Midnight on the Midway (2006)

[naeelah]

Lightning splits the sky, illuminating the skeletal skyline of the carnival rides: sugared incense and night-blooming flowers

Wet, this is very sweet, very much like cotton candy. But as it dries, the sugar burns off and reveals a hint of smoke and night blooming flowers. The flowers are smooth and sweet, bright enough to stand out from the sugar but not piercing or overly strong.

This is not so much a heavy, smoky, incense blend as a floral cotton candy with just a hint of incense, adding depth. It doesn't morph, really, so it's quite straightforward.

It's a warm, breezy night at the carnival -- not a dark and sinister one. Edited May 20, 2008 by naeelah

[heathercaley]

I can't believe that I've never done a review on this Ohhh so lovely bottle of pure love. This is by far one of the blends that makes me go all melty and blagorblahgal...

 

First of all.. I LOVE Subtle sugar blends.. especially when they are blended with.. ohhhh lets say.. subtle flowers! Then lets say you add the one ingredient that makes me go GAH!! and that my friends would be a blend of the previous two with incense.. Holy mother of Holy smokes. Put a toothpick in me and call me a pig in a blanket cause IM DONE! And (lucky me!!!!!!!) It lasts ALL FRICKEN DAY. Almost to the point where it's sickly sweet and Ohhh SOO EFFING AMAZING!!! Soo powdery sweet and incensy with a twang of floral sweet and sugar. Yes it's a bit soapy at first... but I don't mind. After 12 hours of walking around and that lovely lovelyness wafting around me.. I'm a happy clam cause I smell clean and lovely and incensy. THANK YOU BETH.. You're the man.. er.. yeah! You know what I mean!

 

 

My Verdict you ask? : OH GOD... ::blagorblahgal:: X a bagillion!

[ladyver]

this is sugared incense and night blooming flowers all the way!!!! lovely! and as the previous reviewer said this lasts really well and has good throw.

[Andrea912]

Interesting; mostly sugar with the lightest floral; I don't know what a night flower smells like, but the dark yet subtle floral undernote does evoke some imagary; although I didn't think I'd like this because I detest florals, this is kind of nice...

[innocent]

No nag champa on me No incense at all. Wet on me Midnight has a very perfumey smell, and dry it becomes a very faint vanilla-floral. It's pleasant, but not as lovely as I was hoping. I'll be keeping my decant (thank you meaganola!) but I won't be getting any more.

[Pottersville]

Incense, soap, and very heady florals with relatively little sugar coming to the fore. MotM is far too heavy for a hot, humid day like today, but might behave nicely in relatively colder, drier weather. I'll have to hold on to my imp for awhile longer and see!

[darkblade]

Wet: Bubblegum and cotton candy

 

Dry: Bubbleyum bubblegum. Which.. I am not really looking for in perfume. I don't like bubblegum flavored anything EXCEPT bubblegum. Toothpaste and candy flavored that way makes me gag.

 

An hour later: Bubbleyum with a slightly sickly vanilla cream tone.

 

Verdict: No thanks!

[Katherynne]

I'm definitely getting the sugar.

In the bottle Midnight on the Midway is SWEET and barely floral.

 

On wet, the smell doesn't morph from the bottle at all -- it's all sweet to me, just a bunch of heavy sugar notes with the barest afterthought of flowers. As it dries, though, I'm getting a sort of incense-y almost nag champa like smell. It's not as herbal as that, though -- the sugar is definitely all still there.

 

My boyfriend likes this one, so I'll be keeping the decant at least.

[milo]

Midnight on the Midway is nothing that I have ever smelled before. I get the incense and the floral mix, and it is really quite nice, even though I'm generally not into florals. I do make the odd exception, however, and this is definitely one of them. I'm still on the fence whether or not the blend actually suits me, though. I just imagine soft pinks and blues and someone with blonde hair wearing this, and I'm a brunette. Great, a floral I like, but I don't feel like I can wear it. A definite win, however!

[Stephanie]

In the bottle, this is like sweet Downy dryer sheets. On my skin, I smell sweet flowers, sugar and ozone.

 

Faintly, I do detect something like Midway mixed with electricity and the way the air smells just before it rains.

 

It's nice, but faint and dries down to more dryer sheets. (Which isn't a bad thing, in my book. )

[Kabooki]

This makes me think of sugar covered flowers. When I first put it on its very much flowers like so much so my allergies start to get all fuzzled (I just took another deep sniff of the imp for this review and have been sneezing), soon the flowers start to fade and it becomes this back and forth from the sguar and the flowers. The strange I keep finding myself saying "Wow this is great!" and then changing to "do I really need this?", the answer to this is yes. I think I do!

