Dark Pumpkin Mead

[Invidiana]

DARK PUMPKIN MEAD
Thick, heady pumpkin mead sweetened with clover honey and a hint of maple.

Ah, mead. Only my favorite thing in the world to imbibe. What's this, you say? Pumpkin mead?

Forget the "I die", I'm already dead.

I haven't ever been able to find a ready-made pumpkin mead (of the drinkable persuasion), but this one (of the smellable persuasion) bottles up everything I hope the real thing will someday be. f the characters in A Song of Ice and Fire were as crazy for pumpkin as I am, this would be in all their drinking horns. Let me clarify that this actually isn't a boozy scent. It has that characteristic honeyed sweetness of mead which is tempered by a golden, almost bready undertone that the honey gets from fermenting. Compared to a sniff of the actual (drinkable) bottle of mead in my liquor cabinet, this is by far a darker, richer scent. I'm sure the pumpkin contributes to this quality but it also seems like the honeys used here are generally darker. I also think the maple contributes to the "dark" aspect; while the pumpkin and honey mead are definitely the prominent notes here, the undercurrent of maple deepens it further. The maple note here is more like that amazing Grade B maple syrup you can never find in your average supermarket, not as sweet but a more robust dark amber.

Long story short I want to roll in this for all eternity.

[boomtownrat]

Usually I amp pumpkin and honey, but it turns out I amp maple even more. For most of the morning I smelled like pumpkin pancakes drenched in maple syrup, but maple wood was the only note I smelled by the end of the day. I'll try it again after it's had a few more days to settle from shipping, and I'll try layering it with another scent with a strong honey component. This seems like the kind of scent that needs time to mature.

 

The artwork on the label is an adorable black cat. It's a beautiful little gem of a bottle and one day I think the scent will age into something just as lovely.

[MiasmaResonance]

Oh DPM, you sounded so good in theory, but sniffing the imp, the boozy note smells IDENTICAL to 2010's BPTP Honey Pumpkin Stout, which was too much for me to handle and just smelt rancid and yeasty to my nose. But I'll give you a try... Wet on my skin, the yeasty weirdness isn't as intense, but still noticeable. Drying, the yeasty weirdness is fading, and this really is heady, slightly spicy pumpkin maple honey goodness. I really do like this, but I will remain on the fence about bottleworthyness due to yeasty evil pumpkin flashbacks.

Edited January 1, 2014 by MiasmaResonance

[ObliqueRed]

Thick sweet boozy honey pumpkin. I like the scent but it's too heavy for me to wear... it would be really nice as a room scent though.

[BlueberryPie]

THIS. IS. PERFECTION.

 

Wore it out to lunch with friends, and on the way there, I could not stop sniffing my wrists. This just smelled so fantastically delicious, I wanted to eat myself. At first, I was terrified of the honey note, because BPAL's honey is a Note of Doom for me. It turns strangely medicinal and bitter on my skin. But something about the pumpkin and maple overpowered the honey and it was just glorious, glorious pumpkin and sugar on me. Christine (who was sitting next to me) told me through the whole lunch, she could smell the pumpkin and sugar coming from me.

 

This scent doesn't really morph on me, but I've found that if I don't do anything and just let myself catch whiffs of this perfume when I move around, it smells EXACTLY like dark pumpkin mead. But if I press my nose right up against my wrist, it smells strangely like oranges. A very clean, fresh scent that's nothing like the whiffs I catch. I wonder why that is. But it's still great because this way I can hug people without worrying about overwhelming them with my perfume.

 

And it has enough staying power to last the whole day! I cannot lavish enough praise on this. I wish I could afford two bottles.

 

SCORE: 10/10

 

 

[Rshields]

I think i've hit the spicy pumpkin jackpot! This oil is a lush

golden orange shade. I am getting pure spicy sweet pumpkin!

The cinnamon is amping, but thankfully not burning on my skin.

Cinnamon does not like me, and can sometimes burn my

skin right off leaving it beet red in the process. Dark Pumpkin

Mead is playing nice!

I'm not picking up the maple or honey influence. I'm not

sure if I need this one. My decant is enough for now.

Update: ouch! I put this on after my shower and the cinnamon factor got my skin

bad, ouch.. No mas Dark pumpkin Mead.

Edited October 25, 2013 by Rshields

[Zii]

I think Beth's pumpkin note is forever doomed to be cheap buttered popcorn jelly beans on me. This isn't terrible the way Jack was, but it's all artificial maple and butter on me. In fact, it smells exactly like that Aunt Jemima 'maple syrup' with added butter flavor. Yuck...

[zombiewench]

In the imp, this is amazing! Spicy honey pumpkin. YUM.

 

On me, it turns ALL pumpkin. And kind of sour pumpkin, not even yummy pumpkin. I wish it stayed the way it is in the imp for me!

[sarandipitee]

oh my GOD. This is IT. MY PERFECT PUMPKIN. It's HIGHLANDER epic (there can only be ONE!). Like, I've tried other pumpkins. But they were always too buttery or potpourri or all cinnamon on my skin (here's looking at you Jack, Pumpkin Latte and Blue Pumpkin Floss).

