Christmas Pudding

[miss_rynn]

Black Phoenix's Christmas Pudding is loosely based on a medieval recipe, and is crafted, as tradition dictates, from thirteen ingredients (representing Christ and his apostles, natch). Thick with treacle, smoky with suet (suet accord, sillies - there's no mutton fat in this perfume!), and sweet with stirred custard.

I don't really get much Christmas pudding from this, but it certainly *feels* Christmassy. I get a lot of plum in this - probably from the historical plum pudding recipes. It's actually quite green, like freshly sliced, slightly under-ripe plums. The suet is in there - a slightly savoury, fatty scent - but it doesn't smell like lard. Almost like pie dough with less flour. Oddly, the treacle is quite understated. I normally amp things like treacle, but this one is playing nice. I am just faintly getting the custard, but I'm hoping it will come out more with wear. Unexpected, given the description, but very Christmassy.

[Jeni Mullen]

My nose and scent preference disclaimer: I have three distinct camps of scents that I love: baked goods, earthy spices, and woods/forests. My favorite scents are currently Captain Lilith and her First Mate and Eat Me for the foody category, Morocco and Scherezade for the spices, and Druid and Isle of Demons for my woodsies. Notes I dislike are vetiver, civet, leather, all of the peppers, most florals, sometimes tobacco, "wood" scents like rosewood and sandalwood because I amp them so so much and kitchen spices like sage (and by extension, frankincense because woah I get sage from that).

 

In the bottle: Sharp, bitter... I'm guessing this is the suet accord? I'm not actually sure what animal fat might smell like so... I can't guess. All I know is that if I was just sniffing I would have put this back.

 

Wet on the inside of my wrists: Blah! There's no fruit notes in this so why am I getting fig and pomegranate? So weird!

 

Fifteen minutes dry: Now is about the time that the cream comes back to bite me in the butt and curdle what should be a nice, Christmassy scent... But it isn't. The fruit has mellowed into golden syrup (duh, it's treacle!) and I get that and the same sort of smokey scent you get in Samhain....like a burning bonfire. I don't get cream at all.

 

Thirty minute dry: More or less the same. The throw has died down. This is such a sweet, smokey scent! It's all syrup and still a little bit of fruit but in a good way.

 

Verdict: Keeper, strangely enough, and the ONLY foody Yule that stays foody and doesn't go plastic on me. Yay!

[suki]

In The Bottle: YUM. I wasn't sure what to expect from the suet note, but having grown up with a bird-watching grandmother, I have plenty of background in the scent, owing to the frequency with which it's mixed with birdseed. Here, in the bottle, there's a smoky/fatty thing going on that adds something singularly rich and delicious to the sweeter, lighter, somehow fruity notes of the rest.

 

Wet On Skin: Yup, still lots o' suet and, though not specifically listed in the notes, there's quite a bit of fruit going on round these parts. Again, there's a lovely balance here, I don't object in the least!

 

Dry Down: Ahhh, *there's* the baked-sweets aspect I was waiting for! Like the Puddins of Trading Post yesteryear, there's a rather specific...'pudding' note that's present in here. I get no custard, sadly, but it's sugary and a bit buttery and, with the mystery fruits and the suet, it's making me incredibly sad that I can't eat my own hand.

 

In All: Low throw, a nice, spicy-sweet food scent, for all the foodie-lovers out there. If you liked the TP's Puddin scents, get this- you won't be disappointed.

[sariasister]

The note in this that comes out the most to me is plum, although it isn't listed. There is also a bit of a general spiciness to it. I don't really get the custard, but it just smells like a nice, sweet, wintry plum dessert.

[brilliantcat]

Wet and in the vial, this smells very plummy/fruity. I get a distinct whiff of apple, like a fresh green apple. It just smells like realistic fruit and I don't get any sort of custard, treacle, or the suet from it. On the drydown, it takes on a strangely florally quality. Still no custard, treacle, or suet. While it smells pleasant, it is not at all what I was expecting or wanting. Good thing a bunch of the foodie Yules worked for me this year or I'd be disappointed.

