Pacific Forest

"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep..." If you've ever visited the giant redwoods that stretch down the Pacific coast, and had the good fortune to be there in autumn just before dusk as the fog settles in, you know it to be a solemn, sacred experience - almost otherworldly. This might be the fever dream scent of such a place. It opens richly with conifer branches and sap - spruce, fir, hemlock, cedars - plus a deeply powerful labdanum that is your traveling companion for the duration. This scent resonates with resins, warm and enveloping, the unburned incense welcoming you to the temple of the forest. Dusky clove and a well-blended patchouli add depth and fullness to the woods and resins. Several hours in, autumnal amber and powdery oakmoss emerge, and the faint whiff of smoke lets you know the incense has been offered. It's a gorgeous, contemplative scent; the olfactory equivalent of meditation. Once you've been to "Pacific Forest", it will always inhabit a part of you. As a side note, I've tried nearly every offering from Sonoma Scent Studio. I have great respect for masterful perfumer Laurie Erickson - the thought and devotion she puts into developing each perfume is evident. I find that several perfumes in her line share some DNA, and I believe it's due to slightly different combinations of labdanum, resins (esp. frankincense and benzoin, sometimes myrrh), woods (esp. sandalwoods, cedars, and vetiver), patchouli, and oakmoss. These combos often yield an amber accord in the base. Pacific Forest is in the family photo album with Forest Walk, Incense Pure, Winter Woods, Amber Incense, and Amber Noir. Sometimes distant cousins Champagne de Bois and Tabac Aurea get mentioned at the dinner table. If you like any of these unique scents, I highly encourage you to try its kin. I have not yet tried Slumberhouse's creations, but based on descriptions of Vikt and Jeke, this scent would fit in that milieu. Until the database gets updated, here is a complete list of notes from the SSS website: Fir balsam, hemlock spruce, clove, western red cedar, Virginia cedar, Texas cedar, pine, New Caledonia sandalwood, frankincense, labdanum, oakmoss, oak, patchouli, earthy notes, heliotrope, violet ionone, benzoin, cocoa, vanilla

Pacific Forest and Forest Walk both capture the aroma of wandering through the middle of a cool, dark forest, but they each explore different facets of it. Both are gorgeous and comforting fragrances. Forest Walk is taking the perspective of the forest floor: you can smell the damp soil up front with moss, flowers, woods, and fir resin in the background. This one is the scent of higher up in the forest among the trees: the fir resin and other green elements are much more prominent (the listed notes are wrong) and there's a sweet amber base that mimics the sticky sap from the surrounding trees. This one has a clear similarity to the current iteration of Slumberhouse Norne, although unlike Norne it's quite soft. I'm using a splash vial though so spraying may yield better performance.

This is a very aromatic woody fragrance. Rich, resins, woody patchouli that is slightly dirty. Lots of earthiness from soil tincture. An almost leathery smell, I'm wondering if that is from the coumarin. This is also very balsamic, almost a dry vanilla smell as if you spilled vanilla extract on the ground in the woods but it hasn't rain in quite a while and that vanilla mingles w/ the dry soil and dry leaves of the forest floor. This is a dry fragrance but not overly so. Violet nuances pop in and out but stays masculine. This is a wonderful perfume for any man and will smell great on my husband. Edit 1/29/22 My husband has been wearing the sample of this all day today and he smells wonderful. This does lean unisex and the violet in this is sublime. I have been looking for a violet fragrance and have had little success. I was going to buy For Walks by Blocki, a beautiful woody, sweet, and minty violet but alas I am allergic to Barona Flower that is in the composition. I just put this on my want shelf (which I keep trying to cut down, but it is difficult!) If you want a woody deep violet perfume this is a good way to go.

It's hard to vote on the notes section since some of the most important ones are missing.. (I just know whoever thought it predominantly smelled of cocoa probably hasn't smelled it yet) "I wanted to create an all-natural version of the Forest Walk scent...using similar natural wood notes but grounding them with a mellow all-natural amber base" yet something else entirely came out with the second aspect missing. "This scent features prominent fir and hemlock spruce notes along with three kinds of cedar, pine, oakwood, oakmoss, and sandalwood" making the woods much "livelier" than Forest Walk, meaning I don't see just woods and tree trunks, instead with leafs fully intact, making the scent very green, sour, and even juicy! (essentially a dark, intensified Christmas tree) *There's no actual soil tincture in this fragrance, instead a molecule called geosmin, making it only 99% natural.

I haven't visited the giant redwood forests, but do they really smell sweet like this? To me it smells more like "forest berries" or "forest berry jam". It's a smooth and pleasant perfume, not as jammy sweet as the Vagabond Prince's Enchanted Forest, but the name led me to expect something else. I am more familiar with pine and fir forests, and when it comes to that deep, dark forest smell (without sweetness), nothing beats Switch. Perfumes and More's No 4.