Hellfire

[PurringPulsar]

Hellfire

 

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.

 

In the imp: huh? I have dregs at the bottom of my imp, a solid residue that needs to be gently mixed into the oil. The scent…honey? I smell smoky honey or smoky beeswax here. Weird.

Wet on skin: now I smell the tobacco, leather and incense (there's definitely some myrrh here)…but it still smells honeyed.

Dry: honeyed pipe tobacco. This is a really intriguing scent. The dominant scent is a 'grandfatherly' tobacco scent, warm and woody and rich, slightly comforting too, with a hint of honey. I smell bitter myrrh-based incense smoke and worn leather in here as well. It brings to mind a darkened room, men smoking pipes, leather chairs, wooden tables and polished wooden floors, and ritual incense burning. But the pipe tobacco gives it that cosy quality that is also in the likes of Herr Drosselmeyer.

After a while: eventually the honey fades and the tobacco's soft and woodsy scent becomes stronger. This really does smell like Herr Dross now, with it's leather and pipe tobacco. I don't smell the musk or ambergris here but I do get a woodsy note at the back, and I still get incense. It's a very complex smoky scent, warm and dark and shadowed, and also gentlemanly. Like Dee with added tobacco.

The scent stays pretty constant, a warm, incense-wrapped woodsy tobacco, with that almost honeyed twist coming back every now and then.

Verdict: this is a pleasant, if a little masculine, tobacco scent. there are some tobacco notes which smell rich and warm and comforting to me, this is one of them. It's a very sophisticated, a gentleman's scent, pipe tobacco with worn leather seats, but there's an oddly honeyed scent at times, and also a gorgeous bittersweet incense that winds it's way through the scent. It reminds me of Herr Drosselmeyer and Hearth 04-that 'grandfather smoking a pipe on a comfy leather sofa' scent, with added incense. I like it but it's a little bit too manly for me, I think. Grown up and mature, this is the scent of an older man, but not really my thing...though I can't stop sniffing myself, it has something cosy yet mysterious about it. I think it's the way this smells almost like Dee at times, but I prefer Dee to this, I think.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? No, it's a little too masculine, but darkly intriguing and also oddly comforting.

If you like this, try: Dee, Herr Drosselmeyer, Perversion, Ogun, Isaac the Living Skeleton, Les Infortunes de la Vertu, Parliament of Monsters

[Jilara]

I got this as a frimp, and wanted so much to like it! I was hoping for similar to my beloved Herr Drostlemeyer.

 

In the imp: pipe tobacco with a boozy undertone.

 

On my skin, it instantly goes horribly wrong. It smells like toilet bowl deodorizer. Drying down, it's toilet bowl deodorizer with tobacco. My housemate swears he can smell Jolly Rancher fruit candy, at this stage.

Dry it's still toilet bowl deodorizer with a bit of tobacco. I keep thinking of fresh privies, that chemical toilet smell. I scrubbed this one off. Sigh, maybe it will be better on someone else.

[eternalargus]

Imp: Pure alcohol, but a very delicious kind of alcohol, sweet but not sickeningly so.

 

 

On Skin: Luckily my skin isn't amping tobacco scents to cigarette butt level today so I can enjoy this leather and musk mixture with a bit of a sweet expensive cigar scent.

 

 

Dry: Not very strong on me, but very enjoyable. Bourbon and sweet expensive cigar smoke.

[Carmencita]

in the vial: smoky sweet richness

 

wet: like woodsmoke and honey

 

later: All of these things plus a tangy spiciness. Very grounded yet somehow mysterious scent.

[lapillus]

Wet: leather, dark musk and a bit of incense (not getting the tobacco)

Dry: Maybe a bit of the tobacco, certainly a bit sweeter. Very, very nice. On the masculine end of things but not unwearably so for a woman.

Summary: definite keeper. It may be my scent for days when I want a guy around but only have them in literary form. Also nice to have something that isn’t primarily sweet.

[Aiglet]

I've been looking for a leather/tobacco smell for a while, so I really wanted to like this...

 

In the imp: Yummy! The leather is very strong here, but I can smell the tobacco back there and it's not quite as dark as I was thinking it would be.

