Lady MacBeth

[ianastar]

The essence of ambition, covetousness and manipulation: sweet Bordeaux wine, blood red currant, thyme and wild berries.

Wonderfully sweet berries. Like a berry cobbler....I just need the ice cream to go on top. Or a sweet berry sangaria as the wine starts to come out more. I like it enough to maybe order a bigger bottle.

[bexone]

First sniff wet: grape soda! Followed quickly by a faint citrus note, kind of grape soda mixed with lemonade.

 

Drying: The grape note seems to be fading as the berries come out, so now I smell like I've doused my wrists in raspberry lemonade instead. Not that I'm complaining -- I've always liked fruity/citrusy scents for warm weather, and this works perfectly. There's a kind of dry, green note hovering in the background, which I'm guessing is the thyme, even though it doesn't smell anything like the thyme I use when I'm cooking. (I've never smeared that on my wrists, though! *g*)

 

Overall: I like this, enough to put it somewhere in the middle of my "big bottle" list -- I don't absolutely have to have it asap, but I wouldn't mind having more of it.

[Sara]

Initial Imp Sniff: Bright, rich, and purple..me thinks fruits, mostly juicy grape fruits.

 

Swipe: Bursting with rich, juicy purple goodness now..very feminine, very candy, almost bubblegummy, grape.

 

Hours later: Hmm...faded enough that I can only catch whiffs here and there, or I have to stick my nose into my wrist. I suppose it's satisfactory lasting power (about 5.5 hours at this point from initial swipe). I can still kind of get the fruity note, but it's now muted and side by side with a feminine, sort of floral note (or combination of).

 

Overall: Not bad..the initial fruit is what sealed my decision to try this one out today. The rest of my "to try" imps all seemd a little too harsh or stinky. The bright color association also makes this one stand out in my mind...I dunno how "me" it is, but it'll stay with me for a little while to decide.

[EvilKitten]

OMG. I just had a smellgasm.

 

 

In the bottle, I knew this was going to be a good one; sweet, fruity, complex .. mmm..

 

On me, it exceeds my wildest expectations. Now at this point in the day I'm down to dabbing on the insides of my fingers to sniff, and I must look funny with my finger stuck up to my nose. But my freaking god, it's AMAZING!

 

[amrita]

I've had an imp of Lady MacBeth sitting around for a while; I remember when I first tried it, I liked the fruity grape sweetness, but now I just don't like it at all. The last few times I've tried it, I had the artificial grape and powdery bubblegum thing going on. I've smelled this particular powder in a couple other BPAL blends-- I hope I can figure out what it is!

[anmorata]

Lady Macbeth:

 

Wet: Holy wow, does this smell like red wine to me.

Drydown: The berries start to come through. Yummy.

Longterm wear: This turns into an incredibly red wine boozy blend. I love it.

[pkwench]

Lady MacBeth

 

Sniff: Sweet, red currant. A bit of a twinge of something like cough medecine, but overall, the first scent is encouraging

 

On: Still currant, but sweetened up a bit. I think I smell some random berry note.

 

After 10: Sweet, berry YUM. The thyme has come out now and it seems to be a perfect combination of berries, currant, and sweetness-which I'm assuming is the sweet Bordeaux wine.

 

Impressions: It does remind me a tad of the B&BW red currant and thyme, but much like The Star and a certain B&BW scent that it resembles, Lady MacBeth is what Bath and Bodyworks WISHES that it could create. It's amazing the depth that this blend has. I think it's the thyme. It just comes out perfectly to create such a lovely and perfect balance. It's not too much berry, it's not too sweet. It's just perfect. For those looking for a nice, spring blend-I suggest this one!

[helarctos]

I received this imp as a gift from the Lab with my Storm Moon order; I am not sure whether it was the old or new formulation.

 

It's very winey/grapey, and redolent of berries. I'd characterize it as darkly sweet. Those who would like Urd without the pencil-shavings element will like Lady MacBeth.

[Essay 28]

In the bottle: softly floral, with a fruity undertone.

 

On skin initially: almost overpoweringly fruity. Tart and tangy, like cherry koolaid or some of the berry candles I used to have.

 

After an hour: Slowly became a syrupy sweet scent that reminded me of the bottle of strawberry wine I bought last summer.

 

While enjoyable, the scent is just too tart for me to enjoy on my skin, so it goes into the swap pile.

[oatmealneko]

Even though I bought a bottle of this, I realized I never added a review on here.

 

I got the imp awhile back from a swap, since then it's moved on to another home because I bought a bottle soon afterward.

