Pumpkin Queen

[requieminblack]

The Glorious Grand Dame of the Pumpkin Patch! Regal Egyptian Amber, red ginger, orange peel, mandarin, cardamom, fig leaf and warm pumpkin.

What can I say about Pumpkin Queen other than it is my DREAM scent come true? At first whiff it is a lot like an aged bottle of Gingerbread Poppet. There is a lot of ginger in there and it is of the foody/sweet baking gingerbread variety.

After I put it on and let it sit a minute the Egyptian amber starts to come out in full force. This is the same amber as in Snake Charmer, and holy heck, it is YUMMY. It gives this blend just a touch of smoky resin. Without the amber this would be straight up a foody pumpkin pie scent, but with that kick of amber it is much smokier and very sultry/sexy.

Pumpkin Queen is a grand dame indeed!

ETA- I have died and gone to Bpal heaven. I can't stop sniffing myself because PQ is SO. DAMN. YUMMY. AND. SEXY.

[Kimocean]

I just got this today and I couldn't wait to try it!

 

Wet it was very sweet ginger with a little bit of amber and musk. As it dries I smell a strong sharp orange and it reminds me just a bit of Lush's Karma without the patchouli. 10 minutes later the cardamom comes out to play and I feel like I smell a hint of clove.

 

It continues to have a touch of the gentle powdery smell of amber behind the very strong, spicy orange about an hour later.

 

This seems to have a stronger throw than many of my other BPAL blends. I think I've found one of my favorite fall scents!

 

ETA: I put this one on again this afternoon and I just LOVE it. It seems to have really good staying power and when I wore it to my yoga class tonight I got gorgeous whiffs of it throughout the whole class. It was a tough class and I got pretty sweaty but it's definitely stil present afterward. It's such a great scent!

Edited September 28, 2006 by Kimocean

[fairy]

This one had the Red Lantern, Devil's Night, Hearth feel to it. It's fantastic. Maybe some sort Monsterbait concoction thrown in too. What makes this one unique is it has a sweet citrusy underlying throw that is just amazing.

 

This is what is smells like when you walk through a open field, alone, on a chilly autumn night. There are pumpkins growing all around you and a forest is off in the distance.

[UltraViolet]

 

 

In the bottle

Yummy buttery goodness

On

More Pumpkin on my skin, and fruits are arriving, now the spices

And another layer of fruitiness coming out now.....Ohhh....cardomom.

cardomom is one of my favorite scents.

30 minutes

Hasn't morphed at all.

Throw:

No

(as it dries, oddly enough, it produces some throw. It's the fruity notes that are throwy now after about 5 minutes)

Scent category:

Foody/Spicy/Fruity

Summary

More fruity then the Pumpkin King from convergence.

Fruity/ Spiced Pumpkin

When it's drying it reminds me of mincemeat and pumpkin pie next to each other colling off after getting them out of the oven. I say Mincemeat pie because it's that same raisin-y, spiced fruit smell.

I like this even better than Pumkin King I think. pumpkin King doesn't have that glorious fruity scent that keeps me sniffing and sniffing my wrist. It's not just foody, it's got three layers of scents and they all go really well with each other.

Purchase again?

Yes!

1-5 rating (5 being best)

4.5

[Brianne]

In bottle:

MMMM WARM PUMPKIN!!

 

On me:

WOAH! Right off the bat I love this one - it's everything I was expecting. Warm, pumpkiny, slightly sweet. When it hits my skin the orange comes out a bit, lending a softly tart zest to the pumpkin note. Then the cardamom kicks in and spices it up - it's beautifully warm and a little foody, but not TOO foody.

 

I think the amber really lends a nice smooth quality to this too but doesn't steal the spotlight from the pumpkin. This is like an exotic, new twist on pumpkin pie. It's pumpkin pie with beautiful citrus zest and amped up spice. This is GORGEOUS!!

 

Final note:

This is everything I was hoping for and more from this blend. I am fairly certain I need another bottle of this one. So beautiful and perfect for fall, I will be wearing this damn near every day this season I bet!

[karmageddon]

This is fruity, sweet and spicy. Pumpkin pie in a bottle: buttery and pumpkiny. Sort of reminds me of a Halloweeny-fall version of Frumious Bandersnatch, actually.

[Inanna9]

Butter scares me. In fact, this time last year, I don't think I would've given any thought at all to ordering pumpkin blends, but my BPAL tastes are evolving. I could hardly wait to get my hands on these this time around.

