Reviews by Martin__

My review from Feb 11th 2017 from Fragrantica:
Starts off acidic with a weird urine-like note (it must be civet) mixed with some spices, mainly caraway. There is some rose and saffron in the background.
It dries down to a soft oud-leather mix with a subtle rose in the background. Later on some smoke appears with a musky touch added to it. At the end the whole fragrance gets a little sweeter, but just a little bit.
Longevity is 12 hours with 2 sprays, sillage is soft to moderate.
With a small application the fragrance is soft and cozy. Overapplied it changes to an oud monster.

The name of this perfume says it all. I’d probably could guess that clouds smell like this :D very blue, wee aldehydic with some fruity blueberrish background. Some alternative for spring and summer and definitely an alternative to smell unique during warm days.

Hay, definitely a lot of dry hay, supported by a hint of colling mint. There is totally no sweetness in there, but the amount of flowers add a lot of greenness to the composition.

My favourite from the brand, so far.

A very authentic cherry pipe tobacco, I think the most authentic in that genre I’ve ever smelled. Supported by a delicate musk and I’ve also detected some cocoa in the background. Slightly gourmand, but definitely with some farm climates. Doesn’t change much on my skin, but that’s not a bad thing at all.

Impression: a vision of farm workers resting, sipping their americanas/espressos and smoking cherry flavoured pipe tobacco.

Longevity is above 9 hours, sillage is above moderate.

Green, resinous, spicy and smoky - that's how I would describe Haxan in a nutshell. Very complex with long development on my skin. The dominant vibe is herbaceousness with some oriental and animalic notes hanging around. As with others from the brand, excellent sillage and longevity.

One of my favourites from Prin Lomros.

Rather not for the fainted hearts out there. First impression might get you literally wrong and you may assume it's a hardcore animalic. In fact, it's not. It's characteristic with one of the many facets of oud combined with another characteristic, indolic nature of jasmine. Deep drydown is resinous, woody and still spicy.

Very good longevity, sillage slightly over moderate. Quite a good one.

Fruity, oriental and wee spicy. Characteristic and detectable candied dates, I also detect oriental sweets that I have tried in Turkey. Not a typical gourmand. There is some chocolate or cocoa background (maybe even wee dry or dusty). Drydown is woody with slight leathery touch.

Good sillage and longevity. A nice one.

Definitely warm and spicy with very interesting immortelle and tobacco. It is being compared to Slumberhouse Mond and there is a sense comparing these two - the general vibe is in the pretty same genre, both being tobaccos wrapped up in resins and spices. The difference is, to me Sagan Dalya has very clear and prominent tea note to it - maybe it is caused by immortelle or honey somehow, anyway I feel that tea on my skin. I love tea so it was almost an instant like leaning towards love.

Longevity is way over 12 hours and the sillage is quite subtle, but it does project releasing a "whiff" sometimes.

Very good to me.

Cotswold IMO is a good entry fragrance to the darkest of the line, including Murkwood, Brokilan, Fanghorn II or Eldritch. Not that dark as the ones mentioned, but gives you a nice overview what darker Pineward are about.

Cotswold to me is spicy, a little bit sweet and smoky. It has conifers that you can detect in other scents from the line, but it's also got ponderosa, I think it's Nick's experiment with that note and led to creation of a perfume called Ponderosa.

Longevity is around 9-10 hours, sillage is quite good.

In general: semi-sweet and semi-smoky. Well balanced.

Opens up with green tobacco leaves mixed with some smoky aroma.

I can clearly detect strong, black tea. Also - fig (rather leaves, not fruits), some woods. IMO it's a spicy fragrance, not a woody one.

The general feeling on my skin: it's a close cousin of Gucci's Pour Homme II (myrrh, cinnamon, tea, tobacco) mixed with Davidoff Good Life (fig,tea). I cannot detect alcohol (neither cognac nor any other) nor papyrus. It's smoky, just slightly as mentioned before. Myrrh, olibanum or mix - hard to say.

I can clearly smell dried fruits - dried figs and dates in my opinion.

Longevity is around 7-8 hours, sillage is poor to medium.

The resemblance with Gucci Pour Homme II is strong IMO. No wonder, it's the same perfumer. A nice fragrance, glad I bought it (blind of course).

