Leather Sample Revisit

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At the beginning of my perfume journey I was very fond of leathers for a while. Several of my favorite perfumes had a lot of leather and I sampled a lot of different leathers. I have since moved on a bit. I still love leather but now I'm most fond of really skanky leather or in combination with creamy white florals or gourmand notes.

I am a sample hoarder and I still have most of those leather samples that I loved way back when... so I thought that it would be interesting to revisit some of them. In this post I'll only be talking about those scents that I remember loving but that I haven't touched since my tastes changed. That makes a half dozen samples for me to reacquaint myself with. All of them scents that I haven't tried in about two years. Two years might not sound like a whole lot of time, but I only started sampling niche perfume about three years ago and it has been a really tumultuous journey, with a very steep learning curve and a constantly evolving taste It feels like much more than three years! I'll be sniffing these leathers with a completely different nose now. So this should be interesting!

Enchanticals Perfume Dungeon - This first scent I am revisiting is not a niche perfume at all actually. It's an indie oil. But I loved it during my leather phase and haven't tried it since, so I'll include it. This is pretty much a solinote leather. Cold and sharply herbal, musky and with a slight saffron-like sweetness in the background. I still find this to be the most photorealistic leather I have ever sampled. It smells almost exactly like my black leather jacket, especially after the chilly herbal top notes have calmed a bit. I wouldn't wear this today, it's just a bit too cold and not sweet enough or animalic enough for me... And it is a bit simplistic, solinotes tend to bore me a bit nowadays. But it is impressively realistic and might make a good layering tool!

The following four scents were all a part of the same sample order two years ago. The order was all leather and made at the height of my leather craze. Two months later I was over the leather and deep into gourmands. ;)

Blood Concept O - I remember being very intrigued by the concept of this line and I really enjoyed sampling this one. Then I just forgot about the sample and never looked back. It has lingered in my collection for reference and because I enjoyed the experience but I don't think I have worn it even once since that first time. This time around I'm not even intrigued by it. I am so extremely bored by birch tar leathers nowadays. I just can't understand why almost every single leather perfume is full of birch tar. Sorry perfumers of the world, but birch tar has nothing to do with leather according to my nose. Birch tar is just a slightly smoky burning chemical sort of scent. And it gives me a headache. I have no idea what my nose was thinking when it enjoyed birch tar. So, my verdict on Blood Concept O is that these days it doesn't even register as a leather, it is just a mess of something weirdly metallic and burning chemicals...

Tauer Lonestar Memories - I am actually pleasantly suprised when I put this one on. It is another smoky birch tar sort of leather but it is a lot sweeter than I remember it being. I remember it as very smoky and quite acrid with a background of amber resins. Now I get a lot of smoky sweet myrrh! It is actually reminding me quite a lot of the drydown of vintage Shalimar extrait. It has that same combo of smoky leather and sweet resins! I don't know if this is because my sample has aged or just that my nose has evolved. Later on in the drydown I get more amber/labdanum instead of myrrh which is not as nice... But in any case, a much more enjoyable experience than I was expecting! I already have vintage Shalimar though, so I won't be needing Lonestar Memories.

Etat Libre D'Orange Rien - When I look at the notes list of this one these days, well... I don't even want to put it on. Incense, aldehydes, patchouli, labdanum... all are notes that really don't agree with me these days. It simply looks like one big headache! I actually can't remember my impressions of this one when I first tried it, but I loved it according to the rating I gave it on Fragrantica. And it seems to have been all leather to my nose back then. To think that my tastes have changed so radically! It certainly doesn't smell like leather at all now! I get aldehydes and a bit of oakmoss at first, along with some of that synthetic earthiness that is supposed to smell like soil but is much too clean. After a while I do get some leatheriness, but a very abstract sort of leather, not at all realistic. I only recognize it as leather because I have a whole lot of mainstream perfumes telling me that this is what leather smells like, even though it really doesn't. The drydown is ambery with some patchouli thrown in. Nope, this one just smells really thin, watery and generic now.

Parfum D'Empire Cuir Ottoman - For a while there I had a thing for iris and powdery scents in general and I really loved this combo of iris and leather. I've since left that phase behind me so it was interesting to try this one again. I remember Cuir Ottoman as a powdery leather, a very elegant and refind sort of scent. Pretty much a straight up iris leather. But when I now put it on it smells really fruity and much sweeter than I remember. Kind of a jammy iris on a background of slightly smoky leather. And it does still smell like leather to me! Not as realistic as Dungeon but pretty close to what a leather accord should be like imho. After a while the iris gets less jammy and more the usual powdery makeup vibe. Yeah... this is a lovely ladylike leather handbag sort of scent. Very pretty, just not at all my thing anymore.

