Halôa

[zenvodunista]

Wine grapes, myrrh, frankincense and olive leaf, and the warm scent of offertory cakes.

In the bottle: MMM! Cake! Creamcheese! OH! It's reminiscent of the elusive Beaver Moon! That's cheesecake I'm smelling....It's sitting on my laptop a couple of feet away from my nose and that tang is floating towards me.

On: Whoa! Here comes the table. That Cake and Creamcheese gets dried out (in a good way) by the herbaciousness of the olive leaf - the olive leaf is reminding me of thyme somehow. Dustier and woodier though.

*sniffs again*

Frankinsese. Yep, hot and spicy, also dry, and whiffs of red wine. The cakes have been eaten and my table is graced by olive branches and rich red wine. Lingering remnants of the frankinsense burnt earlier hang in the air. That is all against my skin directly.

The sillage of the scent is sweeter - some of the cake remains and the wine is richer, but it is no longer foody at all.

This is complex. I think it would do well on a man or a woman. Very androgenous.

Well done!

N.

[sookster]

straight sniff from bottle is very much like eat me but more sour...or

puckery...in the best way possible...

after 15-20 minutes i get this beautiful booze kind of scent...very, very

hard to describe but this scent is gourmand and oh so elegant...

[Nadirah]

My first thought on the scent of this was fruitcake. Very foodie at first, but as it wears in I smell incense and something dark, maybe this is the myrrh? Theres a baked smell to it that I can't place. But it really does get better the longer you wear it, it becomes less fruitcake and more incense. Great throw, A great choice.

[charmingdetails]

Yum! I tried this at Will Call and it was my favorite of the Yuletide scents available. It's warm and slightly spicy, although I'm not sure what's giving the impression of spice. Overall, the scent is cakey but not particularly sweet- just delicious and cozy. I don't get a strong grape note. And I agree with the first reviewer who mentioned cheesecake-- I get that when I sniff this directly on my wrist, although the scent that wafts around me while wearing this is more subtle.

 

This scent has great staying power. After a few hours, the scent has dried down to mostly frankincense and myrrh with just a hint of cake. Still cozy, still wonderful. A perfect scent for a cold winter day!

[beetiger]

Mulled wine and warm cake. This kicks in a serious scent memory for me, from about 17 years ago – mulling wine in the microwave in my boyfriend's dorm room for the folksinging gatherings we used to have there, which is a very emotionally complex memory for me. On the other hand, it's also intensely warm and Yuleish without having any pine or fir in it at all, so that makes me happy. A keeper.

Edited November 8, 2006 by beetiger

[blackfelicula]

In the bottle: This smells fruity, buttery, incense-like, and like wine. My husband says it smells like butterscotch candies in the bottle.

 

Wet: Now I smell wine, incense, cakes, and something earthy, almost wooden. This is complex and intriguing.

 

Drying down: This is wine with spicy, earthy, and rich notes. My nose keeps coming back. Damn. This smells like sex too.

 

Dry: This is a celebration on my arms! There is so much depth and variety to this scent, yet it all blends so well.

 

Later: In some ways, this is candle-like, but not overwhelmingly so. This is exactly how I had wished All Souls had smelled: incense, fruits, and food without being overly buttery. Delicious! I reveled in it all evening long.

[Tallulah]

I had to try this one, the Dyonisus connection is close to my heart (ie the derivation of my name!)

 

Initally i get pure baked cheescake (almost specifically vanilla variety), sweet yet with a sour base, with a hint of the wine and olives.

 

After this warms on the skin, the frankincense and myrrh come out to play, this rounds the blend giving it an almost woody quality (would that be the phallus cakes, hee hee!).

 

I am adoring this scent, a perfect symbiosis of foody and incense, an new deep obsession brewing here!!

[slave1]

HALOA

 

In Bottle: Pure yum! Eat Me and Beaver Moon combined!

