Devil's Night

[BlackDahlia]

... This is the scent of autumn night, fires in the distance, with a touch of boozy swoon, playful sugar and thuggish musk.

In the bottle ~ Buttery lemons (!) You remember those "Lemon Cooler" cookies? This smells like that, to me.

Wet ~ I get some dense smokiness mixed with booze. (Rum, specifically.)

On the dry down ~ my skin gobbles this up so it goes sort of talc-y on me, very quickly.

A nice Autumnal fragrance, just not for me.
Lovely label, though!
Edited December 31, 2005 by Shollin

[Koumori]

I was surprised by how much I like Devil's Night; BPAL scents with smoky and woody notes tend not to work with my chemistry. But this was the hit from the new Samhain scents of '05; it is rich and warm and foody, with a boozy note I love. It won't replace Samhain as my autumn scent of choice, but it's good on its own merits, less outdoorsy than Samhain and less chaotic than Dia de los Muertos.

[moon_lemming]

2005 version

Devil's Night SMELLS like a fall night. I tried it out so long ago that I can't remember many of the notes that stand out, but I do remember loving it and telling my husband that it smells like a fall night spent around a bonfire. It has a touch of apple on my skin, too. I'm keeping it, but I think I'll probly put it away until late summer/early fall.

 

2006 version

When I took out the 2005 version this year, I was saddened to find out that aging it had made it way too incense-y for my taste. The 2006 version actually seems to start out that way, oddly enough. Smoky and deep and rich -- it's not as light on me as the 2005 version was at first. It's actually too strong for me, but it smells so good that I almost don't mind.

 

Huge throw, too.

 

If it were just a little lighter, I'd probly nab a bottle, but the incense is a tad too heavy for me personally.

Edited November 22, 2006 by karen

[valentina]

In the imp, Devil's Night is sweet, boozy, and spicy. When I first apply it, and on initial drydown, I can detect that spicy and crackly, yet green and woodsy, smell that I associate with the end of October. After a few more minutes, I smell predominately cinnamony sweetness. Within a half hour, the musky undertone makes a very subtle appearance. I didn't order a bottle of this scent because I shy away from anything with "thuggish musk," but this blend is so complex that the musk doesn't take over. (I'm testing from a decant.) There's also a vague boozy smell, but it's much lighter than the booze smells I get from a scent like Hellcat or even Gluttony.

 

Ultimately, Devil's Night truly does smell like the combination of sweet candy, the autumn woods, a few nips from the flask and hot little bodies, running around playing tricks all night long! I have no idea how Beth came up with this concept and still made it smell so good, but it's great fun. Now I'm off to see if someone will swap or sell a bottle to me...

 

valentina

[Hawke]

In the imp, I get buttery fruit tarts. Not overly sweet, maybe sweetened with honey and only a drizzle at that. Promising!

 

Wet on my skin, I got something fruity that came across as an apple cider-orange, some sort of citrusy-sweet spicey scent, and the very first licks of spice, though I'd be hard pressed to tell you what it really was. I tend to default to 'cinnamon' when I can't name names.

 

Dry, I finally got the smoky, bonfire whispers in the background, under that warm, flaky pastry sort of smell. It didn't seem chaotic to me or pranky or tricksterish. It made me want to curl up under a thick blanket with slipper socks and a mug of spiced cider.

 

In other words, it worked for me.

[donsixgun]

I really wanted to like this..and for it to like me.

When I first put it on, it smelled as though someone set an alchoholic gingerbread man on fire. Nice!

But as it dried, the musk came up, and the sweet never died down...and it combined to smell almost rotten.

 

Damn.

[arabella]

First Impression: Citrussy musk with a touch of sugar.

 

Dries down to: A smoky undertone emerges and adds balance to the mix.

 

Additional Comments: What I thought was the citrussy note must be the "boozy" component. I always confuse the two notes for some reason. (Must be all that hot tea laced with home made brandy and lemon I grew up with - taken for medicinal purposes, of course - that makes them interchangeable to me.) This reminds me of the times we used to go to my brother's house for Halloween to take the kids out trick-or-treating with them and all the neighbors. We'd grab our travel mugs filled with hot tea or coffee laced with whatever and, as we went door to door, the smell from wood-burning fireplaces (one of my favorite comfort smells) would be in the air. Although I'd probably never wear this, it brings back such good memories that it's definitely a keeper for that reason alone.

