Vinyldates

Cotton in my head. Thoughts lounge in the chaos. They circle, float, do not settle and brush against each other like a storm of emotions and images. Blurred, intertwined: a symbiosis of illusion. What is memory, what is delusion?
There are images of
Grasses; tarred and feathered, the stems disappear in bright green under the black brew that seems to swallow everything. Smoking, smoldering, all-consuming.
There are images of
Gentle chamomiles, careful hands and soft pillows that accompany me into sleep, kindly humming soothing songs: a sensitive way of farewell.
Images of old oaks, cracking bark, rustling branches, boggy moors and lilac leaves. Falling. Like a song of spring in the abandoned, in the sunken.
Images of juicy flowers, screaming, demanding and infinitely dense, glowing in all colors and consuming you.
Again and again.
What remains later is a whisper. Sweetness that tenderly melts on the tongue before it guides you into gentle nothingness; a kiss, like a goodbye.

I lay my soul on tarry asphalt-
the whispers of days gone by penetrate clattering forests,
the wood has been felled- the old coffee crushed in mills; brewed again, black, cold, dark; the light streams in from outside and gets caught in the whispering wind, while our hands futilely try to warm themselves on the smoke, our bodies pressed together as tightly as if glued with pitch, pushing against each other, fleeing decay, as if we were one, a heartbeat, a spirit, a scent, the forests crumble, the ethereal brew seeping from the needles mingles with the aura of the changing season, a veil of mist settles and darkens the dreary landscape that stretches before our eyes, as we together, alone, try to escape the ghosts of time.

Chasing Autumn- a fragrance by Neil Morris, inspired by autumn, aims to reflect the dark facet of this season, begins with a stern and smoky opening of birch tar, which seems to take over the entire olfactory perception, before dry wood, ethereal needle sap, and gently warming coffee notes occasionally push to the forefront, creating a soft warmth in the scent. Chasing Autumn is meant to evoke the dark nights, falling temperatures, misty veils that move like dark spirits, and rotting leaves that fall to the ground, heralding the coming cold winter.
A very unique and also strong scent with a good sillage and a longevity that accompanies the wearer throughout the day, wrapping them in a cozy cocoon of smoke.

Warm resin of sweet suns warms the crumbly earth crusts that form on the ground. They lie there like small breadcrumbs between the individual grasses, stretching in ambered paths somewhere between the dried lush fields.
The leaves of the trees shine in red-golden colors, while bees still buzz here and there, flying around and busily completing their work in the last blooms of the past summer days, before the rich yellow nectar bursts from the hives and gradually the tranquility of the quiet season sets in.
Pollen winds flow around, leaving a spicy hint of coziness in the air before they disappear into the waxed shells of falling acacias.
The aura of this place is radiant, just like the Osmanthus that blooms in rich sweetness, reinforcing the shimmer of days gone by before the last autumn light will extinguish.

Path (of the Pollinator) is a limited project by Ananda Wilson, who produces her perfumes from 100% natural ingredients in small seasonal batches.
Path begins with dry spicy resin, amber, and an intense waxy density of honey, which together with Osmanthus is responsible for a light animalic note. This initially seems somewhat disharmonious, but over time the fragrance opens up to a very radiant and beautiful autumn companion that provides calm and warmth. Acacia and Opoponax contribute to a mild and quite pleasant sweetness.
Path has a pleasant, albeit rather delicate sillage and surrounds the wearer with a spicy warm aura for a good half day.

Do you see the ozone bubbles rising? How they shimmer as they float over the clear sky, seeming unreachable in this world?
Do you see the flowers growing, there, struggling through asphalt, taking over everything and pushing through ash and embers towards the light? Where mosses are free, delicately moistened and shimmering in green colors, does hope begin there? Does darkness end there? Or is everything just a projection of our own inner imagination?
Without sun, no shadow; without decay, no new beginning - is it our heart that cries out for opposites, or are they the unacceptable realities we try to run away from? What is light without dark? No name, no word, just ourselves.
Do you see how nature breathes? Rising from deep dark earth and shining in thousands of colors, fresh as dew in the sunlight?
The living contrasts.
We are all one.

