Penny Dreadful

[Babylon]

Also called Gallows Literature. A dime novel rife with melodrama, horror, madness and cruelty; a ten cent analogy of vice and virtue in conflict. Soft perfume evocative of noir heroines over rich red grave loam.

Penny Dreadful is the lemony ginger of Shub-Niggurath, covered in freshly turned moist earth. I love the Lab's dirt note, and this one feels especially "fresh and moist". Edited September 17, 2007 by Shollin

[aquazoo]

Just ok. The start is nice, but then it gets foody - a little butterscotch creeps in. Then almondy. Nope, not me.

[Morrea]

In the imp and wet on my skin, this is pleasantly musty, earthy, and sweet without being cloying. As it dries, it warms up and the spices emerge. When dry, this smells very holiday-spicy, like the scented candles that are so popular around Xmas. To my nose, this is mainly cinnamon and clove, with something smoothing out the rough edges that smells nutty and vanilla-like - perhaps hazelnut and tonka or benzoin. There is also an almost-salty base note in here that I really like. Despite the description, this doesn't smell anything like dirt to me, nor can I detect any of the patchouli or vetiver that are sometimes used to evoke soil.

 

While I like this one, I wouldn't wear it every day, because it isn't quite firey-spicy enough and there are so many other blends that I like more. It would make a lovely perfume or room/car scent once winter comes, though.

[Tulliver]

I wanted to like this. I wanted to LOVE this.

 

In the vial: Mildew! Dear lord, this is liquid mildew! That's really NOT a good thing at all.

 

On the skin: Wet - Still mildew. That sort of takes over really. It's SUCH a strong smell that I really can't get anything else at all. It actually makes me physically recoil.

 

Dry: Mildew could be receding, but it's still there. A lot. The scent that's coming through alongside it... smells a bit sickly sweet. Not sure if I like it but, in fairness, I'm still in a bit of shock, heee.

 

After 1 hour: I still can't get past the mildew smell. It's faded slightly (in general), but still strong enough after an hour. The background perfume has a slight menthol quality to it - this scent could contain vetivert, perhaps. That usually works on me, but not always and, if it IS vetivert, then not here. I can't say I'm fond of it. Intrigued maybe, but not fond.

 

After 3 hours: The scent is still there (why can't Blood Countess or Darkness last this long on my skin???), and I must say the mildew has gone. I don't DISLIKE the perfumey scent that's left behind, but it's really nothing even remotely special. Maybe a little citrusy in a washroom soap way?

 

So, like I say, I wanted to like this for all reasons spine-tingly, Goth-horror-y, Victoriana-y and everything else related-y. However...

 

Scent: Wet - 0/5, Dry - 0.5/5

Durability - 3/5

Bottle? Noooooooooooooooooooo. Not for me. I won't even be keeping the vial.

[ralenth]

At first, Penny Dreadful smells like I spilled the contents of my spice rack outside (for whatever reason): warm, evocative, dirt. As it dries, that earthy note becomes more pronounced. I feel like I have been rolling around on the ground, which is strangely appealing, though definitely not something I would always want to smell like. Perhaps my nose isn't really well practiced with earthy scents like Penny Dreadful.

[MaidenGenevive]

Penny Dreadful

 

First thought - dirt. Warm, spicy dirt. It has the same spiciness that I love about The Dodo and Blood, although it's more muted. I ask my husband what he thinks, and he says "Cake. Like someone's baking a cake in another room." But, he thinks anything spicy smells like cake. I tell him I smell dirt, but he can't detect it. It's a distinct warm dirt, that really does feel like a "rich red grave loam". It reminds me of the dirt note from Death Cap, except cleaner.

 

After wearing it a bit, the dirt note fades. The spices lighten and soft perfume lifts up. It remains warm and spicy, but not commanding, rather it's soothing. I daresay it's shy, but that's not quite right. It has a quiet spunkiness.

 

[1 - Hate] .. [2 - Dislike] .. [3 - Like] .. [4 - Really Like] .. [5 - Love]

 

4 / 5 : The dirt note is so unique, I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's not a negative feeling, it's just different. This scent is lovely, definitely a keeper.

