Halôa

[LiberAmoris]

... Wine grapes, myrrh, frankincense and olive leaf, and the warm scent of offertory cakes.

 

Halôa is really yummy---it absolutely does start off with the cheesecakey goodness of Beaver Moon, and then there's a rum raisiny note that I sometimes pick up from time to time in the foody blends, plus the sexy, bitter, earthiness of the olive leaf, a slosh of wine, and those divine resins at the bottom. Foody, but very wearable because of its complexity. (Actually I think this would be amazing on my boyfriend, and I'm making a mental note to put some on him tonight when we go out.)

What this really reminds me of is the Yulekake (yule cake) that my Norwegian great-grandmother used to bake every year around this time, so Halôa is a definite keeper for that scent memory alone.

[azhure]

In the vial: Cakes. And more cakes. Hm.

Wet: The cakes take over still, leaving nothing to the other notes.

Drydown: This fades to nothing rapidly. Argh.

[Medox]

A dry sweetness at first, then a subtle and spicy incense grows from underneath. Lovely and comforting.

[Ina Garten Davita]

This is such a surprise as frank/myrrh and wine/grape are notes that don't usually smell good on me, but Haloa is such a wonderful exception. It's like Beaver Moon married Monster Bait: Underpants and had spicy little Christmas cake babies. I love this scent, its warmth and spicy sweetness, its richness and depth.

[ajcj213499]

Haloa is wonderful!

 

It reminds me of Beaver Moon but without the chocolate and vanilla. I was worried about the wine grapes and olive leaf, but Haloa is beautiful! What I mostly get from it is a delicious "cake" note backed up by resins.

 

Very nice!

[wikkidraven]

if you love eat me...you'll love haloa. from the imp i do get the beaver moon heady swirl of cheesecake, but in the drydown this turns more cake than cheesecake. still, a lovely foody scent. and no pine or sleet!

[mmmitchell]

My initial sniff reaction to this was "Whoa! BUTTER! And more and more butter. It actually smelled sort of greasy to me, it. was. that. buttery. And a very sweet butter at that, mixed with a bit of spiciness.

 

After I applied it the greasy-butter smell died quickly, which relieved me. In it's wake, I get the delicious cakey smell, with an undertone of raisins. I didn't get wine, per se, just the raisin-y aroma, which was nice.

 

From there, this scent settles down into that sweet sandalwood-like note I get in other rather foodie scents, like MB: Underpants and 13. And I looooooovvvvve this phase....this is great.

 

I wore this alot during the holidays, and will continue to use it even after....it's a very comforting scent. But I did find the initial butteriness SO too much that I made some of it into a perfume spray.....this hustled me though the greasy butter part, and delivered me close to the middle dry down, which is just fine with me.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: generally sweet, but i can't pick out any notes.

on: odd. there's definitely a wine-y sort of feel to this, but i can smell the olive leaf, too. there's also a sweetness and some incense. very interesting. i can't wait to see how this develops on me.

2 hours later: odd. almost a woody sort of scent. i think the olive leaf is doing funny things.

4 hours later: a sweet scent with a bit of doughiness to it. interesting.

6 hours later: still sweet, but with that olive leaf.

overall: this just smells a little off on me.

[Lionesse]

I tried a small dab of Haloa on my wrist before bedtime last night. In the bottle I smell butter. On my skin, I got butter, and warm cake. A few minutes later, there was another spicy scent coming through, a scent I associate with food. Could it be the olive?

 

I woke up a few hours later and the scent was completely gone. So more testing is in order =)

[mooncityminx]

In the Imp: Caramel butter and fruit. The caramel is intense!

 

Wet: Rich caramel mixes with a fruity smell, reminds me of starfruit.

 

Dry: Gets more buttery as it dries. Haloa is warmer and less sharp than Eat Me was to me. I'm not getting a lot of the spiciness that others are talking about, which is a shame, but this is a very nice cake smell that is not overly foody when it dries on my skin. It actually smells very clean and warm now. I still get a little vanilla if I sniff deeply.

[hecate_jones]

This may be my favourite scent so far.

In the bottle it's sweet and kind of boozy, reminds me of sort of a combination of Drambuie and Buttershots schnaaps. Wet on skin, the boozy scent's still there, more like a nice sweet dessert wine, and a spiciness begins to come out, ahhh... yeah, there's the frankincense. I can't find the myrrh in this, except maybe as a background note bringing it all together.

Drying the spice is more noticable and the wine-liqueurish notes take a back seat.

 

I can't stop smelling myself, and now I'm going to go order another bottle, it's that good.

[Tess]

I didn't think I'd like this much, but then I opened the bottle. And died.

 

In the bottle - Deep frankincense with bitter myrrh and sweet, sweet fruity cakes. This is love in a bottle.

 

Wet - Smokey Fig Newtons. I never thought I'd LIKE smelling like them, but I really do.

 

Drying - The incense notes come out stronger as it dries, but it's seriously Fig Newtons on an alter. The combination is both fun and serious, like something I would have on the offering plate during the harvest season.

 

Dry (1 hour) - This is all I wanted All Souls to be! The cakes are very faded behind the incense, but it's still there. It's not as sweet as wet, more smokey, but lovely.

 

Overall - Gorgeous! This is perfect for me! Yum!

[alliekat13]

In the bottle: Mmmmmmmmm! Sweet honeycakes! Smells so good I want to drink it! It's sweet and creamy.

On the skin: the sweet cakey smell went away the instant this oil touched my skin. All I was left with was the slightly spicy, herbal scent of the olive leaf, and the resiny scent of the frankincense.

Verdict: not my cuppa.

