Forest frag = found

There's good news and bad news here. I have been looking for a forest frag (a west coast forest - cedar and douglas firs and wet, loamy earth etc.) for ages and amidst my small batch of Cb I hate Perfume samples that I received for Xmas was 'Wild Hunt' and it is officially the forestiest frag I've ever smelled. In fact I'm not convinced I could tell the difference between this frag and an actual forest. It's fabulous.

That's the good news. Other good news is that holy crap, C Brosius sure makes frags that smell like what they say on the label. Black March? YES, exactly like the description. The At The Beach 1966 frag? Again, exact match. Burning Leaves. Yes, this smells just like a pile of...burning leaves. Gorgeous and autumnal.

The bad news is they all dry down into something sweetly bland (At The beach remains beachy all the way through, though) and, to my nose, not really related to what they initially smelled of. Also, these smells are evocative and wonderful - it's an experience just to smell something in the vial that is so similiar to what it is in nature, but I think they're better used as room frags or as mood frags (i.e. worn in house to match a mood, season etc.).

I was very curious about this line, and I'm glad I've tried it. It seems CB has taken mostly negative criticism here (from what I've read, which is probably not even close to everything) but I have to say I admire his whole project. It's not traditional perfumery, I don't think, but it's interesting and just very cool to recreate these life-smells so closely and then experience them and the emotional reaction they invoke. I felt an immediate wave of homesickness for British Columbia the second I sniffed the Wild Hunt.

Now I MUST get my hands on a sample of his Baby Aspirin Accord because if anything is going to give me a Proustian madeleine moment it's this one.

A big overall thumbs up to the CB project and here's hoping he can sort out the drydowns.

I wonder what's actually going on here. I.e. is there some reason (cost, time etc.?) that drydowns are so generally blah, or is it simply laziness on the part of the nose or on the part of the commissioner of the nose?


I find At The Beach quite evocative of...beach. But it's a beach with a lot of people on it, possibly an amusement park behind it, a boardwalk, pier etc. It's not a deserted, wild beach. I don't *think* I get dandelion from it but I'll need to try it again. ITA on Black March - smells exactly like wet earth in the spring. Sort of fertile and dirty, but in a good way.

Memory of Kindness and Under The Arbor are both high up on my to-test list from CB, as is the new one November, which sounds awesome: "pumpkin pie, fallen apples, bonfire, woodsmoke, dried grass, fallen leaves, wet branches, damp moss, chanterelle mushrooms and a hint of pine forest". Given what I've learned from these few testers, November is a must-have. I am very taken with CB's ability (and desire) to duplicate actual smells from life.

Wild Hunt definitely smells pine-y, but it also smells mossy and woody. It's not a managed forest, it's an old overgrown forest that gets a lot of rain. It is my favourite and, imo, the most complex of all my testers (the last one I got is Reinvention 93 which I have yet to try).

Odysseum, definitely give Wild Hunt a try in sample form. It just *is* the scent of a forest. These scents do NOT have longevity, as others have pointed out in this thread. That's actually really annoying. Surely CB could tweak formulas to come up with something that lasted?

Orion - ha on the gift! Some people seem to really love his musk (I haven't tried it) so who knows, maybe you created a new convert? Or maybe they cursed your name for stinking up their new house? I'd very much like to try the apple scent, too, and it's now moved higher up my list. Regarding the perfume vs odor, that's just not a big deal to me. Sometimes I want to smell of what's in a vial, and sometimes I don't, and it doesn't seem to be wedded in any black and white way to whether or not most would classify the substance as a 'perfume' or as an 'odor'. I like what CB is doing simply because it seems quite rare for someone with his ability to do what he's doing. I say bravo to that because he's already made a couple of scents I've always been looking for in pure, 'non-perfume' form - the forest, burning maple leaves etc for a looong time - longer than I've been into perfume, actually. I enjoy and appreciate these without all the extra stuff that would go into them if they were meant to be marketed as a 'perfume'.

I'm going on but I guess what I'm saying is I agree with you, and I personally very much like what the CB line is aiming for and exploring.

I want a full vial of the Wild Hunt so when I get it (I'm not buying new frags right now though, as finances recover from Xmas) you can have my sample vial - it's bigger than normal size, I think. I'm not really concerned with longevity, either. I mean, it's a good thing, but if I love a frag or a scent, and it doesn't last, then hell yes I'm willing to reapply when needed!