The Lights of Men's Lives

[Upstart Crow]

THE LIGHTS OF MEN’S LIVES
When Death saw that for a second time he was defrauded of his own property, he walked up to the physician with long strides, and said, "All is over with thee, and now the lot falls on thee," and seized him so firmly with his ice-cold hand, that he could not resist, and led him into a cave below the earth. There he saw how thousands and thousands of candles were burning in countless rows, some large, others half-sized, others small. Every instant some were extinguished, and others again burnt up, so that the flames seemed to leap hither and thither in perpetual change. "See," said Death, "these are the lights of men's lives. The large ones belong to children, the half-sized ones to married people in their prime, the little ones belong to old people; but children and young folks likewise have often only a tiny candle." "Show me the light of my life," said the physician, and he thought that it would be still very tall. Death pointed to a little end which was just threatening to go out, and said, "Behold, it is there."

The wax and smoke of millions upon millions of candles illuminating the walls of Death’s shadowy cave: some tall, straight, and strong, blazing with the fire of life, others dim and guttering.

As I said in my review of Godfather Death, the story upon which these scents are based is my favorite fairy tale. Thus, I ordered bottles of all three unsniffed knowing--or hoping--that they would all somehow work for me. Yes, I'm that obsessed with this story.

For those who have read it, the part of the tale that inspired this scent is the most arresting moment in the story. Given that I have had bad experiences with the beeswax the lab uses (ugh, Hanerot Halalu!) I must say I ordered this one more for completeness' sake than because the notes sounded great to me. I'm glad I did that.

Folks, Beth nailed this one. NAILED it. Knocked it out of the damn park. This smells exactly like living candles.

In the bottle: Something sugary sweet, and what smells to me like a hint of vanilla--the raw baker's kind, not the sweet kind. No wax.

On me, wet: A rush of that vanilla bean sweetness and the sweetness of bpal's beeswax note. Oh, oh, delicious! This is defnitely the smell of living candles--waxy and warm skin. I am sure there is some skin musk in this--another note I don't like so much, but which just works beautifully here.

Drying down: More of that sweet waxiness, and the skin musk comes out even stronger.

verdict: An absolutely beautiful blend, specifically for those who were disappointed in Hanerot Halalu last year. This is definitely a good late fall/winter scent, just as Godfather Death is a winter's tale.

[Lycanthrope]

Oh holy crap, this stuff is awesome win.

 

It takes that essence of beeswax I love, gives it a kiss of Coyote's skin musk, and then... it blossoms.

 

I liked Hand of Glory and Hanerot, but for some reason, this is a great, richer, less mixed, more pure smoky candle scent.

 

LOVE.

 

BOTTLE(s).

[dronzeka]

mmmmm! at first I'm not really sure what this smells like. But as it dries down: beeswax! and then: something vaguely sweet and powdery! but in a good way. This is very warm and soft. I'm not really getting a lot of - any?- smoke, but it's very comforting and definitely makes me think of candles - vanilla ones, but not in the icky craft store way; the beeswax grounds the vanilla and the two blend beautifully. And I agree that there's skin musk in this, it's a little tiny bit reminiscent of Giant Vulva (but without the resins). This is really, really nice; I think it would make a wonderful comfort or sleep scent. It's not fancy or glamorous, but a wonderful skin scent.

 

(Oh, wait, at the right angle I get a bit of smoke in the throw! It's lovely and very candle-y, not like a bonfire; it's very faint, though, and I kinda hope it gets stronger as it ages...)

 

Yeah, I could go for a bottle of this...

[melange]

Mmm. It's just like the description, and the beeswax is amazing. After about an hour and a half, it's died down some so I'm not getting much throw at all, but it's still there close to the skin. If my nose gets too close, I get a little plastic, so obviously the key is to just wave my hand in front of my face a lot. It's also not as plastic as Snow White is on me, at least.

 

I'm going to give this one some time to recover from being shipped and see how it does after that, since it's still really, really new. If it winds up settling and sticking around longer, it will be bottle time. What a great addition to the GC!

