Yuletide

[jj_j]

Limited edition; winter 2003.

The juice of ripe, bursting, blood red holly berries.

The juice of ripe, bursting blood red holly berries - with plenty of the tangy green leaves thrown in. Absolutely holiday, I smell like a fresh garland of greens draped across the fireplace, with some cinnamon-y apple cider simmering in the other room and just barely discernable.

Sharp, but good. I'm more likely to use this as a room scent than a personal one.

[Guest]

Its a great scent but it reminded me of a craft store during the holidays. I guess I'm not a big Holly berry fan. The Midwinters eve and Snow White Kicked were better for a perfume. I used the Yuletide in Candles.

[viciousviolet]

I love this scent for my home in the winter months, but it was not flattering with my body chemistry. Its green notes clashed with me, though I did enjoy its almost cranberry-like scent. Should work beautifully with the right person, just not on me! As a room blend, it is festive and very appropriate Yuletide blend. It has none of the synthetic tackiness that most holiday scents bear and smells perfectly, wonderfully natural.

[clephan]

I'm wearing this today, and I think I like it more than ever.

 

I'm not familiar with any other holly-berry scents: Christmas for me is definitely a mulled-wine and snowy-cedars kind of scent time. So, for me this just smells sweet and rich and warming. Just what I need today, it's freezing!

[ismene]

In the bottle, I can smell both the berries and the green notes. On me, all I can smell is pine. This isn't the only scent with a pine note that becomes overpowering on me, so I guess it's just my skin. I don't particularly fancy smelling like a Christmas tree, so I'll save this one for scenting the house next winter.

[FireInCairo]

I definately want this to come back at XMAS..PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!! Christmas is my favorite holiday. It is May at the moment-and one sniff from this bottle brought be back to last Christmas and the joy my family and I shared. I love this..it smells just like a Laurel berry wreath. I just want to take a bath in it!!!!!!

[clover]

I love Yuletide. Love it. It's my favorite out of all of the Yule2003 scents that I've tried (which is, I guess, all of them except Spooky).

 

It's pure holly berry, but what a beautiful scent that is. Every year, when I was growing up, my mom would buy my sister and me candles for Advent...I would get holly berry and my sister would get bayberry. And this is exactly what they smelled like. It just brings back wonderful memories of many Christmases.

 

I wish I could describe it more accurately, but it's one of those scents that, to me, goes on and stays completely true. I will say that it works beautifully as a perfume, on me, not just as a room scent.

 

Yay for Yuletide!

Edited September 12, 2004 by clover

[MissAnthropy]

Limited Edition:

Winter 2003 (re-released this month!)

 

I have this obsession with holiday-type scents. My favorites are Yule/Christmas scents. Pine needles. Berries. Spices. Cookies. Wintery goodness. And this scent is downright amazing as far as Holiday scents go. Here in Buffalo, we get buried in snow, and I end up desperate for good, full bodied scents to wear and scent my home with. It helps chase the winter blues away.

 

There's no mention of pine or of mistletoe in the scent description - or any mention of spices, but, aside from the Holly Berry hints, I SWEAR I smell pine and some spice! And, I love it! It's so fresh, crisp, and clean. Out of the bottle it's ALIVE with Yule! On my skin, it dulls down to mostly just this juicy berry scent.

 

I can't WAIT to get my hands on the 5ml I ordered from the recent Yule update!!!!!!!

 

 

-Leslie

[VelvetSky]

The lovely and generous spark sent me a decant of Yuletide, and I'm kicking myself for not ordering a bottle. I love and adore holly berries, bayberries, hell...any kind of Yule berries, and this perfume is absolutely bursting with the scent of berries mixed with fresh winter greenery. Sweet, juicy, with an undercurrent of bracing pine, and a teeny tiny hint of spice. Glorious and uplifting. If this scent makes a reappearance next year, it WILL be mine!

[Belladonnastrap]

(this review is for the 2004 version)

 

First Sniff

Potpourri? It smells like spiced plums. It makes me think of sleigh rides and ice skating and then coming home to a house full of warmth and laughter.