Olfactive Studio Chambre Noire - A little less than two years ago I bought, on impulse, a really affordable set of large samples of the whole line from Olfactive Studio. None of the scents were really my thing, but the line was hyped and it was a very cheap set... I was rather over leather by then but I still enjoyed Chambre Noire the most. According to my notes I fund it to be a lovely powdery leather with some wood and spices. This time around I get very little leather actually. It is more of a woody plum with some peppery spice and hints of dry but not very smoky incense. What little leather I get is similarly abstract and generic as in Rien. Chambre Noire as a whole strikes me now as pretty generic. Nice but nothing at all special.


So, have you tried any of these? What are your favorite, and not so favorite, leathers? Do you at all want to smell like leather?

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 Mini Reviews - Midnight Gypsy Alchemy part 1

Some time ago I received this pretty little package of samples from Midnight Gypsy Alchemy. Midnight Gypsy Alchemy (not to be confused with Midnight Gypsy, another completely unrelated indie perfumery) sells all natural perfumes with a mysterious gypsy twist. I ordered my samples from the Etsy shop. The perfumer, Nina, is on vacation right now but will get back to business April 6th. I ordered two sets of samples, one set was the winter line of scents and the other a selection of general catalog scents. In this part I will review the winter scents.

Into the Woods

"A scent to capture the mystical aroma of the woods with a sweet smell of earth, and trees filled with the magic of night air. This perfume blend was carefully created with labdanum and benzoin resin,vanilla absolute,essential oils in creosete, frankincense, patchouli, cypress, and cedarwood,gently infused in patchouli leaves, frankincense resin, creosete leaves and vanilla beans."

This one is hard for me to describe. The prominent notes here are quite unfamiliar for me. At first I smell what I guess is the labdanum. It smells quite like amber but a bit leathery and slightly medicinal. The benzoin is also prominent right from the start and gets more dominant as this dries. I imagine that I can smell woods in the background. The wood I can smell tho most is not cedar, so I'm guessing that it is the cypress. It smells evergreen but not very fresh. The final drydown is a faint ambery vanilla. For me this scent is quite lovely, but it isn't quite as darkly mysterious as I had hoped. Nor does it evoke any forest I have ever been in. There is that hint of cypress but the rest is neither woody, earthy, mossy or green. As with most natural perfumes this is a bit lacking in sillage and longevity. The scent sits close to the skin and disappeares within an hour or two.

The Owl Moon

"A fragrance to invoke a bit of owl and moon magick in a wooded earth scent with hints of smoky vanilla undertones. Created with cedarwood, clary sage, hint of lavender, ylang ylang, essential oils delicately infused with vanilla absolute ,amber and benzoin resin , vanilla beans,cedarwood flakes and lavender buds."

This one is perhaps my favorite out of these four scents. But it is rather simplistic. It starts with a seamless blend of clary sage and lavender. At this stage this is sharp, herbal and medicinal. Lovely if that is your thing, but a bit headache inducing in the long run. Thankfully it mellows! As it dries I detect hints of cedar and a nice soft vanilla base emerges. The lavender slowly vacates but the clary sage stays a while. I can smell no ylang at all, which is good for me because I have started to hate that note. The final drydown is made up of little lingering hints of clary sage together with vanilla and benzoin with a little bit of cedarwood. I really like this one. It does kind of bring to mind a cold moonlit night full of frost covered herbs and, strange as it sounds, I imagine hearing the whisper of an owls soft wings. Of all these scents this one also happens to have both the best sillage and the best longevity, about three hours.

Black Velvet

"Dark and sweet seductive scent of mystic resins and florals uniquely blended with black tea, dark cocoa and subtle notes of woodland magick. A blend created with cocoa, labdanum, jasmine and champa flower absolutes, essential oils in vetiver, amyris, black pepper, clove, ambrette seed, black tea extract infused in black tea leaves, ground pepper corns and dark cocoa powder."

I can't really tell you much about this scent. My skin sems to have a tendency to amp champa, a note that I hate with a passion... So I scrubbed this one. :( This sounded so good, apart from the champa... I just hoped that the champa would be hidden. It wasn't.

Winter Gypsy
"The essence of winter snow and scents of the season in a forest inspired scent with warm spiced notes blended with memories of winters past. A fragrance of essential oils in juniper, bergamot, clove,cinnamon and cocoa absolute, infused with pear fruit extract,juniper berries,clove buds and real pear fruit."

I like this one too! It starts out with a sharp clove, some juniper and a soft bergamot. After this first stage mellows it smells quite like Incendere for a little while. And if you have read my review of Incendere you know that I associate that with chai tea. This is like the chai tea of Incendere without the carnation and with a lot more clove. This stage is creamy, foody and very comforting! On drydown this passes. The creaminess disappeares and what is left is a mellowed clove with a vaguely woody, sweet and maybe slightly fruity background. What I like about this scent is that short stage of chai. The rest of the time the clove dominates a bit too much... I like clove, but alone it doesn't charm me, it needs company! The chai stage transports me to the same happy memories that I describe in the Incendere review, but the rest of the time Winter Gypsy fails to evoke any images or associations. This one has a medium sillage and a longevity of about three hours.

