Midnight on the Midway (2015)

[bunnyechoes]

Lightning splits the sky, illuminating the skeletal skyline of the carnival rides: sugared incense, flickering blue musk, and night-blooming flowers.

 

I received this one straight from the lab a bit less than 10 days ago and wore it today for the first time.

 

In the bottle: it smells like sugared incense with sharp floral notes. I can't actually pinpoint the flowers because I don't know which flowers bloom at night nor what they smell like.

 

Wet on skin: Right upon application, I get a sense of electric storm ravaging a carnival. Something in it goes soapy on my skin almost immediately, though. It's either blue musk or maybe ozone but it could also be some sort of rose if it is in this perfume. Otherwise it's sweet and incensey but at this point, soapiness prevails, which saddens me a bit.

 

Dry on skin: The soapy note had calmed down a bit. Now I can detect the ozone and some night-blooming flowers in the distance. The storm had passed. Blue musk had turned a bit powdery but it seems rather cuddly to me. After a few hours I can't smell the soapy note anymore.

 

I actually quite like this perfume but it sure needs some aging. I’ll retest it next month.

[galahad]

I never considered this one back in the last CD incarnation so I was determined to try it this time around.

 

In the Bottle: Nice creamy floral with a purple incense

 

On the Skin: Cotton candy, incense and white flowers. The florals emerge a little further down the track and rather than being creamy they tend to be sharp edged (I get a similar sense of hard edged floral from Snow White and Black Lace). This reminds me so much of my beloved Black Lace with more sweetness.

 

On the Drydown: Definitely Black Lace on steroids and it might actually knock BL off it's prominent place on my most loved. I do find this scent a little unsettling which is not necessarily a bad thing. The incense note is particularly lovely. Will age it for a while and see how it goes. I'd like it to smooth out a bit.

[LadyLuckless]

I wanted to try this scent for years, and finally got a bottle. At first I smelled nothing, strangely enough, then it went through a short dryer-sheet phase when wet, and then finally morphed into a gorgeous candied floral/incense very reminiscent of a darker version of my dearly departed Fairy Market! Since that is exactly what I was hoping it would be, I'm over the moon to have a bottle.

[joopjoop]

I dearly wanted to try this one, but got into BPAL after it had been out for a while and missed all the decant circles.

 

I dithered and it jumped in and out of my cart a few times, but I finally pulled the trigger and blind bottled it. And I'm glad I did!

 

Wet Midnight on the Midway has a slightly unpleasant, almost fecal, edge to it - but fortunately that dissipates almost immediately. It quickly settles into a lovely 'flickering' incense scent with just enough (but not too much) sugary white floral to keep it from going too headshop on me.

 

The blue musk is really interesting and almost has a fizzy electrical quality to it - like ambergris mixed with a touch of ozone - very evocative of the image and description.

 

Another winner from the Carnaval!

[KatyC]

I have to admit I bought this because of the name (I'm a sucker for both night-time references and alliteration, for some reason) and I didn't pay much attention to the notes, though sugared incense did sound nice. I kind of decided that this was *bound* to smell like a fairground at night, some combination of sticky-sweetness and rain/mud.

 

In the bottle this smells slightly sweet, but not as sugary as I washoping for. The first half hour on my skin it just smelled like pure fabric softener, and that's when I bothered to check the notes & reviews and saw it is actually supposed to be a blue, musky floral.

 

After an hour or so of wear it's actually turned into a very pretty scent, with a touch of the sugar I was after, but overall it's a touch too generic on my skin to reach for very often. Perhaps if I hadn't had such strong preconceptions it would be a keeper, so that's a lesson learned for me!

 

The throw and wear-time are very good.

Edited May 9, 2017 by KatyC

[gloame]

Oh. My. God. How did I wait so long to pick this up? It's so elegant and polished. Feminine, but strong. Like an evening goddess calmly and confidently watching over her world. It smells like gloaming. It is literally my favorite nighttime scent ever. I can't even. This is only the fourth blend I've ever gone out of my way to get a second bottle of. I'm buying 3 more.

 

Where I'd wear this: In the gloaming.

