Vinland

[batsy]

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 vial: berries and juniper. Vikings ahoy!

On the skin: Well, the iris is strong, as well as the crocus, on me. It's an aquatic floral befitting of Vinland. It's pretty light, I have to be right up on it to get the throw. Quite lovely. On the drydown the bark/woodsy note comes out to play. Eventually the roses join as well. Edited December 19, 2007 by Shollin

[Tal Shachar]

I ordered this out of patriotic feeling, it being the only Canadian-ish scent in the bunch. (Do an Ottawa scent, Beth, and I would love you EVEN MORE--tulips and lilacs and carefully mown grass over smooth still water, a bit of something magic to create an air of papery officiousness--what's the smell of red tape?...)

 

Anyhow, it reminds me of Ides of March, only slightly more floral, with the berries just emerging after the drydown. But hey, GC replacement! I am happy with that, and the berry note is nice, exactly sweet enough. This is a scent in which all the notes behave themselves well (how appropriate). I do get the woodsy note later as well, as a bonus.

 

I thought I hated berry notes but in this it's my favourite part of the scent, probably because it smells like real berries on tangled, prickly stems, not a sugary can of raspberry pie filling or something similar. Score.

[zankoku_zen]

In the imp: Sweet flowers

 

On Skin: Grassy note is very prominent, sweet yet delicate flowers

 

On Drydown: Very sweet flowers

 

Verdict: I don't know which of the flowers turn extremely sweet on me (maybe the maple leaf) but this is a sweet flowery blend. Not my style but it's a sweet blend without being foodie, which is always good to keep as a reference.

[Bagfish]

This has the feel about it of a windswept coastal heath, could be Vinland, could also be western Scotland. It is familiar to me, an almost nostalgic scent with a slight ozone tinge from the sea and the smell of wild vegetation blooming.

 

This is not one that I want a bottle of, but I'm happy to keep the imp to take out and sniff on occasion when I want to think of the wild lands.

[porcelina]

wood with berry notes. something fresh and green. it's complex and has a lot of depth and it makes me feel like i am in a forest, but not a dark scary pine forest, more like a sunny cartoon fairy tale glade. this is perhaps not an ideal perfume for me, but if you have always wanted to smell like a shrub, look no further.

[bookofblues]

I just got Vinland as a frimp. It's definitely not the sort of scent that I'd usually go for, so I'm very curious and don't know quite what to expect.

This is a very cold floral. Maybe one of the coldest scents I've tried yet. It's got several floral notes I can't quite identify, but they work very well together. The loganberry is intriguing as well. This is the first berry or fruity scent that hasn't smelled like a Yankee Candle on me! It blends well with the flowers but doesn't overwhelm.

Vinland is a very well crafted, lovely scent. It just isn't for me, but it's so much more than I expected!

[crimescenecleanup]

I LOVE this scent.

 

It reminds me of Aspen cologne, but so much more complex and balanced. Vinland smells so much more real and fresh, like stepping into a meadow surrounded by a circle of birch and maple trees.

 

It smells wet like green, living trees, and golden like a carpet of aspen or birch leaves in fall. Not dry like most woody scents, and the florals don't have a hint of sweetness - they're almost herbal, like you're smelling the whole plant, roots, leaves, stems, and flowers.

 

Although this is a unisex scent, it reminds me of a fine's men's cologne. The kind of thing my grandfather or my father wears on special occasions, with a nice suit, and because of this association it seems very masculine to me.

 

As much as I love it, I'm not sure that I would wear it regularly for this reason. However, I think a bottle of Vinland would make a lovely gift for any of the men in my family.

 

Here's keeping my fingers crossed that I could get my significant other to wear it sometime. : )

[maribouquet]

On me this smells a little like those mint wax gum lips, and then turns into a plastic-y, band-aid like smell. Weird chemistry, I guess!

[modillian]

OH MY GOODNESS! I am having the exact same reaction to this as I did for Hemlock and Polyhymnia. I want to eat this off my wrists and paddle around in a lake of Vinland -this is simply delicious, even though there are no foody scents in here as far as I can tell. A husky, spicy wood (not cedar, but cedar-like), a deeply sweet floral, a light floral, green grasses, and some other things I cannot determine (possibly a fruit or two?). It's getting more perfumey after ten minutes, but it doesn't hurt the smell at all. This is a heady and utterly intoxicating scent on me. At twenty minutes it's more floral and fruits with light green spice in the back. I will use up all this imp, definitely, and I would have no compunction of buying a bottle.

