D.S. & Durga – HYLNDS – Spirit of the Glen

Photo by Tauheed Ahmad Nawaz at his blog, Travel Trip Journey. (Direct website link embedded within).

Photo by Tauheed Ahmad Nawaz at his blog, Travel Trip Journey. (Direct website link embedded within).

Glenlivet and the distilled spirit of the Scottish Highlands are the inspiration behind Spirit of the Glen, an evocative fragrance from the American indie brand, D.S. & Durga. It’s part of a trio that comprise the HYLNDS Collection, and I thought that the concepts behind both the fragrance and the Collection itself to be fascinating. Really, I loved them, so I hope you’ll forgive a brief digression into the details.

The Glenlivet 18 via liquorama.net

The Glenlivet 18 via liquorama.net

According to the copy quoted on First in Fragrance, the HYLNDS Collection “seeks to recall the myth infused lands of Northern Europe. Tracing legends from antiquity, the Iron and Viking Age, HYLNDS fragrances are made with an in depth research into historical documents, aromatic analysis of real places, and the artistic creation of the Celtic, Norse, Manx, and Anglo peoples.” The story behind Spirit of the Glen may be even cooler, at least for a scotch drinker. Luckyscent says it arose out of an actual collaboration between perfumer David Moltz and Glenlivet “to craft a fragrance worthy of their flagship 18-year aged whisky.” As he explains on DS & Durga, to bottle the scent of their famous Speyside single malt, The Glenlivet 18, he went so far as to use accords “from all aspects of whisky production” right down to “charred bourbon barrel” and touches of “sherry cask.”

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Slumberhouse Norne: Tolkien’s Forest

Source: marketplace.secondlife.com

Source: marketplace.secondlife.com

If the vast forests of America’s Pacific Northwest were all condensed and concentrated down into a green-black wine, it would still be only a fraction of the tale told by Norne, the famous fragrance from Josh Lobb of Slumberhouse. Norne is an incredibly atmospheric scent that conjured up a host of disparate images in my mind: the terroir of expensive aged, red wines; lumberjacks in the Pacific Northwest; and a dark, verdant world straight out of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings where goblins, hobbits, elves, and Orcs battle it out amidst a verdant darkness.

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Lubin Upper Ten

The newest fragrance from Lubin, Upper Ten, was inspired by a very old historical event, the immigration influx into America of the 1800s, resulting in the 10,000 “who mattered” and who “laid the groundwork for US supremacy.” I read that last part and thought to myself, “Oh dear, that might ruffle a few feathers.” But at least that backstory is somewhat interesting, which is more than I can say for the fragrance itself.

Source: Basenotes.com

Source: Basenotes.com

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Farmacia SS. Annunziata Tabacco d’Autore

"The Dark Matter III" by AthosLuca on Deviant Art. (Direct website link embedded within.)

“The Dark Matter III” by AthosLuca on Deviant Art. (Direct website link embedded within.)

Tabacco d’Autore is an homage to the complexity of tobacco from an ancient Italian house known for its rich, intense soliflores. It’s a new fragrance that explores tobacco’s many innate facets through a dark landscape that is embellished with dry woods, spicy patchouli, smoke, amber, and artemisia’s dual sides of bitter herbal greenness and oud-ish woodiness.

Farmacia SS. Annunziata dal 1561 (hereinafter simply called “Farmacia SS Annunziata” or “Farmacia”) is an Italian house whose history goes back centuries. It’s a completely unpretentious, good quality, moderately priced brand whose fragrances are often more like extraits in their concentration, and they typically focus on one main note whose every characteristic or feature is then explored in great depth. I’ve never really understood why the brand gets so little attention; some of its soliflores are impressively hardcore treatments of their subject (like Patchouly Indonesiano), richly beautiful (like the gorgeous Ambra Nera), or just very easy-to-wear, versatile fragrances. The new Tabacco d’Autore very much bears the Farmacia SS Annunziata aesthetic. It may not my personal cup of tea, for reasons I’ll explain shortly, but, like every Farmacia soliflore, it takes the main note and runs with it.

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