The Traveller

[femmefatale]

THE TRAVELLER
Oliver Goldsmith
Vain, very vain, my weary search to find
That bliss which only centres in the mind:
Why have I stray'd from pleasure and repose,
To seek a good each government bestows?
In every government, though terrors reign,
Though tyrant kings, or tyrant laws restrain,
How small, of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!
Still to ourselves in every place consign'd,
Our own felicity we make or find:
With secret course, which no loud storms annoy,
Glides the smooth current of domestic joy.
The lifted axe, the agonizing wheel,
Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel,
To men remote from power but rarely known,
Leave reason, faith, and conscience, all our own.

A wanderer, poised at the point where three great countries meet, ruminating on government, nationalism, religion, and personal character: boot leather, pipe tobacco, and the dust of soft resins, herbs, and soil-flecked gravel picked on long, solitary travels.

Since Meliai turned masculine, I thought wth I'll try dh's Traveller also. LOL

In the bottle: LEATHER!

Wet on the skin: Holy sh!t this has some throw. A little goes a looong way. It's still mostly leather, but this is one of the richest leather notes I've ever smelled. Honestly, it's just incredible and fits the description perfectly. Beneath the leather I can smell the herbs and tobacco and just a general feel of the outdoors. It's incredible and unlike anything I've smelled before.

Drying down: It just gets better and better. Everything just blends together more and becomes more complex. I am beginning to get a bit of the gravel now as well, I think.

This traveller is damn sexy. I will be slathering (well, maybe not slathering, it's quite strong) dh as soon as he walks in the door. It's easily one of my favorite oils that I've tried in a long time. It really does tell a story and paints a very vivid image.

[hkhm]

bottle: well-worn dusty leather.

 

wet: this is a very dry, dusty scent. it has a warm feel to it. it's like wearing well-worn leather boots with a patina of dry sand.

 

dry: there are the herbs, though they are dried... dry leather, dust, sand, herbs. a very evocative blend!

[EmpressPixie]

In the bottle it smelled almost medicine-y to me, but on and dry it smells like ever so slightly dusty, raw leather. Not old, comfortable, worn leather but raw, rough leather. I'm amping this leather like crazy (something new for me) so I'm not really getting anything other than bam!leather!

 

And that's delicious.

[Dark Alice]

This is just leather. No pipe tobacco. No soft resins. No nothing. Just Leather. I already have a leather scent to fulfill my needs...so this will have to find a new home. *sigh*

[meaganola]

LEATHER LEATHER LEATHER OH HAI DID I MENTION I AM LEATHER!

 

Ahem. So, yeah, all I get is leather. *Strong* leather. And not dainty Wilson's Leather stuff. This makes me think of a tack store that has just received a brand new shipment of saddles. Unfortunately, leather is one of my headache notes. I can just barely tolerate it in I Married a Vampire from Planet X and Miller v California, and that's about it. I'm not even going to bother skin-testing it. I just hope I can scrub all traces it off my fingers now since I tend to sleep with my hands near my head, and having this scent near my nose all night will not make for a pleasant morning.

[annanwater]

Good lord this scent is amazing. I'd been having difficulty in finding my leather scent, and I think this is it. All the other leather scents I've tried have seemed to be either too floral or too something else, but this is the perfect balance between leather and the complimentary notes.

 

The leather note is strong, but is nicely sweetened and warmed by the other notes. It really does smell like the outdoors...I'm even getting whiffs that give the sense of a cool breeze floating by. Definitely a second bottle of this...maybe a third, depending on how my self-control is looking when I order.

[fairnymph]

Rich, old leather - Dead Man's Hand style, not De Sade style as the description suggests, with a little sweet, almost fruity pipe tobacco, ground stone, and a suggestion of dark, sweet resins very faintly in the background.

 

Rich, glorious leather still firmly in command, but the herbs have come out suddenly and strongly, adding a dry, masculine edge - these smell like dried herbs with medicinal qualities. Sweeter overall, with more distinct pipe tobacco - a little cherry-ish and reminscent of Hearth 2005 - still lots of stone dust, but I get some other sort of powder too - I think it's the chemical sort of leather, the leather note I DON'T like - that's here, too. Not happy.

 

This has crazy strong throw, the old leather note in particular. I'm being (happily) smothered by fresh suede! There is still a medicinal sharpness if I sniff more closely, with almost an anise-like tang, but not quite that...maybe sassafras? It's mentholic and sharp-sweet and really not my thing. I get a bit of the soil note now, but I have to search for it so dirt-fearers - this is worth a shot, bc there's barely any dirt. I wish I could pick out more herbs - all I can say is that they are dark and dry. Maybe some sage? It does remind me a bit of Western Diamondback, but that could just be the shared leather note.

 

Not a morpher really - the briefly present herbal notes dissipate entirely. This dries down to rich old leather with a hint of sweetness from the pipe tobacco (which definitely verges towards 'gourmand' as tobacco can) and stony dust, but mostly it's rich old leather. Nearly identical to Dead Man's Hand, with similarly FANTASTIC, intense throw and longevity. I love it and will be getting several bottles. THANK YOU Beth for all the blends lately with this leather note!

 

[Gwydion]

In bottle: Creaky leather and tobacco are strongest. Wet: Oo1 ther’s the resin1 it’s softer, sweeter, and more androgynous on the skin. Leather retains dominance, but it’s a much softer leather. Given a little time, the herbs and gravel peek out. This isn’t the dirt note, but one of the stone variations. The effect of the whole thing is pleasantly sun warmed. It is a touch chemical though, but in an appealing way. Dry: The lingering scent of leather.

