Sova
Slumberhouse (2012)

I've known Sova for 2 years now, since I've got my decant. I've gone through different "stages" with it - from a total no-go, being neutral (a moment when I wrote my review) and finally I fell in love with it, and bought a bottle. It is an important scent to me.

Sova on my skin reminds me of rural landscape, bales, sheaves of hay in the field and men working and smoking pipe tobacco. There's a beehive in a nearby, a source of honey. By the way, Sova feels like it has quite a lot of beeswax on my skin too.

It's complex on my skin and a lot is going on through more than 10 hours of development. But main players on me are surely hay, beeswax, pipe tobacco and spices.

Also, I feel like Sova, along with Jeke are predecessors of latter compositions like Baque, Kiste or Mond.

Longevity is awesome - it varies, but as I've mentioned above - more than 10 hours is a standard. Projection is above average.

Sova is an epitome of fall to me - simply, fall in a bottle.

Sova has a common base with Kiste and Baque. I've probably come across such a scent in the kitchen. Maybe a food with special spices, or grape syrup or ...? whatever it is, it is very familiar. The dominant accord of Sova is a combination of hay and honey; But in practice, the green, hay-like scent that wafts through the air smells like dill. It is a green, syrupy, dark esculent combo. By the way, "hops" have been listed in the pyramid too, it's a plant that gives flavor to beer; with an almost spicy smell and a bitter taste. All-told, Sova smells natural, very special, but it's native, something like a local food. Sweet, herbal, warm and pungent. Very good projection and longevity, so that those around you can easily notice it. It's not an everyday or permanent perfume for me, but sometimes it will be attractive to use such perfumes.

I don't get the savory aspects so much with this. I mostly get smoky hay with sweet tobacco, possibly the plummy note others remark on. It's quite lovely, but the hay is a tiny bit barn yard in the opening and middle. Dry down is a gorgeous tobacco, like fruit flavored pipe tobacco. Really nice and yes, 100% unisex.

I am going to skip the usual objective note breakdown portion of the review, as Sova's notes all seem to blend together seamlessly to form an overall accord that at least on this writer's skin stays the same from start to finish. Projection is good and longevity is absolutely legendary at well over 24 hours on skin.

I haven't had a lot of luck with most Slumberhouse releases in the past, so it took me quite some time to get around to giving my Sova sample a real try on skin. Now having finally done so, the results are a bit of mixed bag. The overall development begins with a bit of a slightly sweet plum-like note before quickly morphing into its primary gourmand burnt sugar accord that stays constant through its finish. This burnt sugar accord has imortelle and prune-like facets, with even some pipe tobacco that make it smell different than caramel per se, but they are not in completely different ball parks. I can easily say that Sova is not my kind of perfume, but I can also respect it appealing to off the beaten path gourmand lovers to a degree. The bottom line is the $180 per 30ml bottle Sova is one of the best performing perfumes I have encountered from a longevity perspective, but the "above average" 2.5 to 3 stars out of 5 rated composition ultimately is not something that one most likely will want to wear, yielding it only a neutral recommendation except to Slumberhouse lovers that enjoy gourmands.

Stardate 20190131:

A different gourmand perfume but then that is expected from Slumberhouse.
It has the same syrupy resins that Josh loves but there are savory aspects to this Gourmand. Folks have compared it to Indian curry and they are right.
The tradition punjabi mango pickle use mustard oil, onion seeds and anise as preservative to pickle green unripe mango. The savory aroma of Sova is very similar to this pickle.
Josh has made sure to dial this down just right to keep this non pungent.
A great effort. I just can't wear this pickle :)

Sova is a nice foodie fragrance. It has a nice warmth and richness, and it smells interesting. It has a sweet spiciness. In moments, it smells like a ginger snap cookie, but it also has interesting complexity, and smells like much more - a delicious stew, for example, sweet and savory. There's also a hint of leather.

A couple more thoughts on what this smells like: maybe a sweet chai, or maybe a dish of Indian food with a fairly sweet sauce, such as korma.