Tavern of Hell

[innocent]

White gardenia, ambergris bouquet, lavender fougere, orange blossom, melissa, tobacco flower, coriander, ebony wood, ylang ylang, absinthe and aged whiskey.

Oh me Tavern of Hell is a sharpish white floral, but without the soapy undertone that white florals sometimes give me. It's a bit too strong and perfumy for me to wear regularly, but I think I'll be keeping the imp - I can tell this is the sort of scent I'll want to wear on occasion.

ETA: I ended up washing this off... more because I'm so in love with Depraved atm than because I didn't like Tavern. >.> Edited July 16, 2008 by Shollin

[porcelina]

tavern of hell makes me cough! it's very sharp.

 

inexplicably, after a few minutes of wear it turns into the scent of grape airheads.

[ImperatrixMundi]

This may not be a very useful review because I actually dont know what I smell. I could never guess any notes in this. It is just a swirl of blue, green and orange for me.

 

It never settles into anything that can be defined as a unified scent, like the notes never join up. There is just a boozy, floral, astringent and sweet swirl of scent.

 

Sorry for the utter uselessness of this review.

[cam]

I really wanted to like this one. In the bottle, it's very complex and hard to describe. There's a sharp floral note, underlaid by smoke, tobacco, and maybe a hint of the absinthe from the description. On me, all of the complexity disappears and it's just mad, screaming florals (in a bad, bad way). Just doesn't work for me. And it makes me sneeze. Had to take it off immediately.

[Suu4LC]

This was a lab frimp-not something I would have picked out for myself. In the imp it is a quite strong white floral-I get little sniffs of some of the specific notes, but I can't really pick things out too exactly. This might be nice on me-there aren't really any doom notes for me, though tobacco flower and ebony wood have me a little worried. I can't see myself loving this, but the lab is full of surprises!

 

Wow, this is strong on...this is kind of a spicy, non feminine (but not really masculine) white floral. Overall, this is a nice blend, but very forgettable for me and not something I could ever see myself grabbing for. But if you are looking for a white floral with a bit of spice and edge and bite, I do think this is an excellent blend and would recommend it if that sounds up your alley.

[anguissette]

Complicated scent. I'm keeping it for its interestingness even if I didn't fall in love with it. On me it starts off aquatic with a strong burst of florals (my skin does amp florals) but after some time passes it morphs into something completely different, smokey and leathery but in a very interesting, complex way with other notes adding depth and balance underneath the taverny smells. Its worth trying just to see how BPAL scents can morph.

 

Probably won't get a bottle, but hanging on to the imp because well...its weird and cool.

[hlinspjalda]

In the vial: Sweet flowers (the gardenia?), sharp lavender, and something very bitter.

 

Wet: Immediate strong sharp unpleasant gardenia with at least two very bitter notes beneath. Lavender very strong, too. This is headache country.

 

20 minutes: Wow, what a transformation! I get soft floral blend now with the secondary note something almost caramely or vanilla-ish. Underneath there's a bit of warm spice (not coriander). I don't notice the lavender at all. I'm not sure it's going to last, but I kind of like it.

 

One hour: I think I have the sweetness: it reminds me of a Swisher Sweet cigar. So maybe that's the tobacco flower. Against all expectation, I'm really liking this one. I don't think it's me, but it works on me and that's a pleasant surprise.

 

It stayed pretty much the same for hours. I may have to keep this one.

[Iceblink]

I get soapy floral from this one too--too many different flower notes in here for me, and one's gardenia, which never works. I do pick up on the ebony note. But mostly it's just floral.

[aquazoo]

Starts as kind of a nondescript floral. Now the flowers are coming up, pretty scents. I'm not getting any of the "hell" part of it. It fades quickly on me, with just a little bit of spice left behind.

[tdgnika]

I really wanted to like this, just so I could tell people I was wearing Tavern of Hell. I mean, what a cool name. Alas...

 

In the bottle, it had a chemical flower smell to me.

 

Wet on the skin, it was incredibly floral. What I'm assuming was the gardenia was incredibly overwhelming. Broadcasting, amping, you name it, it was doing it. On dry down, that horrible sick/sweet amping continued, so I actually washed this one off. And I could still smell it.

[hkhm]

imp: gardenia, tobacco and orange. different in a pleasant way.

 

wet: a mixture of very sweet flowers and very stale alcohol. and i normally love the booze scents.

 

dry: the stale alcohol scent vanished pretty quickly, and this turned to super sweet gardenia. i'm starting to think i amp gardenia 'cause this is gardenia in the extreme.

[modillian]

This smells evil. Not bad, but there's a light airy sweetness, and the oil is just as runny as harmless Cathode, then WHAM, evil absinthe and whiskey hit the back of your throat three seconds later. I do believe that was an punch! A punch of odors.

 

On the skin it's a seductive wildcard of EVILNESS. What is that seductive sweet smell? I have no idea. And there's another, and another. In the past I've steered away from gardenia scents because actual real gardenias are so strong they give me massive headaches. Gardenia is probably one of the evil sweet smells of seduction. And it's not giving me a headache, what a surprise!

