Cupid Complaining to Venus

[catatonic1242]

Apple blossom, fig, white peach, honey absolute, red sandalwood, and wild thyme.

In the imp: Sweet and fruity. The peach is prominent.

On, wet: I'm getting a weird vibe from this, almost a potpourri or air freshener scent. It's not unpleasant, it's just not really what I was expecting based on the smell in the imp.

On, dry: Kind of powdery, with a bit of apple and peach. I don't really smell the fig or the honey at all. It's still a little weird, like I sprayed myself with room freshener. I think I'd like this best in an oil burner. Edited March 8, 2009 by Shollin
Fixed BPAL tags --Shollin

[asciident]

Wet: Flowers and sweet fruit.

 

First on: I'm getting...grape? Weird.

 

Dry: Fruity florals. Pretty and light.

[Evilynn]

In the imp: Apples and peach

On the skin: It starts out as bright sweet fruit. Predominately apple, which surprised me since I thought this would end up peach SN on me (I amp fruit, and peach and apricot in particular). Gradually the honey starts shining through and it morphs into this beautiful golden scent which is mostly honeyed apples, but the sandalwood and the thyme keeps it from getting sugary sweet.

Verdict: This is the great surprise of Salon II to me. I expected to love the Japanese themed scents and had a "maybe" note stuck to Cupid Complaining to Venus, but this is so gorgeous I might need a bottle of it. (I just have to figure out how it ages first )

[JenM]

in the imp: fig and peach, and touch of flowers.

 

on the wrist: Wow. Throw. the sandalwood, of course, comes through, and the honey, which is turning a bit to beeswax candles, as Tiger Lily did. The flowers ghost through like a memory. The thyme is elusive, although there's just a hint of tang that is, I think, it. On drydown, the left wrust becomes sandalwood and green, with little distinction. The right wrist remains a melange of various notes.

 

after a few minutes: suddenly, apple blossoms! With, alas, the honey turning to wax. The sandalwood has anti-amped. (What is the right term for that? Just plain old vanished?) That a couple of sandalwood sthat haev done that, when they used to amp like nobody's business. Strange. Throw is still lovely.

 

This would all be very lovely, if it weren't for the honey-wax. There's even some swet fig and peach starting to come through after 45 minutes.

[Violaine]

Cupid and Venus are a gorgeous pair, that's for sure.

 

This oil, while sweet and fruity yes, is an absolute skin scent to me. I can smell the apple, the peach, the fig, the honey... all against a warm backdrop of sandalwood. I don't get the thyme at all, but I don't think that's entirely a bad thing. The blend isn't cloying, it's not too young, and it isn't over the top. It's golden and ripe and juicy and it clings to my skin like I'm perspiring sweet goodness.

 

I think the bottom line is if you feel like you're going to love this scent from reading the notes? If you feel like it's going to be right up your alley? IT IS. God, it's just glittering and gorgeous.

 

I feel enveloped and caressed by this scent, and it's absolutely not wearing me. It's just a spot-on win for me and I need a bottle ASAP.

[Suusje]

wet: peaches with a little something sour.

dry: sweet soft peaches. A perfect spring scent.

very dry: the sandalwood and honey (and possibly the fig) is coming out and the peaches move into the background. Very soft and pretty!

[Ceisdein]

In Bottle: Luminous, sweet and round. Light apple and peach dominate with a tail of floral honey and a slight twang of green. Very natural and fresh, it calls to mind an orchard in late spring or early summer with fruit still on the trees.

 

Wet: Same as in the bottle but the honey really blooms and the scent warms up. The nip of green fades in favor of a wood underbelly. Very slight throw.

 

5 minutes: The honey is charging up with the fruit losing its luster. Wood is shifting to powdery warmth.

 

15 minutes: A floral honey (reminds me of acacia honey) now overshadows everything else. Wood is running second with fruit in the background.

 

1 hour +: That same acacia honey. Warm and thick. Oozy, like fresh honey. Only a slight flutter of powdery wood under the honey and a distant echo of fruit. Recollections of dipping apple slices in a wooden bowl of new honey.

 

Overall: I love it. Youthful without being childish, sweet without being cloying (even in the honey stages) and subtly sexy. Sticks close to the skin and, unfortunately, fades pretty quickly. Nevertheless a keeper. Perfect to wear with an almost see-through sundress.

 

[CitizenBree]

I'm a peach and fruity person so thought this would be great.

 

In the imp its sweet apples.

 

On the skin it stays sweet apples with a little bit of peach peaking out. When I take a deep sniff, there's a lot more depth with the fig and sandalwood coming into play.

