Floyd

Would you like to come with me to the woods? I still have half an herb candy, we could share it. You can trust me. There are lots of fir trees there, they needle like in the rain after Christmas. You don't need to be afraid. There are rose geraniums that entwine themselves in them, which is why there are sharp mists wafting like the silver clouds from the hair around my cold eyes. Do you want a moss coat like me, the same one our grandfathers wore? Go on and it will grow on you. Can you see the dark, soapy tracks like soft furrows in the earthy soil between the dry, damp trunks? In their long brown shadows, musk tracks still creep, invisible but intertwined with the ghosts of times past.
**
Californian self-taught perfumer Manuel Cross has only been creating fragrances for his own Rogue label since 2017. Anyone who has smelled a few of his perfumes will be able to blindly recognize his very own DNA, as it is mostly heavy, earthy, rather vintage-oriented mosses that carry his fragrances in combination with balsamic notes, as in "Targhee Forest", which is dedicated to the national forest of the same name in the northwest of the USA.
You enter this forest through a rugged, cool mist of ethereal green desert mugwort, damp conifer needles and sharp, slightly hairspray-like rose geranium. In combination with nuances of fir balsam, one can soon think of an herbal candy, albeit one of the spicier variety, before Cross's typical oakmoss, heavy, earthy, discreetly soapy and, in combination with the musk, slightly animalic, dominates the bright aromas. A retro moss, as we know it from the fragrances of our fathers and grandfathers. Patchouly contributes its part to the damp, earthy overall character, cedar adds a dark, woody tinge, the fir balsam is a yellowed, resinous film through which you look at this forest, which projects its images clearly to moderately and for an above-average length of time on my skin. A wonderful journey back in time.

Full moonlight shines on shadowy faces. Eucalyptic shadows flit from the Otherworld on ethereal strings of pungent herbs like sage leaves in the nettles. A flickering hiss. Bengal flames in the tops of the lonely Joshua tree somewhere in the cold of the deserts at night. Bright voices in the green mists, fading slowly in the mint dust of the earth, in books yellowed by tobacco and pale as vanilla. I must have found a grimoire between moss-covered walls.
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Abby Hinsman makes her herbal fragrances by hand. She either grows most of the materials herself or harvests them from her two and a half hectare forest in Vermont. Both her fragrances and her delivery times vary accordingly, as she only produces very small batches.
"Grimoire" (a spell book with magical knowledge) reminds me strongly of Abby's "Joshua Tree" with its blend of sage, herbs, resins and minty patchouli. Right from the start, light green, spicy, herbaceous, pungent sage dominates. However, eucalyptus and camphor make it seem even more ethereal here, before citrusy elemi resins and minty-earthy patchouly gradually shift the impression towards moss at the heart, a moss that initially drifts in a resinous mist, which gradually softens the sharpness with soft brownish tobacco notes and delicate vanilla aromas, but without completely losing the ethereal-green overtones. The magic works moderately over several hours.

(With thanks to Marieposa)

There is a small antique store. You enter it in the light of old Art Nouveau lamps with shades of bright angelica flowers that scatter mint-green threads into the darkness as if they were taking root there. There is the scent of myrrh wax candles, melting on old leather bindings that gradually crumble to earth in the black glow of sweet memories in the furrows of cedar secretaries. Someone has ground coffee somewhere and asks you to linger.
**
Dark Tales Artisan Factory from Sweden seems a bit like an antique store itself. In addition to handmade, oil-based fragrances, the range also includes 'historically inspired artifacts' such as jewelry, corsets and candles.
The small antique store welcomes the wearer with subtle, ethereal, minty notes of angelica, which are only minimally underlined by pear and continue in the heart with earthy, rooty, light vetiver aromas. A waxy-resinous base makes itself felt early on, initially rather forest-honey-like and sweet (myrrh), later becoming increasingly leathery and earthy (black musk). Deep in the waxy resins, there are also nuances of ground coffee and dark cedar, which give the warm fragrance a little more edge. The stay scent is initially moderate and soon skin-deep, allowing us to linger in the store for several hours.

(With thanks to Gandix)

Wear festive clothing and lie down on mats between walls of white paper. Look at the master of ceremonies, then slowly close your eyelids. Sharpen your senses, there are aniseed herbs, first gently wafting along with blossoms, bearing mushroom lamella leaves, gradually becoming greener and bitter. Soon you notice mild summer images of curry yellow and Greek hay, honeydew drips onto spicy fields, pungent cool mists drift by like clove flags on the trees of the forests. There the ground breathes peppermint leaves, through every musty soft fiber of the falling bark of ancient woods, shimmering in the ethereal resinous veil, the contemplative sound of nature.
**
"Spirit of Japan" focuses on the Japanese Kōdō ceremony, which originated in the 14th century and in which participants listen to the "sound of scent" with a master of ceremonies, compare its qualities and link them to poetic associations or listen to traditional literature. Because the brain perceives scents in the limbic system, the "primitive" part of the brain to which instinct and memory belong, and poetry activates a different part of the brain, the combination of these two activities opens up new ways of thinking and levels of consciousness in kōdō. Precious ouds (jinkō) and sandalwoods (byakudan) play a central role when burning incense on charcoal, as do cinnamon bark, cloves, aniseed, patchouli, flowers and herbs.
Ahmed Mostafa's interpretation is initially reminiscent of dried camomile leaves for a moment, green and soft, delicately smoky, before it develops a subtle, spicy-bitter pungency of aniseed, clove, cumin and cinnamon leaf aromas support the character and carry it through to the base. After a brief hint of curry-like turmeric dust, spicy hay notes of fenugreek hay become apparent, on which honey-sweet labdanum resins drift tiny pearls, and I also detect marzipan-like notes of heliotrope. While the hay finds its continuation in the soft, mulchy bark notes of eaglewood in the base, the spicy-bitter pungency leads into minty-earthy patchouly and the ethereal-glutinous aromas of sandalwood. Styrax and benzoin soften the ethereal notes in the direction of tree resins, while ambergris and deer musk tend to hold back, lending more depth.
true to the ceremony, "Spirit of Japan" remains rather restrained in its projection, finely green-smoky and woody-spicy contemplative and, of course, it is determined by the quality of its precious raw materials.

(With thanks to Cfr)

Sometimes you grasp reality, the essence of nature in a smallness that manifests itself glisteningly bitter, like a light falling through the flesh of a grapefruit, freezing ethereally in the frost on the peel and branches of unripe oranges, opening a clearing in the forest, snowing tart cypress needles there, blowing bright crystals of incense like a mist of time past, thawing the frost in the roots of the grasses and revealing soil of clay beneath, grounding you in a moment of clarity.
**
Kevin Peterson from Sfumato in Detroit, Michigan, is convinced that humans have created a kind of collective olfactory memory in the course of evolution, whereby natural fragrances are able to develop and transport subtle stimulus reactions over thousands of years. His natural fragrances, which he produces by hand from 100% natural raw materials, are therefore time capsules.
In its original meaning, the term "epiphany" describes a sudden intuitive insight into reality through a simple everyday event. Peterson first creates this moment of clarity with tart, fresh grapefruit and bitter-cool petitgrain, whose notes are followed like a dazzling green ray of light into the citric overtones of light incense and cypress needles. Herbaceous lavender and rosemary support the impression of a bright forest clearing, where frosty, crunchy grasses (vetiver) and tart, moist earth (galbanum, vetiver, katrafay) emerge in the base between fresh green woods (katrafay, cypress). A light moment to breathe deeply, moderate to skin-deep due to its naturalness, but lasting for several hours.