Now Winter Nights Enlarge

[distracts]

Shorten those tedious nights with a surge of body heat: vanilla-infused red musk, champaca, petitgrain, ylang ylang, patchouli, nutmeg, honey, galbanum, and traces of caramel.

On me this smells like sugar and... wood? I think maybe it's the petitgrain that my mind is interpreting as woody, because when I think about it, I can sense similarities to other petitgrain blends. The sweetness of red musk is there in the background, and the other things are murky and indefinite presences, obvious more in the throw than when I sniff up close.

Also, if Tomoe Gozen and Dorian got drunk together and had a baby, this could be their offspring.

[nekogrrl]

In decant - O HAI CARAMEL. When it hits my skin it instantly morphs into.. sex. The musk is most prominent on me, and is sweetened by the honey and vanilla. Caramel is nowhere to be sniffed. There's also a hint of herbal.. something. It tempers the sweetness and makes it.. better than bearable, it enhances and turns it into something quite lovely.

 

On repeated huffing, the patchouli and ylang ylang show up, which warms up the musk. The caramel kind of wafts in and out, but doesn't go dominant.

 

Definitely bottle-worthy.

[bLissKite]

alright, what is wrong with me that i get ...bright, fiery, scorched cumin seeds drowned in sugar syrup...?

 

on my boyfriend, NWNE smells decidedly better, but still definitely un-yum in a similar way.

Edited December 8, 2009 by bLissKite

[rawgirl75]

I think this should have been called Beth's Curious Concoction of Various Funk Notes because when I checked the notes I realised that all it was missing was skin musk and it would have had the monopoly on notes that turn funky on people which include: red musk, champaca, ylang ylang, patchouli, honey and caramel. (talk about Russian Roulette here)

 

I'm not convinced that this is full on caramel (Beth says it's just "a dab"). While my nose does smell the caramel on top, I think its the vanilla/red musk combo mixed with the honey and ylang-ylang that's bolstering up the caramel so that it seems more robust caramel than it really is. And that's a blessing because this blend, for all intents and purposes, should have failed me utterly because honey and especially caramel are death notes for me...

 

However, in a freak skin chemistry accident, Now Winter Nights Enlarge shockingly smells ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC to me and is quickly turning into the surprise hit of all my Yules. I think the miracle that happened was wholly due to the fact that the honey and true caramel notes are on the bottom of the note list. And also, most of the other notes are top favourites of mine, especially the ylang ylang (omg Im so in love with ylang-ylang these days. Can anyone say T.he Girl omg yum!).

 

Wet: It starts out with this blast of caramel, but unlike the other caramel blends which start out nice and then amp caramel like crazy on me, this one chilled out and the caramel-like other notes melted away and left the champa, petitgrain, ylang, patch and nutmeg notes behind to tantalize all my olifactory senses.

 

Dry: I'm smelling some elements of Lawn Gnome (caramel creme patchouli), Inez (vanilla/red musk) and Tell-Tale Heart here (woody, peppery nutmeg and throaty without musk or blood). Heavy, heady, but not loud and not quite foody. OH! And there's a perfect word for this too: Sticky. Yup.. definitely sticky.

 

I recommend people keeping an open mind about this one. I certainly did and was pleasantly surprised. It really is one of a kind.

 

ps. No celery found of any kind.

Edited December 5, 2009 by rawgirl75

[lefthandmade]

I was a little scared of the ylang ylang but luckily I had no reason to.
At some point it reminds me a little of Bien Loin D'ici but it's smoother.
This is caramel but with a serious twist.
Oh yes.

Yes yes.

[Ishtar]

Well, drat. Unlike many reviewers, I love the caramel in Now Winter Nights Enlarge. The first 5 minutes after applying are pretty much all caramel, and what a delicious, freshly-made, vibrant caramel it is! Sadly, it doesn't last, and all too soon it is replaced by a pungent concoction of dirty red musk and overpowering ylang-ylang. Let me tell you, the result is not pretty.

 

After complete drydown, the caramel makes a comeback. Unfortunately, it must have been kept on the stove during its little disappearing act, because it now smells burnt - either that, or the patchouli has decided to come out and play, and its earthiness combined with the caramel adds a smoky note to the blend.

 

A careful sniff several hours later confirms that the patchouli does indeed play a major role in this scent, and it's quite a beautiful patchouli note, too.

 

Now Winter Nights Enlarge shows a lot of potential in its individual notes - I think it could even be stunning after some serious aging. However, as it is, it just smells off on me, and I don't know if I feel like waiting a year or two to see if it improves with age. More than likely, this will be a swap.

Edited December 5, 2009 by Ishtar

[Amaranthus]

All of the notes in Now Winter Nights Enlarge blend into one warm, earthy-sweet scent. No one note is stronger than any other. It's beautiful!

