La Befana

[MCS4096]

Candy charcoal, winter lilies, parma violet, a sprig of cypress, a poof of chimney dust, and holiday sweets.

Very very sweet. Mostly violet, but made slightly high pitched by the lilies. A pale purple scent. A hint of greenery, maybe lily stems or cypress, is evident when sniffed up close.
This makes me think of violet hard candies stored in a box with powdered sugar so they dont stick together

More than just a floral, the candy gives it a fun twist. I don't think the sugar smells brown or caramelized at all-- the reason I think that is that those notes go to death on my skin and this does not

[annemathematics]

the 2013 version

 

sweet and bright and crisp and clean, like old-fashioned violet candies. one of my favorite yules and favorite bpal violet scents.

 

a gentle scent. not a tremendous amount of throw and needs to be reapplied throughout the day. I don't get much of the dust or cypress. just beautiful candied flowers shining prettily from my skin. win!

[milo]

Kind of foody with something musky at first, I like it at this stage. Dry, more fruity, of the red variety, so this is probably the 'holiday sweets' that are amping on me I wish I got the violet, it is one of my favourite florals, but I guess candy likes me:(

[Cake10]

I love this so very much!!!

 

I got La Befana 2007 about a month ago off of BPAL's Etsy shop and I waited a while to review it because there is a lot going on in this one!

 

From the bottle, this does smell a bit edible, but to me, this isn't a straight up 100% gourmand.

 

What jumps out at me immediately from the bottle is the scent of a cold, damp winter forest in the early morning hours when you can really smell the trees. This isn't a green scent, it's more like dried pine needles and wood from the trees on a chilly night in the forest. I smell a faint hint of smoke and something sweet in the background that reads as violet or licorice mixed with something that smells like a very rich caramel. I know there isn't licorice listed in the ingredients, but the violet in this blend has a definite licorice quality instead of a floral one. I don't smell lily in this perfume at any stage. This is a very well blended scent and the note that stands out most and is clearly identifiable to me from the bottle is the cypress, which has a woody quality and a nutty edge.

 

After I put this on my skin, it changes a lot! The nuttiness of the cypress lessens quickly, but I still smell woods and smoke and the sweet caramel/violet note in the background. Then something weird happens, and I have noticed that it happens more noticeably if I'm wearing this scent at that time of the month- A weird canned vegetable soup note comes out and hangs around for a while worrying me that I am going to smell like smokey sweet vegetable soup for the rest of the day. That fades after a bit thankfully and when it does, the scent smells as it did on my skin prior to the weird veggie soup thing, only it is now fainter and has a dusty cinders type quality.

 

For a while, the nutty, caramel-y, smokey, woody, delicious fragrance hangs around and after a few hours, it fades to a pleasant sweet smokey smell.

 

This is a big, deep scent from the bottle, but it doesn't go on strong on my skin, which is interesting because smokey and woody scents tend to be quite strong on me. Pretty soon after application, I have to put my nose to my hand to smell it. But I L-O-V-E this scent so much. It is so well done and very evocative of the story behind it. I love putting it on the tops of my hands to sniff as I'm falling asleep and imagining I'm wandering through the woods to La Befana's house!

[astarinel]

2015.

 

Sweet violets and candy. The candy/violet vibe reminds me a little of Faith, with a little more green/freshness to it. This is a fairly light scent, low throw on me, and I don't know if it's this year's version, but it doesn't really have the caramel/brown sugar/smokiness to it. This smells like straight up violet candy with a touch of woody greenness to it, and I actually like it much better than I expected to for that reason!

[freyasfae]

This imp intrigued me with the candies with florals and dust. Unfortunately, it's mostly candy on me. If I dig my nose into my wrist, I can pick up the violets (and a bit of the cypress), and I can't tell if the violets are the candy or the actual plant, as my skin tends to turn violet sweet unless it is strongly balanced with other florals, but arround me, the throw is all pixy stix. I can't detect any chimney dust which is a total bummer. This will be going to the swap box. Like the idea and complexity, but my skin does not.

[Laura S. Taylor]

I LOVE this perfume! It also helps that I love violet candy and licorice, which is what this smells like.

[Akurarei]

This is an unusual Yule, but very lovely and delicate.

It smells like candies and sweets nestled among softly scented floral arrangements

[stellamaris]

Let me just say that La Befana was the Yule I was most excited about. I had a decant from last year but did not get a bottle, somehow I overlooked the decant, and it was so lovely.

I got my bottle ripped out of the package, applied and was ???? what the heck? Fortunately, I left it a few days waited, now ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, there's that heavenly violet thing...

This is so beautiful. I am obsessed, it's sweet violet candy.

[mymymai]

ITI: It reminds me of walking into the Jelly Belly factory - lots of sweet, fruity notes with hints of candy powder. On second sniff, the buttery sweet notes emerge, swathed in sweetly innocent violet and lily. A faint duskiness lurks along the bottom, but it doesn't detract from the overall childishly fanciful tone of this scent.
Wet: Powdery sweets, a hint of charcoal and ash, delicious violet, a brush of lily against Christmas candies yield a foody but pleasantly sweet scent so far.
Dry: Ah, there's the cypress. Now the scent is much more green and slightly acerbic, while the violet and lily attempt to overpower the note currently amping on my skin. It's still slightly powdery sweet like Fun Dip, but the combination isn't as pleasing as it was earlier.

[patina]

I'm powerfully reminded of certain candies that come in strawberry-like wrappers. I smell those along with the suggestion of other unspecified candies, lilies and violets. This is crazy strong and lasts a good while. Occasionally the cypress and candy charcoal peek out too. Festive.

 

This one lasts forever on me, it's a little intimidating.

