Created by perfumers Josh Meyer of Imaginary Authors and Samantha Radar for her American-based indie brand Dasein (pronounced DAH-zyne) Fragrances, Winter Nights was launched in 2016 as a limited edition of 400 bottles. It sold out in hours and quickly became a cult favourite. 

On me, it opens with the heady, aromatic smell of a pine forest. I smell the clean, sharp scent of fir, spruce, cedar, and pine needles, mingling with the deep, resinous scent of sap. It’s fresh, invigorating and immersive. There’s a hint of saltness in the air here, too, that evokes the smell of the ocean in the distance. As it blooms, the resins soften, and the smell of smouldering dry wood wafts into the forest. A note of cardamom tea blends the warm spiciness of cardamom with the comforting aroma of tea, evoking a sense of familiarity and tranquillity. Cardamom has a camphoraceous facet that pairs with a note of herbaceous, heady lavender that keeps Winter Nights fresh and invigorating at the base, where warm, earthy, woody, wild musk lends depth and sensuality.

Winter Nights dries down to the woody, dark, aromatic scent of a pine forest that has become the benchmark for forest-themed fragrances. I know it’s one of my favourite forest scents.

Notes: coastal forest, driftwood bonfire, cardamom tea, lavender flowers and wild musk.