Horreur Sympathique

[maijasu]

The perfume of a hellbound soul, gleefully lost to iniquity: blood musk, golden honey, thick black wine, champagne grapes, tobacco flower, plum blossom, tonka bean, oakmoss, carnation, benzoin, opoponax, and sugar cane.

Mmm, honey and grapes. This isn't the dry wine with honey that is in Athens; it's much more about the juicy grapes. After it's dry, a hint of something floral comes out to play. It is a very light, sweet, girly scent. I'd like it more if it had better lasting power, but it is still wonderful, and I'll be holding onto my imp.

[Iceblink]

This went on so strong and fruity it was almost overwhelming and I started to regret putting it on today...but! It's calmed down into this sparkly, light grape with a little whisper of flowers, and I really like it. Reminds me of Titania with grapes instead of pears.

Not much throw, but still nice (and completely wrong for winter; I'll set this aside for a few months).

[akw]

Straight out of the bottle, fruit, fruit fruit. Grapes, wine and champagne above all else. However, the fruit is like the host/ess who opens the door and greets you at the party. Once you've said hello, you come inside and spend most of your time with the other guests. (Typical of top notes).

 

Ten minutes later, the honey is stronger. Oakmoss usually goes all men's aftershave on me, and this isn't doing that. The florals and tonka are just beginning to surface.

 

An hour later, it's nearly gone except for some faint, lingering fruity tonka. This is really pretty, but has no staying power on me. For someone who can't do a lot of florals, this would be lovely if it sticks around. It's winter and my skin is drier. Maybe that's part of it.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: sweet and heady. almost intoxicating.

on: lots of wine-y notes with some sweet florals and lots of other sweet notes. lovely.

half an hour later: lots of champagne and sweet notes. this reminds me of something from lush, but i can't quite place it.

1.5 hours later: i love this. there is a bit of an almost-soapy note creeping in, but i'm hoping that goes away. the lush product it was and is reminding me of is crash course in skincase, a fresh mask with lemon and avocado. wonderful.

2.5 hours later: lovely! this is so soft and...just...i don't know. it's sweet, but fresh, too. i adore it.

3.5 hours later: i adore this. it's such a happy scent, which wasn't what i was expecting from the description.

5 hours later: the musk has come forward, giving everything a wonderfully smooth feel.

overall: i love this! it may actually end up being a bottle purchase.

[evilbee]

In the bottle:

Grapes – like the Dimetapp Elixir Mum gave me when I was a kid.

 

Wet:

More and more grapes – like a huge glass of Welch’s.

 

Drying:

Ooh, I’m detecting some rose or some other luscious, juicy floral along with these grapes. There is a tickle of a promise of other things to come…

 

Dry:

Grapes, honey, roses. Sweet and beautiful. Hubby really likes it too.

[Tramp]

smells like purple fruit, thick spring honey, and a hint of champagne. I get a hit of something different every time I sniff this. I'm going to give it a few more whirls to see if it is bottle worthy for me. So far it is looking good. I love the deep honey sweetness, you can almost picture it dripping off the comb. As for the purple fruits, at first I thought of the sweetness of plums but that isn't quite right - some have mentioned grape kool-aid and I can definatly understand the thought. On me the strong initial fruit scent gives way to something more floral. Yummy!

[gingersnapp]

This is exactly what I wanted. In the bottle, it's all wine. On my skin, the second it touched me, the honey came rushing into the forefront. Yay honey! It's still very wine-y, which makes me happy, and there is a touch of dustiness from the champagne grapes. When I was a child, my caretaker had a fence on their property where wild grapes grew, and this is exactly what this smells like.

 

It's not boozy, but it is very sweet and I love it. This is my new favorite blend.

[cuervosueno]

Note to self: the only wine/grape blend I like is Urd, probably because that quickly becomes overshadowed with other stronger scents.

 

This is all honeyed grapes on me, which unfortunately smell like grape jolly ranchers.

 

Not good.

