scent: pineward steading and velvetine
on the left arm today, it’s steading (tobacco, hay, beeswax, barley, dried needles, poplar, hops, maple, and wisps of peat smoke), and on the right, velvetine (ambergris, cypress, vanilla, clove, labdanum, fir).
steading went on as an initial warm, almost spicy thing, and has quickly resolved to a rather good “artist’s impression of hay/stables” plus fresh unflavoured tobacco, reminding me of my adventures learning to roll with drum for a show. when I tested it I wrote “bit like baque but lighter,” but really, it isn’t at all, now that I’m getting a full nose into it and it’s on my skin.
velvetine seems to be very popular in the indie perfume set, and I can see that. in testing, it apparently gave me “old-fashioned sweet/powder/spice, grandma’s handcream and cookies”, and on my skin the spice wandered off almost immediately. it now smells like a very generic “potpourri aroma”, the kind that gets infused into dyed plant materials sold in bags, not the kind you get when you mix your own potpourri from actual scented materials. bleh. if this was stronger I’d rather dislike it, but fortunately (like most of the pinewards so far) it’s got presence but sticks near the skin.
steading, though — that’s really pleasant. really very pleasant indeed. now the smoky peat smell is joining in, with admirable subtlety, and I’m into it. it doesn’t smell very perfumey at all, but wow, if one wanted to smell like an old-fashioned rural gentleman without the rural, this would be a+ the way to go.
