Coven
Andrea Maack (2013)

I agree with Naylor's assessment of this fragrance. While the notes and concept of the scent seem promising, it falls short in execution. On skin, the opening green and realistic fern scent lasts for a short time before settling into a mossy galbanum fragrance with hints of clove and sweetness from vanilla.

Although it's suitable for warmer weather, the performance of the fragrance is low to moderate. It would be more enjoyable if the opening scent carried through into the mid of the fragrance. For the price point of $203 CAD for 50ml, one might expect better performance and longevity.

Overall, I would give this fragrance a thumbs up, but with the caveat that it could be improved with better performance and longevity. It's still a good option for those looking for a green and fresh scent for the warmer months.

I definitely get a galbanum/loamy scent with greens and smoke at the start, but Coven dries to a loud perfume scent. I had a sprayed perfume paper in my purse and couldn’t figure out what I’d touched that smelled so strongly of Other Woman. By the time I figured it out, i hated it, even though it’s not offensive. It IS strong. Very powerful, much more like a loud perfume than a witchy scent to me.

Older note lists showed the following:
Woody notes, green grass, soil tincture, oakmoss, whiskey and spicy notes

This was a fragrance that looked perfect on paper but didn't work as well as I has hoped. I really loved the dark, green, earthy opening. Exactly what I was looking for in this type of perfume, with a witchy, autumnal theme. However, the dry-down just seemed disjointed to me. It changes a bit too much, developing into a brighter, sweeter concoction. The vanilla in the base, listed as whiskey in the old note pyramid, just detracts from a composition that's intended to be dark and brooding. I like the idea of a whiskey note, but unfortunately it just needed to be blended a little differently into this formula to be more successful. A darker and smokier take on the dry-down would have been on-point. Overall a decent scent, but not quite what I wanted after revisiting it multiple times.

Well, this was interesting. It smelled like crushed ivy leaves to me and not much else, and showed very little development. I once did some conservation volunteering where we were ripping ivy off trees in the rain and it smelled like that day - a bit of wet dirt and wood, but mostly an intense, cold, dark, green slightly poisonous smell.

coven is a superb abstract frag that says 'green' but forces one to reconsider what 'green' as a smell really means. it's damp but vibrant, woody but rather 'waterlogged' and weirdly resinous without any cliche ambery or liturgical references. rather than being a "millionth" iteration of whatever, coven is an fact quite original in approach for green and is one of maack's most appealing frags

As soon as I first inhaled this i flashed on the smell of being at The Botanical Gardens and walking into a humid/muggy greenhouse where the soil was just turned and the vegetation is old and ripe...misters are at work in the background adding a little more juciness to the smell...you can't get much greener than this...vanilla smooths things out a bit...i actually get a faint touch of caramel in the vanilla...intriguing and interesting to sample and study , but not something i would wear...to go the Pagan route, shoulda been just a wee bit more dark and gothic...