Escape from the Autumn Carnival

[zankoku_zen]

Boot leather, flaming pumpkins, hay bales, and smoke.

[zankoku_zen]

Leather, hay, and a whiff of smoky pumpkins. This is mainly a brown leather and hay blend. Very masculine. And autumnal. Perfect for those haunted hay rides at midnight.

[Vaporeon]

This one is strong as heck. But once it settles down every note is detectable the whole time. It's snuggly worn leather with hay and sweet pumpkin. Im really enjoying it for outdoor autumn times.

[Roogna]

I have to be careful with pumpkin scents. I often amp them (though not the strongest thing I amp) to the point of not enjoying. But every now and then I find a good one. This is a good one. Though I may amp it just a little too much for my personal tastes.

I get mostly "warm" pumpkin (borders being foodie but isn't quite) and smoke (not bonfire). They hay mixes in nicely - enough that i'm not sure I would pick it out by itself, but knowing it's there, my brain latches on. 

I adore many of the Lab's leather blends. This one doesn't stand out as a "leather" scent, but my nose says it's there, like a grounding element beneath the other notes. 

Mostly smoky pumpkin. Very Autumnal. Makes me think of going to the pumpkin patch and going on a hay ride in a cozy sweater 

[a_bear]

This has definitely evolved since I tried it a month ago. Originally, the leather was super sharp. It's calmed down a bit, but in the bottle and wet, it's still a bit plasticky. It should be really lovely in another couple of months, I think.

 

I mostly get the darker scents from this, the leather and the smoke, though the smoke is like the smokiness of gunpowder green tea. There's something almost boozy about it. The hay and pumpkin that give it just a tiny hint of sweetness. If you want more sweetness, I feel like it would go nicely layered with something with brown sugar.

 

Strong and long lasting

Edited October 23, 2020 by a_bear
Cleaning up my old review, adding new thoughts

[fairybites]

Not sure of my bottle's age, but I'm thankful there's not much of a leather smell in this. It does smell a little like burnt plastic when first applied, but that went away pretty quickly.

 

I'm mostly getting the pumpkins with a whiff of smoke and some hay in the background. It's definitely a strong scent, but once you get over the wet stage I think this morphs pretty well! 

 

If you love the smell of pumpkin but don't want a completely foodie scent, this might be a good one to try out! If you were anticipating the leather note, I would still recommend this for layering at least. The leather note is there at first, but in my case the other notes totally overpower it.

[silverbottle]

I've had my bottle since 2019, and I'm glad it's had the time to sit.
 

When I first got it, I was disappointed, because it was entirely a really acrid leather. It smelled the way heartburn feels. Almost unwearable unless I layered it with other scents. (I do wonder if that was supposed to be the smoke, but if so, it was smoke from something chemical-y that shouldn't have been burned!) After time, it lost a lot of the acrid aspect and gained a strong cinnamon-like quality, but that was so strong that it obscured a lot of the leather.

Now, fortunately, the different aspects have melded together very nicely. I still get leather, but not acrid heartburn; the cinnamon-like scent has died down to a nice warmth; a new aspect, a bit like pumpkin pie, has come out and rounded out the scent nicely without pushing it too far into "foody" territory. Unfortunately, I don't recognize anything like hay in it, and I wouldn't say I smell smoke, but the current scent is comfortably warm and pleasant.

It lasts a long time, which is nice, and is strong without seeming to be overwhelming.

[artisjok]

I’m excited to try this scent, as Hoggle is a favorite. 
Escape features a pumpkin note that doesn’t work well for me, something about the spices. It quickly dissipates, though, and is overtaken by a lovely brown leather, very slightly spiced. I think I’m getting a bit of warmth from the hay, not much. No smoke here. 
 

Not bad, but I have other brown leathers, and  Hoggle still trumps as a pumpkin leather scent. 

[starbrow]

Ever since it came out in 2019, this is one that has called to me as a potential FANTASTIC permanent LE autumnal option. I was scared of the scary notes - leather eek! smoke eek! - and knew that the hay and pumpkin would probably be great. I finally got the opportunity to acquire a bottle and took a chance!

 

I know my tastes have definitely shifted in favor of leather these days, which is good because I get a ton of leather from Escape. It's a rich, swarthy leather; not plasticky to my nose, but very concentrated, like walking into a real old-fashioned leather boot store. The throw of it from a foot or two away, however, is softer and pleasantly warm. Flaming pumpkins join the party with a spooky gourd scent. This is one of BPAL's best pumpkins to me, cheekily spiced and a little woody. It's not as dark as The Empty House/The Shadowed Veil from 2019, but it's in the same league. There's some cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, a pinch of clove. But it's definitively pumpkin, rather than merely relying on pumpkin spice to bring the vibes.

 

The smoke that I was so worried about is no worry at all. It's a swirl of something thick in the air; it stays clear of the BBQ/char/headache note, and stays quietly and eerily in the background. The hay too is a low-lying note, just pleasantly grassy rather than being a big player, but I do recognize it from some of the beautiful Hay Moon/Hay & Clove/Harvest of the Empress scents, and it totally adds to the autumnal vibes. There's one more note that's unlisted but that both I and a friend identified: kettle corn! Just a hint of something sticky-sweet and popped-corny! Big popcorn/caramel notes tend to be a disaster on me, so this one is no more than a whisper, just enough to carry the smells of Halloween treats on the air. Delicious.

 

I'm really happy to have found a readily available BPAL that is so fall to me. Sometimes I'm afraid to gleefully apply the Weenie scents I have because I only have a limited amount of it. Escape from the Autumn Carnival, in stock year round at the lab, is going to get a heavy rotation, I already know it.