Sonnet D'Automne

[zankoku_zen]

Tenebrous Love: a shivering white musk with vanilla-infused white cocoa, amber incense, and dead, dry leaves.

Oh man, this one may be a winner in my book. It has a strong leafy note but dries to a vanilla/amber blend. It's sweet on the drydown, cozy and reminds me to a cross of Blade of Grass and Tattered Lace.

Warm, cozy, vanilla.

[ami226]

On the skin: Green leaves and.... mint?

 

I can tell this one isn't for me. Very interesting though!

[strahlend]

The first several times I sniffed this in my decant I gave it a pass because it smelled like a typical bpal leafy scent, and since I have several of those it got ignored in favor of the more obviously unusual scents in the update.

I'm really glad I came back around to give this one a proper test because it turns out I really love it.

There's the dry leafy element that will be familiar to anyone who has smelled other autumn scents with leaves listed, but what makes this great is the hint of mint and vanilla that bloom on the skin. The combination is simply fantastic. It's a little dry & leafy, a little fresh and cool, a little sweet and alluring.

Bottle worthy for sure & I'll be looking out for a backup or two as well.

[mollyfatale]

When I first sniffed the bottle I wasn't sure that this was going to be a winner. The leafy green note was enough to turn me off...but I still applied it to my skin and I really enjoyed it wet on my skin. I can definitely smell the leafy decaying leaf sharpness but it becomes a bit softer. I definitely can understand where everyone is getting the "mint" smell from. As this morphs from the leafiness to the latter half of the perfume - the soft, cocoa amber - it smells a bit minty for a few moments. But the final stage is the loveliest - warm amber. Vanilla. My boyfriend loves this on me and always tell me I smell nice when wearing this. It smells gorgeous mixed into my wool scarf. Extremely comforting. Top ten material!

[crebbsgirl]

There's something in here that skews masculine on my skin at first. As it dries, it softens somewhat. I completely agree with the statement that it smells like a vanillic October. There does seem to be a strong mint note during the wet stages, but it blends nicely into the rest of the scent on the dry down.

[Sateki]

One of my favourites from the 'weenies. It starts off with dead, dry leaves and a touch of something sweet. Every so slowly, the leaves fade away, and something musky and sweet comes to play. The slightest hint of something fruity, tempered by the musk and vanilla, and possibly the cocoa. By the end it's a mix of the musk, vanilla, and cocoa. It doesn't last as long as I'd like, but I love every single stage.

[brittanywut]

In the bottle: Musk, and dead leaves. Not overpowering or strong at all.

 

Wet: The musk and amber incense really comes out on my skin. The subtle dead leaf-y scent is sitting in the back, next to the white cocoa. My oh my, this is heavenly and chilly so far.

 

Dry: I can't stop sniffing at my wrists. On my skin, it's a combination of musk, amber incense and a lick of dry leafy goodness, giving it a woodsy twang. This reminds me of a chilly autumn afternoon. It's just beautiful.

[Helas]

Sonnet d'automne smells like the autumnal version of Lyonesse to me. That's indeed high praise, since Lyonesse is my favourite scent.

 

The leaf note smells raw and vegetal, almost like freshly cut grass but a little minty. The initial application is all leaves. The vanilla note emerges on dry-down, and has a slight alcoholic tinge to me, almost like fresh vanilla extract. The leaves recede eventually and Sonnet d'automne becomes a faintly aquatic vanilla. The scent evokes a pale, washed-out, poetic image of autumn - like falling leaves observed through a frosted windowpane.

 

The similarity to Lyonesse is strong, but Sonnet d'automne feels paler and more cool-toned to me, while Lyonesse is bright and glowing. I still prefer Lyonesse, but Sonnet d'automne is also lovely and has earned a spot in my bottle collection.

[filigree_shadow]

Very, very pretty. Soft shimmering musk with just a hint of cocoa and vanilla and dry sweetness.

I like this one a lot.

 

ETA: Well, I have to edit this.

I did a full wear of this one today, rather than just a test, and the "dead dry leaves" aspect of it came out waaaaay more on my throat than it did on my arm. One of my wrists smells sweet and sort of like a cocoa musk, and the other wrist smells like it has spikenard on it. Spikenard is a note that will very definitively KILL any perfume for me if I can detect it at all. I hate it. "Dead dry leaves" don't smell exactly like spikenard, but close enough that whenever I get a whiff of it I crinkle my nose. Really not what I want to smell like. So... off to swaps after all. Dammit. That one had some promise.

Edited January 16, 2012 by filigree_shadow

[milo]

Dry leaves in the bottle. On, some mint and a touch of leaves and amber. After a bit, some slight mint, warm sweet vanilla, and dry ambery leaves. I love this, and am glad I went straight to bottle purchase. Even though this is a fall scent, it smells kind of cool to me. This reminds me of a fall morning and the first frost has occurred. The leaves are crisp and icy and the air is clear. I can see this being nice and cooling on a summer day as well. Brilliant!

[Gin]

Huh. My skin eats this. I applied a bit too much, but I guess it doesn't matter because it was all leafy and then pretty much gone in a handful of minutes. There's a hint of white musk, but only because I'm looking for it.