 

The butter and pumpkin are strong upon application, but the butter turns nice and sweet as it settles in with the other components, and does a great job of anchoring down the scent without overpowering everything. It doesn't take long for the amber, orange peel and mandarin to come out and waft, along with a hint of fig--oh man, that's such a gorgeous note combo.

 

Pumpkin Queen is yummy without being cloyingly foody--it doesn't smell like a cheap pumpkin pie candle or anything. It's rich, sweet and spicy (without being too spicy), and the depth is amazing. I am so glad I took a chance on this. I'm really going to love it.

[Eros]

In the bottle: This is almost exactly like Jack. All toasty warm, buttery pumpkin goodness.

 

On skin: A slightly sweet lemon starts to emerge along with the ginger. Not overpowering but still rich and full. Spicy but not...This is, amazingly enough, a hard one to describe. Why? Because, well...Okay people, are you sitting? Dare I say? On my skin, this is like a clone of...ready?

Shub-Niggurath

Yep, on my skin, this is the Black Goat all over again

Need I say more?

[nightbird]

in the bottle this smells amazing - it's a spicy warm pumpkin that makes me drool.

 

on me, though... I get the same overly-buttery pumpkin that I had with Jack, and I smell a bit like a waxy scented candle.

 

I'm going to try this one again in about a week or so, and if it still doesn't work, I'm going to figure out how to use it in an oil burner. it's beautiful, wonderful, and the perfect autumn scent as long as I'm not wearing it!

[moonarcana]

I was taking a risk with this one...lured in by the aphrodesiastic promise of Egyptian amber, red ginger and cardamom...indifferent to orange and fig leaf...but completely skeptical of pumpkin. It's never done well for me as a fragrance. I'm not overly fond of pumpkin pie either.

 

The bottle art is great - I also got Samhain, so I'm wondering now if more Halloweenie bottles feature the little crone witch but I love the black cat on her shoulder on the label of Pumpkin Queen.

 

Sniffing the bottle is like experiencing the aroma of an autumn kaleidoscope. I'm not exaggerating when I say I amused myself with the revolving door of scent for nearly 20 minutes before I finally tried some on. It moves from buttery soft pumpkin bread to succulent fruitiness to exotic spice and each time I bring the bottle close to inhale is different than the last whiff. That little parlor trick alone is worth the price of admission.

 

I let the oil pool upon the skin for a bit and the changing notes continued to take turns singing their solos. I begin longing to experience their harmonius collaboration but they seem quite content with grabbing the spot light away from one another - without attempting to upstage.

 

As the scent settles in there are times it seems more blended, but then one or the other of the notes will spike back up on it's own again.

 

The foody side of Pumpkin Queen is her namesake gourd sprinkled with ginger and cardamom spices. The pumpkin is soft and wafts sweet and creamy - almost like fresh pumpkin bread with a buttercream frosting. But then the Egyptian Amber comes to the front and hypnotizes me with it's beauty. And when I regain my senses, I realize that I'm now smelling an intoxicating fruity zest. They don't rotate in any set order.

 

It's been about 4 hours since I first applied the oil and it still carries a unique presence although the voices have gotten individually weaker and are resigned to carry on in unison.

 

I'm not a big fan of many of the often favored foodie scents out there, but Pumpkin Queen has plenty of diversionary tactics up her sleeve and I've fallen under her glowing spell. (I can't wait to see how this one ages)

 

 

Edit 10/26 - I ended up swapping my bottle of PQ, although I kept an imp to see how it ages and because I like smelling the scent from the bottle...just not ON me. It's very lovely, but just not a fragrance that I can wear.

Edited October 26, 2006 by moonarcana

[miss apple]

Pumpkin Queen is Jack but even better (which I did not think possible!) Jack is all creamy warm pumpkin and delicious in its own right but Pumpkin Queen - ahhh! The ginger and amber give a regal air to the warm sweet pumpkin foodiness. I'm not really getting any orange but perhaps they are subtle notes that serve to deepen the warm, spicy complexity of the blend. This does not morph to my nose at all and smells just as wonderful as when I first applied it.

 

The Pumpkin Queen is alluring and sexy, charming and sweet, and seducitively delicious. I think I have found a new all-time favorite

[LittleGreyKitten]

Awesome blend. Another wicked-good Weenie scent. This is similar to Jack, but like Jack poured over Storyville. This is sodamngood. Buttery. Gingery. Punkiny. Amazing. My husband hates it. I don't care. He can suffer. Because I want to roll in it. (He smells bubblegum out of it, which proves he's lost his olfactory sense.)

