Arkham

[voorishsign]

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.

Continuing my quest to try ever Lovecraft scent BPAL has to offer:

This is really nice. It reminds me of the woods and wildflower fields near my house where I grew up. I'm normally not one for florals but here the woodsy notes really calm it down. It's a floral, but not a cloying, everyday floral - it's the wild, dry, beautiful florals of my childhood.

That doesn't necessarily mean I need to smell like the woods of my childhood - so I'm not going to use it on me with any regularity - but it does take me back and it's amazing in my oil burner.

[lilwhiterabbit]

This is another non-morpher for me; it smells exactly same in the imp as on my skin. Arkham is a really complex scent. I'm having a lot of trouble picking out individual notes. I smell something vaguely 'woody', something 'grassy' and a small riot of wildflowers. It smells exactly like a New England wood on a spring day. I really like it! It's refreshing and pleasant with a hint of subtle darkness. Not exactly how I expect Arkham to smell (I always imagined that would smell more like a city... this is definitely countryside), but pretty nonetheless. Definitely a keeper.

[moon_lemming]

I wasn't sure which Arkham this was (this one or the dc blend) until I put it on. POW, FLORAL DEATH. Definitely the one from Picnic in Arkham, with all the woodsy flowers.

 

FLOWERY DETERGENT FLOWERY DETERGENT until it's completely dry, then it is sort of like laundered-a-few-days-ago clothes (you know, with the dryer sheet's scent just barely hanging on), or like just-washed skin. Surprisingly pleasant. Not something I'd ever willingly acquire, but not as thoroughly horrible as I expected, either.

[SophieCedar]

Ah! What wood sprites would smell like! Dark woods smelled on a breeze and sweet flowers. I'm actually from the general MA area that supposedly housed the fictitious Arkham, so this is pretty accurate with the combination of woods and flowers.

[Deiicide]

Holy Flowers Batman! (hehe see what I did there) There's nothing that's really jumping out at me. It smells like just a soft breeze past a flower garden, with the scent of fresh cut stems and flowers. It's very springlike, getting lighter as it dries

to almost a whisper on my wrist. You really have to dig your nose close because it sticks close to the skin. The wierdest thing, on drydown it almost reminds me of Victoria's Secret Strawberries and Champange. It's fine on my skin but really not for me, and I'm glad I got to try it. If there is woods, it's not doing nasty things to my skin which is a good thing. This is a soft nice, floral blend.

Edited April 18, 2010 by Shollin
Removed Lab description --Shollin

[hmelt004]

This is a floral for people who don't like florals, and an aquatic for people who can't wear them. I am both.

 

This is one of the more accessible Lovecraft scents, so if you are a fan of his and still deciding which scent to try, Arkham might be your best bet. It is definitely complex, with a creepy, cold vibe that fits perfectly with the name. It is also very wearable, and I imagine it would be very cooling on a hot summer day. I mixed two imps into a bottle of unscented body wash and enjoyed my eldritch horror in the shower last year.

[impolight]

:::ARKHAM:::

 

Ia! Ia!

Hoorah for superior oil blends representing one of the ultimate literary greats!

Arkham is guaranteed to blow more than a few minds out there!

From the bottle, Arkham smells like the deeps of a rich and shadowy Eden of a forested region; it would seem only natural that the stuff of fantasy, fairy-tale, and nightmare would emerge from this glistening, green scare-a-dise!

Arkham's mossines splashes and foams in the nose like a tossing, verdant ocean... And the Violets... The Lab's Violets! They sneak up on you, peek out from their mossy, beflowered cowl and shriek, "Boo!" at you...

Shy Violets... Poppycock!

The Violets in Arkham are the sweltering bruises of savagery! The Dogwood in this blend is insane! Beyond nostalgia!

The Dogwood in Arkham is particularly amazing, probably because there had been a presumption that as note, it would too obscure to matter much.

The longer that Arkham is worn, the more it unfolds!

The Toadflax is rusty and earthy, the Phlox compliments the Violet and cleverly unifies it with the Dogwood.

Arkham is unwinding, uncoiling, chitinous-black brambles, dripping with oceanic mist, every drop catching and magnifying, with a flash, the light of the moon.

Arkham seems to cross dimensions of both time and space to evoke the terrain and zeitgeist of the premier Godfather of Horror and the Macabre.

This is a beautiful fragrance, effortlessly worthy to represent the caliber and quality of Howard Philip Lovecraft.

This is a magnificent and dapper fragrance for Him.

5.5 out of 5!

Thanks a billion, BPAL!

[loubric]

Soft, subtle and slightly sweet/woodsey. Unluckily it looks like it's turning into oily wood varnish on me (a few scents do that to me ) The florals' do try and poke through but looks like the varnish wins.

