Fearful Pleasure

[Dark Alice]

Dried orange peels floating in simmering cider, roasted apples, smoldering firewood, chimney smoke, sassafras beer, warm hawthorn wood, and oakmoss.

Perfect. Mulled. Apple. Cider. Where has it been all my life? Right here, in this bottle, at this moment. I am in love !

Nuff Said!!!!

[Kimocean]

As so many of the reviews say, this is a perfect hot spiced cider scent. The orange peel is a gorgeous addition and it dries down eventually (8+ hours later) to a soft gentle sweet dried apple scent with just a hint of spice.

[twilighteyes]

Mmm. Love the spicy cider smells!

 

When I skin tested this one and went to work though, I kept smelling a weird scent like old socks or dirty clothes. After a while I began to think it was fearful pleasure...

 

will try to skin test again. In the meantime, To Autumn is very very similar when sniffing from the bottle, so I'll do a skin test on that one next.

[cometgirl21]

My first review, so bear with me

 

In the bottle: Apple. I was kind of upset by the scent in the bottle because all I could smell was apples, not the scent everyone was describing.

 

On my skin: There's the lovely cider scent. Smells like spiced cider with some orange and I can detect a little bit of smoke. This is the perfect me scent. I love spiced cider scents.

[t_for_tau]

Starts off as apples, ends up as christmas candles. Sigh.

[sfsassy]

The perfect apple cider scent. I really smells like the real thing to me.

I LOVE FALL!

[Little Bird]

Sniffing this in the bottle, I immediately wanted to dump it into my oil burner. It's warm, cozy, perfect apple cider.

 

I figured that my skin would amp up the spice in this and give me a headache, as I'm pretty sensitive to spice notes. This is definitely a spicy cider, but somehow I just love it. It stays warm and soft on my skin. The spices don't overtake the apple and hint of orange, they just simmer warmly underneath the fruitiness. I seriously want to lick my arm when I wear this.

 

I never get my hopes up about apple cider scents. Before Fearful Pleasure, every apple cider scent I've ever had just went to cinnamon mess on my skin. With this, the apple actually sticks around.

 

I love this. I'm definitely going to purchase a couple bottles of Fearful Pleasure. I can see myself wearing this constantly for fall and winter

[IronMollyBlack]

In the vial, spicy apple cider. On my skin, Yankee Candle Store. I can see why people would like it, though.

[jewelbug]

Bottle: Apples, apples and more apples.

 

Wet: Apples with a zing of orange zest and a touch of spice. I *think* the apple note is the same one as in The Hesperides.

 

Dry: The apple in this was so like the hesperides, that I swiped that on the other arm to check. What I get from the Fearful Pleasure side is "Hesperides Plus." At the start, its Hesperides plus orange zest/spice dust. After about an hour, its Hesperides plus smoke (the smoky note you get from a nice lapsang souchong tea). At the end, its Hespirides plus a faint creamy sweetness. In all stages, its beautiful. And this sucker has some MAJOR throw. I kept getting glorious whiffs of apple perfectness.

 

Overall: Definitely a keeper. Now I just have to decide if I need additional bottles or not...

[Hawke]

Smells like apple cider in the imp.

 

Wet on skin, it's initially pretty faint. Apple-y with a hint of cinnamon, and pleasant, but not a whole lot of throw. There's a whisper of something chilly, too, which might be wood. It does warm up and strengthen once it sinks into the skin and it really does smell like mulled cider. No smoke yet, but we'll see if it turns up.

 

Dry, this reminds me of a bowl of cider put out on Halloween, possibly with dry ice curling up from it, and cinnamon sticks floating on the murky top. In other words, it's very evocative. I like it quite a lot. I'll test it again before deciding whether I need a bottle, but the decant is staying with me for sure.

[PersephonesChild]

I will add myself to the ever-growing list of fans who can do nothing but sing the praises of Fearful Pleasure.

 

I would classify this scent as primarily a spicy blend, more than a fruity blend, despite the presence of apples/oranges. What surprises me is that I just checked the listed notes, and there's not a spice among them! No matter-- this comes off as a cinnamon/nutmeg extravaganza, with a wonderful earthy background to it. I get a faint "feeling" of wood, rather than an overt smell of it, and no oak moss.

 

What impresses me most is the way it makes me overcome my fear of smelling like a craft store. Perhaps I do smell like a craft store when I wear it-- but it's so yummy, I don't care! This is exactly the way Fall should smell.

[ND¢]

Wow. Perfect. This is what I always hoped for from Samhain-- a scent that brings me right back 'there.' I grew up some in Boston and remembering the apple picking, the holiday parties... Yes, I did all that. Anyway, there is just this feel that autumn has for me, and this scent is a credible reminder. Stewed apples-- not an artificially pert apple scent, but a real, sweet & sour boiling smell. Also, am I alone in not recognizing smoke as much as leather? To me it smells a little like sharp leather, which gives the name a whole 'nother meaning.