 

A few hours into wearing it, the ylang ylang comes out more. The patchouli is more prominent too, but the vanilla and red musk soften it. At this stage Now Winter Nights Enlarge smells like a gourmand version of Lust.

 

I love the bottle art, too.

[strahlend]

No caramel here.

For me this is sexy in a bottle. I've heard people say that before and I never really understood what that would be like, but now I do.

I'm getting honey and musk and vanilla and patchouli as listed ... and this is one of the only places where ylang ylang is working for me and indeed it's doing it's job perfectly like *this* is what it was made to do. This is a musky blend unlike any other I've sniffed and I am head over heels in love with it. I hope my partner lets me put this on him... I think he'll like the results if he does

 

edit to update - When my partner sniffed this he had an unexpectedly visceral negative reaction to it. It was pretty strange. I continued to do a few more skin tests and found that the more I wore it the less fond of it I became, which is usually the opposite of what happens. I've continued to enjoy many scents my partner doesn't like, so it's not entirely that. This was a really interesting scent experience.

Edited January 3, 2010 by strahlend

[vampirate]

In the bottle and fresh it's very heavy on the caramel, but I love caramel! Dry it's more of a sweet incense with the caramel and honey peaking out underneath.

 

I just wanted to come back and rave about this more that I have my own bottle and have been able to slather it: Now Winter Nights Enlarge is deliciously warm, sweet, and sexy! Just fantastic. It's definitely my favorite of all the Yules. I've started hoarding backup bottles.

Edited February 12, 2010 by twinklebat

[Prism]

In the bottle - vanilla. But not pure vanilla for sure. Champaca, musk, caramel. I'm not picking out ylang ylang or patchouli here. ugh. i got my doubts here.

wet - honey. vanilla, honey, and some spices in the background. this is much better. muuuch. a honey that works on me! and stays true.

dry - a woodsy scent with honey and vanilla with some champaca to warm it up in the background. There's a lurking faint floral. Otherwise the other notes make no appearance.

 

Rating - 4/10

If it smelled like it did wet, just honey and vanilla with hints of spice, i'd be all over this.

Edited December 7, 2009 by Prism

[Blood onmy hands]

I'm not sure if I've ever disliked a bpal scent quite as much as I dislike this one. It's unbearably sweet and makes me feel sick to my stomach when I smell it. I love vanilla, red musk, and patchouli, so I had high hopes for this. On my skin, though, this is like brown sugar, butter, burnt white sugar, and caramel baked together. For the first five minutes, I smell a hint of incensey, sexy red musk, but it's quickly swallowed by overwhelming, burnt sweetness. I only applied a tiny dab of this to my wrist and it's been going strong for 5 hours. I'm going to scrub it off and go to bed now.

 

I expected this to be one of my favorites of the yules, but I really hate it. It's scary sweet and burnt sugary. It's gag inducing.

Edited December 16, 2009 by Little Bird
Removed Lab description --Shollin

[penemuel]

I like vanilla-infused red musk, I like patchouli, nutmeg, honey, galbanum, and I LIKE CARAMEL.

 

However, I'm not sure about champaca, and I don't think I like petitgrain.

 

I know I'm not fond of ylang ylang especially after a Lush product with it tried to choke me to death.

 

Now, this may just be because I have a cold and my sense of smell is shot to hell, but... I only smell petitgrain and ylang ylang, and it is NOT what I was hoping for...

 

I'm going to have to try this again later, when I can smell right again, and pray it comes out as yummy as most of the notes make it sound, because right now, it's just flowery death. Burned flowery death. With burned citrus notes. I'm sad.

 

ETA: After a while, the caramel and vanilla and maybe the honey are coming out, but I don't think this is a keeper for me. Pity. (I'll still try it again after the cold is gone.)

Edited December 9, 2009 by penemuel

[abejita]

"Traces of caramel?" Really? I don't have a huge problem with amping certain scents. Now and then I find something, but caramel hasn't generally been an issue. Until now. Yikes. I get nothing but burnt caramel. I really wanted to perceive the other notes, but caramel is upstaging them all.

[cyberpuff]

In the imp: whoa. This is strong. I get patchouli, nutmeg and red musk straddling sweetness.

 

Drydown: Caramel. I think the red musk keeps it from becoming too sweet, and maybe my own chemistry makes the caramel a salted version rather than too sweet. There's also a smell that reminds me of a wet pet coming in from the rain... it's not unpleasant to my nose, and it's fleeting and in the background. I have no idea which of the notes make this happen- if I had to guess it would be musk and patchouli.

 

Couple hours later: Musk and dark floral, with burnt sugar. It's like an adult candy store.