[edenssixthday]

The Traveller - When first applied, this has the horrible scent of burnt rubber tires. Not pleasant. But once it dries down, it becomes the scent of well-worn, well-travelled, dirty leather boots. To me, the scent is highly evocative of what it represents, but it's not something I would ever wear -- the dusty/dirty aspect of it is just too unpleasant for me. But I imagine on the right person, particularly those drawn to masculine scents, it could smell really earthy and nice.

[angelicruin]

On my skin, this smells exactly like a dusty road mingled with leather and tobacco. Amazingly accurate to the scent name.

[hespera4523]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh...purr. Purr purr purr. This is the scent of a leatherworking booth at the Renaissance Festival, with a gorgeous man in leather pants stroking a freshly made flogger and smirking knowingly as the girls blush. I want to dribble this on the mantype and do unspeakable things to him.

[bellis]

Wow, this is fantastic. I amp the "gravel" apparently (who knew?), so this smells like wet river stone on me, with a hint of leather and herbs. This is absolutely gorgeous, and much more unisex (at least on me) than I was expecting. I'm actually considering getting more of this.

[MamaMoth]

Whelp, that seals it. I've tried it in a lot of forms, and I just can't do leather notes.

 

This smells like when my parents replaced the plastic liner in their pool, almost exactly. Plasticy and watery and a little chemically.

[wl552]

I've come to the conclusion that I amp leather to high heaven. And any leather note in an oil isn't anything like gorgeous saddle leather; it's probably just my skin chemistry. I was hoping that the pipe tobacco and resins would be more in the front, but nope. Straight up, single note leather. Oh well. Just got a decant to try in case, so no huge loss.

[wvgemini]

Tried this on my man last night.

 

In the bottle: Liquid Leather. Straight, pure, worn leather.

On his skin: Good grief that's LEATHER!!! He said it reminded him of walking into one of the leather shops in Turkey or a boot store. Okay, they nailed the boot leather! I got a tiny whiff of the tobacco and maybe a resin, but both were quickly stomped into oblivion by the leather.

 

Final: He wants to hang on to it to see if the leather nellows out a bit. I want it gone. Going to have to work on this one ...

[Little Bird]

The Traveller reminds me of the small town in Missouri that I grew up in. It's dusty gravel roads, leather stores, and tobacco shops. It makes me think of brown leather and soft cowboy boots <3. The scent is mostly leather and tobacco on me. It's not a gritty tobacco, though, it's a sweet, smooth tobacco note. I don't smell the herbs or dirt at all.

 

I am crazy about leather scents lately, and I might need multiple bottles of this one. Soft, brown leather and sweet tobacco.

[strahlend]

I'm not usually one for leather but this blend has been calling to me quite a bit lately. It reminds me exactly of walking into a leather store. I think I could grow quite attached to this one except for one thing. Every time I put it on my partner ends up sniffing around the room thinking that there's something burning. He says it smells like an electrical burning plastic kind of thing. I normally don't care too much what he thinks since he usually doesn't comment at all, but it's kind of weird to be told I smell like something so unpleasant. I'm not sure how to reconsile this, but in the mean time I'm happily huffing my imp.

 

*edit

I decided to go ahead and get a bottle even though every single time I tested it I got the same response from my SO. I realized that I enjoyed it too much to not get a bottle. I wear it when he's not around.

Edited May 10, 2010 by strahlend

[zankoku_zen]

Chemical black leather. Like DeSade.

 

Let's face it, leather is so not my friend.

[crebbsgirl]

Yup, this is all leather all the time on my skin. It's conjuring some pretty specific memories in fact. Much like Western Diamondback did for me, I am taken back to dance classes and trying on tap shoes. Same kind of leather here. Much into the drydown I get the herbs and a bit of soil, with just a faint hint of tobacco, but for the most part, these other notes are completely overshadowed by the leather.

[hyzenthlayrah]

Yup, this is all leather all the time on my skin.

 

I got a bottle based on the leather descriptions, but this one goes really really chemical on both me and my husband. I think it's the dust note, which is dusty right at first, then morphs into something that reminds me of newly cleaned porta-johns.

 

Then it won't even wash off! It's not a Traveler so much as an unwanted house guest

 

I'll put it away and see if a few months mellows it out a bit.

 

[indybear]

To me, this smells exactly like our summer cottage smelled when we opened it up after the winter - and that's not good. On me, this smells exactly like MILDEW.

 

The Lab's leather scents usually work quite well on my skin, and I had really high hopes. This is really disappointing.

[lavender84]

Chemical leather on my skin. Waited about 2 hours for it to turn but still straight leather. Good throw and staying power and lingers even after I washed.

 

Traveller, I'm not travelling your way I'm afraid.

[wendyb1063]

This one was not a hit. My husband tried it on, and he said it smelled exactly like the herbicide 2-4-D. To me it smelled like mildew. I could perhaps smell a little leather, but that was it. I won't be wearing this one, I'm afraid!

[aquazoo]

The soft leather comes up first, suede fresh from the shoe store. he tobacco and herbs are there, lingering in the background. Pleasant and comforting.

[milo]

Wet, this is all boot leather. My Fryes kind of smell like this, actually. As it dries, something 'tack room' comes out and smells exactly like this substance I used to buy in a tin to shine up my horses hooves, (I can't remember what it's called). This is pretty dominant along with the leather and it really smells like a tack room in a barn. Very evocative, but not what I want to smell like.