October

[TheIceMaiden]

Dry, cold autumn wind. A rustle of red leaves, a touch of smoke and sap in the air.

October arrived three weeks ago in my first Halloweenie order. I dabbed a little on and was not impressed...it was all man cologne and strong wet green leaves. However, I've learned that Lab-fresh bottles often need some quiet time after their journey to settle down. So I put October away for a few weeks, and now...

October started out briefly with the ozone scent I associate with cologne. Then the sharp green leaves came in, but they immediately softened to a lovely maple leaf scent. The wood smoke came in next to mingle with the leaves. October started out pretty strong but dried to a soft wisp of woodsmoke and leaves. Its a very gender neutral scent after that initial five second burst of dude cologne. I'm glad I decided to give it a second chance because its beautiful and makes me think of October nights here in New England.

ETA scent desciption and because I can't spell Edited October 7, 2007 by TheIceMaiden

[VelvetSky]

October doesn't smell like a man's cologne to me at all, but it looks like I'm in the minority with that observation.

 

To me, this smells like earthy, damp autumn leaves that have fallen and partially decomposed...the fresh air of early Autumn...slightly astringent tree bark.

 

I like this because there is no floral, vanillic, or resiny warmth in the drydown. It's a chilly October evening in a bottle.

 

Love it!

[lilirose]

October smelled really, scarily bitter to me in the bottle- almost like bug spray- but I know better than to judge a scent before applying it to skin, so I gave it a chance anyway.

 

The strong bitterness faded on drydown, and became the smell of leaves, smoke, and ozone. On me, the strongest, longest lasting note has the same note I've come to associate with aquatics, so I was surprised to re-read the description and notice the word "dry".

 

I don't find October to be particularly masculine as so many other reviewers have, but at the same time, it doesn't have even the slightest hint of sweetness. It definitely creates a mood- though it's the first of October here, the leaves haven't really started to fall off the trees, but this scent seemed so autumn-y that it changed the entire feel of the day.

 

This will make an awesome room scent- I have full intentions of using it as such- but I don't think I'll wear it again.

[puck_nc]

Origin: decant from eviltemptressdq's circle

 

Initial Thoughts: One of my favorite fall perfumes is a wood/smoke/leaf scent from another company. I was curious to see what the BPAL interpretation might be.

 

In the Bottle: Jeez, green and dank and sour! It's more evergreen than fallen leaves to my nose, and it's as if the gorgeous Mistletoe somehow went rancid. A more cautious second sniff produces a more woodsy aroma.

 

Wet: Okay, once it hits my skin it's muuuuuuch better. Woodsy with hints of smoke and a touch of spice in the background.

 

Drydown: The spice comes out a little more on me.

 

Verdict: It's a beautiful scent portrait of October, but I think I like the other perfume better. I'll probably pass this on.

[bulletslc]

In the bottle and on wet this is very herbal men's colone.

 

after about 15 minutes it dries into a soft, dry, leafy warmth that I really like.

 

I'll definately keep my bottle, but I don't think I'll need more than one.

[Little Bird]

I wanted this for the red leaves and sap, hoping that it would be a true scent of fall trees with the dead leaves and the sweetness of real sap. This is green, grassy, and smoky on me though. It brings to mind a meadow with grass that is just starting to die, but it has a sharp sourness to it that also makes me think of sweat and freshly cut lawns. It's a pale, odd green on me. The 'touch of smoke' dominates the drydown and I smell like I've wandered through a bonfire. I don't like smoky scents or the way this goes sour on me, so October is one for my swap pile.

[Desanera]

This is Oh so subtle on me, I had to really slather it on to get any scent at all, and even now, I can barely smell anything. Except that when I move, a subtle crisp leafy scent wafts and I really like it.

 

Sniffing deeply, I can sort that this might smell like men's cologne if it were stronger. As it is, I'm glad my body's eating most of the scent.

 

This is early to mid October - because late October there are lots more fallen leaves, and the leaf scent is stronger. I am on a college campus, and walking in past the foliage, it smelled sort of like October.

 

A lovely, and on me, very subtle scent. But I made my manager sniff me, and she said "Hmm. It smells like October"

 

And it does.

