purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth
About Midnight (Plagues of Egypt, 2015): Judgement rendered: vanillic sandalwood, holy balsam, cedar, and frankincense.
Angel of Death (Plagues of Egypt, 2015): Aged frankincense and white sandalwood gilded by a richly spiced agarwood.
Fire Mingled with the Haile (Plagues of Egypt, 2015): Fields smashed by torrential rain, seared by gouts of celestial fire.
Smite All Thy Borders with Frogges (Plagues of Egypt, 2015): Amphibious green musk with bog moss, benzoin, Mountain sage, Brazilian vetiver, tomato leaf, cucumber pulp, and unripe squash.
*****
About Midnight is sweet vanilla and chewy wood-resin in the vial. Wet it's a rather marshmallow-y vanilla, definitely toward the more foody side, with pungent wood and resin. This is a bit bitter and intense save for the vanilla which is the first thing I notice. It reminds me of a Luper, or maybe not a specific Luper but the kinds of Lupers that have featured vanilla prominently (I'm thinking Khrysee in particular, despite the lack of amber). It dries down to soft cedary vanilla, something like Tombstone without the sassafras.
Angel of Death is very refined in the vial, all remote dark wood and frankincense. Wet, there's an exotic note to it that I think must be the agarwood, but it doesn't outplay the frankincense or sandalwood. It dries down into something that reminds me of the blonde wood note in Dragon's Bone. It also smells very mannish, like a bone-dry woody men's cologne. Eventually it becomes a very dry, elegant mostly sandalwood blend.
Fire Mingled with the Haile morphed on me a lot. In the vial this reminded me a lot of Fire Phoenix: a bitter floral/herbal note, a fruity-foody one, and some musk. Wet, the fruity-foody musk impression vanishes; instead it's woody, with a bitter note and a high floral -- not lily or jasmine, not wisteria or lilac, more like iris or jonquil or maybe one of the night-bloomers. It goes through an interesting period after drydown, where the high floral calmed down a lot and a clay or stone note emerged, accompanied by an almost mouth-wateringly astringent bitter herbal note and some unidentifiable but very dry other note. Several hours in, though, hey presto! It's all soft aquatic, perhaps reminiscent of the ambergris note. At this phase I liked it best of all four of the ones in this group. But damn, that was a stormy ride.
Smite All Thy Borders with Frogges is vividly juicy green in the vial, with a gorgeous sweet musk and cucumber impression. It goes on less juicy, but still very green featuring musk, a men's cologne note that is maybe the vetiver, and just a bit of tomato leaf along with the cucumber which fades quickly. The juicy green and aquatic notes pretty much vanish on drydown. Ultimately this turns into a very mannish fougere, with a lot of mossy herbal assisted by vetiver. I like it very much, but I'd prefer to enjoy it on someone else's skin than mine.
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