The Hanging Gardens

[Mountaingrrl00]

This perfume is an interpretation of the Hanging Gardens by night, based on further accounts of its fruit and flora: date palm, ebony, fir, pomegranate, plum, two pears, quince, fig, and grapevine with plumeria, three gardenias and dry rose.

I can tell there are some lovely fruit and wood scents in here. The deeper smells - fig and palm in particular - hold their own, while other fruit smells are less distinct. I have a hard time with multi-florals, though. They just smell too perfumey. I think I would love this oil without the florals, but with them, I will need to swap this imp. Edited February 25, 2006 by Shollin

[GemmaCat]

In the imp: florals and fruits.

 

On my skin, initial: Uh oh, my enemy has come a'calling; Jasmine!

 

Drydown: a really overwhelming perfumey floral. Curse you jasmine!

[Missmoonlight]

liquid: oriental, like Bastet, same oriental "background"

 

on my skin: still the oriental background, no flowers, no fruits. Dad says "tobacco", mom says "cloves and something stinging, maybe pepper". Maybe patchouli? Not for me, I have already traded it!

[nancybridget]

Wow! How delicious!

 

Semi-sweet and fruity, yet with a divine tropical flavor.

 

It's mildly perfume-like from the glorious blooms, but there's some spice to balance the blend.

 

 

I think I might be secretly in love with plum or maybe it's the date palm...

 

Must have a big one!

[harmonyfb]

In the imp, and wet on my skin, this smells of...pear tart. Just a little spicy, a little fruity, with maybe a hint of baked goods. After it dries, the rose comes out, still with that spicy undernote. To my surprise, I like it. It's light and very feminine. I don't know that I'll wear it often, but I think it'll be perfect for formal occasions.

[tamburlaine]

Am I seriously smelling.. HORSERADISH? At some point I swear I get this bizarrely wonderful horseradish sting in my nose. It's great.

 

When I sniffed the unopened vial I thought I smelled ylang ylang and was skeptical -- that note is great but on my skin it's skaaaaanky. But no, this is most definitely not skanky. Immediately on my skin it's all about the fruits in there -- pear, quince, fig, that strange horseradish sting -- but on the dry-down The Hanging Gardens develops a woody depth and a more floral background -- gardenia, jasmine (a little too much jasmine), rose, and that heady smokiness that usually accompanies floral/oriental and wood blends (that's probably what I thought was ylang ylang). Uh, and at some point I swear I smelled freshly-packed marijuana. Really. Strange.

 

This is definitely an oil worth the name of a Wonder. I do wish that that horseradish sting stayed around though, it seems to have evaporated off. Yeah, that was crazy. Bring it back, the dry-down isn't half as exciting here! It's turned from something totally new and exciting to a floral blend that isn't typical, but still paling in comparison to that fig/pear/stinging.

 

Crazy. I love it, though.

Edited April 11, 2006 by tamburlaine

[Miss Surreal]

In the vial: A heady fruit syrup.

 

Wet on wrists: Mostly floral, loving the gardenia

 

Dry on wrists: Yumm...pear. All im smelling is gardenia and pear at this point.

 

30 mins later: Pure pear with something floral. Not gardenia maybe plumeria?

 

Hour later: Faded and I have to press my nose to my wrist to get anything at all.

 

Closing thoughts: This is beautiful but has no lasting power on me. Sadly this is a problem to me since I *have* to smell the perfume on myself. Still, very great scent while it lasted.

[kourika]

I rarely enjoy heavily floral and fruity perfumes, but The Hanging Garden was wonderfully sweet without overwhelming my sinuses. There was a deep lushness that kept the power of the smell from being cheap or trashy.

 

I'm still debating whether or not I want a full bottle of this because I'm not sure how often I would use it. I will definitely use the remainder of my imp though when I'm in the mood to be a bit more sexual and assertive.

[themerrybaker]

Hanging Gardens is lusciously and voluptuously sweet. This would be a great summer scent, so much ripe fruit! It also has reasonable throw and lasts a few hours. So glad I got to try it.

[zankoku_zen]

Originally, I am a tad leery since it does have my nemesis - gardenia; however jewelbug was kind enough to gift me with an imp so I am going to give it a whirl...

 

 

In imp: Smells like sweet cherry syrup.

