Litha 2009

[Gale]

... Golden honey and moss, with honeysuckle, chamomile, parsley, white gardenia, frankincense, carnation, vervain, gum arabic, yarrow, and liquid copal.

I adore the Lab's honey note, so I loved the original Litha--all honey and a bit of floral.

I immediately ordered Litha 09. Here's my take:

Wet: Quite herbal smelling, fresh and green
Dry: It warms up and the beautiful honey comes to the fore and stays there. Dry, it is very much like Litha 06, but with a dried flower/herb scent.
Verdict: I love it dearly and it will get a lot of wear this summer!

[sirensea]

My reaction to this one was a little strange. As soon as I smelled it in the bottle, I felt like... crying? But in the best way possible! It's such a clean, herbal scent, and it reminds me of what freshly cut stems smell like. I'm instantly transported somewhere else when I smell it. Funnily enough, I'm reminded of fantasy novels, and the rolling green hills, stone castles and occasional dragon contained within.

 

Enough rambling. This is a delightful scent. Maybe a bit close-to-the-skin, but still delightful, and I was lucky enough to be frimped a partial bottle of it.

[Arcy]

In bottle : Very much like a quiet forest clearing. Smell trees, shrubbery, damp greeness. There's a bit of a sweet floral overtone. This has really changed from when I first got it. It has only been 10 days, so it should be very interesting to see how it matures.

 

Wet, on skin : Very, very mossy. I can seriously smell the frankincense also. Hint of fresh, sharp greenery. There's a bit of a tea-ness here, probably the chamomile. Honey? Honeysuckle? Where are you?

 

Dry down (15) : Okay, the moss and frankincense are totally ruining this for me. The former isn't too strong, but it is a note that just doesn't work for me. The latter is trying REALLY hard to overpower everything else in this blend. However, it does smell sweeter and more balanced than before.

 

Hour + : Finally mellowed out some, but still a very dark, cool scent. There is very little about this that is light or sweet. It is complex, but the frankincense is drowning out the rest of the notes.

 

Hour 3 : Turned sweet and honey-ish! Yay. However, it is fading fast. Boo. Overall, not worth the purchase price. However, I'll be watching this one closely as it ages. If the frankincense note mellows it may be lovely.

 

(This review was done while wearing the older Litha on my other arm...)

[quinctia]

Let's precede this review by praying that the gardenia in this stays tame. Okay!

 

In the imp: I smell honeysuckle, frankincense, parsley, carnation, in that order. This should be interesting.

 

On me: I can really smell the honeysuckle and the frankincense. Basically, something soft and golden tempered with this resinous background. This reminds me a lot of Skuld, without the honey, oddly enough. Skuld goes really honey on me, but is like the only really honey-like BPAL on me. So it doesn't surprise me that Litha is not very honey, my skin eats it. I'm getting parsley a lot more as it dries down...this scent is pleasant enough until I turn into a garnish. It's drying down even further into a general herbal scent. Damn, I actually liked the honeysuckle part of that, so now I'm disappointed.

[inkaddict]

The lab's honey mixed with flowers and/or herbs is one of my fav combinations, so I couldn't pass this up, but Litha has so many notes -and some of them are possible notes of doom: gardenia (perfumey doom but I love, love, love this flower ), chamomile, parsley- that I decided to try a decant before risking a bottle.

 

Decant: Woot, it's my kind of honey! It feels close to the one in my beloved Flower Moon, not cloying like the one in O. Beneath that I can smell parsley, and soft greenery.

 

On skin: Keeping in mind that I amp sweet notes a bit this is a wonderful fresh honey scent. There's def. parsley, honeysuckle and...other green things. My nose's not good enough to pick them up underneath the yummy honey. Maybe a bit of gardenia, adding to the sweetness?

 

Litha is a soft, golden scent with a herbal background that is not at ll sharp or medicinal, it just gives you the feeling of open spaces and living things.

Don't ask me why but this sort of makes me think of a group of ladies from the Renaissance in their wonderful dresses eating lots of sticky honey pastries under the trees, listening to a ministrel and daydreaming

Edited July 3, 2009 by inkaddict

[LunarAwe]

Litha 2009 oh how I love you! So much that I had to order a second bottle. I was drawn to this because all things connected to copal are a high draw for me. I was worried about some of the sweeter notes but once I opened the bottle I knew that the incredibly skilled balance of this complex blend was just right.

