Slumberhouse - Page 6

One man operation is the situation, so it will just take some time. Packing and getting things ready for shipment is what takes the time I think. My sense is that once things are boxed up there will be a big mailing and we'll all get our orders around the same time.

As mentioned above, Josh is a totally honorable guy, so I'm just hanging tight

Slumberhouse -- in my admittedly limited smelly travels, this is the only house ever from which I enjoy, and am interested in, and can wear, all of the scents. True, both Grev and Kere have a ferocious, bitter, herbal, rooty note on me (it's pretty much the only thing I get from Kere) which physically wears on me after a while -- but even that, I don't hate.

I do find some of them a little bit room-spray adjacent (again, on me, and I have perfume-rotting skin) -- Rume smells like a freshly opened bag of lebkuchen, Vikt like a newly cut balsam fir, both of them not much else -- but still, I can wear them, and I like them, all day.

Norne and Seva are my favourites of my sample bunch. Norne seems as though it would be just plain evergreen forest, but there's something smoky and dark in it that makes it more interesting than Vikt. Seva is sweet, spicy and warm in a way that I initially dismissed but which I keep wanting to come back to.

I am, in my minor and picky way, impressed. (Considering what my skin did to Imaginary Authors, which I saw mentioned in the thread -- killed them all, killed them absolutely dead -- I should be very impressed, I think.)

I am a little worried, though, about ordering anything from them if the batch variation is that wide! Tough call.

My sense is that if they get reformulated, the reformulations are more "refinements" than anything else. I have what I believe is a sample of the original Grev, and as I once said, it seemed like the kind of thing that would eat a hole in your wrist, and that the freakier guys in the Mad Max movies would wear if they wanted to get dressy. From what I understand, that one's been tweaked a little.

None the less, the general strength and intensity of some of his things remains impressive, and it's my (admittedly unsupported) believe that Josh is one of the few existing perfumers you could point to who likely doesn't give a flying sh*t about IFRA regulations.

As an aside, I got a note saying that all his newest bottles will have the names etched into the glass ( take that, Serge Lutens special bottles !) like that bottle of Pear+Olive that we saw a picture of here. An expensive process, I guess, and pretty high-class for an indie outfit.

Like Birdboy said, I think the changes are more like refinements than what we consider reformulations (technically, yes, he is changing the formula).

Josh seems to be doing these changes to improve the scent or to try something new, not to reduce costs/make more money. I'm not really aware of any other reformulations that are done to improve the scent (okay, actually I think MDCI Un Coeur en Mai was reformulated to increase the concentration).

If anything, I am worried about Slumberhouse reformulations because I'm worried about missing out on future potential improvements. What if I buy a scent I enjoy only to find I enjoy a later version even more? Wow, how is that for a change.

Just got a shipping confirmation from PayPal saying my Slumberhouse order has shipped.
I ordered from Josh the Saturday of his Thanksgiving sale. No worries.

I just got my shipping info too. Mailed today and delivery tomorrow. I do live just 3 miles away! Can't wait.

Yep, I got my shipping notice today as well.

Me too, email received today notifying me that my order from the sale weekend has shipped!

Same here.

Me too.

As did I.

I ordered Rume at the tail end of the Thanksgiving weekend sale (actually early early Monday morning, thanks to the fact that it was still at the discounted price in the cart, even though the price on the site had already reverted to normal). This evening a confirmation of shipment arrived via PayPal and it is projected to arrive by the end of the week, faster than expected.

I tried a sample of Norne and decided it wasn't quite what I had in mind, actually went for Hinoki for the piney mode. Although the mojo coming from the Norne sample convinced me I did want to try a bottle of something from Slumber. I'm a relative newbie at this and already can tell I prefer niche fragrances, being an artist myself and preferring the artisan style. Everyone's comments here really help, and Rume seemed like the way to go.

So let's meet back here to compare notes.

Yep, I think Josh just waited until he had everyone's orders boxed up, and then sent them off all at once. Step one, then step two.

Seems like it as mine is in the mail as well, looks like a good amount of people probably took advantage of his Thanksgiving sale.

