LIBRARY (Manor Collection: General Catalog)

LIBRARY
Leather Bound Books, A Carved Rosewood Mantle, Dying Fireplace Embers, Wood Wainscoting, Cedar Shelving and Aged Paper

NOT TO BE USED BY WOMEN WHO ARE PREGNANT OR NURSING.

Originally offered as a Perfume oil for the Manor Collection: Autumn 2012. Now General Catalog

Twenty oils are combined to evoke the character of the exquisite library of the Manor.  Ample wood shelving displaying countless works, primarily bound in leather, is found on all four walls of the library.  A fireplace on the west wall features an intricately carved rosewood mantle and heavy dark wood wainscoting adorns the walls beneath the book laden shelves.  Dying embers impart a soft smokiness in the room and the scent of aged paper and a worn brown leather armchair melds with the rich leather and wood notes.

Library begins as a robust woods and leather (brown and black) scent with strong smoky overtones on initial application but after a few short minutes it begins to soften into a realistic and complex fragrance that contains elements you'd expect to experience in the fine personal collection of the Manor.  Library contains a blend of sandalwood EO and FO, agarwood, nagarmotha EO, choya loban attar, guaiacwood, Virginia cedarwood EO, leather, copaiba EO, benzoin EO, rosewood EO, Plai EO, western red cedar EO, rhododendron leaf EO, osmanthus attar and fragrance oils.  The dry down features a combination of woods, leather, embers, dust and brittle paper with a rich lemony-rosewood finish.

Oh...yes...I am ENVELOPED in the perfect library!! This is my kind of comfort scent: rich, dark, warm, leathery and woodsy. The attars add an exotic, hot, dry incensey feel. I feel mysterious, powerful, curious, sexy and beautiful in this scent, but it would be equally amazing on a man. It has a similar feel to Black Forest, but without the gourmand notes.

Love this fragrance! I'm a huge fan of leather and woodsy scents, and this one really delivers! I have to say this may be one of the sexiest fragrances from Solstice Scents. At first I thought it smelled a lot like Flintlock, so I had to do a 'side-by-side' comparison. Library is all leather and dry wood. Flintlock definitely has a more berry hint to it, along with a bit of sweetness. To me the notes that stand out the most in Library seem to be the leather and cedar. Library wears really well on my skin and smells amazing from wet application thru the dry down. Well done on this one Angela!

Library sounded so good to me, but it's probably my least favorite of the Manor Collection. The leather, on me, is very fakey, chemical-y and sickly sweet, with something turning oddly fruity and reminding me of sno cone syrup

I love the leather in Devil's Tongue, but something in this is turning strangely on my skin (maybe the 'lemony rosewood'?).

I think this is my favorite out of the six. This scent is WONDERFUL. This is probably one of the best "library", old book, dusty scent I've used so far. Too many times the "library" scents have that honey/caramel/beeswax scent that overpowers everything and makes it smell sweet. This scent goes more for the leather chairs and old wood. The agarwood sticks out a bit and reminds me of Manor. A long lasting, beautiful scent which really does give the impression of a library/study. The leather notes are lovely!

As a lover of books and libraries (I have a room set up at home just for my cookbooks), you almost had me on board just by the name. But it is of course the fragrance itself that won me entirely over. For me in real life, there is a psychic level of contentment, assurance, support, interest and comfort that I get from being surrounded by treasured books. While none of them are old or leather bound, the atmosphere created by Library evokes similar feelings of a fantasy old fashioned library room where there is both peace and contentment. You note that there are twenty oils used in the production of this fragrance and I truely believe it. It is a complex and rewarding scent that is both familiar and interesting. Like being in an actual library, it makes me want to spend time getting to know it. It is hard to describe in that it in that it evokes the positive qualities of an old library without the actual realities of one. Woods, papers and leathers and a little bit of fireplace are themed. This is a library that is well looked after - the lemony rosewood touch lifts the mood of this work and to me hints of a good cleaning and polishing. This is the smell of a library as it should be without the decaying leather, bitter ink and paper mould of reality. I love it.

Spicy is the first thing I smell. That could be the Cedar then I get the aged paper and then comes along the leather on the dry down. On me, the Leather and the woods are what I really smell. This has got more “kick” to it than I thought it would but it's great! Very happy with this one.

This scent is so cool because I truly detect paper. Other scents are involved too, but I am mesmerized by the paper note  

As far as Library goes, it is no ordinary library..it is an amazing library that has seen many years and many magical stories inside of it's doors. The perfume it's self is a story. A story of magic. A story of notes and words put together to create something beautiful.

Wow!!! This is so cool!!!

When this first goes on it's very woods heavy, and I LOVE it. It doesn't take long for the leather to emerge, and I find the leather to not be robust or have that obvious black leather jacket type of smell. Like others have said, more reminiscent of a well kept leather lounge chair.