 

Wet in the bottle - In the bottle I am first struck by frankincense, gardenia, honey, and moss. No herbal presence at all... a sharpness swaddled in florals and sweet. But... not sticky, if that makes any sense.

 

So many people wrote about smoke... there was absolutely nothing smoky or soapy to me in this.

 

Wet on skin - I just can't stop sniffing! The frankincense starts to fade, the honey mellows out and other notes come to the fore. Chamomile, parsley, and yarrow add complexity and green scents to the honeyed florals that are still very much in the mix. Here I am getting more moss and a strong copal, which is exactly what I was looking for.

 

Dry - Wonderful throw, and perfect balance. Not terribly different from wet on the skin, but more blended somehow. The green notes keep the honey fresh and summery, and overall Litha 2009 makes my skin smell like a sacred summer offering. Delightful.

 

Hours later - Still balanced and delicious. Predominant notes of honey, yarrow, parsley, and copal. Heavenly.

[fairnymph]

Sniffed: Golden oil, with almost a slight greenish tinge. Quite herbal-medicinal, a little mentholic. I really get the parsley, chamomile, vervain and yarrow. Almost a little bitter. I do get some sweet warmth from honey, and a sense of resins though I can't pick them out. A light touch of florals, primarily spicy carnation.

 

Wet: Way more floral, and much sweeter - less green and medicinal, though the vervain is amped, and sort of lemony-minty. Honeysuckle lends a soapy tinge and the gardenia came out like whoa - thankfully the lovely carnation has amped too. I definitely get the frankincense and gum arabic now, sweet and incensey below everything. Oddly, I don't get the copal at all.

 

Dry: Much more blended, much less convoluted. The honey has settled into a gorgeous sweet golden musky haze that blends nicely with the resin notes & spicy carnation. I get maybe a touch of copal, more piney than usual, less smoky and gritty. It's still pretty green and floral, but again, blended. It hasn't gone to soap, and while the gardenia is strong, it's not domineering - same with the verbena.

 

Later: The honey amps back up, as do the chamomile and gum arabic, and I get a bit more of the copal. Meanwhile the parsley and yarrow have mostly dissipated, leaving this a much smoother, less herbal scent. The moss has come out too, giving this more depth. As with Litha 2006, I find myself liking this best after a couple hours on my skin, when the honey shines.

 

Summary: Sweet, rich honey with herbal-resin undertones and a little floral kick. Mostly honey, though - this is one of several scents that dries down to nearly Honey SN after a few hours, but the earlier stages are not quite my style. This is definitely unisex, and my roommate thinks it'd be better on him. Decent throw & great longevity.

[hlinspjalda]

In the vial: Herbal honey; it smells rather mead-like, or perhaps like metheglin.

 

Wet: Spectacular gardenia/honeysuckle with resin and a touch of bitterness. I have high hopes for this one.

 

One hour: Sweet warm white florals with tannic herbs. The frankincense is just beginning to come up now.

 

Two hours: The white florals have gone overripe in the heat and humidity. The honey is still pleasant, likewise the herbs, but the scent is a little brown around the edges on me now.

 

Three hours: The overripe scent has dissipated some, and there are still florals. But the scent has lost its intensity. I thought the frankincense would be stronger at this phase and am surprised it's being so controlled.

 

Four hours: Still sweet honey-floral, but very tired. This might be lovely in the winter, but it's not cut out to be a summer scent, not on my skin.

 

[Wwindy]

I love this scent. Litha '06 wasn't fantastic on me (too sweet and too faint), but this... this is something else!

 

Note list be damned, when I first apply this it smells exactly like ivy and grass on a bright sunny day, with an overlay of warm golden honey. As it dries, the lovely rich frankincense comes out more and more. I get only a tiny hint of the florals -- I wouldn't have picked them out if I didn't know they were there.

 

Hints of sweetened frankincense do stick around on my skin, but overall this doesn't have much staying power -- I don't mind, though, it's absolutely worth reapplying. This is the only BPAL I've ever had make it to *three* unsolicited compliments in one day of wear. Also... uh... my husband likes this. A lot. Like, he really likes it.

 

This is exactly the summer blend I've been looking for! Thanks to tartchef for recommending it, and to hlinspjalda for swapping me a bottle! (and, hlinspjalda, I am sorry it didn't work out for you... but awfully glad to have my hands on it!)

