Hekaerge

[Venneh]

She Who Strikes From a Distance
Red patchouli, myrrh, lemongrass, gurjum balsam, lemongrass, lavender, and honey.

In the bottle, this is patchouli and myrrh to me, maybe a bit of the sharpness of the lavender. On my skin, definitely patchouli and myrrh amping, as they tend to do on me. Very dark, very militaristic. The lavender's mellowing it out, but not killing it like it usually does on my skin. Very interesting.

[Drarra]

I tried this on for the first time last night, and I love it. So much so that I wore it today!

 

In the bottle, I smell patchouli melding with honey, and some greens swirling behind it. The more I smell, I can pick apart the individual plant notes: the lavender, lemongrass and the hint of balsam. I think it smells delightful.

 

On my skin, this is dark and delightful. I get lots of myrrh and a hint of lavender. The perfume is nicely blended, and I'm having difficulty picking out individual notes. I think it is worth noting that while I generally amp anything with honey or beeswax (and it stays put for a LONG time), I can't pick out the honey note. That suggests to me there is just a touch.

 

I love this. For some reason, it is very reminiscent of "The Phoenix in Summer" to me, but without the ozone. The funny part about that is they don't seem to share any of the same notes!

Edited February 26, 2011 by Drarra

[edenssixthday]

Hekaerge – This really isn’t my type of scent, but I still had hopes that somehow the myrrh and lemongrass would rule and it would be a surprisingly awesome scent. It isn’t. Rather, it’s strongly woody on me – tons of red patchouli and balsam, both of which are notes I dislike. The lavender, my arch-nemesis, is barely even noticeable over the balsam, which says a lot for how strong the balsam is. The lemongrass and honey aren’t remotely discernable and while I can smell the myrrh, it smells like “light myrrh,” which I dislike, as opposed to “dark myrrh,” which I adore. So this is basically full of scents that could just never win on my skin and with my nose. More for the rest of you, I suppose.

[Invidiana]

Oh, my friend lemongrass, why must you always RUIN perfectly good blends for me? Because the other ingredients are some of my favorites I had high hopes that blasted herb would just sit quietly in the background like I told it to but no such luck. As always, I amped it to the point that I could really only smell lemongrass death with tiny hints of lavender and some sweetness from the balsam and honey. Curse you lemongrass.

[Dark Alice]

Stinky Lemongrass is stinky. It over takes everything and I can't smell anything else. *sigh*

[Deek]

Bottle: My immediate response was "Eww". I'm pretty sure all I got out of that was myrrh and patchouli.

Wet on Skin: The lavendar is stronger, and so is the balsam. Actually, I get quite a bit of balsam and patchouli.

Dry: Overtime, it looses it's sharpness and definitely mellows out. Might be better aged. This is very stinky to me and I don't like it... But then again I don't like very many of the notes.

Overall: 1/5. If you like these types of scents, you'll probably like it.. For me it's basically the exact opposite of what I like. Definitely not getting a bottle.

[zankoku_zen]

Hekarge starts off with a whiff of lemongrass on top of resinous patchouli and some lavender. And then it dries to a patchouli, resinous myrrh and balsam sweetened by honey. Balsam to me is a wood that ends up sort of smelling like cedar, and thus ends up in quasi-pencil shavings.

 

So yes, spicy, resinous woody. Not for me.

[Gwydion]

In bottle: Patchouli dominent with strong balsam. All elements are easily discernible. It’s rather medicinal under the patchouli, though the honey tries to sweeten and soften it. I do like the lemongrass and lavender here. I’m not fond of the myrrh. I was not sure about the gurjum, but it really grew on me, giving an unusual woody balsam effect to the blend. Wet: It’s much fresher and greener on the skin. The patchouli backs waaaay down and blends into the balsam dominant mix. The lemongrass lends sharpness, the incense elevates, the lavender grounds, the honey sweetens. This is utterly delightful on the skin and not medicinal at all. It is so much better than in the bottle. My skin loves this. It’s a lovely early evening in Spring sort of scent, unusual and alluring and light. Dry: The gurjum balsam is still dominant and pleasantly woody. The other elements fade much faster, though hints of them remain discernible. I would not wear this if you don’t like sandalwood and balsam, as the scent is somewhere between ordinary balsam and sandalwood in its feel. I am really glad I got to try this as there is nothing quite like it.

[Little Bird]

I don't do well with lemongrass (very sour and overwhelming on my skin), so the fact that it was mentioned twice in the list of notes here worried me. Red patchouli also tends to smell rather sour and dirty on me. But Hekaerge isn't so bad. It's not bad at all on me, actually.

 

In the bottle, this smells like thick, sweet honey and lavender with a little bit of sweet myrrh.

On my skin, something in this smells woody and smoky, and it reminds me of the tobacco shops I've been in. The honey lingers but thankfully calms down after a few minutes and isn't cloying.

Hekaerge, after about fifteen minutes, settles into a really beautiful woods blend on my skin. It's like polished wood, slightly spicy in the way that cedar can smell spicy, and sensual resins. It actually smells quite a bit like a more wearable version of Kostnice on me. Kostnice with warm woods and sultry incense smoke.

 

I'm happy to have a partial bottle of this'n a new favorite in the woody resins category for me.

