The Second of the Three Spirits

[puck_nc]

Pine boughs, plum pudding, spiced pears, sugared chestnuts, punch floated with oranges, boughs of holly, and myrica berries.

Origin: decant circle

Initial Thoughts: Mainly just a whim. I love the evergreen notes and was curious as to what foody notes might do with them.

In the imp: Incredibly foody, like a fresh-baked pastry filled with spices and fruit.

Wet: Ew, somethings are clashing horribly, almost like trying to light a fake scented candle in a room with a litterbox. Help!

Drydown: Thank goodness, the worst of the litterbox impression fades fast. The pine and holly have amped, but a foody suggestion of sweet remains just behind them.

Verdict: Once it settles down, this is a wonderful Christmas-y scent, like serving a scrumptious high tea in the room with a fresh-cut tree. Not sure I would use a whole bottle, though.

[sqwook]

In the bottle: Foody, cake, nuts

On me: Hm, I'm not getting the non-food scents (pine, holly, berries) here. What I get is maple-y foodiness and spice, with nuts in the background. Smells like one of those warm delectable foody scents that will be super-popular and somehow just never work for me personally!

[Altaira]

When wet, this smells very much like World of Fools and Snap-Dragon-Fly. They all have that same pudding/holly thing going on. Second of Three Spirits differs in that citrus comes out as it dries. But there is something off for me - maybe the chestnuts?- that smells a bit like dirty stale sweat. It's like I can smell the street urchins under his robes...

[starfish327]

i think that my yule decants were travel shocked when i first tested them, because on the second wearing of this blend i'm finally getting what everyone else was talking about.

 

in the imp, this is very foody. i don't normally do foody but i liked the scent description.

 

wet: wow. this is really spicy, orangy food with a hit of cake in the background. i like it though. i like really spice heavy blends and this is very close to gingerbread at this stage. there's a definite bready note here, but in a good way. i've never actually smelled a plum pudding but i have a mental image that this would be close.

 

dry: this actually keeps getting better. the spice starts amping forward even more, and the citrus sticks around. the bread note settles down into cake, and i almost feel like this has a brown musk vibe (and i wish there were more brown musk blends, so this is a good thing). i have a feeling though that it's a nut note though because it reminds me of some of the pumpkin patch blends.

 

yay, now i have to go through and retest all of my yules (this is not a bad thing lol).

Edited January 2, 2011 by starfish327

[fairestrocza]

In the Bottle: Spicy, nutty, a bit of ammonia; The Boy says 'yummy baked something'

 

Wet on Skin: Warm chestnuts

 

While Drying: the throw is nice and cozy, slightly spicy and slightly buttery; the skin-close scent has a distinct air of cat box *sigh*

 

After a Little While: The throw is nice, mainly sweet/spicy chestnut; up close still has the funk, which seems to be a bad interaction between the pine and the bayberry, or maybe one of the other notes that I am not consciously picking up.

 

Later: The funky undertone has gone away… mostly. The spicy chestnut remains.

 

Final Thoughts: Myrica berries = Bayberry. I think Bayberry is an iffy note on me. My bff fell in love with the chestnut note in Harimise, and she is equally entranced by the chestnut note here.

 

The Second of the Three Spirits earns a 2.5/5 on my skin.

[reynardine]

Started off with chestnuts and orange, then the pine came in. It didn’t quite overpower the others, but actually blended quite well. Not picking up the other notes. I can see this being a holiday scent, and it is pleasant, but not quite me.

[DifferentDances]

Decant!

 

Imp: Ugh. Chestnut cake - very thick, heavy cake. I'm a little scared since foody scents rarely go well on my skin and usually turn to grossness.

 

Wet: There's that sweet lovely scent of holly and pine trying to duke it out with the heavy cake smell. Oof, they're not playing well together... Massively strange waft.

 

Drydown: The waft continues to weirden. It's foody cakey up close, but with a pine halo. Skin-level, there's nothing but cake with a weird medicinal edge. All very faint, though.

 

Dry: Very, very faint piney cake.

 

My rating: 1/5

 

I really need to stop hoping that foody scents will magically be delicious on me.

[porcelina]

this is a perfect christmas scent for me. there is pine, but it is not the dark, resinous or woodsy kind that i amp like crazy. it's exactly what it says in the description- fresh pine boughs hung up as decorations and an array of delicious, seasonal food and drink. pine, a touch of citrus, nuts and spiced fruits. it reminds me a bit of hearth 2005, but much less heavy and with fresher, fruitier components. i think this is more like what i wanted whoop to be, and i am very pleased.

[ofthegood]

I found this oil nauseatingly foody. Spice, sweetness, butter, nuts, baked goods... it's all there. Too foody for me, by far. I couldn't test anything else for a while after I'd smelled this. Ugh.

[Gael]

I tried and tired with this one, wanting so much to like it. But it remained heavy and burnt. I just could not cozy up to this on a cold night; it kept burning my nose.

[karihan]

Awwww, drat, I so wanted this to work and it smells so great in the bottle! Alas, on my skin the pine, holly and bayberry apparently want to duke it out with the yummy foody notes instead of playing nicely. It's like I layered two different perfumes and together they acquired a rank edge that doesn't want to go away. Off to the swaps with this one, I'm afraid.

