Gothic Horror

[Eutectic]

The blueblood of the horror genre. Gothic horror borrows heavily from Victorian Romanticism: a dark, passionate sojourn into emotionally-driven aesthetic experience – reaching through gloom towards a vision of the sublime. Using sprawling, decay-riddled visuals, and lyrical narrative rife with suspense, awe, and dread, these films tell tales of tortured souls, long-buried secrets, rapid descents into depravity and madness, and grasping supernatural beings.

Examples: Vampyr, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula, Frankenstein, the Phantom of the Opera

Morbidly romantic, thick with murky melodrama, untouched by the centuries, and dust-rimed: Byzantine incense, benzoin, myrrh, bitter clove, spikenard, oud, and ancient balsam.

This one was not for me namely because rose and I have a strained relationship at best. In the bottle it was a lovely citrus with floral notes underneath.

Just on the citrus was heavy and warm, orange maybe? But then the citrus went away, it was a sad transition from citrus to a heavy (because I amp it like crazy) rose of doom. I held on for the complete drydown and after about 20 minutes the rose backed off and became softer as other notes started to poke their head in. The rose became more muted, like a victorian room scented by a vase of wild roses which are past their prime. Very must a gothic scent IMO and perfect for the oil's name. But due to the rose and my skin's reaction to it just not for me.

[parrot_suspect]

With this one I get a kind of soft floral with woods and other unobtrusive base notes. As it dries on my skin, it reminds me a bit of Lucretia from the Salon. It's very subtle and well blended. I don't get any rose from this. It's kind of mysterious, which makes sense given the name.

[Lycanthrope]

Whoops, Eutectic and I discovered at my pad that we are Rose-Ampin' BPAL twins.

 

Because there was definitely a sleek sharp citrus, almost a touch cool (?leather?) that completely, utterly hid the rose which lashed out at me like so much angsty poetry. I was all like *angst* *flail* *rose*

 

The subtelty was pretty nice though, and I think on someone whose skin plays well with rose, this could be an awesome cool citrus rose - cold and dark, and with talons.

[The_Witching_Hour]

Another interesting blend!

 

I have only a few blends that rose works on me and thankfully, rose behaves in this one enough to let something similar to leather rise to the top, after a metallic note (?) wears off.

 

Very multi-faceted and brings to mind a woman in leather, adorned with spikes, of course.

 

Beautiful imagery!!!

[angelicruin]

Just sniffing the bottle, you can tell it's going to be a heavy scent. Very resinous. I'd have to say this is a lightly spicy, sweet, and dusty floral on my skin. Though different, it has qualities that still remind me of a couple of the Poe scents I have previously tried: The Haunted Palace and The House. Definitely a melodramatic, heady scent.

[Aldercy]

Gothic Horror is definitely a "blueblood" perfume, like the genre it represents. It belongs on a stark, hollow-eyed beauty in a Romanian castle, for sure. lol.

 

Is the Byzantine incense responsible for the dominant rose note, I wonder? I irresponsibly failed to look it up before ordering this bottle, but I'm guessing rose is a traditional part of it.

 

So, yes, a stealth rose, this one. But tempered with undulating, resinous undertones, a speck of light spice and some kind of tinny metal. This is not as heavy or as warm as I expected, but it's hardly anemic either and does have a distinct antiqued feel to it. There's a dusty, crinkly texture about it... like the black husk of a wad of burned paper which will disintegrate at the first touch (let me be clear, it doesn't smell like burnt paper, it just has that sort of ashy delicacy to it). The scent is deathly still, breathless. A little funereal. Though not the resin-fest I had hoped for, this is very well-executed.

 

BPAL has taught me not to fear rose as much as I once did, because the Lab does it well and I've found it actually works okay on my skin. But it's still not my aesthetic ideal. I'm going to hang on to this for awhile and see how it pans out. It may very well grow on me.

[Leopard403]

I admit: I ordered this purely for the gorgeous artwork on the label. The combination of notes is NOT one I expected to work for me. But what a lovely little surprise this is! Very feminine and sexy, a really musky floral on my skin. Shockingly good!

[TheIceMaiden]

I usually don't do well with incense-type scents, they either give me a headache or make me sneeze. Gothic Horror (which a friend let me try from her bottle) is different, its working on me! It starts off woodsy clove, then dries to a lovely mix of spice, benzoin, and a lightly-floral incense.

[Jenn2D2]

I admit, like others, that I might have bought this perfume at least a little bit for the label, and I am SO glad I did!

 

In the bottle: a sophisticated woman's perfume, reminiscent of something I used to have a sample of years ago.

 

Wet: thick, heady incense with a light background floral. At this stage, the different notes are all very strong, I'll sometimes catch a whiff of one note or the other, but they're mostly blended together very well. While the scent is heady, it isn't overwhelming or cloying.