The paper in this blend almost comes across ashy on my skin, like someone accidentally threw a book in the fire and retrieved it before any major damage was done. *brings back memories of seeing my mum accidentally throw my Oasis collectors edition souvenir magazine, and me reaching for the poker to haul it out with light speed*. Maybe it's the combination of the noted embers and the paper? The blend has an unexpected coolness to it, I was expecting something a little more warm.

Once again, a perfectly smooth and crisp cedar finish with this. I honestly don't look anywhere further than Solstice Scents if I'm after a cedar heavy blend. I haven't had a problem with any of the cedar blends I've tried yet from SS!

Some scents are a liquid dream the very moment you open the bottle, a scent of utter perfection wafting out that you can’t wait to get onto your skin.

Not so, the Library.

I opened it eager for those smells of smoke and leather and wood… and I got it, kind of. In the bottle it smelled of poorly cared-for acidy old pages and ink, of dark, unpleasant wood damaged by cleaning chemicals that edged toward cheap bug spray.

I really didn’t want to put it on my skin. But I did, because I know sometimes a perfume changes when it’s on the body.

Wet on the skin, it actually got for a brief wet while unexpectedly worse. It smelled like thickly applied heavy old varnish, cheap plastics, and even more like chemicals and bug spray. It was awfully harsh in the nose, very chemically. I wanted desperately to wash it off. But it was still wet, and I really wanted to give it a fair shake.

A new sniff ten minutes later gave me a little bit of hope. The harsh chemical scent had faded, and what hit the nose most was like leather that hadn’t been well conditioned. Time seemed to be helping, so I gave it more.

An hour later, it resolved into the scent that has carried through for the several hours since – a soft, subtle combination of aging pages releasing that dusky scent of vanilin (Lignum) and warm leather. There’s still a faint hint of varnished wood. It took a while to get here, but it’s quite a pleasant destination, I must say.

Ultimately, this scent ended up being a pleasant surprise after the initial impressions it had given me - like a good book and a comfortable seat amongst aged woods and thickly hushed quiet, the resolution of this scent was worth waiting for.

I loved the description of this, and after enjoying Manor, I decided to try Library. The scent is very complex, but does wind up smelling exactly like an old book. I find it too sharp to wear alone, so I soften the edges with Manor. Definitely evocative, but I would advise using with Manor if you want a more feminine scent.

This scent was love at first sniff for me. It is absolutely amazing and beautiful.. It smells exactly like an old library - only better! I can definitely smell the paper and the leather and other beautiful smells that I can't quite pick out. It is blended so beautifully, and there is even some kind of sweetness to it, though I'm not sure what from, but it is just a beautiful sweetness that keeps it lighter. I definitely think this is a true unisex scent because it smells neither feminine nor masculine to me. This is a really great scent; if you love books and libraries then definitely check this one out! You won't be disappointed at all. It is just gorgeous.

Where did I put my smoking jacket? There are some seriously nice oils in this composition. It feels like an exclusive gentleman's club (not the gentleman's club of today which has {ahem} dubious entertainment, but the ones in the Forsyte Saga where men of property and titans of industry drink port and eat lamb every night while determining the fate of the universe.)

This smells like sandalwood incense. It doesn't evoke "library" for me, it smells like someone is burning incense. However, it is a more muted scent and doesn't have the acrid, nose-wrinkling aftertaste that makes me dislike other "incensey" perfumes. My mother says this smells like the aftershave/cologne that men would wear back in the day. I agree, once you have the image in your head, it does smell like "gentleman in a tuxedo." I'll put a bookmark in this one for the next boyfriend.

This scent is good but it doesn't exactly say library to me. Starts with a chemical smell from the leather note. Dries down to spicy man wood and heavy on the leather for me. I also get gentlemen's club. Would be nice on a guy.

This is in my top three SS. In my opinion it's one of their more complex compositions. It really does have the effect of a private library. It feels very aristocratic! Overall I get mahogany, a touch of leather, dusty velvet curtains, and the embers of a fireplace. It starts off a little strong on the leather but mellows quite quickly. I highly recommend this one.

The Library extrait does convey the feeling of a library very well.  But this is not an average library, this is the library of the Foxcroft manor house.  It is filled with many leather-bound books and finely crafted wooden shelves.  The leather of both the books and the chairs is of the finest quality, and the wood shelves and furniture are well-tended, the wood being heavily polished.  Both of which fill the room with their aromas.  There is also a touch of the paper of the books and a hint of smokiness from the fireplace.  It has a rich luxurious quality to it that gets your attention.  It's quite potent at the opening, with the leather and polished wood making a strong impression that then smoothes over time.  It has very good longevity, also.  Angela is great at recreating places through scent so well that it brings you to that place, as you're surrounded by it's various aromas.  And that's not an easy task.  =)