I feel like it’s a green sibling of Cotswold, maybe less sweet. Also, some fruity-smoky-resinous nuances have been replaced with nutty and even more woody elements. That nutty aspect is quite prominent on my skin. Generally - green and spicy. Good longevity, moderate sillage.

Quite okay.

Opens up with soft floral-aldehyde touch which in fact stays longer than I previously thought, moves back to background though.

This is pretty linear on me. After that floral beginning it changes into vetiver, maybe with a hint of pepper and a pinch of tobacco pipe.

However - yes - I do think it's classy. It's a black tuxedo fragrance. Although linear, it is more complex than Lalique's Encre Noire. Both are good, however to me Encre Noire is more like a mainstream (but not a stereotypical everyday!) fragrance.

Longevity is 6-10 hours. Sillage is medium to good.

Chanel Sycomore EDT vs Dior Vetiver:

Chanel opens up with a cloud of aldehydes which actually quite fast fades away. It dries down to woody, quite smoky and earthy vetiver with a lot of dark nuances and a hint of incense in the background.

Dior opens up with a sparkling, effervescent and fizzy load of citruses with a detectable green vetiver. While it dries down it gets woody and the citruses fades away. It is nowhere as smoky as the Chanel is.

If you prefer darker vetiver, choose Chanel. If you prefer green vetiver, go for Dior.

Around 2-3 years ago I was lucky to get a bottle, partially used, of Sycomore's EDT original formula from September 2008 (I guess, the code is 0601), so that basically means it is one of the first releases of this perfume - not only initial year, but also initial month after its release. I've had few mililiters from this particular bottle already, so my review below is up to date.

However, I wanted to compare it with another fragrance so here it is.

Chanel Sycomore EDT vs Lalique Encre Noire a L'Extreme EDP:

Chanel is more sharp and woody, definitely a lot more on the rough side of vetiver. Despite the aldehydic opening I would rather compare it with Encre Noire EDT with tobacco added.

Lalique is softer, also more smoky hence it's got insence in it. It also lasts longer on my skin.

My final vetiver rating incl. price/quality ratio and my preferences:

1. Dior Vetiver
2. Lalique Encre Noire a l'Extreme
3. ex aequo Lalique Encre Noire EDT and Chanel Sycomore EDT
4. Chanel Sycomore EDP

Chanel Sycomore EDP is still a good scent, but my least prefer option out of these.

Approximately 1,5 years ago I was lucky to get 10 ml of the first formulation.

Opens up quite fresh with some sweet citrus but that quickly fades away. The mid part is what I find the most interesting - quite a big cloud of smoke mixed with some old school fougere vibes. I also can smell lavender per se. At this stage fragrance stays on me for around 6 hours and then changes into musky base that sits on me for another 3 hours or so. Sillage is just over medium at the beginning, then sticks close to the skin.

Overall - a very unique composition. If you like fougere fragrances and you don't know Burning Barbershop - it's a must sniff for you. However, I wouldn't recommend buying it totally blind. Some will not like the barbershop appeal of this scent and might eventually say it smells 'dated for them. I don't care being quite honest.

I do like it.

No cloves in the note breakdown, it is one of the strongest notes on my skin when I'm wearing Cola. Warm, resinous, balmy blend heavy on clothes. It does have an oriental twist to it and yes, all together it does smell like a fizzy cola on my skin.

Good longevity and projection.

Slightly too juvenily for my liking, but I can't say that Cola is a bad release.

I am referring to prototype of Nocturnis, which may be different than the current shape, formula of the scent.

I definitely can tell it’s got an oldschool green 70’s twist to it. I could tell it smells like a predecessor of Fanghorn, Fanghorn II and Murkwood. A lot of chypre accents, a lot of (oak)moss in there.

I was wearing Nocturnis and for comparison purpose I sprayed Fanghorn II.
If I didn't own FII I would buy Nocturnis right away. To me it's definitely a sibling of Fanghorn II, possibly might be named somewhere similar. Of course there are lots of differences.
Fanghorn II is mossy and quite juicy.
Nocturnis is sort of tobacco-ish and leathery (both just slightly addded in a VERY smart way). Definitely dry.
Nocturnis explores unknown regions - Nick is very talented and can do a lot more, I believe. For now I am wondering wether I'd want a bottle of Nocturnis or not.
I'd say, if any Pineward is the closest one to Slumberhouse Norne, it would be Nocturnis. Both Fanghorn/II and Murkwood are standalone scents, independent, unique and individual "entities" compared to it.

