OLD HAVANA PREMIUM FRAGRANCE 5 ML (Summer 2014)

OLD HAVANA PREMIUM FRAGRANCE
Tobacco, Woods, Spices, Sea Mist, Lime

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

Offered in 5 ml perfume and Burnishing Glace

Old Havana is an exquisite, sophisticated and elegantly refined tobacco scent with all of the nuances of the highest quality handmade premium cigars, carefully aged and stored at optimum temperature in a Spanish cedar lined humidor.  This fragrance illustrates the wrapper, tobacco within and wooden cigar storage box.  Old Havana also features warm spices, a delicate squeeze of fresh lime top note and a splash of salty sea spray and moist beach sand.  The lime is very subtle and detectable upon cold sniff and initial application.  Beyond the opening, the smooth tobacco, soft woods, spice and sea spray swirl in an intensely beautiful, mysterious and realistic fragrance.  Transport yourself.  Old Havana is our final word on tobacco scents and one of our favorite blends to date.

This makes me think of walking through an exotic bustling outdoor market alongside the ocean (not that I've ever done this but I can dream). Brushing past mysterious strangers. Spices for sale, delicate hints of sea mist on the breeze. It's got a masculine edge to it but not unwearable for ladies by any means. I get tangy, bright lime, saltwater, smooth woods and some smoky tobacco mostly. I am a huge fan of Tenebrous Mist and Hand of Darkness, and I think Old Havana would be an excellent option for those who enjoy those scents. They have some subtle similarities that should complement each other, I have to do some experimenting with those!

I love how Angela's scents paint a picture in my mind.  I immediately saw an old galleon over whose prow sea water had broke thousands of times, each time being dried by the hot sun until the wooden planking of the deck was infused and encrusted with salt.  The lime helps me place the ship somewhere in tropical climes.  Beautifully done.

I think of Old Havana as a skin scent. The smell conjures images of aged and dusty books with yellowed pages and a lit cigar slowly filling the air with tobacco smoke. But beyond this i detect a delicious zing (i think it's the lime), which takes the blend into a whole different direction. This is such a refined perfume and very well executed.

Smells like a cologne I should recognize but can't quite recall. I can smell very dry, faded wood and a bit of sourness, like this is from an old musty box. Maybe that box once held tobacco in it, but I don't smell much of a tobacco in this right now. The most tenacious of the three scents I ordered (Sun-Warmed Honey and Tenebrous Mist), clocking in at 6+ hours, with mild sillage. But I bought this because SS seemed so enthusiastic about this being THE tobacco scent, and I am disappointed in its absence on me.

Quite extraordinary and not at all what I was expecting.

Old Havana is indeed sophisticated and elegant, but is definitely not a straightforward tobacco fragrance. Tobacco is indeed present, but in this blend it has company. The wood note and tobacco are featured in the dry-down, as I had assumed, so nothing unnusual there. It is the opening that gives the surprise with an unexpected lime rind note and the definite marine note of saltwater. It is a very clever rendition of the port of Old Havana city where limes, spices, tobacco leaf and wooden boxes vie for attention with the ever-present smell of the harbour itself. The water and citrus notes abate but never disappear and the woods and spices gently gain prominence. Behind the scene is the tobacco - always there but within the cigar box. What could have been a straight forward fragrance has an intelligence and style that was not anticipated.

After a strong opening, the sillage fades, but the fragrance lasts well at this subtle level and always holds my interest with the quality of the notes.

I love the lime in this perfume- it really elevates the tobacco. My skin amps up sweetness in scents so the main tobacco note comes out very sweet on the drydown. The zesty lime sort of peeks around the corner. Sometimes I smell very tangy but mostly it just lifts the tobacco up. I don't get much of the sea spray on my skin.

Old Havana is not as fresh and wet as I expected it to be, it is more of an earthy-sexy-tangy-sunshine scent. Really lovely.

First let me state that this is a long lasting fragrance. I put some on at night to sample it and not only could I smell it for the rest of the evening, it also lingered into the morning and I could still smell it when I woke up. Having said that it is by no means an overpowering or overwhelming scent. It is truly beautiful and despite its description, not just a summer scent. For me it is a balmy woodsy fragrance with the lime peaking through. It is not sweet and I can see how some people might perceive this as more of a masculine scent, but as a female I felt very comfortable wearing it and found it to be quite sexy. For this reason, I think it falls solidly in the unisex category. I know I'll be buying a full bottle of this one in the near future.

This is very unisex on me but not overly masculine. I smell warmed woods. It reminds me of being in a sauna or if you’ve been on Pirates of the Caribbean the smell of the parts of the ride where you are riding through a town that is being pillaged (lots of wood overhangs and planks everywhere). On me the tobacco and spices end up smelling like rum (more the spiciness than the booziness) and the lime makes it smell like a Dark and Stormy, one of my favorite drinks. This scent makes me think of sitting in the hull of a wooden ship drinking a cocktail.

You can really smell all of the listed notes with this one. The tobacco is sweet and honeyed, like chewing tobacco, with a swirl of dry spice, sweet lime and cologne-y aquatic. It smells like every pirate-themed perfume oil I've ever tried, lol (lime, rum, exotic spices, driftwood, aquatic)... My hubby said it smelled like a tropical drink mixed with chewing tobacco. Not my favorite.

This scent is so much fun! You get the lime tang and the tobacco hits hard, but there's a certain smoothness to the dry down that makes it interesting to wear because it shifts. I like to mix it with vanilla to soften it a bit, but I do love this one. I would say it leans masculine.

Old Havana commanded my attention after I discovered Solstice Scents due to a reddit chat on Foxcroft. Well, it was spring, and Foxcroft was not coming out for awhile, so I perused the catalogue. I'm a tobacco lover, so this one naturally fit the bill.

It is a definite morpher. I agree with everybody who describes the opening as tangy. Immediately evident lime. Some days the lime is quite strong, and I haven't been able to determine why. If you apply heavily, the lime stays awhile and is almost too much.

The drydown is sweet and woodsy and makes me feel like a swaggering strong buck with a healthy supply of testosterone. My favorite part is the transition into the drydown, when the tangy lime is still onstage but waving farewell. The drydown is soft, and I want it to last longer. So here is the catch-22. Put more on, get longer-lasting lime that extends into the drydown. Put less on, and the drydown is short-lived. Still, I love it, and it is one of my favorite Solstice Scent fragrances. Perhaps my overall favorite.

As a guy, I think it leans masculine. I've associated this scent with myself for so long that it would catch me off guard to smell the lime on a woman. The drydown is more unisex. It is one of the few warm weather scents that I enjoy.

I am confused by the description that notes this will be their last word on tobacco scents. I figured that meant they wouldn't make any more scents with tobacco. But I consistently see tobacco as a note in the new releases.

I have both the oil and the EDP. The EDP overall feels softer, and has a relatively quieter lime to make it smoother to me. The EDP has a lower longevity. I get about 3-4 hours with the oil before I have to press my nose in, and 2.5 with the EDP. The ones that are fleeting are great, because they don't have time to get cloying and I continue to crave them.

For a reference of whether your nasal inhalatory preferences are similar to mine, my favorite solstice scents are Old Havana, Vanilla Pipe Tobacco, White Fox, and High Noon. My least favorite are Pinyon Truffle, Sacred Vow, and Devil's Tongue.