The Flame of the Bear

[zankoku_zen]

An incense for Solstice rites: fir resin, bayberry, myrrh, mistletoe, and oak bark.

[Tal Shachar]

"Flame of the bear" is an interesting phrase that turns up nothing much on google, although curiously a lot of the results are for male enhancement ads. The flame definitely hasn't been kindled yet in this scent. It's quite dark (though not heavy at all) and cold-feeling, without any smokiness, so this is unlit incense. Very low sillage, although that may just be the bottle needing to settle a bit after going through the post in -24 C weather.  I love bayberry as a note, and can usually only find it in Yankee Candle form, and luckily this scent has no Yankee-Candle-ness about it. Clean, but not too clean (the myrrh and oak bark darken it), very masc, not intrusive, very evocative of winter woods at night.

 

Edit 7/24/20: I left this on the shelf for a long time because while I liked it overall, the oak bark note just clashed a bit...I understood why it was there, and it wasn't bad per se, but it kept it from being a favourite. Trying it again now, that note has merged with the rest of the blend and it's truly beautiful. It does remind me of a TAL blend, specifically Jupiter. Something very special. Is there armoise/mugwort in this? I've been working with an armoise EO all day and there's a similar silvery green note in here. Anyway, yeah, all hail the aging process.

Edited July 24, 2020 by Tal Shachar

[starbrow]

At a week old, my bottle is still a baby and smells exceptionally green and sharp and new. For the first two hours, this flame is all fresh-crushed bayberry and fir: a spicy, peppery, waxy kind of pine blend that is so vivid, I could swear I was outside on a cold winter's night, crumbling cold bayberries in my hand and smelling fir needles crunching underfoot. Bayberry candles are a North American tradition for Yule, and so this ends up having a very Christmasy kind of smell, atmospheric, but without any kind of burning or smoke smell, as if you're still gathering all the ingredients to make your candles and there are still many hours of work ahead before you'll have a finished candle to actually light.

 

It's several hours later, and the brightness of the pepper and evergreen has finally waned, leaving the most gorgeous quiet incense. This must be the myrrh grounding it, though there's no tell-tale signs of myrrh either wet or dry. I might have even guessed sandalwood incense, it's that pretty. This is a wild and wonderful morpher, with both fresh and hours-dry a transcendent experience, in totally different ways. One is fierce, green, the bear pawing at bayberry; the other is tucked away in a wintry cabin, contemplative and grounded, close to the skin and cozy. 

 

If this is how a newborn bottle behaves, I can't wait to smell this next year!

Edited December 27, 2019 by starbrow

[Casablanca]

This turns completely to a musty-sock-mistletoe blend on my skin, so I'll just describe the scent before my chemistry gets ahold of it:

 

Crisp bayberry-green fir and a hint of mistletoe. Mistletoe is much more pleasant without my skin than with it.

 

The blend is cool, evergreen-woody, black peppery, and a bit wintry-herbal.

 

[Threemoons]

For me, this is the ultimate Winter Woods Blend--all the evergreen resins, and a hint of not-sweet, not-cloying bayberry.  Love it.

 

[zankoku_zen]

Bright berries, pine, and a whiff of sunshine. UGH, again, this strikes me as a TAL blend. Fresh evergreens, bright winter sunshine, and lovely berries. This is the sweetness of the winter season in a bottle. Good throw and wear length.

[gothteacup]

I’ve been eyeing this many times since Yules have gone up, but I am hesitant to get a bottle in case this happens to go “generic Xmas greenery candle.” It almost went that way in the vial.
 

Once it warms on the skin, it’s as if a slice of forest comes to quiet life: the fir resin isn’t overbearing, touches of mistletoe and bayberry and the lovely oak note are just fine alone, but with the soft myrrh in the background it adds a little depth, like a thread of incense coming through the trees.

 

Overall, it’s a gentle, realist forest scent with a whisper of incense 

 

wear this if: you need to be reminded that trees still exist.

Edited April 12, 2020 by gothteacup
grammar

[deadlyves]

Dry fir with a bit of bark and a slight sweetness from the berry. This is dry and powdery in a good way, a really nice comforting way, soft and full.

 

I love this, it's such a natural smell. Unfortunately it doesn't last long on me at all but you can bet I'm reapplying.

[a_bear]

This is THE scent of the winter holidays for me - lots of fresh, natural greenery. Softer on than in the bottle, but overall doesn't change much through wear. I'm not sure how much I'll wear it outside of the holiday season, but it'll be on repeat with the "A Charlie Brown Christmas" music from the end of November to New Year's Day.

[Llanval]

Flame of the Bear is truly something else.  When I first picked it up in 2019 it was almost unbearably strong, like sticking your face in the most perfect pine tree ever and coming away with sap in your hair, but that's the fir resin which is wildly strong and deeply soothing. It was a bit much, lol.  But now that a few years have passed this is the most magical yule scent I have and I love it dearly.  I only wear it from December to Feb but it is truly the most incredible atmospheric yule blend - a perfect winter forest, redolent with resinous fir and pine trees, desiccated bushes laden with sweet berries, and a river of cold, perfect winter sunshine to keep this out of candle territory. I love this, I love this, I love this scent!! Magical, lol. 

 

I fuckin' love this yule blend and I hope it makes its way back into the catalogue because its winter wonderland perfection in a bottle!

Edited December 21, 2021 by Llanval
typo

[Lunasariel]

2024 version!

 

In the imp: Evergreen-y, but not overwhelmingly so. The fir is balanced out with something berry-sweet and herbal, and a "starry" note that I also noticed, and loved, in Canis Major.

 

Wet: The berry-sweetness and effervescent "starry" note take a big step back, and the myrrh and oak (I think?) take a big step forward. I've never smelled an oak note this pure before - it's woodsy and vegetal and a little musty, but in a good way, very much like breaking open a damp fallen oak branch. It's a dark, damp, woodsy, winter scent; very appropriate that I'm testing it on the winter solstice!

 

Dry: More traditionally woodsy and resinous, or maybe incense-y? It's definitely a lot drier; mainly oak (or fir, from reading other review?) and some myrrh. The myrrh also is fairly dry, but becomes more resinous and less incense-y towards the very end (around 10 hours on me, which is about average), bringing back a bit of the sweetness I noted ITI. It's a quiet, inward-looking, meditative sort of scent.

Edited December 22, 2024 by Lunasariel

[LavenderCoffee]

2024 release

 

This is so pretty! Reminiscent of Druids Cutting Mistletoe on the Sixth Day of the Moon, but sweetened by bayberry and pleasantly resinous. A soft, gorgeous scent for the season.

[doomsday_disco]

2024 version.

 

This one does smell like the holidays! This is evergreen-dominant at first (but not intensely so), backed by some soft myrrh, and a bit of berry. I get no sharpness at all here (I did read that some people had that experience with the previous version of it, so that's why I went the decant route). There's a phase where I wondered if there were some secret bit of orange in here, or if that was just a phase of the fir. Eventually, it ends up settling into a predominantly sparkly sort of scent. Like Lunasariel, I think it might be a musk, perhaps infused with a bit of aldehydes, but there's nothing fizzy about it.

 

This is really pretty, and perfect for the holidays. I'm going to retest this to see if I need a full bottle, or if my decant will suffice.

Edited yesterday at 06:22 PM by doomsday_disco