Hades

[theseagrows]

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

this is a deep, dark scent indeed, but there is a little bit of light in this. something pretty, perhaps the stephanotis? i can't be sure, but it's a subtle and pretty floral, enveloped in a cloud of warm heat and smoke. this is much lovelier than i even thought it would be. nice surprise! Edited January 9, 2009 by Shollin

[zankoku_zen]

This is a dark, and sweet floral. It's subtle and pretty, but unfortunately in the drydown, I get something that smells like pinesol on me. Sad.

[Gwydion]

In bottle: herbal with narcissus and cypress on top. Wet: This smells like a cypress grove somewhere with narcissus and various herbs growing around. The ambergris is soft, but does lovely things with all that crushed greenery. It’s more floral than I like on me, but it’s quite lovely and very well designed and blended. Dry: Alas, it goes soapy, but that’s as likely my body chemistry as not, and the narcissus is lovely.

[cinnamonster]

On me this is truly awful.

 

This is several moustache wearing men in leather peaked caps and rubber underpants dancing around throwing Avon Black Suede talc at eachother until said pants catch fire.

 

I have only had two strong images of scents so far, Illustrated Woman was the other.

[gatesofrocknroll]

First swipe: Very perfumey with with a hint of spiciness. It smells like my grandmother's old perfume bottles.

Drydown: It's gone all powdery and lost the promising bit of spice that it had wet.

Later on: Very very old school perfume, like a little old lady stinking up a bus. Now it's giving me a small headache.

 

Overall, scents like this are the ones that kept me from traditional perfumes. If you like that feel, great, but it's not for me.

[Suu4LC]

This is a dark floral-smoky, incensey, and a bit tangy. Very interesting!

 

This reminds me of a more smoky Lune Noire, if I had to compare it to another bpal blend. Not the same by any stretch of the imagination, but a similar feel. Lune Noire is more purple, this is more dark grey/blue.

 

Overall, a gorgeous sexy smoky dark floral-a vampy floral perhaps. Beth does these blends so well!

[catattack]

Imp: Asian pickled vegetables

Wet: Asian pickles with a teeny bit of spices.

Drydown: It has something in it that doesn't smell good to me.

Overall: Not for me. I can see those that like the sour resin blends being into this.

[HKB]

Smoldering fire, incense, and leather (for some reason?), then becomes more floral and medicinal over the burning smell. Not really into it. The burny smell makes me feel a little headachey.

[Evengloam]

Florals, wood, and something wet. Has a bit of a spicy herbal undertone. Very dark, murky, and green. As it dries, the florals, wood, and herbs blend together. Also becomes a little sweet. I couldn't detect anything resinous at first, but they become more prominent as the blend dries down. Recommended to people who normally don't like florals.

[devilot]

Hades

Ugh, in the vial, that unmistakable piney smell. I'll blame both the cypress and stephanotis, though I have no clue what the latter actually smells like. No need for a skin-test. Pass! Ick.

[Diva Urd]

Vial: Dark, damp, unidentifiable and cold floral.

On: What a strange smell. Something bordering on... celery? I'm not sure if this is working out.

Later: Smells like evening mist. Sadly, not good enough. Swap.

 

Two days later - Hmm... I actually wore this all day today, as I got frimped another imp of this, and it's growing on me somewhat. Don't discount this one right away, folks! Still no bottle for me, but one of the imps stays.

[semuelle77]

 

I had to try Hades based on the black narcissus alone. I so love it in Hunger. After trying Hades I have come to realize it really is the Black narcissus that I love, because my skin amps it liek whoa. I'm sure there is a difference between the two scents, but right now I can't tell. I will have to do a side by side comparison.

 

Hades has this smokey/spicy floral quality to it. The narcissus is bold, almost overwhelming at first. Once it "mellows" Hades is a vibrant, strong floral. A little goes a long way.

 

I will definitely be doing a Hades/Hunger comparison to see if I detect a difference, or if narcissus really does wrestle all other notes into submission. (Which would be just fine by me, since it plays so nicely with my chemistry.)

[Seismogenic]

I got this one as a frimp in a swap, and I'm really not entirely sure how well it will work. A bunch of the notes sound great to me, but then there are flowers, and that makes me nervous. I'm not going to let that scare me off entirely, though!