[KesHiro]

Frimp in one of my orders.

 

This is one of the few non-morphers I've tried. From the imp to the dry phase, I get leaves, grass, and flowers. Maybe a touch of fruit too. It's quite pretty and reminiscent of going on a picnic on a spring/early summer day.

 

This is nice, but it's not the type of scent I wear frequently. Plus, I already have Pa-Pow, which has the lovely puppy musk on top of the field of flowers. I won't be upgrading this scent but highly recommend it to the green/floral lovers out there.

[Venneh]

Woods. Lots and lots of woods, in the imp. On my skin, again, the same. Will probably not end well. Aaand it's gone!

Edited July 2, 2010 by Venneh

[sarielswish]

In the vial, this reminds me of freshly raked leaves. It has the smell of wet leaves and turned soil that you get when you get a little too energetic with the rake. Color, brown.

 

Wet on my skin, the bergamot pops out first, then the pixie moss. And then the damn violet. This would be quite nice if it weren't for the violet.

 

10-15 minute drydown - Well, the violet isn't nauseating like in some of the others, but it's definitely not a keeper.

[voodoobaby]

Wet on my skin, there's some springy tree-like notes, but then as it dries the scent becomes a light floral. It's really fresh, clean and light-smelling, and there's a note here that smells "pink" and reminds me of commercial perfumes designed for teenagers and young women. It's a lovely scent, especially for springtime, but it's definitely not me. Also, it's barely detectable on my skin. This will go to someone who will appreciate it for what it is.

[reconditarmonia]

Very green. I definitely get the cypress. Not my thing.

[FathomBelow]

Wet, Arkham is a very sweet pine, almost identical to the wet stage of Nocnitsa except the sweetness is floral and not quite as syrupy. As it dries, the pine recedes somewhat into the background and the flowers come forth - very pretty, smells exactly as wildflowers ought to: dewy, fresh, and just a hint sweet. After it dries, however, Arkham undergoes a drastic transformation into...Ambercrombie & Fitch cologne?!? Yes, smells exactly like walking past A&F or Hollister in the mall.

 

Overall: Due to the smell of this dry, Arkham is really, really not for me. Unfortunate, as I love the place in Lovecraft's stories.

[cupcakegernade]

At first there is this strange muskiness that is quite dirty and doesn't smell good at all, but this does fade quickly. There is also a bright heavy florals. As one who is not a huge fan of heavy florals, I find this to be a bit over whelming. In the end, this is a big bight bar of floral soap, not good at all.

[strahlend]

Hm. I guess this is supposed to be woodsy/floral but on my skin it smells so sweet that it seems fruity/floral. After a little while it's just floral/floral. Much lighter and brighter than I was expecting. After a while the woods come up to the front but in a nondescript and floral kind of way. I didn't even write a review in my notes when I got this bottle back in July - it's pleasant enough but not very memorable.

[Maleficium]

IMP: A lush garden

 

WET ON SKIN: Green, thick and fruity with a hint of citrus. It's really quite lovely. Not smelling anything but wildflowers. To me, it's evocative of a bright spring garden that's just bloomed with maybe... wet new sprigs/branches?

 

DRY DOWN: Starts to smell like an ocean-y blue men's cologne.

 

Verdict: This doesn't really work on me. Back to swappies!

[KatharinaNordh]

Just got this in a swap and I will buy a bottle in my next order just to have at home for when I meet someting I think might be the man of my dreams - this would smell Incredible on the right man. Something in the very smell immidiately makes me think of someone male, blond, roughly 45-50 (I like them a bit older, so somwhere there would be ideal) with one of them Scandi/Germanic stereotype-bodies; tall, well-built but not bulgy-muscly, not overly furry, long straight legs and perfect posture - so dream-man smell for me

 

It actually smells really, really nice on me too, like green and purple and someting smooooth, yet a bit tendrily and fuzzy - but I just get distracted and go all tingly imagining it on the right man, even with the floralsy bits (but why should flowers be unmanly?)

 

Love it!

 

Edit: I use this for anything where I require a man now (to not offend anyone, just use imagination) It has possibly aged a bit (or something - something happened to it) and smells so super-manly that I can hardy use it anymore. Very odd, cause in the imp it doesn't smell like that at all, and most everyone else seems to feel it's a female scent. Maybe mine is mislabeled or something? I checked if it was perhaps the old Arkham - but it doesn't seem like it...

 

Edit again, because the extreme manliness of this has been confusing me for some time, to the point where I thought it was mislabelled or the old version or something.

 

I tested it on my ex when I spend a while with him some week back - he is rather delicious and fits the idea of dream-man (only younger) - and on HIM it smelled as most people have reviewed it - it's just on me it smells like Super-uber-man, it seems.

