Kingston Ferry

The Pac Northwest has always been my favorite part of the country, and Seattle my favorite city. For me Kingston Ferry is the perfect mix of mentholated evergreen, herbs and briny air and is evocative of a coastal breeze blowing off of Puget Sound on one of those near-mythical warm, sunny days. This is a very “Calgon, take me away” fragrance because I can just close my eyes and pretend I’m there. There is a suggestion of seaweed and ocean water, no icky weird fishy notes, and I do get a bit of a melon vibe from it, but thankfully we entirely avoid Cool Water territory. I also notice a nice driftwood note, possibly the best I have smelled. It actually smells like weathered wood. Thank you to my perfume buddy who gave me a travel spray to try out. I have worn this fragrance for 4 days in a row, a very rare thing for me to do. I will require a full bottle. Update: I’m finding it has excellent performance. I only need a dab, and it lasts all day, staying true to the scent. Now my absolute favorite from Olympic Orchids.

my bf is on the lookout for a new fragrance, so i thought i'd try this out and see if either of us liked it. well, he doesn't and says he only smells licorice, and it is a lot more herb-heavy on him and stays that way. but i really love this. it really does have this strong but not unclean saltiness, and the kind of herbaceousness in this isn't really like anything i've smelled before in an aromatic leaning scent... within a few minutes, it turns to heavenly soft florals with a bit of lingering, almost anise-y tarragon and a little less woods. i don't often go for aquatic types but the saltiness keeps it interesting. the bf never got to the floral stage that i did but i think even if it had it would still be very workable on men. sillage is low-ish, and i think it lasted me maybe 5 hours or so, maybe a little more

I'm not familiar with the Kingston Ferry in the Pacific Northwest, so it was odd that this fragrance brought out such strong scent memories for me. It reminded me of summer vacations spent at a mountain lake, which was surrounded by deep pine woods. One whiff of Kingston Ferry took me back to long days full of laughter and devoid of responsibilities spent out on the water. As far as specifics go, KF is a clever mix of aquatics and greens. Straight up marine fragrances often turn me off, but KF lacks the added citrus and other fruits that spoil those frags for me. Instead, it has a sharp twist of tarragon and chamomile that is much more satisfying to my nose. KF wears close but is quite long-lasting. Made with obvious care, and priced with reason. Thank you, Fragrantica for the sample of this great little gem.

Kingston Ferry is quite simply remarkable in it's structure. The driftwood note here is very distinct, and along with seaweed (not fishy!) is evocative of agarwood or oud in its saltiest and driest presentation. Incredibly, its this note that reminds me of the cystine note in Costume National's Scent Intense. The lavender and tarragon provide a wonderful bracing Pacific Northwest facet, just like wind whipping off the salty grey docks and stinging the nose ever so slightly. Woody, salty, dry, and tasty. I feel like a dog with its head out the car window tasting the air during a grey, overcast coastal drive. Somehow uplifting in a melancholic kind of way.

This is another of Dr. Covey's Scents of Place that really describe the olfactory landscape of a specific location. I have been on the Kingston Ferry too many times to count and this IS the smell of the Puget Sound at the ferry dock on a cool morning. When I first tried this sample I just smelled it in the bottle. That didn't work at all. I could only smell the smoke, salt and seaweed until I applied it to my skin. Immediately the fresh watery element appeared, then the flowers and finally the tarragon, myrhh and lingering woods. I can definitely imagine this as a masculine fragrance. I would wear it in the Fall.