The Gatekeeper

[Lycanthrope]

A dry perfume, solemn and riddled with ancient, whispered secrets: brittle bones, the well-worn leather spines of forgotten books, crumbling papyrus, and the warm, strange scent of yellowed, crumbling manuscripts.

A soft, musty and a little sharp (bone?) leather-patchouli. This is a neutral leather in terms of warmth, so more like 'Dee' leather rather than Quincy Morris / Brom Bones (cool, slick) and not fiery or red like The Red Rider. It kind of smells like paper, but is more of a dust and deep, thrummy woods kind of scent. I like it a lot but it's more atmospheric on me than pleasant, to my nose. Fitting!

[Dark Alice]

This trully is a bone dry, brittle book/manuscript kind of smell. BUT it is ridiculously mild and blooms on my skin beautifully! This is in the same family of brown leather as Old Moon 2011. This is Old Moon's 1st cousin...the leather here reminds me of Indiana Jones and his leather jacket, with brittle bits of dust and dirt on it. This is the smell of crumbling paper, anciet times, leather, with a hint of man. I love it! Smells better on me than on the man thing too.

[porcelina]

the gatekeeper smells like old, leather-bound books. that's it. paper and leather. please note: i am NOT complaining. this is lovely and i agree with dark alice in the comparison to old moon 2011, but that one is more musky to me- this is dry and you could call it a single note: "old dusty book," haha! i love it!

[zankoku_zen]

So I have to agree with Lycanthrope in some aspects, although upon first sniff I went "Brom Bones, is that you?"

 

This one is a warmer leather blend than Brom Bones. I definitely get the papery note and it smells very similar to Two Ply Bristol in that it has that inky note to the paper/linen going on. It's slightly dustier than Two Ply Bristol, which had a very 'clean' edge to it.

 

So take Brom Bones, throw in Two-Ply Bristol and some dust, and you get the Gate Keeper. For me, this type of leather blend definitely smells masculine. And its the type of "I wear leather jackets out while exploring" as opposed to "I wear leather jackets because they look cool" type of masculine.

[milo]

Dry indeed:0 I'm getting sandalwood and leather basically, kind of like dry brittle paper with leather bound books. Ya, just as described. Not my thing, but nice to try.

[Jangzonrice]

Agreed...sandalwood and leather, but the leather is a bit sharp, so I'm not crazy about it!

[radiantfracture]

All right, I know the scent is described as dry -- I know everyone else smells dryness unto the sere wastes -- but the first thing I smell from the bottle is wet ink. Wet leather and wet paper and wet leaves. A pleasing autumnal must.

 

Mercurial, this heats up on my skin. Whiff of paper, of something woody and almost animalic; something sharp-edged; then something golden, almost waxy, like candleflame.

 

Some of what seems wet to me may be the bone-smell -- I smell the dry papyrus, and a hot, woody, dusty smell, but the leather keeps smelling wet to me.

 

I had high expectations of this, and it is as fascinating as I'd hoped.

[claudia6913]

Very sharp in the bottle. Wet on my skin its very leathery and dry. But it almost seems like there's a dampness to it as well, like wet ink. As the oil dries, so too does the ink and paper. It's starting to crack and crumble at the edges. This is what I would imagine an old forgotten book would smell like. This is only a month old, but I bet it ages beautifully.

[Atrous]

Wet: brown leather, sandalwood and wet ink

 

Dry: The ink seems to dry and parchment comes out. Smells like leather bound books that are so old the pages are brittle.

A dry scent that I would call unisex but I could see how others might say masculine.

Its exactly what I thought it would be. I'm quite pleased.

[Little Bird]

I don't get leather, paper, ink or books from this at all.
It's bone dry, powdery sandalwood, bitter and sharp, with a strong dirty ash tray scent to it. Doesn't change at all over hours of wear.
Really smells like harsh, chemical, burning cigarettes and a dirty ash tray. It also has a strange, hot, sharp note to it that smells just like horseradish.

So... horseradish mixed with tons of dust, bone dry, powdery sandalwood and a bitter, dirty ash tray.

 

Really awful.

[patina]

This does remind me of Old Moon 2011, except that scent was ruined for me by it's plastic-ness. It smelled like old plastic photographs and film. This is just very soft leather and dust and tobacco scented paper.

 

Edit: Sometimes  bone and wet leather show up too. Sometimes it's overwhelmingly almost-vetiver and leather. This is a morpher.

