Huesos De Santo

[ouch!]

Orange-glazed cake, dotted with anise seed, and filled with custard, set beside a bouquet of celebratory funeral flowers.

Hmm! The initial burst of this reminds me of Diary of a lovestruck teenage cannibal.
But much less spicy and much more creamy.

It's definately lickable..or edible whichever. There is anise present but it's only very slight. I am glad it's not taking over the blend.
This smells like vaniallary custard with a slight aniseed edge. when it's wet.

It spices up a bit more on drydown, and the aniseed is coming foward slighty, still...not too heavy though and the creamyness is going. It's still vanillary though. There's an almost buttery note here too. I'm thinking ...where are the flowers????

As it dries more..the creaminess is gone practiacally and the Anise & vanilla/custard are still there. I think this is where the florals start to appear but heck if I know how many and what they are. They are not the most prominent thing in the blend.

This is interesting and I'm definately keeping my bottle!

ETA: When this is REALLY dry, it reminds me of sunscreen. It's got a coconutty vibe to it. (Weird I know) Edited November 6, 2008 by Shollin

[Rouge]

I'm still nibbling my way through leftover Pan de Muerto from my recent day of the dead celebrations, so this is a very appropriate blend to try right now!

 

In the vial - A thick and buttery scent. Very autumnal.

 

Wet on the skin - Delicious, rich cake notes with a warm and spicy undertone. There's definitely a vanilla note here too.

 

Next stages - A drier note emerges soon after application, which grounds and tempers the sweetness of the cake and vanilla. Ten minutes into wear and a deep, golden floral note peeks out - marigold, perhaps?

 

Dry down - This is a wonderful blend which alternates between foody, spicy and floral.

 

Similar scents - Cockaigne, well-aged Jack

[bellis]

This is DELICIOUS. I get mainly custard with orange syrup, and a breath of flowers. These aren't in your face florals, they are softer and slightly herby, like a field of wildflowers. This is the one Weenie I must have in bottle form.

[savage_rose]

In the bottle it smells JUST like my bride's cake which was a Williamsburg Orange cake (and delicious, btw). On, the orange mellows a bit, and it smells like a resiny orange incense. Nice, but not as nice as it is in the bottle. Definitely a better room scent than a skin scent on me!

[PurringPulsar]

Huesos de Santo

 

In the imp: delicious creamy orange cake!

Wet on skin: orange! I love how orangey this is…I can now smell anise in here as well.

Dry on skin: sweet candied orange, almost like marmalade! Delicious! I also smell the cake base, which does indeed remind me of Eat Me but without the intense vanilla and berry notes. There’s a lovely sprinkling of aniseed on top, which I really like because it does indeed remind me of those Spanish biscuits with anise in them. There’s a hint of custard but to me this is more like an orange buttercream topping for the cake.

After a while: this gets even better! I don’t get much in the way of flowers, but I now get a lot more custard! And what delicious sweet vanilla custard cake touched with orange (I love the orange note in here) and I really like the interesting twist that the anise adds. Now I get more of the Eat Me vibe that other reviews mention, but the custard is a bit like Egg’d Mailbox, but with orange instead of the carnation-ish vibe I got in Egg’d. however, at times, there’s a hint of spice to this scent too. The drydown is all gorgeous custard. I hardly get any floral notes in this scent at all.

Verdict: this is my favourite of this year’s Halloween releases. Orange cake, anise biscuits, sweet vanilla custard, all blended wonderfully. I don’t get flowers in here-just the gourmand notes. Most BPAL orange notes are too gentle, too soft, they fade fast or get buried in the other notes. But not this one! This is the kind of orange scent I’ve been looking for-a gutsy orange sweetened with sugary notes. It’s a marmalade glaze over a delicious Eat Me style cake base and there’s a bit of anise which adds something unusual to the scent without being intrusive. And then, once the orange and anise calm a little, the custard really comes to the fore. This is a wonderful note-creamy but not sickly or sour, not eggy either, but vanilla-flavoured and smooth. I didn’t realise I could love custard notes so much but this is perfect. Orange and anise cake seems to be a popular theme around the etailer perfume world this Halloween, and this is hands down my favourite scent of this kind.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? Yup, and I have a backup coming. This is so different to other BPAL foodies I have.

If you like this, try: Eat Me, Egg’d Mailbox

[lunaticana]

it is horrible! on me

it smells like something sweet like pie but then really rotten

the label is cool though

the only good thing about this one is that I found my first bottle to swap

[Monique]

I wasn't going to review this but on a fluke I tried it on my skin....

 

Lemme just say, I am not fond of wearing foody scents. Love the smells but I don't want to smell like food, however, when I say food, I don't mean citrus and Orange is my number one favorite.