 

This is a gold and green scent to me. It has quite a powerful throw, and it lasts for about six hours on me. It's an excellent work perfume, I think. It's not seductive, but it has presense and character, like a Norse goddess who does exactly what she wants without any compunction at all -a complete power trip perfume.

Edited July 18, 2007 by modillian

[aestien]

Bottle: sweet loganberry layered over a slightly earthy base

Wet: the loganberry is interesting, this blend reminds me a little of Bewitched, the sweetness is nicely balanced with the other notes, it smells clean, clear, not sharp or powdery

Dry: it almost reminds me of apples, or a certain plant heated by the sun that gets that warm sweetness, light, not cloying, at this stage it reminds me a little of Muse.

 

This is an interesting scent, the herbal/earth hints are very nice, they aren’t dirty notes, this blend is very clear, but warm, a mountain meadow warmed by the sun, it’s light and lovely without being sharp. Sweet in a gentle way. Golden.

[ClareN]

This one I really wanted to love, because I spent two years in Newfoundland (modern "Vinland"). I loved Newfoundland, and I do get nostalgic sometimes.

 

I can't pick out all the interesting plant notes that are listed; on me, they all combine into a sweet, cool grassy scent, like pineapple juice and clover. It stays the same into the drydown, gradually turning into more of a pear scent. There's just a hint of an aquatic note but it doesn't go all out-of-control soapy as most aquatics do on my skin. It's a lovely scent, but sadly, it's not my style - too fresh for me. But it's a very good choice for a refreshing, green, fruity scent that's not too sweet.

Edited August 20, 2007 by Shollin

[Phantasmagoria]

Vinland is very lovely. Makes me think of walking through a forest where it has just rained. It's flowery, but not too much so, and there's a background of green. Too bad it doesn't have any throw, and it doesn't last on me

[Iceblink]

Mmm loganberry, with a green background...this is so fresh! Reminds me of Glasgow, with loganberry in place of the blackberry. There's something almost minty in here too. Really refreshing and crisp--I like it!

[symbiosis]

In the bottle: This smells almost exactly like Tide in the bottle, with a scent in the back that is hard to identify - its almost a lemon candy smell, I can't quite put my finger on it.

 

Wet on skin: Still Tide-like, it smells soapy in me (but I hesitate to say it "turned" soapy since it smelled like this in the bottle.) The tide is all I can smell, and I'm having a hard time getting past it to any other lingering scent.

 

Dry on skin: I can smell the roses in the background now, and they meld with the berries and soap scent to mellow them both out. It's reminding me of stepping into a craft store. I can get the maple leaf smell in the back, and it's pleasant, not strong or cleaner-like.

 

Later: The rose fades after just ten minutes (which is fine, as I don't like rose smells.) The smell keeps morphing from soapy to floral to woodsy and green. Later I can definitely smell the "cold" and it reminds me of snow and ice on the ground, clean but with the florals still lingering.

 

Verdict: I really like it! I love that the scent changes each time you sniff it. It's floral without being heavy or sweet, it's herbal without being sharp, and soapy without being generic. It smells clean and fresh, cold and floral!

 

Rating 1-10:

8.5

Edited September 29, 2007 by symbiosis

[styro]

Another Canadian here, so I really wanted to love this scent...

 

Vinland's clean and fresh to start, with a minty aspect to it which I imagine is from the birch bark; the blend becomes noticeably sweeter after a few minutes (my skin doing its usual sweetness-amping thing?), then gets very rosy--in a bath-beady way--on drydown.

 

This is...not as bold as I was expecting. From the reviews and the concept, I was hoping for in-your-face icy-wind woodsy-meadowy outdoorsy freshness, but for me, Vinland pales next to Dublin or even Glasgow. In its minty-cool early stages, I give this a 3 out of 6, but the pretty rosiness of the drydown is really not me, so at that point, Vinland is more like a 2.

 

My foodie-loving friend gives Vinland a 2 out of 6; my friend-who-also-loves-Dublin gives it a 1; and my rose/spice/patchouli-loving friend gives it a 1.

[dirtytrip]

Crisp northern wind blowing over Beeman's Gum, which fades to an almost nonexistent floral in five minutes. Can't say I'm impressed.

Edited October 25, 2007 by dirtytrip

[Pendragon]

Wow, this is sweet! And not a scent that I'd class as a floral either... it smells mostly like berries mixed with roses and a scratchy woody scent, which I'm guessing is the yellow birch bark? Combined together it is a very berry-sweet scent with light and depth, if that makes any sense?

 

I love the smell, but somehow there is something about it that isn't quite me. I will definately keep my imp, but don't think this one is bottle worthy for me. But I still enjoy the scent!

