Chanukkiyah

[Astarial]

Olive oil, beeswax, glowing amber, sweet sufganiyot, pomegranate, and fig.

 

In the decant and wet, this is GLORIOUS JELLY DOUGHNUT. Omg so amazing and delicious, I want to gnaw my wrists off.

As it dries down, the amber, olive oil, and beeswax come out more to turn it from DELICIOUS JELLY DOUGHNUT into something more complex, more sophisticated, and not at all foody, and by the end of the day, there's no doughnut left. I love both stages. This is amazing.

[Aviatrix]

I am definitely getting beeswax and amber from this. It's really yummy.

 

There is a hint of the olive oil as well.

 

According to Google, sufganiyot is like a doughnut, so that may be what's giving the blend a sweet and foody overtone? I can't readily detect pomegranate or fig, though.

 

Overall, this is very festive and delicious; slightly foody, but not headache-inducingly so. I really like it!

[zankoku_zen]

2013 version

 

Sweet, golden baked goods. Very warm, very sweet. Tasty and toothsome.

[lohengrin]

In the decant: Fig with a little bit of warm amber. Just a hint of tartness, but mostly it's warm & sticky sweet.

 

On skin, wet: The fig is still very much in charge here, everything else has just kind of melded into an indistinct background note. Not getting any more tartness, though.

 

On skin, dry: And the fig has mostly faded back into that background note, which now just smells kind of perfumey. Damn. I really liked it until this point.

 

After an hour: Alas, it stays true to the initial drydown. It's not a harsh kind of perfumey scent--it's still sweet and a bit warm from the fig and amber--but it's not even a little bit foody. Just not for me.

[thekittenkat]

This is for the 2013 version.

 

In the decant: OMG! All the notes beautifully blended.

 

Wet: Much as on cold sniff.

 

The dry-down: Just gorgeous! This is the best year yet! The olive oil and beeswax combine to make a soft bed for the fruits to nestle in, the sufganiyot adds the heavenly kiss of sweetness, and the amber adds just a hint of powder. Bottle-worthy. Chanukkiyah 2013 stands as a good reason to re-test returning scents--we never can know what magic Beth will work each time around.

Edited January 28, 2014 by thekittenkat

[IambicDearie]

Foody and sweet but not cloying, reminds me a lot of the kitchen smells right around Chanukah!

[milo]

Warm and inviting. I'm getting the beeswax, amber and olive oil. This kind of reminds me of other beeswax blends, Candles Moon, The Light of Men's Lives, but I find this a bit more sweeter. Nice, but I've never been drawn to these types of blends, and not sure why. Maybe they're more like an atmosphere scent to me.

[lucycat]

In the imp this is fantastic. It’s rich, warm, and glowing, bright fig and pomegranate with the smooth olive oil underneath. There’s a hint of pastry note from the doughnuts, but just a hint.

 

After a little while, the pastry/doughnut note does what I was afraid it was going to do. Baked goods notes often don’t work on me; they have ruined other scents in the past (see Cockaigne.) Here, it’s like a great big jelly doughnut stomps on the other, more delicate notes, turning them to Yankee Candle. Sigh.

 

There are so many notes that I like in Chanukkiyah—the beeswax, amber and fruits—that I really wanted this to work.

 

And then, after an hour or so, when the oil has really warmed on my skin, I get the most fantastic, sweet throw. It’s the good part of jelly doughnuts, the aroma of the lightly sweet, sugared outside wafting in the air.

 

The final drydown is all fig.

 

If only I didn't have to go through the big bad baked goods phase to get to the throw in the drydown.

[thekittenkat]

This is for the 2014 version.

 

In the decant: The baked note of the sufganiyot.

 

Wet: Now the other notes appear, in a glorious muddle.

 

The dry-down: A rather yummy sufganiyot, baked w/ olive oil, pome, and fig. Close by is a softly glowing beeswax candle, stuck abt with bits of amber. Very excellent, this scent is, this year.

