Damask Haus: Perfume Review
About the brand and my order:
With indies, it's always a treat to get to see new houses on the scene! I noticed Damask Haus sometime this year on Instagram, and was debating about picking a few scents to try after seeing their fantastic Patisserie collection, all inspired by gourmands. All their scents are inspired by travel - so there's a lot of fun stories there. The lovely Bri reached out to send me some press samples in exchange for a review about the brand, for which I am very grateful! (Thank you Bri!)
Damask Haus is a indie house located in Florida which opened in 2020, created by Bri the owner and creator of the scents. This house currently only offers perfume oils and EDPs, but they do offer a range of sizes, from 1.5ml to 10mls, with a large catalogue of collections - although I'm not entirely sure if these are seasonal releases or permanent. All of the sizes do come as rollerballs - which is great for the sample sizes. From their current catalogue, I am enamored with a lot of the gourmand scents listed, and they just released their new Global Libations collection with some amazing sounding scents (Taro bubble tea, matcha and melon cocktails), although I wasn't sent those - but I'd love to try those in the future. Seriously, I need that melon soda single note so bad.
For my order - the scents were all chosen for me (my comments were, yes gourmands, no musk!), and they arrived safely packaged with tissue paper, and each vial was wrapped in plumbers tape and a plastic bag. I noticed that the 10ml ended up leaking quite a bit and ended up smearing quite a lot of the design on the 10ml labels (and the scent label also ended up peeling right off) hence the smears on the photo. I did make a note of this to Bri directly and she said it seems to be a common issue that she's trying to work out. The 1.5ml came wrapped in a plastic bag and a little box as well - which was very cute. A grateful thank you again to Bri for sending these!
If you'd like to make an order, domestic orders over $100 ship free, and they also offer international worldwide shipping via USPS. Although I did not get any codes, there are some bloggers on Instagram who did receive partnership/sponsorship codes for 10% off any order until the end of the year! (codes: KAT10, ERIN10, or HAZEL10).
Scents:
Cockswain - Black Sea : Turkish coffee, scorched marshmallow, Graham cracker, chocolate shavings
This is really lovely - it has a light creamy coffee note, with just an edge of salty, nutty richness to it, and a dusting of chocolate powder. After dry down, I get a touch of woody amber just lying underneath the sweetness, and dries down after an hour to more of a marshmallow and hot chocolate scent. In comparison to Chocolate Ganache (Ganache Parfums), this is a little lighter and sweeter, and compared to Rigio Jansci Hungarian Chocolate Cake and French Quarter Coffee with Jelly filled Beignets (Moonalisa) it's far more simple and straightforward. I find it very similar to Hot Cocoa (Arcana) after its dried down with a slightly richer, nuttier roasted coffee nuance, but it's much lighter, with less projection and throw. That said, I really enjoy this one! I was pleasantly surprised as most houses tend to use cocoa absolute which has a very dusty quality, but this has that nice creaminess to it, which I love.
Scallywag - North Sea : Dry stout, blackberry, huckleberry, dragon's blood, rich amber
This isn't a type of scent I typically enjoy - there's a really nice wheat note from the dry stout, but this is a very resin rich scent. It's almost entirely dragon's blood and rich amber, with medicinal like fruity sweetness from the berry notes, except that it seems to be masking something a little bitter and woody. This reminds me a little bit of this essential oil blend I used to own called 'cyanide', with a heavy essential oil aspect. I'm not a huge fan of this one, but it's well blended enough - if you're a fan of resinous, essential oil blends, I can see this being a great fit.
Death by Strawberry – Biting into hard candy glazed, overly juicy ripe strawberries. The candy coating crunches in your teeth while the nectar juice trickles down your lips and chin. Notes: Strawberry, hard candy coating, sugar water, amber, grounding pinch of dirt.
The name is accurate in a way - although more the first part for me. I like the way this smells in the bottle, it has a cute whimsical lovely pink strawberry note that's all girly and sweet, except the minute it hits my skin... death. I get a faint glimmer of just sugar puffs and sugar cubes, but past the haze of sweets, it's the same amber note in Scallywag, with a sharp dirt note and a touch of almond essence - which is unbearably sharp and thin. I think that aging this scent did mellow it out a little, and gave it a little more sweetness, but this one was a miss for me.
Berliners – German doughnuts filled with sticky raspberry jelly served straight from the fryer. Notes: Raspberry, vanilla extract, fried dough.
Mmmn. Opening is all fried yeasty bready dough with a dollop of raspberry strawberry jam, with more of that fruity jam aspect leading the parade. The initial blast of scent actually reminds me a lot of Rabbit Cafe (Lumilk), but the way I wish Rabbit Cafe had been on me, which is more foodie and berry sweet. Dry down brings out a little bit of this musky, honey-like aspect of the scent, instead of the straight jam donut scent, which gives it a little more nuance, with a slight creaminess from the vanilla rounding it out. My favorite aspect of this scent is more of the opening, the raspberry is really lovely here, but it's a shame it doesn't last.
Alsace Rhubarb – Crème a la rhubarb is one of the most popular desserts in Alsace, France. The creamy concoction of eggs, sugar, cream and tart rhubarb is a beautifully blended contrast between acidity and sweetness.
