Arkham

[jessamynit]

A shadowy, unapproachable forest of maple, birch, dogwood, cypress and pine softened by a garland of New England wildflowers: bergamot, columbine, rue anemone, blue violet, creeping phlox, bloodroot, toadflax, and pixie moss.

this smells like sweet berries to me... I'm torn between loving it and thinking it smells too much like fakey wax candles (which I'm not into). it's definitely the most cheerful, bright, and colorful of the S.I.A. scents that I've tried... if that makes sense. but, the jury's still undecided.

edited almost immediately to add that: now I am sniffing and slathering and sniffing... so I think that means I like it! I'm getting appley notes, like in hamadryad (which does NOT smell good on me) but without the weird bitterness that goes foul on my skin with some of the other apple scents. and flowery, fresh, pretty growing things! I do love it! mmmm....

[zenvodunista]

i ADORE this scent. i put it on and sniff it and i want to devour myself. it's ... i think it's my most favorite BPAL scent that i've had the pleasure to try so far.

 

my only complaint is that my skin seems to eat it up. two hours and it's gone usually, but until then, i walk around in a cloud of deliciousness. i can't even begin to describe what it smells like to me. all i know is that it's gorgeous.

 

n.

 

ADDED Aug. 4:

 

i love this scent, but not really on me. it fades quickly on me, and (i believe it's the birch/maple combo) has a tendency to get a bit odd before fading.

 

however, i love all the top notes, and i love just sort of.... sniffing it! i have yet to get a scent locket, but i did scent a cotton ball -- i put it in a little silk bag and hung it in my closet. it smells like the open woods. i did that about a month ago, and it still smells quite strongly.

 

so, no swapping of the Arkham Revisited for me! i'll be keeping this little cutie!

 

n.

[k00kaburra]

Although they are nothing alike I wish I still had Beth's old Arkham blend to compare scents.

In bottle: There's something sweet, like berries, mingling with bouquets of bright wildflowers. They are blended masterfully; I can't detect any of them singly.

On me: The many woods provide a grounding base, from which wildflowers spring! I still can't identify any of them; but then I am not familiar with most of these flowers. This is a light, bright floral with gorgeous green leaves and growing in sunny meadows, with the oddly-out-of-place but lovely berry overtones.

[lokelani]

This is absolutely lovely. Really beautiful. What I get is mostly the wildflowers – a very soft floral. I can imagine springtime in New England when I smell it. I’m so pleased, because I was a little afraid the woodsiness would overwhelm the florals – I’m not crazy about very woody scents. But hooray! The florals have prevailed! Happiness. It actually reminds me a bit of Flower Moon, but it’s less overtly feminine and flirty. It's softer and more -- contemplative, I want to say, if that makes any sense.

 

I’m in love. Shoot, and all I have is an imp!! I really wasn't sure I'd like this -- now I will have to search for a big bottle. It's a quest! Off I go...

[magikfanfic]

In the bottle: This kinda smells like fragant grass. Like tea or some kind of air freshener. It has a sweet, green, soft smell to it. It keeps getting away from my nose so that I have to put my head closer and closer to the mouth of the bottle. But there's also a strange, fruity undernote to it. This is another one where I'm not familiar with many of the notes. I just hope the more grass/wood notes in it don't kill me.

 

Wet: Really reminds me of a berry herbal tea. It has a fruity sweetness along with a tea grass like scent as well. Not at all what I expected it to be. In fact, it's better than I had been hoping, but I'm still not sure that it's me. Especially since more of the wood notes are rising to the top of the scent. Wood does not like me.

 

Dry down: Slightly berry with...something of a dusky, moss note in it as well. I don't really like moss so I was hoping that it would be drowned out by all the floral notes in this. Now it's still sweet berry herbal tea with more woody herbals in it. I'm still not sure about this one. I like the smell, but I don't know if I really like it enough to keep a whole bottle of it. Even if I had an imp, I'm not positive that I would ever use it. This has a lot of wood in it behind the berry sweetness. Berries aren't my favorite fruit scents, anyway, so it won't be that big of a loss if I opt to get rid of this one. I still wish I had worked a little better on me, though, because it sounded pretty awesome in the reviews.