 

Lasted: A few hours.

 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

[voodoobaby]

In the bottle, Devil's Night is very sweet and kind of buttery. It smells thick and kind of heavy. However, on the skin it lightens up a LOT. I almost couldn't smell it at all at first--it seemed to meld into my skin. In its earlier stages, despite that, I did detect a heavy cinnamon note. Later on, it's...different. I don't know how to describe it. I do get sugar, booze, musk, and even a slight whiff of that autumn/bonfire smell. But at the same time, I get the smell of faded air freshener. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I'll try it a few more times and see if it'll grow on me a bit more.

[Phaedra]

Wet this is musk, smoky and sweet. There's alos a sour fruity note. When first on it's a bit similar to Samhain, sweet and smoky. There's also a sharp tang underneath. After a few minutes some floral notes begin to develop. There's also a very faint "mossy dirt" note like in Zombi. This is a warm, sexy, eathy blend- love it!

[blaqpearl]

This one reminded me of Chimera. It has cinnamon and my skin just amped it right up. I might keep it a bit longer to see if with age it might mellow down. I could sense the boozy notes but it was quickly over taken my Mr. Cinnamon.

[LittleGreyKitten]

I love this scent. Wet, it smelled almost identical to Gingerbread Poppet when I had them one on each wrist, though Devil's Night was sweeter and not buttery. But I definitely got a ginger scent.

 

Dry, it becomes... something else. Whatever I read as ginger backs off some- though it's still there. But not anything I'd actually call true smoke scent either. Though I might describe the general aura of the scent to be smokey, like not the literal smell but the general sense of it, if you see the distinction. There's some wonderful resiny, spicy thing going on like a Snake Oil background or something. Then there's a strong, sweet vanilla-y sugar rush on top. It smells exotic and incredibly yummy, definitely it turns into the same things I love about Snake Charmer and Snake Oil. I do think this is something my body chemistry brings out, though. I like it very, very much. I was a dork and bought a bottle without imping it first, just for fun. It paid off- this is one of my very favorites so far. Absolute 5 out of 5 for me!

 

Edited much, much later to add: this is lots like Storyville on me actually. I tend to amp ginger notes, and there's a teeny bit in Devil's Night, I'd swear. I rarely wear Devil's Night, actually. While it does really good, there's this edge to it that can kind of make me woozy. I can't quite figure it out because I actually do like the scent a lot, it just kind of rubs my stomach the wrong way sometimes.

Edited November 5, 2006 by LittleGreyKitten

[Caltha]

Devil's Night

This has the warm, cosy spiciness of dry leaves, almost a gingerbread spiciness in the vein of Gingerbread poppet or GothRosary's Samhain. A very "natural" scent but yet not, dry leaves don't smell this much or this sweet. As it dries it turns cooler and fainter and slightly soapier, I guess that's the nighttime air kicking in, but still warm and cinnamony spicy. Not so Halloweeny for me, and a bit generic since I can name others in the same warm/spicy/dry/natural vein, but still nice. I wouldn't mind a little more booze, treats and firesmoke though.

Edited January 25, 2006 by Caltha

[blu°]

I really like the boozey spiciness of this. It's similar to what I get from blends that have rum or bay rum listed in the ingredients, and suits my skin much better than any "real" spices.

 

When fresh it almost has an almond-y feel to it which then mellows down, mingling with the smoke and wood and sweet musk.

 

The musk to me seems to be a mixture of various musks including white musk and probably red one. But I don't know the single notes very well and wouldn't be sure about that. It's rather sweet and soft smelling. It's not the kind that gives me a headache, which I had feared it would be. I can't for the sake of my life wear Scherezade in any greater amount than a small dab on my belly. Same is true for Thanatopsis, Czernobog and the like. Must be the black musk that triggers the headache.

