Picture Books in Winter

[SadariEvenstar]

Picture Books in Winter

Summer fading, winter comes
Frosty mornings, tingling thumbs,
Window robins, winter rooks,
And the picture story-books.

Water now is turned to stone
Nurse and I can walk upon;
Still we find the flowing brooks
In the picture story-books.

All the pretty things put by,
Wait upon the children's eye,
Sheep and shepherds, trees and crooks,
In the picture story-books.

We may see how all things are
Seas and cities, near and far,
And the flying fairies' looks,
In the picture story-books.

How am I to sing your praise,
Happy chimney-corner days,
Sitting safe in nursery nooks,
Reading picture story-books?
- Robert Louis Stevenson

The wild joy of story time on a frosty winter morning: the well-loved, well-worn leather of old fairy tale books, the sweet mustiness of antique paper, fae glimmers of twinkling crystalline flowers, and a chunk of Scottish Tablet.

Wet and drying this is all foody and leather. A sweet, warm, worn leather.

As it drys the foody quality tones way down and the paper comes out to play. This is old book paper, the most convincing that I have smelled yet. The kind that makes your nose twitch a little from its dustiness. My grandmother used to always give me very old books that she picked up at library book sales and garage sales. Titles no one had ever even heard of, but I loved them. This reminds me of being a kid, holed up in my room with a crumbling book and a cookie I stole from the cupboard.

I never find the flowers, but I'm am more than okay with that. This is the epitome of cozy.

eta: This kept reminding me a bit of Antikythera Mechanism, which my husband wears so I tried it on him. (Not to say that I think it is masculine. I think it is very gender neutral.)

[pinkstardust420]

Starts out as dusty sweet leather...but boy does this morph on me! The sweet powdery flowers make their presence known, the leather disappears (yay) and that antique paper pair up with the flower note to make quite a gorgeous perfume. Well done!

[Trickster]

In the bottle: Spicy... cookies?? Oh, this is the Scottish tablet.

 

Wet: More of the same.

 

Dry: Foody spices, and just a faint breath of flowers. Sadly, no leather for me.

[Pittseminole]

Take my review with a grain of salt - I received the bottle today. I'll edit my review if rest changes things.

 

In the bottle: Yum! OMG, this is sweet wonderful caramel!

 

Wet on my skin: Leather - no sweet caramel just strong leather. If I could touch the leather, it'd be a buttery suede-like leather. Seriously, I can't smell any other notes at this point. When I close my eyes, I can really picture smelling a leather bound book with gold embossing for the title and author.

 

Dry on my skin: The leather is gone, and now I smell incense, paper, and an unobtrusive floral that I can't quite pinpoint. Wow, this is beautiful dry. I wish I could describe this better. It feels almost aloof and distant. I don't notice much throw. I wonder if that will change after it settles from shipping.

 

Final thoughts: I have several leather based fragrances in my collection and this manages to be unlike any of them. I'm so glad I bought this blind. I'll probably need a back up.

[lookingglass]

Yes! So much like The Book when wet: well worn leather and dry, vanillic paper. The flowers are tiny, mossy, soft, pale things-I hardly notice them unless seeking them out, until the drydown, where they become a bit more prominate: tea dyed pasel colored, and delicate. Scottish tablet is crumbly, carmel sweet, but here is only strong as the smell left on my lips after eating it. I'm tearfully happy!

Edited December 19, 2013 by lookingglass

[Aviatrix]

While wet, this is a strong caramel scent to me. For some reason it reminds me a bit of Miskatonic University, but that may just be the overall warmth of the scent.

 

When drying down, out comes the paper, which has an almost dusty quality. Very nice! There is a little bit of leather, but it's not a predominant note. The caramel is mostly gone by now.

 

I don't actually get any crystalline flowers from this, but it's just the same, since I'm not much of a floral person. If anything, they might be in the background sweetening the blend a little.

 

It doesn't appear to have much of a throw, but it's difficult to say, since I'm just testing it on my own with no one to comment on that. But it does seem to stick closer to the skin than I would have expected.