[whitsunweddings]

In the imp: Et chaque fois, les feuilles mortes! Ahem. Dead leaves!

Wet: The leaves mixed with a vague sweetness.

Dry: I really like this. A crisp, foresty smell with a gentle sweetness wafting in the background.

An hour later: Belugh. The leaves disappear and it's just a nast generic sweet smell. Quelle bummer.

[tinyvulture]

At first, it smells strongly of baby powder and vanilla. Then I realize it’s not baby powder, but powdery, warm amber. I don’t notice any cocoa. I keep waiting for the dry leaves to show up! After several minutes I can pick them out, faintly, in the background. I hoped the leaves would have a stronger presence. This scent doesn’t make me think of autumn or Halloween at all. It makes me think of cuddly babies! But, I do like it for what it is. Very warm and pretty.

[tharsei-thanate]

Got an imp from the lovely Babypopje!

 

I am obsessed with Autumn and this is my first Weenie ever. Here goes nothing!

 

In the imp: Dead leaves! Oh my god, it smells exactly like dead, dry leaves with tendrils of incense wafting over them. So evocative and gorgeous.

 

Wet: Such sweetness! The vanilla and cocoa are coming out to play and they are mingling nicely with the leaves and incense. Oh, this is yummy.

 

Dry-down: The scent becomes very green and mellows quite a bit. I would call it ethereal if it wasn't grounded by the white musk. Honestly, I'm picturing powder, like sparkly scented powder on a bed of dead leaves. But I don't know if I'd describe the scent itself as powdery. The powder in my mental image might be snow, actually. I can't quite tell how cold this scent is, though, since I'm sitting outside in the cold as I'm typing this.

 

Dry: Sweet and soft and pretty, but still earthy due to the musk and amber. Unlike the earlier mental image, I can see the hard ground now, where the leaves and powder are resting. I can also detect the vanilla amidst the delicious cocoa. Vanilla smells decent on me generally but sometimes it takes on a weird generic-sweet quality. The vanilla here smells truly like vanilla. The leaves aren't all that prominent but they linger tantalizingly in the background.

 

Verdict: LOVE LOVE LOVE! My skin amps sweet and sometimes blends I try can be almost sickly sweet and headache inducing but the sweetness here is absolutely perfect. And the earth and leaf and musk notes add so much to the blend overall. I love this as a perfume and I think it'd be amazing as a room scent or even in a scent locket (note to self, get a scent locket!). This is a winner for sure and I need a bottle asap!

 

[Edit 10/3/12]

 

I'm wearing this again today and now that I'm sitting somewhere with a comfortable temperature, I have to say I can't figure out if this scent is warm or cool! I keep sniffing my wrist and sometimes I get chilly autumn coolness and other times I get cozy, warm sweetness. It's like I'm sitting outside in a cold, dying forest and wrapped snug in a scented blanket. Goodness, I adore this blend!

Edited October 3, 2012 by tharsei-thanate

[Eemia]

I especially love the smooth, subdued scent of the leaves in here. They don't smell too crunchy or brown, which feels more strictly autumnal to me. The vanilla is so connected to the cocoa in here that I don't get the distinctiveness of either note, more of single entity. The cocoa might be a tad dominant like semi-sweet cocoa powder tinged with vanilla. Not a bakery or foodie smell at all. More of the vanilla appears during the dry down and it's a silky, musky, french vanilla rather than a deeper, syrupy vanilla. It's familiar but I can never find a good comparison to any of my other scents.

 

I always visualize this as a pale gray scent because it has all the comfort factors that gray conjures but it's not heavy or cloying. It's a very tactile fragrance and I've worn it more often than any other Halloweenie. In a scent locket I get a brighter, sharper tone but it's still gorgeous, just a slightly different feeling.

[aphrodite]

Have I seriously never reviewed this scent? It's my all time favorite, hands down. I have 5 or 6 bottles and still snatch them up whenever I see someone is selling one. It smells like dark, natural vanilla spilling over dead and dying leaves while a cold white musk wafts through the air. As it dries down it becomes more white musk and the amber and cocoa show their heads a bit, but they maintain a hint of vanilla until almost the last gasp. If I wear it and just apply once and let it fade, by the end it's almost entirely shivering white musk. But I have bottles all around my house and in my desk at work, so that rarely happens. I tend to slather it on for two days straight and then switch after a shower.

 

Idk what I’ll do when I eventually run out; I have several BPALs that I absolutely adore, but not one comes close to smelling similar to this, so it’s a void that won’t be easily filled. At least this year’s Dead Leaves and Desolation candle smells like Sonnet to me; I’ll be stockpiling so my house can smell like it all the time. <3

 

It’s funny that many people mention Lady Amalthea as a similar scent. I don’t see the similarities really at all, and I wear Lady Amalthea in such different moods and scenarios than Sonnet, but Lady A is possibly my second all-time favorite after Sonnet, so there is probably something there. If you haven’t tried Sonnet and you ever get a chance, do it! And then if it doesn’t work for you, PM me.

[Lorna Brigid]

I really liked this blend!