 

On Skin: I get the cakes right away, reminding me of Eat Me... vanilla and cream. But then the grapes come out, so sweet and fruity. It smells like a dainty little fruit cake. The myrrh and frankincense are actually very subtle and add a nice warmth and spice to the scent. This is delicious and could quite possibly be the best room scent ever, especially for the holidays or whenever you need a comforting feel. It smells like a perfect end to a meal, dessert… wine… spices… candles… pure satisfaction. It is foody but not cloying, I could see eevryone enjoying this. It has a light throw and sadly fades very quickly on me. But I still love it!

[Little Bird]

In the bottle... this smells like wonderfully creamy strawberry cheesecake (which I'm guessing is the grapes + cakes).

 

On me... a flurry of rich, golden resins and a creamy vanilla. This has an almost aggressive sort of spice to it as well. It makes me think of offering cakes and resins in a golden temple, where everything is too expensive & perfect for you to even think about touching. Very rich.

 

Halôa is very complex and hard for me to explain. BPAL has done a lot of cake + resin sort of blends lately, but this doesn't really smell like any of them. There's a spicy dry wood, a sweet cheesecake, and the rich olive & resins rounding it all out. It paints a vivid temple picture for me.

 

It's an interesting blend, though perhaps a little too interesting and unusual. Sometimes when I wear this, it smells really sour and odd on my skin... other times, a pleasant sweetness oddly paired with some resinous woody notes.

 

ETA: And Halôa smells just like the limited edition Lycaon on me as well.

Edited January 12, 2007 by Blood onmy hands

[skye]

Cheesecake. That tarty cake scent. Underneath something sweeter and warmer.

 

I love this. Just wish it had more throw. I'll need another bottle because this requires slathering.

[Alchemy21599]

In the bottle: this scent reminds me of a hot toddy. I'm a but scared of the buttery note.

 

Wet:The buttery note vanished quickly and the myrrh starts to come out.

 

Dry: Oh, my! This is my favorite Yule blend because it isn't pine-y or icy. It is luscious, warm and inviting.

[euterpe414]

OH YUM. I have been really happy with all the incense + spice or food blends that have been coming out, and this is no exception! Haloa smells very foody in the bottle and starts out foody on my skin, but then changes into more a spicy resin + olive + some cake. This is great, not overly cloying or buttery, just the right amount of "comfort food". I don't smell too much of a connection to Eat Me, but I smell a very close relation to Cockaigne. If Cockaigne was too buttery on you, you might want to give this a try.

 

Fabulous, I am going to have to stock up on this one!

[fairy]

If you are a "foody" like me...you are going to LOVE LOVE LOVE this. This is pure YUM

[miss apple]

Haloa - wow, I don't get the Beaver Moon/Underpants similarity at all. If anything this reminds me a bit of All Souls with a subtle warm pleasantly sweet cake-like fragrance. I'm not getting any grapes or wine but rather an oily undertone. It sounds weird but goes well with the cake. Like a gently fried sugar doughnut perhaps. I'm hoping some of the incense comes out a bit but right now this is a lovely, comforting blend.

[shelldoo]

hmmm in the bottle, eat me, beaver moon, and the butter from jack are having an orgy...or maybe eat me slathered the beaver in butter..either way buttery, dessert, goodness.

 

wet: hhahahaah after that in the bottle description "wet" just cracks me up...i am so not right i know...anyway back to the description.... when it touches my whacko skin it goes completely invisible for a second, which is funny cause the throw in the bottle is amazingly strong then it comes back the desserty yumminess and a hint of olive leaf..unmistakable olive leaf, it keeps this from becoming just insanely tooth achingly sweet. but it still retains that delicious beaver moon/eat me combo, which is too hilarious to disappear. this is a sticky, sweet , fun-loving, scent w/ just enough key ingredients to keep it from being all out sugar rush.

[joojifish]

Spicy sangria (made with red wine, thank you very much) and something yeasty. Good staying power and evocative of holiday feasts. A fun scent to try but not something I'd like to regularly wear.