 

In the imp: Labdanum and cypress are pretty obvious. There are some other less distinct things adding depth and maybe a tiny bit of sweetness.

 

Wet on skin: The labdanum and cypress are still the most prominent, but thereʻs definitely some sort of flower sharing the top spot now, too. I couldnʻt tell you if itʻs the narcissus or the stephanotis.

 

Drydown: Freshly dry, florals are definitely continuing to sweeten this up. The labdanum and cypress are now backgrounded to whichever floral is taking over (Iʻm guessing the narcissus, since itʻs listed as the first note?). The way-back-there-background is coming across as distinctly earthy-woody now. At one hour in, the cypress is gone, and ambergris has become more prominent. Blended with the labdanum, this is smooth and dark; itʻs no longer particularly earthy-woody. On top of this is some sort of floral, which gives it a bit of an ethereal luminescent quality even while it remains dark.

 

Five hours later: Pretty much a straight-up blend of labdanum and ambergris.

 

End of the day: A very slight bit of ambergris is still there.

 

Overall: I do believe I have found something with overt flower notes that I still think works on me! Rather than declaring themselves flowers for flowers' sake, these notes add a sort of oddly sweet etherealness over the much darker background, which I think is really cool. The dark notes are already kind of deep, but by putting the flowers on top, everything becomes deeper in context. I really like this one, and will be keeping the imp.

[Stormslegacy]

This is one of those blends that contains both notes I love (Narcasis? Let's run away together!) and notes I hate (labdanum? Let's just be friends. Long-distance Amish friends.)

 

I really like this blend. The narcissus is what take hold first and smells lovely. The other notes ground it so that there's more there then just florals. Unfortunately the Labdanum kinda sweeps in and usurps the power from all of the other notes. Since I amp both notes, they kinda are equal, which is what saves this blend on my skin. The result is a sweet, almost firey soft background alit with a gorgeous floral overlay. They balance so that I don't get the cheap-incense stench of labdanum, but that it's also not all floral on my skin. It's a nice blend for the cold weather on me.

[SophieCedar]

Color impression was a pale opalescent gray-green.

 

This is a strong floral, we've established that. The narcissus smells nice as a front note. I don't get any cypress on my skin whatsoever.

 

This is a well-rounded floral, hence the sense of an old lady's perfume. However, I feel it's lacking that synthetic bite that was popular during previous decades when popular culture was rushing forward in technology, then breaking for tea or stitch and bitch sessions. I wouldn't classify it as a sad or mad or glad scent. It's like being in emotional limbo.. does that make sense? No. Uh.. this is a difficult one. I can see sitting in a principal's office, much younger, and thinking that this scent could strike fear and anticipation in me if the secretary was wearing it. WEIRD.

[FathomBelow]

After I got my Black Phoenix shipment I was doing a preliminary sniff test of all my imps and this one induced a definite recoil response. What caused it was the really acrid, sharp smell, probably the labdanum that others have mentioned. In the future, I will be very sure to avoid labdanum...

 

I wasn't really looking forward to trying this one out due to the nasty smell in the imp, but when I got around to it, the labdanum fortunately mellowed somewhat on my skin. It left a thick, old-fashioned floral smell that was a little powdery and definitely cloying. I can definitely see where the narcissus comes in - something in this is reminding me of Pride. I actually didn't mind the non-labdanum stage too much, but I didn't like it either.

 

Overall, this one is definitely going to my give-away pile.

[Deiicide]

Wet, it's like a large blast of murky cologne. I can't really smell anything really particular, but I do smell some sandalwood. I guess that smell is the opoponax. It has some deep florals and I can smell woods (thankfully cypress doesn't go rampent on me) There is a hint of dizziness on me, perhaps from the Labdanum which did the same to me with pride. I'm glad I got to dry it, but definately not for me.

[Blithgunde]

Hades starts out with deep woods and spicy resins that combine to smell like ginger and allspice to me. As it dries the narcissus strengthens and floats on top. This is a very deep and comforting scent, a spicy woody floral that ages to a subtle resin spice.

[Greenwoodtree]

An intriguing scent that leaves me with visions of the far east, perhaps after an ancient war.

 

The scent stays resinous, with a deep, sugary floral tone, but the spice brings that under control.

