Libra 2007

[fireflower]

Cardinal air: the essence of balance.
Rose, black cherry, carnation, fig, honey, plum, and black currant.

In the bottle: Rich black cherries, with a hint of the black currant and carnation, I think it is. Not cough syrup-like. I can smell only a hint of the rose underneath.

First applied: This completely switched from being a lot of cherries with a little bit of rose to being a lot of rose with a little bit of cherries. I still smell the carnation and black currant underneath a little bit. This is how I expected Persephone to smell, so I'm pleased. The only complaint is that I wish the rose would just calm down a little bit and leave room for the other excellent notes.

Drydown: Rose, but with the other notes in there to hold it back from being too obscene. It's a very pretty floral, and I've come to find that I'm really not as into florals as I thought I was, so that's saying something.

A few hours later: The rose is a lot tamer. It's much more subdued by far. I like this a lot after it's completely dried down and absorbed. Yay for liking my zodiac oil! I was hoping it would happen. It's not an every day scent, but I do think when I get a scent locket, I will use Libra in it. Edited October 20, 2007 by Queen Mab

[elenore]

I got this even though none of the Lab rose notes have worked on me thus far. But I just couldn't resist giving it a try.

I had a very interesting experience with this decant. I wiggled it a bit to pry off the lid, as usual, and the overeager wand cap just FLEW out of my hand, flinging drops of Libra on me and skittering to the floor.

Ow. After making sure none had actually entered my eye (I felt a drop splash quite near it), I rummaged for a new wand cap and proceeded to analyze the scent that was all over my fingers. As soon as the vial was open (and the oil splashed on the counter as well) I got several whiffs of something lovely like cherries and plums. Getting excited, I started sniffing my fingers. Ew! Wait! Some got in my mouth! It must have splashed on my lips too. oh, totally gross. Bpal is not meant to be eaten. Spent some time washing mouth out, then returned to sniffing only to find that it was turning-lemony? Wait...I went to check the notes...there's no lemon in here. Maybe it's the carnation? Something is strong and citrusy, in not a good way.

After 20 minutes or so, it's starting to calm down and the rose is coming out. However, it seems to be a gentler rose than others, I might be able to live with it. There's still quite a bit of fruitiness and I can smell the plums again.

I'm going to try this one again-without quite as much excitement and distraction, and also I know from experience that rose scents can change drastically depending on my chemistry at the time, etc. It seems like a lovely scent, very well-balanced, but it's just a question of whether it will work on me in the long run.

Edited October 21, 2007 by spicyelenore

[Tulliver]

This is another one I ordered on my first ever "update", and it's the one I was most excited about since the notes ALL struck just the right note with me.

 

In the bottle: I can definitely smell the rose, cherry and fig with possibly a hint of the blackcurrant as well. This all bodes well, although there is something of a back-scent that seems a little alcoholic, which actually jars just a bit with the rest of it. Hmmm.

 

Wet on my skin - my heart sank. Something in this is being VERY soapy on me, and not in a good way at all. I don't know what it is. I also still have the alcohol-like scent which is now unpleasant when combined with the soap. I suspect it's the cherry that's to blame since I get this when I first wear Phantom Calliope as well. Hmmm.

 

Dry - THAT'S better. After around 15 minutes, both the soap and the alcohol are gone, to be replaced by a lovely rose scent (naturally since I have long known that I amp rose). But alongside that the cherry and fig are really rounding it all off. I don't THINK I get the honey, but the blackcurrant is providing a lovely, grounding, darker scent, and I THINK I get the carnation. Whatever it is, I'm liking it very much.

 

This blend hasn't turned out to be my favourite of the Hallowe'en releases that I ordered (I expected it to be my favourite by FAR) and, initially, on trying it, my heart did sink somewhat - not least because I have another bottle on its way to me from an eBay auction. However, I'm now really glad I do have more coming to me. This really is lovely. Not an every day or every evening scent, but certainly lovely enough to be glad I'll have a goodly supply.