 

With the musk in DN, I don't get the "old man" association, that others have mentioned, at all and generally this doesn't seem to be overtly masculine to me. It even has some slightly fruity-ish high-pitched something in the background that feels rather feminine. In this aspect I'd compare DN to Nocnitsa, not that they smelled anything alike but both manage to feel like extremely unusual feminine blends that might as well suit a guy.

 

That said, this is a very comforting and cozy blend. It has quite some throw, but it's a warm and smokey, subdued one.

 

I can see a similarity to Miskatonic U in the booze notes and maybe some of the wood that seems to be hiding in DN. But whereas Miskatonic U was insanely buttery and sweet to me, this is just nice. No butter, no cream, not too much sugar. There is a slightly foody aspect, but it's well blended with the airy smokey notes.

 

The wood notes in here remind me of Gaueko as well, so I guess there might be sandalwood, maybe the same blackened kind. Would make sense if blackened stands for burnt. Because what I get is a burnt wood, similar to how someone else described it above, I think it was cuervosueno. Burnt sweet wood or the smoke of that lingering on cloth. It's warmer though than smoke lingering on cloth.

 

I immediately after trying this yesterday searched swaps for unwanted bottles of this and now have two arrangements for two bottles made.

 

I want to add that there's a lot of snow this year here, it's almost a fairy-tale winter, glittering white snow everywhere that stays and doesn't turn into grey mud straight away, frosty and chilly with a couple of sunny days when the snow would glisten even more. Devil's Night is THE perfect scent for this year's winter. I would be wishing for spring usually at this time of the year, but now I might as well be happy with winter lasting a bit longer so I could enjoy this gorgeous combination a bit longer.

 

ETA: I now have the two bottles I had bought from forumites and while one of them smells just like my imp, the second one is completely different and rather resembles Samhain 04 than the first DN bottle. I think both are original BPAL blends, especially as so many of the above reviews seem to describe that second bottle, while others are a perfect description of the first.

To sum it up:

DN #1: booze (whiskey, cognac, rum, etc.), smoke and musk. It's a "brown-grey" scent. Very airy but boozey-spicey and sugared. There's a minimal fruit note to it, but veeeerry light.

DN #2: booze (apple cider, wine), cinnamon, light musks, hint of smoke.

 

I find the first version to be completely unlike my Samhain 04 decant, whilst the other one is almost spot on. If anything, it smells "greener" and more sparkling than Samhain 04. I haven't smelled Samhain 05 so I can't tell whether the DN #2 is a mislabeled bottle, but as noone above mentioned a possible identity while indeed recognizing a resemblance, I think it really just is a version. I'm perplexed by the extreme difference between the two bottles of DN, though.

Edited February 11, 2006 by blu°

[girlmadasbirds]

interesting.. it DOES smell like an autumn night! in addition to that, i smell bonfire smoke, a spicy gingery smell, and the booze. i like it, but not enough to have a 5mL of it.

[GemmaCat]

In the imp: sweet and very foody; like butter-cakes.

 

On my skin, initial: foody and boozy. It makes me think of rum-soaked pudding with vanilla custard.

 

Drydown: still very sweet, but the booze softens and becomes slightly smoky.

 

Overall, I'm surprised that I like it so much. Most foody/booze scents make me feel nauseous, but this is pure comfort in a vial.

[batsy]

In the bottle: sugary booze!

 

On the skin: Mm booze. In a heavy heady way but good. As it dried down it got fainter, but sweet and not so over-powering. I didn't like it at first, but the dry down made it much better. Smokey sugar booze. Just like every Devil's Night should be.

 

Now I need a bottle...

[Shollin]

First sniff: Another glorious autumn-evening scent. Devil’s Night seems more mischief than mayhem. At first sniff, it’s sweet, but it’s up to something – there’s a deeper darkness underneath (and a little bit of smoke).

