Coven

How can something be damp and dry at the same time?! I smell damp green leaves growing from moss-covered branches, but also wafts of dry spices like dry fallen leaves on the forest floor. I don't really get soil per se, or petrichor, as others do. When it turns into a skin scent in the late drydown, it is a mild vanilla patchouli. I don't usually get on well with patchouli, but here it is used with a light hand and does not have any of the qualities that I can sometimes find nauseating. The whole experience is like being someplace cool and shaded, like a glen in an enchanted forest, but with the Hansel and Gretel witch baking something in the next glen over, with just enough of the comforting baking scents tickling your nose to lure you over there to get eaten. There is something about it that is familiar but you can't quite name it. You catch glimpses of it through the trees but then it flickers away. You want to keep smelling it to try to capture it, to recognize it, but each time you draw near, it shifts into a parallel dimension. Imagine walking through the misty woods and you come upon your childhood crib sitting in the middle of the path. What is it doing there? How did it get there? You don't even really know it's your childhood crib except that you've seen photographs of it in the shoebox full of your baby pictures in your mother's closet. Seeing it there feels homey and eerie at the same time. Reality becomes disjointed but you don't want to leave.

Can anyone tell me how this version compares to the original composition please? I loved the original fragrance, but seeing vanilla in this newer version is really putting me off from trying it

The smell of fresh, moist dirt invaded my nose on the first spray- as if I was planting and flung dirt in the air onto my face. Then came the tomato. Mint. Soft/ light metal, which lasts less than an hour. Spraying this once over, 4 x on each bare arm and once on my chest gave a skin scent. I waited a minute and sprayed again. Now I had an intimate bubble that did not dry down to sit closer to my skin until 9hrs later. And for that whole 9 hours I had a bubble that smelled like fresh tobacco leaves, dirt, mint and tomato- not grass. This isn’t sensual or bold, It was airy, and very pleasant. It smells like spring/ springtime. I would like this as a kitchen candle or a linen spray more than a perfume (I have a sample). When I went to a reformer class, the scent kicked back up and I did not enjoy the smell of dirt and tobacco while I worked out.

I love this one, it smell very good, like sauna in woods

So green. Wet leaves. The spice makes it a bit savoury, but the vanilla balances it out.

It makes me think of richly spiced mulled wine spilled onto forest soil. It feels expansive and generous, festive

I am soooo torn on this. I want to love this, and I do think this is an amazing scent, but I don't see this as a staple for me. Upon initial spray this smelled like cigarette smoke to me. I then got wet soil and earth. loved it. BUT after applying on my skin it just smells like straight up tomato leaves. it is strong and projects like crazy, so I think it could be seen as worth the price, but definitely not a safe blind buy.

Oh my god! I love green scents and thought I knew what to expect but this is wonderfully different! Smells like the Tim Burton movie "Sleepy Hollow". A pumpkin patch with Autumnal clove that's tastefully nostalgic, not scented candle. Insanely nuanced damp mossy forest. Galbanum feels more unique fresh herbs than floral. The clove adds such warmth which blends with dry botanics in a nature oriented way. Like a cozy cottage covered in moss in a damp forest. I'm obsessed! I've tried hundreds of scents in this genre and have never had something so unique and soul stirring! Absolutely bottle worthy.

Cloves in the dirt. A bit of a foresty "smells like rain" effect but it's heavy on the clove scent. Kind of smokey too. I wouldn't blind-buy this on the basis of loving green scents, it's a very a-typical green. It's what I imagine "Black No.1" by Type-O-Negative is describing ("her perfume smells like burning leaves"). You definitely need to have the vibe to pull it off I think, it's not an easy scent, but it's very atmospheric.

Opens with a fascinating whiskey-and-vanilla note, but that stage doesn't last long. The cloves immediately follow, and they are STRONG. Fortunately, I like cloves and find they have multiple aromatherapeutic benefits. If you don't feel similarly about them you should be warned that you'll hate this fragrance. This spice, combined with the fresh soil and subtle leaf notes, makes Coven smell exactly like the fall season more strongly than perhaps any other fragrance I've ever tried. In that sense, I absolutely agree with the reviewers who say this smells like leaves falling from a tree. It is not nearly as cold, bitter and/or green as I expected, and I can barely detect the galbanum & oakmoss, but I'm not complaining. I love the spicy warmth juxtaposed with green notes and the lasting power is surprisingly good. Refreshingly unique and perfect for autumn & for the upcoming holidays. Also layers beautifully with other green fragrances to add a photorealistic fresh, damp, rainy vibe. Aura: deepest forest green Fictional Characters Who Would Wear: Diana Bishop (A Discovery of Witches); Epiphany Proudfoot (Angel Heart); Margaret Krusemark (Angel Heart); Paige Matthews & Halliwell sisters (Charmed); Sigrit Ericksdóttir (Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga); Scarlett O'Hara (drinking & garden/potato scenes)

