The Empress

[isyche]

The Empress is rose and something else... it's reminding me of Silentium Amoris or Spellbound or Seraglio...ylang-ylang? amber? sandalwood? It's a warm, heady, soft, womanly rose – I can see the grounded maternal quality of this.

 

However, whatever is under the rose is going a bit headachey/soapy on me, like Spellbound and Silentium Amoris did. I love rose, and the Empress is nice, but some of Beth's other roses work better on me.

[Witch's Dagger]

The Empress

 

This was a part of the Tarot swap - since I need to review all of them in a very short time, this will be a brief review.

 

Preconceived notions: Earthy, yet watery, full of vitality, cleansing, and nurturing, perhaps with rose for love and passion.

 

In the vial: Rose.

 

On me: Rose, and something very sweet and watery. It reminds me a lot of Silentium Amoris.

 

In 20 minutes:

Still quite rosy. I’m not sure if this means it’s actually mostly rose, or if it just goes rose on me because of my skin chemistry (unlike some people, this doesn’t happen with *every* rose blend, but it has happened with a couple).

 

Overall:

This is a very nice rose blend. I probably won’t get a bottle, since I already have a lot of nice rose blends, and I’d never use up 10 ml. of it. I could see myself taking a decant as a swap, though.

[ChupaChup]

I recognized The Empress as soon as I put it on, it smells exactly like Endymion, especially the d'anjou pear, lily of the valley and rosewood. I ran and got my imp of Endymion and put it on my other arm, the scents were identical for the first 15 minutes. But when Endymion starts to soften, the Empress stays strong and a resinous note, what I'm pretty sure is myrrh, emerges. Wow this is gorgeous, it's an amped up Endymion (and I love Endymion), more mature and longer lasting. Endymion is a spring and summer daytime scent whereas The Empress is a year-round evening scent.

[yeahbutnobut]

The Empress

 

In the imp: rooooose! Beautiful, sweet, full bodied rose.

Wet on skin: oh rose, how I love thee. This reminds me of Rose Cross, actually-it's that same kind of rose…it's a full bodied, mature, sophisticated rose, also quite sweet.

Dry on skin: oh yes, this still remains a warm, sweet, and gorgeous rose fragrance. It's a mature, grown up rose, soft and sweet and ever so womanly. It's also very gentle and quite subtle on me.

After a while: yup, this remains rosy, but the rose warms up on my skin, the throw improves nicely and mellows out. This isn't a tart dry rose, this is a warm, rich and gentle rose scent. I'm sure there's another note there, not obvious, but something is enhancing the rose scent, I think it's frankincense, or some sort of incense, because this scent is so similar to Rose Cross. Or maybe it's sandalwood or violet?

Verdict: this is another scent to add to my collection of rose BPALs, and I love it. The Empress is rose, pure and simple, and yet so beautiful in it's rosy simplicity. Beth concocts the most incredible rose fragrances, and this is yet another one of those…this rose is lovely, sweetened and sophisticated, mature and soft, ever so feminine. It reminds me of Rose Cross, only softer. I'm not sure about tarot symbolism, but this is truly a scent fit for an empress, a beautiful and regal rose scent that befits a Venus archetype (which is the planet of the Empress, I think?). another tarot oil to consider getting a nice big bottle of!

The Empress has impressed me!

Edited June 18, 2005 by yeahbutnobut

[quimerula]

Roses, a bunch of roses!

Maybe a touch of violet, myrrh and rosewood, giving it a warm undertone.

Dry it goes round and deep.

It's a very feminine perfume, strong but clean.

Lovely.

[tempete]

The Empress is initially a very lush rose scent, very regal and proud in her bearing. She then dries down to a sweet, fruity rose. I quite liked this rose scent, but there are others that I prefer more (such as Alice, Spellbound and Seraglio).

[wickedgoddess]

Wet - rose and something unintentifiable.

 

Dry - there's rose that's nice on me, and there's rose that goes powdery, which is what happened with Rose Red. This, unfortunately is the powdery kind. I'm just about to write this off completely, when I get a lovely wood note. White sandalwood, or maybe rosewood. However it's not enough to save it from the powdery rose. I had high hopes for this, but it's off to the swap pile I fear.

 

On the wickedgoddess scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being best, this rates a 2.

[Tess]

I'm not sure if my nose is ready to try out something new, but my new imp is just sitting here looking at me, so I must use it.

 

In the vial - This is actually really astringent and "perfume" smelling to my nose. I do get the rose coming through, along with something woody (rosewood), but the "perfume" smell is just strong.

 

Wet - Still very, very perfume-ish rose...

