Midsummer Magic - A Scentual Journey

Hi everyone! Sorry about the long absense! Finishing up my studies and moving back home again took a lot of time and effort.  My room is in chaos, too many books for such a small space, but it's getting less and less chaotic every day! I'm really happy to be back home again! Especially right now, Finland is so magical at Midsummer!

(This will be a very picture heavy post, consider yourself warned!)

It never gets dark here at Midsummer, the time between sunset and sunrise is so short that it never gets darker than twilight. One of my Midsummer Night traditions is to around midnight take a walk through the woods to a dark forest lake where I can swim naked and alone in the black water. That is Midsummer Magic for me. Last night I took my camera with me so now I can invite you all along on a little journey through a Finnish Midsummer forest! I will also make this a scentual journey by adding perfumes that to me give much the same experience as these landscapes.

The nature is so lush that the path is barely visible...

Ferns.

The forest I walk through is dark and dense. Moss covered rocks, ferns and blueberry shrubs are shaded by slender white birches and dark green spruces and pines. This part of my journey reminds me of Norne by Slumberhouse. This dark and mysterious forest is just as magical as that fragrance. Herne by Arcana would also suit this landscape. This scent is heavy with powerful resins enhanced by spicy cinnamon. Definitely what a dark god of this forest would smell like.

Suddenly the forest ends but what is coming is hidden on the other side of a hill and will be invisible for a few more steps. Anticipation bulids because I know what I will see and it is always magical. The lake is nestled in a deep bowl surrounded by the rugged rocky forest hills. The suitable scent fro this part of the journey is Samhain by Haus of Gloi. There is a hint in the air of something wet, of humid soil and green herbs.

The sun is already rising in the northeast, or maybe this is the lingering glow from the recent sunset in northwest... It is hard to tell when the wholse nothern sky is aglow above the mirror calm lake. Sometimes there is mist on this lake, but not tonight. The scent that would suit the beautiful dark lake is Gaea by Alkemia. This scent is water over rocks, decaying plant life and the clear scent of white water lillies.

Blueberry and Cloudberry shrubs and birches.

The edges of the lake are wet and marsh-like, very lush and green. Devils Milhopper by Solstice Scents has a similar note of fresh green leaves. A powerful green, full of life and growth, just like Midsummer is the height of the growing season.

Labrador Tea leaves and flower.

Other parts of the lake edge is dryer and rockier, here flourish baby pines and lingonberry. But all around this lake grows Labrador Tea, looking like rosemary but with its own unique scent and white flowers. As the name implies this fragrant herb has been used for tea. Every year I collect and dry the fresh sprouts so that I can drink this tea and enjoy this wonderful scent all year.

Tea of Labrador Tea and Veronica flowers.

You can get an idea of the scent of Labrador Tea by sampling the perfume oil with the same name by Salmonberry Origins. Or if you are really interested in smelling the real deal I can just send you a little sprig of Labrador Tea!

That's the end of the journey folks. There are no pictures of me skinny dipping in the lake...
The quality of the pictures is a bit influenced by the thousands of mosquitoes that landed on me every time I stopped to take a picture. Sorry about that. I have pictures of what my arms, legs and neck looked like afterwards, but I'll spare you. I looked like a victim of bubonic plague...
Several of the scents mentioned here were gifts from the wonderful Amanda of more tea, Wesley?, she really nailed my tastes when we swapped packages! Here is a picture of the perfumes I got from her! :D

Hope you all had as wonderful a Midsummer as I did, those of you on the Northern Hemisphere who celebrate the solstice that is... ;)

Polyvore collage - Norne

Norne by ladomna on Polyvore

I was just inspired to make a collage based around the scent of Norne, because it is just so evokative!

Perfume review - Slumberhouse part 1

My review of these fascinating scents from Slumberhouse has been forming in my head for almost two months now and finally I feel ready to write down some words. These scents are really the best and most intriguing I have encountered so far on my perfume journey!

