Wezwanie / Hold

[GypsyRoseRed]

 

Hazelnut, vanilla bean, red sandalwood, amber, myrrh, and honey.

 

Mmm... Something here was also used in Storyville. Not sure what it is, but I suspect the hazelnut and sandalwood. Initially, I was afraid of the foodiness, but one the drydown, the notes blend into something smooth, mellow and yummy with amber and faint wafts of vague nuttiness. It fades fast on me and wears close to the skin, but it smells good nonetheless.

[The_Witching_Hour]

GRR posted a very good review on this and I have to agree with the majority of her impressions!

 

For me, on initial application I sense the same feel as Storyville as mentioned above by GRR.

 

In the first portion of the drydown (after about 20-30 minutes) it seems the red sandalwood fights with clove, vanilla and hazelnut bean to see which one will best the other.

 

The outcome is a foody blend that reeks of tooth rot & decay (foody-sweet) but is a 'come hither' sense that will entice the most unlikey of victims.

 

I wish it had more throw as it only lasts a few hours. Maybe aging will amp up the strenght in this baby!!!!

Edited November 9, 2007 by The_Witching_Hour

[sookster]

straight sniff from imp is peanut buttery!! that is the myrrh and hazelnut!!

 

some similarities to sed non satiata for those who know and love that blend, myself included!!

 

once applied this is just wonderful

 

myrrh, vanilla, honey and hazelnut this is a sophisticated gourmandy blend for me...

 

i am in l-o-v-e

[ivyandpeony]

This is my favorite of the 13 new retail-exclusive blends. If I had to choose only one adjective, it would be "sublime."

 

Like GRR and The_Witching_Hour, I immediately picked up a hint of a note that's in Storyville - I wonder if the same vanilla is in there, and maybe a secret blend of spices. Since Storyville is one of my favorite blends ever, that may have been my "you had me at hello" moment. But Wezwanie/Hold is no poor girl's Storyville, it has a character and beauty all its own.

 

The hazelnut is a background player to my nose (which just goes to show you how different our noses can be, that sookster's nose gave her a peanut butter vibe!) It's mild when wet and as it dries down, I think it serves as a glue to hold everything else together. This was happy news for me, since hazelnut was the note that gave me pause when I first read the announcement and wondered which of these new blends I would like. Otherwise, it's like a greatest hits list of my favorite notes ever.

 

Overall, this is a warm, spicy blend that some may find comforting, some may find sexy - I think it can be both, or whatever you want it to be. It's anchored by the resins, sweetened by the honey and vanilla, and spiced up with the red sandalwood, and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I am going to be reaching for this one throughout the winter!

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Sweet, creamy, nutty, and slightly spicy (basically, what you’d expect from reading the notes!).

 

Immediately on skin: This scent is lighter on than I thought it would be. The hazelnut is the main note, but I can pick out just about all the notes in this blend. It’s a warm and sweet scent, but it’s very balanced and isn’t too foodie or too sweet.

 

After a few minutes: This scent has developed a plastic note on me after a little while. It’s still warm, sweet, and nutty with touches of myrrh and a slight warm spiciness from the sandalwood, but the vanilla bean seems to have changed into that annoying plastic note. Later on still (like hours later) this fades to a very creamy, sweet, nutty sandalwood scent. The plastic note went away after a couple of hours.

 

Overall Impressions: This blend isn’t foodie, but it’s definitely sweet and nutty. The hazelnut, vanilla bean, and honey make this smell yummy, but the red sandalwood and amber tone it down a bit and make it a bit more wearable. I got that annoying plastic note from the vanilla after it dried and a few hours following that, but overall it is quite a soft, sweet, pleasant scent.

[Aevalin]

Mmmm this is my favourite of all of the retail scents that I've had the chance to sniff. This is creamy nutty vanilla with a hint of smokiness. And thus far the amber hasn't done the baby powder transformation on me I hope it holds out! Beautiful!

[midnight_aeval]

Like most everyone else, I also get a hint of "Storyville"ness in the wet stage, but Wezwanie / Hold is more buttery to my nose - I don't know which note is causing it, but it's the note missing or subdued in Storyville.