[Siberia]

Yep, I think this is going to be really popular. It's hard to describe the individual notes, but altogether, it really does smell like hot beeswax with something slightly sweet. There is also a hint of smoke that is so light it's more like an insinuation of smoke. The only note that I think I definitely recognize is sandalwood - maybe a bit of a smokey sandalwood? This is very pretty scent, quiet and reflective.

This lasted on my wrists at least 8 hours, but did not have a lot of throw.

[greenranger]

Sweet beeswax, with a faint hint of something like the flowers the bees were harvesting from. There's the very faintest hint of flowers behind the wax. I don't know, but, there could be skin musk or something in addition. It is possible that there could be vanilla, and if there is, a little aging and time will reveal it. My skin loves vanilla above most things.

 

I don't get any smoke, at ALL. Hanerot Halalu was smokier, and those bees were harvesting from a different flower.

 

I'll be in the minority and say I like Hanerot Halalu better, because I like smoke, and I also enjoy darker scents. This is light and bright, with no flickering shadows anywhere. However, this is a good substitute if you can't get that.

[Aldercy]

The Lights of Men's Lives is completely pure, sweet, liquid beeswax. A more sugared beeswax than I expected, but it's still very natural and fluid. With a tiny dash of fire... but no smoke to speak of, which is fine in my book because I have a fair few smoke blends already. I think I could layer it with Priala for a darker effect if necessary.

 

This is exactly what I wanted from Hanerot Halalu and didn't get-- except this is GC. We'll see how much play the imp gets, but I think it could be a bottle purchase.

[Pottersville]

Absolute, unadulterated, amazing beeswax. This is awesome! I love Hanerat Halalu, Chanukkiyah, and Ichabod Crane. They're all amazing in their own ways. Lights of Men's Lives is like a beeswax single note. A multiple bottle purchase!!

[MamaMoth]

A lovely expensive-vanilla-beeswax-candle scent. The honeyed sweetness of the beeswax is somewhat prominent when it's wet, but as it dries the vanilla gets a smoky tinge and the sweetness backs off a lot.

 

After trying on a lot of complex (but beautiful) scents lately like the Lunacies, this is pretty and uncomplicated and cozy. It's like my favorite fuzzy socks, but for my nose.

 

Lovely on its own, but also rife with layering possibilities.

[crebbsgirl]

There are some similarities here to Hanerot Halalu for sure. But this has a bit of a vanillic feel to it, as opposed to the olive oil/citrus combo of Hanerot. The beeswax note is just stunning. Very warm and cozy. The smoke isn't overly dominant.

[Blood onmy hands]

In the bottle, this smells like sweet honey and a sharp little hint of clean soapiness. On my skin, it's a tooth achingly sweet honey and a little bit of sharpness that reminds me of hairspray. It does smell more like honey than of beeswax to me. As it dries down, the sharp hairspray smell starts to smell slightly smoky and I actually like that aspect of the scent. It's the super-sweet honey smell that I'm not enjoying. It's just too sweet for me.

 

I expected to love this, because I love so many blends with beeswax in them, but this isn't the dark, serious, complex scent that I had hoped it would be. I was hoping for a dark, smoky scent with a little bit of sweetness. This is intense sweetness with a little bit of smokiness.

The Lights of Men's Lives is just too sweet and simple. It actually smells like a cheap candle, like I rolled around with and am covered in an unremarkable vanilla-honey scented candle.

 

I don't think that I'll be keeping my bottle of this...

[obsidienne]

This is all wax, smoke, perhaps some very light musk (probably skin musk), and something with a very light lemony overtone to lighten it. Warm and glowing, but a very close to the skin scent. This doesn't smell as much like beeswax to me as it seems to smell to others, though, which is a point against it. The only point. I like this a lot, although it's so low profile that I can't see myself remembering to grab it often. That said, I'd love to have a bottle just to have one. That sort of thing.

 

Edit: Now that it's been on a while it's getting a lot sweeter, which means beeswax, baby! I think I might have to order a bigger version of this.....

