The Woodland So Wild

[doomsday_disco]

O, who rides by night thro’ the woodland so wild?
It is the fond father embracing his child;
And close the boy nestles within his loved arm,
To hold himself fast, and to keep himself warm.

The pale sugared blossoms of innocence wrapped tightly in sleet-soaked arms. Vanilla bourbon, cream peony, and white carnation enveloped in a warm, protective fortress of tonka, white cedar, orris root, red amber, and leather.

[AnOfferingToTheNight]

The description of this scent really just nails it. This, for me, is comfort in a bottle.

 

Overall, this is a very “soft” and subtly sweet perfume. Wet on the skin the florals are delicate and creamy with the vanilla bourbon warming them just a touch. On dry-down, I’m left with the most comforting versions of leather, tonka and amber, while still being sweet and soft. Warm like a hug. I don’t know that I really got any of the cedar note.

 

What surprised me most was the orris root—my skin tends to amp its powdery aspects, but in this blend, it never fully goes there, it just adds to that “soft” quality. I’ll be wearing this the next time I’m cuddling on the couch with someone for sure.

[ghoulnextdoor]

A memory you can't explain the significance of, where nothing happened but everything felt inevitable and true. Late afternoon, winter, pulled over on some rural highway to watch the sunset. Purple streaking through grey, the sky bruised and soft, every shade of twilight from plum to dove, from amethyst to ash. A cardboard cup from a small-town artsy café, steamed milk infused with flowers, vanilla syrup frothed and foaming. A scarf that smells faintly of perfume, worn three days ago when the trip began. The woods beyond the guardrail are bare, sanded smooth by wind and cold, no angles or edges. Breathing winter air through cabled wool stitches, once dense and taut, now relaxed and shaped to our skin. For reasons you'll never articulate, this moment brands itself into your soul as important. Years later, you'll catch this scent and be back on that shoulder, cup warming your hands, light failing, everything soft and rounded and impossibly tender. Impossible that it ever happened at all.

[Assimbya]

This is definitely an orris-forward scent to me; the orris-leather-vanilla combination brings to mind Porcelain Bat, but the leather is a lot more prominent in this one, and with the woodiness of the cedar and the heaviness of the tonka and red amber, it lacks Porcelain Bat's softly comforting energy. As it dries down, I get hints of the floral notes, but can't make them out specifically. This has a solid presence, but low throw; though it's not musky, the cedar-orris-vanilla creates a skin scent effect that reminds me of Like the Very Gods, though The Woodland So Wild is nordic and forested and pretty substantially masculine; the similarity is one more in the category they fill then in the nature of the scent itself.

 

Though Porcelain Bat somehow managed to keep the leather from taking over on my skin, unfortunately I get more of it here than I like, and the whole skews far too classically masculine for me. I really like it on my partner (who likes and wears perfumes across all gendered associations), but it's not for me.

Edited 57 minutes ago by Assimbya