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Showing results for tags 'Yule 2016'.
Found 114 results
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On the night of the Epiphany, a joyful, broomstick-riding hag clad in a tattered shawl drops into chimneys all over Italy, bestowing gifts to good children, and dropping coal into the stockings of naughty kiddies. La Befana vien di notte Con le scarpe tutte rotte Col vestito alla Romana Viva, Viva La Befana! As the Three Wise Men searched for the house of the Christ child, they found themselves lost. Eventually, they stopped at a small house and knocked on the door. A small, wizened woman opened the door, holding a broom in her hand. The Astrologers asked the woman if she knew the location of the child, but, unfortunately, she did not know who these men were looking for, and could not aid them in their search. It was deep into the night, and the air was chilly, so the kindly woman offered the three men her hospitality. They spent the night in her warm, comfortable home, and shared bread and stories with one another. The Astrologers explained to the woman why they were looking for this blessed infant, and invited her to join them in their search come morning. Though she was touched by their tale, she declined, as she had a great deal of housework to do. At daybreak, the Astrologers awoke. They thanked the woman for her generosity, gathered their things, and prepared to leave. Before they departed, they, again, asked the old woman if she would like to join them on their journey. Again, she declined, and sent them on their way. After they had left, she regretted her decision, and she set off to find the Three Wise Men. After many long and frustrating hours of searching, she still could not find them. Saddened, yet still filled with hope, she stopped to give a gift to every good child she passed. La Befana comes by night With her shoes old and broken She comes dressed in the Roman way Long life to the Befana! Candy charcoal, winter lilies, parma violet, a sprig of cypress, a poof of chimney dust, and holiday sweets. straight sniff from bottle is purely sweet and gooey....absolutely nothing else ... holy moly...once applied the violet is astonishing and the dust and candy charcoal....ZomG... if you are a violet lover of bpal blends this is for you!! words cannot even describe the beauty and depth of this one...it is heartbreakingly beautiful i love it to death
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Marshmallow cream, sweet fudge, vanilla shortbread, and confectioners sugar. First, what an awesome label. Removing the bubble wrap, I could already smell this one. Faint soapy sweetness, like Boo. In the bottle: Cookie!! Wet: White chocolate brownies??! Dry: It's slightly plasticky on me now, as expected from being straight out of the mail and me being straight out of the shower. It still reminds me of Boo but more buttery, butterscotchy than Boo. I was really hoping the fudge wouldn't be an overpowering chocolate note so I'm glad it isn't, though I wouldn't mind it coming out more. I need to try this again, but since I'm impatient I dabbed some on my sweater for a test that wouldn't mix in with the body wash on my skin. It's similar to the sweeter facets of Mouse Circus. It is mostly marshmallow, but with more yummy, cakey things underneath. An easy to wear sweet scent that could layer with many things (like Stekkjarstaur)! I hope I can bring out more yumminess on my skin, because this is already a favorite.
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Sevivon, sov, sov, sov Chanukah, hu chag tov Chanukah, hu chag tov Sevivon, sov, sov, sov! Chag simcha hu la-am Nes gadol haya sham Nes gadol haya sham Chag simcha hu la-am. A bounty of chocolate coins! Dry cocoa and golden amber! Gelt is gorgeous. I'm not a foody fan, but I will be hoarding this. In the bottle: perfect cocoa powder, with a dash of hazelnut. This is not very sweet at all, it's exactly like sticking your nose into a fresh box of expensive cocoa powder that's got some hazelnut flavor. Application: The same, but it immediately starts warming up. The amber is poking it's head through the cocoa and giving it a homey warm feeling. This is the scent of curling up on a chilly night with a steaming mug of cocoa, prepared from scratch the stove-top way, with a healthy splash of frangelico. 15 minutes: Much the same as application. There's still beautiful, dry cocoa and the golden warmth of amber. It hasn't sweetened up or collapsed in on itself. Overall: This is a remarkable scent. It smells precisely as described by the lab, and I think can be appreciated by both foody and non-foody fans. I will be stocking up on this before it vanishes.