[GlowJob]

This was a major dissapointment for me.Everybody is saying it's buttery and sweet,similar to Beaver Moon.I get a faint whif of cheesecake from the vial but when it's on my skin it turns to...windex and tea?Maybe with a bit of citrus.This is not what I expected at all

[savage_rose]

In the bottle and wet: Buttery, rich caramel.

 

Dry: The caramel fades a bit, but dries into a nice brickle-ish scent. Not a lot of throw, but really nice. I would think this would be a great scent for people who aren't "foody" perfume fans, but like the flavor of caramel...it's so light it's sweet, but not overwhelming so.

[fiddledragon]

I was a bit leery of this, because I'm really not a foody person, and only like wine-scents in moderation. But I got a nice little tester thrown in in a swap...and whee! Let's just say I'm finalizing swaps for two more whole imps of it ;-)

 

Initially it's quite fruity wine, and as it dries down it becomes very similar to Hymn to Proserpine on me, which I adore. When it got to that stage I thought, "well, I'm very glad I tried this, but Hymn to Proserpine is already a favorite and it's a GC, so I might as well just use that; these two are indistinguishable." But as it dried down further this amazing buttery shortbread scent emerged. Light, delicate, not that heavy foody scent I dislike, but still somehow very rich...it smells crumbly with just a hint of spices. And it stays in the background behind the amazing dark resiny purple fruit-wine. That really surprised me, as even the food scents that I like, I usually amp to unwearability.

 

Even if you don't think you like foodies, give this one a go while it's still easily available.

[dawndie]

In bottle: butterscotch pudding

 

On skin: lots of sweet foodiness, but nothing overwhelming. It's reminding me a lot of Monster Bait: Closet (cake and blackberries)

 

Half-hour later: more resiney and mellow, not so foody

 

In conclusion: I really like the "wine grapes" as a fruity element, they seem to add sweetness and light without being too overwhelmingly sweet. It ends beautifully, incense with an extra jolt of sugar and lurking fruit.

[KPollnow]

I got my bottle of this and I love it and to me it smells EXACTLY like the description from the BPAL site. I can smell all those notes in it. Are you sure she doesn't sell these in pints? Becuase Haloa is better than ice cream...

[tinyvulture]

at first, i can smell everything – the buttery sweet cake, the herbal green olive leaf, the tart wine, and the greek church incense. i wouldn’t call this a foody scent, since the cake note disappears very quickly. after it dries, it’s mostly the incense that remains, with a hint of wine. i love incense blends, so this one is right up my alley. gorgeous.

[Desanera]

In the Bottle: BUTTERCREAM FROSTING!!!

(I was in a friend's house, and opened the bottle

My friend: Wow - I smell cake!

Me: that's me, I just got Haloa.

My Friend: I don't think so, we probably have some cookies around here or...

- I hold the bottle up and she sniffs it.

My Friend: Yep - that's you.

 

On skin: This screamed FROSTING for a while, but now it's turned more resiny. I'm getting a very light Myrrh, still sugary, and I think some of the olive leaf.

 

OK - the frankincense is starting to come out now. (It's always a late note on my skin I've noticed)

 

Hopefully the wine will show up at some point. And I'd have to try this again, because the incense is way more subtle than the frosting. But overall, I like it. My inner kid likes smelling like frosting, and when that smell gets old, thankfully it turns into something intricate and nice and incensy. I'd like to experiment with layering this with other stuff, but in the meantime, I'm glad I have it. Will have to try it in a locket and see how it goes though.

[nikkoblue]

Haloa! Aloha! halloooooo, ah!

 

Bottle: Cakey McCakerston! and little else

 

On arm: Whoa nelly! Immediate blast of I'm Not Sureness......weird wine, some musty green (olive leaf?), NO CAKE, frankincense. That's the most immediate morph I've ever encoutered. I'm intrigued. Yes.

 

5 minutes: This is really cool. It smells like something I'm familiar with but can't place my finger on.....a little bit like Greek Orthodox churches after the yearly spring carnival....incense and wine with a touch of funnel cakes. And some sort of spicy raisin.

 

Dry for while: that musty green note is still there, overlaid with light spice, raisin and frankincense with the merest hint of cake.

 

This isn't an immediate love but it keeps drawing me back. A keeper for sure.

[lightgatherer]

Poor Haloa, I really wanted to like you. I get the barest hints of cakes and wine from this, but mostly I just get a smell that doesn't smell quite right to me. I don't know if it's the frankincense, the myrhh, the olive leaf, or the combation of the three, but something in this just doesn't sit right with me.

[zankoku_zen]

In the imp: fruity and cakey

 

On Skin: I get a bit of the grape, but I get honeyed cakes layered on it.

 

On Drydown: Still very cakey, but after about forty five minutes, I get more of the myrrh and frankincense popping out.

 

Verdict: This is a very heavy scent in my mind. It's very rich and thick and gooey, and very foody. Too much for me but it's delicious to smell.

[Silverstrike]

This was delicious except for one thing--on me, the cakes are stale!!!! Why, oh why? Otherwise, delicious. I tried it in a scent burner and the cakes still smell stale, not sure if it's fixable.

[cuervosueno]

Wow, this is interesting! I've been wanting to try this for awhile, and finally got to.

 

When I open the imp, and first put it on, it smells gorgeously of cakes. Sweet and creamy and delicious. I didn't try Beaver Moon, but I did think the person who mentioned cheesecake was right on.

 

That gorgeous cake fades pretty quickly on me, though. Then I get the sharp green scent of olive leaves, which I enjoy. I don't really get wine grapes, but there is a sweetness that might be that or the frankincense. I don't really get too much of the myhrr.

 

Overall, I like this quite a bit. Gourmand, without being foody, and then morphing into green and resins. I like it, but I guess it's ok that I only have an imp.