Dorian

[Ina Garten Davita]

Dorian:

 

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself. Inspired by and created for my beloved Tedwin: my eternal, beautiful, wicked Dorian Gray. Refined, elegant, and lovely, with a noble bearing and seemingly gentle air. This blend is an artful deception: a sweet gilded blossom lying over a twisted and corrupted core. A Victorian fougere with three pale musks and dark, sugared vanilla tea.

 

First Impression: Sweet tea.

 

Second Impression: Oh. My. God. This is like having a cup of strong but sweet tea laced with a hint of lemon in a posh Victorian parlor whilst sitting opposite a very civilised Victoran gentleman. And as soon as the maid serving the tea is gone, this proper Victoran gentleman fucks you six ways from Sunday.

 

Final Analysis: Very sexy and sexual but at first sniff, oh so proper. This blend is gorgeous, a must try. Not too masculine that a woman couldn't pull off. Wear this and you will feel sexy.

[shriekingviolet]

Initial Impression:

Mmm this is sweet. Smells like tea and honeyed vanilla.

 

After Wearing It:

Yummy on so many different levels! Very sweet in a vanilla sugar kind of way and just delightful. Sensual and playful, something that just wants to completely indulge itself every moment of everyday because it has no conception of tomorrow. So it's sexy yes, but more of a solitary hedonism, because going solo eliminates the call for compromise or explanation. That's the greatest love of all, eh?

 

During the first two hours of this fragrance, Dorian smelled of murky lavender floating in a cup of tea completely saturated with sugar with a tang of lemon. So sweet, smooth and cool with a wicked quirk to it. It's not masculine at all, but it's not feminine either. It goes beyond simply being gender neutral and embodies all that is androgynous and is quite proud of its ambiguity. It's a girl in a tux and a guy who enjoys the thrill of wearing ladies' lingerie, and feels quite smug when people stare. Very reminiscent of Neil Gaiman's Desire from The Sandman series.

 

After hour two, the lemon and lavender fade away and the soft musks take their place leaving me with something that smells a lot like Snake Oil. It's definitely the same sugary vanilla note, but instead of the spices, it's musk and a bit of bittersweetness leftover from the tea. Which is lovely because I adore Snake Oil, and Dorian agrees with me in the same way. Lasts just as long too, so this is a real winner. So glad Ted was willing to share this one because I want to smell of this too!

 

 

Final Thoughts:

Wish I had ordered a bottle of this rather than an imp!! This is definitely on my "must repurchase immediately!" list. So fucking lovely!

[luxuria]

I smell slightly lemony vanilla tea and something else (perhaps the fougere? not sure what that is) that just ties it all together. This is absolutely gender neutral. I ordered it because a] I love Dorian Gray and b] it sounded like my ideal men's fragrance, but I love it for myself! Mind you, I tend to be very girly with my fragrances and find that "gender neutral" means "leaning too far to the masculine side" a lot of the time. Not here!

 

The lemon is the first thing to go but it takes a while. It just smells sophisticated, smooth, and slightly sweet (but in no way sickly.) It's sexy, but in a very subtle way. HIGHLY recommended, at least to try!

 

I just read the previous two reviews and they're spot on imo, so pay attention to them!

 

I am so getting a bottle of this. And it's also found a place in my top 10.

 

[edit] I also have to add this has crrrazy lasting power and goes on pretty strong.

Edited January 28, 2005 by luxuria

[lorajc]

I'm glad I listened to Andra and ordered a second bottle of this. I just rec'd my first bottle and I ripped open the package to get at this. It is sugary vanilla tea yumminess. I didn't pick up on the hint of lemon until I went to post this and noticed the other reviews. I do smell it now, but it is very slight. I think this just found it's way to my top ten list also. It is sweet with a touch of tea and simply irresistable. It is really unlike any other BPAL fragrance. It vaguely reminds me of Fresh's "Sugar" fragrance but it didn't have the tea note. I really like this one.

[shelldoo]

Beautiful! I get a slight slight hint of a clean tea smell but mostly a sugary vanilla, but very light super nice, I have had it on a few hours and it still is there which surprised me because it was so light i thought it would disappear I want a big bottle of this.

[phaedrine]

Oh so good!

 

This is such a beautiful blend. In the bottle, it smells like a big cup of tea with milk and sugar, being handed to you by a sexy Victorian man in a pale suit.

 

It's so subtle and awesome. It's not really feminine, but it's not masculine, either. I can see it being beautiful on either sex, especially on those that toe the line between.

 

For the first few hours that I wore it, I got tea with milk and lots of sugar. No lemons at all, as others have mentioned.

 

Subtly, slowly, the tea fades and is replaced by hints of the musks and what must be the fougere. Very sophisticated, yet still covered in sugar. The tea has been finished, and it's time to move on to other things...

