Al Azif

[wickedgoddess]

An Arabic term that refers to both the chirping of nocturnal insects and the ambient sound made by the chattering of demons. This is the original title of the feared Necronomicon, the Book of Dead Names, penned by the Mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred.

Nor is it to be thought that man is either the oldest or the last of earth’s masters, or that the common bulk of life and substances walks alone. The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be. Not in the spaces we know, but between them, They walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen. Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod earth’s fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread. By Their smell can men sometimes know Them near, but of Their semblance can no man know, saving only in the features of those They have begotten on mankind; and of those are there many sorts, differing in likeness from man’s truest eidolon to that shape without sight or substance which is Them. They walk unseen and foul in lonely places where the Words have been spoken and the Rites howled through at their Seasons. The wind gibbers with Their voices, and the earth mutters with Their consciousness. They bend the forest and crush the city, yet may not forest or city behold the hand that smites. Kadath in the cold waste hath known Them, and what man knows Kadath? The ice desert of the South and the sunken isles of Ocean hold stones where Their seal is engraven, but who hath seen the deep frozen city or the sealed tower long garlanded with seaweed and barnacles? Great Cthulhu is Their cousin, yet can he spy Them only dimly. Iä! Shub-Niggurath! As a foulness shall ye know Them. Their hand is at your throats, yet ye see Them not; and Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold. Yog-Sothoth is the key to the gate, whereby the spheres meet. Man rules now where They ruled once; They shall soon rule where man rules now. After summer is winter, and after winter summer. They wait patient and potent, for here shall They reign again.

A sinister, sinuous incense of summoning, a herald and paean to the Primordial Gods of Darkness, Chaos, Madness and Decay.

Origins - purchased at Black Broom, 4/24/05.

In the bottle - sweet and dark like maple syrup.

Wet - Heavy incense with a dark sweetness underneath.

Dry - dirt! The smell of fresh turned earth, along with incense and dark sweetness. There's a lot of throw to this one; I can smell it without sniffing my wrists. This scent is strong, heavy, almost cloying; I love incense scents but I think this one may be too sweet for me.

On the wickedgoddess scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best, I rate this a 3

ETA - I am wearing this a second time, and the sweetness is less pronounced this time. My son said it smelled like maple syrup, but once it dried down the sweetness was more balanced. I like this much better now.

[AlectoNox]

On me this is a soft resiny scent, almost powdery but not obnoxiously so. There is a dark sweetness to it, but it doesn't go anywhere near cloying on me. It reminds me of soft jasmine fragrances, expensive body powder, or my Nippon Kodo incense sticks. It doesn't have as much throw on me, it's much more subtle, like a clean skin sort of scent. It's definitely pleasant and 'pretty', I can see this one being worn with a silk dress and heels. Very lovely.

 

edited to add: Ah-ha! I know what it reminds me of! Lush's Silky Underwear. I'm picking up some vetivert and jasmine from it now. I love the way Silky Underwear smells but I may have to be careful with this blend...vetivert likes to trick me into smelling it so often I become lightheaded. That happened with one of the other bpal vetivert blends...I *love* the way it smells but wow, does it ever make me woozy.

Edited May 1, 2005 by AlectoNox

[shelldoo]

oh wow, this is by far the toughest to describe so far, it is dark. there is a sweetness, but i wouldn't really say jasmine or maple syrup, it is a dark sweetness, maybe molassass type but not on top it is dark smokey incense on top w/. the sweeteness waiting, hiding and enticing you. i pick up something saffron like, this has a similar *feel* to DDLM yet they don't smell alike. if that makes any sense at all. as it dries a bit of a floral note peeks outi am not a jasmine fan, i can't say for sure it is jasmine, if it is there is enough other beautiful notes to overcome my dislike of jasmine.

 

gah this one is hard and i know i simply am not doing it justice.

 

editting this, as alazif has aged it has become the sexiest thing on the planet. it is a deep resinous, sandalwood, saffron, there is no floral at all. it is somewhat sweetened resin not all out mollasses, but an undercurrent of sweetness. i love how this has aged.

Edited August 16, 2006 by shelldoo

[Rosaleen Dhu]

Based on the description, I was expecting something much much heavier. More incense-y. A sniff from the bottle is like that, but on my skin it is more the memory of incense. What you smell when you walk into a room that has been closed off for a while. Someone burned nag champa or amber in there months ago. It's faded and soft, maybe just a bare hint of a floral tone.

