Coven

There are a few fragrances that attempt to emulate nature in general and grass and rain in particular. Many focus on freshly cut grass or a wildflower meadow. Light, green, floral even slightly sweet with clover. ( Think Marc Jacob's one or the, infinitely superior, Gap Grass ). Guaranteed to lift the spirits. Some go for a more urban interpretation, the smell of ozone and petrichor, of rain-washed streets, of the city wiped clean. Beautiful and evocative. ( Try Miller Harris La Pluie or, of course, Apres L'ondee ). This is neither of those. This is an altogether darker affair. Lost in the heart of the wild Wood. This is darkness and damp moss. There is soil and, yes, petrichor. There's an old tree trunk, fallen without a sound ( there was no one to hear, well, no one living ) but still teaming with life. Of fungi, beautiful but deadly. A Earth Witch plunging her hands into soil and calling forth elemental magic. If I had to imagine a person who would wear this, it would be Stevie Nicks singing about Rhiannon. "All your life you've never seen Woman taken by the wind Would you stay if she promised you heaven?" If you wear this, they will stay. (Postscript: I was tempted to describe this as a "unique" scent but a familiarity niggled at me. It DOES have a doopleganger: Hermes Eau de Gentiane Blanche Cologne. It has lighter, citrus notes but it dries down the same. Both are individual, singular fragrances. As is the person who inhabits them. )

It does smell damp, and very mossy. I don't get any boozy or spicy notes--just a cool greenness. It's like portal opens to a forest in fog, with water dripping quietly onto trunks and leaves and rocks. It has an authentic after-rain smell that soil gets, without that fakeness that a lot of ozonic frags have. And it does have a hint of decay--I think that lends to the the authenticity of it. It's like how I've been shopping for a good sea/ocean frag, but they're either very metallic or light floral/citrus (because who's going to add dead fish and rotting seaweed components when there's ambergris). Coven is the closest thing I've smelled to Demeter's Thunderstorm, which tragically they don't make anymore, but with better longevity than anything Demeter ever made, and decent projection. I love the name, and I like it enough to have worn the sample for three day now as it's pleasant to catch a whiff of outdoorsy in my workday. I just don't know if I'd reach for it very often--it might be something I'd like more as a candle.

Coven is great. It's one of the strongest grass/soil-dominant fragrances I've put my nose on. It's surprisingly fresh for such an ominously titled work. Buried underneath the earthen peat and moss I detect a warm sweetness (perhaps the whiskey?) and strangely enough, a muddled yet noticeable minty note. It kind of tingles the nostrils and adds a confounding ethereal quality to the overall composition. It's like sauntering through some dark, damp woods at 5 am. The air is cold and filled with foggy early-morning moisture and the thick scent of moss and dirt rise up from beneath you. Its very well balanced, and smells satisfying and evocative while still being very wearable and pleasant. My favorite from what I've tried in the Maack line...Coal is a close second. While I do love it, I occasionally get a little bit tired and have to give it a break, but I always return to it. Performs very very well, lasts all day and projects. 8/10

I just got a full bottle of this after draining a sample. To me this is more of a boozy light amber, punctuated by peppery greens. The "soil" is not very pronounced on me. If anything, it serves to just deepen the green notes, making them less fresh. I find it really addictive and love wearing it on warm evenings, where it really blooms. I get the connection to Chypre Mousse, which I also love, but they don't smell the same to me in the least. They share their earthy elements, but CM smells more like wet, loamy soil and mushrooms, with an abstract floral heart. Coven is slightly sweet,boozy, ambery, and green, and I find it pretty accessible and wearable. It's less weird than I thought it would be and I wouldn't call it avant guard, though the brand may have been aiming for that title.

Coven is gorgeous on me. I don't find Coven to be especially dirty, filthy, or dark, but I will say it is brooding, even if it's ultimately fairly traditional. For me it's a very clean warmth overall. The whiskey is very clear on me, in fact, the whiskey and moss pop a lot more than the soil does. I don't get earth or soil at all, to be honest, at least not before the green notes. It's very woodsy and green on me. Green, woodsy, ambery, spicy. I think more of wizards in a tower in the woods reading from ancient tomes more than witches gathering around a campfire in the middle of the night. This wasn't as daunting or harsh as I was made to believe, but still I think it's an incredibly handsome scent and one I'm planning on buying a full bottle of after I'm out of my decant.

This fragrance is gorgeous. It truly is like a walk in dark, mossy woods. Ethereal, atmospheric, simultaneously grounded in dark earth but vibrating with life and complexity. When I first breathed it in, I was wowed. However...I just don't know if it's wearable. Maybe I'm not confident enough or farther along in my perfume journey to wear such a unique and multi-layered fragrance. I think a man could wear this in a daily setting more than a woman, though it is definitely a unisex fragrance. If the reviews intrigue you, just try this out. Whether you buy it or not, the experience of just smelling it on your skin is worth it.

Interesting! This must be a love it or hate it perfume from reading the reviews, and I am definitely on the LOVE IT team. To me it is a stupendous fragrance whose notes get better and better. I liked it so much I kept reapplying to overdose on the smell. It features a grassy, earthy fragrance, made bright and sharp with spices. Each one is so distinctive that you can recognize it in the blend, but together they coalesce into a great perfume experience! It transitions during the drydown to have more of the oakmoss and whiskey featured. Lovely aroma - lasts for hours.

Fascinating one! It opens with a blast of moist, damp, shadowy and mossy forest floor after rain, and dries down to a dark room filled with old, crooked shelves stacked with jars full of herbs, spices and weird looking potions. The name is vey fitting - this is the scent of nature worship and pagan magic. A gorgeous warm, spicy, woody and mossy green scent with a slight moist feeling. The sillage is perfect, not too monstrous, but not to weak either. The longevity is great on my skin. Goes straight on my wishlist. To me it smells like home. <3

Best fragrance ever, of late. End of story .

