The Hermit

[tempete]

The Hermit is my year card for 2005, so I've been interested to see if it connects with me the way Strength (my 2004 year card) did.

 

Initially, I get a purple fruitiness (grape?) that isn't overly sweet. As this scent dries down, a green, herbal note emerges that becomes medicinally astringent at one point and eventually almost completely pushes out the fruitiness. The final drydown is a toned-down version of that herbal note that is slightly sweetened by the fruity note.

 

I'm not connecting with The Hermit the way I did with Strength, but it could be because I don't desire more solitude and introspection right now.

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): This is a silver scent. It smells like the color silver to me. I smell moss too.

 

Just On: Okay, I still get the silver thing, but it gets more flowery too. Fresh greens and moss.

 

An hour or two later: This smells like the stems of flowers that you are cutting to make a fresh bouquet for your table. Not roses, but something more like daisy or marigold stems. There's a bit of the moss scent left as well.

 

Around 6 hours: I am getting a bit of blooming flowers, but it's not strong, and it's certainly not cloying. I rather like this. It evokes the thought of being all alone out on the woods, and having cut flowers to enjoy with my solitary meal.

 

12 hours: It's pretty much gone now.

 

Overall: I love the smell of the cut green stems that I was getting, and this scent very much gave me the impression of silver, not because it smelled like silver, but because it provoked the image of silver when I smelled it. The moss scent left very quickly.

 

After reading other reviews: I didn't get the old books scent that several others did. This is a pleasant, thinking scent.

[Savannah]

This card isn't as special to me as many others, but I got it in a crucial spot in a recent reading and have been meditating on its meaning, so I requested it when buying several Tarot decants from a lovely forumite (thanks, tempete!)

 

This went on very round and smooth-- something like grapes or cherries, but with none of the sharp sweetness. More like... grape tea? That sounds odd, and there isn't a tea note at all-- I mean like grape-flavored herbal tea. That's the closest I can come to how this can be grapey without really being sweet or fruity at all.

 

Later the grape fades, but leaves a lingering richness behind that keeps the new notes from smelling like... dust. It's a woody, papery, herbal kind of smell. I can definitely see this being the interior of a neat, well-appointed hermit's retreat.

 

Altogether, I can see that if you wanted a reserved, solitary, but not at all shy scent, this would be the one for you.

[allidavie]

Hermit smell good.

 

Oh, is that not really a review? For some reason my nose is at a total loss. I couldnt' describe this one if I tried, other than it's absolutely lovely. Smells like a meadow on a spring day. But I couldnt' tell you what's in that meadow, beyond grass, trees, flowers, and a stream. Beautiful, though, and definitely a keeper.

[yeahbutnobut]

The Hermit

 

In the imp: fresh and slightly floral with herbs, greenery and citrus fruits.

Wet on skin: whoa, there's something fruity and green going on in here! There's also a sweetness which could be from fruit or floral notes. There's a lovely fresh green scent here too. For some weird reason, I get the feeling there's kiwi or melon in this!!!

Dry on skin: oh, this is nice. I think there could be jasmine here, or some other white floral. It's a soft floral mingling with sweet and tangy juicy fruit and a fresh wet green note. It's like a gorgeous garden scent. I think there may be a tea note here-possibly white or green tea, and it's possible that the fruit could be grape, or melon.

After a while: still green and fruity, but now the fruit is starting to smell slightly over-ripe. There's a strange, slightly off scent there that I hope doesn't get too strong.

Verdict: another pleasant and unexpected surprise from the tarot blends. I was thinking the Hermit would be a somewhat solemn, introverted blend, quiet and lonely. But I wasn't expecting a fresh mixture of fruits, flowers and greenery. It's a refreshing, outdoorsy, moist spring scent, like a lush garden, juicy fruit, soft fragrant flowers. This is a hermit who happens to spend all his/her time alone tending the garden, or living somewhere very rural and far removed from society, where he/she is one with nature. It does have a calming effect on me, it's quiet and gentle. At one point, a slightly off note pops up, reminiscent of overripe fruit, but apart from that, this blend is surprisingly nice. I'm not sure if I'd get a bottle though-but it would be a good scent for those moments when I want a bit of solitude (and I have loads of moments like that!)

 

edit: now the Hermit has taken a turn for the worse...this now smells of rotting fruit on me... thank goodness I got it in a sniffing circle!

Edited July 13, 2005 by yeahbutnobut

[zankoku_zen]

In the Bottle: Something sweet and flowery

 

On Skin: I think there must be sweet pea in this because it kind of reminds me to Juliet. Very sweet. Maybe some melon?

On Drydown: It got less sweet. There's an incense note that comes out afterwards. In this sense, it reminds me to Morgause. I get this odd mixture of floral, melon and incense.