 

Unfortunately, it doesn't last long on me at all. I was really looking forward to this scent but it's just not in the cards. I'm going to try the other GC ones that were mentioned and see if they last longer on me.

 

[odalisque]

I knew before I ordered this blend that I would like it -- it reads almost like a Greatest Hits list of notes from some of my favorite scents. And I was right, but I didn't anticipate how much of its own beautiful character it would have -- more than the sum of its parts.

 

The apple note is sweet and juicy, and the peach is lighter and sweeter than the peach in Les Bijoux, the nearest equivalent I can think of for Cupid Complaining. The honey is really beautiful, and it blends seamlessly with the apple blossom like a very light, floral-infused honey. I'm still not very good at picking out fig, but it provides a bit of juicy depth that the apple is too top-notey to provide. Overall the effect is lighter and ... airier? than Les Bijoux, without the lushness of rose and the almost citrus-bright of the frankincense that oil has.

 

I had my doubts about the thyme but it's brilliant, the slightest bit of herbal tang to sharpen the edges of all that sweet fruitiness and honey. And the sandalwood tends to stay in the background, I haven't been able to pick it out by itself yet, but after a good long drydown it definitely is in there working on the honey to keep it from being unadulterated sweetness.

 

Because I mentally see fragrance notes as colors, I really enjoy the Salon and Beth's interpretations of the colors in the artwork. With Cupid Complaining the artwork is very close to the colors I would pick for the notes. I think I would describe it as being a little pinker -- the pink flush of apple blossoms, not the super-pink of cupcake frosting and cotton candy -- but the shade of pale European skin in outdoor light is closer to it than the glowing, candlelit skin of Les Bijoux. The fig is brown almost like the tree bark in the painting, and the thyme is the deep green of the turf under Cupid's feet. The only difference I imagine is that these are red apples instead of golden. Pale pink and translucent petal-white, golden brown, deep green with a touch of red.

Edited May 3, 2010 by odalisque

[SophieCedar]

I LOVE the thyme note in this. Some blends it can really go wonky, but this one, it works perfectly!

 

Wet: peach jumps out right away, followed by a cream note (?), fig, apple blossom, and honey. The red sandalwood is brilliant. So is the thyme. Everything is present and dancing merrily together.

 

Drydown: less peach, more fig, the honey absolute turns creamier instead of powdery (yay!), and the thyme and sandalwood stick around. I love it. It's a very natural, close to the skin, sweet musky creamy slightly herbal smell.

[Gin]

Peach! Yay! And honey. Boo. I knew there was honey, I just tend to forget how honey tends to go to powdery blah on me. So CCtV turns to peachy-powdery-blah. I get a tiny bit of apple blossom in the background, and maybe a touch of the fig, but mostly, I get the powdery-blah honey amping all over the damn place. This would be flippin' gorgeous if not for my stupid, honey-hating skin chemistry.

[angelicreprieve]

I absolutely love this. This perfume smells impossibly good. It has a lot of throw for a fruity, feminine scent. I can smell that apple blossom wafting through the air. I can't pick out the individual notes very well, but the apple blossom definitely mellows on the dry down. I tried taking a deeper breath as one of the reviewers suggested and it brought out some of the subtleties.

 

The peach and sandalwood come out more on the drydown and its absolutely fantastic.

 

I'm getting a hint of something green lurking underneath and I wonder if that's the thyme note everyone is talking about...

 

I'm not sure one wear is enough to fully appreciate the subtleties of this perfume, but its one of the most amazing things I've ever smelled! I desperately want a 5ML of this, it deserves regular and frequent use

[neuilly]

This is predominantly peach and honey on me, but there's something soft and perhaps floral in it too. It reminds me a bit of Thalia/Aglaea in feel, although a tad softer. It's very pretty.

[quintessentially]

I expected this to be fruity and floral but in reality it came out very herbally and green. To the swaps pile, and my quest to try every apple-related scent continues!

[RavenintheWind]

In this nicely aged scent, the honey is balanced with floral/herbal notes.I love it! As noted above, low throw/scent fades pretty quickly, which makes this a great scent for work. I could also layer this. I only get apple when I smell it in the bottle or as it is wet. I was hoping for more peach, but whatever.

 

Not *too* honeyed, which can be the case in BPALs with honey. As it dries down, it's got a pleasant skin musky yet thyme-y herbal feel. A bit feminine, but not cloying. I have a lot of apple dominant scents and lot of heavier honey scents--I wouldn't categorize this as either, so it's a good addition to my scent palette. It's slightly fruity, but not a really heavy combo, more delicate.

 

Gorgeous! I'm glad I snapped up a bottle on eBay.

Edited December 28, 2017 by RavenintheWind