The Gatekeeper

[Lycanthrope]

A dry perfume, solemn and riddled with ancient, whispered secrets: brittle bones, the well-worn leather spines of forgotten books, crumbling papyrus, and the warm, strange scent of yellowed, crumbling manuscripts.

A soft, musty and a little sharp (bone?) leather-patchouli. This is a neutral leather in terms of warmth, so more like 'Dee' leather rather than Quincy Morris / Brom Bones (cool, slick) and not fiery or red like The Red Rider. It kind of smells like paper, but is more of a dust and deep, thrummy woods kind of scent. I like it a lot but it's more atmospheric on me than pleasant, to my nose. Fitting!

[Dark Alice]

This trully is a bone dry, brittle book/manuscript kind of smell. BUT it is ridiculously mild and blooms on my skin beautifully! This is in the same family of brown leather as Old Moon 2011. This is Old Moon's 1st cousin...the leather here reminds me of Indiana Jones and his leather jacket, with brittle bits of dust and dirt on it. This is the smell of crumbling paper, anciet times, leather, with a hint of man. I love it! Smells better on me than on the man thing too.

[porcelina]

the gatekeeper smells like old, leather-bound books. that's it. paper and leather. please note: i am NOT complaining. this is lovely and i agree with dark alice in the comparison to old moon 2011, but that one is more musky to me- this is dry and you could call it a single note: "old dusty book," haha! i love it!

[zankoku_zen]

So I have to agree with Lycanthrope in some aspects, although upon first sniff I went "Brom Bones, is that you?"

 

This one is a warmer leather blend than Brom Bones. I definitely get the papery note and it smells very similar to Two Ply Bristol in that it has that inky note to the paper/linen going on. It's slightly dustier than Two Ply Bristol, which had a very 'clean' edge to it.

 

So take Brom Bones, throw in Two-Ply Bristol and some dust, and you get the Gate Keeper. For me, this type of leather blend definitely smells masculine. And its the type of "I wear leather jackets out while exploring" as opposed to "I wear leather jackets because they look cool" type of masculine.

[milo]

Dry indeed:0 I'm getting sandalwood and leather basically, kind of like dry brittle paper with leather bound books. Ya, just as described. Not my thing, but nice to try.

[Jangzonrice]

Agreed...sandalwood and leather, but the leather is a bit sharp, so I'm not crazy about it!

[radiantfracture]

All right, I know the scent is described as dry -- I know everyone else smells dryness unto the sere wastes -- but the first thing I smell from the bottle is wet ink. Wet leather and wet paper and wet leaves. A pleasing autumnal must.

 

Mercurial, this heats up on my skin. Whiff of paper, of something woody and almost animalic; something sharp-edged; then something golden, almost waxy, like candleflame.

 

Some of what seems wet to me may be the bone-smell -- I smell the dry papyrus, and a hot, woody, dusty smell, but the leather keeps smelling wet to me.

 

I had high expectations of this, and it is as fascinating as I'd hoped.

[claudia6913]

Very sharp in the bottle. Wet on my skin its very leathery and dry. But it almost seems like there's a dampness to it as well, like wet ink. As the oil dries, so too does the ink and paper. It's starting to crack and crumble at the edges. This is what I would imagine an old forgotten book would smell like. This is only a month old, but I bet it ages beautifully.

[Atrous]

Wet: brown leather, sandalwood and wet ink

 

Dry: The ink seems to dry and parchment comes out. Smells like leather bound books that are so old the pages are brittle.

A dry scent that I would call unisex but I could see how others might say masculine.

Its exactly what I thought it would be. I'm quite pleased.

[Blood onmy hands]

I don't get leather, paper, ink or books from this at all.
It's bone dry, powdery sandalwood, bitter and sharp, with a strong dirty ash tray scent to it. Doesn't change at all over hours of wear.
Really smells like harsh, chemical, burning cigarettes and a dirty ash tray. It also has a strange, hot, sharp note to it that smells just like horseradish.

So... horseradish mixed with tons of dust, bone dry, powdery sandalwood and a bitter, dirty ash tray.

 

Really awful.

[patina]

This does remind me of Old Moon 2011, except that scent was ruined for me by it's plastic-ness. It smelled like old plastic photographs and film. This is just very soft leather and dust and tobacco scented paper.

 

For whatever reason this doesn't turn chemical at all on me. It's comforting and the truest book scent I've smelled so far. (I haven't tried the Bugger Alle Thys Bible or the one from the Paranorman collection however.)

 

This smells like the Cryptkeeper's more genteel and scholarly brother.