Victoria

[Tramp]

Every boy in the village was in love with Victoria Forester. And many a sedate gentleman, quietly married with grey in his beard, would stare at her as she walked down the street, becoming, for a few moments, a boy once more, in the spring of his years with a spring in his step.

Graceful vanilla musk, tea rose, and stargazer lily.

Sweet innocence. A simple, gentle blend of roses and lilies. A very light rose, not the heavy cloying rose of an old ladies parlor. This rose is much more of a early summer garden rose - well blended with the lily - to create a very wearable perfume (and I am an avowed rose hater). I can't detect the vanilla musk at all, it may be that it is the vanilla that is mellowing the rose out. This isn't overpowering in the least, instead it is a polite floral that wafts up as you move about.

[blueroses]

A very understated, feminine floral. I also don't strongly smell the vanilla musk, but I think it's there, softening the florals. The rose and lily are equally strong to my nose, bright but not cloying. A keeper for me, I think.

[Meg]

In the bottle: Sweet, soft rose.

 

Wet on skin: A lovely gentle floral, slightly aquatic, velvety.

 

Drydown: Lily and rose, rather sharp and heady now, and a very good combination of the two, might I add, deep and full-bodied. I don't get the vanilla musk very strongly at first, I can smell it at time, but it's mostly the base note that grounds the blend than something I can smell directly. It's mostly rather sharp, nearly plasticky lily and some rose. Then they fade down and the vanilla musk is more obvious.

 

Overall: It has a sharp, slightly plasticky tang in the first half hour - it's the lily mixed with the rose, lily is always so-so on my skin. After that, the vanilla musk comes out, with rose and lily giving it a pleasant floral freshness. It reminds me a bit of Pleasures by Lauder, which was one of my holy grails. If you don't like florals, I don't recommend it, but I for one will definitely keep this one for more testing, because it's very pleasant, plasticness from the lily notwithstanding. It's feminine, soft, gentle and seductive, but still fresh, definitely not a heavy or headachy floral.

[edenssixthday]

Victoria – I love this fragrance! It’s so pretty! It’s kind of like a creamy version of London. Every single note in this blend works in perfect harmony and the vanilla musk keeps the tea rose from being too strong and keeps the lily from being too high-pitched. When it wafts, I smell creamy florals (mostly tea rose). When I sniff up close, it's mostly the slightly powdery vanilla musk that I smell and it's divine. It’s very much a pretty, feminine scent that doesn’t have a ton of throw, but the staying power is pretty impressive. I definitely see this being a blend I will choose to wear whenever I want something really feminine and pretty.

[Bagfish]

Victoria is a beautiful pink rose to my nose. When wet is quite similar to Rose Red in its rosy pureness on my skin, but just ever so slightly sweeter. As it dries the musky vanilla rounds out the rose-ness of the scent. I don't get any lily from this, which I am pleased about as it can be an iffy note on my skin.

 

As edenssixthday says below, up close this is vanillic, musky rose on my skin, but with my nose further away the rose stands out on its own as it wafts around me. Beautiful, I think this one may be bottleworthy.

[ajcj213499]

Victoria is a lot different from what I was expecting. I don't get any of the vanilla musk, and the lily is very light and non soapy. What I mostly get is a light, airy, slightly sweet, fresh rose. Roses very rarely work on me- maybe it's because it's tea rose. This isn't a red full rose, it's a pink spring rosebud.

 

I think this is my favorite of all the Stardust scents.

[puck_nc]

Origin: decant from eviltemptressdq's circle

 

Initial Thoughts: I have learned to love vanilla musk thanks to a couple of scents from Possets, and I love stargazer lily.

 

In the Bottle: Incredibly light, feminine, and innocent. A very sweet rose scent.

 

Wet: Ugh...so many rose scents do this skanky green-stem number on me. The lily is fighting valiantly, though.

 

Drydown: The musk is joining the fray as well, and eventually beats down the green-stem into submission--more or less--and lets the sweetness and the florals peek out.

 

Verdict: I can see using the rest of the decant in a scent locket, but I'm not sure about a bottle.

[LadyMedb]

This is like a cross between Bearded Lady and Rose Moon. To me, that's a really good thing - there's a little bit of weirdness before the drydown, but it's overall a rich yet ladylike scent, with a lot of dimension to the roses, and lilies without that dreaded powderiness. One can wear this anywhere. It's really beautiful, and I want more of it.

[heysunshine]

I like it despite the tea rose, the worst offender of ruining rose scents for me -- but I don't see myself ever wearing it. Still it's beautiful and not at all "ugh rose get it away from me!" Don't be afraid of it if you don't like other rose scents. The vanilla musk is delicious and I demand more blends with it!

Edited April 3, 2008 by heysunshine

[cameroncrazed]

I'm not normally a rose lover, seeing how rose normally tries attacking me by poisoning my sinuses, but I love this scent. The rose stays nice and light, and is nicely balanced by the lily. I can just barely pick up the vanilla musk. This is the light floral perfume I've been looking for. Very feminine.

[theseagrows]

i think the lily and vanilla come out on this one. it's very delicate and understated. i love tea rose, and i wish it was a little more prominent, but i still like this scent. i will keep my imp but probably won't get a bottle.

[Iceblink]

Ah, the three stages of Victoria:

1. Tea rose! Lovely!

2. Here comes the vanilla musk--that's nice; it works great with the rose...

3. OMG lily stomping all over everything noooooooo...

I love the smell of lilies but BPAL's lily notes tend to go to eleven on me and stay there. Argh. A couple of hours later Victoria is almost all lily although I'm still getting some hints of the vanilla. That pretty tea rose is nearly gone. This is a really delicate, feminine blend though--if all the notes in it work on you it'll be a winner.

