The Peacock Queen

[laochodia]

In dramatic contrast to the soft innocence of Snow White and the dew-kissed freshness of her sister, Rose Red, this is a blood red, voluptuous rose, velvet-petaled, at the height of bloom. Haughty and imperious, vain, yet incomparably lovely to the eye, but thick with thorns of jealousy, pride and hatred.

In the bottle- A full bloomed, red rose with thorns in a clear glass vase.
On my skin- WTF? Hello? Rose? Where did you go? I smell water and that weird plastic-marigold-ozone that is a flower shop, but no rose.
Dry- Vague spices and...sap? I smell like a broken flower stem. This is not the rose for me.

(Oh, and throw? I scrubbed this off, as it started bringing up bad memories, and I still smell it under two applications of Sugar Skull.) Edited January 26, 2006 by Shollin

[Musamea]

In the imp and on initial application, this is a rose in full bloom -- heady, seductive, and powerful. As deep as London, but less sharp and a good deal warmer. Lovely. However, on dry down, this oil eventually turned into a plastic-y, soapy scent. I'll be using up the rest of my decanted imp, but won't be getting a bottle of this.

[wanderingredhead]

I don't really think of myself as a rose person, but thought I'd give it a try, and it was quite lovely.

 

I got a deep cultured rose scent, reserved and not blowsy. It did strike me as a rather mature scent, not too sweet, but still very rosy and Extremely feminine.

 

On drydown I got a faint plasticky whiff coming out of it, but only if I sniffed very deeply.

 

In summary: I'm not entirely sure what I think of it, actually. I do like it, but the plastic is somewhat disturbing. I'll probably end up keeping my decanted imp, but don't need a big bottle of this.

[misfitroxy]

The Peacock Queen does the most interesting thing on my skin. At first, I thought it was because I was dabbing it on very lightly when I first tested it (the OMG, I just got a bunch of bottles, so where do I find skin to put all of this on RIGHT NOW? test). But since I'm doing the full slather for this go 'round, I'm still noticing it - it melds into my skin. It doesn't disappear, as I can certainly smell the rose. Rather, the blend turns into something that smells an awful lot like my skin on any given day without the advantage of oils.

 

It's kind of clean smelling. Like fresh laundry without the addition of fabric softeners and chemicals. How thoroughly curious. I don't find this rose hauty or vain at all. In fact, she's far more dew-kissed to me than Rose Red. Very subtle and enveloping and warm.

 

I'm oddly comforted, which I *never* get from rose (love the note(s) though I do). This is a great "general" rose for me (I use the quotations because I'm not trying to imply that it's generic. Far from that. I just don't view it as either a day or night time fragrance, making it perfect for any time I want to smell of rose and nothing else). And I'm absolutely curious to see how it ages.

[sea_stars]

I loooooooove Peacock Queen. After trying many BPAL rose scents, I think this is the perfect scent for me. As many have said, Rose Red is very fresh and green, like a rosebud right off the bush. Peacock Queen is almost the opposite, a red rose at its peak--in full bloom. It smells like a beautiful Valentine's bouquet...and I feel like such a prom queen wearing it!

 

I got some on the cuffs of my favorite sweater, and now everytime I open my closet, I am greeted by the scent of red roses! It really smells as though I have been storing my clothes with rose petals..I love it. Can we say staying power? YES! And the throw is pretty decent if you put enough on. I hope I can make this bottle last through the year!

[Firewaver]

This is really great stuff.

I'm glad I opted to buy Peacock Queen rather than Rose Red.

 

This seems so much more lush and mature in comparison.

Rose Red is a little on the plastic side to me sometimes, like rose scented play doh. But Peacock Queen has a rich, ripened rose smell to it, without the green sharpness that Rose Red gives me.

 

I love it, and will cherish it as my go to rose perfume.

Everyone should have one good one.

[SeaMonkey]

This is a pretty, very fresh rose blend. Roses tend to go bad on me. It doesn't go overpowering on my skin like roses usually do, but I just seem to not have a good relationship with roses

[brownbear]

The first time I sniffed this was at one of the full moons at the shop. I only sniffed the bottle, but it was such a velvety, deep rose, that I knew I'd have to order it. The bottle I just got doesn't seem as deep as the one I sniffed in the store. I'm thinking that I need to age this a bit. Overall, yup roses. Deep, heavy, grown up, red roses.

[Meg]

I'd been despairing to see her arrive one day - she got caught in the crossfire of Christmas craze and took 3 weeks to arrive. At last she's here, huzzah!

 

In the bottle: mostly tea rose, very slightly green... actually I see this as pink-coloured.

 

Wet: same as in the bottle, a rather green tea rose... with something more. A darkness to it... and as it dries it goes red?!

 

Drydown: A perfect red rose. It reminds me of the Whip rose without the leather, which is *exactly* what I wanted (as much as I adore Whip, sometimes the leather gets to my throat). It's dewy, sensuous, a tiny bit green in the background, and really quite sweet. It never goes powdery, it's velvety when it's dry.

