Venice

[donnatron]

A complex, voluptuous scent that captures the robust beauty and of the Italian Renaissance: lemon, red currant, wisteria, red rose petals, heady jasmine, Florentine orris root, waterlily, red sandalwood, violet plum, and violet leaf.

 

Imp: Sweet lemon candy. Colour me confused.

Wet: Lemon juice. Like slicing a lemon in half and doing it yourself, not the concentrate.

Dry: Gorgeous. Brutally gorgeous. The rose and jasmine come out swinging, all the notes are perfectly blended. This is so sophisticated and beautiful. It gives the impression of a beautiful woman who's all scarves and rings and red wine.

Throw: Pretty good for a floral.

Overall: BOTTLE! Several bottles. Many bottles which will then live with me in utter harmony and I will scent myself and swan around the house wearing high heels with my robe and speak with an accent and call the cat "Darling." And, of course, wear it among humans so they can marvel at how wonderful I smell.

[tuesdaynexxt]

On me, initially, this is a lovely, very bright, lemon lime (mostly lime) with a creamy undertone of floral. After a few minutes, it becomes all lime. Really fresh and bright! A bit later, it goes to the creamy scent, and the citrus tones down and blends. It's not my favorite as a body scent, but it's really lovely!

[Honeygirl]

Bottle: Rose, ack!

 

Wet: Why does rose have to amp so much? This would be a nice scent if I didn't amp it.

 

Drydown: I can smell the lemon and currant in the background, making this more complex than your basic rose scent.

2.5 outta 5

[savage_rose]

Strangely enough, the first whiff from the imp smelled like the condo of a friend of mine. And she recently went to Venice, and absolutely loved it! Maybe it's a pheromone thing.

 

As soon as it hits my skin, the jasmine that hates me starts in. But as it dries, the jasmine fades, and it's a much more balanced floral. It smells very juicy and fruit-like to me, like a ripe plum. Luscious, purple, and so sweet.

[persianmouse]

Do you remember those cups of juice they used to give you at lunchtime back in elementary school? The kind that came in an applesauce like container, where you have to pull back the foil. It came in a variety of flavors, like red, purple, almost apple, blue, orangish. Venice smells like either the red or blue flavor, spilled out on the hot cracked sidewalk of the playground, mixed with sand and old gum, on one of the last days of the school year (y’know, where no one does anything, and the teachers joke inappropriately with one another), right before the bees start coming.

[fairnymph]

In the bottle: Bright lemon, juicy red currant, rose, a hint of fragrant sandalwood.

 

Wet: Fresh lemon juice and a bit of lemon verbena, but mostly the former - it's the strongest note now, but not overly. The rose is fainter, the sandalwood stronger, and quite dry and warm. Currant gone within seconds. Violet, pleasant and soft, and powdery wisteria emerging. Aquatic, but paradoxically dry as well from the wood.

 

Dry: The rose has come out further as has the violet, both lovely notes that are mild but distinct. The jasmine, on the other hand, has made its dreadful powdery doomergence, added to the wisteria powder, gah! There's also a new weird, heady-sweet-cloying note, I'm guessing orris root, which mixes vilely with the lemon which has yet to abate.

 

Later: The bizarre aquatic note combined with powdery flowers and that really dry, almost HOT sandalwood is jarring on my skin; these components are seriously not playing well together, but jostling about like malevolent toddlers.

 

Summary: The aquatic fades enough to bring more peace to this blend, which amps primarily to rose, violet and powdery wisteria over slightly sweet heady orris and dusty warm sandalwood. Still, the lemon persists clashingly, and I'm anxious to wash this one off (arghh, it won't!). Powerful throw and evil longevity.

 

I view this as a scent a senile, elderly woman would wear, the type of woman with 12 cats who pairs poorly knitted mismatched socks with corduroy culottes and a floral patterned iron-on sweatshirt, and hasn't dusted her house in an eon.

 

Yeah so um....not really fitting with my memories of Venice, but then with so many notes my skin just HATES, not a big surprise.

Edited May 7, 2008 by fairnymph

[charisse]

Imp: Lemon, jasmine, and vaguely, something very disagreeable, but for the life of me I can't figure out what it is.

Wet: Oh noes. It goes on my skin like those lemon-scented furniture cleansers.

