Cocoa & Oak Bark

[zankoku_zen]

No additional scent description.

[starbrow]

Wow. Oak bark is BARKING right out of the gate from this blend. Very strong oak, but without the polish or varnish that comes along with a lot of oak blends, so it's really raw and unfiltered wood, which makes total sense for oak bark. Cocoa is a distant second, notewise, and frankly it's not a foodie gourmand like you'd expect from Box of Chocolates. Here, it's a light dusting of raw dark cacao powder, more bitter than sweet, but deep and grounding. You might not even guess that it was there if you were smelling this blindly, because it supports the woodiness of the dark oak so well.

 

This is a GREAT option for someone who has trouble wearing chocolate, as long as you like oak. Very unexpected but a wonderful treat this year.

[zankoku_zen]

Dusty dark cocoa, and a whiff of oak bark on the drydown. I am amping up the dusty cocoa, but you can smell the wood underneath. Pleasantly gender neutral, and not too foodie. Good throw and wear length.

[Casablanca]

Dry cocoa that lasts a short time, and majestic oak that lasts longer.

 

Welcoming, warmly woody oak. The oak that enfolds and protects you in the woods; the oak that abides.

[HerbGirl]

I had high hopes for this and am not disappointed. This is gorgeous. I feel like it's the femme version of The Ninth Cage. Just sweet enough, just oaky enough, dusting of cocoa, wow. Exactly what I was hoping for.

[RoseThornAndOak]

Hot damn I smell like burning leaves.

 

Sorta, lol. Deep, dark cocoa, sweet yet deliciously bitter, like how I feel about never seeing Type-O live (Love love loving Yoo-hoo is like loving the dead!) It is perfectly suited for the Lab's oak note, which smells leafy but also barky to me but is more wearable that the dead leaf note. Smells like a grove of oaks at night when the leaves are scattered on the floor. A bit basalmic. It smells a bit more artificial the longer it's on, although that could just be skin chemistry wonking out. If this keeps up it is still a keeper for lockets/clothes because damn it's sexy. ❤️

 

If you like tobacco notes or if tobacco goes weird on you, try this instead. It is very similar to the Lab's tobacco note but darker.

 

Try if you like No Man is an Island, The Twisted Oak Tree, Antikythera, Hoggle (sweet/rich bitter tobacco vibe), or La Femme de Satanes, but the closest indies this reminds me of other than NMIAI are Deep Midnight Perfumes' Dark Mother (pipe tobacco, bay rum, sweet vanilla, musk, milk) and Professor M (leather, pipe tobacco, bay rum, Egyptian musk), only without the musky notes.