Slumberhouse Sova

Are there ever brands that you must sort of miss, even though there is so much buzz around them?  Yeah, me here with Slumberhouse.

They seem to have disappeared maybe during the pandemic or for a while before that?  Not sure, wasn’t keeping up on it. Then Luckyscent recently got in some stock for three of their perfumes, Jeke, Ore and Sova.  So I snagged them because why not?  It’s summer, new releases will start petering out for the next month or so. Well, except Dolly Parton!  That is coming in July.

I had time to play with these.

Well, I loved all three for different reasons, but Sova’s list of notes – Sweet clover, beeswax, poplar, genet flower, golden grains, hops, hay, tobacco – is everything I love in a perfume.

It opens like a boozy hops and hay fist in your face.  This open reminds me of some nights and early mornings in my misspent youth, an overwhelming smell of booze and abandon.  Then you pause, just enjoying that crazy open, and this amazing hay-like gingerbread shows up bit by bit as the boozy smell starts peeling off.  It is not like a gingerbread I’ve smelled before.

As I googled more information, I found this review on Basenotes – “Sova reminds me of the most delicious part of gingerbread, the scorched edges where sweetness gives way to smokiness. Lutens might have built a gingerbread house. Slumberhouse burns it down.”

That’s exactly it – and it would have taken me 250 more words to say that.  Josh lit that gingerbread house on fire and turned it into smoking, beautiful ginger ashes.  There is this gentle sweetness, very soft, like a little sweet thread running through it, and then this curling smoky hay roughens it.  When I was growing up, the favorite cake my mom ever made – and we couldn’t talk her into it except once a year at most and only when my Aunt Nelda came and sweet-talked her – was a burnt sugar cake.  She had to toast the sugar and get it exactly right, not too burnt, but it had to be turning brown. Then the same for the burnt sugar caramel frosting on top.  She never messed it up – or I never ate a screw-up since she probably threw those away. It was always just right – sweet and slightly roasted sugar.  This is that, but with my mom baking gingerbread and roasting some hay as a side dish.

There aren’t a lot of perfumes that immediately hit my special “I need to make sure I keep this in my collection as long as I can,”, but this is it.  I ordered a second bottle!  I’m not sure summer is the right time to wear it, but I’m thinking it could be a snuggle up in bed fragrance.

Now, I also loved Ore and Jeke, the other two that seem to be available again. I hope this is a signal that Slumberhouse will be back with more older fragrances released and some new ones. I feel the need to smell Kiste.  How did I sleep on these and this whole line?

Have you ever done that? So I’ll do a drawing for one sample set of the three Slumberhouses I have – Jeke, Ore and Sova. Just comment to be entered!

Oh, I waited until this morning to post so I could get a picture of the stone flower boxes in front of the house. You all will look at them and scratch your head wondering how I could have missed this, but my ability to be oblivious is never to be underestimated – ask all of my ex-husbands.  Ignore the extra plants in front, I’ve got two climbing hydrangea that I’m trying to figure out where to put, but it’s been raining solid for almost a week, so very few plants have gone in the ground.   On the right are a bunch of hardy succulents I’m going to put in as ground cover. This week for planting!  Oh, and in the door barking at me to come back in is Louis!  And that’s the Mad Hatter wreath on the door.

  • ElizaC says:

    I have the Pear and Olive which is very beautiful. I also managed to get a bottle of Zahd. I think that the perfumer said he wanted to make a perfume that had a texture like a red, velvet curtain. He succeeded!

  • Anna Egeria says:

    Sova sounds beautiful, gingerbread which I love and hay which will remind me of a stable. Slumberhouse is a line I want to try. Louis is adorable!

  • Musette says:

    “Lutens might have built a gingerbread house. Slumberhouse burns it down.”

    whoever wrote this now officially OWNS me!

    and LOL! On the ‘oblivious’ – hon, it’s a good thing we aren’t roommates because I shudder to think how many things would be missed! And the exes… yah. Well… yah. 😉

    xoxox

  • March says:

    Those stone planters are stunning and I’m laughing cuz I never noticed them either! I think you should put in some sedum or something that will spill out and down a little, that would be cool. Also that Sova sounds GORGEOUS.

    • Patty says:

      I have sedum, I think some of it is in some of those pots. You are right, they would be beautiful there. I need a variety, and I’d like some perennials and then put in annuals for color, but want something in there year round. It will be a process. I look at this place and think, lort, I will never be done doing beds. I need a gardener full-time and a million dollars.