Generally:
Dark, broody forest - Nocturnis
Dark, broody forest with soil and swamps (and swampy aromas in general) - Fanghorn II
Dark, broody forest with smoke, incense, myrrh and like a campfire lit in the middle of the forest - Murkwood.
Each of those is unique, but to me Murkwood and Fanghorn II are slightly more unique than Nocturnis is.

I'd recommend anyone comparing directly Nocturnis with Fanghorn II.

Nocturnis is dark, broody, evil. A little smoky too! Additionally with patch and tobacco.
FII is swampy, full of soil.

Definitely on my skin Nocturnis has vintage vibes. A lot of oakmoss, in the late base what is left reminds me of cigarette ash, cigarette smoke and very little faint traces of conifers.

I'd say Nocturnis along with Murkwood present the darkest forms of conifer nature. On my skin Fanghorn II is a wee brighter. Both three are excellent -I have not tested Brokilan yet.

Longevity is out of this world, 11+ hours. Sillage is over moderate level.

Conclusion: Nocturnis is way more complex than I thought.

Dark and cozy.

Black Afgano has kinda’ two faces while worn on my skin. One face is very dark green/leaning to almost pitch black. A lot of dark woods, oud, resins. This all together wrapped in smoke. The second face of this perfume is cozy, alluring and sweet. Pleasant incense (not churchy at all, rather similar to oriental incense sticks), cocoa, spices. Both „faces” appear on my skin and both are equally present.

Longevity is way over 12 hours, sillage is through the roof.

Nasomatto Black Afgano is a winter staple of mine.

I find Funerie being the most daring and provocative scent from Pineward lineup.

It opens up with a weird, mold-like Morel mushroom note mixed with mold and funky rose. It dries down to black, strong leather and that's basically what this fragrance is all about. There are some other nuances like smoke, tobacco but definitely it's leather based and leather centric. There is some rose note detectable in here, but as it says in the description, it is a rotten, decayed rose. The scent itself is very organic.

Longevity is over 10 hours, sillage is over moderate.

IMO it's an unique gem. Unwearable, yes, but still a gem.

It opens up like a sort of medicine, very bitter and herbal/chemical-like drug store smell. But that's just a blast and soon the leather appears. It's a leather all the way through. Rough and tumble, raw leather, smoky and dirty one. It's covered with various woody notes but I can't smell them per se, maybe there's a pinch of cypress (which actually reminds me a bit of Encre Noire - vintage and of Encre Noire a L'Extreme). There's a lot of smoke hanging around but there's no incense, frankincense nor myrrh. It's burnt wood or maybe burnt leaves. It's like a harley guy wearing old leather jacket just got off his Harley Davidson, put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it. There's no cigarette or tobacco smell there but that's how I picture this scent. You can also smell the burnt rubber around - the guy has just arrived. That's it.

Longevity is over 12 hours, sillage is moderate to big.

One of the best fragrances Gucci has released since Gucci Pour Homme II came out. Wow, just f... wow!

IMO this is an improvement from Kiste I know (rectangular bottle). Definitely more peach, ripe (towards overripe) peach/peaches dipped in sirup. No animalic traces that I detected from previous Kiste. But! I am getting nice honey, quite significant tea note.

This is quite soft and cozy, and very pleasant to wear. Fall and winter warmer definitely. I would say it is a crowd pleaser, but still in niche/indie way.

First impressions after around 6 hours of wearing winter Kiste.

So the opening is sweet, inviting, warm, fruity. Almost reminds me of warm, freshly baked pie (peach cobbler? Is that how they call it?). Barely any spices, if any at all. Almost in the same time along with peach I can smell quite clearly tobacco. Significantly different than the one used in Jeke/Baque, yet the same. And, as I mentioned before, this new Kiste has a tea note, that I haven’t experienced in any scent from Slumberhouse lineup before.

Both longevity and projection are on solid Slumberhouse level.

So far a winner already, a huge improvement on Kiste to me, for sure.