Crowned and Robed and Dead

[GinnyMoonbeam]

Red rose and white magnolia in a tomb of vetiver, oak leaf, mahogany, and Somalian olibanum.

Caveat: My nose is still pretty untrained, so others will be better at picking up individual notes. But since nobody's reviewed this at all yet, I thought my efforts would be better than nothing.

In the imp I get heavy florals and sharp woods. Can't pick anything out distinctly.

Wet, there's the same heavy florals -- I can pick out the rose, not familiar enough with magnolia but I assume it's the rest of the floral. Mostly they blend together. There's also something vegetative that I'm guessing is the oak leaf. Overall it's evocative of rich waxy flowers on a very expensive wreath with a lot of dark leaves and twisted stems.

Dry, after a couple of hours, I'm getting a lot of mahogany, which I'm familiar with from The Mahogany Tree. Apparently I'm not a big fan of the note, although it's such a lovely word and color it took two blends for that reality to sink in. To me it's kind of a shrill note: sharp and loud without the depth that I love in other aggressive notes like vetiver. (Speaking of vetiver, I'm not getting any from this, or maybe it's light enough that it's blending with what I'm taking to be the oak leaf.)

Overall, I'm disappointed in this one... it's not bad, especially at first, but I was expecting it to be a favorite.

[tinyvulture]

At first application, a gentle blend of rose and vetiver. Like a much softer version of The Sick Rose.

 

After a couple minutes, it's not so distinctly rose. In fact nothing is very distinct at this point. This scent fades quicky. Faint florals and warm earthiness (vetiver/oak leaf). I love mahogany, but not finding it here.

 

If you like soft, close-to-the-skin blends, check this out. Too mild for me.

[theseagrows]

i knew this one would fall in the hit or miss range for me. i love rose and i think i usually like magnolia, but sometimes WHOAFLORAL scents are just a bit too much without something to ground them or warm them up a bit. that plus bpal's woods sometimes go wonky. anyway, with that disclaimer out of the way, this starts off as what i think is mostly magnolia with rose and mahogany in the background. it's kind of a velvety floral scent. then the other woodsy notes and olibanum come through. i really don't sense much vetiver in this at all, or if so, it must be very subtle. after awhile, i began to sense the waxiness of the florals that GinnyMoonbeam mentioned. after awhile the notes seem to blend seamlessly, and it becomes a very dark, perfumey floral, and i think at this point it's mostly magnolia, oak and olibanum that i detect. it's a very pretty dark floral scent, brings to mind deep dark red and purple. though i like this scent, i am amping it quite a bit and am not sure i would wear it regularly.

[zankoku_zen]

Smoky. Honestly, this is actually a very gender neutral blend that could potentially be masculine, so fellas, take note.

 

I get smoky (the good time) - like that out of a tobacco pipe, with woody elements, from the mahogany and oak, and with a touch of floral sweetness. Oddly enough, I may in fact be getting the magnolia, which almost smells like wet wool to me... but in this blend it smells more like a trace of worsted wool.

 

I find this a more delicate, subtle version of what I wished the Hellfire blends would have been - smoky, woody, and with a trace of wool and florals from either the vases around, or a rose that a gentleman in a fine wool suit wears on his lapel.

 

This is smooth, in the same way polished banisters, polished wood furniture, gleaming brown leather couches is. Sophisticated.

 

If I were the BBC, I'd take this and market this as Mycroft Holmes, as portrayed by Mark Gatiss.

[milo]

Strong woods and resin's, kind of sour and aggressive on me. There is a teeny touch of rose here, but I wouldn't have known it was there if I didn't peek. This blend smells 'cranky' to me, like a pouty woman not getting her way and thinking of when to throw a hissy fit. Teeters on unisex, but probably a bit more on the masculine side. Not for me.

[thekittenkat]

In the imp: The oak leaf, the vetiver, and probably the mahogany. Bitter woods.

 

Wet: Much as when sniffed, but the florals and the frank are coming out of the dark woods.

 

The dry-down: And then the bitter woods catch the pretty flowers and the lovely frankincense and EAT them.