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Fiber-Optic Illuminated Aluminum Christmas Tree with Gen-U-Ine Pine© Scent
Lycanthrope posted a topic in Yules
[No additional description given.] So, fiber optics have a special place in my heart because I've always had a little crow in me - love sparkly things, shiny things. And now I do flow arts, many of which glow and sparkle. The bottle is adorbs, with the red BPAL icon struggling to peek over the giant paragraph of text in the name. Wet, it's definitely a pine, spruce-y type of scent. I'm trying to detect if there are other notes, nothing is abjectly metallic or tin-like, so not detecting the 'iron note'. On my skin, this is not exactly straight up pine, because I'm getting a... strange tiny edge of like sparkliness. Good god, I'm terrible at this hah hah! But it's certainly not like a cacophony of fruits, or other 'bright' notes that will occasionally represent multiple colors in the BPALverse. Drydown, it stays a lovely Christmas pine scent, without much deviation. Mild throw, so you won't destroy coworkers. If you love pine and spruce notes, this is a straightforward, but wearable, pleasant scent. -
The Day of Kings, the Celebration of the Magi. In Mexico, on January 6th, children place their shoes by their windows. If they have been good during the previous year, the Wise Men tuck gifts into their shoes during the night. Hot cocoa with cinnamon, coffee, and brown sugar. Right out of the bottle this pretty much smells like hot cocoa to me. It's a milky chocolate. On my skin I can only detect a faint whiff of coffee. The cinnamon does not come out to play til it starts to fade out and it is very, very mellow. I hoped this would be more of a cinnamon coffee scent but on me it is more of a really chocolatey cafe mocha. Chocolate scent lovers will adore this.
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Welsh cakes and ale with a smattering of dried lavender. In the bottle: Sweet baked smell with the faintest wafts of a boozy note and lavender. Wet on skin: The lavender pushes its way to the forefront, that baked smell lingering behind it. The ale is there too, but you have to pick it out. Dry down: Toasty baked lavender goodness, kind of like scones almost but not especially sweet ones. With lavender sprinkled on top. Verdict: I liked this a lot. It's a very cozy, comforting sort of scent, a curl up on the couch in a warm blanket with a cup of tea and good book on a rainy day type smell. Calming and homey without being dull, to my mind.
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This is the scent of a freshly assembled gingerbread house, with swirls of multicolored icing, spice drop lights, meringue snow, pinwheel mint accents, chocolate roof tiles, candy wafer pavers, and jelly candy stained glass. We used a French translation for ‘gingerbread house’ as the name to make it sound fancier. French adds +40% Fancy! A jumble of scents reminiscent of that box of mixed Christmas cookies your grandmother used to make. For all the candy/sugar treats mentioned, this is shockingly not that sweet. I get chocolate , a HINT of gingerbread... and if I keep inhaling I eventually detect the barest whisper of mint and what I think is anise. My skin is notorious for burning off sweet scents so I'll be interested to see how this works on others. The dry down is a mix between Sugar Cookie, Gingerbread Poppet with a touch of Gelt and an indistinct Fruit note that shows up way in the background.
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Sweet red velvet cupcakes with thick peppermint cream frosting. When this goes on it is a creamy peppermint over a rich chocolate base. As it dries the chocolate disappears and I am left with something indistinguishable from Mother Shub's Unmentionable Peppermint Creams. I like it, but I wish the chocolate would have stuck around.
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THE PEACOCK QUEEN In dramatic contrast to the soft innocence of Snow White and the dew-kissed freshness of her sister, Rose Red, this is a blood red, voluptuous rose, velvet-petaled, at the height of bloom. Haughty and imperious, vain, yet incomparably lovely to the eye, but thick with thorns of jealousy, pride and hatred. I love rose. Let me just get that out of the way. That said, The Peacock Queen is not necessarily my favorite incarnation of the versatile rose. However, Beth has flat-out nailed the concept of "haughty" in scent. This rose is haughty. It is very much a fresh, blooming rose . . . but there's something very distant about this rose. It's not a rose that's blooming from the earth. It's one dozen very expensive, perfect red roses, bought for a woman who expects that sort of thing. It's perfume. It's striking. It's very beautiful, but not approachable. Remarkable. Like I said, this isn't my personal favorite of the rose blends, just because the vibe it evokes isn't entirely "me," but I am incredibly impressed with the artistry of the scent and with how many different ways rose can smell and feel.
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Cherubic spun sugar with a hint of lemon, sparkling peach, and floral tea. I don't know what else to say except that this smells exactly like the Snow Angel perfume but in HG form! Bright, cheery lemon with just enough peach and sugar-I've never gotten any floral tea from the perfume and that still rings true with this HG-I'm thinking of getting a back up bottle! Hmmmmm now I wonder how much pleading I need to do to get a Fee HG this Winter
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The perfected winter rose, dew covered and freshly cut. Red Rose. Limited edition. My favorite rose so far. This is the first rose scent I haven't melted off within an hour. (I was amazed the first time I wore it. Eight hours, and no need to reapply!) In the bottle, it smells like a rose from the florist - that cold hothouse smell. On, it warms up slightly, but not too much - it's got a slight bite, which is a nice change from most roses that fade to a powdery softness. I'll be very sad when I finish this one.
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Shaggy fur, snow-flecked and rose-touched. This immediately caught my attention when I read the update, and I am very glad I took a chance on a bottle. It starts off as mainly fresh dewy rose petals with a snowy sweet background. After a little while the fur starts peeking out and the scent becomes more snuggly. It is like the snow from Snow White, the rose from Rose Red, and a touch of fuzziness from the fur. He really is the beautiful cousin of those two, but I would say the scent is mainly feminine, although the right guy could pull it off as well. Throw is fairly good, decent wear length.