 

Wet

*sniff* is that pine? It's turned into sugared pines drenched in berry on me. I've smelled a yankee candle like this but for the...OH! I remember now! Festival of Lights! This smells just like that on me.

 

Drydown

Still very potpourriish. Like a candle. It's not so strong now, it blends in with my chemistry nicely but I still feel the candle vibe.

 

Aftermath

I'm still not completely sure if I like Yuletide as a perfume. It makes a lovely room scent and makes me think of a country holiday but the strong potpourri vibe I am getting from it may detract me from using it a lot. We'll see.

[miss apple]

Yuletide (2004)

 

In the bottle it has a fruity sweetness.

 

Once on, it's not as sweet and there is a bit of a chill underlying the fruit. About half an hour after applying it morphs into a wet cigarette smell. It's not bad enough to make me want to wash it off as it's a rather curious scent but I'm not sure Id wear it as a regular perfume. A couple of hours later, the wet cigaratte is gone and now I can smell a light spicy frutiness.

 

The final drydown is nice so I may give this another try.

[UltraViolet]

Wet

This smells like the pine trees we have outside, only added to it are cinnamon, alot of cinnamon, and a lovely berry scent. Not a "Swank" berry nor a Lady MacBeth berry, this is a tougher berry, greener, and a little tarter.

10 minutes

The cinnamon is still right there but it's alot less sweet then when I first put it on. The combination with the pine scent is so interesting to the nose that it's almost addictive.

20 minutes

More of a soapy pine smell and the cinnamon while still not shy, is less pronounced.

It's very real smelling but I don't think I would wear it but once in a great while.

[violetblue]

This one to me, would make a gorgeous and authentic Xmas room scent. I am not super into pine and potpourri scents, so I swapped mine, but if I had a diffuser or warmer, I would have kept it for a lovely holiday smell for the house!

[silverangel]

Oh...cinnamon berries with a hint of pine in the background. How gorgeous you are in the bottle and on my skin for about five minutes. But that slightly soapy pine scent that was in the background comes right up front and spits in my face saying "RECOGNIZE ME BITCH!" And thus I do and he still stays there with me sniffing as hard as I can only to get the slight scent of that beautiful cinnamon berry scent. And thus I smell like slightly beautiful soap. But mostly I just smell of soap. Another one that is now on it's way to a new home.

[Northernminx]

Deceptively light in the bottle, I sort of wondered if there would be anything to this when I put it on. Yuletide stayed elusive for a bit and then suddenly there was a pine tree on my wrists. Deep green, crisp, evergreens, cool and refreshing. The pine never got as strong as it does with Black Forest on me, which was thankful as I love a smell of evergreen - just not that much. Holly berries worked there way in during the dry down, warm and glowing, bright and juicy. I can still smell the evergreen under it so I'm feeling rather like a Christmas wreath but I'm loving it. A definite keeper for cold winter days when something clean and bright but not summery is a must.

[rainbow]

Mmmmm...holiday spices and berries. There's definitely cinnamon in here, and it's quite strong, along with lots of red berries. On my skin the cinnamon takes over, and it really dominates the berries, which seem to fade somewhat.

 

This develops into a lovely holiday spice scent. I was expecting this to be much more berry-like, but instead it's spicy. That's okay- spice is nice too. I did find that after an hour or so of wear the berry scent returned and the result was a yummy spicy-fruity scent. Spicy scent lovers, do try this.

[darkling]

Yuletide is a gorgeous scent that reminds me of the spirit of the holiday season.

 

It is a bright mix of berries and spice. I am not detecting the pine note that others have mentioned. This scent smells exactly the same on my skin as it does in the bottle.

 

It remained clear and strong for the first hour but is now beginning to fade rapidly.