 

I should add, I received the bottle today, so all the notes may not have settled entirely yet.

 

Edited to add that I have now noticed this one doesn't last very long. A few hours after application, only a faint trace of leather remains. I still love it, though, and am happy I blind-bought a bottle immediately!

Edited December 21, 2013 by Aviatrix

[Roogna]

very sweet sugary warm gingerbready caramel (Tablet) in bottle. Fades fast on skin. But still sweet. Hints of musty paper, no leather

 

turns slightly more dry-papery after a bit with maaaaybe small hint of leather, the sweetness is warm and comforting, and the whole scent is very soft

Edited December 23, 2013 by Roogna

[tziporra]

I really can't imagine what I was thinking (except maybe, "books? Maybe this will be like Burning Book!). But instead it is foodie caramel and plasticky leather. Which I could have determined by reading the notes! I am not a foodie person, caramel is awful on me. Leathers are very hit-or-miss and this one is a miss. I really love the imagery and wish it was a win

[LadyMedb]

This just smelled buttery and sugary to me, like frosting or sugar cookies. I barely got a whiff of flowers, and I couldn't detect any leather at all. I thought it was really pleasant and sweet, but I'd never wear it.

[dementia_divine]

In the decant: The Scottish tablet and leather.

Wet: The Scottish tablet and the leather are still the most prominent notes, but the leather is becoming the dominant note. I was actually hoping that the leather would reside in the background. That said, the Scottish Tablet is still present. I wonder if it will morph into something else, as I'd really like to smell the paper and the flowers!

Dry: Sweet, slightly-smoky leather and perhaps a hint of antique paper.

Verdict: I really wanted this one to work on me because I love the concept. I was hoping that the leather wouldn't be the dominant note on my skin, but alas, that's what ended up happening. I'll keep my decant for the time being, but I won't be upgrading to a bottle.

 

*edit* The decant ended up aging wonderfully. I used it up and was really lucky to be gifted a bottle! This is a really nice leather book scent.

Edited August 17, 2018 by dementia_divine

[ScabbyLucy]

OOO, at first a blast of sweet caramel with dusty paper, much like Miskatonic University. On my skin the flowers come out, these are of the antique pressed flowers variety, backed by a very soft, worn leather. It's lovely, but quite faint.

[tinyvulture]

What a sweet poem, and a sweet scent that captures the cozy childhood ritual of storytime.

 

On me, it's foody, with condensed milk and caramel notes. (Hubby says buttercream.) Soft leather and paper notes linger in the background. No florals that I can make out.

 

It's soft, maybe too soft for me to wear that often, but it would actually be perfect on my daughter.

[Leopard403]

Salty caramel.

 

 

eta: After a more thorough testing, if I FORCE myself to smell that delightful vanillin musk of aging books then I can identify those notes, and at that point this blend is just LOVELY. Still, though, this is mostly foody on me.

Edited January 7, 2014 by Leopard403

[zankoku_zen]

Salty caramel, cookies, and leather. This smells like a distant cousin to Miskatonic University - minus the dust and the coffee. It's got that old bookstore feel to it. Just a little odd, and perhaps magical?

 

In other words, this should be called SANTA'S LIBRARIES WHERE THE ELVES LIKE TO EAT AN AFTERNOON SNACK OF BUTTER COOKIES AND CARAMEL CHEWS.

 

Sweet, cookies, and leather.

[Floria]

I get mostly butterscotch. I'm not a connoisseur of old book scents, so my nose may not be parsing the old paper accord properly, and I did apply quite lightly this morning (wearing it to work), but still - mostly butterscotch. It's a very nice, wearable butterscotch, without the heavy syrupy quality that ruins some sugary blends for me, so I'm glad I got to try it, but I was hoping for a little more complexity. Maybe a bit of aging will bring out the other notes.