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Terebinth pine, pitch, and clove. Wow. Gacela of the Dark Death, you are lovely! That is unexpected. I've never smelled anything quite like this. I thought it would be like Mistletoe for some reason, but it isn't at all. The way the clove blends with the pine and pitch is amazing. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I can't really describe it. It is sort of airy and dark, and wafts lightly. It is not sweet at all. I sure hope that more people try this and can post more descriptive reviews.
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Winter cherries and a slush of merry snow. His Own Heart Laughed is an interesting scent. I was hoping it would smell like a cherry slushie, and I was both right and wrong. In the bottle: Smells like a mixture of Snow White and bright red cherries. If only it stayed this way! On dry skin as a moisturizer: There's a more medicinal hint to the blend, as often happens with cherry scents. In the bath: Surprisingly green! It's like the red cherries were attached to holly boughs! After the bath: It doesn't last very long on my skin at all. There's just a vague fruitiness left behind if I smell very closely.
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A chilly, bright perfume: flurries of virgin snow, crisp winter wind and the faintest breath of night-blooming flowers. Limited Edition; December 2003. Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab has been outdoing themselves with the limited edition scents lately, and this is a sterling example! This is an airy, crisp, barely floral that is warm and soft, all the while making me picture the first snow and the sharp, clean scent that accompanies it. I know warm and snow don't sound like they go together, but let me assure you that they do! My all-time favorite. I wonder if Elizabeth would consider keeping some of the limited editions based on customer response ... I'd e-mail daily on this one.
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Mod Note: New topic for Lick It With Consent created due to different color copy/description. You can find the 2014 Lick It With Consent review topic here. Considering the current sociopolitical climate, I felt it was important to bring back this specific incarnation of Lick It. Proceeds from Lick It With Consent will be donated to RAINN. (For a spot-on dissertation on what consent entails, please visit Erika Moen and Matthew Nolans VERY NSFW infographic. Oh Joy Sex Toy is not a sponsor of Black Phoenix, or the other way around. Er, whichever. This is just a damn good link, and I wanted to pass it on!) A sugar-crusted vanilla peppermint stick! The peppermint is very soft, and I feel its coolness very lightly on my skin as I wear it. The vanilla is very strong underneath, and I get the sugar too. A beautiful soft, sweet candy cane scent with a good amount of throw!
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BLACK ICE Lovely, dangerous, slick, and bitterly cold: chilly white sleet-like notes with a hint of vetiver, a breath of smoky asphalt, and winter wind. In the bottle: Vetiver for sure. This scent is unique in the Yule category, in my opinion. It is cold, but by being a cold 'perfumey' scent. It's interesting how I can pick up the 'winter wind' aspect. This scent is hard to pin down, it is light and airy in some way. Wet: There are things in here I could not tell from smelling the bottle. There is something dirty and almost acidic. I suppose this is where the asphalt comes in. It's a little plasticy and man-made at first. But I can already tell it's disappearing upon dry down. Drydown: The Vetiver is calming, and I once again can percieve that chilly, air feeling to it. The airy feeling though has finally become 'cold' somehow. The perfumey is becoming a bit more ethereal and less 'in your face'. I have to be honest, I didn't think I would buy another bottle of this until it was completely dry. I really enjoy it at this point, it's calm, and cool and delicate, yet a vibrant 'perfumey' blend. This would be great on a boy, too. It starts to remind me of being outside on a brutally cold night. This scent is definitely a wrist-sniffing scent.
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Ive run away from a little old woman, A little old man, A barn full of threshers, And I can run away from you, I can! I was tempted by several Gingerbreads, but this is the one I picked. And wow do I love it. In the bottle I got a sharp, acrid whiff of pepper and winced. But as soon as I actually put this one, that vanished and I got a very warm blend of sugar-crusted gingerbread. I've had gingerbread scents before that went dull and too earthy, and I've had "vanilla sugar" scents that were sickly sweet. Neither of those are a problem here. This is such a cozy winter scent that is never overwhelming while having good staying power. Don't miss this one.
