Midwinter Storm Folkwinds 2026

Midwinter Storm opens up with combination of smooth blueberry and elegant oud giving it very smooth and woody feeling, that smells purple. This sensation remains for while until the Ice wine and rye start to break the composition down, giving it the feeling like you are making rye bread while sipping ice wine. There is also some hints of Spruce in there to amp up the woodiness but its not too noticeable. Much later it starts to transition in to this creamy orris and blueberry combination with slightly spicy and fresh feeling.

Well not the best for what price... its less screamy Wonderland 2 with ice wine with some spice and blueberry. ALL hype its much more orris and oud its false. You barely can feel any rich expensive oud in here. For longevity Wonderland 2 is even better for lower price... I gonna give some extra time for maceration but i am really dissapointed.

No doubt this shares the DNA of midwinter dream and its very similar but has the difference to it but not so much i think you need to own both of them.

The ice wine from MWD is there and i love it but it has added blueberry to it that makes this one more fruity than MWD but its also bit messy. in combination with the generous amount of orris it becomes very creamy and powdery also bit messy like the weird cousin we all have you were forced to play with as a child when they came to visit. the oud is also there but to me less oud than on MWD. its nice but its not something i would need to own even more so when price is factored.

Personally even thoe this shares the aspects i loved about MWD this dont make me feel at all same as MWD did. it was miles better for me and i would pick it over this anytime.

Midwinter Storm is a purple, blue oud fragrance. In the Ensar Oud world ouds are described in colors. Midwinter Storm is beatufully and masterfully created. The discription of the notes are very accurate. The blueberry is most prominent in the top but you can get the blue fruit drizzled over wood smell. For oud lovers this may leave you desiring more. The oud lingers softly in the background. Some will say this too easy to wear or not complex enough. However, Jono hit a homrun with this one. I believe this is his version of the purple oud fragrances. You feel the cool burst of winter with the freshness and dark fruit. The picture I get is a blueberry jam running down oud/iris wood. The price is expensive but this is a artisnal high end niche fragrance. One thing I love about this fragrance is it can be worn year round but due to the cost I recoomend wearing this one on special occasions or with a evening out. Longevity is good. About 6-8 hours. I'm not sure about sileage but I get a nice scent bubble for a 2-3 hours. If you enjoy purple/blue oud type fragrances give this one a try if you can find it. They are hard to find.

Jono's craftsmanship has, according to many, improved significantly. Considering how sluggish the brand's launch was, marked by plenty of mediocrity, this was not really to be expected in 2022.

Some brands disappear from the self-made artisan cosmos as quickly as they launch their first scent from the infamous nothing and suddenly sink into a rat hole. Despite all the naysayers, Jono persevered, found his way, and did not give up. That earns someone like me respect!

The mad rush for the brand, as has been observed internationally for over a year now, was nonetheless not foreseeable for me, given how meager the first three releases were at their core. In the scene, they were only noted as a footnote, if at all. The feedback was rather restrained beyond personal congratulations on the brand's launch, making the development until now all the more exciting.

Similar to Arthur (Jinx) or Mathew (Lost Tribe), it was, as so often, the enthusiasm for the brand Ensar Oud that eventually paved the way for his own brand, even if he subsequently preferred to distance himself from this, his role model, rather than continue to appear as their brand ambassador and withdrew from corresponding forums. The rest is "OudFest" history.

His signature is now unmistakable, which finds more recognition in these circles than some ominously announced major raw material offensives that shake the artisan throne yet merely imitate the rustling of some shadowy plants.

When considering the majority of his fragrances, they are often composed around spicy-ambered to spirited-fermented and/or fruity-sweet scent focuses. And it is hardly surprising that especially the latter meets with so much favor (in the West), as this fragrance direction has become the Mecca of the popular niche over the years, and the ranks of those searching for it are relatively tightly closed; an aspect that currently plays into Jono's hands.

Midwinter Storm begins with a dry powderiness, immersed in a black fruity molasses that hardens into a balsamic sweetness over time. Natural Jonone or Irone are not only costly but also prominently incremented in Midwinter Storm; so strong that they overemphasize themselves and taper sharply, a game on a knife's edge. The waxy resolution, which exudes a hint of cosmetics (vanilla, violet), develops a scratchy note through the fruit acid sting, which is covered up by plenty of creamy Santalol, a well-known sandalwood oil component that, for example, imparts its special aroma to the aroma chemical Dreamwood™.

The fruity connection, as natural as it may appear in "Midwinter Storm | Folkwinds," especially at the beginning, reminds one of perfumed baby powder. Unlike the self-proclaimed street brawlers from the sort-of-niche, the fruit-focused approach by Jono is presumably a natural one, without annoying hair gel undertones. Unfortunately, the combination with the floral components creates that damned "Hubba Bubba" gum effect, likely based on the use of lotus flower; Santalol compensates for what the violet fabric softener polish perpetuates, although it increasingly clouds the base and stretches the sweet components horizontally, like using too much crème fraîche in the roast sauce.

The oud components appear largely mundane and manifest exclusively in the background. Thus, especially in the later scent development, a balsamic-greenish facet with a slight coniferous note emerges, which could only be attributed to them, but overall appears a bit too fresh and shapeless. This does not create a significant counterbalance to the creamy sandalwood melt, which hopelessly overshadows the entire base towards the end; it should have been significantly higher dosed (oud), if not must. As a result, unfortunately, a somewhat too generically sandalwood-like quality prevails in the floral-fruity framed base with sublimely flashing ethereal effects. Certainly not a bad scent, but to me, it is too lavishly creamy in the base and, for long stretches, simply too sweetly seasoned.

What Jono has released with Midwinter Storm is undoubtedly the result of a vigorous refinement process - no question about it. And the past has shown that the results of such efforts can indeed bear fruit, as evidenced by the quite successful, spicy-gourmand By-and-By and, with reservations, also "Jasper no Kodō | Folkwinds." He often refers to previous iterations that serve as a model for what follows (here: Midwinter Dream).

He himself understands his approach as holistic; the entire production chain from raw material composition and co-extractions is based on this. But it often revolves too much around the same axis; the noticeably increased output lately speaks volumes and at least hints at a certain tendency that has already triggered a FOMO effect among other illustrious names from the scene.

Jono would be wise to skip this notch and take other paths. Currently, the market is more speculative than ever, and bubbles burst faster than one's own wallet would like.
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In conclusion, a few words, so to speak, as a warning against possible misunderstandings, of which I claim they are already present: the "purple" effect reported here is not induced by oud! Jono himself does not even claim this, as one might assume in light of some (especially English-speaking) comments.

To speak of violet or purple oud or similar terminologies is somewhat misleading, as it creates expectations (of the contained oud) that the fragrance cannot fulfill. Midwinter Storm exhibits neither the associated, incense-specific facet that certain oud chips develop when heated, nor a certain oud oil profile (of the same scale) that encompasses something fundamentally different than merely a sweetly caressed, somehow violet-fruity tinted woodiness.

But similar to the recently held Kinam debate, people seem to latch onto such thematic storage points, especially since the Sultan Qaboo debate has slowly subsided and there is a demand for new buzzwords that are chased through the digital ether. Just as white is not colorless but a refuge of the colored world, oud (then) cannot simply be oud; it is Kyara, Kinam, and so much more.

Generally, such developments seem inevitable and must ultimately be accepted, even if they should not go uncommented, as one wishes for a contrary direction. But such imbalances, as is well known, point to their own dynamics and answers.