description, I would say it smells really herbal. I smell something like cinnamon, but not the warm cherry cinnamon most BPAL boasts... like a cinnamon stick, and a stale one at that. I also smell something kinda like... cloves maybe? and some sort of dark but not heavy incense. It's weird, and strong whiffs of it actually make me a little sick to my stomach even though it's not really a BAD scent, really. Probably won't wear this again.

 

I don't smell any florals I recognize as florals in this, even though florals tend to go awful and overpowering on me.

Edited September 19, 2008 by OhioSky

[Coldfire]

Imp: dark and sticky. Cannot pick out anything in

particular

Wet on Me: Stephanotis now and the Narcissus

Drying Down: Dark, Shadowy, Floral. Not getting any

cypress yet.

Dry: powdery floral now. I can take it or leave it.

I will probably re-home it.

[femmefatale]

Wet, it's a very dark and earthy scent and I wondered if this might be another for hubby.

Nope, all mine.

 

It does start out earthy and darkly green, but as it dries the narcissus (which I love!) comes out and begins to sweeten it. It becomes more feminine, but never girly and it's not a sophisticated scent. It's more mysterious & inviting, though that could be dangerous. This is a floral I could love.

The only drawback is my skin seems to eat it, but it's worth slathering.

 

I think I need a bottle.

[jade_starlight]

This one is interesting. It's dark and mostly what I think is the cypress, and though the florals do come out a bit to soften and sweeten it up they stay dark and subtle. Very nice.

[MCS4096]

In the Bottle: Resins and cypress.. moist woody and herbal. The floral aspect is very very light.

 

Wet: Starting to smell the narcissus more, it becomes much more floral and resiny-- the cypress dies down.

 

Dry: Definitely has a masculine, herbal scent up close, but the throw is mostly peppery floral with a little green edge on me.

 

Hm.. is ok, but not real high on my list of bottles to get.

 

ETA: I take it back! This is turning into an amazing spicy floral.. no moist wood to be found! I'll have try it a few more times, but I really like it

Edited December 2, 2008 by MCS4096

[crebbsgirl]

This one ended up being a beautiful dark incensey floral on me. Wet, the cypress, stephanotis and the black narcissus are pretty predominant. As it dries the resins start appearing and the cypress calms down. The opoponax is dark and wonderful. It seems to be getting more floral as it sits on my skin. I find this one to be pretty perfumey for my tastes, but a beautiful scent none-the-less.

[milo]

In the imp and wet, kind of evergreen. I like it. This dries down to a perfumey, incense blend, a bit to heavy on the floral perfume part. I enjoy incense, but this is wrong in this blend. Hades does not suit me, much to formal and aristocrat-like.