Fume
Hendley Perfumes (2015)

I received few mililiters of Fume from my friend.

In my opinion it does not smell neither like Norne, nor like Jeke from Slumberhouse. It's got its very own, distinctive character to it and you won't confuse Hendley's Fume with anything else.

Notes that are dominant on my skin are galbanum and oakmoss, that dries to smoked tea and conifer resins. It's not flat, but it's not vibran neither.

The only fragrance I would compare Fume to is Pineward's Murkwood, both have that strong smoky tea, however in general they are different from each other.

Longevity is around 9 hours, sillage is above average.

A definite thumbs up for Fume by Hans Hendley's Hendley Parfums. This is a beautiful woody fragrance that smells much more like Slumberhouse's Jeke than it does like Slumberhouse's Norne to my nose. In fact the main note I smell is the Lapsang Souchong tea note that is so prevalent in Jeke. Fume is infinitely more transparent than Jeke however. Where Jeke is dense, thick and sweet with the addition of several strong tobacco notes, Fume begins with a shot of fir resin that is bright, but very fleeting. Still it brings a sense of peace and contentment to me when I smell fir resin. From there the smoky Lapsang Souchong is the star of this show and it definitely brings a woody undertone to the composition that is highly enjoyable in both Fume and Jeke. Actually, Lapsang Souchong also smells some of burning fall leaves to me as well, but in a good way, not in an overpowering smoke filling your lungs way. Fume is just very enjoyable and definitely full bottle worthy in my book. The only thing I would add is more cow bell...I mean more fir resin! :-)

Fume is dealing in the same territory as Norne, as has been mentioned in many reviews. But their construction is different enough it feels like they started from the same center and headed off in opposite directions. Norne is more abstracted, Fume is evocative, a fragrance memory. The conifer wood ash came through to perfection and took me back to times and places I smelled the original. It is wonderfully spot-on, naturalistic. But I'm not looking for a snapshot of an ashy campfire, a Demeter fragrance. Fume has a lot more to say than campfire ash.

As mrmorel wrote so perfectly, it is a forest fire chypre. Being a chypre-holic, this fulfilled a perpetual fragrance need in me. How perfect an idea, how obvious - extending the chypre into campfire territory. There may be others like this I somehow missed. If so, I'd love to try them - Fume is the only one I've come across that is so evocative, yet uses the chypre pattern to such advantage. One of the beauties of oakmoss was its wonderful ashy grrr. This fragrance plays on that aspect beautifully. It seems a little inspired really, with it's smoky Lapsang Souchong note smoothing out the raw ash.

It's a long-lasting, close-to-the-skin fragrance that wafts as an ashy smoke because it has air, which Norne does not. I thought this might be a fragrance I would like smelling in the sampler vial from time to time as an environmental snapshot, but instead I want to wear it as a perfume, because it creates a realistic, evocative smoldering campfire note, and takes it further into chypre territory. Really nice.

Fume is almost a forest fire chypre–moss and pine sap intertwined, the former strengthening as it ages on the skin; resinous, sweet, bitter, and a little smoky simultaneously. If La Curie's Incendo is a campfire in the forest at night, Fume is that fire smoldering the next morning–there's a lightness to its weight, refracted green light through a density of trees.

It does bear a resemblance to the aforementioned Incendo, and to Slumberhouse's Norne, but it strikes a balance between these two–forest and fire in equal measure. Because of that, I find Fume to be quite wearable–it refuses the seasonal hallmark of pine-exclusive scents. It's neither sticky nor cloying; natural and fresh but with deep warmth. I've worn it the most of any perfume in my collection this winter. It's beautiful.

BLUF: Norne Light, and it is wonderful.

*(Review for the "new" 2018 version, in which Hans has tinctured his own Lapsang Souchong - Fume was previously shelved because he ran into issues sourcing the Lapsang he initially used in the composition)*

Fume is a right up my alley because fir balsam is right up my alley. If you are also a fan of the note and/or material, Fume is worth a sample.

If you are such a person, you've probably already tried Norne. If you almost loved Norne but found it was a little too much of a good thing (or just plain too much), or disliked the fact that wherever you sprayed looked like bruised skin, this might have all the knobs turned to the right settings - it does for me. Fume is plenty substantial but not nearly as dense in feel and possesses a smoother, airier texture, lighter on the spice notes, lighter on the smoke, yet just as "pine forest" as Norne is.

Fume is also, importantly, devoid of the clove-y component from Norne. It's minor in Norne to me, but to others the clove seems a deal-breaker. The smoke in Fume is mellow but present throughout, ostensibly coming from the Lapsang Souchong tincture. There is the lightest touch of something like vetiver (listed as ruh khus) modulating the woody and smokey qualities.

I'm only going on at length with the Slumberhouse comparison because Norne is fairly well known, and this bears a striking resemblance in scent. I don't believe Fume is intended as a copy nor smell-a-like, and I feel strongly that Fume stands proudly on its own two legs. I prefer this to Norne. There is also a resemblance to Euphorium Brooklyn's Wald, which is a much more "campfire" and complex take on the fir balsam theme.

Longevity is admirable (a work day and then some) and it wears moderately close to my skin so I can enjoy it without feeling loud. I treated myself to a 9ml spray for a very reasonable $28 and it comes in a rock-solid heavy glass cylindrical bottle with a reliable sprayer, which I enjoy.

99% of the time I wear perfume because I enjoy perfume. The other 1% is when I want to smell like a landscape and not a fragrance. An imaginary utopian countryside (Cuir Pleine Fleur), the damp decay of a mixed deciduous/coniferous forest floor (After The Flood), or the coniferous elevations of my old stomping grounds in the central Oregon Cascades (Fume or Norne). There is no substitute for the real thing, but seeing as I can't fly anywhere in the world on a whim, I welcome scents like Fume into my wardrobe.

I haven't tried the previous version, but luckily there are no burnt chemical or stale thrift shop smells anywhere in sight. Thumbs up and recommended to any and all fans of balsamic conifer scents.

Awful. Smells like an old coat in a thrift store covered with a stale mediocre fragrance. I wrapped it carefully, so it wouldn't stink up my garbage can, & discarded it.

Hendley Perfumes Fume is one of the better-reputed fragrances in Hans Hendley's line, and so it's unsurprising, yet unfortunate, that it's sold out and may not be coming back due to sourcing.

Still, I'm glad to have tried it, as it falls into the category of dark fragrances that mix smokiness and woodiness superbly. The central note is balsam fir resin, giving off the vibe of a recently put-out campfire mixed with the dense resin of trees. In that respect, it's every so slightly a green fragrance, but only in the way the resin and smoke is classified. It's not purely smoke and dirty like Lalique Encre Noire, as there is real life in the balsamic, woody accords.

A performance beast, as well, as one might expect from its dark character and in EDP concentration from an independent house. Pricing now seems to be up in the air since it's discontinued but this surely could demand high prices as a winter beast, something to don on winter nights. I imagine this would mainly work well for men instead of women, but it's not so purely masculine as to be exclusively so.

The most similar fragrance that comes to mind is Slumberhouse Norne, as both Fume and Norne depend on the pivotal balsam fir resin note. And Profumum Arso has a similar heavy use of pine resin, so it's a little further removed, but still in the same vein.

Fume is superb and I'd love to try and track down a bottle, or at least hope that Hans Hendley can bring it back somehow. Great stuff!

8 out of 10

WTF... I mean WTF... OMG... WTF... smells like some sort of igniting fuel or chemical and burnt wood... OMG WTF... Avoid. Buyer beware. Give this a wide berth and steer clear.