 

Overall: This is certainly not a little old lady's kind of rose, it's a woman's seductive rose. It's sexy, a bit haughty, and very vain. To me it's not particularly complex, but so delicious! It's what I was expecting and spot on. I certainly don't regret having bought a bottle unsniffed! This is the perfect "simple" red rose blend for me! (well, at least, until I try Rose Red...)

[LittleGreyKitten]

Firstly, I am a fan of rose scents. However, poor Peacock Queen, though she does smell lurvely, is the unfortunate victim of a smell association.

 

I know this elderly woman- she's probably close to 80- who wears a rose scent every day. Bingo, it's a dead ringer for Peacock Queen. It conjurs her up in all her glory- demanding, obviously once quite beautiful, still independant. I've seen her daughter, who must be almost 40 and WOW she's amazingly gorgeous, and looks way younger. You can see that her mom was at least as lovely, and at 80 still has cheekbones I envy. She wears her hair in a French twist and still does full makeup every day I've ever seen her.

 

This smell is absolutely hers. I keep seeing her every time I sniff my wrist. Not every rose scent does that but Peacock Queen must be really close to her blend. Maybe I'll give it to her. She'll probably think I'm nutty(er) but that's OK.

[sarahmarie]

I really like Peacock Queen - and oh, the label is fabulous, too.

 

Peacock Queen is rose perfume - and by that I mean, it's more perfumey than Rose Red, and it's straight-up rose. It's not complex, but I didn't want it to be - I just wanted a rose I could love. And I do really like this. It's too soon to say if I'm in love with it, but I know that it works better for me than Rose Red does.

 

Now, I think Rose Red is the more...distinctive, unique rose of the two. It's sweet and green and very very strong and rosey on me. It's a rare and perfect rose, budding and new. This seems to me to be very different from your average rose perfume concept. Which is all cool, except that on my skin, sometimes Rose Red can be a bit overwhelming. This is why I only have an imp of it (though I debated getting a bottle). The Peacock Queen didn't become overwhelming like that - it's a bit more reserved, I think, a bit quieter. I'm glad I have a bottle of it. It feels more "everyday" for me - in the sense that I can wear it anytime, that is. I put it in my hair and it smelled great there - on my skin there was a hint of soap but I'm going to assume that was a fluke, because I want it to be.

 

In short, I hope to fall in love with Peacock Queen with time, and right now we're in a definite stage of Like.

Edited January 30, 2006 by sarahmarie

[Thaleia]

I took a good, long sniff of The Peacock Queen from her bottle, and I don't smell anything. This happened to me on a couple of other scents, but I got my sense of smell back on the next ones, so it can't be that. I'm getting fake plastic rose from this, which is so disappointing, because I was most excited about getting this one. I even saved this one out of my 5mls to review for last.

 

Once it's on, though, it goes from fake plastic rose to becoming utter love. This is the mature, haughty rose that I needed Pride to be in front of my extended family. This is a dusky, velvety, sensual dark red rose, elegant in the extreme. This is a rose that settles for nothing but the best. Accept no substitute, this is probably my favourite straight-up rose of all of the ones I've tried, and I love rose, so I've gone through a good few. Forget 'I think I'm in love', I KNOW I'm in love.

 

Macha, darling, that is one sexy label.

 

On a scale of 1 to 5, if I could give this queen a 5.1, I would.

[urraca]

This is a very pretty rose scent that remains true from beginning to end. It doesn't have a huge amount of throw on me, and it does fade fairly quickly, but it is lovely.

[Victory]

Rose! I say this with a smile, because as yet, no other rose blend has been particularly "rosey" on me. This is rose without any other note to distract my nose. It's lovely and full, almost to the point of cloying. The smell almost reminds me of the scent of a friend's mother's tea rose oil just for straight-up rosiness. I'm not a huge rose fan, but I'll keep this bottle for when I'm feeling the need for roses.

[alasindocs]

Hellooo Rose.

 

This purchase was purely sentimental for me..and it didnt disappoint one bit.

 

While I was growing up, I spent summers at my grandparents farm in Minnesota.

And my grandmother used to drag me all over town with her when she "did hair" for all the little old ladies.

 

And there was one woman who to me seemed impossibly glamourous for this small farming community...

She was European and married an American during WWII.

She had this silk robe with a GIANT peacock that she had embroidered on the back...And it always fancied that she had been royalty or such and had fallen head over heels in love with Mr Johnson and and come to America with him leaving her glamorous life behind..

Anyway she loved roses. And I dont ever recall being at her house that there wasn't a huge bouquet of fresh red roses on her table (and in Minnesota, this was no small deal)

They smelled so exotic to me...and just further confirmed her royalty status.

 

And when I saw this I thought immediately of her. And I was right.

This is exactly the smell of a full in-bloom red rose at all its voluptuous goodness.

 

Throw is just perfect, and staying power is still good 4 hours into the day.

