Hecate

[Suu4LC]

Magnificent three-faced Goddess of Magic, the Dark Moon and the Crossroads. She is the Mother of Witches, and the midnight baying of hounds is her paean. Her compassion is evidenced in her role as Psychopomp for Persephone, and her wrath manifests as Medea’s revenge. Deep, buttery almond layered over myrrh and dark musk.

Whee! I am excited to sniff this one-I love almond scents! I will admit, myrrh is hit or miss with me (it's usually ok in small doses) and I tend to prefer light musk over dark musk, but this just sounds so lovely! This has that cherry/almond smell that almond blends tend to have. I don't know why I get cherry but sometimes I do. This reminds me of another bpal almond blend-Queen of Sheba-I think it's a similar almond. Maybe there is a touch of myrrh/dark must, but I am not really noticing them.

On my skin this is definitely that cherry/almond scent, with maybe a touch of something darker underneath, but only the slightest whisper. Mostly this is just rich, sweet almond. However as this dries, I get a weird undertone-it's either the myrrh or musk (probably the musk). I can't think of the right word to describe-not quite chorine-y, but similar. Just something off. It's probably the dark musk-my skin sometimes just disagrees with it As it dries, it gets SUPER powdery. Sweet powder with a touch of almond. Ends up staying powdery This would have been a nice blend and I can see it being great on other people, it just didn't get along with my skin.

[sparkleyturtle]

Really getting a foodie smell. It has to be the almond coming out in it. It is a nice smell, but just not on my skin.

[ami226]

On the skin: First of all, I should mention that this scent only has death notes of mine in it. Smelling it.... I think I can only really smell the dark musk. It goes immediately to a sickly sweet powder on me. :ick: Eeeep.... Not for me at all.

[jkfagtongpun]

Upon application I didn't think Hecate and I would get along. BUT THEN... I got a bitter, burned smell - it conjured an image of a ritualistic bonfire on a hot August night - with something deep, rich and sweet behind it.

 

Almond is not a scent I usually go for, I fear smelling like a walking piece of marzipan, but this is fabulous. I think I love it.

[Honey]

Hmmm.. will that butter like me?

 

 

Imp: Bitter almond (like the flavor oil you use for baking cake) with a slightly sour undertone.

 

Wet: Bitter almond - not sickly sweet bit.. somewhat green and fresh.

 

Dry: Hmmm.. spicy and herbal bitter almond. Not too heavy. I need to give this a 24h trial.

[angelmecha]

In Imp: Bitter, bitter almond and something underlying and kind of sour.

Wet: It sweetens a lot on me, turning into an amaretto-ish almond. I'm surprised myrrh and musk aren't completely overpowering at the get go! However, it is REALLY faint, and kind of clean/soapy smelling? (Like if you bought a bar of generic soap that's meant to be almond scented. Weird!) The sweetness is going a little further than necessary too :

Drydown: Maybe a little myrrh? It's not as sharp as musk. Still fairly clean smelling and very faint; a sweet, soft almond. Luckily it's not powdering much, though I can tell it's trying to come out. It's sweet, faint, quite lovely.

Verdict: I will keep this as an imp and try it more in the future to see how it fairs on the street. I'm happy it seems to do better on me than on others; I was really fearful of this turning powdery! And since she's a deity I have some affinities for, I'm happy...

[mymymai]

In the Imp (ITI): It smells like cherries and almonds, although I know cherries are not on the scent notes.

 

Wet: Very strong almond extract note with a bit of sweetness, which must come from the myrrh.

 

Dry: Lightly musky with myrrh and just a hint of almonds; again, this is another scent I like much better after 10 hours.

[melrose]

In imp, and on, wet: beautiful sweet cherries.

 

Almost immediately thereafter: Hurt, burn, itch! Must wash off immediately! The thing is, almond doesn't always do this to me. I am very confused.

[84trillion]

This is wonderfully sweet and a bit dark, I love it. 8/10 at least!

