To Kindle a Flame in Our Frozen Veins

[Eleven11]

Till they say, as they hear us - poor dead, poor dead! -
"Just an hour of this, and our age-long bed -
Just a thrill of the old remembered pains
To kindle a flame in our frozen veins,
Just a touch, and a sight, and a floating apart,
As the chill of dawn strikes each phantom heart -
For it's turn of the year and All Souls' night,
When the dead can hear, and the dead have sight."

The dead's cold black flame: opoponax, elemi, juniper, black musk, leather, and wilted mint.

Straight out of the box this is just the blackest most hateful mix of industrial grime and dry rotted leather. It's absolutely ghastly. But don't give up on it! It just needs some time to settle. I sped this up by leaving the cap off for a bit and now it's much more polite.
In my first sniff notes I wrote down that this smells like demonic windex.

In the bottle: Juniper often has a hint of cat pee to it but this does not. It's a nice needley scent with some mint drifting over a subtle black grime.
On the skin: The mint becomes the strongest note, there is a threat of pine scented cleaner and the grime dances around the edges.
Dry: The mint and juniper have taken a back seat and it's become something almost parallel to Streets of Detroit.
Verdict: I'm really impressed with how much it improved over the course of 24 hours and I hope it retains it's semblance to SOD.

[crimescenecleanup]

Oof. I tested this, and got very new, very strong leather.

 

It is a rare leather blend that works on me, and this isn't it.

 

The rest is bitter medicinal herbage...it strongly evokes old-fashioned horehound cough syrup or drops. There is no horehound in this, so it must be the mint and juniper combining with bitter resins that gives that impression.

 

On drydown, the black musk is there, a constant backdrop, and as Eleven11 said, it is grimy. Almost like motor oil.

 

On further drydown, the leather, mint, and juniper become even sharper and clearer. The cough drop effect is fading.

 

Although I don't detect any camphor in this, I'm starting to get that camphor crystal effect that I get from TAL's Jinx Removing oil, where you get a chill just from smelling it.

 

The effect is pretty amazing, as it really gives the impression of both heat - both fire and body heat (the smoky and animalic tones in the resins, musk, and leather) - and of shocking, freezing cold.

 

This is a mean, scary, icy scent. Leather and resin lovers, take note of this one. It is not my cup of tea at all, but it is definitely a work of art.

Edited October 21, 2016 by crimescenecleanup

[Jenjin]

Yes! I jumped headfirst into this one, mostly because of the opoponax. I'm getting a strong whiff of spray cleaner right away! Yeah, it's minty, soapy industrial and gritty. This is definitely not something i can personally wear, but can certainly see it blowing some minds out there. BOOM~ The leather sits right on top, and it's very refined and upscale in a way. This is black and shiny glistening evil with fangs, and it's pulling me in. There's a clean, scrubbed feeling from it that gives me visions of extremely sexy beasts--oh no! I gotta say if my lover had this on, I would be completely out of control. The End

Edited November 7, 2016 by Jenjin

[zankoku_zen]

Black leather, musk, and a touch of white florals. NOPE.

 

This is like DeSade but muskier and a touch of white florals. Good throw and wear length.

[theredkilt]

This smells like a woody-herbal-chypre men's cologne from the 70s. The opoponax lends a waxy texture and together with the leather and musk smells like a mild candle black smoke with a dry mint undertone.

[hazakaza]

I just got a bottle of this on a whim secondhand since I wanted to try more leather blends, and I have to say I'm delighted I did! Black musk is one of my favorite notes and can save even odd blends that shouldn't work on me. It really oils up the leather--makes it more supple, spicier even, almost moving towards the powdery-spice that really old Snake Oil gets. The mint / leather / elemi combination is very reminiscent in the top notes of Volt, which I also love, but instead of being crisp and clean and electric, this is Volt after-hours, or the gritty reboot of Volt: darker, sexier, underscored with warm black musk. The juniper is definitely front and center on my skin, which marries really well with the mint-leather-elemi and honestly makes me wonder if there isn't some of it in Volt as well. It doesn't come off smelling like gin, though--it comes out smelling like the dried juniper berries I crush up for a special marinade I make. It's a wonderful, sexy scent--decidedly masculine, which I don't mind in the least.