 

In the drydown stages it's less like Storyville.. It's like an expensive cookie in a lush bakery.

 

ETA: The one note I was scared of is honey as is usually turns to blech on my skin. Not in this blend though

Edited November 17, 2007 by Midnight Aeval

[Alchemy21599]

In the vial: buttered roasted nuts

 

Wet: more specifically hazelnut brittle

 

Dry: cloyingly sweet and nutty.

 

*alas* off to the swap pile.

[tartchef]

Woah. This should have gone utterly rank on my skin, a la Gluttony... but no. This is incredible. For a split second, there was a whiff of popcorn JellyBellies, but that quickly vanished, leaving a quiet & incredibly cozy scent. The hazelnut is subtle & understated, the honey & vanilla low-key, and best of all, the amber non-powdery. I think it's the sandalwood & myrrh keeping what could be a foody explosion in check. The drydown is smoky & spicy with a rich undercurrent of toasty vanilla, but not in the least bit foody. A-frickin-mazing. I got Wezwanie/Hold strictly to decant, but I'm going to have to keep most of it for myself, I think. Something tells me this will be absolutely stunning given the chance to age a few months.

 

Just have to ETA: this has become one of my absolute go-to scents over the past few weeks - I find myself reaching for it over & over on these cold mornings...

Edited December 10, 2007 by tartchef

[DangerInRed]

On first sniff, this is hazelnutty with a bit of smokiness.

 

When first applied, for a few fleeting moments, there is gorgeous hazelnut with a sweet background.

 

Alas, the hazelnut fades fairly quickly, and now the honey has come out (almost smells a bit floraly). Not bad, just not as good as it was. Regardless, I think I'll keep the decant and see how often I reach for it.

[slave1]

WEZWANIE / HOLD

 

In Bottle: Nutty honey

 

On Skin: Yum! Very nutty and honey filled. It starts quite foody, and has almost a chocolate feel to it. Very strong, very sweet. The hazelnut is the dominant note on me, followed by the honey and vanilla. The sandalwood gives it a woody background, and the amber is a sexy powdery resin. This scent is beautiful, and quite tasty. It’s a bit heavy in the nut department for my taste, but I still would love a bottle of this scent for days when I feel like something different. It has a very gold/brown tone to it. Warm, comforting, and very very rich. A snuggle scent for sure. The throw starts strong but fades quite fast, the wearlength is a little shorter than average on me.

[Blood onmy hands]

I'm a sucker for anything with BPAL's awesome red sandalwood note listed, but the combination of the hazelnut, honey, and amber makes this go all wrong on me.

 

I have a hard time wearing nutty blends because they turn sickly sweet (and they're usually blended with other sweet notes as in Gluttony and Hellcat, making them even more overwhelming to my nose). They tend to remind me of candle fragrances and don't feel right as a personal scent. Wezwanie / Hold has that same issue on me. A bit buttery and much too sweet.

 

In this blend, I amp up the honey and the sweet, buttery, nutty notes. The honey has a slightly off, metallic tang to it. It dries down to a light scent, but I really don't like the nuttiness and powdery honey.

Edited November 27, 2007 by Tania

[Jenesis]

Wet: I can't pick out any individual notes, oddly. It's just very smooth and creamy with good throw. Very sweet.

 

On the drydown I can pick up the nutty smell, as well as some rather powdery honey and faint sandalwood.

 

Dry, it goes rather different. For some reason it reminds me of Brown Jenkins; it has that same "snuggly, warm, smooth" quality. The woods are present. The amber and honey threaten to go powdery, but never quite manage it, it smells like it's about to go to baby-powder-city but the sandalwood keeps it in check.

 

Later, this turns into a lovely, soft, "skin" scent. Not much throw.

Edited November 29, 2007 by Jenesis

[tasty]

I wish that I got Storyville from this one because I bet that would be heavenly. Instead the honey + vanilla are making this blend seem like O's older, more complex sister.

