Mount Misery and Sweet Hollow Roads

[Invidiana]

MOUNT MISERY AND SWEET HOLLOW ROADS
Both Mount Misery and Sweet Hollow Roads are believed to be intensely haunted, and are pathways of misfortune and sorrow whose history of horrors descends deep into pre-Colonial American folklore. Black spruce boughs, packed dirt, gravel, brush, fallen chestnuts, wild tuberose, galbanum, and dead leaves.

For anyone who liked Harimise or Cristina, this will not disappoint. I love the chestnut notes in those (sadly the rose geranium in Harimise made it impossible for me to wear) and this is like a smokier version. It reminds me of Cristina the most, but darker and more ominous. Thankfully I don't get OMGSPRUCE men's cologne or screaming Christmas tree out of it at all, just the spruce resin which behaves in the background. The dry leaves give it a smoky autumnal touch, and the tuberose emerges a little later and adds a sweet sensual side to it as well. Thankfully the dirt, gravel and brush keep their distance in the background with the spruce, adding to the shadowy feel but not overwhelming the blend as a whole. A surprise winner.

[porcelina]

mmm, i love this one. for once, the spruce does not overwhelm the other notes with crazy pineyness and all of the notes combine to create a really atmospheric, well-blended perfume. in the bottle, it smells like a forest at night. on my skin, there is a hint of smoke and nut against a backdrop of fresh-smelling spruce, with the cool scent of fresh earth rounding it off. perfect for fall.

[absinthetics]

I do get a dash of piney-ness from this, but it doesn't stay long when you put it on. (I hatez teh pine!) So that's great. I do get a dandelion-ness from it though, and this may be a huge hit. It has something similar to Creeping Mist and the Shadowy and the Sublime in there. And there is a celery scent in it like Beer from the Marsh Woman's Brewery. A lovely scent!

[Ravenclaw79]

In the bottle: Earthy, but not heavy. Dirt and gravel and brush sounds about right.

 

On the skin: Oh my gawd. It's a toilet. Literally. Like, go take a whiff of your toilet -- a little porcelain, a little stale water, maybe some hard-water minerals crusted under the rim, a trace of used-up toilet tablet. Wow, this one hates me hardcore, apparently.

[Ashenrook]

Thanks once again to my lovely NYCC angel!

 

In the Bottle

Very smoky, with dark spruce and...chestnut, I think. It's nutty.

 

On Skin: Wet

...Celery? What?

 

Wow, this is bitter. Mount Misery indeed! This is pretty indefinite proof that evergreen notes come out swinging at me and the smoke is not helping.

 

On Skin: Dry

Wow, something just overloaded my nose. Even taking a nice whiff of coffee didn't clear it up like it normally does.

 

It's very smoky and it kind of makes the leaves smell like they're burning, but the sweetness of the chestnut is coming into play.

 

But there's an...unpleasant bitterness about it. I can't say I much care for it. I blame the smoke note... it goes so acrid on me.

 

Afternotes

Yeah, it's the same... Smoke, spruce, chestnut, and more smoke.

 

 

Verdict

On an American scholastic grading scale, I'd give this a C-.

 

I can smell the other notes fighting to be realized, but the smoke, spruce, and chestnut kind of block everything out. But I figure that if the smoke did not go weird on me, this would be a wonderful scent. I'm sad... I am looking for a good "fall" scent and I keep getting duds.

[lamenteuse]

I wasn't planning on picking this one up at NYCC, but my boyfriend smelt it and decided that I needed it. Good choice!

 

It's the smell of wood burning fires and fallen leaves. Like a little cousin to my most favorite sent: Death of Autumn. It's a more gentle scent, softer and much less smoke. Completely wonderful, and now with the chilly weather, it really works well.

[zankoku_zen]

Wood, dirt, dried leaves and then a hint of chestnut. OMG, this dries down to a honeyed chestnut blend on me, slightly smoky.

 

Cool, foodie, slight woods.