Overall I like this, but I don't love it, and don't think I'll reach for it too often. Maybe as a room scent.

I'll have to try this one on the boy. I think this would work much better on him.

 

edit to add - Oh my. I've been in the process over the last year or so of ruthlessly culling my collection, putting scents in a holding cell of sorts. Today I started going through the boxes looking up descriptions and such. I don't know what kind deity whispered "sniff it" in my ear when I picked Al Azif up, but boy howdy am I ever glad I listened! This has aged incredibly, into what I hoped it would be 5 years ago. It's soft dark resins, deep almost caramel sweetness, no floral at all. I feel like I've been given a precious gift! So beautiful. Not only is it saved from the cut, it's a new favorite.

Edited November 22, 2010 by Rosaleen Dhu

[sarada]

Take Penitence...lots of Penitence, and sweeten it up a bit with a touch of Aureus (which I just tried today for the first time and looooooove). That would remind me somewhat of Al Azif. This is truly an incense blend -- and is immediately leaping into the realm of favorites, with me.

 

I can just imagine that every possible resin and incense scent is in here -- in the bottle it is syrupy and sweet, conjuring vetiver like images for me but I think that there is more of a suggestion of frankincense, myrrh, sweet myrrh, amber, maybe copal...just everything. And I wouldn't doubt perhaps a touch of nag champa.

 

I love all of the incensy smells the lab offers and this is pretty much the epitome of all of those. It is sweet and dark and not too smoky, it's more like the resin crystals before you put them on the charcoal. Incredible. I can see people getting something syrupy from this and I just know that people are going to sniff me and say "Mmmm...pancakes" but that is the furthest thing from my mind when I sniff dark, sweet resins like this. I can't even tell if there are woods or patchouli in there...there's so much going on. It's strong as hell and develops beautifully on my skin, warming and revealing more and more dark, shiny layers. This is the part where I can see people saying it's headshoppy. Oh how I love this.

 

Now watch me pad my Paypal account so I can get more!

Edited May 22, 2005 by sarada

[donsixgun]

Incense. A very familiar scent too. I know Ive owned it, or smelled it somewhere before. This is a lighter scent, not at all sinister or darker, in fact, its somewhat powdery, but not in a bad way...it smells like the box your incense comes in...softer, mild...before you burn it. I really liked this.

[cupide430]

Al Azif

 

Starts off syrupy sweet and very incensy. I can pick up a hint of that maple syrup scent someone else mentioned. Something about it is similar to Has No Hanna for me. Its got a touch of that brown sugar thing going on. It is like sweet sugary incense, but also very powdery. At some point it came to remind me of the Burberry perfume I got for my dad for Christmas-- Burberry's Touch. I read the review of it as syrupy sweet and wanted to like it but the powdery incense notes are pretty much killing it for me. After the sweet incense phase and the powdery sweet incense phase, the cedar comes out. That's where the similarity to Burberry Touch comes in. The cedar sorta fades in and out for me switching off with a sweeter scent.

[girlmadasbirds]

it smells very nice in the bottle... like pure incense. i get more of a light & airy vibe than a "sinister, sinuous" one though.

when i first put it on... it smells like pure incense. on drydown, it keeps that incense smell, but a thick resin and maple syrup start to creep out. beautiful!

Edited June 24, 2005 by angel sixgun

[Lori]

I went to the mail today, and found that I had received 3 imps, from a fellow BPAL'er: Whippoorwill, Al Azif and Miskatonic University, from the Arkham series. I have never done a review before, on any of the oils, but since these are being discontinued as of midnight tonight, I thought I would let you all know my thoughts on them, in case anyone was waffling on whether to buy them or not.