 

First comes the sweet candy gardenia, then a one-two punch of lavender and ambergris to confuse the nose, then it plunges straight down through the florals to the whiskey-wood bottom. Holy crap, it's a friggen roller coaster to hell. I love it. I've had the bottle for a while, and as it's aged the whiskey has become more prominent and the wearlength has increased. I'd consider it perfumey, floral, and woody with notes of booze.

 

ETA November 2010: Aw, nuts. Aging for a total of three years has not helped this scent. It's a mishmash of strong florals to begin, and it only gets to be nicely complex after a couple hours of wear when it no longer has as much throw. What a shame.

Edited November 11, 2010 by modillian

[voodoocatwoman]

Modillian hits this one on the head. It's a complicated scent, starting out very sweet and then delivering a shot of liquor that nearly knocks me out. It smooths out on drydown but is still a bit sinister. I am picking up the floral bouquet, particularly the orange blossom and gardenia, but they are in a wooden vase filled with booze. Magnificent.

[jarvenpa]

So, I came across an imp of Tavern of Hell yesterday, in one of my random boxes of imps, and thought--gee, did I ever try this?

 

I am pretty reckless when in the mood to try something new, so I slathered.

 

And I was...confused, but delighted. I hadn't read the description, and I didn't know the notes, but this was an exquisite swirl of flowers and darkness and depth.

 

I love it, it is one of the best I've tried (and I have a lot of loves, I do).

 

So I went today to see what was in it--I would have guessed jasmine (not gardenia, which is funny, I love gardenia) and...then I would have been lost.

 

The big surprise? ambergris. I would tell you I can't wear it, I hate it, it does gruesome things, and so forth.

 

Here it is a deep, oldfashioned, very sexy perfume. It kind of reminds me of the drops of some dark perfume in the pretty cut glass bottles on my beautiful mother's dresser. But..sexier for sure.

 

There's a haunting moment about halfway through the dry down when there is just a sudden rush of flowers--almost an innocent rush. and then, heh, despoiled. So amazing.

[lady_pandora]

Tavern of Hell? Naaah. More like Sweater of Boyfriend, and I mean that in the best possible way.

 

Right out of the bottle, the lavender is kind of overpowering and, for a moment, manages to confuse my nose into thinking it's camphor. It's almost medicinal for those first few minutes. That goes away pretty quickly, though.

 

After that, it settles down into a mix of a sort of general "men's cologne" smell and a floral that I couldn't put my finger on last night, but which I think now must have been the orange blossom. Usually the "men's cologne" scents don't do much for me, and Tavern of Hell includes several notes that theoretically shouldn't work on my skin, but there's just something so comforting and warm about it. Like I said, Sweater of Boyfriend. The orange blossom, which is pretty prominent on me, adds just enough "yin" to the "yang" that the overall feel I get is "woman in man's sweater" rather than just "man." Something tells me I'm going to get a lot of wear out of this in the winter.

 

Edit: I think a lot of the "comforting" feel comes from the orange blossom, too. I used to have a lotion that was supposed to relax you before bed, which prominently featured orange blossom. Definitely a snuggly scent.

Edited October 24, 2008 by lady_pandora

[kjirstiben]

Interesting scent. I was expecting (having lost the note description), something with smoke and booze and leather... but this was all about florals... with a little booze.

 

Initially on, this was strongly pungent--maybe the ambergris?--and I definitely noted the lavender swirling around right at the beginning. (Oddly, I always can pick out lavender because my brother had a Mickey & Friends scratch & sniff book when we were little with a lavender-scented sticker at one point in it, and I always remember lavender scent because it makes me think of that book. Strange, how scent memory works.)

 

After a few minutes, I'm getting a floral. Is it lily? It's not the screaming single-note that I always get from jasmine, but it's pretty darned strong, nonetheless...

 

After an hour, it's starting to sweeten up. The floral is going from just this side of bitter to much sweeter, though I still catch some of that sense of "lily" that I got earlier.

 

A few hours later, it ended up musky, and floral like dried petals. I think it was the ambergris that grounded this one so thoroughly, because I never guessed it had so much floral in it until I came around to review it!

 

While this was not objectionable on my skin, I wasn't particularly enthralled by it, either. (Not being a huge fan of floral scents.) I think this will go on to find a loving home with my gardenia-adoring mother.

[crebbsgirl]

White gardenia, ambergris bouquet, lavender fougere, orange blossom, melissa, tobacco flower, coriander, ebony wood, ylang ylang, absinthe and aged whiskey.

 

I was expecting something a little heavier here, but this blend starts out all white flowers on me. I was almost about to wash it off (white florals and I do NOT get along) when the tobacco flower, ebony and whiskey started to show up. This turned into a really nice blend of woods and florals, with the whiskey adding a bit of depth. The absinthe gave it a little bit of a bite. I liked this.

[mazikeen]

Bright, perfumey with a strong throw. Nothing taverny or hellish to be found.

