clover

To me the dominant note in Marc Jacobs is gardenia...I think the closest thing to it in the BPAL catalog is The Ecstasy of St. Theresa.

THE PRESENCE OF LOVE Samuel Taylor Coleridge And in Life's noisiest hour, There whispers still the ceaseless Love of Thee, The heart's Self-solace and soliloquy. ______________________ You mould my Hopes, you fashion me within; And to the leading Love-throb in the Heart Thro' all my Being, thro' my pulses beat; You lie in all my many Thoughts, like Light, Like the fair light of Dawn, or summer Eve On rippling Stream, or cloud-reflecting Lake. And looking to the Heaven, that bends above you, How oft ! I bless the Lot, that made me love you. White musk, rose-swirled amber, pink grapefruit, and jasmine. This is the Love Poem I was most looking forward to, and it does not disappoint. Sniffing from the bottle I get pure grapefruit and jasmine. I know there are a lot of jasmine haters out there, but I have to say I don't get it. To me it's just the prettiest floral scent in all of perfumery. And there's a lot of it in The Presence of Love. Jasmine & piquant pink grapefruit. After a while, the citrus fades, and I start to get a whiff of rose. After a while I start to sniff some musk, but it's not the white musk I'm generally familiar with (from say, Fae or Zephyr) - it's more like the musk in scents like 51. This is a *very* traditional floral perfume, perfect for the traditional romantic poem it is supposed to represent. Luckily I'm a fan of traditional floral perfumes, so I like this very much.

A FAREWELL TO FALSE LOVE Sir Walter Raleigh Farewell, false love, the oracle of lies, A mortal foe and enemy to rest, An envious boy, from whom all cares arise, A bastard vile, a beast with rage possessed, A way of error, a temple full of treason, In all effects contrary unto reason. A poisoned serpent covered all with flowers, Mother of sighs, and murderer of repose, A sea of sorrows whence are drawn such showers As moisture lend to every grief that grows; A school of guile, a net of deep deceit, A gilded hook that holds a poisoned bait. A fortress foiled, which reason did defend, A siren song, a fever of the mind, A maze wherein affection finds no end, A raging cloud that runs before the wind, A substance like the shadow of the sun, A goal of grief for which the wisest run. A quenchless fire, a nurse of trembling fear, A path that leads to peril and mishap, A true retreat of sorrow and despair, An idle boy that sleeps in pleasure's lap, A deep mistrust of that which certain seems, A hope of that which reason doubtful deems. Sith then thy trains my younger years betrayed, And for my faith ingratitude I find; And sith repentance hath my wrongs bewrayed, Whose course was ever contrary to kind: False love, desire, and beauty frail, adieu. Dead is the root whence all these fancies grew. Pale lavender, sweet violet, balsam of Peru, and paperwhite narcissus. Sniffing from the bottle: it's hard for any note to stand up to lavender, and when I sniff this from the bottle, that's pretty much all I smell. On first application, it's pure lavender, as well - though a very wearable lavender, not medicinal at all. Slowly I start to sense a gentle sweetness start to glow through, and I assume it's the balsam of peru. Which, to be honest, I knew was sweet, but I didn't really think was going to be this sweet. Of course, the description says "sweet violet" as well, so although I'm not really getting Violet out of the scent, perhaps that's lending to the sweetness. It's interesting...after half an hour or so when I put my nose to my wrist I still smell strong lavender, but the scent cloud floating around me is almost like purple candy. Paperwhite is not one of my favorite florals, and so I'm very pleased that it doesn't seem to make much of an appearance on me. I think this is a very adult, smoothing, elegant scent, but not particularly mournful. And now that I'm concluding the review, I'm just noticing that I'm starting to get whiffs of violet. It's an elegant purple, this scent. Maybe not for everyday, but really lovely.

THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE Christopher Marlowe Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove, That valleys, groves, hills and fields, Woods or steepy mountains yields. And we will sit upon the rocks, Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks By shallow rivers, to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals. And I will make thee beds of roses, And a thousand fragrant posies, A cap of flowers and a kirtle Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle; A gown made of the finest wool, Which from our pretty lambs we pull; Fair-lined slippers for the cold, With buckles of the purest gold; A belt of straw and ivy buds, With coral clasps and amber studs; And if these pleasures may thee move, Come live with me and be my love. The shepherd swains shall dance and sing For thy delight each May morning; If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me and be my love. Heather, clover, Irish moss, English ivy, tea rose, and carnation. So often I start reviews with "this is not how I was expecting this to smell", but in the case of The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, it smells *exactly* as I was expecting (and hoping for) it to smell like. Sniffing from the bottle the first thing that hits me is green grass - the scent of standing in a field. It must be the clover, it smells exactly like standing in a clover field. I almost feel like my allergies are going to start acting up. I always think of heather as smelling ever-so-slightly-like-curry on me, in a floral way. And I like it, but only in very small doses or it can be overwhelming. This is staying pretty true on me - after a bit I can start to sense a very light rose if I think about it hard enough, but not enough rose for the scent to go soapy. Overwhelmingly it's the scent of nature and spring - green and pastoral with just a hint of floral to balance it out. Just perfect.

