Willowherb Hawkmoth

The aromatic quality of the bitter orange peel works so well with the cedarwood. They both have a level of dryness that makes them feel almost fused together.On my skin, the pine is actually the loudest note,but without that stereotypical pine-and-sap smell my nose has come to expect. The dried rosemary plays an interesting part too. Its slightly sharp, herbal scent opens up the cedar, which in turn tempers the pine. Sweet orange is there as well, but it seems to rotate around the other notes, like a satellite around the earth. Once again, I am seeing that circular pattern with Ashe's scents. The notes don't feel layered; nor do they simply sit on top of each other. Instead, one affects the next, which affects the next, and somehow they keep circling back.
Then the mood changes. The armoise brings a distinctly bitter, almost apothecary like quality that immediately reminds me of Malört.Something about that bitterness brings tree bark to mind, but not in the same woody way as the cedar or pine.Peppery musk keeps the armoise from going all the way into that mouth-puckering intensity associated with the drink. Through this constant revolution of notes, Willowherb Hawkmoth becomes less about smelling the individual parts and more like opening a portal straight into the woods. A cloud of forest-forward memories for anyone who dares to step through.

Willowherb is INCREDIBLE. I didn't know what to expect from the notes (honestly true for everything from Mythpunk, the fragrances tend to be more of a vibe than the sum of its parts), but I read 'dry atmospheric' and knew I had to try.

I was really surprised upon smelling this to find that it pulled up a memory of hiking as a kid! I grew up in the southwest, so while we DID have forests we visited sometimes, they were high altitude and very dry and bright. This smells like those forests to me and brings up a lot of happy memories of walking with my childhood dogs and playing in the woods with my siblings.

I also thought it was a little spicy/peppery once dry, and I came looking for the notes again to find Ashe had updated them to include that little hidden one :P it fits so well with the dry cedar! Incredible scent and I have immense respect for any fragrance that can pull a feeling/memory out of me like that, I'm going to be snagging a full bottle of this as soon as I can.

This is gorgeous.

It smells like clean skin that’s been warmed by bright sunlight surging through evergreens on a hot but super breezy day with enough shade to stay cool or even a little chilly. If that sounds gross, it’s not. “Skin musk” can sound a bit funky, but I promise there’s no funk here.

The cedar is prominent, and it’s not sharp or musty. It’s basically the ideal of cedar wood.
I also don’t find the pine to be sharp in the least; it’s “warm” if that makes any sense! and my complicated relationship with orange of all forms doesn’t affect me a bit with this scent. I love both pine and orange, but they usually give me scent fatigue rapidly. Not an issue here!

I feel like the cedar, pine, orange, rosemary, and musk especially just blend together so perfectly that they create an incredibly smooth experience without being flat. It’s just calm, yet bright and refreshing. I can’t explain how both can be true except *perfume goblin magic*

Definitely give this a go—maybe even if it’s got some notes that aren’t something you gravitate toward. I absolutely wouldn’t have tried this if I hadn’t gotten a surprise chance!

Opens with the vibrant greenery of rosemary, made bright and refreshing with the cool, crisp notes of white wormwood. The woodsy warmth of rosemary is deepened with fragrant cedarwood, followed by the scent of towering pines. Their balsamic woods and verdant needles are beautifully aromatic complex — the sticky sweetness of amber pine resin brings out refreshing notes of sweet orange and a hint of peppery spice, and a swirl of sheer, salt air. A dab of soft skin musk smooths the scent, seamlessly blending brisk, herbal top notes with the comforting base.

I expected this to be very masculine and herbal, but I actually find this more of an androgynous atmospheric — the nostalgia of an evergreen forest with just a touch of herbal magic. I rarely find forest notes to be very wearable, but the woods here are absolutely beautiful, the pine has such an amazing realism. If you've been looking for natural pine, this is the one — comforting and warm and impressively realistic.

Also, I absolutely love this on my partner, so much so that he got to keep my bottle — a snuggly, peppery warmth that's bright enough for warm weather, I love it on him!