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| A rare peek at a Haus of Gloi stash before I ate the candy! |
Haus of Gloi Autumn 2013
I have a soft spot for Haus of Gloi. They were my first experience with indie perfumes and fragrances, and I feel the quality, assortment, and customer service are top notch. They've got your back as the seasons change, even if you aren't prepared for it. I'll be taking a look at the following fragrances from their Autumn 2013 collection:
- Ghost Puffs
- Persephone's Descent
- Pumpkin Queen
- Saft Ernte
- Samhain
- Spider Silk
- The Horseman
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| Ghost Puffs by Haus of Gloi |
Ghost Puffs
Full size: $15USD for 5mL
Sample vial: $3 sample vial
Buttery popcorn and marshmallow goo orbs, presented on a wooden stick.Just to be upfront, I don't consider myself a foodie when it comes to fragrances. Don't get me wrong - I rarely pass up an opportunity to stuff my face, but actually smelling like food isn't really my thing. I don't mind it, but I wouldn't go out of my way to remind people of sugar cookies whenever they're in my company.
That said, I think if you are a foodie, especially one with a weakness for the decadent and delicious, Ghost Puffs is definitely something to check out. EATING a "ghost puff" (which looks like a popcorn ball dipped in gooey marshmallow on a stick, sometimes topped with chocolate and whatnot) is probably not very healthy, but never fear - you can smell like one instead without any calories!
Even though Ghost Puffs doesn't boast any kind of chocolate in its description, a cold sniff from the vial and the first few minutes after application strongly remind me of smores. Gooey, delicious, graham-crackery smores, the kind that get your fingers and face positively filthy but make your stomach happy enough that you can overlook the mess.
Once my initial smores fantasies passed, the buttery popcorn slips through and any sort of graham crackery chocolate traces are gone. It's still plenty sweet while warm and buttery. This lasts for about an hour or so before the butter fades away. All that's left by the end is a soft, smooth marshmallow suggestion.
Duration: Ghost Puffs is no pushover or powerhouse. It doesn't overstay its welcome and takes its time to taper off. At the end, the sweetness is very soft and fluffy, not sticky-syrupy sweet (which is amusing when you consider what this kind of confectionary would look and taste like). It doesn't cling as closely to the skin as some other Haus fragrances, so be cautious because depending on the company you keep, your friends and family might suspect you've been baking goodies and not sharing them!
Score: 3/5, 5/5 if you're a foodie with a sweet tooth.
As a non-foodie, I can appreciate Ghost Puffs for what it is - a tasty, "actually smells like real food without being offensive" fragrance that doesn't try to be what it's not. Some food fragrances have way too much going on at once, but Ghost Puffs doesn't overcomplicate things. Even if you don't gravitate towards food fragrances, give Ghost Puffs a whirl. You might be spooked by how realistic it smells! (See what I did there? Haha...)
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| Persephone's Descent by Haus of Gloi |
Persephone's Descent
Full size: $15USD for 5mL
Sample vial: $3 sample vial
Pomegranate, pale musk, narcissus blossom and black amber.Mmm, fruity scents, my go-to favorite. (I know I just said I wasn't a foodie, but I feel like the two are in their own separate categories!) I'm always eagerly waiting for the giant box of pomegranates to appear in the grocery store each autumn. I was pretty excited to try this scent out!
Initial cold-sniff from the vial: ooh, sweet! But there's something else there that keeps this fragrance anchored and softens it, taking away the fruity edge. I suspect it's the musk, but I'm not sure. The pomegranate is delicious. It's not juicy, but the sweetness is there. I'm not going to pretend I know what narcissus blossoms smell like, but whatever is happening, this is a very attractive and feminine medley.
I'm not sure how well Persephone's Descent would work during the other seasons (I can't see this functioning as nicely as a spring fragrance), but I imagine it will carry over well into the winter months.
Duration: All day. The fruitiness of the pomegranate slowly tapers off as the day progresses. Some fruit fragrances I find lose their edge after only an hour or so, but somehow the pomegranate remains pretty solid the entire day. It only grows softer and fainter. This fragrance is very well-blended, so it's difficult to pick out solitary ingredients. I never thought pomegranate and "pale musk" (how do you describe musk in the first place?) would be a combination that would work well, but clearly they do.
Score: 4.5/5
Persephone's Descent is no sparkling, zesty fruit fragrance. Brooding, sexy and soft all at once, this is a very grown-up fragrance that feels more mature than your typical bubbly-pink-grapefruit without losing its sweet edge. But don't let that description confuse you; Persephone's Descent isn't some sort of magical sexpot fragrance that is too scandalous for your office cubicle. You could totally get away with this fragrance both at work and on a romantic date.