Edited October 25, 2007 by Tulliver

[cabinwench]

Well.

 

I was all set to ebay this as I'm not a Libra, and sniffed from the bottle (along the rest of a big order) it just wasn't my thing.

 

So, I'm poking around reviews and note that Libra 2007 has lots of notes I usually love...hmm.

 

I sniff again, and wet, it still isn't all that, but I dab.

 

Black currants and roses and honey, oh, my! Less honey, and more roses 'n berries, which is

not a bad thing. But honey is certainly in there around the edges.

 

So, husband comes in to gather dishes from the computer room to wash (he is such a good guy!) and starts sniffing. "What's that smell??"

 

Now, that can be a good thing, or a bad thing.

 

I hold out the dabbed wrist--"that smells GOOD!"

 

After 30 minutes, there might be a hint of Dove soap floating around, from the rose,

but it is not a bad association. It's more like noticing that Dove used a note that's in Libra, than like getting "Dove" from Libra, if that makes any sense. It's warm and comforting, good for going into late fall and 48 hours of rain.

 

This is coming out of the sales pile.

[mawaridi]

Wet to dry, this is bathroom air freshener, or deoderant. Powdery rose with a really strong ozone note. I had been wary of rose notes for a long time because in non-BPAL scents they do horrible things on my skin, but then I tried Kali and the wet, crushed-rosepetal-and-honey scent was so divine I thought BPAL's rose notes might be different. Well, the one in Kali is still delicious, but Libra 07 makes me smell like a toilet. A sparklingly clean toilet, but still...

[theGreatMissJJ]

I purchased this from paperbacknovel because, despite the fact that I am not a Libra, the notes seemed like they would be divine. Alice is my signature scent and the rose, carnation, and honey combination on her work great with my skin. I do fruits fairly well as well.

 

In the bottle: Light and beautiful, like laying on your back on a grassy knoll blooming with flowers on a sunny day with the scent of ripening fruit from the orchard being carried past you by the breeze. I'm not kidding, that's what it smells like in the bottle; I'm not waxing poetic here. Rose seems to be the prominent note here.

 

Wet on skin: Cherry. I think. Possibly plum. It's very subtle as rose is still the top note. It's sweet, but not sugar-sweet or baker's-confection-sweet. The rose is almost juicy.

 

Dry: Still sweet, but it's a softer honeyed rose. It's warmed up slightly by the carnation and maybe the fig. It's less juicy-red and more golden. Libra 2007 is like a little girl with her lips stained dark red with cherry and plum and current juice under liquid sunshine. (Where the hell are these images coming from? Maybe I'm still a little drunk from drinking at McSorley's last night.)

 

Throw and wearlength: Throw is medium although stronger than I expected, given how "light" and "airy" this blend comes across. Wearlength is medium as well.

 

Given how many notes Libra 2007 has in common with Alice (rose, honey, and carnation), they smell nothing alike on me. Alice is very creamy (Libra does lack the milk) and spicy honeyed carnation is the top note on her. Libra is very rosy, which surprised me. Alice smells "younger." I guess scent-wise, Libra's like her grown-up and classy sister. Beautiful.

[grashopper8]

This is mostly rose to my nose, but a very pleasant, soft rose (not too soapy or cloying). I am not really detecting any honey or fruit or carnation, but I have to assume that they temper and balance ( ) the scent.

 

I do like this, but I don't tend to wear rose as a perfume.

As a rose scent, I give it 4.5 out of 5.

As a wearable perfume with my tastes, I probably will not reach for this again.