[doomsday_disco]

Instead of posting different reviews in the respective threads, I've decided to do a comparison type of review between the original and the 2015 version.

 

[Original] In the bottle: Sugared incense and soft white florals, with the sugared incense note being more prominent.

 

[2015 Version] In the bottle: This one is far more floral and blue musk than sugared incense in the bottle, and it has aged for almost two years. The sugared incense is still there, but it's not nearly as strong as the aforementioned notes.

 

[Original] Wet: Sugared incense and a streak of ozone, followed by the night-blooming flowers. I'm pretty sure the sugared incense contains champaca.

 

[2015 Version] Wet: This is very strong on the blue musk and night-blooming flowers. I suspect one of the flowers may be lotus. Then, the ozone and sugared incense announce their presence.

 

[Original] Dry: The sugared aspect of the incense is more prominent in this phase. This is the note that still reigns, and I'm still getting some ozone.

 

[2015 Version] Dry: The sugared incense note is more noticeable now than it was during the wet phase of this scent, so it's sweeter now, but the blue musk and night-blooming flowers are still more prominent than the incense note. I'm not getting much ozone from this one anymore.

 

A few hours later, the sugared incense note does come out even more, at least on my wrist. It's still mostly blue musk and flowers in the crook of my elbow.

 

Verdict: They're obviously similar, but I'm hoping that the 2015 version ages similarly to the original, as I adore the original, and I'd like to get more of the sugared incense with the florals than musky florals from the new version.

Edited July 19, 2017 by dementia_divine

[achildoftime]

This is the scent that helped me realize I like blue musk. It's smooth and doesn't overwhelm like some musks can. The big star of it is the sugared incense. It's a little sweet and a little smoky. The flowers are the least potent note in this for me, but I do think there's a bit of jasmine in that bouquet. For some reason, it reminds me of walking around a city at dusk. It's a little mysterious, a little cool, and has that touch of smoke. I like it quite a bit.

[Safyr Drathmir]

In the Bottle: Incense, Cotton Candy, Summertime flowers.

 

On Me: Creepy. There's this backdrop of creepy here. It's not as Ozone heavy as Stormclouds on the Midway(review to be posted later), but it's faintly present.

I get Incense Cotton Candy, and the hothouse florals, but there's this fun bit of creepy in here I can't figure out, but love.

 

On My Son: Ick. Cotton Candy Incense doesn't make a good cover for flower farts.

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Sugared incense, how YOU doin'? That's most of what I'm smelling, but I'm getting a hint of those night-blooming flowers(jasmine?) as well. Really interesting combination of notes.

 

Dry: Somehow, this is even sweeter than the wet stage! The "sugared" part of the sugar incense is REALLY heightened. The flowers have gone slightly soapy on my skin, so I don't think this will be a big bottle for me.

 

This is a fascinating scent, and totally worth trying (especially if your body chemistry works well with floral notes)! 

[forspecial_plate]

I really go back and forth on this scent.  It's hard to let go of any expectations because I love the old original version so much.  I believe this isn't the same but I do think it is comparable.  It has a soapy or detergent aspect like some others mentioned, that is hard for me to get past.  Then after some time, some of the sugared incense does come out for me, like after about a half hour.  It's still not the same as the old one but it is a closer approximation than I thought at first.  It's borderline for me.  Sorry for editing but it seemed that just when I posted my review the incense decided to come out after all.  This honestly reminds me a little bit of Cottonmouth.

Edited May 3, 2021 by forspecial_plate

[Tiobe]

2021 bottle. This is the EXACT scent of a blue lotus incense I used to buy at the county fair each year. When the fair was cancelled cuz the rona, I decided to treat myself, & was not disappointed (was a good call, too, since the vendors haven’t returned, & I’ve never been able to find that particular incense anywhere else).

It is lightly sweet, a bit mournful, simply lovely. Great throw and wear length. Pretty much my favorite for Spring time wear.

[MolyH]

Flowery incense, with a touch of sweetness. It's a pity that I don't get the more interesting notes like blue musk or ozone that other people seem to be getting, but I can't really complain, because it's, in fact, pretty darn nice. A shockingly pretty, girlish scent for the opening to the Carnival Diabolique, in fact.