The Shivering Boy

[Sawasdee]

Cold, cold forever more. A winter storm roaring through empty stone halls, bearing echoes of despair, desolation, and death on its winds. The scent of frozen, dormant vineyards, bitter sleet, and piercing ozone, hurled through labdanum, benzoin, and olibanum.

In vial and on wet: pine trees and sharp ozone, stingingly cold, and a tang that is making my nose wrinkle up
Dry: some warmth starts to peek through from the resins and slight sweetness from the benzoin

I was really looking forward to trying this as I love grape scents, but sadly the grape never appeared on me. This was more of a cold woodsy scent, that is great for winter. It's just not for me.

[Invidiana]

I love this one. It's like frosty winter grapes with a certain resinous sweetness in the background, very winter-berry-ish and very Christmasy. I also detect some evergreen in there. I knew just from reading the notes this would be a winner.

[MamaMoth]

When I was going through all of my Yule decants, I somehow advanced The Shivering Boy to my discard pile. All I can say is, I'm glad I decided to retest everything before I finalized my Yule order, because WTF did I put this out for? o.O'

 

It's beautifully fruity, sweet with deep resins, and chilly without being minty. It also has an character of... I don't know quite how to describe it. Sweet spiciness, like spiced fruit. It's wonderful! And it actually *lasts* on me, unlike most of the Yules.

[heathercaley]

Why didn't I think that I would like this? Oh yeah! It's because it mentions ozone. Well jeeze, you could've told me that this type of ozone doesn't cause headaches. It's the perfect ozoney scent. Probably because the sweetness that follows the ozone note. Without that, I wouldn't have liked this at all, but as it is I LOVE IT.

 

Like I said... there's that sweetness that rounds out the ozone. The resins are in perfect harmony as well. There's a bitterness, that's not too bitter at all. It's just a perfect addition to the other notes which sweeten the bitterness up. I wish I could say what notes where what (what is the bitter note?) I know that it's the benzoin sweetening everything up. Is it the labdanum that's bitter? For some reason, I thought that it would be sweet. Oh well. I'm still loving it. Especially on the dry down. When it's drying, the ozone calms down a little bit and leaves a minty freshness behind (rather than rain freshness) I like minty freshness better

 

The throw is medium.

 

Verdict: Poor little shivering boy. He smells hot.

[lunchboxmonkey]

On me, this is crushed vines under a thin, sharp layer of ice. Not bad, but not what I was hoping for either. I'll definitely hold on to the imp, though!

[NicoleJoy]

In the bottle: Ice cold, harsh, and slightly green. I'm nervous.

 

Wet: Yuck. Metallic and harsh, this is almost painful to smell! I really hope this changes soon, otherwise it's off to the swap pile. I get nothing fruity like others have noticed...nothing even remotely alive. I've lost the green scent, too.

 

Dry: This has warmed up a TON since I applied it. Thank God, lol.. It smells green, with a touch of berry. There's an icy air to it, but it's no longer painfully crisp. More like a mornings frost than frostbite, I think I could get used to this one. I like it, but it will definitely be put away until a more appropriate time of year

Edited June 20, 2010 by NicoleJoy

[Vega]

Sniffed: Evergreen gently laced with fruit.

 

On skin: This is a simple blend: sharp and dark evergreen, made juicy and sweet by grape. I can't smell the resins, maybe they are softening and rounding out the pine. No ozone either, which is disappointing. Colour impression is -- surprise surprise -- pine green mingled with red-purple grape. The Shivering Boy faintly reminds me of The Snow Storm: both have a similar evergreen base, but the Boy is also fruity while the Storm remains a pure, fresh pine forest.

 

Verdict: A pleasant fruity/evergreen blend, but ultimately not that interesting. For swaps.

[Gwydion]

In Bottle: Ozone and the snow note I liked in death of a gravedigger. It’s a non-peppermint mint, maybe spearmint. The ozone and snow together are quite strong, with the resins in support. I like it well enough. Wet: Mostly snow, the resin s are still in support with the ozone damping down a little to join them. I think the wood is a little stronger and I’d swear this has stone accord too. It suits its concept beautifully. Dry: Mostly snow and benzoin.

