Mari Lwyd

[Yuurei]

Welsh cakes and ale with a smattering of dried lavender.

In the bottle: Sweet baked smell with the faintest wafts of a boozy note and lavender.

Wet on skin: The lavender pushes its way to the forefront, that baked smell lingering behind it. The ale is there too, but you have to pick it out.

Dry down: Toasty baked lavender goodness, kind of like scones almost but not especially sweet ones. With lavender sprinkled on top.

Verdict: I liked this a lot. It's a very cozy, comforting sort of scent, a curl up on the couch in a warm blanket with a cup of tea and good book on a rainy day type smell. Calming and homey without being dull, to my mind.

[miss_rynn]

This scent confused me at first, but the longer it is on the skin the more sense it makes. It's a whole lot fresher and brighter than I thought it would be. I was originally picking up the lavender note as a tea note; it's not a harsh, medicinal lavender, but more like the kind of dried lavender that you'd keep in your knicker drawer to keep everything faintly scented. It reminds me of the lavender and lemon shortbread cookies I made as a wedding favour for a friend's wedding - not too sweet, a little herbal, and a little citrus. The ale isn't heavy or yeasty or overpowering; it's a bit more like a wheat beer than a standard beer. The sweetness I'm getting is more from the cakes than the lavender. It feels to me like it's in the same family as Mother Shub's Stygian Nougat (my favourite Yule scent ever), even though they smell entirely different. I think the lavender between the two is similar. In any case, sweet without being cloying, wheat ale rather than dark or yeasty, dried lavender instead of madicinal. Well worth a try!

Edited December 10, 2014 by Celrynnya

[annemathematics]

I blind bought this because I am painfully in love with 2014 feeding the dead. beer + cakes + incense. so beer + cakes + lavender went into my cart instantly.

 

Mari Lwyd is closer kin to eat me than she is to feeding. very rich very sweet cake. very sweet and juicy lavender (more of a big purple berry or bursting concord grape---> BIG JUICY PURPLE. PURRRRRRPLE!)

 

so I like this, but as I came to it with my own [wrong] expectations, I'm still getting to know it on its own terms and feeling out if it's really ME. also this review reflects a scent that came out of the mailbox not 12 hours ago, so I have yet to see how and if it shifts as it settles in.

 

but for you foodies who like your sweet, buttery rich cake scents, keep your eyes and ears on this one. she might be the yule you are looking for.

[velvet]

Upon the initial application it smells like a cheap candle, and I have a bad track record with the lab's lavender scents. In less than a minute, the scent shifts pretty dramatically and the cakes start to come to the front. Now it's starting to smell like I imagined. A nice cask ale and welsh cakes. The lavender has almost disappeared. I currently optimistic. We'll see how it goes!

Sadly the lavender over powered the cake and beer. Into the swaps :-/

Edited December 29, 2014 by velvet

[tyche]

I'm very glad I got a blind bottle of this. The cake scent is strong in the bottle, but mellows quickly to a pleasant sweetness. The lavender is lovely. I notice the ale only briefly, and to me it is similar to yeast scent while making a sweet bread dough. So Mari Lwyd makes me think of rolling out King Cake dough - we'll say the lavender is the purple sprinkles!

[Shealynne]

Something went very much wrong with this on me. It might have a note in common with Punkie Night of all things, which similarly went bad with me.

[Aviatrix]

At first I get a lot of the herbal lavender and the cake. As it settles into my skin, I'm getting mostly sweet, sweet cake and a little bit of ale, with the lavender firmly in the background.

It dries down to a sweet, slightly booze scent, with an almost fruity quality to it. No lavender anymore.

 

I was very glad the lavender behaved in this, as lavender has a tendency to go headachy and too sharply herbal on me. Not this time, though!

 

I really like this, it is very festive and happy, and I can definitely see the Yule quality to it. I will cherish my decant, but it's probably a bit too cakey for me to need a big bottle after all.

[JasminDreams2010]

This was a surprise hit! I'm normally into dark vanilla resins or exotic florals. I'm not always into the foodie stuff and I wouldn't have picked this out for myself. So I was really surprised when I got a free tester of it from a forumite and loved it so much I had to order a whole bottle. It's fairy cakes! With herbal, soft non-old-lady-lavender and flirty booze. So to me this smells like a fairy party in a bottle. Surprise win!

Edited January 8, 2015 by JasminDreams2010

[reconditarmonia]

(This was the Yule scent whose description grabbed me the most!)

