The Phoenix in Winter

[edenssixthday]

THE PHOENIX IN WINTER
Blood and fire illuminate the darkness of winter: daemonorops, holly berries, and juniper berries in a snowdrift.

This is my favorite of this year's anniversaries and second favorite of the whole Anni/Yule II update. It's a stunner. It's a soft wintery snow scent, but there's nothing Snow Whitish about it. I don't smell the daemonorops at all. The berries are what make this scent really spectacular. On the bed of softly evergreen-scented snow are the sweetest, juiciest berry fruits. It's a really pretty winter scent, one of the best winter scents from BPAL, in my opinion, and may actually take L'Inverno's place for my favorite winter blend. It does go a little flat on my skin, but only when sniffed up close. The wafts of scent I catch from it are still stunningly beautiful.

[Michele my belle]

I totally agree with Edens Sixth Day and I'm surprised that there aren't more reviews for this scent yet. This is what I had hoped Snow White would be.

 

The snowdrift here is a cool, not minty, gorgeous vanilla with juicy red winter berries and the slightest touch of something herbal(I imagine the leaves on the berries). The throw on this scent is not huge, but it is so lovely, sweet(not cloying) and cool(temperture-wise ).

 

Fantastic winter blend and very evocative.

[meatcake]

Winter is one of the loveliest of seasons, in my humble opinion , so I was really hoping to like this scent! At first sniff, I was disappointed. Phoenix in Winter smells like cleaning fluid in the imp. Ew. After a while on the skin, the scent calms into something more palatable and herby; I suppose that's the juniper and holly coming out.. While I do love a good gin and tonic, I'm not sure how I feel about smelling like it. This one is smells more like cleaning fluid than wintery to me. So sad.

 

For the record, I don't know what daemondrops smell like...

Edited December 27, 2010 by meatcake

[ACVail24]

The Phoenix in Winter

 

In the Bottle:

snow & musk

something tart lingering underneath

 

On my Skin, Wet:

musky snow and tart dark red cherries

 

On my Skin, Dry:

ditto from wet phase

 

Verdict:

pretty! a little heavy on the surprise musk, but I love the snow & cherry combo!

Happy Anniversary BPAL!

[Blood onmy hands]

The Phoenix in Winter smells like sweet, slushy, slightly vanilla-y snow (that pretty mix of clean and sweetness) and sweet berries in the bottle and on my skin, from start to finish. The berries smell like sweet, smooth, frozen blackberries to my nose. Bpal's actual blackberry note goes sour on me, so it's not that, but that's the impression it gives. It's reminding me a bit of blends like Glasgow and Rosalind. After about fifteen minutes, this is slightly soapy and dryer-sheet-esque on me, but still a very simple and pleasant berry scent.

[countessmouse]

Like meatcake, I was a little disappointed at first -- it was all sweet, sweet berry with just a hint of cool. On drydown, however, it has morphed into an absolutely wonderful wintry mix of berries, juniper and ice. Love it!

[surlygurl]

Fresh on my skin, I thought it resembled Snow Bunny, which I just bought a bottle of from the forums. It's a sweet slushy scent with a touch of mint and some florals. Okay, there are no florals here, so maybe its damondrops. But this scent has more going on. The hollyberry and juniper berry provide a traditional Christmas-y feel. As it dries, I could smell little "blobs" of sugar. The whole thing wasn't sugared - just small patches. This is very pretty and and I may wind up with a bottle.

[mistressfizz]

The seasonal phoenixes have all been good to me, and this one is no exception!

 

Sniff: light, minty, very faint

 

Wet: icy and cool, with a hint of tart berries

 

Dry: maintains a wonderful light feel, a trace of mint, the barest hint of sweetness - it captures the dry, astringent cold of winter perfectly! Reminds me of the nearby woods where I walk my dog, just after a deep snow has finished falling and the sun is starting to set. Simply beautiful.

[filigree_shadow]

Cold notes amp unreasonably on me so I usually don't like wintry blends, but I've found that ones that also have berries are usually my favorites. This one is a favorite for sure. It smells chilly but not starkly cold, and the sweet berries are soft and nice.

 

Snow Bunny is my all-time winter favorite, and I'll have to do a side-by-side test to see whether I like this one better. It's been a long time since I tried a winter blend that I thought was even close enough to as good as Snow Bunny to do a death match.

[reynardine]

My first impression is something cold and sharp, but then it sweetens as it dries. It’s the berries. I love berries and berries love me. Unfortunately, this faded on my skin very quickly, like 10 minutes in. Alas. I really liked it.

[het4377]

Phoenix anniversary blend test #2 - Phoenix in Winter. I'm so excited about this one, I LOVE juniper berries in blends, and winter/snow blends are usually winners.

 

Wet on skin: Yup, holly berries, juniper berries, and a hefty dose of dryer sheet cold/winter/snow note. I hope this continues to morph, or I'll be a saaaad panda.

 

After a while: The snow/cold note has really chilled out, and is now just this underlying chilly sweetness underlying the juniper and holly berries. About 3+ hours in, this makes a VERY abrupt shift to almost all aquatic on me - no chilly, no berries, just straight up aquatic (reminiscent of Water Phoenix from '08 actually)

 

Final Verdict: Sadly, this blend didn't live up to my admittedly high expectations. It did have about an hour or so of really pretty perfectly balanced notes, but the initial application and overall drydown just don't do it for me. My guess is that this Phoenix has some of the lab's ice note present, which is a known instigator of failure on my skin.