 

Wet: Yes! This is perfect! Lovely leather/tobacco smell -- like a smoking club. It's very masculine, but somehow also very comforting. I'm not sure I would wear it out of the house, but I do like it.

 

Dry: The incense has come out to play. Sadly, incense doesn't work well on me -- it goes sort of sweet and headache-inducing, and then hangs around forever.

 

Herr D. didn't work, this didn't work... I shall have to keep looking.

[Miseraya]

In the imp: Boozy! Whew, this is booze and cigar smoke. I think I can smell a bit of leather as well. Something a bit sour.

 

On the wrist: Leather and that sour smell again. Lost the tobacco smell and the boozy scent. Starting to get some musk.

 

Dry: Sour musk. Definitely not for me.

[Gwydion]

It fades so fast out of the bottle you can hardly tell it's there. basically, it smells like my watch band, with is leather and has musk in it from cats rubbing their heads against it. Disapointing.

[nim]

Yay! My first review. I ordered this in a set of imps.

 

In Bottle: I get a very strong brandy smell. It' so overwhelming that I can't really smell much else.

 

Wet: The incense is really coming out now. It seems like it's having a fight with a drunken piece of leather.

 

Dry Down: Incense and leather are the most prevalent scents now. I can still smell a licquor-y scent, but it's toned down a lot now. Overall, it's a become a very warm, musky scent. I don't partiularly feel like this is so much a masculine scent- it really does smell more like a place, like others have suggested.

 

I think this scent would be perfect on a wet and rainy fall day. I'm not sure if I'll buy a big bottle, though.

Edited July 18, 2007 by Shollin
Removed Lab description --Shollin

[euterpe414]

Now this is one sexy scent! I really get the smell of honey from this somehow and I have no idea why...tobacco and honey, it seems. Anyway, it is very smoky in both the notion of pipe tobacco and regular old smokiness. They really mix well with the sweetness and tiniest hint of leather that I can smell. For how rich this scent is, it doesn't give off a lot of throw- it's very much cozy and "come-hither" like. I will most surely be ordering a bottle of this for the fall and winter- it seems absolutely perfect curling up with someone on a cold night

[Lit Chick]

Hell Yeah.

 

It's a lot like the wonderful Herr D, with the sweet pipe aromas. But Herr D is comforting and cozy - and this is really not. As it dries, the leather really comes out. Extremely fresh leather, with a hint of smokiness. I like it quite a bit, but Herr D will forever be the perfect pipe blend. This will do when I want a little more darkness.

[Rhowan]

~*~ HELLFIRE ~*~

 

In the imp: What the hec? Sweet florals with a touch of smoke

 

Wet: This is smelling like Oblivion with sweet florals or maybe a touch of honey! The only thing Oblivion has in common with Hellfire is the Dark Musk. So, I am thinking that this is pretty weird!

 

15 Minute mark: This now smells like a very sweet tobacco on top of a wonderfull deep musk! I am just getting a tiny hint of incense -it is blended in so well that to smell it, I have to keep my nose to my wrist and inhale a few times. No leather yet which suprises me because my skin chemistry really amps leather in a big way!

 

End Result: When Hellfire is completely settled down, it is honey sweet tobacco layered over a deep dark musk.

 

Conclusion: I am pleasantly suprised by Hellfire!! Originally, I was hoping for a dark, grey/black smokey incense blend but the sweet honey'd tobacco musk that I ended up with is far more intriguing and complex! If you are put off by the dark and smokey notes in this, I would give it a try regardless - I think it would suprise most people!!

[TereFaerie]

A little like Swisher Sweets or some other inexpensive cigar when I first put it on that fades to a soft, sweet urinal cake scent. I can barely smell the leather, especially now that it has dried down. Not right for my skin chemistry and it's a little to manly anyway.

[Josh]

I read the reviews and almost bought a full sized bottle blindly since it seemed to be exactly what I would want. Instead I ordered an imp to start with.

 

Wet on wrist: As lovely as the description sounded, it reminded me of when I was a child. Growing up we had 3 Mercedes Benz cars, each with leather interior, and my parents were chainsmokers. The smell was nauseating to me as a kid. Smoke and leather... why I never realized I probably wouldn't like this smell is beyond me. I am hit with an immediate headache.

