Ashmedai Report post Posted October 26, 2012 NOCTURNUSFrench lavender, spike lavender, and French lavender absolute, Roman chamomile, wild-harvested frankincense, styrax, bourbon vanilla absolute, bourbon geranium, ethically harvested Australian sandalwood, oudh, mugwort, and opium tar. Wow, no reviews on this yet? Thanks, Honey, for the generous tester of this beautiful scent! This is unexpectedly sweet and light, not nearly as sharply lavender as I was expecting (I normally amp lavender like nobody's business). The sandalwood and vanilla do a lot to tone down the lavender, and so this is more similar to TKO than to anything in the Somnus line, which is what I was actually expecting. I do smell a bit of geranium, chamomile and mugwort, but more as a backdrop for the lavender-vanilla notes, which remain the star players for a while. Dried down, the herbal notes fade, the oudh and opium tar are most prominent, and now I can smell the styrax and frankincense too (at this point it almost reminds me of a lighter, fluffier version of Midnight Mass, more an incense blend than the typical lavender-heavy "sleep" blends I'm familiar with. This is also the best oudh note I've ever smelled in a blend). The vanilla-lavender comes back on final dry-down and joins the incense and light wood notes - this is great! I'd describe it as a much more complex, multi-layered, very incensy version of TKO. The only down-side is that it's extremely light and doesn't have much lasting power. Really beautiful while it lasts, though, and I'm all mellowed out after a stressy day at work, sniffing this - wish I had a bottle. Or six dozen bottles. Nah, make that a vat. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zankoku_zen Report post Posted March 11, 2013 Nocturnus starts off with the big hit of TKO - creamy lavender and marshmallow fluff, but the drydown is much different. I get notes of chamomile, mugwort, geranium, and frankincense. Much more complex thank TKO, multi-layered. Take TKO and perhaps mix it with Midnight Bell, and you get an idea of what that would smell like. Very relaxing. I can see how this really works. [Don't really need sleep blends, but this one definitely intrigues me] Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
absinthetics Report post Posted March 15, 2013 French lavender, spike lavender, and French lavender absolute, Roman chamomile, wild-harvested frankincense, styrax, bourbon vanilla absolute, bourbon geranium, ethically harvested Australian sandalwood, oudh, mugwort, and opium tar. So, this one starts out with so much lavender. I really don't like lavender. It is strangely annoying to me, like jasmine. So, I am already a bit bias against this scent. However, the notes in the background are intriguing. You can smell the chamomile and frankincense. Those notes are very peaceful to me, and they don't calm the lavender, they kind of put a feeling of calm Behind the spike of lavender. Vanilla sweetens this calming heart of the scent. But this sweetness takes on a lot of the earthy tones of the sandalwood and oudh and opium. The sweetness is there, but it never bites you with sweet, because the rest of those relatively calm notes take that jab of sweet away. It comes close though, but never quite delivers. If the lavender wasn't quite as heady, and if I liked it, the rest of the blend would be wonderful. It does calm down after drydown. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TorchedEarth Report post Posted January 23, 2015 (edited) This is a really beautiful sleep blend. It is pretty heavy on the lavender, but my chemistry amps the vanilla sugar marshmallow, which helps. once everything calms down it's wonderfully complex scent that is neither too heady nor too sweet. It's become my go to sleep smelly when I can't quite drift off. Edited January 23, 2015 by TorchedEarth Share this post Link to post Share on other sites