[theseagrows]

this is a sweet springlike floral, almost cloyingly so. i think i am mostly getting parsley, chamomile and maybe moss? not sure, but it's a very golden-herbal-floral and is much too sweet for my tastes. i was hoping for more gardenia, moss and carnation, but sadly those notes are hardly detectable, if at all on my skin.

[tarotgirl99]

I didn't really like the original Litha and traded it away. But I was assured by a friend that this one was more pure honey and, as I'm a honey fanatic, I was intrigued.

 

In the imp: Mostly golden honey with persistent, sharp and snippy parsley

 

Wet: Mostly golden honey, but that sharpness sounds an annoying note to my sweet haze

 

Drydown: The more it dries and the more time goes by, the sweeter Litha gets. After an hour or two, it's all good. Make that great. This scent reminds me of L'Estate. That's a good thing.

[kattharia]

LITHA 2009,

This was a no miss for me, I love every note listed. In the bottle, I don't get nearly as much honey as I expected. What I get is mainly oakmoss and herbs, maybe a little bit of copal.

Wet It starts to bloom. The flowers and herbs start to peek out, and the honey begins warming.

Dry It's all mostly honey, honey with flowers I can't really indentify.

Two hours later, It has settled down to a honey sweet resin blend that is just beautiful!

[zankoku_zen]

This one I found to be a nice, skin musk sort of blend. Honey can be such an aggressive note for me, but this one ended up as a light brush. I definitely got more of the copal + herbs on this. It was nice, warm and pretty.

[Lyrical]

In vial: *cough* pungent incense and honey. I think that's copal, which never seems to work on me. This is a scent I'm curious about, rather than one I think will be good on me!

 

Wet on skin: honey! Bright yellow honey! With something fresh and bright, which I think must be vervain (verbena). The incense is subtle and this is mostly sweet, honeyed florals and deep green moss.

 

Dry on skin: I've never tried such a yellow scent before! Like flowers that leave a saffron yellow stain on your skin! I'm getting mostly honey and copal - both notes that tend to amp on me. The copal and the sweetness make it similar to Giant Vulva, only without the musk. It ends up mostly copal. I think aging will improve this one.

[tajana]

For some reason I let a partial frimp of this roll around untested for a while. When I finally popped it open and tried it on, my initial reaction was unpleasant. Wet, it's aggressively herbal and green, with a surprisingly strong parsley note and a lot of mossiness. It calms down as it dries down. The chamomile and gardenia get stronger, sweetened with a bit of honey, but not too much. After a while the sharp green edges melt into increasingly powerful frankincense. Its smokiness goes strangely well with the fresh grassy and floral notes. After a couple of hours have passed it's resin incense with strongly herbal undertones and a drop of honey. It really is summery, but in an unexpected way... yellow-green meadows with wisps of religious incense. I like it more than I thought I would!

[Venneh]

In the decant, I'm getting honey and what's either herbs or incense. Interesting.

 

On my skin, it turns into a meadowy sort of smell, very sharp and green. The honey and florals mellows it out a bit, but it's still first and foremost an herbal meadow, and it's not anything that really appeals to me. To the swaps/sales.

Edited November 26, 2009 by Venneh

[loubric]

Honey and frankincense and wait … my mortal enemy …. MUSK. Smells like an Indian spice bazaar a pleasant scent but not for me!

[MCS4096]

I swear I reviewed this when I first purchased it.. but if so my review has been removed. I'm not sure if this happens, but I did write something unsavory about the perfume (although I put it in a blacked out box so as not to offend too much...)

 

Anyhow.. this stinks! Absolutely horrendous! I've come to discover after testing other honey blends (esp. O) that honey is the note in here that I hate. It smells overly sour and like sweaty skin (in a baaad way, and yes I think the copal could be adding to that sourness but I generally like copal ). I get the herbal component to this blend, but that sour honey is overpowering.. This one shall be moving on!

Edited January 10, 2010 by MCS4096

[edenssixthday]

Litha 2009 - I loved the original version of Litha. This one, not so much. This smells like soapy honey and parsley. It's actually a nice honey (since honey doesn't always play so nice on my skin -- I'm looking at you, O!), but the parsley... OH EM GEE it is green and bitter and STRONG!!! I can smell a hint of gardenia beneath the honey and parsley, but that's it. This is a really bad one on me. Must try to wash it off now!!!

