Aeval

[ipb]

A raven-haired Fairy Queen of Ireland. One of her eternal duties dictates that she must hold a midnight court every season and hear the pleas of married Irishwomen. The court serves only to determine whether or not husbands are adequately serving their wife's sexual needs. A judicious yet powerfully sensual blend, a mingling of justice and sexuality: sage, sweet pea, bold pale musk and warm tonka.

mmm a perfect blend of sage and sweet pea. the tonka and musk develop as it dries. not too sagey, not to floral -- both of which i tend to run away from if they're too loud -- wonderfully balanced. i likes it alot. i have alot more to review, so i'll revisit this later tonight.

[jessamynit]

mmmm, this is so nice! haven't worn it yet, but in the bottle it's great. love the sweetpea, and the sage keeps it from being quite as girly-sweet as, say, desdemona. can't wait to try it!

[Batgirl]

I was sure, sure I was going to love this one - it's Irish (so am I) it has tonka (love it) it has sweet pea (super love it)...ah, well, the best laid plans. On me Aeval is pure tonka, I don't get sage or sweet pea at all, which is odd because in Corazon I get lots of sage. As much as I love tonka, I prefer it as a base note rather than the featured player. I do think this is a gender neutral scent - any guys scared off by the sweet pea shouldn't be, it's not a primary note in this blend.

[inkdarkmoon]

I wish I could somehow poetically compare this to the description...but.

I can't.

 

So with that having been said, I will say that I love this blend.

It is the overall scent of all of my favourite occult supplyshops/bookstores rolled into one. It smells like shelves of herbs and oils and magickal stones and the crisp pages of unopened books filled with unlearned knowledge. It really does smell like all that!

 

I think it is the sage that gives it it's dry herby-ness and then the tonka and the sweet pea sweeten it up a bit (which makes it smell a little incense-y to me, because herby+sweet=incense in my nose).

I could almost swear that I smell fir or pine or something, because there is a crisp tickly feel I get from it at times...and I am not so sure that I smell the musk at all. Or maybe I do, I get a "feel" of musk, rather than a "smell", if that makes sense...perhaps that is what gives the blend it's depth?

 

This is an incredible scent...I mean, who wouldn't want to smell like the proprietor of an occult bookstore????

[Nepthys]

I totally get the occult bookstore smell from this - it makes you think of dusty tomes and obscure incenses and a general smell of old magic. For the first hour this is straight tonka on me, very dry, and then quite suddenly the sweet pea comes out and makes it rather feminine. I'll use up my imp because it is pretty, but I don't think I'd get a big bottle of it.

[Lucretia]

maybe I'm craaaazy, but to me this smells just like the spice/herbal notes in Queen of Sheba minus the almonds. Which, means, that this smells like tea cakes on me. Metaphysical teacakes maybe! But some sort of spicecake all the same.

 

Must, soft and nice, but not really me all the same.

[Ina Garten Davita]

First Impression: Uh oh, what is that?

 

Second Impression: I bought a 5ml unsniffed because the notes listed made me jump for joy. I adore sage (Corazon is sage-ariffic) but I don't get any here. I don't get any tonka nor do I get any musk. It smells like a bit of sweet pea blended with High John the Conquerer.

 

Final Analysis: I'm quite sad about this, as the description and notes just really sang to me. I will give it one more try and then up for swap/sale it goes.

[anmorata]

Aeval:

Wet: I know this smell from somewhere in my childhood. I *swear* I do. Slightly green and herbal, with.. *something* underneath that I can't quite place.

Drydown: Sage, sweet pea and musk. I'm getting no tonka out of this.

Longterm wear: A bit too herbal for me, sadly.

[alston78]

At first sniff: The sweet pea really jumps out in the bottle!

 

On my wrist: Oh, man...I didn't think I was going to like this- it was sweet, floral, and slightly grassy in the bottle. But on my wrist it turns into a perfect balance among herbal, sweet, and floral notes. The tonka is noticeable on me but not overwhelming- another note is holding it back from being too strong. I like this very much!!

 

Several hours later: It's faded quite a bit, but I can still smell the tonka and sage, which is a pleasant sweet/herbal smell. I went to bed after about 3 hours of wear, so I'm not sure about the full duration of this scent on my skin.

 

This is a winner for me! I'm definitely keeping my imp, and might get a 5 mL eventually. It would be awesome for spring/summer wear.

