The Host of the Air

[fiddledragon]

Peat and rolling grass-covered hills, with wine-dappled heather, white clover, cloudberry, juniper berry, bluebell, dandelion, and cross-leaved heath.

Bottle: Oh dear. Floral/aquatic in that way that really doesn't work on me. I knew I shouldn't have been tempted by the reviews! But maybe this one will work? *sad puppy eyes*

On me: Grass! Grassgrassgrassgrassgrass... with a hint of wine. This would be a good summer scent, except that it goes vaguely artificial the way green scents so often do on me. Oh well.

[totheo]

However, this isn't like FLORAL, it's like standing in the back room of a florist with lots of broken flower stems rather than standing in the middle of a bunch of blooms.

 

That's exactly what it is! I was having trouble finding the words but that's it entirely!! There was a florist in one of the tiny shops at the bottom of my apartment building when we lived in Japan and they used to let me come in and would give me one of those moisture blocks and some flowers to arrange in it. And this is what the shop smelled like. Thank you for opening up that memory for me!!

 

[LunaLovegood]

This is very airy, very fresh and clean. Like standing on a cliff in Ireland and smelling the fresh breezy air, sorounded by wildflowers. Mild and lovely. Its not my type of scent. But this is a beautiful scent. Truly to be admired.

[thekittenkat]

I put this on my skin and took a sniff, and said "that's just lovely!" It's a well-blended oil. I ordered this one unsniffed, because I was rather sure that all the notes would work on me, and they did.

 

In the bottle: Green yet sweet. If the Host of the Air (the Fair Folk) were here, this is what they would smell like.

 

Wet: Green and sweet. The green is the peat, the grass, the heather, and the heath, mixing together. The sweet is all the flowers and the berries in a wonderful blending.

 

The dry-down: This is so well-blended, that not one note predominates on me. I like that, as it shows the art of the perfumer. This is a lovely scent that has me more in mind of the late spring/early summer, when there's fruit and flowers mixed together in the meadows. I might save this for June.

Edited April 11, 2009 by thekittenkat

[rayvn1]

Hmmmm goes on almost like dryer sheets, but quickly turns into grasssss. Tart chef is right on with this one - it's like a healthy dose of Blade of Grass mixed with Schoolhouse, Passionate Shepherd, and some Garden Path with Chickens for a bit of floral. Fresh and pretty, but keeps waffling between good scent and dryer sheets for me.

[marared]

However, this isn't like FLORAL, it's like standing in the back room of a florist with lots of broken flower stems rather than standing in the middle of a bunch of blooms.

 

That's exactly what it is! I was having trouble finding the words but that's it entirely!! There was a florist in one of the tiny shops at the bottom of my apartment building when we lived in Japan and they used to let me come in and would give me one of those moisture blocks and some flowers to arrange in it. And this is what the shop smelled like. Thank you for opening up that memory for me!!

 

 

I'm going to second this review also. Green green green, and flowery, but not in-your-face flowery. I actually really like this one and might well get a bottle if it doesn't do weird things in the next thirty minutes....

[Dracoo9]

This smells a lot like Fairy wine to me and smells very much like a spring scent. Its very green and just a very happy, outdoors-ey scent. I was expecting it to smell a litle more grassey on me though. I dont like it enough to get a bottle but I will defenently hold on to the decant.

 

[ShadowsDance]

I don't have a whole lot to say about this scent. In the imp it's a floral and grass scent. When I apply it turns into a sort of generic floral scent, and while most scents like this turn into baby powder on me this one does not - but it's still not all that impressive. Just doesn't do much for me.

[Sweetie666]

Hmm, this is a 'hillside in the early spring' scent for me. Not unpleasant....but not a favorite. There's also a slight acrid smell when it dries, and it doesn't smell very floral for me. Swap pile!

[unlaced]

I was so not convinced about this in the bottle. It just smelled like dirt and maybe some grass or flowers or something lingering in the background somewhere.

 

Once it got on my skin though... WOW. It's beautiful! It's the scent of wet green flower stems with a touch of dirt behind it. The dirt isn't too heavy and the flower stem smell isn't overwhelming... And floating through it all is the smell of flower blooms. What kind of blooms? I dunno, but they smell pretty and that's what counts. A lot of people are comparing this to standing in a florist's shop and while I can't remember ever being in a florist's shop, I'd have to imagine this is what it would smell like.

