Yggdrasil

[trowely]

The World Ash. Nine woods, nine leaves, and three herbs each for Ratatosk and Vidofnir, with three final herbs to placate Nidhogg.

This is the first BPAL scent I ever smelled. And it's a great one for getting me hooked!

Wet: pine needles and juniper

Dry: To me, this scent smells exactly like shops at the beach. It smells mostly like wood, but not like living trees. More like wooden boxes. Almost like cedar, but not quite. There's also a touch of something sweet there, but it's not overwhelming.

I'll definitely be buying a bottle of this.

[wickedgoddess]

Origin - a gift imp from the lab

 

Wet - I was expecting this to be very woody, like Hamadryad, but when wet it's all mossy and herby.

 

Dry - Mmmm…wood! There it is, this is all woods and herbs and greenery now. Very nice!

 

On the wickedgoddess scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being best, this rates a 3.

[summer]

This is just beautiful. I never would have though to try it, so THANK YOU Lab for including it as a freebie! This is a complex melody of the freshest, most luxurious herbs. It is calming and relaxing and sophisticated and deep. It's a gorgeous "nature" fragrance with a beautiful, demure, dignified feel. Love it.

 

[faerywolfe]

In the bottle: A beautiful wild earthy green. Very bright and lively.

 

Wet: Very very green. It smells like fresh yarrow to me. Herby and woodsy, warm and spicy sweet. I smell like a forest nymph!

After it's been on a few minutes it loses some of that initial bright forest smell and takes on a deeper tone, more mysterious. The forest is shadowed. This phase reminds me of an October night for some reason. I can't place all the individual woods and notes as they meld so beautifully.

About 10 minutes later, it's become rich and mellow and spicy and just a bit smoky - it smells like the embers of a warm fire in late autumn.

 

Drydown: This has settled into a softly sweet, smooth, almost creamy scent like the soft breath of a sylvan goddess. If I could pry my poor mesmerized nose from my wrist I could probably write a more helpful review! I am thoroughly in love with this oil though. This lasts for several hours and casts a decent aura.

 

Final thought: This delicious oil has far exceeded my hopes - I want to roll in this scent! I adore it and will definitely be getting a big bottle and soon. Every stage of Yggdrasil's transformation is a joy. I think it would smell oh so sexy on a man, but it's divine on the ladies too.

[aidenraine]

At first this is a Christmas tree-pine scent on me- very forceful pine.

 

Behind the pine is something slightly sweet, and a peppery scent. It makes my nose tingle.

As it dries, the peppery comes forward but the pine remains front and center.

 

 

A great winter scent, methinks, but not for me.

[Julilla Regina]

This smells like pine forest to me, with a scattering of pine cones and needles thick on the ground. It has a creek running through it, with tiny little flowers on the bank. There's a little bit of a chill in the air, barely brisk. Imagine that, now smell it. That is this fragrance.

 

Gorgeous!

[herongale]

preconceived notion: I admit it. I ordered this scent because of lj_anax's Völuspá. As beta reader for that fic I ended up reading and familiarizing myself with the verses of this poem. Here is the relevant verse for this scent:

 

 

I know an ash tree, named Yggdrasil:

Sparkling showers are shed on its leaves

That drip dew, into the dales below,

By Urd's well it waves evergreen,

Stands over that still pool,

Near it a bower whence now there come

The Fate Maidens, first Urd,

Skuld second, scorer of runes,

Then Verdandi, third of the Norns:

The laws that determine the lives of men

They fixed forever and their fate sealed.

 

 

My hope was to find a scent that might work for lj_anax, to remind him of the mood of that most excellent piece.

 

in the imp: the oil is pale peach colour. And wow, it really smells like wood, with a similar minty astringence I found in Vinland. This is a much deeper kind of wood, however, like a felled tree that is decomposing into the earth. Without a doubt these are coniferous trees from a northern clime, hemlock and cedar, pine and spruce. These are not tame Christmas trees but old, twisted grey-brown hoary trees with the kind of personality that made people fear that trees could walk at night. Oak. The kind of oak that Merlin was imprisoned in. An old, cold tree with an alien, godlike heart.

