His Crown and His Shroud

[doomsday_disco]

“O father, see yonder! see yonder!” he says;

“My boy, upon what doest thou fearfully gaze?” —

“O, ’tis the Erl-King with his crown and his shroud.”

“No, my son, it is but a dark wreath of the cloud.”

 

A dread shape forms in the mist: chilled white musk, rain-soaked earth, and a gleam of blackened steel.

[ellocentipede]

This is a gloomy atmospheric that's also very pretty. The rain and earth are realistic and loamy, gentle and not sharp or too clean. I swear that the white musk is coconut-kissed--it's very pretty. The steel keeps this interesting and unisex. I love scents that paint a scene for me, and this one is evocative, interesting, and highly wearable.

[forspecial_plate]

I've smelled a couple other scents like this before, and at first I wasn't all that impressed.  It felt a little "been there, done that".  But then last week I had a bad headache and this was the only scent I felt like I could wear.  I ended up really liking it.  

 

Graveyard Dirt, although I really like it and always want to have some available, is a little too close to "damp mildew" for me to wear in my day-to-day life.  HC&HS however is something I could comfortably wear any time, but especially right now when we just had snow in the past week, but it's warming up and everything's melting.  

 

That's the impression I get - forest floor with melting slush and with the dirt starting to peek through.  It has a very spa-like feel for me personally.  Then I can just barely pick out the white musk, and that comes out stronger over time.  I agree with the previous reviewer, this white musk is somehow reminding me of a faint coconut note around the edges of the scent.  I do not smell the steel note or anything blackened about this.   

 

I'm glad I took a chance on this one! 

Edited February 28 by forspecial_plate

[Biocarbons]

 Muddy rainwater and white musk.

[leptonpyr]

My skin apparently possesses the legendary alchemical properties necessary to turn the dreaded Erl-King into... Sprite. Not, like, a faerie type of sprite, like the popular lemon-lime soda. I swear to god that's all I'm getting from this, and it's bizarre. No idea which mysterious elements are going Sprite on me, but I definitely get zero rain-soaked earth, zero blackened steel. On me this is a weird artificial-smelling lemon-lime soda, with some fizzy aldehydes definitely present. The scent is quite similar to The Erl-King's Pale Daughter (although that one seems slightly more wearable on me), so if that one worked for you, I think the musk is the same and this one likely will too. I appreciate the thematic consistency of the Erl-King's Pale Daughter inheriting her father's spectral musk, I just wish my skin didn't do... whatever the hell it's doing to it! 

[Assimbya]

Okay, this one fascinates me but also makes something in my mind cross and tangle up a little bit, I can't make sense of it! The combination of the realistic dirt note with the clean coldness of the musk and metal (which I'd agree doesn't feel blackened to me, it's gleaming bright steel) has a severe kind of beauty to it, but it's also sparks strangely in my brain. The musk, which I'd agree with @leptonpyr is the same one from The Erl-King's Pale Daughter (though fortunately for me that musk likes my skin more than it does hers!) has a sweetness to it and softens the atmospheric qualities enough to make this surprisingly easy to wear for a dirt perfume; I wouldn't be concerned about wearing this in mixed company, though I would be curious what impressions others picked up of it.

 

Reflecting on it, I feel like many of The Erl King collection scents (especially those concerned with the titular figure himself) are walking this line between atmospheric and wearability, conveying hints of the menace of the story while also making perfumes that people will feel comfortable wearing. In Doubt and In Dread was one that I felt too much sacrificed the menace for wearability, particularly given the point in the story in represents, while His Grasp Is So Cold leaned further in the atmospheric direction. His Crown and His Shroud stands right in the middle, and it almost feels like a trompe-l'oiel - if you don't know the origin it could pass as unthreatening but slightly odd; a clean, musky perfume with a dirt note that would probably be confusing if you didn't know the notes list. With the knowledge of the inspiration, the elements rearrange themselves and you can imagine the ice and earth and steel, the tensile energy between them as the Erl King draws his strength from both; the whole is much more chilling.

 

I like this. I don't know how much I'm going to wear it, but it feels like a special thing to me, and I'm glad to have my decant and for the ways it makes me think.