Paris

[slave1]

PARIS: Sensual, decadent, and enigmatic. Lavender, softly underscored by lotus and spice.

 

In Bottle: Lotus.

 

On Skin: Yes, very bubblegummy due to the lotus with a soft powdery lavender background note. I’m not sure what the spice is in this scent, if it’s there it’s very light. This is the most pure lotus scent I’ve smelled, so if you’re a lotus fan, this is the one to get. Very pretty and womanly… I see the colors lilac and baby pink when I smell this one.

[quikslvr]

Strong lavender to begin: cloves, almost, underneath. Same undertone as March Hare. Sticks well to me.

[Skyablaze]

I got Bubblegum-of-DOOM!lotus in the bottle then less sickly lotus and lavender on my skin. The lotus misled me for a good hour or two and conning me that it was tangerine.

 

Right now, it has cooled down to lotus with a slight lavender tinge. Luckily, I'm rather fond of lotus and this scent conjures up enough images of romantic summers with lots of laughter and possibly dancing that I just have to keep it.

 

This feels lush, loving and full of smiles and joy - a beautiful, fairytale love story in a bottle. Very french.

 

This imp is a keeper for happy summer days. You just couldn't wear such a happy scent like this in gloomy, rainy weather.

[olympia301]

 

Lavender, and no wonder. France has to be the place for lavender. Where would all that great lavender extract go from Grasse (where it is grown in Southern France)? To Paris, of course, for the perfumers to play with. BPAL's Paris is a strong cloud of pure lavender to my nose. This could not be English Lavender, it is too sharp and rich, this is not the prim vanilla-ish type of Hidecote or Munstead found in the country gardens of Rosemary Verey. This is the stuff which fights grapes for the dry land. It is as sharp as a dinner conversation at a Paris apartment, and as charming. I do think this captures the Gallic spirit, and I give it a tres bien.

Edited July 5, 2005 by olympia301

[OdetteOdile]

Paris

This opens with lavender and sweet peppermint. And there's another note - some kind of cooking spice scent - thyme? Marjoram?

Something savory that contrasts with the sweetness.

It's a lot like Absinth, but without the anise.

I'm not sure about this one. I think I'll enjoy the imp - minty scents are always pretty easy to wear - but the cooking spice note never faded & was a bit distracting, so I don't think I'll get more of it.

[ashtonrose]

Gift and I intend to use it while staying in Paris for a few days over Winter Break. It embodies the scents that I expect to smell in the French Boutiques. If you've been - let me know if I'm right. I know it's corny, but I am collecting the Wanderlust scents for all the European countries that I intend to visit during my DH's three year tour. This is my first stop...Paris in the winter.

 

I just know that this will put me in the mood to be there.

[quimerula]

Wet I can smell lavender and lotus, this is a fresh and sweet perfume.

Dry the spices come out a bit.

If I had to choose a word for this scent I would say: elegant.

[dcmo]

In the imp and initial wet this is straight lavender with a bit of a kick to it. As it dries down, the lotus sweetens and softens this up to the point that it doesn't even smell like lavender anymore. This is a really nice blend. Not sure how often I would wear this but it's pretty

[lissamc]

Wet: Lavender, tempered with candy.

 

3 Hours: Well, it has gone from a slightly antiseptic phase, through lipstick?!, to a sharply sweet berry-like scent with a faint underlay of incense. None of which has been 'me'. *sigh* Swap it.

[slugbait]

Got this imp in a swap from lissamc.

 

While in the imp, this smells like lavender and like lissamc stated, like candy. I'm not picking up on any spices.

 

Drying down, this goes totally sweet on me. I think my skin amps up lotus majorly. Dry, this smells like super sweet lavender. I still don't smell any spices. Reminds me of when I was younger, I cut cattails near my friends creek and they released a sickening sweet smell. Its making me feel a little naseous.

 

*sigh* I guess this isn't going to work for me.

[Ajila]

Wet on me this was soft delicate lavender, with a little lotus in the background. As it dried the lotus became stronger, but with a slightly sour edge to it. Dry on me this was that soft powdery bubblegum I tend to get from lotus, with a tiny edge of lavender to temper it. This is a very pretty delicate blend, but it's really not me.

[Wrenlet]

Bottle: Very sharp astringent lavender, almost painful.

 

Wet: The lavender is no longer sharp at all, and now I'm definitely getting the bubble-gum, with wafts of... melon?

 

Dry: Occasional hints of the "green" in the lavender, but mostly still I'm getting the (I assume) lotus. Which I've discovered is a floral that does not give me headaches, yay!

 

Definite keeper, not sure yet whether I want a whole bottle.

[niter]

Okay, my first review! I probably will revisit it as I am coming off a cold right now and my opinion might change

 

Bottle: I agree, the very strong astringent smell of lavender coming out of the bottle was really discouraging. I am a huge lavender person, but this seemed too much for me.

 

Wet: The lavender remained very powerful and medicinal and made it increasingly easy to breathe (good for a stuffed nose!). I almost washed it off, but it started to mellow and kept me sniffing.

 

Dry: This really dried into a very luscious mix on me. I recieved compliments on it from others. I suppose that must be the way lotus smells on my skin because the lavender was (and no one pointed out lavender either) only a secondary type of scent by now...just breezing in and out depending on when you sniffed it. It made for a cleaner more feminine scent complementing the robust scent of the lotus on me. As a garnish, a hint of spice would creep out to give it a sexy edge on me. My husband really approved and I think that this was very different on me but very lovely.