 

Lady MacBeth is currants & red wine, with some berries mixed in. I can smell thyme when it's still wet, but once it dries, it's all currants & wine. The wine doesn't stand out as much, it acts as a helper scent. It helps Lady MacBeth throw all over the place. It acts similar to Bordello, which also shares that wine note that I don't smell, but that throws ALL over the place. It doesn't throw as much as Bordello & it doesn't smell as sweet. It has the same amount of throw as Midwinter's Eve (another fruity/plum/wine scent).

 

Every time I moved, I smelled Lady MacBeth in the air. It lasts all day, keeps about the same consistency once dry, wonderful fruity scent. Smells red & sweet. I could still pick up Lady MacBeth in the air around me even at 3 pm, this was six hours after I applied it. Wow. LOVE.

[quimerula]

Wet it's an intense red currant, berries and wine perfume. Very "red" and strong.

The wine keeps it away from being too sweet, and the result is a spooky and tricky blend, juicy and different: very special.

The balance between berries and wine changes several times as it dries down, being lovely in every stage.

Good lasting power.

[enderfem]

I was so excited about this scent, as Lady M is my favorite Shakespearean character. It smelled fantastic in the imp.

 

My first thought when I put it on: Huh. Apparently the scent of ambition is pink bubblegum.

 

However, the bubblegum-ness faded into a heady wine with the undertones of thyme. Once it dried completely, I really liked it. Not sure if I will buy a bottle, though.

 

It did have amazing staying power, though. It stayed with me all day!

[Janie]

I decided to trial Lady Macbeth on one arm and Bewitched on the other. Just two random selections from the stash of imps on my table.

 

At first I thought I was going to go into some sort of Carmen Miranda-induced tutti frutti overdose.

 

In the vial:

Fruit. Red fruit. Juicy fruit. Sweet fruit.

 

Initially on my skin it was sweet and fruity (there's a surprise). Slowly it developed more complexity and the darker undertones came through. And then *bang* 5 hours later ... it disappeared. A faint lingering aroma.

 

I remember thinking as it was drying down "hey, this isn't so bad! It's good and strong and has great sillage." And I was unfavourably comparing it to Bewitched "darn tht Bewitched ... where now your sweet scent, where now your aroma ... !"

 

I'm not a real fruit fan, but this was quite pleasant. If you liked fruit, you'd love it I dare say.

[elphaba]

The complexities of Lady Macbeth simply failed to come out on me. In the bottle, it smelled like grape bubblegum, sweet and juicy. On my wrist, it smelled sweet and juicy. After an hour, it smelled sweet and juicy. After six hours, yup, still sweet and juicy.

 

Despite that, the imp still calls to me every now and then. If nothing else, it's a scent that beckons to you and refuses to be turned down. Ambition, covetousness and manipulation, indeed. When I give in to the calling, I usually apply this one with a drop of Three Witches. The spices add the complexity that Lady Macbeth doesn't seem to have on me and turns it into much more of a rich, wine scent. If Three Witches hadn't been discontinued, I would definitely be buying a bottle of each so I could wear them together all the time.

[Finny]

Syrupy tart-sweet wine.

 

This is the first wine scent that I really get the wine.

 

It is wonderful, the wine is deep and purple, there is a green fresh herbal here too, must be the thyme. And the currant and berries are tart, not sugary sweet.

 

I like this a lot, it is a going to be a fantastic scent for the coming summer and early fall.

And it just pushed Bordello out of the rop ten!

[Julilla Regina]

When I first put this on, I thought it smelled like a cherry/grape candy combo with some rose in it. I could have sworn there was rose in this, but I guess I am hallucinating. After awhile, still the the cherryness, and I love that! It wasn't particularly boozy on me, the wine barely kissed my chemistry at all.

 

This is very yummy and I love it!

[misfitroxy]

Wet, this blend absolutely screams red wine. But it’s a very fresh/new wine scent, berry-like and juicy.

 

It turns very grape-y once applied to my wrist. While sweet, it retains a darkness almost like a deep floral instead of smelling like artificial grape candy or the like. I believe the currant is what grounds it and makes it so lush.

 

This is a blackened purple kind of scent to me. Somewhat regal yet still light, even “playful” as others have described it. Very flavorful with just a slight herbal complexity.

 

Personally, I’d want to layer this with something spicy as it’s too fruity sweet for my own tastes. But it’s nice and rich for people who enjoy BPAL wine notes or berry fruit notes. Delicious, even.