I loved the dry leaves note. Sometimes that is iffy, it's not as dry as you want it. It's just right in this one though!

I love amber and vanilla and dry leaves. Yum!!

Usually white musk and I are friends, too.

But the one thing I couldn't do in this one is the white cocoa. I worried about that when I ordered it, but the curiosity overtook my fear of the white cocoa.

Sadly, the sickly sweetness of white chocolate or cocoa was just too much for me. Regular choc/cocoa is iffy enough for me, but the white variety just does not do good on my skin AT ALL.

Sad for me, but good for my scent sister, who IS ok with those chocs and cocoas!

[inhumation]

when applied wet, it smells like dry, dead leaves and the sharpness of amber. as it dries, the dead leaves goes away and is replaced by a masculine cologne scent with the tiniest hint of vanilla. I will pass.

[bellumed]

2011 version:

 

Definitely get the dead leaves and white musk. As it dries, a powdery vanilla and a coldness both come out-- there's the minty feeling some people have mentioned. I like this. I usually like wearing cool scents in the summer, but this really is more of a sedate fall scent.

[Lady_Fire]

2014 version: I am not familiar with the BPAL leaves scent and nothing I smell while wearing this makes me think of leaves. The vanilla musk in this reminds me of Ava or one of the laces, it has a similar feel to them. I do not get any cocoa from it at all. It's a dry, semi-sweet scent. I smell something greenish - maybe thats the leaves? It's pretty and perfect for fall. If you like Ava I think you would like this too.

[annemathematics]

amber, white cocoa, musk, vanilla, dead leaves: I love each of the listed notes here. this scent takes the best possible quality of each note and combines it into one super dreamy perfume. it's a mixed-tape of my favorite songs in perfect order, and it's going to be played in heavy rotation on my walkman until the bottle runs dry.

 

soft, sweet, vanilla-musk-incense-magic.

[Lunasariel]

This was mostly an impulse buy (pun not intended) that got tacked onto the end of my Halloweenies order because of all the great reviews it's been getting. (Also, I'm a complete sucker for vanilla and amber [together or apart], but that's beside the point.) And man, am I glad I got it! Definitely my favorite out of the 'Weenies so far.

 

In the bottle: I definitely got a "shivery" feeling. A touch of foody sweetness, maybe a touch of dead leaves (but dry, not soaked like I'm used to them), and not much amber incense at all.

 

Wet: I admit, I was nervous when this one went on. Venustas, which I'd tried the previous day and was all set to declare my HG scent, turned to pure Dove soap on me, so I was hesitant to love again. I got maaaaaybe a hint of the mint that everyone else is describing, but if it was there, it was mostly to complicate the dominant scent that I initially feared was soap again. But, false alarm, it turns out to be BPAL's dry leaves note, which I hadn't smelled before. Hints of a sweet, foody (mostly cocoa) musk start to peek out here and there around the 30 minute mark, and increase in strength and duration over time.

 

Dry: HHHHNNNNNGGGGG. Hellllloooooo, wonderful sweet ambery musky deliciousness! The incense is still playing a faint backup note at best, but I'm okay with that.

 

Wear time: Wow, does this one have lasting power! I applied it around 7 AM, and it was still noticeable (well, noticeable as a skin-level-only scent, and that with me knowing what to look for) when I went to bed at midnight. It was pretty much only skin musk by then, but point is, it was still there.

[radioaction]

2014 version

 

Bottle: Leaves with something high pitched, perhaps the white musk

Wet: Leaves turning more complex/deeper but with the same high pitched note, growing soapier...

 

Dry: This is definitely a bright, shivering scent. I get a dusty vanilla and white chocolate note under the bright musk. It reminds me a bit of the dusty vanilla in Staged Moon Landing; I'm hoping it doesn't go into play doh category too. The soapiness has morphed into powder. Leaves are pretty much gone.

 

I'm on the fence about this one. It's clean and bright, almost fruity, but with kind of an old person smell hanging out in the background (I think it's the soap/powder that reminds me of my grandparents' motorhome, and thus old people!). I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. I wonder if aging will help balance out some of the notes (I did just get the bottle yesterday).

 

Hours later: The soap/powder is totally gone. White chocolate and vanilla play with the bright musk and maybe the dry leaves are back.

Edited October 28, 2014 by radioaction

[thekittenkat]

This review is for the 2014 version.

 

In the bottle: I can deduce all the notes, very elegant.

 

Wet: It's turning a little sweeter, but still is this gentle mix of musk, vanilla, cocoa, leaves, and the amber incense.

 

The dry-down: Really liked when I tested it at DSWC, but not as sure now. The amber incense, white musk, and leaves have come forward, and the vanilla-infused white cocoa has somewhat retreated to the background, only to add a faint touch of sweetness.

 

Hours later: It finally turned a bit powdery, which is a problem that I have w/ amber. Still a pleasant scent for both autumn and winter. Not sure that this is quite as good as the 2011 version; will have to do a death-match to see.

Edited October 29, 2014 by thekittenkat

[Myria Jean]

I have the 2014 version.

On me it's almost pure powder with a bit of cocoa. I'll probably forget it in the back of my closet for a few months and see if it improves.