 

wet: This is a warm, brown, almost chocolatey loam, the kind that the dryads ate in Aslan's banquet at the end of Prince Caspian. It is rich earth turned over by worms and enriched by a thousand winters, studded with acorns and covered over in decomposing leaves. Very rich, very manly... and very sexy.

 

drydown: Ooooh. This is what Lust would smell like. It is green and dirt and growing, fresh and yet old. Not human. Alive.

 

Verdict: I love this so much. It is exactly what I expected, and a million times better. It doesn't quite suit my skin, but it's gorgeous nonetheless. A keeper.

 

post-conceived notion: trying things based on an emotional connection I've created in my mind is hazardous when it comes to objectivity, but that's not something I'm particularly striving for in any case. I can honestly say this is a lovely, ancient scent that perfectly encapsulated the idea it intends to represent.

[greywind]

One word review summary? Wow!

 

If you can stand me rambling on, here's the longer review:

 

Yggdrasil is *amazing*, and precisely the type of thing I was looking for when I came to BPAL. It's a green, natural forest scent that I can wear to ground me on the worst busy bustling big city day. Wearing it the asphalt, concrete, and exhaust fumes vanish and one is transported to an earlier, older time when forests covered much of the globe.

 

 

In the vial: strongly green and mossy.

 

Wet: At first this scent is an overwhelming rush of fresh evergreen and deciduous woods and leaves. It's dark and ominous and powerful and raises the hair on the back of my neck. This is the scent of clinging to slippery, moss covered bark at a tricky stream crossing. The water is running icy cold and fast over slick stones and you're struggling to get up onto the bank before your numb legs give out and you are swept under the steeply undercut bank amongst the wet dirt and exposed tree roots, trapped in the dark swirling water.

 

Drying: You've managed to make it safely ashore, and are warming yourself on a sunny spot on the bank -- all moss and grasses with the scent of trees and water around. It's lost that potent, ominous edge and that's a relief because it wouldn't be suitable for everyday wear if it remained so fiercely primal on me.

 

Dry: Fresh sweet woods and grasses, a sunny glade in a mixed wood in late summer.

 

 

Do I need to add I'm completely blown away by this scent and will be ordering a big bottle when I can afford it?

[Shollin]

First sniff: How shall I call thee green? Let me count the ways. Twenty-seven, isn’t it? Wow, this is green. Green and woody.

 

Wearing: Have I said green enough yet? It’s more herbal and less woody on my skin, but still very, very green. It’s pretty nice, but not really me.

[Kaygee]

Yggdrasil: My daughter was so pleaed when this arrived....The Tree of Life, she says, reading the label, as if every teenager in Canada just naturally knows the meaning of Yggdrasil (and, I might add, its pronunciation)....and them we both sniffed...and realized this may be the best name for a scent ever...if accuracy is a measure of perfection.

 

In the shield region of central Canada, there these incredibly deep, cold lakes, tens of thousands of them, deep into the granite rock that covers a huge huge expanse....and around the lakes the forests right now are all golden....mostly jack pine and poplar and trembling aspen....in the late afternoon, right now, by the lakes, when the sun warms the autumn-turned trees, there's this smell...of dying leaves, and mud, and the soft green plants still trying to grow in the shelter of the trees, even though the season for that is pretty much done...

 

I put this oil on my wrist, and let it dry, waving my arm in the air...and I was there...in the sun, under the turnding trees, in the very clean air....I could practically see the flutter of gold when the breeze off the lake sets the aspen shuddering..this is the best tree smell I have ever tried. It's magic.

[LyndaM]

This is amazing. Fresh, fresh woods.

 

My father owns a piece of heavily wooded property in rural Missouri, a picturesque place with a little rustic house and a small river running through.

 

Yggdrasil is the scent of this place, walking through the trees where they are the thickest, and not much light gets through. Huge ancient deciduous trees towering overhead, oak and maple and birch. And it especially reminds me of sitting under the single giant catawba tree near the house, well over 100 feet tall, with all the seed pods and moss and old leaves around the base.

 

I love this, it's completely different than my usual choices (not a rose or flower in sight!), but still 'me', and very wearable. A surprise treasure.

