Dorian

[ktesedale]

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.

 

Ah, after nine pages, what more needs to be said about this scent? Won't stop me from reviewing, though!

 

In the bottle, this smells lemon-fresh.

 

Wet, again, this is very lemon, but now with a strong tea scent.

 

Dry - oh, yum. I can see why this a favorite of so many people. Black tea with loads of sugar and lemon. Just that by itself would be great, but then you add in the musk, giving it depth and warmth and a 'human' scent. I didn't get much, if any, vanilla, which is strange since vanilla tends to amp a little on me. Huh.

 

Overall, I really enjoyed this scent. I have a rule that I have to try everything twice before ordering more of it, and I'm glad I do - otherwise I would have gotten a 10ml just an hour after applying. I hope I can wait until the next moon. I'm glad this one wasn't a let-down for me - after Alice, I'm sort of wary about the scents everyone loves.

Edited January 23, 2006 by Kiena

[czuba]

Ah, Dorian, my beloved. I didn't do a review when I received my imp, but figured I best do one now that my 5ml has arrived.

 

Bottle - Vanilla sugar and Lemon tea

 

On Skin Wet - Tea with the musk and vanilla undertones starting to peak out as it beings to dry

 

On Skin Dry - Tea holding strong with the musk becoming more of an undertone. I found the vanilla reappears over time as the tea scent begins to fade a little.

[moon_lemming]

Sweet lord, this is teh hotness! Vanilla with a little nibble of tea; the musks are way in the background but still noticeable. I noticed a hint of lemon after reading reviews that mentioned it, but it can't be much because my skin usually amps lemon, and you can hardly tell it's there in this blend. It's sexy but comforting at the same time. HOT.

 

Well. I think I've found one to add to my top ten. And I've heard that it's even better aged, so once my 10ml comes (read: once I have monies again) I'm aging the imp. I almost cannot imagine Dorian smelling better, though.

[Ayln]

Oh yum!

 

Lemony tea, vanilla, with a hint of man's cologne (musk).

 

I may be getting a headache from this, though, which breaks my heart! I'll have to try it a few more times to place judgement, though.

[silver_dollar]

I was trying to decide which to try this morning - Dorian, Manila, or Intrigue - when "The Picture of Dorian Grey" suddenly came on TV. Seems like my mind's been made up for me.

 

In the vial: Sugary, lemony tea.

 

On my skin: A sweetness that isn't really tea or vanilla. More like pure sugar and maybe some sort of flower? I'm not good at identifying florals beyond rose and honeysuckle, so who knows. Anyway, this is extremely sweet. I can't smell the lemon anymore at all.

 

After about ten minutes, I start to pick up a faint tea scent with some vanilla thrown in, but this is still mostly sugar with ( I think ) some musk.

 

After thirty minutes, this is vanilla with lots of sugar. I don't think it's exactly the same vanilla as in Snake Oil. It kind of reminds me of snow cream, when we get enough snow to make it, which is about once a decade.

 

This is really nice, but I'm undecided whether I'd buy a big bottle of it. Probably.

 

Edited 8/23/09:

Wow, I don't know what I was thinking when I first reviewed this, but I had to edit this to say that this might possibly be my most favorite BPAL ever. It is wonderful.

Edited August 23, 2009 by silver_dollar

[Scarlettfish]

I should start this review by mentioning that vanilla is usually disastrous on me. A blend can be loaded with every single one of my favourite notes (see Bearded Lady), but it turns rancid on my skin with just a drop of vanila. So I was a little sceptical of Dorian, despite its popularity.

 

Well I shouldn't have worried, because I seem to have found the one vanilla scent that works on me! This is much more of a 'vanilla tea' scent than a straight vanilla one, but that suits me just fine. It smells like vanilla tea and lemon...very much a Victorian tea-party. With just a little bit of evil lurking underneath, somewhere. This is really lovely and fresh. It is a masculine scent, but I feel I can wear it, too, which is nice. Very impressed by this one!