It's soo realistic Smells like playing in a freshly mowed lawn but dry leaves are falling down in the shade of an old tree. 'Tis a herbal, mildly bitter smell with hints of freshness. FASCINATING. "Smells more like a place than a perfume": couldn't agree more. I did not expect to like this as much as I do Overall: fresh, green, bitter, earthy

This fragrance reminds me of Sopping Thursday by Heretic, which isn’t a bad thing. I own the room spray and really enjoy it. I pick up on the galbanum, cedarwood, and oakmoss, and there’s a mossy, earthy, and witchy about the composition that I find appealing. That said, I’m unsure whether I'd want to wear Coven on skin. I’m drawn to witchy, gothic fragrances, so the aesthetic is up my alley, but I’m trying to decide whether this is a scent I’d rather just experience as a room spray or wear as a perfume. I could see Coven layering beautifully with Heretic perfumes, like Dirty Rose or Dirty Violet. I’m undecided on buying a full bottle. I really enjoy its mossy, earthy quality. It's beautifully atmospheric. If it were less expensive, I’d be more inclined to pick it up as a layering fragrance and experiment to see with what else I could create with it.

Ok a little mossy… celery? Basil? Anise almost? Cut grass? Wet pile of leaves! Soil! There’s a specific scent at the forefront I’m trying to describe and I think it’s galbanum since I’ve never smelled it. Coven is more grassy than the witchy, dark forest scent I expected after reading about this but I am impressed at the realism here, I feel like I smelled exactly this when it rained after mowing the lawn recently and playing with my dog outside ended up in having wet leaves sticking to me and dirt on my shoes. Not my type of nature scent personally, sometimes even when I don’t want to wear something I still enjoy smelling it but meh

The name "Coven" is a perfect fit for this perfume, and as soon as you catch a whiff of it, the images associated with it come to mind all on their own. It smells like a dense forest, its floor covered in damp moss, where no one has set foot for years - since the thorny vines of the shrubs and bushes make it impossible to pass through. The gnarled trees and damp deadwood make navigating this forest even more difficult. It’s getting dark, the fog drifts among the leaves, needles, and branches, and the only colors you can still make out are black, charcoal gray, brown-gray and a dark emerald green. Everything is cool and wet, you'll search in vain for a warm, dry spot to take refuge.

This perfume instantly reminds me of the time I experimented with henna hair dye in my early twenties. It has a distinctive herbal, almost swampy vibe that makes for a very unusual scent experience. It's not something I can pull off (though I'm sure it will work beautifully on the right person), but one thing's for sure: this is anything but a generic crowd-pleaser.

As a lover of all things spooky, witchy, and rooted in nature, Coven was an absolute non-negotiable for me. I first tried it six or seven years ago, and its scent printed itself on my brain instantly. Luckily, I’m still hoarding a little bit of that original fluid! Coven opens with vanilla, labdanum, and whiskey, but don’t let that trio fool you; this is not a cozy, vanillic-boozy blend. It almost immediately morphs into heavy cedarwood and oakmoss, evoking a pitch-black, rain-soaked forest. Bitter, green galbanum and spicy clove emerge next, adding the ultimate witchy edge to the composition. It isn’t sweet, soft, or demure. Coven is raw, damp, and built for forest witches, goblins, and ancient woodland creatures. Truly atmospheric, deeply evocative, and singular; I’ve sampled thousands of perfumes over the years, and there is still nothing else quite like it.

Trying this again and I like it even better than last time. Though I expected the heat and heaviness in the air to make this go a bit rancid, the whiskey comes through like fog over water. Coven truly shimmers when you dare to sweat with her. Against all expectations, this is a summer scent on me. Wearing this now I feel clear-headed, reflective. Very close to a love for me now...

The vanilla note ruins everything

This is what a really good-looking witch's shop would smell like. This is earthly, fresh, kinda spicy, and herby.

Very niche, pulling weeds in the garden, dirt, moss and clay pots with none of those boring department store accords to smooth it all out. It's rare to find a 'realistic' green scent that isn't overly sweet; this one is very dry funky and medicinal like the materials it's inspired by. Lots of geosmin and petrichor, no detectable vanilla. I love it.

