Pumpkin Patch V (2005, 2006)

[coulrophobe]

Pumpkin with five woods, English ivy and galangal root.

Preconceived notions: I was pleased to see that not all the Pumpkin Patch blends were foody - blends IV and V seemed to be the ones that fewer people talked about, but I for one thought this woody blend would be a great showcase for pumpkin's versatility.

In the bottle: The pumpkin is the dominant note, but I can smell a tiny bit of sharp greenery from the ivy.

On: Now the woods come out! This smells like the wood of deciduous (sp?) trees, rather than conifers - which I'm fine with, as the more piney woods make me smell like cleaning fluid. This is more like fresh-cut lumber, and dry woods. The pumpkin is still their lurking in the background, providing a warm base, and the suggestion of spice, rather than actual spiciness. This seems very autumny to me; my parents have a wood stove, and when I was little, the onset of fall meant stocking the woodshed with chunks of alder for the winter. That's what this scent reminds me of - split alder logs, and warm pumkiny goodness. Would probably make a great men's scent, too.

[Lorencita]

This smells to me like what a pumpkin tree would smell like if there was one. This is a bit dry compared to the others, but still perfect in its own way. I would say this is more sophisticated, you cant really tell it's pumkin... unless you point it out to someone.

[Finny]

This one is lonely and desolate, dry leaves, green ivy climbing up the trees in a deciduous wood. There is no pine in here. It is a walk through haunted autumnal woods.

 

This is a wonderful, it brings to mind all the lonely and scary parts of Halloween. It makes me think of the Headless Horseman story, Ichabod's eerie ride home after the party at Katrina's house when he meets the horseman. Of Snow White running through the forest after the woodsman lets her go. Of Hansel and Gretel, and the walk through the woods, when the trail is gone. Of the goblins and ghouls, that you knew were lurking behind every tree on All Hallow's Eve.

 

It isn't a scary blend to me though, it is a walk through childhood memories of haunts and spooks. And for me, what has always been one of my favorite holidays, has now been captured in a bottle.

 

Absolutely, the best of the pumpkin blends.

Edited October 2, 2007 by Finny

[Lycanthrope]

Smells a little herbal, medicinal in the vial, and then ... pumpkin! This is then followed by a crescendo of leaves and much softer, cooler woods than the fourth blend (the one with sandalwood and orris). This blend is sweet, yet earthy, mossy, yet creamy. Very pleasant. This is actually what a sprawling pumpkin patch would smell like to me... vines, leaves, a little dirt and pumpkin.

 

Total opinion on the set - as much as I do like the blends, one set is enough for me. My favorite would have to be II, followed by IV, I, V, and IV, although I like them all.

[Imbrium]

This last Punkin blend is so different from the others, I wouldn't have guessed it was part of the Patch without the crazy grinning pumpkin on the label.

 

I smell only the barest hint of pumpkin. There's a touch of ivy in the background, but mostly, this is just strong woods. It's light, not as strong as I would have thought. It really is lovely, but it's not me.

[Little Bird]

My pumpkin patch set was the most wonderful thing that I've ever gotten in the mail. Ever. I loved sniffing them and trying them all on, and I had so much fun trying to guess which one was which (I guessed right on all of them too, so I feel special, haha).

 

Sniffing all of them from the bottles, this one was instantly my favorite. On my skin, I love it even more.

 

Spicy woods and pumpkin This is the one that screams of being in a real pumpkin patch to me. It's what I would imagine a haunted Halloween forest to smell like, as the leaves are changing and bare tree trunks are standing out. This is the scent of being outdoors in the fall.

 

I don't smell the ivy exactly, but there is a dark green scent underneath the dry woods that I love. In the drydown this gets sweeter and creamier, but the woods keep everything grounded.

 

This is my absolute favorite of the patch. I'm not wearing a costume for Halloween this year, but this is the fragrance that I'll be wearing when I take the little ones trick or treating

[LiberAmoris]

Green ivy and crawling vines, shady cedar trees and mossy ground...and pumpkin. The pumpkin seems the most 'buried' here, as compared to the rest of the patch, making this blend very outdoorsy and a little bit spooky. This is darkness falling over the pumpkin patch, with all its attendant forms and familiars.

[shelldoo]

in the bottle: resinous, and green, and a touch of pumpkin

 

wet: deep rich woodiness

 

as it dries, it remains mostly resins, but there is the faintest breath of pumpkin, i don't get spice, and i don't really get greenery or ivy. this is like teh gourd of a pumpkin sitting on a freshly sawed log. not an evergreen type or cedary log but a hardwood. maybe oak, or maple this would be my second favorite of the set

[pranashakti]

Very woody, and definitely dry, cut hardwood. The ivy keeps this blend from being too dry and gives just enough of a green smell to make this surprisingly light-wearing on me. There's just a tiny touch of sweet and warm from the pumpkin, which is very much in the background...but it's definitely there. This is absolutely beautifully blended and may just be my favorite of the bunch. It has very good throw, but less than 2 or 4, softens greatly as time passes but still maintains its presence.

