Hanerot Halalu

[tarotgirl99]

Olive oil, beeswax, and smoke.

The first sniff I took of this on my skin was just amazing...it was like entering a golden hall with a huge ceiling and big-assed choir. Or at least the sound of a very loud shofar at a really nice synagoogue.

After a while, I get mostly honey and lemon--this scent reminds me a little of the TAL Milk and Honey, actually. But it's got significantly more zing. And throw. And it lasts and lasts.

[ClareN]

This is the first decant I tried of the new Yules, and I'm already in love.

 

In the imp, it smells a little like Hand of Glory, which I couldn't really enjoy - something about this beeswax note smells more like too-rich cake, or soap, or plastic, rather than beeswax. But I gave Hanerot Halalu a chance anyway, and thankfully, it is a vastly more wearable scent than Hand of Glory for me.

 

On my skin, it quickly warms up and becomes a glowing, orange beeswax-honey-smoke scent. The smoke is subtle, in the background; it's really all about the warm, sweet beeswax. It occasionally reminds me of lemon pound cake - it's not too foody for me, as someone who doesn't like to wear cake, but if you're strongly anti-foody, Hanerot Halalu will probably be too rich for you. Everyone else should jump on it.

 

Beautiful, comforting, long-wearing, versatile - one of my favorite new releases in a long time. I'll get one bottle for now, but I'm already praying to the BPAL gods that it becomes one of the classic Yules that return again and again.

Edited December 3, 2008 by ClareN

[stillalive]

Lovely-- what I wanted Chanukkiyah to be. Warm, a bit foody, a bit candley, FAINTLY smokey... a really lovely Holidiay scent! I want a big bottle...

[Ohmaude]

Oh wow, to think I almost didn't get a decant of this. A touch of sweet fragrant olive oil, strong beeswax made from orange blossom pollen, and the slight touch of a blown out candle. Beautiful!

[Mimosatique]

Wet: Soft beeswax and something creamy...

 

Dry: Powdery-creamy hint of smoke. It's not the incense smoke here. I guess the soft sweet powedry scent is the smoke. If olive oil is prsent it is really faint...barely there and NO it does not smell like salad oil nor the fruit itself.

 

Verdict: Smooth, Sweet, Gentle like baby's skin...almost of that milky skin scent except I can detect the tinest "honey" note from the beeswax. Utterly quiet(not a loud scent) but beauitful. Bottleworthy!

[femmefatale]

Instant love. Seriously. This just hit my top 10 I think. I can't believe I almost didn't try it.

At first I get a blast of orange with a hint of beeswax, but quickly it calms down and becomes the most beautiful honey beeswax scent. It is so calming and peaceful and natural smelling. As it dries further the smokiness comes out a bit, but isn't overwhelming. I also get something a bit of creaminess as well, but it's most definitely not cream (which always goes sour on me).

 

This is just gorgeous and I will be buying mutliple bottles.

[lioness]

This was a last minute "why not get a half decant imp to try" And I'm Very glad I did!

 

In the imp I loved it right away, I would buy bottles of this just to use in oil burners if it didn't work on me! I get a citrus note with the beeswax as well as some other people here, and I loved it!

 

On the skin, it's smooth, like rubbing a beeswax candle on your arm, with out the bits of wax sticking.

 

I could wear this all the time in the winter, it envelopes you in a comforting embrace.

 

I really must buy bottles of this

[PinkoCommie]

This is amazing. At first whiff, it was love -- a nice citrus (real citrus, not cleaners or tang) wafting out. But I dabbed it on my skin and in 5 minutes, I sighed. It seemed to have gone to a muted ... something... it seemed like it was headed to powder the same way that Mourning Moon goes on me. I had to leave for an appointment, so I just sighed and put on my fingerless gloves and coat. When I peeled myself like a woolen onion, I noticed the most amazing smell wafting up from my wrist. I thought it might be the bakeneko I'd dabbed on the gloves before -- but no, this was not a Bakeneko smell...

 

The person who said clean baby skin, beeswax and a touch of smoky honey -- that's exactly what this is. It's amazing and I adore it. I need a million and three bottles.

