A King Pursued by a Unicorn

[hammy]

White oak, pine pitch, and a shattered shard of golden amber.

In the bottle - Gentle oak with a nip of pine about it. It’s foresty, but despite the pine it’s not a “cold” forest.

Wet - Wow, that’s getting sharp. It feels like there’s something green in there, which doesn’t quite fit with the scent description. Maybe the white oak is throwing me? I think I've only tried blends with plain ol' oak in there. Except this scent doesn’t smell like a woodsy, freshly-chopped trees kinda green ... more like mossy rocks green. I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t like it as much as I did in the bottle, but this isn’t a dealbreaker.

Drydown - Ahh, THERE it is. Amber saves the day. Everything evened out and I’m quite pleased with where it ended up. If I had to sum it up, I guess I’d say golden woods in the family of Haloes? But that's not quite it. If Haloes smells like a sunlight-dappled grove, King Pursued would be a forest where all the trees are gilded with gold leaf. There, that's the best I can do.

Verdict - King Pursued has an elegance befitting its name. I’m cuckoo for woodsy scents, so this was right up my alley. This unicorn has definitely earned a spot in my stable of staples.

[Casablanca]

I waffled on picking this up for a while, concerned that its oak would be harsh or its components too simple. I needn't have worried.

King is an oak and pine grove where everything smells soft. It's like walking into woods cushioned with soft-tipped pine needles, moist and sappy pines, and soft-barked oak trees. The pine pitch is camphoraceous, but verrry mildly so, as though its sap is lightly minty. Somewhere behind all this, golden light filters through leaves and needles, not clearly seen and never falling directly on you.

There's a sweetness in this from the amber, but the amber itself is never strong on me, and sometimes I think I also get sweetness from a sugared note, with that slightly grainy texture I get from "sugar" versus just "sweetness."

I tend to think the throw is low, but last night I put this on, drove out and shopped through a grocery store, and after all that the checkout lady lit up happily and complimented me on it from five feet away.

I think I might need a second bottle.

[Little Bird]

Starts off as misty, true, non-sour evergreen, which surprised me, because 'pitch' is usually tons of woodsmoke on my skin.

A King Pursued is like pine boughs covered with the last bits of melting snow and dripping, sweet pine sap. The drydown warms up as the pine falls to the background and the amber and oak come forward. It turns just a little powdery on me, but not to full on baby powder; it feels very warm and snuggy, like a toasted, vanilla-ish amber with only a hint of gentle powder. Warm amber and golden, creamy woods with a hint of misty pine. Pretty and soft. Kind of reminds me of Golden Priapus with more amber and a more subtle pine.

[Ordo_ad_Chao]

I was really looking forward to this one!

 

wet: it started out as a sweet, soft evergreen forest with golden mist. So beautiful, so promising- reminding me of my beloved Hamadryad, actually.

 

15 minutes later, dry: I want to cry. All the beautiful notes, and I love them, and they turned to Play-Doh on my skin! Play-Doh, I tell you! *sobs* I really want it to work for me so I'm going to try again during my time of month- how can these wonderful notes DO this to me?

[zankoku_zen]

Oak and amber, and something sweet. Honestly, this smells like a mashup between Antikythera Mechanism and O. Honeyed amber and wood. Good throw and wear length.

 

So far, the only unicorn that I'd consider more of.

[VetchVesper]

This is a bit pine sol in the imp, but I'm ok with that as usually pine changes on my skin and works well w/the other notes, but this is so soft on me, I can barely smell it. It was the same on my husband. I think it's a nice enough pine scent, b/it's so light, I can't really get any depth from it or see myself ever wearing it. Perhaps it will strengthen with age?

 

UPDATE: Yup. Seems this one needed some settling in. Much closer to what I expected now. It's a very nice fir tree scent with the amber softening and sweetening things up. I'm not real familiar w/oak but I'm not getting "woody" just needles. On me, this still wears close to the skin and leans feminine. Glad I didn't swap my decant!

Edited September 13, 2016 by VetchVesper

[t_for_tau]

OH MY. All the unicorns I've tried so far have been hits, and this is no exception. In the bottle it's very coniferous, a blast of almost sour pine with a only a hint of the oak lurking underneath. On the skin, though, it warms and just blossoms: the creaminess of the oak comes out, the sour-sharpness of the pine turns sappy, and the amber starts to glow and sweeten.