[Aviatrix]

I have a bottle of the 2013 version, which is one of my all-time favorites! So I wanted to compare the 2015 version to see if they differ.

 

In my opinion they are actually quite different. The 2015 version is MUCH sweeter and heavier on the candy, whereas the 2013 version is deeper and smokier.

If you enjoy candy scents, especially sugared violet, you might want to give this a try!

[Kmye Chan]

This is a decant from the Yule 2015 version.

 

In the imp: caramelly, astringent and to be honest, rather unpleasant. Wut?

 

Wet: Boom! Cypress blast! Very green and a bit dry. Then this immediately starts morphing and - sweetened violets and lilies, with something rather smoky or ashy. After maybe 30 seconds, the candy scent comes out and this becomes very sweet.

 

Dry: as this wears, the candy smell becomes more and more proeminent, until this scent is a candy overdose with smoky violets peeking through. The candy note very much reminds me of Lush's Snow Fairy, but with additional floral and smoke notes that make La Befana more complex and not quite as tooth-aching.

 

Throw: rather strong on me.

 

This smells delicious, although I would not wear this as a perfume - it's way too sweet for my taste. If you like very gourmand florals, this may be your jam. I've seen some people compare this to Lolita Lempicka Premier Parfum (in the purple bottle): the violet/gourmand notes did remind me of this too, but at least the 2015 version has none of the licorice/anise notes of LLPP that I can detect (a good thing for me, as I really dislike these notes).

[LizziesLuck]

2016 version:

 

Candied violet and chocolate. The chocolate smells waxy and stale on me. The violet, which usually turns into a screeching, powdery, headache inducing mess, is instead turning to plastic. Ooh, this is not good. instead of giving me a headache, it's making me nauseous. I don't usually have to wash anything off - I enjoy trying every scent I can, even if I know the notes won't work, because I appreciate that everyone has different tastes, and Beth is a genius, and you never know what could surprise you! But this has to go.

[sarandipitee]

I loathe violet (insta-brain melt) but this year's version of La Befana is really nice. A sweet, candy floral with a bit of dust. I won't use more than this decant, but it's nice to have a violet perfume that doesn't cause a migraine.

[gloame]

First sniff: Candy violets and not much else. It gets more florally/less candy as it dries. Reminds me of something that I can't place. Not getting any chimney or soot yet. After half an hour, I get a soft, sweet violet.

[lizabelle]

This was a last-minute blind buy for me, and after being frimped a decant by a forumite I'm very glad I went for it. It has the same candy/ash combo that I loved in Fireplace Cinders from 2015, plus some beautiful assertive violet (on me it usually gets drowned out by other notes) and powdery lilies. There is a cool greenness at the back of the sniff that I could buy as being cypress, too. It's very well-blended and overall gives the impression of violet hard candies, possibly being eaten by a fire that's gone out. Gorgeous!

[Lucchesa]

2013 version. La Befana is lighter and brighter than I'd expected. I am getting very little soot or charcoal or evergreen, unless the cypress is contributing an almost citrusy vibe, but lots of violet candy, which seems to work better on my skin than plain old violet. I can see this as a spring or summer scent. It's very pretty but a skin scent on me, gone after 4 hours.

[bellumed]

2013:

 

Sweets and flowers, beautiful! The lily is not at all high-pitched as it can often be. There's something else, too, dust maybe?

 

This is just plain pretty. Soft and feminine. I hate violet candy because it tastes like perfume, but as an actual perfume, it's nice.

 

Mild, very close to the skin.

Edited December 13, 2017 by bellumed

[lunchboxmonkey]

2017:

This starts off very sweet and viscous, like a syrup made of flowers. It smells very thick and a little heavy, but I don’t get caramel like some others have mentioned, it’s definitely more like a floral simple syrup.

As it dries it gets lighter, sweet, powdered sugar dusting something juicy and berry-like, and slightly tart.

I don’t get any smokiness, it ends up a very pleasant almost jammy scent, dusted with a vanilla powdered sugar. It stays close to my skin, but I keep practically inhaling my wrists. It’s lovely and soft, and I’m glad I snagged a bottle.

[starbrow]

There is something unexpectedly wonderful about this wanderer. A poof of sweetness and a curl of winter flowers seems perfectly in step with the Yule spirit...and then the other side of it, the slow climb through the sooty chimney to get to the sweets waiting at the bottom of it. Kind of the same strange-bedfellows wonderfulness that was She Sauntered Vaguely Downwards with its cotton candy and brimstone. La Befana really is like that unlikely cast of misfit characters who find themselves thrown together and by the end they are working magic somehow.

 

I'm usually not all aboard the violet train but I might have to take a ride just this once. Hoping to snag at least a decant of this!

[hhelix]

2019's version. A year of aging has smoothed out the rough edges. Now it is delightfully playful, decadently sweet, and cheerfully festive. There is a Guerlain fruity violet perfume that I used to like, but it was unwearable because the projection was over the top to the point of being intrusive. This is a much more wearable violet. The dry-down has that powdery cosmetic note going on. In my synesthesic mind, this scent is all shades of purple, charcoal, and gold, with a few red berries tucked in here and there. It will be beautiful throughout the winter and into spring. 

[freyasfae]

Well, parma violets are a newp for me. I thought the dust and charcoal notes might balance it out, but on me this is all violet candies...and not much more. Like high quality violet candies which may be some of the other notes creeping in, but my skin is just amping all candy and sweets for the most part.

[alterosen]

This is very berry-rific on me & I love it! I don't really notice the violet or chimney dust unless I search for them. My skin turns this into sweet berries with a candied, violet-tinged vanilla backdrop (both 2007 & 2013). It feels very purple.

[aphrodisms]

A juicy berry with some glimmering warmth underneath it that unfortunately doesn’t work on my skin.