Edited September 8, 2007 by MaidenGenevive

[starwild]

Got this as a frimp from the lab.

 

Wet, it's french vanilla musk. URK. My least favorite scent.

 

Drying, I get tobacco, and a tiny bit of dirt.

 

Not a winner for me, I'm afraid. Vanilla always amps up beyond belief on my skin. I'm sticking with Zombi for my dirt fix.

Edited September 19, 2007 by starwild

[hkhm]

bottle: spicy dirt. this has a nice earthy aroma.

 

wet: nice, wet earth as after a good downpour. there is something vaguely floral as well but it's faint.

 

dry: dirt. i had never thought that dirt could smell so good. whatever the spice is, it's quite nice.

 

this bottle was an accident that the lab sent me. how nice that it's something that turned out to smell great on me!

[n3m3sis42]

In the imp:

Strangely dirty.

 

Wet:

I definitely smell a dirt note, along with something that might be woody (which is not a good sign on my skin). There is also something softly sweet, maybe like really subtle gingerbread.

 

Dry:

Hmm, this is a faint, earthy gingerbread that I can barely smell. Better than I expected, but I will need to give this one the Slather Test and report back.

[Pottersville]

Yup, I get the dusty/dirty scent and light floral. OK, but not wildy unusual. Still, I'm on the fence.

[waternight]

Ok. This scent is just strange.

 

In the imp: Strangely cakey/buttery/creamy, which I was not expecting.

On: This goes through so many seemingly unrelated notes. It starts out very foody, like in the imp - vanilla, icing, cake, butter, cream. Wierd. Then it takes on a very moist, heady dirt note, with the perfume note on top of it. This is the stage that smells like the description. Then later, I swear I smell sandalwood. Then, in the very dry phase... vetiver. No lie. Gentle, soft, barely-there... but vetiver.

 

This is the most schizophrenic scent I've tried yet!

[Juushika]

I'll admit, I added an imp of this to my order because of the name—but also because I hadn't yet tried any dirt notes, and red loam seemed like a good starting place considering the scents I usually like.

 

In the imp: I have a hard time pinning down in-the-imp smells, but this one is primarily a gentle spice, warm red-brown in color (a lot like the oil in the imp, actually). It has plenty of character without being sharp, and the spices feel full, almost like they've been roasted to bring out their full flavor.

 

On me: Going on wet, Penny Dreadful goes quickly through a few extremes. It's warm wet loam, it's a waft of fairly strong florals, and there's a bit of that spice from the vial. After the first ten minutes it settles a bit, becoming red loam, warm, slightly damp, and very full-bodied, with an undercurrent of mixed florals that are a little bit too strong. All told, the scent entire is a little bit too strong during the drydown period, but after about half an hour, it calms and develops into itself.

 

Over time: After the drydown and during wear, Penny Dreadful is absolutely wonderful. The red loam is predominant, the body of the perfume, rich and moist. It's not dry dirt, or gritty under the fingernail dirt, but rather rich, a bit clumpy, and with a velvet texture, and a very solid and full base to the perfume, making the overall scent a gentle but warm red-brown. The florals waft over the loam scent, making the scent pretty and feminine, but not girly or strongly floral. They are very gentle and very well-mixed, so they smell more like faint perfume than flowers, and no one floral note overwhelms the others. Since I generally avoid florals, I consider that a Very Good Thing. Finally, the spices from the vial come in every now and then, and grow stronger as the scent wears on the skin. By hour three or so, the florals recede and it's loam and spice, rich red fullness at the center but with sharper accents, to keep things interesting. The scent clings on for a while: it's discernible as perfume for about six hours; the next morning, the scent still clung to my skin, but it was very faint and very close.

 

Verdict: I'm in love with this scent, and it's already climbed its way into my list of current favorites. I think it's a great perfume for people who are cautious with florals, because the floral note is so gentle and well-mixed, just enough to make the scent pretty but definitely not enough to overwhelm it. I also think it's a great first dirt note, as the loam is rich and warm, and feels a bit like more conventional notes like amber and dragon's blood. The three aspects of the scent—loam, florals, and spice—are wonderfully balanced to make this a lovely scent that still has a lot of personality. I adore it. The boy loves it, too. He picked it out for me to wear last night from the vial scent, liked it on, and happily sniffed my faintly-scented skin the next morning, so that must be a good sign.

