Forest Flora

This truly smells like the forest, the pine needles, the bark of the trees, the dark, musky earth. This house makes some really good wild crafted scents. The only thing I would say about this house is the scents I tried are very masculine and my husband took all the samples. I will have to sample a few of the other that were more floral but the quality and care of the ingredients shines in each of the scents I tried. They are pricey though and don't know if I can make the investment in a full size right now since the Covid lockdown I have taken up fragrance collecting and sampling as a hobby and while I am enjoying it, it can easily run into some big spending LOL. But if you want a fragrance that smells like a walk in the woods during the wintertime this one is for you.

Update: it gave me a rash. Moved to dislike. The good: As with every Gather scent, Forest Flora smells very *natural*. I can easily believe from the scent, the resinous texture, and from the dried-pine color that the list of notes and the list of ingredients are, if not identical, then close. I could see this scent as a workable, albeit wildly expensive, tool for those practicing magical traditions. The meh: Forest Flora smells almost exactly like a toilet bowl cleaner. A classy toilet bowl cleaner, mind. An organic, sustainable or at least greenwashed, startup culture toilet bowl *cleanser*, marketed on the website with a hundred dollar handworked pig bristled brush. The absolutely maddening: The samples are .5 ml each, cost $30, and here’s the kicker—the little bottles are so tightly stoppered that it’s almost impossible to open one without spilling the sample on your fingers. Seriously, people. UX isn’t just for web design. Think about affordances! The surprising: I kind of want to wear it some time? Not on its own, mind you. And not inside the house, because my husband has smelled the sample and would never forgive me. All of the Gather samples have gone on his romance-killer list. But someday, after the pandemic ends, when I want to go outside and don’t want to smell sexy... Layered with something to tone down the whole, y’know, bougie bathroom effect. Maybe rose oil? An amber? Am I just recreating a chypre here? In any case, I love the concept, almost like the execution, let the buyer beware.