In the next part, the general catalog scents and some final impressions of this quite unknown perfumery!


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Perfume mini reviews - BPAL

These are some of the BPAL samples I got from Su a while back. (You can view the whole awesome package here.) I have chosen to only review those BPAL oils that I enjoyed.

Velvet - Notes are stated as sandalwood, cocoa vanilla and myrrh. On me it starts out as a large burst or dry cocoa powder with a sandalwood and vanilla background. On drydown a sweet and fruity note emerges for a while before it turnes into a lovely but rather generic sandalwood/vanilla. Neither sillage nor longevity are terribly good with this one. Lasts maybe three hours and is quite discrete.

Vixen - Notes are supposed to be orange blossom, ginger and patchouli. At first I strangely get a strong note of lavender. The patchouli is also quite sharp, definitely not very aged. I don't smell any ginger, but it is possible that it contributes to the sharpness of the patchouli. After a while this turns sweet. It is not quite floral but I will attribute this sweetness to the orange blossom for now. I confess that I don't quite know what orange blossom smells like. The drydown is still sweet but now with notes of vanilla and chocolate I believe. The patchouli is still going strong. This one is possibly full size worthy. It is interesting with good sillage and about an above average longevity.

The Dodo - Notes for this one are red musk, lemon peel, sugar cane, cassia, white sandalwood, mango, and agarwood. I have heard said that BPAL's red musk is something special but I don't know, to me it smells like quite ordinary musk with a cassia background and hints of the agarwood. The musk soon turns quite powdery and I can smell the sugar. After this the mango emerges for a while. The drydown is musky and woody with some lingering hints of mango. I like this a lot at times, but on the whole it leaves me unimpressed. It seems somehow disjointed... Sillage is good, longevity is about average.

Al Azif - This is a strange one! BPAL doesn´t provide me with any notes on this one apart from the vague term of incense. And I don't smell any incense. I get a dark smoky sweetness, it is resiny but a very creamy sweet resin. There is amber in here I think, and maybe honey. Something here smells like that deliciously fragrant kind of plastic and there are hints of sun tan lotion and makeup. This might actually be full size worthy! It is definitely interesting and smells beautiful on my skin. Sillage is about average, longevity slighly less than average.

Miskatonic University - Notes are stated as Irish coffee, dusty tomes and polished oakwood halls. This one is creamy and sweet from the start. I can't quite tell what it is I am smelling but on wet it does remind me a bit of Cake or Death. I will have to compare the two side by side. I can smell no coffee, no boozyness, no dusty books... Just that strange creamy sweetness, somehow nutty, together with a strong note of oakwood. There are hints of the same sun tan lotion as in Al Azif and some discrete spices. I swear I pick up some kind of while floral, a nice white floral, could be tuberose, but it is very faint. This one stays about the same on my skin the whole time. Slightly more woody on the drydown.  I am a bit disappointed that I can't smell those dusty tomes but the rest of this scent definitely makes up for that! When I read up on this scent I found lots of talk about the coffee, it is strange that I can't smell that at all! But I do have one other coffee scent, and I can's smell any coffee when I wear that one either, so maybe my skin just eats coffee notes. Anyhow, Miskatonic University is my absolute favorite of this lot! Definitely full bottle worthy! Both sillage and longevity are well above average.

On the whole my first meeting with the famed BPAL was positive. These are interesting, and rather unique, oils! Concentrated too, and long lasting! There were other BPAL imps in my package from Su, and some of them were absolutely terrible but I did end up liking five out of ten! :) I can't quite understand the BPAL hype but I'll probably end up ordering from there at some point!

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 - 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 Mini Reviews - Gourmands

In my recent care package from Su of My Perfume Diaries there were so many gorgeous scents that I just can´t review them all one by one. So I decided to group them and do some mini reviews. Here are a few of the noteworthy gourmand scents.