[theseagrows]

oh. my. god. i love this one. it reminds me mostly of bordello but with less berryness. i think mostly the tonka, musk and wine come out. oh it's so nice, a bit sweet but the tonka gives it a nice warmth. this is the first bpal i've been blown away by in a long time

 

must order a big bottle of this one!

Edited December 6, 2006 by theseagrows

[Ajila]

In the bottle - Possibly just the slightest hint of honey, but overall it's barely there.

 

Wet on me - Barely there at all honey, with just a hint of greeness

 

Dry on me - At first it's a highly floral honey, but it dries to a faint liquid sugar scent, silken and golden in hue.

 

Overall - This is very, very faint, but I do like it, I may try it in a scent locket

[Em-]

Thick, sweet, but a sophistocated sweetness - honey, tobacco, wine grapes - heady and intoxicating. This is in my personal scent family of Skuld and Glasya, me thinks...similar, but definitely it's own hellbound animus.

[AliBabble]

this one sounded so amazing to me, but somehow it's not working on my skin...it smells very grape juicy out of the imp - not a bad thing - and mixed with rich wine...but there's one very sweet note - which becomes more apparent on my skin...i dunno what it is..honey? there's something almost sickly sweet - a fruityness, a floweriness that borders on over-ripe. it's weird, there's something i like about this too..it just goes a little too far in the candy-sweet direction, when it hits my skin. i do enjoy the tobacco, tho, and i'm gonna keep trying this - maybe my chemistry's just weird at the moment...

[supremegoddessofall]

Honey bliss! This is musky tobacco and tonka swimming in honey. Lightly herbal. This is everything I wanted Honey Moon to be that it wasn't. Love love love!

[ChupaChup]

I ordered an imp of this forgetting how much I dislike red musk and red wine combined. I ignored those notes in favor of the many notes I love - honey, tobacco flower, plum blossom, tonka bean, carnation, benzoin, opoponax, and sugar cane. I was so sure I was going to love this, I applied it with high expectations. It was great at first, mostly musk and lovely honey. But then the grapes appeared, very sticky sweet like grape bubblegum. I knew then it wasn't for me but it still wasn't awful. Until the boozy red wine appeared and the red musk came out in full force, I started to get queasy. At this point it reminded me a lot of Blood Rose, another red wine and red musk scent that I couldn't get off fast enough. Of course this resisted washing off and remains to this day on the sleeves of the jacket I was wearing that day. This was all horror and no sympathy on me .

[Beazlebabe]

Upon initial application, Horreur Sympathique smells like resinous bubble gum. Must be the champagne grapes, plum, benzoin and opoponax mingling. 15 minutes later, some of the other components rise (waft, actually) to the surface. I can identify the sweet-spicy warmth of tonka bean for a fleeting second, but it's overtaken by the ...honey, this definitely has to be honey. Which, along with a plethora of other sweet aromas I can't name, is very prominent. There's also something that smells like the colour of hay swirled in earth (Forgive me, I know I'm not making much sense). The musk and something else that contrasts with the floral(s?) keep this blend from being cloying.

 

All I can really say is this is a confusing medley of insouciant-yet-baleful sweetness, backed by warmth and something devistatingly sexy. This would be appropriate for an occasion for which you want to use your feminine wiles to seek vengance against somebody and have a great time in the process.

[crescentwench]

I put some on this morning and ran out of the house. i caught a fruity whiff every once in a while during the day, and now that i've actually got time to sniff and analyze my wrist I smell like a musky fruit roll-up. That might sound wierd, but I actually really like it. I'll definatley wear this again, but I doubt I'd need a bottle of it.

[Voleuse]

Wine and honey, sweet and more sweet. Wow! What a heady blend this is. The musk adds a nice, warm halo to the blend, and after a while I can detect the sharp carnation in the blend. This is pretty! It reminds me of Athens, except the wine is dominant instead of the honey. Intoxicating.