 

Al Azif - In the bottle, it smells very floral! I don't remember what was in this blend, but I didn't order it and I usually want the florals. Mmmm...smells very nice on, too! Kind of like gardenia or jasmine...very pretty and sweet. If this doesn't change on drying down, it would make a beautiful summer scent. Drying down, still a lovely floral. It reminds me of being in an English garden...gorgeous! Whoa! I go to look up the Lab's description and Al Azif is described as A sinister, sinuous incense of summoning, a herald and paean to the Primordial Gods of Darkness, Chaos, Madness and Decay!!? No wonder I didn't order it! But...but it is so pretty! I am not getting sinister or decaying here at all. The floral smell could be from incense, but it is definitely a floral incense! I sell incense and I really think this is Gardenia or Jasmine. It's beautiful and I think I want a big bottle of this! Finally, I have a winner!! :-)

[Northernminx]

I expected something heavier, more present, but somehow the way Al-Azif slithers into your day is deceptively quiet and oh so appropriate. In the bottle I get a faint sweet wisp of sugared incense, almost like a touch of maple syrup gone bad. On the skin I had to wonder where this was. There was just...nothing there for the first few moments. Then something slunk in.

 

There's a little too much vertiver in this for me to adore it, but it's menacing, dark, mysterious and a sort of intoxicating sort of dark. It's softened by an incensey sweetnes and while this isn't overpowering it is _there_ just present like an undercurrent through the day. This really is gorgeous and slithery even if not entirely me.

[violetblue]

Sweet incense and I love this! Brown sugar with spice, I think I am getting sandalwoody/vetivert scents from it, and I think if my bf wore it, I'd jump him. A little too heavy for me to wear everyday, but I adore it. I can see myself wearing it more often when it gets cold again!

[gingersnapp]

This is gorgeous sugared incense. It is dark, but not heavy, almost as if you're shrouded in the smoke itself. I get a nice warm wood scent out of this too.

 

It's a touch masculine at times, but delicately so.

 

LOVE IT!

[Ailine]

I need to find a boy to wear this. On me, it smells like really expensive incensey soap, which is nice, but it dawned on me about two hours in that I really identify this as a masculine scent.

 

I do enjoy wearing it to bed, though. The sheets pick up the barest hint, and then I have lovely incense-scented dreams.

[joseybird]

I definately agree that this is floral incense; but thankfully, there are no *flowers* in here, so I'm all good It's like I'm literally smelling a floral incense stick as it's smoking (although the smoke note is light and airy). There's also a lovely sweetness to this...

 

Definately the closest I've smelled to actual incense

[blaqpearl]

This is fucking gorgeous. Sorry...I had to say it that way. This one is moving up into my top three. I love it. I need more of it.

 

At first I got that maple syrup smell everyone is mentioning, which is why I backed away from ordering it...but I got my hands on some and I should have went with my gut and ordered it. Oh well nothing I can do about it now. That syrup smell goes away but leaves behind this sweet smokiness that is purely sensual. I cant wait for hubby to smell it. with my luck he will sneeze...LOL. Hopefully he finds it as sexy as I do. I get whiffs of it being a little masculine but then it is sweet and sexy. So I dont care....I wanna slather in it. I cant though.

[mmontgomery]

I didn't get any maple syrup with this one. It's all resinous deliciousness like the inside of some forgotten temple with smoke hanging in the air and soot staining the walls and ceiling. It reminds me of all the starnge resins I have lurking in my cabinet like black copal, oppoponax, elemi and myrrh. Mmmmmm. Too bad it's had it's limited edition run. I would have bought more of this one. It's deliriously intoxicating to me.

[pkwench]

*dies* LOVELOVELOVE. It smells like brown sugar and opium incense with a touch of something resiny to me. And? IT'S SO LOVELY. Dear God, Beth, this is amazing. It's warm, exotic, gently spicy, and completely comforting. Smelling it reminds me of my extremely lazy afternoon naps. The sort where I start out by lighting some incense, getting a cup of someting warm to drink, and reading on the couch (or the bed these days as I'm homeless *sob*) until I get sleepy and curl up with the afghan. *sigh* You know, for a rotten dude embroiled in the dark arts, Al Azif smells heavenly.

[Rheliwen]

When I swiped a small amount when I first got it, it was faint and sweet. It smelled like nag champa and creamy florals with an ivory soap undertone.

 

This morning, I gave myself a proper dousing. Wow, right from the getgo this smells just like Sugar Skull. It's very rich, maple syrup...quite different than my initial experience with it.

 

After about an hour, it starts to turn a little astringent. I get faint lingerings of clove, nag champa and sweet florals. The same kind of florals in Arkham. It seems like that soapy note is trying to come out, but is having a bit of a rough time this time around.

