Le Serpent Qui Danse

[aessedai]

A sinister, darkly seductive scent inspired by poetry of Charles Baudelaire. Violet entwined with vanilla and gardenia.

Before I even knew the notes, I adored this scent. It was so soft, yet *present*. Powdery, yes. This is my kind of violet.

[lohengrin]

In the imp: ... Gardenia

 

On, wet: Gardenia! It wa~fts, the gardenia does. Feeeaaar the gardenia power!

 

On, dry: A tiny hint of vanilla begins to appear, sweetening the gardenia. Mmyummy. I like this. *_*

 

Many hours later: The vanilla slowly takes over, the way that vanilla does. That stuff has staying power! But the gardenia does not go away, either, they blend quite nicely. Liiiike.

[joseybird]

I'm not much of a gardinia or violat fan, but I do like vanilla, so here it goes...

 

HOLY HERA is the gardinia strong...very strong... I really really really don't like gardinia...I get a little vanilla in the background, and a little violet, but...the gardinia...! Not for me.

[niter]

Imp

Lovely gardenia. I am not a huge fan of overwhelming gardenia so this hits it just right.

 

Wet

Tickling my nose a bit, but still not *bad* gardenia. Still waiting for vanilla.

 

Then it got bitter. Weird. Still tickles my nose.

 

All of the sudeen, the gardenia died. Not as in fade, but as in shriveled up and turned brown on me. I smell like musty dead flower! And my nose stick itches.

 

I do not think I can make it to dry!

[Cesare]

Wet: VIOLET.

 

Drydown: Like choking on violets. That were dipped in vanilla.

 

Dry: If you've ever had violet candy? This is the olfactory equivalent. Very sweet violet. I like violets just fine, and this isn't bad at all, but I think this is too much violet for me.

 

Dry, 15 minutes later: This balances out better over time; the gardenia adds a more general floral note so that it doesn't feel like your nose is being beaten to death with a handful of violets. It's sweet and dusky and pleasant. If you like violets as a dominant note, this would be a blend to check out.

[Fefferbella]

Another floral I can't wear. I adore violet, but it does odd things with my skin chemistry. I don't smell any gardenia in this at all.

 

Just thick, wet violet and vanilla. Very pretty, but not for me.

[rimela]

Le Serpent Qui Danse would have been very useful in the middle ages and any time in history that suffered from poor hygiene and inadequate treatment of refuse and sewage. Louis the XIV could dab a bit of this on his hanky and never notice that he and his entire court rarely bathed. Almost as good as Jitterbug perfume.

 

I walk around all day, sniffing my wrists and noticing the soft scent on a silk scarf I wear around my neck. No foul smell coming from neighboring cubicles will taint my personal atmosphere, not with this stuff on. I don't find myself pulling apart the various notes mentally. They blend well enough for me that a whole other scent is created. As it fades in the evening while my daughter and I drift off to sleep, it's a softer more melancholy scent. I am as sure as I am of anything that one day she will be hit with some vivid recollection of our little candlelit bedroom brought to her by her olfactory nerve meeting up with a faded gardenia or while picking violets in the spring or opening a jar of vanilla beans...something will rush to her present from her deepest memories of preverbal childhood and she will feel a great sense of comfort and warmth. Maybe even shed a little tear.

 

This scent is at it's best when faded, though I do feel emboldened by it during the day. I can face a dull day better when my nose is well entertained.

[SeaMonkey]

At first I get something rather green, yet floral, with a touch of vanilla.

 

The violet and the gardenia are fighting a bit, and the vanilla is in the background. Its odd, but I enjoy the scent on my body, but when I bring my wrist up to my nose, I don't like it.

 

*edit* It is starting to soften up quite a bit into a nice vanilla floral and I enjoy it even bringing my wrist up to my nose

[BlackDahlia]

In the imp ~ lovely violets with a soft sweetness that I would imagine is the vanilla.

 

Wet ~ Violets and soft baby powder.

 

On the dry down ~ Talc-y-violets. I can't smell any gardenia at all...

 

I think this is a lovely (though very, very soft) fragrance ~ but my skin gobbles it up very quickly. I generally look for longer staying, stronger scents. I think this is lovely... it is just not me.

 

Very, very soft and feminine, though.

[jazlyn]

Le Serpent Qui Danse... ooo. The vanilla in this is really sugary and sweet; it works really well with the violet and gardenia, but kind of takes center stage. Sweet and floral, how lovely.