 

Wearing: Oh, dear. This is quite boozey. And I have to leave for work pretty much right now… hope it calms down quickly. The wrist-scent smells like Scotch, that almost burned smoky peaty scent. (In its defense, it does smell like good Scotch, an expensive aged single-malt rather than Old Smugglers.) And thankfully, once it dried, the booziness was gone, leaving a wonderful fires-at-night scent with a hint of sweetness. The end stage is quite reminiscent of my beloved Samhain, minus the apples.

[elphaba]

I love this. When I first put it on, I thought it would be a great autumn scent, but the longer I wear it, the more I love it for pretty much anytime. There's a chill in the background of all the warmth and sweetness of the musk and sugar that I can't place. It's almost menthol-y. It feels like autumn air in your nose. The musk is just right. Close to my skin, I can tell it's there, but it doesn't overwhelm me from a few inches away. It's not as sweet as I anticipated and I'm okay with that. As it dries down, it also warms up. It's kind of like getting drunk and having that pleasant flush once the alcohol takes hold.

 

I wish I had more than half an imp. If this comes back next year, I'll be snatching up a bottle.

[Rhowan]

This is the scent of autumn night, fires in the distance, with a touch of boozy swoon, playful sugar and thuggish musk

 

In the vial and wet on my skin, I am getting smoke, booze and sugary lemons - yummy!

 

As this dries down, I still get the same thing only the smoke isn't in your face, it is in the background making this feel like you are in a dream The lemony scent is still there but the sugar and booze are front center stage!

 

Completely dried down - if I close my eyes and take a deep breath of Devil's night, I am around a bon fire on halloween night, adults drinking something boozy while the kids go thru the candy they have collected. This is beautiful - I need to find a bottle of this!

 

Okay throw, not bad wear - I still love it though!

[Meg]

In the bottle: Butter, walnut, slightly acidic booze and sugar

 

Wet: I can smell musk and a buttery, walnutty note, as well as something slightly citrusy.

 

Drydown: The scent of bonfires, the pleasant kind, hot, delicious wood burning - uncanny. There's also... yes, the warmth of indistinct alcohol, buttery nuts, maybe chestnuts. There's something slightly dark and bitter about it, though - yes, it's probably the scent of dry leaves, or maybe a bitter kind of musk. And it smells so hot, so fiery. Wow. There's spice in here, probably a touch of cinnamon. Hmm.

 

Overall: A very evocative scent, really reminiscent of autumn. It's complex and well-blended to bring back all kinds of images that you didn't even know were stored in your mind. Leaves, bonfires, kids messing around with fire, chestnuts as winter arrives. Whoa. Really surprising, very pleasant. I don't think I'd wear it as a perfume, but it's fascinating.

[stardreamer]

Not at all what I expected from that description. What I seem to get mostly from it is amber-laced pumpkin, with a little vanilla and spicy cinnamon to lighten it up. If there's any musk in there, it must be only a teeny bit -- and whoever suggested red musk, I don't think so, because that one always jumps out and overwhelms everything else on me. It reminds me a bit of Snake Charmer, but does have more of an autumnal feel. It's nice, not too heavy even for warm weather. Staying power is only moderate -- after 10 hours, it's completely gone. I'll enjoy using this up, though I'll probably wait until next fall to put it into heavy rotation.

[BrightRedScream]

In The Bottle: Fresh, crisp, smokey....Oddly it DOES remind me of a fall evening...I will admit that when I read the description of it before purchasing this imp, I was skeptical of it smelling good....If the imp is true to what it will smell like on the skin - I am going to be one happy girl!!!

 

Wet On the Skin: Wow...it starts out a little...intense as well as smokey, but I like it...Oddly. I want dry down to happen...badly, I want to see how this turns out...will it be as fantastic as it is now? It's so, so crisp but the smokey tones to it make it warm and soooo delicious!!!!

 

Dry Down: Divine. Plain and simple...it's so fresh - which is wierd to say when it still has that smokey smell to it...but it really is. It's so multi-dimensional!!! The lasting power is ok - not the greatest on my skin, but it does stay for a while...

 

Scent Rating: 4/5 - I must get this in a larger bottle

Throw: 3/5 - not the strongest thing I've worn - but people within a close range did smell it on me

Lasting Power: 2.5/5 - although this didn't stay on my skin long, I still want a bottle...

