Crimson Peak 2015
Josefa Palsgrove
In Bottle: This is very clean smelling, and very very cold! Crimson Peak is my first personal brush with BPAL's infamous snow note, and it really lives up to expectations! It smells frigid and sharp, but undeniably fresh and clean. The red clay adds a deep level of something mysterious that is both lovely but equally bewildering. I can certainly picture this being the scent hanging in the air walking through the mansion gates in the winter time.
In the Bottle: Chilly, definitely earthy clay and dying/dead foliage in there! It reminds me of early winters in upstate New York where the dried leaves would pack together with mud and snow. Of course, that was over 15 years ago, but this is what I would imagine that would smell like. Fond memories of my Malamute and I in the back yard.
On the skin: About the same, but there's something astringent about the tone at first. I like it! Nice throw, I can smell it on my wrists and collarbone without bringing either closer to my face (which would be tricky to do with a collarbone anyhow haha).
Dry down: My skin keeps the clay earthiness with a little sharp tone left over. There's something a little sweet and musky that I can tell is rounding out the sharpness, but I've noticed that my skin loves to pop those sweet notes with BPAL in general. The sweet-musk is subtle enough that it melds together wonderfully. The throw isn't as wide, but I smell it once in a while without bringing it close. Especially when I get all warmed up - simple enough like running to the car to jump-start a coworker.
A few hours later: The clay earthiness has died down a little bit. It's leaned into the semi-sharp, sweet and musky tones. Throw's radius has diminished, but it's subtle presence is enough for me. Still loving it. So glad I got a bottle yesterday at Dark Delicacies!
I was hoping for an authentic clay scent, but Crimson Peak is all snow note on my skin. It's fresh, cold, ozonic snow, turning soapy and with a little undertone of what is smelling like spearmint in this blend. The drydown is like soapy dryer sheets, a hint of mint, and something like a sweet vanilla musk on my skin for some reason. I don't get any woods or earthiness.
I am not a big fan of snow or mint scents, but there is no way I could skip smelling and trying THE namesake perfume of this series, so I got a decant rather than my usual "go for broke" blind bottle buys.
Initially on my skin the snow is the dominant note, but it's not at all sharp the way some (most) of Beth's snow notes hit my nose. Snow White is headache-inducing on me and I can't wear it at all, and the Lick It scents also don't work on my skin. But this is softly falling snow, slightly minty, cold but not "freezing my brain" cold. There is a hint of something earthy, but there is no prominent earth, clay, or wood that I can detect. Definitely no scent of decay. In my mind, I had imagined the blood-red clay as including a blood note, and the decay as including a dirt note, notes which I love along with wood, but I really don't get them at all from this. It's very well-blended but remains snow-dominant throughout the wearing.
After 30 minutes, this has dried down to a lovely soft mint on my skin. I'm now waffling over upgrading to a bottle. The only wintry snow blend I have is Skadi, which I actually loved enough to buy a backup bottle. This is different enough to give me an alternative, and I might even try this as a sleep blend.
crimson peak starts off as a big unisex yule with hints of bpal's lovecraftian elements, and but dries down to something less cologne/perfume and more experience/environment. this smells like the best elements of a beautiful old house with a big chuck of roof missing that let's the outside weather in. the snow, the wood, the clay, the history. it's completely addictive and one of my favorites in a release that is pretty dang solid.
Just trying this for the first time today. Wet, the snow note is dominant. It smells like the same kind of slushy snow used in Frosted Silkybat hair gloss (which I love). As it dries down, the snow recedes to the background and the clay note emerges. It's earthy, smooth, and a little bit sweet. I'm catching a little bit of a metallic tang, and maybe a hint of vanilla. I'd say it stays pretty true-to-concept on me, but I wish that snow note had a bit more presence in the drydown. May have to try it in a scent locket, or paired with Frosted Silkybat.
Cold piney snow, hint of wood and clay. Honestly, Crimson Peak smells like it would be right at home as part of the traditional Yule update. Like a more masculine version of Ice Queen. And perhaps, slightly more sinister? Good throw, good wear length.
dry (hours later): The decay note is warm and almost... spicy, but in an herbal-ish sort of way, a little bit like sawdust. It reminds me a little bit of the loam in Penny Dreadful, but not quite, so I assume it was the red clay. The chill is surprisingly not entirely gone and it has a distinctively soft white floral. I think this is common to the snow note, actually, but it's rather pretty. So it's Allerdale Hall in the early stage, and Allerdale Hall with Edith walking the hallways after it's dried down considerably.
