Sixteen92 Fall 2019 & Halloween Collections

As soon as September rolled around, the Indie world began dropping everything warm toned and pumpkin scented. Fall is apex indie season, and for many small business, is their biggest, most important season. This is certainly for Sixteen92, the dark and witchy perfume lover’s favorite. They put out two collections as the days get shorter and the weather gets chillier – one Fall Collection, and one Halloween Collection. Since I’m a member of their circle, I get samples of every collection pre-launch. Here are my reviews of every scent in both collections. Enjoy!

Fall 2019

Darkness Was Enough

Brand Description: //  ‘Salem’s Lot, 1975  //  Ancient woods, beeswax candles, spiced honey, charred amber, saffron crocus

First Impression: This smells immediately like an old, dusty witch shop. There’s intense incense but also an atmospheric candle and book scent.

Overall: This is spicy and sinister as it dries down. The honey isn’t overly sweet or overpowering. The saffron adds an autumn harvest type of scent, sort of like hay. There is also an element of smokiness to the entire scent that adds to the darkness of it. With time, the smokey honey lingers the longest. This lasts about 3 hours on my skin and has a decent throw. I like it, but I wouldn’t repurchase.

Dead is Better

Brand Description: //  Pet Sematary, 1983  //  Sharp fir needles, cracked asphalt, wild blackberry thorn, grave mud, cold fur

First Impression: Ooooh I love the realistic fir tree smell here. It’s not fake or syrupy like a christmas candle, but crisp like you’re in the middle of a pine forest. I also smell Sixteen92’s signature earthy atmospheric. I immediately love this.

Overall: This is so perfect for the story of Pet Sematary, which is one of my favorites from Stephen King. This smells like a late fall pine forest with decaying leaves. This is unique to any of the other Sixteen92 atmospherics that I’ve tried because of the thorns and greens that were added along with dirt, fur, and asphalt. This is wonderfully earthy and definitely gives me the feeling of the first chill of winter. This lasts about 3 hours on me and has a pretty decent throw, so apply sparingly. I would definitely consider getting a full size of this, but Sixteen92’s Lycanthrope is fairly similar, so I held off.

Loser’s Club

Brand Description: //  It, 1986  //  Rain-drenched iron, distant circus lights, candy floss, a red balloon

First Impression: This is sweet and gourmand right off the bat, with something underneath, like wood chips or corn stalks?

Overall: As this wears, it’s much more complex. I would consider this an atmospheric, even with the sweetness of the candy floss. The balloon gives the scent of rubber, but not in an artificial way, more like hot rubber from tires. The iron must be what is giving me that atmospheric sense of a circus, but I do still smell something along the lines of dry grass, wood chips, or broken twigs. This lasts for about 2 hours on me and has an average throw. I did immediately purchase an EDP of this perfume because I collect Stephen King’s It memorabilia – it’s my favorite book + series of movies since I was young.

Mind Over Matter

Brand Description:  //  Carrie, 1974  //  Sheer vanilla, black tea with milk, silver iris and delicate lace slashed with bright red musk and glowing embers

First Impression: There’s a spiciness right off the bat mixed with the most stunning antique vanilla scent I’ve ever exerpienced. The spiciness is half a burning smokiness and the other half… moth balls? But in a good way?

Overall: I immediately fell in love with this fragrance and purchased an EDP full size. I love vanilla fragrances, some of my favorites being White Fox from Solstice Scents and Poesie’s Twice to Tea. This is 100% unique, and captures Carrie as a character perfectly. It’s a delicate, soft vanilla that has the innocence of Carrie, along with the sinister edge of a dark musk and burning embers. The tea and iris also brings the element of supernatural depth that reminds of Carrie’s telekinetic abilities. This is another favorite Stephen King story of mine, and my favorite from this collection. This lasts about 3 hours on my skin and has a light to medium throw.

Redrum

Brand Description: /  The Shining, 1977  //  The muffled din of a ghostly masquerade party – faint clink of champagne flutes, a ticking ebony clock, expensive furs, hazy hallways, and specters moving through shadow (premium)

First Impression: I immediately get the sense of an old rich person on the titanic. There is the scent of expensive perfume that your great aunt, the bougie one, wears and the entire room can smell it.

Overall: Overtime, the perfume scent is still strong, but there are also deep notes of polished wood and fur. I want to love this because it does smell exactly like how I imagine the ghost party in the Shining to smell like, but it is a little headachey for me.

Halloween 2019

The Book of the Beast

Brand Description: Wet leaves, burned parchment, a roaring bonfire, inky night sky, a slice of leftover birthday cake

First Impression: This is interesting.. sweet cakiness mixed with a toasty charred wood smell. The smokiness is so realistic and autumnal.

Overall: This is beautiful, the perfect mixture of sweet and dark woods. The cake isn’t overly or sickly sweet, and the smokey woods and burning parchment smells exactly like a fall bonfire in the woods. This really smells like woods as the weather gets cooler. I love this! This lasts about 3-4 hours on my skin and has a big throw, so use sparingly.

Malum Malus

Brand Description: Apple peel, autumn hayride, dense corn maze, sugar pumpkin, twisted bark

First Impression: I immediately love this. This is the perfect scent match to apple picking after a hayride. It smells so real and atmospheric, with crisp, crunchy apples.

Overall: This is my instant favorite from this collection. The apple isn’t overpowering or synthetic smelling at all. It weirdly smells like cold air, I’m not sure how that’s possible. The woods and hay smell so warm and toasty. I just love this scent, it’s he perfect autumn fragrance. This only lasts about 2 hours on my skin and has a medium throw. I immediately bought a full size of this.

The Path of Night

Brand Description: Black oak & acorn, blood moon, sticky benzoin, frankincense tears, votive candles, cold snakeskin

First Impression: This smells like smokey ritualistic incense right off the bat, and I love it. This is dark and spooky.

Overall: This is a more mature, deep autumn scent. The blend of incense is perfect and it smells like the inside of a chapel or an elderly witch’s cabin with a cauldron brewing. This has a wide throw and lasts longer than most of Sixteen92’s blends do on my skin, about 4-5 hours.

Thank the Dark Lord

Brand Description: Spiced caramel toffees, soft wool scarf, witch’s herbs, cardamom latte, a tray of warm cookies

First Impression: This smells like a sugary fall latte from Starbucks. It’s super sweet and gourmand.

Overall: This gets much more complex with time, and the cardamon adds something more unique than just a Pumpkin Spice Latte. This is definitely a gourmand, but a sultry autumn gourmand. This has a wide throw and lasts about 4 hours on my skin.

Unseen Arts

Brand Description: Potion-stained vials, ancient stone floors, dusty relics, wisps of cauldron smoke, soft velvet, black vinyl

First Impression: This is how the Slytherin part of the Hogwarts castle would smell. Cold, moist stone walls, weird stuff in jars, swishing cloaks, and bubbling cauldrons. I love this, it sets a scene.

Overall: As this warms into the skin, the velvet and vinyl unfold. This smells like a cold, stone room that has dust and piles of old.. stuff. The dust note comes out more with time, and it smells really realistic. This is 100% an atmospheric that gives the vibe of a dungeon. This has a medium throw and lasts 2-3 hours.

Overall, I absolutely love both of these collections. The Halloween collection is definitely more of a traditional Fall collection, with sweet and spicy harvest smells. The Fall Stephen King Collection has more depth and storytelling to me. My favorite of all was ‘Mind Over Matter’ because I haven’t smelled anything like it from Sixteen92 or anyone.