Occultation

[Ina Garten Davita]

Black velvet oudh, indigo musk, smoked patchouli, golden myrrh, and tree moss. 

[zankoku_zen]

I get lots of inky oudh, musk, and patchouli with an overlay of moss. It's mainly a dark, musky, patchy oudh. And oudh does strange things on my skin. Good throw and wear length, of course.

[mandragora369]

I love it! Oudh works great with my skin chemistry, so no surprise there.

 

It's a dark green aromatic mossy oudh. I don't really get any patchouli.  Great throw and wear length, I smell it hours later after application.

[supreme_c0rt]

I got such a different reaction from this one. It's brighter than I was expecting, and it starts out super quiet and subdued. I wouldn't classify this opener as black oudh at all -- quite the opposite, this is a warm, white-floral variety. Less heady punch than I normally get from oudh, but still has a punch. Rich golden mrryh and sweet moss trail right behind it. The patchouli grounds it in a vague sense of creamy woodsiness. I would tack this as feminine and straightforward. It does warm up as it dries --- takes a while, but the volume does increase after about an hour into full-throated, throwy sweet golden patch. This feels like a cousin of Bastet, from the oudh & patchouli side of the family.

Edited August 6, 2019 by supreme_c0rt

[Lucchesa]

This is what I want oudh always to smell like!  Black oudh is reliably terrible on me, so I wouldn't have chosen this, but it was generously gifted to me so I skin tested, and it's beautiful.  On me it's low-key, dark and deep, with the main player an oudh which is rich but not fecal.  Velvet is the operative word for this blend:  rich and luxurious and elegant.  Cool dark blue musk balances the warmth of the other notes.  Very grown-up.  With my chemistry it has low throw (normal for me, though oudh can be an outlier) and only average wear length.

[Madame Mew]

I received this as a frimp and did not check reviews or notes before testing. So glad I didn’t, as I probably would have hesitated to test it due to the notes. I do love moss and patchouli, but I never know what oudh will do or how indolic it will be. It’s not as dark of a scent as I had thought it would be by just glancing at the notes! It takes a turn from cool and bright to a bit warmer once the myrrh has time on the skin. Really nice! After an hour I can’t really pick out single notes, which is fine with me, as it’s a gorgeous blend. 

[monocainsheresy]

Aromatic patchouli-oudh. Green, blue, and shadowy.

For some reason I do not get "grown-up" vibes from this - I get incense in the woods while teenagers bounce around eating blue Fun Dip! Somehow my skin chemistry is throwing a tablespoon of bright blue sugar on top!

[ltrittipoe]

I wanted to love this one so much! Every note is absolutely beautiful, it should have been perfect! 
 

 

but.....

 

 

Baby Powder.  Specifically, Johnson & Johnson baby powder, original scent.   I don’t know how or why, but skin chemistry is weird.  I was sad.

[Little Bird]

I received a free sample of this in my latest Haute Macabre order and it's definitely not for me.  I agree with the previous review in that this is classic baby powder smell and I can't stand it 🤢.  I don't get any of the listed notes at all.  Baby powder single note.  And it's SO strong.

[Padparadscha]

My bottle of Occultation arrived fresh from Haute Macabre shortly after its initial release in 2019. When I first got it, it smelled surprisingly tame and soft for a blend that boasts oudh, patchouli, moss, and musk. I tested it after a very brief rest period and found it to be a strongly-feminine-leaning-unisex blend with an unexpectedly mainstream perfume-y vibe--but with some resinous depth. Think high-end, expensive witch shop with prime city real estate. Wearing today, it previously remained unused and stored in darkness with all my other BPAL bottles since its primary test run.

 

In the bottle: Soft and slightly mossy resins with a hint of musk. A deep and dark shade of "indigo" is exactly how this smells to me, like a starless night sky. There's also just the tiniest hint of non-gourmand sweetness to it.

