Lydia

[blueskiesinside]

In the bottle: a pretty aquatic floral. I was really excited to try this, even though jasmine doesn't work for me.

Wet: Jasmine explosion!!! A tiny little dab amps jasmine to 11. I hate my skin.

Drydown: Ooooh something pretty behind the jasmine, a creamy smell almost.

Dry: Annnnnd now the creaminess smells like baby powder and the jasmine has turned into diapers. Not for me, sadly. I marvel at the various malodorus combinations my skin can create from different varieties of jasmine

[wichapi]

I'm getting the sharper edges of paper-whites, honeysuckle, and jasmine... maybe a touch of white lilac and/or white wisteria under these, and a tiny hint of vanilla'd violets waaaaaaay down at the bottom. Lydia comes in hissing, spitting, and clawing, and then goes all soft-paws in about 10 minutes. Within 20 minutes - She's G O N E! I mean not even the slightest trace of tracks after the initial assault on the senses. Not my scent to start with and glad it disappeared. Off to pamper my nostrils with The Raven.

[forspecial_plate]

Floral with a spicy and tart kick. I want to say this smells like jasmine, beyond that I can't pick out other notes. Reminds me a lot of Bayou with the tart and almost humid feel. Doesn't morph much at all, and lasted a really long time on my skin.

[themerrybaker]

Lydia reminds me a lot of Ligeia but is much more wearable. Lydia is more of a lush, hot ,humid, jasmine while Ligeia had this cereal/grain undertone. As much as I adone my pampered jasmine plants, I prefer my perfume to be a bit more balanced. Perfumed Garden is still my all-time standard for jasmine blends. Lydia comes close.

[curlofsmoke]

JASMINE! Unfortunately, although I love jasmine from Neal's Yard, Beth's always smells like powdery bath oil on me. Later on it improves into a soft floral with a fresh note. Pleasant but rather nondescript and not really me. None of these pretty wispy scents seem to suit me - just all the perverted sex whore ones.

[moonarcana]

From the vial, a pungent floral with a touch of soapiness. I was dubious as to whether I would even like it. But almost the minute it hit my skin, the aroma changed. Freshly applied, it loses the sharp bite I got on the first whiff and the floral notes seem to be more harmonious. The only thing I can specifically detect is the jasmine and while at this point it still has a touch of waxiness to it, it's not the high-pitched shrill note that sometimes triggers a headache reaction. The fragrance is surprisingly strong and wafting. Once the oil soaks into the skin for a bit is when the beauty of the fragrance really becomes apparent. The tone has softened a bit now and is much more harmonius. The scent really lasted for quite awhile. If I were to find a bit of this at a price I could afford, I would definitely go for it - but it's not a pressing desire. Still very lovely and probably my favorite of this round of Convergence exclusives.

[ariosa]

GypsyRoseRed sent me a little sniffie/tester of this C13 scent, which I never imagined I'd ever get to try!

 

I freaking love this. I freaking love Lydia, and wishing a bottle of this would be easy to find. Usually jasmine amps to the nth degree on me, but this one is restrained. It's definitely tropical, but balanced out by something fresh and soapy, so it never seems overpowering. It's feminine and light enough to wear on warmer nights without knocking the person next to you over.

 

Ohhh man, so in love!

[supremegoddessofall]

Soapy florals. Pretty, but I'm not sure it's for me.

[jenrandom]

This starts out a sharp, sweet smell, and settles down quickly into a almost spicey/almost floral(jasmine?a really subdued jasmine? Jasmine smelled through beeswax?) scent. It's also got kind of a heady quality to it. It sticks close to my skin, but seems to last forever. It's been pretty straightforward too. No morphing. I'm glad I got to try this, but it's not for me.

[smallvoice]

Lydia is like wearing a bold, green floral... but a glass one. It's like a hand-blown floral, somehow. I know that doesn't make any sense, but it's just... a glassy scent to me. It's not quite aquatic, but it is cool and lovely. I can't pick out the precise floral, but it isn't allergy inducing on me, nor is it soapy. This is lovely, and really well blended. I'm so glad I got to try this, thanks to somebody special.

[Gale]

This is very brief.

On me, Lydia was jasmine from start to finish and in-between. No other notes for me.

[sookster]

straight sniff from imp is heavy duty jasmine...

once applied the jasmine amps up into hayoogeness...

as others have stated; like a SN jasmine...

 

after 15 minutes or so this calms down and while it is still jasmine i

detect, there are some other white florals in the mix...

 

i would imagine this would be perfect for anyone who adores jasmine

and similar notes...

[kwsix]

Lydia is a beautiful, delicate, floral blend. Jasmine, I think, but maybe not. If it is jasmine, it's the nicest jasmine I've ever encountered. It's a very sweet blend, and as it dries something fresh and bright like the ozone in Neo-Tokyo comes out. I typically don't gravitate toward florals, but if Lydia was easier to find, I would wear it on a regular basis.

[moon_lemming]

Noooo. No one told me there was jasmine in this! Weep. Okay, so I smelled the jasmine in the imp (fie!) but decided to BE A BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER and try it anyway.

 

It's good that I tried it, or else I would have cheated myself! Sure, the jasmine in Lydia comes out swinging her tiny-but-devastating fists at first, but as the oil dries, she sort of grumbles back to her seat among the other flowers in this blend.

 

Once it's completely dry and has been hanging around for a while, Lydia is a very feminine white floral blend -- a little perfumey -- that's so well blended I can't pick out any one note. Well, I'm not good at picking out florals anyway, but there really isn't any one note that is distinct.

 

Too floral for me, but pretty.

[crazyredhead17]

In the imp, this is something green and something aquatic and lots of death flowers.

 

I kinda really don't want to dab any on, but I will anyways.

