Hexennacht (2008)

[filigree_shadow]

... This perfume is the scent of the witches' revel: German fir and forest herbs, incense and bonfire smoke, infernal flora, glowing amber, and the wet, glimmering scent of skin warmed by dance.

Bottle sniff: Smells like pine.

On: Smells like an evergreen forest. I remember the old Hexennacht being a lot smokier than this. I thought it would warm up after a while and become darker and smokier, but it didn't. It mostly smells like a fresh forest scent. It doesn't smell cold like pine usually does to me, it's more green. Edited April 19, 2008 by Shollin

[Elvie]

This is the first time I've tried any incarnation of Hex

 

So I put it on and I'm smelling lots of pine. Almost like an air freshener. I'm almost ready to give up and wash it off. Then it sort of drifts into a very masculine cologne. Hmm. So I leave it a while and after about half an hour or so, it's changed completely. There's a very spicy, golden, incensey, warm scent on my wrist with only a hint of pine. It reminds me of beeswax or candles and somehow manages to be both comforting and sexy and perfect for adding a touch of glow to the April drizzle!

 

Mmm. I think I'm going to need to track down another bottle!

Edited April 20, 2008 by Elvie

[savage_rose]

Sexy forest naked dancing scent! Hot! Evergreen-woodsy! Piney without being Pine Sol...it's true pine, like you're in a forest being all sylvan all over the place. Really spectacular on and in the bottle.

[quartz]

First: The drydown is very, very nice. It's a sort of woodsy skin-scent that's not too deep or cloying (actually, I wish it were more present on my skin). It works very well with the concept.

 

The problem for me is when I first apply it, for the first half hour or so. Apparently before heading out to the forest, these dancers washed with soap and more soap (I think Irish Spring but wouldn't swear to it). It's a very sharp smell, and I'm trying to decide whether it's worth keeping the bottle for the drydown. It also might make a good room scent.

 

ETA: Tried it on the room scent, not so much.

Edited April 26, 2008 by quartz

[Wwindy]

Well, I'm definitely not getting sexy naked dancing witches. More like cheerful, lightly clad hikers just starting out down the trail, I'd say!

 

On my skin this is a gentle, warm evergreen scent with a touch of amber -- a little soapy, a little generically "clean" smelling. If I put my nose in reeeaallllly close and snorfle, there's a faint trace of the incense. OK, maybe they're hippie hikers.

 

Pleasant, not thrilling. I'll test this again in a couple of days but will most likely be swapping my bottle.

[JennyGardener]

Yep, this smells like sweaty witches, just after they've done some energy raising. When I opened the bottle, I smelled the strong scent of forest with a hint of incense wafting my way. There was a slight sourness, which made me just a little nervous. What are the witches doing? Then put some on my skin. Now the forest was all around me, and I was dancing with the witches. Sweat glistened on my skin as the rising smoke made me heady with the incense and magic. This scent had terrific staying power, lasting all day and even through the garden. The sweat component is exactly like sweat - slightly sour but sexy at the same time. It makes me think of an attractive dancer with skin musk.

 

Trouble with Hexennacht is that it smells EXACTLY like sweaty witches - a scent I can create whenever I do my own dancing with my own witchy crew on full moon nights. It's not something I want to wear, although I think it would be a lovely ambiance scent. Hexennacht is very potent, and for those who wonder what it smells like to dance naked in the forest with burning incense, this is spot on.

[Brianne]

I've always been on the fence about fir and pine, as they can go terribly wrong on me and do well on me other times. I was drawn to this blend though with it's musky and golden notes. The musk and amber in this are LOVELY. But the pine in this just confirms to me why I usually avoid that note in the first place - it's simply too masculine for me. It always makes blends seem manly on me.

 

It IS very pretty regardless though, and if it were my husbands type of scent (he loves clean/ozone scents) I would give it to him. Very nice blend, even if it didn't work out for me!

[ImperatrixMundi]

After all the hype about the original version I was not that thrilled with Hexennacht 2008.

Wet there is a soft and musky pine scent but on the drydown the amber comes out and it is the kind of amber that reminds me of gingerbread. The fir/pine faded very fast. It always does, but overall the scent was very soft and faint with very little throw or staying power.

My boyfriend usually loves evergreen scents but was extremely unimpressed by this as well. I am passing it on, there is nothing bad about it but it does not warrant owning a bottle.