 

Dry: this is the incense scent I never knew I was waiting for! As it dries, I get various stages of the different notes, finally settling into a rose-tinged, feminine blend.

 

This is definitely a blend that morphs significantly on my skin; the rose note reminds me a bit of the one from Ysabel, it is drier and lighter than most that I've worn. While rose very rarely takes the background, the other notes here are strong enough to hold their own, and they really shine most of the time.

 

In the sense of invoking the theme, I think this does an amazing job - the scent lingers on my skin for quite some time, and anything I've worn with it on smells like that for days. I can almost imagine our young heroine, roaming the house at night, in search of the woman wearing this mysterious perfume... only to find a discarded cloak and a broken lantern near the staircase leaning to the ancient basement...

[wintersmelody]

The description for this is spot on. A bit of incensy floral and maybe that's the dust I'm smelling on a deeper huff? It reminds me of this little wooden vanity I had as a kid. It was probably at least 25 years old and this deep down smell reminds me of how the back of the drawers smelled. Like dry old dusty wood. I really like this one as well!

[jewelbug]

In the bottle, this is powerfully resinous and kinda powdery. Almost schwarzer mondish, though lighter and more feminine.

 

Wet: Strong resin/incense, again powdery, and something almost dusty smelling, as well.

 

Dry: This is very rose-y after it sits on my skin. Lots of strong rose, lightly spiced, with resins underneath. The rose reminds me a bit of Winter of Our Discontent or even Mama Ji.

 

Overall: this is very pretty, and I think it will age amazingly well. That said, I don't need another rose scent in this family. Im not huge on rose to begin with, and I have others that remind of this that I like a little better.

 

 

[sookster]

straight sniff from imp is a light and powdery incense...

once applied myrrh and faded rose ... very quiet; subdued....

i am loving this one a lot...a smidge of bitter clove and benzoin make this

a winner!! hardly horrifying by any means

[surlygurl]

This is much more wearable than I'd expected (rose & I don't get along).

 

On my skin, this is light resins and faded rose. I know this rose! It's the same rose that's in Binah, but the resins are much softer & lighter. Not exactly a summer scent, but not head-shoppy either. I could see wearing just a touch of this to a job interview.

[Monster]

Can I just say how much I loe the art for this series?

The scent is also pretty fantastic....

 

Gothic Horror is pretty much a perfect incense scent. This is dark and melancholy. The resins in this are light and dusty smelling...very reminiscent of an old cathedral.

I'm not getting any rose in this blend...or clove. This is just pure incense and resin on my skin. I love this

Dry, this is slightly powdery...but still very incensy. Gorgeous!

[ephemera]

For whatever reason, all I get from this is roses. I don't see rose in the description, but everyone else has mentioned rose as well - maybe something is rose that is called something else? It's a shame, because had I known there was rose I'd have left this bottle on the shelf. Rose & me are not good friends.

[cinnamonster]

Wet: I get Floral Gums. Those tiny sweets that taste of floral perfume.

Dry early on: pure roses

5 mins later, I'm getting a breeze of talc that dies down rapidly to just a puff in the air and then underneath the roses, I get a vague spiciness and the smallest smudge of incense. It's very Tabula Smaragdina.

 

Not something I would wear often but very nice. It'd make a very nice dusting powder I think.

 

ETA this kind of grew on me, I think I'd like a bottle.

 

In a side by side comparison with Tabula, Gothic Horror is soft and powdery against a sharper woodier incense in T S, of the two I prefer G H.

Edited August 23, 2009 by cinnamonmel

[bubblefish]

I'd say that this is a heavy scent, but at the same time it's not the florals that are heavy. The florals are a lovely wafting scent that mingles in there with all the components and plays nice. The weight comes from the incense. At the same time, I wouldn't say it smells overly incense-like. It's not like a shop where the scent of many kinds of incense is overpowering, but it's a mild and dignified incense. And then there's the smell of slightly aged wood but not overpoweringly so. I find it most interesting though that the overall perfume itself is "heavy" but when I concentrate on the individual notes they are light and not terribly dominating.

[Little Bird]

In the bottle, this smells sharp and a bit dusty. I might smell something pine-like along with some golden resins, but it's definitely sharper & more perfumey than I was hoping for. It smells like a cheap floral perfume.

 

On my skin at first, this smells like a sharp floral perfume :/ I think I'm getting a bit of sour rose from it as well. This definitely isn't the sweet resins, incense, spice, and wood that I had been hoping for.

 

Gothic Horror is sour rose, heavy, sharp floral perfume, and just a hint of dusty, sharp, golden resin on me. It's all sharp, sour, and makes me feel like I'm going to cough when I smell it. I hate it, honestly, and am sorry I went for a full bottle of this one. Boo.

