Alkemia Halloween Review

Review:

This is my first ever Alkemia Order!  When I saw the list of their Halloween scents, I  couldn’t help but order some samples to review.  Alkemia’s fragrances are beautifully complex and haunting, and I thoroughly enjoyed writing this review.

As usual, I’ll add some gifs that these fragrances remind me of, cause it’s fun.

Season of the Witch:

Site Description:

An otherworldly mystery of black pine pitch, dark myrrh, aged black amber, and ritual Samhain incense blended with Black Cavendish and Perique tobaccos, protective tsuga, divinatory bay leaves, and intuition enhancing black cardamon.

In the Bottle: This smells IDENTICAL to a witch shop in New Hope, Pennsylvania that I grew up going to and hanging out in as a teenager.  It brought me directly back to that place, I wonder what that specific incense is.  I’m assuming thats the ‘ritual Samhain incense’

Wet on the Skin: That incensy smell along with a peppery bite of cardamon.

Dried Down: Wow.  That black pine pitch and bay leaves give this scent a much unique quality than just your average witchy incense smell.  There is a darkness to this scent.  There is a sense of ritual to this, as if each individual note holds a purpose.

Overall:  This is a really *weird* and fascinating scent.  The pine pitch makes it earthy while also having that ritualistic incense quality.

Stag Moon:

Site Description:

A shape shifting blend of stag horn fern; deers tongue leaves; rum infused maple, birch, and cedar woods; oak moss, autumn musk, clove buds, autumn leaves, deer hide leather, and woodsmoke.

In the Bottle: The green smell of ferns and moss is so powerful and beautiful.  I can hear the crickets chirping deep in the woods.

Wet on the Skin: This is such an interesting green scent.  I don’t know what about this particular  scent of moss that makes it feel like a ‘nightime’ scent.  Maybe it’s the moisture and smokiness.

Dried Down: Once this warms into the skin the musk and sweetness becomes so beautiful.  This is a really complex scent that seems to evolve as you wear it.  There is an almost fruity sweetness which I’m assuming is the maple and deer’s tongue, and the smokiness surrounds everything beautifully.  The dry crunchy leaves pair well with the smokiness.  This becomes less green and more musky with time.

Overall: This is a gorgeous and very unique scent that I’m excited to wear.  It’s surprising how much my experience of it changed after it dried down.  This is a beautiful fall / winter scent.

All Hallows Eve 2018:

Site Description:

A scent of magic, mystery, remembrance, childhood nostalgia, and sweet blessings for darker times. This year’s batch is a little smokier and more gourmand – warm toasted marshmallows, drifting woodsmoke, black licorice, star anise, cardamon pods, sugared amber, tonka beans, and patchouli infused bourbon vanilla.

In the Bottle: An overwhelming sugary sweetness.

Wet on the Skin:  Sickeningly sweet like brown sugar being caramelized.

Dried Down: The pattern I’m noticing with Alkemia’s scents is they smell overwhelmingly of one note and as soon as they dry down, they become much more complex.  This scent is candy sweet but the bourbon vanilla, amber, and smoke adds a warmth that makes this so much more than a candy gourmand.

Overall: This is a warm, spicy candy scent.  The best way I can describe this is going to a seance in the woods that involves a bonfire after a night of trick or treating.

Blood Moon Eclipse:

Site Description:

An eerie blend of strange dry musks and blood tarnished old silver distilled within the lunar energies of our most primal dreams, fears, rebellions, and desires.

The longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century took place on the full moon of July 27, 2018. It was viewed by astrologers as a harbinger of intense transformation and change like a snake shedding its skin. Growth requires pain and sometimes loss… old wounds ache anew, anger must be summoned to give courage to break spirit free, energies to clash and crumble in a passionate dance of intense metamorphoses. Blood Moon Eclipse was started during the eclipse and steeped through several weeks of rebalancing afterward.

In the Bottle: Something sharp, which I believe to be the silver note.  I’m familiar with this from Sixteen92’s I believe in Mary Worth.

Wet on the Skin: *Chills Down Spine* yeesh.  This is a creepy one.  If you could smell moonlight and silver, this would be the scent.  It smells like emptiness.

Dried Down:  This smells like silver, neatly polished silver.  I smell dry musks with the slightest hint of a blood must.  This is eerie indeed, and I like it.

Overall:  As a witch, the fact that this was created and charged during the eclipse is very special.  This is a very unique scent that chills my bones, and something that will have a special place in my collection.

Dustceawung:

Site Description:

Dustsceawung is the contemplation of dust, worldly desires, and the ephemerality of all things… raspings that were once a tree, ruins that were once cities, bones that were once lovers. Dust is always the ultimate destination on our journey.

The scent of forbidden explorations and an olfactory meditation on dust… attic air, the inside of old trunks, abandoned haylofts, library stacks, and abandoned buildings.

In the Bottle: *cough* … dusty

Wet on the Skin: Yeah, that’s the smell I would expect if I opened a dusty chest in an attic and found a skeleton in that chest still wearing a wedding dress… if you know what story this is from we’re automatically friends.

Dried Down:  Along with the *cough* dustiness, there is now an earthiness.. almost a moldiness to this scent.  It smells cold, like a drafty attic full of cobwebbed boxes you want to dig through.  I used to explore abandoned buildings and houses where I grew up in New Jersey, and this brings that back.

Overall:  I love the idea of an olfactory meditation, a fragrance simply to relay a memory or vision of a place or time.  This hits the nail on the head.. dusty, dingy, and drafty.  Certainly not something to wear if you want to attract a mate, unless that mate is a dusty pile of bones in a cellar.

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