Perfume Mini Reviews - Midnight Gypsy Alchemy part 2

A while ago I wore the first part of this review, where I focused on the winter collection if scents. This time I will review a few scents from the general catalog. I ordered a sample pack of four scents from the Midnight Gypsy Alchemy etsy shop but you can also order from their web site. 

Ancient Oak

"A mystic green yet powdery sweet scent that captures the magical and mythical element of the ancient oak. A blend made with oak moss and balsam peru resin ,vanilla absolute, infused with fig fruit extract, real figs, green tea leaves and vanilla beans."

This one is a simple but delightful oak and vanilla blend with just a hint of something fruity. It is warm and comforting. I get oakwood rather than oakmoss from this one. On me it is not at all green but rather a creamy vanilla wood. I almost get a library kind of vibe from this, a little hint of leather and it might have smelled like old books. There is no real change in Ancient Oak as it dries down, and then it is gone, or so blended into my skin that it is barely noticeable anymore. On my skin this lasts less than an hour and the sillage is very limited. I like this a lot, it is gorgeous, but I want a scent to stay for at least a few hours.

Alma Gitana
"A complex and rich fragrance that embodies the gypsy spirit in a daring and bold scent of ancient resins, dark fruit and exotic florals with notes of tobacco smoke. Created with jasmine , tobacco and vanilla absolutes,plum extract, essential oils of bergamot, cinnamon, patchouli,black pepper, and tuberose with resins of myrhh and amber infused with dried plum fruit, cinnamon sticks, peppercorns, tobacco and patchouli leaves."

On me this one is very fruity. It is definitely a very dark fruit, plum with a hint of dark berries. Apart from the fruit I can smell jasmine, some spice and maybe a hint of tobacco. The images I get from this one are of nighttime in some exotic place, lush fruit trees, jasmine flowers and a starlit sky. The fruit dominates this scent in the beginning but then the jasmine becomes the main note for a while. And jasmine tends to give me a headache... So I'm not very fond of jasmine and the combination of plum and jasmine is not very me at all. I feel that I would have loved this if there was more tuberose than jasmine and if there was more spice and tobacco. Ths one lasts longer than Ancient Oak but still only a couple of hours, and has better projection (damn that headache inducing jasmine).

Quill and Candle
"Sweet yet wooded notes of smokey intrigue with undertones of exotic spice and fruit. A blend of clove, cardamom,black pepper and ginger essentials .Infused with a touch of rose absolute,apricot extract , coconut flakes , pepper corns, clove buds and real apricot fruit."

I was so looking forward to this one but onfortunately it was too much of a rose perfume on my skin, so I scrubbed it. Apparently a touch of rose absolute is enough to spoil this one for me. So I sent it to Rachel, you can ask her to provide a less biased review of this one.

Mandrake Garden

"A wild and smokey yet slightly earthy blend of ginger, tobacco, and hints of a floral combination reminiscent to that of lilacs. Made with balsam peru resin, absolutes in tobacco,vanilla,honeysuckle,essential oils in ginger,fennel, jasmine , infused with ground ginger, fennel seeds, vanilla bean and tobacco leaves."

This is an awesome tobacco and vanilla scent. I can smell hints of fennel too. And I love fennel! I get no floral at all and I can't smell any ginger. Tobacco is always evocative for me, but this one is not a scent of home but rather a scent that reminds me of late party nights and smoking on a balcony while watching the stars recede before the first embers of dawn behind the distant towers of the cathedral. The tobacco is what dominates this scent from start to finish. It is a tobacco that is mellowed by the vanilla and I really like it! This scent is definitely my favorite of all the ones I have tried from Midnight Gypsy Alchemy! Mandrake Garden also has better longevity and projection than most of the others. It lasts a few hours so I might want a full size bottle of this one. 

My main problem with these scents is the lack of longevity. I have discovered though that Midnight Gypsy Alchemy offers two different concentrations for the oils. You can buy the full sizes in either 1/3 oz roll ons or 1/2 oz splash bottles and it is stated that the splash bottles have a much higher ratio of perfume to carrier oil. I don't know what concentration the samples are, but I would guess that they are the roll on concentration, to save money perhaps. I'll have to ask about that because if that is the case I really want a splash bottle of Mandrake Garden! These oils come so beautifully packaged too! The branding is phenomenal! Just look at the way my samples were packaged when they arrived!

Midnight Gypsy Alchemy also offers solid scents, candles, soaps, body cream and more. All just as beautifully packaged. They really should send free samples though. I'd rather have a little extra slice of soap or an additional perfume sample than those boxes the samples came in. I have a whole stack of boxes like these, from various other etsy purchases, and I just never use them for anything. Maybe the boxes could be an optional for gift wrapping or something. I like the little notes that come with every scent though, very pretty and neat! What do you think, packaging or extras? And what would you like to try from Midnight Gypsy Alchemy?

Perfume review - Slumberhouse part 2

This is part two of this review, part one can be found here.