[Gwydion]

In bottle: Rich, wet, dramatic, the balsam is strongest, but the incense isn’t kidding. It does smell rather like one expects a Radcliff or hammer heroine to smell like. Wet: Mostly incense, with an almost fruity edge, much more feminine than one would expect. Think women in gauzy nightgowns walking barefoot on battlements and cliffs. Dry: A little like high end shampoo. The incense gives it a hint of the exotic. It reminds me vaguely of the Sapphics, though I think this is richer.

[fairnymph]

Sniffed: Rich yellow oil. Sour green herbs (spikenard?) and sour green wood, a bit astringent (oud), with evergreen-fresh balsam and a bite of spicy clove and heavily smoky incense. Masculine and very astringent.

 

Wet: Oddly powdery almost the moment it hits my skin (?? from what ??); sweeter (clearly the benzoin, but it combines sickeningly with the other notes here), less sour and sharply green. Mustier with apparent myrrh, almost dusty - maybe that's the powder. It smells old and decrepit and slightly evil, appropriately. An unpleasantly soapy edge. Less spice, less balsam, more woody oud.

 

Dry: More and more musty/dusty/powdery, more bitter, and with loads of myrrh and more smoky incense. Even a little sweeter as the benzoin amps as well, and the clove has returned a bit. No more greenness, other than a little oud, which almost has a cedar-like edge.

 

Summary: Sweet, very smoky, slightly bitter, spicy, and woody INCENSE with a sour tang. Not horrible, but absolutely not my thing and not an odour I remotely like. Low throw but good longevity.

[MCS4096]

This was fairly straightforward in my opinion. As with a lot of rose containing blends I initially amp that like crazy. It's a nice dusty, dry rose. As time goes on that fades some and the incense and myrrh come forward. I never get as much clove as I was desperately hoping for however. Yet, it's still a lovely rose/incense blend. When first applied it's got quite a lot of throw, but it fades to nearly nothing within a couple hours.

 

ETA: I've never been one to think certain scents should only be worn in certain seasons ( I love "heavy" incense/spice blends allll year) but this one WILL be lovely come winter time

Edited August 12, 2009 by MCS4096

[cometgirl21]

In the bottle: Rose. A heavy rose, but not so heavy that it went into instant headache territory.

On me: Rose. With something else backing it that I can't make out. Oh, it's the clove. And something a little powdery that I'm thinking is possibly the myrrh. Unfortunately, the powder is a very sharp powder note and I'm not too sure about this. I'll leave it on for a bit and see what happens.

 

About an hour later. The sharp powder scent is gone, leaving just the rose and a little bit of spice. And it's not as heavy as it was. It's quite nice.

 

ETA There is now some vanilla type scent coming in to play on me, backing the rose and just the hint of spice. I'm finding myself quite enjoying this.

Edited August 13, 2009 by gothicangel18

[PurgatoriX]

I'm continuing with my 1-a-day reviews

 

In the bottle: Thick, deep incense wafting through old, dusty, heavy velvet curtains.

 

Wet on my skin: Wow! It's like I pulled back the curtains to reveal a candlelit, hidden boudoir filled with burning incenses & drying roses. It's heavy yet well-blended, & there's something like the scent of spice-on-skin, which I guess is the clove, but it doesn't seem like clove? If that makes sense. Like perhaps this hidden boudoir is full of beautiful people perfuming themselves with misters or powders, & they've been doing so for ages & the scents have seeped into the walls & floor...

 

Drydown: It's fading a little too fast, but the rose has all but gone, leaving behind a faint, myrrh-tinged incense. Really lovely

 

Verdict: Love! From bottle-opening to drydown, this scent is fantastic! I will be looking for more!

[ralenth]

At first, GH is a soft, incensy floral. Mysterious and compelling, I can't help but keep my nose to the skin on the drydown. And, then, the dreaded rose rears it's ugly thorny head (roses always smell sharp and green on me). It's mostly kept in check by the incense and clove (which showed up once it was dry), so it may be I have found a rose I can live with. Yay!

[Bangles]

Wet, this starts off smelling like powder. Not baby powder, though - something a little darker, gray rather than white. It's quite nice, but I don't particularly want to smell of powder.

 

It mellows as it dries, and winds up being something dark and entrancing - sweet incense, dark wood/resin, and something else, something red... Upon reading other reviews I'm guessing that's the rose everyone's talking about, but I'm shocked, as usually rose notes don't work for me at all. This brings to mind a single red jewel in a gothic chapel, obscured at first by a layer of dust.

 

The dry stage is really delicious, but it sticks a little too close to the skin for me - I don't like strong scents, but I have to stick my wrist to my nose to smell this at all. The wet stage was stronger, but that was the stage I didn't go for. Shame.