 

Drying - Ah, the pure floral is battling that off now and it's drying to woody bundle of roses. Tea rose is really coming through here, with it's powdery under tone. There's something giving this an herbal bite to it, too, that I can't place. But, really, it's VERY faint on me overall.

 

Dry (1.5 hours later) - Still very faint and almost dusty. (Rosewood turns that way on me, it seems.) It's a dry, Victorian rose scent with a woody undertone. And very, very faint.

 

Overall - I DO like it, but I don't think I like it enough to keep and/or get a big bottle of. I'll most likely swap this off for a different Tarot oil and think about getting a bottle for myself at a later date. It's just such a mature scent, I don't know if it's for me.

[~AmusedMuse~]

My Impression: Sandalwood with Rosewood maybe..I dont get the rosey rose that preivous reviewers described...Maybe the throns from the roses but not the roses.

This is kind of incensy and I think it would be suited better to someone else than me.

[Dark Seraphim]

This is one fo those scents that took a long time to get used to.

 

Bottle: Certainly very floral, but I kept thinking "there's something else here". Honestly, I couldn't tell what. Citrus was what I was thinking and also a "cold" scent. "Regal" was described and I think that makes the most sense.

 

Skin: At first, I was ready to dismiss this scent as something that doesn't seem to work on me. Then, I smelt the cool rose and it stayed a "cool rose" for quite a few hours. Eventually became a rose powder, but still very nice.

 

Burner: Didn't smell anything at first, but given about thirty minutes, the scent went all throughout the house. Nothing but rose all over the place. Smelt great. Very strong.

 

Went from a scent that I was ready to dismiss to a scent that I would gladly keep and get another bottle of. Beautiful rose blend. 9/10.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

Very pleased to have a decant at last--at some point I want a full collection of Tarot oil 10mL bottles, but with my current finances, it's not in the cards. HORRIBLE pun, I'm sorry! But seriously, lately I am feeling two things that draw me to this oil-- 1. I'm feeling drawn towards the Tarot in general, as a crucial part of my practice, and 2. I could really use some grounding and empowering from the Mother Goddess aspect of deity. So The Empress is just what I need, regardless of scent. But it does not hurt that I love roses!

 

::sniff:: OMG, this has the same undernote as Queen. Something almost *chocolately*, but in a dry cocoa way, not sweet. I think it's sandalwood that does that on me. And lovely roses on top of it--elegant, lighter roses than in my other favorite rose blends, Blood Rose and Spellbound. The scent has depth but the rose note itself is lighter, more like Moon Rose. The scent of a cool beauty, sitting quietly lost in her own wise meditations. And the scent of an altar bedecked with sandalwood incense and an offering of fresh roses.

 

This is so perfect for ritual use for me. It "feels" like Queen but belongs to Tarot rather than Voodoo, and thus is much more in line with me. Very happy about The Empress.

[gingersnapp]

Rosey rosey roses. This is one of the purest roses I have smelled in Beth's blends. Big fat lush velvety red blooms. When you breathe it in, you can see the texture of the petals, the lines in the leaves.

 

It is potent and strong, and yet the scent stays close to the skin.

 

I love it. Simply incredible.

[voodoobaby]

My first impression was spicy soap. A little bit on the skin and it was all a strong floral, maybe sweet pea. Later, though...wow. I can definitely say that there's dragon's blood in this, despite the fact that this doesn't have the red color in the imp that most dragon's blood oils have. The DBR in this scent is exceptionally candylike, so it ends up very sweet at the end of its run.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: a fresh, green rose.

on: a very green rose with some dustiness to it.

1 hour later: very, very sharp.

overall: i like beth's other rose blends better than this, so i'll be using this more for practical purposes than as a perfume.

[Penance]

Origin:

 

The Tarot Series Circle.

 

First sniff:

 

Soapy, somewhat astringent florals. I'm terrible at identifying the majority of floral notes, so that's really all I can say about what I'm smelling in here right now.

 

Wet on skin:

 

Definitely a floral. I keep thinking I recognize this, but I can't place it. It's heady and intense and it's turning a bit...off with my skin chemistry. Could be rose of some sort since it does that sometimes.

 

Dry down:

 

I don't know what kind of floral this is (I'm leaning toward rose at the moment), but whatever it is, it doesn't agree with my skin chemistry. It's not a huge loss since I don't particularly care for floral notes to begin with, but I wish I knew what was in here so I could be sure of what's fighting my skin chemistry.

 

The bottom line:

 

Another Tarot failure for me. Alas, florals do not like me.