[pkwench]

Yuletide 2004

 

Ah, lovely, spicey potpourri for the skin! When I first put this on, I got a bit of a sting. It's not unusual if there's cinnmon in the oil, though it's strange because sometimes it'll burn and sometimes no. Anyway, definately tingly upon first application, but not a hot burn and really fairly tolerable. It was also more than worth it for the scent. It's so clean and fresh. I don't get pine at all. It's all hot, spicey berry. In fact, I have a lotion from Avon called Spiceberry. Now, the two aren't EVEN on the same caliber here. The lotion is nice, but sort of generic and commerical. But it has that warm, berry scent like Yuletide does. But Yuletide is full bodied and just scent perfection. It's something like a girlier version of Three Witches-berries and spice and EVERYTHING nice. Oh, yes, it's what wenches are made of. It does smell like a room scent, but it melds so nicely with the smell of my skin that I don't think I'd ever want to waste a drop of this on an oil burner. It's all for meeee!

 

It was also an instant crowd pleaser at work. Upon arrival at work, sometime around butthole am, I was greeted with these comments: "You smell so good!" "That's so fresh and clean!" "Omigod, you smell like Christmas!"

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

Dear Minilux sent this to me

 

Ohhh! Yuletide bursts out of the bottle laughing a merry belly laugh of irrepressible cinnamon and fresh green pines--you can almost hear it saying, "Ho ho ho!" And then the warm red berries come out for depth. This will be a *fabulous* room scent, although pkwench is right--it also works as "potpourri for the skin" (well said, wench!). I will hoard some for next year but enjoy through New Year's.

 

In sum: a holly jolly oil!

[shelldoo]

loved this one so much

 

i can't really pick out the individual notes but it smells very home to me if that makes sense it is spicey and sweet and basically lovely

[harlequin]

I don't think I really have any idea what holly berries smell like, but I don't think this is what i imagined they'd be like. Then again, I know they're not really berry-like.. the only way for me to describe this in the bottle is to call it Green. Definitely reminds me of some kind of needled tree, but i couldn't say which kind in particular. If my uncle were still alive, he'd probably be able to tell me which it was in a heartbeat.

 

On, It mellows out a bit and isn't so strongly tree-like, but after a bit something comes out that reminds me of a much lighter/fainter version of the overwhelming smell of Serpent's Kiss. They both give me a Dill pickle vibe, but SK is waaaay stronger than this one is (this is a good thing, for me)... So i have to wonder if there's vetiver deep down in this one somewhere.. *shrug*

[Astarte]

This scent is strangely familiar, though I have trouble picking out notes for this one, it does smell like bottled Christmas. Its very weird but on me I get a non sweet scent which I think would be suited to my oil burner for promoting festive cheer at home

[Ina Garten Davita]

First Impression: Cinnamon like in those scented brooms they sell at the start of the fall season.

 

Second Impression: I get the potpourri association, but Yuletide goes way beyond that. It's complex and absolutely beautiful. It's fresh pine garland decorated with cinnamon pinecones and fresh berries.

 

Final Analysis: If Skadi is the breakout hit of the Yule 2004 Limited Editions, then I think Yuletide is the dark horse. It's wonderful!

[Nadirah]

Yuletide smells to me like a mix of cinnamon, clove and peppermint. This smells alot different than last years. I think the 04 version is better. Maybe my nose has changed a bit so I like it more. This one is very wonderful and lasts about 2-3 hours before the need to reapply.

YUM

[shriekingviolet]

Initial Impression:

Spicy berries and pine.

 

After Wearing It:

Interesting scent, and fairly consistent from start to finish. I agree with what the others have said about this smelling like potpourri, because it really, really does. It makes me think of glazed pine cones and cinnamon sticks tossed in with a colorful mix of pungent wood shaving. I can even smell something like orris root, which is often used as a fixative. I can smell the berries here, though not as strongly as I would have expected from the description. They make a hazy base, crimson base for the an array of wood notes and spices that dominate the scent. Lots of pine and cinnamon, with maybe a bit of cedar? All and all, this is most certainly a scent that clearly represents the holiday season. Not just winter, but Yule/Christmas. If you could bottle tradition and holiday cheer, it would smell like Yuletide.

 

Final Thoughts:

Lovely, though definitely not my style. This sort of scent seems much better suited as a room scent than a perfume.