The Carpathian Mountains

[jolarocknrolla]

Mountain air and the scent of crisp snow blanketing the mountain’s flora: Scottish fir, beech, cembra and mugho pine, rhododendron, currant, honeysuckle, raspberry leaf, dwarf juniper, sedge, meadow grass, snowdrop, rose bay, lily of the valley, starwort, lichen and mosses.

Unlike a lot of people inthis thread, i did not get an overwhelming pine or woodsy scent. This one didn't hit me full in the face, it was actually a very well blended and delicate scent that blended several woods and florals without being too sappy "green" (like, for example, slobbering pine). I found it to be a wonderfully clean and outdoorsy scent that layers with other green or herbal scents like Yew Trees, Apothicary or Ides of March.

[alhbooks]

Smoky in the bottle and for the first few seconds on the skin. Then...Wint-O-Green Lifesaver. I've had it on for about 20 minutes and it stays like that, although it does fade slightly. Not the woodsy scent I coveted, sadly.

[darkblade]

Aie.. this one is completely medicine-ey. blargh.

[arabella]

First Impression: Pine tar.

 

Dries down to: The tar-y note settles down rather quickly but it remains very pine-y on me.

 

Additional Comments: I was hoping for more of the florals to come out of hiding or for it to feel more wintry, but, it's not at all outdoorsy smelling - just medicinal. I do, however, get a hint of currant after a while. I'll leave it to age and see if it improves with time.

 

Lasted: Several hours.

 

Rating: 2 out of 5

[Czarina]

I really wanted this to wear while reading my new Bohemian Gothic tarot cards and went to some trouble to find several imps of it.

 

In the imp: wintergreen Life Savers.

Wet: Pepto-Bismol.

Drydown: Life Savers mixed with Pepto-Bismol.

 

Ugh. What a disappointment. How sad.

 

This is absolutely ghastly on me. I had to take a shower to get rid of the smell.

 

It does have great throw, but I can't speak to the wearlength.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Wintergreen, cold rocks, and dirt.

 

Wearing: Wintergreen, cold rocks, and dirt. The mint is a bit softer on me, and the dirt isn’t as dusty, but it’s still pretty much wintergreen, cold rocks, and dirt.

[ranyart]

In the bottle: wintergreen and a hint of mossy/heathery florals.

 

Wet: an onslaught of wintergreen with just a bit of soft florals and pine. Sadly, to me wintergreen smells like rotting mint so this wet period is pretty rough. I was hoping the mint would fade away as the oil dried.

 

Drydown: I can't really pick out individuals from the forest of listed notes, but they blend very well into what I'd expect from a clear spring day in the mountains somewhere; perhaps where a field of wildflowers and brambles meets with the beginnings of a tall stretch of snowy peaks. "mountain breeze" fabric softener wishes it smelled half as good.

 

This may be a bit too light for me but I still really like it. I will probably use it as a going-to-bed scent; I often put on lighter blends at night to help me relax. As long as I keep my hands away from my face while the wintergreen dries, it should serve that purpose well.

[Rhowan]

In the bottle: WHOA!! WTF????!!! This smells exactly like a stable. I can smell the linament used on horses, (a menthol-minty-mediciney smell), and the rest smells of straw, hay, feed and warm living animals ( I swear to god I can even smell manure!! ) So far this is QUITE MALODOROUS to say the very least!

 

After much debating on whether I wanted to smell like I slept with the cows last night until I took a shower, I decided to go ahead and apply a bit of this with the promise to myself that I will shower quickly.

 

On the skin: OMG!! This is RANK! I do smell like I slept with cows last night!!! Seriously! That linament smell is overpowering and hurts the nose and the warm animals, hay, feed, etc.. just lurk below that. I put a little drop on and I smell absolutely beastly.

 

Dry down: OK, it was all I could do to wait an hour and the stench is still going strong! THAT pisses me off because all the oils that I DO LOVE never last more than 1/2 hr on me - THIS smells like it has the potential to last until the cows come home (pardon my small pun) or in other words a LONG TIME. Which, for now, I am loathe to see just how long that really is. I am actually nauseated by this.

 

Conclusion: Noxious, repugnant, and offensive to my nose and those around me.(So say my boys, hubby, Mom) THIS is going away! and I am showering just as soon as possible.

[zankoku_zen]

This was aggressively wintergreen, pine and masculine. It was dark and brooding. If these are woods, it's got a definite feel to them. It's kinda spooky, kinda creepy and it's definitely a male entity whose doing the haunting.

 

Boo.

[rayvn1]

I was really looking forward to this one - unfortunately it smelled very medicinal on application and then just vanished! Grrrr I love forest scents and this one sounded perfect, but no hint of tree in it for me at all I'll put this one away and try it again another day, otherwise it's off to the swaps pile!

[angelicruin]

Wintergreen Lifesaver is definitely an appropriate description. A very refreshing, clean scent.

[msbcozad]

The Carpathian Mountains is nastier on the skin than it is in the bottle. In the bottle, and wet on the skin, it smells like the saxophone case I had in high school: all resiny and wintergreen. Yuck! The oil continued smelling that way for about thirty minutes until it turned into raspberry soap. Now, raspberries are okay, but this was really frothy and... soapy.

[totheo]

KIWI.

 

Kiwikiwikiwikiwikiwikiwikiwi.

 

KIWI!

 

I'm am honestly someone who likes to write proper reviews (in the few I'm posted) but seriously, that is all I can say. It sounded wonderful by the description but I thought, if it turned out to be a different scent, it would be minty. Or piney. Or something.

 

BUT STRAIGHT OUT KIWI.