Mossy, green and spicy, dusty: 5/5 :) I saw a comment that this reminded the author of a beautiful butch at the renaissance fair and I agree wholeheartedly! There is a mystique and magic in this scent that puts you in a wild temperate rainforest with none of the fantasy of inexplicable grass clearings, walkable footpaths, or soft underbrush. This forest has blackberry vines that can painfully catch if you aren't careful, and logs hidden under thick layers of wet decomposing detritus you can trip on. The ponds are brown and marshy, surrounded by little swarms of bugs and thick, sucking mud. Your clothes are soaked through from pushing through the net of low boughs and ferns, saturated with freezing rainwater, whose source you can hear tap, tap, tapping above you on the broad leaves that comprise the canopy. This is the only fragrance I've encountered so far that can only be worn when it's cool and rainy. This isn't a hard rule by any means, just my preference, but I find the mossy earthiness evokes rain so much that wearing it on a hot day would feel weird to me. Love this scent and would love a full bottle!

Pretty disappointing to be honest. It's just too dry and green for me. I'm used to green fragrances having some amount of sweetness, but this literally has no sweetness at all. It just smells like soil, hay, and moss. Not a fan

Oh man! I really thought I would like this. Even reading the negative reviews I thought it sounded good to me. It’s so sharp. Nostril burning sharp. It’s very green, slightly reminiscent of basil but with zero sweetness. I want to smell this on my husband before I make my final opinion on it. Will report back.

Coven is such a cool name, I wanted to love it sooo bad. But the first spray literally repulsed me. It smells like moldy hay that's been sitting for years in an abandoned barn with a leak. I truly hate petrichor.

Lovely mossy scent. I am in the dirt. Makes me think of the beautiful butch I encountered this year at the ren faire. Green and witchy but not in a fresh way, more dark.

Wet leaves, spices, woods, bitter green. I also get a metallic note kind of like blood. Very witchy and very dark nature smells. I do understand the celery association. After a few minutes, a barbeque note pops out. This isn't my thing. It's too off-putting.

so mossy, very deep dark greens, salty, earthy, it's a very realistic scent, maybe too realistic personally I don't like it at all, it's too salty, too close to celery, smells way too green and chlorophyll-heavy, almost like a pile of rotting grass clippings, left it on to give it a chance to develop and envolve, but I still had to scrub it off after that, I usually love green scents but this one went way beyond my limit of what I enjoy

Jesus fucking Christ this is such a deeply alluring, darkly green, and sensual fragrance, but it HAS to be smelled on skin. I've had three encounters with this one: The first encounter was when I tested it on paper at Scentbar in NYC - I initially wrote it off because on the test strip, it smelled like chemicals and that organic veggie wash / cleaning solution, if you know what I'm referring to lol. At the time, could not imagine this being an enjoyable fragrance to wear in the slightest. The second time, I met up with a friend for drinks. They're taller than me, so my face was closer to the nape of their neck as we hugged, and I got a whiff of a peppery-dark-green that took me aback. It was unlike anything I smelled before! On my skin at least, I usually find all green scents to wear the same: heavy dose of tomato leaf on initial spray, sometimes with some added fruits or violets, that quickly settles in to a creamy vetiver or a synthetic iso-e / ambrxon type deal. So this level of depth to a "green" scent was new to me. After learning they were wearing Coven, I immediately ordered a 2ml sample. The third time, as you'd expect, was testing that sample. And to my surprise, I was once again disappointed. It didn't smell on me the way it did on my friend - skin chemistry strikes again! But, after curbing my expectations (something we all must remember to do more often!), I let it settle, and bloom. Out of all the fragrances I have ever had and tested, this is the only one I've come across that feels like it has a "life of its own", it feels alive. Like a living second skin. Hokey to say, even cheesier to type out. Believe me, the corniness is not lost on me lol. But, much like a forbidden forest, or like a witch's beloved carnivorous pet flower, this fragrance exudes a magic of its own. Dark green, dirty, peppery, creamy, bitter, airy. Lovely. 10/10. Surprisingly wearable in all weather - from 40 degrees to 90 degrees.

There’s a rickety cottage in the forest no one seems to be around but there is a pot bubbling on the fire with bitter roots floating in it. There are herbs hung to dry from the rafters. The floor is made of dirt. You get the feeling you should leave soon before someone returns. That’s the image this conjures for me. Bitter green galbanum, damp moss, I get something like dried ginseng, earthy. I like it but I preferred the similarly witchy rendition from Hexensalbe by Stora Skuggan where licorice makes it a little more wearable. There are some similarities with Morel Map too, they are in the same family. Dry down is no longer witches cabin but more ginseng. If you have walked in a traditional Chinese medicine store with bins of ginseng you will recognize the smell. Salm from One Day has an intentional ginseng note that is similar.

this is the most boring and linear fragrance I’ve ever had the pleasure of smelling. moss. moss moss moss. to be fair, I was spoiled with Hexensalbe and Empty Wishes Well not long before this, but regardless, what a lame take on the concept of a Coven. such a let-down!