Polyhymnia

[wikkidraven]

... Orris root, white sage, rowan bark and red sandalwood, with myrrh, rosemary, lemon balm and honeysuckle.

this was was so bright and crisp out of the imp, i decided to try it on the spot. i haven't had too much good luck with citrus so far, and i don't think i've yet tried a lemony oil, but polyhymnia goes on strong then dries down smooth and herbally. the lemon dies away to something much more subtle, letting the other notes take over. pleasant, but i doubt i'll buy a bottle.

[hepkitten]

I'm getting a PhD in Rhetoric and Writing, so I'd hang on to this no matter how it smelled. Luckily, it's wonderful.

 

I get orris root and white sage at the base, with the lemon and honeysuckle floating on top. As it dries, the orris and sage dominate, though a bit of citrusy sweetness remains.

 

I wear this to teach in all the time...it perfectly evokes the properties of this muse.

[juniperus]

Bottle: floral lemon, sweet, yowza.

Wet: rosemary here, but it's well behind.

Dry: honeysuckle amping and lemon still like nutz. growing headier.

Later: amping, amping that lemon and honeysuckle to dire consequences for the rest of the notes. pishposh.

[siggster]

Bottle: Sweet and fruity

 

Wet: Lemon lemon lemon. It seemed to overpower everything else.

 

10 minutes later: Sickly sweet. I couldn't take it anymore. It was making me nauseous. I had to scrub it off.

 

This was a disappointment as I usually like the citrus-y scents, and they work well on me. This was nothing but lemon. Off to the swap pile.

[urbanruralferal]

A little spicy in a gingery way, a fair amount of lemon, quite nice. An underlying lot of floral, not trumpets of floral, more like curtains of floral through which the light filters.

Not my kind of thing, at all, but oh so pleasant.

[forspecial_plate]

Mmm...I love the lemon balm. However...the scent is doing something a little bit powdery in the throw. It smells really great up close with that citrus tang. Lots of herbs in there too...I wonder what's going powdery? Either myrrh or possibly orris? For me wearing myrrh can be like flipping a coin...I've got a 50/50 chance of it working on my skin.

 

Not sure about Polyhymnia, I may end up keeping it for a while. But with so many other scents competing for my attention this one might not get a lot of wear.

[sd357]

Sadly, this smells like lemon pledge on me wet, dry down, and dry...

[outofrhyme]

In the bottle:

Very chewy. Sage, rosemary and lemon balm predominate.

 

Wet:

Lemonheads? I'm not necessarily a big fan of lemon in scents, but this is okay. Sweetly spiced creamy lemon with some woody notes - clearly sandalwood, I'm not sure about the bark.

 

Dry down:

WOODS. Spicy creamy lemony woods. I can pick out the myrrh, but it's a resinous incense, very subtle.

 

Final thoughts:

This is very pretty and well-blended. I love that the lemon is creamy and understated - lemon can often have too much "zing." I really like it, but it's not quite a "me" scent. Maybe the kind of thing I'd wear on occasion. Also, it's been a long time since I've worn Gamaliel, but I think that these scents may be somewhat similar.

[lapillus]

Summary: Ok, but nothing exciting. I think I may try it as a salt scrub scent as it would make a lovely bath scent but doesn’t have the longevity I want for everyday.

In bottle: bright citrus with supporting florals

Wet: almost wholly citrus – sharper less sweet citrus than orange

Dry: The florals start to come out.

Later: The citrus oges away almost completely leaving a very old-fashioned sort of floral behind. Lasts about five hours

[readiness]

in the bottle: furniture polish a la lemon

 

wet: furniture polish on steriods

 

dry down:The woody notes - rowan come out. the lemon is still strong but you can smell the woody parts if sniff really close.

 

verdict: don't like it enough to keep - swap!

[steffanina]

Polyhymnia-

 

In Bottle: Lemon and spice, more lemon (a little Lemon Pledge-y).

 

Wet: Yipe, hugely Lemon Pledge. (I wonder if I'd like Lemon Pledge if I didn't associate it with the product?)

 

Dry: I wish I weren't trapped in the Lemon Pledge of this. It just won't work for me.

 

Overall: Not for me.

[Diana]

wet: lemon candy

 

dry: the citrusy note is completely gone, but there's a herbal/woodsy note left behind. not too much punch, but pretty all the same.

[JennyGardener]

This scent reminds me very much of the process of writing. At first, the Muse hits you in the face with her smack of lemony inspiration. It's lemon balm, which I recognize from my garden. You cannot sleep with the smell of fresh lemon balm assaulting your nose. Just like waking up in the night and not being able to sleep until you write down your thoughts. After a while, the lemon balm leaves off its working on you, and the more subtle odors appear. There is sweetness, like the gentle flow of words when one is really into writing. That good feeling you have immediately after. And finally, there is the pungent tang of spices, of regret, of wishing what you wrote could even come close to the beauty that possessed you when you were writing. It makes you want to taste that feeling again.

 

While not my choice for a personal perfume, I will definitely use Polyhymnia again when I am writing. Last night, it even inspired a dream about writing. I wrote about a unique setting, which I still remembered when I woke up and immediately wrote down. Good stuff, that Polyhymnia.

[laliloo]

I received Polyhymnia as a frimp with an eBay purchase. It's quite lemony (that'll be the lemon balm) when I first put it on, but I'm not getting the detergent/polish smell that so often seems to happen when I apply oils that contain lemon. As it dries, the lemon fades a little and errr, that's it. It fades, to pretty much nothing. It really does disappear very quickly on me - from drydown to just the memory of a scent within minutes. It reminds me of the Clarins Refraisseur body spray, which is a good thing as I like that scent. It's just a shame it disappears so quickly. I'll keep the imp I think and try again another day. Always worth a second try.