 

It's really a hard blend to place. It feels familiar, yet not. And it's weird how drastic it is when applied lightly and heavily. I like the smell a bit better when applied lightly, but without the soap. Overall, I picked damn well! Every single Arkham blend has been a winner with me. Kudos to Beth and Co.!!!!!

[cranberry]

When I first got my SIA box and was going through and smelling everything, when I got to this bottle, I said to myself "what is this amazing smell?" and immediately rubbed it on my wrists, neck, collar and cleavage.

 

I still don't know what that smell is but I do recognize it. Somewhere, in the back of my brain.

 

Al Azif is a very sweet, sugary scent that really doesn't change a whole lot on me. I usually go into sugar shock with very sweet scents but I really like this one. I get hints of resin and incense. I dont' get cedar. Maybe sandalwood way way underneath. It brings to mind sticky resins and light sweet smoke even though it is a very smooth scent.

 

Now why did I only get one bottle? **kicking myself**

[Little Bird]

This is one of those scents that I really like, but would probably never wear. It's a very sweet/smoky incense. It has a sort of sooty/dirty quality to it. At first it smells like a nice floral incense, then dries down to something sweeter and more powdery. It lasts about five hours on my skin... I can barely smell it now, just a trace of something smoky, like the remnants of a burned out campfire.

 

It just doesn't feel like me. I'd pass over this one when picking out a scent to wear each day... nothing is really outstanding or grabbing my attention. I'll probably end up decanting this one out to a few curious friends.

[pekeana]

To me, Al Azif is very sweet and sugary, quite resinous, and, ultimately on my skin, a big old hit of powder. But mega thanks to pkwench for letting me try it.

[cuervosueno]

On me this is a soft resiny scent, almost powdery but not obnoxiously so.  There is a dark sweetness to it, but it doesn't go anywhere near cloying on me.  ... It doesn't have as much throw on me, it's much more subtle, like a clean skin sort of scent...  I'm picking up some vetivert and jasmine from it now.... I may have to be careful with this blend...vetivert likes to trick me into smelling it so often I become lightheaded.  That happened with one of the other bpal vetivert blends...I *love* the way it smells but wow, does it ever make me woozy.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

My reaction to this was much like AlectoNox, and I laughed out loud

over the part about sniffing vetivert to lightheadedness...

 

but I'm having a hard time with this. I ordered it because of the reviews that noted it was incense-like, which I love. then I swapped for a bottle of Azathoth and got them on the same day, and have been having a hard time separating them, because both have vetiver. Even now I stupidly put one scent on either arm, and I'm so overwhelmed by the Azathoth that I can't really do Al Azif credit, so I may have to come back to this review.

 

but for now, I'd agree that its barely there, a faint skinscent, like a memory of incense as someone else said. Maybe like the faint ash from an incense containing vetiver...

Its like the opposite of Azathoth, if that makes any sense. Opposite in that it is faint, retiring, like faded writing..while Azathoh has some similiar notes but much, much louder.

Huh. Dunno. It may go to the swap pile.

eta: I wore it yesterday on its own, away from the lovely but overpowering idiot god Azathoth. It is really quite nice....the vetiver fades and then it is, yes, a perfect incense note--well, not the incense itself but the ash, perhaps even the ash faded into the pages of an old book. Its an amazing blend, but even though I was out in the sun working, sweating, I could only smell it when I pressed my nose to my wrist.

And I'm a girl who needs more throw in her scent. So I'll send it off to a loving new home, and stick to the Caterpillar for my perfect incense scent.

But if you like lighter scents, do try this. It is really amzingly well done.

Edited July 2, 2005 by cuervosueno

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Not at all what I expected. I anticipated that this would be a heavy, smoky, patchouli or cedar-dominated scent. (That's what I have come to identify 'incense' scents with.) In this bottle this is quite a bit lighter; rather resinous and sweet instead. Perhaps amber or dragon's blood?

On me: Still a sweeter blend, but it vanishes almost instantly on me. It is replaced by the rather depressing sting of nail polish remover.

[ChupaChup]

Al Azif smells very burnt on me. It has a sweetness to it but it is thin, not rich, and definitely unpleasant. I can't even begin to guess what kind of incense this contains. I was expecting something a lot stronger and richer with staying power.

[pensive]

In the imp: Interesting and rich.

On me: Incensy floral. no syrup, darn.

Verdict: Meh.