Yuletide

[fairnymph]

The juice of ripe, bursting, blood red holly berries.

2005 version

Sniffed: Sweet, berryish-pine. Reminds me of cheap Christmas candles, and not in a good way.

Wet: Spicier, warmer - more like potpourri. Cinnamon and allspice in addition to the sweet, mentholic-cold pine and red berry note. Much nicer and less fake/cloying.

Dry: Cinnamon and spices amping; this is mostly spicy berries, with only a hint of pine, in the dry state. I'm pretty sure I get some clove, too.

Summary: Spiced berry and sweet pine. It actually settles into a fairly nice scent, but it's still spiced Christmas potpourri & pine, neither of which I like. Good throw, decent longevity.

[Monster]

2005 version

 

Yup! Like someone else said, this is Christmas in a bottle. This smells like a Christmas tree decorated with berries and some stove-top potpourri boiling in the background. This is all of my wonderful winter holiday memories condensed and bottled up (just like L'Autunno is the bottled version of all of my autumn memories).

 

Super-concentrated Christmas in a bottle.

Edited August 23, 2009 by Shollin

[thekittenkat]

This is for the 2005 version.

 

In the bottle: There's the holly berries, all right!

 

Wet: The berries are still there, but they are falling off various conifirs, pines, firs, blue spruce, etc. There's also some sort of a spicy note. I don't want to call it Christmas potpourri, but it's there.

 

The dry-down: Very lovely, but I'm not sure what happened to the holly berries. This isn't lasting very long on me, and I might have to slather. Here's hoping it gets resurrected.

 

ETA to add: Half an hour later, the holly berries have reappeared, and are very sweet and yummy. However, this is still very much a skin scent on me.

Edited July 26, 2009 by thekittenkat

[Schmoozy]

2005:

Quite possible - one of my favorite yules. The berries are ripe, and bulging with juiciness. And alongside those berries is the slightest hint of christmas spices. Nutmeg, cinnamon and a little bit of citrus.

[girasol]

[2004 version]

 

I bought this off Ebay unsniffed (it sounded nice, and it's going to a good cause) - I had no idea what holly berries smell like.

 

Apparently they smell like spice. The scent is a mixed spice in the bottle, like a pot of mulled wine simmering away on the stovetop. On the skin - yeehah, hello cloves! It is becoming increasingly apparent that I amp the living bejayzus out of cloves.

 

After an hour or two, this has settled and it smells great - like sweet wine and spiced cookies, with a faint touch of fresh flowers wafting in from another room. It's just a shame I have to go through a lengthy period of clove hell to get here...

[KindKit]

2005 version: Lots of lovely spices, especially cinnamon (it's a bit like those cinnamon brooms you see around at Christmas), with some evergreen-ness and a hint of juiciness to give it a "berry" quality. I can see why folks have compared this to Christmas potpourri, but I really like it. Unfortunately it doesn't have a lot of staying power. Within an hour and a half there's nothing left of it but a faint hint of spice. Nice while it lasts, though.

[Numanoid]

I don't know HOW I ever overlooked this scent. Just got a bottle in a swap.

 

2005 version

 

In bottle: As someone said, it has a holly berry cheap candle smell to it. Was worried....WAS!

 

On Skin: Definitely a Christmas scent....but it smells like a holly wreath made out of chap stick!

 

Drydown: Oh WOW!! After a few nervous minutes, the "chap stick" scent went away and I get a lovely, spicy holly wreath smell!!! This is amazing! I have been looking for some sort of sweet Christmas wreath scent that didn't go all cat urine on me, like most holly/pine scents have done, but this one is a true winner! I get the sweetness of the berries and a tiny hint of a wreath smell. So anyone with the same issues I had, you should LOVE this. Very soft and spicy and great lasting power and perfect throw! Glad I found some!!