Slumberhouse Pt.1 (The Classics, Well...Sort Of)

As probably some of you already know, I'm addicted to uber-niche brands. My passion of discovering and exploring small independent houses goes together with my passion for the world of fragrance.

Most of the time I end up being disappointed by pretentious and overhyped/overpriced niche deliveries. I find many independent perfumers still able to be creative and sometimes even innovative at reasonable prices. This is the case of Slumberhouse.

From their website:

Slumberhouse is a boutique cologne label in the heart of Portland, OR; created and inspired by urban and street culture, art, film and music - especially the new school of hiphop and graffiti artists. We are a group of young gents who march to our own beat, embracing an absolute disregard for other brands, trends and marketing cliches. Slumberhouse represents an unequivocal love for the art of fragrance making.

Slumberhouse delivered so far something like thirteen fragrances of which I had the chance to sample seven, plus several extremely Limited Releases of which many are apprearantly already sold out (sometimes they released less than a dozen of each of them). I split this post in two parts dividing what may be considered as the house "staples" from the "new born". Here are my takes...

What a suprise! Vikt has an incredibly bone-dry structure but it smells rich and satisfying. It opens with a bizarre laurel/agarwood (sort of) metallic accord that smells something like "liquorice wheels" and burnt sugar with a remarkable balsamic effect. Intense, dark and bold. Incense make its appearance and perfectly blends with agarwood assuring a warm and comfortable drydown that's not very far from Durbano's Black Tourmaline. Extremely modern and bizarre, yet quite intriguing.

Rating: 8/10

Balsamic chocolate. Ore opens dry and rough with a desweetened cacao note. Dark woods announce their presence right away while a boozy accord concurs in adding some warmness during the middle phase and the drydown. The typical balsamic effect already experienced in other compositions of the house (Jeke, Vikt, Grev) is toned down but still pretty remarkable and, IMO, works as a sort of signature. This bizarre concoction between edible and inedible elements makes Ore one of the most original takes on the gourmandic theme. Intense but barely sweet, mysterious, dark and dangerously sexy. Good longevity and projection. Very nice.

Rating: 7-7.5/10

Part Profumum Arso, part Idole De Lubin, part Bois D'Ombrie. Jeke opens with a strong smoky tobacco note and evolves pretty quickly into a boozy-leather fragrance where leather is definitely lived in but not particularly original. Woody undertones and patchouli add some more edges to this bold and extremely dark composition. Everything is surrounded by a bizarre allure I classify as burnt sugar with a medicinal/balsamic/resinous vibe. I already detected this specific effect in both Vikt and Grev and I'm starting to seriously consider that it may be the Slumberhouse's signature. Overall Jeke has quite a few interesting apsects but to me it is still somehow crude. So many ideas but none of them having been properly developed, giving an overall effect of something incomplete. While Jeke is surely less minimalistic than Vikt I still prefer the latter. I believe the house signature is too prominent, and in this context causes the fragrance to be unbalanced and sort of heavy. Nice, but I'l wait for Jeke 1.5, hoping they'll fix some bugs.

Rating: 6.5/10

Slumberhouse classifies this as a "post-modern version of an elegant masculine cologne" and, for some aspects, this description is quite fitting. A strong and intense concoction of spices (mainly cloves) and herbs with a remarkable balsamic effect. Grev opens with cloves galore and fir. Other spices and herbs make their appearance after a while leading the fragrance to the "Tiger Balm territory". Extremely balsamic and sort of medicinal. Nice, but not my type of fragrance.

Rating: 6/10

For infos on slumberhouse visit slumberhou.se

To be continued...