[telesilla]

Why I tried it: It's one of the Lab's most popular scents

 

In the bottle and wet: Sweet and rich. I get the sugared vanilla but not the tea yet.

 

Drying down: There's a sharpish note that I think is the tannin from the tea. Right now, it's not, for me, all that and a bag of chips. I'm not hating it, but I could easily name five blends I like better.

 

15 minutes later: There is no Victorian Gentleman anywhere near here who is going to take great liberties with my person as soon as the door is closed. No Victorian Lady either, alas. It's just vanilla/musky--didn't Jovan do a vanilla musk back in the late 70s?--with a slight whiff of tea.

 

Later: I don't dislike it, but I'm not all that wild about it either. Might be my body chemistry or something, but I don't think I'd be as disappointed it everyone didn't talk it up so much. Oh well, more for you all who like it. *grins*

[PirateMaggie]

In the bottle, I definitely smelled the lemon-vanilla tea with something naughty underneath. On my skin, though, I turned immediately into lemon furniture polish and musk. No tea. No vanilla. I just smelled like I'd been cleaning and forgot to wear deodorant. Blech.

 

I'm at the halfway point in my cycle right now and my hormones are a little off-kilter. I'll try this again in a few days. My skin amps musk like crazy, though, so I don't have great hopes after the Pledge-and-armpit fiasco.

[Naamah_Darling]

In the bottle, it's a sweet, tangy musk blend with almost tart overtones, stirred by undercurrents of vanilla's smoothness. There's a faint hint of floral in the bottle – lavender, perhaps – that never really comes out on my skin.

 

On me, it deepens and darkens to real, live warmth, with an unexpected sharp undertone that blooms and dies before I have a chance to identify it.

 

The musk and vanilla and tea combination is really quite perfect; the musk tones down the vanilla so the sweetness is not overwhelming, the vanilla gives the musk something to cling to. And as it dries, there is a faint but persistent acrid lemon-and-tea-leaf smell, which settles down after about two hours. This dry, tannic scent is all that keeps this oil from being very, very feminine.

 

Dorian is, as you might expect from the name, smooth, sophisticated, sexy, and above all, androgynous. A wonderful embodiment of poised desirability. Yummy, but not too forward.

 

Actually, make that glorious. Glorious.

 

I fell asleep with my face on my arm after testing this one, and dreamed I was hunting through the house trying to find the source of the wonderful cookie-tea-boy smell. I found Christian Kane in my bathroom, shirtless and tattooed, pouring vanilla-chamomile tea into the sink.

 

You all can have a field day with that one. I'm not touching it.

[Oio]

I, too, ordered my sample of Dorian based on the promising notes, and Andra's convincing review. Here is mine:

 

In the imp:

Lemony Vanilla Tea. YUMMY!

 

Wet on my skin:

Wow, this is delicious. Dark Tea, soft warm vanilla, with a sparkle of lemon! and musk. Teh sexy!

 

Dry:

Well. The maid serves the tea in the posh Victorian parlor whilst I am sitting opposite a very civilised Victoran gentleman. And as soon as the maid serving the tea is gone, this proper Victoran gentleman takes out several cans of Play-dough, opens them, and commences to make himself a pair of Play-dough pants.

 

Oh well. Can't win them all.

[amyw]

Yum! I love vanilla though it can be a little cloying. This one isn't, however. It's vanilla with a little kick to it, even though my skin amps up the vanilla such that the rest of the notes fade a bit in comparison. The musks and tea round this out really nicely and it achieves what I was looking for in an oil with a vanilla note. If you don't like sweet notes this might not be for you, but I like it a lot.

[blueroses]

Dorian was one of the first imps I ordered from the Lab. I was in the midst of trying a whole bunch of scents, so I just swiped Dorian on, registered a mostly tea and white musk blend, and set it aside. I ended up giving away my imp.

