Ho Ho Ho

[zankoku_zen]

Oh man, I'm kinda confused about what is in this thing --- I think it's pear and not apple, definitely cinnamon and some other spice, I get both the pine and a hint of wine as a base. It smells Christmassy and festive and like a party scent. Definitely has that red-brown-golden vibe to it.

 

Mmm. Tasty.

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

i had hoped for spiced apple cider.

 

sniffed from the decant - Wassail! that's the only thing my brain will register.

 

on me, this smells like a high-end, fancy, out-of-my-price-range Christmas gift shop. full of expensive potpourri and holiday decorations, and fragile glass oraments.... maybe even clippy thingies for real candles to go on a tree.

 

smells so familiar, but i can't quite place it!

 

it smells more like a fruity incense than apple cider. or possibly a fruitcake. i did a comparison and this smells more like fruitcake to me than last year's Fruitcake frimp did... a perfumey fruitcake.

 

all in all, i'm glad i got to try this, but i'm grateful that i don't need to hunt down a bottle!

[Ravenclaw79]

If there's any fruit in this, it's a bit of pear ... I'm not getting any apple, and I'm really not getting much of anything fruity at all. I'm getting dark and spicy, like smoke and holiday potpourri. It's not bad, but it's not cidery at all, either, at least not on me.

[Little Bird]

Ho Ho Ho is a really dark oil, like it has a thick red musk in it, but I can't really smell any red musk. This is very much a candle and red hots cinnamon type of scent on my skin, so I don't really care for it. It seems more like a cheap room scent than a personal scent. I get lots of sharp cinnamon spice and maybe some woodsmoke. I wish that I got the fruit or pine that others have mentioned, but it's pretty much all spices. In the drydown, Ho is like a dusty, sharp, holiday spice candle. It makes my head ache. My boy just made a face when I made him smell this one and said it smelled like holiday potpourri. I've been liking a lot of spice blends lately, but this isn't a winner for me.

Has gotten even spicier with age, but it's the exact type of cinnamon that I can't handle (sharp red hots candy type cinnamon). Headache inducing to the max.

Edited July 10, 2012 by Little Bird

[ifinena]

I was trying to remember what other bpal blend HoHoHo reminded me of. I finally realised that it's Pink Phoenix. No, they are nothing alike, but they do share a fruit note, at least to my nose. So from reading the description of Pink Phoenix I'm guessing it must be the pear that they have in common (although pears smell differently here ). If it weren't for the PP association, I would say the fruit is some kind of plum.

 

While wet it's a yummy, fruity, spicy blend with something dark lurking underneath. Maybe some kind of dark musk or red musk?

On dry down it's more dark and incense-y, almost smoky but not quite. And it lasts.

 

 

I like this a lot, a wonderful blend and I'm happy at least one of this year's exclusive scents works well on my skin. So glad I got a bottle of this!

Edited January 19, 2009 by ifinena

[jewelbug]

Bottle: Red/Purple fruits, with a bit of a spice—clove, perhaps? Kinda like that clovey note you get from some of the carnation blends.

 

Wet: lots of fruitiness—like a mulled plum wine. Also..there’s a very sweet almost floral scent…sorta like plumeria? I don’t get apple from this, but I can see how some thnk there is pear in here. My best guess is plum, though—lightly spiced plum wine and plumeria.

 

Dry: Same as above. Its very pleasant, and smells like a nice, lightly spiced fruity holiday candle-type scent. Very festive and homey. Very late in the drydown, I’m left with a vaguely sweet scent, much like the remnants of some of the honey blends on my skin.

 

Overall: I was so surprised to receive this at will call. The lab’s generosity towards it customers continues to astound me, and I love them for it. That said, I don’t think this particular scent is very “me.” I just don’t tend toward the fruity sweet (the creamy coffee sweetness of the Egg Nog Latte, though, that’s sweetness that I LURVE!).

Edited January 19, 2009 by jewelbug

[msbcozad]

Ho Ho Ho

 

OMG, I looooove this. Spiced pear yumminess. And then it mellows to some sort of smokiness with berries. I don't understand it, but it's wonderful.

[Lamia]

There is apple juice in here. And pear juice. Fresh on skin it smells like apple jucie penny candy. And eventually some mulling spices leap through.