 

Rating: 2/5

 

If you like this, try: L'Inverno, Winter-Time, Woods in Winter, Water Phoenix, The Old Goblin, Wolf Moon 2011, Snow Moon '05

 

Using a slightly altered yeahbutnobut review formatting, because it is the epitome of awesome and helpful.

Edited January 11, 2011 by haley

[astarinel]

Of all the snow notes, this one is probably my least favorite, as it strikes me as the mintiest. I prefer the sweet/spicy (I don't really know how to describe it better!) snow note in Snow Moon, but this is more like the snow in Cloister Graveyard in the Snow or the slush in Nuclear Winter.

 

After the reviews mentioning berries, I was really hopeful that those would be more prominent, however they just aren't on my skin. I expected this scent to be a little more sweet and berried, but it's more of a chilly, crisp outdoorsy scent. It's pretty, but not really what I prefer in my perfumes.

[thekittenkat]

In the bottle: I can sense all the berry notes, but it's as though they are muted by the snow.

 

Wet: The juniper berries and the daemonorops are front and center.

 

The dry-down: The juniper berries are too sharp and too tart; they are stomping all over the other notes. Too bad, as I don't mind the florals notes here if they stay subdued, but I wanted the beautiful holly berries and the snow, and they are there, but just very faint. I'm hoping that this will age well. The bottle art is truly elegant, a white phoenix that looks to be standing in the snow next to a calm body of water, like a pond or a lake, or else it's at the top of a hill, backlit against the slate blue winter sky, and snow is lightly falling.

[milo]

At first, this is slightly astringent, icy snow with a touch of sweet mint. Dry, much the same, quite pretty, not as astringent any more, a bit more sweet with a touch of buttery vanilla. I'm quite surprised I like this, as snow blends tend to turn 'dirty' and fungus like. So far, so good here, but I'm not sure how much I'd wear this. I may hunt down a decant at some point, though.

[zankoku_zen]

Phoenix in the Winter reminds me of a combination Ice Queen and Snow White actually. It's got the same soft snow note from IQ, a hint of almond and sweetness from SW and I get a good bit of hollyberries.

 

Well, hmmm. If I didn't have enough IQ already, I'd pick up a bottle of this!

[Aldercy]

The Phoenix in Winter starts out rather similar to Old Moon-- bittersweet purple-red berries and slush-- but the berries fade and it shifts into more of a vanilla-mint snow as it dries. Kind of like Snow White without the flowery almond note that gave me a headache. It turns out not to be very complex, but it's a pleasant scent. Time will tell whether I need this whole bottle or not....

[Satyrling]

First off: Wow. This came out of left field for me. I mean, it sounded pretty as most all the Yules/Anniversaries did, but it didn't seem like something I'd flip for.

 

Wrong, wrong, deliciously wrong.

 

This is my first 'snow' scent, so that's a new one for me. It's very chilly and bright. Like a shaft of white sunlight breaking through a winter day, almost blinding you when it reflects off all the ice and snow. It does smell rather flat right up against the skin, but as I'm typing this I keep getting cool wafts of mint and earthy forest berries. The throw on this is really something special.

 

Also slathering this on made me feel inexplicably giddy. Definitely gonna need a bottle.

[Invidiana]

Am I crazy or is this translating to Victorian Virgin With Cherubs on me? I love that bath oil and it's like Phoenix in Winter granted my wish that it turned into a perfume oil. It's that same softly minty snow with a bit more of a berrylike feel than VVC but still highly similar on my skin even though the notes look nothing alike on paper. I can't believe my luck!

[ami226]

I really couldn't wait to try this one!

 

First off, the label is gorgeous!!

 

Now for the scent: Wet on my skin, I can definitely smell a green juniper scent as well as some tart berry. From what I could find on the internets, daemonorops is actually dragon's blood and I don't smell any in this scent. That is a good thing though, since dragon's blood has a tendency to turn to sunscreen on my skin.

 

Later the juniper disappears a bit, but I am still getting a hint of wintery green. The berries aren't quite so tart, but neither are they sweet. Kinda hard to describe.

 

This scent really evokes winter for me. Smelling it, I feel like I am outside in the snow standing next to a nicely fragrant bush with slightly tart berries.

[Vega]

Sniffed: Deep incense and cold water. Oh my -- this is just like Kumari Kandam.

 

On skin: Huh, this is exactly like Kumari Kandam. A mellow, full-bodied blend, made watery and chill by the snow/frost notes, and sweetened by the berries and dragon's blood. Perhaps The Phoenix in Winter is a tad more berry-sweet, a tad more evergreen, but I skin-tested both together and can't smell any difference.

 

Verdict: Well, well. Kumari Kandam is one of my favourite blends, so I like The Phoenix in Winter too. But I can't help but feel a bit nonplussed that they're so alike!

[brilliantcat]

In the bottle: Having trouble picking out notes but I get a minty undertone and possibly the juniper berries.

 

Immediately after application: Definite minty-aquatic I associate with snow plus juniper. It's leaning towards being masculine at this point but I find it refreshing.

 

Warming up: It keeps that snowy feel but also has a sweet touch.

 

Fading: Sweet snow.

 

Faded: Average throw, average wear.

 

Overall: It was pleasant but it didn't impress me enough to get a bottle.

 

Rating: 3/5.

[alterosen]

I wonder if there's some batch variation of this because I didn't get any berries in my decant either. Seems like some people are sensing them and others aren't - and I wouldn't have minded because I like berry notes.

 

Minty & snowy with slight vanilla, kind of like one of the Lick Its but not as sweet. Off to a more appreciative home...