 

After reading all the raves, I decided I must have been missing something. So I tried it again.

 

In the bottle: A vanilla that smells wearable! And tea!

 

Wet: How did I miss the vanilla the first time? This is great. A sugary sweet vanilla (but not very foodie - I can almost never wear vanilla bean) with a light musk and a hint of tea.

 

Drydown: More of the tea comes out, but Dorian is still overwhelmingly sweet musky vanilla.

 

A new favorite - I've already ordered a 10mL.

[Spring Snow]

This one is just delicious!

I get a lovely milky tea smell, sweetened by a little honey sharpened by lemon, and rounded out by the white musk. Overall it's a very mild perfume, gentle but not cloying. It's perfect for the balmy weather down south just now! Unfortunately I think the boy will be stealing this one away from me, because it smells just as good on him as it does on me... I guess I'll just have to order my own bottle!

[Rock Goddess]

Dear lord, I need a big bottle of this NOW!

 

This is absolutley gorgeous on me. Sweet, sugared vanilla tea with a just a bit of lemon and musk. Every scent with lemon I've tried before went lemon pledge on me, and most vanilla ones have been cloying. But this...this is perfectly balanced. It's delicious, and everything it's cracked up to be. Very comforting, but subtley sexy at the same time.

 

Possibly a new favorite! My soul craves more.

Edited February 10, 2006 by Rock Goddess

[bifemmefatale]

In the bottle: vanilla sugar and a hint of musk. On: even more sugary. To me, I smell like a caramel apple, oddly enough. My hubby says he gets the tea, but I don't, really, and there's not a hint of lemon, which is a relief, because I really would rather not smell like Pledge. Thankfully, for once the musk is not going baby powder on me, as has every other musk scent I've tried so far, but this is just too candy-sweet to become one of my favorites.

[cal_steph]

In the bottle: Wow! Now I understand the hype. It smells exactly like an afternoon snack of tea and lemon bars dusted with powdered sugar.

 

On my skin: Almost exactly the same as in the bottle, except the vanilla comes out a little bit more. Luckily, this is genuine sweet vanilla instead of the plasticky fakeness that I usually get from body sprays (obviously a difference of quality).

 

Definitely keeping this imp.

[poisonapple]

Oh my. My first Scent in the wonderful world of Bpal. I can't really tell the different notes. But wow...this is wonderful. I bought it for my hubby off of ebay. But I seriously doubt that he will get it. LOL

 

It has such a warm spicey vanilla scent that morphed in to even something more wonderful after about 30 minutes. I really wish I could review every note, maybe when I am not such a newbie I will be able too. But this is diffinate going on my "Keep in stock" list.

[sea_stars]

Wow! The sugared vanilla tea really pops on my skin! I can also smell a squeeze of fresh lemon. I really want to nibble my arm... :F If only I could find a nice boy to wear this one for me! This one has great staying power..I've had it on my arm for hours and can still smell it! Perfect throw..not too overpowering and not too subtle. No wonder it was so difficult for me to find this in swaps..everyone was hoarding theirs! Bottom line: great scent.

[Thaleia]

What the heck am I supposed to say here, seeing that there are ten pages of reviews I have to follow - after having reviewed Dana O'Shee just now and not finding anything original to say there, either? The first thing that pops out, both on my skin and in the bottle, is the sweet vanilla tea with a slice of lemon (which I'm guessing should be the Victorian fougere - I've smelled a few fougeres before and they sort of smell like this). Very Victorian, very narcissistic - this is someone who's beautiful and knows it. I'm already holding my head a bit higher, even though I'm only wearing pj's. Very sexy.

 

For one of my graduate school classes, I wrote my final paper on the aestheticism of Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde as presented in The Picture of Dorian Gray. I wonder what would've happened if I'd submitted this bottle in lieu of my paper. This says it all, honestly, better than I ever could. 10/10.

[Lizzie]

In The Bottle Vanilla and....something.

 

Wet On Vanilla fabric softener.

