Hellfire

[Greenwoodtree]

A scent celebrating Sir Francis Dashwood's Order of the Knights of St. Francis of Wycombe, also known as the Hellfire Club. A swirl of pipe tobacco, hot leather, ambergris, dark musk and the lingering incense smoke from their Black Mass.

So I received this one from a friend and thought I really liked it...but that was before Saturnalia...

In the imp: incensy, musky, sweet tobacco, a little smokiness.

On my arm: Begins with some nice strong sharp scents (leather most likely), and then within minutes it turns all incensy...after several hours, its a a powdery incense smell. No richness left.

Mighty disappointment.

[mjules]

*sniffles*

 

I had such high hopes for this one. Wet, it smelled like someone had just stuffed their pipe with tobacco, and my hopes soared--

 

--and crashed in a cloud of pink-white baby powder.

 

*cries*

[undream]

i, too, got only baby powder with this one. a very lovely baby powder (baby powder is a nice smell!), but not something i really care to often smell like. too, up close to my skin, it was more a baby powder gone wrong somehow? a kind of. dirty baby powder. not exactly unpleasant (believe it or not), but again, not something i really care to often smell like.

 

off to swaps! maybe the next lucky girl will get the tobacco&leather that i coveted.

[angelicruin]

Sweet tobacco, leather, incense, and musk. I need a bottle of this.

[Dark Alice]

Lord does this burn. Literally...it burns the skin. I don't know if it's the incense or musk but it burns. It dries to a sweet, soft incensy leather and fades very quickly. *sigh* If this didn't burn my skin so much........or fade so fast.....I would actually buy a bottle of this.

[Venneh]

In the imp, I think I'm getting the leather and the ambergris. On my skin, this is tobacco, leather, and ambergris. Interesting blend, not quite for me.

[reconditarmonia]

Eep, this is a bit too dark and smoky for me. Not "OMG get it off" bad, but not me, either.

(I'm definitely getting incense, leather and tobacco - I can't really smell musk in general and I can't identify ambergris, so, er.)

[SophieCedar]

This starts off with a slight grapey note when away from my nose..? Hmm. Well that died down. This is a great light tobacco blend. Like naughty, refined men just escaped the back room of a hideaway, leaving remnants in the air of their presence. The musk and ambergris takes over in the drydown, with a buttery pepper background.

 

Started off as sexy as perversion, but it fades quickly and morphs significantly. Not bad but could use a touch of white musk or something to amp it and keep it around. I would use this as a complimentary scent to Perversion, to add complexity to it.

[komakat]

Wow... this just did NOT work on me.

 

In the imp it smelled a little more boozy than I like, but I could smell the leather and tobacco hiding underneath so I gave it a try.

 

Wet on my skin the booziness nearly knocked me off my feet. Weirdly licorice smelling to me, likely the tobacco though, I always think it smells a bit like that if I sniff a freshly opened pack.

 

Dry...ing. I can smell it TRYING to warm up. Trying to sweeten. Trying but smelling at the same time like it's just sitting on top of my skin and refusing to do anything.

 

A few hours later. Wow. Cat pee on the same carpet someone spilled a cigar filled ashtray on?

 

This just isn't for me. Dang. I really liked the name/concept.

[Monster]

Mmmmm this smells of pine, incense, smoke and leather. Absolutely intoxicating. This evokes the image of a secret ceremony taking place deep within the woods at dusk. I smell smoky incense dancing through crisp forest air (that must be the leather note playing tricks on my nose). As it dries my skin sweetens it up a bit. Komakat mentioned a licorice note and I'm smelling it too...only after it begins to dry.

 

Gorgeous scent!

[talula_fairie]

This should work on me (ALL my favorite notes) and I'm VERY perplexed as to why it doesn't. It smells like toilet bowl cleaner. It's like Blood Kiss...total mystery as to what went wrong. Huh.

