Sundew

[topazphoenix]

A carnivorous enchantress: diverse, lovely and graceful, emitting a sticky, glowing golden, sweet and terminally inviting scent. Its dew is believed to grant eternal beauty and longevity, and restore vitality and vigor to the magician.

This is a pretty, very green floral that's not sickly sweet. It's rather nondescript to me though.

[NoinHime]

First Sniff: A bright grassy scent with a hint of citrus. I wouldn't call it sweet but not a sharp grassy scent either?

 

On me: A wonderful light, grassy floral. Not overwhelming but the throw on this is great.

[lucy]

in the imp.I am loving this. to me its spring in a bottle, daffodils, cowslips, snowdrops, beautiful

wet- same beautiful spring yellow scent gorgeous.. i so so love this scent

dry- and then it was gone...like a sweet holiday romance; beautiful but no staying power.

am soo sad i really wanted this to be my perfect signature scent!

[biocarolyn]

In the imp, this is so heavily soap to me its not even funny. It smells EXACTLY like Dial liquid hand soap. I don't really get floral from it, but I'm not good with florals and can't really ID individual floral notes.

 

It stays pretty similar on my skin wet, but by noon the dry-down has become a light floral scent. I was going to lunch and smelled my wrist in the car, and couldn't remember what I put on this morning. It does morph, the soapy-ness goes away and it becomes a really clean, golden, light herbally-floral for me.

 

The most predominant description I could come up with for this is clean-golden. Its very fresh, and is actually nicer than I expected after the sniff in the imp.

[Venneh]

In the imp, this is a really bright, greenish scent. It's the same on my skin, with just a hint of honey. Not really sure what to think of this one. It morphs, as it's on my skin, to a sunnier scent, a honeyish sort of bright floral, with a green edge. A nice scent, but I won't need more than an imp.

Edited October 12, 2009 by Venneh

[Acushla]

Out of the bottle: at first sniff I really loved it, this definitely is a very golden scent. But the second time there was something odd that shouted at me; maybe my nose was just overpowered from sniffing too much.

 

Upon application: floral and very warm, just gold everywhere. I probably would have been fine if it had stayed like that but the drydown made it very perfumey and strong, which gave me a headache. I'm willing to try it again but I'm afraid the results will be the same.

Edited October 29, 2009 by Acushla

[Stormslegacy]

Imp; This is nice--greenish floral with a tiny bit of spice.

 

Wet: mmm same as in the imp, a lush green mouthwatering floral. Wet and wild, slightly perfumey. Absolutely delightful. I have no idea what to compare it to.

 

Drydown: Fizzy, effervescent, warm, floral. All of these words describe this scent. It's pleasant, green, and inviting. i do have to agree with the review that mentioned it is more like a nice "bath scrub" scent than a personal one. Definitely smells clean.

 

Verdict:

 

OMG I love this

Edited November 7, 2009 by Stormslegacy

[Victory]

As soon as I applied Sundew, I came over to the review thread to look at the notes because it was somehow so familiar. There is a slight resemblance to Et Lux Fuit, which makes some sense to me, since they are both golden floral scents. There's an initial almost-sharpness that fades away and a gilded (not metallic, but very golden) aspect to it. It is indeed floral, but not a screaming power floral that I so loathe. Yes, when I noticed others had mentioned fresh laundry, I do smell a resemblance to Dirty. For all the golden-ness and florals, Sundew isn't a warm scent. It's like looking through the window on a brilliantly sunny day, opening the door and realizing it's the middle of the winter and it's freezing. So, like the description, it's deceptive. I remember working in the national forest and rubbing sundews' dew on my mosquito bites because it was supposed to help- so they're not all bad!

[amritchie]

Imp - The amber comes through really strongly. I don't get any of the florals that others mention,

it really is just amber.