 

All in all, so happy I bought a bottle of this one unsniffed!!

[kimmer]

I absolutely love this.

 

Hot tea with lots of sugar--truly comforting. It reminds me of my childhood and drinking tea with my Mother.

 

Dorian will compete with Bliss for being my favorite bedtime blend.

 

Kudos to Beth and The Lab--who'd have ever thought such a scent was possible.

 

Thank you!!

 

Edited to remove multiple instances of "scent"

Edited February 1, 2005 by kimmer

[Nepthys]

This smells just beautiful in the bottle, a rich honeyed tea that stops just shy of being overly sweet. Wet, there is a deeper, more brutal note - the musk? - that shapes it into a very interesting scent, one that totally suits Dorian Gray. Unfortunately that note completely evaporates on me and pure sugar tea comes forth. Like Snake Oil, I have to be in the mood for this level of unadulterated rich sweetness; though it smells delicious at first, after an hour I'm sick of it already. In the future I'll probably try layering it with something a bit more dry.

[Lucretia]

I was hoping this would smell sort of like white rabbit minus the pepper, and I'm pleased, this is certainly a scent of it's own, but does meet my need for a non peppery tea scent.

 

First off I get vanilla, milk and tea. Very soft tea with a hint of vanilla milk. A bit like Sudha with a whiff of vanilla. There is a hint of something more though, something a bit trecherous and sexed up, the musks?

 

Later i get someting bitter... weird! I was not expecting this. Someting like a breeze through a garden patch, i never realized that ferns had a smell before, but thats it! The vanilla has faded now and I sort of miss it, but still very very nice. I'd like to try this on the BF too.

 

all in all, a winner in the tea and vanilla scents for me, just enough of each. It may take me a while to get used to the "fougere' though.

[Donnababe]

The comparisons to the lovely 'Sugar' by Fresh made me forget to wait for the imp in my pending order and order a bottle from the lovely folk at Apothecary's Cat.........

 

Bottle

 

Lemon tea and just a touch of lavender. Very promising.

 

On the skin

 

Oh noooooooo!!! Far far far too sweet. Nauseatingly so. This is Regan without the floral.

 

After a While

 

Still far too sweet for me but from time to time I do get a lovely waft of lemon tea.

 

Verdict

 

I tried this twice throughout the course of the day in the desperate hope my opinion would improve. I do like it a little more than my initial thoughts but in the end this is far too sugary for me.

 

I am really fed up. Please don't tell me Spooky is this sweet ........

[Aurelius]

Damn, this is gorgeous.

 

To me, this smells a bit like Sugar Skull mixed with Embalming Fluid. That may sound a bit odd, but it's divine. It's sugary goodness with a tang of citrus. This blend seems to perfectly mix naughty and nice. It smells vaguely like Snake Oil, but it's not as loud.

 

I adore this. I think this is now in my top five.

[Longstofly]

Hmm, this is a beautiful scent! In the bottle I smell lavender and lemon and the sharp smell of unsweetened tea. When I apply it to my skin I get a wonderful sugared vanilla tea. I don't smell the lemon or lavender once it hits my skin.

 

Oh how beautiful though! I get really sick smelling a lot of vanilla perfumes because it is always way too strong for me. This is a nice subtle vanilla. I think the tea evens out the sweetness and makes it perfect. I can definitely imagine this on a man or woman, although on me, it smells much more feminine than I thought it would.

 

I might get a big bottle, but I will definitely keep the imp! Yum!

[xochitl]

Dorian - my new love. The musks are indeed very pale and do not overwhelm the scents of vanilla or tea. They all mingle to make a lovely mellow, sweet scent that leaves me smelling my wrists all day. Another big bottle purchase to be sure.

[Lorencita]

WOW, WOW, WOW!! This is my favorite yet! I am in total love with this blend. I wore it today, it seems that this scent was made for my skin, this has worn better than any other scent I have ever had. It lasted all day, and I work damn hard, with my hands all day long! It started off very soft, then as it dried, it became stronger. To me this was Fresh's sugar with tea, & a lighter lemon & some musk for good measure. I am so happy I ordered a 5ml instead of an imp. I will be ordering a 10 ml in my next moon order, so I can make lotion, body oil & massage bars! I am in love!! Wow, I am sooooooooooo happy that this is in the permanent collection, I would literally be crying if it was an LE!

[minilux]

I was positively drooling with anticipation for this one (thanks a lot Andra), and kicking myself for not ordering it sooner. I'm afraid the vanilla monster has struck again, however, gobbling up everything except maybe the tiniest smidgen of fougere. I don't get any tea whatsoever. I know this is my body chemistry which amplifies vanilla to the 10th power, which is why I usually avoid BPAL vanilla scents. I have some plans for adulterating it with some Severin in hopes of subduing the vanilla, so we'll see what happens...

