herbal

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Snowy Owl

Zoologist card with drawing of a bird princess in a cute winter hood, sample spray and a craft feather wing to make my photo fancy.

Snowy Owl is clever and gorgeous and a little wistful–

Opens with wintry wind notes, and a weird animalic beat that really does smell like feathers (that anyone who has kept chickens would immediately recognize, and can be found in new down pillows, too) but is freshened by sugary alpine mint.
There’s a tease of spring florals, green and sharp but distant, and a vaguely earthy sweet resin that’s somehow creamy, like ice milk that hasn’t been flavored yet.
Projection is mild, but not exactly linear, with white forest floor musk shyly creeping in now and then.
Lasts most of the day, and even longer on mitten cuffs.

Recommended for ski instructors, Swan Lake dancers, and anyone else–but only when the temperature is below freezing out.

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I love this melancholy winter song–and how amazing this party must have been!

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Rhinoceros

Test paper cut out of bottle, a decant vial, carved wood rhino and a shot glass with an ounce and a half of hemlock cones.

Drunk pine cones and combat boots, but comforting.
This is that big guy at the bonfire who wrapped me up inside his motorcycle jacket to keep me warm, and whispered dreadful jokes in my ear all night long, and I’ll always be a little in love with him.

Fills the room then eases into personal space for the entire night, and lingers on the skin the next.

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Rhinoceros was a supergroup experiment by Electra Records in 1969. There’s a good stampede in the middle of this one–

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Boreal

A sample vial of green liquid, with pine branch tips and a paper tester of a Pinewood apothecary bottle.

Boreal opens with a mix of things I find comforting in the winter–gingerbread, Tiger Balm, cedar bark, and pine needles–a lot of the Santa’s Workshop vibe of Guerlain’s Winter Delice, and I’d enjoy it on woodsman types a lot.
But the greenery dies down to faint resins on the skin in less than 2 hours, and I want more. The mossy notes do perform a bit better on cotton.

I bet it would be amazing in a beard oil.

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This is a good pine.

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Cool Water

Teal blue mini bottle of Cool Water in the icicles of my arborvitae.

Alpha evergreen rosemary and rain on top, Ray-Ban Wayfarers and herbal musk on the bottom.

Clean, mild at a distance and brash up close, Cool Water rejoices in its chemicals–the polymer sheen of a new laserdisc, NutraSweet powder, the antiseptic wetness of lubed condoms–with the late eighties zeal for cheap innovation and mass appeal.

I swiped a bottle from a pretty college boy thirty years ago (he took my Sandman comics, so I don’t feel guilty about it) and still wear it with pegged jeans and a skinny tie on soft butch days.

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I wore this cassette tape out in my Walkman–another sweet and synth number from 1988.

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Myths

Purple ombre Myths mini bottle on a magenta carnation pom-pom.

Carnation smoke and green kid gloves, with retro tailoring.

Fills the room with sharp with incense-y labdanum and chrysanthemum florals out of the bottle, then settles to a bright spicy clove. 1970’s Estee Lauder moss soon creeps in over 80’s Drakkar Noir leather, but manages to stay delicate, the whole day long.
There’s a nice witchy “cool aunt” vintage vibe to it.

Sweeter on clothes than on the skin.

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This B-side came out in 1980, and layers strung out funk with a bit of new age synth.

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Paper & Cotton

Silver capped bottle with label of vintage fashion illustration on brown tissue paper sewing pattern.

It does! New muslin and patterns!
Cue fitting deadline anxiety in 3…2…1…oh, fuck.

Edit – 2/22/23

I bought this ages ago in a fit of collector’s mania, and then put of trying it for years, because I was too close to the inspirational source material.
I’ve worked with vintage paper sewing patterns for ermty decades, and they have a very specific smell–and I was so afraid this wouldn’t hold up to the real thing.

Paper & Cotton lists Coriander, White Sage, Birch Wood, Tundra Moss, and manages to make a very good representation of the title.
Opens with aqvavit spiked with herbs, and laundry soap for ten minutes, then softens to sweet woods, and there it is–that delicate ecru cross between newsprint and the sheerest parchment stamped with ink, that almost smells like root beer–and hot ironing starch on plant fibers.

Dry but not powdery, long lasting, and even after 5 years years since my last show, still manages to bring on surges of dread and creativity.

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Gorgeous song.
(I too have made a dress from a table cloth.)

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Sea Buckthorn

My grandfather’s old grey Stetson and a paisley tie slung around a clear flask.

L’Ome is the Durance en Provence eau de toilette line for men. This one is a great OG barbershop cologne.

Argousier (sea buckthorn) on top, with that creamy lemony note lasting for a half hour over alpha herbs and lavender.
Wood fills in the bottom, cedar with some masculine sour sandalwood on the skin.

Old school gentleman–a bit of a curmudgeon but sweet underneath.

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Relax

Lollia No. 8

A bit alcoholic out of the bottle, then dries down to lavender and vanilla with some honey amber. Stays close to the skin for several hours, and leaves soft floral dust on the clothes.

It’s actually quite soothing–I might try it as a pillow scent–and the bottle is adorable.

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Waiting on election results today. I need all the soothing I can get.

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Aspen

Small green bottle with embossed gold leaf, and silver dipped leaf.

A marvelous cheapie that’s a splash of gin and lime bitters and Christmas fir trees. Sweetens to a light, long-lasting oak and lavender musk.

Many consider Aspen the green Cool Water, but I think it aged with the times better. Less freshman Chemistry 101 and more junior Natural Ecology.

Best during winter term.

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The boy who wore this decided Norwegian Wood was our song. He hated country, so after this bird had flown, the version by Waylon Jennings became my favorite.

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Florabotanica

Nosy Siamese cat sniffing flowers, and a mini bottle with black and white striped cap.

Dank Couture.

This stuff is amazing.
Wildflowers and weed, haute stoner florals in a dope high fashion editorial.
Feminine sticky-icky amber close to the skin, underneath a haze of roses sweetened by mint.
Lasts all day, but you’ll want another hit at 4:20, because she’s so fun to roll with.

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