Père Noël

[joopjoop]

Bright Sicilian oranges and sweet tangerines with a clink of lavender candy and a drop of anise.

 

Yum.

 

At first it is a big ol' blast of orange and then while wet on the skin it is orang butter-cream frosting. It smells delicious. Later a touch of the orange remains but it becomes an anise cookie scent. Also delicious. I'm not normally a huge fan of smelling like baked goods, but I'm digging this a lot. It is very comforting and cozy.

 

Honestly, I was hoping for a more straight up orange-anise scent (tinged with lavender), but on me the 'candy' note takes this to a sweeter place - but not too sweet, which is a relief (for example, I'd love to wear more vanilla scents, but they tend to go sickly sweet to a headache-inducing degree on me).

 

I will enjoy my decant but a little relieved that I don't feel need to search for a whole bottle (my BPAL obsession is getting a bit out of hand!).

[lucycat]

In the imp, I smell bright, sweet, orange. That continues to be the dominant note on my skin for the first twenty minutes, and then the anise emerges, blending with the orange and becoming more dominant as Pere Noël continues to dry down. I think the lavender candy is just adding to the sweet, airy loveliness of this blend; I can’t distinguish the lavender as a separate note.

 

This has a festive feel, but not in a way that’s limited to the holidays. I think it would work really well as a warm-weather perfume in June or July.

 

Pere Noël is one of the best BPAL blends I’ve ever smelled. I’d love to surround myself with it in all forms. If there were Pere Noël candles and soap and shower gel and atmo sprays and and and…I would buy them all.

[Blood onmy hands]

This turns kind of sour on my skin for some reason, but I looooove it in an oil warmer. Juicy, bright orange and soothing, creamy, sweet-yet-clean lavender. The lavender is calming and the orange is uplifting. It's a cheery, clean room fragrance.

[Franny]

2016 bottle:

 

This is just gorgeous. It is bright and fresh with the orange/tangerine and then settles into something a little deeper and more complex with the anise. I don't smell a ton of lavender but I think it's there grounding the scent and keeping it from just being a blast of citrus. I love this.

[gloame]

Orange and citrus top notes. After dry-down, it's still predominantly citrus, but I can smell a bit of the lavender in it. It creates a bit of a candy taste in the back of the nose... kind of creamsicle. It's pretty, but not an immediate favorite.

[sunlitgarden]

2015 version:

 

On me this is mostly sweet orange. It's sweet like candy but it's not a hard boiled-sugar candy, it has a sweetness and creaminess to it that reminds me of a creamsicle or the scent of fresh baked waffle cones or fortune cookies like when I walk past an ice cream parlor or the fortune cookie factory in Chinatown. I get a little bit of herbal-ness from the anise and lavender but it's mostly the sweet-creamy orange. It's really cheerful and uplifting.

[Casablanca]

2016

 

I got to sample this as one of my friend’s decants last night. I wouldn’t have ordered this one because of the competition from great-looking other blends, but I’m so glad she did.

 

On the wand, Pere Noel is all creamsicle candy – until about halfway through the inhale. Then I start to find something behind it, become intrigued. Then it blooms in the back of my nose at the end of the inhale, as the orange subsides, and I realize it’s lavender. An herbal, slightly medicinal lavender, but so pretty, and this sniffy progression of notes tickles my fancy.

 

On my skin, the blend is mostly creamsicle at first; I don’t find as much lavender as I did on the wand, but there’s a hint. I’m not much for creamsicle, so I hadn’t ordered this myself. But after a few minutes, I start to smell a sugary lavender.

 

By the time this has dried, the creamsickle has settled down. The lavender smells both herbal and candy-like. The anise has appeared and the whole has blended together into a scent that reminds me of Christmas even though it’s unlike any Christmas scent I grew up with. Quirky, pretty, intriguing, different. I love.

[milo]

2016 Version. I really liked the last incarnation, but lacked fundage to purchase. This year I got a bottle, and it does not disappoint. Beautiful, bright orange at first, then dries to a soft creamsicle orange with musk, which must be the lavender. So soft, musky orange. I would be curious if this compares to the coveted 'Orange', which I have never tried. My only complaint is that it's a fast fade. I will keep this for summer, which I'm imagining will be amazing. Hopefully it will strengthen in staying power by then.

