The Temptation of St. Nick

[VioletChaos]

A holiday season imp assault: cacao, blazing chili pepper, clove husk, bourbon vanilla, pistachio, and hazelnut. 

 

In The Bottle: I get the cacao right out of the gate, with a bite of the chili pepper coming in at the end. YUM!

Wet On Skin: The clove and the vanilla are coming into play now, making this smell very much like spicy Mexican hot chocolate- a trend that I very much hope continues through to drying down!

Dry Down: Yup, all spicy cacao, clllllll the time! This is precisely what I had hoped for! The cacao is very much the same nice, dry one found in my most beloved Cacao Pod, and is paired here with a lovely, rich deep array of spicy goodness. It's basically Cacao Pod plus Mexican hot chocolate spices, and I am FULLY onboard! ❤️ 

[Casablanca]

This one is warming and surprisingly comforting to me on this day that's so bitey with the cold. It reminds a lot of Mexican hot cocoa, without crossing into being too foody. 

 

Freshly applied, I can smell the pistachio and hazelnut mingling with spiced cacao. I love hazel trees and hazelnut flavors and smells, but this might be my first pistachio scent (?). I love eating pistachios, though, and I'm enjoying its note.

 

Dried, the nut scents fade, leaving a cozy and heartening spiced cacao. This is a dry cacao, which reads as less foody to me than the creamy milk chocolate sort, and I'm a fan. It combines beautifully with the red chili and clove.

 

"Heartening" is my one-word description for this blend. It has been lifting my mood all morning, and I'm very pleased I picked it up.

[fizzbangdangcharade]

It took me awhile to nail down what this reminded me of. 

 

In the bottle: Nutella?  Yea, this mostly reminds me of nutella.  Hazelnuts and chocolate. 

 

Wet on my skin + drydown: Tootsie Rolls.  It smells exactly like tootsie rolls on me. 

 

Dry: Much later in the day I lost the Tootsie Rolls, and the spice came out - at one point, I was getting something that reminded me of drinking hot chocolate by a fireplace.   Close to the skin I got spicy chocolate, but the throw had something in it that read 'burning wood' to me. 

 

End of the day: This softened down into 'mexican hot chocolate' and stuck much closer to my skin. 

 

Overall this is really nice, it's warm and sweet without being too foody.  This is easily my favorite chocolate themed scent I've tried, and I can't wait to see how it ages.  It's so cozy, and I really enjoy how all the additional notes add depth and flavor to that cacao base.   Throw on this one is pretty high for me - lasted an entire 8 hour work day.

[marared]

Dry spiced cacao, and - shockingly - it does NOT go sour like most spiced scents do! 

 

This is not especially *chocolatey*, but I definitely get the chili pepper and the clove. I am NOT sorry I got a bottle.

[zankoku_zen]

Dry spices cacao, vanilla, and nuts. This one is a nice warm nutty cacao blend. Good throw and wear length.

[Lucchesa]

The Temptation of St. Nick is a charmer.  Warm spicy nutty cocoa powder goodness, with decent wear length.  The comparison to Mexican hot chocolate is accurate, though it's not overly foodie on me.  I wouldn't have been able to identify the pistachio if I hadn't known it was in there, but I do love toasted nuts in a scent.  I may wear it with Dia de los Reyes one of these days to see how they compare, but I'm delighted to have bottles of both.  

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Chocolate (more like cocoa powder), chili pepper, and clove. Spicy chocolate!

 

Dry: I'd say this is fairly similar to the wet stage... only spicier. I'm definitely amping up the chili pepper note. There's a very slight plastic note popping up as well.. maybe from the chocolate? I'm a bit disappointed the pistachio note didn't appear at all.

 

Not my thing, but I'm glad I tried it! 

[doomsday_disco]

This smells like spiced, nutty cacao in the decant. I get the cacao, clove, and hazelnut, in that order.

 

On me, it starts off being a spicy cacao scent, with the clove being particularly prominent, but the nuts and vanilla come out more with wear.

 

But then it completely changes and ends up being heavy on the cola-like clove backed by some cacao and nuts. That... was not expected. But now I know that it was the clove in Ruhende Ziege that gave me that vibe?

 

I'm undecided on this one. I was really enjoying it until it went into cola-territory. I don't mind the cola vibe, but it's a bit too similar to some things I already have, and I'd prefer the clove-y cola without the cacao and nuts in the background. I'll probably hang on to my decant and retest in a few weeks.

[mandragora369]

I first thought of gingerbread spices when I first smelled it. Indeed it must be clove mixed with chili pepper, it's very spicy on me, sweet and spicy.

 

After like 10 minutes in, the spices back off a little and I get a hint of cocoa. But unfortunately no nuts at all.

 

It seems my skin amps all the spices in this one. 😞

[torikitty]

This works really well on my husband. He's also a fan of The Feast for the Greatly Revered; so this is like a sweeter, clovey, less boozy version of that. I wouldn't say it's a dupe, but if you are a fan of the one, you might like this, as well.

[artisjok]

The Temptation of St Nick is both warm and dry. The cacao isn’t blaring, and the clove and chili pepper are delightful in combination with it. The nuts aren’t particularly obvious, yet I do sense them when I search. The vanilla peeks out a bit after some wear, also not obvious, though. 
Later on, there’s a little smokiness to the scent, now a snuggly skin-close scent.
I like this final stage most, and wish it were stronger so I could stop huffing my wrist and get some work done. 

[Honey]

This scent is crazy for sure!

I didn't even know what to expect... but here we are.

I'm not sure if the dry cocoa or the chili spice hit my nose first. It's not a sweet chocolate smell I detect but a depth I usually get when adding cocoa powder to a savory dish.

The longer I smell it, the more it gets vegetal on me - except for the missing tomato and cumin, this could be a great veggie stew or chili sin carne.

I don't get any pistachio or hazelnut - it's all cocoa, clove and chili on me.

The clove turns this a bit into a dollar store Halloween candle if I may be so rude, but I think that could be a very subjective issue I have with clove notes in general.

If you are looking for a clove and cocoa combo and don't mind the spice, this might be your darling.