 

The range of scents presented in the patch is just amazing. These "cute lil' punkins" definitely say volumes about Beth's creativity and talent. I may as well be a fangirl I'm already so convinced, but she never ceases to bring wonder and amazement. I mean, it's all pumpkin...know what I mean?

[joseybird]

Now THIS is my favorite PP scent!! Dark (but not overly dry) woods with a touch of dark greenery over a pumpkin base...this is the scent of a pumpkin patch on a dark, cold night!! I find this to be the most sophisticated of the 5 PP scents, and the most evocative.

[sarada]

Here's the thing -- I really hate the pumpkin note, so I had no plans to buy the Pumpkin Patch. Nothing on earth makes me sicker than Jack, and I figured that nothing good could come of it. Pumpkins may be one of the most delightfully round and orange objects in the vegetable kingdom, and the subject of countless of my own little paintings, but the smell of it is positively nauseating to me.

 

Ahh, but woods. And ivy. So here's the good news: that pumpkin smell is mainly only present in the bottle. As soon as I put it on my skin the icky buttery aroma that makes my head hurt and stomach spin dissipates and it becomes simply a warm backdrop for the other notes. I'm not 100% positive that this is going to work on me...for a second there I thought this smelled like "new car smell." But don't worry, I think that was my imagination.

 

While it's not a woody smell on the order of something like Yggdrasil or Anne Bonny there's definitely a nice earthy component with a touch of greenery. It reminds me of some of the elements in Samhain, without actually smelling like it. There's no smoke or patchouli for example, but I am similarly surprised at liking this.

 

It's a little too sweet but it doesn't smell like a candle, or dessert, so we're clear on my two biggest concerns about this. I'm not entirely sure that I'd wear this outside of right around Halloween time but I might keep wearing it during the winter.

 

Edit: Nyah, I decided this wasn't for me. I like the drydown OK but it's always a little too sweet and the part that I like fades very quickly. I will stick with Samhain.

Edited October 28, 2005 by sarada

[zenvodunista]

on everyone else: a pumpkin patch in the evening, mosses, woods...

 

on me: dry rot.

 

ah well.

 

n.

[aidenraine]

In the imp this smells gloriously pumpkin, with a woody undertone to temper it and prevent if from becoming too sweet. Let's dump it on the ol' wrist, shall we?

 

Hmmmm pumpkin plus pepper- really kind of a salty pepper mixed with the sweetness of the pumpkin.

 

I'm not so sure about this one. The peppery scent is mingling kinda weirdly with the pumpkin and something in this kinda burns my nose. It's a little too woodsy-herby and the super sweet candy pumpkin just kinda clashes on my skin.

 

It does kind of smell like the stem of a pumpkin- the sour, green aroma.

 

God, I'm so conflicted on this.

 

Buttttttttt.... I don't think this combination goes well together.

[13bodies]

I was a bit leery of this one, but I was pleasantly surprised.

 

Wet, this is mostly Jack-like buttery pumpkin. It stays that way for an hour or so.

 

Then it morphs into a shiny dark green smell. I assume that's the ivy. The ivy, with an occasional appearance by the pumpkin, hung around for most of the afternoon.

 

Now it's ivy and woody with a hint of pumpkin and a gingery? note. Very unusual, but I like it.

[cupide430]

This has a very strong earthy green component on me. Almost a bit mossy even. I'm not getting much pumpkin, just the earthy note. And it is quite strong as well. As I continue to sniff my arm, I'm getting a bit of a warm sweet note behind the earthy note that must be the pumpkin coming out a bit.

[brownbear]

The first time I tried this I could only smell the wood. The second time I got a lot of the pumpkin. This time, I'm getting equal whiffs of both. mmmm It's good, but not my favorite of the pumpkin patch. It's really good if you like woods.

[darkitysnark]

Pumpkin Patch 5

 

The last in my anally retentive sequential line of testing. I got the decant imps (thanks to resident BPAL Decant Goddess OriginalWacky) as a gift for a friend who is kindly letting me satisfy ol factory curiosity by testing them first.

 

Through testing all these imps, I've confirmed that I generally do not care for pumpkin, though my skin does like to morph it into a sort of incensey smell at the end of the day (except for blend 4, which it just ate) which is really quite pleasant. Still, I probably would not choose to go through the buttery/sneezy phase in order to reach this four-hours-later phase.

 

Even though this isn't my cuppa, I gotta give kudos to Beth and the lab for coming up with such interesting blends. It's been a fun experiment! On with the last review:

 

In the bottle: once again, the powerful buttery pumpkin that Jack built. Whoa. There might be some wood underneath, but honestly it's the butter that I smell first and foremost.

 

Wet/Drydown: the woods all clamour to the front, all but drowning out the pumpkin. It's a little overly aggressive at first, but calms down to a very dry, cool, somehow sad apothecary (but not The Apothecary) kind of smell. Maybe the galangal is what is giving this an herbal, slightly medicinal twang.