[Bagfish]

As everyone else has said, this is very piney to start with, however, it's not the pine smell of Christmas trees or of walking through a pine forest, it's more of a fake pine candle smell, although not pine-sol by any stretch of the imagination. Along with the pine comes a green herbal scent that reminds me very much of Yggdrasil which scared me a little (it is NOT a good smell on me). Anyway, the pine/herbal scent lasts for 20 minutes or so until it warms into a more ambery, much sweeter scent. There is still a hint of greenery which melds with the sweet amber. and a slight smoky muskiness.

 

All in all, this isn't bad on my skin, but it also isn't WOW on my skin. If this had been a popular oil which was in demand, I would probably try to pass the bottle on, but because there are going to be loads of bottles kicking around I think I may hang on to it as I have a feeling that the amber will mellow the rest of the blend as it ages. I've got a feeling this might be one to watch as the bits of the scent I like (amber and musk) are those which are likely to get stronger with age.

 

Edited to add (July 08) This is definitely improving with age which I had a suspicion it would. I have worn it on a couple of days recently, and the pine has mellowed hugely and the amber/musk has come to the fore. It's smoky, sweet and musky. There is still a slight herbalness to it, and best of all it lasts all day, and gets more and more lovely the longer it dries down. I am so pleased that I didn't pass this on as it is now a delight to wear.

Edited July 13, 2008 by Bagfish

[GreenSpine]

I've held off on reviewing this because I've been trying to figure out just why I love this so much. I still have no idea. I don't really like strong evergreen scents, and even well into dry-down, this is mostly a soft evergreen.

 

In the wet phase, it's almost all pine. But as it dries, everything else - the smoke and the musk particularly - comes forward beautifully. It's got a fantastic wear length and seems to never stop morphing. The longer I wear it, the more I love it. If I put it on in the morning, by evening my nose is glued to my wrist.

 

It does remind me a bit of sharing a sleeping bag in the North Woods of Wisconsin.

[Coldfire]

Oh heavenly bliss!

 

In the bottle: Sharp tree/pine with a hint and tease of the amber and incense beneath. (I adore pine scents)

 

Wet on my skin: Still a wee of pine/woods...such as how it smells at night in the woods. But the amber and incense are no longer teasing me but dancing to the front.

 

Drying down: More incense and less pine. BUt oh so lovely.

 

Dry: If I don't stop sniffing my wrists soon they will be come attached to my nose. Glorious. Incense now...and a hint of baby powder but nothing over powering. Pine has retreated its dance with my nose to let other goodness come forward to be worshipped er smelled. IF I sniff long and slow I smell past the incense to the amber and the lovely green herbal things.

[Mamacat]

I love this blend. I get the scent of a forest, a smokey incense, skin musk, cool air . . . oh so GOOD!!!!! It reminds me a bit of Buck Moon, too which I also love.

[steelxrose]

Hex is one great big fir tree on my wrist!

 

I'm rather glad the smokiness didn't come through. A keeper for when I feel woodsy.

[Little Bird]

I love the original Hex, but this 08 version seems to be entirely different, and it doesn't work with my skin chemistry at all. First on, I was slightly hopeful, as it did have a very green, pine forest-y smell, if a bit artificial. In the drydown, this just goes all haywire on me though. I get hints of something like pine cologne, sickly sweet florals, and baby powder that just gets less pine and more soap the longer I wear it.

[forspecial_plate]

Caveat: I tried this first but I tried a few scents in different spots soon after. Anyway, the fir was the strongest note. It reminded me strongly of Nocnitsa, an almost fruity fir. Underneath that I could detect just a hint of something spicy or maybe smokey. This is not like the older Hexennacht whatsoever, in my opinion. I liked it, but as for fir/pine scents, it doesn't come close to the deliciousness of Stranger In Camp! That one will be hard to beat.

 

For a bit of reference, the older Hexennacht was much more complex and also much sweeter to my nose. Something about it was almost like honey, with dark smokey embers. I think both (the old and the newer version) are great scents, but totally different.

[sookster]

straight sniff from bottle there is a component in here that reminds me milk moon 2007...

sort of a sweetened condensed milk combined with fir and forest herbs...

 

once applied....WOW !!

do i ever love this one....piney and definitely warmed by amber with a bit of smoky depth....

 

long wear length and remains beautiful all day long...i l-o-v-e this to bits and it

works perfectly with my german heritage/chemistry....

[QueenFae]

I am a huge fan of the original Hexennacht blend, so naturally I was excited about this one. Wow, this is strong stuff; knock you on your ass stong! There is a very heavy top note of pine trees, with deep undertones of smoke and incense. Very dark scent, and seems more on the masculine side to me. This has a ton of throw, and lasts all day on me.

