A Hailstorm of Knitting-Needles

[roseus]

At a late period in the evening, after nearly three hours of experiment, Mrs Hayden having risen, and talking at another table while taking refreshment, a child suddenly called out, Will all the spirits who have been here this evening rap together? The words were no sooner uttered than a hailstorm of knitting-needles was heard, crowded into certainly less than two seconds; the big needle sounds of the men, and the little ones of the women and children, being clearly distinguishable, but perfectly disorderly in their arrival.

Augustus de Morgan

Polished mahogany and black tea with a clatter of vanilla husk and oak wood.

In the bottle this is vanilla tea with a little bit of dark polished wood underneath and it stays true on my skin. A deep rich vanilla tea, with the woods coming in for support. Elegant and cozy.

[RiverPoet]

In the bottle, I get strong wood with a waft of tea. Once it's on my skin, it's heavily oak. On dry down, the vanilla husk becomes more evident with a lightly sweet undertone. After about 15 minutes, it goes from a predominantly woody scent to one that's smoother and yet more complex, with the vanilla and tea coming out to play. I was initially thinking this was a more masculine scent on me, but it does end up unisex.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: UMFG...*eyes roll back in head*. Yeah. It's that good. Think Dorian's vanilla tea (minus the fougere and musk) mixed with Antikythera's glowing woods. That's right, Dorian and Antikythera had a love child, and it is sexy as hell. It's light, a skin scent thus far. I wish there was more throw. That may come with age. This is amazing though.

 

 

Dry: Ugh, I am so sad!! This is totally gone on me in less than an hour. What a bummer, because I adore it. I will have to age it and then give it another go, see if that makes a difference.

[achildoftime]

This is a perfect sugared cuppa. There's a twinge of mint that only appears on my skin. I don't get any of that in the bottle. It's almost like they used Frostbitten Dorian as a base and added woods to it. I really, really like this. I'm a knitter, so I had to have it anyway, but it is absolutely wonderful. Vanilla in general can overwhelm my nose, but here it's perfect. I think because it's the husk, it doesn't go too sweet or end up like baked goods. I'm going to need another bottle before it goes away.

[LiberAmoris]

A Hailstorm of Knitting-Needles is woods and vanilla tea on me, quite nice. There is a minty breath that falls across this which makes it feel like wintertime without being overt. It holds its shape through drydown, mellowing slightly but retaining the same proportion of notes. I like this a lot and can imagine myself wearing it from time to time, but I'm going to stash it in my husband's BPAL box in the hope that I can get him to wear it on NYE.

[Lucchesa]

This made me think of Frostbitten Dorian as well. In the imp it is woody vanilla tea, and it stays fairly true to this once it hits my skin. It's perfectly unisex, and I would be buying a bottle right now except that something in here goes a tiny bit soapy on me about 30 minutes in. Maybe it's the note that spells furniture polish? It's still a gorgeous blend, and I will let it age a bit and retry it to see if that skin chemistry thing persists or not.

[theseagrows]

at first all i smell is a clear, beautiful tea-just dreamy! after about 10 minutes i get some of the woods and maybe a tiny hint of vanilla, but overall this is mostly a slightly sweet tea on me. after maybe 20 minutes, i get more vanilla and this is just so gorgeous. after it's been on the skin about an hour, there is something a bit odd about it, almost dusty. not sure i like this stage and it's mostly dissipated at this point. the beginning stages are gorgeous though.

Edited January 5, 2018 by theseagrows

[Miyabi]

I don't get any black tea; I get woods with a touch of vanilla. It's a very nice scent, but probably not for me.

[Elspethdixon]

In imp/wet - perfumey-soapy wood, like freshly polished furniture (Edit: after I wrote this impression down, I re-checked the notes, and ha, what I remembered as mahogany, vanilla, oak, and tea is in fact "<I>polished</I> mahogany," vanilla, oak, and tea).

Freshly Applied - perfumey tea with a hint of dry wood underneath (this smells like the same oak from Antikythera Mechanism). Mahogany always goes sort of hazy and musky on me, and it's doing so here, making this tea + unisex musk.

Five-Ten Minutes In - the perfume-y mahogany musk has completely tamed the tea, to my pleasant surprise. This smells like a unisex wood/musk perfume now, and actually reminds me a little of a fancier/more complex version of Bath&BodyWork's Mahogany and Teak scented candles, except without the overwhelming cheap-synthetic-musk-chemical fakeness those candles have (so, basically, B&BW Teak & Mahogany scent if it were actually good). I only applied it lightly to my wrists, but there's a good two-three inches of throw. Lets see how long it hangs around for.

Half-hour in - Same as five-ten minutes but slightly lighter.

One hour in - Ditto. This is pretty much a non-morpher after the first fifteen-or-so minutes.

I can still catch a remnant of the scent on my skin at this point, six hours or so after application, so this has a decent wear time (for my oil-eating skin, anyway) as well.

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: Quite reminiscent of The Antikythera Mechanism - smooth, polished wood at the base, with prominent but dry, non-foody vanilla and black tea. I actually found the tea way more prominent than I expected, and I like it! It makes the whole scent a bit lighter, and the vanilla gives it just a hint of sweetness.

 

Wet: Now more Dorian than The Antikythera Mechanism - a light, strong but sweet vanilla tea, with only a hint of woods for grounding. Or rather, Dorian if it actually worked on me; a few years ago my skin decided that anything containing moss/fougere notes was going straight to soap. T.T But now, I'm getting a sophisticated, elegant blend, subtle and sweet.