 

edit: This has gotten quite powdery...

Edited January 15, 2006 by jazlyn

[hangingfire]

In the imp: first impression is powerfully violet. There's just a haze of gardenia, and a touch of vanilla to temper the violet.

 

On, wet: Not so much on the gardenia now; really just violet and a gloss of vanilla. Floral and sweet. The violet really brings out the flowery, vegetal aspects of the vanilla.

 

Drydown: Maybe it's a little too vegetal? There's a faint harshness to this that actually reminds me of Snake Oil. I wonder if this, like Snake Oil, would benefit from some mellowing time.

[mexicat]

This is pretty,just not what I expected.It was sweeter in the bottle.Now I like Violets,but these are V-I-O-L-E-T-S!!! I even got a sniff of Sandalwood(don't know where that came from),but with my loco skin-chemistry,I got NO VANILLA!!! And sure enough,strong as it was before IT DISAPPEARED!!!Now all I have left is a memory,and a faint whiff of un-identified floral sadness...

[brownbear]

At first it's mostly violet, then the vanilla does something on my skin. It turns into a sour floral. Most vanillas don't work on me, so I wasn't really surprised. oh well

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 0/5

Summarised in a word or two: VIOLET.

 

In the imp: Gardenia! Lovely, lovely gardenia and vanilla.

 

On skin, wet: HELLO VIOLETS. Yikes, that's some strong violet right there. No vanilla and no gardenia, just violet.

 

On skin, dry: Thick, strong, headache-inducing violet. I have nothing against violet, really, but strong florals usually cause headaches, and violet is no exception.

 

Conclusion: Definitely not for me. If you like violet -- really, really like violet -- you'll probably love LSQD.

[Brianne]

In the bottle:

Definitely violet, but a softer violet

 

On me:

I am surprised, but I like this one. I don't like violet and I don't like gardenia because both are usually overpowering and far too heady and floral for my tastes. Both also have a habit of killing every other note in a scent on my skin. So trying this was a matter of principal. I *had* to try it to say I had done so. I didn't really expect it to end up nice. I actually expected a splitting headache from strong florals.

 

But, as it turns out - this is actually very soft and pretty. I don't detect the gardenia at all, it's just not showing up on me for some unusual reason. And the violet is actually in check. It's not too heady or strong or sickening, as violet often is to me. Instead, it's powdery and soft and feminine and that vanilla is what saves the scent for me. It makes me slightly sweet and grounded and it's not so much "FLORAL!" as it is "slightly floral sweet scent".

 

Final note:

I don't think I'd end up buying a bottle but I will keep my imp. And me keeping an imp that smells like violet is really something else lol.

[reynardine]

In the bottle: Vanilla? It smells like vanilla.

 

On me: Still smells like vanilla, now with something else, perhaps gardenia?

 

In 20 minutes, it gets smokey on me, still smelling vanilla. In 40 minutes, it starts smelling like bath powder. Pretty bath powder, but powder, nonetheless.

 

It faded within an hour.

 

Hmm. Pretty enough, but no staying power on me. I'll give it another chance in a week, but I'm thinking this is not my scent.

[yeahbutnobut]

Le Serpent Qui Danse

 

In the imp: sweet sugared violet, sweetened by vanilla.

Wet on skin: oh good, this gardenia note doesn't seem to be reacting badly, since the scent is violet and vanilla with a hint of true gardenia flower.

Dry on skin: this is really nice! I love the combination of vanilla and violet, the notes go very nicely together-the vanilla sweetens the dusty violet so nicely-makes me think of violet petals covered with sugar! There's a touch of dry gardenia that isn't going icky on my skin, and adds a nice contrast to the sweetness of the vanilla-violet by adding a bit of sharpness and a little aspect of white floral.

After a while: this softens up nicely, with all the notes merging into a gentle floral vanilla, like candied violets covered in vanilla sugar.

Verdict: finally, a catalogue gardenia scent that I really like and doesn't go wonky on my skin! maybe it's because of the violet? I also found that Veil which also has gardenia and violet in it also doesn't go sharp. whatever it is, I really like this scent and the gardenia note isn't of the evil variety. This has a pleasant candied violets scent, the violet combining very nicely with vanilla to make a sweet, pleasant scent, slightly dusty (like icing sugar on violet petals) and very pretty. The gardenia adds a nice white floral touch to it all. I don’t need a bottle of this but I like it and will keep the imp.

