Häxan

Fucking yes please Heretic! More like this will serve you well! What an absolutely bombastic swagger of a perfume! Big hits of resinous and musky undertones, with moments of bright florals, and a herbaceous middle. When it settles down, it is tinged with a little kiss of smoke. It sends a shiver down my spine and wets my winkie. I could marry it. I was shown this by the owner of Nox in York (they are only UK stockist, and they are in York, where my vessel lives!) and I bought it so fast that I nearly snapped their hand off. They definitely saw me coming and knew that I would love it. Everything about it is perfection, like when the OG Ghostbusters come back at the end of Ghostbusters Afterlife. It is tasteful, mysterious and full of class. Even the box is gorgeous. It sits proudly in my collection as one of the darkest scents I own. It is important to remember that you shouldn't be scared of the dark; it's what hides in the dark that you should be scared of. Relate that to perfume, and Haxan by Heretic is what lurks in the dark. I find the sillage to be decent; leaves a nice trail behind you, like one of The Red Arrows. The longevity could be a bit better, but the bottle is a perfect size to discreetly carry with you, so you can top up when needed. Price wise, it is fair. If you think it's overpriced, then you don't love perfumes as much as you claim to do, as you should see Haxan as a must-have in your collection. It absolutely obliterates all other Heretic perfumes. There's a lot of dross in the world of perfumery, but there is also moments of perfection. Haxan gives one of those moments. Yes. I could cry about how good it is. Forever. 10/10. Buy it. Cunt.

This is so lovely. I truly feel at peace when I wear it. It reminds me of going thrift shopping and these scented paper flowers me and my brother arrange for a loved one that’s past. This smells familiar, almost emotional. Opens super jammy, dried and smooth. Like fruit leather. I really like osmanthus (I’m thinking that’s what’s giving the jammy dried fruits smell). The rose is not overpowering and is absolutely perfect. This feels very naturally me. The amber is very antique smelling and smooth. It feels like an antique store with both modern and vintage elements. It’s so perfect I really could cry. I would call this extremely wearable but still not a safe blind buy. Brings to mind simmer pots and drying out fruits in the oven during ritual work. The texture feels like smooth leather and it’s so unique while still feeling familiar to me. Lasts a significant amount of time. I’d say closer to the 5hr mark. Doesn’t project much after 5 hrs but I think that’s adds the allure. It kinda comes and goes which for this kind of profile is even more satisfying. Almost like when you buy new clothes from an occult shop and the fabric has absorbed the herbs in the air so when you take it home it smells like the store. I feel like this is my new signature. I keep trying to give the other ones in the discovery set a chance but I’m flying through my sample of haxan and I fear I can’t live without it

Opens almost tobacco-like on my skin in the loveliest way. Kinda smokey and kinda sweet. This is a gorgeous scent and i love it. The initial spray is intense and aromatic. The dry down is much softer and sweet. I think this is wearable during the day or night and any time of year. Layering this with different scents also ups its versatility throughout the seasons

A witch in the woods just after midnight under a silver moon as she cuts roses from her garden to use in a spell. The scent of oakmoss fills the air as it has just rained. There's a sweetness to this perfume, a hint of a vanilla somewhere but the floral equals it out. It is such a beautiful, mysterious alluring scent. It stays with you long after you put it on.

this might actually be the most beautiful thing i have ever smelled. i left new orleans a few days ago and for some reason this is RIPPING me back there. there is something so juicy about this scent it's so sophisticated and witchy and SEXY!!!!!!

One of my favorites. Very witchy vibe like incense and old books. The opener is very strong and almost citrusy but smells a little sweeter and warm when it dries down. Lasts all day.

This smells like kneeling at mass, waiting for communion while they’re singing hymns, but you can’t stop looking at the priest because he’s really hot. I recommend.