 

Wet - The amber is still the strongest note. I think the lab got their description spot on for

this; 'sticky, glowing golden' is the perfect description for this scent. I can smell the florals

underneath now, very fresh and summery. The longer it's on my skin, the stronger the florals get,

and the more I like it.

 

Dry - The amber fades entirely, leaving strong florals behind. They're quite sharp, and a little

soapy. I'd no longer describe it as a 'golden' scent. It's gone quite green instead. It's still

very summery - there's just that soapiness that puts me off.

 

This isn't going to be one of my most loved. I like it, but neither amber nor florals are my

favourite scents, and after the first ten minutes it didn't seem to work well on my skin. I was,

however, very impressed by the complete transformation it underwent on my skin, from completely amber to totally floral!

[gingiemay]

In the imp this is an amazing golden, bright, dewy, shiny, sunny, yellow scent. It's thick, rich, and beautiful. On my skin, however, it turns to a rather nondescript floral scent that is a pale shadow of its original state. Scent locket only!

[Deiicide]

Wow this is really pretty wet. Sparkling with just a hint of citrus, I can feel the musk in the background tempering it, white musk too. It's has that sparkling tenure that white musk brings. A bit of really green herbs in the background as it dries, I smell sage and maybe a tad bit of lavender. This reminds me of a more citrus fairy market. If there is some amber in it, it isn't going into baby soap on my skin. Just a really pretty clean floral scent.

[aquazoo]

Wow, hyacinthe! Then it gets a bit fruity, kid of an orange pineapple.

[Tenshi]

I smell like the freshest laundry ever!

 

Sundew is a bright floral, nice and light with a bit of powder and the smell of very clean clothing. I would really like my fresh laundry to smell this nice (which it does not), but I don't think it's really my personality. People who like very light, happy springtime scents will probably love it. It's fresh and peppy. It makes me want to don a straw hat and sun dress, grab a wicker basket and gather daisies.

[Kimbernunk]

On my skin, this is almost SN sunflower. There's probably a hint of some kind of golden amber in the back, and maybe a touch of something slightly green and a touch of something slightly clove-like, but it's so predominantly sunflower that I'm not really paying much attention to anything else.

 

I LOVE SUNFLOWER, so I'm thrilled about this.

 

Quick comparison to Sunflower in the Salon - Sunflower has a definite dark sweetness from the black amber, and smells like sunflowers in the middle of a grossly hot muggy day in August in the Midwest. Sundew retains the sunflower note, but it's not as OMG IT'S HOT OUT as Sunflower - Sundew is a bit more mellow, a bit cleaner.

 

This may end up being a bottle purchase.

[Schmoozy]

Golden amber and sunbaked florals. It's thick, rich, golden, warm and very beautiful.

[milica]

This is beautiful! Golden, warm, sunny... I have a picture in my head of a field covered in yellow flowers, on warm summer day.

 

I've tested this a few times, thinking I will probably hate it after a few days because the first stage is really strong, too much heady florals. But after 30 min it settles down to a beautiful warm, amber type of scent that really glows of the skin! Florals are a bit in the background in that stage and that's really where I want them to be. And it lasts forever! This is an unexpected win for me.

 

It kind of reminds me of Sol Invictus on my skin, but you can tell the difference, both are really evocative. SI is cold winter sun on snow and Sundew is the warmest summer sun in fields.

[hkhm]

imp: golden petals, wet greenery and soft, warm spice.

 

wet: this is a rich spicy golden scent with a nice greenery scent but there's also an unusual backnote... sort of a dusty scents... interesting.

 

dry: this is best when dry. sweet golden flowers, greenery swaying in the breeze, late afternoon sun warming everything perfectly.

[lookingglass]

This smells like honeyed, spiced herbs. It's lovely. Reminicent of the bones of Hamadrayad or Phatom Queen without the apple, it is slightly tart and woody with fresh green sprigs. It's lively in a "come hither" kind of way, but is then bitter and haughty.