Edited August 23, 2010 by talula_fairie

[starfish327]

hellfire is gorgeous on my skin. in the imp, it's a sweet, leathery blend with a touch of tobacco. wet it's very traditional male cologne, but it dries down to a sweet, spicy blend. it smells like unbrewed chai, and it's gorgeous- in fact it's almost the perfect spice blend that i've been looking for.

 

so of course i'm allergic to it.

[mymymai]

ITB: I get a sweet fruity almost overripe fruit with a very dark musk that comes in strongly. After prolonged sniffing, I finally smell the leather.

 

Wet: I get amber and musk, leather and smoky incense. I'm thrilled the fruity scent isn't coming out on me, but it does smell just a little stale (which may be to tobacco) to my nose.

 

Drying: Amber, ripe but not over ripe fruit, musk and just a little leather - much better drying than ITB.

 

Dry 2+ hours: Very light - I'm worried about how long this will stay on my skin. What I can spell is sweet amber with a touch of fruitiness and leather. It's a nice scent.

Edited December 18, 2010 by mymymai

[Reki]

This immediately turns to powder and honey on me and fades to nothing in less than an hour. It's not unpleasant, but it's not good either. I know I turn dark musk to powder, but I'm not sure where the honey is coming from, aside from maybe the tobacco.

[strahlend]

I love this scent. At first it was musky and had hints of sweet tobacco and soft leather. Later the sweetness seemed almost more like honey with the tobacco and leather. It was sweet, warm and musky - very inviting.

[MaritzaCardona]

It smells very sweet in the imp. I can't smell tobacco or leather...just sweetness. When it's wet on my skin I can smell sweet tobacco leaves and smoke. Dry on skin it smelles dark and sexy. Sweet leather. I thought it's be stronger but it's not. I guy with this on would smell oh-so-suave sexy. On a girl it smells dangerous. I think a femme fatale character would wear this scent. Truthfully, I think I'm in love with this one and will definitely will try to get a leat a couple more imps.

[mari4212]

I got this as a frimp, and from the note description, thought it was going to be far too dark and heavy for my tastes. Still, it didn't have jasmine in it, so it was at least worth a try.

 

In the imp: surprisingly sweet. There's a slight smoky incense, and a bit of leather, but mostly what I was getting was a sweet edge. Not foodie-sweet, but sweet nonetheless.

 

On me: Whatever that sweet note is, it's the strongest player here for me. Maybe the musk? Black Temple Burlesque troop was also sweeter than the notes would indicate on me.

 

It's a soft-edged incense on me. I'll have to give some thought as to whether I'd use it enough to keep it, or just send it on into my swaps box.

[Unauthorized Cinnamon]

This was a bonus imp, and boy am I glad they chose it for me!

 

I'm already not great at picking out notes, but for me, Hellfire in particular is a very blended scent. All the notes meld completely, so Hellfire smells like . . . Hellfire.

 

When reading others' descriptions, I can see that it must have tobacco, leather, and incense. But I wouldn't have said, "Aha! That bit is tobacco," on my own.

 

I'll tell you one thing - it does smell hot. How did you do that, Beth? It's not really smoky, it just evokes thoughts of hot coals somehow. A brilliant example of delivering an experience, not just a fragrance!

 

I definitely do get a powder overtone, which is usually not my favorite, but this is nothing like a baby-ish, feminine, Chanel No. 5 powder. It blends well with the other notes and lends a sweetness. I'm guessing from reading other reviews here that this is the musk. I'll have to watch out for that in other blends, because as I said, not usually something I like. But here it works.

[Lanolin]

(probably not work safe)

 

This scent is manliness embodied. It is the sunbaked leather of ageing bikers, it is the tobacco impregnated into every surface after decades of smoking. It is the ambergris torn from a still-living whale with your bare hands.

 

It is glorious.

Edited December 7, 2011 by Lanolin

[mymymai]

In the Imp (ITI): Hmm,, sweet incense, honeyish, a little minty, with a slight anamalistic twist, which I assume to be the ambergris. It smells ever so slightly of cat pee...oh no.

