The Hag

[edenssixthday]

THE HAG
The Hag is astride,
This night for to ride;
The Devill and shee together:
Through thick, and through thin,
Now out, and then in,
Though ne'r so foule be the weather.

A Thorn or a Burr
She takes for a Spurre:
With a lash of a Bramble she rides now,
Through Brakes and through Bryars,
O're Ditches, and Mires,
She followes the Spirit that guides now.

No Beast, for his food,
Dares now range the wood;
But husht in his laire he lies lurking:
While mischiefs, by these,
On Land and on Seas,
At noone of Night are working,

The storme will arise,
And trouble the skies;
This night, and more for the wonder,
The ghost from the Tomb
Affrighted shall come,
Cal'd out by the clap of the Thunder.

Black musk, bay leaves, galangal, bourbon vetiver, blackcurrant, and rum.

Oh, I love this! It's heavy on the black musk and rum. The vetiver is light and when it dries, it gives the overall scent the most awesome dark smokiness. The black currant does not turn to cat pee on me (!!!) and is barely discernible. Overall, this scent is darkly musky, darkly sweet, darkly earthy and herbal, and darkly sexy. I would definitely call it unisex. It has really good staying power and a light, but really, really sexy, amount of sillage. Bottle worthy? Oh yes.

[spiresinthesnow]

I love me some Hag! Its not overpowering, but has enough obvious throw. Sniffing from the bottle I get a buttery rum-ness but once on the skin it disperses very quickly. Its not very sweet but sweet enough. Musky, with a delicate, almost unnoticeable herbal edge. I can barely tell this has vetiver in it, maybe a teeny drop hiding deep within. Overall all this is a dark, sweet translucent black musk to me. Love it!

[Sultaana]

This has one of my death notes in it, but I really couldn't pass up a blend called The Hag. It's a thick herby sweetness, almost cloying, really dark and sinister. I'm on the fence about whether or not this is "me", but I'm glad I decided to get at least one Weenie that didn't sound my style at all.

[Gryphon]

Rum is at the forefront when wet, with galangal and current close behind. At the drydown, the vetiver comes out to play, giving the blend a pleasant smokiness. I love it!

[strahlend]

This is one of the scents I was looking forward to the most out of the Weenies. It's a much lighter scent than I was anticipating from the list of fairly heavy or strong notes. I agree with the reviewer who described it as a "sweet translucent black musk". I don't smell anything that makes me think of bay leaves and I'm not sure what galangal smells like but the rum is subtle and stays far in the background, I get a little of the current in the imp but not on my skin, but the vetiver plays very quietly with the gentle black musk. It feels like a close to the skin sort of scent. I like it quite well even though I was anticipating something a bit more intense.

[cfrancesca]

I mostly get vetiver from this one, but it's a note I usually amp and it's all I end up smelling even if the blend has a small amount. It reminds me of the Geek Show CD proto actually but not as smokey. Later it turns more complex and wearable, I start getting some black musk and rum, but I don't get any blackcurrant, overall I just find it too bitter and vetiver smokey for me.

[dawndie]

Wet: rum

 

On skin: is there such a thing as green musk? Green musk with a bit of sweetness

 

Half-hour later: oof, there's the vetiver, sharp astringent and overpowering

 

In conclusion: I liked the beginning, the "green musk" was dark, jungle-like and intriguing. Then the vetiver comes swooping in and claws everything up. Not as strong as in other blends, though. Interesting dark blend, just not my thing.

[bellevivre]

it was funny, out of the bottle this smelled like nothing more than pecan pie! on me, it's sweet, mossy, dark... it's nice, but not a bottle for me.

[Nachtwulf]

Yet another shot in the dark that magically hit the target, for me.

Hag had more appealing notes in it than Odd Portents (the other 'weenie I ordered) but it was still a wild guess.

 

Bottle: Rum and bay. Not 'bay rum', this is distinctly 'rum booze' and 'bay leaves'.

 

Wet: Magical. It's sweet, and woody, and a touch resinous. The rum is still there but faded back so I don't smell like I spilled the liquor cabinet on myself. What's primarily noticeable is the vetiver and bay, but underlaid with enough blackcurrant rum to 'sweeten the pot' and stop it from going needly or harsh. I admit, I am fortunate in that I -don't- amp vetiver and it's usually a safe note on me, so your mileage may vary.