Edited October 1, 2010 by lookingglass

[lejlkwiet]

I have no idea what my skin chemistry did to this one - in the bottle it was a lovely golden glowing scent and then on my wrist it became...Pears soap and baby shampoo? It was really weird and sadly I had to wash it right off, it was far too soapy for me.

[Honey]

Hehe, taking over from lejlkwiet..

 

 

Imp: Definitely hyacinth. A light whitish-green note with a citrus element that pushes itself into the foreground.

 

Wet: Sour and lemony - but, again, in a toilet cleaner sort of way. Bah, lemon.. you just don't work with my skin most of the time I guess. The green freshness makes this scent seem like a decent room spray.

 

Dry: Something like honey or amber comes through the lemon but, still, rather grassy and.. not much smell for me to work with.

[sunlitgarden]

In the bottle Sundew smells quite pleasing to me, but is difficult to describe. Scents without notes are hard! I'd say it's kind of halfway between "planty" and "floral", with an edge that reminds me a bit of soap, but not in a bad way... it just gives at a clean, fresh feeling. I'm kind of envisioning a light green color with bubbles floating around (yay scent synesthesia.)

 

Wet on my skin, it's similar. I'd say it's more of a "cool" feeling than "warm". Turning more floral. I think there might be lily of the valley/muguet? Some sort of lily, I think, anyway. Maybe peony too. This is the kind of floral that works on me, anyway -- in much the same way as Weeping Branches Moon.

 

Although I'm sad this was DCed from the GC, I am glad that I managed to find a bottle on the secondary market. I think this was discontinued at the same time as Moon Rose, and I can definitely believe there's a shared component here (Moon Rose too is another floral that works on me, and I regret not buying a bottle when I had the chance -- though I have a couple of more imps on the way, which will probably be enough.)

Edited December 14, 2012 by sunlitgarden

[Calavera]

Wow, so I got a discontinued frimp with my order. I'm in LOVE! Smells like laundry, dew, sunshine, and flowers. More of a late spring scent in my opinion. I hope they bring this scent back

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: Ooh, a DC'ed frimp! Serendipitous. So far, it's a fresh citrus-honey scent. Honey and I generally don't play well together, but right now it does indeed smell fresh and lovely and golden.

 

Wet: ...Yup, there it goes. The freshness is now mostly gone, so now it's hovering between "woooo heady florals!" and overwhelming/headache-inducing. I'm even getting hints of something like a too-long-uncleaned bathroom into which someone has sprayed nice air freshener. Thankfully, the eau de bathroom doesn't last long, and settles down into honey-heavy, heady florals within 20 minutes or so.

 

Dry: Faint florals, but now just the slightest bit warm/ambery/musky. Finally, oddly enough, it regains the wet, fresh tone it had ITI.

[freyasfae]

This smells like summer to me, particularly summer in a humid place. Maybe it's the carnivorous element, or it could be from aging, but underlying the wet flowers is one of those hothouse florals that have an element of decay to them.

[dementia_divine]

In the imp: Freshly washed linen drying in the warm breeze, a fresh, bright floral note (possibly peony), a bit of green apple, and a bit of tart, waxy berry.

 

Wet: This still makes me think of peony and clean linens. I keep thinking peony because the floral has this fresh, lemon-y quality to it that reminds me of the peony in The Dormouse. Then, the tart, waxy berry (or possibly a root of some kind – things often described as rooty tend to have a waxy quality to them on me) note emerges, but it isn't a main player. It's lingering in the background. After that, I get a bit of spice and some effervescence.

 

Dry: The scent is a lot warmer now. The fresh, citrus-y floral aspect of the scent is gone now, and so is the effervescence. It makes me think of the sun-warmed flowers note in All in the Golden Afternoon, which I believe is sunflowers. There's still some waxiness present in the scent, but no berries (fortunately). There's still a hint of spice.

 

Verdict: This one is pleasant, but probably not something I'd reach for again due to the waxy quality I get in the background. I'm glad I was able to try it, though!