 

Mostly, this smells like (once it settles down) a Holiday!Yankee Candle, but it's not the hideous chemical horror of a Yankee Candle, inducing headaches where'er it may burn. This is a fun scent, but not one for every day wearing. I love it good!

[hlinspjalda]

In the vial: This smells so cheerful and reassuring to me, like the cosy feeling of family at holiday time. Oh, and fruit. It smells rather like spiced pear and apple cider. The pear note isn't the usual pear note, though; it's more like a Bartlett than a Comice pear.

 

Wet: Oh, my, is this delicious on my skin! But there's something rather herbal in it. Is that maybe bayberry I'm getting?

 

Twenty minutes: A lot of fruit, a lot of spice, and that herbal note that might be bayberry. It's hovering close to scented candles territory, but not quite going over, so we'll see.

 

One hour: Still loving this. There also seems to be a floral in it now, maybe carnation -- or is that just clove? The fruit intensity has dropped way back, and it's no longer recognizable as apple or pear.

 

Two hours: I still quite like this although it has mutated a lot. Now it seems to be more spicy floral than anything else, but with some tangy fruit on the side.

 

Five hours: There's what seems like the remains of a deeply fruity scent, maybe wine or cider. Still something a little bit herbal. Not much of that spicy note left, though. This never went over to candles on me, and it always stayed pleasant and enjoyable.

 

[PurringPulsar]

Ho Ho Ho

 

In the imp: is there red musk in here? I swear I smell it, under the thick festive spices and apples and mulled wine.

Wet on skin: yup, there certainly is some red musk here. As well as evergreens, mulled cider and pears.

Dry on skin: cinnamon! Now I smell lots of dry, hot spice in here. This is a really sexy twist on the traditional Yuletide theme. You’ve got your spices-pomanders of orange and clove with cinnamon sticks and some ginger. You’ve got hints of pine/fir and the embers of a burnt Yule log. There’s something sweet here, like vanilla (though this isn’t very foody). There’s something fruity and boozy, somewhere between apple cider and pears cooked in mulled wine. And underneath it all is a sexy, almost incense-y red musk reminiscent of Marianne or the Grindhouse. Mmm. It also reminds me of Shango, but instead of a tropical fruit scent you have a festive winter fruit and spice blend.

After a while: ok, this is doing weird things. It smells more like Shango now…right down to the banana. Yes, I smell banana in here. And I’m not sure I like it. The musk scent has also gone really dry and gritty in scent, and reminds me of nag champa-which I like sometimes, but not in here. I love Marianne, but this seems to lean towards smelling like the Grindhouse, which I was not crazy about. i think one of the fruit notes, and the musk’s dryness, isn’t working out on me.

Verdict: I’m a bit glad that this one doesn’t work on me, because I don’t need to hunt down more of this, but on the other hand I’m a little saddened by how this didn’t work. At first I liked it and it was very promising-red musk and festive notes! Naughty smoky red musk with berries, apple cider, mulled wine, evergreens, sweet spices, pomanders…it’s a very sexy Christmas scent, and very aptly named! But unfortunately something in here goes wrong-the musk goes very dry and peppery (not in a good way-more like a ‘bad skin chem reaction’ way) and the fruit notes turn to overripe bananas! What a let down, after the lovely Yuletide-themed notes from before. Oh well, at least I won’t need to track this one down in swaps and Ebay!

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? sadly, no.

[Phaedra]

Wet this is fruity, sweet and spicy. It's very familiar, like holly berries or poinsettias. There's a touch of evergreen in the background. When first on this is much lighter overall. It's a mix of winter fruits and spices, maybe cinnamon and cloves. Very complex. There is a hint of marzipan too I think. After a few hours this has softened a bit but it's still fairly strong. There's a little creaminess now too. On the dry down this is a lovely mix of berries, spices, fruit and evergreens. After wearing this several times, I realized that it reminds me of Midwinter's Eve so maybe this has plum in it? This is such a lovely, complex scent evocative of the Christmas season. I love it! Thank you so much to the Lab and Shelldoo for such a wonderful gift!

