Sixteen92 - Halloween 2020

fall is always such a wonderful season in the year, and even more so when it comes to scents.

as part of my Circle membership subscription for 2020 with Sixteen92, the second package for the year arrived in mid-september and contained pre-release samples of both the Fall 2020 and Halloween 2020 collections. the samples arrived in perfect condition without any leaks or spills - each collection comprised five 2ml sample vials which had been securely packed in a small ziploc bag and placed in a plain box. as with Sixteen92's releases, each collection also came with a pretty postcard listing all the scent notes!

even though both collections arrived in the same package, i've split up the reviews for the sake of brevity (and also timeliness), seeing as these had arrived barely a few days shy of their official public release and i was really itching to get my paws on these.

the Halloween 2020 collection is inspired by, surprise surprise, the Addams family. overall, the scents had a moderate throw of more than a foot, and lasted for about 2-3 hours of wear on my wrist. out of the five in this release, one was love at first sniff, two were pretty good, one wasn't bad but wasn't really my thing, and one wasn't quite what i was expecting. 

literally first up, 0001 Cemetery Lane (Crunchy decaying leaves, burning cedar and pine tar, crumbling limestone, deadly nightshade, desiccated herbs, chilly autumn rain) which is accurately described as a "chilly autumnal atmospheric"

the first sniffs from the bottle reveal that the dominant notes are the dry leaves / herbs, with a light cool chill over it all. on application, there's an initial hit of smoke and burning which fades within the first fifteen minutes, though other than that, the dry leafiness remains the star of the show from beginning to end. with the drydown, there's also a slight sweetness that comes out to make the leaves slightly more wearable. 

this is surprisingly realistic, as if Sixteen92 had magically captured the essence of a dark forest under the stars and trapped it in this little vial. top marks for realism (you can put this in a diffuser, close your eyes and really believe that you're in a dark forest at night), though as a perfume i have to say it's lovely, it's subtle, but personally a tad underwhelming for me. 7/10.

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i was pretty much expecting Dead Man's Curve (Pipe tobacco, smooth cognac, ebony woods, oakmoss, warm clove, black wool, a rapier wit) to blow me away from the notes, and oh boy, it delivered.

sweet, smoky wood scents are my Achilles heel, and this is a great one. 

in the bottle, the unbelievably-smooth cognac blends so well with the smoke to give a lovely refined sweetness that was near impossible for me to stop huffing long enough to actually get it on my wrist. when i finally did though, the woody foundation comes out more and some greenery with the clove surfaces as well. i'll be honest - i loved this a lot more in the bottle than on application because the addition of the clove was a personal turn-off for me, although i can appreciate the complexity that it was intended to bring with the spice.

9/10 in the bottle, unfortunately 7/10 on application. will definitely use this in a diffuser or something, since it's possible that i'm amplifying the cloves a bit more than usual. if it works out, i'm going to pounce on a full-size; if it doesn't work out, i've got my eye on several other similar scents from the house because this is all the proof i need that their tobacco and cognac notes are mind-blowingly amazing.

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i had high hopes for Just A Curse. Have A Nice Day! (Dusty tea leaves, ancient musks, inky patchouli, rare spices, a smattering of ritual incense), imagining that this would turn out to be something dark and smoky with a good element of spice and slight nuances of herbs and tea.

however as things turned out, the tea leaves were really really really strong, much more dominant than i could have expected. in the bottle, this perfume is remarkably similar to the smell of the dregs of an extremely strong pot of chai, earthy and bitter with a touch of spice. the patchouli here is far from being a sweet one, and blends well with the tea leaves to amplify a harsh bitterness. 

the scent doesn't change much on application, save that it's slightly easier to detect a touch of smoke from the incense. niche fans who have been searching for a truly realistic bitter tea leaves perfume may want to check this out, but personally i found this way too herbal and bitter for my liking. 

waste not, want not - similar to how i take my tea, i think i'd have to layer this with a good honey in order to finish up this little sample vial, because it's not something i can envision myself wearing on its own. 2/10.

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next in the collection was Querida (Blood red roses, Ceylon cinnamon, smouldering resins, sensual golden amber, and an ethereal swirl of opium) which was billed as a "dark and seductive resinous floral".

the soft rose was the first thing that hit me after opening the vial, though what started off seemingly as a straightforward floral gained much more depth on application as the resins and amber came into play. the cinnamon brought a nice little zing to the scent, which i found overall to be quite well-blended and a lovely take on a rose without being too moody or sultry. 

there was a brief period about half an hour into the wear when this reached a great balance between all of its components, but it became a little too far skewed towards the resins with the rest of the drydown, and unfortunately it turned out that wasn't really my thing. 4.5/10.

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last but definitely not least in my book, what would Halloween be without any candy? the gourmand notes come out to play in This Is My Costume (An autumnal cornucopia of sugar pumpkin, smoked vanilla, maple sap, honeycrisp apple, coffee liqueur, and blackened marshmallow) which, no surprises, turned out to be my favourite of the collection.

accurately described as a "warm and slightly boozy Autumnal gourmand", this is a scent that is complex and mature enough to be worn by adults, while still being sweet enough for anyone young at heart. in the bottle, this is just yum yum yum - the honey and maple bring a decadent sweetness to the table, and the combination of the smoked vanilla and melty marshmallow add some great nuances as the scent develops. and on my skin, the perfume gains an added dimension as the coffee note peeks out shyly to give a lovely contrast.

i would have immediately full-sized this if not for the fact that i'm already buried in smoky fall gourmands. difficult decision, but this is oh so fun to wear, a perfect Halloween night scent. 8.5/10.

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this review is of scents that i had purchased at regular price with my own money. i wasn’t asked to review these scents as a condition of receipt and didn’t receive any incentives for writing this. i’m not affiliated with Sixteen92 and as always, all opinions remain my own.

the Sixteen92 Halloween 2020 collection has been released here. prices are US$5 for a 2ml sample, US$14 for a 6ml bottle and US$22 for a 10ml roll-on (before shipping).

all information correct at time of publishing.