 

Verdict: Not me. Off to swap.

[quimerula]

This scent is absolutely gorgeous!

 

I thought it would be an earthy/dusty perfume but I found a lovely white floral over a hint of green.

I get calla lily and ivy with a bit of the bottom-line I find in Chuparosa and Beltane.

 

I am so glad I tried it! Thank you very much, Galen!

[grrrlennyl]

at first: it's clean and simple. i can't really pick out any notes, but i like it.

on: i can't place it. it's a bit sweet, but there's something almost menthol-y to it. interesting.

1 hour later: a very green, fresh scent.

3 hours later: faint and green.

overall: this is a nice, unobtrusive scent. it might be good for a night in.

[QueenFae]

This is a really interesting blend. It definitely has a green/ herbally base that has been smeared with some white florals. It's a soothing, calming, contemplative type scent. Sort of like something skittering along the edge of your imagination that you can't quite put your finger on. It may even have a hint of an aquatic note to it. Overall, a light, relaxing scent that refuses to be underestimated. Very nice.

[Caltha]

The Hermit

Got this in a swap with paperdoll.

 

The Hermit is a fruity, young, cheerful, sweet, fresh scent similar to Mi-Go Brain Canister. It doesn't fit the name very well. It has a sort of nectar/honey sweetness I enjoy which reminds me more of Dunwich or Bayou than Mi-Go and makes me like it more than Mi-Go. I think I'll keep it for days when I feel like it. Besides, I identify with hermits even though this scent doesn't make me think of hermits at all.

[Monster]

This one smells like white flowers on me >< Gardenias and Lilies. There's something else in here I can't quite pinpoint, maybe moss or something along those lines?

 

The Hermit is a very pretty, girly type of a scent. It's delicate, soft and floral....and definilty not me.

[wickedgoddess]

Wet - this smells familiar, but I can't place the notes yet. It get some kind of floral with a trace of dustiness.

Dry - the floral sweetens up; I think there may be honeysuckle in here, along with gardenias. I still get a trace of dust; not the dustiness of rose but a dust note like in Miskatonic University, which is very fitting for a Hermit.

 

On the wickedgoddess scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being best, this rates a 3.

[Cesare]

Wet: Instant love. I thought this was totally wonderful from the first whiff. It's strong and woody with a spicy-sweet tone.

 

Drying down, the resinous wood smell develops, the spice recedes a little, and a kind of herbal note emerges subtly.

 

Dry, the final smell is like evergreen with a general waft of cinnamon, spice and herbs, but it's emphatically not Christmas-y in any way. The pine smell isn't like the boughs, it's like pine sap, the raw sticky heart of the tree.

 

The whole thing has a really natural, deep-woods smell that I like a lot. It seems unisex and initially I thought the only thing that could tear it out of my hot little hands is if my guy liked it, so I could give it to him and smell it on him.

 

That said, he had a very very very different opinion of this one. He found it so off-putting that it almost ruined the oil for me, so I'm going to make it a dark color so that other people can skip it if they want. Highlight to read it.

 

He said: (Wet) "IT SMELLS LIKE A DENTIST'S OFFICE! My teeth hurt just smelling this! It smells like chemicals and pain! How did someone bottle my terror?!"

 

He didn't actually want to put it on, but I promised him it would change once it dried.

 

(Drydown) "Yeah, it's different, it smells even MORE like flouride and fear. I can't believe you bought a vial of dentist's office smell."

 

(Dry) "Now it smells like the hard, untasty outer shell of a piece of cheap bubblegum. On a pine-soaked floor."

 

I loved this at first, but once he said 'dentist's office' I couldn't smell the berry note without thinking of that gross berry-flavored fluoride solution they give you at the dentist's.

 

I've tried layering this blend with The Ghost and with Cthulhu. Both those oils helped revive my love for The Hermit. But it just goes to show how other people's impressions can influence what you think of a scent!

Edited October 17, 2005 by Cesare

[mel_k]

Astrologically, this is my card (Virgo), so I was was eager to try it. For me it was a clean, herbal scent with a hint of carnation or spice (but I'm pretty sure it's carnation) that gets stronger as I wear it. It's really nice, like a clean woodsy hermit, not a crazy living under a bridge hermit.

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Curious - this is a little sweet. It has that same mustiness an old library has, brittle paper and mounds of dust. But that strange sweetness is almost like a poeny blossom growing up through a crack in the floor, getting sunlight through a thin ray that shines in through a broken pane of a dirty window.

 

On me: Light and sweet, but it's driving me mad because I can't identify what it is. A bit light wood, some paper note if possible...but some sort of floral too.