Sweet Anthem - Colin

In the jar this solid perfume is a creamy gourmand with hints of cardamom.
On wet it kind of disappares for a while, I get just a very soft benzoin. After a few moments it warms up and amber emerges. Cardamom is in the background but starting to get more noticeable. I get no frankincense or myrrh at all, for which I´m thankful as I´m not a fan of incense or oriental resins. Cardamom and honey become more and more dominant as this dries and it takes quite a while before they fade. This stage is wonderful! I LOVE cardamom! Amber and benzoin dominate the drydown together with some lingering hints of honey. Longevity is about medium with this one. Sillage is minimal, but then that´s quite normal with solids. I´d love to sample this as an oil as it is very lovely, unfortunately it seems to be a discontinued scent. :(

L'Aromatica - Kulfi

I´ve never eaten kulfi, so I have no idea what it is really, but in the vial this smells exactly like cardamom dough to me, the kind that I use to make cinnamon rolls! Delicious! On wet cardamom dominates in big way. At this stage it doesn´t smell like dough anymore, just a powerful cardamom. The cardamom soon calms down and turns more creamy and sweet. I can definitely smell the coconut and it is such a  delicious coconut! This is incredibly mouthwatering! This scent stays a creamy cardamon/coconut all trough the drydown, but it gains a background of sandalwood. Both sillage and longevity are about medium. Kulfi is much more powerful than Colin and the associations I get are equally powerful, all in all a very nice experience! I don´t quite know if I want a full bottle of this one... It is absolutely gorgeous and a year ago I would not have hesitated, but now this is just not quite "me"...

SaraWen - Cake or Death

In the sample bottle (tiny and really pretty!) this is a  rich and moist vanilla cake, very sweet. On wet there is a lot more amber in this cake and it is not as foody as one might expect from smelling it in the bottle. There are hints of spice in here, I think I get a whiff of cardamon. Something about this scent is also slightly medicinal, at least on my skin, a dark sharpness like some hidden poison. The drydown is a soft vanilla amber, nice but not very special. The sillage is of monster proportions, at least at first, while longevity is about medium. This scent is nice, but not very complex and it doesn´t change very much on my skin... The sweet cake together with darker, more sinister, notes makes for an  interesting as well as enjoyable scent, but I would actually have prefered the rich and moist cake that I could smell in the bottle.

Trying on these scents has reminden me of why I´m not very into gourmands anymore. They are all absolutely lovely, creamy, gorgeous and delicious! But they just don´t take me anywhere, they give very few associations outside of the food they smell like, they bring no images to my mind or transport me away to places in my memory or imagination. Out of these scents Kulfi was the best in that it actually stirred my memory and brought me home to my kitchen and memories of cardamon dough.

Do you enjoy gourmand scents? If so, what are your favorites? If not, why? What scent types do you enjoy the most?

(Sorry about the particularily ugly photo, I couldn´t  be bothered to seek out better light as I am a lazy bastard!)

Perfume Review - Twyla Perfumes and Apothecary

I have read so much about Twyla lately, and only rave reviews! So when I got the opportunity of a little discount I ordered some samples right away. I ordered Bone Flower, Dryad and Occula but I also received Chocolate Violets ( a limited edition Valentines scent) and Love & Squalor.

Bone Flower is a gorgeous scent! I ordered this because I thought that I might like tuberose, now I know I love it! In the vial it is very delicate and creamy but it blooms when it hits my skin. On wet this is heady and almost unsettlingly sweet, cloying in a way that I enjoy so much! As it dries it becomes softer and all too soon it is only a vague creamy white floral that clings very thightly to my skin. I love this one, I really, really love this one! I just wish it had a bit more sillage and longevity on me. It only lasts for about three hours and only for the first hour does it have any sillage to speak of. But I still feel tempted to buy a full bottle, I could wear it to bed and at home!

Dryad reminds me a bit of Mephistopheles when I first put it on, which is strange because, as far as I know, the only note they share is patchouli and that is not what I smell. Compared side by side the two are no longer as similar. Dryad is definitely more woody and resinous. I don´t think smelling Dryad after smelling Bone Flower is a good idea, somehow the heady smell of tuberose overpowers my nose and makes Dryad meek and uninteresting. Dryad is a bit difficult for me to make sense of, it is woody, resiny with som earthy patchouli thrown in, but it somehow manages to be delicate and almost powdery on my skin. I can´t really smell any of the notes clearly in this blend and it isn´t quite what I expected. I expected powerful resins and woods but this just falls a bit flat on my skin and fades fast. Perhaps it just doesn´t agree with my chemistry. Sillage and longevity are both minimal on me.

Occula is an interesting one! In the vial I can only smell the patchouli but on wet I get a strong flash of cloves that then linger and blend very nicely with the patchouli. In the background I get hints of honey and tuberose. I love this stage, it is spicy and creamy and dark! Unfortunately this one as well fades quite fast on my skin and, while I really enjoy the wet stage, almost all scent is gone by the time it is completely dry. By then the only thing left of this intriguing blend is only a rather flat and uninteresting patchouli and clove.

Chocolate Violets and Love & Squalor are scents that I would never have ordered myself but I found them surprisingly enjoyable. They both contain florals, but this is definitely the real stuff, not synthetics!

