Winter Nights

Before I start, please note that these are first impressions. I just recently received my bottle from Dasein's relaunch, but am excited to continue testing through the remainder of the winter season here in the northeast. Starting with the presentation, it is simple and somewhat lackluster for the $125 (+10 shipping) that each of these bottles sells for. No box or travel/storage bag, which doesn't feel quite right all things being considered. The cap is one of those cheap, super-thin metal press-fit pieces that you might expect on an 8ml travel spray. Cap also no longer comes with the sticker that was seen on the original release either. Despite my complaints about some of the tactile and convenience aspects of this fragrance and its overall presentation, the scent is, of course, the most important part. And well, I am truly at a loss for words. This is everything I hoped it would be, x10. I am a lover of nearly all resins, especially those of fir, pine, hemlock, etc. This is one of the most enchanting fragrances I have ever smelled. It opens with a blast of thick, sweet, and somewhat dark-fruity fir or hemlock resin - absolutely reminiscent of the sap tears that often form along branches of balsam fir Christmas trees. At the same time, an interestingly fresh-smoky wood note becomes present, almost as if you were burning driftwood, or perhaps a wet balsam fir mixed with aromatic cardamom. Speaking of cardamom, a spicy nuance creeps up alongside the smoky note, which also may be a contributor to the ever so slightly fresh aspect I mentioned. Now, by no means am I suggesting that this smells similar to Parfums de Marly Layton, but the cardamom here definitely reminds me of how it is used in the PdM to achieve that coniferous and slightly camphoraceous feel in the opening. Transitioning into the mid and early dry-down, the notes seem to blend together a bit more. The early blast of slightly spicy cardamom begins to fade, and the rich wood resins return front and center blending with the smoky note I mentioned earlier. By this point, most of the "fresh" aspect I alluded to earlier has dissipated. I will need some more wearings to get a better feel for the deep dry down, but it appears to steer further down the dark, resinous, and slightly smoky direction. And I absolutely agree with all the Christmas comparisons that have come before mine. Thick, sweet, fir-type resin (with slightly dark fruity undertones) and wisps of smoke in the background define this fragrance for me. Absolutely enchanting, cozy, and man, it just puts me in such a good mood. This is some top-notch juice - another homerun for Josh Meyer and the rest of the team over at dasein (and yes, this definitely reminds me of Cape Heartache, particularly the thick resinous aspects. I personally get much more smoke from A City on Fire, but I definitely understand this comparison as well. A beautiful blend with aspects taken from each of these two IA fragrances.) As a final note, I think it is important to note that to my nose, this is in no way overly smoky. And in fact, I smell much more resin than smoke. Of course, try before you buy, but I have a hard time understanding the ultra-smoky nature that others before me have hinted at. As I mentioned, I will need to continue testing this but so far, longevity appears good in the 6-8 hour range. For me, projection is on the lower end of moderate while sillage is on the higher end of moderate, enhanced by the thick, resinous and smoky nature. Overall, I have to give this a 9.5 or 10/10. The smell tugs on my heartstrings and Christmas memories as a child. It brings back fragrant Christmas trees and a slow-burning fire, while feet of snow pile up outside. It is my type of fragrance in every way and resurfaces some of the best memories from my life. Absolute love and must-try for anyone who finds this type of scent intriguing.

