Labyrinth Scent Reviews - Jareth and 13 Hours

Beth from Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs had been dangling the possibility of a Labyrinth scent line over her adoring fans' heads for quite some time, as I understand it.  Since I'm a relative newcomer to the BPAL forums (October 2011), I think I missed out on the beginning speculation...but boy am I glad to have been there for the unveiling of the first five scents in the collection.

If you haven't seen Labyrinth - I have no words. Go find it, rent it, buy it, watch it...and get back to me.  It's a miracle of Jim Henson muppeteering and David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King goodness, and it is a MUST watch for any female over the age of oh, say... 12. 

Beth worked closely with the Jim Henson company on this line, plus she's just a genius, so I had high hopes for this collection and as always, Beth never disappoints.

She started out the line (I expect there to be additions later, there's no Sara scent yet), with these five: Jareth, Hoggle, Goblin Cider, 13 Hours, and Fairy Bites.  I've only had time to skin test 13 Hours and Jareth, so those are the ones I'm reviewing here - expect more reviews from this line when I've had time to test the rest.

The BPAL site's description of 13 Hours is: "A scent of profound foreboding: dusty black stone, dried rosehips, black moss, and creeping ivy".   Stone in perfume form? Intriguing.  First whiff out of the imp I get the rosehips and ivy.  Slightly sweet and green, and lovely. Almost a wistful sort of scent.  Wet, on me, the stone comes out. Yep, that's dusty stone all right.  I have no idea how Beth pulled that off, but it is definitely a stone smell.  As it dries, it ends up being stone and rosehips and ivy with maybe a touch of the black moss.  It smells a lot more pleasant than it sounds, but it is a masculine-leaning scent. I'm going to have Chris try it and see what it does on him.

The reviews at the BPAL forums for Jareth had me worried.  A lot of the reviews, in fact, I'd say a majority of them, compare it to another BPAL scent, Dorian - which is one that not only did not work on me, it downright HATED me.  The description on the site reads: "Ethereal lilac fougere and gleaming leather with ti leaf, tonka absolute, white musk, and oudh".  From wikipedia, fougere is defined as "meaning "fern-like", and is one of the main families into which modern perfumes are classified, with the name derived from the perfume Fougère Royale for Houbigant formulated by the perfumer Paul Parquet. The class of fragrances have the basic accord with a top-note of lavender and base-notes of oakmoss and coumarin." Lilac is usually a big winner for me though, though lavender is not. This is also the first time I'd tried Beth's leather note.  White musk and tonka though, usually do work on me, so I was really anxious to give this a try.

In the imp, I don't get knocked down by Dorian, so I was relieved right off the bat.  I'm not sure I'm getting lilac, exactly, but I do get floral with something more masculine in the background.  Yes, Jareth is definitely a masculine scent (which I had actually hoped for).  When it dries, it's lilac and leather with a bit of sweetness from the tonka and white musk.  Delicious...but again, masculine.  Another one to have Chris try. 

Don't let my reviews scare you off trying these if you happen to be female, though - as I mention with every scent review I do,  everyone's skin chemistry is different, and your experience may be completely different than mine with a particular scent.

Also, the obligatory FTC disclosure: While I'm Facebook friends with Beth and hang out at the forums, I bought the decants of the scents from a fellow forumite, Beth has no idea I planned to review them, and I was not compensated in any way for this review.