Oxylus

I recently reviewed Coastal Veil and had said something to the effect of admiring the picture but not personally resonating with the end result because I'm born to deep woods and inland lakes rather than the coast, but this smells like a hot summer evening... EVERYWHERE I'm from. It's wading through a muddy creek with a bucket for frogs just after sunset in Tennessee, it's laying awake on a humid night before we had AC in Southeast Michigan listening to the drive-in theater down the road and loving the funky smell of Ford Lake because it meant a breeze was bringing a little relief, it's the first firework of the show booming last Fourth of July in Northern Michigan while racing into the cattails to get my daughter's flashing ball before the light turns off and it's never seen again (I found it, the dog helped, we were both filthy as hell). I can absolutely see how some people might smell this and go, "It's alright at first but then... No". It's deep green up top and mud between your toes. Coastal Veil ends like a grizzled old man living on the beach getting shined up to attend a reunion with a splash of his favorite aquatic cologne that only accentuates the clinging salt air despite his shower and shave, but Oxylus is the smell of putting your feet in cold watershoes still damp and dirty from the afternoon's adventure and a hint of dad's aftershave nearly lost to a day in the sun as he gives you a kiss and a flashlight to go looking for nightcrawlers. If any of this sounds good to you it's well worth a sample. A little on the masculine side of a woodsy unisex aquatic but not as much as Coastal Veil if you're working through the Forest set. It's clean enough to wear socially without turning heads if you'd like—that swamp water note is honest but it's not the only thing going on and the overall effect is "different, but pleasantly outdoorsy and a little earthy"— but just rough and tumble enough that it'd be even better suited to a night watching the sun go down outside after a long hot day of working hard and playing harder. I'll definitely have this in evening rotation up at the lake when summer kicks into high gear.

Oh, oh, I may be in love (again). Green is my favorite color so Oxylus is the sample I tried first, while my husband went straight for the Ponderosa. This juice is GREEN and a spray from 2 inches formed a visibly green puddle on my arm, which disappeared when dabbed with the other arm. Point is - it's likely to stain clothing. The opening is aromatic juniper, pine(obv), and myrtle. The camphoraceous myrtle had me worried but it dissipates to leave a gorgeous and mysterious drydown. Pine still, vetiver, and the best part: that "wet rock" sort of cave-ish note, thankfully without the guano smell of an actual cave. After 5 hours the skin scent is a surprisingly light laundry soap. What a journey! Oxylus definitely scratches the Dark Green Dank Forest Floor itch 😍

• Excellent. • I've tried 15+ frags from this house, with mixed results. This and Greymist may be my favorites. • A super fresh, Earthy, dewy, metallic, rocky treesoil scent. • Reminds me of early morning garden work when I was a kid in the forest. Soil, wet granite, dew, conifer, and metal tools all tearing each other to pieces. • Masculine in a real, natural way, not a stinging perfumery way. It truly smells of the mountains.

Soil! And pine! And juniper! This feels like a wonderfully realistic representation of its core notes, blended into an atmospheric impression of walking through a damp forest. Quite incredible, really, though disappointingly quiet and short-lived on my skin. If this was inexpensive (which it's not, regrettably), I'd just douse myself in it and pretend that I *wasn't* working in a sterile office-building.

Imagine faceplanting into a pile of pine and juniper needles on top of potting soil, and you have this perfume. I love it. It's so strong that after four sprays I was reprimanded for using too much and stinking up the car. I've been told it stinks, it's suffocating, and that those around me can taste it in the air. 8/10, I wish the soil note was a bit more prominent.