Yule

[zenvodunista]

YULE
The Holly King and Oak King each hold sway for half of the year, and engage in an epic, eternal battle at Litha and Yule. In truth, they are each a half of the whole -- known by many names: Pashupati, Caerwiden, Herne, Pan, Puck, Cernunnos, the Green Man, the Horned God -- and as the Holly and Oak Kings represent the light and dark halves of the year, thus do they also represent the light and dark halves of the deity, and thereby, of ourselves.

During the darkness of the year, though it seems cold, barren, and bleak, the earth holds the warmth of life deep within itself, and in the depth of its shadows is the eternal promise of renewal and rebirth.

It is Yule, and the Holly King has slain the Oak: blood red holly berry, mistletoe, wild thyme, verbena, cinquefoil, hemp, winter rose, evergreen, frankincense, juniper, and myrrh.

In the bottle: sweet pine resin. Like when you go out into the woods and pick a bit of newgrowth of spruce off the tree and press it between your fingers? Your fingers get all sticky and for hours after you can smell that evergreen scent? Like that.

On: Brighter and brighter, the scent grows. I don't know how to describe it. It's just *brighter* and more intense, and transforming from a simple evergreen resin to something else but I can't somehow say what. It's so... GREEN. Not the green of the swamp, or green grass, or green tea... It's the heart of the yule log. Sticky. Living. Green even in the darkest part of the year, on the longest night, that strong heart of living energy reaching upwards through the cold to dance in starlight.

"EVER GREEN", Yule says, and I respond, "YES" because there is no other answer to that.

Spot on. Yule, the ancient pagan holiday, in a bottle.

Wow.

I am blown away by the craftmanship of this scent. I'll be using it in the oil burner this Yule and I hope it comes back every year to keep me and mine company through the dark of the year.

N.

[sookster]

straight sniff from bottle is light herbal lemon...

 

once applied, this amps up hayooogely...but fades in 5 minutes ....

turns to lemon and pine....nothing more....boo...chemistry can blow....

[GypsyRoseRed]

Yule was nothing like I expected it to be! When I see evergreen in a description, that pretty much assures that blend and I are not going to get along, but this is the exception to the rule - possibly because I can barely detect any evergreen in it at all, and nor does the rose come to the forefront. What I get out of this is a delicious sugared lemon layered over something that seems slightly resin. The overall result is somehow very *warm*, comforting, and appealing without being even the least bit dusty or lemon Pledge-y (which is what I usually get out of all lemon scents). I never thought I'd genuinely like and want to wear a scent that has evergreen, rose and lemon together, but it just goes to show that when it comes to BPAL, never say never.

Edited November 6, 2006 by GypsyRoseRed

[HennaFairy]

this does not scream evergreen. it's wood and mistletoe and a little evergreen, warmed with herbal/floral/resins in the background. it's definitely warmer than yuletide, and i picture a room heavily decorated with natural branches and pinecones and a roaring fire in the fireplace.... so amazingly gorgeous, really really special!!!

[wolfie13]

In the bottle: Green! A little bit evergreen, a little bit herbal green.

 

Wearing: Yet another sabbat oil that is just so evocative. At first a whoosh of evergreen and mistletoe - the Holly King! Then just moments later - the Oak King takes over - lots of light bright, lemony verbena and frankincense.

 

Lovely.

[RaeiNarcissus]

I'm getting the lemon verbena with pine over it, and there's something almost...... vanilla smelling in it too. It's yummy.

[blackfelicula]

In the bottle: What a rich holiday scent! I smell evergreens ans spices, with the touch of cold that several of the Yuletide 2006 blends have exhibited.

 

Wet: I smell berry, juniper, and herbs joining the mix. This is bright like a room with a fire in the fireplace, lots of candles lit,a decorated evergreen in the corner, and some food laid out.

 

Drying down: This is festive and joyous. It is much more rich and textured than commercial "holiday" scents. It feels like the captured spirit of holiday celebrations.