 

Dry: Um...berry herbal tea with way too many wood background notes. This is nicely blended and sweet and well done, but the wood notes are making my head pound a little and that's never a good thing. It has the vague impression of smelling like potpourri now. Oh well. I had hoped to like it, but this is another short love affair. Stupid skin.

[ChupaChup]

I had to list the notes for Arkham Revisited again, I wish I had a nose sophisticated enough to pick out some of these notes. Gah, I don't get any of them! What I get is fruit, sweet fruit and it keeps getting stronger the longer it's on until I have to wash it off. This doesn't work on me at all and it sounds so magical .

[paperdoll]

Initial Sniff: Sweet wildflowers with a hint of pine.

 

Wearing: This one stays true to the bottle scent all day long. It is just slightly fruity, slightly foresty, and very flowery (in a meadow kind of way). Gorgeous.

 

Final Impressions: I agree with the parallels to Skadi - this is her springtime sister. I'm not sure, but this might be my favorite Arkham scent.

[Penance]

First sniff:

 

Somewhat sweet, somewhat floral and somewhat light, sweet and woodsy. I'm thinking this will be too floral for me in spite of the lovely wood notes, but I won't know until I try.

 

Wet on skin:

 

Floral and citrusy (must be the bergamot I'm smelling). This is one of those semi-sweet, super heady floral blends, at least to a floral averse person such as myself, and it's definitely not me. I'm having the worst luck with the SIA scents and that really breaks my heart because I wanted to love them all.

 

Dry down:

 

Lots of sweet, heady almost polleny flowers. I can feel my sinuses gearing up for a full-out floral induced headache, which unfortunately means this needs to be washed off before I get another Migraine From Hell.

 

The bottom line:

 

Another SIA scent that hates me. Hopefully its new owner will love it more than I can.

[Kittyflop]

Another SIA scent that hates me.  Hopefully its new owner will love it more than I can.

 

 

Oh I do! Thanks Penance! When I first opened the bottle, an overwhelming sweetness hit me (decomposing flowers?). I was afraid it might be too sweet. But after just a mere four hours I have grown to love it! It's a clear sweetness, not muddled or sticky. I don't yet have a sophisticated nose to be any more specific, but this scent makes me happy in a carefree, childlike way.

 

[Little Bird]

My first thought was that this is another one of those scents that reminds me of a candle shop. All of those overwhelming candle scents mingling together. It also smelled kind of perfumey. So I'll wait until it has some time to drydown and hope that it gets a lot better.

 

15 minutes later it has softened down a lot and I can sniff my wrist without my brain aching. I am starting to get that apple scent that others have mentioned. And I can definitely see the comparisons to Hamadryad.

 

In conclusion (before I washed it off well into the first hour)... this is just way way way too much floral for me. Perfumey floral. I had hoped that it would have more woods and pine, but it's like a stronger version of Hamadryad on me.

[madelf]

In the bottle, this is floral - fresh spring flowers and green leaves.

 

On - light and sweet. There's a hint of something a little fruity that I can't put my finger on. It gives the blend a subtle sweetness and keeps the florals from feeling too overpowering.

 

This is a walk in the woods on a spring day to a tee. It's fresh and pretty, and was perfect for my trip to Northern Wisconsin last week.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Floralujah! With a pine base. Flowers of the forest. I bet I might even be able to get my guy into this one, as much as he loves pine. Sticky resin-sap under a wildflower base… I can’t smell anything in here that’s likely to go weird on my skin. YAY.

 

Wearing: This is so, so pretty. Wildflowers over a blanket of evergreen. I’m very glad the first few reviews talked me into ordering this one.