Norne is described as "Fog caked needle, lichen, fern and moss perfume the nocturnal air beneath grandiose canopies of fir and hemlock...". The undertitle of this scent is "Ind i Fjeldkamrene" which, it seems, is a song by Ulver, a Norwegian folk music inspired black metal group. I´m not a fan of any kind of metal myself, but I do love scandinavian folk music! This particular song is inspired by the folklore belief that there were supernatural beings who governed the mountains. These could abduct the unvary and keep them imprisoned in the mountain. In the case of this song a maiden has been taken into the mountain and is begging with her last dying breath to be released therefrom. I found the lyrics and an English translation (because my Norwegian sucks) here.

The song paints a picture of a cold blue mountain in the wild north, it paints a picture of a dark night without moon and stars, of rain and of storm. To me the scent of this does not paint quite that same picture. This perfume is dark deep green and the scent of it is the same, a deep dark green coniferous forest. This is resinous and it carries the scent of recently cut wood, only darker not as fresh. I have never before smelled a perfume with such lifelike wood resins! On me there is no evergreen in this scent, only coniferous resins. Norne is neither complex nor simple. It does not change much on my skin but it is so wonderfully deep and evokative! Notable Scents did an interview with Josh Lobb, the perfumer behind Slumberhouse, in which he mentions that he doesn´t use top notes. That lack of top notes is definitely noticeable in these scents, and I like it! I like it a lot! This particular scent is also completely natural, made using only absolutes! Despite being all natural this scent has terrific staying power and fabulous sillage! If I could afford a full size I would buy it in a heartbeat!

Rume is described as "Inspired by a room - the explorer's hideaway. A burgundy/silver cologne with animalic pulse paired alongside a warm hush of clay, cola, filbert and hay. Rume is an idea, communicated through fragrance, of the desire to constantly seek out, experience and explore. An idea that contentedness is a poison and regret is the aftermath" and as having notes of bay, myrrh, labdanum and praline. I don´t have at all as much to say about this one as about Norne. I don´t quite understand the inspiration behind Rume, nor does it evoke any images. Many have waxed poetic about this scent, about it being resinous, spicy, smelling like gingerbread... But on me it just turns sour and the only one of the notes above that I can smell in this is the hay. It is rotting hay and a sour whiff of urine, it smells like a not so clean stable or barn... It´s definitely a chemistry malfunction though! When I try this on my favorite guinea pig, also known as my friend Blomma with the completely different skin chemistry, it is fabulously spicy and sweet with just a golden hint of dry hay! I love it on her but hate it on me...

Vikt is described as "Dark balsamic woods slowly oozing sweet metallic oils - motions of soft smokey black agar woods through syrupy bronze resins". I don´t have much to say about Vikt either, it isn´t very evokative for me and I don´t quite get the concept. I have a feeling that there is an interesting concept behind it, but it is hidden and so fails to add intrigue to the scent. This scent is so balanced that I can´t quite sense any individual notes. It is woody, but not in any traditional way, the resins are so sweet and deep. Not coniferous like in Norne but rather more exotic. There is a slight sour note in this too, but this one is much easier on my nose and it is not quite the sharp sourness of Rume but a more rounded sourness. I have heard said that oud can sometimes be a bit sour so maybe it is that. Still this scent is soft and gorgeous and I love it but I´d love it more if it didn´t fail to transport me.


Part two with reviews of Jeke and Grev and the free samples can be found here.

Perfume Review - Wing of Bat and Ardorem 21

These are the two scents out of my haul from Alkemia that disappointed me. Not really because they are bad scents, but because they are not at all what I expected.

