Hal

[OctoberGwen]

Saffron-infused bourbon vanilla, blackened honey, Kashmir wood, Atlas cedar, ambrette seed, hay, and Egyptian jasmine absolute.

Good Lord.

This is practically a 'who's who' of notes that don't work on me: honey, bourbon vanilla, hay, and some jasmines. But wow: Hal is lovely. It's on the sweeter side, but it manages to stay out of nauseous territory for me. It is syrupy, and I get a lot of jasmine and vanilla honey with an undertone of hay and a very slight woodiness. It smells golden, deep and warm. I think I will really enjoy this in the Winter.

[zankoku_zen]

Unfortunately, I can't get Hal to work for me. I get a metric ton of jasmine, wood, and cedar.

 

Jasmine, the dread bespoiler of scents, strikes again.

[tinyvulture]

Saffron, vanilla, and honey...I immediately think of Morocco (the BPAL blend) because of the saffron. But this is foodier, sweeter. And there's something fruity, but that might be the hay note. It turns fruity on me occasionally. No jasmine to speak of; it must be blended in so seamlessly that I don't notice it. Of all the decants I tried, this is the one I wanted a bottle of at first sniff. Honeyed saffron...irresistible.

[ltrittipoe]

This. Is. Glorious.

Sweetness, creaminess and a hint of floral - it doesn't scream "jasmine" to me ( and I lurve jasmine ) just a light background of floral sweetness. And it dries down to the most amazing woods, with the saffron infused vanilla just floating around....

Hard to describe, but stunning. And now that I have seen the movie, it is so perfect (as is every one of the OLLAs that I have tried!)

Edited August 3, 2014 by ltrittipoe

[alyelle]

In the imp: Predominantly jasmine, with tiny hints of vanilla, bourbon and woods

 

Wet: What I assume is vanilla, but morphng very weirdly - it smells more like tonka than any vanilla I've ever worn on my skin (and I've worn a whole lot of them). There's a nice woody base, more kashmir than cedar, and a sweet, almost wet-grass, overlay that doesn't really smell like hay or jasmine, but is obviously the two of them interacting. The tiniest hint of saffron starts to emerge after a minute.

 

Dry: Honey and saffron come out as this dries down (the honey is the stronger of the two), and the wet-grass smell settles into a drier, earthy sort of fragrance, more like what I'd expect from a hay note. The woods amp up - again, kashmir dominant - and the bourbon/vanilla drop off to be just the barest traces of those notes, like they've been washed off and something else applied over the top.

 

Life is around 5 hours, not as long as some of the other OLLA scents; throw is low to mid. Hal gets much lighter as the hours wear down, so I'd ether lather or prepare to reapply if I wanted this to last the day. It's very pretty, but I think I'm content with my decant.

 

Stars: ★★★★

[LiberAmoris]

I saw the notes and was like, YEP. And Hal does not disappoint: woods and hay, honey, saffrony bourbon vanilla, musky ambrette, and restrained jasmine? It's so good. I bought this for my husband but it will never make it to his BPAL drawer. I have enough BPAL to last a lifetime so shouldn't be buying backup bottles of anything, but this one really tempts me.

 

ETA: I did buy a backup bottle, it's just that good.

[porcelina]

whooooa. this is so dark and sweet and… mmm. the jasmine/honey combo makes me think of lush's flying fox shower gel, but hal is more complex. (i also have to say that i love that shower gel.) it's a beautiful honey scent and then you have a hint of sweet vanilla and it's all grounded by gorgeous wood notes.

[imaginepageant]

Hal is not at all what I had expected. I wanted dry, woody, sweet warmth. Instead, I got a face full of jasmine. Jasmine, jasmine, jasmine, jasmine, and some more jasmine. I did eventually get a whiff of the blackened honey, but that was about it. No saffron, no vanilla, no cedar, no hay. If you like New Orleans, you will like Hal. But if you were hoping the jasmine would be a background note, you probably won't.

[KaytiAnne]

On me, it smelled like cotton candy mixed with cedar. Dry-down, the sweetness mellowed, as did the woodsiness... really, really pretty on.