Hands down, time and again, my love for all winter fragrances. I was so happy when this luscious beauty was brought back, as I was nursing the last drops of my former bottle with such deliberate care. I cannot help but wonder that not all the notes of Winter Nights are present. To me, Winter Nights is filled with a sticky and resinous balsam sap that is barely dusted with the softest, freshly powdery fallen snow - you surely know the fresh, cold brisk aroma of fallen snow. And not just that awakening of glowing aromas, but Winter Nights also evokes the sense of walking in the quiet dampened silence and stillness that freshly fallen snow brings. All while sparkling and twinkling in a dark, starry night under a full moon blanketed in fog; all seems nearly illuminated as you pass by all that surrounds you. There is no other fragrance out there that transports me the way Winter Nights does. I can almost hear the sound of the snow collapsing and giving way to my weight under my feet, as I hear dollops of snow falling from the tips of trees to the ground in this dark, resonating mysterious forest. I also love this one because in my opinion, it's assuredly not the smoky fireplace you experience via MMM's By the Fireplace (which I also own) nor the intense bonfire bomb of IA's City on Fire. While Winter Nights does carry the distant aroma of a warming fire in the not-too-far and nearly haunting distance, it never takes the front stage like MMM's and IA's, not in the least. And what I find so surprising is how I see so little mention of how this can lean into a bit of gourmand wear. While I also own both SL's Chergui, as well as the church-esque incense of Fille en Aiguilles, Winter Nights is the one I grab, time and again, as it takes you on a more delectable, cozy, and somehow uplifting journey. One person mentions they wonder if there's a menthol note - I suspect they are noticing the lavender which carries the aromatic crispness with each inhale. And when I say lavender, this is not the lavender you find in English potpourri/sachets. I suspect this is an Italian or Spanish lavender, as these can give off a brighter, more aromatic menthol-type aroma. And here, it works perfectly. It's all blended so beautifully, and I am beyond surprised that it does not garner more appreciation. Now that Winter is beginning to give way to Spring, I'll be forced to soon set it aside. I'll once again await the change of seasons when late fall turns to Winter, as this is the fragrance to wear when bundled up in the coziest of sweaters, fleece, or flannels. Longevity for at least 6, if not 8 hours. While projection is not crazy, that's okay because its sillage will linger where you have passed. 9.999/10... It's truly a unisex fragrance, and I hope to always have a full bottle to carry me through every winter for the rest of my days.

Winter Nights, a limited edition (of only 400 bottles) flanker to Winter by Dasein Fragrance, in a collaboration with Imaginary Authors perfumer and director Josh Meyer, has received a lot of hype the past month or so, and I can now confirm it's warranted. The note breakdown is, at first glance, very similar to Winter, in that woods, lavender, and cardamom are in the mix. Winter Nights, like Winter, involves a heavy dose of pine, but its character is substantially darker via the "driftwood bonfire" note (perhaps an imaginary note, like those that usually accompany Josh's fragrance in Imaginary Authors). It's resinous, not in an amber sense, but in a pine resin sense, very natural and heavy without being too acerbic. It evokes the outdoors of a temperate fall or winter---very enchanting yet easy to wear. Comparing further to the original Winter by Dasein, the original is a bit lighter, and a fresh/spicy combo via the lavender and cardamom, respectively, so it lacks the deep resinous quality that Winter Nights has, understandably why Winter Nights has garnered more acclaim than Winter ever seemingly did. It's unsurprising many would make the connection between Winter Nights and another pine-dominant scent under his own label of Imaginary Authors, Cape Heartache--my favorite scent from that line to date. Winter Nights lacks the strawberry sweetness that defines much of Cape Heartache, however, so in this respect they're quite different despite the significant pine overlap, Cape Heartache being sweeter and Winter Nights being smokier. Other connections can be drawn to Profumum Arso, which I already regarded as a more-or-less strawberryless variant of Cape Heartache, and Slumberhouse Norne, which has more of a fir smell in addition the pine resin, and is somewhat darker than Winter Nights, even. Winter Nights still merits special recognition on its own despite great contemporaries like Cape Heartache, Arso, and Norne, and certainly if for no other reason than due to the price, $95 for 50ml EDP, which is on par with Cape Heartache but much lower than Arso or Norne, though their concentrations are higher. Still, Winter Night is fantastic, and I want to grab a bottle now but might have to settle for one next year since it's all sold out. I initially made no mention of performance but connections to the other fragrances ought to suggest that this is very strong on projection and longevity, and should not disappoint. 8 out of 10

I'm glad this is more or less what I expected it to be. Basically it's the smell of your hands after setting up a Christmas tree. I think a lot of people will connect with this perfume, just because that's such a common memory. I get all the notes listed as well as black hemlock, and as several have mentioned, there's a similarity between this and Cape Heartache, which also contains a hemlock note. However, If you happened to be one of those put off by the strawberry note in that scent, and were a fan of it otherwise, then this should be much more your speed. Sub-par bottle quality has been a concern for some, and I definitely get that where the cap is concerned, but I actually do like the frosted bottle itself and choice of lettering. Feels good in the hand and contrasts nicely with the black juice. If you've ever bough a Lush perfume, you've definitely encountered worse bottle-wise. And personally I'm not bothered by the lack of a box, since I tend to ditch mine, but if you're someone who keeps all of their fragrances boxed, it's something you'll want to take into account before you buy. I don't really have any complaints on this one. It's a scent profile I've been waiting for someone to nail for a while, and I think the perfumer did a nice job with it. I will say that a sample for Winter Green was included with the purchase, and I didn't enjoy that one nearly as much, so I'm not sure if the house's other scents are as uniformly excellent as this, but I think Winter Nights is a home run, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone searching for a nostalgic Christmastime signature.

