HYLNDS is a new collection of three fragrances from indie perfumers DS & Durga — Bitter Rose, Broken Spear; Isle Ryder; and Pale Grey Mountain, Black Lake.
HYLNDS invokes those places on our planet where the otherworld seems nigh. It is set in the mythical border regions of early Northern European cultures – Norse, Orcadian, Scotti, Celtic, Pict, Manx, & Angle. Through very real materials – rare plant extracts, precious balsams, and other choice ingredients – we are able to access haunting memories of a faded era.
Bitter Rose, Broken Spear (shown) ~ "From Ulster fort to Argyll’s holy top, Red Branch nights, proud chiefs in wool, faded dyes – rowan berry, bitter rose, hunt in wood-of-wonders, melancholy thistle, for feasts, water-of-life, Caeawg’s amber wreath, smelted iron, wine-in-horn, now broken spear and empty hills." With embers, wild mountain thyme, cubeb, bitter rose, thistle, nutmeg, smelted iron, amber and larch.
Isle Ryder ~ "To the Blessed Isles, past the Manx seaman’s myst and thundering valour, past Balor’s blackened bulrush, the Summer Raider in ashwood shyp, his northern woods, saps, cones, honeyed mead, wax, golden gorse, meadowsweet, to inner loch, of inner isle, always ryding west." With poplar bud, fir cones, meadowsweet, golden gorse, jasmine, norway spruce, mead, woodruff and bulrush straws.
Pale Grey Mountain, Black Lake ~ "Up pale grey mountain, through silver fog, bracken, bramble, dry heather shrub, past gravestone pile from forgotten time, facing west in whipping wind, the small black lake keeps witch’s ring, where the doomed king looked out to sea, Fenian blood in turf, the chilling quiet, the cry of hounds." With fog-on-stone, water pepper, lichen, heather shrub, beechwood, bramble flower, marsh violet, coastal air, chilled water and purslane.
The DS & Durga HYLNDS fragrances are $180 each for 50 ml Eau de Parfum.
(via press release)
What a load of pretentious nonsense!
I have one of the Anthropologie scents from this company -an Iris which I think is called Grey Shaded Lady, and rather like it.
The brand is made in Brooklyn New York, which is connected with the Blessed Isle of NewYork. I have no doubt one may find there “Fenian blood” and “honeyed mead,” but it s not a location of “inner lochs” (unless that means the artificial pond in Central Park.” ] jasmine or “wild mountain thyme.”
I think they need to find a copy writer who is not finishing a thesis on James Joyce.
There is something in the press release about being inspired by Yeats’ Wanderings of Oisin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wanderings_of_Oisin
Yeats’ style is far less baroque than the press release. Even when Yeats reaches for a “fancy” phrase, he only does so once or twice in a line. The copy above piles fancy phrase upon fancy phrase.
Dilana, I really like several of their scents — they’re different.
I agree this is total “cut to the chase” description, but underneath it all these sound intriguing to me. And I was really ok with the copy, in an ok blah blah kind of way, until I reached myst, shyp and ryding west. But what can you expect in the Hylnds? Isle Ryder lists gorse as a note, which I’ve read smells like almonds, so that’s one I’d really like to smell.
I’m just waiting for a perfume called HYLNDER.
🙂
What Robin said!
there can be only one….
Hahaha!
Thank you all for the giggle!
Warning: curmudgeonly rant to follow. It’s not just DS & Durga, and these may in fact be lovely, but I’m puzzled at the plethora of houses which dump out multiple releases at once. I sincerely wish a company would make one or two well made new fragrances per year rather than many mediocre scents.
There have been several houses in the past year dumping a dozen (12!?!) fragrances into the market all at once. I hereby write off all such companies, and flatly refuse to try anything from them until they can prove they have some art for me to try, rather than product.
Ok, rant over, and apologies for my negativity. In general, I feel the more the merrier, but had a moment there. I hope everyone has great fun in their fragrant explorations. And I’ll try not to take any of this too seriously, promise. Be well.