 

ETA: Well, after wearing this all day, I have to say that it is the prettiest rose scent I have ever smelled because the rose is so gentle and subdued and never biffs me in the face like rose usually does. Whatever magick Beth has poured into Libra has somehow balanced the rose while still letting it be the star. I decided to hold on to my imp and start looking for a 5mL because there are some days, especially if I've used a rose soap, where I'm just in the mood for smelling like a fresh-cut, soft, gorgeous rose, but I don't want to smell like potpourri. This is lovely, and I didn't give it enough of a chance at first because I have stricken out so often with rose where I like it at first and then I get sick of it after an hour or two.

4.7 out of 5 stars, I changed my mind ; -)

Edited December 1, 2007 by AEris

[forspecial_plate]

As far as I know, Libra is not in my chart, although I could be wrong. I was really just attracted to the notes listed here, although it had the potential to be much too sweet. Fortunately that isn't the case! I have discovered that I like rose sometimes, and that's mostly what I smell in this scent. The supporting notes add a nuance of sweetness, especially the cherry which does peek out in little flashes. But really, rose is the star of the show here. And that's a good thing!

 

I've only tried this once, and I imagine that with repeated wearing the other notes will make themselves known. I will enjoy getting to know this scent.

[metaldog32]

I bought this outright because my mom is a Libra. One of my oldest girlfriends is a Libra. I like to have fragrances that represent people in my life.

 

Initial sniff from bottle: Ooooohhh..I like this; rose..but not whomping in my face with the honey and fig. Not sure I get the plum and black currant yet but it’s early.

 

Applied wet on skin:Wow this is phenomenal; it’s the rose with the spicy carnation, honey and fig. In the back I do get a swirl of the fruit.

 

Couple of minutes on skin: Hmmm..something in here reminds me a bit of Phantom Calliope I wonder if it’s the black cherry??? The rose is still present..softly wafting and at times veering awfully close to soap-like but it’s behaving. The fig and honey are less assertive right now.

 

Ten minutes later:Honeyed roses with a spicyness that might be coming from either the carnation and/or fig??? Soapy slant has left and I very much agree with other reviewers that this is a bit akin to Rose Moon. It’s definitely a spicy rose..except in Libra you get the added bonus of fruit in the opening. I very much like it.

 

20 minutes later: Softened considerably but not invisible. Slightly juicy and very much a spicy/fruity rose.

 

45 minutes later : Faded a bit..but still kind of juicy/spicy sweet. No powdery or soapy rose here….I do get a tinge of creaminess though.

 

Drydown: Soft and a tad spicy rose.

 

Lasting power on this one is respectable-a good 5+hours with throw average.

 

Bottom Line: Libra indeed is a beautifully balanced fragrance on me. The rose is tempered beautifully by the fruit and honey with the carnation giving it a bit of a spicy depth. I enjoyed wearing it and find it a perfect choice for fall/winter when I want to feel feminine.

[dreadeddragon]

In the bottle: I have to agree with the cherry cola scent. It's tons of fruitiness!

 

First on: Oh carnation, how I love your spiciness. You just add to the fruit blend to make it really complex and slightly spicy, with the fruit and slight floral underneath. After a minute, the rose starts to overpower, which I hope calms down because I loved the first application.

 

Drydown: Rose, then carnation, then random dried herbs? What? First of all, I can barely find this on my arm, even though I put it on less than an hour ago. then, I get a basic whiff, but no real staying power. In one area I get that same fruity scent with the rose on top, and in another it smells like I planted a rose garden in an Italian kitchen. Haha.

 

Overall: It's lovely when I can find it, but doesn't really give an impression of balanced Libra to me.

[Rovylern]

In the imp I smell lots of fruit; the cherry and currant dominate. It's very sweet and very juicy. That's really what I was looking for when I sought this one out. On my skin, however, it's a sweet, spicy, almost overblown rose. It took me a few minutes to place it, but finally I put my finger on it: this smells JUST like the rose character from the Rose Petal Place dolls produced in the eighties. It takes me back to some very fond memories of my childhood and it's a beautiful blend, but it has a very young feel so I don't think that I will wear it often.

