Earthtones #3 - North Woods
by Neil Morris Fragrances

Sadly, I have to report my disappointment with this scent. I love coniferous, woody, and herbal scents. Looking at the notes list, I had every reason to hope that North Woods would be that sort of scent. I find that it is not very green, not at all coniferous, and really not woody. To me, it suggests a sunny meadow of sweet grass. That is not a bad image to convey, and the scent is not unpleasant. But in my opinion there is little of any woodland in it.

The scent starts in a promising manner, with lovely green notes hinting at galbanum or clary sage. The scent is soft but fresh. Fig leaf and cut grass are accurately rendered and give a slight herbal chord. Alas, this is a very brief phase. Next to appear is the heather – an outdoorsy floral, a bit hay-like or somewhat like broom. Soapy myrrh appears, and the scent becomes somewhat sweet. The hay-like note increases, at times becoming powdery and at other times suggesting tobacco leaf. Sometimes I detect a cool, tinny-metallic note which reminds me of some patchoulis I’ve encountered. At times, there is an earthy note like soil, and I am reminded of Czech and Speake’s Cuba with the tobacco-earth combination.

To reiterate: this is a pleasant scent, somewhat low-key but in many ways attractive. But I don’t find it substantially green and certainly (for me) there is nothing of the forest about it, either in terms of coniferous or wood notes.

9th August, 2011.

EARTH TONES #3: NORTH WOODS - Basil and heather opens this scent followed by fir, fig and cut grass middle notes. This North Woods opening is a lighter woods than many wooded scents, but it retains a very sparkling green essence. The base is cedar, oak, redwood, myrrh, labdanum, oakmoss, vetiver. This scent has a great green pine oil opening from basil mixed with myrrh and is quite a bit more green than Dark Season which is more resinous. It kind of smells like a cross between Hinoki and Knize Forest, in the opening and mid notes, but there is a dry grassy scent at the base that smells like old burlap bag or oiled canvas. The base goes more and more to this oakmoss dry finish as it wears and develops. Not bad!

14th September, 2009.

This is the smell of conifer forest floors, all wet and slightly rotted and yet still full of life and earth. It's a strong juice, this, yet it wears (much like Yatagan, its dryer, Southern cousin) surprisingly close to the skin.

Sensual stuff that makes you want to frolic with fauns and pick up pine cones and do naughty things among the branches and the boughs.

Apply only if you dare.

24th February, 2009.

At first spray, I felt like I'd taken a clod of Scott's potting soil and mashed it onto my arm. Earthy. Neil Morris ain't kidding when he decided to call this *Earth*tones. And then after about 30 minutes or so, it stopped smelling like a potted plant, and I could smell woods. Cypress, cedar, and just lots and lots of loamy woods, with mushrooms growing in it. And it stayed like that for maybe 3 hours or so.

Then it became a really nice spicy scent. Kind of like BPAL's Coyote, but different. Coyote smells of champa and teak wood to me. The weathered, slightly-damp teak that one finds in old sailboats.

While I was wearing North Woods, I caught a whiff of Woodland Strawberries that was still lingering on my lab coat. In comparison, North Woods is mostly cedar and other earthy woods whereas Woodland Strawberries is more cedar with sandalwood. That's what I think, anyway.

22nd October, 2008.