[Rheliwen]

In the bottle, this is sweet, green and a bit herbal.

 

Wet, this turned into pepto bismol on me. It's actually pleasant. It's very powdery in this stage.

 

Dry is exactly the same as wet. The sage is definitely the star of the show here. I think it combined with the musk is making the pepto bismol smell. Lingering in the background I can smell the sweet pea and just a tad of the tonka.

 

I think the combo here is nice and if you like sage, you'll like Aeval. Alas, I can't get the pepto bismol association out of my head.

[shelldoo]

wet it smelled like pure sweet pea

 

as it dries the tonka and wee bit of sage appear however sweet pea is the spotlight of this blend

 

ADDED April 18:

 

wow in the vial i smell literine *gasp*

 

on my skin wet it is a sweet floral i am presuming is sweetpea

 

as it dries is becomes a tonka blend, smells just like my tonka beans as i crush them for incense. there is something else, something green that i can't place lurking behind the tonka, butthe flowery sweetpea has run away

[darkling]

In the bottle: A lovely blend of sweet pea and musk.

 

On my wrist: The sweet pea begins to fade quickly and is replaced by a bright, green scent. It is very overpowering and makes me wrinkle my nose.

 

Drydown: I have no idea what is producing the sharp green scent but it has eradicated the other notes of Aeval.

 

This one was not for me

[gingersnapp]

In the bottle, this smells like Johnson's Baby Oil. A very soft and soothing smell, a little herbal, a little creamy.

 

On my skin, wet, it smells pretty much the same.

 

As it dries down, a little bit of the sweet pea shyly pokes its head out, as does the sage.

 

It's very pretty and very soft. Two thumbs up!

[luxuria]

Light, herbal, and floral in the bottle. It actually sort of reminds me of a natural version of sunblock.

 

On the skin, it remained pretty much the same, except some tonka peeks out on drydown. I don't have a clue what sage and sweet pea smell like, so I can't comment on the strength of either of them individually, but the 'unfamiliar' notes are the dominate ones. Musk and tonka are what I bought this for, but they take a back seat.

 

It's rather powdery but not in a bad way. I like it but I'd like it a whole lot more with more tonka bean.

[SoapyRN]

In the imp, I got soap, Dawn actually.

 

On the skin wet is sorta floral.....soap.

 

Dry, dried soap suds.

 

Off to the swap pile

[tesao]

my first thought when i put this on and held it to my nose was "yummy".

 

but then, i think that a LOT of things are yummy tasting that other people find to be, ummm, shall we say, an "acquired" taste???? hmmmmmmmm? okay, let us stipulate that.

 

it is floral, and slightly sweet. but not overwhelmingly so. at first i thought jasmine, but that isn't quite right. it smells the way i would imagine that my fur would smell if i were a cat and had been lying in the summer sun. warm and rich and heavy lidded. luxurious. langourous.

[stardreamer]

There's not a lot to be said about this one. It's heavily floral, and I'm just not a floral kind of gal. I don't get any sage or musk at all, just florals and a sweet undernote which I think must be the tonka. It's pleasant enough, certainly not an "ew, yuck" for me (though it was for R.!), and if I needed a floral fragrance, I might keep it. I want to compare-and-contrast it against a couple of other things (most notably Roadhouse) before I let it go, but I suspect it's going to end up on the swap pile.

[ashtonrose]

I got this and Juliet in the same batch. First sniff of this is the same first sniff of Juliet (sweet pea). Sounds so good, but not on me. I'm gonna give it another shot, especially since this was a gift from the lab and I ordered it on my pending order from Pink Moon.

[VorpalBunny]

Aeval is a lovely green floral. It just smells green. I do smell the sage, after it dries down. It's just a lovely, springy scent. I can't wait to wear it this spring, I am so glad I got a 5ml. Sadly, I don't smell the tonka at all. Nevertheless, I still love it.

[shadow]

I found Aeval pleasant and inoffensive, however one person said they didn't care much for it (it might not actually have been this, but it's possible) and one person said I smelled like an old lady.

 

I'd guess that was the tonka - it (I'm assuming it's the tonka as sweet pea goes supersweet floral on me) adds a powdery sweetness on my skin. Of course, I just finished a mega dose of antibiotics, so my chemistry could be completely out of wack.