In the vial Chocolate Violets seems like a powerful chocolate scent of the kind that I generally dislike. Once I put it on I do get a strong chocolate at first, but that only lasts a few moments and then the violet takes over! This is a violet that doesn´t quite strike me as floral, but is rather more like violet flavored candies in scent, and I love those! The scent doesn´t really change much after this, so it is not very complex. Chocolate Violets doesn´t last very long, a few hours maybe, but it has more sillage than all the scents above!

Love & Squalor starts with a powerful note of jasmine. And I kind of hate jasmine. And, indeed, the first half hour or so is quite horrible. On my skin, jasmine is cloying in a way that I definitely don´t enjoy! But, yes there is a but, when the jasmine calms down this is actually a great scent that really likes my skin. Except for the jasmine I can´t really identify any other notes. It is very floral, so I really should hate it, but it is also both deeply complex and delightfully creamy! Out of these five scents, this one, the über floral one, is the one that has the best sillage (medium) and longevity (about 4-5 hours) on me. How is that for irony... I really wish this scent was more "me" as my skin seems to love it...

In the end I enjoy all of these scents, even the dreaded florals! I might even go so far as to say that, to my surprise, the florals were the best of the lot! I never though that I would actually enjoy a jasmin scent and I didn´t know that violets were so amazing! Unfortunately none of this scents had the longevity and sillage that I am used to with perfume oils. I don´t have dry skin, so that is not to blame. Perhaps these oils are just meant to be rather delicate and soft but I definitely prefer more power and longevity!

Perfume Reviews - The Leather Note Mystery

As I have mentioned before on this blog, I have noticed several times now that leather scents often smell like saffron to me. This post will look into this mystery and compare the leather scents that I have tried so far. Dungeon and The Haunted Mansion are both from my recent Enchanticals haul and they have been very instrumental in making me understand the leather note. Aragon by Darling Clandestine and Canus Lupus Arctos by Salmonberry Origins have both been reviewed before by me (here and here). I will revisit them now that I have a better grasp on leather. Hedonic by Haus of Gloi (in my recent package from Su, the awesome enabler) has been included because it is a saffron scent that ironically enough smells like leather on me. ;)

The one scent that really solved this mystery  for me was Dungeon because that scent is all about the leather. It smells like the real thing but in a way that allows me to sense the different notes that make up the real smell of leather. Sniffing Dungeon and sniffing some real leather made me realize that, as a scent, it is made up of three parts. One part cold and sharp herbal, one part saffron-like sweetness and one part dark animalic.

The Haunted Mansion has the same leather note as Dungeon, but accompanied by chocolate, patchouli and sweet tobacco among others. So the sweetness is amplified here and the saffrony note is more apparent. But this one is still definitely a leather scent, unlike the following perfumes in this post.

Now that I have smelled Dungeon, Aragon makes a lot more sense to me. Aragon is the one out of all these five that smells most of saffron to me, even though there is not saffron but leather in the description. Still, there is a trace of that sharp herbal whip but Aragon is missing that animalic note that would make it be percieved as leather by my nose.

Canus Lupus Arctos is also missing that dark animalic note. The herbal note here is more ozonic and the saffron sweetness is subtle. So my nose percieves a bit of saffron, some ozone, but not a leather note.

Hedonic is an interesting one. Description says that this should be black fig, saffron, honey, oud and musk, but I smell only a leathery saffron. I guess the musk acts as the animalic note, the oud might act as the herbal and both of these together with the saffron makes my nose think that this is leather.

So, there is my solution to the saffron-leather mystery! Do you agree or am I, or my nose, just crazy? Do you enjoy leather scents? Any favorites? Or how about saffron scents and favorites?

(Btw... I have a new laptop and you all can´t understand how strange and revolutionary this is! I have never before in my life owned a new computer. The only computer I have owned was the laptop I have had these past few months that was one my little brother bought cheap and second hand in 2008... It was really worn and finally gave up last Thursday... But now I have a new one, and it is fabulous!! All the things I can do that I have never been able to before! <3 p="">

Perfume Review - The Voice of Reason

Saturday's trip to Stockholm did not yield much in the way of clothing, Beyond Retro was packed with knits and winter coats, neither of wich I am in need of... But my friend Blomma and I just happened to walk into a Lush store, and they just happened to have perfume, and I just happened to fall in love... Of course I had to fall in love with the most expensive one, why is it always like that? Anyway, I couldn´t resist, I bought this pretty bottle of  The Voice of Reason. This scent seems to be quite a new addition and I could not find many reviews about it...

Apparently it is inspired by the beat generation, and oh my is that a cool concept or what! The people on the bottle seem to be Gil Scott-Heron and Leonhard Cohen. I do like Cohen, and The Revolution Will Not Be Televised bu Scott-Heron is a genious piece of poetry!