[Gin]

Yay! The Second of the Three Spirits is what I expected Whoop to be. Spicy baked goods over a background of pine. It has all of those notes that tend to blend into "Christmas candle" territory, yet it avoids going there, somehow. How is that possible? This is seriously the best of everything great about Christmas, rolled into one little bottle--snickerdoodles, fruit, punch, nuts, and pine garlands. Not too much to wear as perfume, but would also be fab as a room scent.

[mothglitter]

This smells SO good in the bottle. A perfect blend of cool evergreen juxtaposed with spicy pastries, then the slightly cold bitterness of bayberry. On my skin...it gets weird. Not bad, per se, but just different. It smells like resinous, smoky incense. Definitely a GOOD smell, but not for me to wear. Ebay!

[Eschezhivet]

All right, I definitely just have a problem with whatever it is that perfumers use to evoke warm winter spices. It's happening too often to be mere coincidence. Wet dog with fish flakes, augh! Fortunately that goes away for me and just leaves behind... prunes and apple cider. I could see -- er -- smell it as pear just as well, but the (non-wet-dog) spices confuse my poor unlearned nose It's a clear kind of sweetness, if you'll forgive my use of vague, faux-synaesthetic terminology. I personally don't have much of a desire to go around smelling like food, but if I did, this would be a nice collectionbit.

Edited April 9, 2012 by Eschezhivet

[Ajila]

In the bottle - Sweet waxy wood with a sprinkling of ginger

 

Wet on me - The pine really comes out, but it's as if it's coated in a sticky layer of sweet spicy goodness

 

Dry on me - Mostly pine with hints of sweet sugary things

 

Overall - I wasn't so keen once the pine started to dominate

[forspecial_plate]

Helloooooo comfort scent!

 

I can see how this would be a better room scent than a perfume, but I still like it. There are occasions when I want something just like this.

 

At first it's spicy and gourmand, but after a few minutes I start to pick up on the pine and holly. It's lovely. It's like bringing Jolasveinar indoors to warm up by the hearth. I'm actually thinking of tracking down more than my decant.

[brilliantcat]

In the bottle: All I can smell is the chestnuts.

 

Immediately after application: The pine and orange come through and wow this smells good now.

 

Warming up: Pine, orange, holly, chestnuts.

 

Fading: Mostly the chestnuts.

 

Faded: Average throw, average wear.

 

Overall: Another very Christmassy blend to me, because of the pine and holly but the addition of the other elements keeps it from being air freshener-like. Possible bottle.

 

Rating: 3/5.

[tinyvulture]

So festive and Christmasy! In the same family as Hearth and Bonfire Night -- syrupy and piney and berry and smoky. Like the very best Christmas morning of your childhood, opening presents next to the Christmas tree, in front of a roaring fire, sweet desserts being baked in the oven, and berry potpourri boiling on the stove and scenting the entire house. I knew I'd love this, and now I'm hoping it returns so I can make it part of my holidays.

[Monster]

When I first apply this, I immediatly get a festive blast of pine and plum. As it dries, I start to pick out the sugared fruit notes along with what I think is a kiss of clove. After about an hour, it hasn't changed much. The pine and the holly are the two most prominent notes over a spread of sparkling, candied fruits and plum. This is incredibly Christmasy and would probably work best as a room scent rather than something I would wear as a perfume. If BPTP turned this one into a candle, I would absolutely have to have it

[Nicnivin]

I normally don't do "foodie" scents well, but after the great success I had with Dumb Cake, I've been more open to them. My husband surprised me with a half-bottle of this, and if ever there were a scent that told a full, lush story, it would be The Second of Three Spirits.

 

A few years ago, we attended the Victorian Christmas celebration at Black Creek Pioneer Village in Toronto... and that entire experience has been captured in this perfume. It's quite sweet in the bottle (I think I picked up the plums and chestnuts?) but on my skin, the main notes are warm pastry, pomanders (oranges stuffed with cloves), and a gentle hint of evergreen boughs around the edges. The pioneer village rooms that were decked out in their Christmas finery smelled just like this, with freshly baked pies cooling beneath garlands of pine and holly, chestnuts roasting on the fire nearby, and a wassail punch bowl full of spiced fruit. It's a truly exquisite scent.

[Deceitfuldescender]

Retesting all the bottles and pleasantly surprised with the dry down. Unrepentantly sweet and foody without beconing cloying or nauseating. Drydown is mostly sugared fruits (the plum well featured I think), with hints of clove, rich chestnuts, some buttery pastry and maybe the faintest whiff of pine. A keeper I think, but I will save for winter.

 

To be clear, for me at least pine does NOT dominate this blend.

Edited August 21, 2017 by Deceitfuldescender

[torikitty]

This is an interesting one. In the bottle, it's sweet and foodie. Once I put it on, it was "WAP! Here's some evergreen and mint for your face!" It ended up smelling fairly medicinal. Kinda like chewing mint gum while you have some Vick's Vaporub on your chest. For the next 10 minutes, those 2 battle it out. What I can smell wafting up to my nose is a nice, foodie, Christmas candle. It's great, very holiday themed. When I actually bring my wrist up to my nose, the pine is the first thing I smell. And it smells kinda like artificial pine, too, but I don't have a lot of experience to say that definitely.

 

After 20 minutes, it smells much more like a sweet, homey, comforting smell you'd expect in someone's house. I can see this making an amazing atmo. I might decide to wear this during the winter.