[innocent]

When I first put this one it was amazing - just like a freshly blow out beeswax candle. I settled down to love it. I didn't let the subsequent orange candy smell upset me. Orange is a top note, I told myself, it will fade soon. And fade it did leaving behind wax with the faintest tinge of... latex?

 

The latex demon that ruined White Rabbit strikes again. I'll probably try my imp in a skin locket to keep it away from my evil skin, but I guess I won't be needing that bottle. *pout*

[dawndie]

In bottle: watery orange juice

 

On skin: orange dessicating into dust, like honey dust

 

Half-hour later: there's the beeswax, mellow and slightly sweet with a touch of the dusty honey

 

In conclusion: this is the quietest BPAL blend I've ever tried -- it stays close to the skin, however it lasts and lasts. This is what I wanted Chanukkiyah to be, which started out nice but ended up a sugar blast. This is relaxing, serene and lovely.

[iiinterstate]

OH MY.

 

I get sweet orange right away, no idea why. Dries down a bit into pure beeswax love. So far I don't get any smoke, but I can tell already that I will need at least one bottle of this.

 

This blend is light but definitely present, if that makes any sense. One of those gorgeous oils that is likely to make people wonder what on earth smells so amazing, but wouldn't ever guess it's a perfume.

[olive]

This one is really impressive!

 

I can't even put into words how good this is. This is the biggest surprise of all the yules this year.. This smells just like a blown out candle to me (not the candle smoke, but the candle itself - warm wax as it sets). I can't stop sniffing.. it's so light but it has a definite presence, a warm skin scent. When it's first wet (mostly just sniffing from the bottle) I get the orange scent others mention, but to me it smells more like the color orange than an actual orange, if that makes sense. It's very mild and goes away almost right away for me.

 

Well here I am, three hours later and after a serious workout and the Hanerot Halalu I applied earlier to my wrist is still there, smelling the exact same (though more faint) if not a tinge resinous and earthy. This stuff is soooooooo good! I think this will be a highly coveted blend and one that the lab will (should!) revisit yearly. It's so warm to cozy up to, a very unique bpal that has no real comparison.

[ivyandpeony]

I seriously love Hanerot Halalu! I adore the Lab's beeswax so much that I took a chance on the smokiness here - smoke notes can be fabulous on me or they can be horrid, not much in between. This is the former.

 

This is a gorgeous creamy beeswax scent, definitely has that beeswax feeling versus honey that BPAL fans may be familiar with if they've compared a few scents with those notes. Beeswax is a little less sweet, a little more "waxy" for lack of a better word. The smoke is subtle and adds a bit of a spicy feel - the comparisons to a blown out candle are really accurate, it reminds me of what you get when you blow out a beeswax taper, just a little bit of subtle fragrant smoke. There's a slight fruitiness in the background here, which I couldn't place, then it hit me - olive oil! That fruity peppery note that you get when you sniff a really yummy extra-virgin olive oil? I swear, Beth's worked some kind of magic here.

 

This is my favorite of the batch of Yules and Willows that just landed here - not that there are any losers in the bunch, this one is just SO GOOD!

[jewelbug]

A will call skin test review:

 

Bottle and wet on skin: Lots of beeswax and smoke. It smells liked snuffed beeswax candles--really awesome.

 

Dry: Same as above, and reminds me of a Hand of Glory meets haloa (maybe the olive oil note). Doesn't have the dusty leatheriness of hand of glory, or the cakey grapiness of haloa, but it shares bits with both. Unfortunately, in the later drydown (after I was home and resniffing), it took on a bit of a synthetic burning tinge. Ah well, I think I like Hand of Glory's complexity a little more anyway!

[Tal Shachar]

I loved Chanukkiyah a ton, which is why I bought this, hoping for more of the same mojo even though the listed notes made it look less complex. And it is; the sugar-donut note in Chanukkiyah disappeared as soon as it hit my skin so that blend was all olive oil/beeswax/fig/pomegranate and lo it was good.