Am I the first to get my order? Perhaps since I live in Portland. I ordered one, Norne. Amazing. Really does smell like Douglass fir needles and a northwest forest. The juice looks black in the bottle but when you spray it on ths skin it is green. Very dark in color and probably something that would stain light clothes. I have pesonally wanted to dabble in making a fragrance and always wanted to use something that smelled like a northwest forest. I love this one! If I were to use this idea for a fragrance I would personally go a slightly different direction but that is not a critique. My idea includes different notes in conjunction with what Josh has created here. I will not bore you with my ideas... Norne is incredible with no apparent top notes and transports me to a simpler time in my childhood evoking memories of camping with my parents and of Christmas trees and fir sap. A delicious smell. Now I can enjoy this scent any time I want to.

I hope and expect you will all get your order soon. No samples this time and that's fine by me. Got a nice very short note and the addressing was by hand, not computer printed. Nice pedsonal touch. Hope to meet Josh someday.

Received Rume and Pear+Olive today in their new bottles etched with their names. Really fine presentation and both wrapped in individual grey fleece bags secured with a ribbon. Everything accompanied by a hand written note from Josh expressing his thanks for the order. Makes me smile and says a lot about Josh's ethics and style. One gets the feeling of being personally attended to by Josh and Slumberhouse.

Very very nice.

I got mine today, too, and I agree with all of the above comments. What struck me about this particular comment, though, is that Pear + Olive is in one of the new bottles. I wonder if that means it's not going to be such a limited edition after all.

Pear + Olive was the first to have the new design bottle. It looked so good that I suspect it is the reason for the bottle design change for the whole line

Well...Pear and Olive arrived today...


Very impressive...I love it!


I don't want to do it an injustice and try to describe it yet--I just sprayed some on about 15 minutes ago--but I will say that the pear note is beautiful and it settles in with a smooth, effortless harmony.

If you're interested in this one, I'd say it's a pretty safe blind buy, so long as you like pear. Smells great on my wife too, but don't get it confused, this is completely unisex.

This will be a lot of fun to wear. I'm looking forward to it.

By the way, my whole experience with Slumberhouse has been uplifting. From, the quick, friendly response when I sent them an email, to the way the fragrance was packaged and shipped...even the handwriting on the box...it's just been great. You can tell that Slumberhouse takes pride and care in every step of the process, and I found it all very reaffirming.

My Sova (ex-Tunis Mills) came today as well. In the flat-top bottle, with the etched title, and still with the little beads to bring the 50ml bottle down to 30 ml.

Rume came today, in beautiful bottle with hand-written note.

Just put it on, this is going to take a while..... most intriguing, at any rate.

The cola note makes me smile — it's like having a cidery-spiced Coke while in a memory of Christmas past.

Just order the sample pack in the last week. Looking forward to getting them...

Wow Norne...I finally got my bottle...I say finally, not because of slow working on the Slumberhouse end, but because I live in a small town and they tend to forget us here. Anyway, I'll say it again, WOW NORNE!! Awesome stuff. It exceeded my expectations. So true to a forest smell. I had read that it has some similarities to Polo Green and I have no idea how anyone could even consider them as a comparison to one another. Not a fan of Polo Green, and I can see that I am going to be a huge fan of Norne...and they smell absolutely nothing alike, nothing, nada, zip.

Norne is dense, thick and dark...just like the forest that it smells so much like. You can definitely smell the frankincense!! It's awesome. I have become quite an incense fan so the frankincense is an awesome touch. And, man does Norne last. I sprayed on one small spray to test it out this afternoone, and, it's been 9 hours and it's still quite detectable. My wife got out of the car to run an errand and when she got back in the car she just said "Man you smell soooo good", so I think it's safe to say that it gets my wife's approval.

The only bad thing about Norne is that I am now very intrigued by this house which could hurt my wallet quite a bit. Awesome stuff. I'm very impressed!!

Got Norne and Vikt last week. AMAZING juice!!! Probably need to sample Pear&Olive soon.

These are the threeI have and I love them all. My Vikt is a limited release oil he did last year. Pear + Olive is most suitable for warmer months IMHO.

You may consider ordering the sample set next. In my case, Josh was willing to swap out the Norne for another scent when I bought a sample set since, like you, I already had a bottle of Norne. If it's any consolation, I think you started at the top with Norne!! Although, I have yet to sample P+O...

Great to give some support here for indie perfumers. I want to sample the rest of Josh's creations eventually and continue the momentum as my budget allows.

Liz Zorn of Soivohle is another interesting niche artist.

Thanks for the heads up Akahina. Cannot wait to sample it.

