faded_stranger

The name translates to “the beautiful woman without mercy”, and is the title of an old French court poem that was later revamped by John Keats. A bewitching, seductive scent, rife with mystery and foreboding. La Belle Dame Sans Merci is very floral, very strong, very green, and very forceful. It has a lot of throw and a lot of staying power--almost too much. I put it on when I first got up in the morning, and sixteen hours and several hundred miles later, my boyfriend mentioned that he liked my perfume. Normally I'd appreciate that, but unfortunately something in this scent carries the connotation of headaches for me.

Rich. Heavy. Smokey. Sweet. Decadent as hell. My nose is certainly less accurate than many of the other reviewers here, but I get vanilla, a floral that I can't quite place, and something like cinnamon. I'm buying a bottle as a present for a friend, but I save my imp for those times when nothing short of absolutely hedonistic will do. Strong staying power.

Wow. ROSE. This scent is so sweet, floral, and feminine that wearing it makes me feel like a liar. At first I get almost entirely rose and ylang-ylang, but after I've been wearing it for an hour or so the apple creeps in and makes for a very nice, if very girly, scent. Unfortunately for me, not long after that it goes all soapy and weird. I'd like it more if the apple was a little more prominent, or the rose a little less overwhelming. As is, I've been using my imp to scent letters to my Marine friend in Iraq, since he's quite sure that all women should smell floral and rosy.