Skadi

[Lucretia]

The Snow-Shoe Goddess, Giantess, the Norse embodiment of winter. Frost-rimed winter berries, crisp pine needle, and a slush of bright snowy notes.

sad sad sad... not at all the wintery walk I was hoping for. First on I loved it, but after about a minute the pine lost all it's tartness and all I got was an all too sweet and sugary smell. I think in terms of pine I'll need to go for one without any florals to sweeten it up, cause my skin just blows them out of proportion.

[Dianella]

This oil was interesting. I didn't really get the snow notes that people have been mentioning and I got am almost spicey note as I wore the scent. I kept thinking why do I smell spice? and I'd realize it was me. It's nice, I think I have to reconceive my perception of this scent though.

[fallow deer]

Hmm - I'm slightly on the fence about Skadi.

 

Out of the bottle, a very promising piney smell but something's catching my throat. Wearing, Skadi starts bright pine with the berries coming through gradually.

 

However, my throat is becoming decidedly sore and the scent feels very sharp and slightly flat. My chemistry's not doing awful things and making Skadi smell bad, but its certainly not helping her to bloom like others have described.

 

Also, Skadi didn't last long at all, maybe three hours. I'm going to try again in a week since the pine and berry combination is lovely, and the sore throat may just be the start of a cold.

[Amazon]

Skadi:

 

In the bottle, pine and something else...hard to determine through the pine.

 

On, wet, it is a deep, chill pine and some grapefruit coming through the background. Just lovely, even though the pine is a bit heavy.

 

Dry down, still pine, but the grapefruit is there more and now you can get some of the berries peeking through.

 

Dry, what a beautiful blend of berries and pine. The scent has actually warmed up from the intial chill feel to a warm winter feel.

 

I love this scent!!! I will be wearing this quite often this winter and I will pray Beth makes this again next year!

 

Thank you Beth!!

[Nadirah]

Theres berry peppermint coming out of the bottle. As it becomes one with my skin it seems to magnify. I feel the cool winter breeze in this but theres that berry that seems to be making it unenjoyable. It almost has a spicey berry note in this, but I'm not sure what that is. This is a very wonderful perfume for someone else, not me. I want to enjoy it but the berry keeps slapping me in the face.

edited to add, its really good, I think I need to be in the right mood to wear it.

Edited December 29, 2004 by Nadirah

[helarctos]

In the bottle, it smelled like a strong but standard winter mix of pine and berries. Don't give up yet! When I put it on, a warm sweet scent developed. The closest thing to which I can liken this addition is pineapple, of all things.

 

Stays yummy all day, too.

[kimmer]

OHMIGOD

 

I don't know how Beth does it, but this scent truly is winter (of the northern variety) in a bottle. I see snow-covered pine trees, laced with strung cranberries. Such a beautiful blend.

 

When I was a kid, my family moved from Minnesota to California. My Mom would have loved a scent like this (she'd like it now, too, but I'm keeping it)

 

Skadi is a crisp, beautiful blend--I love it. I hope this one comes back next year.

 

Thanks Beth and the Labbies

[Penance]

Origin:

 

I didn't order this (foolish me) because I thought it sounded too similar to Ice Queen which I had bought 2 bottles of, so I got a 5mL of this from Sigh.

 

First sniff:

 

Why did I have to order Ice Queen instead of Skadi?! WHY?! This is so unbelieveably gorgeous. I smell pine right out of the bottle, but, unlike Mistletoe, it's mixed with spicy winter berries. I don't normally like berry scents, but...how to describe this...it's an unberry-like berry scent. The pine in this balances it out and I swear, there's something spicy in here. This is Christmas in a bottle, but in a different way than Mistletoe is. This one's like sitting around the family Christmas tree with a mug of mulled cider while Mistletoe is like traipsing through the snow looking for the perfect tree. Skadi is warm and comoforting where Mistletoe is invigorating and clean.

 

Wet on skin:

 

The berries are the most prominent note now, drowning out the pine needle. There's something in this that's reacting to my skin in the same way that Samhain did when it was wet, walking the line between beauty and cleaning fluid, although it may very well be that my hormones are making this go wonky since it is that time of the month. I'm sure it'll go away though because the first time I tested this, it didn't do this.

 

Dry down:

 

Just as I figured, the cleaning fluid stage has passed and now I'm left with gorgeous winter berries and crisp pine needle and a hint of something that (I have no idea how Beth does it) smells exactly like slushy snow. This is so beautiful I can't even begin to descibe it. I really don't like berries as perfume, but this isn't the sweet kind of berry I'm used to, it's more spicy and slightly tart and it perfectly compliments the pine needle in this. I think this may very well be my favorite of all the Yule LE's!