 

I know a lot of people saw this as an ideal fall scent, but I would seriously wear this ANY time of year....But ot would be the perfect fall perfume.

[herongale]

preconceived notion: when I was a medical student living downtown in my fancy Mies Van de Rohe highrise, I observed several Devil's Night celebrations from my perch 19 stories up from the world. I had the most spectacular view in that apartment... I had a south-east facing view, so I was looking out over Jefferson Ave. as it made its distant, unexpected course into the richest area of Michigan, Grosse Pointe (which was quite too far away for me to see). I also had a lovely view of Windsor across the river, Windsor being a well-kept city that was everything Detroit was not, and probably could not, be. I loved living in Detroit. One of the things I loved best was sitting at my huge plate-glass windows at looking out over a nighttime scene, watching all the yellow lights trail off into the bones of a city.

 

Devil's Night in Detroit is celebrated with fire. Not so much these days, now that it's been renamed "Angel's Night" and a volunteer army of concerned citizens has taken to patrolling the streets on the night before Halloween. But the burning down of abandoned buildings still occurs, and it was quite common when I lived downtown. I remember one Devil's Night where I counted a dozen simultaneous fires from my window. I was never afraid of the fires; from far away, they only looked beautiful.\\

 

in the bottle: a warm, toasted almond scent. There is a faint hint of the cider/burning leaves scent that draws me to Hexennacht, but overall this is a soft and inviting scent that almost immediately makes me feel hungry. My stomach starts to growl the instant I smell it; the effect is exactly what Gluttony should be like (although that's a scent I haven't yet tried).

 

wet: the nutty smell becomes stronger, and on my skin it takes a sweet air that is extremely pleasant. It reminds me a lot of Silk Road, with a bit of a stronger sense of bread and spices and sustinance. However, it's really weird... the few times I've tried this scent, it makes me UNBELIEVABLY hungry. Wearing it only heightens the effect. I get so hungry it's almost like a headache. I've never experienced anything like this with a scent before, and I don't know whether to laud it as an interesting effect, or curse it for how it makes me want to gnosh down on candycorn. I want to emphasize how lovely I find this scent, because it's complex and light and wonderful... but the effects on me are nothing less than drug-like. Very peculiar.

 

drydown: I think I'd wear this scent if I were attending a medieval feast, one with roasted steaks and cranberry jellies and mead. Maybe the kind of feast the Whos in Whoville enjoy on Christmas evening... the sort where you have nothing to do the next day, so all you have to do is eat and drink and then lie back and cuddle with a loved one. This is a sitting by the fire scent, even though I don't get the sense of smoke from it at all. This is a good drinking scent, even though I don't get anything like the boozy notes that are supposed to be present. All I get is the warm, curling scent of toasted nuts and sweet spices, and it makes me so ravenous that I cannot understand what is going on.

 

verdict: a wonderful but dangerous scent.

 

post-conceived notion: this might be the first scent that I've simulatenously adored and been afraid to use. It's amazingly potent and evocative. The mood is exactly right, and I'd have to say that this is one of the lab's most impressive creations. If only it weren't so deadly effective, I'd make this a staple in my everyday life. I think I'm going to have to stick with Silk Road. It's a lot safer.

[empi girl]

Sweet wood smoke, pepper, and booze. It reminds me a lot of Nocnitsa's smokiness. I found it interesting at first, but there is a note in here that doesn't agree with me at all. I'd like to say it is a leather note, but as that isn't listed, I'm going to go for the booze. The musk is definitly not red musk, which I love. Very autumnal. Not foody at all. And amazing staying power: I have scrubbed it off twice, and still I smell it. Not a keeper for me.

[sookster]

thick, sweet, smoky and resinous perfection....i positively adore this one...and perfect for autumn...i am so glad i scored 3 bottles of this incredible LE....as it ages in my beautiful wooden bpal box i will treasure this for the autumn seasons for years to come.....

 

IMHO, i find the aging of this beauty to be absolutely triumphant...without question...gosh!!!!