[LiberAmoris]

Yggdrasil is another oil to add to my little pile of blends that make me feel like I am outside when I am inside. I definitely get pine and juniper, with a touch of menthol in there that opens things up. Like looking up a tree that stretches high and away from me. I feel like there's a touch of citrus in here, and maybe also some pepper and orris. As it dries, I'm left with a soft buzz of ozone and woods.

 

This is an incredibly evocative blend---verdure and taproot and sky all swimming together.

[harmonyfb]

In the bottle: Piney!

 

Wet: Oh, crap. This smells like cleaning solution.

 

Drydown: I'm veering between two different images provoked by this scent.

a) The house I lived in when I was 4-6 (which was 1967-69). I don't know why it's bringing this image back so very strongly - must have something to do with the greenery that grew there.

 

A hotel room. I think whatever pine smell there is must be used in the hospitality industry as a cleaner. ::sigh::

 

I had to force myself to wait till it dried alllll the way, and...I still don't like it. Wah!

 

I had such high hopes for this one.

 

Off to swap, I suppose.

[amrita]

Hm, I just found my notes from when I tried this in March...

 

This is another case of unfortunate body chemistry. I was really looking for a beautiful natural forest smell... and it seems that many people were getting that from this blend. But on me, it smelled very similar to fresh "salon" style shampoo. I got hints of wood bark, dry cinnamon, and aquatic notes, then my skin sucked it up. After the drydown, I could barely smell anything-- but what I did smell reminded me a lot of Wolf Moon-- faintly sweet, woody, and aquatic. Curious!

[Fefferbella]

A beautiful, dewey pine forrest in a bottle.

 

I love woodsy, piney scents; and this is just gorgeous. A fresh, clean piney note is all I get from Yggdrasil. Thankfully NO pinesol pine, just the real thing.

 

Gorgeous!

[PurringPulsar]

Yggdrasil

 

In the imp: sweet, woody, and sap like notes. Possibly pine in here.

Wet on skin: mmm, woods and herbs!

Dry: this smells quite nice-like dry woods, tree sap, and green herbs. I’m not sure what’s in here, but I’m thinking oak bark, maybe pine, thyme, sage, fir, cedar, cypress? Lots of woods and herbal notes in here. It’s like dark wooded forests and shrubs, very nice. It’s also a very warm woody scent, a tad smoky without smelling like a bonfire of woods.

After a while: this scent has now become quite scrubby, very dry and gritty. This is a ‘wild woods’ sort of scent, it’s dark and deep, yet also warm and with a feel of strength and earthiness. I can smell the bark of this tree and possibly the leaves…it’s quite autumnal, and I think it would also make an amazing ritual scent.

Verdict: this is a scent which brings to mind the sturdy trunk of a great tree that seems to have absorbed the power of the earth itself, strong and almost protective. An intensely woody scent, dry, scrubby, warm and deep, with hints of green herbs and tree sap, bark and leaves. It’s a great scent for autumn, I think, and it’s very unisex. I do like it a lot, but I have other woody/forest-y blends which I prefer to this. This is very nice though, and it does have a feel of being more of a ritual or meditational oil than a mere perfume…it feels powerful.

[allikat]

In the bottle: Slightly sweet pine, with a vaguely musty undertone.

 

Wet: Pine and dirt. It's got a bit of a sharp edge to it. It's a little "cleaner" than I usually think of pine.

 

Drydown: The pine mellows a bit and sinks back into the rest of the scent. Now it's more like walking through a forest, and not so much like shoving my nose into a pine tree. I like this an awful lot, but two hours in, it has almost completely disappeared.

[LushNatty]

In the bottle: Mmmm—it’s herbally and a bit medicinal (in a nice way)

Applied: it gets more medicinal and less herbally on my skin. It does smell fresh, though, like a new leaf, and it gets less medicinal as time passes. I am absolutely not detecting any woods, though, at least not at first….

…the woods start to emerge after about 15 minutes, and it really rounds out the scent. I think that Beth’s description is absolutely, totally accurate—this smells exactly like you would expect it to smell from the “leaves, woods, herbs” description, and once it develops it’s extremely well-balanced. I have trouble wearing woods, which is a shame because I can tell that this is a terrific scent if I could carry off woods. A smoky note starts to emerge after about half an hour (so I definitely will not be able to wear this). It’s not a really strong smoke, however, so if you can wear woods you should definitely try this.