 

Dry on wrist: The sweetness, smokiness and leather are braiding in and out of each other. If only I grew up with parents who didn't smoke or own Mercedes Benz's, I'd be in heaven right now.

 

Dry on wrist (2 hours after application): Now this is much more to my liking. The leather (and thus, my nostalgia inflicted headache) has faded and left a sweet, vanilla pipe + library scent, but the sweetness is not sickly or overdone. This is very warm, mellow and sedated - oozing all sorts of sinister sex.

 

Final verdict: Really strong and smokey at first, but after 90 minutes it bloomed into a very dark and sensual scent. Excellent! I can't stop smelling my wrist. Very long lasting on me.

[t_for_tau]

If this stays smelling the way it does now, I've found my Holy Grail leather/tobacco scent.

 

Rich, deep, worn brown leather with none of Dee's acridness, a strong curl of slightly sweet pipe smoke without the sickliness of Herr Dross, and a wash of subtle musk and incense with a slight tang of salt. This is what I hoped Dee would be, before it turned inexplicably to sunblock.

 

Unless this changes a great deal, I'm going to want to run out and buy a lifetime supply of bottles.

[TheOneTheyCallLuna]

In the vial this smells weird and like it is not going to work. The second it hits my skin, however, it morphs into the exact description given by the lab: pipe tobacco, hot leather, musk, and incense in the background. How Beth pulls this stuff off I have no idea - she's a flippin' genius! This is a seriously masculine kind of a scent...this would be unbelievably magnetic on a man. On me, the incense lends just enough sweetness for this to be a forseeable perfume blend, although I'm not sure where I would wear this and why...I think it's going to be one of those total mood blends...I would wear this when I felt smoky and dark and/or if I was going somewhere smoky and dark . In other words: "It's smoky and dark!" and that is a quality that I can get behind. So, yum! Sexy!

4.5/5

 

ETA: After a while this turns all incense and, I guess the pipe tobacco as well is what is making this sweeter and more honeysuckle scented than before. That pushes this farther into femininity and and bumps it up into 5/5 category! LOVE!

Edited November 5, 2007 by TheOneTheyCallLuna

[breezefaerie]

I received Hellfire as my second ever Imp and it fits it's description perfectly.

 

 

In the vial and on my wrist, it's a smoky honeyed scent, dark and to me, inviting. It makes me think of a fireplace with a roaring fire, reading a leather bound book with the smell of sweet pipe tobacco curling around me.

 

On the dry down, the sharpest tobacco is fading into more leather while keeping the sweetness. It's staying very warm though and keeping me sniffing my wrist.

 

I like this one very much!

 

ETA: After several hours of wearing, this changed from me wanting to be in a cigar bar with a warm snifter of brandy to me smelling of baby powder. I will have to try this again another time, or in a scent locket.

Edited November 6, 2007 by Janet

[stardreamer]

I expected this to be very masculine, smoky, and resinous, and not something I'd want to wear. In the imp and fresh on, there's something sharp that sort of catches in the back of my throat. But about 20 minutes in, it suddenly morphs into Band Candy -- almost sickeningly sweet, but with a hint of rottenness underneath. (I suspect that it's the tobacco, musk, and incense all going sweet on my skin and heterodyning with each other.) Didn't the Hellfire Club in X-Men have a teenage group similar to the New Mutants? This would be them, I think. Bottom line: still not something I want to wear, but for entirely different reasons! To the swap pile it goes.

[prettybird]

Rec'd in swap from Miseraya.

 

This was a rare disappointment from the lab. I was really psyched up for it, because I absolutely love leather/tobacco scents. Unfortunately, the ambergris is really strong on me, and it sours out the rest of the notes.

 

I ended up passing it along to a friend (who seems to have the opposite of my body chemistry), who absolutely loved it. Not a bad scent, just... not for me.

[semuelle77]

Hellfire is an anomoly for me. My preference for sweeter foody scents did not lead me to think I would like Hellfire. The notes were just so different. I have always liked musk, but it does tend to amp up on my skin, overpowering any other note. So when I tried this back in the day, I was skeptical.

 

In the bottle and Wet: Incredibly intense. Tobacco and leather in spades.

 

Drying down: The musk moves forward in a strong way. The leather, pipe tobacco, and musk seem to be dueling for dominance.