[angharad]

Wow. I definitely get the Beaver Moon reference straight out of the bottle. It's amazing, almost identical to BM, the only difference being that this is slightly softer. I loved it.

 

And then I put Halôa on.

 

For the first few seconds, it stays similar to Beaver Moon. Then something resiny -- I guess the myyrh? frankincense? -- comes out, and goodbye, sweetness. I can almost smell the wine grapes at this point, but only when I sniff for them. It's still nice for about an hour, but I much preferred the initial sugary sweetness. After about an hour, this turns to powder on my skin.

 

The initial throw is pretty strong, but as the scent morphed on me, the throw lessened quite a bit. I can now only smell it if I press my wrist to my nose.

[supremegoddessofall]

In bottle: Grapes with a cake background, and just a touch of myrrh.

 

On me: Almost all myrrh and frankincense, with just a touch of cake. Not foody, really, and the grapes are gone.

[noumenon]

Oh, this is wonderful. When I put it on, the pure cake scent wafts up to my nose - cake, a spritz of lemon juice (NOT lemon verbena - pure juice), and a butter note that's much mellower and yummier than the one in Jack and Pumpkin Queen.

 

Then when I stick my nose against my wrist, I get a big surprise - the cake scent isn't there; hanging close to my skin are the odd, uber-earthy spices and frankinsense that everyone reports.

 

It's so strange to have both at the same time, completely not interacting with each other. Strange, but DELICIOUS.

 

[jasmine]

On the wand, this is instantly one for the foodies: wine and buttercream. I am alarmed, as I do not do so well with buttery or cake-like scents, but... here goes. (If worst comes to worst, and it turns into something horrifying, at least I’m in the privacy of my own home.)

 

On my skin, it metamorphoses into something that I find painfully familiar, but cannot place at first. Finally, I recognize the scent as the way a bag of dried fruit smells when I first open it. To be specific, Haloa smells like a prune. It smells very precisely and very strongly like a prune, with just a hint of buttercream-laden cake underneath.

 

Frankincense, myrrh, grapes: forget it. The mighty prune scent has come, and it sweeps forth like a wave, conquering all in its path. While I recognize that the mighty prune scent is, in all likelihood, a skin chemistry-twisted grape, it doesn’t smell like grape and it does smell like prune. I am boggled.

 

I’m impressed by this scent... and it’s quite impressive... but I just can’t imagine wanting to smell like this. It’s a rich, dark scent that establishes and maintains its identity, and I have all kinds of praise for it in that regard, except... prunes!

 

If you want to smell like prunes, and your skin chemistry is sufficiently similar to mine, then this is definitely the scent for you. That’s about all I can say.

[valentina]

In the imp, Haloa is such a pretty, round, buttery, gold sort of smell. When it hits my skin, and for the first 10 minutes or so, it remains very round, buttery, smooth and foody. Sweet and yummy, somewhat like Cockaigne. Then the wine and myrrh kick in with my body chemistry and goofy things start to happen. Wine can go very sour and wino-ish on my body, and myrrh gets powdery, and they blow away the smell of the sweet cakes. This is something to truly pout about, because this is a gorgeous scent that I think could be much-loved by anyone who can wear it on their skin.

[jewelbug]

Imp: This is really buttery and cakey...and I can defintely see how people have said cheesecake. Yummy!

 

Wet: Buttery and foody, but also....more. Its really hard to describe. I get a deep sugared smokiness, much like a get from Sugar Skull (particularly the 2004 vintage). But this seems less sweet than Sugar Skull, with added buttery cakes (hubby says piecrust), and with a touch of what I can only assume is the olive leaf. There's some spice in this too. Its amazing--the yule standout for me, personally.