[quigza]

Due to a wretched allergy to cinnamon, I cannot try this on. So, I will sniff as I can.

 

In bottle: OMG pear & apple cider. With cloves & cinnamon

 

Wet on paper: It really reminds me of Wyder's pear cider & Hornsby's amber draft mixed and prepared Xmassy-traditional. There's a note of something else... nuts? Cream? And evergreen... more fir than pine.

 

Dry on paper: See above, but with a kind of cinnamon inscence kick to it. And, somewhere in there was a bit of mint.

Coworker says there's sandalwood (I have trouble registering sandalwood- so i believe him)

 

Though the cinnamon hurts me to sniff. It is quite lovely. *goes to take benedryl*

[sookster]

straight sniff from imp is lotsa red musk...

 

once applied, sho' nuff...red musk with some wine-like characteristics...a touch of spice...

a fun scent for the yuletide season

[aquazoo]

This is a lovely holiday scent, like Tintagel gone right. It's a mulled pear, warming up on the kitchen stove.

[tartchef]

Hrm. Yes, pear, evergreen, mulling spices, maybe a slosh of red wine... sadly, Ho Ho Ho goes horribly commercial-holiday-scented-candle-cinnamon-pinecone-wreath-pluuuuurb on me. It was nice enough in the vial, but a chemical disaster on my skin

[tielan]

Got a bottle of this today!

 

It smelled faintly pine in the bottle, went cinnamon and gingerbread wet, then pear and spices in the drydown, and is now smelling like a kitchen in which gingerbread was cooked (and eaten) several hours ago, with the balcony windows open and the scent of fresh-chopped pine boughs over it all.

 

Definitely intriguing, although it seems to burn off really fast. I'll have to try this solo next time. (I've got Egg Nog Latte on my other wrist, and the coffee is amping all over my skin.)

 

eta: and now it's gone back to pear and spices! *shakes head* Seriously chameleon!

Edited April 28, 2009 by Tielan

[BuxomM]

This reminds me of tintagel. It's pine needles, spice, and some red fruit or berry.

[Invidiana]

This is a beautiful melange of all things Christmas: red berries, holiday spices and warm woods with whiffs of evergreen and cookies baking in the background. It's basically everything you'd expect to find and smell in a warm and cozy house on Christmas Eve.

[Kimocean]

I pulled this out today to see how it has aged and because I was feeling in the mood for a holiday scent. It has darkened up a bit since last year and is less aggressively fruity to my nose. As many of the reviews have noted, it's a spicy mulled cider scent with definite presence of pear and a hint of pine. I also get a good dose of ginger that seems a little stronger than I remember it from last year. It's super yummy but is a little reminiscent of a Christmas Candle so I hesitate to wear it too often on my skin. It's great in the oil burner though!

[milo]

Wet, I get a lot of fruity spiced red berry, I think. Not much different from wet to dry, just a beautiful perfectly blend. This is very reminiscent of Countess Willie, but the Chocolate note is not here, and I get maaaybe a bit of pear. Very nice and yes, it would be perfect for the Christmas season.

[milica]

This is one of those scents that reaaaaly went wrong on me. I've been reading reviews and my guess would be the wine or berry note, since I tend to ruin that kind of scents, lots of them go sour on me and nothing more. So this had some kind of pine note and that sourness and nothing else.

[crazyredhead17]

In the bottle: Winey, almost.

 

Wet: Red, spices (more like mulling spices).

 

After a few minutes: Not sure where the wine went (not really a problem).. it's shifting into a vaguely fruity cider. Can sniff a bit of pine in the background.

 

It really is like Christmas in a wee little bottle.

 

Although.. after sitting for a fair bit of time on my wrist, it's settling into just about all cinnamon, with a little bit of pine. Rats.

[Venneh]

This is some kind of red fruit and spices, like a Christmas candle.

[killerklown]

This one is difficult to place! It's red and spicy and has a bit of pine to it and something else I can't identify. Very festive, it reminds me of a Christmas shop!

[saralaughs]

Defiintely spiced fruit, some red wine, pine, and a bit of musk, maybe. This is almost like a less sweet, 'lighter on everything' Gluhwein. I LOVE Gluhwein and I don't see a need in my collection for something like this, nice as it is.