 

Wet/top notes: I totally get the powdery qualities mentioned by others further up this thread. I could definitely see this going too powdery on myself depending on where I am in my moon cycle, but it's actually reading with a lovely almost-but-not-quite-floral quality: this must be that black velvet oudh combined with the moss. The indigo of the musk hints at something sweet, just like in the bottle, and I'm unsurprised someone else described their skin chemistry as throwing blue sugar on top. I definitely get more powder in the sillage, especially when I move my arms or toss my hair over my shoulder (for reference, I dabbed on my neck, inner wrists, and antecubital regions). Both moss and oudh can go powdery on me with moss tending towards herbaceous and sharp powder, but they're both behaving surprisingly well. I think the moss more than anything is contributing to the powdery quality. The patchouli, however, is so quiet that I wouldn't have even guessed it's here; this shocks me as my skin looooves patch and usually covers me in a nice, spicy, woodsy cloud of it, though I think the patch is the only thing keeping that oudh/moss combo from encroaching into baby powder territory. Up close to my skin, I'm getting this warm, luscious myrrh cooled slightly by the borderline-sugary musk. Projection is moderate.

 

Dry down/middle notes: After about 10-15 minutes, the powderiness fades as well as the sweetness; both are completely gone within 20 minutes. I still catch the ghost of them now and then, but this fragrance really warms up on my skin. Now myrrh comes forward more strongly and it plays so well with the patchouli. I can't get over how toasty and delicious that myrrh is; I wanna wrap myself in a blanket of it and never emerge. I'm even gonna say it's the same myrrh from Mummies of Mexico City. I still can't get over how quiet the patchouli is being! I always think of the Haute Macabres as patch-forward, but this patchouli is unbelievably polite. Comparatively, Haute Macabre OG and As Above are woodsy patchoulis and So Below is a coconutty/amber beach goth patchouli. If Revenant Rhythm (*I do not have the OG Banshee Beat and have neither smelt nor tested it) is sexy and tousled patchouli, then this one is patchouli with slicked back hair in evening finery and expensive jewels: this is $1500-for-a-plate gala attired patchouli. Sillage is minimal and projection is low.

 

Dry/base notes: This dries into such a gentle, warm, slightly musky, slightly spiced resin-fest on my skin and I am HERE FOR IT. The indigo musk keeps the myrrh, oudh, and patchouli at a whisper rather than a shout. It also gains a woodier quality after about an hour--perhaps the oudh coming back to say hello?--maybe just my skin playing with the patchouli? Sillage is nearly non-existent and projection is akin to a skin-scent. Primary life span of about 2 hours, nearly gone by hour 3, nonexistent at hour 4.

 

Verdict: Definitely skin test before purchase!!! Nothing about this oil was what I expected, but I actually ended up loving it precisely for its unexpected qualities. None of the notes I'm familiar with--oudh, patchouli, myrrh, moss--behaved like I'm used to (well, maybe the myrrh, but myrrh is sexy and she gets me), but they supported each other so well. No one vied for the top slot, with the exception of that moss-forward opening, and I found this to be a very well-blended fragrance that aged beautifully. Like its namesake, all of those traditionally strong notes were dimmed--dare I say occluded--compared to their usual behaviors. This doesn't knock my top HM oils out of their current standing and I definitely have to be in the right mood to wear this fragrance, but it is unique in my collection and I'm glad I have an entire bottle of it, if for no other reason than slathering and reapplication purposes. It doesn't last long for me, though YMMV. To reiterate: I cannot emphasize enough how much I recommend testing beforehand!!  Not me, though, of course--I blind bottled because I am clearly insane and I like to live dangerously 😎 Like my Pop Pop always said: "Do as I say, not as I do."

 

ETA: Okay, so, around hour 4.5-5, I'm smelling it again as a lovely musky myrrh skin scent. I definitely couldn't smell it at the 4 hour mark, but maybe I went nose blind and just experienced a lil bit of parosmia from all the excessive sniffing~ Family member told me they could definitely smell it on me with mild to moderate projection and that I smelt "pretty", like warm golden resins to their nose. Again, YMMV 🤷‍♀️

Edited September 9, 2022 by Padparadscha
ETA section