 

 

It's deliciously sweet, but not over done or overly foody. I think that the sandalwood keeps this one from being an OMG foodie blend.

 

I really love this one, but it may be too similar to O for me to justify buying a bottle of it.

[eanewsom]

From first to last, an artistic triumph.

 

In the vial/wet on the skin- mmm, frangelico! Mainly hazelnut with with that lovely complexity that promises there's other notes in there just waiting their turn.

 

Dry- yup, the hazelnut calms down and the lush vanilla and sandalwood come out- at this point it kind of reminds me of Morocco. Slightly sweet but not too sweet.

 

Drydown- softer but dryer as the vanilla fades out and the myrrh and amber linger, melancholy, like the memory of a kiss.

[LadyCrow]

In the decant: A rush of hazelnut backed by vanilla. If you layered this with the cocoa from Boomslang, you'd get Nutella.

 

Wet: Very foody on initial application; the honey really jumps in.

 

Drydown: Low throw, very much a skin scent. Unfortunately, after a few minutes of tasty food/wood/incense, it all goes to powdery amber with a faint background of myrrh. You have to be really close to me (and therefore, quite lucky!) to smell the other notes.

 

Verdict: Dammit! The one and only BPAL with a Polish name has to go to powder, like my grandmother might wear... my Polish grandmother... oh, wait. Doesn't she have better things to do from Beyond than go messin' with my BPALs for a joke?

[LadyMedb]

This is a lot like O, except with a very sweet hazelnut note. I think that the foody elements balance out really beautifully with the sandalwood and myrrh, but that hazelnut top not is just a little bit too sticky for me to keep the imp. Someone will love this one, though.

[olympia301]

A beautiful melange of notes with amber (mmmmm, really good amber) and myrrh (mmmmm, really good myrrh) and honey. I thought this one was just "damned beautiful". Odd to say that the hazelnut keeps on stealing the show. Just when I am ready for it to simmer down and step aside so I can admire the amber, it continues to hold center stage. I think hazelnut is really one of the most insidious and long lasting things you can put in, well, anything (it is particularly long lived in coffees). So, I am not surprised when this one just started out with Much Hazelnut and then finished up as Much Hazelnut on me, and that was sort of too bad, because the background is exquisite. This could just be my nose picking up Hazelnut over everything else, or it could be some form of hazelnut-a-phobia on my part. The rest of it is really really pretty, and goes with the picture beautifully.

[alicia_stardust]

This is a soft, gorgeous blend of hazelnut and vanilla bean. There is a slight element of something chocolate-like beneath the vanilla and hazelnut. The amber provides a warm, soft base. The myrrh grounds it out a bit. The honey adds a sultry-sweetness. Overall the hazelnut dominates the blend but not so much that I can't enjoy the artistic interpretation of this blend. Lovely.

[Rhowan]

Last night, as I was visiting with my parents, my mom whipped out a box of those chocolate/hazelnut chocolates? I can't think of the name right off the top of my head, but they come in a clear box, each one is wrapped in gold? They have a truffle center and inside the truffle center is a whole hazelnut. Then they are dipped in chocolate and rolled in chopped hazelnuts.(are they called Roche? or are made by Roche?- something like that) YUMMY!!!

 

Anyhow, the point is that when I swiped Wezwanie/Hold on to my wrist I smelled those chocolates!! I know that there is no chocolate but I think it might be the myrhh that is making me feel like chocolate is in there - kind of likea cross between Black Pearl and Velvet.

 

After about 15mins. this really fades! I am left with a kind of a sharp bitter woody scent. Almost like the shell of the hazelnut itself. All the sweetness has gone. It is still throwing more than average but I really want to wash it off because of WHAT it is throwing. I am really sad that my skin just ate up all the sweetness!

 

This was my pick as a number one oil and I almost ordered it sight unseen. I am very lucky that a good friend sent me the Salon retails to try before ordering! Big Bummer for me...

[akiko]

I rather like this one.

