RoseThornAndOak

TL;DR: cologny woods w/ white resinous overtones Uhhh, herro? No one here to tempt the hour of dehhhth? This reminds me strongly of DS & Durga's Mahogany Kora out of the gate. Clean sharp, cologny woods. Where that goes a bit more chocolatey and warm, this goes even more cologney and reads a bit more fresh pirate than weathered and seasoned pirate. I don't get much of a smoky, charred note, but the sandalwood is a variety that does go a bit sharp on me. White amber is not very soft or creamy here and lends more of a blinding white light/fancy lift. I also don't get much of a cedar vibe, not in a pencil or cedar chest way, at any rate, just more of a wooded atmosphere. I'm not sure what cade is supposed to smell like, but Fragrantica says it is a "tar-like, smoky, phenolic fragrance". There is something that is a bit gummy, chewy, and resinous, but not sweet. The moss takes this in a slight fougere/fern direction, but it's not green though, more if fougere was white. Although I don't like the sharp bite, this is nice overall and very accessible. If you enjoy more commercial, traditionally masculine woody blends, want something safe for work, or go out in the world meeting folk and, hopefully, not your doom, this is a good, unisex blend. But it is also a nice staying in, cozy blend. It makes me think of a well-kept, clean, upscale cabin in a forest somewhere very cold:

Brown leather is prominent, with creamy notes and a touch of fir throughout. It goes between really nice and a little offputting on my skin for a while. Settles down to a nice sweet soft brown leather with a Christmas edge.

Ok HerbGirl, I'm glad I'm not losing my damn mind here. This is a stronkedy stronk stronkerson spice, that is stronk. Cumin ain't far off, like at all. My bottle is cloudy AF, there's speckles, I'm confused and WTH. It's like, the most animalic black musk you have ever encountered, and cranked past 11, with spices amping out the wahoo. They don't mingle at all. I'm gonna hide and let this rest. I almost went with just this one from the Krampus update, and I'm glad I didn't and took a chance on Fourteenth, because that one went better on me.

Ooo this is nice. In the bottle, it is toasted and not super sweet, the patchouli base is there, but this doesn't read as errmagerd patchouli, but there is a base there that is dark and gritty. The nuts are also not too sweet like nut butter, this is roasted and dry. There is cacao running throughout, dry again, with champaca adding +3 glamour and keeping this from being strictly foody. On the skin the toasty foody notes chill out and the patch sits down. The champaca brings this into Melancholy of Goths territory, and I really like it. It's a nice glamorous incense champaca with a touch of the other notes now, although I feel like the other notes will come out in time. This feels like 13 decided to go full goth.

Twigs, light evergreens, savory herbs, roasted nuts, acorns, all dried, and almost a hint of distant smoke. The juniper doesn't go in a gin direction and doesn't go weird on me. I picture a cutting board with dried offerings, sitting ready for a gathering, in a forest where the trees are boney and clackling amongst themselves. No snow, but, there is a cool freshness in the air, maybe from the dew. The air is still, everything surrounding is in shades of brown and soft green. It almost wants to go pencil shavings, but doesn't quite get there. There's a somewhat balsalmic quality, kind of how oak goes in that dried tobacco direction but there's a sweet/savory/almost syrupy thing going on. Not a lot of berries, maybe dried. It dries down to mostly soft woods and herbs. I fully expected to destash this, but I really like it. It almost feels like a TAL, but I'm glad for the label art. This makes me want to listen to Tull's Songs from The Wood and dance in the forest. Layers beautifully with this year's Wolf Moon.

Heavy resinous frankincense & myrrh with powder and ambrette. It goes weird on me and reminds me of the inside of a vintage velvety box from our Christmas decorations that, wait that's not right. My Dad has a little wooden log cabin incense burner that is super cool, and this reminds me of that, but I prefer the smell of that. This is nice in a way, but so heavy and strong and powdery. I prefer Rose Cross. Room scent!

A frottle from the Lab! I get Pine-Sol and cedar, so think woodsy and clean, athough I can see something citrusy in this. It makes a pleasant clean atmos scent.

The dirt note is prominent with some purple florals surrounding. I was hoping for a graveyard with flowers at night sort of vibe, more emphasis on the florals and maybe a ghostly amber glow and some Snow White or cold Skadi snow. This is more astringent dirt with something not unlike dill. Not for me but I'll use it up for a room spray.

2024 version. Vanilla cream, a bit smeary and like white makeup, just a tad sweeter with something a bit dark underneath. Mmm. Fits the vibe. Layering with Black Lipstick, you get Corpse- ...sorry errr, Demon Warpaint, But Stealth Paint. Or Work Paint, corpse paint you can wear to work. Alright, give me a full. This next song's called, Black Wallets Weeping in Despaired Reveries.

Guys, this is soo spot on. It's that orris-like waxy, dry AF black lipstick straight from the Halloween store. This used to be the only way we could get it in the early 00s without much internet. The online stores, like Black Rose UK and Goodgoth would carry similar, with some variety, but that was about it. Nowadays, there's all types of black lipsticks with varying tastes and fragrances, but this is the old school black lipstick with a hint of clove cigarette. Not just, clovy clove spice, but like you just pulled out a Djarum black and sniffed it before lighting and annihilating your lungs with it. I love this so much and layering with Clown White and soon, Gingerbread & Leather.

