Soft Woods

The balsam and juniper keep this woodsy but without that bracing slap of a male cologne. More wild rose than domesticated rose. The more I wear it the more I love it. Truly unisex. I was hesitant to get a full bottle as the Libertine samplers were my gateway back in to the fragrance world, and I had so much more to sniff first, but i have since sampled a wide range both designer and niche and returning to Soft Woods feels like coming home to my quiet house in the woods after a long trip to the city. It puts me at peace.

Green conifer fragrances are tough to pull off for a perfumer but this guy nailed the scent, expression and strength. Sharp opening leads to a mellow airy green that you can wear without making an idiot of yourself. Possibly the most wearable of this genre you can get. I really like it.

This is my dream woodland rose! Enchanting wild rose & evergreen trees, deepened with some resins. Like sunlight woods leading into darker woods.

This is definitely a green and fresh perfume. The most prominent smell is without a doubt balsam fir, but I also get a lot of juniper berries and black pepper all the way through, with some florals (mostly rose) and something a bit fruity and a bit sparkly. There is a certain sweetness to it at first, but nothing overwhelming; on me, the sweetness almost completely disappears in the dry down, which in my opinion makes the perfume go from feminine to almost masculine in maybe two hours. Apart from that, the scent is pretty linear, but I do get a little more vanilla and resin in the dry down. It's got a major forest prince/princess vibe to it. Edit : I recently bought the perfume oil (I had only tried the eau de parfum) and it's a lot more on the masculine side, almost only juniper berries and pepper with some woody base notes, and a lot less rose and vanilla. I also find that it lacks the opening of fresh balsam that makes the eau de parfum so beautiful. Not unpleasant, but it doesn't have the forest-y vibe of the eau de parfum, which I feel makes it a little less interesting.

The opening is beautiful!! I was quite surprised by it and honestly it made me fall in love with this fragrance. It's really true to its name and the notes are blended perfectly while you can still tell them apart (especially the juniper). Unfortunately, it evolves in a simplistic and disappointing vanilla-musk-vaguely woody scent. Going back to the blotting strip, at first i thought that i had confused the labels somehow, as i couldn't recognize the smell as the initial one. That's unfortunate, and surprising as the rest of the line it's actually rather linear. I'll prob use up the sample for when i know I'm only a hour or 2 away from a shower or bed.

I was looking for some indie perfumes in Toronto and I smelled this at the Blackbird Vintage Finds. My first association was woody, more oriental and "sacral" Chanel no 5. Now I don't recall exactly, but the scent was complex and long lasting. And I appreciate that the base stayed quite interesting long after all the other notes were gone. This is my current issue with modern fragrances. They are initially super interesting, but like a half of them and up at the same, bland, generic base. So Paraphrase is quite interesting. However, I was looking for something more masculine and to me personally Soft Woods still leans a bit more feminine.

Very rose & juniper, not very woods-y at all. But it’s so beautiful! Very feminine, unfortunately, but in a way I (gay man) can vibe with. It gives the sensory impression of dappled light in a garden - sunny and sparkly, but in a juniper way, not a citrus way. I wish they had named it something different, but then maybe I never would’ve found it and I do really love it. Also- lasts genuinely forever, the sparkly juniper I’d expect to be a top note that evaporates off immediately is still as strong as ever (not overwhelmingly strong) 8hrs later.

I really like vanilla woodsy scents, so I had to give this a try. It's definitely much lighter on the vanilla than I usually prefer. Something about it completely mimics a high-quality incense, like walking into a spiritual store. I think part of that comes from the rose. I definitely get some kind of a resinous note from this. Not for me, but I totally get why someone would love this. This whole fragrance house has such good blends where the scents "belong" together. None of the notes feel completely out of place.

I always go into fir/pine fragrances thinking it's going to smell like a Christmas candle, but this was a pleasant surprise. It feels like walking through the woods on a crisp morning, and the hints of pepper you get with it add in such a nice spice that really balances out the sweetness of the vanilla. So so beautiful.

a long lasting scent reminiscent of summer days at my family cabin and the aftershave my grandfather wore. there’s a bit of an Off Woods bug spray vibe but not in a bad way

Walking through a fir tree forest and stumbling upon someone's rose garden. The opening is a little strong, but it dries down quickly to become a softer scent.