The name Wing of Bat really enchanted me, together with the description, containing notes of oakmoss, green patchouli, fern, dirt, ambergris, leather. I really expected something dark and earthy. In the vial Wing of Bat smells green and herbal with hints of citrus. On wet it is a very sharp and clean kind of scent, very green but not very herbal anymore. This is the kind of sharpness that I associate with cheap men´s cologne and that just gives me a headache and no enjoyment. As this dries it becomes less sharp, but  I still get only lots of green with a vague chypre background. I get no leather, no moss, definitely no dirt, even the slight patchouli I can smell here is not very earthy, it is indeed very green. I guess this isn´t a bad sort of scent... It is made like a classic and old fashioned men's cologne, I´m quite sure I have smelled some commercial scent that is very much like it. As long as you don´t expect anything else it is fine, after the sharp green note in the beginning it is not bad. But if you expect another unique and exciting Alkemia creation this is a disappointment. This one is going on my swaps list, if anyone is still interested in it after this review... ;)

Ardorem 21 is sorted under the category "Musk Spices Suede" in the Alkemia shop and the notes are as follows. "Coriander, Mandarin, Amber, Nutmeg, Saffron, Bourbon Geranium, Blue Lotus, Tobacco, Musk, Clove, Sandalwood, Vetiver, Kashmiri Tea, Cardamom, Black Pepper, and Japanese incense." Lots of spices in that description and I am a huge fan of spicy perfumes, I thought that perhaps the geranium and the lotus won´t be so noticable and a little bit of mandarin can´t drown out all those lovely spices and darker notes. But in the bottle Ardorem 21 smells of mandarin most of all. But it was a spicy mandarin, so I had high hopes still. On wet there is a wonderful flash of spices at first, black pepper, cloves, cardamon, coriander, hints of musk, the mandarin is prominent too, but the spices are more dominant... But then comes the bourbon florals and take over. It is not an awful floral by any means, it is sweet and pretty together with amber and some faint hints of musk and spices. The floral fades with time, and the final drydown is sweet and creamy, quite complex, with tea, musk, amber and a hint of tobacco... I like this one better than Wing of Bat, I can enjoy it and the drydown is lovely... I was just expecting something full of spices, and this isn´t it... This one goes on the swap list too.


Neither of these oils have much of a sillage, Ardorem 21 slightly more than Wing of Bat, and neither lasts very long on my skin, Wing of Bat lasts just a few hours and Ardorem 21 perhaps an hour more.

Perfume Review - DarlingClandestine Part 2

Okay, so a few of weeks ago I recieved a wonderfully generous package of perfumes and samples from DarlingClandestine. I did a review for three of the scents a while ago (you can find that review here) but three of the scents I din´t feel familiar enough with yet to sufficiently describe. You could say I had not gotten to know them yet or decided what my relationship was with them. I sometimes need prolonged contact with a perfume before I can decide if I love it or not. But as long as a scent works well on my skin it is mostly only a matter of time and adjustment before I fall in love with it!

I am normally drawn to scents that are of a wood/spice/gourmand variety so a few of the scents I recieved were a bit out of my comfort zone. Vardogr, reviewed in part one, was described as a "dark, damp, herbal fragrance" and that was close enough to my tastes that I felt compelled to try it. Dark, damp, mossy I can handle, even like, maybe even adore, though I haven´t quite reached that state yet. Gram Negative was fresh green, dark floral and damp moss, not something I would expect to enjoy. Most florals fit somewhere on a scale between abhor and dislike for me, the only notable exception being iris, that I adore! Green or fresh in a scent description is also something that will usually turn me off. But there was that moss, and it showed in the scent as well, it wasn´t at all as frightening as it sounded... Of the scents I recieved, only one was really definitely true to my normal tastes. That was Big Top Train, spicy, loud, creamy and just gorgeous!

Out of the remaning three scents, one was a love at first sight that has since waned a little bit. The other two had elements I liked and elements I disliked... Of those one is still not quite a scent I love, while the other has grown substantially in my regard.

