Sacred Woods and Gypsy Soul

Yesterday I compared the butterfly scents of Midnight Gypsy Alchemy and The Perfume Garden. Today I am testing another scent of each of them. Alma Gitana (Gypsy Soul) is a new scent that I wanted to try because it has tobacco as an ingredient and any scent from Black Phoenix that has tobacco as a note makes me smell as if I have been rolling in wet sigarettes. I wanted to know if another perfumer would use a tobacco I can deal with. Sacred Woods had a note I didn't like the first time I tried it and I wanted to try it again to see if it was as different on me as the butterfly was yesterday. I was so anxious to find out about both that I could not make a choice, but had the gypsy on my left arm and the woods on my right.


Sacred Woods this time was as nice as I had hoped it would be. It is a very soft and round and rich wood scent with a little bit of floral sweetness. 

A blend of Himalayan and Atlas Cedarwood, Jatamansi, cultivated Agarwood from Assam, Ho Wood, Sandalwood, Myrrh and Frankincense resins, with floral notes including Pink Lotus, Rose and Ylang Ylang softening the strong woody scent.

Alas like all perfumes from The Perfume Garden Sacred Woods is very light too. It stays very close to my skin and after two hours it has become so faint I want to reapply it. Because I expect wood to have much staying power I am wondering if it is the connection with the carrier oil that makes it sink into my skin and dissolve there. On the other hand, having applied it four times now I find it stronger, so perhaps it is just the fact that it is less concentrated than other wood scents I have.
Looking at the description I still wonder why jatamansi has a place among the woods in the list, as Nardostachys jatamansi really is a flowering plant from the Valerian family.

Alma Gitana proves to be the first scent containing a tobacco note that I actually can wear. 

A complex and rich fragrance that embodies the gypsy spirit in a daring and bold scent of ancient resins, dark fruit and exotic florals with notes of tobacco smoke. Created with jasmine, tobacco and vanilla absolutes, plum extract, essential oils of bergamot, cinnamon, patchouli, black pepper, and tuberose with resins of myrhh and amber infused with dried plum fruit, cinnamon sticks, peppercorns, tobacco and patchouli leaves.

There is a strange thing with this perfume: I think I smell coffee, but it is not in the description. So what is it then, that I am smelling? My partner thinks it is sweet, the vanilla and amber may be what makes it sweet. But could I really mistake the so hated tobacco combined with some of the other notes for my much loved coffee? I can only say Nina did a great job here! The Gypsy Soul is indeed complex and rich. (And I wonder what plum extract would be. I would love to use it!)
Alma Gitana too is a less concentrated perfume, like all the roll on bottles that Midnight Gypsy sells. I find that with less concentrated perfumes I reapply a few times a day. With the roll on bottles this is easy, because I can take them with me without any risk of spillage and reapplying is done quickly and easily.


I did not mean to compare these two scents, but with one on each arm it is hard not to. I love both, and I can't say I would prefer one to the other. The difference is again in the sophisticated elegance of The Perfume Garden and the more wild spirit of Midnight Gypsy. Unfortunately for me this is also reflected in the price. It will be much easier for me to buy a 3oz roll on bottle of Alma Gitana than a 10ml bottle of Sacred Woods.