 

Bottle: When I smelled the tester at NPE, it was death by hazelnut. Which is a good thing, IMO. My bottle smells a little different: it's still recognizably hazelnut, but there's a slightly unpleasant astringent/perfumey smell behind it.

 

Wet: The mild unpleasantness is still there, but there's definitely hazelnut and something sweet.

 

Dry: Nearly 2 hours later, I'm getting hazelnut, resins, and vanilla, with a touch of honey.

 

Update, 1/13/08: The astringent/perfumey smell is gone. I think it was an aging issue.

Edited January 13, 2008 by Winterwind

[kakiphony]

In the imp: Sweet hazelnut liqueur with an undertone of sandalwood.

 

Wet on skin: The hazelnut is dominant, but the myrrh provides a slightly bitter back of the throat tang behind it and the sandalwood is rising, rising, rising quickly to dry the lush sweetness out.

 

Early dry down (less than ten minutes): There's something in this taking the hazelnut and giving it a strange spicy food twist. I can't quite place whether this smells more like Indian or Thai food, but it's definitely foody in a non-dessert sense and definitely spicy. The more I smell it, the more it reminds me of being in a very small Indian restaurant where the aroma of food combines that of the waittress's perfume and some Sandalwood incense on the altar. I'm picturing gold and red embroidered linens, a haze from candles and the steam of hot food, and cool, sweet rice pudding against hot, masala tea in my mouth.

 

Dry down (after about an hour): The myrrh is really apparent for me in this one, but I can't quite wrap my mind around whether it's a bitter smell or tangy smell or... Really it's some word that I can't quite think of. It smells like the myrrh in the original (brown) Nature's Gate conditioner, which I have always adored.

 

On me, the hazelnut isn't the dominant note that it seems to be on lots of other folks. It's there as an elusive top note. At times I can smell it and at times it runs away to play hide n' seek.

 

The Indian restaurant feel is fading, but only because the scent is fading on me. I have to lift my wrists to my nose to smell it, which isn't a bad thing for someone with allergies and reactive sinuses. It makes the scent more intimate and personal for me.

 

Overall, the way the notes blend is giving me a base of sweet woods and slightly powdery amber, layered with the myrrh I can't quite decsribe and a sweet/nutty/aromatic top note that is neither quite hazelnut nor quite honey nor quite vanilla, but some wonderful melange of all three.

 

Verdict: Yum. I knew just by reading the notes that this would work one me, but I'm still amazed by how comforting and comfortable the scent is. It smells more exotic to me than the painting would imply, and I see much bolder colors than the painting. Still, an excellent blend and one that absolutely "works".

Edited December 21, 2007 by kakiphony

[SarahScent44]

In the imp, I smell hazelnut and myrrh and vanilla.

 

On my skin, the vanilla is stronger, and the nuttiness of the hazelnut comes out. There's just a hint of the sandalwood and myrrh.

 

But when it dries, it turns bitter and medicinal - so sad.

[djnevermore]

Wow, to me this smells weird, like a cacophony of competing and poorly-contrasted scents. It's not at all what I expected. I can't smell the hazelnut, which is hugely disappointing. I think the Sandalwood and amber overpower this for me. Yup, I smell like a hippy candle.

 

Drier, that's fading a bit. But this was unappealing to me from the start, so I'll be swapping mine away. I think anyone who enjoys smelling of Sandalwood would probably like this quite a bit and find it unique. Just not my cup o tea. Kind of sad, since I love the artwork and would almost like to keep the bottle just for that.

[Northernskygal]

This smells drinkable at first.. not edible.. as it isn't chocolate or candy.. it is drinkable.. like a fine gourmet after dinner drink (non-alcoholic). It starts out all hazelnut/vanilla/honey goodness. Delicious. Sadly, the sandalwood comes out to play next, the amber tries to drown it out but.. my body amps sandalwood like woah and.. I end up with a.. sharp scent. Through BPAL I am learning to not hate patchouli (none present in this blend, just making a comment).. and I truly am making progress.. sandalwood though remains a foe of mine in the scent world. I am sure someone will love it, I consider it my new task to find it a good home.