Horrid Mysteries

[strahlend]

A savage, dark, lurid scent: blackened woods, pomegranate rind, mossy earth, mimosa, and thick, black wine.

In the bottle I'm getting mostly the earth and a feeling of sweet and rich red fruit, which must be the wine and pomegranate.
On my skin the woods and moss come forward much more and this turns into a beautiful dark forest scent. Very lovely and exactly what I was hoping for.

~
It's been about four months and I wanted to update my review to add that this blend is aging beautifully. It's developed into a very rich earthy (but not dirty) scent with a rich depth to it. The pom and the wine have really mellowed out and lost the superficial red fruit and boozy wine vibe and taken on more of a velvet burgundy feeling. There's a bit of soft spice and woods here as well. I think that once people catch on to how well this ages it will become more sought after.

[Katherynne]

Mmmmm. This is dark and cologne-like to me.

 

It's got that sweet rot-like edge to it that The Forbidding Foyer had, but it's not as heavy on that. I definitely get a whiff of the alcohol of wine and mimosa, though I don't get any citrus which I was kind of hoping for. Not much raw earth, either -- this is a deeper, darker sort of dirt. The woods come out as it dries and it's morphing into a forest on a moonless night, the sweetness fading to the background. This is really beautiful, but I'm uncertain of how much I will wear it. I will have to keep trying it on to see how I feel about it.

 

eta: oh! I turned my head and got a whiff of rich, brilliant pomegranate! I think this one may be more fascinating than I had thought!

Edited June 4, 2010 by Katherynne

[Invidiana]

Thankfully the woods in this one don't amp to ridiculous heights but are well tempered by the other ingredients. This is another deliciously sinsiter scent; I mostly get black wine and pomegrante with an eerie backdrop of charred woods, very thick and dark and ominous. The earth note doesn't scream dirt, which I'm really glad about, and the mimosa isn't very prominent because I am really amping the wine and pomegrnate. This is just juicy and evil, in a similar vein with scents like Snake Charmer and Mircalla. I am loving this series so far.

Edited June 4, 2010 by Invidiana

[Venneh]

In the bottle, for me, this is really reminiscent of Zadok Allen Vineyard - a really dark wine with all sorts of neat notes popping out. On my skin, it's Zadok Allen again, but with more emphasis on the woods, and a bit of a cologney note, too. Gold oil, again. Ends up being mostly woods and cologne on me. Definitely not for me. (And I spilled about two imps of this, damnit, so now I have to get the smell off everything.)

[fairnymph]

Lots of dark woods and some dirt but more softly earthy than soil. WINE is foremost then the dark pomegranate note and sharp, shockingly floral mimosa.

[angelicruin]

This is a deep rich wine & red fruit mingled with wood. One of those dark, seductive type blends that I really adore. The wine is by far the strongest note on my skin.

[kikithepirate]

This one morphs a lot. Dark and much too masculine for me on first drydown, with the woods coming to the forefront and giving this a very cologne-esque feel. Then the wine and mimosa come out to play, and it sweetens up quite a bit, to the point where I thought that it was possibly feminine enough for me to wear it. After a while, however, the wood is back, and that's pretty much all that's there. I really love Zadok Allen Vineyard (and it has aged amazingly well, I've found) but this doesn't really remind me of it at all, aside from the fact that they both have wine in there, somewhere. I don't get any dirt from this, but it is a very earthy scent. Because wine scents tend to age well, I might hang on to this to see how it does, but I have a feeling that it's always going to be a bit too manly for me.

 

EDIT: I'm wearing this today and the woman working at the cafe complimented me on it. However, the interesting thing was that she told me the smell reminded her of her home in Syria.

Edited June 17, 2010 by kikithepirate

[MeiLin]

In the decant: Moss, earth, wine, in that order.

 

Wet: Very men's cologne-y. I think it's the moss. A little astringent--possibly the pomegranate rind? Not picking up much wine or smoke.

 

Dry: Here comes the mimosa and wine--oh, and a little smoke, but hovering above my wrist, not on it--something a little sulphuric, like a match head (I love that smell). The longer it sits, the stronger the burnt wood smell.

 

Verdict: This is a rather menacing cologne, fairly unisex. Like a lot of moss-based scents, I think I'd like it better on a guy and I might like it better on Sir.

 

[Little Bird]

This is my favorite of the Horrid Novels series. It smells very rich, dark, gothic, and sensuous - like velvets, incense, cold earth, and bitter wine. It reminds me of The Zadok Allen Vinyard (though this isn't as heavy on the booze or as sweet) and Romanti.Goth.

 

Pomegranate is usually bitter and overpowering on me, but it just adds a tart, fruity hint to the wine here. And the scent has just enough sweetness to be wearable for me, but it's not a sweet fragrance. The "mossy earth" smells like cool, black dirt on me, but in a sexy, perfumey sort of way. And something here really smells like dark, sultry incense smoke on me (maybe the blackened woods?).