In the bottle this is very boozy, at first sniff  I thought "hmm, boozy lapsang" but now I think it it smells and looks like smoky whisky, smoothened by something sweet and vaguely gourmand. On wet there is still that note of smoky whisky but now it mingles with warm woods and a faint floral that to me smells quite a lot like carnation, but that the bottle says is rose! Rose of all things, rose that I´m supposed to hate! Perhaps this is some good rose finally, some real rose, while I´ve only smelled synthetic rose before? I don´t know... I like it in here at least! This scent is fresh and spicy, woody and smoky. There is something slightly medicinal about it, a fresh almost eucalyptus-like hint that I should hate (I normaly hate anything eucalyptus, menthol...) but that really only adds interest here! The drydown of this is a warm, smoky, woody tonka.

This scent is wild and free, dirty and nonconforming, much like the beat generation! The boozy, smoky nature of it makes me think of  early morning after-parties, when most of the steam is gone and everyone is sated and philosophical. It hints are wild parties and decadence but the medicinal note adds some real life, some pain, some jail time perhaps...

The sillage of this one is very powerful to begin with, but it mellows quite soon and becomes quite intimate. The longevity is good, more than 6 hours on my skin. All in all this is a gorgeous scent, brilliantly inspired and very intriguing!

Perfume Review - Kashmire

Kashmire by Enhanticals Perfume

I dismissed Kashmire as rather uninteresting the first time I wore it. But now that I try it on again I find that I do like it very much. In the bottle this smells a lot like Incendere actually, lots of creamy cinnamon. But on wet all similarities to Incendere end. Om me, this scent is cinnamon and not much else. A creamy, smooth, slightly resiny cinnamon. The scent decription tells me that there should be coriander, labdanum, cashmere, teak, opium and sandalwood in here as well, but at most I can find hints of resins and woods. There is a honey yellow oil in this blend that is heavier and sinks to the bottom of the vial... It´s hard to get this oil to blend with the rest as you can´t really efficiently shake the vial. I don´t know  what oil this is or if it affects how I experience this scent... I also don´t know what cashmere smells like, so I can´t really tell if it is noticeable in this scent.

On dry this scent is sweet, powdery and slightly woody with no clear notes that my nose kan sniff out. From what I have read about cashmere it is mostly a base not, so perhaps it´s cashmere I can smell here. Anyhow, it is sweet and lovely! Longevity is about medium in this one. The drydown sits very close to the skin while the wet stage has a medium sillage. On me it is not very complex or exciting, I´m not going for a full bottle, but it´s still gorgeous!

Perfume Review - Rama

Rama by Enchanticals Perfume.

Rama is a dark and murky blend. Before you shake it there is a thick layer of cocoa absolute at the bottom... I like that, it is really pretty! In the vial this smells sweet and boozy, a bit like a lovely chocolate liqueur or like one of those liqueur chocolates that I spend Christmas avoiding. 

On wet it changes completely, coriander and bergamot takes center stage for a short while. At least I think it is coriander, I can´t quite remember what coriander smells like and I can´t find any to sniff right at this moment. This stage is fresh and spicy in a way I can enjoy. After the bergamot fades it also smells a bit like yogi tea, not a cup of it, but the "tea" itself, a beautiful blend of dry spices. The vague spice stays for a while but is joined by wood, a dry wood, not a resiny one. This is also where the cocoa makes a reappearance, but now it is a slightly bitter dark chocolate, just the way I like my chocolate in perfume. The final drydown a soft, almost powdery, woody amber with hints of cocoa. I can´t quite find any tobacco in this one, even if the description says it should be there... If there are hints of tobacco here, it is the same tobacco as in Mephistopheles, a sweet and mild one and therefore quite hard to distinguish.

This one is about medium in both sillage and longevity. I love it, probably not enough to buy a full size, but there is something intriguing about it... The scent is dry in a way that I enjoy and I am a fan of woods and spices!

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 - Incendere

Incendere by Alkemia.

A late night, early morning post from me, because I just put on Incendere and felt it needed a review. I have read rave reviews about Smoke and Mirrors, Les Mysteres and Miel de Sauvage et Tabac (sorry, can´t be bothered to look them up right now, to late/early for that) but not even one word about Incendere. Yet it is one of three scents from Alkemia that I really have to get a full size bottle of (along with the aforementioned Smoke and Mirrors and Les Mysteres).

I bought this one because I had gotten it into my mind that carnation was a floral I would probably enjoy. You might have noticed that I really hate florals in general, but I had never sniffed a carnation perfume and they were always described as spicy and hot, and that appealed to me. So I thought, why not, it is only a sample. Thank the gods of perfumery that I did because this is gorgeous!!