You know, I totally hear you, but now that people are releasing 20+ at once, 3 seems so manageable to me.
If I mentally elide the ad copy, these all sound -well- worth trying. In fact, most of the DS & Durga scents have interested me, but I haven’t been able to get my hands on them in real life. I wish Luckyscent or Indie Scents or somebody would carry the line!
If they ever make flankers to these the names would be incredibly long…
Pale Grey Mountain, Black Lake Eau Sport Extreme?
Wow, I didn’t realize this line was so pricy! I can’t recall if I’ve sniffed any of their frags, but a male acquaintance was wearing Burning Barbershop one day, and it was swoonworthy. These sound worth investigating, Prix eau Faux ad copy notwithstanding.
If yer lum is gonnae reek loch ‘at, ye shooldnae be preachin’ sic’ bollocks!
By way of explanation, I’m married to a Glaswegian. 🙂
The rest of us may need a translation!
Roughly, “if your chimney is going to smoke , then you shouldn’t be talking about the fumes in such a bulls__t way!” Errrr. Roughly.
Oh but now, of course (instead of doing the writing I have to do and which has a deadline around the corner) all I can think of is good copy for a new fume from our Hylnds friends (pronounced hee-lan, as in heelan coos, popularly called “highland cows” by the English) called LUM REEK. “Fur those feckin’ freezin’ nights when th’ whiff ay coal frae th’ wee fire warms yer feit an’ yer sool… you remember the struggles of Wild William Wallace, and the fine ladies who fought nye him, who luved him, their passion igniting the hero of all Scots–today that passion captured in 50 ml of eau de parfum of Lum Reek. With creaky horse hooves and shouts in the fog, heather and sage, bracken and thistle, this fragrance evokes the hope of the young hero’s kinsmen, and the ladies who stood fast, with woven flowers in their hair waiting for freedom, the Freedom of Wallace, Scottish rule for Scottish folk, Scottish language, Scottish customs, turf fires, young forests, wild roses, heather, and sweet oils and resins. Lum Reek is Scotland, is freedom, is the aromatic odor of heros and heroines, and the great Noble of Elderslie…
Applause – Oakland, you have a great future in either ad copy or the Prix Eau Faux!
Excellent, thank you!
I rather liked the ad copy – read out loud the rhythm is quite nice. Internal rhymes, etc. Nice to read something that doesn’t rely on alliteration as a poetic device.
I think the scents sound interesting as well.
Actually these have some pretty interesting notes in them. I’d like to try them.
Well, if we are going that way, we might as well quote the Bard:
“This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,–
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.”
Sorry to speak for the imperialists, but it is one island, innit?
I have one of their scents – My Indian Childhood – which I like very much.
‘fog-on-stone’, ‘chilled water’, ‘coastal air’, ‘smelted iron’???
has anyone ever smelled ‘chilled water’ before drinking it?
wonderful bulls**t.
oh, and yes, it’s $180. it kind of reminds me of the ‘fiji water’ ad campaign and prices. oh god, spare me.
My wife and I both love Bitter Rose, Broken Spear – although it is certainly not a suble fragrance. The initial blast of scent smells EXACTLY like a really peaty single malt scotch. And it wasn’t just the expectations created by the branding. A friend of mine gave me a shot of Bowmore whiskey at a party last weekend. And when I sprayed this on at Barney’s in SF today, that scent instantly lept into my mind. After about 15 minutes, this fades and is relaced by a fairly powerful patchouli accord – kind of like Serge Lutens Borneo 1834 without the cacao notes. But the patchouli is fleshed out with other smoky, woody, and herbal notes that I couldn’t quite place. It starts to sweeten slightly and the patchouli fades a bit in the dry down but it remains smoky and rich. It’s definately expensive, but might be worth tracking down a sample or a decant – if you like whiskey, patchouli, and peat. And I personally enjoy the marketing copy. It does kind of evoke the feeling of this fragrance for me. And half the fun of fragrances are the poetic associations that the scents inspire.