 

BUT THIS. Oh man. It's love at first sniff.

 

It might be the booze note - BPAL's alcohol tends to like me (Devil's Night 2009, anyone?). And the clover honey is divine. Honey either loves me or becomes a stinky powdery mess. Here it's behaved. And the cinnamon spiciness which usually I amp to high heaven doesn't overpower.

 

Insta bottle!

[VioletChaos]

In the Bottle: This reminds me strongly of last year's Honey Pumpkin Stout Bath Oil. It's got the same dense quality and the honey is NOT like the honey of 'O'. It's much richer and more like a meal as opposed to a light sweetener for tea.

 

Wet On Skin: The same.

 

Dry Down: Same!

 

In All: I actually ended up passing the bath oil onto someone else- I found that it was too over powering in a bath situation. However, I used to put it in my hair to scent it! So I'm actually quite happy that it's been reincarnated into this mead perfume, because this is *awesome*. It's got a low throw, but apply lightly- a little goes a long way! And, based on the quality and richness, I'm betting that this will only get better with age.

 

Pumpkin Mead for the win!

[SophieCedar]

Smells exactly like Honey Pumpkin Stout soap from last year. Its nice but I amp spices. Will use this as an atmo spray/drop in a candle.

[Erinofhere]

DARK PUMPKIN MEAD
Thick, heady pumpkin mead sweetened with clover honey and a hint of maple.

This is really amazing smelling. I usually hate maple. Like loath it to the extreme. It only ever reminds me of pancakes and I really hate pancakes.

Dark Pumpkin Mead however does not smell like maple at all to me. Actually I smell Pumpkin (buttery sweet pumpkin), vanilla, honey, a slight barely there booze note and cinnamon and maybe a bit of clove.

Yay this is a keeper. I am getting the big bottle. This smells so.....fall

[mymel0dy]

In the bottle: Medicinal, alcoholic pumpkin. The first whiff is like pure alcohol, medicine scent and the second and third I get much more pumpkin.

 

Wet on the skin: The medicinal, alcohol scent goes away. I get a hint of pumpkin and lots of spice. I can't really say which spices because it just smells like a mix of them. I would say cinnamon and cloves and nutmeg are definitely part of the spice mix.

 

Dry on the skin: All traces of pumpkin have become syrup, a spiced syrup. It's not maple, just dark and sweet. There is a hint of spice. It reminds me more of the gingerbread syrup they use to make gingerbread lattes, rather than the pumpkin spice syrup.

 

I can't decide if I like it or not. While I like the sweeter scents with my chemistry this seems to be nothing but sweet. I think I will offer it to my best friend who got me hooked on BPAL and if it doesn't work on her I will keep it.

[puck_nc]

Origin: decant circle

 

Initial Thoughts: I generally don't do well with strongly boozy scents, but it's so easy to toss another decant into the order...

 

In the Vial: Pumpkin, very thick with sweet spices and a trace of alcohol in the background.

 

Wet: MAPLE! HONEY! I am suddenly smelling like pancake syrup.

 

Drydown: The pumpkin re-emerges and so does the alcohol, a little. Now it's rich and dark and spicy instead of overwhelmingly sweet.

 

Verdict: I think I like it, but it strikes me very much as more of a room scent than a perfume. I'm not sure I'd wear it very much.

[ajcj213499]

This actually reminds me quite a bit of MVJBA: Summer Summoning Spectacular, just without the smokiness. I'm not really getting any mead from this, but rather a rich, dark, spiced maple. The pumpkin is very much in the background and I smell it less as the time passes. It's very nice.

[Poenari]

I agree with those who mentioned the Trading Post's Honey Pumpkin Stout bath oil. This is very similar to it, and I like my decant enough that I will definitely order a bottle to wear with my bath oil. I don't think it is actually a boozy scent, because the mead melds into the pumpkin and adds a new flavor to it. No pumpkin pie notes to this one. Very nicely done.

[Sakura Tsukikage]

As soon as I saw the description for this, I knew I was getting a bottle--like Invidiana, I love mead, and the idea of pumpkin mead, something I'd love to drink in real life, was too good to pass up. Since the lab's honey and alcohol notes (especially the honey mead in Hellcat), have smelled delicious on me, I bought a bottle flat out. And I definitely do not regret it.

 

My response to smelling this was . . . wow, this really does smell like pumpkin mead! I get the warm sweet but veggie richness of the pumpkin, but a definite sense of honey, thick, rich, dark, and sense, and the yeasty headiness that makes me think of mead or beer. To me it does smell like alcohol, but not overwhelmingly so. It's incredibly strong, so much so that I was a little overwhelmed sniffing it in the bottle, and it has fantastic throw. So yeah, I'm not going to be wearing this to school. That being said, it smells delicious, and I can almost taste the frothy, foamy head of the mead in the tankard. With it on, I get a clearer sense of the maple, and combined with the honey and pumpkin it gives me wonderfully sweet foody whiffs of something I want to eat immediately. If I sniff my wrist, I get a smell like I smelled mead on my clothes a few days ago, actually, but around me it still has that great pumpkin mead smell.