[tharsei-thanate]

Got an imp from a decant circle!

 

The Shivering Boy is a blend I got precisely because the notes didn't wow me. I've found that the blends that work best on me are frimps that I would have never bought. So let's give this a go.

 

In the imp this is a very aquatic blend, but aquatic in the bathroom and linens sense. On my skin, though, this blend goes in a completely different direction.

 

I was expecting a cold scent, or at least a chilly scent, but this blend is ridiculously warm. Like snug under soft blankets in front of the fire warm. I don't know what this boy is shivering about, he seems pretty toasty to me!

 

This blend has a rich, creamy sweetness to it that is rather fruity. I can picture the shivering boy wrapped in blankets and sitting at the hearth while indulging in a decadent dessert, haha. There's also a warm, woody sort of something, but usually I get a hard association with woods and this is soft. Actually, it could be resins. It's also... musky? Incensey? Sorry, this blend is really hard to describe since I'm not really familiar with ozone, labdanum, or benzoin.

 

The longer it's on, the cooler it gets. It's like the fire is dying down and some of the blankets have been tossed away. Also, the dessert's been finished, though the smell of it is still lingering in the air. Everything else has calmed down quite a bit, too.

 

Well, that was certainly one of the most unexpected scent adventures I've been on. I liked it when it was wet and drying down, but it got less enjoyable as it went. Not like it went bad, it just got really muted and a little bit artificial and I wanted it to continue smelling like an evening of fireside dessert-eating.

 

I'm absolutely keeping the imp, but a bottle? Probably not.

[Wren12]

Got mine from a decant circle as well, so the 2012 version.

 

In the imp...oh, I like it. It is a bit chilly, with a sweetness to it.

 

On wet...still cool, sharp, but with a warm resin note to it. There is some tart...almost fruitiness when it hits the skin. I'm not getting the frozen, ozone smell I get from something like MiM or Blue Snowballs (both of which I adore), but a more crisp note.

 

On dry...I like this even more dry! The vineyard scent seems to take some head now, and the frankincense warms and mellows the sharpness from when it was wet. The benzoin also provides a very nice sweetness with the teeniest hint of vanilla peeking through the cold notes.

 

All in all, I quite enjoy this blend, and it's so far one of my fave Yules. I would like a partial bottle of this...and I think I may have found one!

[thekittenkat]

This is for the 2012 version.

 

 

In the bottle: Lots of dried grape vines in cold winter air.

 

Wet: Now the grape vines are slowly coming back to life, with a hint of green.

 

The dry-down: I have a previous version (I think 2007) that is much more grape. I'll give this a further chance, perhaps aging will help. Right now it is woodsy vines most all the time.

[milo]

This is the 2012 version. Seems a bit more masculine than what I remember. Definitely less berres and more snow. Still, this smells like a fresh, clean man, and I'm glad I have a decant.

[whisperstilled]

Testing the '09 version first.

In the bottle and fresh on the skin, this is ice cold incense with a distinct piney quality that I think is coming from the benzoin. It's almost 'furry' in the way the lab's fur note is, though I may simply associating their cold slushy note with the fur note often used in these scents.

As it dries, this is cold and powdery for my tastes, but still an interesting and well-blended scent. The incense makes this much more appealing than I find many of the lab's ice and snow scents. Absolutely Christmassy, but almost more like a Christmas potpourri to me partway through the drydown. It sweetens a little as it goes, though, becoming more subtle and more like a classic perfume. Quite soft once it dries. The 'menthol' comparison is apt.

I happen to have the 2012 version on my desk right now as well, and it's much more 'grape' in the bottle, distinctly wine and greens before testing. It's much softer on the skin than 2009, and is so different in effect that it's almost like a different scent altogether, without the cold/incense 'punch' of the older version.

[Soupy Twist]

2009 version:

 

Oily. How in the fuck do you make something smell oily, Beth? honestly.

 

Oily snow in the bottle. Goes on as the minty snow note (not the Snow White one), but sour — maybe that’s the ozone? It dries into a spruce, but this develops an oily note to it. It smells greasy. No grapes.