The Forbidding Foyer

[Schmoozy]

Thick shadows hang heavy across fungus-smeared, dilapidated wainscoting, cobwebs hang like fine lace across sagging mouldings, rats scuttle past gaping doorways. The faint scent of brimstone, ghostly breath laced with cognac, neglected mahogany panels, and rot.

Dry, cognac sweetened mahogany. Traces of mould mingle along the wood. I adore wood blends, but unfortunately the cognac ruined this for me. It just doesn't agree with my chemistry.

[rayvn1]

Mahogany and incense. Very light on drydown, didn't stick to my skin too well. I'm going to give it one more go before it heads to swaps though.

[sunshinedaisybliss]

 

Damn it. DAMN. IT. !! Mahogany, I love you - why can't you love me back? Why have you made this perfume smell like stale vomit on my skin? WHYYYYYYYYYY?

 

In the bottle, the smell is intoxicating - I can pick up the deep boozy cognac with a slightly chocolate-y edge, old rubbed wood, and brimstone spookiness. The brimstone is peeking through, but mostly it's the lovely cognac and mahogany.

 

So I dab some on.. and.. instant disaster. I could only stomach it for about 10 minutes, and then I had to go wash it off. This is one of very few major failures I've experienced with BPAL, one of perhaps only two or three times that my skin has turned something gorgeous into something disgusting. I'm either going to have to swap this away, or save it until I can organise a skin transplant. Very sad, I am.

 

[strahlend]

Forbidding Foyer is the longest lasting scent I think I've encountered. It's woodsy and musty and feels to me more like a musty library than other paper-esque scents. This scent is deep, dark and intense and I love it very much.

I'll be on the lookout for a backup bottle of this!

[Penance]

Origin:

 

Partial 5mL from beachbabealways.

 

Preconceived notions:

 

I'm a big fan of heavy wood fragrances and I'm also one of those weirdos who likes things that smell like rotting wood and dirt, so this should be a winner, especially since I also love the smell of cognac and like the Lab's brimstone note.

 

First sniff:

 

Ooh, this one's not going to appeal to too many people, I don't think. But I really like it! Straight out of the bottle, I definitely get the mahogany and rot. It actually smells more like redwood to me than mahogany (I have a bottle of Redwood single note and they smell quite similar). If you took my beloved Redwood and let it decompose in a forest somewhere, it would smell quite a bit like The Forbidding Foyer.

 

Wet on skin:

 

At first, this is very, very heavy on the rot note (which I'm sure will put a lot of people off, but not me) and then it starts smelling more and more like a combination of very heavy, deep, decomposing wood and a hint of musk, even though there's none noted in the description. I don't get any brimstone here (nothing smells charrred or gritty) and no cognac, either, although that could just be because the decomposing wood scent is so strong.

 

Dry down:

 

Once The Forbidding Foyer finally dries down completely, the "rot" part subsides quite a bit and I'm left with a strong, almost earthy wood note (which still smells like my Redwood single note to my nose), musk (it reminds me a bit of The Lurid Library) and the tiniest hint of something that could be cognac in the very, very far background. This is a strong scent, too. I put on a very small dab to test and can still smell it after taking a shower.

 

The bottom line:

 

I really like this! I'm sure it's not for everyone and that my mom (if I were to ask her) would say that it smells dirty and musty (which aren't good things in her book), but that's what I like about it. I love all things dark, forgotten and woody smelling, so The Forbidding Foyer is definitely my sort of scent.

 

I may have to pick up another bottle, although I think my first will last a long time, considering the strength of the scent and the fact that it's not necessarily a scent I'd wear every day (I tend to wear more "other people friendly" scents a lot of days and reserve my "perfect for me, but not so great to other people" scents for times when I'm not going to be around a lot of other people who might not appreciate my taste in perfume).

[Numanoid]

Well... I feel I am a novice at leaving a review, BUT wow...this scent is amazing! Not just because of how it smells, but, in my opinion, THIS is one major morphor!!

 

Sniff: Yikes...really smells of...something on the verge of rotting..but it isn't pungant (SP?) This is a brain tickler!!

 

On Skin: It morphs very quickly on me and smells NOTHING like it does in the bottle...I get a hint of some soft floral and some incense in there somewhere, peeking around the corner!