[VioletChaos]

in the imp: chocolate and dirt in equal measure: right up my alley!

 

wet on skin: the chocolate increases, adding a touch of roasted nuts- it's like Tell Tale Heart, with dirt in it. love!

 

 

dry down: GORGEOUS! Rich-earth couples with chocolate and a faint hint of mist. I could die in this scent and be happy!

 

over all: fantastic! i *must* get a full size bottle!

 

 

 

[sadtomato]

in the bottle this smelled very sweet to me so i thought i wouldn't like it at all as sweetness was all i could smell.

once i put it on my skin there was still an overpowering sweetness to it, but i got some nice earthiness and dirtiness as well.

as it dried, a bit of spice of some sort.

unfortunately, this one didn't last long on me at all and three hours later i can smell just the slightest sugary sweet trace on my skin.

[GingerGunlock]

I'd been so excited to try this one, that I didn't really bother to smell it in the imp. I swiped my nose at it, then wanded some onto my right wrist (the other wrist was housing Snake Oil at the time).

 

To begin with, I got a lot of the almondy cakey scent that a lot of people have mentioned, with a little bit of rained-upon earthiness popping up periodically. Marzipan cupcakes at the playground? Cake at a picnic? Whichever.

 

When this wore off, however, all I smelled was perfume. Not particular florals or notes, but the kind of alcohol-y perfume scent you get after walking through that section of a department store. A couple hours after drydown, it got slightly sweetly almondy again, but overall, on my skin, there was little of the depth and variation of scent that I've sort of become used to expecting.

 

For now, this will go into the little box that I just emptied out to put my imps in, as I have nobody to swap with, and perhaps in a couple months, I'll go back to it and it shall be the things I've just described and more. If I've learned nothing else from reading reviews and stuff, it's that I shouldn't judge a scent at first sampling, but wait and try it again later.

[Magpie]

I can definitely see where people are getting the gingerbread from. It kind of makes me imagine zombie gingerbread

 

Earth, wonderfully. Rich and loamy. The slightest hint of florals occasionally. The thing I really love about this scent is that it changes every time I smell it. /sniff/dark, muted gingerbread/sniff/earth/sniff/old buildings/sniff/floral perfume, old and Victorian/sniff/something spicy and mingling. It doesn't have much throw but it lasted for a while. I was really worried that I wouldn't like this scent (because I adore Gothic literature, including chapbooks and bluebooks), but I ordered it on a whim and I am soooo pleased I did. It's deeply interesting and I don't quite know why but I'm inclining towards putting it on my 5ml list.

[kizery]

This perfume really showcases my total ignorance about how to detect different notes. I seriously have no idea what I'm smelling here. All I know is that I like it.

 

Wet: No idea. I think I do get the earthy smell, but it's soft and nice and feminine at the same time. This is my first time trying an earthy blend, and it's definitely not what I expected. I thought I wouldn't like it. I completely agree with the first review, that it smells like something that you're not supposed to like but do anyway.

 

Dry-down: This is very nice, but again, I don't know what I'm smelling. In addition to the earth smell, I'm getting something vaguely foody, but not overpowering at all. Cinnamon? Nutmeg? I have no idea. What's interesting about this blend is that it doesn't make my nose tickle or tingle the way most scents do. I usually get some kind of sensation in my nostrils when I smell perfumes - and, if it's a perfume that doesn't agree with me, I sneeze or get a headache. This doesn't give me any sensations in my nostrils. It's just pure scent. After wearing for about 30 minutes, I realize that it's made me hungry. I'm so confused by this scent! It doesn't smell that foody. Yep, nothing works up an appetite like red grave loam.

 

After a few hours: The earthy/loam smell isn't as detectable now. It's just a generally pleasant scent. It reminds me of lightly spiced bread baked in a clay pot. And maybe this is just from reading the description, but I totally do picture this as a scent that a badass heroine would wear. It makes me think of the Old West, too.

