Vinland

[Rheliwen]

The legendary site of the Viking colony in Newfoundland founded circa 985. Crisp northern wind blowing over loganberry, wild roses, prairie crocus, iris versicolor Linné, mountain avens, yellow birch bark, mayflower and maple leaf.

In the bottle: A very light, green scent.

Initial application: The first image I got was men's shaving cream (nice expensive kind). It has this citrus/berry/ touch to it that I think was evoking that image.

5 mins: The shaving cream smell dies down a bit (but I don't think will ever go away). Now I smell the airy notes and sweet greens. I am assuming it's the leafy ingredients in this one. I smell just a touch of the loganberry (which I suspect is mingling with the green to get the shaving cream smell).

Drydown: This is a very different scent. It's sweet without being berry/fruity/floral sweet in the sense you think of them. And it's green, but not piney; a dew green, ripe with life. The air note is very beautiful in this as well. It's like the standing on top of a hill in crist, cloudy weather as the wind whips your hair around wildly. It's turning a bit baby powder on my skin, but is still retaining most of the scent as it does.

I don't get any incense notes in this, it's more pale musk to me (and it seems to get muskier the longer I wear it). It's bright and sharp, but not biting. I wasn't so sure about this one but I keep growing fonder and fonder of it the longer I wear it. It's a nice warm, scent for people who don't like sharp florals.

[fallow deer]

From the vial, Vinland is sharpish berries - I can recognise the loganberry note (like raspberry but slightly sharper) - and light floral notes with a small spike of green.

 

As Vinland dries, the floral develops towards rose, the berry softens and the result is pretty, soft, light and fresh while still feeling wild.

[erishkigal]

ahhhh vinland!!!

 

my current favorite. this one smells like berries to me.. but a fresh berry scent.. it smells like nothing i've ever smelled before... but a definite berry hint. it smells very airy and wild... a light berry wilderness scent... no heaviness at all like you would think with the description of 'berry'

 

i love slathering this one on.. yum yum yum

[Idlewild]

Vinland is very austere on me - kind of crisp and woody. It smells kind of dark green to me. Slightly masculine. I enjoy it on days when I want to project that side of my personality - woodsy and aloof. My husband loves it on me though, so who knows what he smells? It also worked wonderfully as a room scent for us in an oil burner- I was very pleased with how fresh and crisp and green it made the room smell.

[shelldoo]

hmmmm intresting I must be crazy:

 

in vial & wet: Grape nehi soda.

 

dry down: becomes a soft fresh floral w/ something grapy lurking underneath. Which note has the grapysmell? It is a pretty blend very fresh and clean and sweet, I tend to like dark, and sinister I will either A.) try it in spring or B.) give it to my dd

[Ina Garten Davita]

First Impression: Fresh, tart berries.

 

Second Impression: This has a slight tartness that keeps that gorgeous berry smell from getting overly sweet. This is a green scent, clean, lovely.

 

Final Analysis: Really nice with an interesting drydown. Tart tempered berries.

[paperdoll]

Initial Sniff: A cool brisk breeze through lush virgin woods. What a beautiful scent! I can't pick out any individual notes in this (except the sweeetness of the loganberries), but it is a lovely idyllic blend.

Wearing: As soon as I put this on, I get a very sharp, boozy note coming on srong, with a tinge of ozone. The booziness (I think it can only be the loganberry gone very very wrong) does not fade as time goes on.

Final Impressions: A masterpiece in the bottle, but a disaster on my skin. My Norse ancestors are weeping in their graves.

[amrita]

Upon application, this is a sweet, wet, velvety, sharp, fresh yellow-green.

 

A yellowish pollen smell emerges almost immediately as it warms. But this is a good pollen smell - like daffodils.

 

Several minutes later, the sweetness of berries starts to show. It's very subtle. This berry level is close to perfect as far as I'm concerned.

 

A half hour later, the berry is still subtle, and I smell what I think is maple leaf-- it's the green smell you get when you snap a big deciduous leaf in half. Polleny wildflowers. Damp breeze swirling through treetops. This makes me feels so happy!

 

An hour later, it's almost completely gone. I smell something fuzzy, saplike and green, slightly sweet... it's like the sun has broken through the mist in the forest.

 

This has almost no throw on me and fades really fast, but I'm going to try making a solid perfume out of it and see what happens. I'll probably try it during meditation, too.

 

And because I'm a total nerd, here are links to images of the ingredients so you have something to picture... they're so pretty!