[kmasden]

Wow, I get barely any floral from this. At first, I freaked. I hadn't read the description and thought "what the heck is that?" I could just smell this odd note that I couldn't place, no sweetness either. As it dried, I started to get a tad of tonka, perhaps a touch of sweet pea. The sage is different to me, totally different than in corazon. I think as a top note, it just doesn't turn me on, it smells a bit more leathery than herbal to my nose.

[shriekingviolet]

Initial Impression:

Soft, pink sweet pea, laced with sage floating in white musk.

 

After Wearing It:

Wet, Aeval smells very strongly of sweet pea. Very soft, sweet and hopelessly girly. There's something so young smelling about sweet pea. It makes me think of tea sets, bow adorned mary janes, and the charming paradox of little girls playing together, pretending to be older yet in doing so underscore their youth. I love this about sweat pea.

 

As the blend dries and acclimates itself to my skin, the sage comes out giving this youthful floral a dusty edge. Herbal notes, sage in particular, always make me think of things that have been shut away for a while. Maybe it's because our herb cabinet at home is stocked, but so underused (we have decades old tins of basil, nutmeg, etc.) that everything seems so old that it might have belonged to other people or to another time. The sage here definitely smells like that, and mixed with the sweet pea it creates an odd juxtaposition of youth and great age. This seems very fitting for any scent created for the faery folk, who are often depicted very young looking even if they are very old. But for some reason it doesn't just smell like eternal youth, but like a facade or glamour. A being who projects youth and beauty to entice and enchant, but is more gnarled underneath.

 

It takes ages for the tonka bean to come out, which is a shame because I do love tonka. When it finally makes its appearance it dominates what is then a very soft, translucent scent that clings to the wrist, trying hard not to fade away. The musk never really asserts itself, it's the scenery of play of Aeval rather than an actor itself. It gives the perfume a soft focus, misty quality that seems appropriate for a fairy queen.

 

Final Thoughts:

Overall I really like this. It's feminine and young but doesn't smell too young to be worn by an adult. It's a springtime floral for someone like me who's often wary of florals. My only quibble is that it doesn't last as long as some of my usual fragrances, but the staying power isn't so shabby I have to reapply every two hours. I'm glad I bought a bottle of this!

[pkwench]

Aeval - how you have been the bright spot to a poopy day. First of all, I love that it's faintly green. I noticed this first when I put the reducer on the bottle - it left a spring green ring on the napkin. I love that because the color matches the scent perfectly - pale, spring green. I ... I love green!

 

Amazingly, it wasn't predominately sweet pea on me. Mind you, I love sweet pea, so it wouldn't have been wholly a bad thing, but it tends to dominate certain blends on my skin - see Desdemona for details. So, I was expecting something like Sweet Pea and friends - but, haha! I was fooled. And, really, I'm not at all sad by this. Aeval is green and herbal - but lightly so, gently so. I don't get a heavy duty floral out of this at all and the tonka only comes out late in the dry down to add a rather nice touch to it all.

 

Aeval sort of smells to me like something you'd find growing in Jack's forest from Legend. A feathery, fantastical bit of greenery with dainty and impossible looking pale flowers - and just maybe smattered with a wee bit o' the pixie dust.

 

All in all, I love it and it truly has been the best part of today. It was touch and go for a while when I first put it on, but it turned into pure love somewhere between whacking off all of my hair and bickering with the boy. It's very springy, not too feminine, not too floral, and a nice one for both you boys and all of you girls.

 

I'm going to dab some on my wrists right now and wear it to bed.

[lorajc]

I don't think I've ever smelled sweet pea on it's own, but I think that's what I mostly smell with the top note here. This is very different to my nose and a very unique combination. It is a warm, bright pink scent with the musk making it soft and sexy. This is a very contratictory blend.....bold yet soft.....bright yet golden. I think if you like sweet pea, you'll like this blend, as the note that is unfamiliar to me is very pronounced (most likely the sweet pea).

[Northernminx]

Sweetpea is predominant in the bottle but the sage is a front runner on me at application. This is herbal, clear, clean and very wet spring morning in the woods. As this dries down the sweet pea comes into play, but I can't really classify this as floral though it did seem feminine to me. The tonka wasn't very present until the very end where it makes for a sort of vanilla floral combination that's just lovely.