[Eemia]

This smells like sweet erasers, the kneaded rubber kind. It's so interesting, I don't know that I've smelled anything similar. And it's strangely comforting even though it doesn't bring up any particular memories. It just has this feeling of being anchored.

 

As it wears I notice a type of creamy malt scent. It's very dry and soft and still inexplicably rubbery. It wears down and finally reveals some of the leather, all still tinged in sweetness. This is one of those fragrances that'll stick in my mind for a long time.

[Magycmyste]

In the imp: With the imp closed, all I'm really smelling is this delicious caramel. Open, I still smell the caramel a bit, but I smell something else, too - I'm not entirely sure if it's the leather or the flowers or even the paper.

 

Wet on skin: Caramel and leather, definitely. Gorgeous! I only have a half-decant, so I'm tempted to double-swipe to get a little more on my skin.

 

Dried down: This soaked into my skin pretty quickly, but I didn't have a lot on there. I'm pretty much getting caramel and leather off of this. I was hoping for a bit more paper, but honestly, that's not going to stop me from loving this.

 

Throw: Decent throw. I get faint whiffs of caramel, edged with leather every time I sniff the air. No wrist-sniffing needed.

 

Verdict: ***** Even without the paper (which, who knows, might have ended up being a bit too dry for my nose), I love this! It's definitely not a "usual" scent. I don't know how often I'll be reaching for it, , but I definitely want a bottle. Possibly two.

[Atrous]

This is more of an evocative scent for me.

When I sniff I get the image of an antique, leather bound book with dried flowers pressed into the pages.

There is also a sweetness swirling around that I attribute to the scottish block.

It's really very lovely.

[patina]

I get butterscotch plus old, dry leather and crumbling paper. There's a more elusive note too. It reminds me of The Fairy Market except these crystalized flowers are dry and there's no grass scent.

 

Pretty, comforting. Very butterscotch dominant but the other scents occasionally poke their heads out.

[tailoredshirt]

This one was strange to me. I love leather scents, but sometimes food+leather scents are an odd combo on my skin, and that's what happened here. I think it's the chemical aspect of the leather making the food note seem...off. I did get some paper and flowers, but it was mostly leather and Scottish Tablet.

 

I wanted this to work but I think my skin chemistry messed it up.

[brilliantcat]

Caramel and leather. Uh oh, caramel notes don't usually work on my skin, they amp and become cloyingly, sickeningly sweet. Oof, this is no exception which is sad because the rest of the blend is nice, when I can get a whiff. Soft suedey leather and vellum. Nope for me.

[Monday]

Greasy butterscotch and parchment. Ends up as burnt cookie and leather. Not for me.

[calivianya]

Well - let me just preface this by saying that I had no idea what Scottish Tablet was. I just assumed it was some fancy kind of stone note. Really.

 

That being said, if I'd known it was a foody thing I probably wouldn't have ordered a decant of this one. If this scent had been what I'd imagined - all books and stone with a vague hint of florals - I probably would have LOVED it. As it is, it's got a cloyingly sweet foody note to it that I don't care for. I see and agree with the comparisons to the Antikythera Mechanism - that had a cloying foody note that I didn't care for either. I am disappointed, and I've learned to do my research and find out what notes are if I'm not sure. Educated guesses as to what a certain note really is are bound to fail every once in a while.

[lucycat]

In the imp: Sweet and creamy. I get butterscotch, leather, and a little bit of woodsmoke.

 

Wet: Again, sweet and creamy.

 

When it dries, the paper emerges, and so do the “glimmerings of crystalline flowers.” Though I can’t pinpoint a specific floral scent, I get the impression of forced flowers—things like amaryllis and narcissus—on windowsills when the windows are covered with frost. As this warms on my skin, the butterscotch becomes more prominent.

 

This is soft and wears close to the skin. Also, my cat seems to like it: she repeatedly sniffed the back of my hand where I’d applied the oil. She doesn’t usually notice my perfume.

[aquazoo]

That’s really pretty to start. Sort of a butterscotch. It does get into a good book smell, leather and paper.