Pumpkin Queen
Full size: $15USD for 5mL
Sample vial: $3 sample vial
Gentle hay pillows, pumpkin, ripe peaches dusted with clove and nutmeg, dried summer herbs, and lastly, a lovely crown of amber.My relationship with Pumpkin Queen is a little strained, and I think it's mostly my fault. I attended a "Hooray, it's autumn!" backyard cookout and thoroughly covered my wrists in Pumpkin Queen because it smells lovely and I wanted to smell lovely. Somehow I wound up with my feet completely covered in bug bites to the point where they were so swollen I couldn't walk and missed a whole week of work. Was it Pumpkin Queen's fault? Probably not, but I bet I smelled so irresistable to those mosquitoes, and that'd explain why no one else had a similar fate - guilty of smelling too good!
Have you ever stepped into a candle shop at the peak of the autumn season? You know the kind, where they have every possible fragrance out on display all at once? Pumpkin Queen is like that but far less offensive and far more enjoyable.
Duration: This stuff lasts and lasts. The vegetal, spiced "edge" to the pumpkin melds into the sweet peaches and hay over time. Initially this fragrance starts out with a bang, but it becomes mellow and very pleasant. I got many hours of enjoyable wear, and it also eventally seeped into the cuffs of my sweater and is still lingering there (faintly) a month later.
Score: 3.5/5
Maybe I'm a little bitter about the whole eaten-alive-outdoors thing, but I really do like Pumpkin Queen. It almost crosses the line into foodie territory but not quite. Sweet, pumpkiny, spicy goodness all rolled up into one, this is the quintisential "pumpkin" fragrance for autumn that you'll think about every time you walk into that stinky candle shop - except this time your poor nose won't be overpowered!
Safte Ernte
Full size: $15USD for 5mL
Sample vial: $3 sample vial
A merry drink of harvest and glowing with warmth: Peach juice simmering with sweet spices, pumpkin, silken hazelnut cream and made completely curious with a drop of orange blossom water.Was this some sort of leftover, limited stock from last year? There were no sample vials when the autumn collection went live, so I took a leap of faith and snagged the full size...and I haven't seen it up for sale since.
My leap of faith wasn't completely in vain, although I really can't see myself draining the full-sized bottle, and had I received a sample vial I probably wouldn't have upgraded. Saft Ernte is Pumpkin Queen's sweet little sister - the two are really similar, but Saft Ernte is all about the peaches. Sweet, creamy baked peaches tinged with pumpkin spices and hazlenut cream is where it's at. It's not a sharp springy peach, but rather a softer, "mushy" spiced peach at the end of the season.
Have you ever read Louis Sachar's "Holes"? Bear with me, I know this sounds like I'm flying off to another tangent. In the story there are these famous canned, spiced peach preserves that the characters eat - it's been a long time since I read it, but I remember the peaches and how delicious they sounded (despite being a bit too aged for comfort and probably fermented). Saft Ernte is kind of what I imagine those peach preserves to smell like!
Duration: Unfortunately, the peachiness in Saft Ernte doesn't stick around for more than an hour. Most of it is gone quickly, although you can still pick up trace amounts. I found the creamy hazelnut-pumpkin wasn't as eager to leave. Eventually the spiced cream softens considerably, and towards the end there's a sort of baked-good-sweetness that's tricky to describe but familiar and comforting. The overall fragrance didn't have as much oomph or staying power as Pumpkin Queen, but it can still hold its own.
Score: 3/5
This isn't my favorite, but I can see myself reaching for it if the mood strikes me. I wish the dry-down was a bit more peachy and a bit less baked-goodsy. I think I've only worn it a few times since my initial wears (to test and review), I just keep find myself forgetting about it... despite being a full-sized bottle!
This isn't my favorite, but I can see myself reaching for it if the mood strikes me. I wish the dry-down was a bit more peachy and a bit less baked-goodsy. I think I've only worn it a few times since my initial wears (to test and review), I just keep find myself forgetting about it... despite being a full-sized bottle!
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| Samhain by Haus of Gloi |
Samhain
Full size: $15USD for 5mL
Sample vial: $3 sample vial
Freshly turned earth, wet leaves, and a cool specter ridden wind!According to Wikipedia, Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the "darker half" of the year. That said, the description Haus of Gloi provides for this fragrance is pretty fitting!
Samhain is a curious fragrance, definitely unisex leaning towards masculine. It begins as a very fresh, green, and almost damp/cool introduction. It reminds me of that nose-tickling sensation you get when you walk outside in the early morning hours of autumn - a bit too soon for frost, but cold and damp enough that the natural smells of the vegetation become almost amplified.
After an hour or so Samhain begins to "warm up" - maybe it's the sun slowly rising and beaming through the foliage! It becomes very earthy and "muddy", but I didn't feel dirty or like I needed to freshen up while wearing it. It smells like an afternoon raking leaves, rolling around in the giant piles and getting twigs stuck in your hair. It's somehow complex yet familiar and comforting all at once, and it's difficult to really explain.