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Rose petals - the dusty sort I associate with tea roses, versus a fresh-plucked bloom still green with stem and leaves like Rose Red.

 

On me: Pleasant roses, although nothing spectacular to me. It's a bit greener on the skin; like someone said it seems to have the thorns as well as the petals. It's not an exceptional rose scent for me, but it's good enough to keep.

[jenavira]

I bought a bit of this in a bottle secondhand off someone, and it arrived having leaked all over the place, with only a tiny amount of oil still in the bottle. My whole room smells like The Empress! Really, it's a good thing, because if I had just opened the bottle (as I finally managed to do) and sniffed, I probably would never have tested it. Good lord, that's sour. Exposure to air thins it out a bit, though, and the scent that's pervading my room is rose, rose, rose.

 

On me it's quite bitter for a little while, so there must be something else in there causing that reaction...rosewood? After a while I can start to smell something else, buried underneath huge heaping piles of roses, that I think might be amber. Some kind of resin, anyway.

 

Late last night it hit me what this reminded me of -- a bottle of rosewater I'd bought from the local Victorian/Pioneer reconstruction place years and years ago. It smells a bit nostalgic to me, and very serene; close enough to my reading of the Empress, I suppose. It's not a scent I'll wear, but I may well use it to scent some of my Tarot things.

[Blood onmy hands]

This is very floral on me, definitely the rose that everyone else has mentioned. Unfortunately, this is a very bitter and acrid rose. In the drydown I can smell some other floral, but it's all going a bit soapy.

 

Not one of the winning rose perfumes on my skin

[Shollin]

First sniff: Rosey-pink, big and lush and soft. And just a tiny bit powdery.

 

Wearing: Very much a powdery floral – but it’s a big soft powdery floral, not the shy, wimpy scent I often associate with powdery florals. Nevertheless, powdery florals are not my thing.

[alicia_stardust]

Oh, wow. I really like this. At first I was disappointed because scents with a lot of rose in them don't do well on me. They also tend to remind me of grandma perfume. *shrug*

 

But this one! This is the first actual rose scent I've really liked. Behind the roses I smell something warm (amber?) and something that reminds me of green leaves or green stems. It's very nice.

[amrita]

This smells like peaceful, rosy incense on me. I can't identify the incense notes. It's not bad, for a rose blend (usually very bad on me). I would use this for meditation even though it is predominantly rose.

 

[cursory review as part of tarot swap]

[cuervosueno]

Forgive me for the brevity, but its rose. A nice rose--sort of greenish and fresh, but still rose.

 

And I really don't like rose in perfume. I ended up not putting this on, because its so....rose.

 

I'd tried this before and remember I couldn't bear it on me, even though I love this card. So I'm afraid I don't have much to add for my tarot circle review.

[Hawke]

In the vial: Oh dear. Rose.

 

Wet: Yep, that's rose.

 

I wouldn't even have bothered with the review except that I wanted to say that it really is a lovely scent, straight out of the vial. It's elegant and sophisticated and I imagine long ropes of pearls being wound around her finger while the Empress daydreams in her garden.

 

But Rose and me, we have this disagreement, and I always win. Someone else will love her.

[dreadeddragon]

In the bottle: Berries and herbs. Similar in feel to Glasgow, but yet completely different. I don't get the huge rush of rose everyone else does.

 

First on: Now I get the rose. With some berries. It's a refreshing rose though, not sticky or sour like most rose blends go on me.

 

Drydown: Moslty rose, but there's something else in there I can't decipher. Some greenery o something.

 

Overall: It's very much the empress. Womanly and bold, yet soft and tender.

[storme]

In the imp: ROSE! This is like a bunch of other BPAL rose scents combined together. There's a hint of powder and a hint of bitter herbs and.. maybe some violets? This is how I expected Two, Five and Seven to smell.

 

On me, wet: Mrm, those roses faded a lot when it hit my skin. It's gone very green and herby - rose stem sap? There's a hint of tea, but almost no rose scent - maybe I overdosed on rose smell in the imp and my nose has shut down reception of that scent.

 

On me, dry: Man, this morphs a lot on me - from roses-mixed-with-tea-and-lemon to something slightly powdery with a sandalwood base and a hint of incense. It's pleasant in all phases, mind you.

 

Verdict: I keep wanting to compare this to London, but it's sun-warmed roses in a room full of old woods, not damp juicy roses and wet air. I like this a *lot*. I'm not going to be buying a big bottle quite yet, mind you - I don't tend to want both rose and sandalwood at once. If I get through the imp quickly, I'll reconsider.

 

*sniffs wrists again*

 

It might not take me long to get through the imp...