It's gotten cold really quickly this year in the Midwest--it's not even Thanksgiving and the remnants of our poor old jack o' lanterns are frozen solid on the porch in piles of snow. So I almost feel like I should be long past reviewing pumpkin scents already, and thinking of snowy perfumes instead... but I have a full set of this year's Pumpkin Patch series from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, and wanted to review Pumpkin III (2014) this week.
I believe BPAL releases a Pumpkin Patch series every year at Halloween--last year it was a set of their bestsellers with a pumpkin note added, like Alice in the Pumpkin Patch, Snake Oil in the Pumpkin Patch, Dorian in the Pumpkin Patch, etc. This year doesn't seem to have a particular theme to the scents, but the label art all features the winners of last year's pumpkin carving contest (my favorite label is Pumpkin IV).
Price: $23 for a 5 mL amber glass bottle of perfume oil with polyseal cap.
Samples: Not available for this scent.
(More details about price and shipping can be found in our Company Overview post about Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.)
Description from the website: "Pumpkin with Atlas cedar, black fig, Laotian benzoin, bourbon vanilla, and copal."
I met a friend at a bar the other night. I gave him a hug, and he said, "Have you been baking?"
I said "no," and he continued, "You smell like you've been baking. Something smells really good." It was, of course, Pumpkin III that I was wearing, and since it was warm in the bar, I was standing in my own personal fog of intense pumpkin spice sillage. Thank God he didn't say "Something really reeks"...
Somehow I expected this to be more of a sophisticated, incensey scent because of the Atlas cedar and copal, but it's quite gourmand. The sweetness of the fig and pumpkin definitely take the forefront, making the perfume smell a bit like Fig Newtons, or some sticky date-based confection.
Pumpkin is actually a pretty problematic note for me in perfumes. I got excited about pumpkin scents the first year I got into perfumes, but quickly learned that they generally weren't for me--I got tempted into ordering decants of the Pumpkin Patch this year, though, because they just sounded so good. All the supporting notes in every perfume sounded amazing to me this year, so I figured I'd give pumpkin perfumes a second chance, even though BPAL's general catalog scent Jack made me feel like puking last time I smelled it.
I actually like the pumpkin note in this perfume--it smells a bit green to me, like the scent of fresh, raw pumpkin when you're carving jack o' lanterns. But the fig makes it really sweet, and despite the warm, round basenotes of copal, vanilla, and benzoin, and the dry Atlas cedar, something in the perfume gives it a cinnamon-allspice pumpkin spice vibe, making it definitely pull to the sweet and spicy side of things. The longer it wears on my skin, the less sweet and more spicy it seems to get.
I'm on the fence about this scent, although I do always love getting compliments on my perfumes, so my friend's positive reaction is swaying me towards liking it more. (As an aside, apparently pumpkin and lavender have been scientifically proven to be the sexiest scent combo for men? I don't think I have any pumpkin-lavender perfumes, but it sounds kind of gross. Lisa says it's a good combo, though, and I trust her opinion...)
It's kind of too sweet for me, particularly right after application, when it's at its Fig Newton-iest and almost reminds me of the smell of raisins, and I'm not sure I like the idea of smelling like holiday potpourri from the pumpkin and spice combination. However, the more it dries down, the more I like the sweet-spicy scent on my skin. I think it will be one of those perfumes I save for certain moods and certain seasons. (Or for meeting up with certain friends?)
For other reviews of Pumpkin III and other scents in the 2014 Pumpkin Patch collection, you can also check out the BPAL forums.
Note: this scent is vegan.
0 comments:
Post a Comment