Vigil for the Harvest Suitors

[Seajewel]

Power of the Witch lies in her respect and direct communication with nature. She may choose to give favor to those who can see her wisdom as authentic and beneficial.

Beeswax, bone, broomcorn, and lilac.

[Diesis]

I put this first impression post on a different thread before the review post was up, so I'll move them here & edit if I need to.
 

     On first few sniffs within hours of receipt:

     Vigil For The Harvest Suitors: In the bottle it’s a very very faint lilac. On? The same. Almost no throw. But the beeswax is there on the skin. So right now it’s a really sheer lilac candle. Depending how this goes, it may end up my favourite.

     Edit: This is among my new favourites of the last year. The wet phase is about an hour. Once it settled a bit & I tried it again, it was VERY strong lilac & beeswax. After about an hour it was chilling out, to a soft lilac with an almost vanillin scent. It slowly bloomed into that blend & had a hint of something soft & cold in the background. Like marble. In the end it was a very pale, purple colour candle on an old, stone candle holder. That was my mental image. The throw is BIG at first, but after about an hour is mediumish, then low (but not skin to nose). It does have a very faint floral sillage the whole time & it lasted on me 12 HOURS! So I enjoyed that. I really love it & will probably buy another bottle in the future.

     One Week Later: Hands down, top 20 of my favourites. Which says something given how many BPAL's I have. But it stayed very close to my second review, except the lilac & beeswax stayed a bit more tame out the gate, but it was still very lilac forward on waxy rivulet of beeswax enveloping the flowers. I loved it. But it still dries down to this sort of sheer purple colour, a pale lavender coloured candle that is sitting on a marble shelf or a stone candle holder. The bone note almost seems like a dry, cold wood. Like a petrified bark, so it's soft for a bone note. As it dries down much further (the wear time for me has been 12+, though after 12 it is very close to the skin... it's the lure to get the Harvest Suitors so close that they will soon need a vigil... yes, very sad) it becomes this fleeting idea of lilac & beeswax with a weirdly sweet, thick, sugary scent. I've been told you can make molasses from Broomcorn (I don't know what it is, but having a person in the family with a degree in botany helps) & I have to wonder if that is where the sugar syrup scent is from. It's not strong, it's just very chewy for what feels like a sugar note? But it also has a kind of grass undertone. I am not sure how else to explain, but I love all of the stages. Even at the end, that ghostly presence of what it was is great till it's eventually gone.

[groovyrooby]

Just put this on an oh my goodness it’s a dead ringer for Beeswax, Amber, and Star Jasmine - which i looooove. Rich, honey sweet and heady floral. And I feel lucky for this find, because the trio was not easy to track down. I absolutely need more smells to tick this box. yes yes yes it is love. 🥰 

[LavenderCoffee]

This is a very sweet scent for a vigil! Freshly applied, it is very beeswax and lilac forward. It's a fresh, lovely lilac that holds throughout weartime, but the broomcorn adds a prominent grassy sweetness that takes center stage, making this blend overly sweet to my nose. The bone note is smooth and cool like a clay tile on the periphery.  

[theseagrows]

at first, i get mostly lilac and the beeswax is subtler (i recently tested second sight which has lilac and honey, and the lilac is stronger in this perfume than second sight.) the broom adds a coolness and amps up the lilac, i think as this is most prominently lilac. i do get more beeswax later but the lilac remains strong. later on it changes, i guess the bone and broomcorn are becoming stronger here- and it's hard to describe what it smells like but it's sort of herbal and green but there is a weirdness to it, at least on my skin. i enjoyed this more in the beginning when it was primarily lilac. the bone/broom does something strange on my skin.

 

[doomsday_disco]

This is my first experience with a broomcorn note, but I have to say, I'm really enjoying it! The lilac and sweet broomcorn are the most prominent notes on me at first, followed by the beeswax. The beeswax increases in strength over time, as does the broomcorn, and it ends up settling into this gorgeous, sweet, creamy beeswax and broomcorn swirled with lilac, which with the other notes, has an almost honeysuckle-like sweetness to it. Before trying this, I was thinking the bone note might be a dry sandalwood, as that has been used to represent bone notes before, but I'm not getting any of that in this scent. I wonder if it might be a mineralic vanilla? Because I keep thinking I smell some vanilla mingling with the beeswax.