 

Dry: Yule is mellowing out a bit. Now it is creamier and more foody. It is still rich with seasonal scents in the background, as if people are sitting down to desserts in front of the fire.

 

Later: This softened into a gorgeous soft scent with a holiday feel. In this stage it lasts and lasts. A touch of spice, a little juniper and fruit, and a warm wool sweater. This is my pick for wearing to holiday gatherings!

[sarada]

I have long been hoping for a Yule scent like this! Virtually everything that I love is represented here: rich church resins, berries, herbs, greenery and pine, and even rose. Could anything be more perfect?

 

In first sniffing it, the verbena and berries are center stage. I wasn't expecting quite so much verbena, but after all it's a top note and would tend to jump out in front. A crush of fresh berries and a hint of greenery. On my skin, the berries and rose really blossom. Sweet, slightly sugared with a twist of lemon thanks to the verbena. But that pinkish red blush of rose and berry are very strong in this stage.

 

Before long it starts to dry and the thyme makes a bold appearance, a dry green spice that seems to love my skin. The frankincense and myrrh start to warm and drift around me in a lazy golden cloud.

 

Every note in this blend seems to make an appearance, in sequence. Beautifully blended and realized. It's a shame it's so warm out today, because I think these notes would show up even stronger and brighter on a wintry, snowy day!

[Blood onmy hands]

In the bottle, Yule smells like smoky juniper and a strong dose of sharp, sour lemon verbena. Figures that the main note that I was most worried about is the strongest in the bottle.

 

On my skin at first... LEMONS and a hint of evergreen. It smells like LEMONS and a hint of green grass, actually, more than evergreen trees. Very sharp and unpleasant.

 

15 minutes... sharp, sour, biting, bitter lemons. I love green scents, I love resins, I love every note in this except for the verbena. Why is this happening to me? I don't even smell any greenery in this.

 

Half hour... Pure Lemon Verbena (with whiffs of something like a rotten berry every once in a while). I was hoping that Yule would smell like Mistletoe or Skadi (two of my favorite BPALs), but this is all insanely sharp lemon. I can't wear this one. It's so sharp that it's giving me that nosebleed sensation.

[yeahbutnobut]

Yule

 

In the bottle: this smells very much like Lush's Fox in the Flowers or Green Day-the smell of mushed up grass and herbs and a hint of something which I think is hemp. Very much a 'Green Man' scent.

Wet on skin: a green grass-leaf pulp mixed with lemon verbena, evergreen, a hint of frankincense, juniper and green wood.

Dry on skin: lemon and pine and a wonderful green wood scent. This is like fresh wood that's still full of life, freshly chopped and green and moist, with a scent like chopped grass pulp, like the stuff that comes out of the lawnmower, but less summery. There's something here which I'm sure is hemp since it reminds me of a hemp hand cream I once had. This scent is the most intense dark green but with sparkles of vivid gold in it. it's surprisingly lemony for now but hopefully the verbena will die down. But this is such a natural scent, like outdoor winter vegetation…it also reminds me of Litha, but it's the winter equivalent, with the sunny spiced herbal mead replaced by the shadowy green of the darkest time of year.

After a while: this smells festive without smelling like a Christmas tree. This may have pine like notes to it but this is no trimmed pine tree in a cosy house…this is much more natural. I love the way this smells so pagan! A very natural yet celebratory scent, which now has lost it's lemon bite and now smells like sweeter citrus, like the lovely citrus-frankincense sweetness from Litha, but with that wonderful leaf-mulch scent, pine needles, a hint of mistletoe and green tree timber. Like a golden shimmer over dark green-one could say it's like tinsel over a holly wreath but that doesn't do this justice, it's more like flickering flames or winter sunlight reflected on glossy holly leaves.