Hear me out, I love the smell of my cat. This smells like my cat in the best possible way. This musky, dusty, lightly spiced smell. Absolutely a witchy scent.

totally spellbound!! the opening is a bit bitter with herbal hints, and then it transforms into something soft and creamy

I smelled this from a previous order where heretic had scented the box. It lasts all day and reminds me of old books.

An earthy, gritty, witchy vibe that is incredibly strong and original. It stands out in a crowd.

Holy shit get me this now full bottle full price #winning

Very intriguing floral amber 💕I’m quite obsessed

This one is a powerhouse—I was shocked by the longevity of this perfume, one spray easily lasts on my skin for 12+ hours, and lasts even longer on hair and clothes. I can smell it in my hair all the way through my next wash day, four days later, and I swear it’s still there on my cardigan when I take it out of the closet to wear the following week. This feels very unisex, maybe leaning slightly feminine. Upon first spray, I get the osmanthus and amber: it’s warm, somewhat leathery, dusty but in an oddly pleasant way. Silage is great, and when I step outside to leave the house it’s all I can smell. The amber and musk notes are really strong to me, but the oak moss and rose help round these out a bit. I do get the hits of fruity apricot from time to time, and as it settles further, the rose note gets a little stronger and provides a nice accent to the base notes. Overall, I felt like this was of good value for the price paid, I took advantage of their BF sale. I am a bit torn as to whether I’d repurchase it for the full price but certainly would if it were to go on sale again. The bottle is gorgeous, and I love that it’s a heavy-hitter, but I would have liked a little more floral and a little less musk as a signature scent. I love the name and what they wanted to invoke. While it is certainly a powerful scent, it’s not particularly complex or moody so I’m hesitant to label it as “witchy”; nonetheless it is very well done and worth trying out, IMO. It has sparked my interest and now several of Heretic’s perfumes are on my try list, so, I’d consider it a winner for sure.

This fragrance opens like a soft-focus floral, but with an immediate twist, the osmanthus rises first, offering that unmistakable apricot nuance. It’s not a candied or syrupy fruit tone at all; instead, it feels like the fuzzy skin of a just-ripe apricot, shaded by something earthbound and shadowed. The reason becomes clear as the rose and oakmoss unfurl beneath it. The florals don’t sweeten the composition instead they root it. The rose is more petal-depth than dewy bloom, and the oakmoss drapes everything in a quiet, forest-floor greenness that keeps the apricot impression grounded and almost atmospheric. As it settles, the perfume undergoes its most intriguing shift. The fruitiness softens but lingers like a memory, gradually wrapped in a warm, resinous glow. The dry down is where the composition fully reveals its character: smooth, slightly smoky resins bloom over the floral-earth accord, creating a kind of golden haze. It’s as if the apricot note has been lacquered in amber and woods, still present, just softened and sealed. The result is a scent that feels both natural and otherworldly. Floral but never girlish, fruity but never sweet, resinous without heaviness. A beautifully balanced, slow-burning fragrance that wears like a story told in layers. Love this fragrance.

This perfume is beautiful! And its profile is not usually what I go for. However, I do sometimes like a rose note. But usually a jammy one with a more gourmand take with a vanilla, or chocolate note. This is amazing it’s so different, it’s a story in a bottle. It’s the witches woods. It’s the leaves but also the rose petals, and the spells she’s cast and the smudge sticks, and the smell of the men she’s enchanted. It’s her linger. It’s modern but also classic. It’s a strong fragrance and if you put it to your nose it’s floral but if you put it away at arms reach it’s resinous and smooth and you can smell a coconut note but just subtly. It’s very complex, and as I say it’s not the scent profile I usually go for im a gourmand, or boozy, spicy person but this is very well done and had me at the name.

