Chestnuts & Hearth Smoke

[zankoku_zen]

Roasted chestnuts and ember-hot firewood.

[Lucchesa]

Chestnuts and Hearth Smoke was in my stocking this morning, and frankly I'm struggling to find the chestnuts.  Roasted chestnuts is possibly my favorite smell in the whole world, but here I'm getting lots of that hearth smoke note, similar to the fire-red tobacco in Orion or the fireplace smoke in Hearth 2017, which is not the best smoke note on me.  It softens nicely but wears very close to the skin.  I was really hoping for a blast of roasting chestnuts.  I will give this some time in hopes that the chestnut note will develop with a little aging.  

[starbrow]

One of my hugest Yule wishes this year was chestnuts roasting on an open fire. The Lab totally read my mind. I got my wish!

 

I think I have a nose for chestnut, because I can pick it up in almost any blend without seeing the notes. And I am a huge fan, so I was just hoping this blend would have a "kind" smoke note. (2018's smoke note was overwhelming to me, alas.) 

 

Chestnuts and Hearth Smoke, happily, is everything my heart can desire. I am picking up huge chestnut energy. Wet on the skin, it is just short of funky nut, how chestnut meat can be a little sweaty and gnarly. (Not indolic, though, just funk.) Then as it dries, the warm roastiness starts to kick in and it smooths out into the kind of chestnut that I adore, deep and suave. It lingers for hours, potent and developing more and more richness with each hour. Mmmm.

 

The smoke note is exceedingly kind, and quite soft to my nose. I get a little bit of fire, a splinter of wood, a smidge of ash. No BBQ whatsoever, yay! It is exactly what it says on the tin: The Christmas Song in a bottle. (As a reference for my smoke impressions, Hearth 2017 was kind too, while Hearthflame and Incense 2018 gave me the worst headache imaginable.)

 

Interestingly, several people so far have reported picking up no chestnut and tons of smoke. I get the exact opposite, and I am usually very sensitive to harsh smoke notes. I couldn't be happier with the balance in this blend, which is wholly unique in my collection, and I am looking forward to wearing it for many Yules to come. 

 

(Incidentally, I keep thinking this would smell fantastic on a man's skin, like this is what I want a man at Christmas to smell like. But I love wearing it too, as a fairly femme woman. Incredibly adaptable! Also, I *need* this as an atmo.)

Edited December 26, 2019 by starbrow

[Casablanca]

This is lovely.

 

Warm chestnuts -- woody and a little spicy -- with firewood smoke. This is the smoke of a homestead's glowing red fireplace embers, and I love it.

 

I also get an impression of black iron, like a scolding-hot kettle dangling over the fire. Whether that's real or my imagination, it fits the scene this fragrance paints in my thoughts.
 

 

[zankoku_zen]

Pine fire, chestnuts, smoke. You make a fire out of pine, you get this smell. Good throw and wear length.

[doomsday_disco]

This is mostly about the hearthsmoke. The chestnut note isn't the dessert-y, Mont Blanc sort of chestnut that I adore; rather, it is more like chestnuts being warmed on some cast iron at a Christmas market, whose hard shells need to be pulled away to reveal the curiously fuzzy interior that surrounds the nut. So.... more like the smoke and the outer shells than the edible part.

 

Not bad, but not a scent I could see myself reaching for.

[Dancing Raven]

This is Strong with a capital S. Tons of throw and hours of it! Wet, it is spicy and dry. That is soon replaced by a sweet pine. Definitely resinous. I think there is burgundy pitch in here.  This is what I expected Hexennacht to smell like. Then fir takes over, and it is veering into Christmas candle territory. A cinnamon forest. It's not unpleasant, but it is somewhat overbearing. It needs more smokiness or something sweet to bring it down a notch. I'm getting a bit of a headache from sniffing it. It stays like a fresh forest for a good 6 hours before settling into a dried leaves skin scent. I finally get sweetness, but now it's beginning to disappear. I didn't really get chestnuts until the very end, and no smoke note. It's truly representative of the red hot embers of a wood fire (pine). It is definitely unisex. I think it's too much on its own, but I bet it would layer beautifully with earthy or berry scents.

3.5 out of 5 stars.