  • Jennifer S says:

    That’s an awesome entryway Patty. Love the whimsy with the wreath…lol!
    I’ve heard of Slumberhouse but haven’t tried anything from them.

    • Patty says:

      Yeah, I am pretty in love with my house in general, but I love the entry and the front and the deck and really everything about it. Best.house.ever. 🙂 Thank you!

  • Shiva-woman says:

    I’m a fan of Slumberhouse, and have Norne and Kiste, the latter of which I wore on my wedding day. This sounds right up my alley, and the Serge Lutens+ginger bread reference has me swooning. I love both.

    • Patty says:

      Oh, jealous. Do you know if they are coming back in production on more? I know one of the scents I got are already out of stock of and say new shipment in September/October 2021. Yikes! I’m sure he had trouble getting compounds during the pandemic and some things are still tough to get. Beautiful fragrances, I need them all. I remember everyone talking about the pear + Olive, too.

  • Tiara says:

    You almost had me spewing coffee at the ex-husband comment! Those front planters are gorgeous, what a statement for an entrance. Does the front of the house face north along with an overhang? Or do you get some light there? There are some hollies that tolerate less than full sun and many with berries offering winter color and a food source for birds. Inkberry comes to mind, especially since there’s a compact variety.

    • Patty says:

      It was their most common complaint about me – do you pay attention at all? Well, yeah, kind of! 🙂

      the house faces south, but the overhang puts quite a bit in shade, though the front gets some sun for part of the day, more as the summer goes along, so I’m hoping my little shade lovers don’t get too unhappy. I love hostas, but just didn’t want to do that. I’ll have to look at hollies. I have one in the back yard that stuck me and my poor finger was inflamed for weeks, it was awful.

      I’d love to have a little dwarf blue spruce-type thing for one side, just not sure if that exists? but I don’t want to give over too much real estate because I want color there in the spring/summer/fall. It’s tricky, but I’d like to do something interesting eventually.

      • Tiara says:

        Not all hollies are are sharp so don’t let that sway you. Some are very sharp, some just prickly, others you’d never notice. We had Nordic hollies at our old house and no one would believe they were actually hollies.

  • Dina C. says:

    Love those giant planters that frame your doorway. The plantings are great! I’m so glad for you that you found a scent that made your brain light up and go “Winner!” It’s been quite a while since that’s happened for me. Usually for me when that happens, it’s a green scent. I’ve never had a burnt sugar anything as far as I know. Loved that story, Patty.

    • Patty says:

      Thanks! I want some more interesting things long term, but I’ve got a start, at least something in there this year rather than a place to hold my boxes that Fedex/UPS/USPS leaves for me!

      Now I just want a burnt sugar cake. I have the recipe, I’ve never tried to make it. I think I could, but my fear is it won’t taste as good in reality as it does in my head.

  • Cinnamon says:

    I tried these years ago at Twisted Lily in Brooklyn. There was a lot of noise around the brand but I have absolutely no memory of what they were like. This sounds well worth seeking out. Hay and sugar … interesting … and those troughs. Could do all sorts with them.

    • Patty says:

      I keep thinking I did try them before, and my reading pointed up they were EDPs at some point and now these are extraits, and pricier. It’s really a gorgeous scent.

    • Patty says:

      so what would be your ideas for the stone troughs? I just threw some shady plants in there – begonias, etc. But I’m thinking year round, I’d like something there all the time, if I could, but not sure what that would like like. I could do some winter pots of some winter-type thing, like an evergreen of some sorts maybe?

      • Cinnamon says:

        Do you get hellebores there? Great flowers in spring and nice foliage rest of time.

        • Patty says:

          I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a hellebore, but I’m going to go look!

        • Musette says:

          on the hellebores: P is a zone above me, so she’ll get gorgeous spring flowers but during winter there will be complete dieback, alas. I’m plumping for mini spruces (upright and prostrate) and some variegated hollies that would allow for interesting interplantings like hellebores and dicentras, etc.

          xoxoxo

  • Portia says:

    The entrance to your home is beautiful Patty. the pic is small but it looks like sandstone?
    Portia xx

    • Patty says:

      Made it bigger! Yeah, sandstone, I think. It was built in the 60s, but I kind of think they redid the entryway and the door and concrete not that long before they sold the house since there are no cracks in concrete, and the door is deffo new, so I’m thinking they might have added the flower boxes then or redid them. I love the front of my house. Later in the summer, I’ll do a big picture, but the weeping cherry to the right sorta dominates it, but i refuse to get rid of it. 🙂 The birds love it.