 

This would be very sexy on a man, but certainly not my kind of thing.

[tartchef]

Original Hex was a heartbreaking disaster on me, all piercing vetiver & pee-musk so I approach '08 with trepidation...

 

Wet, there's that same sweet pine as in Hemlock, a pine branch dipped in clear caramel syrup. It's not as strong, though, and there's a trace of something very clean lurking behind the bushes... witches doing their whites?

 

Once dry, Hex '08 is almost a dead-ringer for Knecht Ruprecht - sweet, fruity evergreen, with a hint of smoke. Strangely benign, given my reaction to the original Hex... I am, against my better judgement, tempted to snag a bottle from the swaps to age... I have a feeling that given a few months to mellow, the darker smoke & incense notes might come out a bit more, and this would be pretty yummy... As it stands now, it's a perfectly nice pine scent, very wearable.

 

ETA: By the end of the day, Hex '08 has faded to a lovely woodsmoke scent, with just a trace of sweetness. Big bottle, for sure...

Edited April 29, 2008 by tartchef

[mzhell]

in the bottle this smells like crisp fir trees, not as deep and dark as dracul or black forest, a higher and more refreshing sort of pine tree scent.

 

wet i can begin to detect the metallic tinge of sweat.

just a little, though...

i was hoping for just a tad more amber and a lot more incense.

 

when i read the description i was thinking this would be a slightly more femme version of fenris wolf

which i love but have to fight with my husband over who gets to wear it.

 

while it never gave me the smoky resolution i was hoping for, it does dry down into an unbelievably complex scent that stays strong for hours and hours.

it never stops smelling like fir trees, but it becomes sweeter and some incense peeks though here and there after about an hour.

 

i'll enjoy wearing this to bonfires this summer, but i don't feel as "witchy" as i had hoped to while wearing this one.

[Victory]

Pine scents really aren't my thing, so I'm not sure how much I'll really wear Hexennacht, but I will say this: this is FIR, not pine. The plant person inside me is happy when I smell it and think, "fir!" We often get firs for our Christmas trees, and so that scent memory pops up occasionally. This isn't an artificial smelling fir at all, at least on me, it's a dead ringer. Much of the scent is purely fir, and it somehow makes me think creamy, although WHY I don't know. Fir isn't a creamy scent at all, but it may be that the other notes are rounding out any sharpness from the fir and making me think that. I do wish the other notes came out more, and aging might help that a little, because it is a little bit one note on me. I think I would put this into a category with October- not any real scent similarity, but because these are both scents I would wear when walking through the woods. I don't really want to compete with the scent of the woods, but they enhance the natural scent.

[Jenesis]

I definitely get the fir from this when I first put it on. It's a sharp, bright, "clean" scent when wet.

The fir mellows after a few minutes to be much warmer, and less artificial. It's a very pleasant "green" scent at this point.

It stays like this for a half-hour or so and then... disappears. All that's left is a light, slightly musky scent which is hard to place.

 

Odd behaviour, but very nice!

[akuaa]

interesting. i like it. this is a softer version of belladonna. there's the pine, but it's slightly more floral. i like this one. i'll have to do a compare between this and belladonna, but i am trying to get more of this on the small scale. lovely.

 

doing a quicksie compare -- belladonna is more mentholated, the pine is there and super strong. saying that hex '08 was a softer belladonna was totally right. that powerful menthol note isn't in hex '08. hex is piney, but filled with light. it's not as much of a dark forest glade as belladonna.

[Jilara]

Wet, it's all fir trees. It's a sappy pile of kindling in the middle of a conifer forest. A slight softer edge in here, in the beginning, that might be a hint of floral or maybe the amber, far in the background.

 

Gone on drydown. It's turned to Pine-Sol. Herbal and piney-resinous. And it lasts and lasts. Almost enough to give you a headache. Sorry, Hexennacht, you're not for me.

[SilverSerenity]

I decided to try an imp of this on a whim...sadly for me it was a miss. All it smells like is Pinesol. Not something I really want to smell like. This one goes to the rehoming pile.

[Nimthiriel]

Initial impression:

Woody, smoky, but floral. A peculiar and awesome blend!

 

First on:

Mmm, wood and smoke.

 

Dry:

After about 10 mins, it's a little floral, and the amber sort of forces the woody notes down.

 

Woodyness is back after another 20 mins, but it smells quite a lot like... sweaty men.

 

It mellows out a bit after a while, but it remains a very masculine scent. Not that that's a bad thing!

 

Finally:

Interesting to try – we'll see if I keep it or not...