There are times here when it takes on a strange olive like scent like what happened with Talvikuu and the Carpathian Mountains, but it's not too bad. There's now a scent here of soil, earth, and tree moss, a scent which almost smells like decaying plants, but with still with that lively greenness to it. there's also a sweetness creeping up reminiscent of the sweet soil in Death of the Gravedigger. And then the hemp scent returns, along with a hint of frankincense, under the mushy oily leaves. I never got rose.

Verdict: another amazingly evocative sabbat oil from Beth. As I suspected, this is the opposite of Litha-the scents share similarities with their lemony herbs but they also contrast. This is the winter solstice in scent, a time of darkness but also of rebirth, exemplified by the vivid dark greenness of this scent, a mix of evergreens and crushed leaves and green, wet woods still full of life in the dead of winter. It's strongly reminsicent of Lush's 'green and grassy' themed products (Fox in the Flowers, Soap Sod, Green Day etc) but much more complex than those are. It isn't commercial or stereotypical festive-ness at all. This takes the winter holiday straight to it's roots. This starts out so nicely but the drydown is a little odd on me, however, this is much better than Yuletide (which smelt a little fake and candle like for me), and another incredibly well blended representation of a pagan festival in scent, but not my favourite-but I'm keeping the bottle.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? Just one bottle for now.

If you like this, try: Litha, Yew Trees, Black Forest, Hemlock, Mistletoe, Yuletide

[eleventhousand]

This is fresh and green and sap-like and bright and sweetly alcoholic.

It does remind me of Litha.

Stays very close to the body.

 

ETA:

After a while my skin amps the thyme to ridiculous levels.

Boo.

The same thing happened to Honey Moon.

 

ETA:

Damn. It's a scrubber.

Edited November 18, 2006 by eleventhousand

[minnalavender]

Yule is SO pretty - the perfect scent for the upcoming Holidays, but also a cheerful yet wintery scent (winter isn't one bit cheerful to me - - so this will be one I'll reach for).

 

In the vial: lemony pine sap! It smells so much like the pinecones up in Tahoe. On my skin it becomes more citrus bright, less pine, and the florals are coming out too. It was very gender-neutral in the vial but my skin has amped everything feminine and soft in the notes while the pine and lemon stay present in the background.

 

Drydown, the florals and citrus recede and the pine re-emerges as the dominant note, but the pine is softened by some incensey resins. Yum. If I wear this with Lick It (Again or '05) I will smell like Xmas personified!

 

Unfortunately, I will have to slather - the scent is very close to the skin. I want to be able to smell it without pressing my nose to my wrist. Guess I'll have to splurge on a bottle.

[shelldoo]

in bottle: pine resin, or woody fresh pine, wet w/ resins is more like it

 

wet:soft piney and a hint of berry redness

 

as it dries it is almost all soft woodiness w/ a hint of myrrh

Edited November 19, 2006 by shelldoo

[Emma2403]

In the bottle: very sharp verbena, with some rose underneath.

 

On my skin: still tons of verbena, plus some wintergreen. I like it a lot. It's really evocative of Yule, time of rebirth and new beginnings.

 

After a couple of hours: it gets softer. Unfortunately, it disappears a bit too quickly for my liking, my skin seems to drink it off.

 

Verdict: very pretty. But considering the number of bottles I have of my "I absolutely need this"-list, I suppose, I'll have to pass on Yule and only keep my imp.

[supremegoddessofall]

In bottle: Mostly verbena with a touch of evergreen.

 

On me: Eww! Citrus death!

[fiddlehead]

Yule.

 

I like it! The reason I like it is that it smells very similiar to one of my favorite oils. This would be Arcana. Not exactly, but the verbena and frankincense definitely are very like Arcana. Unfortunately, Yule pretty much disappears on me within minutes while Arcana lasts all day so I don't think I need a bottle.

[PilotKitten]

I definitely can pick out the verbena in this one (one of my favorite notes ) but it's almost overwhelmed by this very green overtone to this. Not particularly pine leaves or evergreen or even holly... just GREEN. This appears to be the only one out of all the Yules I've tried to actually smell somewhat "Holiday-ish" and even then there's nothing I can really put my finger on as to why it feels that way. Maybe it's just a seasonal green-ness on the chilly winter air I remember... but this one is actually pretty good. Probably what would be considered my "favorite" out of the Yules and even then it's score isn't particularly high. < sigh > I may end up burning this one in the oil burner a time or two... it seems more suited to scenting a room than it does me.

