Elegy IX: The Autumnal

[fiddlehead]

Red maplewood, plum leaves, fir needle, wildflower honey, patchouli, hazelnut, and green cognac.

This is very much like Samhain but gentler. The dry leaves, the fir (which is quite realistic and camphor like). I can catch a little of the honey, though it adds body more than sweetness. I'm not familiar with the other notes but nothing is jumping out at me as a new-to-me scent, yet. I can see wearing this more often than Samhain because it isn't quite as 'loud'. It also reminds me of Samhainophobia. Elegy IX is another really great Fall scent!

[zankoku_zen]

I get fir, patchouli and leaves. Along the lines of Samhain, but more of the fall leaves variety. It turns sort of dusty toward the end, which means that its the type of patchouli that doesn't work for me.

 

Fall, leaves, chilly.

[tinyvulture]

First sniff: maple leaves and fir needles. Amazing!

 

A minute later, the wildflower honey appears. It really does smell like wildflowers and honey, ha.

 

Add faint fruity, nutty, and boozy notes from the plum leaves, hazelnut, and cognac, and all of a sudden my nose is a little confused.

 

The herbal, astringent qualities of the fir grow stronger and stronger, and now I’m not enjoying it so much. I love Samhain, but this is like a fruitier and far more herbal version of Samhain that isn’t really working out for me.

[ami226]

On the skin: Sharp green fir needles. This reminds me almost exactly of the evergreen scent from the Soaring over California Disneyland ride! Wow, I miss Disneyland... After a bit, this scent turns a bit sweeter. Drop of honey? Really interesting.

 

Definitely keeping this one around!

[Voleuse]

Hmmmmm! This is very foresty on first sniff, and more specifically, forest + honey. A sun-brightened fall day, and my memories of visiting the redwood forests when I was a kid. The evergreen hits first, but the woods are warm and grounding underneath the evergreen and honey sweetness. This isn't something I'd typically wear, but I'm really captured by it.

[OctoberGwen]

I adore this and I also get the Samhain vibe. Elegy IX is a less intense version of Samhain; it's Autumn without the deep old world magic of Hallowe'en. I get no apple here, nothing fruity at all, in fact. This is all Autumn woods and leaves with a touch of woodsmoke in the distance on the far drydown. Beautiful.

 

Thank you, Beth! Nobody does Autumn scents like you.

[milo]

Medicinal and astringent at first, kind of like Dettol, or Pine Sol, not really, but that kind of vibe. I'm thinking this must be the pine. Dry, less astringent, somewhat herbal, slightly dusty, not really something I wear, but the air around me smells kind of nice. I'd probably like this as a room scent, but it's not really my style as a perfume.

[whitsunweddings]

In the imp: A rather cologney pine.

Wet: Wow, a very true pine note.

Dry: Yup. PINEY PINEY PINE. And that's it. It's such a nice pine note that I don't mind!

[catalyst]

In the first couple of minutes, it was pretty good, a lot of autumn notes, and I thought I'd like it.

 

Then the fir and green cognac got in a fistfight and everybody lost.

 

It turned into a sharp green and went sort of cat piss once the mellower short-lived brown notes started to go. Had to wipe it off, which is unusual for me.

[theseagrows]

got a frimp of this...what an interesting scent. i certainly wouldn't have tried this on my own, since plum, honey and sometimes patchouli don't work with my skin chemistry. i am kind of liking this though, it smells very unisex to me, but my first thought is that i want to smell this on my boyfriend. i do like it on me though-it's very autumnal, as implied by the name. i think i am mostly smelling the maplewood and green cognac, with just a hint of honey and fir needle? it's a very green scent, but in a autumnal way, like fig. it doesn't smell like fig but it's "feeling" reminds me of fig, it's lighter and more airy. i will definitely keep this imp-would love to try this again in autumn/winter, where i think it would really shine.

Edited April 19, 2013 by theseagrows

[MiasmaResonance]

I swear I've reviewed or at least tried my bottle of this before, but what I'm smelling is definitely NOT what I thought I was going to smell.

 

It may be that aging has deepened the scent, but wow, very strong patch and woody fir, definitely masculine. The other, sweet notes are in the background, not really noticeable in their own right, but serving to deepen the scent, making it more complex.

 

In the end, I feel it's too masculine for me. It would probably smell good on my boyfriend though. It is veering into the high pitched, maybe-that's-cat-pee territory on me, as others have mentioned, though, so it may be the same case for him. At least it's not soapy though.

[hammy]

In the imp - Fir, baby. And smoke. I hope the patch doesn’t kill me.

 

Wet - Interesting. Woods on the East Coast. This has patchouli and I don’t immediately hate it. It’s a little strong for my nose, but I’ll wait for it to dry before I judge.

 

Drydown - I totally get the Samhain comparisons. The dirtiness of Samhain ruined the whole blend for me, but this is less dirty and more earthy. I am SO happy Samhain has a baby brother. (And I DO mean brother; it’s a fairly masculine scent.) The wood here is very dry, like one spark would send the whole place up in flames. The extreme drydown is a little funky, though I really have to get my nose right up in there to detect the funk.

 

Verdict - For me, the evergreen makes it more of a winter scent. But hey, winter in Southern California is basically an extended autumn. I’m not sure where I would possibly wear this, but I can’t bring myself to swap it. For now, it’s going into the “retest” box.

[radiantfracture]

In the vial: Honey and fir and cognac -- very promising -- a sweet forest. Touch of leaves.

 

On the skin, wet: sweet plum leaves with fir; it's very like the sweet dusty smell of coniferous pollen with an additional complexity from the plum and cognac.

 

Drydown: Hmm, just a moment of something plasticky, but then the maplewood takers over. I don't get the hazelnut, and just a trace of the patchouli, but I don't miss them.

 

Dry: Voleuse, above, really captured my sense of this scent. This is pretty grand. A fresh bright fall day in a forest of mixed coniferous and deciduous trees. I love this.

[DiZZysTARdust]

this smells like vicks vapo rub in the bottle. very evergreen but also like literal eucalyptus. a tad incensey. not my bag so i was a little worried but i slathered it on anyway. on it gets less vicks. the honey comes into the forefront. in blends like these, i can see how the honey note goes plasticky on people. maybe the wood notes in there? idk, but it never goes full on plastic, just a bit artificial christmas tree as it all honeyed fir all the time on me at first. the fir kind of blends in with the maple as it dries. a little fruitiness comes out as the fir fades away. it’s not noticeably plum, and manages to add some sweetness in to balance out the woods. if i didn’t have the note list in front of me i would never have guessed there was patchouli in here. it blends perfectly into everything else. i also don’t detect the hazelnut in any meaningful way, and having never smelled cognac on its own i don’t recognize it. all in all this is a beautiful autumn scent, evocative of a harvest night bonfire for me, minus the smoke

 

ETA, this has a decent throw on me, and stays strong throughout the first hour as it dries and on. seems like it will linger

Edited January 20, 2019 by DiZZysTARdust