 

Also, this lasts forever on me--I put it on yesterday around 11 am, and I can still smell it on my wrists tonight at almost 11 pm, so that's around twenty-four hours, with several hand-washes in between. It's quite close to my skin now, of course, but still there. Today, though, it pretty much smells exclusively like clover honey (and it's specifically clover honey to me, somehow, I can't believe it), dark and rich, but none of the other scents seem to have stuck around with it.

 

I love this, and I'm very glad to have my bottle!

Edited October 29, 2013 by Sakura Tsukikage

[tinyvulture]

Pumpkin, with honey and maple syrup and a light dusting of cinnamon. It's not a boozy scent on me at all. More like pumpkin cookies. Actually, this is random, but do you know Quaker Oh's cereal? It kind of smells like a pumpkinny version of that. Like pumpkin + honey + cereal grains. A super-sweet, foody scent that I wear frequently because I love it, I keep going back for more.

[doomsday_disco]

In the decant: This is a very rich, sweet, syrupy pumpkin with maple and honey. It reminds me of a pumpkin-y version of Dwarven Ale without the potent ginger that burned my skin. It isn't particularly booze-y. I have high hopes for this one!

 

Wet: Okay, I do get a yeast note from this as soon as it hits my skin, so it is somewhat boozy on me, but not overly so. The pumpkin note is a spiced pumpkin, and it seems to be at the front of the blend, with the maple and honey lurking in the background. I am slightly reminded of pumpkin spice pancakes with maple syrup... but only a little bit. I seem to be amping the spices, but fortunately, they are not burning my skin. (This smelled better on the boy when he wore it yesterday, though. It was a lot sweeter.)

 

Dry: This really is like Dwarven Ale with pumpkin instead of fermented mushrooms and without the prominent ginger.

 

Verdict: I like this (but it smells better on the boy). I don't see this as something I would wear very often, but since my boyfriend would wear it as well, and I vastly prefer it to Dwarven Ale, I think I will get a bottle of this.

 

*edit* This seems to be a lot more yeast-y and maple-y on me now. I may just keep the decant and only buy a bottle if the boy wants one.

Edited November 3, 2013 by dementia_divine

[zankoku_zen]

Maple honey with a swirl of pumpkin. There's something in this blend that smells 'off' to me, but it may be the 'yeast' element in the mead.

 

It's dark, boozy, mead.

[phoenix1558]

Alas, and clearly in a minority here, this was the first BPAL bottle I've ever bought that I immediately knew would not work. I love honey. And maple. I thought it'd be a winner. But, alas, twas not meant to be. Someone above mentioned honey stout. Another mentioned yeast. And yes, they both ring a bell of recognition to my nose. This is a VERY dark, yeasty-malty-foody smell to me, as if I spilled a sweetened Guinness on myself and waited several weeks before washing. Don't get me wrong, I love Guinness, but don't want to smell like it. Ixnay this as a perfume, but it does make a surprisingly lovely, richly sweet and incensey room scent, as the tealight candle heat picks up the swirling maple undercurrent and carries it, with the honey and meady scent, further and richer than it did on my skin. So-yay-all is not lost!

[asciident]

Wet: A thick, rich honey.

 

First on: Maple, mead, and pumpkin come out, playing in the honey.

 

Dry: Warm & delicious. Drinkable. At this point, the blend comes together and aside from honey it’s hard to pick any particular note.

 

 

[tharsei-thanate]

When I first smelled it in the imp I was disgusted. It was just nauseating, cloying, gag-inducing awfulness. Still, I always do a skin test no matter how bad something smells in the imp or bottle. I dabbed some on, preparing myself to run to the bathroom to scrub it off if it got too bad, but oh my goodness, this is amazing on my skin. Sweet and boozy and totally drinkable! At first there was a lot of honey which I was able to ping as clover before checking the notes, then it blended with the boozy, almost candyish pumpkin. There's the lightest drizzle of maple throughout, adding extra depth, and spices start to come out the longer it's on. Now, after 45 mins of wear, it's just pure deliciousness. I wish I could better describe how wonderful this is, because damn, this is some good shit.

 

I need a bottle!

[brilliantcat]

Mmm sweet maple-y honey with a smidge of pumpkin. A slight hint of booze that reminds me of the buttery rum note in my favorite BPAL booze blends. There's a slight, soft hint of spice but it's just a breath and not overwhelming as some of the pumpkin blends can be. It ends up warm, sweet, comforting, yummy. Definitely will keep and use my decant and possibly get a bottle.

[vthesiren]

This smells fantastic - at first it's pumpkin pancakes sweetened with maple and honey, and then it settles down into something boozier. Alas, one of the spices didn't agree with me - I tested it on the inside of my elbow, and there is now a bright red welty disc. Sadness.