[edenssixthday]

October - When I smelled this for the first time, I was immediately whisked back in time by the memory of being a teenager and riding my bike over leaves that had fallen to the ground, and the scent of freshly-fallen autumn leaves and the soft, damp dirt beneath the leaves. In my memory, the day is one of those absolutely perfect autumn days, when the sun is warm but the air has a bit of a nip to it, and the sky is as blue as can be and there's not a cloud as far as the eye can see. There's a sweetness to the scent that is, I'm guessing, the "sap in the air" note and it really does remind me of autumn in New England or Northern Minnesota. It's an exquisite scent, one that's totally not my usual style, and yet the scent evokes such vivid memories and imagery that I do think I'll be wearing this on occasion over the next couple months. The throw is average and the staying power is a bit below average.

[theseagrows]

wow this is interesting. it really does evoke october/autumn. it's a slightly bitter herbal with an underlying aquatic. i definitely smell leaves and sap, and it has a slight cologne-y scent to it. it's so interesting and evocative but i'm not sure if i'd wear it much...hmm.

 

eta: once it's drier i smell some sort of floral but i cant place it all...it reminds me of rose but it's not rose.

Edited October 4, 2007 by theseagrows

[LadyMedb]

This is fantastically evocative - it starts out all sharp leaves and sweet sap, and dries down smoky and austere. There is certainly a quality that is men's cologne-y to me about this drydown, so it doesn't work with me the way I'd like it to, but it smells fantastic on my husband, so I gave him the imp, which he likes a lot. This and Death of Autumn (of which I bought a bottle) really seem to be masculine and feminine aspects of the same autumn scene to my nose, so if one doesn't work quite right for you but you're intrigued by the idea, I recommend you try the other.

Edited October 4, 2007 by LadyMedb

[Rikadyn]

In bottle: Green, green like fresh cut wood

 

On skin: Same as in the bottle, Little more bitter

 

After awhile: Um...hmmm...where'd it go? Seems my body eats it, or atleast begins to eat it, but hard to tell as there seems to be no throw, Hopefully few months of setting aside will help this, Snow Flakes had the same thing, didn't have a strong throw either, but set for 6 months before using it again, now it throws a bit too much, so we'll wait and see...

[Lit Chick]

Wow. This is purely mouldering leaves on me, with TONS of throw. Not pleasant at all. I was hoping that it would have the leaf smell, but smoke would be dominant - so it would have the aroma of a slightly damp, crisp fall evening. Seems like plenty of you get that, alas my skin just went with rotting vegetation and ignored the rest.

Big bummer, but the rest of the Halloween scents have made up for it.

[filigree_shadow]

This smells like vegetables to me. Well, no, not vegetables exactly. Like a vegetable vine. Like tomato leaf more than a bit. Smells like a vegetable garden in fall after everything's been harvested.

 

It's not a bad scent at all, just not the sort of thing I'd wear as perfume.

[hkhm]

bottle: this is quite acrid to me. very sharp and almost antisceptic.

 

wet: at first, still quite acrid. far too sharp to be pleasing. but after a few moments it begins to develop, not into crispy dead autumn leaves, but into vibrant brightly coloured leaves. there's a citrusy sort of tang with them that puts me in mind of warm sunlight behind a tree in a blaze of autumn colour.

 

dry: still a teensy bit citrusy. i like this scent because it smells crisp and clean to me. like a good, brisk walk on a crisp october morning.

[Lunaratu]

This is really strong, astringent cologne. This dries into a wood and leaves smell swirled with fall air. There’s a warmth but a darker tone to it as well. Finally a scent that actually makes me understand when people call a scent unisex. This is certainly that because it is straight up being outside on a fall day, which has no gender.

Rating: 3/5

[FallDaze]

When I first opened it, I got freshly cut grass and a really sharp scent of honeysuckle before it blooms, which is odd. It wasn't that appealing though.

 

As I put it on, that sharp grassy smell remained, but within a few minutes, it transformed into this gorgeous sweetly smoky blend reminiscent of an autumn night around a campfire. It was divine!

 

Perfectly lovely. October far exceeded my already high expectations, and along with smelling beautimus, it also reminds me of some nice times from way back when This definitely warrants purchasing another bottle!

[Dymphna]

I put off posting my review of this for ages because, to be honest, it was so heartbreaking that I didn't want to think about it. I know that sounds melodramatic, but I was so happy about this scent when it was first released. I actually squeed. It made me so happy, and I couldn't wait to try it, which made the disappointment that much worse when I finally got it and it smelled so damn bad on me.

