The Witches

[zankoku_zen]

Pumpkin cream, honey, vanilla sugar, and smoked vanilla bean.

 

Pumpkin plastic and creamy vanilla. *sigh* BPAL's cream note is problematic to me and this is no exception which makes me super sad because I totally would love it otherwise. Good throw, good wearlength.

 

Pumpkin, vanilla, cream.

[verystarry]

My son (he's 8 and I love his descriptions) told me that it smells like my pumpkin cheesecake. And I agree. It's pumpkin sweet and very creamy and I can smell the smoke of the vanilla too. I love this one just got a backup since everyone in the house is nuts about it.

[Musamea]

in the imp: pure pumpkin cream and sweet vanilla, super foodie and rich

wet: goes straight to smoked vanilla bean, which I think is the same vanilla note found in The Worst Pillow, with a bit of spicy honey in the background grounding the scent and keeping it from turning into pure cake – I'm not really getting a ton of pumpkin cream here

dry: warm, spicy vanilla bean and caramel cream, the honey doesn't go overpoweringly cloying on me, as Lab honey is wont to do, and I don't get any of the popcorn butter that has plagued me with previous Lab blends with pumpkin (really I'm just not getting a ton of pumpkin in general here); I'll need to do a deathmatch with The Worst Pillow because The Witches is reading almost identically to my nose right now

[sunlitgarden]

In the decant: Foodie cookie-like pumpkin.

On my skin: It's the usual sort of "bakery pumpkin" with sweet vanilla. It's not going to curry on me though, that's a plus!

Overall, this smells good but it's not really a standout to me. I sold my bottle of Pumpkin Latte a few years ago so I can't compare them side-by-side but it reminds me of how I remember that scent minus the coffee. I like Frosted Pumpkin Spice Cookie better than this one. But if you're looking for something that makes you think of yummy pumpkin baked goods without being QUITE as overpoweringly foody, this might be up your alley.

Edited December 12, 2015 by sunlitgarden

[milo]

Sweet cream and spices, not a lot of pumpkin. There's an odd waxy quality to this blend, like there is a thin layer of white chocolate over a spice cookie. Not for me, but I bet foodies will like this.

[Nemi]

I really adore this scent. It reminds me of another favorite, Dorian in the Pumpkin patch, I guess due to the sweetness and pumpkin. To me it is sweet and lovely slightly foodie vanilla with hints of spice (but that might be pumpkin, since others have said this is a Weenie without spice). I'm so glad I have a partial bottle, and the label art is adorable as well.

[ImpImpImp]

I had such high hopes for this one but it's too sickly sweet with my chemistry. Even ended up washing it off, which I never do! Reluctantly adding this to my swap pile.

[BeyondBad1313]

Mmmh. Vanilla and pumpkin cream here, it is spicy and sweet and foody. This smells like some kind of baked good. Not good for anyone who can't do cream notes because the creaminess in this blend is prevalent. Overall beautiful fall foodie smell. Like a comforting kitchen filled with baked goodies.

[XanthVamp]

In the bottle it smells nice, sweet and creamy and I really wanted this to be a win. But for some reason any scent this year with some kind of vanilla in it just turns REALLY powdery on me. So much so that I sadly had to wash this off. Very strange. So I'm going to keep my imp and try again in a year, but for now just an imp it is.

[Little Bird]

The honey, vanilla, sugar, cream and pumpkin in this all meld together into the best pancake breakfast ever. It smells like good maple syrup, warm and melting butter, sweet pancakes, creamy & eggy French toast, and walnut and cream studded struedels. It's all drenched in syrup and cream, drizzled in honey, and with the pumpkin adding a very subtle, buttery spiciness, as though one of the French toast pieces was dusted in a hint of cinnamon (and cinnamon usually amps up on me, but it stays quiet here). So much yum. As it dries down, I think I smell caramel coffee as well.

 

This is definitely a sweet sugar rush, but I love how creamy and buttery this is, and I love that it smells like a dream breakfast buffet.

Edited May 25, 2016 by Little Bird

[JTobias]

Holy hell; if you're a fan of Marshmallow Pumpkin, Halloween Inquisition 2010, then you will squee for this blend! Absolutely divine.

 

[Cali]

No ...almond in this?? Do I not like pumpkin? From the imp I'm taking this as a personal insult, but fret not, it gets more appealing to me as it dries down. Sugary and fizzy, a warm sweet autumnal scent. I might need a bottle if it comes back in stock, surprisingly.

[Eleven11]

This is a nice scent. I will say it point blank. This is the first perfume that my husband has ever noticed me wearing and I've been a BPAL-ER longer than I've been married. But I've given myself a year to for this scent and I to fall in love but alas I still hate it.

This is the scent that made me realize that I do, despite what I previously thought, have a few VERY strong dislikes. I do not like The Lab's honey note. The Lab's spiced pumpkin note is ginger and cinnamon and I do not like it. Vanilla doesn't really suit me.

 

In the Bottle: Cream, Vanilla and a hint of ground ginger. Almost like chai tea.

 

Wet on the back of my hand: Nose tingling spice, what I'm assuming is the cream reminds me a bit of skin musk, a polite hit of vanilla sweetness not much throw.

