I admit to having a certain romantic propensity toward warrior types of men and I can’t help it, after reading the description and notes but be smitten by the stories and images those have conjured in my mind.
See for yourself:
BITTER ROSE, BROKEN SPEAR
Aromatic materials from the lands of the Red Branch knights and their travels to prehistoric Scotland – smelted iron, larchwood, thistle – emboldened with bitter rose and amber
From Ulster fort to Argyll’s holy top, Red Branch nights, proud chiefs in wool, faded dyes – rowan berry, bitter rose, hunt in wood-of-wonders, melancholy thistle, for feasts, water-of-life, Caeawg’s amber wreath, smelted iron, wine-in-horn, now broken spear and empty hills
ISLE RYDER
A call to the fabled isles of archaic Norse and Celtic myths. Resinous Norway spruce and fir cones with narcotic jasmine, island wildflowers, honeyed mead and bulrush straw.
To the Blessed Isles, past the Manx seaman’s myst and thundering valour, past Balor’s blackened bulrush, the Summer Raider in ashwood shyp, his northern woods, saps, cones, honeyed mead, wax, golden gorse, meadowsweet, to inner loch, of inner isle, always ryding west
PALE GREY MOUNTAIN, SMALL BLACK LAKE
A chilling air of wood, water, stone, and shrubs that grow on a mythic mountain in Armagh.
Up pale grey mountain, through silver fog, bracken, bramble, dry heather shrub, past gravestone pile from forgotten time, facing west in whipping wind, the small black lake keeps witch’s ring, where the doomed king looked out to sea, Fenian blood in turf, the chilling quiet, the cry of hounds
Tagged: Bitter Rose Broken Spear, Celtic mythology, DS & Durga, HYLNDS, Isle Ryder, Pale Grey Mountain Small Black Lake, perfume
All I am - a redhead 
Dearest Redhead
You are a Braveheart!
The dandy must confess to a rather counter-intuitive outdoorsy tendency and several of these sound very attractive.
Perhaps one should read ancient Celtic or Norse myths while wearing them?
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
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Dear Dandy, reading Norse myths is always an interesting experience.
If one doesn’t mind the bloodshed. 😉
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I love the complexity of the names 🙂
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Lucas, the names are what first attracted me into reading the rest. 🙂
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I have to say that I begin reading them and very quickly they just condense to “blah blah blah” in my mind. That is shameful of me, I know. I think I need at least one complete sentence at the beginning to latch onto the idea. Or maybe incomplete sentences about something I can relate to or conjure up in my mind, as many of these were ideas I struggled to visualize. Or perhaps I am just a lazy reader. 😉
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Dear Natalie, I know what that’s like. Happens to me all the time when reading perfume descriptions unless I consciously decide to read on. Then I only lose interest if it’s drivel (which happens rather often too).
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Natalie, I laughed when I read your comment – and I agree with you. Somehow these descriptions didn’t grab me either. What did grab me was Ines’s statement in the beginning about her “certain romantic propensity toward warrior types of men.” That I found interesting!! And now that perfectly jives with the other things I know about her – her reading tastes.
Ok, Ines … sorry about talking about you in the third person. If you do try these, let us know which one is your favorite. The one that sounds most appealing to me via the notes is Isle Ryder … ’cause I have a certain romantic propensity towards men who are as sweet as honeyed mead. 😉
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No problem Suzanne! (talking about me in 3rd person) 😉
Yes, I do like my imagined characters to be of warrior type. 😀 What can I say, strong men appeal to me (as I find that particular type lacking in real life). Am I not just the most awful person to say that?!
LOVED your propensity though! 😀
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Not awful at all, Ines – I understand what you’re saying. A man who is both strong and sweet (not to mention devastatingly good looking) on the order of Viggo Mortensen playing Aragorn … he would be the perfect man, yes? 😉
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Yes please. (even though I’m no elf maiden) 😉
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Hihi, I must admit to agreeing with Natalie and Suzanne. I read your introduction with great anticipation, I then only got ‘Scotland’ blah blah ‘Argyll’s holy top’ and didn’t actually re-enter until ‘Coastal air’- no thank, I have *plenty* of that here- no need for more. But it just struck me how seldom I actually read add- copies- with is; only when my favourite bloggers post them 😉 I mostly skip to the notes part.
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Lol Asali!
I can totally imagine your reading process. 🙂
I read the notes for these only afterwards, I got lost in my imagination. And for some reason, the notes for these do not make have a vague idea of what they might smell like (usually I get an idea when reading notes).
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Well, these perfumes take their inspiration from places close to my roots – Ulster, even a specific mention of Armagh! I must say I am savouring the *sound* of the notes more than I think I would how they smell – ‘purslane’ and ‘cubeb’ roll satisfyingly off the tongue. Not sure the reference to ‘Fenian blood’ would endear this line to the Catholic community, mind. : – 0
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😀 I don’t care what the Catholic community has to say when I’m imagining my warriors. 😉
Glad to hear someone is enjoying these descriptions after the girls skimmed through them…
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Having just worn Bitter Rose Broken Spear, I have to say that given the description is Ossian in its prose and lyricism, the fragrance itself is hyper realistic, a kind of olfactory painting of what its like to walk the fecund barrenness of Scotland’s muirs and enjoy time in a pub warmed with a peat lit fireplace. There is a red berry and/or iron note hidden in the middle like a sgian dubh. (Sorry – just back from Scotland and am enjoying this fragrance souvenir more than would be possible with any tartan kitsch purchased from the Royal Mile.) For me Bitter Rose Broken Spear is a bulls eye of a fragrance, herbal, peaty, woody, with red berries, iron, and an amber wisp layering with the other scents like a fire growing old and into embers. Think it’s time to go back to Scotland! 🙂
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Wow! Thank you for describing your thoughts on the Bitter Rose, Broken Spear – it sounds fantastic.
I want to go to Scotland too now! 🙂
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