Soul of the Forest Maison Margiela 2016

Maison Martin Margiela means something to me in that I once met Mr. Margiela in Normandy. He did not buy the castle I was guarding, but another castle in Belgium. (And once again, it was my fault.) That's the short version of the story. Of course, I found it impressive to guide someone who has his own Wikipedia article in several languages. He was nice and quite unremarkable. Experience shows that you can't tell the richest people by their money.

With this fragrance, he will have nothing to do, except that the fashion house, from which he withdrew years ago, still bears his name. Nevertheless, I was curious about the scents from his house.

I still remember the forest well from my childhood in the Harz. Therefore, I always think that I must like the smell of the forest.

Enthusiastically, I tried the perfume today after work and was immediately terribly disappointed. The top note meant nothing to me, and when it (quickly) disappeared, I smelled licorice. There is absolutely no licorice in it. It must have been another deceptive scent. I sprayed again and did not wait to see when the scent would disappear. Then, while the woody scents came to the forefront, especially the cedar, the incense lay like a wet sack over everything. With good will, it smelled of damp earth and rotting wood.

Then I let the family tester M. smell it. He stated that I needed to spray again. I sprayed again and now smelled forest instead of licorice. I had made the perfume smell nice. M claimed there was no licorice, it smelled great of cedar, and he would let himself be sprayed later too. The more intense components for me are: the fir balsam, the cedar, and unfortunately the incense. I usually perceive incense on me as a bit sweaty or cloying, at least something that starts with "sw" (dizzy, heavy, swaying). Others obviously do not smell it that way, but find it "great," even on me. Otherwise, I think I should just leave incense scents alone, but when you always get such positive feedback... Sighing in the woods.

The scent lasts a few hours, and I find the projection quite decent. A pretty significant cloud of incense. Unlike many people, I think that incense does not smell like smoke, but rather like incense. In my teenage years, I used to like burning incense (I was a hippie), actually, it’s more of a glowing, and it doesn’t really smoke much (yes, altar boys claim otherwise, but I had no church at home). I associate smoke with a wood fire, food cooked by Jamie Oliver, or a house fire for that matter. Smoke that triggers a smoke detector. The attempt to burn paper in a wood stove or damp leaves on also damp branches. Incense, on the other hand, is more about the incense than the smoke, meaning: resinous.

Compared to "Falling Trees" by Régime des Fleurs, I found Soul of the Forest less woody and more "sw," but Soul of the Forest costs significantly less and you don’t have to go through customs when you buy the perfume. Maybe I will be convinced by Soul of the Forest if I just test it often enough.

In my opinion, Soul of the Forest is not for summer, more for men and rather something for evenings and leisure. But everyone has to know that for themselves. For all I care, women can wear it to work in summer, and I will not drag them under a shower.