Slumberhouse Mond Extrait de Parfum is warm, dark apple cider with a generous spoonful of warm, wintery spices sweetened with honey and poured over smoky, aromatic woods. It was a fragrance that developed and shifted throughout the first several hours of wear, though perhaps less dramatically compared to other Slumberhouse fragrances (that is neither a good or bad thing!).

It’s supposed to reflect an “autumnal palette” that has notes of: “honey, rubescent spices, morello cherry and sapwood, quarender apple peel, accords of mavrodaphne and marchpane, chicory, pipe tobacco casing tincture (amaretto, plum, vanilla), balsam incarnadine, pillowy amber notes, sandalwood, raspberry, guaiacwood, foin coupe bordeaux accord, and pumpkin and cream.”

Scent Development

It opened with warm, winter spices and reddish apple–slightly sweet and crisp–with dribbles of honey and just-chopped, drier, slightly sawdusty woods. It did evoke an “autumnal palette” as desired; it was hot, apple cider, heavily spiced, with crunchy leaves and bare trees all around. Over the first 15 minutes, the apple turned fruitier, more like a mix of apple, berries, and cherries with a stewed quality. Mond managed to be dry, yet crisp; bright and spicy yet smooth.

The changes were small and ever-shifting throughout the first two hours of wear; sometimes, Mond appeared sweeter, fruitier, and other times, it was slightly smoky, woody, and more balsamic with wood resins. There were other moments where it had a cherry-almond creaminess coupled with dry, aromatic woods and tobacco. The one aspect that was most present throughout these small shifts was the “rubescent spices,” which smelled of clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg to me.

The next shift occurred around the four and a half hour mark, which was when Mond grew woodier and yielded a drydown that smelled of smoked apple-wood with soft, light tobacco and smooth sandalwood. This was sprinkled with a lingering sense of warming spices.

Application

For testing, I used 1/3 of a 0.7ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. This arm was moisturized with unscented moisturizer about a half hour prior to applying perfume.

I purchased my sample in January 2022; fragrances are known to be reformulated over their lifetime , so be mindful of when a review was made, e.g. a review from 2010 may not reflect what the same-named perfume smells like in 2022.

Longevity

It lasted for eight hours until it was a skin-scent and about 14 hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage and projection were moderate with projection dropping after three hours.

Personal Thoughts

It was a beautiful scent, and had I not recently fallen in love with Slumberhouse’s Ore 2022, it might be in contention, but it’s not quite as intoxicating as Ore was for me. I found following the notes and seeing how they shifted and transformed over time to be so enjoyable, though.

Available Sizes

• 50ml for $260
• 0.7ml sample for $6

Where to Buy

• LuckyScent

Slumberhouse Mond Perfume Review

Slumberhouse Mond Perfume Review

Slumberhouse Fjerne Extrat de Parfum is a soft gourmand that utilizeds the earthy, cocoa powder qualities of patchouli paired with honeyed amber and vanilla, nuttiness, and and milkiness. It is creamy, milky, and sweet like coconut with soft touch of vanilla and cocoa, while other times it is dustier, earthier, and almost bread-like with the way the milk and honey soaked into it. The drydown is characterized by light muskiness and lightly spiced, creamy woods and more resinous sweetness.

It is listed as having these notes: milk, honey, hazelnut, cedar, musk, wheat, amber, sandalwood, patchouli, feuilletine, tonka, carob, vanilla, cistus, styrax.

Scent Development

It opened with nutty, honeyed notes with a smooth, creamy backdrop with aromatic cedarwood and spiced amber. It was softly sweet, almost like vanilla-honey milk bath, and creamy with smooth nuttiness. There was a dry, cocoa powdered patchouli underneath, caught between earthy, dusty, and chocolaty; the vanilla brought out the more chocolaty tones.

After 20 minutes, Fjerne had a more coconutty aroma; like the meat of a coconut–creamy, milky, and sweet–with touches of cocoa powder and dark vanilla. It seemed to turn and wear quite closely to my skin about an hour in, which was a surprise, and smelled of bread soaked in milk and honey with a dusting of cocoa powder and a dash of vanilla extract.

From there, it largely smelled like dusty, slightly earthy patchouli with hints of cocoa and vanilla along with soft cedarwood. In the drydown, which emerged around the fifth hour, the patchouli lost its earthiness; it was more like a vanilla with a cocoa undercurrent, smooth and amorphous in its woodiness, and had a creamy muskiness to it. The perfume progressively lost its cocoa facet as the vanilla and musk ramped up.

Application

For testing, I used 1/3 of a 0.7ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. This arm was moisturized with unscented moisturizer about a half hour prior to applying perfume.

I purchased my sample in January 2022; fragrances are known to be reformulated over their lifetime , so be mindful of when a review was made, e.g. a review from 2010 may not reflect what the same-named perfume smells like in 2022.

