Lydia

[copyshopclerk]

No scent description available.

 

In the bottle: Jasmine, maybe something grassy

 

On: I'm not much of a jasmine girl, actually, and while this is wet it's almost overpoweringly so in it's jasmine-ness. When that calms down, it's pleasant, slightly green on me. I like it much better dry than still wet!

[edenssixthday]

Lydia - Jasmine apparently does not have to be bad on me! Ghostly and ethereal, this is a soft, jasmine blend with a note of something bright and almost effervescent that reminds me of the champagne note in Bon Vivant, without being uber-sweet. This is gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. Just a lovely floral!

 

 

ETA: I'm back to say that after sampling my Pikaki single note, I think maybe it's Pikaki in this blend, not jasmine. That would explain why my skin doesn't amp it, but why it still has that soft jasmine effect.

Edited June 28, 2007 by edenssixthday

[batsy]

In the bottle: Jasmine, light and sweet.

 

On me: See, jasmine and I do not play well together. It overwhelms me. It's a floral blend, no doubt about that, very evocative of a feminine ghost plying her trade on old-time Portland streetcorner. It's pretty, that's for sure!

[andhowever]

In the bottle: Light grassy floral. I know others have said jasmine but I smell gardenia.

 

On me: Geez, this is light! To be fair, I am wearing a gazillion other perfumes, so I'll give poor Lydia another chance. From what I can smell, it's a beautiful feminine floral. It's such a true floral, in fact, that I suspect it may be triggering my allergies (achoo. . .achoo). If you like gentle, sweet, white florals, Lydia is the girl for you. Just gorgeous, although I'm not sure how much to my taste she is.

[GypsyRoseRed]

This is sort of like jasmine, but I really don't think it is. I've smelled something similar before in plant/flower form but I can't for the life of me pin it down. But yes, it manages to be light, bright and floral without being either watery or in your face flowers. The drydown is really very pretty and light, but still very distinctive and easily detectable. This one's a winner, which surprises me since I didn't fall in love with it in the bottle.

[Kittyflop]

I'm also firmly in the 'jasmine' camp. It's not straight jasmine, there's something else floral playing there, but I'm one of those 'skin amps jasmine like the dickens' people. Which is sad, because I wish I could get more of the subtlety from it.

[LittleGreyKitten]

I also get jasmine, with an aquatic note behind. The jasmine goes on painfully strong, then ebbs to a soapy sort of ozone-y thing, with jasmine floating on top. I wonder if this is related to BiggerCritters jasmine; while it doesn't play as well with me, it smells somewhat similar to me. But my nose is definitely thinking jasmine. Interesting, but not so very me. Too floral, and this behaves in a way that I'm more familiar with as far as jasmine goes- that is, being difficult for me to take. (It had almost converted me with BiggerCritters and Unheavenly City.) I adore the label though.

[filigree_shadow]

Very floral. It does smell like jasmine to me, but there's a "clean" element to it as well. A greenish clean scent. I'm not sure exactly what it is I'm smelling, but I kinda like it. It smells much more crisp than the heady jasmine I'm familiar with. I don't think jasmine is the only flower in this... but I'm not good enough at identifying floral notes to be able to tell what it is.

[mdargen]

In the bottle: This is a strong floral. Extremely feminine.

 

Wet: It is also has a "pink" aspect to it. When I put it on I smelled "pink".

 

Drydown: Kind of a mossy, green, aquatic scent.

 

 

Hmmm, I am going to have to try this one a few times.

 

edit: Lydia has turned into stale ribbon candy dishsoap. I am so sad this didn't work on me. I guess I will put it away and try it again in the future.

Edited May 29, 2007 by bugsmama

[minnalavender]

Whenever I read the name "Lydia," I can't help but think of Groucho Marx warbling "Lydia the Tattooed Lady:"

 

Lydia oh Lydia, say have you met Lydia,

Lydia, the Tattooed Lady.

She has eyes that folks adore so,

And a torso even more so.

 

Lydia oh Lydia, that encyclo-pidia,

Oh Lydia the Queen of Tattoo.

