Gibbon's Boarding School - Solstice Scents

Source

First sniff: 
Leather. This is some kinky kind of school.

First applied: 
Leather, musty wood and something like... lime? Is it bay rum, maybe? It makes me think of pirates on tropical seas. This is quite a masculine scent. Something about it is verging on fly spray - maybe that limey note is making me think of citronella.

After 30 minutes: 
There's not much change, but it's a bit more mellow now, and less fly spray-ish. This would smell nice on a man but it's not really my thing.

After 3 hours: 
Much softer, it fades considerably after the first hour. Kind of a generic man scent now - a bit woody but really mellow.

Longevity: 
About 6 hours but very muted after the first hour.

Actual notes/description: 
Dusty wooden desks, paper, carefully hidden tobacco pouch, dying fire, dried leaves, leather chairs, Autumn breeze.

Availability: 
Solstice Scents
Limited Edition - Foxcroft's Autumn Festival 2014
Full size and sample size.

Smoky Mountain Mallow - Solstice Scents

Details: 
Smoky Mountain Mallow
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
Wood Smoke, Fossilized Amber Resin, Lapsang Souchong CO2, Guaiacwood, Labdanum, Nutmeg EO, Marshmallow

I bought this maybe 6 months ago, but when I first tried it I got nothing more than smoke, so I put it away for a while to see what would happen when it aged. I still get little more than smoke, to be honest. In the vial it smells like a resinous smoky fire. Once applied, it's pretty much the same though there's an element of cigarettes as well. It's ever so slightly sweet, but just barely. It didn't really change on me at all in the 8 hours or so it lasted.

I have a lot of these smokey kind of scents because I really love them, but this is not one of my favourites. I wouldn't buy it in a full size. However, I appear to be in the minority as many people love this one, including Liber Vix, Amanda, and Rachel.

Rating:
2/5

Day 180!

Devilish - Arcana Soaps

Details: 
Devilish
Arcana Soaps (bought from The Rhinestone Housewife)

Notes: 
Shaking off vanilla's reputation for namby pambyness, this infernally dark and smoky fragrance comes complete with licks of fire and sulfurous wafts of brimstone. The devil really does have all the best scents!

Hold my hand guys, this is my first ever Arcana. Part of me is wondering what the heck took me so long, and part of me is wishing I never dipped a toe in because I predict I am going to become much poorer. I. FREAKIN'. LOVE. THIS. It's vanilla turned up to 11. In the bottle you really can smell sulphur, and that should be gross, right? I mean, my experience of that smell is trying to 'smoke' matches (don't ask) while lighting the bunsen burners in Science and then going into a coughing fit. Once applied, the vanilla is deep and smokey, with a touch of booziness about it but not too much.

The description of this perfume is spot on - I can't describe it better. It's quite masculine but still a bit sweet, and the sillage starts off reasonably high. When I wore it to work, Jacquie commented on it, saying she liked it but she wouldn't want to be stuck in an elevator with me wearing it. It does settle a little but it lasts a long time - I could still smell it at the end of the day.

Rating: 
5/5 I splurged on a full bottle and I am so glad I did.

Day 156!

Shaking off vanilla’s unfair reputation for namby pambyness, this infernally dark and smoky fragrance comes complete with licks of fire and sulfurous wafts of brimstone. The devil really does have all the best scents. - See more at: https://www.therhinestonehousewife.com/products/product-detail.php?iid=45#sthash.TYBCIETM.dpuf

Shaking off vanilla’s unfair reputation for namby pambyness, this infernally dark and smoky fragrance comes complete with licks of fire and sulfurous wafts of brimstone. The devil really does have all the best scents. - See more at: https://www.therhinestonehousewife.com/products/product-detail.php?iid=45#sthash.TYBCIETM.dpuf

Conjure - Solstice Scents

Details: 
Conjure
Dark Spring 2013
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
A magical blend of Vanilla, Amber, Cedar, Spices & Cauldron Smoke. 

As with Manor, I can smell something a bit leathery in this perfume, even though it's not listed as a note. In fact, this perfume is vaguely similar to Manor - quite masculine but also a bit sweet from the vanilla and amber. The spice smells a little bit like ginger and maybe even some nutmeg. (I have whole nutmeg - nutmegs? nutmeg nuts? - in a jar in my kitchen and secretly I like to just stand there sniffing it - gorgeous).