[Ajila]

In the bottle – Roses backed by what I smell as almonds, but I presume is the black cherry

 

Wet on me – The rose was the one note I was worried about and it appears to be the dominant note. The rest is mainly the marzipan sweetness of the cherry and a slight hint of the cherry itself

 

Dry on me – Rose incense with, oddly, a hint of geranium. It does finally pick up a slight fruity edge in the end

 

Overall – I was hoping to get the fruits from the blend and what I mainly got was rose. I’ll probably hold onto it as it is my star sign and it’s not actively unpleasant but I can’t see me going for it very often

[MeiLin]

Meh, just meh. I amp carnation, and in this blend it just muddies all the other notes. Disappointing, since all the notes are faves. Just not, apparently, all at once, on my wrist.

[Lyrical]

In bottle: sweet rose, fruit, and almond.

 

Wet on skin: quite beautiful! A gorgeous blend of fruit and flowers in which a particularly lovely shade of rose is prominent but not dominant. Good throw!

 

Dry on skin: this reminds me a little of Seraglio, which I liked but which had practically no throw at all. It's richer and redder than Seraglio, though - very round and sweet and juicy. The cherry is of the almondy sort, and the other notes just blend so that the end result is rose, perfectly balanced with juicy dark fruits.

 

This can sometimes go a bit soapy. However it layers really well with Bathsheba, which adds some dry, sexy musk to the sweet, rounded juicyiness of Libra. It's a lovely blend and I'm really glad I got a bottle.

[Pika]

I threw this on this morning shortly before I left for work. It smelled wonderful in the vial, and as I was gathering my things, it was wafting up and I was thinking "What a lovely, airy, interesting scent!" Definitely cherry, but not overpowering, floral, and an ozone note that didn't automatically smell like air freshener!

 

On the way to work, I was smelling a LOT of rose...

 

When I got to work, I realized I was starting to smell powder. And sure enough, powdery for the next couple hours. How sad. How come Libra has to use that particular rose note that goes to powder?

[lisawoj]

Definitely can detect the rose, cherry and carnation. The cherry note reminds me a lot of Black Phoenix, which luckily I love. Fairly soft and sweet without being cloying. Plays OK on my skin but strangely smells sour in my hair. I think this will have to be a locket scent.

[fairnymph]

In the bottle: Delicious fruity rose.

 

Wet: Crazy strong rose. The fruit is really lush and ripe in this.

 

Dry: This stays very true. It's fruity but not very sweet on me, and it's somehow lush and fresh at the same time. The rose dominates, the fruit provides depth, and the carnation lingers spicily in the background.

 

Summary: Roses in full bloom, ripe purple fruits, and a hint of spice.

 

I have a couple of bottles of this - it's really lovely on me! Must be those three planets in Libra...

[mspixieears]

My first reaction is oh no, the rose is too strong! It’s definitely the dominant note here though if I sniff my wrist up close I can smell the black cherry and another floral which I assume is the carnation? I’d like more of the fig and honey as well as the blackcurrant to be present – it was actually the blackcurrant that made me leap out and buy a bottle. The rose is nice and fresh but up close it’s just too strong.

[Lamia]

Oh, this is delightful! While being floral and fruity, it's not cloying or painfully sweet. It makes me feel quite arch, and mildly wicked, like I am getting ready to spend a weekend having clever intellectual conversation with references to obscure BritComs while drinking champagne on a warm porch with old friends. This scent makes me feel very GOOD about being me, and looking in the mirror after applying it I have a decided Glint in my eye. I can't help but smile as I sniff this. Beths Plum and Honey scents do very well on me. It's airy without being etherial or wispy, and is unexpectedly warm.

 

Huh, I guess I'm a Libra...

[brsis]

Initial thoughts: I'm not a libra, but I place about as much faith in starsigns as I do in the postal system (I.E. Very Little). Those notes, however, look VERY tasty. Cherry, fig, honey, plum, currant - yummeh. The rose and carnation I'm less certain on what to expect from, because I have very few/no floral scents.