ETA: Those white flowers were definitely accompanied by a vanilla note, since, HOURS later, vanilla is almost all I smell. A slightly nuanced vanilla, but how strange to think it died down to that! This is a really unusual scent that could only have come out of this story and perfect expresses not only the house, but Edith too.
Wet: Something woody and sour, and then something metallic quickly takes over. Not as unpleasant as metal often is on me. There's something there softening it, just not sure what. It's quite intriguing. It reminds me of something, but I can't put my finger on what. I am liking this more than I thought I would. Really I just wanted to try it, but now this gorgeous snow note is coming out under the metal. This is really unique and special.
Dry: This is so interesting, and like nothing I've tried. The snow note in it is gorgeous, and blends so well with the metallic note that it truly smells like cold metal - like Thomas's metal machine sitting out in the cold snow. This perfume is like a journey. As it warms up and dries more and more, I move in from outside in the cold, standing beside that metal machine, and now I can smell the house, old and rotting - slightly sweet and woody. The snow is still dominant. It's kind of amazing, and so hard to describe as a smell, it's more of a feeling.
This is mostly slushy, minty snow on me. After it has dried down completely, there is a bit of a darker aspect, probably the wood and decay, coming out. It is pleasant enough, but would probably have been better as a room spray.
In bottle: Surprisingly sharp, with the snow note with the softer mint dominant, it blends very well with the wood. Clay accord is a subtle thing and works well in support of the wood here. The blood is subtle but pervasive, which makes beautiful sense given the concept. The design is perfect for what it is. This is too intense for me, so I'm not skin testing.
Beth is a sorceress, because this smells like a perfumy version of moldering house. I can't quite break down the accord--I think the perfumy element may be coming from some type of musk? It's sweetish, cloying in the first few minutes but then mellower afterward. And there's definitely a wood note but I'm not sure which wood. I can't decide if I like this as a skin scent, or if maybe I want to try it as a room scent, or if that'll just make me feel like the room is musty for real! But it's just fascinating, and a really cool experience. Hanging on to this decant for now while I figure out how I feel about it!
Waiter, bring me another! This really feels like I'm standing on the mines outside of the Sharpe manor in the cold.
It's got something sweet in there, but JUST enough really and I'm really digging that clay. Sniffing this gives me a chill down my spine every time because of the cold it emanates. Which is perfect.
I feel like I should hate it because it does have something moldy and old but man does it work in here. And it's not nasty at all.
My skin amps up that clay and coldness and I really can't get over this.
This is the most viscous and pigmented oil I've tried so far. I'm a little nervous to have worn a white shirt today This is very red right on application that sinks in yellow-orange and eventually absorbs/dries clear. I get quite a bit of the snow coming up right away along with something earthy and metallic. Soon the snow becomes a powdery mint (kind of reminds me of those See's candies at Christmas). It sweetens once the woods (or maybe another note, I'm not sure?) come in and actually ends up quite a bit sweeter than it started. The throw is very strong yay! It's actually quite sweet by now. At one point the throw for a couple minutes smelled exactly like my mom's holiday pizzelles. Sweet and slightly anise-y. Not what I expected given the decayed wood description but I quite like this. It's very wearable and the clay scent is subtle, giving it a slight deep earthiness. At the dry down like 8 hours in, the snow note comes back along with a bit of musky sweetness. This has *really* strong throw and lasted AGES on me. I really like this one! It has the strongest throw of any I've tried so far.
Oh wow, very woody, reminds me of an old-fashioned cologne, but it doesn't take long for the snow note to sneak in and it takes on an evergreen quality. I am not detecting any clay, it's not quite as decaying house in winter that I imagined as the snow note is overwhelming most everything now, and it smells more like a Yule-ish outdoors scent.
As if viewed through the eyes of a sweeping bird, a sense of space, expanse and calm is mirrored in the lush weavings of mauve veins intertwining across a luminous backdrop of stark white stone. A bold design that makes a dramatic statement, as unique in its contrasting shades of crimson and luminescent white, as the scene that inspired it.
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