 

Here I was hoping to dodge wanting another beeswax scent from the Lab. Well, I have failed, because this is the best lilac scent I have ever smelled since there's the perfect amount of sweetness here to smooth it over. I think I need a bottle.  

Edited April 26, 2022 by doomsday_disco

[Lucchesa]

I am out of Eusapia (Pale lilacs, white tea, and candle wax) and the lilacs near my house are blooming.  Enter Vigil for the Harvest Suitors!  I had forgotten this was a lilac scent -- I don't associate lilac with harvest time.  But Vigil is all about the lilac and beswax.  I am not sure what broomcorn smells like, and I'm not getting anything I associate with bone, but I am getting lots of gorgeous sweet lilac and beeswax, and that is exactly what I was hoping for.  If you're mourning the fact that Eusapia didn't return with this year's crop of spirits, you need Vigil for the Harvest Suitors in your life.  Plus the label art is amazing.  

[Casablanca]

Lilac and smooth beeswax. First thing... this reminds me of a Shunga... a purple one about a candle. Um.

 

Chasing the Midnight Candle? A Candlelight Study Interrupted? Melted Wax Entanglements? (Does anyone else ever think a Shunga Name Generator might be cool...)

 

Flickering Lantern. That was it. This one is all about lilac rather than purple rose, but the beeswax and mood seem similar. Another cousin would be Eusapia, though that one is like a soft nightgown on me, while Vigil has more oomph.

 

Vigil is a pretty blend. I don't notice any broomcorn or bone, but this a deep lilac wax from start to finish.

[biggnerd]

This is an interesting smell. The lilac isn't very strong on me. It's a background note adding some floral sweetness. The dominant scent is an almost mallow like woody hay. Like a non-sugary hay marshmallow. This isn't a dried grass hay, but more of a woody hay. This smells like some item created last harvest and kept for a personal reason that you've taken out to look at while your brain registers the soft scent of a distant lilac bush. This is being melancholy in the spring about Fall remembrances and the beginning of a new cycle of rebirth, growth, and death.

[RoseThornAndOak]

I'm on the fence on this one. The beeswax, although nice, is strong and cloying at first. The lilac takes a backseat but is present for the ride. There is a brief moment where this goes candle wax on me (not sure why I'm surprised), but more like a cheap snuffed out white candle.

 

This dries down nice though, into a soft lilac beeswax candle skin scent. I think it would layer well with nag champa or other incense to give it more of a ritual vibe, I think that would gel just right. I'll at least play with the decant if not a bottle.

 

Edit* this aged beautifully! There is a warmth and sweetness to it, like the edges rounded out. It's Fall but in a very different way than most Fall blends. Went for a bottle!

Edited October 1, 2023 by RoseThornAndOak
grammar

[Llanval]

I really, really wanted to like this one so much!! I love lilacs and to me personally their scent is the embodiment of a hot summer day in July or August. There is nothing better than catching ribbons of heady lilac alongside the scent of hot pavement and dry summer grass. So I'm still searching for my perfect summer lilac, but this one is a nice, straight forward beeswax and lilac scent. It's sweet, floral lilacs with a hint of beeswax that serve to tame the louder edges of the lilac and a bit of drier/dustier sweetness from the broom corn. But on my skin the whole scent reads a bit like a bath and body works lilac candle rather than fresh lilacs, unfortunately so it's a pass for me.

[Biocarbons]

Hellllllo, fancy beeswax LILAC soap.

 

Like a an $18 dollar, French milled, paper wrapped soap from a boutique shop. The scent, even from inside the paper, is intense so you put it in a decorative basket next to the sink instead of using it.

 

I amp the lilac in this, and the lilac IS STRONG AND STICKING AROUND. I often lament how faint and weak lilac notes tend to be, but this one is really impressive.

 

Great throw and wear.