 

The bottom line:

 

Pure Christmas warmth and happiness in a bottle. I love everything about this scent and I'm definitely regretting not getting a few bottles of this when I had the chance. This is perfect!

[LupaWulf]

My first review. Wooo!

I had really been dying to try this, and was luckey enough to find someone from the alchemylab LJ who went to the Black Broom for me, picked up a bottle, and mailed it to me (*hugs to Maria!!*) Thanks again!!!

 

On first sniff from the bottle I was a little apprehensive. VERY strongly of winter bushes- my first thought were the boxwood wreiths or clippings found around XMas time as decorations, with overtones of normal evergreen.

 

I dipped it on, and as it dried I could smell the pine disappearing into the background slowly. As pine/boxwood starts to move into the background I can smell berries lightly- not really fruity berries, but more like winterberries. That lingers a little bit as a pleasent smell- makeing me think of watering the Christmas Tree in the mornings.

 

Sort of hard to describe, spices that make me think of the holiday start to show up now. Cinnamin, sweet pine, and something else underneath that I just can not place.

 

When I sniff and close my eyes, all I can think of is sitting in my mom's living room and reading The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve.

 

Really a traditional New England winter scent! I do love it!

 

I find it has good staying power as well on my skin.

[Arafel]

Skadi

 

in the bottle - a heady pine, no doubt of that, but gentle in a way. A feminine way, that's bright and fresh. New. Dewy. The smell of the snow mid-day in the silence of the forest, sparkling and shining.

 

 

wet - the berries are so ripe, it's as if I'm standing in a patch of thick Norwegian forest, rays of sunlight making their way through here and there through the thick growth of pine, the trees heavily laden with snow. Every now and then a crash breaks the silence as a sheet of snow breaks from the bough of a tree, echoing in the silence.

 

dry down 15 minutes later - the berries are so warm and sun kissed, but newly warm as the frost is slowly dripping off them. I picture the snow shoes of Skadi as she trudges through the thick snow, the crunching and squeaking. Though frosty and warmed by the sun, there's a feminine muskiness to this. As if the energy and warmth of Skadi's skin is radiating from her and making the frosty motes in the air dance. The pine is still present, but gently so, as the trees have stopped leaning over to watch, knowing their trespasser is one with them, a Goddess, who knows their language, and they need not worry. It's a breathy sigh of relief from them, their boughs still heavy with sparkling snow that's now crusty and icy.

 

I-am-in-love. Utterly. I will use this sparingly I love it so. She's strong and silent, though if she opens her mouth can conjure an avalanche. There's a dance to the berries and snow, the pine singing a gentle song. I am damned glad I bought this!!

[ChupaChup]

I got an imp of Skadi from aessedai in a swap. I didn't order it initially because strong pine doesn't really appeal to me and berries sound too fruity. But after reading all the reviews, I was dying of curiousity. In the vial and fresh on my skin, I don't like it, the pine needle scent is too strong, a little Pinesol-y. But then the pine mellows and the berries appear, just like everyone has said, the berries aren't sweet and fruity, they are tart and spicy. There is nothing sharp about this blend, it's all round and smooth, unbelievable considering the notes in it. It's positively addicting, another work of art! I hope Beth brings it back next year.

[shadow]

This does feel a bit like Dublin to me, but it comes off brighter, cleaner, a little sweeter - I'm guesing that's the berries. Dublin goes thicker and almost carnation spicy on me. The first time I tried it, I didn't think I was going to like it because it does have a bit of cleaning solution on me right out of the bottle. Fortunately it doesn't take too long for it to melt into my skin and become something beautiful. I'm very glad I got this, it's wonderful and bright. I wore it tonight to a New Year's party and was very pleased as it's pleasant but not overpowering.

[babykitty]

Skadi is beautiful! Evergreen then berries, but not summer sweet juicy overripe berries. Kind of King of Spades berry. The evergreen is still there after the dry down. I just wished it lasted a bit longer. It's a more wearable fragrance than Mistletoe.

The more I rub my nose on my wrist the more it reminds me of KoS.

 

I'm very, very pleased.

[summer]

I don't even know how to describe this, but I feel compelled to review it anyway, becuase I love it so much. At first, it's most definitely an invigorating rush of evergreens. Not Pine-Sol-esque in the slightest -- just crisp, pure, and chilly. But the enigmatic thing about this fragrance is that it's SO multidimensional -- something behind the crisp evergreen scent makes the blend somehow sweet . . . and warm. I cannot even begin to fathom what it is or what to compare it to. I'm totally bewildered by it. All I know is that I LOVE this fragrance. Something about it just smells RIGHT and WONDERFUL. It blends so well with my skin chemistry that I actually forget I'm wearing perfume! It's perfectly blended, smooth, and seamless -- a fresh, sweet, clean, warm scent that smells like you'd want your clean, shiny hair to smell after a brisk walk in the winter sun.