 

Another off-the-scale good: 7 out of 5! Must get a second one to age. Oh and it lasts forever on me.

[themerrybaker]

From the description, Pumpkin Queen looked like my perfect Halloween scent. I wore the Pumpkin Patches throughout last year, and love ginger and cardamom. When you see something that looks so good, you wonder if you are just setting yourself up for disappointment. Nope. Pumpkin Queen really is the perfect autumn scent. In some ways it is even nicer than the Patches, in that there is no cheesecake/barf smell when wet. There are warm, spicy notes that last most of the day.

 

And just when I thought there couldn't possibly be anything more wonderful than Pumpkin Queen, I noticed that the label has a picture of my cat and me!!

 

Excellentissimo, Laboweeners!! This one makes me so happy.

[joseybird]

Pumpkin Queen has the same butter-pumpkin base as Jack (and possible the pumpkin patch scents--not sure), which makes me rather sad, as I found Jack too fruity, buttery, and "heavy" for my tastes. PQ has orange and a hint of amber instead of Jack's spices, making it far closer to it's GC cousin than to Pumpkin King (which had a completely different pumpkin note.

 

;_;

[abejita]

I love pumpkin. I keep trying Jack, but find it not very wearable. The hypersweet butteriness can turn cloying. This is a much more wearable pumpkin scent. I think that the fig leaf and orange peel/mandarin add a nice brightness, while the spice and amber pull it back towards mystery. I think this can appeal to both foodie and non-foodie types. I like this one very much and will be using this as my wearable pumpkin scent and Jack will be a room scent.

 

ETA: As of January '07, the Pumpkin Queen has gotten unbelievably better. I am in awe over how much this short aging period has brought more depth and complexity to the blend. The orange has scaled back, the fig has gotten richer. The amber is just beautiful, not even a trace of powder to it, and the ginger is deeper as well. I now get pure pumpkin, no buttery feel to it at all.

Edited January 6, 2007 by abejita

[portalkat]

This has been sitting in my box untested for a week because, although I bought a bottle unsniffed I was not that crazy about the pumpkin scents from last year, some of them reminding me of candles.

 

The first thing that I smell is the butter, but then it fades and is quickly replaced by the pumpkin. The pumpkin is lighter, not necessarily in strength, but in feel, more like pumpkin souffle and there is a hint of something that smells like apple cider. I was afraid of the traditional heavy spices, but the cardamom, orange peel and red ginger have a more exotic aroma. The amber makes it a bit creamy and for some reason, I keep thinking that there is vanilla in this because some element is reminding me of the monster baits. This is definitely foody, but I can smell the autumn air and wood smoke wafting in through the window. Maybe this is what I will wear for Thanksgiving - absolutely lovely For now, I'll just continue to drool all over myself

Edited October 3, 2006 by portalkat

[Rheliwen]

In the bottle: buttered pumpkin, a lot like Jack

 

It goes on pumpkiny strong. The buttery note is definitely there but quickly fading away. At mid dry stage it's all pumpkin but it has a dryness about it, I think it's the cardamom.

 

Dry it is totally pumpkin pie, crust and all. I'm glad I don't get a lot of the citrus but sad that I can't detect the fig leaf and amber. Overall, it's the best pumpkin scent from BPAL I've tried.

 

Hmm, now that I've had it on for a while I am getting some tart orange and something really creammy...now I really like this stage!

Edited October 3, 2006 by Rheliwen

[skye]

In the bottle: all pumpkin. On me: spicier and warmer that dries down to a golden amber scent.

 

(Even if I didn't love it I would keep the bottle just for the adorable little witch on the label.)

[Medici]

In the bottle: The buttery pumpkin of Jack, blunted by a juicy slice of orange just underneath.

 

Wet: Pumpkin aux max, I get a warm waft of amber, and the slight, bitter edge of clove that burns oh so sweetly.