 

Heehee only 3 scents in the description: lavender, spices, and lotus...so it was easy to "pick" out the notes. If that foreign, but delicious, scent was lotus, I will have to try more since it works well with me.

 

For now, I am going to hold on to this imp.

 

edit: I forgot to mention that it lasted from 7:40 A.M. to 1:30 P.M. Between that time I participated in a 4-5 mile dogwalk in the sun (I was wearing jeans so I was boiling) and it survived! I think it has good lasting potential on me.

Edited September 10, 2005 by niter

[VorpalBunny]

Paris reminds me of fresh linen hanging in a pear-orchard. It's clean and the lotus gives me almost a fruity feel, it's slightly sweet and very fresh smelling, light and airy. The lavender is very subtle on me and just gives it a clean scent without being sharp at all. I liked it a lot.

[Medici]

Way, way too sweet in the vial. I'm a little nervous since I'm reminded strongly of Regan which is just totally over-powering with my chemistry.

 

On: Not as sweet as I thought, but very heavy on the lotus. It's a "white" scent, that is to say, if I were to associate Paris with a colour I'd say white with pastel blue and pastel pink.

 

A little too floral for my tastes, but I'll keep the imp around just the same since the sweetness calms down in a way that Regan doesn't.

 

I find Paris to be a balance between Persephone (a spring flower, cut with grasses to temper the sweetness of it) and Regan (with is like pure white sugar on me). Paris is somewhere in between.

[tsarina]

I'm not sure I would have said lavender at first when sniffing this. There was something very mysterious about the straight out of the vial whiff.

 

I can really smell the lotus, which makes me intensely happy. It wafts around in a pale way, sweet but dry. There is the herbal, tingly background composed of the lavender and spices. I can't quite put my finger on the spices. They are there, but I couldn't tell you how many.

 

This blend reminds me of little round sachets studded with spices and herbs carried by aristocratic women to ward off the smells of the common world. Very nice.

[Brianne]

In the bottle:

Lotus

 

On me:

Spicey lotus. If you haven't tried lotus - it smells like bubblegum mostly. Not much else to say about this honestly.

 

Final note:

I dislike lotus, so this is not for me.

[Loligo]

If only this lasted longer, it would be a perfect 10 on me. Because my skin doesn't do well with ozone, aquatic, or pine notes, I've had trouble finding a BPAL blend for the times when I'm looking for something clean and elegant. This fits the bill perfectly: a touch of herbs, a touch of spices, and a nice warm sweetness tying it all together. It's traditional, it's feminine, it's classy -- this is just what Leslie Caron's character would wear in "An American in Paris".

 

And then an hour later, it's gone. I may try layering this with Somnus, or maybe combine Somnus with Black Lotus, to see if I can get a similar effect that lasts longer.

[sarada]

I thought for sure I had tried this before, but apparently today was my first time with Paris!

 

In the imp and freshly applied this has the scent that always comes out on me when lotus is an ingredient: sort of a powdery banana candy scent. Kind of like...the banana candies in Runts. Lotus has a tendency to make scents not-work-very-well on me because of this.

 

Ahh, but the strangest thing happened and it became a lovely, pure, gorgeous lavender a short time after going through the banana phase. What a lovely lavender! When I visited Paris it was in the spring and this makes me think of the first flowers blooming and the gentle rain that fell the first day I was there.

 

The lavender fades quickly though -- I never get a spicey component to this scent, just the banana candy, then the lavender rainfall. It is very nice but I have a lot of other lavender blends so I don't think I can take the candy stage at the beginning. Au revoir!

[Fefferbella]

My skin LOVES lotus.

 

Paris is a really unique blend of lavender and lotus blooms. Very feminine and sexy. It reminds me of shopping in little boutiques in Paris, especially reminds me of the lavender fields in the wine country of France. Just lovely.

 

This is deffinatly a big bottle scent!

[tart]

Paris is not for me. This first is sharply lavender, but is quickly mellowed by lotus. The spice is a nice accent to the herby lavender, but not overwhelming. I would recommend Paris for someone who prefers sharp smells over warm smells, and wants something elegant but not overly floral or feminine.

[shayelea]

This started off a nice, sharp lavender, with just a hint of something softer (a bit soapy?) underneath. Unfortunately, I discovered that on my skin, lotus goes *unbearably* sweet. I had such high hopes for the lavender in this one. Mmph.

[sookster]

straight from the imp sweet and almost doughy like......

oh no.....wait.....after a few minutes it smells dead-on to what a chunk

of double bubble straight from the wrapper with that floury kind of

coating smelled like as a kid

hmmmmmmmmm.........unfortunately is doesn't last long and all that remains

is that floury (not flowery) bubble gummy type scent....

dumbass chemisty......

[Sycorax]

In the bottle, this was a very pure, intense lavender.

 

My skin, however, really brought the spice out of the background after about a half an hour. I'm relieved to say that I didn't get the "candy" effect that other posters have reported. The lavender mellowed nicely, with a hint of lotus and more than a hint of clove. I'm seriously considering getting a bottle of this, since I think that it would be a great scent to wear to the office, or even to a job interview. It's crisp, confident, and feminine, without being too off-the-wall or come-hither for the workplace.

 

Much love for Paris. <3

[faifai]

A frimp from the lab, and also the first frimp I went "Oh, mmmmmmm" to. I didn't get the lavender impression at all when I put it on, though in the bottle I do get the lavender easily. On me it's something gorgeous and a bit creamier/sweeter than most lavender, which goes soapy on me usually.

 

And yes, it's too happy for winter. I'll save this for the return of spring.