 

On skin: I get this rather overwhelming sweet floral and heady fruit combination. I'm having a bit of a problem identifying any of the particular notes. It's rather like being hit by something really sweet and good to eat. It still has that strong sweet cherry note.

 

After an hour it calms down and I can basically smell the fig and the plum, which are really nice on a bed of soft florals.

 

Two hours later, it barely lingers on me.

 

My skin ate it all up!

 

Verdict: I'm not so fond of the strong, overwhelming, presence of the scent at the beginning, it does make my head swim a bit. The drydown is much better but it barely lasts.

 

Alas, it simply was not meant to be.

[abberlaine]

I had such high hopes for The Hanging Gardens after reading Macha's reviews, but alas, it turned out to be one of my least favorite BPALs. You know those pressed fruit bars? It smelled like that.

[hachanri]

my first response to the hanging gardens was omfg fuji apple.

 

when i was little, around halloween, wed drive out into the countryside, where there was a 2x3 acre big pumpkin patch, and two huge hills around them. wed get there, and get a cup of hot apple cider, and then get on the horse carriage that would take us about 10 minutes up the hill thru the apple orchards. on good afternoons, the apples were just right for picking, and the ones that were past due lay on the ground in the sun, and the aroma from all the different kinds of apples, alonge with the crisp breeze and rich scent of raw pumpkin from the field over were very euphoric.

when first smelled this scent, i immediatly though of fresh sweet apples.

now, im an odd one, and have always felt an unhuman affinity with apples. ive always felt that no matter how hard i tried, if push came to shove and we were all turned into fruit, i would be an apple. i dont evern like eating apples that much, but i think my personality would result in an apple. ive always felt this way about them, even when i was young. i wouldnt eat apples, not because i didnt like them, but because i had respect for them for some reason lol.

this scent was perfect for me, it blends wonderfully with my chemistry, and is possibally the most satisfying scent i have ever received from bpal ^.^ <333

[jolarocknrolla]

well lets start off with the fact that this is one of my personal favorite scents. It's always perfect and it lifts my mood every time i wear it. the dominant scent from start to finish is Pear, but it's a complex scent that has a lot of secondary secents competing and weaving together - the second note is the gardenia (a floral that brings a touch of sweetness , but not cloying) and a tartness that's like apples or blackberries (probably the plum). I can smell the similarities to Glitter and Fruit Moon ... and maybe a tiny bit of Fee. The scent does't change much on me, except the gardenia gets almost as strong as the pear an hour or so in.

[Ah Xia]

What a lovely scent! On me, the plumeria comes out most strongly--I used to wear plumeria essential oil for awhile, and I've always loved it...this scent is complex, delicious and ever changing, just like a real garden. One of my favorites!

[Eunice]

The Hanging Gardens is lightly fruity but not overly sweet. I notice the pears right off and then the gardenias show up. There is just enough plum to notice but not come off as too plummy. This is light and sweet and crisp. A lovely scent but not something I would wear on a daily basis.

[Melantha]

Very sweet and fruity in the imp; the florals are evident, but not strong. They take over more when I put it on, but not overtly so.

 

Probably not a big bottle, but I'm glad I have the imp!!

[brownbear]

This turned out much darker than I expected. At first it was fruity floral, Then when dry it went to a deep fruit with not much floral. There is a hint of christmas candles in there. I think it might be the plum. Something like a spiced plum candle. Not bad, but there are others in this kind of category that I prefer.

[dnipbhsw]

The Hanging Gardens is fruit, fruit, fruit with some cinnamon on top. On my first whiff, it smelled like bananas, but then I realized I was really smelling fig. This smells warm, brown and sickly sweet, like fruit that is just a bit too ripe to eat. It's really busy and is gives me a headache.

 

This is not for me at all, but in all fairness, I don't go for fruity scents in general. I don't enjoy them and they are just not me. It doesn't help that this scent reminds me of my mother-in-law's house!

[edenssixthday]

The Hanging Gardens was one of the first BPAL scents I ever tried. I liked it so much that I used up the entire imp – it was the first full imp I ever used up. The pomegranate, plum, plumeria, gardenia and rose were the strongest notes, blending together to create a gorgeous fruity-floral that was right up my alley. The fir note was the only detractor from this scent, and probably the only reason that I didn’t order more when I’d emptied my imp, because I dislike fir immensely, and that one little note was enough to keep me from buying a full bottle of The Hanging Gardens. I fully intend to buy another imp of it now that I’ve tried so many additional BPAL scents and see what I think of it now that my nose is a bit more refined than it was when I was initially wearing The Hanging Gardens.