Aragon is a mystery for me, the description says lavender, sea salt, wine, leather, caramel and chocolate... on me it is SAFFRON (where did that one come from?) with some lavender and a drydown that is a comforting sweet gourmande, that might be the caramel and chocolate. From the description I also got a rather masculine vibe (not that I really care much about perfume gender, I much prefer unisex and masculine scents to feminine florals) the leather, the wine, the sea salt... but as I don´t smell any of those notes... um... Well let´s just say that I feel as if Evonne of DarlingClandestine describes one scent to me, but the one I smell is another altogether. I like this scent a lot, saffron is definitely among my favorite notes! But lavender has never really worked on my skin, and turns just slightly soapy. And however much I love the powerful saffron there is still something that I feel I´m missing about this scent... I feel like I don´t quite "get it"... It is sweet, comfortning, perfect for Christmas, but somehow I don´t think that was how it was intended to be. It also fails to develop on my skin, there are no curious complexities, no changes, and it fades after just a couple of hours. I´m blaiming my chemistry for this failiure, there must just be something in this that disagrees with my skin...

Another type of perfume I have a problem with are oceanic scents. They tend to be very sharply fresh, almost metallic, on my skin. Step Right Up is described as "a clean, oceanic, very unisex fragrance with notes of wood and spice". That sounds like a precarious balance to me, the clean and the oceanic on one side and the woody and spicy on the other. On my skin it IS a precarious balance, because my skin does dislike the clean sharp sea in this scent. On first application it is harsh, salty and slightly acidic (citrus in here somewhere or is that just an olfactory hallucination?). The middle of this scent is nice and the drydown is beautiful, woods and lovely spices. The oceanic nature fades quite fast, so I really just have to get trough that and then I can enjoy the rest of this scent. But as I can´t really appreciate the oceanic element much of the complexity of this scent is lost for me. The parts I can appreciate are nice and lovely, but not very complex. Again, I´m blaiming this on my chemistry, I know that it doesn´t handle clean and oceanic very well.

The last perfume in my package, Fisticuffs, has really made a stunning recovery after it made some really quite bad first impresions on me. My first thought was "ughh... fresh... soapy..." and then I moved on and rather forgot about this scent for a week or so. This scent is described as "wine and honey and hot blood and concrete, with the green rush of the thrill of the fight", so maybe it is supposed to give a rather harsh first impression, like a punch in the face. But the thrill of the fight did catch up with me! This scent is so unique and fast turning into somewhat of a signature scent! Where gourmand scents make me feel relaxed this scent empowers me! All the notes mingle so beautifully, and the complexity is stunning! This is a scent that really changes a lot during the time it lasts (which on me is 12 hours or more), sometimes it is wine at the forefront, sometimes the sweetness of honey, at times it is sharp and green (but in a way that works on my skin, just like with Gram Negative)... I don´t know quite how blood or concrete smells in a perfume so I cannot quite tell you if this smells of either, but this perfume would probably not smell this unique with just honey, wine and something green, so I guess they are there somewhere, hiding and adding something sinister and unsettling. Something I love with this perfume, that I lack with the other two, is the images and associations that come to mind. The complex story that unfolds! I´m glad I got a whole bottle of this gorgeous stuff, now I can try some layering, this stuff probably works wonders with anything slightly booring!


Do any of you have specific types of pefume that you love and any surprising crushes on scents that are really not your type?

Perfume Review - DarlingClandestine

Etsy is one of the places where you can find strange scents in great numbers, whether you like steampunk, sideshow, burlesque, gothic or any other alternative style of perfumery that you are not likely to find in the perfume store at the mall.

I got this generous package from Evonne of DarlingClandestine last week. She sells wonderfully complex and odd perfumes in her shop on Etsy! I ordered the two solids that you see in the picture but because I had to wait a bit she threw in all of these other wonderful goodies!! That´s customer service for you!!

Now, I really love reading perfume reviews! I think they are the most wonderful thing ever! And I do love analyzing scents, even though my sense of smell is quite... mediocre... So I´ll try my hand at it here!