 

Dry: Actually quite similar to ITI - dark, aged wood, sweetened by vanilla bean pods - it almost reads as the sort of vanillic smell you get from really, really old books. There's still a hint of tea, but it's no longer quite so Dorian-esque.

 

I bought this for its similarity to The Antikythera Mechanism, one of my all-time faves, and while it didn't turn out exactly the same, I'm kind of glad it didn't. I'm forever sad that Dorian no longer works on me, and this is very reminiscent of Dorian, but with the addition of the dark, smooth, aged bookshelves I love from TAM. <3

[Aviatrix]

This is like a .... tea cologne? It definitely has a cologney vibe on my skin, but not so much that I couldn't envision a woman rocking this as well. The tea is prominent on me, with a woody background, but I'm not getting much vanilla.

It is unisex, but leaning on the masculine side, and feels comforting, like a man you love sitting in his favourite chair reading an old book (I agree with the old book smell mentioned in the review above too!)

 

If you like bookish scents, or anything unisex, really, you might want to check this out.

[marared]

Travel shock usually isn't a big deal for me, but this scent suffered badly for some reason - several days after arrival, it's completely different from what I remember when I first opened it. And I'm glad, because I was looking forward to this one in particular, and I was kinda horrified at first, but it's improved substantially. Vanilla tea (not vanilla AND tea, but specifically vanilla tea where the vanilla is just an overtone that you can't really even taste once it's brewed), and a certain sweetness that my nose is associating with the mahogany specifically.

 

Sweet cozy woody tea. Yeah.

[zankoku_zen]

Soft vanilla woods. This is comforting, and woodsy, and a fair bit of vanilla. Medium throw and wear length. Very pleasant and cozy.

[Atrous]

I agree with Aviatrix's review to a word. Tea...cologne...bookish.

Feels like a scent that would be right at home in the Steamworks catalogue.

Beautiful.

[astarinel]

This does remind me a bit of The Antikythera Mechanism. Polished, dark woods with a touch of vanilla.

 

I was hoping the vanilla tea would be a bit stronger, but on me the notes are definitely woods > tea > vanilla. It reads very unisex to me, a warm cozy skin scent. The woods are dark, finished woods as opposed to blonder and sharper woods, with the tea very definitely a black, strong, astringent kind of tea. The vanilla hovers around in the back, lending a little fuzziness and sweetness. As it dries, the woods smooth and fade a bit and the tea comes more to the front.

 

Decent lasting power, but fairly low throw on me.

Edited February 14, 2018 by astarinel

[zazkea]

I was ordering this blindly, because I wanted to test scents I am not used to.

Then, after a few days of settling, it smelled like a just refreshed bed.

I have let this rest for 1.5 months now, and I do like this scent even more now.

 

Bottle

Wet!

Wet male, just coming from a shower. But the friend you know all your life, no further interest in the man, just in the smell.

Artwork: the photo on it giving me slight shivers somehow; I dont know why.

 

On my skin

Wet. But on the skin this is different than the bottle smell, which came out masculine. On the skin, this may be unisex. Initially, I get totally different scents (but these may be images I get) than what is noted: a clear pale flower in a spring wind, some metal.

Initially, on my skin, this is at the edge of becoming soap or car room spray. But then, it is not becoming soap-like like I was afraid of.

 

Having dried, this gives me an image of (indeed) a polished clean wood; really elegant at this stage. Some vanilla emerges in the background. It combines with what is an image of "polished surface". I personally cannot get no tea or oak at first. I still have the feeling of "wet" and dont know where this comes from; perhaps from the tea? Very clean, yet it has some unexpected depth. Somehow I wonder what would happen if I combined this with some musk? Before I can smell what is tea-uncanny, 15min passed. It is less tea/wood, but more "sweet and fresh" on my skin.

 

Conclusions

Although I can relate to an image of "polished surfaces", I have trouble finding the ingredients listed in the scent I can smell.

Grounded, balanced.

 

Sweet and fresh at the same time.

 

4.5/5 (the .5 I subtract is personal taste)

Edited March 4, 2018 by zazkea

[RedPersimmon]

I agree with everyone else saying that it's like Dorian without the musk. I blind-bottled this and it's quickly become my favorite everyday scent. I just LOVE the woody, non-foodie vanilla drydown. I think I prefer it on my clothes rather than on my skin, although it's still quite nice on my skin. It's got better throw and longevity on cloth.

 

Even the opening, which in most fragrances are usually too sharp/strong on me, is nice. It's a good nighttime scent, but it would also be good for work, as it won't offend any coworkers. I love this so much! I'm considering buying a backup...

[nok]

An oversimplification would be to say Hailstorm = Geek (original) + Dorian, but that’s not enough praise for just how seamless and perfect this scent wears on skin. The duration of Hailstorm reads as soft brown oak wood with its natural vanilla notes buttressed with a subdued woodsy sweetness that is appointed with candied tobacco leaf, golden apple tea and a wood polish halo. The grand sum of this perfume astounds me. It’s the greatest discovery of my perfume hobby, of any brand from mainstream to niche to indie. When I wear it out and about in my daily life I feel like the best version of myself. I've gotten all kinds of unsolicited remarks and compliments on it. It wears like magic in the air.

This is the greatest BPAL I've come across. So perfectly sophisticated and refined. I’ve done side-by-sides with this vs so many other BPALs over the last months, including Geek, and it kills me how Hailstorm soars above everything else I test it against. The more I wear this, the more I fall in love with it and stand in awe of how perfect a scent it is.

5/5