Beauty Care: Slumberhouse Jeke (2022) Perfume Review

Slumberhouse Jeke (2022) Perfume Extrait is marked by a heavy dose of smoke; both from tobacco as well as the whiskey that gets its initial sweetness from rum and caramel, then later from honeyed amber and benzoin. There was light spice from the clove but it was very diffused and blended into the composition, so it gave depth without feeling overtly spicy to my nose. It had the development of notes and nuances throughout the day that I’ve come to expect from Slumberhouse.

The 2022 version of Jeke is supposed to be less like the prior formulation with the 2022 version focusing on three main accords: “whiskey, amber and honey, and tobacco.” It is further described as “sweet, spicy, smokey amber tobacco within in a thick golden halo of whiskey and rum notes” and the “Jeke” the perfumer always had in their mind.

It contains the following notes: tobacco, amber, honey, rum, vanilla, clove, caramel, whiskey, benzoin, and smoke.

Scent Development

It opened with a burst of boozy, caramel-coated whiskey that shifted into something smokier and more tobacco-heavy after a minute where the whiskey felt like an undertone. As the tobacco pushed forward, there was a rummy sweetness paired with the smoky whiskey. The opening was full of gray smoke, wafting into the air, with undercurrents of sweeter rum, smoky, peat-heavy whiskey, and drizzle of caramel.

After 10 minutes, the smoke turned sweeter, wispy, and melded with the boozy elements with the sweetness leaning into a more honeyed form, not quite as dark as caramel. There was the barest suggestion of spice in the form of clove, which gave way to a brush of spiced, golden amber that slowly intensified over the next 20 minutes.

The first hour of the fragrance was defined by intense smoky tobacco, whiskey, and honey facets. I was able to detect subtle, caramel-like sweetness and a little rum, but they were deep in the background and were easily missed. Between the second and fourth hour, there were shifts in what was more noticeable at one moment to the next but minor and more woven together as a result.

There were less changes than I expected through the fourth hour, which was when it started to became more caramelized, resinous, and almost buttery with more subdued tobacco and whiskey notes. It seemed slightly dry and woody, too.

From the fifth hour through the eighth hour, the amber played a bigger and bigger role; it became a warm, honeyed amber with smoky, slightly spiced drier woods. The woods seemed to get drier through the drydown, which was more resinous and slightly caramelized with whispers of tobacco and smoke.

Application

For testing, I used 1/3 of a 0.7ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise.

I purchased my sample in February 2022; fragrances are known to be reformulated over their lifetime , so be mindful of when a review was made, e.g. a review from 2010 may not reflect what the same-named perfume smells like in 2022.

Longevity

It lasted for eight hours until it was a skin-scent and about 14 hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage and projection were moderate with both moving closer to the body/the skin, respectively, after three hours of wear.

Personal Thoughts

For my personal preferences, the smokiness of the tobacco coupled with the whiskey was more smoke than I prefer, especially as I tend to need some sweetness or spice to really cut through some of the tarry aspects that smoke can bring to a fragrance. It seemed as superbly done as I would expect from the house, just not my cup of tea! In a way, I was relieved not to also fall in love with this revamped release as I did with Ore… easy to resist buying a bottle.