Winter: My Secret

[Dark Alice]

Perhaps some day, who knows?
But not today; it froze, and blows and snows,
And you’re too curious: fie!
You want to hear it? well:
Only, my secret’s mine, and I won’t tell.
Or, after all, perhaps there’s none:
Suppose there is no secret after all,
But only just my fun.
Today’s a nipping day, a biting day;
In which one wants a shawl,
A veil, a cloak, and other wraps:
I cannot ope to everyone who taps,
And let the draughts come whistling thro’ my hall;
Come bounding and surrounding me,
Come buffeting, astounding me,
Nipping and clipping thro’ my wraps and all.
I wear my mask for warmth: who ever shows
His nose to Russian snows
To be pecked at by every wind that blows?
You would not peck? I thank you for good will,
Believe, but leave the truth untested still.
Spring’s an expansive time: yet I don’t trust
March with its peck of dust,
Nor April with its rainbow-crowned brief showers,
Nor even May, whose flowers
One frost may wither thro’ the sunless hours.
Perhaps some languid summer day,
When drowsy birds sing less and less,
And golden fruit is ripening to excess,
If there’s not too much sun nor too much cloud,
And the warm wind is neither still nor loud,
Perhaps my secret I may say,
Or you may guess.

– Christina Rossetti

Sweet labdanum, white myrrh, and bourbon vanilla.

Clean, light, with a slightly green note. This needs to age for the vanilla to come out. I can't wait to see how it ages.

 

[Foodie]

Winter my Secret when first applied reminded me of Love's Baby Soft. Not to say that it smells like baby powder... more like that strong alcohol smell when you first spray it. An intense and WHITE fragrance, I could not detect any vanilla at all. WMS is bitter, medicinal, earthy, but in some way powdery. It was, I'm not gonna lie, disappointing. Not to say it's a bad scent... just not the warm, resinous vanilla that I thought it was gonna be. More like cold resins if that makes sense.

[Jenjin]

Crystalline white myrrh, i'm getting something similar to OLLA Streets at first, but without any of the grit or oil. These streets are frozen and the wind is blowing the snow powder across the landscape. The musky labdanum grinds down the myrrh but I am left searching for the bourbon vanilla. Was it left out? This is one of those oils that needs to age a bit. I'm hoping the vanilla makes an appearance after the myrrh has a chance to swirl a bit longer with the musk.

Edited January 9, 2017 by Jenjin

[Minh Scent]

This scent is driving me crazy because it smells so like another I have...but what?! No, not OLLA Streets, as Jenjin suggested above, but I see what she means in terms of the vibe.

 

Winter my Secret is extremely powdery (which I like) and elegant. I am not getting any green, but do detect dry vanilla, not sweet at all. To me, this is a classic perfume. It's beautiful!

[annemathematics]

winter: my secret is outstanding delicious resiny goodness. sometimes when I wear it, the labdanum is more outspoken: brightly sweet, syrupy, crystalline, beautiful. other times the myrrh steps forward and is the star: cozy, rich and warm, dry and a little raspy. it seems to depend on where I anoint this: labdanum is louder at the wrists and inner elbows, myrrh gains confidence around my throat and sternum. the vanilla is not a star player, but its lovely presence is felt swirling gently about in the background.

 

I love w:ms and have been reaching for it a lot lately. it's absolutely dreamy and cheering in the cold winter weather. even when they are classy and elegant like this, I also find resin scents to be soothing and kinda snuggly. moderate throw and wear length. and yes, I checked: it does layer well with the Contrast from 2016 lupers.

[puck_nc]

Origin: decant from Trailer Trash Princess' circle

 

Initial Thoughts: I can do myrrh without amping if it's white, maybe. Labdanum has worked on occasion. I love vanilla. Let's see where this goes.

 

In the Vial: Rich and sweet resins. It's been a very long time since I smelled it, but it reminds me a bit of the old classic mainstream perfume Poison.

 

Wet: Still dark and sweet but more myrrh than labdanum now, I think. There's an airy undertone that I associate with myrrh.