 

Dry: Somehow a balance is struck. You can smell all three elements without any one note taking over. This becomes an amazingly rich, deep scent. Mysterious, sexy, edgy yet soothing.

 

Verdict: I bought a bottle. This is a big keeper. I don't wear it every day, but when I am looking to bolster my sex appeal or am feeling a bit mischeivious this is my go-to scent. Hellfire has the added bonus of good throw and a long wear on my skin. Also, this is one of the only BPAL that I have received unsolicited comments on, "Congratulations, you smell fantastic!" (Yes, someone actually said that.)

[sea_of_flame]

Initially:

Green. Bizarrely saliva-inducing (not drool-worthy, more that my mouth is trying to clear itself of the 'taste'!), unrelenting, chewing-on-grass-clippings *green*. Thoroughly reminds me of the "Stranger in Camp" scent from Dogs Playing Poker - so possibly my skin has a weird reaction to pipe tobacco - I think that was in both...

 

Next up:

Leather. Possibly only because I'm looking for it though - it's struggling to come through, because of the *green*. Over the next few minutes, it increasingly starts to win the battle, and I can recognise this as a cousin of De Sade & Loviatar.

 

As the green calms, there's a sweeter, creamier, muskier note coming through. Musk/tonka/ambergris? Musk & ambergris are certainly listed notes.

 

I'm liking what this is becoming, although musk+leather+smoke overlaps with several of the other scents I have & like - and that initial green note is really rather off-putting to me...

[GypsyRoseRed]

For some reason, the notes in Hellfire just never appealed to me which is bizarre because three years after passing it by, I tested my frimp of it from the Lab and just fell in love with it. Usually, any hint of tobacco smells like cigarette smoke on me, but this is delicious, like exotic incense or a hint of expensive pipe tobacco. It's also slightly creamy and resinous, and though it wears close to the skin, I can see myself using a lot of this. Sex-ay!

[alsatia]

Expectations: Ugh. I picked this out in my first set of imp packs when I was trying to get a wide variety of scents to try, but by the time it arrived I'd already tried a and hated most of these notes. Must find an inconspicuous body part to test it on.

 

In vial: Sharp and sweet, but non-descript.

 

On skin, wet: Smoky musk. It's not entirely offensive to my nose, but I'm certainly not compelled to keep sniffing it either.

 

On skin, dry: Mostly tobacco, with a slight mintiness.

 

After time: 10 minutes and this is just blech.

 

Conclusion: No sense wasting a few more minutes of my life on something I dislike so much. Most scents I don't care for, I can at least think of some way I might use them, but all this one is saying to me is "Away from me, now!"

[hkhm]

imp: musk and tobacco.

 

wet: this smells like a sweet, smoky musk. i was not expecting sweetness.

 

dry: this dries to pure tobacco on me. very nice.

[Christine Daae]

In the imp, something about this makes something catch in the back of my throat. Smoky...something. (After looking at other reviews - honey! That's what it smells like!)

 

Huh. On my skin, this morphs into something sweet-smoky-musky. While none of the notes are anything that I would think that I would like, I actually...kinda do like this. Weird. Looking at the notes I would have thought this would be waaaaay too masculine for me, especially since leather and tobacco have never worked on me, ever.

 

This blend is incredibly evocative - it does smell like a men's occult club - leather chairs, smoke, musk, a faint whiff of cologne. And yet the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts, and it turns into something incredibly warm and comforting on me.

 

I am perplexed. This is not something I expected to like at all. It's very much a comfort scent, but I never knew either of my grandfathers, and so this doesn't remind me of them. It does remind me of something, perhaps someplace, in the way of being very comforting and cozy - masculine, but not overpoweringly so. There are no words for how this makes me feel - it smells a lot like a very old, cozy bookshop or library with lots of leather-bound books and leather chairs. Gah I wish I could put my finger on what this reminds me of!

 

While I really like this on myself (*boggles*), I need to try this on my fiance when I get home. I expect I will like it even better on him. This would probably also layer really well with a lot of things.

 

A leather and tobacco blend that I like. Who would have thought??

 

Edit about a half hour later: Yeah, there's definitely honey in this. It dries down to practically a honey SN, with the teeniest bit of tobacco/smoke. Yummy.