Wild Veil Subscription
i signed up for the Wild Veil subscription in April, and now i've received two orders (and tried some other samples from swaps)
first off, i absolutely overwhelmingling recommend the subscription. you can choose how many samples you'd like each month, from 1 all the way up to 8. you can cancel at any time, so if circumstances change or you decide it's not for you, you aren't locked into anything.
with shipping, my subscription (1 sample) is about 20$. i don't keep super close track of orders, but i think i received both within a few weeks of payment. both were 1ml solid samples, which was SO exciting for me because i was really hoping to try solids, and they totally sold me. so, without further ado:
04/26 subscription order
remote viewer- Clear + psychedelic. A cedar trinity (white, Himalayan, and atlas) brushed with vibrant streaks of blood orange. Yellow saffron and amber powder dust over elemi's lemon musk. Accords of fresh citrus, spice + woods.
right off the bat the blood orange is soft but present. there’s maybe lemon or elemi too, but they all blend very well together so i can’t tell. very three-dimensional with just the orange, and not sharp or overpowering. i like it. fresh, sweet and bitter more than sweet and sour. as it warms it gets sweeter and deeper with the woods. somehow the citrus doesn’t fade, it gets jam-sweet.
this one is pretty simple, and it didnt grow on me so much as i didnt notice it taking over. i just keep reaching for it. i dont smell the wood personally, i dont tend to unless its pretty strong, but it gives the whole scent this deeply comforting background feel and sustains it and sweetens it. i really like this one.
5/5
05/26 subscription order
gretel- Not all gingerbread, licorice, and cinnamon. Black forest cake is more lichen for salt lickin' and mushroom pickin'. A dusting of licorice, spicy-earthy cinnamon bark and cloves on fresh baked bread. Cocoa, ginger and luscious edible heliotrope give way to a wild forest bed of fungi and black conifers. Earthy mushroom (cèpes) encloses the dry down like nightfall in a dark, enchanted forest.
it’s a spiced gourmand that isn’t spic*-y* and isn’t super sweet. the overall impression for me is dense German cake. i primarily smell bread, cinnamon, licorice, cloves, i don’t get mushroom or conifers in the drydown. it gets sweeter, heliotrope i think? sweeter and cleaner, more solidly gingerbread, but its pretty linear for me in the sense that the notes don’t change. it smells very literally like a German fairytale house made of sweets in the woods. i smell this and i can tell the house is structurally sound somehow.
i don’t love gourmands, and i think im going to pass this one along to someone who will definitely love it. but its so interesting i haven’t stopped testing yet, 3-4 tries in.
and the additional swap sample reviews:
annabel sea: Feminine ode to ambergris set in attar and oud. A siren's blood orange echolocation. Chests of labdanum powder and vanilla bob in a tropical bay, the ignorant remnants of a shipwreck. A deep sea bride floating on a mourning tide, a monument of sun-bleached driftwood.
fucking stanky! hooly shit! fresh ocean air, a bit of bubble-blowing solution, salt? salty brine, animal sweet. for me, no vanilla, labdanum, or blood orange. resins start to bloom super slow and far away, but they fail to fully materialize before it fades.
personal 2/5; concept 2/5 (for me it never goes below the waves), 5/5 ocean stank that had absolutely no chemical aftertaste (im pretty sensitive to that one synthetic used in aquatics)
death M: The scorpion winters in fossilized amber. A hollow smell. Incense bones and cool violet butter. Black, brown, white and green. Notes of argan, nuts, shivering herbs, neglected frankincense, frozen beach, fossils, and cold fire. Transformation, change, Major Arcanum of Scorpio.
it smells unbelievably dry. almost a little mint in the background, unfriendly and uninterested in you. dry bone, dust, fossils, idk what it smells like but it is so so dry. it smells like eating a fistful of cold sand in the early morning in november. the frankincense starts to come through a bit and it's cold and adds no warmth.
on the drydown it makes peace with you, or decides your presence is of no note. it's no longer so dry it pulls moisture from the air to smell. it settles into something dry but a bit more herbal.
personal 3?/5; concept 5/5
this smells like the hollow depression that marked the worst year of my life. NO idea how to put that on a numerical scale but i will be keeping and using this one.
after reading through the website and some other reviews, i was expecting a certain something from Wild Veil, and it absolutely delivered. whether i like a scent or not, every aspect is incredibly three dimensional. every note is complex. they're SO fun to smell. it's like listening to a windchime, and all the different tiny complimentary melodies.
additionally, Hinsman's practice is absolutely incredible. i see a lot of people promote their businesses as sustainable, Wild Veil is stewardship. Hinsman tends the land and plants, grows their own materials, and donates monthly to Abenaki Helping Abenkai, a charity supporting the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki People and other Native communities. it's exactly the type of business i really really want to support.
if you've been on the fence about trying Wild Veil and are considering the subscription as a cheap way to start, i absolutely recommend it. receiving a surprise in the mail has become the highlight of my month. the quality is exquisite, and even if you get something you don't like, it's sure to find a home with someone who loves it.