Reviews of Kiste 
Slumberhouse (2015)

If there could be a dessert that was made of a thin layer of rum-soaked spice cake,topped with baked peaches drizzled in honey,that's what i get from Kiste at the first spray.i was expecting something a little more raunchy and sinful.it is however, absolutely beautiful. seriously.the equivalent of a beautiful sunset for the eyes,your favorite music for your ears or a lover's exciting touch of your skin. warm,round,and licks-delicious sexy.

The initial blast of fragrance has absoloutely no restraint,displaying the epitome of sweetness. lots of honey and peach,but not the kind of sickly fruit peach smell i get in a lot of peach fragrances, where it smells synthetic and overly fruity.here is perfect.then there is a dirty tobacco note sitting on a bed of patchouli.if you are one who is faint of nose you may feel queasy from this potent parfum...which is why i think this fragrance is a challenging one and not a safe blind buy.

70's head-shop smells. Boozy, jammy peach. Dad's pipe tobacco on a Saturday night. The neighbor's haymow odors, from a childhood memory. A roasted nut, buttery pie crust accord. Warm. Down to earth.

I swear I smell sweet basil or some other kitchen herb here. This "thing" elicits curse words aloud, it's so damn good.

Patchouli, way underneath, as time moves along. Wish I'd discovered this years ago...

As I write this, a bowl of peaches–probably the last of the summer–sits behind me, ripening on the kitchen counter. That earthy, sweet, rich fragrance is all here in Kiste–not one element of the listed notes is neglected or out of place. This is a sticky sweet peach and tobacco scent, thick and heavy but a little dark and deep, especially as it ages on the skin. As others have mentioned, it seems perfect for the waning days of summer and into fall, with its burning, shimmering amber hue. It's a little melancholic, but still sensuous.

There's a moment of unpleasant booziness in the very beginning, but it does fade after a bit, for which I'm thankful. I usually spray my chest, and as such the scent clings to my shirt (I'd never risk spraying any Slumberhouse directly on clothing... seems like you're asking for a stain). On skin, this develops into a soft patchouli, but where it lingers on fabric it retains its peach brightness for much longer.

I had been trying to decide between Baque and Kiste and in the end I decided to buy both... Not my most frugal decision, but not one I regret, either. To spend just a moment to discuss their differences, since their descriptions share a lot in common (tobacco, stone fruit). Baque is even more tobacco-forward, and a lot richer–the vanilla replaces the honey and really amps up its cedarwood backbone. Its fruity but not as intensely so as Kiste–apricot being a bit more subdued than peach anyway. Texturally, its fitting, though, as the salty-dry drydown of Baque's ambergris makes it a more savory affair. In full disclosure, I prefer Baque, but they're both amazing and beautiful compositions, and very different from one another. My bottle of Kiste will not go neglected. (8.5/10)

Not a big fan of gourmands , but this a whole different animal...love this...all that can be said about this has already been said...southern hospitality at it's finest...hot peach cobbler...peach flavored honeyed tobacco leaf...smoky sweet tea...peach schnapps...a little touch of widflowers...a general resemblance to the framework and effect of TF TV...some dark rough patch background...big fan of tobacco fragrances and this be a winner in my book...definitely would get a lot of olfactory satisfaction and enjoyment wearing this...

It just clicked. I came home, sat in front of my computer and tried on this sample for the 3rd time maybe. At first I couldn't figure out what this frag smelled like but now I have it... this frag is very similar to Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille. There is no other way for me to describe this one but to call it how I smell it. If you like TF's TV then you will like this. If you have TF's TV then you aren't missing anything in this Kiste by Slumberhouse. I hope this helps.

I've worn Gin, Cognac, and Bourbon over the last three days as I've worn Royal Mayfair, Pear & Olive, and Kiste. All three fragrances are fantastic! I was just bemused by the fact that all three of them had alcoholic beverages in their compositions. Kiste is another wonderful accord from Josh Lobb and Slumberhouse. I'm becoming more and more a fan of his unusual works. This one definitely has the boozy quality of bourbon, along with many other fabulous notes that are juxtaposed just right to create a wonderful fragrance that wafts up in enjoyable waves throughout the wear. Sillage was about 5.5 hours and I'm now 8.5 hours in, and the longevity is still going strong. Another Slumberhouse product on my must have list. The nice thing about wearing alcoholic beverages instead of ingesting them, is that I can drive without a designated driver, and still get the enjoyment out of them. Thumbs up!