[Miss Lynx]

My wife ordered this one from a swap, but she wasn't sure she liked it, due to a fruity note she perceived in it. Fruity scents tend to be oddly good on me, as long as there's something not-do-fruity mixed in with them, so she said I should try it.

 

In the imp, it smelled more herbal than anything, but with a faint veneer of sweetness, though I couldn't tell if the sweetness was fruit or floral. Once on me, I couldn't really get much of a sense of fruit from it -- but within the first two minutes, some kind of high, sharp floral rose up and completely took over the scent. I've mentioned before that my skin tends to amp florals, and it really latched on to something in here. Lotus maybe? Something like that... The whole thing just turned into floral overkill.

 

I stuck it out for a while hoping that maybe the florals would eventually subside, but no such luck, at least not within the 20 minutes or so I could handle before I had to wash it off.

 

Grade: D

[Blood onmy hands]

The Hermit is a hard one for me to describe. It starts out smelling like a woodsy herbal something and musty florals. The florals get more hyper in the drydown, and the entire blend turns into a perfumey headache for me. There might be a light aquatic note underneath the white florals... but it's overall very overpowering on me.

 

This Tarot Oil really disagrees with my skin chemistry.

[kettu]

I am heartbreakingly sad.

 

I was hoping for woodsy, herbal, calming hermit. Instead, I got BERRIES! and GRAPES! and little else.

 

The smell was exactly like a mix of a couple of different scented candles from Pier One that I used to burn together, though I can't remember what the scent names were. It's comforting, but not something I want to smell like.

 

It's all berry red and purple grape on my skin and I am petulant and pouty. *stompy stomp stomp*

[aidenraine]

Wow, apparently the Hermit is baking a cake. This smells sweet, creamy, and somewhat like vanilla and lemon mixed together. I am shmecking.

 

I feel so comforted sniffing this.

This is a hermit in the sense of one curling up and hiding underneath soft flannel sheets with a good book and some candles. It's the smell of not wanting to go out, of a cozy home.

 

Ahhhh now I get the berries and a hint of floral. Hm, this stage isn't as nice on me. Now I get the berry candles. It's one of those "mixed berry" scents.

 

Alas...

 

 

(Note- I am so amused that the reactions to this are as diverse as they are. Apparently the hermit is different for many of us)

[LyndaM]

I'd been anxious to try this one; I am a hermit when I can get away with it, and the word itself suits my personality. Nine tenths of my life is lived inwardly, and I am happy alone. So of course I rarely am!

 

On me, The Hermit is fresh, aquatic, and herbal/plant-like, with maybe a bit of gentle wood. Perhaps a hint of unidentifiable floral, as it's drying down. I don't get any fruit out of it, nor vanilla creaminess as others have mentioned. This makes me think of a hermit who has gone to be close to nature, not to shut himself up in a room somewhere. Very outdoorsy.

 

I like it, and it's more wearable than I expected. I'm going in halves with another forumite on a bottle, and I will definitely wear it.

[enigmae]

Oh, how I love this. It is piney, woody (more like the green smell of everything in the woods than actual wood itself), with a touch of berries or other fruit. Reminds me just a little of Arkham Revisited, though AR is brighter and this is darker and more night-time mysteriousness. It has a deep woods/wilderness feel. The drydown brings out some florals, but not overwhelmingly. Lorajc mentioned this scent was recommended for “inner peace” and that’s exactly the feeling I get from it. This is one of my favorite blends.

[alicia_stardust]

The Hermit smells light and warm to me, like a dew-dropped garden in the warm afternoon sun. It's very non-intrusive, with a bit of an herbal scent in the background. However, the thing I notice the most on me is something that reminds me of tuberose or lily. It's lovely!

 

I've been trying to limit my purchases to only scents that really "grab" me. This one "grabs" me, and I think I may have to buy a bottle!

[desu]

In the bottle: Clean, outdoorsy. I can smell light herbs and florals in this one, yet it is also "sunny".

 

On my skin: Still faintly floral and herby, but it's taken on a bit of green now.

 

Later on: It's become a bit more spicy, but this isn't otherwise really doing it for me. Not a lot of substance to this one when it's on me.

[dreadeddragon]

In the bottle: Pineapple? Banana? It's definitely a sweet fruity blend with a hint of saltiness.

 

First on: Spice cake! It's a blend of spices with that freshly baking cake sweetness.

 

Drydown: I can't even smell it anymore, though I can tell that I'm wearing somehting in that general viscinity. Still sweet, no more spice or salt.

 

Overall: At first, I thought it was perfect. Smart, isolated, and reclusive yet being strong. Then it faded so quickly that I just don't feel it's right for the card. Or maybe my skin chemistry just sucks with it.

[brownbear]

At first this was sweet and floral. Then it goes softly aquatic and greenish. There is something herbal and sort of sweetgrassy to it. It is very light.