V'al Hanissim

[zankoku_zen]

Lord, deliver the wicked into the hands of the righteous: beeswax glowing softly amber.

[brineydeep]

Hello beeswax! The beeswax is the top note and really blooms as it settles on the skin. The amber is playing a support role and helps round things out; it’s soft at first but develops over the course of the day. My bottle is very fresh so I’m looking forward to seeing how the amber ages. Moderate throw.

 

(Added 5 months later: Wow. Aging has really calmed this bottle down. The overwhelming wet note of beeswax has settled and this perfume now goes on a lovely honey amber envelopes in wax. Just lovely. I highly recommend sitting on this bottle and giving it time to develop.)

Edited May 8, 2020 by brineydeep

[Andalei]

This is what I wanted Light of Men's Lives to smell like! Beeswax is very predominant here - warm and slightly floral. As it dries down, you get whiffs of a spicy, smoky scent - very reminiscent of a freshly blown out candle. I can't really detect any of the amber I'm familiar with from BPAL but my bottle is very fresh. This lasted all day on me and I think it will age incredibly well.

[torischroeder9]

This bottle is still only one day arrived at my house. Will update if contents shift after settling.

 

In the bottle: 100% beeswax

 

On my skin:

 

Wet, it's still beeswax. All the best beeswax. I'm tempted to slather this because it's such good beeswax. 

 

Half an hour in, and it's still almost all beeswax. If I sniff closely, I can maybe pick up a bit of amber. That said, amber sometimes does a thing on me where it causes certain other notes to amp, without being all that detectable itself. That said, since my experience seems close to that of other reviewers, I really can't say if that's what's going on here. 

 

A couple of hours later, and it's still the same -- Maybe a bit of amber, but mostly soft, glowing beeswax.

 

 

[clementlau]

Unbelievable. The dreamy beeswax scent I have ALWAYS wanted. Warm, glowing, sweet, redolent and golden. Candle flame, gentle, melted honeyed wax and cleanly burning sacred smoke. The amber is so perfectly blended into this, it becomes one with the beeswax and with the warmth of your skin. This one just enshrouds you all day long with amazing throw, casting light into shadows with deep comfort. So soothing for this dark time of the year and just exactly what I needed to uplift me. Thank you thank you, Lab.

[Casablanca]

V'al is a glowing, rich, and sumptuous beeswax scent. This beeswax smells yellow with the natural stain of pollen and nectar that bees give it in the hive. The blend is creamy, golden, a little sweet with honey, a little hazy with candle smoke.

 

This one has lots of throw and a long, glorious wear length on me.

[Soupy Twist]

The beeswax tries so, so hard, but mostly it’s just amber doing the Powder Stomp, as it does on my skin.

[zankoku_zen]

Honey and amber. This is a sticky golden honey, hint of wax, and tons of amber. It's golden, honey, and sticky. Great throw and wear length.

[Lucchesa]

V'al Hanissim is a gorgeous addition to the Lights of Men's Lives family of scents: warm, golden, burnished, lit from within.  It's primarily warm beeswax on me with glowing amber backing it up and adding a little old-fashioned elegance.  These are both notes that tend to last well on my skin, and I can still smell it faintly 24 hours after application.  Absolutely lovely!

[theseagrows]

 i love these warm beeswax scents when they work on me, and this one seems to do just fine. i love both notes and they are showcased nicely here, though i'd say the beeswax is the stronger of the two in the beginning. i get a floral honey note and later on, after maybe an hour the amber is much more prominent and mingles so nicely with the beeswax. i may need a bottle of this.

[Juliamon]

This is a lovely, lovely beeswax scent. It's also a LOT, and very tenacious (there's still traces of it stuck to me a good 48 hours on). Make sure you're committed to smelling like beeswax for awhile if you put this on! I would have liked a bit more smokiness to show up on me, but it is what it is. And what it is, is a damn good beeswax single note.

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Beeswax! Warm, golden amber, and beeswax. (Beeswax being the strongest note, currently, and has something slightly floral going on.)

 

Dry: The beeswax and amber are about even during the dry down, which I think I prefer! Golden, warm beeswax is the best way I can describe this. (The floral bit from earliest is gone now, btw.)

 

If you enjoy beeswax and it works well on your skin.. try this! I'm not the biggest beeswax lover, but I think this is pretty great.

[doomsday_disco]

V'al Hanissim is predominantly a honeyed beeswax scent on me. It's definitely in the same family as The Lights of Men's Lives, and it resembles it enough that I don't think it would be necessary to own both. But it is lovely. 

 

No bottle for me, since I didn't get enough amber from this to differentiate it from other beeswax scents, but if you love beeswax and need beeswax ALL THE THINGS, you will probably love this.

[biggnerd]

This is an aggressive beeswax scent.  It's a louder Light of Men's Lives with more honeyed amber sweetness, and a more serious O without as much sweetness.  This dries down to a beautiful honey amber with a little beeswax waxiness.  It's golden, glowing, and soothing. 

[Minh Scent]

I am "one of those" people who adores beeswax and this might be the queen of all I have sniffed of BPAL's. It is much stronger and more pure goldeny beeswax than Lights of Men's Lives. Don't miss it if this note is your jam.

 

 

[tsentsitivenose]

Dries down beautifully for me.  I like biggnerd's "honeyed amber sweetness" description.  Very much this and beeswax.  Strong throw, which I didn't expect.  The scent lingers after I've left a room.

[Rayleigh]

This really glows.

 

Strong, radiant beeswax and amber. It lasts ages, all through the next day after applying, with powerful throw. This is the purest essence of beeswax, buffeted by a deep amber. It really feels like being surrounded in a circle of radiant warmth. It's a little overpowering, actually, but I find it compelling even so.