In the bottle this smells of creamy cinnamon and floral, plus something boozy (the bay rum?). On wet it is strong at first, with hot spices and a sharp floral note that I suppose is the carnation. I believe I can smell black pepper and clove here, my absolute favorite spices, so I´m sold already! Soon the spices calm down and the carnation gets deliciously creamy and soft. For a while it is still definitely floral, but what a lovely spicy floral! Then it happens! When completly dry it turns into the most glorious chai tea! When I sniff this I remember the most delicious cup of chai I ever had. It was at a folk music/world music festival in nothern Sweden. In the festival area there was a cafe, on the outside it looked like a dingy party tent but on the inside everything was covered in oriental rugs. They only served two things in there, that most glorious chai and hookahs. I remember that the tobacco in the hookah was a superb blend of licorice and mint and in my memory the chai smells exactly like the drydown of this perfume. Every time I wear this perfume I´m brought back to that deliciously decadent, exotic place full of peace, licorice and mint smoke and creamy spicy chai...

Needless to say, that is one scent memory that I do not mind at all! I will be buying a full size bottle of this one! The sillage is medium and so is the longevity, about six hours on me. But damn this makes me long for that most awesome of chais. And now I know that carnation is something I enjoy, I´ll have to see to it that more carnation scents come my way! Do you have any favorite carnation perfumes that you can recommend?

Perfume Review - Smoke and Mirrors

Smoke and Mirrors by Alkemia.

This will be a short review, because I do not need too many words to describe this scent... Three would be enough really...

In the bottle Smoke and Mirrors is a mild smoky vanilla. It actually doesn´t smell very exciting in the vial.. But when I put it on my skin the smoky note morphs and becomes much stronger  at the same time as the vanilla becomes deeper and sweeter. There really are not any clear stages in this perfume but it seems to constantly change, with the vanilla and the smoke playing a game of dominance. As it dries the tonka becomes more noticeable, giving even more body to the vanilla.

This was love at first sniff, I have never ever fallen so head over heels for a scent! It is deceptively simple and   is very useful for layering, it was actually made for this purpose and is said to be good for "toning down any perfumes that are too sweet, deepening and gloriously complicating resin and incense based scents, and softening chypres and any 'sharp' woody scents"... But I prefer it as is! It is just so overwhelmingly gorgeous!! (Though I do think I´ll use it with Wing of Bat and see if anything exciting happens, Smoke and Mirrors can probably tun anything gorgeous, I am a believer!)

I am getting a full size bottle of this, or maybe two, just to be safe... It even lasts long on me! Not as long as MdSeT, but still a full 12 hours on my skin.And the sillage is just perfect for leaving an intoxicating trail behind you, not monstruous like MdSeT, but still more than average!

This scent in three words: Smoke! Vanilla! Glorious!!

P.S. Beware leakage with this one, store upright... Also recommended with Soma, Moon Goddess and colorless oils in general... These sample vials tend to get less tight the more times you open them and colorless oils with no heavy and thick resins and therefore less viscous tend to leak out...

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 - Attar al Oudh and De la Forêt

Oud.
I know next to nothing about it. I know that another name is agarswood and that I love it! (If you are interested in this note, you can read more about it here.)

Both Attar al Oudh and De la Forêt contain this note, but in very different ways.

Attar al Oudh is all about oud. In the bottle it is a musty but sweet wood, slightly herbal and medicinal. On skin the true oud note develops, it is musty and pungent, woody and nutty, deep and resinous and probably not a scent that everyone will love. As it dries, amber emerges and the drydown is a gorgeous oud/amber.  This is a very simple scent, there are no surprises, nothing much happens... But if you love oud this is awesome!

De la Forêt is quite similar but a bit more complex. In the bottle this scent smells a lot like Attar al Oudh, but not as musty with more of a fresh forest character. On wet there is a flash of oud at first but then comes other exotic woods and a large dose of musk. This is a more delicate scent, not at all as musty and pungent as Attar al Oudh. The oud is still noticable but one of many notes rather than de dominant note. There are sweet notes of tonka and amber as well as sharper notes that I can´t quite place. This dries down to a gorgeous, but not very special, woody amber that at times morphs into something that smells much like fresh mushrooms. I get that mushroom note sometimes in various scents, I don´t know where it comes from, but I love it! My theory is that it´s a quirk of my skin, that turns some vanillas into this fungal note... There is no vanilla listed in the description of this scent, but it might still be there, so I´m not dismissing this theory quite yet...

Attar al Oudh has greater sillage than De la Forêt, but they both have about the same longevity, about six hours on me. I love both of these scents but perhaps not enough to get full size bottles. But I definitely want to experience more oud perfumes! Can you recommend any?

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!

Perfume Review - Salmonberry Origins

I just recently got a nice little pack of samples from Salmonberry Origins! They shop is based in Alaska and the perfume olis they sell are described as arctic scent memories. Living in the north as I do, although on another continent, that concept charmed me and I ordered some samples!