On her back is the Battle of Waterloo.

Beside it the wreck of the Hesperus, too.

And proudly above waves the Red, White, and Blue,

 

You can learn a lot from Lydia.

 

La la la, la la la, la la la, la la la

 

 

To say that I am NOT a fan of white flowers is to grossly understate the case. They are usually instant migraine triggers. But Lydia, along with Ephemera and Ode on Melancholy, is an exception to that rule. She's intensely floral, candy sweet, and extremely feminine, but in a wistful, quiet way. This is a beautiful, understated, sophisticated floral. On my skin, medium to small throw, which is GREAT for me! I don't want the white flowers amping!

 

If you love sweet, quiet florals you'll love Lydia. I do, and I'm a tattooed lady! lol Go figure.

[alicia_stardust]

Lydia is a clean, fresh, bright floral that is very soft and feminine. It is sweet and ethereal.

 

In the bottle I smell jasmine right off, then florals, and something that's sort of green and springy. On my skin it softens and melds into a not-quite-aquatic floral. There is also something sweet in there, and it *almost* makes me think of honeysuckle but I don't think that's exactly it. Taking this scent as a whole: think of a smattering of white and pale flowers, cool air, a touch of grass, something ghostly, something sweet. Those are all things that come to mind when I wear this.

 

I have to add one last thing that I think is particularly interesting. I think jasmine smells quite pretty and sensual. The problem is that it is my skin's nemesis. With my skin chemistry it amps, then after an hour it takes over everything, turns a sour/bitter, and peppery. HOWEVER, in Lydia it just so happens to be PERFECT on me when I have my period. And when I don't, the jasmine curse is there but it's less noticeable than any other jasmine scent I have ever tried.

 

Overall, it's just beautiful.

[shadesong]

In bottle: Sharp chemical sifts down to soft floral. Definitely gardenia. The chemical bit makes me think some rose is lurking around.

 

On me: Gardenia gardenia gardenia! Softened, though, by other white florals, and a baby-powder background. This doesn't actually hate my skin, but it's not very me.

[Reedsong]

This is a screamingly sharp, very soapy white floral at first, and fortunately loses the obnoxious soapiness as it dries down. I get star jasmine from this, perhaps white rose and a tiny bit of orange blossom as well, with a little bit of green like a fresh-cut stem. This is so lovely, and I wish it lasted longer on my skin. Sweet, beautiful, very soft.

 

Edit: Trying this again some months later, I think I know what I'm smelling here: gardenia, and...could it be? My darling beloved tuberose?! I actually have a tuberose bouquet for comparison, and I'm pretty certain that's what I'm getting. How marvelous!

Edited October 8, 2007 by Reedsong

[slave1]

LYDIA

 

In Bottle: Soft sweet florals

 

On Skin: This is a beautiful lush floral. So very soft yet strong. I feel like I am in a flower garden surrounded by white jasmine and gardenias just starting to open and release their scent. Sweet, very sweet but not cloying due to a fresh clean and slightly tart note that my guess would be white rose. This scent has a white tone, like clean soft cotton sheets. As a matter of fact I would LOVE this as a linen spray. A feminine scent without a doubt. The scent starts quite strong but slowly fades… all the while retaining it’s gorgeous white floral notes. Medium throw with a fairly long wearlength.

[dawndie]

Wet: soapy white florals

 

On skin: jumble of flowers. I picture a big magnolia bush with giant white blossoms

 

Half-hour later: there's distinctive jasmine, but it's not overpowering like in other blends

 

In conclusion: this is a nice floral, and I'm glad it didn't go all fancy-soap on me. Nothing special though, there are a lot of GC florals that are just as pretty. I'm glad I got to try it though!

[juniperus]

heady floral. ethereal jasmine that swirls and encompasses like walking into a thick fog of scent. there must be white musk here, because the combination ends up as a very lovely-smelling soap on me, and eventually this is where Lydia headed, sadly enough. But before then it reminded me of a moving-tendril-filled and ghostly version of Lush's Flying Fox (and the jasmine didn't even morph on me as it often does, so I was so hopeful!)

