Lady Una

[GardenCat]

Honey musk, green tea leaf, blackberry leaf, vanilla bean, and fae spices.

Beautiful scent - so evocative of the character and mood of Stardust! (As I sniffed myself on the way to work I had to wonder, yet again, how DOES Beth do that?!?)

Sweet ripe vanilla with green leaves sticking out, the honey makes it candy-like - but in a good way. Tramp gave me a wee decant of it and, as usual, she's right - it's a winner! Edited July 7, 2009 by GardenCat

[thekittenkat]

In the bottle: The honey musk, something green and leafy, and also something spicy, but in a faint and elusive way.


Wet: I just drizzled some honey over a few freshly-washed-and-picked blackberries; I had already sprinkled some vanilla extract over these same blackberries. Since they came from the brambly vine creeping up the old stone wall at the bottom of the heritage rose garden, perhaps the Fair Folk have been amongst them and left some of their magic behind. (Well, this is what this stage smells to me--my own fantasy. )


The dry-down: Everything has blended in such an exquisite fashion, with the honey musk being the note that holds it all together. I still would like to know what those fae spices are, but sure and the Fair Folk won't be tellin'.


I was a bit surprised when I realized that I hadn't reviewed this, as Lady Una was my first purchase from the Lab, a couple of years back. One day I was reading along on Neil Gaiman's blog, and he mentioned that a company was now making perfume oils based on the graphic novel that he co-created with Charles Vess, Stardust. As this graphic novel is one of my favourites of all time, I zoomed to the BPAL site, found the Stardust section, and started looking through the scents. Lady Una, with the honey musk, the vanilla, and the blackberry (leaf) jumped out at me, so to speak, as a winner. So I ordered it right away. And that the proceeds go to the CBLDF is an added plus in my book!

This, the first oil that I ever ordered from the Lab, is still my favourite, and I'm now on my second bottle. Just exquisite.

 

ETA: Just fixing the smiles from the former board! And I'm on my third bottle at least. If the Post ever made this in a hair gloss and/or a bath oil, I'd be thrilled!

Edited July 1, 2016 by thekittenkat

[Monster]

Out of the bottle this smells like honey wine to me.

 

On my skin, this is dreamy. When I dissect it it's blackberry, honey, faint musk, soft spice...and everything nice.

As a whole, this is boozy honey wine (not mead...but grape wine with honey...if that makes any sense ) The honey in this isn't the waxy variety (thankfully) it's sweet, smooth and delicious smelling. From top to bottom this is perfect

 

Overall I'd say this is a slight boozy, fruity blend. This is sweet, delicious and if you LOVE berry scents...you've GOTTA pick up a bottle of this.

[satinworship]

Lady Una did weird things to me today. I was feeling kind of flighty, and I had just gotten an imp sized decant of this in the mail, so I decided to give it a go. This was my first Neil Gaiman scent, and I was very excited.

 

Fresh on my skin, I definitely get the honey musk, and the vanilla. The honey musk smells exactly like sweet, light honey + musk, and the vanilla is very smooth and creamy, it doesn't go "waxy" at all, which some vanillas do on me. I can't tell if it's the green tea leaf or the "fae spices" that I'm picking up on, but there is some kind of very faintly ethreal, sweet scent going on in the background. The blackberry leaf is very far away, like smelling blackberries growing from across a field. Honestly, I was already working myself up to get a bottle, just five minutes in. It smells lush, melancholy, mystical, and beautiful.

 

Then it turned into buttered popcorn. Sweetened gourmet popcorn with fresh butter and a vanilla creme drizzle, but popcorn none the less. I'm assuming the honey musk in this, which is the strongest note to me, and the green tea leaf morphed, making it smell this way. But something about this still makes me want a bottle. I guess I'm going to have to give this one several more tries.

 

If this is any indication, the Gaiman scents are as complex and weird as the stories.

Edited July 25, 2009 by satinworship

[marared]

I have no idea the age of the bottle I bought, as it was on ebay, but enough people said it aged well and I love honey and blackberry, so I gave it a go.

 

I get the buttered popcorn impression, although it's not something that would have occurred to me on my own. I barely smell the blackberries, but the vanilla bean is definitely in there, as is the tea (and strangely enough, the tea is far more noticeable on my right wrist than it is on my left - they're almost two entirely different scents!), but the primary impression is of honey. But not the super-sweet sticky syrupy honey - it's very ... natural. Like a honeycomb instead of drizzled honey.

 

I like this a lot. Not as much throw as I would like, but just an excuse to slather, right?