[neuilly]

This is virtually single note tea rose on me...with the barest hint of vanilla musk, which I can't really smell but can feel it softening the rose. An innocent proper scent.

[dronzeka]

In the imp, this smelled like pure tea rose - but on, I can definitely smell the lily and the sweetness of the vanilla musk. This is so lovely! It is very pure and innocent and simple, as people have said, but so very very pretty. I go back and forth between thinking it's a little conventional-perfume-y, and huffing my arm like an addict. At first I worried that the lily was amping into soap, but as it dries down further the lily recedes and I get mostly rose and vanilla. It's like of like Hope and Antique Lace had a love child, one who likes to wear lilies in her hair.

 

I can't say how long it lasts (haven't had it on long enough), but it seems to have a strong enough throw that a little goes a long way - kind of like its inspiration.

[djnevermore]

I can do very few floral blends but this had only three notes, vanilla being a fave of mine. I also sometimes can do rose, if it's sweet. Seeing rose and vanilla, I thought 'sweet,' so I had to try it.

 

It's a lovely light, pale white rose scent, but that's about all it is. I can't smell vanilla in the least. And it's not sweet. So no-go for me, though rose fans will probably swoon over this.

[LadyBug]

This is a very feminine scent! Floral is the first scent my nose picks up...then a sweet after smell...I think that's the vanilla. It's very beautiful in the bottle.

 

When I put it on my skin I only smell the floral. The scent seems to leave me skin pretty quickly which is a bummer.

 

I don't think I would purchase a whole bottle of this but I think I would buy another imp!

[alicia_stardust]

Victoria smells soft and innocent, feminine. It is pale and not complex. Each note in the scent description sort of holds it's own spot on my skin, and at times I can detect them all separately. Other times they mingle into one scent.

 

The vanilla musk warms the flowers and plays a big role in this scent after I've been wearing it for an hour or so. At that point the scent starts to have a slight perfumey edge to it.

 

This is very pretty; very fitting of Victoria's character in the book.

[LauraB]

This is so pretty - light, sweet and floral (more rose than lily) with just a tiny hint of musk. Unfortunately, on me it goes from light to barely there to totally gone in half an hour. I will keep my imp but it's so fleeting I don't see me using it as anything other than a pick-me-up after a stressful day...

[supremegoddessofall]

In bottle: Almost all rose.

 

On me: Still mostly rose, with just a hint of lily underneath. Very little musk.

[robozwil]

Victoria started out strong for me. I was meh about the strong powdery floral as it first went on. As it started to mellow it became almost a masculine scent on me. Must be the musk. Finally the vanilla took over and the final scent on me was a warm musky vanilla spiked softly with tea rose. I really liked the result after the first hour. I will be reaching for this one again

[Blood onmy hands]

Victoria is such a beautiful little rose scent on my skin. I love BPAL's tea rose note so much. Calla lily goes awful and soapy on me, but the stargazer lily is sweeter and powdery soft. I've tried vanilla musk single notes from other companies and they tend to be like a vanilla scented baby powder to my nose, which is what I also get from this blend.

 

I'm not usually fond of powdery scents and Victoria definitely is powdery on me... but I still really like this. It's powdery without being unbearably dry or simple. I get a vanilla powder, powdery-sweet lily and the candied rose fragrance from the tea rose. The lily starts off strong and a bit sharp and green, but it quickly softens and fades to the background. I especially love the drydown of this when the tea rose amps up a bit more. Victoria almost has a dry, elegant quality to it. It's like dried red roses dusted in vanilla powder on my skin after a while. Light and pretty.

 

I've had a lot of floral duds on my skin lately, so I'm really thrilled that I finally stumbled across one that works on me, lol.

 

My boy really likes floral scents on me, so it's always nice when I find one that we both like. I'll definitely keep my decant of Victoria and might even need a full bottle

[aine]

I love tea rose, so I was keen to try Victoria even though I didn't hold much hope that it would work on me. I felt quite sure that the tea rose would be completely overwhelmed by the other notes because I don't like vanilla musk and lilies aren't favourites either.

 

The tea rose is lovely, the vanilla aspect of the musk is surprisingly tame and even the lily is behaving. This is a nice but very fleeting scent on me, and Victoria disappears leaving nothing but a single lily in her place.

[Eemia]

A simple and pretty rose blend. Something I could wear for any occasion. Nothing overpowering at all, and each note is so balanced with one another. In fact no single note stands out over another. The vanilla musk is beautifully sweet and the tea rose is lovely. I really love tea rose. The lily has not gone soapy at all, which is a relief me since on my skin it can do that.

 

This wears well, and the throw is very modest. This is another floral blend that I will get a lot of use from.

[mspixieears]

I mainly get tea rose from this which makes it a delightfully old-fashioned fragrance. That is when it’s wet. It’s a very gentle sort of scent and wonderfully done as it could easily become a horrid, cloying ‘old lady’ scent (no offence meant to old ladies!). A very refined old world floral with quite a bit of staying power. Half an hour later the vanilla musk emerged beautifully!

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: slightly creamy roses and lilies.

 

Immediately on skin: I get a very soft, pretty rose scent. It has just a touch of the clean scent of the lily.

 

After a few minutes: The lily hasn't turned into a generic clean scent, like it usually does on me. It's a beautiful scent, and I can sense the vanilla musk, rose, and lily notes, even though they blend together well.

 

Later on: This has lightened up dramatically, but it’s a very pretty scent. It’s definitely floral, but the rose and lily are blended well, as opposed to one overshadowing the other. The vanilla musk adds a creamy note to the blend, and tones it down so it’s not perfume-y. Overall, this is just a perfect scent for Victoria’s character.