[theseagrows]

ok, this starts out as strong jasmine but it's a nice jasmine that doesn't smell stinky on me, which is a rarity. it's a bit strong but i think i can handle it. after about half an hour the jasmine settles a bit and i think the woods come out a bit more, and then finally the vanilla, honey and ambrette seed warm it up even more. such a pretty scent, it's kind of like a unisex jasmine scent which is more to my liking than super-feminine jasmines are. however there are two things that might make this difficult for me to wear. 1. this has a lot of throw on me and i think it's giving me a bit of a headache, and 2. something seems to be turning slightly plasticky on me, but not TOO bad. i think this might be nice to wear from time to time but not very often, so i will probably keep my decant but won't need a bottle.

[milo]

Masculine and spicy at first, somewhat boozy. I'd like to smell this on a guy!! This reminds me of something, but I can't think of what at the moment. I think one of the more masculine lupers from a couple of years ago. Male nude arms outstretched? Ah whatever. I know I won't wear it, but it is a great dude blend.

[Atrous]

Whew! Thank goodness Jasmine is behaving herself.

This is one of those well blended scents where the individual notes are hard to pick out....except honey.

Honey coated notes is what I smell. Honey coated flowers, woods, & hay.

There is a tease of vanilla, but just a tease. And an underlying muskiness I'm guessing is caused by the Ambrette.

Unisex and stays close to the skin. Love it!

[annemathematics]

on me this dried down to a blend of cedar and hay, with the other notes combining to make a floral sweetness that hummed and vibrated in the background. such a fun scent experience!

[Jangzonrice]

this is sweet and cedary with honey vanilla jasmine topped off with spices! very pretty, but jasmine starts taking over...it's nice, but I don't need a bottle of it

[Tal Shachar]

Oh man, I am in trouble.

 

Something in this (and I couldn't guess what) seems vaguely plastic or rubbery on me, not unlike the plastic notes in Adam...but it's in a good way? We have an old antique washstand at my house that my grandfather built, and the drawer is full of miscellaneous weird junk along with old plastic packets of pipe tobacco. When I was a kid I would open that drawer and come out with something somewhere between junk and a toy (an old watch, a tiny horn for a tricycle, army medals, a miniature Bible, any damn thing) and it would have this intense smell of wood, tobacco, and creaky old plastic.

 

Of course there's no tobacco in this, and there shouldn't be plastic, but it smells dark, old, and intensely evocative. On me, the jasmine isn't excessive, but my skin tends to play pretty well with that note. The vanilla, as usual, is barely there for me. (Sometimes vanilla will come back after three hours or so to say hello again before disappearing. My skin is ridiculous.) The hay and ambrette are probably contributing to the memory-overload factor, since those smells are so subtle, earthy, and human.

 

I really love this, in all its strangeness, and I'm getting to be stressed about the OLLA collection in general. I already missed Eve and just barely nabbed Adam in time! What beautiful stuff.

[tallan]

Wet, it's honeyed jasmine. It immediately makes me think of LUSH's Flying Fox, like someone wrote above. I agree that it's more complex, though, and gets more and more so the longer it's on my skin.

As it dries, it goes from honey-jasmine with other stuff in the background to vanilla-jasmine with other stuff in the background (including honey, it doesn't disappear completely). I don't really get - or are incapable of identifying - the woods underneath.

In the end, this is a jasmine scent, on me. Supported by other notes (I think the hay finally decided to turn up), but solely jasmine in its heart. It's not what I expected, but it's good. I like jasmine. I'm not sure how good, yet. But the decant may well be a kepper.

[InThePines]

I don't want to scare anyone, but the overall impression I get from this is a (heavenly) honeyed jasmine mixed with coconut! I love this. I suspect the "coconut" I'm smelling is actually the cedar and hay, but overall it's just a light (but not weak) scent. I was worried about the comparison to LUSH's Flying Fox because while I typically like jasmine, I don't like honey scents. Hal doesn't smell like 'honey' but instead has a "honeyed" component.

 

I'm going to wear this a lot in the Spring and Summer. MMMM!

[Diane Bass]

My first thought upon initally opening my bottle of Hal, "This smells like BPAL boxes!". I had to double check that later, when I didn't have a shipping box sitting beside me to be certain. And sure enough, wet Hal evokes sense memories of BPAL boxes in the mail. That was a happy coincidence, and I revel in it every time I open it up Limited notes on this one, so general impressions only.