You slowly wake deep inside a forest, just as the last embers of the Sabbat fire flicker and wink out. There's a chill in the air and you can see your breath, but beneath your bare skin, the earth retains the warmth and thrum of those who so recently danced here. Although you are alone, you can see the dissipating ghosts of the breath of others lingering in the air around the charred remnants of the fire. You should feel cold, but despite all the evidence of cold around you, you feel held by fresh memories of warmth, of the recollection of phantom flowers tossed into long since extinguished flames, flashes of anointed bodies intertwining round the fire, sweating glistening spice, remembrance of the piercing heat in the shine of wide animal eyes illuminated by the flames, their bodies hidden in the surrounding, velvety dark. Decidedly gender-fluid, this fragrance is rich, spicy, earthy, and a deep, distinctly green sort of dark - its edges licked by flames that you can just barely detect in your periphery. It may seem heavy at first, until you really breathe it in and realize that, when you close your eyes, it feels like you're floating, and that encircling verdurous darkness beckons, the ghosts of spice and flowers whispering evocative eldritch nothings into your ears, inviting you to follow them into the shadows. Though the Sabbat fire has gone out, it's not because it ran out of fuel, but because it now burns within you. And you carry the ardent spice of its flames with you as you choose to vanish into that limitless, woodland dark.

I spent several months last year looking for the perfect woody scent to accompany the dreary autumnal gloom of the Pacific Northwest, and this is it. It's introspective, dark, and grim in the best way. It brings to mind the looming forests of the Oregon coast shrouded in fog. Primal, ceremonial, ancient, sublime. I'm not getting much cardamom, sweetness, or basic pine; indeed, there's nothing here that suggests the modern winter holidays to my mind. It's more haunted Halloween than Christmas cheer. Full of somber incensy woodsmoke, it makes me think of the Overlook Hotel in Kubrick's The Shining. Actually, the external frontal shots of the hotel are of Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood in Oregon; I spent a night there as a kid. Winter Nights is reminiscent of the stone fireplaces in such an old lodge, and evokes woodburning fires with cedar kindling. This is a quiet gothic masterpiece, and a workhorse to boot. It's for hiking all day in the rain among mossy giants, coming home to watch Nordic noir mysteries while eating a hearty bowl of chowder, and then curling to sleep with the ghosts beside a dying fire. 10/10

I bought a bottle immediately after I received a tester. Winter Nights evoked the coziest memories of my childhood- toasting marshmallows on a cold winter night. Every year my family would drag us out to Assateague Island to watch the sun rise on New Year's Day. The island itself is protected national seashore with a population of wild ponies that roam through the scrubby, coastal pine dunes. I have a very specific memory of sitting early in the morning around smoking coals while picking dried pine needles from a smear of marshmallow on my corduroys. I remember having the feeling of being watched and looking up so see a small herd of squat, fuzzy ponies standing nearby. Winter Nights brought me back to that moment. This opens with a dry pine (not astringent, thankfully) that rounds to a soft sun-bleached wood. I get a hint of smoke at the heart and a sweet, aromatic cardamom that's almost like marshmallow. The lavender is just the slightest dusting like a bit of talcum powder around the collar. This is a beautifully balancedfragrance that wears like a tartan sweater- I want to curl up in this forever.

This is an excellent scent. If you were to put in IA's Cape Heartache, a dash of A City on Fire, and replace the strawberry with a hearty dose of cardamom, you have Dasein Winter Nights. It does recall the holiday season...as if one were in a mountain village where campfires roar and sweet cardamom tea was being drunk. It starts out smoky and woody with the cardamom being front and center. Cardamom is often associated with marshmallow, and with the sweetness in this, it can smell like roasted marshmallows. It has above average sillage and great projection. It does last for a while, but the first blast can be a bit strong.l It is tinted black so be careful where you spray this. I don't know if it stains clothing. I think this is the closest I'll get to anything by Imaginary Authors. I've been consistently underwhelmed by that house. But this collaboration by Dasein with IA's nose has produced a great scent. EDIT: Doesn't seem to stain clothing or skin, but I wouldn't spray this directly on anything pure white.