 

[RainyDayGrey]

Vain and haughty, indeed! The Peacock Queen is a gorgeous mature and sophisticated rose scent. Unlike Rose Red, which was a very sweet and delicate rose scent with a good amount of greenery mixed in, I don't get anything sweet or delicate with this one. It's not sharp either, like rose scents can sometimes be. Well, it's just plain perfect.

 

After a few hours I can barely smell this on my skin, but I still keep getting whiffs of it throughout the day, and when I got in the shower the next morning I could smell it very strongly, until I got out the soap. Rose Red did the same thing, I had two lovely rosey smelling showers in a row.

[isyche]

Whatever rose is in The Peacock Queen smells very heady and perfumey on me, to the point of making me want to sneeze. It works for the description, but there are other roses I like much more (like Rose Red, which is perfect fresh rose on me).

 

I guess the Queen is too mature for me. I'm glad I got to try her, but I'll probably swap the imp.

[Kittyflop]

Rose. This is deep. Not fresh, not green, but gorgeously black. It’s very deep, very three-dimensional for what is ostensible a single ‘note’. It’s not for the faint of heart – there’s no wearing just a little Peacock Queen. If it’s on, you’re making a bold statement, a statement which says ‘Hmph’ while looking down it’s nose at the little people.

[mexicat]

Even though Roses always fade on me,I NEEDED to try this.One of my favorite tattoos is my Peacock! AND,I thought it would be a Strong,Heavy Rose.Strong enough to last...but.. It is Beautiful,but I CAN BARELY SMELL IT!! Ahh,at least the Artwork on the bottle is Gorgeous!!

[moon_lemming]

Okay, first, the label for The Peacock Queen is utterly fabulous. How could I not love a scent with artwork like that?

 

Second, this scent blows me away. It's freaking GORGEOUS. On me, the Queen is a really deep deep rose with a srong hint of sugary creamy tea. Does that sound weird? It might. But damn, I am in love with it.

 

It stays pretty well on me, too; not as long as I'd like -- my skin devours perfume -- but a good eight hours. I am so glad I picked this one up.

[Penance]

Origin:

 

Imp from my Imp Pimp, Diana.

 

Preconceived notions:

 

I hate roses with a passion, but Rose Red surprised me by working beautifully on my skin, so I'll give The Peacock Queen the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she'll surprise me, too, but I'm not putting any money on it.

 

First sniff:

 

Oh, boy, that's definitely a full, blooming rose scent. The thing I liked about Rose Red was that it was a rosebud scent and slightly green, The Peacock Queen is a full, open rose, lush and floral and richly rosy. Unfortunately, that doesn't work for me.

 

Wet on skin:

 

More powdery now, but still very much an intense rose. This is the sort of scent my mom likes but that never works on me. I'm just not a fan of the smell of roses, unfortunately. They're certainly pretty to look at, but I just can't get into the scent of them for some reason.

 

Dry down:

 

The Peacock Queen smells as if Beth grabbed a rose at the peak of its bloom and managed to cram it into a tiny little 5mL bottle. It's uncannily realistic, extremely intense and all wrong for me.

 

The bottom line:

 

I didn't expect this to work and I was right. I'll be sticking to Rose Red if I want to wear a rose scent for a change.

[Summerpixy]

This is the forbidden rose of my childhood. My sister was annoyed with my rose perfume and I'm fairly certain she was the one who pulled off the cap to keep me from spritzing it on myself at every opportunity. It is full and rich and beautiful.

 

I can hardly believe I haven't reviewed this yet. This is my favorite of the rose blends, it is not the freshly cut rose of Rose Red, nor the abundance of Two, Five and Seven, this is a dozen perfect roses overflowing with scent. But not fresh roses, they are at least a day old, the greenness is not so rich as it was, it's faded, leaving the sweet perfume behind. Lovely, but yes, haughty and distant too. A wonderful perfume.

[luxuria]

My love affair with Rose Red opened up the possibility that why, yes, the lab might make a rose lover out of me yet, and so I ordered a bottle of Peacock Queen. Unfortunately, that was wishful thinking because this doesn't smell anything like Rose Red to me. My favorite part of RR was how evocative of the real flower it was, whereas this smells more like rose perfume. It's a lot more grown up, yes, and a lot dryer. Not unpleasant, but probably only for preexisting fans of the note.

[atropine]

i snagged a bottle of this on ebay, as one of my first bpal oils- rose is one of my favourite scents, so surely this would work on me, right?

 

wrong. it's lovely and rosy in the bottle, but once it hits my skin, i get a strong whiff of cabbage under the rose. and it doesn't go away. the hope that it's just me vanishes after my mother quietly discreetly mentions two better ways to cook the stuff than boiling it to death :/

 

some days, i hate my skin chemistry.

[Isuke]

Hello, my lovelies. The rose is so immediate, strong and lovely and bold....but not nearly as offensive or overwhelming as I'd feared it would be. While the haughty rose of Pride hated me, Peacock Queen is as sexy and perfectly-lush a rose scent as I could have hoped for.

 

I think I need a bottle of this now. I can't quite decide if this will replace Whip as my favorite rose scent or not.