Longevity

It lasted for five hours until it was a skin-scent and about 12 hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage and projection were moderate for the first two hours, but Fjerne wasn’t as intense as I have experienced with other Slumberhouse fragrances.

Personal Thoughts

There were parts of Fjerne that reminded me of Ore 2022, likely because of the way the cocoa is presented in both, but I prefer Ore 2022 quite a bit more. There’s something more assertive about Ore 2022.

Available Sizes

• 50ml for $300
• 0.7ml sample for $7

Where to Buy

• LuckyScent

Slumberhouse Fjerne Perfume Review

Slumberhouse Fjerne Perfume Review

Slumberhouse Jeke (2022) Perfume Extrait is marked by a heavy dose of smoke; both from tobacco as well as the whiskey that gets its initial sweetness from rum and caramel, then later from honeyed amber and benzoin. There was light spice from the clove but it was very diffused and blended into the composition, so it gave depth without feeling overtly spicy to my nose. It had the development of notes and nuances throughout the day that I’ve come to expect from Slumberhouse.

The 2022 version of Jeke is supposed to be less like the prior formulation with the 2022 version focusing on three main accords: “whiskey, amber and honey, and tobacco.” It is further described as “sweet, spicy, smokey amber tobacco within in a thick golden halo of whiskey and rum notes” and the “Jeke” the perfumer always had in their mind.

It contains the following notes: tobacco, amber, honey, rum, vanilla, clove, caramel, whiskey, benzoin, and smoke.

Scent Development

It opened with a burst of boozy, caramel-coated whiskey that shifted into something smokier and more tobacco-heavy after a minute where the whiskey felt like an undertone. As the tobacco pushed forward, there was a rummy sweetness paired with the smoky whiskey. The opening was full of gray smoke, wafting into the air, with undercurrents of sweeter rum, smoky, peat-heavy whiskey, and drizzle of caramel.

After 10 minutes, the smoke turned sweeter, wispy, and melded with the boozy elements with the sweetness leaning into a more honeyed form, not quite as dark as caramel. There was the barest suggestion of spice in the form of clove, which gave way to a brush of spiced, golden amber that slowly intensified over the next 20 minutes.

The first hour of the fragrance was defined by intense smoky tobacco, whiskey, and honey facets. I was able to detect subtle, caramel-like sweetness and a little rum, but they were deep in the background and were easily missed. Between the second and fourth hour, there were shifts in what was more noticeable at one moment to the next but minor and more woven together as a result.

There were less changes than I expected through the fourth hour, which was when it started to became more caramelized, resinous, and almost buttery with more subdued tobacco and whiskey notes. It seemed slightly dry and woody, too.

From the fifth hour through the eighth hour, the amber played a bigger and bigger role; it became a warm, honeyed amber with smoky, slightly spiced drier woods. The woods seemed to get drier through the drydown, which was more resinous and slightly caramelized with whispers of tobacco and smoke.

Application

For testing, I used 1/3 of a 0.7ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise. 

I purchased my sample in February 2022; fragrances are known to be reformulated over their lifetime , so be mindful of when a review was made, e.g. a review from 2010 may not reflect what the same-named perfume smells like in 2022.

Longevity

It lasted for eight hours until it was a skin-scent and about 14 hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage and projection were moderate with both moving closer to the body/the skin, respectively, after three hours of wear.

Personal Thoughts

For my personal preferences, the smokiness of the tobacco coupled with the whiskey was more smoke than I prefer, especially as I tend to need some sweetness or spice to really cut through some of the tarry aspects that smoke can bring to a fragrance. It seemed as superbly done as I would expect from the house, just not my cup of tea! In a way, I was relieved not to also fall in love with this revamped release as I did with Ore… easy to resist buying a bottle.

Available Sizes

• 50ml for $260
• 0.7ml sample for $6

Where to Buy

• LuckyScent

Slumberhouse Jeke (2022) Perfume Review

Slumberhouse Jeke (2022) Perfume Review

Slumberhouse Ore (2022) Perfume Extrait is a true journey through well-calibrated notes that are discernible while harmonizing in an exceptional way. It first reveals dark, smoky balsam and resin with rich cocoa accented with wisps of vanilla, and then later on, spiced, golden amber, patchouli, and oak. It is chocolaty and boozy at times, creamier and almost milk chocolate at others, and full of depth and curves.

The 2022 version of Ore is supposed to still be true to the original but with improvements on quality of materials and calibration of amounts of materials. It contains the following notes: oak, vanilla, guaiac, peru balsam, tolu balsam, fossil amber, muhuhu, benzoin, cocoa, patchouli, milk & bushman candle resin.

Scent Development

It opened with resinous balsam notes paired with rich, powdered cocoa that was dark and chocolaty with a touch of vanilla. The depth of the cocoa note was surprising; it was quite lush without being overly sweet nor too dusty. If you’ve ever wanted patchouli to be ultra chocolaty, the aroma of the cocoa note here was just that. Five minutes after application, there was a subtle, spiced resinous quality that appeared along with aged, oak barrel undertones, woody and a little boozy–but the cocoa was the feature.