 

Hanerot Halalu does with me what it seems to do with most people: orange stage, followed by beeswax and olive and then smoke. When wet it seems to have what I would label musk, something sharp and...greenish but not planty or sweet (unhelpful description). After a lot of sniffing I think it's just the olive getting off to a loud start. The smoke is present for me but after a bit of promising birthday-candle wispiness it becomes a more familiar and less interesting frankincensey scent. I am not one to complain about olive, beeswax and light frankincense, and if there were wood in there (or fig) I would have bought a second bottle in my Christmas Order Mark II. Note that I have never yet bought a second bottle of anything, I'm too greedy for novelty.

 

So Hanerot Halalu is rich and warm and comforting like a candlelit front hallway after you come in from the snow, but it falls just short of being a Chanukkah holy grail (wow mixed metaphors).

[oldgentleman]

Wet: a burning vanilla tealight: heat, sweetness, and melted wax.

 

On skin: a just-snuffed beeswax candle.

 

Drydown: warm beeswax beginning to set, and a gentle curl of candle smoke wafting upward.

 

The throw is magnificent and it's long lasting -- 6 hours later it's still smelling great. It became a bit sweeter, (more of a honey note,) but the warm wax and smoke are still present.

 

For you it may bring Hanukkah to mind, or Christmas candles... For me it brings to mind the rows of lit candles at Hexham Abbey: 35p a-piece, with a little card -- Lighting a candle is a parable: burning itself out, it gives light to others. The perfume oil itself is smooth and gentle from start to finish, but its genius is in the accuracy and mood that brings back so many scent-memories! This is a must-try if you haven't sniffed it!

 

One bottle may not be enough, as I will wear this frequently. It's immediately moved into my top 10.

 

edited to fix typo

Edited December 15, 2008 by BellisColdwine

[theseagrows]

for about 5 minutes i LOVED this. i thought "wow this'll be the one yule scent that i buy a whole bottle of." then it dried down and now all i get is a strong cocoa-beeswax scent. gone is the lovely olive oil and smoke

[naeelah]

I only tried a decant of this to start, although I love wax scents, because last year's similar scent was a little too olive-oily for me. But I'm pleased to say my fears are entirely put to rest.

 

This is first and foremost a beeswax scent. Creamy, smooth, with a soft, sugary honey edge. For me, this is the strongest scent start to finish. The olive oil note smells incredibly true to life, just adding a faintly bitter, vegetal note to balance the beeswax. The smoke is never overwhelming. In fact, I can hardly pick it out. It's most noticeable, for me, after a few hours. It just adds a light haziness and deepens the blend. On my skin, for my tastes, this scent is perfectly balanced.

 

Some people say it smells like a freshly blown out candle. On me, the smoke note isn't nearly that strong, but it's a good general description. Highly recommended if you're a fan of waxy scents, especially if you want one that's pure candle wax -- no sweetness, no florals, no spices, no nothing. Just wax!

 

Sillage and wear life are excellent. Definitely one of my favorite Yules!

[yeahbutnobut]

Hanerot Halalu

 

In the imp: mmm, honeyed beeswax with a bit of citrus.

Wet on skin: oranges glazed with honey. No olive or smoke yet. But I smell something a little musky?

Dry on skin: this is beautiful. it’s very hard to describe this other than it is so gorgeous-and smells different to what I expected. This to me has a scent of oranges and honeycomb (the wax and the honey itself) with a hint of olive oil (though this olive smells nothing like salad oil). I love Beth’s beeswax note and this is full of that wonderful stuff. There is a hint of something a little smoky, though not on the level of Hand of Glory. This is a gentler version of HoG. I don’t know why I smell oranges but I smell a strong orange note reminiscent of bitter oranges, or candied orange peel. It’s a lovely bittersweet orange. It reminds me somewhat of the orange-honey scent I got in Thaleia, though much softer, less juicy. Strangely I also smell anise? a hint of something a little spicy.

After a while: it still has that wonderful orange and honey scent, but now I smell more of the beeswax itself…and the smoke. Which smells not like the fiery smoke of Hand of Glory, but of candle smoke. I love the smell of blown out candles, and I smell it here. Soft waxy wisps of smoke with a glowing scent of warm orange and honey, and a little bit of olive (which now smells like the leaf and the blossom as well as the oil). I was disappointed by Chanukkiyah, this is how I hoped it would smell…it lacks the gourmand notes that went wrong on me.