 

Drydown: The vanilla comes in stronger - I think this was part of the sweet element from earlier. It is subtle and sexy and definitely lends itself to the "secret". The entire scent is a little cooler than it was before, but still very resinously rich.

 

Verdict: I think this may have to be a bottle purchase.

[lady_pandora]

Oh, this is lovely. It smells kind of like a decadent caramel, but also kind of like incense, like someone made an incense caramel. I think it evokes the concept really well--in the middle of winter, this warm cuddly little secret, whose time has not yet come to be revealed. Close to the skin and totally comforting.

[zankoku_zen]

Sweet resins with a whiff of snowy vanilla. This one is warm and resinous, and the vanilla just adds a touch of sweetness.

[sailthetethys]

"Ooh. This is sweet and weird." - totally helpful thing I wrote in my scent notebook

 

This one is, as others said, cooler than expected. Powdery, incense-y, and there's a hint of sweet snow that reminds me of Snow White. The more I sniff, the more I like.

 

After a minute, that myrrh really starts to sing. I might love this.

Edited January 7, 2017 by sailthetethys

[Elspethdixon]

Wet/in the imp – slightly sweet resin, with labdanum as the strongest note

 

Freshly applied - still sweet resin, but once it touches my skin, the myrrh starts to emerge

 

Five-ten minutes in – very little vanilla (I get a hint of cool, dry vanilla right by my wrist, but the rest of my forearm is all resin), mostly incense, not quite as sweet as it was at first. But something about it is indeed cold and wintery. This is a cool incense somehow, rather than a warm, smokey one. The sweetness of the Eggnog I'm testing on my other wrist could be causing me to read this as cooler/less sweet though. It gets sweeter and softer and less cool/dry as it dries down/wears.

 

30-40 minutes in – soft, hazy incense. Maybe a hint of cool/dry vanilla? I have to say, this is not living up to my gritty/rich/warm vanilla-myrrh dreams. I was hoping it would be like Funary Papyrus after the weird green note has burned off.

 

Two hours in– And now that I’m well into the drydown… it has in fact morphed into a pleasant/warm vanilliac incense. Just as it’s starting to fade Why couldn’t it have smelled like this all along?

 

Turns out my impression that it was fading was wrong: Winter: My Secret lasts as a pleasant incense-y skin scent for about 4-5 more hours, because of course it does. So now I’m like “Is two hours of “meh” worth three-four hours worth of smelling good?” If forty minutes of "weird green note" kept me from buying Funerary Papyrus (A choice I only slightly regret), then I suspect those initial two hours of generic cool incense will keep me from getting Winter: My Secret.

[theseagrows]

starts off with powdery resins with a bit of sharpness. not quite how i expected it to be-i expected it to be softer. the vanilla comes through after about 10 minutes. it does get a bit softer, but is still quite resiny. it smells like a vintage perfume, stays strong and resiny. not terrible by any means, but it's just not for me.

[milo]

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I do love me some Bourbon vanilla, and myrhh is OK in small doses. This ends up to be quite perfumey on me, with little vanilla to speak of, and a touch of powder. Dodged another Yule bullet, looks like.

[Casablanca]

On the wand, this is softer than expected. Gentle myrrh and woody resin.

 

On my skin, this is barely present while wet, an absence of top notes. Once it dries, a rounded myrrh-labdanum-vanilla develops. To me, it’s Reapers Gonna Reap without the sandalwood – like, there had been something behind the nice vanilla-sandalwood in Reapers that I couldn’t name, something that had reminded me of dissections in my high school Anatomy and Physiology course, and this is it.

 

Too bad I didn’t like it, because it has the same effect on me here.

[HerbGirl]

This is a very chewy myrrh :-) Reminds me a whole lot of Herodotus' Phoenix...very similar. The myrrh is rounded out and supported by a gorgeous vanilla. I will definitely use my decant.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Herb Girl

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Sticky sweet labdanum, syrupy and bright. The Myrrh is coming through as this warms up. This is a very warm, sweet scent. Labdanum, like opoponax, sometimes has a cola type vibe to my nose, and I am picking up a bit of that here.

