Midian Unmade

[annemathematics]

Blood-soaked soil, scorched cypress branches, and faint remnants of Baphomet's temple incense.

still fairly fresh from the post: i suspect this will going to shift as it settles, but right now in the bottle it's heavy, almost swampy rich soil. black and oozy.
On the skin it is a much lighter in feel. it dries down with the dirt note supporting cypress and a subtle cinnamon. There's a bit of resin weaving in the back and I can't tell if it's dragon's blood, frankincense or both. (def DB, can't tell if there's frank there or if I'm imagining it).

i love me some bpal dirt scents. the dirt note in this one is much more integrated into the scent as a whole, vs standing out and commanding all of the attention. everything in here harmonizes to something warm and rich and actually not that heavy (for a blood-soaked dirt scent!). this is very pretty.

[Aviatrix]

This is pretty true to the description. A dirt-and-cypress scent that dries down to a nice spicy incense, with a teensy bit of dirt remaining.

I quite like it.

[Poenari]

This is a great dirt scent and very reminiscent of one of my favorites, The Premature Burial. They share the dirt and cypress, but Midian is a gentler scent, with a touch of the blood and incense faintly present. I am happy to have this as another dirt scent in my collection. Lovely and wearable, very autumnal.

[zankoku_zen]

Incense and dirt, with touches of cypress and blood musk. Somewhat masculine.

 

There's something oddly wearable about this. I think in some ways it makes me think that Midnight Mass and Graveyard Dirt had a midnight rendezvous in a cemetery and things went horribly, horribly awry and then their bastard hellspawn just sort of crawled out of the earth. So yes, oddly wearable and yet sort of profoundly disturbing.

 

I'm probably exaggerating about the bastard hellspawn. It's probably just the advent of Halloween, having watched Crimson Peak (of which this would probably fit really well in), and an overactive imagination.

 

Incense, blood, darkness.

[Little Bird]

I really like this. It reminds me of damp, black dirt and blood musk (which is always kind of a metallic smelling red musk with a cinnamon spiced edge to my nose). The drydown is much the same, but with a soft, smooth, slightly smoky incense note creeping in.

[verystarry]

I love this so much. My friend got it for me as a gift as I am a huge fan of Nightbreed. It smells like fresh dirt, and incense. I do smell the blood scent kind of tangy and metallic but it fades it's not scary it truly truly captures the story, and Midian to me. There are a few scents that are just perfect in description and execution and this is one of them. I truly imagine this is what Midian would smell like. Love it.

[doomsday_disco]

I got to try this one at Dark Delicacies yesterday! At the time, I had not looked up the notes, and I just remembered thinking it was a cemetery scent.

 

I remember being interested in it when it went live, but I skipped it. Now I see why: the blood note and the scorched descriptor.

 

Midian Unmade was actually my favorite of the three scents I tried at Dark Delicacies yesterday. At first, I got a blast of dirt, but there was something sweet beneath it. I just kept thinking that this was sweeter than I was expecting and that it was a really nice dirt scent. I did not get the cypress from it (but I was wandering around in the heat, so I wasn't paying attention like I would when I review scents at home), and I certainly didn't get a scorched vibe from it. After several hours of wear, I just kept thinking... dirt and cinnamon! The cinnamon was a light variety and must have been from the blood musk. I am happy to report that I did not get any red musk from this.

 

So don't let the blood musk or scorched descriptions scare you away! I did not get a bottle because I have a slew of dirt scents that I don't reach for often enough, buuuut I may end up caving and ordering it at some point with the release of a future Lace scent.

[Mister Azure]

More than the dead dwell within the graveyard of Midian. 

 

Wet: Freshly turned and moist soil with a hint of wet tree bark surround me. I feel as though I have been plunged into the ground. Deeply into it’s cool and dark embrace. Engulfing is the best way to phrase this. 

 

It has a rather long throw that doesn’t smell like something trying to have the scent of soil but rather it is the scent of soil. It’s not a bad thing at all. Yet it does smell like someone that has bathed in soil. 

 

Dry: Slowly the scent of the freshly turned soil and branches falls away. The branches are gone as I wander deeper into Midian‘s winding tunnels. I find myself still surrounded by soil yet there is more that comes to me. I find myself inside of a sacred place. A place of reverence. A temple or shrine of sorts that has incense of godly workings for its believers. 

 

The longer this wears the more prominent the sweet incense becomes. I swear I pick up a faint hint of dried blood now but not sure from where. 

 

The caked on soil slops off and I become born anew. 

 

Final Thoughts: This scent surprised me a lot. I had been wanting to try it for sometime and finally obtained a decant. I was hit hard with the vibrant scent of soil that I did not anticipate at all. My skin seems to amp soil a lot compared to other scents. I like the scent of soil a lot and this scratches that need a lot. Even the incense smell I like and I usually shy away from incense smells since more often than not I end up smelling like a head-shop. I do regret that the scent of scorched cypress branches did not poke through a bit more yet what it does add is still worth basking in. 

 

I don’t know if I would reach for this often but it is sparingly indulgent. Will likely tap out the decant and still get more.

[starbrow]

Upon first sniff, it's that wet dirt/cold stone/dark forest vibe that the Lab loves to bottle, it's showed up in so many blends and always falls just short of actual geosmin. Once it hits the skin, the cold stone recedes and it's wet dirt and cement, with a pinch of incense. On drydown, I almost get...spearmint? Weird. I don't like the spearmint note at all. I want wet dirt to come back. This should be dark and insidious. It is a little...dentisty.