The Gift

[Silvertree]

Golden amber and mahogany with frankincense, ho wood, and frothed white honey.

The Gift is a warm, radiant scent. It glows softly but surely--a burnished golden fragrance that is strong but not overwhelming. I was worried that the honey might be too sweet or gooey, but the wood notes keep both the honey and amber from getting too sticky or powdery. It's the olfactory equivalent of sitting in front of a gently crackling fireplace on a chilly night (without any of the bonfire/burning scent associations, if that makes sense). Or maybe snuggling up under the covers with someone you love--waves of comforting, cozy body heat. Truly lovely.

[yakiguri]

I agree that The Gift is a soft, radiant, body heat kind of scent. On my skin the amber and woods are dominant but soft. The white honey provides an underpinning of sweetness, and while every now and then it and the amber fight for who can shout the loudest I'm sure this will be smoothed out with age.

 

If you like your woods on the sweeter, lighter, and brighter end of the spectrum The Gift wouldn't be a bad choice.

[Dark Alice]

The amber and honey in this is luscious. Warm, dripping, and just wonderful. The wood is soft, non-intrusive and perfect. This will age like a champ. I foresee a bottle purchase in the future.

[Aviatrix]

This is a honeyed wood scent on me - it feels very refined, and the wood is warm and beautiful. Honey often doesn't work on me, but this one is kept firmly in check.

There is a gilded background of resins as well, which lends further warmth to the scent.

 

This is very beautiful if you love woody notes!

[SophieCedar]

WHOAMYGOD.. this scent rules. Its all sexy musky amber and red/golden wood with a gorgeous sweetness. Whatever frothing does to honey, I would like that done to myself, please. It apparently makes all the difference.

[Elspethdixon]

Wet, this smells a little musty/sharp and not at all sweet - like slightly chemically wood polish, maybe? - It's the first honey blend other than Skuld that's gone slightly unpleasant on me when wet, though nowhere near as unpleasant at the horrible wet stage of Skuld. Thankfully, knowing that Skuld morphs from sour, musty horribleness to honey-drenched floral sweetness once it dries gave me the hope to persevere in case The Gift did the same thing.

 

*spoiler* It totally does the same thing. After a few minutes drying on my skin, the sharp sourness morphs into a sticky-sweet honey note that's amazingly realistic. I get no Frankincense and very little wood, just honey, honey, honey. Not much throw, but that might be a good thing or bees would start following me around. (Not actually a joke - my parents keep bees, and my mother has had to abandon several floral-scented shampoos because they caused bees to try and and land on her head to fetch nectar from her hair)

 

Sadly, the honey fades after only an hour-and-a-half to two hours, leaving a very faint, close-to-the-skin amber-powder (the sweet-warm, barely detectable without pressing your nose directly to your skin, scent-residue most amber tends to fade down to on me) with just a hint left of honey. Reapplying it more heavily at lunch time got me about an hour-and-a-half more of the same delicious sticky-sweet honey, and proved that putting it on my clothing doesn't produce the same "cracking open a beehive" effect that applying it on my skin does.

 

Wonderful while it lasts, but I'm going to have to deathmatch this against some of my longer-lasting honey scents like O before springing for a bottle.

[Little Bird]

The Gift is so strange. I was surprised that the oil itself is red, and it smells exactly like champagne on me. It's all fizzy, bubbly, bright, white, boozy champagne. Slightly sweet and slightly fruity in the way that champagne is. As it dries down, it's much the same, but a baby powdery amber joins the mix. I don't know what that champagne thing is - maybe the frothed honey? But this doesn't smells like honey, resins or woods on me at all. It's bright, boozy, and way too powdery for me.

[zankoku_zen]

Wood, amber, and a touch of honey. This is a very burnished wood blend, but I have to same that somehow the combination wood+amber+honey smells slightly peanut buttery to me. I'll chalk this up to something that just doesn't work with my skin chemistry.

[unxolve]

Wet: Oooooh mmmmmmmmhmmm shouldn't have doubted myself on this one. Honey, wood, amber you are all notes made of magic and goodness. God I could roll around in this all day. Honey, honey, honey tempered by a beautiful wood, like someone spilled a vat of honey over a polished wooden table. Must be the mahogany!

 

Drying: Honeyyyyyyyyy. and something sweet and warm and just nice. JUST A NICE THING.

 

But that first stage was a trip.

[lookingglass]

Oh! I was expecting this to be way more funky with the ho wood and honey, but it's not at all! It's a soft, pretty, creamy skin scent, but not as sexual as say, O (GC sweet amber w/out wood). I'm not really getting a lot of wood! I would guess beeswax, vanilla, amber, and a touch of wood, if I didn't know differently. It's like if The (Not So) Penitent Mini Magdalene and Some Strangeness in the Proportion had a baby in the springtime! It sits close to, and fades quickly on my skin. It'll be nice to wear around the house during the day when I know I'm going to wear something else that night that amps to high hell. I believe it will layer very well, too.

[chrisann]

I LOVE this! It's one of my favorite Lupers of this year. All the notes meld together in a lovely, warm, radiant skinscent. None of the notes dominate. They just dance dreamy on my skin. I smell huggable. Back up bottle worthy for sure! ❤️

[Jenjin]

 

Blind bottle purchase from the forum. Looking for the perfect amber.

 

IN THE BOTTLE:

Slight wood with a boozy back.

WET:

Pink oil! Whoa-there's the mahogany and what I can detect as Japanese wood. The honey, frank and amber aren't stepping up yet.

DRY:

Rich and sexy. The resins and honey blossom after dry down becoming a glowing, throbbing ember of gold.

NOTES:

This is one of those oils that becomes part of the skin. Sinking down and becoming another level of musk that accentuates and enhances the body's natural scent. Maybe i'm stretching it a bit, but this could quite possibly be the lab's greatest woody amber accomplishment. There is no sourness, bitterness or sharpness to The Gift. The honey notes never go overly sweet while heating up the wood as the "frothing' moves slowly and deeply toward ecstasy.

RATING:

10+

 

[Casablanca]

A deep reddish-orange oil with immediate standout notes of golden amber, wood, and a delicate honey. This is beautiful and warm-toned, welcoming as a comfortable wood-panelled room. I can't tell the mahogany and ho wood apart, but they make a lovely combined wood note, and the scant frankincense reads more to me as a grainy wood texture here than an incense, for which I'm grateful.

Glad I got this.

[roseus]

When the Lupers first hit this didn't grab my attention, but the reviews have been rather enticing so I went for it in a swap. At first I would think this would be a rich, heavy, warm scent more suited to cooler months, but while it is rich and warm it is certainly not heavy. The woods are smooth and warm, and a really light hand with the frank added a little bit of depth and texture. The honey is really light, which is fine by me since I have had some traumatic experiences with it. As others have mentioned I did find it a little sharp when wet. I am really excited to see how this ages! I find this really complimentary to the natural scent of skin, and will be good on the sweltering summer days you can't beat, as well as going into cool fall days.

Edited June 20, 2016 by roseus

[Lucchesa]

The Gift is lovely -- warm amber, cozy woods and pale honey. Frankincense always has a dry, woody feel to me, and I am not able to differentiate it here -- there is none of the sharpness it usually brings. It seems to just be adding to the woods. No throw (which is pretty normal on me) and somewhat shorter than average wear length on my skin, but again, it's lovely.