 

For whatever reason this doesn't turn chemical at all on me. It's comforting and the truest book scent I've smelled so far. (I haven't tried the Bugger Alle Thys Bible or the one from the Paranorman collection however.)

 

This smells like the Cryptkeeper's more genteel and scholarly brother.

Edited December 3, 2020 by patina

[honey musings]

ah the gatekeeper. i was very excited about this perfume, wanted to smell like how it described. i fell in love at first read, and first sniff

 

in the bottle: bone, that was my first thought. airy bone. reminds me of a trip i once took to mexico, standing on the dusty desert road, gazing upon the real hotel california. and while it brings back that memory, what it smells like to me is when i laid in bed that night, and smelled the memories of the old store i went to, the leathery seats of the bar, and the book i still regret not buying

 

wet: it's got a masculine hint to it. it smells like sweetened bone, which i think is the papyrus melting with it, and rich leather. i couldn't stop sniffing my wrists, it made me feel like i was a ruler of something, but im not sure what. maybe an old abandoned alleyway that you pass everyday, but are to afraid to approach, sometimes lit up by a strange metallic white light. yes, that's what i felt like the ruler of. very foreboding in the best possible way.

 

dry 30 or so minutes: it turned sour. like the bone started to decay and the papyrus started to rot with it. everything about it turned sour, the leather deteriorated after years of being grabbed, the old books now smelled strange after hundred of years of dirty fingers toying the pages. at first i didn't like this phase, and hoped it would fade. and it did, after about 10 minutes. while i was thankful it faded, it was like passing through the gates of death, the dark and gloomy side that is not possible to romanticize 

 

dry 1hr+: heady, solemn, and strange in the perfect way. the original wet smell returned, with the books being more pronounced and very dusty. it's like i walked through a long forgotten library, the patrons consisting of the skeletons of scholars who studied their lives away. the beginning was more secretive, and tricky. the entrance lulled you in like a kitten following a bell. after entering, and walking along the dim room, hearing the scratchy sound of brittle bones against parchment, though the skeletons didn't appear to move, the room became dank, like it was filled with damp fog. it was scary you see, i thought i would never return to either side. but it passed quickly, the thick fog left and i wandered about in a light mist for a time. then i found the heavenly niche, the promise that lured me to the library in the first place. i found where the dead lived on, opening dust ridden tomes and i could smell them in their old suits, a whiff of bone each time they went to grab something new. they welcomed me as one of them, though i was still human. i'm trapped now, i fear there's no escape. i shall become one of them overtime as my body wastes away, but my soul shall stay in the brittle bones to come. i imagine that's how these fellows got to be the way they are. the thirst for “ancient, whispered secrets” well worth the price of skin and gut. 

Edited March 24, 2019 by honey musings

[Lilah Ladybug]

Keeping myself entertained during isolation by reviewing my hoard of scents.

 

Day 9: The Gatekeeper

 

Hello vetiver, my old friend 💕(that’s my guess anyway)

 

Starting off sharp, dry and powerful, it does settle down into something dusty softer and leathery. Perhaps sandalwood and other resins come into play. It is brittle and yellow.

To me this is a beautiful vetiver based scent... 

 

Yes it is reminiscent of old books, long forgotten in a stale and warm room. The dust catches in the sun rays and the scent of warmed leather bound books has engulfed the room for a very long time. 

 

I have ‘The Book’ from the Paranorman series. To compare I would say that gatekeeper is definitely captures something more ancient and with the added element of the bones it gives it more depth and a dry quality. 

 

I adore ‘book’ scents and this is no exception.

 

 

[CharB]

I get cologne and 'leather' from this. I say 'leather' because almost all the lab's leathers Ive tried dont actually smell like leather to me, but some kind of quite one dimensional, artificial rendition of the concoction used to cure leather. 

 

Edited September 16, 2020 by CharB

[doomsday_disco]

The Gatekeeper features a sharp, dry, dusty sandalwood that becomes less sharp and dustier over time, some leather (it's not the sweet brown leather in The Book (Paranorman), and some other woods (I thought I got some chewy oak and cedar in the beginning). The scent feels more like a dusty study with lots of wood furniture, emphasis on the dust and furniture, and not the books.

 

I'm glad I got to try this one, since it is a book scent, but it is too dusty (and at one point, it was too sharp) for me. I prefer book scents with sweeter notes (like a sweeter leather or tonka for the pages).

[Lucchesa]

The Gatekeeper is dry, dusty sandalwood and creaky leather. There’s a hint of old paper and some briefly sharp papyrus, but like nearly every library adjacent scent, it’s quite fleeting on my skin.