Slumberhouse– Kiste

1 Review

1. 

   cynicalTuna5

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   Slumberhouse is a new perfumery house based in Oregon, featuring the blending talents of founder Josh Lobb. Their perfumes have been gaining accolades over the last decade for being daring, unusual niche numbers that still take chances, and often seem to have the wistful forestry of the Pacific Northwest as their “Slumber-ade” scaffolding. I’m reviewing their latest 2015 scent, KISTE (Norwegian for “box” or “crate”)

   Received my full bottle of KISTE today. Yes the pricepoint is a bit dear– $160 US– but the nice matte embossed black box, real brushed-metal stopper and hefty flacon, resembling a stylized hip flask, are rewardingly luxurious.

   At first spritz, I immediately noticed that the whole mix rests on a patchouly note, but a patchouly so diluted as to give one an earthy “aura”, more than the musky “head shop” note itself.

   A powerful, nigh-drinkable whiskey note blooms, and it is scintillating, amber, boozy-woozy, and very dark oaky indeed, like the deep mysterious oakiness of Serge Lutens CHENE. Mingled with the deep ruddy oakiness is a hint of smoldering campfire, a smell I associate with Andy Tauer. For a fleeting will-o’-the-wisp moment, this woody/booze head almost seems to hint, not unpleasantly, at gasoline or kerosene… curiously reinforcing the down home country feel.

   The bold peach accord blooms, and it has a sweet, vivid, rounded quality– it smells radiantly vermilion in color, like the stone fruit in Michel Roudnitska’s NOIR EPICES. It is bewinged with an airy white honeysuckle, and also deeply jammy with sucree strawberry and ripe melon-like fruitiness. This is not the old waxy Aldehyde C-14 peach, but a new one that smells juicy and ruddily vivid, like an achingly ripe plum whose yielding skin you’ve just pierced with your thumb… to reveal blood-red flesh beneath.

   The sweet tea note in the drydown is warm and reassuringly Southern-folksy, not Asian/mysterious. A subtle vanilla blends with tonka to enhance the rich tobacco.

   In drydown you are left with a deliriously fruity, jammy scent with a brandy/whisky vibe, and the hint of distant burning tobacco smoke.

   This is a decidedly modern scent, it is not “haute perfumey” like an old French classic, with infinite layers and sly olfactory illusions, but neither is it transparent/minimalist; rather it is a beguiling, fruit-sweet compote, with a warm, reassuring, grandfatherly tobacco base. It has an eye-popping, euphoric quality, that, as others have said, transports you to a halcyon Deep South of the Great Depression era. Think: a sun-soaked Grant Wood landscape. It is a very *kind*, welcoming, hay-ey smell… It smells honest and forthright, like Jimmy Stewart. (I just watched the 1944 American musical, STATE FAIR on Netflix. If the nubile farmgirl Jeanne Crain could’ve, she would’ve smelled like KISTE; in fact the perfume’s notes glow, as if in a saturated 1940’s Technicolor.)

   It’s not intended to be slick, flash or urbane, though the whiskey, tobacco and patchouly notes instill a real sophistication, and, in their woodiness, prevent the perfume from being considered a true gourmand. (Can a fragrance be deliriously, sweetly fruity… yet not be a Gourmand? KISTE is, I think.)

   KISTE spotlights the note of peach better than any modern scent out there; in fact, it’s the nicest peach I know of since the Patou 1930’s scents, like QUE SAIS-JE? KISTE’s peach is the innocent but buxom farmgirl; not the peach of the knowing, Dentyne-smacking sidewalk ho’ of the new Rochas FEMME.

   In short, an amazing modern Fruity/Woody/Smoky. Unisex. Low sillage (throwing a cloud) but huge substantivity (lasting long on the skin). Suitable for Day or Evening, casual or formal wear. It’s only the winsome berry notes that perhaps lean this scent slightly more towards Femme than towards Butch. If you have been looking for a good modern, non-floral fruity for your scent wardrobe, look NO further.