 

In the bottle: Sticky fruit candy, with lots of cherry, plum and a hint of currants.

 

On the wrist, wet: This is quite potent - sickeningly sweet, and slightly floral. I think I can pick out the carnation and the cherry - a very almond-ish cherry it is too, or maybe that's just my brain associating it with bakewell tart. Something that could be the rose, actually, sort of a mellow floral softness over the top.

 

Twenty minutes later: The fruit is gone - okay, maybe there's a little skin hugging fig and plum, with the spice of the carnation and some sugary sweetness, but the throw is heavily perfumed soap and I'm not too keen. It's quite potent and I'm sure if you liked this kind of a scent (It reminds me quite strongly of Queen Mab, despite being fruitier and more powerful) and it worked on your skin it would be lovely. On me... nah.

 

Verdict: Swaps, alas.

 

Tl;Dr: Sweet fruity candy on the skin, with a distinctly perfumed floral throw. Potent.

[the_cat_goddess]

In bottle: Sparkles with cherry and fig. I think I get some plum and black currant. No sign of rose, carnation, or honey.

 

On initially: Well, there's the rose. Now I've got rose, cherry, and plum. I had plans to sell this since I've never worn it, but I'm kind of delighted so far. Amazing what trying a perfume will do.

 

Changes to: Fruity roses. I get a little honey now, too. No spicy carnations, sadly, but still a beautiful perfume.

 

Overall: I'm going to hang onto this for a little while and see if I wear it. I am a little unbalanced in the brain, so Libra might do me some good. : )

[anomie]

In bottle: Rose! And a dustiness that I'm not sure whether it's coming from the rose or the black currant, a scent I always identify as musty.

 

Wet: Whoa, where did the black cherry come from? It's morphing quite quickly - there's the carnation, and the rose is moving into the background a little. And honey. I hope this doesn't go ick on me as honey often does.

 

Dry: Rose, honey, dustiness... it's actually quite lovely.

Edited February 6, 2009 by Nomie

[Gin]

Libra 2007

 

Love. Lush red rose + cherry with... an almost incensy base. It's floral but not "old lady," it's really very sexy.

[moon_lemming]

I never ordered Libra because it's not my oil, but I probably should have! It's chock full of notes I love. I smell rose and cherries in the imp -- the cherries are almost cough syrupy, but just far enough away from that that they smell good and not bad. On me, the honey comes out as Libra dries and the rose sticks around and makes this a very pretty true-honey and rose scent. I don't smell any of the fruits, and the cherry fades extremely quickly once the oil hits my skin. Even without them, this is a gorgeous blend (says the honey fiend).

 

The only downside is that it fades superfast on me and is only detectable at nose-to-skin range within twenty minutes.

[Argentwolf]

Sort of funny...I got an imp of this in a swap from one person, and then a bottle in another swap, and for a while I thought I might have been lucky enough to have both versions of Libra, since they smelled so different!

 

In the bottle, it's a very sweet scent...fruit scents dominate, with florals sitting very humbly in the background. For a while I thought it was very sweet apple I might be smelling, but research revealed that the bottle is the 2007 version. So, I get to smell the sweet cherry and currant and plum, and it's suuuuuper nice there.

 

On my skin (and in the imp), however, things switch places. The fruit quickly retreats, and rose shoulders its way forward, with carnation acting as its adoring sidekick.

 

Thankfully, this version of rose isn't the kind that turns into MUA HA HA DIE on me, but it's still Rose Liek Whoa. It comes juuuust short of getting crazy a lot of the time...which, come to think of it, describes me rather well, too.

 

While not the sweet light fruity blend that I think I would have adored, this is still a pretty scent...not one for every day wear, but definitely one worth hanging onto and breaking out when I feel like basking in the wonderfulness that is Libra. (And we are quite wonderful, yes. *preen*)