[Aevalin]

Hm. I'm getting grapey grape (not as grape as Purple Phoenix but grapey) - a hint of amber because it's starting to turn powdery as it develops. The description sounded fabulous- on me not so much. I think this is going to go in the swap pile!

[tinyvulture]

this has the same rich grape wine and syrupy honey notes as kali, but it's more mellow. the musk smooths everything out. it’s got a “cough medicine” smell at first, but that goes away once it dries. the combination of wine, honey, and florals are really lovely. it also reminds me of athens (my favorite bpal ever) without the incense, or urd without the patchouli. it’s happy, sweet and fruity, yet warm and complex. great for a miserable rainy winter day like today. i predict this imp will be used up very quickly.

[Miss Lynx]

At first sniff, this is very much a honey-wine scent, a bit reminiscent of Delphi, though sweeter, lighter and less spicy/incensey. The florals and the undertone of musk lend it a definite "perfumey" feel; the resins and oakmoss don't seem noticeable at all, at least at this stage.

 

They do come out later on, though, but it seems like they neve quite blend in properly with the other notes, and there's a slightly unpleasant waxy undertone to it that throws the whole thing off for me.

 

All in all, it feels like one of those scents that just doesn't quite come togehter for me. It's not bad, it's just the noted don't really seem to work together properly and create something special -- they just sort of slug it out and never really get anywhere. Oh well...

 

Grade: C+

[fiddledragon]

On wet, this is all bubbly sweet grapes...a hint of wine, but not nearly as alcoholic smelling as the wine in, say, Kali. As it dries, the honey and blood musk come out and add depth. It's overall a *very* fruity blend, but after the initial grapey overdose, it's not overly sweet. The blood musk goes a little waxy, as it's prone to do on me, but it's not unpleasant. I look forward to the honey coming out more as it ages. Not an everyday scent, but I'm definitely holding on to this imp!

[Brianne]

In the vial:

Fruity booze

 

On me:

I knew I wanted to try this scent the day it was released. It has a lot of notes I love in it - like musk, tobacco, tonka, benzoin. And some notes that don't always work - like champagne.

 

When this hits my skin it's all GRAPE! Like both red grapes and green grapes, it's just grapey and tart. The grape starts sweetening up and settling down as honey rounds it out in it's soft, powdery way. Then the musk and tobacco add another sweetness to it, different though. It's a little more mature now with those notes, not so fruity and carefree smelling. It would be hard to pick out the tonka, sugar cane and benzoin because there is already a lot of sweetness going on. But those afraid of a sweet scent, never fear! This isn't so sweet as to be candy like.

 

The more this settles on my skin, the more it becomes a softly sweet, well blended scent. At this point (about 10-15 minutes on) it's hard to pick out notes. It's a mature scent and yet it's not heady or too serious. It has a slightly foody edge without actually *being* foody.

 

Final note:

Very glad I tried this, I think it's beautiful and I may have to consider a bottle!

[nancybridget]

The notes say that there is a lot ging on here, but alas, all I get it honeyed wine and it's not for me.

 

Cloying and heady.

[lightgatherer]

Hey, it's Lady Macbeth and Montressor again! I wish I could pick up on some of the other notes here, but the sweet wine smell basically takes over them all. Don't get me wrong - I definitely like this scent, but there's nothing to distinguish it from the other wine scents I like too. Some day I want to try on all three for side-by-side comparison. Ooh, as this wears on the sugar notes come out more - this is so sweet and yummy. This definitely has more wear than my other wine scents. I think I may need more.

[Mianjo]

Horreur Sympathique was a lab frimp. When I looked up the notes I decided that it probably wouldn't work, but I tried it anyway.

 

First sniff from the imp was interesting, because I could smell the champagne grapes. It was like the grapes had been left too long on the vine and were starting to ferment anyway--I could actually feel the tickle of the bubbles way back in my throat. It was a truly interesting reaction.

 

Long story short, it didn't work on me. The wine did what it doeson my skin--punk all the other notes into a corner, and block them from joining in the fun. And this time, Champagne Grapes had Wine's back. Oh, well.