[modillian]

Oh, oh! This knocked me right out of my chair! It's magnificent! The lemon balm and woody notes come off as the finest furniture polish to me (which I like!) but there's some other stuff going on, all lurid topnotes (rosemary?), saucy undercurrents (sandalwood and myrrh?) and mellow creamy stuff in between (orris yuuuuummmm.) My goodness! For some reason, though, I have some mild skin irritation where I put the oil. I have no idea what could be bothering me (perhaps the volatile sage or rosemary oils?) This is the kind of lightly lemon scent I can handle.

 

Oh yum. This is a toe-curling scent to me. After ten minutes the sage emerges from the crowd along with the spicy sandalwood and myrrh, lemon and creamy orris receding but still present. At twenty minutes the creamy delicious orris plus sandalwood/sage scent is stronger, lemon is very mild, and spice from the myrrh is minimal. I could definitely roll around in this perfume like Megaera. After an hour it's full of throaty woods (I'm guessing it's the rowan that has amped up the sandalwood all this time) with the resiny myrrh giving depth, orris rounding out the scent, and it remains like that. Guh. Polyhymnia is a sweet, woody fragrance. It could work as a room scent, but I definitely like it on the skin as well. The throw is about normal, and it lasts on me for about eight hours.

[melange]

Today it's Polyhymnia's lemon balm that is most prominent at first, but it's clear that there are other, less definable notes that support it. When first dry, the mix is somewhat more homogenous but pretty bland on my skin. With time, it warms up and stretches out, but I still can't smell it much: just enough to know that there's something good going on.

 

Having said that, Polyhymnia also appears to be one of those scents that may all but vanish to my nose but be easily perceptible to other people, which makes me think I should try it again on my skin before deciding between scent locket and room scent.

[MaidenGenevive]

Polyhymnia

 

Overall, this mixture of notes leaves me with the impression of a faint honeyed lemon, like a lemon-drop candy. This is warm, pleasant, and soothing.

 

[3 - Like] It doesn't have much throw. If it did, it would be a 4.

[Ravenclaw79]

I just got this imp today...

 

Sniffing the imp, it was woody but with a sharp, lemony overtone.

 

Once I got it on, it was lemony... oh so lemony, deliciously lemony.

 

When it dried a bit and settled in, though, the lemon faded to the background, creating a nice backdrop for an herb-ish smell (the sage and rosemary, I suppose). It's really quite nice, bright and sort of ren-faire-y ... not something I'll wear every single day, but something I'll surely keep around to wear when the mood strikes me.

[SarahScent44]

In the imp, I get the lemon balm (clean and bright), rosemary, and sage.

 

Once I put it on, there's still lemon, but very subdued by the bark, the rosemary, and the sage - it's a grassy, green smell, dry rather than fresh, but I quite like it.

 

It's very much the same when dry - a very nice, very low-key, herbal lemon-y scent. I like it, but I'm not sure that I LOVE it - although I'll probably always keep it around because of the description (wanna-be writer, ahoy!).

[taramarie]

On me, Polyhymnia is pure Lemon Pledge. I'll pass this on to someone with more cooperative skin chemistry.

[maribouquet]

At first the lemon is very prominent, which I like, and it's very nice with an herbal undercurrent - I can't really identify rosemary and sage, but I'm guess that's them. Then something sort of unpleasant, that I think is probably myrrh being weird on me. Boo. In the drydown, it's all rowan bark with a bit of lemony-myrrhy weirdness. Sorry to say it's not good on me in the end.

[OdetteOdile]

Another lovely, soon-to-be-discontinued Excolo oil.

It starts off with somewhat jarring notes - the lemon balm and the red sandalwood go out on a date and they have nothing in common - they sit there and sort of nod politely to each other, waiting for it to be over.

Which it is 20 minutes later when the myrrh outshines the lemon balm and starts making out with the red sandalwood. And then they have a cinnamon baby. (I think the Lupercalia update is getting to me.)

So that's what I'm left with - a powdery soft, sweet & spicy cinnamon-scented note that just kind of gurgles at me with pleasure - no burning or bright red skin (probably because cinnamon isn't listed among the notes. A Mystery.)

[JenM]

In the imp: there is something sweet under something a bit sour and something a little bit musky. My nose has been through a lot this cold season, so bear with me.

 

On the wrist: wow. Lemon balm and sandalwood. No mistaking it. After twenty minutes, the lemon softens, and I can get a hint of the bark and the sage.

 

Half an hour: I’ve started sniffling and sneezing. Time to wash.

[DifferentDances]

Imp: Clear, translucent air.

Wet: The lemon balm definite pops straight up.

Drydown: Lemon balm with a hint of myrrh/sandalwood.

Dry: Freshly Pledged wood.

 

My rating: 1/5.

[seamor]

I have had an imp of Polyhymnia sitting around (in my refrigerator) waiting to be tested for months. For some reason I finally got around to it tonight. I am SO SORRY this has been DISCONTINUED!!!!

 

First out of the bottle, it was bright, sharp and intense - kind of like lemon zest. Worried me a bit, but I could smell something starting to come through, so I persevered. It began to smell sweet, followed by a billow of incense. I LOVE incense scents! As it dried further, the incense settled back to a gentle foundation for that lovely, sweet scent (what IS that? Wow! Guess I'd better read the description ...), and a hint of more gentle citrus continues to peek out now and then. The throw is very good on me, but not overwhelming (at least, not as far as I can tell). I LOVE smelling like this!

 

This is warm, soft, sweet, and delicious, with spice. I'll probably use it up right away. (sniffle) Can I bribe somebody to make me a vat of it, please? I promise to use it all.

 

Yum, yum, yum!