 

Having said that, in the bottle and in the imp this just smells like custardy cake with an orange tint to it but the orange is not enough to overcome the foody smell. Not a bad thing, in fact, a delicious custardy cake! However, read above, I don't want to wear food smells. I open the bottle to sniff at least a half dozen times over the last couple weeks...come on! It has ORANGE!! Nope...not for me....

I received an order tonight that included a freebie of Huesos....I got my bottle out that is only half full (I had originally bought a partial) and added the imp to the bottle...of course, had to sniff it again...nope, no change, still food.... For whatever reason I decided to smear the remains of the plastic wand to my wrist and an amazing thing happened.....HELLO ORANGE!!! While it is still drying on my wrist, there is a note that is not pleasant to me, maybe the anise? but it is subtle and the orange beats it into submission! It has now been about an hour and my wrist smells of orange creaminess with a very slight floral edge to it! Needless to say, this has jumped from a 4 on my scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best to an 8 or 9. Not my top but still something I like a great deal and will keep and wear!

 

I think I need to actually try more things on my skin instead or relying on just the smell in the bottle....

[MisterShrapnel]

Aw, damn I ended up liking this after all. I was kind of hoping I might swap it away (my conscience's feeble attempt to hold onto the remaining shreds of dignity in the face of my growing bottle collection. ). That said, I think I ought to wait a couple months before I say anything less than rabidly positive about a blend... Huesos de Santo definitely taught me that.

Initially it's very custardy (delicious), and it transforms quickly into to a nice moist orange cake (it's similar to Eat Me, only without the berries, as others have said). At this stage it used to smell kind of stale and burned when I last tried it, and I was convinced that I hated all forms of orange (or maybe just rich foody blends?), but it's amazing this time around. Maybe things just needed to settle down... or maybe I needed to be in the right sort of mood?

My nose is still quite the novice, so I can't find the anise or the flowers. Shrug.

I'm glad I have some of this, it's perfectly suited for fall. And the bottle art for this is great!

(Secret: I have Huesos on my wrists and Perversion on the inside of my elbows and I think they kind of go well together And the cake smell gives me the strangest craving for some Graveyard Dirt...)

 

ETA: A little after my first time testing this, I realized that anise is actually quite prominent when dry. I was somehow misinterpreting the note to be orange. So yes: when dry, the custard and orange cake fade to a tasty aniseed (not licorice).

Edited February 9, 2009 by MisterShrapnel

[naeelah]

Wet, it's sweet, orangey cake and custard. A suggestion of anise lurks in the background.

 

As it dries, the orange gets stronger and it overpowers the cake and custard quality slightly. But just for a little while. Once dry, the floral notes emerge and provide levity to the thick foody notes. The anise is stronger now, also adding coolness, but never making it overly licorice-like. It's subtle.

 

Once totally dry, the flowers and anise are strong enough that the overall quality isn't really foody at all on me. Gourmand, yes, but very wearable. (I love foody scents but not as perfume, more for comfort.) Throw and wear life are both a little light.

[waternight]

In the bottle: Yes. Cake and custard and orange! Dense and moist and rich. And SWEET.

Wet: Sweet, creamy cake and custard with a squirt of fresh orange juice. This is a cake I want to gorge myself on. This cake is incredibly dense and moist and gooey. After a minute or so, the anise shows up and blends gorgeously with the orange.

Dry: Unfortunately, this goes through a very strong "burnt sugar" phase and then dries down to a pure sugar scent. Just sugar. No cake, no orange, no custard. Sugar.

[zomathesadist]

This was my most anticipated Weenie, and it arrived today.

 

Wet in bottle: VERY foody. Straight buttery pound cake.

 

On skin: the buttery note fades quickly to be replaced by...I'm not sure. Uh oh. I'm not sure how this is going to go.

 

After 5 minutes: I'm not sure WHAT this smells like.

 

After 10: is that the anise? and the orange blossom? not a ton of custard left, but the distasteful sharpness is fading too.

 

Verdict: the jury's still out. But I've been obsessed with the idea of smelling like orange cake for three damn months, so I WILL MAKE IT WORK ON ME, DAMMIT.

[diamondstars]

This smells a bit like Jack in the bottle, but less buttery. It also reminds me of Campino sweets!

On skin it smells exactly the same as Lush's Soft Touch, yay!!

1, 000,000 bottles please!

[Hayet]

Add me to the list of folks who get creamy orange creamsicle goodness from this blend, which dries down into a comforting vanilla-anise cake combination. Just utter yum.

[caitilarkin]

In the bottle: Very, very buttery cake with a hint of orange in the background.

 

Wet on skin: Yowza. Rich vanilla cake with homemade custard, orange glaze and a hint of anise. Rich and utterly delicious.