 

I ordered a bottle straight up <3

Edited December 17, 2011 by Asinya

[WidgetAlley]

Imp: Sweet woody floral, with a lightly citrussy smell. I think I can identify bergamot, moss, and violet mixed with woods but I'm not really sure-- this is very well blended and nothing is sticking out.

 

Wet: Cool mixed florals, a little soapy but not very, and sweet woods with the slight bubbliness that I associate with birch. I really don't like birch very much if there's too much of it at once but it's mild enough here that I can handle it. The citrus smells like orange peels very specifically to me, not sure how I'm getting that out of bergamot but I sure am.

 

Dry: This dries down to a pale white floral very much like The East but with a twist of wood and citrus. Pretty but I'm not sure I'd wear it-- I'll test again but I don't see this one getting much use.

[Ketzel_Mermaid]

Can any of you who have had a bottle of Arkham a good long time review how it tends to age? Right now I’ve got a bottle that’s a couple of months old and it has –- both in the bottle and on my skin -- a cloying, sickly sweet note that I find unpleasant. I was hoping it would be more woodsy, dry and earthy. (More like Burial is the closest way I can describe it.) But I’ve got a hopeful hunch that it might go that way as it ages. So I’m wondering if I should just take it out of my current rotation and be patient to see if time improves it. Does time tend to bring out the forest and tone down the floral in this one?

[karykeion]

And I'm back to the Christmas frimp-testing! Come here, Arkham darling.

 

In the imp: Haunted woods! There are flowers, which on my own I'm not so much a fan of but which are pretty tempered by the smell of a whole (indistinguishable to me, sorry) ton of trees, and there's something just plain creepy in the background here. I don't usually get mental images with smells, but this immediately brought to mind a picture of what the woods in The Color Out of Space must have looked like before the grey crumbliness set in.

 

On me, wet: Pink-purple-blue fresh woodland flowers and beautiful but slightly unnerving forest. I don't really like straight-up florals, but I guess this means I'll love them if you throw in enough trees and the suggestion of a horrible monster or two, because this imp is going to go FAST.

 

On me, dry: The trees and flowers kind of blend together into this...it's like haunted flower petals and moss, because whatever is making this smell disquieting just mixes with everything else and gets stronger. It's like the woods are thinner now and there are less trees, but the ones that are there are bigger and old and there are things living in the hollows, and the forest floor is this mess of roots and moss and flower petals.

 

Oh my god, I love this, even with all the flowers. They just set off the creepy better. I see a bottle in my future.

[Kahlika]

Can any of you who have had a bottle of Arkham a good long time review how it tends to age? Right now I’ve got a bottle that’s a couple of months old and it has –- both in the bottle and on my skin -- a cloying, sickly sweet note that I find unpleasant. I was hoping it would be more woodsy, dry and earthy. (More like Burial is the closest way I can describe it.) But I’ve got a hopeful hunch that it might go that way as it ages. So I’m wondering if I should just take it out of my current rotation and be patient to see if time improves it. Does time tend to bring out the forest and tone down the floral in this one?

 

I have a bottle from the original Springtime in Arkham run (2005). It has always been sweet and 'pink' on me, and always smelled very similar to Pink Moon (the first one) for some reason. They both share phlox and columbine as notes so I'm guessing that's what I'm getting. That said I actually always really liked it, I'm an aquatic person, not a floral person, so I never wore it much, but I did/do like the scent. I tried a bit tonight and it was a little dryer smelling on drydown than I remember, but still sweet and pink. It is different to what I remembered, but not massively so. I don't know if that helps at all, but that's how it was for me anyway.

[loubric]

Sickly sweet medicine cleaning smell with lots of Indian incense wafting in! A sweet smokey sandalwood scent. Very woodsy and clean.

[mymymai]

In the Imp (ITI): It’s floral, but pleasantly so with the wildflowers, violet, and columbine, which I can make out on first sniff. There is also something a little like lemon, like verbena, but I don’t see that listed as a note.

 

Wet: Yes, I still get something lemony, but the woods come out to play with dogwood and cypress being the most discernible. Following that, I get wildflowers and columbine, to the point that this reminds me of being a spring meadow sipping lemonade.

 

Dry: There is a little soapy tinge now to the florals, but not enough to dissuade me from my springtime romp through the meadow. This is a rather clean scent and would be wonderfully refreshing yet still feminine for summer.

[Scorianelle]

Well there is not really much I can say about this one. In the imp it smelt very strongly of pine but almost as soon as it hit my skin it morphed into a generic store-bought floral. I think my skin somehow sweetens whatever concoction I put on it, as even the darkest scents I've tried have still been relatively sweet. I'll try and pawn this off to my sister. She may like it for the name.