[storme]

In the bottle: a light airy floral scent, which isn't *quite* jasmine - there's a citricish clean tang to it.

 

On me, wet: light clean airy florals - if this is jasmine, it's not doing the normal jasmine-explosion on my skin. And I think there's a bit of gardenia in here too.

 

On me, dry: Hmm, now it's fairly jasminey and not entirely pleasant - I get a trace of that normally-from-civet-ickiness that makes my stomach heave.

 

Verdict: Feh. This I think will need to get swapped.

[black*cat]

From the imp I get white florals, wet on my skin soap & jasmine, dry it's all soapy jasmine on me.

 

Not for me, but atleast I got to try it!

[Blood onmy hands]

I'm crap at picking out floral notes (perhaps because they often turn to crap on my skin, lol) so I'm at a loss as to exactly what flowers are in this. Lots of people have mentioned jasmine, but this doesn't do the usual strange turn that jasmine does on my skin. It has that unbearably sharp, headache-inducing, chemical scent that I get from 'white floral' blends. In the drydown, Lydia becomes a bar of unbearably sharp, floral soap. Not a blend for someone who doesn't like sharp florals.

[elspeth]

Definitely jasmine. It's like walking through a flower garden. It becomes less sharp as it dries down and becomes a much softer flower scent. Unfortunately it seems to be right on the edge of being soapy. I can smell the flowers still but I can really smell the soap as well.

[DangerInRed]

Mmm, Lydia is a watery green jasmine. It smells very fresh, realistic and clean, but light (although this might be because I only put on the tiniest amount). I'm not usually fond of storng jasmine, but I wouldn't mind getting my own decant of this, this is nice! The more I sniff my wrist, the more I feel this scent is very classic, unisex but leaning towards feminine. If you're a jasmine or floral lover, you'll love this!

 

ETA: It's turning slightly sweet on me as it dries down. Nice!

Edited June 12, 2007 by DangerInRed

[Bain]

In the imp: jasmine, sure, and a grassy note? slightly herbal, not overly floral.

 

wet on skin: VERY grassy... untill......

 

Drydown! Weird, usually Jasmine is BOOM! Yummy on me, but this is a very understated, classy jasmine. Soft, sweet, and omg, I just have to have more!

[goddessrobyn]

I was gifted with a sniffie of this (and 3 other blends) by an incredibly generous forumite

 

When I opened it to sniff, I was really turned off... perhaps it was the jasmine that everyone is talking about, I don't know... but my reaction was Blech!!!!

 

However... something made me smear a very tiny bit on my wrist and I am in love...

Soft, sophisticated, light floral... romantic, etherial beauty...

 

I seriously wish I could get more of this... it's the best floral blend I've ever found and florals are usually not my thing...

 

I even smell a bit of the green roses from Rose Red in there somewhere... and I love the smell of "real" roses but other than Rose Red have never found a rose blend that I can stomach becuase they all smell fake...

 

This smells like a bridal boquet... and I am in love *le sigh*

 

and broken hearted that I don't have any more...

[halcyon_flight]

If I were to guess a note, I would say jasmine sambac since this scent reminds me so immediately of Melisande. This a lush lush lush white floral, I can smell both jasmine and magnolia, plus a bit of lush jungle greenery. When I put it on initially it’s as if I just opened the door to a white-floral-only greenhouse.

 

In a couple of minutes it does the ghost thing. Light, ethereal, Victorian, wispy, a touch haughty. So very not me. Anything I can describe with the word 'wispy' generally gets booted to the swap pile.

[eviltemptressdq]

Ok, I was scared of this one... but got it in a swap, thinking "well, I must try everything, right?" Jasmine and I are at war typically... I like the smell, but my skin tends to amp it up.

 

So... with caution I opened the vial... Yup. Jasmine! but not as harsh as, say, Ligeia. I put it on my skin... same. Jasmine! but not harsh...

 

After a few minutes, though? This has the most beautiful dry down stage! The jasmine is there, sure... but it is soft and beautiful. I can't believe this is the first jasmine blend that may be wearable for me! hooray!