 

This time I had to wash it off because it was just too sickly floral. Who knows-- maybe it could morph into something nicer but the flowery, ladyish, perfuminess made me nauseous. Cloying to the max.

 

It made its way into my "keeper" imp pile so I must've liked it okay the first time I tried it. Either way, it's totally not for me so it's moving to the swap pile.

[cherryontop]

The first ten minutes or so of this was glorious. It was deliciously boozy and I could hardly believe there were really all those floral notes it it. Then came the morphing. And what morphing it was! All of a sudden the gardenia was smacking me upside my head, breathing down my neck and taking my olfactory nerves hostage. I do not like gardenia or any sharp floral note.

 

So maybe I'll just be burning this scent and keeping it OFF of my skin.

[lins]

I liked this out of the bottle, but not so much on me. I use this to scent my letters.

[AlarmAgent]

In Bottle - Whiskey, but a nice, smooth sort of whiskey scent. Definitely doesn't smell like any actual whiskey I've encountered, but like the sort of whiskey I imagine whiskey aficionados drink.

 

Wet on Skin, First Applied - Lemon (?), gardenia, ylang-ylang, and deep wood-notes to round it. This is a pretty unique scent so far, definitely the kind you might sniff a few times just to try to figure it out.

Dry, on Skin - The lavender is coming to attention, and that mysterious lemon-like scent is vying for the top-spot again. Ylang-ylang takes it's place in the background with the woods, just adding a little sweetness. I seem to smell a little bit of green, or grass in there as well. I was worried I'd end up just smelling like I'd been drinking, but that wasn't the case at all. It's definitely a perfume-type fragrance, but with tavern inspired notes. I really love it. Might even get myself a 5ml, from the lab frimp!

[butcherbaby]

this scent is nearly impossible for me to describe.

in the imp i get a strong astringent lavender, almost camphor-like as someone else said. something alcoholic that i'm assuming is the absinthe since it doesn't have that sickening whiskey edge. it's almost mouthwashy or medicinal.

on the skin i can smell a little of the florals trying to pull their way to the forefront. is that the ylang ylang? a bit of gardenia? a hint of orange blossom? ahh i can pick up a little of the gardenia, it's unique spicy white/green smell. now something is edging in that seems almost minty- sugary and minty. sugared minty gardenias. the whatever-is-making-me-smell-mint note gets just strong enough to slightly overpower the lovely florals that tried so hard to show up. i get a lovely strong gardenia when i whuff right next to the skin, but the throw is far to weak for me to smell it otherwise.

sadly, that does it for this scent for me. it is rare for me to like anything minty, and this is no exception. it *IS* a beautiful and complex blend, lovely to try, and for those that love it, an olfactory treasure. it's just not for me.

[tinyvulture]

The boozy notes hit me first. The absinthe and whiskey are biting, alcoholic, almost harsh. The tobacco is an afterthought. As for the florals, I can pick out the lavender and that’s about it. Orange blossom, usually strong on me, is absent.

 

Once the booze notes calm down a little, after a couple of minutes, it becomes difficult to distinguish one note from another. Overall this is a very complex blend. It’s a mélange of alcohol, tobacco, florals and woods. Not particularly masculine or feminine. It’s pretty cool, but I wish it had more staying power. It fades quickly.

[obsidienne]

MMMMmmmmm.

 

In the imp, bright pale lavender and hints of citrus.

 

Fresh on the skin, a sharp lavender with pale sweet florals and citrus peeking out from behind it. There's a green note here, it must be the absinthe.

 

As it dries down, the lavender citrus burns off and sweet light florals waft up; then hints of woods and coriander (omg omg omg, it's so good, I love coriander); and now, the whiskey. It ends sort of subtle, sweet and floral-whisky. Oh my lords.

 

Started off strong, got a little calmer in terms of throw and strength as it dried down. Far drydown saw it get really light, just a shadow.

 

This blend morphs like crazy, and each stage is exciting and fun and gorgeous. It's like a party. Not what I'd expect from a blend called Tavern of Hell!

[masquedbunny]

Got this as a frimp in a forum order, and the name intrigues me very much, so here we go!

 

In the imp: White florals with a bite of whiskey. I'm thinking Classy Garden Patio in Hell more so than Tavern.

 

Wet on skin: Still overpowering florals--mostly gardenia and lavender--less whiskey, and an underlying warm woodiness.

 

Dry on skin: I fear this may do what Les Fleurs du Mal did on my skin, as I'm gradually losing the warm woodiness and this is becoming powdery florals.

 

Two hours later: There's still a nice warmth here, but I'm mostly getting powdery gardenia and lavender. Maybe a hint of orange blossom. It's not bad, but it's not thrilling me on this first go-round.

 

Perhaps it would be better in a scent locket ...

 

EDIT:

 

Okay, it's almost 12 hours after application, and the scent is still on me, but it's definitely morphed into something else--almost like vanilla, but not quite. It's a well-rounded sweetness. I honestly have no idea what I'm smelling.

Edited February 3, 2009 by MasquedRabbit