Edited October 28, 2009 by obsidienne

[Dark Alice]

Sweet smoky beeswax. This is actually quite nice. Then it fizzles out to beeswax. I like this. I may see a bottle of this in my future but for now...the decant will have to do.

[galahad]

In The Bottle

Sweet beeswax and honey

On Application

The sweetness fades to be replaced by some smokiness.

 

Dry Down

Surpisingly light. I love the scents with beeswax in them and this is no exception. A bottle is on the cards.

 

Rating (0-5)

4.5

 

[erinpcf]

I love this, a warm, vanilla beeswax scent that fades to a subtle slightly smoky beeswax. Mmmmmmmm

[Spork]

Warm wax, start to finish...with a touch of sweetness, no smoke at all though but still happy I got a bottle, cause warm wax is also nommy!

[Salsa Shark]

It's hard to find a way to describe this other than 'beeswax and smoke' but... that's what I get

 

I like the smoke note in this, and it holds out well against the beeswax, which usually turns to pure thick honey on me. The smoke stops the beeswax from turning too sweet or cloying, and gives it a nice dark edge.

 

It's a nice simple scent that'd be perfect for honey/beeswax lovers. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them.

[arsenicsauce]

This is smooth, sweet beeswax candles with maybe the faintest tinge of smoke, like they've been lit and put out but the wicks are still ashy. A lot of blends with "smoke" or "fire" notes listed use vetiver, but I would swear there's absolutely none in here, if anyone was wondering. As it dries it gets a little sweeter and more honeyed. I do like this scent but I don't think I'd wear it very often, it's not my kind of sweet. If you're looking for beeswax, this is the most dead-on approximation I can imagine in a scent.

[MCS4096]

In the imp it's beeswax that's a little very on the BPAL honey note that I find sour. On it's much better, mellowing down to a fairly true beeswax blend (still not exactly as good as the real thing I'm afraid). Less floral than Hanerot when compared side by side. I like it a lot and will likely add it to my eventual bottle list because it's a fail proof blend for the days when you need such scents

[zankoku_zen]

It does smell like a candle - an expensive vanilla candle. The beeswax is sweet on me and I can smell the touch of honey, it def. has a vanilla like component on my skin. It's subtly smoky.

 

I think I have to wear it a little more to decide how much I love it, but I can def. see this having multiple layering possibilities...

[Cereus]

In the bottle: sweet, and the teeniest bit wax, maybe a little like a NikL Nip/wax soda bottle candy once the fruit juice is gone.

 

Wet this is not nearly as sweet, but now smokey with a stronger hint of the wax.

 

As it dries this is still sweet like vanilla or honey, but creamy, waxy, and smokey in a rather wonderful sort of way.

 

Ultimately a little too vanilla for me to use much, but a gorgeous scent with a fantastic beeswax note.

[blu°]

No real review since I'm at work...

 

This shares the blown-out candle note with Gypsy Queen, I think. It's pretty nice although I don't wear neither honey nor, to a lesser degree, beeswax well.

 

[hlemonds]

 

The smiley just about says it all. This is sweet, creamy, delicious beeswax. I get very little smoke on the skin, and really only a hint in the bottle. This is utterly yummy, without being foody, if that makes any sense whatsoever. It makes me want to nuzzle myself, and maybe take a nibble

[mumu]

This is nothing but sweet, delicious beeswax on me. I'm a little disappointed at the lack of smokiness but it is a lovely scent nonetheless. I'm think there may be some skin musk here, lovely!

[ellebelle]

This smells like sweet beeswax, as noted by others. I don't really get vanilla, I get more of a ... honeyish note? It is definitely a close to the skin scent. I love it and I could easily imagine wearing this often. Then again, the beeswax note on me is one of pure WIN. I don't know what it is, but the wax note loves me. This is remininscent of Hanerot Halalu or Giant Vulva (both of which I liked). It's sweeter than Hanerot Halalu but lacks the honey note of Giant Vulva. I love love love it.