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Annihilation. The ice, desolation and barrenness of nuclear devastation shot through by a beam of radioactive mints. Rating (on skin): 5/5 Summarised in one word: Peaceful. In the bottle: Interesting! A definite 'cold' scent; frosty and very minty. While there may be peppermint here, the most prominent mint seems (to me) to be wintermint -- a good thing in my book, because I love wintermint. On skin, wet: Crisp and clean, and very cold. There's a distinct ice-like quality, like frozen earth. This is what I had wanted Numb to be (by the time I received it, and had changed my mind about mints). On skin, dry: Beneath the ice, there's something grassy here. Slush, mint and grass. An unexpected turn, but a lovely one! Unfortunately, after about an hour, it starts to give me that "I feel like I'm going to sneeze, but don't" feeling, which hangs around until the scent dies off. Conclusion: It's hard to explain this one. It's like a devastated, grassy open field in the middle of winter, when the ground is completely frozen. An odd description, I know. As Macha said somewhere, this is a much more 'peaceful' scent than I would have expected. But then, that makes sense -- wouldn't things be peaceful after a 'nuclear devastation'? All told, I'm growing very fond of this scent.
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Dark myrrh, black cypress, fir pitch, and a shuddering sliver of white mint. Puddin is such a wonderful tease, and this was one of Puddin's wonderful teases right before he unleashed the 2016 post yule scents. Violent fit of trembling is a bottle of beloved notes: I adore cypress, evergreen forests are magic to me, peppermint is a mood brightener and myrrh is a base note in many favorite bpals. wet this opens with the cypress and the fir. there is a cool brightness, but I wouldn't think to look for mint in this if I didn't see it listed. this dries down to a deep unisex cologne, more myrrh than fir. it feels a little gritty but not dry. it reminds me a little of german expressionist horror, which I love, for being dark with that touch of evergreen. violent fit is delicious.
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Claude Monet A tiny shadow on the snow: black currant, sandalwood, and violet leaf against a white winter backdrop. This is surprisingly foody on me - more so like the vanilla-snow note (Kind of like Waltz of the Snowflakes), mixed with a hint of berry. The currant is not strong, but the overall scent does read a bit as 'soft snow berry tart,' which is wonderful. I think the sandalwood is adding the kind of crusty note that makes me think of pie. The violet leaf is not strong. This is soft and close to the skin, but would be great for anyone who enjoyed the soft vanilla-snow type note Beth uses.
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I’ve run away from a little old woman, A little old man, A barn full of threshers, A field full of mowers, A cow and a pig, And I can run away from you, I can! Oh dear! I’m quarter gone! Oh, I’m half gone! I’m three-quarters gone! I’m all gone! Both in the bottle and initially on my skin, this is spicy gingerbread with fruit...I think maybe pomegranate, but I'm not 100% sure. The sweet jam comes in next (raspberry maybe?) to make this an even-fruitier gingerbread. The drydown is just spicy gingerbread (similar to Gingerbread Poppet, but less clove) with a hint of sweetness from the jam. Yum!
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I’ve run away from a little old woman, A little old man, And I can run away from you, I can! In the Bottle: Very thick, very dark, black strap molasses. That's it. Really! Wet On Skin: Okay, now that's it's warming up, the notes are beginning to reveal themselves. The gingerbread is front and center but it's still got that dark, chewy molasses thing going on. I suspect it's the vetiver having it's say in the equation, lending some deep, deep darkness to the mix. I get no clove at this point. Dry Down: The vetiver and clove combine into the gingerbread maelstrom to create a richer, darker, spicier gingerbread than the usual Lab gingerbread note, and it's PHENOMENAL. It's still a bit foodie, but this is a very adult, kinda sexy gingerbread. I'd wear this out for an adult holiday gathering where people like get a little tipsy and handsy In All: I predict this will be very popular, especially as it ages.
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Jólabókaflóðið: A dribble of candle wax, distant hearth-smoke, a fleck of chocolate Yule log, and aged, yellowing paper bound by well-loved leather that has passed through many gentle hands. I am so moved by the story behind this scent. I have been a bibliophile my whole life, with a love of both reading and having books. I love the idea of the Christmas Book Flood, and I love that some of the proceeds from my purchase will be passed on to help others. Just lovely. The scent itself is incredible. Sniffing straight from the bottle I was worried it may be too chocolatey, but on my skin it literally smells like someone's Victorian-era home library. Other Lab book scents have turned bitter on me, but this is just perfect. I get a hint of candles burning above an old leather bound book, with, yes just a fleck of milk chocolate, as if the reader has just eaten a chocolate candy and set the wrappings beside his book. I am so pleased with my purchase! The book that accompanied the bottle was a tiny paperback of Rudyard Kipling short stories. Such a charming little thing!
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Francois Boucher A burst of apricot silk, blood orange musk, French lavender, and red benzoin chypre in a gilded sledge of amber. This is absolutely gorgeous, very soft and lingering on the skin. The first thing I smelled in the bottle was light apricot, almost like an orange cremecicle. After applying, the apricot and orange musk with the underlying red benzoin,mingle together and I can almost smell vanilla although it isn't listed as an ingredient. After twenty minutes or so, I can finally detect the French Lavender, it is soft and so beguiling and understated. The Amber is there, very refined, elegant and coming in at the end. This is my favorite of the Yules and definitely multiple bottle worthy!