[dawndie]

Wet: spicy orange

 

On skin: apple cider, warm and delicious

 

Half-hour later: cider that's gone slightly bitter (from the smoke or leather, I'm not sure)

 

In conclusion: this is a yummy cider scent, but fairly generic. I liked To Autumn as the "cider with a twist of weird" much more.

[spicyelenore]

This is definitely a cider scent on me-apple but not overly sweet-rich and spicy. As time goes on I get something that reminds me of warm candle wax. Strange as that sounds, I find it very cozy. It perfectly evokes apples baking, cider simmering, and a warm fire. I definitely am keeping this one.

[kelpsoda]

Wet: Cider, as everyone else has described. Apple, spices, simmered to perfection.

 

Dry: as I expected, the apple disappeared after awhile, though it hung on longer than other apple scents I've tried. What's left are the autumn-y cider spices, and it smells like a good quality scented candle. Nice, but not what I want from a perfume. I think I'll keep my decant, but I can probably make do without a bottle.

[Kabooki]

This is like a rich apple cider on me. I called my mom who isn't even into perfumes to tell her how wonderful I thought this was and how I wanted to get it for her for her birthday.

 

This is the most perfect autumn/holiday scent ever

 

My only complaint that it seems to fade really fast on me, but I am going to give it another go before I see if thats a deal breaker (from one bottle to two ;D)

[lilirose]

Wet on skin it’s sharp cider and citrus with just a touch of green oakmoss.

 

Drydown: Stays quite sharp and very strong. I liked it a lot when first applied but after an hour the sharpness is starting to be a bit unpleasant.

 

2 hours in: Starting to mellow out, finally- still almost pure apple cider with a touch of citrus.

 

4/5. Very well blended but possibly a tad sharp for my tastes. Possibly it’ll improve with age.

[Iceblink]

Spicy mulled cider YUM. I could never actually wear this as I can tell it'll burn me like crazy but OMG this smells great. I wish this was one of the room sprays! Reminds me a bit of Plunder, but the fruitiness makes it a little sweeter and less dry. Gorgeous!

[fairnymph]

In the bottle: Orange-gold coloured oil. Spices, apples, and a hint of smoke. It really does smell like orange and mulling spices in cider, juicy apples, wood smoke.

 

Wet: Spicier! Cinnamon and cloves, holy moly. The apples are less fresh, more foody-baked. Hint of sassafrass, like root beer. Otherwise this reminds me a fair bit of L'Autunno.

 

Dry: Cloooooooooove and cinnamon and dried fruit. Woody notes, both smoky and rich, have emerged, but remain lightly in the background. Hint of earthy oakmoss.

 

Later: More woods and smoke emerge over time as the fruit fades further. I'm reminded rather of clove cigarettes at this stage.

 

Summary: Final dry down is stale clove cigarettes and earthy woods. Warm and autumnal indeed, but too much clove for me. Quite a morpher overall. Unisex to masculine. Low throw, fair lasting power.

 

Yeah, not my thing. But I expect this to be popular!

[AEris]

Wow, this really is a perfect apple cider potpourri scent! It smells like every apple-cinnamon potpourri, air freshener, candle, etc. I've ever smelled. It's warm, beautiful, and churns up all sorts of autumn and winter memories.

 

I'm not sure if I would wear this as a perfume, but if I had a bottle I would use it in an oil burner.

 

4.3 out of 5

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

Fearful Pleasure is one of the decants I got to augment my near-continual wearing of Samhain and Harvest Moon all season long. I need *some* variety, right? Mmmm, this is a really interesting scent! While I certainly do get apples, what my skin really amps is firewood and spices. I smell like a walk in the woods on a golden autumn afternoon with the scent of bonfires in the air. And then there's the cider in the background...it's a very different apple than, say, Snow Glass Apples: much warmer and redder. This is a great fall scent that would also be amazing as a room scent. I may use it for both.

[Happicuppa]

In the imp it smells a little bad to me, almost a sharp sweet note, but on my skin I get pure warmed cider and smoke and trees and love it...however...it BURNS! Like...ow...when I put it on. Hasn't really stopped me, because it goes away in about 5-10 minutes, but it does hurt. I think it's destined for the oil diffuser, but I do love the fall/winter cidery scent very, very much. I give it a 3.5/5 only because it hurts, it'd get a 4.5 otherwise!

 

Great scent, sadly skin irritating, would be excellent in the diffuser instead though.

[tartchef]

Ah, now THIS is what I wanted out of L'Autunno... zippy apple, a bit of pithy orange peel, & a lovely base of green woodiness. As it dries, the sassafrass & smoke come out, along with the cider spices. A hair too close to the ubiquitous autumn scented candle for me to wear regularly, but a fun addition to the fall rotation

[letsrunaway]

Perfect autumn scent! Shares the apple note of Harvest Moon 06, I think, and is really what I wanted that scent to be.

[akitorin]

I wanted to love this so much because I love cider scents, but this just smells like potpourri to me (both in the bottle and on skin). I'm going to keep it a while to see how it ages.