[Caitfish]

In the bottle, I get a big pile of vanilla with a slight, sharp green undertone. No lemon at all yet, thank goodness.

 

On, this is still very very vanilla. I get a touch of lemon, but only for an instant, and only in the very background. There is a bitterness here of the tea - it's very beautiful, but unfortunately it doesn't really stand up against the vanilla.

 

As it fades, the vanilla and tea mingle and eventually decide to give each other some room. It's very lovely, very comforting and definately gender neutral. Unfortunately, it's not very me. Lovely though!

[Northernminx]

 

This had the fortuitous arrival time of getting into my hands while my boyfriend was visiting. Sweet tea with a touch of milk, this was sweet but not cloying or overbearing. A little vanilla under all that and a bit of lemon and something a little muskier. Jake said it smelled too sweet for it to be masculine until he tried it on and wahooo... I should note Andra's review is dead on. Sweet but sexy and just a touch proper dangling on the edge of dangerous.

 

Let's just say we fought over who got to keep the imp on this one and the end result is I'll be ordering him a 5ml in my next order. (He won the fight though I can't really say I mind)

[wolfie13]

Ugh _ I was so excited to know that I had this one arriving any day when I read the first reviews.

 

But no - it really didn't work on me. In the vial it smells great - a nice tea with lemon and a hint of danger underneath (must be the musk)

 

But wearing: it goes WAY too sweet on me - really sugary or honeyed tea and that's really it.

 

I contemplated putting it in the boy's pile, thinking that maybe on him it would stay

truer to the bottle smell, but I decided I couldn't risk the chance that it didn't and I'd have to smell him. (This one really gave me a close-to-queasy feeling upon extended exposure. And it had real staying power).

[scourgeotheseas]

Dorian

 

OMG! I love this!

 

In the bottle: sweet tea with a hint of lemon

 

On me/wet: It starts out with a little blast of lemon, but fades quickly to a well blended cup of tea with lots and lots of sugar combined with a kick of vanilla. After a while, a hint of the musks appear but never really makes it out from under the sweet vanilla notes. For all that, though, it was an amazingly "dry" scent. Crisp.

 

Really beautiful, and the vanilla/hint of musk stayed around all day. It reminded me of a men's version of Antique Lace, for some reason.

 

Brava!

[judas_kiss]

I told my husband we should have ordered the 5ml or even a 10ml right of the bat of this...

 

Overall: This is a very playful, asexual scent. Very hedonistic with a bit of a bite.

 

In the imp: Lemon drops. Very sweet, almost scared me off at first..

 

On me wet: Lemon and vanilla with a slight creamy sweetness to it.

 

On me drydown: Ah...there's the tea and the fougere. The lemon and vanilla-sugar go into a creamy state and the acridity of the tea tempers it nicely. The fougere is there, in the background and keeps this light and not overly foody. This is AMAZING. The musks come out last and give it just the right ammount of a feral edge.

 

On hubby, actually, it was just like me, but better. Ah, this is something all men should own because it is sexy in such an underhanded, nonchalant way. The musks also seemed to come out more with him. Nice staying power on both of us as well.

 

I can't help but think of Dorian as Alice's older, very naughty brother. You know, the one all the girls pined for and parents adored. The man who could break a thousand hearts, but managed to stay on good terms with all of them...Ah Dorian, you are a bad bad boy!

[harlequin]

Oh my goodness, this is even better than I hoped!

 

I do pick up a bit of lemon in the bottle, but wearing it, it's a lovely, delicious vanilla tea... and I can actually pick out the tea in this ones.. the other tea blends I've tried I couldn't really.

 

Before I put this one on, I'd actually just made a cup of tea (honey ginger, courtesy of the tea swap!).. I put this wonderful scent on and instantly was reminded that I had bought some vanilla-sugar on Sunday. Of course, I squee'd and had to scamper across the apartment and dump some in my tea..

 

It's good, but no where near as good as Dorian is... I want to lick my arm!

 

Verdict: :heart::heart: Squee! Definitely an instant top ten right here!

Edited February 10, 2005 by harlequin

[isyche]

Ohh. This is quite sweet in the vial, but the tea comes out more on my skin and tempers the vanilla sweetness, thank goodness, and it gets less sweet as it dries. There's also a very faint hint of lemon that gives it an edge.

 

Dorian smells like a cup of tea with sugar, only, somehow, sexy. And delicately androgynous. (Come to think of it, it does remind me of Desire from the Sandman.) It's absolutely beautiful. Love it. This completely makes up for White Rabbit not working on me. I might need a 10ml of this.