[WidgetAlley]

I went through a phase of acute longing for this blend about a week ago, and LUSHarick must have read my mind, because she sent me a Hanging Gardens frimp! Rose and I have a vicious history, but I'm hoping that, since she's the last thing listed, she'll only be a whisper of soap in the background.

 

In the Imp: Fruit! Juicy, powdery fruit and florals, almost like Titania, only not as bright. Much more... reserved? There's flashes of something gritty, tea-like and woody underneath: doubtless the palm and fig. Not sure what ebony smells like. On the whole it's much less... enthusiastic... than Titania, and I like it a lot better. I can catch a hint of plumeria, too-- such a nice flower, and even (sometimes) well-behaved on me.

 

Wet: Hmm. Floral-powdery fruit: again, much like Titania. It's browner, though, a little drier, less bubblegum and more very fruity, very floral tea. Nice, but not at all what I was expecting. I wanted the notes to sing out separately a bit more, and instead they're all jumbled together and just lying there. There's a slightly perfumey aspect as well.

 

Dry: The same. This is pleasant, and I might well hang on to it for a bit and see if it grows on me, but, right now, it's thrown me for a loop by being not at all what I was expecting. I'll try it again now I know what to expect, but, for now at least, I can say I'm not all that taken with it.

 

You know, the more date/fig blends I test, the more I realize-- I should have hung on to Gomorrah!

[juniperus]

Bottle: very sweet, like juicy fruit gum with florals

Wet: the floral notes are sweet, the fruit is sticky and dribbly sweet. wow. whew. sweet.

Dry: same.

Later: the fir and fig are fantastic, but the sweetness of the rest really make this difficult for me to wear...

[moon_lemming]

I was confused by The Hanging Gardens at first, because I had forgotten what it was supposed to smell like and was expecting monster florals. Instead, my nose picked out plumeria and a heavy dollop of syrupy pears. WTF? (That's what I asked myself and the imp, although I probly shouldn't admit to talking to imps.)

 

Anyway, it smells lovely in the imp and fresh on, but my skin does this thing with plumeria. You know the smell you get a whiff of when you walk past a salon? That sort of unpleasant nose-scrunching smell? That's what I get. PLUMERIAAAAAA!

[portalkat]

This is a beautiful well-balanced blend. I am drawn to fruity scents and this delivers. I can smell the pear, plum, quince, and fig the strongest. The florals are present, but unlike so many other blends, they are not amped up by my skin this time. I can definitely smell the plumeria, but it combines with the gardenias and the rose to create one lovely floral. Over everything is the pear wafting around, beneath all is the woodsy incense.

 

Onto my list for bottles this goes - just gorgeous!

[neuilly]

Bottle: Oddly not at fruity as I expected. It has an incense note that I simply can't explain. Sort of spicy but without any warmth. Not what I expected.

 

Wet: Some fruits now coming out to play although it's hard for me to identify any individual fruits. The rose too is coming out to play. I don't particularly feel like it's a garden smell, however. More like a zesty upper-class british woman. Probably makes no sense at all but that's what I feel like. Almost a classic perfume (probably the rose which is starting to play a large role) and the fact that the unique fruit blend gives it a bigger punch.

 

Dry: Spicy rose. Not bad but I was hoping for something mroe complex. Probably just my skin chemistry though. I'm not a huge rose fan though so I think I'll pass. Oh, and a slight wood undertone! That bits nice but I really have to get my nose close to it to smell it.

[sophia_helix]

There were some ominous, plasticky jasmine-like notes* at the beginning, but I needn't have worried -- this dries down to a dustier, less juicy Fruit Moon, heavy on the pear, and finally subsides to a very quiet little rose potpourri scent. Not really grabbing me, so on her way!

 

 

*Although I think now that was the quince, since the Perfumed Garden did the same thing on me. Maybe I need to avoid all scents with the word "Garden" in the title!

Edited July 16, 2006 by sophia_helix