 

15 min: Artifical vanilla and chai but lacking any sort of tea (which is the best part) medium throw

 

Dry: Tiny bit of sugar and cream with just a little spice. This smells like a sister to Clown White Single Note but with spice instead of almond. Very close to the skin.

 

Over all: This is the most well behaved it's ever been usually the vanilla can be smelled across the room leaving me in a choking cloud. Almost as if it knows it's on it's way to a new home. It's pleasent but for lack of a kinder word it's too boring to be on me or in my collection.

[VetchVesper]

Smoky, dark vanilla-honey with a dollop of foodie pumpkin. There's cinnamon in this and it burns the more delicate areas of my skin at first (arm crook, cleavage, etc...) it's kind of like the foodie parts of Depart Pour le Sabbat or Impressions of the Floating World w/out the incense notes that I love so. Too strait up gourmand for me generally, but it's nice to have an imp for when I want to be particularly pumpkiny.

[Missa_Moth]

Soft punpkin pie a la mode with a honey drizzle, much less in your face than Pumpkin Sugar, which is far too "I doused myself in pumpkin spices and ate pumpkin spice everything." This is actually a wearable pumpkin scent for me.

[tinyvulture]

Really nice, smooth pumpkin blend with sweet, smoky vanilla and honey notes. Witchy and Halloween-y for sure. The cinnamon isn't too strong like with some pumpkin blends I've tried. A keeper.

[Lucchesa]

Pumpkin, straight off the bat, that lovely, buttery BPAL pumpkin. Pumpkin and honey. Pumpkin, honey and vanilla. There might be a hint of pumpkin pie spice in here that makes it read as "pumpkin-y," but it's subtle. Not a big morpher, and it lasts a good while.

 

I recently reread an early review of Baron Samedi where I mentioned that I had no intention of ever smelling like pumpkin. Ha! OK, I admit it, I was clueless and wrong. Golden, autumnal, I would smell like The Witches any October or November day!

[MonkeysInk]

I did not read the review of this before I opened the imp, so I didn't realize it had pumpkin in it until I came here to write this review.

 

This was all caramel and vanilla and honey for me.  I strongly dislike caramel and honey smells rather meh on me, so I was pretty disappointed by the scent.  I went ahead and put some on, hoping it would morph, but by mid-day, it smelled exactly the same.  (Why is it that a scent I don't like stays on forever and the ones I like get eaten by my skin?)

 

Once I read that this had pumpkin in it, I might have called it pumpkin caramel cheesecake or pumpkin caramel tart - something very foodie with a heavy, heavy drizzle of caramel on it.   For me, this was a bust.  If you look sweet, foodie scents, this might be one to consider.

 

[Kytha]

I get very little pumpkin from this scent, or if I do, it's faint enough not to bother me (as pumpkin isn't a scent I typically enjoy). It mainly smells like honeyed, sugary cream, like dulce de leche or sugary condensed milk with vanilla bean mixed in-- definitely a gourmand scent, but not an overwhelming one. Cream doesn't always work on me, but this one does, and it lasts and lasts -- the throw is decent enough in the first few hours that I find myself wondering 'whats that great smell? oh it's me!' and even long after it's dried down I'll bring a wrist up to my nose to get a sense of it. Cream can sometimes go sour, or otherwise be completely underwhelming, but this for me is just perfect.

[Kanra]

I love all things pumpkin so when I found someone selling a bottle of this, I had to pick it up.

 

There is less pumpkin than I imagined, but in a world with many pumpkin BPAL options to be had, this is a good thing. It makes this a pumpkin that's different from the usual pumpkin spice or buttery pumpkin blends and stands out even in a pumpkin heavy wardrobe. This is more like a pumpkin flavored ice cream, or pumpkin flavored cream. The pumpkin is definitely there, but it's more there to add flavor to the cream part. While some brands have cream notes that don't work on me at all and make me feel nauseous, the lab does cream really well. I find their creamy blends -- The Witches included -- have cream which gives the fragrance texture almost rather than being way too dairy to handle and turning sour and nauseating. 

 

This is a super comforting blend, and almost reminds me a bit of a more pumpkin forward and less coffee dominant version of The Worst Pillow. Fans of it will likely enjoy The Witches too, unless you dislike pumpkin.

 

This is an incredibly wearable scent. While I personally am one to wear all of my wardrobe all year, if you coordinate your fragrances based on seasonal wears, I think out of every pumpkin I've tried this would be the best year round option. It doesn't automatically scream "fall". If you want a creamy, approachable pumpkin cream that stands out amongst many other pumpkin offerings, The Witches is a great pick. I will be keeping my bottle.

[lipstickonmyteeth92]

 Pumpkin cream, honey, vanilla sugar, and smoked vanilla bean.

 

A very smooth scent, on me it's mostly honey and smokey vanilla cream with a really subtle pumpkin in the background. It's really lovely, I like that it's not super foodie and it has an incredibly long throw, it's been twelve hours and still going strong. 

[vanilla_fiend]

OK, I smell: vanilla (see: my username; this is my top favorite BPAL scent), chocolate, honey, and pumpkin. I love wearing this to go to sleep and even put it on my special blankie, which would normally be heresy.