[monocainsheresy]

Oh my. This is a stunner.

 

Pollen-dusted beeswax and fresh, green amber. Surprisingly, this is very much a late spring/early summer scent on me - bees with clumps of pollen on their legs and sap running down bark. It's a sticky scent, but from gooey amber instead of honey. This amber is liquid and smells of trees, almost of olive oil.

 

Anointed beeswax candles.

[FloridaFledgling]

This is gorgeous. Only two notes listed but is more than the sum of its parts. A beautiful warm sexy slightly powdery amber and beeswax. 🕯️

[starbrow]

Last year when it was first released, V'al Hanissim was extremely similar to Light of Men's Lives, just with a 'louder' beeswax. After a year of aging, the beeswax has smoothed out into an ultra-warm creamy glow, with that distinctive cuddly amber around it like a glowing nimbus, and almost no smoke note. I almost smell a very smooth, light olive oil kind of note, very appropriate for the theme. 

 

This one is absolutely beautiful now, nothing sharp about it whatsoever. I adore it and it is now quite different than Light of Men's Lives, which has even LESS beeswax and gives off a wafty floaty perfumed kiss like Zorya P by candlelight. V'al is more grounded but just as beautiful in its own way. They are not total dupes and they are worth having a bottle of each.

 

Just for fun, I also applied Endless Corridors from the 2020 Weenies. This beeswax is much scarier! It has the same "dread" ingredient from Amaxophobia and Shadow & Light (2020 Lilith). I happen to like that scary smoky-shadowed impending-doom kind of note, but if you are sensitive to beeswax, the unknown dread note might push it into harsh territory right now. I will be very curious to see how it ages too.

 

All that said, V'al is amazing and I am so glad I have a full bottle of it. Keep keep keep.

[trinitysite]

I've found beeswax to be a milder honey note, but here is comes out as pure golden sticky sticky honey. I'm not even sure if I can find the amber, perhaps a little bit of spice as it dries down but it's overpowered by the beeswax. Perhaps it would benefit from some aging?

 

Updating: Oh yes, letting it sit for a while improved things immensely. Mellow beeswax, not sticky honey, and nice lil amber with a teeny-tiny bit of spice. This went from a "nope" to a "should I buy a bottle"?

Edited April 29, 2021 by trinitysite

[warriortwo]

I don't get the beeswax blast everyone else does. I can detect beeswax, but there something beneath it that seems clean (like clean laundry. But not fabric softener or detergent, just well-worn clothes fresh from the dryer) and slightly spicy. The spicy bit reminds me of clove cigarettes, which conjures a vivid memory of 14-year-old me, waiting in line to see Depeche Mode in the mid-80s and envying the cool, well-dressed, older goths smoking in the parking lot. The amber aspect doesn't remind me of any amber I've ever smelled and doesn't go powdery. Rather, it's almost sweet and perfumy. An interesting scent with good throw and staying power, so much that I had to wash it off before bed.

[Hesper]

My first review!

 

I purchased a decant of V'al 2020 as well as a blind bottle during my "favorite GC is discontinued, WHAT DO I ACTUALLY LIKE" spasm. The decant arrived first, and has had time to rest in my cool wooden chest, so I'm testing it today.

 

In the imp and wet: A warm, golden creamy scent: buttercream, if it weren't a food--this doesn't smell edible at all, just sweet and good and rich and smooth. Never mind that if I smelled a food like this I'd shove it in my mouth immediately. It's still not a food smell. Complicated by a hint of spice, a shadow that makes it all the more intriguing and delicious.

 

On my skin, it's a very subtle, minimal throw: "skin but sweeter", with the cream occasionally glowing a little brighter, the same way candles flare and pop. I'm stuffing my nose to my wrists and elbow and down my shirt to get wafts of it, because it's delicious but I can't smell it from any further away! ;~; My skin is drinking this gorgeous scent down as greedily as I am! It's gone in minutes.

 

I'm going to run some through my hair and take a walk in the Florida heat to see if that brings it back and gives me the warm lusciousness I'm loving. Alternatively, I really hope the bottle behaves differently, for irrational reasons that defy all my understanding of chemistry. If not...well, I have a brand new scent locket for reasons just like this ❤️ it's delicious, and I adore it.

Edited April 17, 2021 by Hesper

[Ezra]

In the imp and wet, this is all sweet honey amber, I'm not getting any beeswax. It's warm and golden and delicious, without much complexity. I had to double check the scent description, because it just smells like glowing honey to me! Though that might just be because I associate honey and candles with Rosh Hashanah...
 

On dry-down, the beeswax starts coming out- it's not the scent of fresh candles, but the warm scent of beeswax rolled candles- I don't quite know how to describe it, but for Shabbat I usually use these candles that are made by rolling a honeycomb-shaped sheet into a taper shape. The wax gets caught in the honeycomb bits of the candle and doesn't drip down, but rather accumulates on the candle itself. That's what V'al Hanissim smells like to me, all melty-glowy-warm beeswax and sweet amber. It has intense staying power- I applied it last evening and it's still clinging to my skin. I can't stop sniffing my wrists!

 

Low throw, long lasting, absolutely delicious. I might be ordering a backup.

 

 

[lilyluxe]

This is sooooo pretty! I have to be careful I don't utterly slather myself in it. 

The beeswax here is almost thick and syrupy with the amber. It's not cloying at all, but it's like, rivulets of melted beeswax and dripping amber. Very intense and marvelous beeswax, and the amber lifts it up and sweetens it in a gorgeous way. There is a little bit of smokiness around the edges. Excellent beeswax scent;  I fear is it making all the rest of my beeswax scents jealous.