 

5 minutes later: WOW!! This is a crazy cration to me..I can start to smell the mahogany...that faint hint of wood...it is exactly the kind of smell I would expect to encounter when walking into an abandoned house and an old desk in foyer!!

 

Verdict: Just amazing...don't know how they do this at the lab!! This is the craziest morphor to me. If you get a bottle or imp..really give it time!! This is one you don't want to judge from first sniff!!!

[OctoberGwen]

This is the 2012 version.

 

Holy fuck, this is so weird. Is that what brimstone smells like?

 

This smells PRECISELY like the description. I definitely get rotting wood and a sharp nastiness with a metallic twang that has got to be brimstone. Occasionally I get a whiff of cognac, which promptly fades into nothingness.

 

Wowza. Beth is crazy good.

 

I have to scrub this off, as it is freaking me out a little bit.

[Soniadevi]

First thing you can smell is benzaldehyde (almonds) then it comes on STRONG cognac lace and mahogany, with a distinct tobacco scent. It seems to get stronger by the second. Very evocative of the imagery, you can imagine almost close your eyes and see the dilapidated wainscoting and the lacey cobwebs, and hear the rats scratching the rotting wooden floor boards as they scuttle past with their sharp little claws... There is a definite "old" quality to this scent, like the old furniture that you can smell when you enter those old houses (there are a lot of them here in England, and I LOVE to visit them! Byrons old house was most definitely haunted, I felt something in there!) and I can also smell something like a dusty old bouquet of flowers... Very weird. Must wash this off because it's just so damn strong, it's almost knocking me out! Might wear it next time I visit a haunted house...

[ReallyZeb]

I got the strong almondy Dr Pepper smell while it was wet and then I kind of forgot about it for a little while. Then I put my nose to my wrist and actually jerked back away from myself as it smelled so strongly of the rotten wood and hidden nastiness. This hits the description spot on - but I don't want to scare myself when I sniff it!

[kjirstiben]

Oddly enough, I was testing this with another mahogany(ish) scent, The Bloody Banister. Both are strong on the polished mahogany. This, however, is boozy mahogany, boozy, slightly dusty (which normally smells like clove to me), mahogany. Over the course of the day it faded to a soft "BPAL box" sort of indistinguishable scent, to my nose at least. I suspect my less BPAL-fluent friends would say I smelled "like incense".

[zankoku_zen]

2012.

 

Super strong polished mahogany and cognac. It's kinda sharp.

 

Pass.

[Caper]

Cognac is strong in the decant, and the rotten woods come out when it first dries. It has been about an hour and it has mellowed into something wearable. I really really like woods and I think this might be night aged. I don't mind the cognac hit at first, but the rot is a touch strong for me to buy a bottle.

[milo]

I could have sworn there was almond here. It really smells like a masculine Dana O'Shea at first. After a bit, the almond fades, and it's just masculine resins, kind of smoky, and generally spooky and evil smelling. Not my thing, but I bet it would smell great on the right (dangerous) kind of guy.

[Quillifer]

Really interesting.

 

When I first opened the imp yesterday, I disliked it so much I put off skin-testing it.

 

Today, I love the first moments of it wet. To me it has the most appealing elements of cognac/brandy (and there is an element I dislike which is absent here). I hated the idea of rotten wood from a house point of view (I grew up in an old house and have an inherited dread of signs of further expenditure and threat to a loved thing) but it's reminding me of a gently, fruitfully rotting old tree in a wood, rather than a house.

 

I see a fit old gentleman leaning against an old tree-stump, enjoying an exceptionally fine tipple from his hip-flask.

 

But I don't know what I'll make of dry-down - will edit this when I get there.

 

Dry-down: another surprise here - it doesn't last well on me at all I do want it to so I'll test it again later and see if I can tune my nose into it more.

Edited November 5, 2012 by Quillifer

[thekittenkat]

This is for the 2012 version.

 

In the decant: Woods and cognac.

 

Wet: More of the same.

 

The dry-down: Cognac and woods. Not a morpher.

[mymymai]

ITI: Strong cognac and something that reads as marzipan are the most prevalent notes while in the imp.

 

Wet: More marzipan and cognac, but it does remind me of cobwebs and faded, neglected lace.

 

Dry: I had to reapply as the scent did not last through some super-chlorinated pool time. After reapplication, the dusty mahogany and cognac are present, although there is a note that I can't tease out. It's an interesting scent.