The scent that really cought my attention and made me order from DarlingClandestine was Vardogr. In her description of the scent Evonne pointed out that this was a really weird scent, and I´m all for anything weird! evonne describes the scent as "dark, damp, herbal fragrance—mossy forest floors, sunken alleys, underground spaces—with a dozen unlikely notes including pure essential German chamomile, bitter black coffee, hazy Indian musks, sharp herbs and a whip of leather". I´m usually drawn more to spicy gourmand scents, so what exactly attracted me, beyond the "weird" is hard to say. I do have a fascination for anything underground, but that is my taste in horror movies, not perfumes.
Vardogr even looks weird, it´s a beautiful green color! The scent itself is indeed herbal! it is green in a softly dark kind of way, not clean at all but full of dirt and grime. I can´t smell any coffee or musk, but, as noted, my nose is sub par when it comes to these matters. I don´t find Vardogr very weird, it is unusual to be sure but not shockingly so. It is earthy and subtly haunting, unsettling like a walk in a graveyard or a damp dark crypt. I´ll admit to expecting a stronger, less subtle, concotion, but it works! It is stunningly beautiful, but perhaps a bit too subtle for my tastes... I don´t normally do subtle.

The other solid I ordered from DarlingClandestine is much more my usual cup of tea, lo and behold, a spicy gourmand! This scent, named Big Top Train (2010 formulation), is not subtle in the least! Evonne paints a picture of a sideshow Christmas, and that picture represents this scent well with its blend of normalcy and strangeness. Big Top Train is a seemingly simple holiday spice scent. But the reality is more complex, full of strange olfactory cues. It evokes memories, fleeting memories that I can´t quite grasp.  There are scents like this one where the individual notes refuse to blend, and the result is just chaos. But here there are no dominant notes that my nose can smell, just a stunningly overwhelming mass of creamy sweet spice. I have other gourmand spice scents that grow boring after a while, but this one, in it´s complexity will surely keep my interest far longer! To me this is hypnotic, a truly intoxicating brew!! It is like a great party, of the kind that you can´t quite remember but you just know that it had to have been good!

Thanks to Evonne's great generosity I also ended up with two full size perfume oils and two large samples. I always LOVE surpise samples when I order perfumes, and Evonne took that to a whole nother level!! I really enjoy getting samples that I have not chosen myself, that way I get to experience something new, I get to maybe fall in love with something that I thought I hated.
One of the samples I recieved was like this... The thing is, I HATE clean, fresh scents. I almost completely gave up on commercial scents because there were simply too many clean, fresh scents for me to smell before I found soemthing I liked... Bottom line, I can´t stand anything clean or fresh!
And then, along comes Gram Negative and changes everything! Evonne describes it as: "Gram-Negative is deep, damp, earthy essential moss; sticky green leaf resin; a whisper of black tea; and a rare, rich, mellow, buttery orchid essential oil that is just divine."  I can´t quite agree with her description, for to me, the green leaves dominate the scent in a way that I should hate, because they are fresh and green... However, this scent also,  is crazy complex! The freshness of the green leaves is dominant, but not a terrible spike straight into my brain, like so many commercial scents. There is also an earthyness to it, a hidden depth of damp soil and moss, and a beautifully sweet orchid grows here, a sultry dark flower among these green leaves! I´m still not in love with this scent, but I like it, which IS enough of a miracle, I assure you!


Ummm... it seems I use metaphors when talking about perfumes. This is very little about the technical aspects of the perfumes (staying power, sillage etc.) and very little about notes, drydown and the like... I guess I´m more interested in what kind of associations the scents give me, be it memories or leaps of imagination. Hope some of you enjoy my whimsical flights of fancy. I might give you more on the remaining three scents, Step Right Up, Fisticuffs and Aragon, another day. First I have to wear them a bit more and see if they are friends or enemies or somewhere in between...