Meirion

Salty dryer sheets and oakmoss. This is pretty strong stuff. An aquatic's aquatic. The saltwater note reminds me of Two Westerners from last year's Shungas and GC Jolly Roger, but it's more exposed here, without the warm and sweet notes that make those blends a little more traditional. I would still classify Cycling in the same salty-cologne category, though. It's surprisingly wearable, and never reads as sweaty to my nose. I get some carnation in the drydown but saltwater and oakmoss are the stars throughout.

This is lovely but elusive. Soil is definitely the star -- a dark, damp humus of sweetly-decaying tree bark, under a thin dusting of snow. The snow note is truly icy, no carrot seed detected. There's definitely a whisper of florals running through, but they're very delicate and sort of blend into the mush of snow and soil. Less like flowers blooming in the frost, more like a few petals fallen onto the forest floor. I get a little baby powder at the beginning, probably from the iris, but it quickly settles. I don't detect the fenugreek I know from cooking, but it might be what's adding a general musty fuzziness, and conspiring with the ambergris to mimic a wool note. The dirt and wool combo makes this very similar to Druid, but without the juniper. Sadly my skin eats this up, but it's very pretty while it lasts.

Wet I get that initial plastic note along with cardamom and a touch of incense, and it hits me with a sense memory of a Syrian grocery in Brooklyn with big plastic bins of bulk spices and a rack of stick incense. The plastic disappears quickly, leaving cardamom and soft incense, dry and quiet. The cardamom is definitely cardamom pods, leaning green and herbal, not a warm pumpkin spice cardamom. I like this stage and wish it stuck around, but after about an hour everything fades into a cozy but unexciting beeswax. I'm hoping some of the notes will strengthen with age.

This is something special. It really does smell like unsweetened, oversteeped chamomile tea, with a bitter bite of tannins almost reminiscent of oak leaves. There's an underlying herbal grittiness from the vetiver, and a whisper of delicate smokiness (not campfire or incense smoke), but the dominant note is strong tea, rounded and smoothed by amber. The tannin + chamomile combo puts it in the same family as Lawful, to my nose, although the rhubarb in Lawful makes it much sweeter and brighter. This is definitely a dark, moody scent, but somehow also calming and refreshing. It's perfect for sheltering indoors from summer thunderstorms. Strong throw and long wear length.

Oh, she's sweet! I think "honeyed" blossoms are reading on my skin as sugared blossoms -- I don't get any discernable honey note, just an almost gourmand sweetness. I'm not picking up an olive oil quality from the olive blossoms, just airy white florals. Nothing sweaty either. Actually, this is a dead ringer for In Omnibas Caritas (honey and mallow flower, sugar cane, white sandalwood, orris, and vanilla bean), so if you were longing for a full bottle of that one, this might scratch the itch.

If you've spent any amount of time in the High Sierras, or anywhere else that sagebrush and creosote grow, you'll recognize this scent immediately. It knocked me flat with nostalgia. It's hard to even write a coherent review; this simply IS the smell of the desert. To my nose, anyway. So I really can't speak to how this will land with someone who's never been to the desert in question, but I can attest that it's a stunning tribute to its inspiration. This is a bone-dry and dusty scent, smoothly blended but with a slight crackle to it, like a dry twig snapping under a hiking boot. It's got heat to it, somehow -- not spicy-heat, or sweet-warmth, but the dry sun-baked warmth of a desert stone. We might think of Death Valley as a desolate place, but this is not a desolate scent. It's cozy, like being wrapped in a warm current of dusty air thick with the pollen of hardy desert plants. But again, that could be the nostalgia talking. Medium throw, great wear length -- this one lasts, pretty much unchanged, until I wash it off.

Frimp in a recent lab order. This smells exactly like a rose incense I burned all the time in freshman year of college, and I mean exactly. As if I'm standing right next to the incense burner. It's not just rose plus incense, it's a smoky heady rose incense. Strong, strong throw. It's very pretty, but unfortunately not something I want to wear on my skin.

A very pretty, simple, bright green floral. It smells just like walking into a florist's, or the moment you cut a flower's stem. I don't get the spiciness of carnation at all. This one is nice for summer. I wore it on a bike ride once and felt very fancy-free.

Veggies, baby powder, and that's it. I don't get any leather or vetiver whatsoever.

This one is not a friend to my skin chemistry. It smells exactly like the blue stuff in a porta-potty. A complete tragedy.

The Black Tower's metallic note is an all-time favorite of mine. It's like a silver sword abandoned in an overgrown hedge-maze. John Watson has a nice metallic note as well, like a shiny golden brass.

Super-lemony tea and leather. That's pretty much it. I get none of the fruit or florals -- I was surprised to see them when I revisited the lab's description after wearing it around for a while. The apricot is definitely there in the bottle, but it disappears the minute it hits my skin. The leather goes on a little plasticky but mellows out into a pleasant, worn in brown leather (Cohen's jacket?) This is sweet (I get a little of the honey when I look for it) but not at all cloying. It's masculine without being remotely cologney. It feels appropriate for work (and I teach at a preschool, so that's no small feat). I reach for it when I'm feeling cheerful and mild-mannered. Major throw. One time I applied it and my housemate instantly shouted from the next room, "That smells so good! It smells like the third grade!" Make of that what you will.

I had to get this one because I'm a huge nerd for astrological aspects, and Mars and Saturn are dominant in my chart. I was hoping for something gritty, dry, herbal, resinous, and a little unsettling. Before aging, the resins and musk dominated. Not a dry scent at all, and not particularly herbal to my nose. It made me think of a heady dark purple, sweet and chewy. It quickly became a power scent for me, partly because of the association with power-planets, but it was an in-your-face scent that definitely required me to be in a certain mood. After aging for more than a year ... oh my goodness, y'all. It's gorgeous. In the bottle, I smell the herbs right away. There's something that reminds me of clary sage. It's distinctly medicinal, but mystical. Like opening the medicine chest of a powerful sorcerer who works as the village healer on the side. And those herbs are totally saturated with rich resins. It's like a bundle of dry herbs was dipped in a (slightly malevolent) magical potion and then left to sit in the sun. Once it's on my wrist, the resins turn more incensey and the herbs take on a slightly charred quality. As it settles it gets drier and dustier, and I realize that the sorcerer's workshop is in the middle of a dry evergreen forest, on a desolate mountain, in an isolate realm. I could almost swear there's a stone note in there somewhere. Everything blends beautifully, while retaining complexity and the distinctive quality of each note. This scent has so much personality and I'm smitten with it. It's definitely dark, and a little scary, but strangely down-to-earth at the same time (that's Saturn for you). It's the scent of being forsaken by everyone but yourself and the mountains. Does that sound horrible? I promise it's not. Major throw and lasting power.

From a frimp, left to sit in a drawer for almost two years ... The aftershave / men's cologne aspect is dominant, which isn't normally my thing. But if this is an aftershave, it's a really beautiful one. It's much less piercing than this family of scents often is to my nose. Much more smooth and golden. There's a distinct citrus note, but it's well-blended and not too sharp. I definitely smell metal, kind of a polished brass. I love love love a good metal note, and it's beautifully featured here. I also love a good cloth note, which is not so foregrounded, but definitely present. On wet, the linen presents initially as the kind of "clean linen" candle scent that smells nothing like real linen to my nose. Thankfully, it very quickly relaxes into something more realistic and subtle, and a pleasant wooliness starts to come through. After a few hours, this really is the smell of a gentle-but-masculine man burnishing a brass revolver with a worn cloth. If I were to get a big bottle of a cologne-y scent, it would be this one.

-