Detail From the Escape Ladder by Joan Miro (1940)

As much as any fragrance line I try there is always a little thrill when I get a new fragrance from Josh Lobb of slumberhouse. There is nothing about the way he approaches perfumery that feels like it came out of a manual somewhere. Every slumberhouse fragrance to date feels like it comes from a very personal place. As a result Mr. Lobb does not rely on the typical palette of olfactory notes. Or to be more accurate he uses many notes I’ve encountered in other fragrances just not in the same way and more often than not they produce a stunningly outré effect which gives me a frisson of joy when I try them. When I received my first group of slumberhouse samples, a couple years ago, there were two limited edition fragrances in that set, Flou and Sana. These were pretty much unavailable by the time I even thought to write about them and so I expected to leave it in my metaphorical “dead-letter” file. When I heard that both were going to be re-released I realized I would get a second chance to write about these perfumes and these are two worth writing about.

In Mr. Lobb’s description of Sana on his blog he says “(Sana) I believe display(s) how fragrance can truly transport the mind to places both familiar and unfamiliar, oftentimes surreal….and sometimes maybe even a bit eerie.” This quote applies equally to both Sana and Flou as both of these fall into the category of “atmospheric perfume” which evoke a kind of mood and that is what makes Mr. Lobb and slumberhouse such a special perfume maker.

Flou was inspired by Mr. Lobb’s nighttime bicycle rides along the Willamette or Columbia Rivers which run beside and through his hometown of Portland, Oregon. He would encounter “a strangely warm vine-riddled concord grape odor with an almost floral infused beach sand/sunscreen backdrop-something so warmly narcotic and summery.” Flou is the smell of grapes on the vine just before they reach full ripeness. There is an acrid earthy quality over a familiar grape smell. There is also the sunscreen accord Mr. Lobb was after too and that juxtaposes with the viniferous grape accord in a fascinatingly complex way.  Around all of this is a hint of the smell of the river. It never intrudes but there is a watery background vibration which reminds you that the river is just over there. Flou is one of my favorites within the slumberhouse repertoire because it succeeds on every level for me.

Lovecraft Landscape by Aeron Alfrey (2009)

Sana, as the quote above displays is not meant to evoke anything real it is meant to bring you to a place of your own imagining. Mr. Lobb has created a fragrance of challenging interlocking notes which will probably take each individual wearer to a different mindscape. I found Sana to take me into a sort of unsettling cross between Clive Barker and H.P. Lovecraft as Sana felt like the smell of these authors’ fantastical horror realms. The core of Sana is tagetes, fir balsam, and a leather accord. By itself those three notes would make a pretty pleasant perfume. I don’t believe Mr. Lobb was going for pretty or pleasant here; I believe he was going for unsettling as honey and magnolia get trampled by the tagetes early on. Raspberry leaf gets swamped by the fir and the leather wraps up a sweet birch note and pummels it into submission. Each of these auxiliary notes don’t seem like they were added to play nicely with the central notes instead they were added to add a bit of discord and they succeed. Sana feels like the perfume equivalent of that nervous energy I get when walking by a graveyard late at night.

Flou and Sana have all-day longevity on me and below average sillage as these extraits wear very close to the skin.

Both Flou and Sana succeed in achieving Mr. Lobb’s stated goals. That these goals are so different from almost any other perfumer working is what separates and elevates slumberhouse.

Disclosure: this review was based on samples provided by Parfum1.com

Thanks to Parfum1.com we have a worldwide draw for a sample set of Flou and Sana. To be eligible leave a comment on which one of Flou or Sana you think you would prefer. The draw will end on July 2, 2013.

We announce the winners only on site and on our Facebook page, so Like Cafleurebon and use our RSS option…or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume.

-Mark Behnke, Managing Editor