[filigree_shadow]

I am getting two distinct scents from two different areas.

 

The swipe on my arm smells really good (violets and vanilla), but so, so faint. And the swipe on the back of my hand smells strongly of gardenia, which is not a good thing for me. If I could somehow get the one that's on my arm to amp up about four times its current strength, I'd wear this often. That violet-vanilla combination is dreamy.

 

Strangely, the gardenia-heavy swipe is going powdery after about 30 minutes. That's odd because I always thought violets were a powder culprit on me. But man, that violet-vanilla swipe is turning into being downright intoxicating. If only it were stronger!

[sissa125]

Le Serpent Qui Danse -

Imp: sweet, slightly tart floral. I can clearly distinguish gardenia and another floral, presumably violet.

Wet: A ripe, sweet floral. The dog-days of summer. Eventually the notes blend and seem quite interesting.

Dry: gardenia sweetened with vanilla. very nice.

 

I love vanilla and I like gardenias, and I always imagined their combination would be lovely. But for some reason this scent didnt grip me the way I expected it to. Firstly, the gardenia isn't quite like the fresh gardenia scent I love - it is a bit sickly and perfumy here. Or perhaps the violet is disturbing the balance - I'm not sure how violets smell.

I guess I'm still waiting for a better vanilla+floral. The drydown here is what I hoped the scent would be, but the top notes take away the appeal of the scent as a whole.

[Phaedra]

Wet this is powdery and sweet. When first on it smells like myrrh I think and something sweet- violet. After a couple of minutes there's a woody note- sandalwood? This stays mostly violet and is very faint. It only lasts a couple of hours on me. It's okay but not one I need to keep.

[savage_rose]

Le Serpent Qui Danse: In the bottle: Uh, Montessori school. Big building, unfamaliarity, many possibilities but with a narrow focus. Sorta fruity? Musky?

 

Wet: Musk out the yin yang, and back in again. What the Hell is a “yin yang”, anyway? Should this scent be buying me dinner before doing this? I think it’s the fruitiness (is it the violet that smells fruity on me? Weird) that reminded me of Montessori school...snacks, and scheduled activities. Hey, and some little snot stole my favorite rabbit toy, one of those little clip on furry toys. It had a baby face, and was so cute. I never found another like it. Goddamn it, I can’t believe someone stole my bunny!

 

Dry: Ancient, musky PB & J. And repressed childhood memories that possibly have no business being resurrected. And after a while...my mother’s old makeup drawer in the vanity, where she kept her unused makeup, where I could occasionally swipe things and she’d never notice they were missing (well, after a few years she caught on. But by then that makeup from the 60s really needed to be used if you know what I’m saying). Yeah, it had turned slightly, but it was Mom’s and it was beautiful, and if I put it on I’d be beautiful, too. Mmmm, the early 80s. And the feeling of searching for buried treasure! Oddly discordant, and yet wistfully evocative. And what a throw!

 

The Verdict: Too early to tell. But the bunny? It’s long gone, and after 24 years, I have a sneaking suspicion it’s never coming back. Sniff.

[GemmaCat]

This one was a frimp, and I tried it on before I read the ingredients, which means I was pleasantly surprised.

 

I usually can't wear florals without getting nasty headaches/migraines, but this is soft, sweet violet on my skin with a lovely powdery drydown that is very feminine and elegant.

 

Definitely a keeper!

[Chrysantza]

I ordered an imp of this from the Lab on a whim.

 

In the imp: Violets.

 

On me: Sweet vi-o-lets...I smell like a pastille. The thing is, I really love violets. I used to wear a violet oil from the old Body Shop (now Body Time) a lot. Le Serpent qui Danse reminds me of it.

 

I love this and think I'll get a bottle.

[Mary Mayhem]

The violet is spicy on me, and then mellowed and sweetened by the Gardenia. The spice softens as it dries and the vanilla comes out to play. The three scents like to banter back and forth on my skin through different stages, I smell all three fairly equally. The is pretty decent too!

 

I just can't do florals. This is too sweet and .. cloying on my skin.

[Concupiscentia]

I think I want a big bottle of this. I love violet and this is a great violet scent when I first apply it. It dries down to smell like O, but lighter. My skin apparently likes to turn things into O,but this has less of the arousal effect. It's subtle enough for daily use but still has the vamp factor.