Umbra - Resurrected

[boomtownrat]

These long-dead scents are back for a limited time in a slightly tweaked form!

The deepest, darkest point in a shadow; the area contained within the shadow of an eclipse. East African black patchouli, cedarwood, vetiver and a dribble of cinnamon.

Original Umbra is one of my favorite BPALs, but I didn't discover its aged magnificence until after it was discontinued. I've only had a single imp that I was afraid to use more than once every few months until this resurrection was announced, and it became a holy grail. When I saw the announcement for this resurrection, I squealed and bought a bottle right away, with plans to buy more after I pay some bills. I'll be buying backups for sure. The bottle arrived on Monday and I couldn't wait to smell it, but I let it rest for a couple of days before I gave it a try.

The overall effect of Umbra - Resurrected smells a bit like you're storing sticks of real cinnamon bark in a cedar box. Based on what I can remember of the original when it was fresh, the cedar is a little more prominent and there's probably less vetiver. This isn't overpowering on me, but I'm going to apply it sparingly because it's kind of dirty, like the original. (If you prefer clean scents then you probably weren't looking at this anyway.) I feel it will be a nighttime and weekend scent, when I've always liked to wear the original, and probably best saved for the cool months. It's got the potential to smell a little too dirty when body heat amps it.

This is an empowering yet calming scent that I think will work on any gender.

[SoundlessEchoes]

Freshly arrived this week from the lab. I never smelled the original, so I can't offer a direct comparison.

 

In the imp: This was hard to find the words to describe, but yes, it does feel /dark/, full of shadows. I catch a hint of cedarwood lurking and sometimes moving to the front.

 

5 to 10 minutes dry down: Again, it's hard to figure out how to explain my reaction. Mostly what I get is what I'm pretty sure is vetiver, on my skin, there's a few hints of patchouli, but I'm picking out any cedar or cinnamon.

 

1 hour: Still just vetiver and patchouli. Apparently, I really amp vetiver, because the longer I wore this, the more that note comes to the fore and it lingers almost aggressively.

 

I really liked the idea of this, but it just doesn't seem to quite work how I want it to on me, I wanted a bit more a warm darkness, and this is more of a musty old ruin. We'll see if a bit of aging helps it out.

[Joyleaf_]

This was one of my instant buys of the re-releases, and while I havent smelled the original, I dearly love this version of Umbra. Its very soft dark patchouli, the exact same kind that is in Black Moths, which is my all time favorite scent. The vetiver and the cedarwood mingle in the background helping to keep it very firmly entrenched in the soft shadows. I absolutely love it, and will probably pick up another bottle before these come down.