Another fascinating entry from the house of Slumberhouse, Kiste is a concoction dominated by tobacco, whiskey, and most of all, peach. My goodness, how much peach there is--I'd almost forewarn that if you're not a fan of peach, this might not be for you, as I did find the dominance of the peach to be a bit overwhelming for me, a non-peach-lover.

Still, there's certainly more to it than just the peach, as the tobacco, whiskey, honey, and patchouli create a sweet, boozy, slightly earthy blend. Neither the tobacco nor the patchouli outshine the sweet and boozy elements, though, which for me always remain center stage, and not in a shallow Peach Schnapps sense, but in a richer blend, and this remains relatively consistent throughout its life.

At its extrait Slumberhouse concentration, Kiste follows suit with the house's other fragrances in offering great performance, though not quite as beastly as Norne, Jeke, or Ore. Still, lovers of Kiste will not be disappointed with its performance, even at pricing of $160 for 30ml.

7 out of 10

Received my full bottle of KISTE today. Yes the pricepoint is a bit dear-- $160 US-- but the nice matte embossed black box, and the hefty flacon, resembling a hip flask, are rewardingly luxurious.

At first spritz, I immediately noticed that the whole mix rests on a patchouly note, but a patchouly so diluted as to give one an earthy "aura", more than the musky "head shop" note itself.

A whiskey note blooms, and it is scintillating, amber, boozy-woozy, and very dark oaky indeed, like the deep mysterious oakiness of Serge Lutens CHENE. Mingled with the deep ruddy oakiness is a hint of smoldering campfire, a smell I associate with Andy Tauer.

The bold peach accord blooms, and it has a sweet, vivid, rounded quality-- it smells radiantly vermilion in color, like the stone fruit in Michel Roudnitska's NOIR EPICES. It is bewinged with honeysuckle and summery floralcy, and also deeply jammy with sucree strawberry and ripe melon-like fruitiness. This is not the old waxy Aldehyde C-14 peach, but a new one that smells juicy and ruddily vivid, like an achingly ripe plum whose yielding skin you've just pierced with your thumb.

The sweet tea note in the drydown is warm and reassuringly Southern-folksy, not Asian/mysterious.

In drydown you are left with a deliriously fruity, jammy scent with a brandy/whisky vibe, and the hint of distant burning tobacco smoke.

This is a decidedly modern scent, it is not "haute perfumey" like an old French classic, with infinite layers and sly olfactory illusions; rather it is a beguiling, fruit-sweet deliciousness, with a warm, reassuring folksy tobacco base. It has a delirious, euphoric quality, that, as others have said about Slumberhouse, transports you to a halcyon Deep South of the Great Depression era. It is a very *kind*, welcoming, hay-ey smell... It smells honest and forthright, like Jimmy Stewart.

It's not intended to be slick, flash or urbane, though the whiskey, tobacco and patchouly notes instill a real sophistication, and, in their woodiness, prevent the perfume from being considered a true gourmand. (Can a fragrance be deliriously, sweetly fruity... yet not be a Gourmand? KISTE is, I think.)

KISTE uses the note of peach better than any modern scent out there; in fact, it's the nicest peach I know of since the Patou 1930's scents, like QUE SAIS-JE?

In short, an amazing modern Fruity/Woody/Smoky. Unisex. Low sillage (throwing a cloud) but huge substantivity (lasting long on the skin). Suitable for Day or Evening, casual or formal wear. If you have been looking for a good modern fruity for your scent wardrobe, look NO further.

This is utterly gorgeous. Sweet Southern Charm. And I should know, being the Southern woman, lady, bitch, what-have-you...that I am.

It starts with a porch and a swing. Of course the porch ceiling is painted blue...all are on any home with an owner of good sense in the South. There is sweet tea for all who sit on the porch with me, and mint to cool ya down. It is damn hot. But, there is a breeze, and on it carries the delightful scent of someone smoking some handsome leaf in their pipe. Grandpa is partaking of something much stronger than sweet tea, and telling the same story more times than we wish he would, but it's alright, because Grandma has just finished her peach cobbler and it smells DIVINE!

In the South, things move slow, and they sorta pile up...and this scent is exactly like that, on a hot summer day. Nobody is moving fast, but they all seem to land around the same place: the front porch. This fragrance takes a very long time to move, and that is one of the many things I enjoy about it. It's like much of my beloved home - slow and stubborn.

Get yourself a bottle of this, and lean back on a porch swing with a cold glass a sweet iced tea, and enjoy life.