Dry: It dries to a mostly-citrusy, partly-flowery scent, and the rest of the notes, which I couldn't detect in the first place except for the trace of jasmine, are long gone.

Overall: Probably not for me. I don't want to smell like lemons alone.

[ladyver]

in bottle: definitely floral, with something almost like cough lozengers about it - could be the lemon; wet on skin: lemon - I have lemon and sandlewood, I can tell there are some flowers in their somewhere but my skin is just amping up the lemon sandlewood combination tooooo much for me

[kittycatpurr]

In the imp: Well, I do love lemon. The florals are worrying.

Wet: Lemon! lemonlemonlemonyay.

Drydown: Here comes the rose. I like this rose.

Dry: Unbelievable, but I enjoy these faint florals once the lemon has them in a chokehold. Also -- why does my skin swallow everything?!!? I need to get a locket. More also, what's up with the psychics who put the frimps in the boxes.

[trollgirl]

In the imp: Citrus and floral. I detect roses and jasmine, and I can't decide if I like jasmine. Smells a little aquatic as well, and that aspect of the blend reminds me of cheap bathroom fragrances that are used in copious amounts to cover up the rank smell of public toilets. Maybe this is intentional. People say Venice smells like an open sewer. Not in my experience but maybe I was there on a good day.

 

Wet: Lemons and beautiful roses wafting around me. Reminds me of my day in Venice walking past a garden wall and noticing the soft scent of roses hanging in the air. Then suddenly, the roses are gone and it's all lemon. Lemon! Lemon sorbet, lemon bathroom cleaner, lemon rind, lemon, lemon, lemon.

 

Dry: Lemon has calmed down. It's still there but it's not intrusive. It adds a golden, sparkling quality to the soft and sweet florals that blend so prettily together. It's very womanly, and very lovely, if a little soapy.

 

Overall: This is a pink and gold scent to me. I think of the lush colours of a Renaissance painting: a beautiful woman, reclining by her window watching the setting sun light the canals of Venice, turning them to ribbons of gold. She is draped in pale rose silk and has cut flowers at her feet. I will probably keep and use my imp, but I don't like it enough to get a bottle.

[ErinZ]

Wet in imp:

pretty floral

 

Wet on skin:

fresh, citrusy floral

 

Drydown:

Jasmine, rose and… Lemon Pledge! Darn you, lemon!

 

Wearlength:

Holds on pretty well

 

Final impression:

So pretty, except for the whole house-hold cleaner thing. Oh well, citrus and I are just not meant to be, it seems.

[Coldfire]

Imp from Marared.

 

 

 

Imp: Citrus & sandalwood

Wet on Me: Floral now. Jasimine, water lily &

wisteria

Drying Down: Still Floral. Citrust has gone now

Jasmine, water lily and wisteria draped over the red sandalwood.

Dry: Citrus went bye-bye. What remains is a lovely

jasmine fronted blend with hints of the sandalwood

Throw/Stay: Fairly decent.

This is nice. I may not reach for this imp that often but I would

not kick it out of bed for eating crackers.

[innocent]

One of those sad cases where your skin chemistry makes you think you must have gotten a mislabeled imp... wet Venice was nothing but LEMON, dry it was SOAP (and not even lemon-scented soap).

 

Bother. Off to a new home!

[mgrazulis]

In the imp: A bouquet of flowers, fruit and watery aromas.

Wet on skin: A lemony bath, juicy plums and currants drenching rose petals, violets

Dry on skin: The sandalwood is warming things up. The watery lemon and rose still dominant. The jasmine is oh-so-gentle...excellent blending.

Later: The florals are becoming more rounded and defined. Wisteria blossoms, rose petals, sweet waterlily in a tarted lemon background. The juices of freshly cut fruit keep the florals from cloying with sweetness. It's almost as if the cut fruits and florals are floating in scented water in a gorgeous crystal bowl..

Verdict: This is a robust fragrance...flowers bathed in golden sunlight, crisped by lemony juices.The citrus, fruit and flower notes taper down with a watery hit. Really gorgeous and lively. A stately voluptuous feel rich in velvety florals and fruited tapestries. Regal reds, purples and gold brocades of a Titian portrait...the sandalwood is only there for the early drydown. Wisteria and rose mingle together dancing in the barely there lemon. An exquisite floral blend!