 

 

Dry: For a long time I have been dreaming of a scent that is strong vanilla and a bit of Myrrh. This is not it. This is strong Myrrh and a bit of labdanum. Quite nice! But I have enough Myrrh perfume, and I think I prefer it with other things than the labdanum. It's nice though! Just not wowing me.

[silkworm]

Labdanum and I have a tumultuous relationship so this was a risk, but the myrrh and bourbon vanilla just drew me in.

 

First on this is soapy and awful. Then it's powdery and awful. This is the second time I'm testing this, and I'm reminded why I didn't like it the first go round. It was sharp and unpleasant both times. I left it go though and went about my day, and after a couple hours I start getting this lovely waft. The labdanum has apparently burned off. There is something extremely familiar about the scent-it drove me crazy trying to figure it out, and suddenly I realized it is so similar to Spanked I had to double check the notes to see if they shared the patchouli note. They, obviously, do not, and don't share any other notes so I'm guessing it's a brain glitch. But as I absolutely love Spanked (I have Resurrected Spanked) I can say now that this is lovely. It's kind of dry, dusty, warm, slightly sweet and a touch spicy. What a difference. I don't think I will get a bottle of it since the opening is so horrid and I have Spanked, but I'll hang on to the decant just to be able to compare it to itself as it ages.

[Anaire]

I have the exact same experience as LizzieLuck did, I got labdanum and myrrh and nothing else. I think this will age to be a nice subtle scent but I kinda feel like it's more of something to layer with something else rather than being by itself.

[Aviatrix]

Labdanum can sometimes go sour on me, and that has sadly happened here as well. I am definitely getting the myrrh and vanilla sweetness as well, but the labdanum makes it a not-too-pleasant scent on my skin

[whisperstilled]

In the imp, this one is slightly medicinal and sweetly vanillic, so good so far!

 

Wet: The scent vaguely reminds me of vanilla coke, for whatever reason, the myrrh and the labdanum giving it that slightly spicy/resiny/medicinal thing. It's pleasant, but it is a little sour.

 

Dry: Yep, this is unfortunately not as pleasant on the skin as it is in the bottle, it's gone very vanilla potpourri. Ah well!

[lucycat]

Bright, sweet resin. Like Anne, I find different notes are prominent depending on where the oil is applied: it’s all labdanum on my arms, and myrrh on the back of my hand. I don’t smell the bourbon vanilla at all, but I have found that the Lab’s bourbon vanilla note is often not strong when fresh, and strengthens with age.

[Epiphany]

I am so confused by this scent...maybe it's the white myrrh, but I get this sort of...clean powdery scent. Not straight up baby-powder, it's more pleasant than that, but it's definitely much more 'clean' smelling than I was expecting. I can't pick out a single individual note, they are all blended into this soft, white puff of scent. There's something about it that I really like, but it's not a perfume I'd wear on a regular basis.

[Lucchesa]

This is a lovely warm resiny blend, with the bourbon vanilla very much in the background. But I have so many resiny blends that unless this absolutely knocked my socks off, I wouldn't need to go in search of more. I do love Christina Rossetti, though!

 

ETA Oh my, this lasts a long time and mellows into such a beautiful grounding scent. So much loveliness, even in scents that don't wow me right off the bat.

Edited February 28, 2018 by Lucchesa

[doomsday_disco]

In the decant: This is strong on the resins, with the labdanum note being the most prominent. I only smell a hint of vanilla in the background.

 

Wet: The resins reign, with the labdanum in the lead. This is actually sharp on me.

 

Dry: This smells like polished furniture on me for a really long time. After a few hours, it calms down enough to let the powdery white myrrh take the stage. The bourbon vanilla note is very light, but I can tell it’s there if I sniff up close.

 

Verdict: This one is too sharp on me. I was hoping the vanilla would play a bigger role with the resins, like in Hope and Fear Set Free. Alas! I won’t be holding onto this one, but I’m glad I got to try it since I am fond of the poem.