I recently purchased a Libertine sampler with 8 varieties of EDTs and perfumes. The Libertine fragrances are nice enough but I think the way this house blends is just not for me. Many of the Libertine perfumes smell very herbaceous to me...something of which I'm not a fan. Also, seems like this house makes fragrances with minimal & simplistic, linear "earthy" like herbal notes, which again is fine but just not my cup of tea. I imagine most, if not all the Libertine fragrances are very safe buys for someone just exploring higher-end EDTs and perfumes. Soft Woods fits the bill 'cause it is safe, wearable and I would think appealing to the masses who like clean, herbaceous fragrances with a wee-bit of dark (?) oomph...a very wee-bit. So, Soft Woods is another simple fragrance that jumps with a bit of pepper (as many Libertine fragrances so) and on me, immediately turns into a balsamic, fir-tree note with a punch here 'n there of what I imagine is juniper berry, or frankincense? Kinda been there-done that. There is nothing new or unique about this fragrance. And also I find Libertine fragrances have minimal silage and poor longevity. Soft Woods is no exception. Unfortunately, all but one or two of the Libertine fragrances are passes for me. Soft Woods is no exception.

This smells like a wet walk the woods, you can see sunbeams peaking through the tree canopy and recent rain glistening on bright moss. The fir and juniper bring lots of fresh spiciness, without being too marine or masculine. I want so badly to like this, the scent image it conjures is very compelling and relaxing to me. Unfortunately juniper is a note that has never worked for me, and along with the fir these notes dominate and make this a little too bracingly sharp for me to wear. I wonder if layering this with vanilla or sandalwood might soften the edges for me.

This is very woody and smoky on me, and I like to layer with with a floral or vanilla to pull more feminine on me.

It's ok, there are parts I like, like the juniper, but there's something I don't like. It smells like soft woods literally, like mushy old wooden things, a cabin that's in disrepair, a musty man living in it (and his deodorant/aftershave, which is confusing, because this fragrance also smells like someone who never shaves), soft pulpy earth peeking through the floorboards. It's good at calling up a scene, it reminds me of a book I read recently set in Northern California (called My Absolute Darling). Because of this association, it's even less pleasant, because it was a terrifying read. It specifically reminds me of the monster of a father from the book. This is likely what he and his house smelled like. In that respect, it's a great work of art for giving me such a visceral reaction. Unfortunately, not fun to wear or smell for me.

I had to scrub this off immediately - so maybe it would have gotten better over time but the opening was so offensive to me I couldn't endure the wait. It smelled like the strongest bug spray imaginable to me.

The perfect fragrance for someone who loves spending time in nature - like myself (38 F). To me this smells as if you are taking a late morning stroll through the forest in the early fall, as the sunlight peeks through the leaves leaving you with a slight feeling of warmth, but the air surrounding you is still cool, and maybe a bit damp. There is rose here, but it's a subtle and true rose, that just blends so beautifully with the rest of the forest inspired notes, which makes sense, as wild roses do exist in the forest. A very slight hint of sweetness and warmth from the vanilla. This is truly nature captured in a bottle. I had purchased a discovery set a few years ago from Paraphrase, back when they were still Libertine. I enjoyed all of the scents I chose, however, I'll admit, I did not love this one at first as the opening is quite potent, and due to that, I never really reached for it. Fast forward to last fall (possibly 3+ years after purchasing it) I decided to just go through all my fragrance samples and give them each a solid chance. While this one was still so potent at the opening, the dry down was so incredibly beautiful, I could not stop smelling myself throughout the day, almost shocked that it was the same fragrance. Excellent lasting power. I have a tendency to lean toward natural notes, and unisex fragrances as the strong synthetic, headache inducing sweet-fruity-florals are not for me. I would say this is absolutely unisex, but leaning a little more feminine as it does end up "soft" on the skin. Love, love, LOVE.

I had ordered a sampler set from Libertine so that I could try several scents from this indie brand, but if I am being honest, I didn’t really peruse the notes or the copy ahead of time. With these assortments, I like to keep the details secret from myself and allow myself to be surprised and delighted at however things might turn out. So, for example, I wasn’t immediately aware that Soft Woods, with its notes of fir and incense, also included rose–a fraught note that is all kinds of problematic for me. Dead Mom issues and whatnot. As this wore on my skin, I did become aware that I’d been Trojan-horsed a rose scent, but it’s quite unlike any other rose I’ve experienced, a boldly balsamic, bordering on fruity-rose; it’s weird, the amber jamminess is there, like a resinous fig preserves or a honeyed compote...but rather, the carmelized essence of it, absent the actual fruit. This is a mystical rose, a fairytale rose, an enchanted ode to a princess–any princess, all princesses. Whatever they look like, whatever form they take, whether they were graceful and benevolent, or the kind in a spicy Anne Rice novel written under a pen name, or even the sort who slaughtered their way to sainthood with a toddler strapped to their back. A princess can look all kinds of ways and do all kinds of things and I am pretty sure in all of the stories about them, they smell of Soft Woods.

This smells like walking through pacific northwest trails in late spring. Very natural smelling. It actually has alot of notes that I love in combination- vanilla, juniper, fir , musk (ie. aromatic vanilla ie. eau duelle) so I thought I’d love it. But the vanilla is not detectable and it’s too woodsy to wear for me. Soft woods is a fitting name for the scent.