There are soft skin-scent nuances that pop up now and then, but this overall is a soft warm orange-gold scent of orange beeswax and candle smoke with olive and honey…this is a very smooth scent, luminous, well blended, harmonious. it gets so beautiful at drydown when the scent wafts with something that’s hard to put into words other than ‘golden’ and ‘sweet’ and ‘warm’ but even that is not enough to describe just how lovely it is. it’s got a reassuring, soothing feel…it’s strange because I get that soothing feel from a lot of the olive scents-Tzadikim Nistarim and Banded Sea Snake come to mind.

Verdict: I can’t get over how beautiful this is. It has a golden sweetness which is not honey, not amber, not vanilla, yet it hints at them. It seems to be a golden sweetness that defies description. it’s very different to any other beeswax scent…the word ‘transcendent’ comes to mind. Simply put, it’s the ultimate beeswax candle scent, enhanced by sweet orange and olive oil. It is the smell of candlelight-not just because of the candle smoke, but it brings to mind the warm, flickering, comforting light of candles, warm golden tones in the darkness. Light at the darkest time of year. It makes me feel like there’s a warm glow inside of me when I smell it…truly glorious. I need three bottles at least.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? Of course!

If you like this, try: Hand of Glory, Channukiyah, No 93 Engine

[caitilarkin]

In the bottle: Sweet, creamy smoke and beeswax

 

Wet on skin: Warm beeswax with soft smoke and a vaguely spicy citrus note way in the background

 

Dry on skin: The beeswax note intensifies and I think I can detect a fruity olive oil--it's like an olive oil fresh off the presses in Italy that still is more olive than oil.

 

I adore this blend. It's strong, simple, warm and deliciously rich.

[janelle_hell]

In the bottle, this was all just-blown-out-candle yumminess. Swoon-worthy. Seriously.

 

My bizarre body chemistry had other plans for it upon application, though. After about 5 minutes of yummy smokiness with a faint "fresh, sweet oranges" smell, it turned to...

 

...scary chemical-y orange dish soap. The longer I left it on, the worse it got. So, I washed it off.

 

It's really too bad that it didn't work on me, as I had very high hopes for this one.

[Jollyplum]

This is just beautiful -- it's haunting, but sweet and innocent too. In the bottle it's honey and powder for me. The wax and smoke come out on my skin but disappear quite quickly. Dry it's back to the honey and almost a dusty smell. It is gorgeous.

[heartbreakangel]

In bottle: It smells like orange flavored honey. Light, a bit citrusy, but very pleasant.

 

Wet on skin: I could faintly smell the olive oil somewhere in the background. It mostly turned into an airy beeswax on me while the oil was still visible on my skin.

 

Dry on skin: I barely got the impression of smoke, with a bit of olive oil mingling with it. For the most part, though, it's a very pleasant, sweet smelling beeswax.

 

This surprised me quite a bit. I tested it out around 5pm last night. I took a shower, where I scrubbed myself off with coconut scented shower gel. I came down here to take a nap, and put on hand lotion. I put more hand lotion on a few hours ago. Yet, if I stick my nose against where I applied the Hanerot Halalu on the top of my hand, I can still smell it. I suspect I'll be buying a second bottle before this comes down.

[lilirose]

This is an intensely beautiful, creamy, rich scent- the kind that makes my want to inhale my own arm.

 

I definitely get “orange” along with the beeswax, but it’s not a sharp orange but a smooth, sweet one. The smoke comes out later in the scent’s development.

 

It also has excellent throw and staying power.

 

I almost didn’t buy this, and I’m so glad I did. It’s the surprise star of the Yules this year.

 

[crebbsgirl]

 

This is AMAZING! Wet, I get the orange note from Xiuhtechuatl, which I should mention I was not a fan of when I tried that particular blend. As it dries though, there is some seriously gorgeous beeswax going on. And the smoke comes out beautifully. It is reminiscent of freshly blown out candles, but it's not overpowering the rest of the blend in the slightest. I can barely detect the olive oil. This is just stunning, and I am definitely purchasing a bottle of this.