[Pika]

This smelled like a cheap kind of floral cleaner or air freshener type scent when I opened the imp, which was very disappointing. On my skin, it goes much more towards the honey (and I love BPAL's honey!) but it's kind of "tainted" honey to my nose. Something dry and dusty in it. It doesn't seem green or sharp enough to be the parsley, but maybe that's what it is, just morphed on me. Anyway, it's not behaving as nicely as I hoped, and will probably be off to swaps.

 

 

Edit: 5/17/11 --- Retried this during the massive destash currently underway. Unbelievably different! Those notes don't seem like ones that would age well, but this is remarkably sweet, smooth, and creamy now, with a beautiful, light, summer-evening floral touch. Wow. It hasn't sold/swapped in the past year, and now I'm thinking I'm going to pull it out and keep it myself!

Edited May 17, 2011 by Pika

[obsidienne]

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet! I like it even more now that it has aged and smoothed out.

 

Litha starts off a sweet herby floral with lots of honey keeping things together. The herbs are not too green or sharp, as lots of times they seem to be so. The colours I see when I smell this are all soft pale golds, greens, yellows, like a spring dawn. As this begins to dry down, the green notes smooth off a bit and the gardenia -- a very soft, light gardenia -- and the carnation start to amp up into the honey base, adding that lovely slightly spicy floral element that I love about those flowers. This is my favourite part of the blend, when it smells like this.

 

I really dislike the scent of chamomile, but it's not annoying me here, so it must have been added sparingly. I didn't know what vervain smelled like, so I looked it up and it's part of the Verbena family? But if that automatically makes you think, "AAH! Lemon verbena! AAAAH!", trust me the overwhelming scent of that particular note is not a problem here in the least. I can't identify the yarrow, even though I grow it in my backyard every year.

 

As this dries further, the resins come out very softly, like incense wafting on the breeze wafting from somewhere else; for those who dislike incense or shy away from it when it's strong in a blend, this is unlikely to offend. Right now I am getting soft honey, incense, gardenia, carnation, and the green element is back but at the perfect moment, keeping balance between sweet and bright. Honestly, this was beautiful when I got it, but it's even more beautiful now. I don't wear it as often as I should, because copal doesn't always play nicely, but that seems to no longer be a problem now that this has aged.

 

To summarize, this is the perfect springtime blend: light honey, soft florals, wafting hints of incense, soft green. Truly of spring. Very beautiful, and ever changing, so you can never get bored with it! I'm glad I took the time to review it as I may have let this languish in my bottle drawer all spring, when it most definitely needs to be enjoyed!

Edited May 29, 2010 by Shollin
Removed Lab description --Shollin

[girasol]

This is mostly the frankincense on me (at least I think that's what it is that's coming through so strongly). Instead of smelling all warm and golden, on me it's actually kind of cool and herbal, and slightly... I want to say smoky, but that's not really it. Kind of like menthol, actually.

 

It's pleasant and quite unique, but without the aid of the description I wouldn't have pegged it as a summery scent at all.

[voodoocatwoman]

ZOMG- Litha, where have you been all my life?

 

This blend is just gorgeous. It's sultry and husky, with the honey and carnation coming to the fore. But wait, there's a playful side... the gardenia and honeysuckle provide a sweet kick to the spice. I don't think that I could get away with this scent often, but DAMN is it nice. And definitely a dabbing scent- NOT to be slathered... not unless I want to drop every living thing within a 2 mile radius. Can you say STRONG?

[HerbGirl]

I was so excited to obtain this bottle that I forgot to review it!

 

Definitely honey, and I smell Chamomile, Frankincense and Honeysuckle...mmmmm

 

After it settles down a bit, I am so excited about the moss! If the Gardenia makes an appearance, she is very well behaved...don't really care for Gardenia much. There may be a hint of carnation here, but it's hard for me to tell - such a great blend!

 

This really is a great blend for Litha. I'm super happy to have a bottle!

Edited February 25, 2011 by Shollin
Removed Lab description

[Animae]

This is my favorite scent so far. To me it smells like the perfect summer day. Hot sunshine and warm grass and flowers and a lovely cool breeze.

And then as it dries down on my skin it smells like sex in the sunshine, so a slightly salty musk, without being to heavy or sticky.

I adore wearing this in the middle of the very long cold winter here and closing my eyes and imagining that it is summer. I horde Litha 09, I love it so much.