 

Iris versicolor linne (aka Blue Flag) [1]

Loganberries [1]

Mayflower (Epigea repens, aka ground laurel, trailing arbutus) [1] [2]

Prairie crocus (Anemone patens) [1]

Wild rose (Rosa dumalis) [1]

Mountain avens (Dryas octopetala) [1] [2]

Yellow birch (betula alleghaniensis) [1] And its bark... [1] [2]

And of course, Maple... [1]

[LupaWulf]

Beautifully clear and sweet plus Leaves! Leaves! Lots of GREEN leaves!

 

"My life was empty forever on a down

Until you took me, showed me around

My life is free now, my life is clear

I love you sweet leaf, though you can’t hear"

*Black Sabbath "Sweet Leaf"

 

True it smells nothing to the sweat leaf mentioned in that song, but I'm tired and found that highly amuseing to toss that in.

 

What cool crisp and clean air around the sweetness of green spring leaves. I envision lying under a maple tree looking straight up through the branches and green leafy mass, catching glimpses of very clear light blue sky through the canopy.

 

Wonderful scent. *loves*

Edited February 18, 2005 by LupaWulf

[magikfanfic]

In the bottle: Woods and fresh air. The notes are blended together so well that I can pick anything out from the others yet, but that's the general feel that I get from the smell of the oil itself. This is a walk through the woods passing flowers and berries and smelling the crisp air. A cold scent that has a lot of life to it, though.

 

Wet: It quickly turns into leaves upon hitting my skin, though. Straight leaves with no respite for me but a faint berry fragrance in the background.

 

Dry down: Mmmm...the berry is coming into the forefront, and it really is very nice. I'm a fan of berry scents, especially when they're not too strong and the throw from this one is light and on crisp, fresh air. The berry stays, kind of tart with the florals notes surrounding and backing it. The smell of leaves has mostly faded, which I'm glad of because while it's nice, I don't wish to smell like it. The only bad thing is that this reminds me of potporuori sachets I've smelled before in the craft aisle of Wal-Mart. The aisle that always gives me a headache the way this oil seems to slowly be doing as well. The berry reminds me of some berry tea I have. Very nice. Maybe the sachet smell will die down.

 

Dry: This smells like berry tea with a slight floral/wood undertone. The backing notes, though, have the misfortune of being ones that make me kinda headachy and sneezy. In fact I can feel the sinus pressure beginning so while I really like the scent, I will not be able to wear it. The boy has his own imp of this so I may keep this around for a room scent or test it again when the weather is a little warmed in the hopes that it won't affect my head in the same way.

[Renny]

Wow, all these comments make me wish Vinland had turned out better on me. On me it just smells like lemon... nothing else to it really. I'm kind of disappointed because it's not complex on me at all. It's nice though.

[gdogs]

i received this as a gift from the lab. ..i probably would never have ordered it, so thank you!!!

 

i tried this once before, without the intention of reviewing it, just with the intenion of getting a feel for it. i did not like it, and almost put it into my swaps pile. i'm glad i didn't, because this time, it is so pretty!

 

initial application and drydown: starts out nice. i get a soft cinnamon. i don't know what most of the listed notes would smell like, other than rose, which i don't get - which is good. its hard to pick the notes out. something earthy and sweet, yet clean. must be that northern wind. . . . . .does smell like a day outside. like clean laundry. i like it so far.

 

as it starts settling in, i get a sweet citrus, almost like orange blossoms. and a touch of clove and violet. but, i'm getting clove and violet from a lot of things i've tried this week.. . so who knows. *shrug*

 

after 3 hours, i'm trying hard to find this on my skin. it has become so faint. . .so i re-apply and start the process all over again.

 

final thoughts: i like this one. . . it is so pretty. so fresh. like i expected dirty to smell like. but i like this way better than dirty. too bad i have purfume eating flesh. . .

[UltraViolet]

Wet

Fruity and perfumey but not too much. There's a minty herby crispness coming through now. This sort of smells like Hamadryad but without the cinnamon top note.

 

10 minutes

It's more floral now. There's still a slight sweetness too it but it's mostly crisp, green, floral.

 

20 minutes

Wow, sweeter now and very floral but oddly not getting agressive on me as is usually the case with a large majority of florals.

I like this phase the best. It's more balanced.

 

Why do I like this? By all intents and purposes I should not like this kind of floral blend. I think I read pineapple a few posts back and I can definitely get there with the pineapple note. I think that's what is keeping me coming back for more with my nose.

I can't get my face out of my wrist. Consequently I've now ingested some.

It just keeps getting better the more it dries down. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that this scent is similar to Lush's sister company B Never's "B" scent perfume but a little heavier and thick and not as fresh and light.

 

God help me this is another winner, I would buy more of this.

[quimerula]

Wet is fresh but whith a nice body behind, maybe due to the maple leaf.

Dry it goes like a soft floral bouquet with green and cold undertones, making it a perfect winter scent.