 

Later: this one has medium to strong staying power and about medium to low throw. I'm not wafting it like I did the foody scents, but it isn't completely devoured by my skin either. It has stayed pretty consistently woody without much morphing and I cannot really differentiate the pumpkin other than the general notion that the woods are also somehow sweet. There is a little soomething at the back of a deep inhalation that reminds me of Danse Macabre (my favorite "Halloweeny" scent) which is very nice.

 

This is the most uniquely balanced of the five blends to me. I'm so glad I got a chance to try them all!

Edited October 31, 2005 by darkitysnark

[darkling]

In the bottle: Rich woods. No pumpkin.

 

On my skin: Gorgeous, edible pumpkin with a hint of dry woods.

 

Drydown: As soon as it dries, the pumpkin scent disappears completely and I am left with the original scent of woods from the bottle.

 

While the wood scent is lovely on its own, I wanted my pumpkin

[wickedgoddess]

Wet - the fifth and final Pumpkin Patch is a gorgeous trip into a real pumpkin patch. I smell woods and greenery, and a tiny bit of pumpkin, althouh it is quite subdued. Absolutely gorgeous!

 

Dry - it stays pretty much the same, although the pumpkin note gets a bit more prominent. I want to call this Hamadryad with pumpkin, but it's really better than that. It's what I hoped Hamadryad would be, plus a little pumpkin. Lovely and very evocative of walking through the woods and stumbling upon a wild pumpkin patch. A keeper!

 

On the wickedgoddess scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being best, this rates a 4.

[UltraViolet]

3.5

 

In the bottle

green and pumpkin-y

 

On

I love the earthy root smell with the pumpkin, and the ivy is green and bright but neither is too strong nor do they overpower the pumpkin or anything.

It's more earthy smelling than in the bottle.

 

30 minutes

I like this, it's more sharp now with the ivy but nothing negative at all, it's nice.

 

Throw:

average

 

Scent category:

foody/earthy

 

Summary

This is a nice just picked from the earth smelling pumpkin blend. It's grounding to me also and helped my mind stop racing and helped me to fall asleep.

 

Purchase again?

maybe

 

1-5 rating (5 being best)

3.5

Edited November 28, 2005 by UltraViolet

[Northernminx]

I adore this one, deep green and earthy with a touch of sweet foodiness, but this is far more pumpkin on the vine than pie and sweetness. Clean, dark green, gorgeous. A definite keeper which is surprising for me as I don't typically like earthy blends.

[puck_nc]

Origin: Imp from a decant circle.

 

In the Bottle: Very nice. Strongly woodsy and pumpkin-y. Of all things I feel like I'm in Hagrid's garden in the third Potter movie, behind the pile of giant pumpkins, next to the Forbidden Forest.

 

Wet: Wow, very green! The ivy comes out strongly and I like it.

 

Drydown: The pumpkin warms it up a bit, but this remains a very cool, green, foresty scent. I almost get an impression of mint, of all things. Maybe that's the galangal?

 

Verdict: Lovely! It will make a great autumn room scent, and it works great on me!

[Galen]

Woody and dry and spicy when first applied; the pumpkin is rather hard to detect!

 

It dries down warmer and spicier with the pumpkin pushing its way through the other notes until it is almost more warm and spicy than it is woody. Or at least almost as much. Certainly not a sweet foody blend by any stretch of the imagination.

 

Finally I'm left with a combination of the warmth of the pumpkins intertwined around the fresh dryness of growing woods.

[sarahmarie]

Wet: It's buttery and spicy, and as it dries the spicy comes out a little more. I like the galangal - that's the gingery note, right? It offsets the buttery pumpkin nicely.

 

Dry: The buttery pumpkin dies down, as it always does on my skin. The butter stops very quickly, which I am grateful for - the buttery and I do not get along. Woods, ivy, and that ginger-y smell all come through. There's a dry, peppery feeling to this blend. It's masculine, but not prohibitively so for women.

 

In the end, I like this, but I don't think it's very me.

[PurringPulsar]

Pumpkin Patch 5

 

In the imp: buttery pumpkin with a dark, green, woody, slightly spicy undertone.

Wet on skin: butter with something dry, scrubby, and woody.

Dry: this is a very unusual scent! It’s very dark, shadowy, moody in feel. Brings to mind a spooky forest at midnight, the branches of twisted trees casting eerie shadows in the moonlight. It’s a woody scent, scrubby, gritty and very dry, with the deep green ivy note weaving through the fragrance. And the pumpkin is there…it’s more buttery in this scent than the others, and doesn’t show it’s sweet, almost fruity aspect like it did in the other scents. I think there’s a sandalwood note here-but it’s not the same warm, sweetish note from the sandalwood PP.

After a while: the pumpkin sweetens, as it does with the other scents, but doesn’t overpower the woods and ivy which are still dominant.

Verdict: this is the most interesting and unconvential scent in the Pumpkin Patch. It’s the scent of the woods on Halloween night…dark, deep, spooky and eerie. A dry, scrubby wood scent mingles with green ivy and buttery pumpkin create a unique and atmospheric scent. Whilst the other PPs are more reminiscent of autumn as a whole, this one seems to epitomise Halloween. A fascinating scent experience!