This is very unique! I’m about 48 hours into owning it and it’s already showing its shapeshifting abilities as the beautiful packaging that came with it suggests. Yesterday, it was registering as a little green and quite floral / feminine. At times I get a slightly threatening bitterness and today, I’m getting a soft fuzzy coconut and a hint of dried apricot skin and soap under your fingernails. There’s something else in there that I can’t quite place yet. It’s undeniably witchy - it’s fascinating and a little odd. Comforting but occasionally unsettling. A teeny tiny little curiosity to add to my shelf of potions.

Sitting outside in Canberra Australia eating a musk stick lolly as cars drive past. Has a dry powdery floral, a green that brightens, but unfortunately a gasoline whiff that I get from certain combinations.

intoxicating and alluring, I only smelled a sample but it's memorable and mysterious

To begin, a note from the house: "A perfume of spellwork and shadow, conjured from roots, resins, and relics, Häxan is a magical elixir of fossilized amber, velvety osmanthus, and damp oakmoss. This is not adornment, it is alchemy." To call this alchemy is generous if not outright mad. I remembered the above blurb but not the notes it described, and at first sniff I knew the story and the fragrance itself to be entirely disjoint. There is nothing "shadowy" about this perfume, and the only elixir-like quality it boasts is the (admittedly stunning) bottle. I wouldn't call the antiques that make up this perfume so much "relics" as "junk we had lying around." Ballets Rouges by Olympic Orchids uses a similar DNA to create a clearer picture that might not last quite as long but had a much easier time sustaining my interest. Ballet Rouges impressed me while Häxan disappointed me. It does not smell bad but its self-mythologies do nothing to save it; if anything, it needs saving from itself.

A LOT of packaging for the (lovely) itsy bitsy 30ml bottle. I bought this without testing based on reviews saying how it was almost 'too strong'. On smelling it I was admittedly underwhelmed, It doesn't smell bad by any means; it has an interesting tangy tart scent, with a smokey/rosey vibe to it. As gorgeous and thoughtful as the marketing buzz is, I think that's what sells the witchy aspect more than the fragrance itself does on its own. I dare to say i'm disappointed. I was expecting the unexpected, maybe a stronger animalic note or something that makes this fragrance a bit controversial. I think it will end up as a layering scent, reading other reviews almost makes me wonder if i got a bad batch because it smells so vastly different to me.

I’m not sure what to think of this! Maybe it’s the rose or something else but there’s something about it I don’t like. To my nose it smells very almond-y! But the branding does pair well with the scent, this feels very witchy and mysterious, although ultimately not for me.

smells like the contents of a cool older woman's purse: crinkled paper bills, a pack of stale clove cigarettes, powdery makeup, a travel spray of some heady rose perfume, and the worn leather of the bag itself

incense. good to smell after many cloying gourmands. but on its own i think its not for me. a nice scent though.

I had purchased a sample of Haxan from the "Season of the Witch" Discovery set. I was very excited to try it, and the packaging way lovely, as were many of the scents. However, this one fell short for me unfortunately. Initially I sprayed it on some paper, and the smell was unique but enjoyable. The sweetness complemented the notes of musk and amber to create something different. But upon placing it on my skin, the fragrance transformed in the most unpleasant way. It was extremely strong, and it smelled like if you were cleaning white bathroom tiles with Fabuloso cleaner. The positive side of the perfume was that it lasted forever, with intense sillage wherever I went. Sad to say I was disappointed it didn't work for me, especially since the bottle design is elegant and dark.

Wanted to enjoy this but my god, it was bad. I found it incredibly one dimensional. Didn’t develop much as I wore it, and the notes that were bothering me just got stronger. There was a gasoline quality, and in the worst way, but the most egregious aspect of this scent was that it smelled like bug repellent. Like, really smelled like bug repellent. Immediately took me back to being 5 and getting bitten to death by mosquitos. Disappointed.

I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with this fragrance itself, it's just not my thing and/or didn't play well with my skin chemistry. The general impression I got from it was apricot jam spread on a piece of old leather. It didn't evolve over time for me and just stayed apricot jam leather, getting fainter and fainter until it disappeared altogether after about six hours.