 

Now that I sniff it again, I could say Kiwi with the slightest touch of mint/pine to cool it but seriously, Kiwi.

 

And it's not just me - my mum picks out more pine but our friend says kiwi.

 

Eek. Blergh. And eek! Definitely swapping/selling Oh well, can't win them all!

[hellomoonglow]

It's the juniper. Minus that, it'd be perfect. But the juniper is just overwhelming. I hate juniper.

[fairnymph]

Sniffed: Yellow oil. WINTERGREEN with faint floral & earthy (oakmoss) hints below. But wow, people were not exaggerating about the wintergreen note!

 

Wet: Same, maybe a bit more mossy and I get some dry wood notes as well. Some rhododendron coming through and raspberry leaf and grass, as well as a general herbalness, but still sharp, medicinal wintergreen mints.

 

Dry: It's sweeter, almost fruity, berryish - currant and honeysuckle coming out a bit. The stuff underneath the wintergreen smells really nice, actually. And I *love* the Carpathians so I'm so sad the WG ruins this blend.

 

Summary: Final drydown is a pleasant gently floral, minty, mossy-earthy, woody berry-herbal blend. Really complex and nicely sweet. Still, it's a bit powdery and I'm not sure it's worth the WG overload stages.

[BuxomM]

It smells earthy, like tree needles.

[bheansidhe]

Well, after aging an imp of this specimen since its initial release, I have to say I'm REALLY pleased with the result.

 

ETA: NEVER MIND. I was pleased with the result because I was actually testing CARFAX ABBEY and not The Carpathain Mountains.

 

Wherever I sent my imp of The Carpathian Mountains, I'm sure it's still wintergreening away, bless its medicinal little heart.

 

 

 

Edited September 16, 2009 by bheansidhe

[Schmoozy]

 

Menthol woods followed by a whiff of alpine flora. Once it has been on my skin for 5 minutes, the menthol goes away and in it's place is snowcapped woods. It is gorgeous.

[Vega]

Sniffed: Cold, dry and intensely medicinal.

 

On skin: This is incredibly herbal -- and medicinal herbal to boot. Just like the ointments that my mother would rub on me when I had a tummy-ache as a child. Nevertheless, The Carpathian Mountains isn't off-putting, just medicinal and sharply astringent. This sharpness calms after drydown, the blend turns into a cold, dry herbal, with hints of cold florals and evergreens peering through. Now it begins to resemble an alpine forest, lush with dry evergreens and bittersweet flowers. It could well be the high-altitude version of Moon of Small Spirits, which is a cool temperate forest to my nose. Colour impression is a fascinating blend of ice-blue and lavender, and I get a visual of an alpine forest shrouded in cold fog and shadows.

 

Verdict: The Carpathian Mountainss, while a serviceable alpine forest, is a bit too medicinal for me. I was hoping to smell a lush green forest, so I can't help but feel a bit disappointed that all I get is herbalry and not the other floral and woody notes. Ah, well.

[Jangzonrice]

Wet: medicinal herbal, not that great for perfume, but great when sick!! Opens up the sinuses and makes me feel better with my homemade all natural vaporub. I use it on everyone at home when they are sick. I wish I could find more of this actually...dry: it becomes a bit more minty, still great. Reminds me of something in the chinese homeopathic pharmacy my parents used to take me to as a kid...nostalgic for me.

[torischroeder9]

In the bottle: Icy, snowy evergreen and juniper. 

 

On my skin:

 

Wet, it's ice and juniper grounded by pine and fir. The snow + juniper is almost minty in quality. As it dries, something sweet begins to creep out, but it's sufficiently overshadowed by the snow and juniper that I can't tell if it's fruit or floral. 

 

Once it's been on for about half an hour or so, the sweetness -- in which I'm fairly certain I can detect currant and unidentifiable florals -- becomes more prominent, though the chilly note remains more so. The currant gradually develops more strength, warming the scent profile. 

 

It's definitely a scent evocative of a sparse, chilly, snow-covered landscape with just a few hints of cold-hardy plantlife. 

[DiZZysTARdust]

So i was super excited to try this. Not only because the carpathian mountains are tied for number one on my travel destination wishlist, but also for the rhododendron note, among the cornucopia of grasses and flowers. So i was like zomggggg to pick up a bottle second hand, and i absolutely could not restrain myself and skin tested the day i got it. This happened about a month ago. And i know about aging of bottles but i couldn't help it. in the bottle and freshly on for the inital application this was unquestionably BIRCH. I just learned to id this tree by scent and black birch is a characteristic wintergreen. So it was cool, but very strong. But whatever i've been pleasantly surprised by stuff that smells pretty strange in the bottle. So i confidentally slather it on and sit there waiting for the morph that never comes. It's straight mintiness. Decent throw, too, and it fades into basically nothingness fairly quickly aftet that. Not too impressive. I checked the reviews and it seemed like that was the MO for this blend, except for one review with an ETA to let this rest and test again. With nothing to lose, i set this aside to play the waiting game. I've seen it a few times since then but haven't felt confident enough to try again until today. And i must say, lesson learned about the rest period. At first it was the same in the bottle, and after application still very powerful wintergreen. But as it was drying there was an immediately noticeable difference. The mint was less intense, somewhat sweeter. After a few minutes on my skin it actually almost completely faded from the throw and was only detectable as a faint thread close to the skin, much like the spring thaw. The wildflowers actually began to peek out! They weren't distinct from one another, even the lily of the valley and any potential rosiness from that "rose bay" were tamed. Overall it was just a sweet, green (though not grassy), cool herbal scent. VERY evocative of the transistion from winter into spring with that crisp mountain snow note.