[BoneBone24]

(2014)

 

Wet: Ohhh. This is much darker than I had expected. It’s deep and warm, subtly sweet, and slightly buttery. Sort of like smoke and maple syrup mixed together...but not quite.

 

Drydown: It doesn’t morph much, which is great because it starts off pretty frickin' fantastic. There’s a beautiful glowing quality to it, very reminiscent of The Light of Men’s Lives. It’s both smoky and sweet, but not overly so in either direction. Slightly waxy, slightly sticky, a bit resinous. I was worried about the fruit notes, but they aren’t really registering. The grey-greenness of the olive oil seems to be keeping their sweetness in check.

 

Dry: It’s very well balanced, with smoky beeswax and amber at the core, olive oil somewhere in the middle, and the buttery sufganiyot near the edge. I’m only getting the dark stickiness of the fig and there’s really no trace of the pomegranate. Beautifully smoky and glowy with just the barest touch of sweetness. Very, very nice.

 

 

8.5 out of 10 bones

[gentle-twig]

(2014)

 

i spilled some of this while putting it on yesterday and ... wow what a wild ride.

 

this starts off SCREAMING sufganiyot. not being one for foodie scents, i was a little disappointed. within minutes the doughnutiness of it all died down a bit and the olive came to the front. olive sometimes goes funky on me and unfortunately that was the case here (although if i weren't wearing so much it may have been a nice delicate fuitiness). luckily, the fig and pomegranate came out, brightening the olive, and followed by the candlewax. the candlewax in combination with the fig and olive created a nice deep fruity sweetness with still a bit of juicy brightness. after about an hour the amber /finally/ came out and it was all smiles from there. on my sweater today (two days later) the amber and sufganiyot are still very strong, but smell great together. this is kind of a strange scent. not quite fruity, not quite a typical amber scent, not quite fruity, but it is nice and would be especially good on someone who gets along with olive. i should also add that the amber in this is an incredible, bright amber on me. not powdery at all. definitely worth a try if you're curious.

[milo]

Oily smell at first. After a bit, foody, mainly nuts, something sweet and oil, pretty much like a pastry. Not my kind of blend, but foodies may like this.

[Bambi Bloodlust]

In the bottle it's a slightly sweet, slightly tart olive oil smell, very kitcheny indeed! On the skin it's strong and sharp at first and I'm not quite sure what I'm smelling. I get the pastry note peeking out from behind, it's warm and savory. I'm not getting any fruit or sweetness. After a bit it starts to soften and I get some kitchen spices. It's so so lovely in the background, warm, sweet, bakery air, but it's getting trampled by a dominating soapy note. There's something in here that doesn't like me. After a half hour the soapiness has backed off and it smells like a menagerie of kitchen smells. Dough, Oil, Fresh Citrus Soap, Something warm and spicy. To me this is not a foodie smell, but it smells like a foodie place!

[agirlnamedfury]

2014 Version

 

Wow, this is delicious. It's a foody, gourmand scent and is definitely sweet but not overly so -- as opposed to many of the Yule scents that smell exactly like baked goods (which I LOVE, don't get me wrong!), this one is actually quite subtle, mostly just warm and comforting. The olive oil definitely takes center stage on me but there is also a hint of something nutty and almost chocolatey. It's a little fruity at first but that all but disappears in the drydown.

 

I didn't really have huge expectations for this one but it has pleasantly surprised me. I might actually have to seek out a bottle...

[MautheDestroyer]

In the bottle: Again, very foodie. Almost like honey cake...the fig is incredibly strong as well as the sufganiyot...hardly getting any of the other listed scents.

 

Wet applied: Oh, this is beautiful! The food smells really abate (though they never go away) and the olive oil and beeswax come out more, balanced out by the amber and the sweetness of the sufganiyot and fig. At the same time that it smells like an expensive perfume (the type you drop a couple hundred on), it also smells like a homey meal: I am wiping up the olive oil with my latkah and admiring the beeswax candles. My (hypothetical) uncle the rabbi holds the pomegranate in his hand and tells us about the mansions in God's House, as my aunt, his wife, fingers her amber necklace. My plate is loaded with cakes and foods, figs and dates and sufganiyot. Smelling my wrist, it's like no two smells are the same.