 

I really, really like this. I think a 5 ml is in my future.

Edited March 30, 2008 by kizery

[goth_huntress]

Wow it really did smell like dirt. But nice especially with the rest of the ingredients.

[tehriaz]

this is absolutlely, stunningly delicious. and I'm SO ridiculously critical of smells. I don't like anything, ever. but, out of probably 200+ bpals I've tried, this is the first that really feels ME. I think it's sort of an idealized version of how I myself smell. lol. I love gardening so I love the smell of dirt (which is good because I often smell faintly of it!).

 

it's got earthen notes, woody notes, spicy notes, foody notes... I hate foody passionately, but this one pulls it off like crazy.

 

first applied, it smells like I started to grind spices for my chai and only got to the cinnamon and maybe a little clove before I accidentally spilled it on a forest floor somewhere. if I had to try to pick out some notes, I'd say there's a rich earth note, a bit of something mossy, cinnamon, maybe clove, velvety sandalwood, and something like rich cocoa. it smells like velvet and bengal went for a sexy tumble on a forest floor somewhere, and death cap discovered them there and joined in for a threesome as an afterthought..

 

the only thing I don't like about this blend is that it stings like crazy when it goes on, and then gives me a pretty hefty rash a couple hours later. but it smells so amazing it's totally worth it.

 

this is probably my new favorite smell ever. it's that good. and it's worth seriously noting that I do indeed hate everything, ever.

Edited April 6, 2008 by tehriaz

[Gwydion]

In bottle: sharp dirt scent over blood. Something vaguely green. Wet; Intense Dirt smell with pleasing light overtones. The perfume comes out slowly. This is no jazz Funeral, but pleasant. Dry: Wears nicely as a sweet dirty scent.

[NatCatz]

This starts out as dirt.. Spicy dirt. Its rather nice actually. Its the sort of graveyard dirt that always smells spicy. However this lovely smell doesn't last long, and it fades into a light floral on me. I wanted dirt, I got flowers.. Might be better on someone who doesn't amp florals like I do.

[Czarina]

Oh, dear.

 

I tried this Lab frimp twice.

 

In the imp: Lysol.

Wet: Lysol.

Drydown: Lysol mixed with honey.

 

I wouldn't mind if it smelled like dirt, but it doesn't. Feh.

 

This smells AWFUL on me. Or I suppose I should say it smells dreadful on me.

[fairnymph]

In the bottle: Slightly sweet flowers, incense, and soft soil. Amber?

 

Wet: Soil! Amber! Sweet frankincense. Maybe some honey, and some earthy-spicy patchouli. Ginger? The florals smell familiar, but are too blended and nebulous to distinguish.

 

Dry: Slow to dry, and increasingly sweet (vanilla maybe, not honey) and spicy. The amber is warm and soft, and not overly powdery - amazingly. The dirt scent persists.

 

Summary: Sweet, incensey frankincense and a touch of natural vanilla, warm, soft amber, faint spicy ginger, hints of dark patchouli and light blended flowers, and ever-present freshly turned soil. Fascinating blend, but not my style. Low throw.

[LadyLuckDoubt]

In the Imp

A dark, old worldy scent that's almost rusty and heavy on the patchoulli and amber.

 

On Me

The rustiness and the patchoulli fades, and amber pops out and makes itself visible. And it's gorgeous. It's dark and intense, and has great throw and an excellent life: on me, I've got amber, patchoulli and musk, but something else... is there a touch of vetiver in there? Maybe some vanilla, but it's a dark vanilla-- not a sweet candy plastic vanilla at all.

 

Whatever: it's beautiful, and I'm glad I tried it. I want a bottle.

[inurbanus]

This is pretty overwhelming at first, but after a couple hours it mellows out into a beautiful and sophisticated scent. I was expecting this one to be dirtier, because of the grave loam, but this is actually wonderfully spicy. It's got an old-school feeling that I really like -- this smells like it came straight out of the '20's or '30's. I adore the concept and execution; it reminds me why I love BPAL.

 

3.5/5