Heart of Darkness is a fragrance by Timothy Han, which is also inspired by a literary work: In the prose of Joseph Conrad, the English-Polish writer criticizes European colonial rule within Africa and created with this literature an important (at the time) contribution to the discussion during the final reign of Queen Victoria. The story is about a seafarer who recounts his experiences as the captain of a river steamer in Central Africa and increasingly doubts the existing structures of exploitation (alleged civilization and missionary work) as he witnesses numerous atrocities against indigenous people.
This work is also poetically structured and offers numerous metaphors (such as the heart metaphor, which is used here as a loss of orientation), allegories, and exciting narrative structures (a double ordering principle with a circular return to the starting point of the plot), programmatic elements and ambivalence of language, as well as the protagonist's own journey to self-discovery, making it a worthwhile and valuable read. Politically and poetically.
We have also represented this ambivalence of the work in Timothy Han's "Heart of Darkness": One would expect a dark or gloomy, perhaps even animalistic scent just because of the name, which is absolutely not the case here.
The perfume starts aquatic, almost clean and fresh, and gradually becomes more musty, greener, and mossier. The indicated floral notes become very noticeable over time, yet a kind of veil of delicate smoky notes, woods, earthy patchouli, and finely woven birch tar continually tries to overshadow the floral elements. Towards the end, the scent becomes softer, more embracing, and forms a delicate conclusion with a calm cloud of musk.
The fragrance thrives on contrasts and is as divided and multifaceted as the literary work of the same name.
The projection here is rather moderate, very pleasant, and perceptible for about seven hours with proper dosing.

Morning sunbeams in a dream-time structure.
Caressing memories, tender, gentle.
Sleepily closing the eyes and drifting back, sinking.
Our eager glances. Love-hungry, full of serotonin.
Tossed linen sheets; feeling the textures. Skin on skin. Naked.
Your smile, your eyes. Like rolled tobacco leaves. Dried and preserved in eternal fascination.
Your skin. Warm. Clean. And yet so wicked. Like a subtle glance. And a feeling, like ginger tingling, that flows through my body when you touch me. Undressing me with your looks.
We wallow in purity, spilling white wine on our bodies.
No question of the later, when we laugh between kisses.
The last cigarette afterwards was far too long ago.
It is the scent of blooming lily of the valley that won't let us go.

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Find Me (No.2 Seek) aims to capture the scent of the morning "after" and was created by Folie à Plusieurs to reflect a scene from the novel "Find Me" by Andre Aciman, which is a sequel to "Call Me by Your Name."
This novel, too, fundamentally deals with longing, desire, intimacy, and the eternal search for love, which can sometimes last a lifetime and is often as painful as it is beautiful.
Seek begins with a puristic burst of delicate lily of the valley, followed by a powdery-soft skin accord that dances between clean/fresh and slightly animalistic-wicked in the nose. Always warm, cuddly, beautiful, and familiar. The purity and freshness meant to evoke clean sheets is skillfully realized, also thanks to the refreshing splashes of bergamot. At the same time, a skillful scent of white wine appears, fitting and very realistically rendered. The scene of playful lightness that arises from enjoying wine is immediately tangible in thought. Over time, one noticeably perceives a slight sharp tingling of ginger, electrifying.
Towards the base, Seek becomes warmer, which certainly arises from the delicate scent of tobacco, yet the aforementioned accords continue to shimmer gently throughout. Especially the lily of the valley gives the scent a hovering depth.
Seek is a beautiful fragrance, and I would say the theme is well captured here. It is not a loud scent; Seek wants to be found, and so it hovers closely, like an aura, around the wearer. It lasts a good 6 hours.

(With heartfelt thanks to Gandix for this beautiful experience)