 

Dry on skin: This keeps its moist orange vanilla cakey feel for several hours, at which time the faint florals are added. Lasts forever on me (okay, not forever but over 12 hours) with vanilla, faint orange and light florals as the final notes.

 

This is my HG foodie scent and I must have more, more, more!

[windywoo]

I am in love with this scent. As soon as i slather it on it smells like orange cake and anise, and keeps true to scent all day. I really have to restrain myself from licking my wrists!

[batsy]

In the bottle: Orange glazed yellow cake. Oh yum!

 

On the skin: Just the same, actually. It's a true orange scent, with the rich orange-y goodness that is orange frosting. A hint of vanilla, with a touch of anise that deepens it. I am in love. It's like an orange version of Beaver Moon, minus the cheesecake. Boy am I glad I bought two bottles of this! My favorite of the 2008 Hallowe'enies! *tries to eat arm*

[obsidienne]

NOM NOM NOM.

 

This lady is a morpher!

 

Huesos de Santo is a gorgeous vanilla-custard orange cake while wet. The orange note is very soft and creamy, it has absolutely no sharpness to it, the way that I often find citrus to be. As it dries down, the anise warms up and provides a necessary and lovely counterpart to the foodie sweetness. I love anise.

 

Full drydown sees the florals come out, while the rich cake aspect fades considerably into the background. The floral aspect is my favourite part, bringing to mind a beautiful bouquet of creamy flowers, but it doesn't have the same throw as the early stages. I can't tell what the florals are, but there may be a hint of rose or carnation... hard to say.

 

BTW, this is like a cakey/foodie version of Zarita, the Doll Girl.

 

I'm wearing this in both a scent locket and on my skin today, and feel enveloped in the most beautiful aura of scent.

[Aldercy]

Oh, this is a sinful amount of fun! Huesos de Santo is exactly what I hoped for and nothing like what I feared (I thought the description sounded fascinating, but weird enough that it could possibly turn out to be sickly).

 

An orange creamsicle melting in the warmth of dense, buttery, almost smoky poundcake with a twist of citrus zest. There's a wicked, twisted peppery or woody note (maybe that's the anise/liquorice in disguise?) and a beautiful spike of sugar-spun sweetness. Not cloying at all, just mouthwatering. Not much floral depth to this, but perhaps just a breath of dried flowers.

 

Diabolically foody. It's decadent as the court of King Henry VIII, this oil. Heavy and seductive and really hedonistic. It's ridiculous and wonderful.

 

I freakin love Huesos de Santo. I wish I'd gotten a bottle after all.

[Ajila]

In the bottle – Orange, that slightly sharp cheese cake I get a from a lot of the ‘dessert’ blends, and custard

 

Wet on me – The orange comes through as the main scent with the anise and then the custard in the background

 

Dry on me – Sweet, creamy cake with a slightly tart citrus edge

 

Overall – On paper I should love this, but somehow I don’t and I don’t know why

 

[AmandaArcana]

I like it enough...when I first put it on I can really smell the cake. When it dries the floral comes out more...not to the point of being suffacated like most florals on me. All in all, I would have liked no flowers and more cake!

[RaeiNarcissus]

*sigh* This one was a sad disappointment. Ususally, food stuff and me are like two happy peas in a pod, but no. This stuff has that horrid powdered sugar note that ruined Beaver Moon 07 and Snow Angel.

[fairnymph]

In the bottle: Pale golden yellow oil. Buttery, sweet, cake. Tonka, vanilla, and a little splash of orange zest.

 

Wet: Similar, but more orange, and less sweet. A little bit of spicy-herbal anise coming out. A suggestion of white florals. Still mostly foody.

 

Dry: Way more anise; it's now the dominating now. Tonka still going very strong, but the other foody notes have dropped off significantly. Still a nice note of orange- more like orange blossom now.

 

Summary: I love the orange, floral, and mild vanilla notes, and how this ceases to be foody when drying, but the powerful anise-tonka combo became too much. STRONG throw.

[TheOneTheyCallLuna]

This starts out all custard filled cake soaked in Grand Marnier, and then dries down to soft creamy anise seed. I like this a lot, though it's very morphy and I think the wet stage is my favorite!

[ShadowsDance]

In the bottle it smells just like an orange creamsicle.

On my skin that scent stays pretty much the same. I don't get anything floral from this, just a rich creamy orange cake - with just a hint of anise. Delicious! Only complaint? It doesn't last all that long on me, two hours tops. Worth the reapply, though.

[maproot]

It's the best kind of creamsicle thaat is way more adult than the creamsicle I ate as a kid; very clean and springy with citrus at the center!Worth hoarding if I say so myself!