[strahlend]

MM&SHR goes on strongly foresty, like a cold forest - then the most wonderful dried leaf smell comes in and it's the most perfect dried leaf scent I've ever had the pleasure to smell. After a couple minutes though the chestnut comes in and kind of takes over as the main element and while I would normally be fine with that (it really smells great) I'm a little sad about the leaf smell disappearing into the background. This blend is mildly earthy, but mostly chestnutty in a sweet - but not knock you over the head sugary sweet - kind of way. I get no sense of tuberose at any point, I'm not a fan of rose in any form. I kind of wish the forest and leaves would come forward to balance the chestnut, the wet stage was fantastic. This scent isn't as earthy as I hoped. I do like this scent, it will get the most use during fall and winter months I think.

 

EDIT 1 YEAR LATER:

This scent has changed (for the better!) over time.

Now it's all dry leaves with a healthy dose of forest with just the slightest bit of sweet nuttiness. This was on my swap list for a long time and now I'm really glad that it didn't go.

Edited September 30, 2011 by strahlend

[bloody sore]

OMG this is amazing! I'm so glad I was able to swap for this.

For some reason this really reminds me of black butterfly moon. Like if BBM had an older chain-smoking whore sister this would be her. I don't get much earth, just amazing sweet smokiness that is well grounded. MMM MMM good.

[edenssixthday]

Mount Misery and Sweet Hollow Roads - This smells mostly like brush and dead leaves on me, with a sweetness that can be nothing but the chesnuts. The sweetness reminds me somewhat of caramel or butterscotch, but not quite as gooey and sweetly foody. It's too sweet when I first apply, but as it warms up on my skin, it's becomes a really nice autumnal scent. It's warm, earthy, and prettier than I had anticipated. The scent has about average wear-length on me, but the throw was pretty low once it dried down.

[Blood onmy hands]

I was hoping for something similar to blends like Harimise and Horse Chestnut Honey (both blends that I love), but this isn't so good on me. I get a pine/spruce note at first, but it fades within five minutes. As others have mentioned, there's something smoky and sharp about this that dominates on my skin. It's like perfumey, sharp, white floral tuberose plus woodsmoke . The chestnut adds a hint of warm, toasted sweetness, but not enough to soften the blend for me. It's kinda just a sharp, perfumey mess on me

[ofthegood]

The description for this one sounded really promising, since I've recently been loving the soil/stone scents. The reviews were all over the place, so I didn't have any idea what to expect!

 

I knew I might not like it the minute the bottle opened and I got a whiff of a very rich foody smell - it reminded me of one of the 2010 Yules, but I can't remember which one (one of the foody ones that I didn't like). It was sweet and a little smoky and had a strong hint of generic-Christmas-candle-potpurri spiciness that made my stomach churn a little. I applied some before I could change my mind.

 

Wet, it was super-foody and sweet, with undertones of sharp smoke and bitter vegetable smells. The sweetness faded quite a bit in dry-down, though it's still there, and the smoke kept amping up. The foodiness is still there in the spiciness, and I never really got as much of the woods/soil as I'd hoped for. It really smells like I've just blown out something from Yankee Candle, all generic holiday spice and smoke.

[milo]

Wet, a bit of a musky aquatic, quite nice so far! Dry, a foody note comes out, I'm guessing the chestnut, as it's kind of 'nutty'. I'd be all over this if it had stayed true from wet to dry, a warm musky, woody, aquatic, but the foody nut note is ruining this blend for me. Ah well, there are so many other lovely bpals.

[cfrancesca]

First applied, I get a lot of chestnut, some smokey leaves, soft spruce and gritty dirt and gravel. As it dries hints of tuberose come out, the chestnut takes a back seat and the blend starts to get smokier. It finally settles into a mostly dirty, smokey leaves and tuberose scent, with hints of chestnuts in the background. I find this very evocative.

[crebbsgirl]

This does seem to have an aquatic edge on my skin. I'm not loving that. It gets progressively more nutty as it wears. Overall it's a little disjointed on my skin, and not very cohesive. I blame my crappy skin chemistry for this.