Fume

Hendley Perfumes Fume is one of the better-reputed fragrances in Hans Hendley's line, and so it's unsurprising, yet unfortunate, that it's sold out and may not be coming back due to sourcing. Still, I'm glad to have tried it, as it falls into the category of dark fragrances that mix smokiness and woodiness superbly. The central note is balsam fir resin, giving off the vibe of a recently put-out campfire mixed with the dense resin of trees. In that respect, it's every so slightly a green fragrance, but only in the way the resin and smoke is classified. It's not purely smoke and dirty like Lalique Encre Noire, as there is real life in the balsamic, woody accords. A performance beast, as well, as one might expect from its dark character and in EDP concentration from an independent house. Pricing now seems to be up in the air since it's discontinued but this surely could demand high prices as a winter beast, something to don on winter nights. I imagine this would mainly work well for men instead of women, but it's not so purely masculine as to be exclusively so. The most similar fragrance that comes to mind is Slumberhouse Norne, as both Fume and Norne depend on the pivotal balsam fir resin note. And Profumum Arso has a similar heavy use of pine resin, so it's a little further removed, but still in the same vein. Fume is superb and I'd love to try and track down a bottle, or at least hope that Hans Hendley can bring it back somehow. Great stuff! 8 out of 10

Fume is almost a forest fire chypre—moss and pine sap intertwined, the former strengthening as it ages on the skin; resinous, sweet, bitter, and a little smoky simultaneously. If La Curie’s Incendo is a campfire in the forest at night, Fume is that fire smoldering the next morning—there’s a lightness to its weight, refracted green light through a density of trees. It does bear a resemblance to the aforementioned Incendo, and to Slumberhouse’s Norne, but it strikes a balance between these two—forest and fire in equal measure. Because of that, I find Fume to be quite wearable—it refuses the seasonal hallmark of pine-exclusive scents. It’s neither sticky nor cloying; natural and fresh but with deep warmth. I’ve worn it the most of any perfume in my collection this winter. It’s beautiful.

herbal and bitter dry vetiver at first with galbanum and cypriol in the top then sweetens a bit and becomes a bit more resinous as it dries down with the addition of fir but not a typical Christmas tree scent. This is kind of like walking in the woods at night with pine trees and a bonfire but more herbal, sort of in the category of Dasein Winter Nights but less smokey and less woody, more camphorish and aromatic

I love the smokey recent campfire smell. I'm not really seeing the longevity and silage that is indicated above. I suppose this might be a new batch which is not quite as strong as it used to be. But my wife did notice it, and really liked it. And I do smell it on myself the next morning, so maybe it is olfactory fatigue, I'm not sure. But I want it.

OK, I was just doing it wrong. Now, having gotten my own bottle, I realize that 1 spray is enough, on my chest or my wrist, and it happily lasts. But if I do 3 or 4, I quickly can't smell it any longer. Less is more. This is my second Hendley perfume, and I love it.

beautiful smokey smell like no other! i will glaze this fragrance until the day i die it smells like a bonfire in the woods

I have Fume on today, having purchased a small bottle of this Over the years, my views on this have changed -- they've changed quite substantially, and of late, I've come to appreciate it a LOT more. Yes, Norne, yes, The Holy Mountain, yes, a handful of other forest scents, but this one is different. The smoke is still there, but it's not a choking burning scent, it's the scent of the remnants of something that burnt. Is that cade? Birch? The vetiver here is also pleasant -- pleasant vetiver. I never thought I'd call vetiver 'pleasant' in any capacity, but here we are! The vetiver, along with the nagamortha play well together. They just WORK, I feel. In fact, a lot of the darker, bassier elements really pair up well. I feel that this one doesn't get enough love in that "cold, arboreal and real" scent trope -- it deserves to be up there.

OMG everything on the ingredients list I can legit smell. One of my fav truly niche lines, even though only one or two scents grab me by the scruff... this is one of those scents, that, whilst not grabbing me by the said scruff, does grab my attention. an absolute pleasure to smell. it develops, progresses and changes quite a bit in its lifespan. the tea must provide the 'smoky' element, and it ties in marvellously with the conifers to really REALLY produce an almost-seamless unified scent. look, this isn't my cup of tea, as in, i wouldn't buy it nor wear it out publicly, but i absolutely LOVE wearing it on a lazy day at home or when I have chores to do around the house. heavenly.

After the first vegetal fecal moments, this envelops you in an aromatic cloud of tea, galbanum, tobacco leaves, balsamic green cypriol, luminous oak moss, and then explodes with fir resin and sweet pine. It soon melts with a dark, velvety sweet flavor. This ends in the same direction as Mown in terms of elegance, composure, overall cleanliness and brightness and density in the wake. The cypriol is very enterprising first and the sweet resin and vetiver in the bottom . In between, the ingredients float in a fun way. It's mature, masculine, classic and in style it reminded me of A. Goutal's Encense Flamboyant. Serene. Forestry, green like a Pino Silvestre but with 5-star luxury.

I’m wearing Fume today, on an early, but chilly Pacific Northwest summer day. I put it on three hours ago and it’s still noticeable, even the smoke note. I would call this a super-resins-wooded-forest perfume and I quite like it. The smoke note was much stronger in the opening, but settles nicely into a well rounded scent of nature during drydown. One thing that I love about Hendley: this brand sells smaller sized bottles. Fume is a purchase temptation for a perfume junky like me.