[zankoku_zen]

Boozy spiced red wine (sangria, is that you?), cassia, suet and sweetness. This to me smells like cassia heavy sangria. And yes, it smells very Christmasy. It makes me think of plush red velvets, potpourri and mulled wine. Great throw, and good wear length.

 

Not my type of blend at all.

 

Cassia, sangria, Christmas.

[thekittenkat]

In the decant: Sweet custard w/ hints of the suet accord.

 

Wet: Much as in the cold sniff.

 

The dry-down: Not a morpher. It's kind of pleasantly bland, like an egg custard. Not meant to be unkind, but the suet note in the bottle at WC was so overwhelming that I won't take a chance on a bottle.

Edited January 22, 2015 by thekittenkat

[lucycat]

In the imp: Booze-soaked fruit. This does smell like Christmas pudding ingredients, though not the ones listed in the notes.

 

Wet: Still a bright, boozy fruit smell. There is a slight richness/fattiness underlying it from the suet accord, but that element is not strong at all.

 

Dry: Apples! Tart, spiced apples. Not at all what I expected, but very enjoyable.

 

After a few hours, I can see that this is plums, not apples. It’s clearly a plum dessert, though to me it seems more plum crumble with custard than plum pudding.

[annemathematics]

rich deep juicy apple and plum cakey dessert. smoky at the start. not a lot of custard on me. good throw.

really fun to try, as it's different than what I usually wear.

[agirlnamedfury]

In the bottle and wet, this is VERY fruity and a little bit boozy, even. Plum wine? Delicious!

 

As it dries it mellows out into more of a bready, baked goods, almost skin-scent that's actually quite soft. Maybe that's the suet? Not sure. I wish I got some of the smokiness others reviewers mention, but sadly I'm not picking up on it. Still, this is another nice foodie Yule!

[milo]

Bright fruit and some spice here...and then more spice. As the fruit fades, the spice increases. It's more of a juicy fruit than dried, like it's been soaked in mulled cider, or something to that effect. I'm all for some spice, but the combination of the fruits just is not doing it for me.

[vanilla323]

I don't get as much fruit from this, maybe a little light fig. I do get the sweet smoky custard which is lovely. It definitely has a Christmas feel for sure. Like some lovely baked goods coming from a kitchen. Very delicate and foodie.

[Ava Lux]

Amazing, spicy but velvety, it creates a sort of spicy soft aurea around me...despite the name I like wearing now in summer, it's an hot scent that marries in a good way the warmth of the weather and also is more detectable on the skin which obviously now is barer...

 

If you Know Lutens parfumes , this scent has somehow the same vibe of Bois et fruits which I loved before converting to oils...

 

 

Overall I like puddin scents...like also the figgy puddin...

Edited June 29, 2015 by Elmifra

[tinyvulture]

Obviously it's foodie. A sweet dessert.

 

I don't know what suet accord is. I'll just say this is a sweet, rich custard, with a light fruitiness, pear perhaps. After a few minutes I can pick out the treacle -- that familiar, burnt-sugar note (think Kill-Devil, Sugar Skull.) It's not a must-have, but a nice, cheery and celebratory scent.

[tharsei-thanate]

Origin: Decant circle

 

This is really interesting! Smells like boozy dark fruit (definitely plum, maybe other fruits, too?) with a smattering of spice. A dollop of custard comes out once it's dry and mercifully it isn't going sour on me. There's also a hint of smokiness in the background and, after a while, I get the same sort of sugar found in Sugar Skull, which is a plus! I really adore this. I may have to upgrade to a bottle!

[Blood onmy hands]

I've held on to my decant of this one, because it's cozy, foodie and comforting. It has an undertone of dark, burnt sugar throughout (even a little smoky smelling on my skin) with a cinnamon spiced pastry and stewed plum and fig sort of scent. Dries down to a creamy spice and pastry type of smell, with the cinnamon edge not being sharp and overwhelming on me. Reminds me of Snap-Dragon-Fly, but spicier.