This is different yet familiar. It is more salty and less smokey woods than I expected, there is also barely any sweetness. For something named Winter Nights you might expect some sweetness. The smoke and pine hit harder at the beginning with the pine being slightly reminiscent of a car tree air freshener but this doesn’t last. The dry down has a salty ambergris accord and wood. There is definitely lots of ambroxan giving that salt that you could also interpret as fresh snow on a crisp cold day. This amboxan, lavander, wood dry down reminds me of Oud for Greatness minus the sweetness. This ended up being one of my more expensive blind buys since Dasein suspended shipping to Canada I decided to forward ship and pay the dangerous goods, customs and ridiculous DHL brokerage fees. Was it worth it? I am inclined to say yes.

An evergreen forest . . . searing cold . . . so cold the air is freeze-dried, making the fir appear parched in the dark. A thin veneer of powdery lavender and stacked wood underscores the deep green like a frosted dusting. This gives the conifer aroma an intensity and depth of real pine needles. Distinctively keeping it out of Christmas or cleaning product territory, taking you to a frigid northern forest. Standing ovation to Josh Meyer and Sam Rader. Their formula echos the smell and mood of winter woods. Even down to the aridness of extreme cold. Good sillage and longevity. A chill weather favorite!

This is one of my favorites for winter. It smells like you’ve been sitting by a fire with nice fragrant woods, but there is an ocean note in the distance. There’s a very subtle aromatic note that keeps it from being too smoky, and that plus the ocean note keeps things refreshing. It’s like a much cozier cousin to Every Storm a Serenade. Projection and longevity are excellent. Three spritzes last all day, and I get compliments on it. The price is amazing considering the quality and its staying power. Also, the folks at Dasein are super helpful and nice!

The scent of sitting around a campfire in the mountains during the heart of winter. Cozy sweaters and Christmas candies, a boreal chill and sanguine smoke. Heavy, natural, cozy, beautiful. In the same vein as Winter, but the pine has been burned and replaced by a very musky smoke. The sweetness of cardamom tea and lavender are still present in smaller doses. Winter Nights is an appropriate name because it lasts for nights on end with a heavy sillage, and if you spray this thick black elixir on your clothes the scent and color may not come out.

Darker and deeper then regular Winter. I only just received and tested so will have to get to know better. Off the bat, very nice. I get a huge woody note at first. Smells like a pine forest at night with frost or dampness. The cardamom adds a hint of sweetness(not gourmand). The lavender is fresh and warm. I love that it's a well blended realistic woody forest at night fragrance. I will share this one with my husband.

in the top it was a smokey resinous balsamic woody bomb then got very sweet; up there with the likes of Boadicea Complex and TT Laudano Nero but then it faded and tamed into a more sweet pine scent with a lingering bonfire in the woods; it is lovely, so glad that I blind bought this, very wearable for the genre. This is one to wear when I want to roar and feel badass but but in a gentler, subdued way

I so wish I could get a full bottle of this. Smoke and cardamom, beautifully composed. It is a mix of A city on fire and Cape Heartache and I wish this would become a part of IA’s line instead of a 400 bottle release. The only thing that comforts me is that I don’t 100% love the lavender in the dry down. And that I already own the two IA scents that this is a mix of.

This collab between Sam Rader and Josh Meyer is among my favorite creations from either of the perfumers. It is definitely more masculine than the original Winter, which I personally appreciate, and draws from the smoky accords of Meyer's A City on Fire that I most enjoyed whilst leaving out that fragrance's grittier edge. 9/10

Wow, do I love this...this is black and white personified...the dark, woody, smoky dream rising in a crisp white forest...even the juice is black!...definitely a cooler weather perfume...Daesin has reissued this one for 2017 so it's widely available now...if you are a smoke and wood lover like myself you need to get this...

Initially this scent is saturated with the smell of marshmallows cooking on a campfire, surrounded by pine trees. It mellows out to a spicy musk that lasts for a couple hours. The scent is devine, I can't get enough. It's not for everyone though, my partner unfortunately doesn't love it as much as I do.

A cabin in the woods, a fire is burning in the distance, and my mother's cardamom Christmas bread is in the over. This stuff is amazing, comforting, and powerful. I can't imagine living without it.

Mmmmm I'm enjoying this. A lovely cardamom spice that blends perfectly with pine sap. Campfire smoke. This could be my happy place.