[SkySamuelle]

In the imp - almonds and dark, bitter musk

on the skin, wet - still almonds and musk

on the drydown- almonds and musk layer down with something more herbal and then the herbal undertones seem to take over. There's a certain shadowy-ness to the scent, I like it.

 

Final verdict - the pure evocative power of this scent makes it very deserving of 5/5 tough... it's not something I would wear for myself. I would bet it's excellent for ritual purposes and getting in tune with Hecate' energies and I am willing to re-evalue it after using the imp in that fashion.

[whitsunweddings]

In the imp: Cherryish almond.

Wet: Dr Pepper!

Dry: A cherryish musk thing. Meh.

[ClareN]

My imp is aged around 3-4 years.

 

The almond and dark, resinous myrrh are very strong in the opening. I really like both these notes, and it's pleasant at this stage.

 

Unfortunately, it goes to something that reminds me of spicy scented candles in the drydown. Black Phoenix is quite similar but better, with deeper, cola-like resins, but if I want a scent of this type, Voodoo is the one I'll reach for every time - the almond and myrrh are balanced beautifully by patchouli, vetiver and spices.

 

If you like this, try: Black Phoenix, Asp Viper, Eclipse, Voodoo

[ajansuz]

This was a recent frimp.

 

In the imp it's vivid, bitter almond with cherry and the sweetness of myrrh.

 

Wet it's ALMOND, extremely bitter and sharp. Within five minutes the musk note of doom turns it into myrrh and baby powder.

 

And that's what I'm left with. Baby powder with obnoxious throw. I wish dark musk worked better with my skin chemistry. I can't count how many blends this one note has ruined on me.

[Sidhechaos]

I have a well aged imp of that sneaked of the and onto the floor behind my computer, so I don't know what a fresh imp of this would be like, but this on initial application was ameretto all the way, the gradually developed to something that is more of a medium almond scent (not sweet but not bitter) with a slightly smoky spice to it. There is also oddly a faint floral afterbite to a good sniff of it, sometimes myrrh does that with me. I could see grabbing a bottle of this from time to time.

[Quillifer]

I got an imp of this in a swap. No idea how old it is. I am keen on the goddess Hecate so I wanted to try this oil but I didn't like Eclipse when I tried it - seemed just cough mixture to me - which sounded similar, so I was put off trying it for ages.

 

I'm glad I did get some, I love it

 

On me this is a warm fuzzy smell like marzipan. There's no bitter edge to it - it's all sweetness, but not cloying. I have to say, nobody else particularly likes it on me - they find it a bit weird - but hey, I'm happy to wear it for me

[elinox]

First Sniff: Something sugary and astringent which makes me think strong, aged, old lady perfume.

 

Initial Wet Application: There’s something in this which brings to mind some sort of hot house floral, at least, at first. But I’m not liking this at all so far!

 

Dry Down (first 15 minutes): As this completed the dry down, this became something sugary sweet mixed with ceremonial incense.

 

My Reaction: After reading the description, I’m guessing that myrrh is making me not like this. There’s an almost dry paper note in this now too. But it couldn’t seem to make up its mind between yummy buttery-ness and cloying incense; which is actually pretty good for the three-faced goddess! Sadly, there was just nothing in this I enjoyed.

 

Rating: 1

[JazzieCazzie]

Frimped an imp.

 

IN THE IMP: Almond and resins.

 

Dabbed on wrist and in crook of arm.

 

WET: Very sweet. Yes, I get the almonds, but not as predominantly like a single note as it smells in the imp. There's enough musk and myrrh to offset the "candied nuts" note of almond. It reminds me of a resiny Eclipse.

 

DRYDOWN: Definitely getting something fruity here (others have mentioned cherry) and while it's faint enough to not make me wash it off, it also is the note that moves this off the bubble from the keep pile to the swap pile. It reminds me a lot, still, of Eclipse and Salome, the two almond scents I like.