Jeke has a fascinating concept that started "with a batch of smokey cade oil and the idea of a night time stroll with burning autumn woods in the distance - something fiery and burnt yet chillingly desolate, November illusory, breath of fog, ablaze. Into this design I sought to embed a defined masculinity - something well-worn yet intellectual, a refinement streamlined with rustic attributes - warmth of cigars in humidors, old leather shoes and odd buckles, traces of a fragmented sweet spice, the mysterious atmosphere that adorns the well traveled."
Jeke is intriguingly smoky with warm woody notes, a sensual hint of leather and a fantastic tobacco! My mother rolles her own cigarettes and keeps her shag in a leather tobacco pouch so when I sniff this I get the image of that pouch in my mind. This does not smell like tobacco smoke to me, but rather of woodsmoke. We have a tradition of Easter bonfires in Finland and this scent transports me to such a bonfire. The dark forest, the chill in the air, but most of all that blazing heat of the huge bonfire, the smoke drifting towards the dark blue sky and my mother rolling a cigarette. I think I get this image because of the fact that I won´t be going home for Easter this year... I regret that I´ll miss that bonfire and I definitely miss my home... I suspect that at any other time of the year this would be a scent to make my inner Steampunk happy. It could provoke the feeling of being an explorer of the Steampunk kind, gritty and dirty from tinkering with the airship, garbed in leathers, smoking a pipe and looking at old maps of exotic unexplored places. I really want to own more of this some day, when I have the money.

Grev is described as "The interpretation of the dapperest embodiments of a true gentleman. A deep, spicy, earthy, rooty fragrance with an elegant kick of herbs tinted through shades of orris, clove, birch and fir".
This one doesn´t evoke as many feelings and images as Jeke but it truly is one of the most elegant scents I have ever smelled. Grev is dignified and self contained where Jeke is gritty and wild. Grev is cold where Jeke is warm. To me these two scents seem like opposites, the arrogant highborn gentleman and the uncaringly unkempt explorer. The scent itself is herbal and I get that powdery kind of smell that I associate with orris root. I can smell clove and woods too, but somehow they manage to be old and frosty. As you might be able to see in the pictures, this perfume is a pale turquoise blue color, and I feel that this color mirrors the scent very well. I get the image of a elegant gentleman all dressed up in his finery going for a walk in a frosty park.


Free samples:

Pear + Olive is, I believe, the most recent scent from Slumberhouse. On the Slumberhouse blog the scent is described, apart from the pear and the olive, as "soft shades of herbal sweetness from Roman chamomile, the bitter booziness of grape tissue from French white cognac oil, the wet and earthy hues of zdravets crowned with the rich, velvety green gem of the very rare aglaia absolute. A chord of massoia bark & calamus absolute was created to provide a trace of cream".
This scent is lovely, very balanced and well made, but I´m lacking a concept, an intriguing background. And it smells a lot like an Yves Rocher pear perfume that I had when I was little... Not a positive association at all... I will forever associate pear and apple notes with the pear and apple perfumes I owned and overdosed on back then. Anyone who enjoys pear will love this though. It has the same smooth depth as the other scents but it is a bright and happy fragrance and you all know that that´s not my thing. There are some intriguing notes here that I have never encountered before, but they can´t quite make up for that pear.

Baque is described on the Slumberhouse blog as "a warm amber tobacco flower perfume containing notes of smokey apricot, cedar, straw, vanilla, tobacco leaf, davana, ambergris tincture and parchment. Elegant, rustic, golden and warm properly sum the four corners of its tobacco and honey heart".
This one is a fine comforting scent! The tobacco is sharp at first but mellows and mingles with sweet notes of amber and honey. This scent is somehow dusty and dry, I can smell straw and I imagine that I sense that note of parchment. Baque somehow makes me think of autumn forests covered with dry crinkly leaves. I wouldn´mind owning more of this, but unfortunately it seems that it is an older LE.

Kere is described as "Milky apricot, white chocolate and spiced plum-meat accords add texture and color to syrupy orange honeysuckle absolute and licorice within a halo of vaporous aldehydes reminiscent of champagne fizz. A circus of bizarre pairings harmonized in a blurring fashion that slowly devolves into spicy sugared hay and caramel".
This here is the most awesome gourmand scent ever!! It is so complex, so deep, I can´t even tell what notes I am smelling but it is so utterly, utterly divine!! I can smell licorice and caramel but there is also a sharp bite of warm spice. I doesn´t evoke any memories or places, it doesn´t transport me at all, but hey, I don´t care! Because I´m quite happy with being right here and experiencing only this scent and nothing more! This is another brilliant composition, balanced and intriguing! And the sillage! It is monstruous!! I´d love to own a larger bottle of this one, but alas, this too seems to have been a limited edition scent... Maybe it will come again sometime, preferably when I have some money to my name.