On a scale of 1 to 5: 4.

[Bagfish]

A frimp from the lab - thanks labbies

 

Well, how stupid am I. I dabbed a bit of Yggdrasil on, left it for 20 minutes or so and this glorious, herby, woody slightly sweet smell rose from it. Absolutely lovely. So, what do I do. Grab the imp and slather it on. Now I feel sick, have a headache and just want to wash it off ASAP Its ALL TOO MUCH in large amounts, it smells quite commercial perfume-y. What is gorgeous as a small whiff turns ugly in large amounts on me. That will teach me.

 

I will leave the world tree for a couple of days and then try again, just with a little drop

 

B

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 4/5

Summarised in a word or two: Herbal!

 

In the imp: Green! Fresh and green without being an air freshener or Pine Sol. Woodsy and clean.

 

On skin, wet: Rich and herbaly and very, very green. Less woodsy, more herbal. It's earthy without reeking of dirt. This is the very sort of herbal/green scent I adore.

 

On skin, dry: A bit warmer. The woods come out more strongly, and it becomes more woodsy than green. It starts to remind me of fresh pine needles.

 

Conclusion: I absolutely adore this while wet, and it's nice after it dries, but not the same. While wet, it's a "10ml. Now!" Dry, it's "Nice, but..." I may get a 5ml, and apply to my hair.

[ajcj213499]

Yggdrasil is wonderful. I had tried Hamadryad and was so sad that it smelled only of sweet cinnamon on me- well this is the scent I was hoping for. It's just lovely. I only wish it didn't fade so fast (not that that's anything new). Something in it reminds me of the spicey herbiness I love in Verdandi (one of my favorites).

[sookster]

dry wood/herbs and ashy just as the lab describes this.....

has a slight reminiscent aroma of midnight mass.......a very, VERY light

version of midnight mass...........this one is quite dusty......

not nearly long lasting enough on me but i am glad i was able to try this

little imp out......

[hypatia]

Wow, this one is hard to pin down. It's forest-like but not evergreen. It's woodsy without smelling like wood (there's none of the pronounced sandalwood or rosewood notes that feature in some of the Lab's other woodsy blends). It's herbal but -- on me, at least -- not green or leafy. I don't know what it is, but it's a very pleasant, calm, plant-like fragrance. If it's the World Ash, it's the World Ash in a soft glimmering twilight where everything looks a little transparent.

 

I think what I'm smelling is birch. I'm having the oddest scent-flashback to childhood memories of birch beer, or maybe chewing gum. (Was it birch-flavored gum? Is there such a thing?)

 

Verdict: Fascinating.

[Tess]

Wood notes and I, in general, do not get along if there's even a hint of a floral in the mix. Some people have described this as having some floral tones to it, but I'm hoping not. Floral + wood = rotten flowers, for some reason on me.

 

In the bottle - Whoo, juniper. Pine's in there, too, with a STRONG hit of mint.

 

Wet - My skin is really grabbing hold of that pine and not letting go. I smell like a Yule tree decked with mint. *laughs*

 

Drying - I smell exactly like a piece of wintergreen gum... 0_0 That's got to be what the mint note was, but good lords, my skin's amping it up.

 

Dry (20 minutes) - The wintergreen calmed down and some nice cedar came out, along with juniper, pine and some fir. It smells just like a green, growing conifer forest like we've got all over Up North. There's even a hint of loam to it, just enough.

 

Overall - I just so want to try layering this with Graveyard Dirt and make a candle of it. In fact, I think this would make a fantastic candle or work wonderfully when used in a ritual as an earth oil. I'm going to pass on the imp to the boy, but I'll see about getting myself another for magical use or for candles.

[desu]

In the bottle: Smelling this instantly brings to mind some of the wildnerness I've tramped around while growing up. I smell live oaks at first, then evergreens and herbs and other things later on.

 

On my skin: Amazing. It's like I've walked up to the tree itself and stuck my nose up to its bark. This isn't just components of tree notes I've smelled in the past (needles, bark, etc.), but the whole tree - a complete, living being.