The dry down is a smooth, smokey woody vanilla. I do like this, but I think it's a bit like Old Cedar Magus, just blokier, and since I already have a beloved full bottle of that I don't think I'd spring for this one. Sillage is medium to high - I was quite aware of it most of the day. It lasted a good while too, I could still faintly smell it 12 hours later.

Rating:
3/5

Day 147!

Vanilla Pipe Tobacco - Solstice Scents

Details: 
Vanilla Pipe Tobacco
Dark Spring 2013
Solstice Scents

Notes:
Vanilla Absolute, Tobacco Absolute, Tonka Bean Absolute and Sweet Clover Absolute.

For the longest time this perfume smelled like nothing but pipe tobacco. My grandpa - who died about 30 years ago - smoked a pipe, and this is the exact smell I always associate with him. It's funny how there's something I find comforting and warming about pipe tobacco smell, but if someone was standing next to me with a cigarette I'd be giving them stink eye.

After about an hour I could finally smell the other notes - well, not really specifically, it just morphed into a warmer, sweeter pipe tobacco. I wouldn't wear this as a perfume - I don't want to smell like I smoke a pipe - but I really like it a lot. Sillage was medium, longevity also medium - about 6 hours before it was too faint to really pick up.

Rating: 
4/5

Day 145!

Carny Wedding - Darling Clandestine

Details: 
Carny Wedding
Darling Clandestine

Notes: 
Carefully blended and infused by me in small batches in vintage glass wine bottles, this fragrance begins butter candy sweet and mellows on the skin to resiny wood and honeyed nectar. A multitude of different scent elements and weeks of methodical alchemy make Carny Wedding no ordinary scented oil mix-it's a truly inimitable fragrance. 

Jeepers creepers - in the vial this is sweet and smokey with a slight hint of candy, and when I applied it to my wrist I got a big hit of smokey bacon! Not at all what I was expecting. I don't quite know what to make of this. I have found with the few Darling Clandestine perfumes I've played with that they never smell like the (often scantly mentioned) notes lead me to think they will. And don't get me wrong, I love the smell of bacon. It's just so completely unexpected. When the perfume dries down that note goes away though the smokiness stays in the background.

Regular readers will know that within my perfume obsession I have a little side obsession with any kind of carnival/fun fair/freak show kind of scents, but they are almost all within a family of notes - foody, sweet, sticky, etc. I had expected Carny Wedding to be perhaps a more artsy version of one of those, and it's just not like those at all. Do I like it? I don't know. It's intriguing, and it's not quite like anything else I have. And I like that Darling Clandestine perfumes are often a puzzle.  As for whether I want to walk around smelling like this, I've yet to decide...

Rating: 
Undecided. A mystery!

Day 132!

Aequitas - Darling Clandestine

Details: 
Aequitas
Darling Clandestine

Notes: 
Yes. It's a fragrance inspired by the Boondock Saints. Smoke and blood and whiskey and damp alleys and leather and steel and gunpowder and sweat and denim and sweet wooden rosary beads and a bit of clover struggling up through concrete cracks. It is unisex and so, so, so sexy.

Aequitas contains highly concentrated German chamomile, so it's got a bit o' the green. And since it also contains real whiskey, the dark resins and lovely insanely green oil-bubbles tend to separate and settle at the bottom. Just give the bottle a shake, and the perfume turns the color of a luna moth. :)

I wore this for three days in a row trying to get my head around it and I'm still baffled. I can't really pick out any notes, it smells like... green. In the bottle I think I can smell the steel note and also the whiskey, but to be honest I could only pick out those notes once I knew they were there. It's very masculine - slightly too masculine for my tastes. Once applied it stays that way for quite a long time, but then a couple of hours later there's something floral about it - no particular flower, not particularly girly, but definitely floral. It's weird. I have no idea whether or not I like it. Sillage is medium, longevity is about 10 hours.

Rating: 
Undecided. I'm going to try it again in a month or so and see if I can make more sense of it.

Day 114!

Creeper - Delightful Rot

Details:
Creeper
Delightful Rot

Notes:
Ssssss... That's a nice everything you have... A powder keg stuffed with sweet lime and grass, this scent is innocuous at first with a smoky, spicy undertone. 