 

In the bottle: Men's cologne. Nice men's cologne. Expensive men's cologne. But still, men's cologne.

 

Wet: Men's cologne and...sweat? At first, it reminded me of warm skin after some pleasant activity, putting on your man's shirt...that kind of flushed, heated skin, clean sweat, and leftover cologne. But then the sweat starts to win. Like a man who put on a nice cologne in the morning and probably smelled very good all day long, but now it's the end of a very long day and he smells a bit sweaty. Not awful BO, just...sweat. And cologne. To be fair, there is something in here that smells a bit like dry leaves warming in the sun, but it's so swamped by the cologne that I can barely detect it.

 

Dry: CK One.

 

There, I reviewed it. And now I don't want to think about it ever again.

[Phaedra]

Wet this is sharp, very perfumey and a bit floral. When first on it's faintly citrus and that strong perfume note. After several minutes a cedar note develops but it's not the bad "pencil shavings" on me that cedar sometimes turns into. I think this might be the sap note. This softens quite a bit into a warm, woody blend. It's nice but not what I was hoping it would be based on the description

[The_Merf]

This is going to be one of the shortest reviews I've ever done, but I think anything longer would not do justice to this singularly evocative and perfect blend. Beth does it again--this is easily my favorite Hallowe'en BPAL oil ever!

 

October is autumn leaves, freshly fallen and mixed on the ground--leaves in the twilight between life and death. It is this exactly. There are no notes in parts, just this exact scent, captured in full.

[Emma2403]

In the bottle: very dry and masculine, with something like evergreen.

 

On my skin: it smells like men's cologne with a hint of cinnamon. I'm surprised nobody else mentioned it because it's very obvious for me.

 

After a while: only an old-fashioned men's cologne now. It's how I imagine old gentlemen should smell.

 

Verdict: certainly not for me.

[purplemoonshoes]

I get a lot of dry grass in this (I know it's not listed but...). The smoke is just a wisp. It reminds me of a beautiful fall day. Fades quickly.

[angharad]

At first, this is a very strong, generic men's cologne, strong enough to make me visibly recoil. (Viking wouldn't let me try it on him after seeing how I reacted to it.) As it dries, the generic cologne scent fades in strength and leaves me briefly with a sharp woodsy scent. How much it smells like pencil shavings varies over the course of the next hour. Right now I'm getting strong pencil shavings, but five minutes ago this was finally a lovely, slight smoky, autumn air scent. I just wish it could start that way and STAY that way. Sadly, October refuses to cooperate with my skin chemistry and my nose.

[Honor]

Again with the mens cologne over here, but not in a bad way. In fact that wasn't even my initial impression, but upon reading the many reactions to it, I realize that what I was smelling identifies.

 

In the bottle this is all wet grasses, moss and a touch of aquatics. I'm rather fond of all those scents, even if they can tend to give me headaches, so I was happy...

 

Initially on skin, it maintains it's wet grass/aquatic smell. It's not just wet, fresh grass, but something a little darker and aquatics...I'm thinking mosses, but not like algae, if that makes sense.

 

Drying, this doesn't change much and I kept get whiffs of it on the drive in to work.. not bad...

 

BUT

 

Strangely, upon final dry down I get the same thing angaharad above me does... pencil shavings... which means there's sandalwood, or some sandalwood-like component in this, which makes me glad I didn't get a bottle. I don't know why, but BPAL sandalwood ALWAYS turns to pencil shavings on me... ever other sandalwood is nice and mellow and pretty, but not this.

Damnit, I really had high hopes for this.

[bryghtrose]

This is just a nice, sweet, woodsy scent.

[tinyvulture]

this isn’t what i expected. it’s a grassy, ozone-y men’s cologne. rather than brisk october nights, it actually reminds me of sunny indian summer afternoons. there was frost on the ground this morning so you wore a jacket, but now it’s tied around your waist as you walk along, noticing the brightly colored leaves raked into piles on the ground. autumn is definitely here, but you’ve got several warm days left before the chill and gloom set in. i like it for what it is, although it’s a bit masculine for me to wear regularly. i’ll have to try it on my husband.