I don´t remember my life through scents, I´ve never paid much attention to scents before the last year's perfume obsession. But there are a few scents that have been very important for me! The scent of a newborn puppy's mouth is one (sounds very strange, even repulsive, if you have not been there with a little puppy attached to your nose...) that scent is addictive! Another very important smell from my childhood is that of Getpors, a plant that grows everywhere on the bogs or where the ground is swampy here in Finland. The North American name for this plant is Labrador tea.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

I have always wished that there was a perfume that smelled like the leaves of this plant. They have such a wonderful, sharp but resinous and sweet, herbal scent! There is a small forest lake ner my home where I somtimes swin in the summer. Around this lake grows Labrador tea and I always take some leaves and rub the scent of them into my skin when I walk home after my swim. The leaves are very oily and if I had the know-how I could probably make an essential oil or something quite easily... but I don´t have this knowledge. So when I found a Labrador Tea perfume oil at Salmonberry Origins I just had to sample it!!

In the bottle this smells very fresh, of forest evergreens. On the skin it is very sharp at first, with evergreens and sharp resins. At this stage I´m not a fan, but then I´m not a fan of most top notes... Fortunately this one mellows fast and the sharp green notes fades and the resins sweeten. This sweet resin state is a bit longer than the sharp evergreen state, but then herbs start to slowly emerge. I can´t tell what herbals only that the sweetness of the resins is still there but that slightly medicinal soft herbals start to mingle with it. The drydown is a soft and sweet herbal that I constantly sniff at. And it lasts for a long time! 

There are no notes mentioned in the description of this scent, so the actual content is unknown to me.... But it does not quite smell like Labrador Tea to my nose... It does however evoke the memories of the forest around that small forest lake and with that I´m definitely satisfied! This is such a unique forest scent and it works so well on my skin that I´m definitely buying a full size bottle of it! When summer comes I can compare it to the real deal, right now I can only compare it to the memory I have of the scent of Labrador tea... 

The other scents I ordered were Corvus Corax and Canus Lupus Arctos, some latin names that you might be familiar with.

Corvus Corax is, of course, the latin name of the Raven. This scent has a really interesting top notes of some sickly sweet floral and berries, it sells like somthing rotten in a very weird and awesome way. It continues sweet and dark with some vague spicy undertones, but nothing that really evokes memories in me. This one disappares quickly from my skin and it is slightly soapy on the drydown, maybe a chemistry malfunction? For me this scent was all about the top notes, which is strange as I don´t normally harbor any love for the top note stage of perfumes.

Canus Lupus Arctus, latin for the Arctic Wolf, was really more of a filler, I chose between this one and Pilot Bread but in the end I felt more like sampling a masculine leather/spice/ozone scent rather than a gourmand scent. My first impression with this scent was that it smelled a lot like Aragon from DarlingClandestine, reviewed here. These two scents really have nothing incommon on paper except for a leather note and to me  they do not smell at all like they are described. They smell like saffron... Is my nose malfunctioning here? Canus Lupus Arctos is not as sweet as Aragon, where there is honey, and has a bit more of a clean smell, maybe because of the mentioned ozone, but in essence they are the same on my skin. This leads me to believe that either my nose or my skin turns a leather note into saffron galore (because while saffron might not be to difficult to imagine as an ingredient in Aragon, what would it be doing in an arctic scent memory?)! I might need a second opinion on this one... One sample of Aragon and one of Canus Lupus Arctos is now officially up for grabs if someone feels like being that second opinion!

I also received a free sample of Wild Arctic Rose which was unfortunate because rose is a scrubber for me... I think I´m traumatized by a bath set, with body lotion, shower gel and schampoo, that I had when I was a child... I loved the pretty bottles but that was still the start of my rose hate... Maybe I only hate the syntetic rose, or maybe it´s a chemistry thing, or maybe I have just not smelled any really great rose scents as of yet... I don´t know. Anyway, this rose scent is not one of the real scrubbers... In the bottle it is definitely rose of the kind that I hate, but on it is not as aweful as I feared. (I did put it on! Be proud of me!) This is rose with a healthy dose of lemon and I think something smells like cinnamon in the background. This one is up for swaps if anyone is interested! I can appreciate the vaguely spicy background here, but neither lemon nor rose is my thing. 

Now I´m lusting for more green but sweet forest scents... As I purchase my full size Labrador Tea I think I´ll buy some more samples too. I want to try Lichen, Ursus Arctos, Willow, all herbal in some whay, and maybe a smoky one, Noon Fire.

So, do you have any scent memories that you wish could be found as perfume? Or are there any notes that do really wonky things on your skin? Do you have any favorite green/herbal/forest scents? What is your favorite rose perfume? Are there any you think I would like? (Many questions on this one, but this set of samples was an exploration for me in many ways!)

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?