[LizziesLuck]

2016

I avoided last year, because orange doesn't get on well with my skin chem. However, I really like orange, and I love anise and orange together (Portrait of a Young Woman with a Unicorn HG is almost all orange and anise on me, and I have been DREAMING or a similar perfume that would actually work on my skin!). So here I am, giving this a go, and I will try not to be too heartbroken if it doesn't work.

 

 

Wet: Mmm, oranges. I love that smell so much. Not going to powder yet, but I don't want to get my hopes up. The lavender is much more herbal than I expected, as it's listed as "lavender candy". Not getting the anise yet.

 

 

Dry: Mostly orange, that amazingly never went powdery, and makes me so happy when I sniff it! I do get hints of anise too, and a bit of Lavender. I like this a lot. I can actually see wearing it in the summer. It's so bright and fresh and happy! I may have to have a bottle. It's so rare to find orange that works!

[Miss Landau]

I'm discovering I'm a huge fan of the foodie BPAL scents. This is delightful. Bright and citrussy and I'm not getting much lavender but I am getting a kind of biscuit or cakiness, reminsicent of Eat Me, which is possibly the aniseed.

Edited March 9, 2017 by Miss Landau

[phantasmmysteria]

In the bottle and freshly applied: this is the smell of orange peel (complete with bitter pith) with just a slight herbaceous undertone courtesy of the lavender. As this begins to dry down, the citrus very quickly calms and becomes more "creamy," presumably from the candy and anise -- it reads very vanillic on my skin, but I have that tendency to amp even the slightest bit of vanilla so if it's in here, it's gonna happen. Early drydown is my favorite stage, because all of the elements are nicely balanced and the sillage is beautifully soft, sweet, and just a hint floral in nature. Sadly, this is a fleeting sort of scent, and once the citrus burns off completely I'm just left with a vaguely sweet scent on the skin (which isn't a bad thing in and of itself, I just wish the citrus stuck around longer in the drydown!).

 

This scent is a more well-balanced version of Huesos De Santo, which I also adored but went too cakey/vanished too quickly on me. I adore this scent, but it's definitely one to slather or wear in a scent locket (or both!).

[BuxomM]

First sniff is in the imp, is a bit of bright orange with a spicy floral edge, pretty accurate and I can pick the notes out. On the skin, the citrus quickly fades to the background and it turns into mainly lavender with a tiny hint of anise adding a vague edge of antiseptic.There's a slight sweetness, but I'd like more sweetness. I'm a foodie lover and this one isn't sweet enough for my tastes and is more floral.

[tharsei-thanate]

2016

 

Sooo I totally forgot I had a decant of this and I don't remember ever trying it, which is bonkers because this smells amazing. My skin chem is the sort that doesn't take too kindly to citrus and I'm just not a fan of anise on my skin in general but this just works. It starts out as super juicy oranges and tangerines and then it morphs into orange spiced cider. I think the spice might be from the anise? It's hard to tell because it doesn't smell at all like licorice to me. There's a veeery faint hint of lavender but it works, it's like an herbal component to the cider. I really love this, it's like the most delicious Christmas drink imaginable.

[starfish327]

Almost single note citrus, straight through. The longer on skin, it warms up a little. It's a wet, juicy orange, not like cleaner.

 

This is another blend that goes a little flat on me alone but will be nice for layering to boost other orange blends.

[Lucchesa]

2016 Pere Noel, and it is just lovely. Sweet orange and tangerine dry down into something soft, bright and happy. It is foodier than I'd imagined (I don't think of citrus scents as foodie, but maybe it's the hint of anise that suggests biscotti on my skin). It also has some throw, which is rare with my chemistry -- I wore it to a school meeting this morning, and I could smell it wafting up from my wrist on the table. Extremely cheerful, appropriate to any kind of daytime situation. Three hours later Pere Noel is much faded but still keeping its character.