I've been a huge fan of Slumberhouse since day number one when I originally interviewed Mr.Lobb for both my blog and Basenotes but, admittedly, it took me a while to warm up to Kiste. Not because it's challenging but because it includes a bunch of my most despised notes in perfumery. Well, with much of my joy I've to say Josh Lobb nailed it once again and made me like something I would have never thought I'd do.

Kiste is probably the more *friendly* Slumberhouse to date. I've read people consider it almost mainstream but I've to disagree here. It's surely one of the *easiest* in the house's range but it's still way far from being a simplistic department-store kind of fruity thing or a tonka bomb for sweet-tooth kind of fragrance bros. It still shows several of the house's hallmarks including a certain post-Lutens sirupy quality, the deepness of Lobb's best works, a certain sweetness that never really borders into gourmand territories. All of these aspects have been mastered through several fragrances that have undergone countless tweakerings during the past bunch of years and Kiste smells like the result of all this work. It basically takes all of the best elements that made Lobb's style of perfumery popular amongst fragrance-aficionados and paired them together in a little masterpiece that speaks of maturity, wisdom and, finally, self-awareness.

From the addictive boozy-peach opening to the patch-driven, tea-infused woody tobacco base, Kiste never relies on weirdness or over the top accords. It feels effortlessly exceptional more than for its originality, for how it behaves on skin and how it wears. It constantly claims the wearer's attention without feeling intrusive or overly complex. It's easy to wear without giving up on complexity and in this context it feels easy just like a master musician makes the most complex Stravinsky's piece look like it's easy to play. Slumberhouse's style is becoming pure and if Kiste is the next step, I can't wait for what's next.

My support for lines such as Slumberhouse will never end. A natural outsider that have been able to create one of the most innovative and exciting range of fragrances of the last couple of decades without selling out to the market pressure. A range that, without following any trend, has reached an incredibly coherent aesthetic and now reeks of perfection. Again, contemporary perfumery needs more *Josh Lobbs* and less pretentiousness and bull****.

Highly recommended.

Now please, Mr.Lobb, do something for the overseas distribution.

Kiste
Perfumer Josh Lobb

(The below is 18 hours after wearing and sleeping in Kiste. I usually wait a bit to write about a perfume, but not today.)

There is an entire wing of niche perfumery whose strategy is to reverse-engineer Slumberhouse perfumes and then try to replicate their results. This is a losing strategy for any number of reasons, principally for the cheapness of disregarding process and wanting an end product without the requisite start and middle.

Slumberhouse perfumes can be difficult, conceptually and practically. Ore isn't an easy ‘daily wear' and Jeke would make a demanding signature fragrance. Slumberhouse perfumes take backbone to wear and I inwardly gird my loins when I put on Sova or Sadanne. They aren't simple or easy.

If perfumer Josh Lobb's goal is to play with our expectations as much as our desires, he's succeded. Kiste isn't simple, but it is effortless. I can surmise the work that must have gone into making this perfume but I don't feel it.

I'm listening to Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong as I write. The groundedness, the keenness of their talent, the complexities of their success in their era. It's all there in the music, but listening to it is a breeze. I don't listen to this music because I don't want a challenge. I listen to it to remind myself that life is good.

Peach, sweet-tea, bourbon, tobacco, hay. The Southern connection might be in the notes, but it's also in the pace of the experience. Kiste is a sippin' whiskey of a perfume. Potent but smooth, satisfying from start to finish.

Ease is not a lack of ambition. Kiste is the reflection of a mid-career artist stretching his legs. It covers a lot of ground in a golden, lustrous range of late afternoon tones. The allusions to fruit, honey, old-fashioned ‘miracle elixirs', tobacco and liquor swirl around you. There is a lot of movement in the first few hours of Kiste, but it fine-tunes into a goldilocks 'just right' drydown that is less sweet and more medicinal than the top and heartnotes lead me to expect. Complexity reads as intricacy rather than complication.

from scenthurdle.com

Ghost of Slumberhouse...
Notes etc can be read from other reviewers, which are true to my experience. What Kiste does is remind me of all my favorite Slumberhouse's without being like how they stand for - for example - boozy aspect of Baque, but w/o being that deep; dark like Vikt, w/o being smoky, complex like Norne, yet, still maintaining an overall lightness (& as deadidol pointed - the honeyed aspect of Sova, but w/o being anywhere close to it).
Overall - I like it very much. Is it a new direction for Slumberhouse? Can't really answer that as yet, can we?

Peach Tea and Cavendish Pipe Tobacco with boozy and creamy undertones throughout the life of the fragrance. Kiste is probably the most "versatile" and approachable fragrances that's been in the Slumberhouse lineup. The fragrance is bright, yet carries an Appalachia fall feel.

