Heck Yeah, Hexennacht!

After Portia’s review of Never Was a Cornflake Girl from indie Hexennacht, I knew I wanted to try it for myself. I also have a good friend who’s into indie scents; her tastes are similar and she really likes their stuff. Let’s face it, there are soooooo many brands right now, which is in some ways a good thing, but it means I’m always running across whole scent lines / brands I’ve never tried.

I ordered up some samples from Surrender to Chance (they have 30+ scents from the line) without stressing too much about making “perfect” choices; I aimed for an appealing assortment that sounded different enough from one another. I think they’re all perfume oils and thus highly concentrated and may take a moment to bloom on the skin. I gave each of them multiple wears.

In no particular order:

Never Was a Cornflake Girl – honey oat cereal, fruity pebbles, cinnamon toast crunch, raisin bran, rice krispies, sweet sugary milk at the bottom of the bowl. This was the first one I tried, and hahahahahahaha it is fantastic! Weird, but wonderful. On me it cycles repeatedly through several phases – milky cereal, fruity pebbles, hay, raisin bran, something sweet and raspy, rather like immortelle… it shares some DNA with Lostmarc’h Lann-Ael along the way, and my guess is if you liked that, you’d like this. (Sidenote: I’m thrilled to see Lann-Ael is still available!) After several hours it dries down to a soft, lactonic sweetness that lasts well into the evening on me. I want a bottle.

Honeycomb Calcite — notes of creamed honey, wild honeycomb, beeswax, cedarwood, amber, musk, vanilla, basmati rice, brown sugar, woodsmoke, almond, oats, benzoin, acacia absolute.  I had high hopes for this one! I mean, look at those notes. On my first attempt I was partly anosmic to it, a problem I have occasionally with honey scents … I could sense it around me, it was definitely there, but I was only catching bits of it. I get an odd, almost mineral note at the top, then buttery rice and bits of pollen-forward honey. On subsequent attempts I got a rich, dark honey with a bit of funk to it, less sweetly lactonic than I expected given those notes, but still: lovely.

Mojo Dojo Casa House — notes of vanilla, oakwood extract, benzoin, burnt caramel, labdanum, guaiacwood, frankincense, rum succan absolute, cognac accord and tobacco absolute. This is the most conventional of my set of samples – it’s got a fancy-niche vibe, something you might find By Kilian. It smells like it sounds, mostly benzoin, booze, woods, and sweet tobacco. Look, it’s very nice; I think I’m simply disappointed it’s not weirder. Lasts a full day on my skin.

Desert Rain – “the smell of the scent of actual desert rain with notes of sweetgrass, cactus flower, summer rain, ozonic accord, black sage, cedar, sandalwood and pink pepper.” I mean … I had to try this one, right? Since I live in a high desert climate and I’m always interested in people’s fragrance interpretations of the desert. (Do cactus flowers have a scent? They bloom here spring and summer but they’re always full of bees so I haven’t sniffed.) It’s sweeter than I expected and while nice enough, not amazing or wildly interesting. If I sniffed in a shop I’d think, that’s a pretty floral, and move on.

Dark Shadows — benzoin, caramel, pipe tobacco, myrrh, incense, honey amber, sandalwood, vanilla rice milk and cardamom. Okay, maybe I didn’t do as good a job as I could have on diversifying my selections. I was hoping for more incense; instead I get all that richness of the edible notes in an oddly … non-edible way? On me there’s an overlay of something peaty / rich soil compost. This is deeply weird, but I can’t decide whether I find it enjoyable or unpleasant (rather like Portia’s response to Cornflake Girl.) It’s not boring, though, and it definitely has its fans.

The Hexennacht website is a slog – their search feature at the bottom of the page is clunky (e.g., you can’t search successfully for a particular note) and the best option is to wade in there and read the detailed descriptions which are roughly sorted by type. I’d find this deeply annoying on a site by MegaCorp Perfume Brand but hey, roll-on bottles are only $13 and there’s a ton of really interesting-sounding scents, so they’re forgiven. They recommend this site if you want samples, or you can get some from StC like I did. Based on what I’ve seen, heard and tried, I can recommend their gourmand scents, tobacco, and incense, but there’s probably something for everyone in terms of appeal, if you dig, which is what I’ll be doing.

Did anyone else try Cornflake Girl? Do you think it’s weird that I want a bottle? Or have you tried any others?

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