Dead of Winter

Do you love Pastis? Ouzo? The opening is very much THAT, boozy anise, and it is delightful if that's your thing. The pastis note dies down after a while, and a nice creamy gourmand vanilla takes over; I find the vanilla sweet, but not overly so, and it dries down to be nice and powdery. It lasts for a few hours before becoming a skin scent on me. I can't pick out the heliotrope or cedar, but I'm not bothered by that.

I just wish it came back every Christmas. I was waiting for this this year to get a big bottle. Better luck next time. First some anise and after that lots of heliotrope which I adore, but some real heliotrope that is flowery and a bit vanilla like and not just pure almond. I love it!

this starts off with a big whiff of anise. for some reason i thought star anise was more subtle but in this it's definitely not. it smells like good and plenty. after a few minutes i get some hints of vanilla and heliotrope, like a fluffy white cloud, mmm. that cloud grows but the anise is still strong too and while i don't mind anise in small amounts, it's a bit much here. i don't really get much cedar in this. after being on the skin for quite some time the anise calms down and it is more tolerable for me. at this points it smells like marshmallowy-anise, and is soft and comforting like gourmands often are.

Mirrorghost did a great job describing this. Dead of Winter starts out as pure anise and slowly becomes an anise flavored marshmallow. Very soft and pillowy, and as such not to my taste. I wish there was more of that "zombie musk" from the description as I'm sure it would really give this a more well rounded and wearable character instead of just smelling purely edible which doesn't personally appeal to me. Performance could also be a bit better. Not bad, but perhaps a bit unfinished feeling, worth a try if you are a fan of pure gourmands without anything too musky or inedible. 5/10

Extremely strong anise to start, settled more sweet as the heliotrope and vanilla start to come out. About 2 or so hours in the musk starts to come out. Eventually the musk becomes dominant, and it’s a bit unpleasant. I’d like to try it again in the winter to see what I think then.