 

Of all the Yule LEs, this is the one I wish I had 5 huge bottles of.

[Lady_Ell]

Skadi - oooooh weird, this one doesn't stay the same long enough for me to figure out what's in it. In the bottle it smells like wet snow and pine/juniper (i.e. beautiful) and as it dries a very wet-cold smell comes out and the pine dissipates. Now it smells sweet/cinnamony and wet snow, with a pale wood undercurrent and something red-berry-ish.

 

I'm smelling more and more like a holiday craft store... not auspicious.

 

5 minutes later... WTF? Now the pine is back. With red berries and a baking sugar cookie (sprinkled with cinnamon) undercurrent.

 

Verdict on skin after an hour: not OK - turns into bad craft store smell (a lot of oils do this on me, unfortunately)

 

Verdict in new oil burner: what it's supposed to smell like (wet snow and pine and berries). Will keep for now as a room scent.

[shriekingviolet]

Initial Impression:

Very clean, crisp outdoorsy scent

 

After Wearing It:

Wet, this very much smelled like a walk in a park during winter. Not really cold, but certainly not warm. The pine was particularly strong, and while I appreciated the scent, I'm not really an outdoorsy type of gal so I wasn't expecting to like this one. Fortunately, winthin half an hour, the scent started to change. The pine backed off and the blend sweetened, the beerries coming through, though subtly. Those who have said Skadi smells like Dublin are totally right. This has the same wet & fresh, yet slightly tangy and sweet green smell that I fell in love with in Dublin, but with berries instead of white rose. So cheerful and lovely!

 

After the scent dried, Skadi no longer reminded me of a winter walk, but one in early spring. It made me think of budding life, of that time of the year when the trees are preparing to bloom again and nature is struggling to throw off the mantle of winter. It's hopeful and full of life, yet pale and quiet.

 

Final Thoughts:

I loved this, though it's not my usual style. Not sure how much I'll wear it, but I'll certainly treasure my bottle as it's absolutely gorgeous.

[shelldoo]

Just got this today from an ebay auction. I was so excited ot get it on.

 

In the bottle: Evergreen of some sort. I love the piney scents so I became even more excited

 

wet: Still some sort of evergreen but something sweet lurking in the background.

 

drydown: Beautiful. The pine scent mellows and lets some of the sweet berries creep in. There is definitely a mulled spices smell too but very very faint. A gorgeous gorgeous winter scent. It is my favorite of all the yule le's (which says alot because I adore gingerbread poppet.)

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

I am going to save most of my decanted Skadi imp (thank you, Clover! ) for when I have the inevitable winter cold or flu--it cleared my sinuses in a powerful Vaporub/Noxema kind of way. Yet it smells much better than either of those products due to all the fresh pine. I don't know if it contains eucalyptus, but it *affects* me that way--strong and bracing, blowing all the cobwebs out of my nose like a Giantess' breath. Whew.

[Ishtar]

I wore Skadi out today on our first snowy day in Vancouver and I am amazed at how dead-on this is. The very embodiment of winter indeed.

 

Like many others, I passed on ordering Skadi because the description sounded too close to that of Ice Queen and also because pine and I don't always get along. Now I know I should have done exactly the opposite.

Skadi is as smooth and comforting as the Ice Queen was sharp and chilly.

 

On me the berries and sweet notes are the most prominent. My skin tends to amplify them, which is fine since I like them. The pine is well blended with the other notes and never gets too green or sharp. It actually only makes its presence known on me at the end of the wet stage/early drydown, then fades as the scent begins to mellow. After complete drydown, a clean, crisp, yet warm and sweet scent emanates from my skin and it is to die for!

 

Many, many thanks to the forumite who swapped an imp of Skadi with me, and more thanks to Beth for creating such a beautiful fragrance!

[harlequin]

Okay.. I totally changed my mind, kinda.

 

I thought mistletoe was the ultimate pine scent for me... but I was wrong. THIS is perfect! It's not as powerful-pine as mistletoe. The berries/snow scent softens down the pine to a lovely point where it's deliscious and beautiful..

 

Mind you, Mistletoe is still nice.. this is just so much more "me", though.

 

self- .. Here I went and swapped an imp of this and half an imp of sugar cookie with someone because I thought I would wear sugar cookie more.. that was before I really got around to trying either of them on my skin, though. Boy was I wrong. Sugar Cookie was Altoid-strength Red Hots one it was on me.. this, which I was so-so about in the bottle, is beautiful!

[JazzieCazzie]

Still very torn on this one ... want to try it one or two more times, stealthily, before deciding what to do with it ...