 

Dry: The longer this dries, the less buttery/foody it is. It gets to be a dry darkly sugared incense, a bit smoky, spicy and sweet. Its just...wow...its defintiely sugar skull family on me, but a more subdued sugar, with more of the newly lit fireplaces in the cold air smell, and the olive/myrrh/wine (that must be what is doing the unidentifiable wonderfullness) is just insanely gorgeous here. I can't stop sniffing.

 

Verdict: I was supposed to take a shower, but I put this on and then sat around sniffing myself and refusing to go wash it off. I need bottles, my half decant just won't do!!!!! Lasts 6-7 hrs.

 

ETA: I'm glad I tried this the same day as All Souls, cuz they are similar concepts, i think, and this one made me feel much better about AS not working out on me like I'd hoped!

Edited November 25, 2006 by jewelbug

[forspecial_plate]

This scent is warm, sweet and cheering to me. I honestly wasn't very hopeful because of the wine grapes...usually the bpal wine/grape note doesn't agree with my skin at all. The frankincense and myrrh drew me in, however. I like the combination here. Olympia301 remarked that this smells like raisins, and I agree....I really don't get a grape smell so much as a warm raisin-y smell. I agree that Haloa has parallels to Eat Me, and to a lesser extent All Souls. It's closer to Eat Me in my opinion, to me they're both more on the warm and sultry side. The resin mixes really well with the sweetness, and seems to add a little buttery golden feel to the scent. Not much more to add...I think I may be burning myself out on food scents, because even though I like this, I don't think I'll get a whole bottle of it. I just don't wear them out and about enough to justify a whole bottle. I'll probably keep my decant, though. 

 

PS, I ended up loving this

Edited November 7, 2022 by forspecial_plate

[minnalavender]

OMFG do I love Halôa.

 

I am not a foody scent lover, so the first sniff of this scent in the bottle made me a little wary - all I could smell was the offertory cake and a hint of wine. Don't get me wrong! The cake smell is delicious, warm and buttery; I just don't generally enjoy smelling like cake.

 

But once it hits my skin - whoa. I can't detect a hint of the buttery yellow cake batter - it's gone completely to wine, incense, and spices. As I LOVE those notes, I am bowled over with the lovliness. It's still sweet, but not like sugar or cake - like juicy vine-ripened grapes and soft resins. I can't detect any floral notes and my nose isn't trained enough to detect olives.

 

I can totally see this as a ceremonial fertility perfume. The drydown is teh sex0r on my skin. Lucky lucky me! It also speaks more of autumn and harvest to me than of Yule, but that too is entirely subjective. I would def. wear this more in the fall and winter than in spring, though.

 

If you like Montressor or any of the grape/wine scents, you should love Halôa. It stays very close to my skin and fades pretty fast, so I am definitely going to get a second bottle to age before the Yule scents go bye-bye!

 

 

[edenssixthday]

Haloa - From now on, I'm buying any and all of Beth's blends that use the term "offeratory cakes" in the description. First I was knocked over by the yumminess of the offertory cakes in All Souls and now, I'm blown away by the yumminess of the offertory cakes in Haloa. That is definitely the strongest note on my skin, and it smells like warm, sugary, butter cookies. I can so rarely wear bakery scents, that I'm just blown away by how good this smells on me! There is a hint of husky myrrh and gritty frankincense in the background that gives a non-foody depth to the blend, and the wine grapes surprisingly don't smell like the usual BPAL grape note on me, but just give this blend a hint of juicy sweetness, like the cookies have a light, fruity frosting on them. After about an hour, I notice the bright, fruity, and buttery cake scent has dissipated significantly, and this is when the myrrh and frankincense really come to the forefront and do their thing. I smell like soft, lightly sweet incense, and it's an incredibly serene and lovely scent. I'm a big fan! Several people at work today have also told me I smell good, and one girl walked by my desk and said, "I smell wholesome goodness!" This was long after I thought the scent had worn off my skin, so it must really work. I think this would also make a lovely room scent. It's definitely a 10 out of 10.