 

OVERALL: Like, don't love.

 

On a scale of 1-5, a 4.

[Deliciousness]

In the imp: Sweet almonds and spices ... yum!

Wet on skin: Smells like bitter almond mixed with the wonderful aroma of baking spices, like cardamon and cinnamon, allspice, etc.

Dry down: The spices fade giving way to a sweet, almost boozy honeyed almond.

After a few hours: Sweet, fake plastic smell.

 

Hecate reminds me very much of Hellcat - with the boozy, honey quality both seem to share. It may be my skin chemistry in play here, so I don't know how much these two blends really smell alike - say on someone else; as always, ymmv.

 

I really liked this bend at the beginning of wear and would consider this bottle worthy - a beautiful slightly food-y almond blend. But alas, the longer it sits on my skin (say after the second hour), the more "plastic" it seem to smell. I'm not liking the fake plastic tinge. I'll probably test this again and update as necessary, but as it stands now, I'm not loving this.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Deliciousness

[Morsigne925]

Imp/wet: Spicy/toasted almond liqueur, almost like frangelico and amaretto mixed. Not quite as sweet an almond smell as some other almond based scents I've tried (like Hellcat)

 

Drying: Musk definitely comes out, hope this doesn't become too powdery

 

More drying: Hroom. Certainly becoming pretty powdery on me, but I can't decide if I dislike that as I usually do. It's less of a baby-powdery smell and more of a fancy lady powder/ladys' lounge at a fancy department store type of powder. Gonna put this one in the undecided pile. 3.5/5 stars

[TorchedEarth]

My nose must be crazy, because in the imp & in wet application I smelled cherries. Maybe it's the sweet almond?

On dry down it went completely away & I smell smokey cinnamon. I usually can't wear myrr, but this is really nice. It's subtle & powerful at the same time.

[corvidus]

in the imp: marzipan, with a hint of liqueur-like bitterness. foody and quite sweet. i can see where people saying cherries are coming from, though it's not a connection i would have made myself.

on (wet): marzipan! there's a darkness that miiiiight be the incense but it's mostly just marzipan. incidentally, i dabbed this on some fabric i was wearing and the incense came shining through, i guess my skin just eats it all up.

on (dry): smoky, buttery almonds with a hint of incense. which is good because i kind of dislike marzipan, haha! it's really nice, smooth and witchy and mysterious, but never too cloying or overpowering.

 

verdict: love this smell!! something in it keeps it from being too foody, which is perfect for me. definitely looking forward to my bigger bottle

[maija]

I've been wearing this a lot lately.

 

In the bottle Hecate is all strong boozy almond extract with a hint of myrrh, but on skin almond calms down and scent turns much drier.

 

When dry: it's a bit spicy (there's probably some cinnamon in this because sometimes it irritates my skin the same way some other oils with cinnamon do), almondy and clean smelling. The clean smell is probably the powdery musk. The almond extract phase goes away quickly and I was afraid that the scent would now disappear completely. But I'm happy to notice that it doesn't, it just stays pretty close to skin and almonds, myrrh and sweet spicyness are all detectable. It last all day on me.

[d0gbones]

In the imp: Sharpness, then sweet cherry

Wet: Same as in the imp

Dry: For a while, this is the same as Bastet in the early dry stage - almonds and myrrh. Later, it becomes sweeter and the cinnamon really comes out. I'd have a hard time picking a favourite of the two.

[Veronica]

This starts off sweet, sweet almond marzipan over a red musk that is almost cherry-like. The almond fades quickly, leaving behind a sweet afternote layered over a skin-like musk. Very pretty.

[rymorg2]

In the Imp: all fruity, cherry, almond goodness with a faint floral in the background

 

Wet: same

 

Drying: here comes the powder

 

Dry: light powdery floral. Not too sickening though, so it may still work. I may let it age some.

Edited July 9, 2015 by rymorg2