The cocoa became more noticeably spiced, darker and richer as a result, and had a dollop of fresh cream mixed with vanilla. Even though different facets of the perfume were discernible, there was an element of truly superb blending at work; the elements flowed together in such a harmonious way that it took me by surprise.

While the first 20 minutes may have felt more gourmand as the cocoa led the composition, the crisp, coniferous effect of the balsams increased the woodiness, while the sweetness took on a deeper, spiced and resinous quality accentuated by boozy vanilla. The booziness ratcheted up at the 30-minute mark, bringing hints of oak over the balsams. The cocoa note was less prominent, more blended in with the other notes, but still very readily detected as part of the perfume’s structure.

It remained boozy and chocolaty with creamy, spiced vanilla, thick resins, and aromatic woods with different aspects being more noticeable at certain periods but no dramatic shifts. Two hours into the wear, Ore became more caramelized, slightly smoky, and sweeter with more of a creamier pour of chocolate. Four hours in, there was discernible shift into slightly drier, aromatic woods with balsamic resins with a softer, more background chocolaty note. The drydown appeared around the eight-hour mark and was comprised of rich, resinous woods, dark vanilla, and amber.

Application

For testing, I used 1/3 of a 0.7ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise. 

I purchased my sample in February 2022; fragrances are known to be reformulated over their lifetime , so be mindful of when a review was made, e.g. a review from 2010 may not reflect what the same-named perfume smells like in 2022.

Longevity

It lasted for eight hours until it was a skin-scent and about 16 hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage and projection were moderate with the sillage getting closer to the body after two hours and projection dropping to a few inches above skin after five hours.

Personal Thoughts

I can see why Slumberhouse has such a high reputation in the world of niche perfumery. Ore was a testament to something so carefully calibrated and perfected that I really got a sense of everything that went into it from the first moment through the drydown. There was an addictive quality to it for me; I kept wanting to sniff my wrist to understand the nuances and enjoyed every inhale of Ore’s journey. Bottle worthy? Absolutely–I bought one immediately after the drydown (just to be sure).

Available Sizes

• 50ml for $260
• 0.7ml sample for $6

Where to Buy

• LuckyScent

Slumberhouse Ore (2022) Perfume Review

Slumberhouse Ore (2022) Perfume Review

Slumberhouse Sova Perfume seemed like an incredibly complex, but beautifully blended, concoction that began with boozy, honeyed tobacco spilled over dry hay with a hint of herbal tea. Early on, there was a burnt note that began quite strong before mellowing out after an hour and a half. That tempered and blended more seamlessly with dark honey and yielded something that was rich, earthy, and spicy with tendrils of smoke.

I wasn’t able to find the notes broken out into a pyramid structure, so the notes are listed as: sweet clover, beeswax, poplar, genet flower, golden grain, hops, hay and tobacco.

I was taken aback by the coconut blast I caught within the first few seconds of application, but it was so fleeting that I did a double-take. The “real” opening phase was lightly floral, honeyed tobacco that has a depth and richness that made me think “boozy.” Within a few minutes, the dryness of hay seeped through and melded with swirls of sweet tobacco but the honey receded significantly, where it added some depth to the overall composition at that point in the wear. There was a swirling suggestion of herbal tea blended with the tobacco.

There was a burnt note that became noticeable after 15 minutes of wearing Sova, which was more downplayed as I caught wafts of the scent from afar compared to when I put my nose near my wrist. It moved in and out of being more or less smoky and burnt but it was always detectable.

It was after an hour and a half of wear when Sova had a smoother honey re-emerge and blend with the smoky tobacco and burnt embers, where I felt like the burnt characteristic diminished, and the scent felt spiced, earthy, and dripping in dark honey. (To my husband, it reminded him of buttered popcorn.) This phase lasted the longest on me, as it did not change until about eight hours in to be a wisp of scent on my skin, faintly coconutty and almost dry and woodsy.

For testing, I used half of a 1ml sample dab vial, which was applied to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. I use an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise.  It was long-lasting (over eight hours and was still detectable as a skin-scent) with moderate sillage for the first two to three hours and then wore more closely following that.

Subjectively, I enjoyed the scent after about two hours the most, as the burnt aspect was less up my alley; it wasn’t incense smoke or smoky woods but just… something is burning, what is it, and how do we put it out? kind of burnt. It seemed to lie over the fragrance rather than melding with the honey, e.g. perhaps if it had, the effect would have been more singed marshmallows over an open fire. What I liked the most was the scent itself was a journey and real progression. I’m definitely curious to try other Slumberhouse fragrances after this but don’t think Sova will be a purchase for me.

Available Sizes

• 30ml for $180

Where to Buy

• LuckyScent

Slumberhouse Sova Perfume Review

Slumberhouse Sova Perfume Review