Smoke, needles, and hush: my take on Cypress Cove A Fireside Afternoon by Theresa Murphy

I didn’t expect to be ambushed by comfort at 8 a.m., but a test strip of Cypress Cove A Fireside Afternoon sat by my coffee and made the room exhale. This 2025 release from Theresa Murphy is not the usual bonfire bravado. It’s the private hour after the flame, when wood softens and the air is green at the edges.

On first spray, I get a fan of cypress needles, cool and resinous, the kind that pricks the nose then relaxes it. There’s smoke, yes, but it behaves. Think ember rather than ash, a clean curl that never chokes. The heart warms into a supple, balsamic glow, like polished wood rubbed with resin and a faint lick of spiced sweetness. I caught a whisper of dried herbs and something almost leathery, the kind of texture that makes you lean in rather than step back.

Projection sits close, which is frankly the right choice for this mood. Two sprays and it becomes a knit cocoon, low hum, long play. On my skin it lasted through a writing day and into a flickering evening, the smoke thinning into a tender woody-musky trace that smelled like the memory of warmth. If you want fireworks, this isn’t it. If you want the pause after the fireworks, that’s exactly the lane.

I wore it with a wool sweater and a chipped mug and felt quietly expensive. No syrup, no acrid campfire, no cloying vanilla rescue. The sweetness here is skin-warm, a soft light tucked behind the trees. It’s gender fluid, season flexible, but sings in cold air where resins sharpen and the cypress gets its say.

Small confession: I smudged a drop on my sleeve and now my coat smells like the last chapter of a good book. That’s the trick Cypress Cove A Fireside Afternoon pulls off. It doesn’t shout its notes. It threads them into your day until you realize the atmosphere shifted and you feel steadier.

For lovers of contemplative woods and smoke that behaves, Theresa Murphy writes a quiet classic. Not a showpiece, a keeper. It’s a fireside that stays lit even after you step outside.