 

Drydown: Very mellow, very light. It's the remnants of dinner, it's the memory of better times, it's the incredible lightness you feel when you spend time with the ones you love. It's wet sugar, fruit remnants and amber perfume.

 

Lovely!

 

(This is for the 2014 scent.)

 

 

 

 

[Soupy Twist]

Very hard to describe in the bottle — pastry? Goes on as fig, with notes of the candles. This becomes more incense-like (as the candles burn, I guess) and some light spice comes in. Finishes as warm beeswax.

[aquazoo]

I like chocolate, and I like amber, but I’m not getting either of them right now. I do get something sweet, more of a nutmeg.

[satinworship]

This is an older version, 2007 I think? Had a decant I found when I was re-organizing my stash.

 

This is a fairly simple scent on me. It smells ambery and like bakery sweetness, without any buttery or creamy notes in some other bakery type scents. It's difficult to detect any specific notes, just generally a little musky, sweet, and a tiny touch of fruitiness.

[kajacana]

2015 version, first year I've tried.

A little green, a little sweet. Definitely getting the olive oil (as it dries, it smells like The Body Shop's olive scent). After it dries, it's like a beeswax candle glowing over a table set with fruit and pastries. Really well blended, and hard to distinguish individual notes. Pretty!

[Minh Scent]

2015 version

 

Oh, my gooodness! Where has this been all my life??? This is such a gorgeous blend of amber and beeswax, with just a touch of figgy sweetness. I cant pick out the pomegranate. It is not foody, but definitely makes me feel edible! I'm gettting my bpal wax jones on here!Heaven! So happy to see this makes comebacks!

[RavenintheWind]

Aged decant: I smell fruity beeswax

Wet: A honeyed fruity smell, unassumingly sweet and not very foody except for the sweetness

Dry: A light, honeyed skin musky-amber smell, very pleasant. I have others in this category, so not bottle-worthy, but I like it. It's not very foody except for the beeswax/honey note; no butter or pastry on me.

Edited December 31, 2017 by RavenintheWind

[Darkersolstice]

Chanukkiyah is a rich heady scent on me, fig-forward and almost inching too sweet. But it's not too strong a throw, so I'm unafraid to wear it for any occasion, though my first test was as a bedtime scent. I'm considering trying layering experiments with not-sweet scents (especially woody ones), to see if I can make the figs behave a bit better.

[donkehpoo]

2007 version!

 

Wet: Fig, beeswax, and amber. Very "warm" smelling.

 

Dry: The beeswax has amped up, yessssss. The pastry note is coming out now as well. In a nutshell; beeswax sufganiyot with a hint of amber and fig.

 

I wish I could wrap myself in a blanket of this scent. I'm a little disappointed by the lack of pomegranate, but... it's still a great scent.

[fairybites]

This review is for the 2008 version (but I guess it's a misprint on the decant and it's actually 2007)!

 

I was really curious about this because of the olive oil note and I like to try out the unusual BPALs. It definitely started out heavily olive oil and beeswax, but now that it's been on a while I'm getting a dough scent from the sufganiyot and the leftover bits of beeswax from the wet stage. Never got any of the fruits and just a small amount of the amber. The only Sufganiyot scent I've tried was last year's Pomegranate, but since I didn't get that note at all here there are not similar to me. 

 

Won't be upgrading, I'm not a big fan of wax but this wasn't too bad. Wish I got the pomegranate and fig!

[marared]

Frottle! I normally have trouble with fig, as it turns kinda chewy and nasty on my skin, but it behaves nicely here (after 15 years of aging!) I mostly get olive oil and a somewhat smoky amber, with a hint of honey and a hint of pastry. The fruit has mostly vanished from the scent, so I layered it with Pomegranate Sufganiyot for some extra yum.