 

Dry: It remains remarkably consistent. I get a bit more of the musk once it's good and dry but it never becomes overwhelming. There's something almost like cedarwood to it too, although I'm not one of the people who ever get the 'pencil shavings' effect so my opinions about cedar are somewhat biased (toward the positive).

 

This is likely to go into my surprisingly-small 'frequent use' corner. It's sweet without being foody. Woody without being man-stink. Just sharp enough but never too sharp. And it lasts ALL FREAKING DAY. Definitely a win.

[zankoku_zen]

Smoky rum. It actually kinda reminds me to Hellhound. Rum, smoke and a hint of bay. Warm, masculine, dark.

[Ethaisa]

Smoke and sex in a warm, dark room. Love it.

 

(I was worried about the rum, but I don't really pick up any at all, except a hint in the bottle; perhaps it's the rum and galangal that's sweet underneath the smoke?)

[Iceblink]

This is that perfect BPAL black musk note that I love. And the rum is mercifully weak here. The vetiver gives this an earthiness that I really like too. The only problem is the bay leaves--they are quite prominent and I'm not a big fan of bay...*has flashbacks of testing Nero*. I'm going to let this age for a few weeks and see if the bay fades with time, because that black musk and vetiver together are really sexy and deep and I think I could love this if the bay behaves.

[femmefatale]

This is just gorgeous. This is one of those perfumes that both dh and I can wear and it smells different, but wonderful, on each of us.

It's just so well blended that it can be difficult to pick out the indiviual notes, but the black musk is the real winner here. Black musk can be iffy but here it is just gorgeous. The vetiver and rum are subtle but help to deapen the musk and the bay and blackcurrant are no exist.

 

Love.

 

 

[Little Bird]

In the bottle and on my skin at first, this is mostly rum (silky, caramel-like alcohol) with sweet, dark currant and just a hint of earthy vetiver. I'm pleasantly surprised that the vetiver in this isn't overpowering, as it usually takes over blends for me. As it dries down, the rum disappears into the background and it's mostly blackcurrant and a woodsy-spicy mix of bay and galangal. Black musk is usually really strong on me and smells like cheap men's cologne, but I don't get that impression here at all, thankfully.

 

The Hag is mostly a sweet, dark, berry-like currant with smooth woods & spicy bay, and the rum giving it an exotic, golden sort of lift. This actually smells a lot like Cagliostro on me, and I'm really liking it . It's definitely not the scary, dark, earthy, masculine blend that I was expecting. I only have a decant of this so far, but I might have to upgrade to a full bottle.

[Voleuse]

Oooooh. Y'know, I had forgotten how much I liked vetiver and musk together, all smoky and sexy-like. This gets sweeter over time, though it smells a bit flowery to me, so I'm not sure what's sweetening the blend. This balances as a masculine sort of blend, but it's subtle and sweet enough that I think I could wear it on a daily basis. It's more musk than vetiver, and a smoky-sweet musk at that. Awesome. Sexy. Delicious.

[hlinspjalda]

In the vial: Boozy, smoky fruit.

 

Wet: Boozy vetiver with smoke like burning leaves.

 

One hour: Sweet woody boozy vetiver. It hasn't gone powdery sweet on me the way black musk does, although I expect it will later. The currant note contributes a dark rich tannic sweetness.

 

Three hours: After a long time, this got less boozy. It's gone over to musk and vetiver now, with a spicy-woody undertone. I like it better this way even though it has less throw and presence.

[moon_lemming]

I'm not going to bother skin-testing The Hag: I smell black musk and vetiver in the imp, and that's a no go for me. It reminds me of thick dark forests, the rotting underneath the leaves.

[angelicruin]

Bourbon vetiver and rum notes are strongest on me. Black Musk is definitely there, but not overpowering. The vetiver note is also tempered with the boozy notes. As it dries, I begin to smell the blackcurrant. Nice, but not something I would wear on a regular basis.

[Heavenlyrabbit]

The Hag really exceeded my expectations. Which wasn't hard, cause I had none to begin with. Vetiver it must be noted, is hit or miss on me. Most often miss.

 

At first, it seemed the Vetiver was going to be over-bearing and a clear miss BUT, within mere seconds it receded and blended beautifully into all the other warm golden brown and olivine scents.