Kiste opens with a relatively sweet deep boozy peach before moving to its heart. As the composition enters its early heart the sweet boozy peach accord slightly dissipates though remains in relative strength, as a deep pipe tobacco and black tea accord emerges to take over the starring role. During the late dry-down the sweetened boozy peach and black tea vacate the composition as remnants of the slightly sweet pipe tobacco join relatively subtle patchouli through the finish. Projection is outstanding, as is longevity at about 15 hours on skin.

Kiste is a pleasant surprise from Slumberhouse as it keeps to the spirit of the house's trademark signature roots, but at the same time is much more accessible and far more polished than prior releases. The first thing that one notices when the composition is sprayed on skin is the fabulous peach. Peach is a tricky note that so many perfumers can't get right, either with the peach coming off as synthetic smelling or overpowering, but not in Kiste. Here the natural smelling peach is significant, but never overpowers the other notes, instead acting more as primary support for the extremely realistic starring black tea and pipe tobacco accord that emerges in the heart section. Throughout the first two thirds of the composition's development things do get on the sweet side of the spectrum, but somewhat surprisingly the sweetness never appears out of place or overbearing. By the time the composition reaches its late dry-down the sweetness has significantly dissipated, allowing the pipe tobacco sans boozy peach to really shine. In addition to the quite impressive overall fragrance profile, I would be remiss not to mention Kiste's outstanding performance metrics. I have read elsewhere that some Slumberhouse fans feel the composition isn't as potent as prior releases. While I haven't done any side-by-side comparisons, the projection and longevity Kiste exhibits is truly outstanding and one would be hard-pressed to need or even want more. If Kiste is the sign of Mr. Lobb's ability and desire to expand his repertoire to appeal to a more diverse swathe of tastes, we are in for a real treat with respect to things to come. The bottom line is the $160 per 30ml Kiste extrait is a fine example of a perfumer producing a composition a bit outside their comfort zone without losing sight of their roots, earning an "excellent" 4 stars out of 5 and a strong recommendation.

Peach preserves with a touch of honey and tobacco. To drink with that, you got a glass of tea and a shot of boubon. A light medicinal note (may be the henna and patchouli) is in the initial spray which lasts about 20 minutes or so. This doesn't hurt this gem at all. The peach lasts throughout the duration of the fragrance. The tonka kicks in and seems to balance things out. This southern gem lasts about 10 hours easy. A good purchase indeed. 8.5/10

The concept for Kiste isn't new; it's been floating around for three years with initial sketches surfacing around 2013. Early prototypes were big on peach and brandy and were mired with an unsettling, waxy component. Since then, Kiste has been on and off the workbench, undergoing more than 200 revisions. The final result is far removed from the original sketch, and is perhaps the most accomplished fragrance that Slumberhouse has produced.

If you're expecting the over-the-top severity that the line has been known for, this will take you by surprise. Kiste is a jovial sweet tea and tobacco scent infused with fruits, spices, and a honeyed anise. It opens with an almost boozy, herbal accord that's spun sweetly medicinal by henna and then draped over a core of creamy peach and tobacco. Over the course of the wear, it slow-burns from an herbal scent to a black tea to a balmy, creamy peach. Also, it's rendered somewhat bucolic through a faint hay note that seems to reflect the Sova / Baque Americana theme. I could see Kiste performing beautifully during the spring and summer months as it's more brisk and glistening than it is sweet and cloying. It has a twilight shimmer to it – hues of copper and burnt sienna; a nostalgic kind of feel that brings to mind bronze ornamentation and gilded finishes. It also transitions like a sunset with a lens-flare kind of opening, followed by the pensive, subdued light of the tea sequence leading into the balmy peach that summons the scattering rays of a monumental horizon. Kiste is not nearly as crazed as Sådanne, it's far less operatic than Zahd, and it's more buoyant and optimistic than Norne or Jeke. The overall effect is surprisingly well-mannered for Slumberhouse, yet the action is in the imagery it creates.

Kiste is said to replicate a specifically Southern locale, but, to me, it gives more of a general impression of a North American “big sky." It has some of the sweet nostalgia of Sova and a touch of Zahd's decadence, but it's more meditative than anything else the line has produced so far. The attenuated style lends it a calm serenity that sits closer to the themes present in Pear+Olive or Ore. Although it doesn't come across as classical or traditional in any possible sense, it does feel like something from the past. The bar is raised once more with Kiste, only this time in ways that we didn't expect.