[coulrophobe]

A shadowy, unapproachable forest? Nuh-uh! I smell a light, happy woods full of happy little unicorns, or maybe Smurfs. This scent is so cute and girly to me. It's all about pink berries and flowers (I thought of Smurfs, because this must be what smurfberries smell like). Young, innocent, and sweet without being cloying - to me, this is very berryish, even though I don't see any listed. It's reminding me of Jester quite a bit, but with a bit of soft floral on the side.

 

I love all things pink, and this is a very pink scent. I approve!

[AngelFireHeart]

I recently was lucky enough to aquire a 5ml untouched bottle of this scent from Ebay.

 

First impressions of this scent is something really juicy & sweet with a large floral background and yet somehow quite foody.

 

When this dries down a bit the floral becomes more pronoounced & the foody scent receeds away to just the tiniest hint in the background. Keeping the perfume very floral but sweet. It's quite a warm scent almost like the sweet scent of hay & molasses you'd expect to find in a barn, It also brings about the same calm & silence that you'd expect to find in an old barn.

 

For me this scent brings about feelings of peace & tranquility & complete contentment. Not at all what I was expecting from the description.

 

Unfortunately this scent is fading very quickly on me which is a real shame, but nevertheless these scents that my body chemistry eats up are what my perfume pendant was bought for.

[QueenFae]

A delicate, lovely floral with some fruitiness to it. I love it! It's my favorite Arkham scent so far. I'm not very familiar with the ingredients to this one, so I'm not really sure what the top notes are and such. But I do know it's fun, light, girly and uplifting. Try it, you'll love it!

[Red_Hot_Mama]

I love Skadi & as paperdoll has already said, "this is Skadi's summer sister."

 

Coulrophobe also "nailed it" with her description of "happy little unicorns or maybe Smurfs." This really does evoke those images.

 

On me, Arkham Revisited smells like a "marine/ozone" blend. There's nothing remotely like that listed in AR, so I chock it up to my chemistry. It's really lovely but I had to wash it off because I was getting a migraine. I don't think AR caused it but wearing any fragrance bothers me right now.

 

I'm keeping this to try again, sometime when it's not so hot.

[tsarina]

Springtime in Arkham means deep shadows under the trees and scattered, sunlit glades full of soft and fragile wildflowers. The whole wood is holding its breath, and the air barely stirs. The flowers are small, colorful and sweet.

 

This blend is delicate and unexpected. There are warm flowers and cool shadows, and something lurking just out of sight.

[luxuria]

Yeah, this is Skadi's summer sister all right. I've been looking for a feminine foresty scent for a long time, and, well, I keep thinking I've found one, but this is the best of them all. Wet, this smells like a forest, but one where the trees have pink wood and all the flora and fauna are different shades of fuschia and purple. Thankfully it mellows out pretty fast, and it's just a sweet, light, girly forest scent.

[aidenraine]

When wet there is something incredibly edible about this scent, and very familar. I thought "maybe because I live in New England there is something of the flowers I am used to smelling in here..." except I hate floral perfumes in general and this is more than that.

 

It's like there's a little maple syrup in there. It's as though there is some fig and holly in with the flowers. It smells a bit like a candle shop at Christmas with a lot of wintery scents mixed with the traditional florals.

 

It might be the first floral scent that wasn't rose, jasmine, or violet that I don't hate outright.

It's just so... interesting.

 

I normally either love a scent or hate it. I know if I keep this I won't wear it, but I LIKE it. It's almost a floral for the anti-floral people.

 

It smells kinda like a cranberry chutney candle I have

[feline.by.design]

Whoa....

 

This doesn't smell much like the original Arkham BPAL oil that was discontinued last year. Nope. I have a bottle of the old Arkham, and with that oil, I get verbena herbal happiness.

 

With the new Arkham, I was immediately struck by how very fruity it is. I don't consider myself much on fruity scents, but this fragrance is fruity without being overpowering or obsessively "fruit." If that made any sense. The florals seem to balance the fruitiness out, making the fragrance light and a touch bubbley.

