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But there is something else about that paper—the smell! I noticed it the moment we came into the room, but with so much air and sun it was not bad. Now we have had a week of fog and rain, and whether the windows are open or not, the smell is here.

 

It creeps all over the house.

 

I find it hovering in the dining-room, skulking in the parlor, hiding in the hall, lying in wait for me on the stairs.

 

It gets into my hair.

 

Even when I go to ride, if I turn my head suddenly and surprise it—there is that smell!

 

Such a peculiar odor, too! I have spent hours in trying to analyze it, to find what it smelled like.

It is not bad—at first, and very gentle, but quite the subtlest, most enduring odor I ever met.

 

In this damp weather it is awful. I wake up in the night and find it hanging over me.

 

It used to disturb me at first. I thought seriously of burning the house—to reach the smell.

But now I am used to it. The only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the paper! A yellow smell.

Scorched wood and oversteeped chamomile petals pressed wetly into beeswax, brittle fossilized amber, a whisper of honeyed hay and saffron, and the sweet decay of overripe butter figs.

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This is indeed a yellow smell, browning at the edges like peeling wallpaper. You can almost feel the thick golden beeswax, honey and amber oozing from those haunted walls where that wallpaper, with its yellow curlicues of hay and saffron, is coming unglued to reveal scorched wood with an undercurrent of sweet fig. The sweetness is not sickly sweet, just evocative of decay that would be. It's something you actually do want to get in your hair.

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It does have an overall scent of "sweet decay" but, in like, the best way possible? One of the more approachable fragrances in this little collection. And yes, it does have an undeniably yellow smell!

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mr. krabs voice: That smell. A kind of yellow smell. A yellow smell that smells... yellow-y.
Beeswax hits my nose first, a sweet light golden beeswax. Then it is made fresh and a bit fruity with the calming aspect of chamomile and the squishy, overripe fig. Golden amber and hay/saffron drenched in globs of pale, sweet floral honey. This has got to be the prettiest of the Yellow Wallpaper scents, to me it doesn't smell creepy or offputting at all! It makes me think of sunshine, bumblebees, the deep yellow florets of a daisy, and nectar of the greek gods.

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This starts out as very citrusy on me, and I couldn't figure out what it was - chamomile? figs? I'm still not sure. It takes a couple of hours of wear until I can start to pick out notes, at which point I definitely get a lot of beeswax and chamomile, some hay, and an earthy sweetness which might be fig or saffron. It's pretty, definitely in an autumnal overripe sort of way, but not objectionably so; I would agree with other reviewers that it's pretty approachable within a more unsettling collection. I'd like to try pairing it with some honey-based scents, especially Against Idleness and Mischief which also has the chamomile. 

 

The aggressively citrus top notes on me make this one a little challenging for me, despite the pretty drydown, and it doesn't quite feel like me - I imagine this one on someome who wears a large hat and gardens and keeps bees. I'll keep and wear my decant, but I don't think I'll be getting a bottle.

This starts out as very citrusy on me, and I couldn't figure out what it was - chamomile? figs? I'm still not sure. It takes a couple of hours of wear until I can start to pick out notes, at which point I definitely get a lot of beeswax and chamomile, some hay, and an earthy sweetness which might be fig or saffron. It's pretty, definitely in an autumnal overripe sort of way, but not objectionably so; I would agree with other reviewers that it's pretty approachable within a more unsettling collection. I'd like to try pairing it with some honey-based scents, especially Against Idleness and Mischief which also has the chamomile. 

 

The aggressively citrus top notes on me make this one a little challenging for me, despite the pretty drydown, and it doesn't quite feel like me - I imagine this one on someome who wears a large hat and gardens and keeps bees. I'll keep and wear my decant, but I don't think I'll be getting a bottle.

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