Ahhh, the Jamestown weed. Apparently, during Bacon's Rebellion some dudes got pretty riled up on it. I used to spot these little trumpets around the edge of the corn field growing up and stick my nose in the purple veined white petals, not knowing anything about the plant other than they had these cool spiky pods, and they seemed magical and faerylike. They did smell good overall, like a cross between snappy green stems, and a heady sweetness similar to gardenia kinda, just more green and more like drying vines. I'd say, 70% dried vines, not unlike tomato or pumpkin vines, 30% night blooming floral, sweet and soporific. This is much stronger, and although I do get a green vine type note, it's not as natural smelling as walking by an actual withery datura vine, so no tomato or pumpkin-like vine sadly, but it's nice. Here the floral takes over, maybe 95% white floral, 5% green. The floral here is heady, yet not quite like what I remember. This rests somewhere between white lily, gardenia, moonflower, and white rose, like a powdery yet waxy white floral, night blooming. There's something slightly vanillic and sweet, like how Le Sepent Qui Danse has that bit of vanilla. I picture a white flower powdering her cheeks, putting on some moon glitter, and become a narcotic faery menace to society. So it kinda doesn't fit the vibe but kinda does? Overall, I really like it. To me, it is most similar to Young Woman Powdering Herself which, while indeed powdery, is not the most powder puff POAHHHH thing I've ever smelled, it's classy, elegant, and gorgeous, and highlights the floral aspect. This is the wild faery cousin, or the Young Woman powdered herself, then went on a twilit, moonlit date down the lane with her beau in a pretty white dress, and enjoyed herself some mystery flowers. I feel like it would layer well with Starlight and Spidersilk, so I'll probably get a full before these come down!

Ok I need to know about turtle vs crab. Annd how did I sleep on this scent so long? It is aquatic, for sure. There is a bit of ozone but it is softer than many, not electric and zingy. I think the other notes are tempering it. The leather is not strong or chemical. It's smoother than black leather, although it's not as soft as say the leather in Rogue, Black Haus, The Montebank, or John Locke, although it's edging there and miiight be the same leather note. I think the aquatic notes keep this from sloshing too much in that direction (I find those sweeter). There are some spices, the wood and kelp are present and salty, just enough to add to the atmosphere. The musk, if I were to wager a guess, maybe a clean musk, blue musk (maybe, not quite), or aquatic musk of some kind? It's not red, black, brown, grey, Egyptian, animalic, russet, African, golden, or skin musk. It's just nice, fresh, and clean with a badass edge. Yeah, I'm getting a full.

Ok, it's pumpkiny pumpkin, with some dark chocolate, and peanut butter, then when you sniff close, that's when the bourbon gets you. It's like the fancy drink your aunt is excited to make you on Halloween, all like "it tastes just like pumpkin fudge! You can't taste the bourbon 'til it's too late! Hahah!" *shimmies off, keels, steps on cat* It's surpisingly fruity on the drydown, how pumpkin can have a fruity glow. There's not much chocolate now, or peanut butter, or booze for that matter, just a general sweetness surrounding the pumpkin, similar to brown sugar maybe but yeah a bit fudgy I guess, with a spike of a lil somethin somethin that you might not know was booze. Tad smoky? Hmm. It's nice. I probably don't need a full but I recommend for a spooky good time. It's December and these are putting me in the Halloween mood again.

The label art is giving "it's autumn 1997, The Mummer's Dance just dropped, the radio is still playing all the hits from Mellon Collie and we're heading to the corn maze and the Ren Faire" so naturally, I had to try it despite my hangups about vetiver and honey. In the vial: sweet, vaguely gourmand, warm kinda bready, kinda outdoorsy, yellow brown in hue. It kind of reminds me of the Lab's mushroom note, buttery, vegetal, gourmandish. The maple leaf is not the normal dead leaf note, so no green pepper. I don't really get honey, booze, vetiver, pumpkin (other than rind + vegetal + gourmand, but it doesn't read quite like pumpkin? hard to explain), but it is a little like cornbread. There's also nothing barnyard about the hay thankfully. It's just a nice warm, autumn goumand, sweet, but not overtly so. The final drydown is fresh, warm, autumn air that is a smidge ozonic, just enough to lift it, without any smoke notes, with a lingering hay and corn husk sweetness. This would layer beautifully with a smoky fragrance, yet I'm glad to have something autumnal and atmospheric that is also wearable that isn't smoky, for the variety. So does it fit the vibe? Yes, but to make it 1997, I would burn some Wild Berry Lilac incense or wear the fragrance oil over it, which is my signature (very similar to B&BW Fresh Cut Lilacs), and it would be autumn heaven to me, as we would pick up the incense on the way to the corn maze. I could also see lavender being a beautiful layering option for this. Verdict, I'll probably get a bottle.

Ooo, in the vial, heavy on the orange, with an ambery glow about it that reminds me of The Grey Columns. It's like if The Grey Columns was oranged and grittied up a bit. Sniffing blind, I would maybe have guessed some unknown citrus, maybe mandarin or some kind of zest, white amber, with something dark that's not quite patchouli, but also not quite dirt thrown in. Maybe some kind of wood. That must be the pumpkin note, dark and slightly tobaccolike (like how pumpkin rind, cinnamon, and tobacco have that dark almost woody, vegetal thing going on but is sweet at once), and a bit spiced in my opinion. There is that milky glow the other blow molds have. The plastic does come out a tad in the later drydown, although some of the other blow molds are moreso. The white amber-like glow sticks around, like an aura around dark spiced pumpkin and a bit of orange glitter. It's really nice. I might grab a bottle before they come down. It totally fits the vibe.