 

Drydown: Here's where I ran into problems this afternoon when I slathered my collarbone thinking I wouldn't have spice-related issues. See, clove and me? We're usually cool. Cinnamon and me? We're mortal enemies. We each try to do each other wrong - now, here me out. I definitely don't get any cinnamon in this, but I think the clove is playing havoc with my chemistry in this blend. Damn, does it ever smell good at this point, but my flippin' arm is burning like I doused myself with cinnamon oil. *whines* The pumpkin takes a backseat as the spices amp up. The cardamom smells sooooo insanely good, like warm chai and a slice of pumpkin pie, and then whammo - rounded off by that amber and figgy figgy goodness, only to be chased down by the citrus as it sweetens.

 

Burn baby burn. My arm is on fire. But it smells divine.

 

This really is the best pumpkin scent I've tried yet. I'm hoping the searing fiyah won't be so evil in another week, because I dig this scent like you wouldn't believe.

 

4/5 on Medici's Scale o' Lurrve

[birdiefu]

In the bottle: Very Jack-esque, which scared me as I run far away from Jack! Sweet, buttery pumpkin

 

Wet: Initially sweet, buttery pumpkin but within 30 seconds that tones down and the other notes appear. A spicey, almost cidery note comes up which I think is a combo of the ginger, cardamom, orange/mandarin, and what I swear is a touch of cloves. With the pumpkiny note, this is pumpkin pie with a glass of hot cider.

 

Dry: The pumpkin hangs out in the background, not in-your-face but not totally gone either. Delightfully spicey in a holiday sort of way- like drinking hot hard cider after a Thanksgiving feast with the smell of the pumpkin pie still wafting about the house.

 

I didn't realize how much I would love Pumpkin Queen! It has foody elements, but is not a sweet foody that I usually dislike. This is the epitome of a Thanksgiving scent to me and very well blended!

[Bagfish]

On opening, the bottle wafts a scary Jack-like scent towards me Jack and I have history, and its not pretty.

 

Trying PQ on, the intense butteryness fades to a sharper pumpkin smell, tempered with orange/mandarin fruityness. There is also a sort of apply smell, a bit like Harvest Moon '06. And this fruityness is what I get most of the time from PQ.

 

The amber and cardamom is only smellable if I huff my wrist and then smush my nose up close. The rest of the time the smell is too sharp and fruity for me.

 

This is such a shame, as underneath the amber/cardamom is beautiful, and a scent of this on its own without the pumpkin/fruits over the top would be amazing.

 

Bottle traded already!

[delizt]

My first review ever, so please bear with me..

 

Pumpkin Queen is GORGEOUS!!! I am in LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

 

In the bottle, pumpkin and spices...very NICE...not like the candle-ish pumpkin of Jack, but warm and reminds me of spice cake...very yummy!

 

then on my skin it settles and I get warm amber and a bit of orange and the spices again...soft and a bit fruity, this is a amazing scent for the season and one I would buy more of.

 

I didn't like any of the other BPAL pumpkin scents, but this one is PERFECT!!!!!

[GemmaCat]

I bought this from Bagfish, and I'm so glad I did!

 

There's definitely a similarity to Jack here but where Jack is sweet and rich, PQ is lighter and more spicy. In the bottle, PQ smells just like Jack: all gooey, buttery pumpkin, but once on this instantly transforms into a very airy, spiced scent.

 

I was a little worried at first that this was too light and spicy but once it dried down, the pumpkin scent came back and evened out nicely. Now it smells just like freshly baked pumpkin pie to my nose.

 

It doesn't have the same throw or staying power of Jack but its deliciousness more than makes up for this minor shortcoming.

 

If you love Pumpkin scents, this is a must!

[dawna]

In the bottle: Pumpkin, buttery pumpkin!

 

On the skin: Wow is this a beautiful pumpkin blend. I smell the ginger and pumpkin straight off. Its not as sweet when wet as I thought but as it is drying it gets sweeter and sweeter.

 

On drydown: That gorgeous pumpkin spicy blend keeps getting sweeter on me, and the orange starts to make an appearance now that it is dry. This is a gorgeous blend, a definite keeper.. and I suspect will layer amazingly with Samhain (one of my favorite blends is Jack and Samhain so this will work nicely). It has faded a bit on me but I dont care, this oil is just amazing and I am so glad I have a bottle of this so I can slather and reapply lol!

[Miss*J]

My body has apparently has changed chemistry again and lately the pumpkin smells I have tried have not worked on me at all.

This smells so gorgeous in the vial.

I put it on though and it instantly dropped all likeness to pumpkin .

Even through drydown it winds up smelling like cranberry cider.

 

I'm sure someone will love this, but it's not really for me.