This perfume is so strong. Chokingly strong. I wish the rest of their fragrances had half the strength this one does. I wanted to like it but one tiny sprits from my sample bottle on my knee and it was still too strong and I had to scrub it off.

UGH I wish I liked this. I absolutely get the notes and vibes everyone has listed but the amber here is so resinous and strong that it gave me a migraine that has lasted for literal days. Selling a FB if anyone is interested.

I’ve spent the evening going through a set of Heretic samples I just acquired. The fragrances have exceeded my expectations, and it is apparent to me that heretic takes a lot of care in composing their scents, and arriving at such beautiful fragrances. Häxan was one of the samples I was most looking forward to trying. It is beautiful, dark, and rose heavy. However, although there were some differences among the 3, I found it similar to “Dirty Rose” and “Coeur Noir” (Häxan being my favorite of the three, though). I thought my nose was broken. I also immediately got taken back to the early rose-heavy Juliette Has a Gun fragrances. Although Heretic’s are less sharp and heavy, more pleasant and wearable. Once again I thought maybe I was getting it wrong or maybe had grown anosmic to the scents since I had tried quite a few... I came on here and didn’t see that the other 2 had been compared to JHAG... but see that this one is... okay, glad I am not the only one that though this!

This is the only thing I found to be truly impressive from the season of the witch sample set. This, to me, is like a modern retelling of Mitsouko. A handful of crushed, just ripe apricots on a bed of oakmoss and dried flowers, swirled in musky, resinous mystery. It’s very apricot forward, but not in an overly sweet way. As far as flowers go, I smell mostly dried rose petals and osmanthus. Theres one thing that’s for now keeping me from buying a full bottle and that’s the coconut note. It kind of throws off the mysterious forest witch vibe. That being said, it mostly dissipates on the dry down and is stunning nonetheless. A gorgeous, modern-classic Chypre.

In bottle it smells like really complex folds of amber and woods with some scream. The rose is there but not identifiable as a rose yet, more of a layer of color like the second thread pattern in a brocade; distinct but a part of the melded whole. Dark animalic notes in the back make it 100% witchy. “spellwork and shadow” really does describe this. On Skin: Powdery rose, screamwood but not in a way that’s killing me yet, osmanthus petals, a warm woody base. Then a coconut note comes in, there's still scream, but it’s like alcohol and tar/pitch, which I am kinda not minding. Definitely dark, woody, but at the same time floral. Very unique.

So I decided to give this a try again on paper not on skin. It was a stinker on my skin. Unfortunately same on paper. It’s so bad I had to encase the paper in one of my glasses cases until I could safely remove it to the garbage can in the garage. I guess it is the osmanthus. That is the only note I haven’t smelled elsewhere. Or else it’s the Turkish rose. The other scents I haven’t smelled elsewhere tried from thier line used a different rose. This one is not getting a third chance. Strangely I did find someone on instagram who also had the same reaction so maybe it is just a scent that doesn’t work well for certain people.

leathery osmanthus with dusty resins, heady oakmoss, and fuzzy overripe apricot notes. Very witchy, lush, heavy in an enveloping way, that unfortunately is a bit cloying. Heretic loves its rose and its strong here, sweetly floral, richly petaly, and cocooning around fruity sweetness that borders almost too ripe. The base softens out all that heaviness with a very rich Oakmoss with a smoky undertone. If a rosy osmanthus in the forest intrigues you, you may enjoy this more than I could

Omg, what is that smell? It’s just so off putting. I get amber but it’s thick, heavy and almost soapy? Maybe it’s the Rose that’s soapy-Like cheap rose soap. I love amber but this made me nauseous on paper and skin. I should have just gotten Coeur Noir instead during the sale. It’s so bad that my olfactory challenged husband asked if I would wash it off. It’s strong at least.

Ugh there is something really sharp and tarts that makes me gag, and I can’t take it. Scrubber.