Descent

[Seajewel]

Blackened Pomegranate Rind, Pomegranate Seed, Sweet Myrrh, Pink Peppercorn, Velvet Lily, Spiced Red Rose Petals, Mullein, Champaca Blossom, Black Amber, 8-Year aged Indonesian Patchouli, Hay Absolute, Honey Accord, and Black Vegetal Musk.

[feyofthefellwood]

I am weirdly obsessed with this. It's lighter than I expected and well blended; I detect the black pomegranate (so good!) and champaca and hints of the rest, but the scent overall is kind of mysterious. It reminds me of older BPAL floral blends I've tried like Beatrice; it's kind of delicate and ghostly. The black musk is definitely there but so dark that my nose only detects it on a deep sniff. It's like one of those low frequencies in the universe beyond human hearing.

 

My only downside is that it goes a bit soapy after a while (maybe that's the lily?) and I don't detect much patch to balance the floral with more earthy notes. However, I have faith that this will deepen and get richer with rest and age (since my bottle is brand new). I am excited to see how it smells after a few weeks or months. 

[zankoku_zen]

This is a dark pomegranate-rose on a bed of resins blend. Dark, inky pom and roses. Good throw and wear length.

[skyturtles]

I'm thankful for the forumite that saw this on my wishlist and gave me a free sniffy with my order. Thankful because now I will not spend money on something I don't love! Descent is very department-store-perfume-counter on me. There is a bit of fruitiness from the pom, true, but I think there's just too much going on with the florals and the resins and the musks and the peppers and in theory it sounds great, but in reality it's kind of overwhelming and sharp.

[Diesis]

Much like Zankoku, this is a resinous pomegranate rose on me. As someone with too many bottles of 7 Word: Lust, this is closer to what I would expect of something Persephone themed. It has the floral spring note & that inky Pom note that blends with the resins so well. A very life & death altar scent. The honey is there awhile later, adding in to the thoughts with a dark smokey honey note rather than a sticky sweet one. It reminds me a lot of dark kiawe honey. The rest never really makes an appearance, save for a brief moment in the wet stage when I could find the hay note in the clamour of pomegranate & myrrh. 
 

I love this one. It’s a knock out of the park for the scent & visual it was after. Has a really nice wear length & a low throw with a nice sillage if someone follows directly behind. Gorgeous blend. 

[LavenderCoffee]

I absolutely adore the wet phase of Descent. Inky pom, spicy rose, myrrh! I can pick up on the pink pepper, the lily, the champaca, and even a touch of honey while the oil is still fresh on my skin. But as it starts to dry, the black musk slowly takes over. It's not too bad at first, but after 30 minutes it's all black musk with a dash of pom. I know my skin chemistry well enough to know I'm gambling every time I pick up a blend with black musk in it. Anyway sometimes it works out, but sadly this is not de-scent for me (ha ha). If you love a black musk though, and it loves you back, this is real good stuff.

[HerbGirl]

This is gorgeous...until that honey becomes detectable, which takes about 3 minutes. I kept hoping and hoping that I wouldn't smell it, that it wouldn't stomp all over the blend and ruin it but, for me it did. ☹️ 

[BetteNoire]

Slightly spiced pomegranate rose on a bed of the musk from Snake Oil. I blessedly don't get honey or mullein since those can be iffy, but I'm sure they're contributing somewhere. It's not the Hymn to Proserpine replacement I'd hoped for but it's a stunner, is just it's own separate thing.

[Little Bird]

Red rose, a sweet and juicy pomegranate, pink pepper adding a spicy bite, and the honey and lily adding a sensual complexity to everything, all on a bed of beautiful, resinous, sweet myrrh and amber.  I really love the peppery notes in this blend.  I love how all of the notes play together, actually, supporting each other perfectly.  It's very much a romantic date night scent, seductive and flirtatious, warm and red.  Around the 2 hour mark, it fades a lot and smells more like just a sweet, red to pink rose scent, but it's still charming, and it's worth reapplying to me.