On me, Hal is a touch musky, and little woody on top. I think the Amberette Seed and Cedar are the strongest notes on me, with Kashmir Wood acting as a solid support. But there is a lovely warm exotic spice at it's core, and the Jasmine/Vanilla/Honey blend lend it a soft feminine feel (though this would probably wear just as well on a man). Unlike some other reviewers, the Saffron and Jasmine play in the background to give an exotic, spicyness. While the Bourbon Vanilla and Honey soften the edges and blend everything together. Luckily for me I don't detect the Hay note, because hay and I do not play well together. Actually, that note is the only reason Hal wasn't in my first round of OLLA buys. I have dubbed Hal my 4th favorite of all the BPAL's I've tried, I think that's accurate but it's a very close call (they're all so darn good!).

Random factoid: I have a gender identity issue with this scent. I have a distinct tendency to give scents named after characters gendered pronouns. Why, I have no idea. So, I am always tempted first to refer to Hal as a she, because I immediately think of Yasmine Hamden singing in the movie. But then I think about Henry IV, and realize that Hal is a male name. So I looked up the Arabic lyrics and google translated. حل (Hal) means 'solution'. Not a name at all. Maybe now I can stick to it pronouns...

[Christina Huizar]

Saffron and vanilla are my favorites, so I had such high hopes for this scent, but unfortunately, my skin amped the jasmine until that was all I could smell. I smell like an old lady at church now. Sadness!

[meadow_fabulous]

My first thought was "this smells like walking into a Hot Topic from the late 90's". It's dark and deep and spicy! On me, I think it's a pretty masculine spice, but it seems to stay longer and is more prominent than blends like Morocco and Bastet. Not a keeper, but if I had an imp I'd enjoy it once in a while on cooler days

[Aviatrix]

This is mostly a soft jasmine + hay on me. Maybe a bit of wood in the background.

It is quite pleasant, and I might consider a bottle….

[LizziesLuck]

I have no idea why I desperate wanted to try this. It was like I ignored the fact that jasmine is a note in this. Actually, it's like I ignored all of the notes except Saffron-infused bourbon vanilla, blackened honey. I stopped reading after that. Anyway, here goes! My mind is open.

 

 

Wet: Jasmine. HOWEVER, I'm not amping it, and the other notes are there too - blackened honey for sure, and I think I am getting the hay too, which is lovely. It's not awful at all. It would be really cool if there was such a thing as a jasmine blend I could wear. If anyone could do it, it would be Beth.

 

 

Dry: Jasmine. I will say that as far as jasmine goes, this is fairly nice, but I still can't bring myself to like it. I would imagine that if you liked jasmine this would be absolutely beautiful.

[Lambent]

I snagged a bottle of this after having fallen in love with the scene (and the song) in the film featuring Yasmine Hamdan. I do like it and it's one of those scents that transports you to some place you've only dreamed of. I feel a little intimidated by this scent, lovely as it is. I'm afraid to wear it out; I cannot articulate why exactly. Perhaps because I feel Hal will wear me?

 

I think I get mostly the Egyptian jasmine (it smells a bit different from jasmine notes I'm used to) and perhaps saffron more than anything else. All the other sweet notes give it that syrup-y quality without it being too much so, yet they are unable to subdue the threat of that sharp, focused bite of the jasmine.

Edited July 31, 2016 by Kris

[Blood onmy hands]

Every note in this sounded good to me, except for the jasmine, so of course that's the loudest note in the blend. Bright, loud, slightly sour jasmine sweetened with a bit of honey and with a slight hint of dusty woods.

[Wwindy]

Jasmine. Jasmine. One of the three notes in my unholy trinity of "do not wants" (the other two being vetiver and orange/citrus). And this is not stealthy jasmine or subtle jasmine here, oh no. This is big huge in-your-face indolic jasmine. And yet... and yet... I somehow don't hate it? Unlike everything else I've ever tried with jasmine, I didn't have immediate "get it off!" The first time I tested it, I kept thinking "Oh, if only the jasmine weren't here, I would love all the rest of this," but the blend has seriously grown on me. It's got that exotic overblown white floral thing all intertwined with super-delicious, super-sexy honeyed, spiced vanilla and wood, with little whiffs of earthiness from the hay and the ambrette. It's... ugh, I'm going to use a hideously cliched word here, but... it's hypnotic. I cannot stop huffing it. I find myself reaching for this even more often than some blends I count as lifetime favorites! THE SCENT IS A GLOWING WHITE SNAKE THAT I CANNOT STOP STARING AT. PLZ SEND HELP.

 

*ahem* That is to say, I looooooove this. Mmmmm.