[ouch!]

Oh my god gorgeousness!!!

 

This is up there with Mme.Moriarty for me and it's a new discovery??? why didn't I get this sooner? Hoardworthy!!!

 

This is incensey flowers (Champaca). I can see how this might give a few people a headache if applied too liberally, it's quite potent. But it's definately gorgeous.

I'm not usually a fan of florals...but the incensey side of things is making it totally bearable...well...lovable for me.

 

The incense in here is the incense that you find in Scehrezade, not the incense in say...Cathedral.. real incense...it's sweetened by sugar which develops after a little while on me, Sugared Incense is definitaely what this is, the flowers are verging on being soapy in the beginning but I think the rest of the notes in the blend temper it down..

 

I really really like this and think it smlels nothing like the original Midway, this is a whole other story!

 

*hoards like crazy*

Edited November 4, 2010 by ouch!

[inurbanus]

I keep going back and forth on whether I need a bottle of Midnight on the Midway. The first half hour of this isn't great -- there's a medicinal smell that's not very appealing. But it soon blossoms into a beautifully lush, sugary floral that I can't get enough of. Mood-wise, this is definitely a "nighttime" scent, and it embodies its concept wonderfully. I think I might have to go ahead and get this -- right now, I can't stop sniffing my wrist.

 

4/5

[brsis]

Initial thoughts: I'm a fan of sweet/foody and incense scents, but I don't know how I feel about them together. Night-blooming flowers often means heady or heavy ones, and I'm not a fan.

 

In the bottle: This is very sweet - initially floral, but then has an almost bubblegum quality which makes me wonder if it doesn't in fact have lotus. Definately some heady jasmine or other flower as well.

 

On the wrist, wet: The bubblegum recedes a little, but it's still quite sweet. The florals are softer. There's something slightly sharp that I can't quite place, but it's not unpleasant.

 

Drydown: This is a sweet, vanilla-like incense - not resinous at all - with the slighest hint of bubblegum, and heady but very gentle night blooming flowers, of which I highly suspect jesamine (Like jasmine-lite) and possibly some lotus. This is gorgeous if, like me, you love sweet scents and non-overpowering or pollen-heavy florals. I'm going to thoroughly enjoy wearing this.

[Halloqueen2]

I have to go out on a limb here and proclaim this (so far) as (probably, lol) my favorite bpal ever...at the very least in the top three.

 

I bought the bottle unsniffed, as I usually do with anything listing incense as a note. Night blooming flowers worried me, but florals, in general, usually work although I don't often wear them.

 

This is so utterly fantastic and over the top, every time I wear this I fall in love again. On me, it has incredible throw and lasting power. Wet, it has a sweet steamy tropical floral feel covered in sugar! Almost like sugar coated flower petals, fragrant and slightly stickly, but it manages this without being cloying. After a short while, the incense drifts slowly in and out, teasing but never taking over.

 

The biggest surprise for me was much later on, when the flowers and incense faded. Funnel cakes! Doughy, covered in powdered sugar, hot and fragrant, with just a tiny touch of maple and mild sugary vanilla. Probably one of the best "foody" scents I've ever experienced, and I don't even like them! How flowers and incense morphed into funnel cakes is beyond me!

 

All in all...incredible. This description of this scent is dead on...it does invoke the Carnival at night right before a storm. You would think that this would be too heavy for hot summer days and nights, but it's not. It's a perfect rendition of a late summer stroll on the Midway at midnight.

 

(sorry about the gushing...I can't help it... )

[jewelbug]

Imp: VERY sweet: sugar, florals, something almost fruity and something really familiar that I can't put my finger on.

 

Wet: Sweet. There's almost a citrus edge in this stage, no idea where that's coming from. Right now it smells like sugared citrus and flowers.

 

Dry: Still extremely sweet. The sugar is the note I get the most of, and its stays a true sugar (doesn't go burny on me like some). The sugar smells vanilla'd to me. Under that are florals that I can't describe. There is still a fruitiness to this on my skin--like citrus coated berry-like fruits. I dunno why...maybe champaca is in the incense? That often strikes me as a sweet fruity sort of floral.

 

Overall: I like this. Its really different than most everything I own,and I like the uniqueness. I don't know how often I'd wear it, but its really nice. I'm not sure if I should get a bottle or not--I'll have to decide before the CD leaves town, though!

Edited October 1, 2008 by jewelbug

[mgrazulis]

In the imp, Midnight on the Midway smells like sweet sugary jasmine. On the skin ,the jasmine is gentled by a sweet smokiness that reminds me a bit of funnel cakes. But when it dries, a soapiness invades. This is a strange one!!

