Gluhwein

[zankoku_zen]

Warm red wine spiced with cinnamon sticks, cardamom, vanilla beans, honey, clove, lemon and orange rind, bay leaf, and honey.

Wooo. Strong, boozy, spicy wine. And really sweet.

Kinda like a dessert wine.

Mmm. Tasty.

[jewelbug]

This goes on very boozy/spicy/honeylicious, but doesn't smell like red wine to me. Red wine usually goes towards the super grape-y/berry on me, and this one absolutely does not. In fact, I wasn't even super-interested in finding this one, because I assumed that's how it would go....I was wrong.

 

This is Purrrrrfect. When I swiped it on, I kept thinking "this reminds me of something at Christmas," which, well, duh, given that its a holiday inquisition scent is obvious. Except it reminded me of something very specific at Christmas, and I was having a hard time pinpointing what.

 

Then it struck me. Lush's Randy scented buttercream from several years back. One of my absolute favorite Lush scents, EVAR. That's right. I love this.

 

Gluhwein, you totally snuck up on me and stole my heart. I hope I can find more of you.

Edited February 1, 2009 by jewelbug

[Lyrical]

In vial: like Fairy Wine, Lady Una and Mead Moon rolled into one and mixed with red wine! Honey and vanilla are more prominent than the spices, and it's very fruity and gorgeous! I hope it won't go sour on my skin!

 

Wet on skin: honey, vanilla, fruit and spices - WONDERFUL! More white grapes than red wine.

 

Dry on skin: great throw! This is absolutely on a par with sought after scents such as Mead Moon and Pumpkin Queen. Still no red wine as such, but a PERFECT blend of honey, spice and juicy fruit. Orange and lemon peel are present but very subtle. I may need more of this!

[Ajila]

In the bottle – The first hit is sweet, rich, honey and then a blast of that oh so familiar mulled wine scent

 

Wet on me – The honey is still the dominant note for me, tinged by a slight herbal note

 

Dry on me – Thick, honey sweetened, incense (I know there’s no incense in there but that’s how it smells to me

 

Overall – Drier than I thought it would be, but I like it

 

[Lirion]

In the botle this is quite sharp, I can smell the lemon and I believe bay leaf. That's the last noticeable whiff of the bay leaf I get hwoever.

 

On, the first thing I noticed about this scent is that it's lighter - a LOT lighter - on the red wine than I expected. I love the lab's red wine scent, it's normally deep and dark and rich and sexy on me. This is...different. It's not that it's a bad scent it's just not what I was expecting. It's like echoes of red wine - I can taste the quality, but not the depth.

 

Anyway, moving on, I had to recheck the notes list because I can smell something tart and red in here - like pomegranate or raspberry - lifting the scent. I am assuming it's the citrus mingling with the wine note. It really lifts it and gives it a freshness - this is the cause of the lightness of the scent I think.

 

The honey and the cardomom blend on me - I can smell them both but not separately if that makes sense, coming up from under the wine. The clove comes up more the longer this is on me - it's not overpowering at any point, it just warms things.

 

The cinnamon sticks and vanilla bean i can't smell specifically, but assume they are part of what is sweetening up the scent a little for me.

 

What surprised me most about this blend is I expected it to be a heavy winter blend - reminscent of curling up inside uner a blanket with my hands wrapped around a warm cup. But it's Summer over here at the moment and this is light and fresh enough - though still with depth - that I've been cheerfully wearing it.

 

It's really not quite what I expected - mostly the base, all the other notes are there - but I love it even so. And I love the fact that it's so very very wearable.

 

It doesn't change on me much from wet to dry. No morphing at all in fact, just a gradual deepening and melding together of the notes.

 

It's got a lot of throw, and a long wear time too.

 

Edited to add, after a good long while the spices fade backa nd the lovely sweet sexy wine becomes the prominent note on me. Added bliss.

Edited March 4, 2009 by Lirion

[milo]

I have never tried a note with red wine listed, so I was really looking forward to this one. Wet, and the first 10 minutes or so, this is a very alcoholic red wine with a touch of spice. I'm really not liking it so far. After 10 minutes or so, the alcohol note is taking a background and all the glorious spices are coming out. I can't pick them out specifically, but it smells like a warm, spicy apple cider, only with berries instead of apple. I really like this, and I'll bet this ages very well. I am very glad the "boozy" note didn't last. While I like drinking red wine, I don't want to smell like a winery. Extremely nice blend, well done Beth!

[lushlovely]

I was sooo looking forward to Gluhwein because every year in Sweden we go absolutely nuts over this stuff, except we call it Glögg. And every november the new releases of new and old flavors of glögg come out and people start buying it up because it's only available for a short while. About a month leading up to Christmas we drink a small cup of glögg every night so we get a chance to try them all. So I'm a bit of a glögg freak. I was so happy to get my nostrils on some.

 

In the bottle: hot cinnamon candy blended with a touch of cloves and cardamom, and a bit of sweet wine in the background.