 

Wet: I get still a bit of the sweet cat-pee scent, but it's quickly dissipating into strong tobacco, leather, thick ambergris, sweet musk, and resinous incense - myrrh at the very least. The longer it is on my skin, the better it gets. Even two minutes into the wet application, the cat-pee hint is no longer there, thank goodness.

 

Dry: Hellfire is infinitely better dried. It's sweet honeyed incense with a lovely aspect of tobacco and musk.

[Smaragdina]

Preconceived notions: I got this as an occasion/”why not?” scent. After I ordered it, I read the description for Perversion and got all depressed – Perversion sounded more like ‘me.’ I’m worried that this will be too masculine on me (granted, I got a chance to sample Perversion before my order came in, and Perversion went all coconut and burnt plastic on me, so...)

 

In the imp – dark, masculine. Faint spice/sharpness. More subdued than I’d expected.

 

Wet – Hmm. Oddly powdery, but in a good way, and sweet with some masculine sharpness underneath – is that the tobacco? After a couple minutes the powder tones down. I’m getting a kind of perfume-y incense, and an occasional whiff of sharp leather that’s so bright it’s almost metallic.

 

Drydown – Sweet, smoky incense. Like, actual smoke, but in a good way. As times goes on the powdery sweetness fades even more and the sharp leather rears its head (though the almost unpleasant metallic note is gone now), but the tobacco and warm incense cut it enough to keep it from being too overpowering. This is the scent of an urban fantasy femme fatale. She’s spent a day in the library reading the Necronomicon, and now she’s going to throw on her leather jacket and hop on her motorcycle to go seduce the devil at the bar, and everyone will stare at her and everyone will take a step back because there is something feral and WRONG with that girl. But it’s masculine, so it doesn’t scream sex so much as it hisses danger. I wouldn’t want to smell like this all the time. But damn do I ever love this.

[whitsunweddings]

In the imp: Very sweet incense smokiness.

Wet: LEATHER! Mixing nicely with smoky tobacco.

Dry: Went very faint very quickly - I got veeery sweet incense with hints of leather. Bum skin chemistry

[yakiguri]

I just found my proof that black musk is a death note.

 

On me: Musky baby powder. No leather, no tobacco, no ambergris.

On Mr. Whiteelf: OMG. Sweet, smoky, musky leather and tobacco. Why can't you be like this on ME?

 

I'll get a bottle for the guy, because seriously it makes me want to hump his arm, but I'm sorely disappointed by Hellfire's performance on my own skin.

[WidgetAlley]

Boy, you know what doesn't work on me? Leather. Let's see what happens.

 

Imp: Sweet, heavy tobacco and ambergris! Yum. Smells like some kind of rich dessert if rich dessert were made of musk and tobacco.

 

Wet: Thick burning incense ash, brown stale tobacco, musk, ambergris and... mother of God. Leather. Actual, real, serious leather. It doesn't smell like weird vanilla, it doesn't smell like hot plastic, it smells like glossed leather-- thick and slick and sinister. This is manly as hell.

 

Dry: Oh, there's the weird sugar. It still smells like leather and tobacco and incense and musk, but the leather amps up into this incredibly almost candy-like sweetness. I think this would be great on a guy whose skin could handle leather, but I'm definitely neither of those things.

[BoneBone24]

Wet: Honey-sweet and resinous. Spicy and glowing.

 

Drydown: Warm, spicy incense smoke edged with an almost-sharp ambergris note. Pillows of sweet tobacco smoke bloom in the background. There is a smoothness that I suspect is the leather growing throughout the middle. Smoky, warm, sweet, and smooth.

 

Dry: Sweet, smoky, and suddenly very light. Nearly identical to The Light of Men’s Lives at this point. If this is hellfire, it is a very alluring, innocence-feigning, quietly seductive version of it.

 

 

 

8 out of 10 bones

Edited July 2, 2013 by BoneBone24