[Czarina]

In the imp--very light sugared incense. Like incense before it is burned.

Wet: ozone and sugary incense.

Drydown: floral incense with sugar.

 

At first sniff, it is nice enough but not anything I'm jumping-up-and-down excited about.

 

ETA: ahhh, I typed too soon. This is exquisite in the drydown. And I thought I didn't like florals.

Edited September 30, 2008 by Czarina

[rayvn1]

Weird. This sounded fantastic, but on me I get a whiff of ozone then an alcoholic, medicinal smell with a bit of grape in the background. This does not appeal I'm crossing my fingers that this will morph!

[gnl]

In the Bottle: Sugar and flowers, which sounds odd together, but smells rather nice.

 

Wet: Flowery soap.

 

Dry: Flowery soap. With maybe a little bit of incense.

 

Verdict: Er. It's nice smelling soap?

 

2/5

[angelicruin]

Wow, this is nice! A floral incense with a hint of sweetness. Fortunately the floral is tapered with the sugar making this work on my skin. A very different, intriguing scent. For me, this is nothing like Midway which is all sugar & cotton candy on me. Midnight on the Midway is not foody, but has enough sweetness to appeal to many foody addicts.

[ami226]

Midnight on the Midway is my scent for today.

 

Anyways, the moment I put it on, I smell soap. Very nice soap, but soap nonetheless. After about an hour, the soap smell has faded and now it is a light, pretty floral with a hint of sugar sweetness that I love and adore! I am not sure if I like the initial soap smell though. To me, perfume should not smell soapy on the skin. Anyways, I can't decide whether to keep it or swap it away.... So tough!

 

I do dearly wish the initial smell was the same as the dry down smell. I think I can find this one a better home. Breaks my heart that it didn't work better on me... *sigh*

[modillian]

Odd, I thought I'd already reviewed this one! It's only strange because Midnight on the Midway has rocketed up into my top five BPALs ever. It starts off with a huge bang, the powerful jasmine-perfumy waft tussling with the, yes it actually smells like that, sugary-vanilla-incense, a very strong champaca. I love jasmine, I love incense, and putting the two together sends me into raptures. I already just liked MotM for the opening blast, but then it dries down to a middle sugary smokiness at three hours, and then to a faint vanilla smoke at eight hours. Incredible. (My top five also includes Polyhymnia, Love in the Asylum, and Anactoria, so my preference for throaty smokey florals is well-established. If you like the same, you'll love Midnight on the Midway.)

[Schmoozy]

Wow. I wasn't expecting this. This is very fragrant, lush and sweet, but at the same time dark and sinnister.

In my mind it is the perfect balance between dark and light. At first the scent nearly jumps out of the bottle and I have to tell myself this does not need to be slathered. However, as Midnight dries down it morphs into this beautiful aroma of night-blooming florals and sweetened incense. The sweetness appears to be tinged with vanilla, and the florals are light and wispy. Midnight on the Midway is simply stunning.

[annerqm]

I got this through an eBay auction on a whim, and discovered one of my very, very favorite BPAL oils! MotM also showed me that I LOVE incense/nag champa/champaca flower, which has led to even more lovely incensey scents.

 

Bottle: MotM did not smell very promising, in fact, all I got was generic floral perfume. I could detect the sugar a bit, but no smokey incense...

 

Wet: Ok, this is more like it...still very floral, but the sugars are really starting to come out and make the florals interesting and the incense is starting to hit me.

 

Drying: Wow, this is amazing and an instant favorite. It IS a tad soapy some days that I wear it, but really, if I could find a soap that smelled this good... Anyway, it is so well balanced...the pretty floral, the sweet (not vanilla, this is cotton candy/pure sugar sweet) and the lovely, lovely incense note are just mind-blowingly amazing together. I'm in love. And whoa, baby, this is strong. Even my dry, porous skin won't need that much.

 

Dry: I could wear this every day and never be unhappy. It has such a range -- sweet, girly and fun yet headshopy, hippyish yet grown up perfume-y. How can one oil do all this at once?

 

I love mixing MotM with other oils to amp its different aspects. I like it with Snake Oil to bring out the sweetness, with dryer patchouli scents like Mole or Anne Bonny to bring out the incensey-headshopy aspects and it's simply divine with Tabula Smaragdina...which is more floral-incense goodness.

 

It's so potent that I have to be careful about how much I put on, as I typically slather. I'm sure I still overdo it most days and some people probably think I stink to high heaven. But hey, I'm very, very happy in my cloud of smell!

Edited December 10, 2008 by TheCraneWife