Mmmn! Although I've never had rhubarb desserts, one of my first full sizes was Rhubarb and Custard 1:29 from 4160s Tuesdays. Compared to Rhubarb and Custard, which has musk and tobacco notes, this is really all the best things about a rhubarb and custard dessert - it has all the elements of a foodie gourmand without the additional elements detracts from the truly amazing whiff of pure pudding here. This is just all the gorgeousness of a tart rhubarb, complimented by a soft base of creamy sweet pudding and custard. I think this one is definitely worth checking out - especially if you're on the look out for the rare rhubarb scent.
Carrot Cake Ice Cream – At a small old fashioned ice cream parlor they churn their sweet cream and sugar with hunks of real carrot cake from the bakery next door. The combination is mind blowing! It’s ice cream, smooth, creamy and cold but it tastes exactly like carrot cake! Notes: Sweet buttercream, cream cheese, chewy chunks of carrot cake.
This is a nice scent - for me this scent is mainly all sweet cream and butter cream, but the carrot is strangely absent for me, but I get touches of caramel. I would probably accept this scent as a 'whipped cream' scent, although it has just the slightest, barest touches of something else that keeps it from being too flat and simple. However, the sweet cream by itself though, is lovely, it's got this soft, fluffy creamy sweetness to it, and I like how demure and soft it is, while still being wonderfully foodie. In comparison to some other 'carrot cake' scents, I'd probably say Little Brown Rabbit (NCD) is far more carrot heavy, and a bit more rich, whereas Carrot Cake Ice Cream feels more like Cake Ice Cream. I also compared this to Cake Batter Ice Cream (Arcana) which is more sweet vanilla, whereas Carrot Cake Ice Cream is more sweet and creamy.
Éclair – Éclairs are believed to have been invented by Marie-Antoine Carême who was a pastry chef for French royalty in the 19th century. Notes: Choux dough filled with sugar cream and topped with chocolate icing.
The opening of this scent is great - a nutty chocolate syrup paired with whipped cream, although the chocolate develops into a coffee heavy scent, not dissimilar to Cockswain, or the opening notes of Blackburn's Parlor (Solstice Scents). However, the more this sits on my skin, the more it develops into a slightly fruity scent, especially towards the end of its wear. It reminds me a bit of Strawberry Craves Cocoa (Arcana), but far lighter and less rich. It's a pity it doesn't stay in its chocolate syrup phase, which is my favorite, but I'm honestly not quite sure where the fruity berry nuances come from (darn you skin chemistry!). I also don't get much choux, or soft flour, pastry or butter in this scent. It's a nice scent overall, though not exactly what I thought I'd get.
German Chocolate Cake – German chocolate cake was originally called “German’s Chocolate Cake” after the English-American chocolatier Samuel German who developed a dark baking chocolate that came to be used in the cake! Notes: Layers of decadent dark chocolate cake filled and topped with creamy coconut and pecan frosting.
Chocolate! This to me, is a bit more like Chocolate Cake (Arcana), with a lovely squishy soft chocolate cake, it's not quite a mud cake, or fudge, it's like chocolate icing on a chocolate sponge - it's light, but it's still nice, although there's not much pecan nuttiness in this. For me, this dry down doesn't work in it's favor - the creamy coconut is the base of this scent and once the chocolate wistfully wanders away after about an hour, I'm left with an odd, slightly sour creaminess on my skin. For those looking for chocolate, I'd probably recommend Cockswain over German Chocolate Cake - I personally think this pairing leaves a little something to be desired.
Mais Bouffée – Puffed sweet corn kernels enveloped in marshmallow served on a popsicle stick while still warm and gooey.
This is a cute scent - the opening reminds me a lot of an old favorite, Woudlst Thou Like the Taste of Butter (Hexennacht), with all its buttery popcorn, caramel and dulce de leche, but a lighter, simpler take. I love the richness of the opening, and dry down of this mellows out into a soft bed of marshmallows, sprinkled with a touch of salt, butter and caramel. This lacks the wheaty, nuttier qualities I associate with corn, especially with freshly popped popcorn, but it's a lovely toasted marshmallow scent. I like the way it wears on my skin, like my skin but butter. (ha ha). I really like the opening of this again, but I had to keep reapplying this one to get the full popcorn butter marshmallow experience, but it's definitely a spot on foodie scent.
Pumpkin Monkey – A combination of two comfort food desserts! Who doesn’t love pulling apart monkey bread, sticky and sweet? Add pumpkin and it’s just too much to resist, at least for us! Notes: Pumpkin purée, fresh baked sweetbread, sticky sweet syrup icing, pinch of cinnamon and spices.
This is a real hit for autumn, with sugar sweet syrup and candied pumpkins. Dry down brings a wonderful burst of pumpkin and a dusting of spices, although it's very faint, just there to add a touch of nuance to the pumpkin. I also love the bread note in this - it's very bready! The rest of the wear is a soft, sweet pumpkin bread for me, more sweet than some other more savoury takes on pumpkin that I've tried - it's a nice balance of not too rich, not too spiced, but a soft, cozy candied pumpkin bread for cozy nights in. This is a great foodie scent, and I enjoyed it.
Disclaimer: These were sent as press samples for review. I was not sponsored or paid for this review, and am not affiliated with this brand. All opinions are my own, and do not reflect any brand's opinions or interests.
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