Edited November 13, 2007 by Pendragon

[TheOneTheyCallLuna]

In the imp: Berries, icy fresh air, a hint of maple...stark woods

 

On the skin: Something vaguely sharp and bitter, that disappears after a few seconds, and becomes a lovely woodsiness. Berries...and I keep getting this wine scent! No idea where that's coming from, but it smells like aged crushed grapes. Then the rose begins to softly appear.

 

After a minute this one reaaallly starts to step up to the plate. It's complexity and lushness really start to become prevalent. I cannot identify ninety-nine percent of the notes in this blend, and reading the description only verifies this fact for me. But, it smells sweet and cold and northern...just like where the Vikings would have lived.

 

Once it gets to this final stage, I cannot stop sniffing at myself. This is one gorgeous blend and will get a ton of wear. Big bottle please!

 

Rating one to ten = ten!

Edited November 17, 2007 by TheOneTheyCallLuna

[hkhm]

imp: sharp sweet florals.

 

wet: the rose is going soapy very quickly here but i'm catching a whiff of the berries adn woods too.

 

dry: wow, for once the rose did not ruin the whole scent! i smell soft berries and woodland scents, this is really quite pretty!

[aClearInferno]

Vinland.

 

.First Impression

Something almost sickly-sweet, like the nauseous-grape note I got from the Black Tower. A little tangy.

.Laters

Turns magic on the skin. The nasty note is gone! Soft flowers, a little heady, but they remind me of Dublin. Intoxicating, yet relaxing. A little earthy, a little green. The tangy note is somewhat orange or lavender. Or clean soap. Or fallen leaves.

.Last

Comfy. Really reminds me of fall, so probably a good scent to aid autumn-nostalgia.

[CrazyPretzel]

In the imp: a clear, icy, light berry scent, slightly reminiscent of grape, with some floral note that reminds me a little of Iambe. Wet on me: still a nice clear grape with some lurking flower that's a little disagreeable, kind of sickening (Iambe did something similar). That fades as it dries though. Sweet, light, and refreshing berry floral. Pretty and juicy.

[Kimbernunk]

In Imp: lots of berries and iris

Wet: Definitely berries, but with something else that smells rather woody. A green wood, not a dry wood. It’s almost astringent.

Initial Drydown: Lots of berries. Smells good.

Dry: After a couple of hours all the berries are gone and I’m left with something sort of plasticky. I get the impression that my skin eats berries because it doesn’t seem to want to let me smell them. This reminds me a lot of Glasgow, actually, but with an added something that disagrees horribly with my skin.

Throw – strong on me, actually – I’ve been getting lots of whiffs of it for hours now.

Overall – emphatically not my thing. I think it’s something with the skin chemistry.

1/5

[Pincushions]

In the imp, it's very sharp and sweet and green. It has a slight "laundry soap" smell. Hmm...

 

Wet, it begins smelling a lot of car fresheners :/ ...Not liking that bit. On dry down, the car-freshener goes away and in comes the floral! I'm hoping for more berries but we'll see... Oh, there they are! Cold berries, like early fall snow with berries still on some bushes. Definitely getting the maple leaf and birch bark, which really reminds me of the forests near where I live... Wow. I regret not buying a bottle of this now. It actually makes me want to cry. It's not exactly a *me* smell, but it's SO very emotional to me, it makes me homesick even though I am home. I want to go for a romp in the woods now. The throw is very small, though, I really have to fight to smell it on me... But it's very nice. The berries give it a sweet smell that I really like. Once completely dry, the berries definitely dominate. I'm not familiar with most of the individual flower smells but they aren't too prominent anymore, anyways. Wishing I still had the birch but the maple leaf is still hiding in there.

 

Definitely sad I didn't cave to suggestion and get a whole bottle, but since the throw is so small I probably won't be wearing it that often anyways, and the magical-memory-evoking-stage was relatively brief.

 

*sniff* ... *sigh*

[tehriaz]

after something like 80 scents, I've found maybe two that are actually nice and green and fresh air smelling. I love this one. and I hate everything! I've heard it called aquatic, floral, etc. well I hate both, but it's got elements of both with a bit of fruit and mostly cool breeze. love this one. if I move my shirt about to waft it, it smells like cool spring breezes. love love love it.

[twilighteyes]

In the bottle: Fruity floral. Made my mouth water a little (I must be really hungry!)

 

Dry on skin: It's got a very nice dry down. I keep getting whiffs of roses. When I sniff directly, it's a nice floral but I can't pick out any single notes.