Wet on my skin: Red Hots and lots of cloying honey! I don't normally do well with the Lab's honey notes, so I'm unsure about this. Unfortunately I don't get much wine at this point.

Drydown: Still very cloying honey mixed with mulling spices. This smells just like Big Red on me! I get no wine however. Just all Big Red, all the time. This baby has a lot of staying power and I could still smell it on my arm the next morning. But again the honey is just the party-pooper for me. If only I had more hints of wine in mine and less honey, it would have been a keeper.

[sprocket21]

This is mostly spices over a bed of sweetened, grape-y red wine. I was expecting a red wine scent, and didn't really expect it to feel 'seasonal.' Yet my first thought upon opening the imp was "This smells like CHRISTMAS!" There's just something about the blend of spices that seems very Christmas-y to me. I think the perfect use for this imp is in my oil burner during the holiday season.

[devilot]

In the vial: Sheer deliciousness. Gorgeous, warm, mulled wine. A scent I detest in the real form (as in, I don't like smelling actual mulled wine) but somehow smells amazing in perfume form, hehe.

 

Wet: LOVELY! At first, it's just mainly wine, not much of the spices-- and I prefer it like this!

 

Drydown: Holy moly, here come the spices. Definitely smell the cinnamon, cardamom, honey. Not so sure I detect the cloves, though. Then it goes all sorts of wrong on me-- sour, sour, sour.

 

Verdict: Such potential. I looove wine scents and so far, I'm not doing so well w/ the lab's wine notes: Delphi & Kali both went sour on me, but Lady MacBeth and Fairy Wine work. I had truly hoped Glühwein/ Gluhwein would work, too; alas, we weren't meant to be.

[hlinspjalda]

In the vial: Wine, honey, citrus, and cinnamon. Utterly, deliciously drinkable.

 

Wet: Strong cinnamon-clove over honey; the wine note has cut back a lot.

 

Twenty minutes: Spices, honey, and a bit of citrus. It is quite strong. It smells great, but I don't know that I'd want to smell like this. It's a little too foody.

 

One hour: More honey and spices than anything else. There's a bit of citrus and some grapey note, but not nearly as much as there is honey and spice. This reminds me a bit of "Hetairae," so I guess the honey must be a bit clove-rich.

 

Two hours: It's gone a little funky now. It's turned almost musky, maybe, a little more like ‘Hetairae" on my skin. But the honey and spice notes are still there. No further sign of the citrus, though.

 

Three hours: Something in this blend is over-tired now. It's lost the appetizing scent it had, turning into something more like "O" or "Hetairae" only not as fresh. I don't mind it, but I no longer feel myself in danger of falling in love with this rare scent. Whew! Bullet dodged.

 

Five hours: Yes, it's definitely in funky territory now. Something about this scent took a wrong turn on my skin, which is weird because I usually do well with all those notes. It's a bit disappointing, kind of like I felt when "Lilith" turned bad on me. Maybe it's the same wine note?

 

Six hours: Funky in an overdone kind of way. I traded this to someone who loves it.

 

[anaethema_x]

Really really strong red wine with spices...mulled, and hot. As I said its very strong, almost headache inducngly so. I think it would be good in a scent warmer type thing, but not on me.

 

[Eros]

This starts out as something very similar to Midnight Kiss on me. Within 2-3 minutes the cinnamon emerges, sweet but dry, with a touch of thick honey...As a few more minutes tick by I detect the orange rind, a hint of clove, and a tease of vanilla. The wine in this is smells simply delicious, deep and rich. About 30 minutes after application this beauty has morphed into a variation of Hexennacht '05...every note in Hex, dancing around a cauldron of a softly, and perfectly, spiced wine. Long-wearing with beautiful throw.

 

How could I not love it?

 

 

 

[caitilarkin]

I did not submit a plea for this Yule Inquisition--even though I really wanted Gluhwein--due to my incredible self-discipline no monies because I bought too many Yules and Anniversaries. Now that it's a rare, I had to do a bit of stalking to find a decant.

 

In the imp: Red wine--very boozy

 

Wet on skin: Mulled wine is at the forefront, but I can actually pick out every one of the other notes, even the bay leaf. The ultra-booziness is fading, too.

 

Dry on skin: The honey is now as strong as the wine--how I love and adore the Lab's honey notes. The spices are sticking around, too.

 

This lasts for over eight hours on me, with the honey being the longest-lasting note. Love, love, love and will have to find more.

[wintersmelody]

I could definitely tell this was a wine blend immediately! It does bring to mind the holidays what with the clove, cinnamon, spices.. A bottle will be cherished! It's like the holidays in a bottle!

[marared]

Mostly this is fruity red wine and honey, with a gentle background of vanilla. And it's strong like WHOA - a very little dab lasts forever. Massive throw, massive staying power - one of those oils that requires two or three arm scrubs when it's time to go to bed because it's so strong. I'd call this an expensive cousin of Blood Kiss, in that boozy fruity family that's sweet but not foody-sweet. I was afraid of the cinnamon, which is frequently a bad-amp note (Red Hots), but it plays along perfectly with the other spices.

