Jeke

A clearly masculine tobacco scent with loose pipe tobacco, some smoke and a hint of embers with something very bitter that I can't pinpoint. Tobacco, labdanum, benzoin and some patch come through loud and clear in the drydown. Not a groundbreaking scent yet very well done, strong and long lasting. If not for the bitterness it would be very wearable and by far it's much easier on the nose than norne!

OK - two scents in (Norne & Jeke) and it's official: I am besotted with Slumberhouse perfumes. Extraordinarily rich, deep, complex, natural, characterful smells with real integrity and lasting power. And so delicious, too. I read Jeke has been discontinued so wanted to smell it before never having the chance again. I'm so glad I did - for this is the fireside chat of your dreams - wood and spice and warm resins, mellowing into the very finest herbal cigar tobacco and with a final phase of utterly lovely drier spiced wood again, cedar and sandalwood and fir and I don't know what else. The opening blast and first hour also feature a *powerful* reek of whisky - not usually my thing at all and I don't really want to smell like a distillery - but it's a fine single malt matured in the truest oak, not cheap rotgut, so I could live with it and even savour it after a while (teetotaller typing). This is what Don Draper would smell like early on in the evening, before things got too messy. Yet while it's full of notes with a lot of masculine associations, this is so multi-faceted and skilled that it's completely unisex IMHO - it just depends whether or not you love those notes as much as Jeke's formulator(s) did. Huge longevity, projection not immense, but this is strong stuff (and note for the user: it actually weakens in effect the more you apply - I had a minor dabber accident and emptied on more than I meant to on the second day of testing, and got less delicious Jekeiness than I had on the first with just the tiniest few drops). Less is definitely more with this. It has a calmer, more indoorsy and reflective feel than the pagan warlord that is Norne, but this shares its rugged-woodsman DNA and its redolence of real nature. Jeke is Norne's slightly more urbane, more controlled, more sophisticated big brother - a Viking who's sailed around the Med, perhaps - but they're recognisably from the same, stunningly talented, stable. Completely compelling.

I ordered a sample of Jeke and when I first sniffed the sample bottle, it smelled very familiar and kind of unpleasant, but I couldn’t figure out what was the smell it reminded me of. Then, suddenly I made the connection and I laughed out loud. Please excuse me for writing this... When I was a child I had ‘a fart jar’. It was an empty old pickles jar in which I literally tried to capture my farts. The sample smelled exactly like that jar. Kind of disgusting to be honest, but it's also hilarious. Of course I'm probably the only person with this kind of association unless some of you also used to have a similar jar... Oh, the art of perfumery and the happy childhood memories. Today I'm wearing it for the first time and I'm glad it smells very different on my skin. I mostly get very realistic and rich pipe tobacco, but with it there's also the benzoin+labdanum+patchouli combo which is probably what reminds me of the smell of pickles and something musty. The scent is earthy and dirty. Something that takes a while to get used to, but I like odd and challenging perfumes. The balsamic and smoky vibe of Jeke also reminds me of CDG's Incense Avignon, but if Avignon is a catholic church then Jeke is an old abandoned catholic church that is covered with mold.

BURNT MARSHMALLOW Initial spray - I'm in a dank dungeon with a rank cave man. (and no, this is not a good thing.) After about an hour, thankfully I'm let out, and find myself stoking a campfire from last night using the sticks with some leftover charred marshmallow. And this is a good thing. It's now 12 hours later and this intriguing and original scent is still potent. The sweet and smokey combo is compelling. (This might even be a ramped up Aventus.)

Reformulated 2013 Extrait review - 2 spritz; I tested & rank like so, 1. Jeke (tops the lot) 2. Ore (+) 3. Kiste (very sweet, compelling peach) 4. Norne (extremely damp/unpleasant) 1. Jeke A certain pinch to the nose this one is! This will not stain the skin - you can see it clearly at first but slowly disappears. I get a literal burst of ballsy patchouli at first relatively akin to Le Labo's P24. I have been on the scout for a true unsweetened tobacco scent. After sampling a vast array of houses, let me tell you the mid notes here is the closest you will get to a dry, resilient, burnt tobacco accord - minus all the cherry/raspberry/honey nonsense. If you have smelt Odori Tabacco, there is an extremely dryer, absolute, more intense tobacco note here (of course much better). Precisely the smell of an aged humidor. This is complemented perfectly with spicy accords a bit later down the track. No sweet booze. I don't get the mammoth-esque sillage mentioned from other respected reviewers but longevity is good. There is just enough here to keep all in your humidor cabin in the beginning and sits a little closer to the skin upon development. It is a complex fragrance. I get the humidor vibe for 1/4 of the day then the dark, spicier yet smooth lapsang accord is born on top of the constant linear burning with minute peaks from other notes I cannot put my finger on until the end. I do not get any boozy, bourbon or vanilla smell at all from the sample vial or the bottle. Jeke at the heart a complex yet manageable, tobacco back boned fragrance. A house highly underrated and a buy without hesitation.