This is some dark perfumery here. Just starting with the name it evokes a coven of witches in a damp Forrest stirring up witchcraft and of course...their cauldron. It's the fithiest of filthy soil tinctures and moss, which goes far beyond normal acceptability and actually into a realm I find interesting. It's a further place where fragrance goes and runs the full gamete from horrid all the way back to exquisite. Patchouli lovers with like this because it's dank and soily but green and grassy almost figgy in the top notes. As it dries down there's a slight wet wood and a little peppery spice in there too. Great longevity on me...doesn't project all that much which is probably a good thing as it's not exactly a crowd pleaser. Bizarre stuff but not all that unpleasant...still wouldn't wear it though...maybe on Halloween?

Wet earth, moss and pine needles; this is the smell of my garden in the spring time before the temperature climbs up into the comfortable to be outside range. I don’t pick up specific wood notes, but there is an overall alcohol smell—like the way a bar rag might smell. Unfortunate, as I pick up something moldy...past it’s prime. Conceptually, Coven is a very interesting fragrance, and I appreciate the skilled execution, but it’s not something I would want to wear again.

The earth..dirt..soil..grass! Fresh as putting your nose right in it!! What an intriguing idea for a perfume, i think this is an evocative fragrance, it will get you grounded. Don't think others would perceive it as perfume, maybe they will think you have just been digging in garden.

This is one of the strangest fragrances I've had but I like it. This is like a true evil and witchy Halloween scent. Smells earthy but sharp like wet rotting leaves and Halloween mask plastic smell before turning towards the more warm bourbon/cinnamon notes.

Competition for Demeter Zombie? Clawing one's decaying self up out of dark peppery soil for a last drink of burning whiskey - and maybe a wild night of dining on human flesh. Weird to the max.

It smells like hiding in a damp, moss filled cave in the middle of a forest during a massiv autumn rain and drinking cold water from a metal cup.

I like this. It reminds me of Gorilla perfume - Smell of Weather Turning. So nice to run into a fragrance that just smells odd, like me!

العطر ببساطة كأنك جالس على الكرسي بأحد الحدائق وأنته مسافر وتشتم رائحة الطبيعة الخضراء

All I get is minty fresh grass, no earth. I don't get any "dark". Conversely, I get a light vegetal grassy scent. The reviewer that talked about it smelling like an unlit menthol cigarette is on to something. Something between an unlit Salem and fresh grass. This doesn't do much for me.

Once in a while, I have the urge to search for a fragrance that is really wild and unique to satisfy my cravings for originality and creativity, something that would make me bluntly yell out “What on earth is that?” or “What the heck is in here?” Though this could be an endless journey, one such example has recently stopped me in my tracks and made me ponder if I was actually smelling a bottle of fragrance or a piece of landscape from Middle-earth. Thus, I feel compelled to write a little review on Andrea Maack Coven. Andrea Maack is not very well-known, even in the fragrance community. She is an artist from Iceland who has great visions in perfumery. While I like most fragrances in her collection Coven is truly the standout of the bunch, and not because it involves witchcraft. This little potion has me bewitched from the very first spray. Remember those summer days when you were mowing the lawn and you were overwhelmed by the smell of freshly cut grass? Well, Coven will take you for a long stroll down that memory lane. So, if the sound of this repels you even a little bit then stay clear of its path. I admit, the green note is very sharp in this fragrance, one would wonder if you have just rolled yourself in that pile of grass you just mowed or in the tree branches you just cut down. But I warn you, it becomes even more unorthodox as it evolves. So, let’s continue using our lawn example. You mowed it well, pat yourself on the back and tell yourself you did a great job, but luckily all this work was done just before a thunderstorm hit, the rain came down at full force, flipping the soil beneath the piles of grass, transforming your lawn into a muddy pond! Suddenly, the air was somewhat fresher, but there was an unmistakable odor of wet soil around you. And that my friends is the star of this fragrance; “wet soil”. “Are you kidding me?” you ask. I can assure you that my face cannot be more serious than right now as I’m writing this review. Not far from the truth, Andrea has intended Coven to portray a deep and dark forest in the medieval times, possibly where the witches practiced their witchery. What a great rainy day fragrance this might be! So, next time when you mow the lawn, don’t forget to put on some Andrea Maack Coven, with the grassy and wet soil scent you’re projecting you might give your wife the impression that you’ve worked much harder than you did, but please, keep this witchcraft just between you and I.

Before I smelled this, I figured it was too ~niche~ for me to enjoy. You know, the sort of bizarre smelling “conceptual” thing that I just wouldn’t “get”. (See La Curie’s “Odyssey” as an example.) But I was lured by the ever-seductive promise of wet soil. It’s a note that’s hard to be made “wearable” but it’s so moving when it is. I was really surprised that, at least to my nose, this wasn’t some abstruse, cerebral scent that required tons of thinking. I didn’t look at the notes when I first wore it - I just knew it was supposed to evoke soil. More than anything else, this immediately smelled like bourbon and cinnamon. Soil is there too, but to my nose it’s secondary to the booze. I looked and was so amazed that the notes listed were actually exactly what I smelled; that’s very rare, I find. I thought the pairing of soil and booze was really well done, and sets it apart from other damp smelling fragrances. I don’t know that many people cultivate an aesthetic that lends itself to smelling like a drunken grave digger as a signature, but this could have a place in certain scent wardrobes. If the spice and booze pulls through stronger on your skin than the dirt, as it does for me, it might be a nice cold weather/holiday season scent.