I find Midnight on the Midway to be extremely Chinatown-esque.

I agree with i&p that the violet notes in Nocturne and Morgause aren't necessarily that strong. My favorite violets in the gc are Le Serpent Qui Danse (the violet surprisingly blasts the gardenia right out of the picture in my opinion), Queen Gertrude (rich and regal) and Ephemera (wispy and gentle).

... Strength, passion, and the cleansing fire of joy: olive blossom, white nectarine, vibrant blood orange, honey absolute, lemongrass, elemi, sensual patchouli, and the quiet purity of gardenia. I didn't really expect to like this scent, but an imp was sent to me by a very kind forumite and I'm happily surprised that I love it! I'm not a huge patchouli fan, and I really don't like lemongrass, so I was wary. But when I put this on, I swear that - on me - the citrus is coming off as extremely grapefruity. At first I get huge whiffs of grapefruit with just a little bit of patchouli providing a dark background. But almost immediately the patchouli disappears on me, and the glorious gardenia (one of my favorite florals) sweetens and smooths this scent right out. On me, this smells like a very grapefruity/gardenia blend with just a hint of something herbal. It's clean, but not in a soapy way - in a way that makes me think this is the kind of perfume I want to reach for when I want to freshen up a bit. A big hit for me! I'm going to be tempted to grab a bottle before the Yules come down.

This scent is sending me on a trip down memory lane - it's the closest thing to the old single note vanilla bean that I've worn in a long time. I'm not sure which components are doing it, but this scent has the same lush, rich, roundness in it's vanilla that the vanilla bean s.n. had - it's not a feeling I get from vanillas in perfumes very often. This scent is true love - lush, golden vanilla with a tiny bit of drying sandalwood when one inhales very deeply. Really good stuff!

Peach is one of the few fruits I can abide in perfumes, and I love it in this scent. The peach in La Vague is not sweet or playful, a la Fae or Imp...but bold, regal and elegant - in the manner of the Marquise de Merteuil, a scent I love and adore. La Vague reminds me a lot of MdM, in fact - except it's slightly more accessible, if that makes sense. If you like Marquise de Mertueil, but it seems too haughty for you, give La Vague a try. Anyway, it's one of Beth's beautifully balanced creations - the florals are not TOO floral, the fruit isn't too sweet, and I think the iris is acting as a sort of light, woody component to ground the whole scent. A truly lovely, classical perfume!

Sniffing from the bottle: Sweet and crisp with a light background of soft flowers. I love asian pears, and I definitely get that sweet green juicy crispness from this scent. Upon application: It does that strange foody/curry thing that certain flowers do on me sometimes. I can never quite figure out what notes it is that do that. After a few minutes: Unfortunately this starts to go a bit funky on me. I'm not sure why, but I'm starting to smell like tropical fruit life savers. Conclusion: This had great potential at first sniff, but sadly my skin chemistry did this one in. Not for me.

I would recommend Love and Pain from The Salon. It's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful lavender scent. I prefer it to both Yvaine & TKO.

I'm also looking for the ultimate lilac. I tried Cordelia yesterday, which was a wonderful lemon-lilac, but now I'm wondering if I can find such a nice, strong, natural lilac somewhere else, maybe in a combination better than lemon. You should try His Station and Four Aces, if you can find some. It's a gorgeous lilac blend - by far my favorite. Spirit of the Komachi Cherry Tree also has a really lovely lilac note, although it's maybe not quite as prominent as the lilac note in HS&FA. Also Villain (or possibly Whitechapel - I always get those two mixed up) is a great, slightly-masculine lilac. I'm pretty sure it's Villain I'm thinking of.

You should really try Monna Vanna, from the Salon. I think it's the most true-to-life rose in the catalog - above Rose Red even. But it's also got lots of supporting florals, too. When I saw "florist's shop", it was the first scent that came to mind.

Sniffing from the imp I get a fresh, damp greeness - what I'm guessing is the palm. Upon application that scent sticks around for a while, but is gradually replaced by a slithering dark muskiness. I'm not sure what that is, but I really like it. I don't really think it's the leather (which I don't smell at all) - and if it's the tobacco, it's not the kind I'm usually used to. It's very earthy, slightly sweet, a little bit bitter and surprisingly animalistic. I love it.....but would really love it on a man. The wear length is good - I've been wearing it for about eight hours and I can still smell it floating around me.

Sniffing from the bottle: woah, that's sharp. Upon application: Completely different from how it smells in the bottle. It smells exactly, EXACTLY, like dry and barren corn fields. (Trust me, I'm from corn country, I know. How does a Califonia girl like Beth know? I have no idea? ) Actually, when I first applied this I sort of didn't remember what the poem was all about, and I was all "Huh? Dead fields?"...and then I remembered. Really amazing. But the best part is that scent is fleeting, and after a few minutes it settles down into a gorgeous, lightly spicy, warm, traditional perfume. Which is great, because while the scent of barren fields is extremely evocative, who want to smell like that all of the time. The clove is really strong on me, and it's set against a backdrop that is dry and lovely, like leaves rustling in the wind. I will wear this a lot this fall. Conclusion: Besides being beautiful and really wearable, I think this a very smart perfume. Big thumbs up!