I have Grev, Norne, Pear+Olive, Sova, Jeke, and Sana. I also have minis of Vikt and Flou. Pear+Olive has always been the standout for me. It is very intricately engineered and has quite a sophisticated structure but is at the same time quiet, tantalizing, and simple. The oddly savory, brandy-like drydown is pretty much like crack for the nose. Think back to the first time you had salted caramel and what a revelation it was--you'll be in the neighborhood of the joy that is P+O. The airy structure also ensures that for a good 12 hours you'll keep getting hits of it--almost like the sound of laughter carried on the wind. It haunts you a little bit with the quality of something that you can't quite locate or discern and the sadness that comes with it. It has saudade. P+O ranks right up there with my favorite Jean-Claude Ellena scents. As Akahina says, it doesn't do as well in colder weather, but that doesn't really stop me from just spraying on more. It is a true masterpiece of a fragrance.

I enjoy the others quite a lot as well. Grev is an alien creature of a spicy grapefruit (?) with the laser focus of a spotlight--one in which you are kind of blinded to what is really in it. It's a very bold, staccato stab of something you have never encountered before. Norne contains a bit of the paradox of P+O--simple and complex at once, but more of a mono-smell in structure and very thoughtfully stitched together from unusual raw materials. With its reference to the Pacific NW, Norne is kind of the quintessential Slumberhouse; and I think it was courageous to take back the scent of pine needles and spruce from cheap air fresheners. Jeke has also been reformulated recently and in doing so it's been opened up in a beautiful way. It is my favorite tobacco scent. It reminds me of a modern and actually wearable vintage Tabarome. Sova is somewhat in the mono-smell wall-of-absolute style of Norne but with a completely different palette of more honeyed notes like hay, cocoa, vanilla, and hops--none of which really stand out on their own but in unison create a very powerful autumnal aura. It's great stuff.

A note on the reformulations: the impression I get is that the scents are viewed as living, evolving creations. Refinements are sometimes made with a new batch. If this scares you too much, just buy a backup bottle of your favorite. From the variations I have tried to date, however, I have found the refinements to always be improvements.

Thanks for your well thoughts about P + O... Sounds so great and kinda sad.

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Thanks for your well thoughts about P + O... Sounds so great and kinda sad.

has anyone had problems with delays in getting their order shipped out? I got an email from Josh saying my order would be shipped out monday with tracking and haven't gotten any emails or responses to followup emails. Any ideas on what I should do?

I received a message from PayPal concerning the tracking, not directly from Josh.
Their email came two or three days after placing the order.

No problem with delays. It maybe took ten days from the time of ordering to receive shipment.

When there is a deep discount like that, there are a lot of orders. Hang in there. You will definitely receive your bottle soon.

Brian my friend. What a terrific write-up. Then you throw in my FAVORITE WORD IN ANY LANGUAGE?!?! Love it.

While I respect all his creations, Vikt is my choice from this American treasure of a House. For me, the accord of oud+styrax+labdanum fuses together like the classic perfumery accords (chypre, fougere etc) of yore, where the sum is much, much greater than the parts -- a shimmering transparent wood-spice-animalic that is like a gloaming for the nose. Rich and sumptuous, yet translucent.

Good Guy Slumberhouse


All the samples with the two free ones included... all wrapped up in a nice holiday sack!

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Excellent, E_G.

As was mentioned, my notice came from Paypal, and yes, when I checked the tracking number, it took a few days for anything to come up.

Hold tight : You'll get a nice hand-addressed box, and everything will be dandy !

If I didn't say it already, Josh (Mr. Slumberhouse), thanks for the extra samples. It make a difference to me, to be able to sample a whole house wit AB bit of karma.

Ordered myself the $20 Sample Suite (2ml glass vials of norne, rume, jeke, grev and vikt) and just got my order in the mail today.

Not only did I receive the five in the Sample Suite but they also included Kere, Sova and Pear & Olive free of charge, that's awesome

Josh is wonderful...

I am curious to hear your take on Kere, as I am unfamiliar with that juice. Cheers on a nice selection of the Slumberhouse offerings, and remember to apply lightly at the start.

Haven't tried any of these but sounds like one heck of a house, judging by the fragrance reviews and service!

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Haven't tried any of these but sounds like one heck of a house, judging by the fragrance reviews and service!

Yeah, I emailed him about adding pear and olive to my order and he said he was adding these to everyone's orders since he was a little slow getting them out due to the holidays.

