The Witches Have a Fire Again

[zankoku_zen]

Smoldering spiced oak boughs and pine pitch crackling with golden sap.

[LavenderCoffee]

The smoldering and the pine pitch aspects hit first, and you think you're in for a bumpy ride, but they quickly settle down and allow the other notes to come out. I do get a bit of spice and oak, bit it's not spicy. It's oddly magical, this scent, like a fire in reverse: first the smoky, sharp intensity, then the familiar comfort of chopped wood, and then the sweetness of the sap.

Not much throw - it's actually quite subtle - but still has a lot of personality. I keep coming back to sniff this one and touch it up, it's the prettiest pine pitch scent. Wasn't expecting it to be so lovely!

 

[elissamay]

This is not the sharp and smoky fire scent I expected. In the bottle, it's almost effervescent and Dr Pepper-esque. On the skin, it's deeply resinous, and the scent of the pine pitch blooms as it warms, but it is never harsh or sharp. It's the sweetness of pine sap, never on the medicinal end of the pine pitch spectrum. There's really no smoke here, just warm smoldering, glowing embers. This really evokes a scene at the end of a magical bonfire in the woods, but without that "campfire smell" you might be thinking of. Very good, very Halloween, and a bit hard to explain since it veered so much from where my expectations took the notes. Pleasantly surprised, even though I do enjoy a good smoky fire scent, too!

[tinyvulture]

 I just got back from Santa Fe so this naturally reminds me of pinon fires. The smoldering pine, so comforting when you come in from the cold. But then there’s also the oak,  which is definitely prominent as well. I’m not sure what the “spiced” refers to, as it seems pretty straightforward pine and oak. A warm scent, heavy on the pine sap, sentimental.

[Poenari]

Very simply, a smoldering woodsy scent. The final embers are almost gone and there is a hint of pine sap. Wears closer to the skin than I expected. This reminds me of Rumpelstilzchen, but is his softer, sweeter younger brother. In the same family but not as "in your face."

[Llanval]

Something that might have once been a fire and the taste of minty envelope glue?!

 

IDK, I am blaming skin chem.  This was a fail on me.

[AbbyNormal]

Started on the smoky side and I didn’t think much of it. While I was making my coffee I kept getting whiffs of something amazing, yet familiar, sniffed my wrist and got a nose full of a gorgeous sweetness that reminds me a lot of the dry down of Haunt 2021. I have Haunt so I’m not sure I need a bottle of this one but it really is stunning after the smoke dissipates. 

[Little Bird]

Reminds me of 2005 Brimstone, but better.  It smells of camping in pine forests near blackberry brambles (the spicy scent of thorny branches with a very light, tangy fruitiness) and the river, waking up after a stormy night and smelling the slightly minty scent of rain-soaked wood ashes.  The pine sap and aromatic wood in this are really pleasant to me.  It's not a full on bonfire because the pitch smells distinctly like cooled, damp ash. 
I smell this and it takes me to a calm place in nature.  It's not a scent that I feel comfortable doing a full wear of because of the ash, but it's one that I keep dabbing on my wrists, light enough for me to enjoy it for a while.

[Liquid Sword]

I got this from a decant circle in ‘23.
I usually enjoy pine, I love it in Dior Granville and Serge Lutens Parole d’eau, so I’m surprised when I didn’t like this. It’s been sitting for a year and still somehow smells like oysters? It’s mineralic.

It’s possible it was labelled wrongly.