 

Overall: Other than the sweet notes and champaca, there's nothing about the notes listed in Now Winter Nights Enlarge that really speak to me or seem unusual. But again, patchouli, (which I've vowed to hate) and nutmeg, (which means nothing to me but pumpkin pie and latte accidents) have worked really well on my skin. Most everyone who has smelled it on me likes it, then they smell the imp and go,"Ew, why did you make me smell that?!!"

 

I'm glad it works on me. I really love this one! Even with the rain soaked pet stage!

[Ohmaude]

So you and your special man friend decide you are going to make caramel for a holiday party. You're both in the kitchen, stirring pots, measuring sugar, reading recipes and dancing along to Christmas music.

 

You decide to sample the caramel, and dip a spoon into the pot. Upon bringing it to your lips a big dollop of caramel drips down your chin and lands in your cleavage. "Oh darn." you say. Special man friend looks up from the recipe book he's been reading, sees the caramel drippings and comes over to help you "clean-up."

 

Next thing you know, the two of you are going at it on the kitchen floor and there is caramel everywhere.

 

Now Winter Nights Enlarge, indeed.

[ami226]

On the skin: Whoa! Intense caramel!!

 

After a few moments, the caramel fades a bit and now it is just a lovely sweetness with a hint of bitter resins and red musk.

 

Red musk is a death note on me, but this isn't too bad... I need to test this one again!

[akw]

I get some caramel from the bottle, but on my skin it's instant, big-time, Smut-type musk. It stays that way until dry down, then settles into a warm, almost skin scent. Once in awhile I get a wayward whiff of vanilla, but so far no champaca. I can tell the patchouli is there as a base, but it's well-behaved.

 

This is one I could see wearing out and about when I don't want to broadcast my scent. It stays close.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what it does over the next couple of months.

[fairestrocza]

In the Bottle: slightly burnt caramel and something kind of earthy

 

Wet on Skin: caramelized something... something a bit astringent or sinus clearing... a faint hint of plastic (probably the honey)

 

While Drying: plastic note goes away, thank goodness; very foody, though greener aspects are starting to emerge, along with a hint of ylang ylang and something burning; dries very fast - oil was sucked into my skin almost instantly

 

After a Little While: major throw of caramel and smoke; much more complex close to the skin; I'd like it more if these aspects were reversed

 

Later: caramel is dying down a bit and incense is showing up (musk? Patchouli?); much later: molasses (The Boy says 'gingerbread')

 

Final Thoughts: My personal bpal enabler had me order this for her with my last order, and has been too busy with life and vacations to come claim it... Fortunately, she <3s me and said I could play with her smellies and give them a test run. This was not one of the scents at the top of my yule wish list, but one I was happy to have the chance to try. I liked the complexity close to the skin, and I loved the final long term dry down, however the powerful burnt caramel aspect was a bit much. At least I'll know where to find this one if I am in the mood to wear it again sometime.

Now Winter Nights Enlarge earns a 3.5/5 on my skin.

[musichappens]

Burnt Caramel & Ginger. This is a definitely no-no for me.

Edited December 12, 2009 by musichappens

[Saya]

Primarily red musk and carmel. Doesn't change too much from start to finish. This reminds me of a blend I've tried before but I can't recall what.

 

At any rate, not one I'd wear with any frequency. Pass.

[Iceblink]

Lots of caramel--the wet stage of this made me think of Red Lantern. The longer it dries the more I'm getting musk and vanilla. A very sweet blend...but I'm picking up on a little patchouli to keep it from going completely caramel candy. This will probably age terrifically and is worth wearing again, definitely.

[ajwong755]

The first time I tried this, it smelled similar to Indian curry. Maybe fenugreek or something? The second time it smelled more sweet and like caramel. I made my mom try it and she also thought it smelled like curry. (Which is pretty interesting because she usually never agrees with my interpretations of scents...)

[Altaira]

Well, I will now add champaca to the list of notes I am allergic too. I was able to wear this for about 30 seconds before rushing to scrub it off as my nose filled and a whopper of a sinus headache built. Yikes. I'm blaming the champaca because I have smelled all the other listed notes before with no issues and I have problems with magnolia,to which it is related.

[CreamyJade]

In the bottle: This isn't traces of, it's CARAMEL, the loud, the obnoxious.

Wet on skin: Caramel, still.

Dry on skin: After a while, the blend develops into heady, heavy incenses (think champaca), and sweet burnt sugar.

Final thoughts: I'm biaised. I don't like caramel notes, but all of the other components are just so lovely, so I don't know what to think about this blend. It's definately not the absolute love I was hoping for, but I don't hate it completely; an imp would have sufficed.

Try if you like: Red Lantern, caramel notes

Edited December 15, 2009 by CreamyJade

[pinkstardust420]

Meh. This scent absolutely despises me. It turned into a smoky caramel on me..not my thing. Up for swappy poo!