Really nice, I will probably buy a bottle for next winter.

[Finny]

Crisp, woods, and a subtle sweet berry....

 

This one makes me think of fall, it is a wonderful deep and green scent. It is walking in the woods, when autumn just starts. The leaves are still green, but there is a herby dry quality to the air. The berry in this one, is very light, it sweetens it, but doesn't make it go sugary. There is a light floral, almost like dried out flowers, with just a ghost of their former glory. Love it, going to have to get a bigger bottle, oh in July, so it will be here just in time for fall.

[rainbow]

Crisp and clean, I can smell the Loganberry with a woody undertone. A very fresh scendted oil- very springy.

 

As this morphs it turns into lemon with some background florals, then a mixed floral.

 

This oil is very complex, and changes frequently. I really like it, as it's fresh, fruity, and floral, which are my favorite scent categories.

[slave1]

In Bottle: Very floral and light.

 

On Skin: Kind of Lemon-Pledge like… Very tart and floral. Not a scnet for me since it is so floral but pretty nonetheless. I can feel the laying in a field of flowers in the sun feeling from it for sure. I wouldn’t say it was masculine though, I could only imagine this on ladies.

[helarctos]

I expected such a panoply of glorious scents from Vinland. When I finally got my paws on an imp, I could hardly wait.

 

Sadly, all I got was ... a baffling whiff of citrus. I don't think there are even any citrus notes listed in this blend. I'm perplexed.

[bellis]

Very pretty. The tart berry is the primary note for me, with the florals and a little bit of woodiness in the background. It's a very fresh, breezy smell, almost cold. This would be very nice in the summer.

[joseybird]

I smell berries and florals and yes! crisp, clean air and greenery! The florals aren't hating me though...maybe the wood is tempering them? =) This is a lovely crisp scent of a mountain in springtime =)

[pensive]

Expectations: None, really, this is another one of the nine-pack.

Imp sniff: Greenish, floral

But you don't really like florals - my mind said.

But it wasn't unpleasant so I swiped some on my wrists/collar to give a shot.

Wet: Not too bad, just an itty bit floral. I'm not getting any berries either.

Dry: Hmm. I have smelled nothing like this combination before. I better go look this up and start my review. I mean, it's not bad, just on me - sort of iffy in a not really me kind of way.

Cat assessment: She wasn't too keen on this one.

Assessment: More of an early winter scent. May try again later just to be sure, but probably best in the swap as needed pile.

Edited May 3, 2005 by pensive

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Eh - banana? No, it's gone. Just a faint whiff of something that smelled like a soft, sweet, slightly overripe banana. I smell sticks now - thin young trees with light grey bark and pale green leaves. I know there's a couple of different wooden notes in here; I wonder which one is bringing this image forward?

On me: Wow, I really like this one. Slightly floral, slightly wood, very green, almost fruity - it's a hard one to describe! Apparently it's quite a tricky blend - we've got a wide range of descriptions here. Hmmm...it's a bit of a chilly fragrance, like when spring is starting to bloom after the first thaw and there's still ice, dripping as it melts in the fresh sunlight.

[girlmadasbirds]

this smells exactly like Dove soap on me...with a hint of what i think is the loganberry. this one's not for me.

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 1/5

Summarised in a word or two: Soap.

 

In the imp: This is... this actually smells like rotten mint.

 

On skin, wet: Soap! This turns into a strong, headache-y soap when it touches my skin.

 

On skin, dry: No change. This reminds me of a soap I used to have in my kitchen, until I realised it was what was giving me a throbbing migraine when I washed dishes. Out it went.

 

Conclusion: Thankfully, this faded into nothing after about two hours. I hesitated to wash it off, because I wanted to give it a chance to turn into something wearable. Oh well.

Edited December 26, 2005 by Aredhel

[rrain]

Oh sweet, sweet Vinland, you break my heart...

 

The upside: Vinland becomes the absolutely most gorgeous scent on me. Not merely a bowl of berries and some cut flowers on a table, but fresh berries in a meadow in the midst of the woods. Sweet and green and just a hint of floral. I almost couldn't believe it!

 

The downside: For about an hour. Then it powders out and vanishes. I've tried it three times now, and each time it does the same. (Except for between my breasts, where the scent lingers nearly three times as long; I don't know what kind of mojo I've got going on down there but I figure I should go with it!)

 

The other upside: I decided to try this scent only because it was at least a little Canadian and the listed notes seemed not offensive to me. And discovered that berry works on me in a way I never would have guessed. So now at least I get to go through the catalogue and track down some scents that I might previously have overlooked.

 

Vinland, oh Vinland, why did you have to taunt me so?