Does Sova smell anything like Chergui? Which is sweeter?

I like Sova a lot and don't like Chergui. Chergui is much sweeter.

I'm mad at myself for not discovering these threads until now. I wasn't familiar with this house, and it seems like I've missed out on a big sale and a 30ml option.

Finally got to open my package today and wow, Josh is so awesome. I got the sample pack, but he included Pear and Olive, Sova, Kere, Ore, and Baque for FREE. I wore Sova today and I'm making a thread for it right now....

Interesting that he would include Ore since it's discontinued. I wonder if this is a new batch. Baque is a great fragrance, which was exclusive for IndieScents, but it's been gone for a little while, too. Interesting. Judging by Sova and Kere, Josh isn't shy about reintroducing fragrances that have been totally re-imagined. We'll see what 2013 brings.

Just ordered my sample pack. Heard a little about Norne and decided to pull the trigger and try them, can't wait

I placed an order for a full bottle of Sova a couple weeks ago (after agonising long and hard between Sova and Jeke). Oh, I hope Josh includes samples of Ore and Baque! That would be the best!

I sampled "Norne" and have mixed feelings about it: On skin it smells perfect, but on fabric it smells very medicinal and after a few days it leaves a potpourri-like smell on it. Have you guys observed the same thing?

Just an update on my sampling experience:

Sova- Love it. I made a thread about it (http://www.basenotes.net/threads/320...s-and-topic%29). It's smoky, slightly sweet, and just lovely. I got 18+ hours of longevity off of this, but naturally it didn't project that whole time. I will be buying this today most likely (if not very soon).

Rume- Fall in a bottle. It's filled with Fall spice smells like clove, allspice, cinnamon, and some nice woods in there as well. Top that off with dried fruits and what smells like fruit woods. It got very good longevity, lasting me 10+ hours with one spray of the sample vial. I will probably get this if it's still available come Fall of this year. Interestingly, it almost smells like Coca-Cola in the opening 30 minutes or so.

Pear and Olive- The pear is very interesting here, since to me I get a more coconut smell than I do anything else. I can't say I get any olive, but if I do, it's probably just smoothing the fragrance out. It's almost creamy, but not something I can see myself wearing much of at the moment.

Norne- Wow. As soon as I put it on, I was transported to a coniferous forest, filled with pine trees, sap, lichen, moss, and lots of freshly fallen dew. Unfortunately it doesn't last as long on me as Sova or the others, and I only got about 4 hours of longevity off of the one spray. The second application after that got me farther, so maybe I just need to spray it more than once. Definitely considering buying this.

I still have Vikt, Jeke (new formulation with tea note), Baque, Ore, Kere, and Grev left to try.

By the way, fun fact: Josh actually doesn't make much of a profit off of Norne. The ingredients are so ludicrously expensive that when he did the math one day, he found he was not making any money off of it.

I have enjoyed Rume since early December. At first all I could think of was pickled peaches, a nostalgic taste of childhood. Eventually the subtler notes came forth, including the woodsy stuff. The cola note and evergreen element occasionally hinted of a long-ago Christmas party.

Rume was a comforting companion through the holiday season. Just prior to receiving it I spent a weekend in the mountains of NC with my family. We went to an old country club (not my usual cup of tea) for Sunday brunch. My cousin suggested I go down the hall to see the Christmas tree. It was in the oldest part of the clubhouse, a large room with high timbered ceilings and burnished wood fixtures and mantel. There was an air of decadence and age and nature, enhanced by the tree. The effect was of smelling something outside of time, almost eternal and archetypal. I wondered if Rume would smell anything like this. It took several wearings before I realized the drydown actually did smell almost exactly the same.

A few days ago I was going for a walk and decided to load it up, add a few extra sprays to see what would happen. After the walk a friend I ran into said I smelled like cigars! Later I had to admit the overdose did amp up the cloves to more of a cigarry effect. So beware, this juice is potent, doesn't take a lot. Looking forward to trying more Slumberhouse this year.

Just got my bottle of Norne today and Josh was nice enough to include three samples; Kere, Baque, and Pear + Olive.

I don't have mixed feelings on Norne, I just don't like it. Although Rume is more like pot-pourri IMO.

After owning Norne for about a month I love the stuff even more...It is, in my opinion, the perfect coniferous frag. Great stuff.