Distilled camping fire! Go camping in a pine forest and start a fire with the twigs and leaves you find laying around then, stand in the fumes a bit. The smell of fumes you'll get on your clothes smell exactly like the first hour of this fragrance. Once the smoke scent tames down a bit, the vetiver becomes more apparent. Definitely not something I'd wear at work but great for weekends and winter evenings. Quite powerful. Use wisely!

yup, wearing this one again as it strayed across my path, and YIKES, the smoke in this is quite full-on, possibly brutal. i do know that the smoke calms down eventually, but that original smoke, for me, is just too much. borderline making me gag, officially. anyway, after the calm down, it's quite pleasant, but you have to walk across broken glass first...

i too got a connection to 'norne', but it wasn't anything too familiar... first thing i thought was that it had some birch/cade in the mix, but i must be wrong as it doesn't appear in the scent breakdown. it came across as dark, arboreal, coniferous, smoky, not my cup of tea, really...

The cypriol, fir resin, and vetiver made wearing this very unpleasant. After I left this on my skin for a while, it morphed into rotting vegetation that someone set on fire before trying to extinguish it with mud. This is definitely not blind buy friendly, especially if you have problems with cypriol and/or vetiver in scents.

This starts off way too strong and acrid for me. Not pleasant. Smoke and ammonia. I do like it a bit better after a few hours, but not enough to buy a full bottle.

An extremely realistic Evergreen scent. I like it, and I love the absence of sweetness in here. I generally like my fir with a nice dose of resins or dried fruit (think Fille En Aigulles), or a brightness and refreshing quality (like Nuit Etoilee). This strips back the nonsense and provides the wearer a true outdoorsy, foresty adventure which doesn't rely too heavily on supporting notes to get the point across. Fume is quite light once it dries down, which I appreciate because I could see myself easily overwhelmed if it were a bomb. The best kinds of coniferous scents imo are the ones which keep things light and realistic. I don't want to wear a cartoon tree on my skin, but one that smells like the real thing is welcome. A good quality fragrance, but for all intents and purposes I won't be seeking a bottle. To me it's a novelty item I would wear on Christmas morning or to fit in with my surroundings while going on a winter stroll. I will say if I smelled this on a man any time of year I'd drool a little. Scent: 8/10 very pleasant and realistic. Lovely soft spice and earthiness. Uniqueness: 5/10 there are many Evergreen scents out there and this doesn't have anything special setting it apart from those. Versatility; 3/10 for my lifestyle and climate Longevity: 4/10 only lasts 3 hours max, it's light and vanishes quickly. I like that it wears closely, but wish it stayed around longer. Overall: 5/10

Just bought myself a bottle of Fume. This fragrance is truly an experience and a ride, your choice if you jump into or not. There is no smoky note per se, but sometimes I feel like it has cade oil. Of course, not a smoke bomb, like many others containing this ingredient, A City of Fire to name one - but the smoky aspect is definitely up there, pretty pronounced, in my opinion. Apart from smoke, the scent is green and resinous, but not as resinous as I thought it could be. Quite a lot of characteristic to my nose note, which is cypriol oil, I also detect a lot of galbanum. Tea is rather calming and soothing and moves to the deeper drydown. I've seen people comparing directly Fume with Fumidus from Acqua di Sale or to Jeke from Slumberhouse (previous version) but to me it's not that smoky. Longevity on my skin is very good - 9+ hours and sillage is decent. It is an exceptional perfume in my opinion, worth testing - hell yeah! It's not a people pleaser though and not everyone is going to like this smell. I really like it.

Imagine you are walking through a forest and small section of forest is slowly burning in the distance , You can smell the smoke with wood burning and you will smell lot of flora and fauna which exist in the forest - The beautiful part is that it never gets over bearing and you can still enjoy your walk through the forest with that smell of earthiness ! This is in a nutshell Fume by Hendley perfume. It has very mild projection and decent silage - it last around 6 hours on my skin - it come in EDP concentration and cost around 160$ for 50 ML - technically this perfume is Chypre with oak moss in base and with that mild projection I feel you can wear this all year however best suited for fall !(8/10)

Grilling in the woods! Balsamic on the Mississippi river. It's kind of medicinal, camp fire, grilling, on a forest grass! It's kind of weird to describe but here it goes: It's the smell of "Resident Evil Revelations 2: episode 2" when Pedro transformed into a monster with a chainsaw and runs after Moira & Clair in that small village that is full of wooden huts. youtube.com/watch?v=v1NTP54XyzA The greeny grass at night under the moonlight, the huts, the metallic chainsaw, the dried blood, the sparks from slamming the chainsaw into the metal wooden doors & metal fences, the bullets, the smokes comes from fired bullets. This fragrance is the smell of that scene. Greenish, balsamic, wild, & burnt.

There was a time I used to speak with E.J. Wells of Happyland Studios (RIP) about the inspirations of some of his fragrances. EJ was a HUGE fan of Hendley Perfumes. My favorite Happyland fragrance was always Rhyolite which is a smoky gourmand done very well. EJ told me that his inspiration for Rhyolite was Fume. Fume is not as smoky as Rhyolite. Fume is a very natural earthy smell. Someone mentioned a natural niche Indian soap, and I somewhat agree, although Fume has layers to it. Fume is very niche and an experience to wear. You're likely be able to pick up all the notes listed, especially the vetiver and coniferous notes. Enjoy the journey if you decide to sample Fume.