Creaking Floorboards

[zankoku_zen]

Darkwood Victorian parquet floorboards faded with age, cracked and splintered, stained with the memory of spilled black tea, a cigarette burn, and blood.

[forspecial_plate]

Smells like clean polished woods.  More like fresh oiled new floorboards rather than dusty old splintered floorboards.  I can tell there's more going on in the background but none of the other notes stand out to me, it's all just blended together.  I'm finding it hard to describe what I'm smelling but something does remind me of another Bpal - but I can't place what it is.  This scent is pretty light and I had to apply a lot to get an impression of it.  I like it, I think it might be a good cozy scent for bleak gloomy overcast days.

[Angelshair]

To me this smells a dentist office! I don’t picture any of the wonderful descriptive notes listed above, all I can see is dentist tools and their gloved hands about to reach into my mouth! 
 

Maybe I’m mistaking the floor polish for the chemicals that dentists use, I don’t know. Creaking Floorboards is certainly nightmare inducing! 

ETA: after some rest, The black tea note has has really come out of hiding. The polish on the floorboards has warmed up making the overall scent not so dentist smelling aha. Regardless of that initial association, it’s been one of my favourite masculine leaning smells, just one of my favourites in general. I smell like the polished mahogany desk belonging to the well groomed son of a big oil lobbyist. There’s bloody and malevolent undertones weaving throughout the rich and opulent vibes I’m getting. Even though it’s a warm wood, the whole feeling it gives off is so cold and uninviting, hence why I choose to wear this on days where the weather is more gloomy or I’m not wanting social interaction. 

For those who like expensive smelling masculine scents, give Creaking Floorboards a chance! 

Edited March 8, 2021 by Angelshair

[DiesMali]

In the bottle: Murphy's Wood Oil Soap and some freshly-oiled oak cabinets. 

 

Wet on my skin: Freshly oil-soaped and polished oak furniture and a hint of gleaming ...leather? Yep. Something about the tea + blood + cigarette tobacco combines to smell decidedly like gleaming black leather, perhaps as a trick of my nose or because my skin sometimes does that to certain note combinations. 

 

Dry: This is definitely not what I was expecting, but I don't dislike it at all. It remains mostly the same as it dries, and smells very much like rich, freshly oil-soaped and polished oak chairs with polished black leather cushioning/backing. Clean, rich, and very masculine. This smells Vincent Price and Peter Cushing as they sit across from each other, at their immaculately-polished dining table, and drink black tea while discussing their concerns and curiosities regarding their friend Dr. Frankenstein's reckless new experiment. This is something I'd probably need to wear either to set a specific atmospheric mood or if/when I eventually get the courage to try the vampy drag king thing, but something that will be very useful to have on hand when I do need something just so. I bet this would be great for scenting my car, too, with a drop or two in a cotton ball stuck in my heater vent. 

[VetchVesper]

I'm really digging the Haunted House collection this year.  Most of them, I don't need a full bottle of, but the scent experience has been great.  In general, they're very atmospheric.

 

I was expecting cedar from Creaking Floorboards (a troublesome note for me) but I'm not getting any here.  This is warm, dark woods at first, very smooth.  I don't get tea, but I'm getting a definite spice note that includes clove.  The cloves give the fragrance sort of a smoldering quality, like the cherry of a cigarette.  I really like this phase.  I'm not huge on woody fragrances, but this one strikes me as unusual.  It leans masculine and manages to be both comfortable and formal at the same time.  I could see this dude in jeans and a sweater or a tuxedo. 

 

The clove starts to lend a coolness to the warm wood, and then a bit of "blood" tang creeps in.  Finally, the wood turns from polished parquet to identifiable vetiver.  It's a nice vetiver, but I preferred the parquet.  It hasn't lasted as long as I'd expected (around 3 hours) but that may be do to my chemistry and/or might improve with age.  If you like woody perfumes or the smell of antiques and old houses, I'd try to get a sniff of this one.  

 

ETA:  Wanted to add, I think my nose was actually picking up the tea earlier, b/c I thought I got a faint tinge of anise, and then was like... naaah.    So yeah, the lab's black tea with the spiced quality (especially the clove) coming up strongest for me.  

Edited December 15, 2020 by VetchVesper

[supreme_c0rt]

Floorboards is sort of like a cross between Dorian and Hailstorm of Knitting Needles, but with an unsettling base note of dried-out cigarette tobacco and something I can only describe as ... musty air. The stale air inside a shuttered room in an abandoned house that is filled with old dusty lace and scattered paper. There's also an ink note that comes out more and more as it dries. It is quite spoopy, quite creppy, but also somehow wearable. If you like Dorian or Hailstorm but want, like, HAUNTED versions of those, this might be right up your alley. 