Because I love Norne so much I bought Pear+Olive and it did not disappoint...There are a few people that compare it to shampoo, and, I have to disagree...while I can sense a slight shampoo vibe initially, on the dry down it is much more complex, simple, and simply complex. It has an awesome salty vibe that sets it apart from your typical fruity/fresh fragrance that pear might be associated with. It does smell a bit coconutty but I mainly smell a juicy salty pear...and I definitely smell the olive...some say they don't smell it, but it totally reminds me of olive oil. It's a great frag that I'm really digging.

Along with Pear+Olive, I picked up the whole sample set and I love that Josh is willing to push the envelope and do things differently. According to the reviews here on BN, Grev is anything but spectacular...but I LOVE the stuff!! I'm itching to get a full bottle. It's got a fresh yet intense warmth to it that I love. About 2 hours into the dry down it gets exceptionally good for me. It's my favorite of the samples...besides Norne and Pear+Olive, I would say it's on par with Pear+Olive, but Norne is still my absolute favorite-no pun intended.

I don't know if I'll ever appreciate Jeke...not my thing. Rume is a little too potpourri-y, and it's crazy that it has a dry powdered cinnamon smell to it...I don't know how he captured that. Sova is so insanely barn like it's intriguing. I don't know if I will ever rock it but it keeps me going back to smell some more. Kere is run away powerful...I'm not saying that it's bad, it's just that I sprayed a paper to get an initial whiff of it and it filled my whole house for hours from one spray...and mind you, my house is very open so that had some power too it. Vikt I really like after about an hour-the camphor at the beginning smells a lot like stale cigarette smoke which I am so not a fan of. My wife described it as a hotel room where they tried to cover up the smoke smell with some nice room spray. But, thankfully, after about an hour it tames down and is quite nice.

Even though I don't necessarily like all of the Slumberhouse offerings that I've been able to sniff out...man do a love what Josh is doing. Norne, Pear+Olive and Grev are the standout winners in my book, but all have a definite place and I love that they aren't your typical frags by a long shot.

AND...man, do I wish I had discovered Slumberhouse back when Ore and Flou were available...I'd love to give those a sniff...maybe they'll come back soon.

I've been talking back and forth with Josh for weeks, and he was nice enough to allow me to use a $100 gift card to buy Sova. There were TONS of problems getting it to work, and in the end he gave me a slightly discounted price in order to get things to work. He really is a top-notch guy.

And I agree with Kybid. I've sampled the main 5 fragrances plus Sova and P+O the last few weeks, and while I didn't love them all (though I did really like Rume, odd that others don't), I really appreciate what he is doing. To be honest, I'd be proud to have any of them in my collection. He is a guy I will continue to support, especially now that he is exploring lighter, "easier to wear" fragrances for Spring.

I received my sample pack today. As stated above, Josh was very generous and everything was intact. Shipping was a little slower than anticipated, but I don't mind at all. I'm looking forward to getting into these over the next couple weeks. Thanks again to Josh. Hopefully this results in a bottle or three...

Disclaimer...don't expect this!

A few weeks ago I sent Josh an email to tell him how much I was enjoying Norne and added that I also had and loved the Vikt (oil) and Pear + Olive. Told him I was looking forward to what would be coming around the corner. I also mentioned that I had been playing aroud with making a scent of my own and voiced my frustrations about my lack of knowledge and experience. Josh was very encouraging. To my surprise he sent me samples of Kote, Vikt parfum, Grev, Kere, Baque and a tiny sample of Ore which I think he said was discontinued(?) or being re-worked. I did not expect this but perhaps since I have three of his scents and live in the same city he decided that he had a real fan on his hands...which is true! Hope to meet him someday

I got my samples today from Slumberhouse and was so excited and pleasantly surprised by Josh's generosity as I opened the package. I had heard so much about Norne and had just enough time to spray a bit and walk out the door for work. I loved how dense and dank it was and thought it was perfect for the ultra cold day we were having. With that I was a bit worried about wearing such a mystical fragrance to commingle with department store frags, but I had it under my sleeve.

Although I love Norne I was a bit surprised that I didn't get more longevity out of it. I could barely sense it on my 4 hours later. Not a bad thing at all, but with how thick this frag was and some of the other comments I read I thought it might last a week or 2. It wasn't a full wearing so I'm confident the longevity will be different next time.

I get home and next try Pear and Olive, what a neat one this is and I am getting some nice longevity and projection.

Looking forward to trying the others!