 

Ooooh. I can definitely smell the similarity to Knave of Hearts in the pastry, but there's also a very true lavender at first application. I think I get the ale too, but more as a feeling than as "yup, that's beer." Can't smell the lavender as much as it dries; I'll have to test it again to be sure (I did just take it out of the mailbox during a terrible cold snap) but if the lavender stays, this'll be a bottle purchase.

 

Edit: Aha, that's what the fruity scent is - currants or something. No wonder it's so like Knave! But I think I can still smell some of the lavender, and either way, it's very nice. Bottle!

Edited January 12, 2015 by reconditarmonia

[lady_pandora]

I had to try Mari Lwyd because I've always been drawn to the story of Rhiannon and to a sort of "wandering mother" archetype in general.

 

This starts out with a burst of buttery, boozy cake. The lavender comes out a few minutes later to balance it out. It works really well--the lavender keeps the cake from being cloying; the cake keeps the lavender from being medicinal.

 

It settles down to smell like bread baked with lavender. Mmmm. I think the ale note is registering as bread instead. I don't know if I want to smell like this, but I certainly wish I could eat it. It smells like wonderful hippie bread that someone might bring to a ritual.

 

Then it starts doing that burnt smell I always get from the buttery/cakey scents. Dammit, skin, this is why we can't have nice things. I get it. No more cake scents. The throw gets beerier on me, too, and I don't care for the smell of beer that much unless I'm actually drinking it.

 

This would be really great on someone else, though.

 

(ETA: I too can smell a resemblance to Stygian Nougat. But SN works better on me because of the lack of cake.)

 

(ETA II: Later it turns into kind of an indistinct somewhat bready cloud. Not unpleasant, but not blowing me away.)

Edited January 9, 2015 by lady_pandora

[BoneBone24]

Wet: Darkly sweet and kind of dry. Sort of like toffee, but not as saccharin.

 

Drydown: Dark, almost dusty, and subtly sweet. There’s a happy herbalness that brightens and contrasts with the other notes, although it oddly doesn’t read as lavender to me. As it continues to dry a purple fruit note becomes apparent. Plum or raisin maybe?

 

Dry: Boozier now, the ale and raisin-type note blending together like a rummy syrup. There’s still a crumbly sort of dustiness to it, but the lavender has disappeared. Pleasant and unique. Crumbly, purple, syrupy, dry, and soft.

 

 

 

7 out of 10 bones

Edited January 9, 2015 by BoneBone24

[doomsday_disco]

In the imp: Sweet cake and lavender. I am not really getting any ale from the imp.

Wet: Same, but even sweeter than it was in the imp. It is very purple with almost a syrup-like quality to it. I can't help wondering if there is some kind of fruit inside these cakes, or if it is just the combination of the cake and the lavender. *looks up Welsh Cakes* Ah, it must be currants. There is a bit of ale in the background. I didn't expect this scent to be so fruity!

Dry: Still mostly fruity cake and lavender. The lavender reads as a dried lavender to my nose now. The ale is more prominent in the dry stage, making the cake note seem a bit more bread-like.

Verdict: I was really hoping to like this one (cake and lavender!), but this scent was too fruity for my liking.

Edited January 12, 2015 by dementia_divine

[zankoku_zen]

On wet, this smells like lavender beer, which is actually a much more pleasant smell that I would have thought possible. You have lavender, hops, and a hint of beery fizz. Unfortunately, it dries to a dry cake with a slight beer note and some raisins. Which would probably be incredibly pleasant to chew on, but I find myself longing for the wet stage and the oddly comforting lavender beer. Average throw, average wear length.

 

While I would consider this foodie, I think the lavender aspects keep it from being all foodie all the time.

 

Cake, lavender, beer.

[theseagrows]

i am not a foody scent person, but i like edible floral stuff like violet/lavender/rose candy or cakes, so that's what drew me to this one. i can definitely smell baked goods and florals in the decant. on my skin it's a slightly toasty baked scent and lavender with a bit of sourness from the ale. it kind of smells like cakey-lavender bubble gum? then the ale comes out more and it's like...beer and lavender. interesting. i think i'm amping the ale and something is goind a bit plasticky...i think i will be swapping this one.

[HerbGirl]

This is a purple version of Eat Me...no lavender in sight, which is a disappointment because i love lavender.

I was worried about the ale but it doesn't show up on my skin.

I thought i wanted to sell this but, even though it wasn't what i was hoping for, it still smells great and is different enough to keep!

[thekittenkat]

NOTE: Welsh cakes are made from flour, sultanas, raisins, and/or currants, and may also include such spices as cinnamon and nutmeg. (from the wiki)

In the bottle: Welsh cakes and bright lavender.