 

Fully dry, LICORICE appears in a jump scare!

 

Edited January 4, 2021 by supreme_c0rt

[Lucchesa]

Creaking Floorboards doesn't exactly shine with my skin chemistry.  I was hoping for dark, spicy, smoky woods, which is what the imp smells like, and all I really get is dusty.  I would have loved to pick up an anise note or any of the listed clove, but my skin often obliterates the tea note, and the spices seem to have gone with it.  Sadly disappointing on me:  I wish it would smell on my arm like it does ITI. 

[patina]

I get something medicinal. I can see how some people would get something a bit like licorice. But on me it's medicinal in a pleasant way. I do get black tea and traces of tobacco staining wood. Wood often goes very faint on me so I'll have to return to this review later, but for now my impressions are that this is relaxing and would be perfect for a dark rainy day.

 

EDIT: I really love this one, actually. I suspect the woods are teak and oak. They work well with the tea and ashy tobacco. It doesn't have super wear length, but it's probably my favorite "creepy house" scent.

Edited February 7, 2021 by patina

[SophieCedar]

I can smell the black tea and what I perceive as parquet floor lacquer? I see the dentists office association for sure. It smells very similar to that putty stuff used to make mouth impressions. Great. Now I can't undo that association. Ohhh Seymour...!

[Sangria2]

I can't decide if I like this one or not.  In the imp it's all warm leather and wood.  Upon application YIKES it's like I walked into a Cavender's Boot City that just waxed their floors.  Once it dries a bit, the most prominent note for me is the slight tang I associate with Bpal's blood, very similar to the blood note in The Chilling Cellar from eons ago.  It's backed by a smoked dusty sweetness from the tea and overall very earthy on me.  My sister says I smell like dirt, but not in a bad way.  If I focus and sniff really hard I get the impression of wood waaaay in the background.

 

It wears really close to the skin.  The dry phase is better than the wet.  I need to ponder this one a bit more, I think.

[fairybites]

Polished wood and smoke are the main notes I get from this. Tea is there but it smells more like the leaves to me. Not getting any blood at all. The throw is very strong on this at first, but it does fade within a few hours. 

 

This is so unlike anything else in my collection so I'm glad I got to try it, however I am not a fan of this. It's too strong and I'm getting more of the polished wood than the smoke I was anticipating, plus the lack of the blood note on me was a bummer. No upgrade for me.

[Teasandtoast]

I love this in the imp - my favorite of the Weenies - but my skin eats it up.  No bottle for me.

[zankoku_zen]

Smoky black tea, cigarettes, and wood. Whiff of blood. Medium throw and wear length.

[tinyvulture]

I love blends that really give me “haunted house” vibes and this is one of them.  Warm polished woods, tea, clove, tobacco, dust, yes, those are present. But this blend also captures stillness, emptiness, an abandoned place with a past. And THAT is a vibe I love.

[torischroeder9]

I wrote a review, then my computer decided to restart and install updates, and so my review comment didn't save. Foo.

 

Fortunately, it's not much of a morpher on me. I get dusty woods, a little tea, a little smoke, and -- yes, something that I can see where some say wood polish and some say other chemicals or disinfectants. It actually reminds me most of some of the leather notes from the Lab, generally leather I read as "new." 

 

It's actually a fairly pleasant scent overall, though, woods and -- I'm going to say -- leather and tea and just a bit of smoke. I don't get blood, but I don't mind. This is all on the drier end of things, with the tea keeping it from being too abrasive. 

 

I don't know that it's quite good enough on me to seek out a bottle, but it's definitely a fun atmospheric to have tried. 

 

[alyelle]

In the imp: Floor polish, a smear of eucalyptus mop water, and strong black tea.

 

Wet: Bay, tea, cigarette smoke, and something goopy and tangy that's not quite blood. Movie set blood.

 

Dry: I might have accidentally thrown the whole decant over myself. Very bay, and loads of tea (black, no sugar); cigarette ash if I sniff for it. Not so much blood, tbh. Unfortunately I had to go wash it off, so I can't speak to life or eventual morph. Reasonably strong throw, made stronger by the sheer amount that got on me. 

 

Stars: ★★★

[LavenderCoffee]

My best friend growing up lived in an older house with hardwood floors - I lived in a newer subdivision and we had carpets - and I thought her house was magical. Not sure if it was haunted, but this is definitely taking me back to hanging out in her living room and dining room, which was one large space in which there were usually plenty of people congregated. I know I am probably biased because of this scent memory, but the tea note with the wood is really something special, very cozy and lived-in.