 

The bottle was totally worth it.

[myoubi]

I did not expect to like this so much! In fact, I didn't expect to like it at all. But everyone was fussing over it, so I figured what the hell... hundreds of BPALers can't be wrong.

 

It's warm and autumnal and boozy and comforting -- I get red wine (which NEVER works on me!) and cardamom and clove and a teensy bit of vanilla. It's got good throw -- I only put a little on, and it kept wafting up to my nose, but it's not one of those really assertive scents where everyone around you is thinking "HOOOkay, that sure is some nice perfume that came up and smacked me in the nose!" I won't do a detailed scent review, partially because I forgot to take notes -- all I remember is being wrapped up in this lovely spicy deep warm scent that you could snuggle into like a big red blanket. I don't need more, but I will treasure my decant.

[Invidiana]

Wow, this is just wonderful and totally worth the wait. I lost it not once but twice on eBay (which I'm quitting for a couple months because I just have issues with eBay) and finally found a kind forumite who put her bottle on the chopping block. It was everything I hoped for and more: I was expecting spiced wine for sure, and the wine is not boozy at all but just a red-fruity base for the spices and pleasant hint of tartness from the citrus rind. What really came to the forefront on me that I just loved was the honey; thick, rich, golden honey that just blended perfectly with the rest. Thanks to this I've been inspired to hunt down a recipe for real gluhwein! It's going to be a very merry Christmas indeed

[heathercaley]

This is unlike any other wine scent that has been released! It's freaking amazing!

 

Once applied, I get a flash of sweet and rich red mulled wine (but not boozy) with honey and vanilla (non foody vanilla). The wine note is more of a sweet mulled berries. It's hard to explain how it's the perfect wine note on me! Usually wine can become a note of death, but not this! Not at all. This is bright, and sweet in the right way, with the spices mingling with the honey and the vanilla. It's got amazing throw too. This is easily in my top ten, and I am so happy that I was able to snag a bottle!

 

 

[Venneh]

This is definitely mulled wine in the decant, and absolutely beautiful. Now, we'll just see if that scent translates to my skin. Once on, this is mulling spices first and foremost, with the wine smoothing things out underneath. Barring any sudden changes, this one is probably going to the DISOs. Amazingly wonderful mulled wine scent; to the DISOs for sure.

Edited December 29, 2009 by Venneh

[thewondersmith]

Wine, cinnamon... a little clove, but not much. I've had mulled wine before, and this is fairly accurate, even if it's a lighter version. Dries down to a scent similar to Feast of the Greatly Revered, though a little more wearable. Nice, but that darned cinnamon amps ridiculous amounts

[CitizenBree]

If i was picking out notes without reading the list from Beth, I would say apple cinnamon, mulled wine, cloves and orange zest. It's very much like my favorite Glade candle that I light during Halloween and Christmas. That might not sound like a compliment, but it is. I really LOVE this scent. But I just don't see this being a perfume oil. This is a scent that to me is reserved as an atmosphere blend.

 

As it dries, more of the honey comes out, but it's still heavy on the cinnamon, which is not a scent I typically wear.

 

I really just want to lick this off my arm. I'm going to hold on searching for a bottle, but if they make it in an atmosphere spray I will for sure get some.

 

 

[Brianne]

This is WAY more wine-y than I was expecting - it's wine and then it's soft soft spices. But mostly it's like POW! WINE! - if you've smelled any wine BPAL blend, you know what to expect of their wine note - almost astringent going on, potent but mellows out into a softer, softly spiced wine note later on. This is exactly that BUT with added spice. It's pleasant, will make a nice scent around the cold months.

[Kiraze]

imp: mulled bit sour wine

 

wet: smells exactly like Scandinavian Christmas-time hot drink glög with cloves, cinnamon and whatever combo of spices makes that tasty drink that is poured hot over sweet raisins and almonds

 

dry: wine fades a bit and cinnamon and sweet raisins come to the front — this is not so Christmasy anymore but more balanced and pretty scent that fits equally well in tropical heat than in Nordic late autumn evenings

 

this is pretty long-lasting scent that keeps on morphing a bit with time and wine-notes seem to get back after some hours when sweetness fades in its turn to background. This is warm and spicy and happy scent and I am glad i got a bottle from eBay

[zombiewench]

Just received this today!

 

This is...delicious. Thick and warm and delicious.

 

I have also discovered I must amp honey, because the honey is REALLY strong on me. I get whiffs of cinnamon and wine and the slightest bit of vanilla at times, but mostly...it's the honey. I'm not sure this is a 'wear a lot' scent, but it certainly is a special occasion scent!

[saralaughs]

This is very beautiful and just wholly evocative of the concept. Lovely, dark berry-ish red wine sweetened with honey and vanilla. The spices only enhance how sweet this is instead of overpowering the blend. Very well blended and warm smelling.