Edited February 14, 2005 by isyche

[Macha]

A lot of fuss was made when this scent was first introduced, so I added an imp of it to the six pack I ordered for the Wolf Moon update. As I started to trying more scents, and as hype about this particular scent grew (not to mention Andrabell's highly evocative review), I decided to add a big bottle to my last order, even though I hadn't actually tried Dorian yet and didn't know if I'd like it. Am I impulsive or what? Oh, I'm so glad....SO glad....

 

In the vial: There's a store in Pasadena called the Bamboo Tea House that I go to every year on my birthday. They have an excellent vanilla black tea, thick and lush, and I'll admit that I occassionally like to splurge by making it strong and adding too much sugar. This smells exactly like that. The scent is so spot on perfect that it's swoon inducing.

 

Wet, on skin: I put this on this morning before heading out to the bus, and of course, I ended up completely drenched in the rain storm, but even then I would catch frequent whisps of the most lusciously perfect sweet vanilla black tea. It put a smile on my face even as I was trying to leap over puddles and navigate the improptu rivers and lakes of various parking lots.

 

Dry, on skin: As this dries, a little more of a fern-like scent (the fougere?) and the musks come into play, and they are wonderfully perfect. The tea never completely goes away though, and I keep getting little tosses of sweet tea, rather like a lover sneaking up on me to whisper in my ear. Gorgeous! Great throw, great staying power, and just beautiful.

 

Conclusion: If Ice Queen didn't exist, this would be my #1 favorite BPAL, hands down. If Dorian was a man, I'd have a torrid affair with him (and no one else would ever know.) It's gloriously good, and for me the perfect vanilla tea perfume. This is one hell of a Midwinter's Eve present, Beth. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Edited February 11, 2005 by Macha

[Pookstrell]

I hadn’t been very caught up in the hype over Dorian. I ordered an imp for a friend in my last lab order and thought it sounded yummy, but hadn’t really thought of getting some for myself. To me ‘fougere’ often means lavender, and since I already own 5ml’s of Villain I thought it would be a little redundant. However, a few days ago I suddenly decided I wanted to try it, along with Old Morocco.

So, I placed an utterly impulsive order with Apothecary’s Cat for 5ml’s of each, both unsniffed. It arrived in under a day, so I had the precious in my hot little hands very quickly indeed!

 

The first thing I noticed was that it smelled sweet, very sweet in fact. I could catch a whiff of tea in the bottle, but probably only because I was particularly searching for it. For those familiar with Goth Rosary scents, it is quite reminiscent of Season’s Greedings, which I also just found out is a tea scent too- so there is obviously a common tea note, but one which I was unable to immediately identify as tea.

At first I found Dorian a little to sweet, and played about with Old Morocco for a while instead- hence the delay in my review. But, ooooh. It gets better! Wet on the skin it is sweet, vanillar-y and rich. There is a hint of lemon in here, but only the merest hint. As it warms up, it begins to smell of sweeties. After it has been on about ten minutes the tea and lemon notes become more pronounced, but only slightly. I get whiffs of both on occasion, but they are reigned in tight by the deep sweetness. This balance means that it is both heavy and light at the same time (if that makes sense!) It also means that I get different wafts of scent from one moment to another. Complex.

On me, this is long-lasting and my liking for it increases exponentially upon every application. I actually get excited before I put it on!

I probably wouldn’t wear this scent if I wasn’t in the mood for sweetness, as it is quite cloying. For example, I think it would be too much if I was going out for a meal. But usually I’m in the mood for gooeyness, so it’ll be worn a lot. I’m already worried about my bottle running out!

This has to be my best BPAL unsniffed-gamble yet. I think that it’ll become a firm favourite with BPAL’s customers if it isn’t already!

I would recommend it to anyone with a fondness for a) sweet scents vanilla and musk. Strangely, I put some on a fellow forumite and it was almost pure lemon on her skin. The difference in the way our skins reacted to this blend was quite dramatic.

In short: I love this now, although I feared that initially it would be to sweet. I would have been heart-broken if this was an L.E. It is a totally brilliant addition to the catalogue. Superb. Definitely in my Top 3!!!!!!!!!!

Edited February 12, 2005 by Pookstrell

[purely_cosmetic]

I am, unfortunately, the fellow forumite metioned above.

 

I got very excited when Laura described this to me, but then when I had some on...

 

 

 

 

CIF LEMON!!!!

 

 

Not even real fresh lemons, but industrial solvent bathroom cleaner lemon. In fact, I think it smelt very much like the bathroom mousse cleaner we have upstairs.

 

After about an hour, the lemon lost it acrid intensity, but was still.....basically.....lemon.

 

My skin obviously lacks the sophistication needed for this scent!!!

 

I would wear this If I wanted to repel every person in the room.

 

But it's worth a try since other people have had such success with it!

Edited February 12, 2005 by purely_cosmetic