 

Whereas the Original Arkham is something that could easily be unisex, Arkham Revisited strikes me more as a feminine fragrance at first. After about five minutes once the fruit gets its ya-yas out, the notes seem to deepen in complexity and tone, making it more suitable for any gender. Some of the florals and the fruit tend to jump out a bit from time to time, however I think this would work for those gentlemen who either don't hold too much regard for "masculine/feminine" labels, or for those guys looking for something a bit more distinctive and unexpected.

 

This reminds me a bit of R'lyeh, but since I haven't worn it in a while, I could be totally off. The scent is about as sweet as I remember R'lyeh being. The sweetness Arkham gives off is the natural fruit juice sweet (think Izze), which is a good kind of sweetness for me. I tend to shy away from overly sugary fragrances.

 

All in all, I really like Arkham Revisited. I was just so surprised at how different it was from the Original Arkham, as that's what I was sort of expecting. I'm far from disappointed, however, and I'll be enjoying both of my bottles of the Arkham blends for different reasons.

 

-doreen

[olympia301]

This is a classic fruity floral, and when paperdoll said it was "Skadi's Springtime Sister" that nailed it for me. Somehow I can't see the unique beauty in this one, that's my blindspot obviously because others do, but it is pretty and I do understand how some "floral folks" really fall in love with it.

[fallow deer]

At first, the combination of lush evergreen woods and flowers gave a distinct fruity vibe to Arkham Revisited, but the notes settle down into an evenly balanced combination of sweet floral (similar to Pink Moon) and piney woods. The flowers give the woods a playful quality (I can't get Smurfs out of my head!).

 

I love the piney woody blends, but tend to use them in my bath mainly rather than as perfume. The flowers in Arkham make it totally wearable for me and a different sort of blend to what I usually wear.

[Eros]

Received from the lovely olympia301

 

In the imp/just on~I get deep, rich amber and fruit. Red pear maybe?

As it wears, it lightens a bit, and threatens to turn a bit "heady perfume" but never quite gets there. Long lasting with nice throw. There's also a bit of incensy something that shows up after a few hours.

I don't get any of the florals or woods. Just the amber and fruit. Warm, a touch sweet~delicious in a non-foody way.

If this is Springtime, it's a dark, wet & foreboding Spring.

Love it!!

[LiberAmoris]

Arkham Revisited is such a lovely floral---on me it's just like Pink Moon without the sugar sweetness. In AV I get all kinds of wood and moss bottom notes, and a bit of darkness like shade.

 

This one disappears very quickly on my skin, so I've taken to dabbing a bit in my hair in order to make it stick around. So glad I got a last-minute bottle.

[Monster]

I got a full bottle of this off of Ebay. I'm not usually one who likes florals, but being from New England, I had to give this one a whirl....and WOW, am I glad I did!

 

Arkham is absolutly amazing! This isn't too too flowery smelling. It's just perfect

 

It has a really well balanced sweet/floral/woodsy scent. Not one note pops out at me, it's really very complex and very beautiful. This is a very clean, springtime scent. I'm going to be sniffing this all winter, eager for June to arrive again ^^

 

I love love love this one!

 

__________________________

April 2, 2010

 

*looks at my older review*

Wow, I was such a n00b :D

 

Today I'm reviewing ARKAHM (not the older Arkham Revisited)

 

In the vial: This smells completely different than Arkham Revisited. This is SHARP and herbal smelling. I think there might be a lot of oakmoss in this one.

 

Wet: Yikes! Sharp pine, oakmoss...this is NOTHING like the original Arkham Revisited. This one clears my sinuses and gives me a headache while the older AR smells like sweet and warm florals.

 

Dry: This dries into bathroom spray. Was this reformulated? Something definitely changed. I'm not a fan of this version of Arkham. I much prefer the older one and I'm very happy I purchased two bottles of the older stuff.

 

Verdict:

Edited April 2, 2010 by Monster