 

I didn't initially order it, despite the fact that it sounded like that sought-after Christmas pine scent, because of the high-up mention of berries. Anything remotely berryish hates me ... but I got Snow White which TOTALLY didn't work for me and swapped it for a 5 ML of the Skadi figuring nothing ventured nothing gained ...

 

BOTTLE: Definitely the Christmas tree pine scent pretty much dead on, but a little bit of the "this is what the craft stores and BBW think a Christmas tree is supposed to smell like" vibe going on ... more like a well-scented candle or potpourri.

 

WET: I made a mistake here. I put it on reasonably generously and then went to watch TV with husband and daughter. The two of them practically ran out of the room they hated it so much. They have NEVER reacted like that to a scent, certainly not a BPAL scent. They told me I stank like PineSol and to please never wear this again (remember my husband has minimal sense of smell so this must have been powerful to make him say this).

 

I don't know if I just put too much on or was in too close quarters or what. I can't even tell you what happened on drydown because I was forced into washing it off.

 

I plan to try it again much more sparingly applied when they're not around to see what happens ... if it has the same cleaning solution affect when it hits my body, this will sadly go into the swap pile (that won't happen until after the arrival and testing of my two outstanding orders and their nine six-packs of imps ... I want to do this theorganized way, put them all out there at once and try to work in bulk).

[magikfanfic]

In the bottle: Um...no, I don't know what that is, but it makes the back of my throat kinda close up when I smell it. I can detect the pine but there's something else there as well. The berries are kinda like those berry-scented air fresheners you get where the scent is just too cloying. This is probably because it's all concentrated in that little bottle.

 

Wet: Pine. Pine. Pine. Mayday. Mayday. We have pine. I was hoping that this would not make me smell like a Christmas tree, but it does. A pretty fragrant one at that. Um, no, this is so wrong on me. Plus my body has a very visceral reaction to pine in which I consider throwing myself bodily in front of a truck. I can't help it. I've always had this reaction. The berries can be detected under the pine. In fact it smells like pine layered over this blackberry tea that my boyfriend had during sophomore year of college.

 

Dry down: Pine and blackberry tea. None of those gorgeous snow notes I love in Ice Queen. This blend isn't bad, in fact the berry part is quite nice, but I can't get over the pine and neither can my skin. This comes in waves of either pine or blackberry, which make me sick and nostalgic respectively.

 

Dry: Pine and blackberry still. I can't wear this as it makes me somewhat ill for unexplained reasons. The pine note worried me from the beginning. I think this might smell good on the boy and, hopefully, the pine would be bearable on him. Oh, Skadi, I had such high hopes for you. Oh well.

[LunaSea]

Skadi - I am another who passed on ordering this one since I ordered Ice Queen and wasn't sure about pine. But, luckily, I was able to buy a partial bottle from a generous forum member. And I am so happy I got the chance!

 

In the bottle, all I smelled was pine at first. So much so, that I opened the bottle, sniffed, then decided to wear something else for 3 days in a row. Finally, I took the plunge and put some on.

 

On my skin, the pine is still there, but faintly underneath I smell something warmer. After 10-15 minutes, the pine fades and the other fruity notes come out - the berries! (Again, I don't read reviews until I've written mine so as to be unbiased. At the time, I just thought fruit, but now know it was the berry notes.) Wow - it is really lovely!

 

This scent lasted many hours on me - all afternoon and up to bedtime. By the end of the day, the berries had faded and I was left with a faint breath of pine. But it really is a natural, fresh pine, not some overly strong chemical imitation. Feels like being outdoors. I never really got much of the coldness out of the scent as some others have, but the berries make me a happy woman!

[Finny]

Wet, I get the pine, with a subtle berry fragrance. As it dries the berry comes out more, and I get a creamy feel, very soft and pretty.

 

It smells like the holidays, good things to eat and drink, icy-cold snow, and evergreen branches.

 

Hubby, however does not like the evergreen note in it, it gives him a headache. I had two bottles, one has gone off to a new home, and the second may have to also.

[Theravada]

I skipped the chance to order Skadi at Yule. Then I smelled Golden Priapus and decided that I love what Beth can do with pine, so then I was on a mission to track down Skadi.

 

Skadi is actually very similar to Golden Priapus on me. But where Golden Priapus is a golden, white pine scent, Skadi is more green pine with a very light berry note. Put pine is still the strongest note in both blends and they each have a yummy hint of sweetness. Unfortunately, Skadi just about fades away entirely after an hour or two. And since it's so similar to Golden Priapus (which lasts much longer), I'm happy enough with my imp decant and won't be kicking myself for passing up the big bottle. But I can easily see why this was one of the favorites from the Yule LEs!! I just wish it had lasted longer on me.