 

Wet, it's green, with heady florals behind it. No jasmine (yet).. I'm pretty sure I'm smelling the gardenia. And dude.. I took the little imp wand and put a tiny tiny drop on the back of my hand and it's gone straight to my sinuses.

 

I'm not going to last until drydown with this one - it's rapidly moving into the "get it off me!" phase.

[dixiehellcat]

In the imp, white flowers, but I don't get the jasmine! And I love jasmine. I was so looking forward to it. Oh well. I dab on anyway.

 

On the arm, still nice white flowers. Very light. Doesn't last long on me in fact. This makes my paypal account happy.

[funkmoppet]

With HUGE thanks to the volcanic awesomeness that is Ahania - and her C13 sniffing circle for us wayward antipodeans.

 

I'm trying Lydia first, because, like a meal, I tend to eat the things I like least first. And I knew this one was not going to be for me.

 

Wet, this is very much all about the Jasmine. Feminine, floral, pretty, sweet - all those things that jasmine covers. As it dries though, its complexity comes out and there's a definite aquatic note under there. I smell moss, and breaths of other florals. It's lovely, and I do wish the aquatic would dominate the jasmine. And it tries, there's a definite wrestle going on here.

 

The jasmine does recede when it's dry, and with it the strength of the blend. Now it's a languid sort of aquatic white floral, and I like this stage the most.

 

Overall, definitely not a blend for me, but it's a beautiful blend for Jasmine lovers who like their aquatics as well.

[ralenth]

Wet: Indistinct heady white floral.

 

Drydown: Lydia is a wreath of gardenias, with a hint of greenery tucked inside.

 

Dry: Gardenia and not much else. A lot of people noted this as a jasmine SN type scent, but on me Lydia is all Gardenia and smiles, that shameless hussy.

 

Overall: Lydia is nice and I am grateful for the chance to test her, but I don't need to have a bottle of this.

[CrazyPretzel]

Like funkmoppet, I'm in the volcanically-awesome Ahania's C13 sniffing circle (European half) and have been testing the ones I suspected I wouldn't like first (Shanghai Tunnel and Ah'Duno are safely out of the way). Unlike funkmoppet, I am a floral whore and hence the remaining testers - Lydia and Unheavenly City among them - make me pretty nervous. I feel like I'm bound to fall in love with one of them and then my heart will be broken. But enough melodrama and on to the sniffing! First up: Lydia.

 

In the imp: jasmine, gardenia, touch of spice?

 

Wet on me: a very light lemon scent that I've come to associate with the early stages of aquatic blends like Tempest. Those never do well on me, so maybe there's hope? It is pretty, though. Penetrating florals in that girly-sex kind of way of Follow Me Boy.

 

After a few minutes: This isn't actually terribly gardeniesque on me so far - Ecstacy of St Theresa is my gardenia scent that smells just like a gardenia flower on me. This is a little heavier, very heady like strong honeysuckle. There's musk or civet in here too, I'm convinced, or at least something that smells a little musky on me (not in a very good way, to be honest).

 

Drydown: Well, I guess I'm the weird one - on me this was more animalistic-white floral than aquatic-white floral! Maybe it's the time of the month Follow Me Boy seems like a comparable GC scent, if you're looking for something similar.

[Emma2403]

In the bottle: jasmine... jasmine... and wait... jasmine.

 

On my skin: you won't believe it!! JASMINE! But it doesn't have this stinky half-rotten smell Bpal jasmine usually makes on me.

 

After a while: still jasmine, but it's actually very pretty. Granted, I'm not a floral girl but as I said, usually Bpal jasmine is really unbearable with my skin chemistry and this one is not.

 

Verdict: too floral for me, but very nice.

Edited October 3, 2007 by Emma2403

[purplemoonshoes]

Green and jasmine. Smells pretty close to the imp on the skin, but a little more green. A little powdery in the undernotes. Nice, but nothing to write home about.

[Tesseljoan]

Wet, this smells more like an aquatic to me. I read the reviews first, and when I grabbed the decant I went "huh?"

 

Now that it is dry, I can smell the jasmine. Usually jasmine makes me run and hide in a corner, but with those fresher notes, I find I can actually wear this (I can't and I won't, it has other European decantees to visit!)

[KaliVerra]

Yayyyyyyy! Wanna sing too!

 

"Oh Lydia, Oh Lydia - That Encyclo-pedia!

Oh Lydia, The Ta-a-tooed LAAADYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!"

 

I love the Marx Bros.!! (And I've been called "Lydia" more than a few times, myself, hee hee hee)!

 

Okey doke - now the smellies!

 

I LOVE HER!! Ohhhhhhhhh goodness! Freakin' bombshell of a sleeper she turned out to be...

 

This is just the sexiest, prettiest, cheeky little full-bodied jas./gardenia/greenery... and something... else... ZOMG! And on my skin... f*ck me backwards - STAYING POWER!!!

 

I really, REALLY adore this blend. Damnit there are some expert noses at the Lab. Beth the blendmastah kills me more and more w/each update.

 

AND the bottle art... Ms. M... D'Lovely

 

5/5... Is it right for me to want to LICK a floral????

[beachbabealways]

Oooh I really love this one. I like jasmine as long as it's not really strong and in this it's not (at least not on me). This is like Al Azif (one of my favs) meets jasmine. Very pretty and lasts about 6 hours on my skin. I'm so glad I swapped for this. Thanks TWH!!

[Mixxi]

So this is a jasmine that doesn't like me AT all .

This smells exactly like someone's freshly cleaned bathroom. Whilst better than a dirty bathroom I do not wish to smell anything like a bathroom. This is indeed my soapy hell.

Edited November 16, 2007 by Mixxi