[Heretic]

In the bottle: A little green and whoa lemon verbena!

On my wrist, wet: Lemon verbena.

After 20 minutes: Lemon verbena.

After 40 minutes: Lemon verbena. I must not have seen the word "verbena" in the description or I never would have ordered this. Verbena smells like furniture polish on me and subverts all other notes. Yule was a mistake I should not have made. Off to the sale pile with ye.

[theseagrows]

hm, this smells like a lemony-pine air freshener on me with a touch of herbs. it seems to morph a lot, one minute i sniff it and i sort of like it, the next i sniff it and it smells too synthetic on my skin. and i've tried it twice! i am totally on the fence, but i think even if i do end up liking this one, it's not one i'd wear all that much. it just doesn't seem as complex on my skin as the description.

[ChupaChup]

Thank goodness for friends you send you sniffies (I'm looking at you, Rhowan )! From a lot of the reviews, Yule sounded like something I would really love. And when I first put it on, it was lovely. It reminded me of a prototype of Hemlock I got a long time ago, very lime-y, crisp and green. And then the awful berry note came out and just took over, so horrible on me. I got none of the other notes, like rose, frankincense or myrrh, no complexity. Just the awful berries . I had to wash it off.

[moon_lemming]

I smell Magi in the bottle. On me, the verbena amps waaaay too much, and the combo of that and . . . I think a hit of evergreen . . . is interesting, but not something I can pull off. Although for some reason it is making me very hungry. That might be the thyme.

[edenssixthday]

Yule - When I sniff this in the bottle and when I first apply it, it smells like red berries and bright, crisp verbena blended with wood. Sadly, as soon as the oil starts to dry on my skin, the fresh berry scent disappears and the fragrance begins to smell a lot like pencil shavings and light myrrh, neither of which is a scent I care for. As I wear the perfume, it ceases to morph any more, and for about three hours, my skin smells like nothing but pencil shavings. Once it starts to fade, it fades quickly. I won't be wearing this one again as it doesn't seem to work with my skin chemistry. However, the initial blast of berry is so sweet and pretty that I may see if I can capture that scent longer by wearing this in a scent locket or using it in my oil burner.

[themerrybaker]

Yule starts out very lemon - a difficult note to get my mind around for Yule. I began to picture it as lemon thyme, a plant which can be evergreen. As Yule dries, the thyme becomes more pronounced, and I get a dry winter woods background. Ah Ha! The concept starts to make sense!! So much more interesting than ye olde Christmas tree.

 

I'm very glad to have this bottle and will be wearing it for the winter holidays.

Edited December 3, 2006 by themerrybaker

[maribouquet]

bottle: verbena & evergreen

wet: also something juicy...maybe that's the holly berry?

dry: ooh, what is *that*? Thyme maybe?

 

On me, Yule becomes almost creamy and a bit foody along with the lightly lemon conifer scent. I wish I could identify the notes properly. The creamy sweetness fades and I'm left with a bitter plant odor that sits in the back of my throat. Hmm. I'm not wild about it.

[slave1]

YULE

 

In Bottle: Wood cleaner

 

On Skin: I get a very chemical feel from this at first. It seems whenever a lemon note and woods are mixed, I smell Lemon Pledge. But this scent quickly develops into something better. Yes the verbena is the strongest note, it LOVES to amp on me for some reason. The next doninant notes in line are the woody evergreen and juniper, very pungent and sharp especially when combined with the herbal thyme. The berries provide a nice sweet and red contrast that is needed and the myrrh and frankincense soften the whole scent with their smoky sweetness. It is a pretty scent but not really for me. It has a strong throw and average to long wearlength.