[innerellipse]

I put this on before going to work, perhaps a bad idea but I thought it'd be interesting. On the way to the station I started getting a headache. Lady Macbeth smells very medicinal at first. Later it got sweeter and I could smell the berries/red currant I think, but even though as I went close I thought "that is a nice smell" I had something like an aftertaste which was sort of sour and then progressively more plasticky or chemical as the day wore on and finally at about 3pm I came to the conclusion that Lady Macbeth smells exactly like scented latex on my skin. Condoms!

 

CONDOMS!

 

Oh well.

Edited May 12, 2005 by innerellipse

[lizling]

Even upon pulling the envelope with the imp out of my mailbox, I smelled this one. (A funny story – as I was picking this bad boy up, I almost literally ran into the man who played Macbeth in our college’s production of the show last fall. Well, running into him was funny at the time; maybe you had to be there.) The first note to hit my nose was tangy, sort of lemony. As I unwrapped it, I got a spicy, herbal note (that’d be the thyme, I suppose).

Sniffing the open bottle: Still tangy, but with a sort of winey undertone – smells like a sweet wine. And possibly with a bubblegum-like note somewhere?

Wet: I do not believe this, but it smells exactly like a Tootsie Pop. The fruity sweetness is coming across loud and clear, but the dark herbal quality it has in the bottle is lost. (I hope that goes away; I am DETERMINED to like this one on virtue of name alone.)

Drydown: Thank goodness, the candylike sweetness is dissipating. Still smells quite sweet, but the thyme note is beginning to shine out. The perfume is also beginning to fade out slightly (on the other hand, I didn’t apply it very liberally because it smelled so strong at first). It smells kind of like Manischewitz wine.

Dry: It’s now far less sweet than it was at first; the spicy herbal note has come to the top, and the wine has backed down a little. It reminds me of my mother’s home-remedy cure-all: herbal tea with a hearty dash of wine. Also, the scent has continued to fade and is now fair fainter than it was initially; this might be one to slather on.

Overall: A lovely, velvety, sort of deep-burgundy scent. A perfume I can see the Thane’s Lady choosing for herself, but it’s not the signature scent for me that I was hoping for. I’ll enjoy it, and perhaps snag another imp somewhere, but I doubt I’ll be buying a whole bottle.

[Orodemniades]

Grape soda.

 

In the imp, it was grape soda.

 

And so it was wet on my skin.

 

And during drydown.

 

Three hours later, I still smelled like grape soda.

 

Oro

[Mnemosyne]

My friend has declared this her "can't live without it" scent, so I was expecting it to be really great. Unfortunately, I can't stand it. To me, it smells like grape Dimetap mixed with those pink, chewable Children's Tylenol they give you when you're a kid. Neither of those two things conjures up pleasant memories, as you can imagine.

 

It may also be worth noting that this is the first BPAL oil that I've tried that didn't smell different on me than it smelled in the bottle. Even an hour later, it still smelled exactly the way it did in the vial.

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): This smells a little sweet, and sour.

 

Just On: Putting it on, it immediately adds a bit of soapiness to the sweet/sour thing.

 

An hour or two later: It's more sweet than sour now, and not quite as soapy (mind you, I don't mind the soap smell in certain scents).

 

Around 6 hours: There's pretty much no sour left, and the soapiness is less enough to be barely noticeable as well. It's not sweet quite like candy, but it is sweet.

 

12 hours: It's pretty much gone now.

 

Overall: I'm not so sure that this will work on my skin, but it's a very pretty scent nonetheless.

 

After reading other reviews: Okay, so the sweet/sour thing is the combo of things, which is nice enough. I with it had lasted longer on me.

[quikslvr]

Odd start, but strong, deep, boozy berry after that. Darker than Kali, with more of a red wine scent. The current/thyme seems to ground it well. Very nice, very sweet.

[Ajila]

Wet this is very, very fruity and at the same time slightly green as if the current stems and leaves are in there as well as the fruit. My initial thought is that it's christmas-y, but I suspect that's because intially it's so close to Midwinter's Eve. I have to admit that I don't feel Lady MacBeth from this, it's too girly for that, darkly girly admitedly, but not in the same league as Lady MacBeth. Having said that I like it alot. It's pretty strong and lasts well on me, towards the end there is a more grown up edge, I would suspect it's the thyme, but it cuts through the sweetness nicely and I like that part even more than the earlier part.

[Abbie]

In the bottle: This is somehow familiar... root beer? I can't think of what this smell is and it's driving me nuts.

 

First on: I asked the bf. He said grape soda. AND THAT'S EXACTLY IT! Grape soda!

 

Dry: Yeah, still grape soda. It's not a bad smell per se, but as a perfume? No.

 

Overall: One for the swap pile.