My thoughts on this perfume:

*sniff* "Oh god, this smells like lemon floor cleaner. I don't want this on me - I wonder if I can put it back and pretend I didn't pick it out?"
"No, can't do that... okay, here goes. Oh god, it smells like floor cleaner and tyres! "
"Now it just smells like tyres."
"It's like a mechanic's garage. A similar note to '67 Chevy Impala, but not nearly as pleasant."
"That citrus is back again. Now it smells like the freshly cleaned toilet of a mechanic's garage."
"This is gross."
"Still gross."
*about an hour later* "Bearable. Smokey diesel oil. Not as awful as it began, but not my thing."
Sillage was annoyingly strong at first but not so bad when it finally morphed into something more mellow. Longevity was about 7 hours or so.

Rating: 
1/5 I resisted the urge to scrub, but only just.

Day 79!

Cabaret - Black Baccara

Details: 
Cabaret
Black Baccara

Notes: 
Inspired by the romance and decadence of the cabaret. A sexy, feminine scent blending the aroma of vintage perfumes with rich merlot and the faintest hint of cigar smoke tempered with sandalwood. This perfume encapsulates the essence of an old time piano bar or cabaret theatre; decadent ladies and gentlemen, wisps of smoke and libations, and hints of romance on the horizon.

In the vial I smell red wine. On the skin it's wine and smoke, with something woody in the background. The first part of the dry down goes weirdly fly spray-ish - it's quite strange. Thankfully, that doesn't last too long - eventually the sandalwood comes out and it's just a warm, comforting base with a bit of woodiness. I like this quite a bit outside the fly spray phase, but probably not a full bottle.

Rating: 
3/5

Day 61!

Cantina Band - Delightful Rot

Details:
Cantina Band
Delightful Rot Perfumery

Notes: 
A bawdy, raucous scent. A mix of smoky air and scuffed wood bar, dusty boots, aliens musks and the sweet molasses edge of rye liquor.

In the vial this is a smoky, booze scent. Applied to the skin the smoke and wood really come out. There's something about this I really like, though I'm not entirely sure what it is - the smell as a whole is just mmm.... it's weird because when I first got this order from Delightful Rot and opened up all the vials to sniff them, this was the one that made me reel back in horror. Yet smelling it now in the vial I'm all over it.

The smoke retreats considerably when it dries down, but there's still an edge of it there. Mostly it's a musky wood with the liquor adding an almost vanilla-like note. Very warm and snuggly - an aran sweater kind of perfume. Sillage and longevity were both medium - not overpowering but definitely noticeable.

Rating: 
3/5 I like it a lot, not sure if I'd have use for a full bottle of it though.

Day 56!

Carnivale Rouge - Deep Midnight Perfumes

Details: 
Carnivale Rouge
Deep Midnight Perfumes

Notes: 
Let the red carnival sweep you away into decadence and mystery. Who is that delicious stranger behind the mask? What are you willing to give in return for brush of his lips? Will you remove your mask and bare your desires? Remember.... nothing is ever as it seems when the masquerade begins! Notes of amaretto liqueur are deepened with balanced tones of the darkest cocoa, cappuccino, rich cream, and buttery amber, while background notes of oakwood fire, and citrus deepen the intrigue. Come and play if you will!

I have all my untested samples in a glass bowl in my room (I know I should stand them upright to prevent leakage and so on but it's just not practical for me), and I reach in and pull one out at random to test. For some reason, I keep getting Deep Midnight ones! Though I do have quite a few, as I got 10 samples and was sent 4 free with my order. Anyway, Carnivale Rouge was my latest, and I chose this because it was a gourmand scent with cocoa and cream, two of my favourite notes. I'm not super keen on amaretto, but I find it's one of those notes that comes out sharp early on but never hangs around for long so I can live with it.

In the vial, the first thing I smelled was marzipan, which of course was the amaretto. Once I applied it to my wrist, it was more smokey. The almond scent was still there, but not as sharp. The cocoa isn't chocolate-y as such - it actually adds more to the smokiness and makes everything smell a little like tobacco. The dry down is a warm, fairly light amber with a touch of vanilla. The sillage is low, but once the perfume dries down it hangs around for quite a while, and it's a comforting scent. I like this one.

Rating:
3/5

Day 30!