Brand: The Strange South
Scent Description: The Colonel’s ghost searches for his steed, but he’ll never find it where it always snows. Line-dried linen; muscadine grape, apricot, and pear; hay, orris root, and animalic musk accord; vetiver, bay rum, and sandalwood pistol grips.
Starts off aggressive and fruity-sharp. Clean linen takes the forefront. Mellows out on skin – most of the initial sharpness is gone, replaced by clean but dusty (orris and hay, I think) linen, a tamer musk than expected, and a thrum of sandalwood. Grape, apricot, and pear sit right on top, all distinct but melding together, and actually quite real. On the plus side that realism is great – the grape, for example, isn’t turning to Dimetapp on my skin, nor are any of the fruits candy-like or overly sweet. The bay rum and vetiver gradually come out as really nice, smooth middle notes. Deepening as it dries between the musk and sandalwood, and the linen takes a step back. Remains generally clean and leans masculine.
At first, it’s all grape. I was really hoping for a tangy, wild kind of grape—like how muscadines really are—but it’s too sweet and “grape flavored” for me. It mellows out and the cotton and musk comes out and it’s a softer, more subtle scent. The grape just kills it for me.