Forest of the Golden Dream

This is one of the most incredible perfumes I have ever smelt in my life. I cant even describe it as a fragrance, it's like a healing experience and I dont say that lightly. You will never find a dupe for this, it's impossible. This fragrance is a moment of pure olfactory genius. It's very green, mossy and woody but there is a thread of something golden, ethereal, and magical running through it. This smells exactly like an enchanted wood- thats it, there is no other way to describe it. It's heavy on the pine but not in a toilet freshener way, it's the experience of walking through an enchanted wood at sunset or sunrise, pine needles crunching under foot with golden sunlight streaming through the trees above and a whisper that something amazing and other worldly is about to happen. Its not all innocent mind- there is an odd, mysterious darkness that settles underneath that freshness that makes you feel slightly apprehensive that you are about to enter into an unknown world beyond the realms of your imagination. I have never experienced a fragrance that has actually taken me with such firmness to another place in time and space, but this does. Simply smelling it makes me feel restored, and as if I have been transported to a place where all things are possible. Every single person I have asked to smell this on me has become instantly hypnotised by it and cannot stop asking to smell it again, and again. I have always been a fan of Parfums Quartana and their poisonous plants range - up until now Venetian Belladonna was my favourite fragrance but this has knocked it off the top spot with ease. Well done PQ- it's incredible that you have made such a stunning fresh green/woody scent that has so many complicated layers to it. This fragrance is absolutely exquisite and I will wear this forever.

Sampling the latest release from Parfums Quartana, Forest of the Golden Dream, the follow-up to last year’s award-winning Ierofante and the beginning of a new collection that will continue through next year called “Les Potions D’Entelechie.” It’s fresh, green, aromatic, with a fine mix of trees—for me, a cross between a summery palm and a wintery mix of cypress and pine, slightly sharp but still quite calming and transportive. There are also spices and resins (cardamom, patchouli, fir balsam resin) that round it out and given it a more wintery character, even though, to me, it remains a very fresh and pleasant fragrance, albeit with a lot of nuance. It explores, as discussed in the CaFleureBon article, the healing properties of ancient cultures, and it really does smell like a healing fragrance, but not medicinal to be clear. Natural, green, multifaceted, with a comforting familiarity. Forest of the Golden Dream is sold both via the house site and great boutiques like Perfumology, priced at $215 for 50ml in EDP concentration, and performs well, not quite as intense as Ierofante, for comparison, but still a very pleasant level of density and projection. 8 out of 10

I am in love with this fragrance! I'm just starting to get into fragrance so I'm not sure how to best describe the individual notes but it makes me feel like I'm in a quiet forest at mid day when it's not too hot and not too cold and all I can hear are birds, sometimes it makes me think of the sound of cicadas too which makes me think of a calm summer day. Either way it's calming and sort of meditative. I have a sample that I purchased from my local La Jetée, which is supposedly a decant. I love the smell but I can't seem to keep it on me. It smells amazing for 30 minutes but nearing the hour mark it's so faint I have to put my nose almost on my wrist to smell it and after that I forget I'm wearing it at all because it's undetectable. The second application I did today was two sprays on the inside of each wrist/arm, and two on my neck (6 total). It's been 45 minutes and it's already very faint again. I want a full bottle of this because of how it makes me feel but at that price point I'm afraid it's not worth it. Other reviews are saying they found it long lasting and projecting well so maybe I'll gamble and hope a full bottle would be better.

Put on French Lover, go into a sunny northern forest where the pine sap is sticky and oozing, and light a Big Sur After Rain Candle. This is complex, non linear, with a green essence that roils through it's variolous shades of light and shadow - watery violet to somber laurel and deeper pine. The eucalyptus feels soothing in the lungs, it gives the refreshing feeling of your senses blossoming, inviting in the gently spicy coriander and pine. With the blinds dawn I'd swear it was a sunny spring day outside instead of the windswept Canadian winter it is. French Lover is a relative but this smells much more modern and frankly of higher quality than the current French Lover, performs much better as well. It wears like a green fragrance greatest hits album, not counting those floral Lilly numbers I never much cared for. I really enjoy Ierofante as a wearable piece of art, but this one should have gotten the award. A big wow. If you love green fragrances do yourself a favor and get a sample soon! I can't wait to wear this in spring.

This forest is undoubtedly enchanted. However, the blend is so unique that it’s hard to trace the scent to any known combination of herbs, plants, or fruits from the woods or underbrush. It’s otherworldly. It seems to even include the scent of the nymphs that inhabit the forest. Their skin is damp after the dances and songs dedicated to the tree deities. There have been passionate encounters among the bushes. A sense of dangerous delirium and deception prevails: a human could lose themselves in this forest, surrender to its wonder, and never return. I invite you to read the pages describing the encounter between Kvothe and Felurian from The Wise Man's Fear, a fantasy novel by Patrick Rothfuss (the second book in The Kingkiller Chronicle). The fragrance seems to capture the context, the characters, and the acts described in the most beautiful pages of fantasy literature from the past decade. For me, Forest of the Golden Dream is the best fragrance of 2024. A cinematic olfactory journey.