To a Wreath of Snow

[starbrow]

I have many of the BPAL tobacco flower blends already in my collection, and they can become a little redundant. I was thinking, hmm maybe To a Wreath of Snow can go?

 

Well, I wore it again today, and no, no it cannot go. It must stay. It is a gorgeous dreamy lavender that starts out just a bit edgy when combined with the tobacco flower and white oud (which is very pleasant and creamy and lovely, by the way), but all of which softens as it sits upon the skin and creates a true wreath of pillowy, snowy comfort. The ambergris lends a kind of glowing warmth that gives me the feeling of candlelight on a bedside table, with a snowy scene illuminated through the window, and a warm fuzzy blanket bundling you in bed with a lavender sachet and a cup of tea. Tobacco flower doesn't smell like tea, per se, it's more the feeling that the scent evokes, very comforting and cozy.

 

I love this as a sleep scent for Christmastime. I could also see myself wrapping presents and listening to my favorite Christmas albums while slathered in it. I think if you love Zorya P or any of the tobacco flowers and you get along with lavender okay, this is a no-brainer. Woof yes.

[a_bear]

Big super sweet LAVENDER, which I wasn't really expecting. Eventually the lavender takes a break and the other notes come out. I'm not familiar enough with tobacco flower or ambergris to really pick them out, but the oud is mercifully tame - no barnyard or 💩 here.

 

I haven't tried some of the other scents this has been compared with like Zorya P, but if you like My Tiger or want a less gourmand TKO, you might like this.

[Fefi]

Ohh I love this. I sought this out after I read reviews stating it was similar to Zorya P. Which I love. This is certainly very similar but much darker and richer, less ethereal.  Lavender is the strongest note I get that combines lovely with the ambergris and the tobacco flower giving the scent a sort of creaminess. To me it's very much a unisex type of scent thanks to the lavender and the oud which I feel helps round off the entire scent. I really like this and I wish I could get my hands on more of it because I love to wear it in cold weather, and has easily become one of my most used scents since I purchased it.

[WhatAHoot]

For my very first post in this section of the forum, I decided it was only fitting to review To a Wreath of Snow, my favorite BPAL scent. TaWoS is magic for me, and is easily at the top of my "top 5" list, across all houses. It's sophistication in a bottle, but it's also incredibly comforting. It's a bit difficult for me to describe as it's so well blended, but I'll give it a shot! I cannot get enough of the ethereal oud, glowing tobacco flowers (similar to the note in Zorya P), and the cool, almost creamy ambergris + lavender combo.

 

The overall vibe is like waking up on a cool, misty grey morning and putting on the finest cashmere sweater you can imagine. 

[labugsy]

Funny story, I immediately purchased a blind bottle of this when it was released, because tobacco, lavender, and ambergris are 3 of my top five BPAL notes. Then, because I buy so much perfume I apparently can't keep track of it all, I put it in a drawer in my vanity and... never tested it. I know everyone was raving about it, but somehow never bothered to put it on my own skin. And maybe it's silly to review a wintery blend in the middle of summer, over a year after it was released, but hey...  

 

Spoiler, this scent ages beautifully. Maybe it was heavier on the tobacco flower a year ago, but now all the notes are perfectly balanced. The lavender is the camphor-scented, cooling kind, and that's what I get at first with a backdrop of the tobacco and ambergris. After about an hour the lavender fades but never disappears, and the scent becomes more tobacco dominant, and it is indeed, as all these brilliant people have said, the same tobacco note from Vison of the Courtesan and Zorya P. The ambergris is not prominent on me, but it's there making the scent kind of misty and fuzzy. I'm definitely getting some oud, but it is very soft and not the stinky kind. It is doing a beautiful job of grounding the scent. 

 

A year ago, amidst all the Covid turmoil, I splurged and bought myself a silk and cashmere robe from one of my favorite small businesses. This scent feels like slipping that robe on at dusk in a candlelit room and reading something dark and moving (Wuthering Heights comes to mind). It's classy, a little moody, and extremely inviting. 

[theredkilt]

Tobacco flower is the most assertive note on my skin. It reminds me of the cherry tobacco variety. Lavander shows up in the beginning but then disappears.

I've smelled something similar before, most likely in another Yule blend from the early to mid 00s.

[Amoraexcena]

To a Wreath of Snow was my favourite of the 2020 Yules. This is the blend that made me realize how much I love tobacco flower/nicotiana. This is perfect "winter-cold flower" in a bottle, with a touch of lavender, ambergris-saltiness, and the beautiful oudh (not-woody variety). This and Zorya P are also the scents that made me start collecting more tobacco flower perfumes. I look forward to every new one Beth creates now 😍 

 

 

It's a top 3 winter scent - I wear it almost every day in winter for my dog's daily morning walks. So happy it came back in 2023 so more people can enjoy it (and so I can grab two more backup bottles!) 

[sailthetethys]

I liked Zorya P, but I didn’t love her. She was just a little too sweet and the florals were just a little too high pitched. 

 

 I LOVE this. This is perfection. This is deeper, richer, and moodier than Zoya P,  while still being soft and sweet. I think the oud is doing some secret magic behind the scenes to give this scent complexity and depth, but I can’t pick it out on its own. In fact, I really can’t pick out any particular scent except the lavender (and for me, it’s THE lavender - that soft, dreamy, almost marshmallowy lavender that I absolutely love) unless I really make an effort, because this is so well-blended and cohesive - it’s one of those blends that feels more like a luxury perfume. 
 

It’s lavender heavy in the early stages. As it dries down, I get spiciness from the tobacco flower and a shimmery warmth that’s vaguely-marine-but-not from the ambergris - more like a heavy coastal fog that’s drifted inland than the actual sea. It evokes a winter-like color palette - blue, grey, purple - without being astringent or icy - in fact, it feels warm and cozy. There’s a creaminess that together with the tobacco flower spice makes it feel gourmand at times, but I wouldn’t call this a gourmand scent any more than I’d call it a floral, a resin, an herbal, or a not-quite-marine. And yes, I definitely get a sweet creaminess that’s almost vanilla in the later stages. I feel like this could be a snuggly sleep scent, an every day scent, OR a special occasion scent. It ticks all the boxes. 

 

Tbh, this reminds me of a winter version of Abalone Vulva even though they don’t share any notes. But they both have that sophisticated, high-end perfume cohesiveness, and both feel very iridescent/pearlescent in the way that the notes  swirl together and overlap to create something complex and lovely. But where AV is a swirl of turquoise and white water on a pink sandy beach, WoS is a swirl of snow against a stormy violet-grey sky. Very evocative and elegant, and it’s quickly become one of my all-time favorites.