[milo]

In the imp, fresh citrussy and a touch of smoke? I really like this, very much like a fresh cut lemon. Delicious.

[jehrichardson]

In the Imp: Spicy jasmine. Yum! I'm excited for this one and I really want to like it, I used to live in Venice and do miss it so.

 

On the Skin: Jasmine again, with a citrus freshness and a bit of woody deepness. This may be too much jasmine for me. Root beer? Ah, smelled the wrong test patch. That's Tombstone

 

After a While: A bit more woody deepness. The rose is pulling through a bit. I'm not getting the fruitiness, but that's okay as I'm not generally a fan.

 

Verdict: Keeper! This is a wearable jasmine, and it's easy to imagine Venice and luxury and debauchery. Mmm. I'm considering this for big bottle status, but I'm gonna need more money.

[maika]

In the imp, at first sniff, it's lemon and waterlily. Very pretty!

 

Wet on me, the lemon is still there, but the jasmine is most apparent...but then, I tend to amp up jasmine, so this is not entirely a surprise...just as well I adore jasmine, right?

 

Dry, the jasmine is there...but the lemon is coming across, but in a chemical, window cleaner kind of way...worst of all, everytime I try and sniff it again, I sneeze. I'm going to have to take that as a sign, which is a massive shame because I really want to love this.

Edited August 11, 2008 by maikastar

[voodoocatwoman]

In the imp and wet: lemon and jasmine

 

Dry: Jasmine and sandalwood primarily with a touch of orris root.

 

Not bad.

[hlinspjalda]

In the vial: My first thought was, "this smells edible." Rose, lemon, jasmine, but still I am smelling something that is more like food.

 

Wet: There's some deep floral base I can't quite place, with lemon over that, and another floral on top. It's a little headachy (that might be the jasmine), but interestingly complex.

 

Twenty minutes: Dry, a little astringent, tannic. The rose and lemon notes are somewhat diminished but still present, and the jasmine isn't as obvious as before. Despite the strong floral element, it smells masculine to me, like something an Elizabethan gentleman would use to perfume his leather gloves.

 

Hour and a half: Softer and more balanced now, it's pretty pleasant but with a tingling pungency at the back of my nose. I get rose, the wisteria, and one other floral (water lily?) layered over a light sandalwood base. Lemon is gone, but so's the astringency that I think must have come from the violet leaves. I think my skin must eat up currant, though, because I have never smelled it in any blend I've tried.

 

Four hours: Where did the sandalwood go? All the subtleties have faded off now, and it's mostly just the rose with a hint of some other floral. This one's not bad on me, but I don't need to keep it.

[Iceblink]

Venice has a couple of my death notes in it (jasmine and wisteria) that killed it for me. It started off as a lovely, light fruity floral but the jasmine took over fast and the wisteria...old lady powder! Beautiful when it's fresh, though.

[batsy]

In the vial: Dirty leather...? It took a minute before the rose kicked in. Actually smells like a horse's saddle. This is weird.

 

On the skin: Oh my god it's horses and leather. All heated skin and oats and hay. I'm so completely confused. On the dry down the jasmine kicked in. Jasmine is my number one note enemy. Blargh. Oh well.

[voodoocatwoman]

I hoped I would like this. Unfortunately it DOES smell like Lemon Pledge.

[Lethran]

In bottle: A light lemony blend. The florals and fruit blend nicely with the orris lending a hint of rot. The florals are quite strong. I’m not skin testing this due to the notes being a bad set for my skin.

[inurbanus]

Venice was one of the first BPAL scents I tried, so in a fit of nostalgia, I decided to try it again. It's not quite as heavy as I remembered it and the lemon has become more pronounced, I think, but overall it's still quite nice. It's a thick, sensuous floral with a strong aquatic undertone. Very "red", very "Renaissance" smelling. This isn't something I could wear everyday, but if you want something really opulent, this would be a good pick.

 

4/5

[djsiberia]

wet: hrm...i can smell the old-lady band-aid smell of jasmine...why doesn't it ever work well with me. it always smells sour and musty.

 

i can smell jasmine and lots and lots of florals. sadly i'm not a floral person since most of them give me a headache.