 

Dry Oiy!! Yup, vanilla fabric softener. Mixed with other laundry smells, like laundry detergent. Eeek. Ok, well this one's not for me. Not that I don't like the scent of laundry. But uh, I don't wanna smell like it.

[astridclaire]

Ah, Dorian...... it's f-ing fantastic!!!

 

I was a little worried about the musks listed because my skin hates them. However, they play very very nice with my chemistry and turn this oil into southern sweet tea with lots of lemon. Sweet, a little vanilla, refreshing, creamy lemon goodness.

 

It doesn't last all day, but I don't mind slathering every 3 hours.

[damuddymeg]

I'd read Naamah_Darling's LJ review of Dorian, and thought it sounded divine. So, when I put in my first order with BPAL, it was among the scents I had to try.

 

Imp: dark, sweet, vanilla tea. A little musk.

 

Wet: Mmmm. Sweet and almost a little smokey. Tobacco-ey? I don't get ANY of the lemon that other reviewers have mentioned. And I'm ok with that. The vanilla is smooth without being phony or cloying.

 

Dry: The lemon has never made any appearance. The vanilla is still there, but light. The musk is hanging around nicely, and the dark tea smell (which I think is where I'm picking up the pipe tobacco-ness) is staying put. It is not a "feminine" smell, which I'm actually quite happy about. No flowers to go all grandma on me. Just light and sweet and comforting, without being girlie.

 

Note: This is the only scent thus far that has caused my husband (who normally has no sense of smell whatsoever) to follow me all over the house, snuffling my neck and making yummy noises. Yeah, 10ml will be on my next order.

[LittleGreyKitten]

Dorian is indeed lovely. The musks are very present, yet light, on my skin. The vanilla is a lot like the Black Opal vanilla, and I do smell a bit of tea- not a whallop of it, like in Spirits of the Dead and Holiday Moon, but a gentle touch of tea. I don't really notice any lemon. As it dries, the musks come out even more.

 

At first I wasn't sure about Dorian, but it grew on me a LOT. It's just the perfect thing sometimes, delicate yet creamy. Mmmm. Got a bottle on the way, it's taking way too long!

 

OK, so I had to figure out what the heck a fougere was. This is what perfumery.net says: THE FOUGERE FRAGRANCE CONCEPT - MASCULINE The "Fougere" fragrance concept is based upon the interplay between lavender, oakmoss and coumarin and is a classical creation which was to pave the way for the further development of masculine perfumery Hmm. I'm not sure this is what Beth used in Dorian- I sure don't get lavender, thank goodness, or much of a masculine scent.

 

I'd give it a 5 out of 5.

 

I was wearing Dorian at work when one of my male co-workers grabbed me and said "What is that you're wearing?? I absolutely LOVE it!" Eventually he kept sniffing me so much I gave him my imp. He's almost finished it- it smells damn good on him, too. Every time he wears it though, he gets molested by a customer, I swear. It's too funny. Enablement fully achieved!

Edited April 8, 2006 by LittleGreyKitten

[sestina]

This is a straight-out-of-the-bottle, 100% love at first sniff, OMG gotta have it big bottle experience for me.

 

Dorian is one of the few BPAL fragrances I've tried that does not seem to morph or change much through the drydown. It starts off soft and sweet and comfortable, and it stays that way. I glued my sniffer to my wrist and occasionally could catch an olfactory glimse of the lemon and perhaps some lavendar. Ah, this is so wonderful...

 

If I could think up anything I wish were different, I would say I just wish it were stronger. But maybe when I have more than an imp I'll be able to slather it and that problem will be solved.

 

Beautiful. Just beautiful.

[Rewth]

excellent. Slightly sweet vanilla is the dominant smell on me, but the tea is there with a hint of lemon actually and ultimately blends very well. the musks are blended around just neough to make this not too girlie. The more I wear this, the more I like it. pretty sure this will be a 5ml in the very near future.