 

It's just so springy and lovely! I didn't think I would love it (since it's really not my style of scent at all) but now I think I'll be reaching for it often this spring.

Edited April 19, 2009 by unlaced

[GhillieDhu]

A moist, green melange of scents. I got a lot of the clover and heather from Passionate Shepherd, along with a gorgeous slightly smoky, slightly dirty note that must be the peat. Very little floral. Unfortunately, I amp berries and wine quite badly, and this was no exception. Cloudberry is a really interesting note... it smells a great deal like the salmonberries that are native where I grew up. Sadly, that's really not something I care to wear. Swapped.

[kbrighton]

Can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet. I love, love, LOVE it--and did not think I would, I ordered it for my sister through a decant circle, but she went ahead and bought a bottle before the decant arrived so I got the imp, and am I ever glad. This is the scent of spring in a bottle. It's a masterful blend, swoon worthy even

 

When first applied the scent of fresh green is strong and the most enjoyable phase to me. I reach for this often

 

 

 

[Little Bird]

In the bottle, this smells of dandelions with a hint of grass.

 

On my skin at first... dandelions with a hint of grass. I love the lab's dandelion note. It's so perfect and true to real life dandelions - milky sweetness plus that green bitterness. The grass pokes out a bit more, smelling just like fresh, green grass, but this remains mostly dandelion on my skin.

 

After a half hour, this is more floral than grassy. It makes me think of trampled flowers... crushed green stems and a few scattered, sweet smelling petals. The dandelion is still holding strong, though, adding some charming weeds to the proper flowers. I definitely recognize the sweet, rosy smelling heather note from Glasgow.

 

Heather, dandelion, and a hint of green grass. It's gorgeous, girly, and perfect for spring/summer. I think this is a floral that I can actually wear.

 

This is definitely my favorite of the dandelion/grass type scents that bpal has released thus far.

[naeelah]

I got this because I'm constantly on the hunt for a meadow-like scent to use in an oil burner.

 

Unfortunately, this is very true to the name and the primary quality is air. This is very fresh, ozoney outdoors. It's the spring counterpart to Wind Moon. Where that had dry leaves and an icy edge, this has fresh clover and meadow flowers. The air is very fresh and true, it doesn't have a metallic, storm ozone quality.

 

I am unable to pick apart all of the green notes here. The juniper berries don't stand out to me, and the peat doesn't smell mossy. This is just fresh, fresh green, like plant stems (as someone else mentioned). There is a buttery softness from the dandelion flowers and a coolness from the heather. I think the flowers are stronger than the green notes, in the end.

 

So, in short: fresh, smooth greenery and soft, airy wildflowers, carried on a wind billowing through the hillside.

 

Compared to other meadow scents, I think the best comparison is the Passionate Shepherd, but if you took that blend and diluted it in a whole lot of air. I find it less strongly green and grassy than the Passionate Shepherd, less lushly floral than the Perfumed Garden, less woodsy than the Ragged Wood, and certainly less herbal than the Witches Garden or erm, that other witch one that was a lunacy companion. In general, because the air quality is so pronounced, this is less GREEN! than other meadow blends.

 

[Aldercy]

The Host of the Air has a heavy dose of slippery herbal notes (very much like Envy) without too much floral stuff going on. What flowers are detectable are very earthy and unassuming-- I'm really enjoying what I believe might be the sunny, milky scent of dandelion. Some grass and... catnip? Fuzzy new leaves and lush mosses. I'm not swept off my feet, but it's quite nice. It reminds me of one of my favorite herbal tea blends.

 

And for about 15 minutes after application, I get this very unexpected (but pleasant) note that is like nutmeg/mahogany. Like fresh, shredded mahogany (I smelled a handful of sawdust and slivers from a recently poached tree in Belize in December and it was a very memorable smell). That spicy/woodsy scent fades from the perfume fairly quickly, but for awhile it lent some nice depth.

 

EDIT: I find I like Host of the Air more every time I use it. It changes just a tad each time-- sometimes the highly-unlikely-nutmeg hangs around longer, and about every other use, I smell the bluebells. Curiouser and curiouser.

Edited May 22, 2009 by Aldercy

[catattack]

This blend definitely smells "airy". How that happens is beyond me. There are wildflowers and greens. It's a nice non-offensive scent, but I don't think I'll wear it.