 

The ambergris, which usually amps on me, is held under control by the salty, tangy note that I can only think is an incense of some sort.

 

I see deep ocean where the fires from the earth burst forth. Places we can barely imagine...sunken, burned Atlantis, the spewing of Vesuvius.

 

As intriguing as it is, its just not a scent for me, but I will keep the imp for future use.

 

EDIT - much later I realized this scent wasn't for me...the same salty sour smell that made almost retch in TROLL is also in here, altho much weaker. Still, just dont think I can handle it :-(

Edited April 2, 2010 by Greenwoodtree

[fairnymph]

Dark golden/light amber oil. Onycha, FYI, appears to be most likely a resin note according to wikipedia. Dark woods and resin, beneath a strong top layer of sharp rotting, heady florals (the narcissus which smells like that all the time to me lately, but stephanotis is another floral I find rather sharp and rotten smelling). A little bit of sickly sweetness and the ambergris is the heavy sort, musky too.

 

More floral, much more 'white floral' - I guess the stephanotis, but I suspect other florals too, something more piercing and traditional like gardenia - but still some sharp and rotten narcissus, though I'm actually GLAD to have the sharp white florals overpowering the nasty narcissus. This is also a lot 'fresher', more green and bright - partly from the florals, partly from the cypress which is less sharply woodsy and instead clean and refreshing now - that lovely evergreen with a citrus overtone. Overall this is less resiny and dark though there is still clearly depth, but the resins and ambergris seem to have nearly instantly blended and merged into a rather seamless base that's difficult to dissect. There's a bit of smoke, but not any more sweetness.

 

A bit slow to dry, with the florals amping heavily as it does. Definitely some gardenia, the sour, pungent sort that z_z describes as being like 'wet wool' (and I do sort of see that, though it's not what immediately springs to mind personally). It has taken over the blend as gardenia so often does, but the stephanotis (which has turned into quite a nice, fresh, green-white unisex floral) and the rotting, chemically sharp narcissus are just behind. The cypress I can still pick out fairly well and then the now-muskier, lighter and more pleasant ambergris - with the resins even softer and fainter - possibly I wouldn't even pick them out at all blind, at this point. This has really turned into an overwhelmingly floral blend, especially with the ninja gardenia action, which I did not expect.

 

This blend is both making me nauseated and giving me a headache (as some gardenias can), so it's off to the sink. Strong, bullying, sharp and sour gardenia just barely dominate rotten and sharp, plasticky narcissus, over a bit of poor, brutalized lovely bright but light stephanotis and clean woodsy cypress, with faint resins far in the distance that add a suggestion of darkness and do sweeten (cloyingly) over time, but never really become distinct let alone significant players in this blend, which if it weren't dreadful, I'd call unisex-to-feminine. VERY strong throw, and of course, impossible to remove.

 

[angelicruin]

Dark floral, sharp, smoky, and a little bitter on my skin.

[sunlitgarden]

I didn't get florals with this one. In the imp it smells smoky and strongly spicy, somewhat bitter. It's about the same wet on me, but the smoky-spiciness actually brought to mind a BBQ.

 

It lasts a long time on me, and I find the drydown to be quite pleasant and woodsy-smelling. Smoke smells aren't my favorite, though, and I find it hard to get over the initial barbecue note. O_O

[moon_lemming]

Hades is okay in the imp, if not really a stand-out to my nose. On my skin though, NO. Rubber and some sort of cooling powder that morphs into semi-soapy florals.

[melrose]

I adore Hades for the 30 minutes it lasts on me. So sad. It's tobacco, spices, a hint of florals, and awesome. Sigh.

[Vega]

In imp: A high florally scent over a dark swelling depth. Very rich, bold, decadent.

 

On skin: The high floral note goes away and the scent darkens significantly. It's now heavy in an august way, "close" almost stifling in its fullness, even syrupy. Hades utterly fits the description of a "sacred, chthonic blend"; you can't get more majestically gloomy than this. Colour impression is a very dark ultramarine that's almost black.

 

Verdict: A scent fitting for the Lord of the Underworld, perhaps incense for his black, sepulchral palace. But it's much too heavy and gloomy for me. It's a wonderful blend though, I may keep it for sniffing and scent comparisons.