Wet: Welsh cakes w/ lavender buds.

The dry-down: This really doesn't morph. There's also a touch of cinnamon. A little too much lavender for me at the moment, but hopefully aging will help w/ that. This wasn't on my radar, but testing at WC changed my mind. Could be a nice sleep scent.

 

ETA There is a batch variation, as I bought a bottle at WC that is more sweet cake and less the heady lavender.

Edited June 21, 2015 by thekittenkat

[lucycat]

Only in the imp do I smell the beer, and only briefly. This is mostly smooth pastry, with lavender appearing after a moment.

 

Wet: Pastry with a burst of bright lavender.

 

On my arm, Mari Lwyd is primarily lavender, smoothed out by the pastry note, which keeps it from being harsh. It’s not a very sweet blend, which is appropriate because Welsh cakes aren’t very sweet.

 

On my hand, the currant in the Welsh cakes really blooms, and mixes with the lavender. It’s reminiscent of Eat Me here, though less rich.

 

I had to try this, because I grew up eating Welsh cakes and wanted to see what a perfume recreating them would be like.

 

The currant becomes stronger and stronger as this dries down. I should have guessed that would happen; currant does the same thing on my skin in Eat Me and Knave of Hearts.

[milo]

There's this certain foody cake note that the lab puts out that I just don't like. And here it is. Again. There is something fake about it, like packaged cake. This only lasts for a bit, though, and then something uber fruity comes out along with a touch of cake. The lavender makes a brief appearance at the beginning, but disappears quickly, drowned out by the black currant. Definitely not for me.

[vthesiren]

I'm super-glad I got to try this, but on drydown, this turns into straight-up GRAPE!!! candy. Pez, to be precise. Alas.

[tinyvulture]

Buttery, rich baked goods. At first, smells so much like pineapple upside-down cake. Welsh cakes apparently contain currants, but I'm not getting that. I'm not picking up any lavender either, but Celryanna said lavender tea in her review, and I can see that. A nice foodie blend, actually similar to Stygian Nougat, but I think I prefer Stygian Nougat because its lavender note is more pronounced. Oh, and I don't notice any beer at any point, if you're worried about that.

[d0gbones]

In the bottle: Sweeet, sweet sugar

Wet: Cakes! A hint of beer

Dry: Sweet, lovely raisin cakes. I think the sweetness is probably bulked out by the lavender, which usually makes me feel queasy, but it's not identifiable AS lavender to me. That alone would usually put me off, but I'm Welsh and massively into folklore so this was a Christmas gift from my parents. I remember saying when I opened it that it reminded me of opening new My Little Ponies on Christmas morning

 

Added bonus, this sticks around for ages. One application will do me all day and night.

Edited June 3, 2015 by d0gbones

[Little Bird]

I don't get much cake or beer from my decant of this. It's an herbal, sharp, cool lavender, almost musky smelling, with a sweet, fruity undertone. Light and clean.

[izile]

Tried the 2016 Yule edition.

 

In the decant: a healthy dose of herbal lavender and a strong sweet cake.

 

On the skin: Not a lot of booze, and the cake isn't too sweet, has some nice character, and the lavender helps balance it out without being too astringent

 

Dry: The lavender wins, but is soft and pleasant, and the cake is in the background adding some nice mellow sweetness and depth, never got the ale. Nice, but not sure I want to smell like lavender cake.

[LizziesLuck]

2016 version

 

Wet: Boozy lavender cake! So basically as advertised. The booze burns off really quickly, and the lavender is much stronger than the cake note. It's almost astringent.

 

 

Dry: There's a really weird, almost plasticy note happening here. I am not as big a fan of this as I thought I would be. Sadly I think it's just not great on my skin chem, and is not the lavender cake scent I dreamed of.

[gloame]

Oh dear, this starts very vinegar on me. It tones down as it dries, and then it's a strange, almost confusing, blend of lavender and bread. There is something sweet to it, but the vinegar never quite completely leaves. It's not a bad vinegar, it's just, I feel like a salad.

 

Alas, not for my chemistry, but so glad I tried it because I've been thinking of it since I missed it in the 2014 go-round.

 

ETA 7/12/17: I'm so freaking glad I didn't add this to swaps right away because now that it's had time to settle, I am ALL OVER this scent. The vinegar that I hated at first is GONE. What's left is a beautiful, sweet lavender. There's still an unusualness to this scent, but it's so freaking good. I'll need another bottle if this comes out again in future Yules.

Where I'd wear this: The first week of December, when I'm starting to get that "omgosh the holidays are coming up!" feeling

Edited July 13, 2017 by gloame