[edenssixthday]

The Host of the Air - Very, very green. It's got a strong grassy, milkweed scent that is the dandelion note overpowering everything else in it (as dandelion usually does on my skin). It's got that strong, pungent smell of freshly mown grass. On me, it's overwhelming and too strong for my taste.

[laslibres]

Ooh, that’s very nice. It's a great deal like Garden Path With Chickens, but a little more...hmm. Well, less flowery, and more aquatic. Garden Path With Chickens just had a bit of dewy aquatic, but with this I sense a whole pond, with aquatic plants and mosses and the whole bit.

 

Also a bit of fruit? Ah yes, maybe that’s what cloudberry smells like, or maybe that's the wine…it could smell a little bit like wine, but it’s just an under-note, and I don’t know if "wine-dappled" is literal or not (maybe it’s just wine _colored_ heather. You never know with ol' Yeatsie). Yeah, a lot like Garden Path, except less flowery, maybe more masculine as well…bit more cologne-y? It’s not _man,_ but it’s not girly either. I really like those green, fresh sorts of blends (Fairy Market, Dyan Moon, Long Night Moon), I tend to collect them actually, and this is probably the only one of those that I would recommend to a man. It's just got that unisex sort of quality, and I personally like that (I'm a chick, but I enjoy scent-crossdressing).

 

Additional thought: Would Yeats himself, perhaps, smell like this? *swoon* Oh my.

 

[Ajila]

In the bottle - Fresh cut grass and heather

 

Wet on me - Fresh bright green, with that bitter sappiness associated with fresh cut stems

 

Dry on me - For a long while it's just this bright, brash trumpet of greeness, but it eventually settles down into earthy florals

 

Overall - The greeness for the first several hours is just too aggressive for me, although I do like the dry down

[Coldfire]

 

 

 

 

Decant: grass!

Wet on Me: grass and dandelion and heather

Drying Down: sharp green. Not so much grass green, but grass blending with the clover and heather and dandelion. What a meadow on the back of my hand!

Dry: This smells like I imagine Ireland to smell like. The greens and heathers and dandelions and clover. So lovely. Keeping!

 

[tarotgirl99]

Peat and rolling grass-covered hills, with wine-dappled heather, white clover, cloudberry, juniper berry, bluebell, dandelion, and cross-leaved heath.

 

In the imp: Oh hai Heather! Your friend Dandelion is very nice, she shouldn't stand so far back. It's like she's hiding in the grass.

 

Wet: Heather and grass and with a peep of other florals and the tiniest speck of peat.

 

Dry: Mostly heather and greenness. VERY sweet and green, with lots of throw. This is very pleasant at first, but the longer I wear it, the less I like it, even though it's very cleverly blended.

 

Prolly my dislike of green in general.

 

 

[mgrazulis]

Tart cloudberry, purple heather and wild hyacinth over peppery green clover freshly pulled out of peat. Exhuberant and pungent during the early drydown. A milky dandelion and creamed cloudberry veil settles gently over the clover and heath in the end. A lush, fresh meadow explosion that wafts into a soft earthy floral blend. All natural and fresh...a keeper!!

 

[loladae]

This one is so pretty! While The Passionate Shepherd to his Love was more of a straight meadow scent, this one has pretty flowers and a more magical feel. I don't need a bottle, but I'll wear this in the spring for my grassy fix.

[Pika]

Beautiful and light, fresh, green scent. It's got a little bit of that dewy "freshness" that I get from Rose Red, and I wonder if that's what's making me think there's rose in here. Prolly just the heather.

 

I'm surprised this works as well as it does on my skin, considering these types of scents usually go to laundry detergent. It's headed there a bit, but only after more than an hour. Yay!

[obsidienne]

A light, green & airy floral with a hint of something earthen beneath it all. This is a stunningly gorgeous scent: I can see the rolling green hills and dancing clusters of bluebells, heather and dandelions when I smell this. Also, I love juniper and it's definitely in here, but perfectly balanced with everything else. I was really glad I threw this into my order at the last minute, because I normally dislike "green" scents. That said, I haven't worn it but for twice in all the time I've had it, and it turns out that something in here makes me feel slightly nauseous -- probably the wine, and more than probably the dandelion (*thinking of Strawberry Moon '09*). So, for all its beauty, I can't keep this.

Edited November 6, 2009 by obsidienne