Duration: The cool, wet, opening notes of Samhain are sadly short-lived. I really wish they lasted longer because they were the best part, although a little sharp for my nose. However, the drier, earthier part of Samhain is what sticks around for most of the time. I found that while it doesn't cling for hours on end, I got a good "full day of work" (eight hours) out of it, and even could still detect traces of it on my wrists after and evening shower. Pretty robust!
Score: 4/5
This kind of fragrance really isn't my thing personally, but I can completely appreciate it for what it is - a little sliver of autumn wrapped up in a vial. Earthy yet somehow herbal, muddy yet fresh, it's definitely one of those "You really have to smell it to understand it" sort of scents. If you want to smell like autumn incarnate, check it out!
Spider Silk
Full size: $15USD for 5mL
Sample vial: $3 sample vial
Procured from a dream: delicate water mint, wispy grey musk, crystalline webs of amber, oakmoss, torchwood, copaiba resin, and a touch of withered violet leaf.That description is glorious, isn't it? I think it's breathlessly poetic. I'm a bit torn on how I feel about Spider Silk though. Perhaps my nose just isn't worldly enough to process all the little nuanced ingredients (what does half that stuff smell like anyhow?). There's something about it that also strikes me as being startlingly familiar to Solstice Scents' Edge of the Night fragrance, but less heavily seductive and far more dainty.
Going on a tangent here... growing up I'd often spend holidays visiting a family friend who owned an 1800s Victorian guest house. It was like something out of a novel - packed with trinkets and antiques from generations, where there was some sort of dark nook around every corner, and each floorboard had a different pitched creak when stepped upon. It was as though time had stopped, and although outside was a busy main road (and down the street were Mariott and Hilton hotels), inside the guest house you were back in time save for a few appliances.
There's a really unique fragrance that comes along with really unique, old homes as well. Spider Silk smells like that home to me. It's a little bit spicy, a little bit cool and drafty, and a little bit sweet all at once. It's not the kind of fragrance you're going to have trailing behind you in a cloud, and because it's so well-blended and nuanced, it's hard to pick out just what you're smelling. I kind of view it as a the dainty, "indoors" version of Samhain.
Duration: I applied Spider Silk first thing in the morning 6AM, and I could still detect it (faintly) by the end of my shift (4PM). It's not a strong, pushy fragrance, so expect it to sit in the background while you gently pick up on it every once in a while.
Score: 3.5/5
I have nothing negative to really say about Spider Silk - it conjures up fond memories, it's delicate and dainty, and it's also complex enough to keep me curious without being overbearing. But I never reach for it. I constantly forget it's in my collection, and when I do remember to wear it, I find myself thinking, "Huh, I wonder why I don't wear this more often," then promptly forget again. It's a curious and unique fragrance, but it's the kind of thing I'd prefer to smell on other people rather than myself.
The Horseman
Full size: $15USD for 5mL
Sample vial: $3 sample vial
Autumnal forest and wood, distant fire, smooth saddle leather, brown musk and the lingering scent of a dark gentleman's cologne on a black woolen coat.I think my nose just isn't cut out to appreciate leather. The last leather fragrance I reviewed (High Noon from Solstice Scents) was embarrassingly short. Leather just doesn't do amazing things on my skin, and I'm a bit biased against it as I really don't have a lot of exposure to leather and leather smells.
I suppose that's a bit of a shame because The Horseman is a dark, masculine and enjoyable fragrance. I'm picking up soft leather, some kind of spice (...Old Spice?), and smoke notes. I suppose this is what one of those Hollywood heartthrob actors smell like during their sexy magazine photo-shoots? Nothing about it really stands out to me, but I suppose for some people this is an alluring and desirable fragrance.
Duration: Pretty decent, I'd say it lasts almost as long as Samhain. The spice and smoke soften after a while and sort of meld into the leather. It's kind of sweet in a rugged way. Personally, this smells more like "Your dad's old leather coat" moreso than "Sexy horseman stomping through the night" to me, but maybe I'm just a bit weird.
Score: 2.5/5
Not really my cup of tea, but it's not a bad fragrance. The spice and smoke seem kind of drowned out by the leather on my skin, and it winds up smelling kind of... old-man-ish. I know that sounds horrific considering how passionate many people are about this fragrance, so if this sounds sexy and cool and masculine to you, jump on it!
Final Roundup
Autumn 2013 Collection count:
- 7 sample vials (I did not buy every single fragrance in the autumn collection, I avoided Pixie Sorcerer)
Price:
- $21.00 for the purchase
- $3.00 per sample (a little more than the $2.50 price per individual vial in the general collection)
Worth it?
Haus of Gloi's autumn collection is excellent. It is extremely well-rounded - fruity and feminine, foodie and decadent, dark and masculine, it's all there. I know I throw around "There's something for everyone!" often when I review collections, but this is definitely the real deal. If you know what you like, you'll probably find something that appeals to your sensibilities, but this is also a great chance to tiptoe (or jump!) outside of your comfort zone and explore something that you'd never think of.
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