MANOR (Autumn 2011 - Now General Catalog)

MANOR
Woody-Vanilla Musk, Vanilla Accord, Black Agarwood

Offered as part of the Autumn 2011 Collection in Perfume, Ganache and Glace.  It is now offered as part of our rotating General Catalog


Manor is the scent of a once grand estate, now disheveled, forgotten and left exposed to the elements. The faint scent of previous owners and their esteemed guests - exquisitely perfumed ladies mingling with the intense rich and musky scent of smartly dressed gentlemen - meets rich wood floors and heavy wooden doors long since opened, decaying beadboard and Wainscot topped off with a thin layer of dust. It is very sophisticated and absolutely intoxicating.

Manor is a blend of woody-vanilla musk coupled with an incredible vanilla accord and exquisite aloeswood. The scent is sweet and rich due to the vanillas, woody and incensey from the aloeswood. The aloeswood note is literally to die for. On initial application and coldsniff, the aloeswood is a little stronger than it is on the dry down. Manor settles down wonderfully. After hours on the skin it does smell much sweeter due to the vanillas, though the woody/incense element is still detectable. The result is a very unique scent that still has the familiar Solstice Scents profile. Fans of Old Cedar Magus will enjoy Manor.

Agarwood and Aloeswood are actually two names used interchangeably for an exquisite perfumery material (also known as oud wood). We use two different oud oils in this blend - one being deeper and a little more bitter or acrid than the other.

(reposted from my SS Fall contest blog)

OMG, this is the most INCREDIBLE scent I've had the chance to smell in a very long time! It's quite hard to describe, but I'm going to try...

Opened vial whiff is amaaaaaaaaaazing! I had to whiff it a few times because I couldn't decide if it was sweet or not, but it is. I really don't like sweet scents that much. BUT... Manor has a sweetness that is not the typical sickeningly sweet that you think of from candy type scents.

I'm NUTS about the initial scent! I can't pick out all of the notes, because some of them I'm not sure if I've smelled before. It's incensy in the beginning (almost like a Frankincense but not really), with vanilla, some wood notes with just a hint of a piney woodsy smell. There's also a bit of a resiny scent... a tiny bit like an amber. REALLY wonderful! It almost smells damp, a bit dark. Imagining an old manor.. just like it's name. There's a musty musk note too that really adds to the whole "atmosphere" (and there's a TON of atmosphere to this scent).

I've had it on for a few hours now and this scent morphs! As it's drying down I can still smell the vanilla (not a typical SS vanilla... I think Angela something somewhere about how this is a new different vanilla), not as much of the incense and resin. It still has the sweet note, but there's also a bit of a spice note too (not the normal herbal spice like clove or such) along with a woodsy scent without that piney note.

If I were to describe it without using scent notes, I think it would be a lot like the name. An abandoned old house, damp and filled with memories and scents of past owners.

I really like this scent! It's VERY unique, unlike anything I've smelled before... including other SS scents. BUT, there's also a bit of something familiar to it too. It wears extremely well and it's not a light or a fast wearing scent. I don't have to smell my wrists or shirt... I just get a whiff of it from sitting here, but it's not overpowering at all. Manor will definitely be in the top list of my favorites, that's for SURE.

Manor

I am absolutely, completely in love with this scent!!! I can't describe it better than SS can, so I won't even attempt. But, I will say that this scent is beyond divine! When I wear this scent I feel like I can do anything!!! I feel strong, sexy, and mysterious!!!

I think of this as a sophisticated and sensual vanilla scent! And, I get more compliments when I wear this than any other perfume that I've ever worn (even high end perfumes!)!!! I actually will reach for this before I even think about any of the other dozen or so scents that I own!

Manor is exactly how I want to smell! I definitely recommend this scent!!! It's simply amazing!

It's really hard for me to add more to the description of Manor that will enhance what the previous reviewers have said - just wanted to add my approval. For me, Manor starts as a woody blend, which I guess is the agarwood (or oudh) and aloeswood, but I can smell a little vanilla even at the start. It morphs into a woody vanilla musk that lasts a long long time.

In short, Manor smells divine and lasts seemingly forever.

Ditto to everything above - manor is sexy, mysterious, and hauntingly beautiful.
One of my favorites; I adore it.

I am starting to sound like a broken record. But I also love this new perfume. Woods, musk, incense (!!). It is sweet but with a minty note. This must be the Oud, a ceder/menthol like smell. Very nice. The dry down is wonderfully sweet with a smokey edge to it.
Great fragrance!

Cross-posted from the green:

Looks like Angela is spot on with her descriptions again. Manor isn't my thing since I'm not a fan of wood scents on myself, but I'll ask my husband to try it since I think it would smell sexy on him.

I can't wait to try this scent! Instead of going with the perfume format, though, I'm grabbing up one of the Body Ganaches (mainly because Arizona winters tend to dry out my skin!). As for the usage of Vanilla Musk in there... that's what Advil is for, isn't it?

Add me to the list of fans for this scent . Manor is like a rich, dark, vanilla smoke & woods sort of scent on my skin. It's just sweet enough to be wearable for me, with the woods and darker incense-like notes surrounding the vanilla in a gorgeous, sensual way. I like this a lot, and it smells great on me and on my husband.

I will add myself to the list of fans...Manor is exquisite. It smells like heaven to me...rich woods with a semi sweet vanilla undertone that lasts and lasts. This oil is truly a masterpiece - well done!

I honestly think that Manor is one of the more complex scents on this site... It might not have the most ingredients and oils added to it, but there's something about the way it layers. Each individual scents seems to take its turn highlighting the show. This scent is full of surprises... Very GOOD surprises!