 

All in all, this makes me smell dark, sensual, and mysterious, and I love it <3.

 

ETA: I wound up selling my bottle of this recently, as it didn't age well for me. With age, Horrid Mysteries smells like sour, too warm wine and fades very quickly into a faint, dusty, sour fruitiness.

Edited March 5, 2012 by Little Bird

[MCS4096]

Heavy, dark, thick.. sweet fruity wine and spice. This is like thick syrupy wine splashed across an aged wood desk. Its quite gorgeous. I didn't try this one for a long while after getting my decants because it seemed a little unlike me in the imp. Now I see that this first impression was wrong and this is right up my alley.

 

 

ETA: this was reminding me of something and I just remembered what-- the Opium Den candle by Modern Alchemy. The throw is very similar! Nice

 

 

ETA2: after a couple of hours of wear this turns into sour wine on me I guess I'll pass on a bottle even though I love the initial scent. *le sigh*

Edited June 30, 2010 by MCS4096

[good_mourning]

Aww, man, I really wanted to love this one; I was hoping for a Nosferatu relative. In the imp, I get nothing but barbecue smoke and a faint hint of wood that does not even wait until skin contact to turn into pencil shavings (well, maybe sawdust). On my skin, that dies down a little to reveal a sickly, rancid sweetness that I assume is the pomegranate rind, as mimosa and wine typically play very nicely with me. I usually amp dirt and moss notes to the high heavens, and can maybe detect a hint of moss hiding in the smoke, but no earth at all.

 

Ah, well; I've never thought much of Miss Austen anyway.

[countessmouse]

Earth and tea in the imp and wet on my skin. Sweet perfume appears on the drydown, but it's so perfumy that I really don't like it.

 

Meh. This one goes in the swap pile.

[boxinghelena]

Darn it! I was really hoping to love this one. Wood notes do NOT work on me. Boo! It's also very masculine smelling. No black wine or mossy earth.

~

[ravenscanary]

Source: Fresh decant

 

In the decant: Fruity wine and woods. I would call this a dark red fruit wine, not "black" to my nose. (Though, honestly, I'm not sure what "black wine" would be.) Must be the pomegranate.

 

Wet: A deep, earthy scent underlying the wine, which is still the prominent note. Spicy. Rich. Kind of manly.

 

Dry: Like many wine blends of the lab's, my skin eats the wine note after a time, and I'm left with a woods-and-earth scent with a hint of bitter fruit. It's quite pleasant and evocative. I actually prefer this scent with the wine so-eaten by my skin, it's somehow much more a mystery this way.

Edited August 17, 2010 by Bad Wolf

[zankoku_zen]

Dark smoky wine, with damp earth. This is what vampire blood would be like if it were a wine. Dark, potent, earthy. Slightly masculine, slightly sexual.

[Dark Alice]

Bloody wine. Yuck. Pass.

[dawndie]

In bottle: sweet red vinegar

 

On skin: light red wine

 

Half-hour later: wine with lots of green/brown from the moss and earth

 

In conclusion: I'm eternally tempted by red wine blends -- I love them so much, but obviously not every one is going to work. The woods & earth make this just a touch too dude, even when it's chilly outside and I should enjoy it more. This is like Fortunato, a more masculine wine blend better on my husband.

[Poenari]

I purchased this bottle when it originally went live on the Dark Del website, so my review is based on my now well-aged bottle. I haven't worn this much at all, tried it a couple of times and put it away because it was ok, but not special. For some reason I decided to bring it out today, and woah... I think I'll be wearing it a lot. Horrid Mysteries is a very dark, blood-red almost to the point of black-scented perfume. The notes have all melded together, so I can't really pick out wine vs. pomegranate vs.moss, but it is not for the faint of heart. This scent has aged into it's name, in a good way. It is probably my darkest, most gothic-scented perfume, and that's saying a lot, as I love dark incense, resinous scents. Oh, and for some reason, it goes unbelievably well with my Implacable Beautiful Tyrant Hair gloss. All in all, I am glad that I didn't give up on this one.

[brilliantcat]

I also purchased this from the original DD run and have just let it age (I forgot about it tbh >_>)

 

In-bottle it's charred wood and dark wine with a distinctly masculine feel. Not that I let a little thing like masculine/feminine stop me! On, it's dark, dark, inky smoke. Wow! I totally agree with the above reviewer, this definitely reads as gothy to me. Still masculine-ish in tone, but definitely not unwearable by anyone of any sex if you like these type of notes. They are aggressive though, and not for the faint of heart. Very evocative as well, I feel as if I'm in a ruin surrounded by charred timbers from the roof, sitting on a plush maroon velvet couch, sipping bloodred wine while the earth tries to reclaim the ruins. I get a definite opium vibe as well as it warms. It dries to a very cold-feeling almost stone scent.