 

The Bourbon Vetiver is wonderful with just a touch of smoke and balsamic goodness and the Blackcurrant and Rum add a nice vein of sweetness.

 

This blend smells the most like Autumn and Halloween out of all the other Halloweenies so far.

 

The Hag most likely be even better with some aging.

Edited September 28, 2010 by Heavenlyrabbit

[ami226]

In most blends the black musk is a horrible powdery dealbreaker, but I can't seem to smell much of it at the moment. Definitely picking up bay and rum and the vetiver. A very manly blend actually!

 

After a bit, the black musk starts rearing its head.... *sigh* It is Black Temple Burlesque Troupe all over again....

 

Now the vetiver is completely gone and all I can smell is the icky powder of the black musk with a hint of booze. *sigh* I just can't do black musk.

[forspecial_plate]

I can do black musk sometimes but not always. This smells like black musk and spices, and I was a little surprised that there's no clove, because this reminds me a lot of Hell-Gate Of Ireland. Maybe the spices and rum are tricking me into smelling clove. Anyway, I like the Hag even better, it's a little more full-bodied and complex. I love spices and vetiver is a friend of mine so this is good! I cannot smell blackcurrant at all, so maybe that will come out with time. For some reason I can't usually pick out rum in any scent and this is no exception. Overall, a very nice spicy scent that I'll get some wear out of.

[patina]

In the decant, I really don't like this- the bay leaves and vetiver seem to be at odds with the sweeter elements.

 

Worn, it's a fairly light black musk (if that's not a contradiction.) The vetiver and bay persist, but I can see why people compare this to pecan pie- pecans have that sleight bitterness to them. It is very much like The Hell-Gate of Ireland, minus spices, but I really prefer the Hell-Gate.

 

Still, this isn't bad.

[Lyzz13]

In Bottle: Kinda spicy, kinda boozy, kinda sweet. I would drink this. I would drink this until I fell over.

 

Wet on skin: The sweet-spicy is still there, but why do I smell of butter? This is not ok. I'm starting to think that that's just how bay rum just likes to be on me until drydown. The musk starts coming out to play, but not enough for me to get over the butter. Vetiver with its almost dirty note is playing nice, and gives this a good foundation. The only part of the black currant I'm getting is the sweet, but that could easily be the rum note, which tends to run to sweetness.

 

Drydown: Butter finally goes away after 30 minutes. I'm left with a dark bay rum that stays very close to the skin, with just a touch of the galangal. Almost no throw, and my skin's eaten it within 2 hours. Still no sign of currant to be found.

 

While this is a very dark scent, the galangal and whatever's providing the sweetness (I'm pretty sure it's a musk/rum combo at work) give this enough uplift and smoothness to make this wearable and comfortable. There is no harshness like you would expect for something called The Hag.

 

Similar: Port au Prince (More rummy/spicy), Jolly Roger (bit harsher, with an ocean note, no sweetness), Kill-Devil (all sweetness and rum), Devil's Night (dark sweet/smoky rum)

 

Final Verdict: While I'm a sucker for bay rum scents, I've got others that can do this for me for longer with more throw. I still wanna drink it though.

 

ETA: I fail at UBB

Edited October 2, 2010 by Lyzz

[marared]

I got this as a bit of a joke, because my Warcraft character of 5+ years is named Hagrok and my nickname is Hag/Haggy, but I wasn't really expecting much with all those dark notes. To my surprise, a. it wasn't nearly as dark as I thought it would be, probably due to the currant sweetening it up just a tad and b. in six months or a year this might actually have a lot of potential. It's very bay-rummy, with just a touch of musk, and while I can smell the vetiver on first application, it fades into the background very quickly. It's thick and smoky without being eyewatering, and especially with the bay rum I think it will mellow out considerably.

 

Edit to note that even after a couple of weeks, it's smoothed out into something deep and musky and sensual. I couldn't wear this every day, but I'm pondering a bottle now, if the Yules don't eat too far into my paypal budget.

Edited October 19, 2010 by marared

[Schmoozy]

Hmm, for some reason I didn't think this was going to work, and yet I am pleasantly surprised! It smells like fruity rum, smoke and crunchy dry leaves. It also has a very distinct herbal quality to it due to the galangal and bay leaves. I don't think it is quite bottle worthy, but I'll definitely enjoy my decant.