Slumberhouse really is such a fascinating perfumery! There is an intriguing depth to all of these scents, a rounded and smooth feeling that makes these seemingly simple scents so very complex and deep. Again and again I find myself using the word deep to describe them, I´m sorry I can´t seem to put this feeling of depth into better words... I also love the mysterious concepts behind them and the beautiful images that come to my mind when smelling them! Some of them take me away to other places and situations and all at least evoke certain moods!

All of these scents have good longevity and sillage, some more so than others. You can definitely tell that they are very concentrated! As they have no top notes there are no sharp changes in scent through the drydown. Some reviewers have remarked that these scents change dramatically about half an hour an hour into wear but I have not had any such experiences. What I get at the beginning is what follows me for the whole time!

Samples of Norne, Jeke and Pear + Olive can be ordered from the Slumberhouse website. Rume, Vikt and Grev have now been discontinued but are still available at places like indiescents until the stock runs out.

Perfume Review - Mephistopheles

Mephistopheles by Enchanticals Perfume.

Another early morning review from me... I seem to have gotten into the habit of putting on perfume before I go to bed, but Mephistopheles is not a perfume I´d usually wear to bed, it is more exciting than comforting. In the bottle this is sweet and rather mild with no clear notes to my nose, there is some delicate patchouli and whiffs of anise-like licorice but this scent does not make a definite impression until it hits skin.

On wet I can only smell licorice at first, and how I love licorice! Then comes the patchouli and drowns out everything else, and how I love patchouli! This is quite an unusual combination, but it works! Patchouli and licorice play a game of dominance for quite a while and at times I can catch whiffs of brown sugar. The tobacco stays in the background in this one, it is there and adds a certains smokyness but it does not dominate. It is a very different kind of tobacco from the one in Miel de Sauvage et Tabac, much sweeter and not as pungent. I get no fig at all in this scent, even though it is there according to scent description.... That´s a shame, because I do love fig... As Mephistpheles dries the tobacco becomes more and more noticeable and the drydown is a beautiful blend of tobacco and patchouli.

I´ll sleep with this on and see if I can still smell it in the morning. I`ll add longevity then as I can not remember from my earlier trials. Update: I could still smell it this morning after about 9 hours of wear, so longevity is a bit more than average. Sillage is about average, perhaps a bit less.

I love this one, maybe enough for a full size bottle, we´ll se when the samples is gone. It is earthy and smoky and delightfully deep with a sparkling anise at the top... makes for an intriguing blend! I might try to layer this one with Miel de Sauvage et Tabac and see what happens, that combo has potential I think. Update: This combination is just as gorgeous as I thought it would be!

(Speaking of MdSeT, I tried it on my friend Blomma, who has a very different skin chemistry and WOW on her it is AWESOME! On her it is honey galore with gorgeous tobacco backdrop, I´m envious! And she is envious because she loves how it smells on me... The world is unfair!)

Perfume Review - Miel de Sauvage et Tabac

Miel de Sauvage et Tabac by Alkemia.

I have had Alkemia among my favorites on Etsy for a long time, but never ordered. Miel de Sauvage et Tabac (otherwise known as MdSeT) was the reson I finally ordered some samples from Alkemia. I had read many rave reviews about this scent and it sounded so intriguing, I just hade to try it. (If you want to read some of the reviews that influenced me there is one here and one here.)

I love this one, but i also HATE it! Even now as I prepare to review this I hesitate to put it on my skin... I can smell it as soon as I open the film canister where I keep it... It overpowers every other scent in that film canister. So far it is a lovely scent though. Then I take a deep breath to master my nerves and open the vial...

In the bottle it is still quite lovely. The tobacco is muted, a resinous and sweet tobacco, covered in honey. Then I put it on my skin.

Something scary happens when this is put on my skin, it was mild and sweet in the bottle, on wet it is a monster!! The sillage is unbelieveable, I cannot escape this scent even with my hand as far from my nose as possible. And at this stage I do want to escape. Right now this smells, no stinks like my grandmothers house where she has been smoking indoors for 40 years. It smells musty and stale. Is it supposed to smell like this? I don´t know, it might be my skin. My skin does strange things sometimes...

Unfortunately this first stage does not go away for a couple of hours. The power if this is impressive, I just wish I loved it. When it finally does calm down it is wonderful. When the tobacco softens and the honey gets to bloom it is gorgeous and the amber in the background is warm and beautiful. Truly awesome drydown! Oh, and the longevity is immense! 24 hours on me!

Tobacco is usually a very comforting scent to me as my awesome mother is a smoker, but this tobacco does not remind me of her... it reminds me of my grandmother, and that is not as positive. I´ll still be keeping this sample though, I will try to layer it with other scents as it is intriguing and might add interest to a boring scent. But I don´t think I can stomach wearing it as is, the wet stage is just too unsettling and overpowering. Perhaps if I scrub it a little after putting it on, maybe I could skip the whole wet stage completely... I will have to try!

Still, I recommend everyone to try this one, it is the most unique scent I have tried to date! You might just love it, or you will hate it, but in any case you will have had a memorable experience!