 

On me it's a cousin to Golden Priapus, with nods to Hexennacht and Stranger In Camp (the latter has the same pine, I think). On me it's very outdoorsy, those sappy broken branches with warm golden amber and oak; on my wife it's sweeter, more golden, with the amber dominating. Like Unicorn And Ram this has a wintery feel on me, between the pine and the amber all thick and golden like a low winter sun. As it dries down it's getting a very slight and not unpleasant hint of powder (which amber's prone to doing on me).

[Minh Scent]

Not getting any of my Golden Priapus as several of you mentioned. It does indeed starts with a pretty pine, but on my skin that vanishes quickly and I don't get a "shard" of amber, but rather ALL amber. It reminded me so much of the dry down of Halos (it does not have Halos sharper flowery beginning). It does not last as long as Halos.

 

If you are a BPAL amber fan, this is really pretty!

[Aviatrix]

This makes me a bit sad, actually. I had anticipated this would work for me, but it goes straight to a very eerie pine powder, if such a thing exists. I don't know which note is the culprit, but it could just be the specific combination.

Skin chemistry fail

[lizardskin]

I really thought I would like this one because of the amber, but unfortunately I think there's something up with my skin chemistry. Even fresh in the bottle I can't pick out anything piney, though I do get some of the amber and what I think is the oak. Once on my skin it changes to something sweet and sort of sticky, and after a while it turns into the play-doh another reviewer mentioned. I wish I could figure out what is causing it--I haven't tried anything with white oak or pine pitch in it before so it could really be either one.

[HerbGirl]

Beautiful. I guess the oak reminds me of Arana, this is very similar to me. Amber and oak.

[Jenjin]

Fortunately, I was surprised with a decant of this, otherwise I would have completely missed it. It was love at first application for me and I rushed to order a bottle.

 

This is a blend that is very deceiving when wet. Bottle sniff is a strong, pine smell with a warm wood back note. Upon the skin, the pine is the first thing floating upwards, but after a few minutes it settles down and the smooth, warm wood notes intensify along with the amber. I'm getting a scent very much like Haloes, but with a gentle pine forest feel. The unicorn lumbering behind the king is warm and glowing like the sun.

 

A King Pursued by a Unicorn is my favorite from the 1 & 2 release. It is incredibly elegant and wearable to me, and warms into almost a caramel vanilla with a bit of sweet pine resin on me. Very haute couture and beautifully blended. If you love Haloes, this is a MUST TRY.

Edited December 3, 2016 by Jenjin

[annemathematics]

King Pursued is a soft creamy scent. there is only a hint of pine on my skin (I adore evergreen smells) and the pine fades quickly. the oak is gentle, subtle, the amber white and creamy.

 

this reminds me of Aradia (haute macabre exclusive) but without the patchouli. very pretty. low throw and fades faster than I'd like, only because i want to huff this all day.

 

I layered it with German Expressionist Horror and together they are high up among the best things I've ever smelled.

[Lucchesa]

A King Pursued by a Unicorn is magnificent.  Golden Priapus is one of my fave GCs, so I thought it might work well on me.  In the imp it's mostly evergreen and oak and a little sharp, but as always the pine softens and sweetens on my skin, and then the amber joins in and it's like a warm beam of sunlight in a forest glade.  I get more throw from this than I usually do (in fact, I got a compliment on it today) and wear length seems good so far.  

[artisjok]

King Pursued by a Unicorn is lovely, and surprisingly (or maybe expectedly?, with the two characters) strong.

A blast of thick pine sap and maybe some oak (I haven’t gotten too familiar with the oak note to untangle it.), cozied by ever elegant and scrumptious white amber (okay, maybe golden, yet it reads as white to my nose). The amber slowly climbs to be the strongest contender, yet I never lose the hint of fresh sappiness. 

One of the few blends that I have to be careful how much I initially applied, due to overwhelming throw. I’m thrilled it lasts so long on my skin! 

Viscous elegance, a sun-dappled forest love. 

 

Edited January 8, 2020 by artisjok

[Lecter]

A forest scent that has a bit of a sour(?) scent? But also a bit warm. I just got this so I think it needs to settle a bit more for the real notes to come out. I’m not writing it off just yet