This is like wearing a warm, soft sweater. It's understated, comfortable, and very approachable. This morphs very little on me and is a very true woody vanilla from application to dry down. I can definitely see the comparisons to Old Cedar Magus. Gorgeous!

Manor is at the same time very strong and light. The wood notes are clear, tart, almost medicinal, with just a touch of sweetness. It is more like a zingy honey note rather than a vanilla. It reminds me of Serge Lutens Miel du Bois and Gap's White Amber, but it wears much longer, stronger, and blends better with my skin than either of those.

The fragrance called "Manor" is absolutely enthralling.

Because of my SWAP buddy, I am indebted to deer4! It is so LOVELY. The notes have intermingled so that they emerge at different points of the day, perhaps depending on the humidity, your skin's DNA, or even, the temperature of the skin. How does a perfumer do that? How do they create depth in a fragrance to magically emerge with one surprising scent, right after another?

At times, it dark, moist, earthy woodsy. Sometimes its sweet. Sometimes there's just a trace of an heirloom rose that might be in the vase for a couple days. Amber? Incense? Resin? All in the right quantity to clearly make this an unisex fragrance! And, after all these notes are blended, I feel that I'm in my grandmother's house, recently shut down and empty, with just the slightest detection of mustiness!

Absolutely thrilled....plan to purchase this in the glace and ganache and perfume. Just wish a scrub would be offered, too! Several thumbs up on this one, Angela! It's exquisite.......sigh....

I keep wondering what smells so good today, and then I realize it is Manor.

I know I'm probably a minority here, but when I first tried Manor I absolutely HATED it. I got none of the woodsy, vanilla incense that I was expecting. Instead, it smelled strongly like the sad and heavy perfumes that were favored by elderly church ladies from my childhood. I put my little sample of Manor away with all of the other rejected scents (from other retailers) and went about testing the rest of my Solstice perfumes.

Fast forward two weeks and I've just found out about this forum. When first started reading the reviews here, I was shocked to find that not only were all of the comments positive but that everyone was simply in love with this scent. Clearly, I needed to post my own review to warn off others with a similiar body chemistry. For the second time I put on Manor and set about writing a negat...

... wait a minute, this smells good. REALLY good. Is this even the same perfume?

Turns out that, yes this not only the same vial but THIS is the Manor that everyone is raving about... I finally get it. The woods and the vanilla blend together to make this lovely, slightly sweet scent that I could spend all day sniffing. Occasionally, from out of nowhere, I'll catch a very faint whiff of what I smelled the first time I put Manor on but its so fleeting that it doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of the scent at all.

I'm always amazed by how some perfume oils change over time. Hopefully this story will serve as a reminder that no matter how much you dislike a scent, its a good idea to revisit it after a few weeks (unless, of course, you have some sort of allergic reaction - time can do many things but it can't cure allergies).

I was stopped three times this morning by women telling me I smelled good. Three. Times.

alicious wrote:

I was stopped three times this morning by women telling me I smelled good. Three. Times.

Yayyyyyyyy!

This scent is a must try. I can't believe how good it is. It's very unisex. Hubby loves it on me.

AngloAngel wrote:

I can't wait to try this scent! Instead of going with the perfume format, though, I'm grabbing up one of the Body Ganaches (mainly because Arizona winters tend to dry out my skin!). As for the usage of Vanilla Musk in there... that's what Advil is for, isn't it?

Oh, Hot damn!! I seriously love this scent! As soon as I popped the stopper on this, it rushed out to greet my nose with a wonderful warmth that I can only describe as reading a leather-bound book in front of a roaring fire, comforted by soft vanillas as the weather outside becomes crisper and darker, dark pendulous clouds threatening to let loose a torrent upon the house and fields...

If this does go GC, I will loose my mind!

While I love vanilla, from all the woods in the description, I didn't think I would like this one. Woods and smoke usually turn pretty masculine on me, but this surprised me. I received a vial from a recent swap, and both times that I tried it hubby started sniffing around me and told me how nice I smell. The word that kept coming to mind when I smelled it was "involved".

I've decided that it belongs in the genre of scents that I like to refer to as "Sexy Old Library". I'd include SS's Astral Temple, and Wiggle Perfumes' Speakeasy Vanilla in the same category.

It took me a while to like this blend. When I first got it, the scent of the woods was so overwhelming - bitter, strong, almost medicinal like dried herbs and soil-covered mushrooms. I had to put my bottle away and let it rest for about a week and a half before I tried it again. And this time, I was blown away by the difference aging made because it smoothed out into a completely different creature! And now I can barely put it down! For the first time for me, my skin doesn't amp the woods. Instead, the vanilla is the strongest note (yay!), all silky and sweet, and the woods help to keep it grounded in the nicest, snuggliest way possible.

When I first tried Manor, it gave me the impression of cold dampness but now it's warm and comforting, like a well-worn fuzzy sweater (to paraphrase the words of a reviewer here). I am really interested to find out how it will smell after a year's aging, but I doubt my little bottle will last that long!

Gorgeous scent, lovely deep vanilla and woods, works very well on my husband too so definitely a unisex scent. Lasts for ages too.

I ordered a sample of Manor with my most recent order, and put some on this morning. I almost cried - to my nose it smells *exactly* like my beloved Granny used to. She wore Faberge's Woodhue powder, and I've been searching for years for something similar. I know the Vermont Country Store sells it, but I understand it's a dupe, not the original, and now I don't even need to try it.

I can't even review it properly, the association is so strong. I do know that I would love this even without that, though, it's that beautiful. Off to order multiple full bottles...