[milo]

I thought for sure there was vetiver in this. What I'm getting as vetiver must be the red patchouli, as I've never smelled that note before, it's kind of a sour smoky smell to me, like pickle juice. I'm getting lots of resins and spice here as well, and boy is it STRONG. I'm used to slathering as most bpal blends are fairly quiet on me. Not this one. I'd like this if it wasn't for the sourness that I get. I also wish it were a bit more sweet, as this blend is quite dry on me. Happy to try this, but I won't need to upgrade.

[fairestrocza]

This is such an unusual blend, unlike any other BPAL scent I've sniffed.

I can pick out hints of all the notes, but nothing seems to stick out in front of the others. It ends up being more woody than I would have expected from the notes. I want to love it, but it ends up being a bit too dry for me, and I have to face it - I just don't like myrrh.

I find this to be fairly unisex, with medium throw and good lasting power. I love the bottle art.

[JazzieCazzie]

Intrigued by the notes and their combination here, despite the fact that lemongrass is often a note of doom for me, I still really wanted to try it. Not to buy a bottle but to get an imp and play it from there. Was able to pick one up in a swap. Happy day!

 

IN THE IMP: Sadly, the first and foremost note for me was, you guessed it, lemongrass. But happily, it was quote nice. Very springlike. And I got virtually none of the other notes on that sniff.

 

Dabbed on wrist and in crook of arm.

 

WET: Once applied, I get more of the lavender (though not enough to even remotely classify this as a lavender blend for me) and the balsam, as well as other resins. Virtually NO honey which is interesting, since that tends to often be a note that amps on my big-time. Once the blend settles into my skin and is still wet, I'd call it a wonderfully herbal floral with a slight sweetness.

 

DRYDOWN: This has minimal throw and doesn't last very long but for me. Overall, I'd say the notes and vibe I mentioned at the end of the wet stage is still there on drydown, just MUCH fainter.

 

OVERALL: It would be a great spring scent, or a lovely blend for someone who might be a BPAL newbie that you want to turn onto the precious but is more of a conservative flower/green/spring outdoors lover. And I find it fades so quickly that it would give its wearer options. It's very, very nice. I don't think I'd buy more of it but I think I'd keep this imp and wear it sometimes.

 

On a scale of 1-5, a 3.4

[lady_pandora]

Hekaerge is an interesting morpher, and then finally settles on a nice comfortable scent that I like.

 

Like milo, I was sure there was vetiver in this when I smelled it wet. Here are my best guesses: (a) I have no idea what gurjum balsam is, so it might be that, or ( lemongrass is apparently actually a relative of vetiver. Last time I saw lemongrass, it was lemony and over-amping in Angeronalia, but maybe this is a different aspect of it playing up. I don't know. Anyway, wet, I smell this vetivery note along with a little citrus (probably the lemony aspect of the lemongrass) and a sharp floral that's probably the lavender.

 

Drying, it's very woody. Still making me think vetiver. It's smoky right on my skin. The throw is sweeter; the honey seems to be making its move.

 

At 10 minutes, honey is coming out on my skin too. The other notes are still strong. The combo is chemical-y in a non-perfume way. Medicinal, maybe, like an ointment. But I'm also starting to feel like it's reminiscent of another oil I tried recently, Wild Indigo Duskywing, I think because of the smoky honey and because of the vetiver-that-isn't.

 

20 minutes: Honey amping everywhere. The medicinal quality is mostly gone, but smoky wood is still present.

 

30 minutes: Slightly smoky honey in the throw, somewhat smokier honey on arm.

 

1 hour: Smoky honey. When I saw "smoky honey" in the description of Wild Indigo Duskywing, I think something like this is what I was hoping for. That was more smoke-with-a-little-honey; Hekaerge is more honey-with-a-little-smoke. At this point I start to get a little woodiness again too, this time identifiable as red patchouli.

 

Approaching 2 hours, it's still smoky honey and a little red patch. Seems this is where it's settling. I really like it! I don't feel the need to build a time machine, go back to 2011, and buy five bottles, but I'm glad to have this decant.

 

ETA: Tested this last night, just woke up in the morning still smelling like it, so good staying power. I smell honey, patch, and maybe a little myrrh--I can't smell the myrrh much, but I think it's helping hold it all together and give it all this staying power.

Edited November 26, 2014 by lady_pandora

[Lucchesa]

Hekaerge is a lovely and lasting patchouli scent on me. Testing blind I guessed patch, cedar and lemon balm — the latter two would be the balsam and lemongrass. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the opening — applied right before leaving the house — so I may have missed the lavender entirely as it rarely lasts on me. I’m not getting much myrrh either. A gritty honey is sweetening things only slightly but adding to the staying power. Very nice!

[VetchVesper]

Warm, smooth patch and lavender in the imp.  I don't smell the lemongrass, but something is lifting this a bit, making it brighter.  On my skin, the patchouli takes over.  It's a nice patchouli though.  Very grounding, with just a bit of sweetness. I detect a faint trace of cedar in the background, giving a hint of raspy texture.  

 

15 minutes later, I'm getting more obvious honey notes.  This is very pretty.  The cedar comes out more as the hours pass, but it stays well behaved.  This lasted about 8 hours on me.