[topazphoenix]

This one is lovely. Blackberry, vanilla honey musk grounded by the green tea. If I really concentrate I can pick out the different notes but otherwise they meld together into a smooth, creamy, ethereal whole. It's really well blended, and definitely evocative of Lady Una.

[ouch!]

Mmm lovely! I have a few plusses for this blend and a few minuses though.

 

This reminds me of Bordello first off. It's that very sweet bouncy vanillary berry scent. The difference with this is though..it has the herb/spice element (Very subtle though, not..in your face herbs). This is what I was expecting Bewitched to be. It's really yummy. The other slight difference with this is that..it's more blackberry. Sweet blackberry and vanilla with herbs and it's a very light scent. (Which brings me onto the slight dissapointment... )

 

This scent has hardly any lasting power or throw. So..I suppose you could wear it as a personal scent. One to keep close to your skin.

 

It's a lovely scent though overall and I would buy a bottle if it had a bit more kick!

 

[Aldercy]

I am loving these close, ethereally musky scents lately. Lady Una is raw honey, gauzy vanilla and a mix of temperate, pale musks with a tiny hint of sharpness that is probably a slightly citrusy blackberry leaf. Very mystical and eerily pretty. Una is Dorian's sister or cousin, definitely. Very slight throw-- it's a secretive, shy scent.

 

 

[LadyLuckless]

This nearly brought me to tears when I first smelled it in the bottle and tried it on... despite my success with Bewitched I initially got the dreaded "cat pee" smell! I gritted my teeth and hung in there, and about 5 minutes later I was richly rewarded. This morphs into a delicious blackberries and cream version of my all-time favorite BPAL, Gennivre!!! It's what you'd get if you swapped out Gennivre's mint and citrusy notes for blackberries and sweet vanilla. I'll definitely be treasuring my bottle, even though the unpleasant start to the scent means wearing it takes a bit of planning. This lady's worth the trouble though!

[ami226]

Blackberry tea? Wow! This smells amazing!!

 

After a bit, I get some honey as well Now it is sweet blackberry tea! This scent is wonderful!! After the honey comes out, the scent doesn't change anymore for me.

 

Must have bottle!!

[Venneh]

Got a tester of this in a recent swap; all I can do with this one is sniff. I get a really faint honey-berry sort of scent; I think I'm going to want to try a decant of this, mainly because what I'm getting in here is so faint.

[amanderinorange]

I actually got this back in April for my birthday and was really excited for it based on the notes and the reviews. Unfortunately fresh from the lab I couldn't even bare to sniff it from the bottle it was so horrid. I thought that I would let it age and maybe it would get better. Last month I tested it again and forced myself to put it on to see if it would get better and no such luck. I kept getting whiffs of something rotten, like decomposing plants and had to wash it off, which took several attempts.

 

Very sad that this did not work as the other three Stardust scents I have work. Guess you can't win them all.

[distracts]

I had high hopes for this scent but I'm finding it pretty meh. Wet, it smells completely rancid, like musk and waxy leaves. Dry, I get some of the vanilla and spices as well, but it's all very faint and tainted by the memory of the hour-long icky smell. ... okay, dry 6+ hours later, it's beautiful and evocative and exactly what I thought it would smell like when reading the description... but I just can't wait 6 hours for it to reach a stage I actually like, so I won't be keeping this. It DOES last pretty much forever on me though, as I could still smell it 15 hours later.

[Ruffian]

MMmmm Blackberry. I get mostly blackberry tea and a touch of spices and not so much the honey musk and vanilla. I'd like to get some of the honey and vanilla, but I get blackberry and that makes me happy.

 

Update - Lady Una has now become one of my top scents and is in the running for my signature scent! After a longer drydown it turns sweeter and creamier, from the honey musk and vanilla coming out. I'm really liking the honey musk note. The blackberry and tea is still there, and it lasts all day on me.

Edited January 5, 2010 by Ruffian

[reynardine]

Got a tester from a generous forumite, enough for one application.

 

In imp: Almost smells like grapes?

 

Wet: light musk, with some berry hints—reminds me of Berry Moon, which I adore.

 

Drydown: the vanilla is starting to come out, but still predominately blackberry. The musk is very light.

 

An hour later: It remains stable as a blackberry/vanilla scent. Thank goodness the vanilla didn’t go plastic on me! Light-to-moderate throw: this is a slather scent for sure.

 

I am so getting a bottle of this!

 

[CiaoBonefish]

This is the scent I was super excited about and it does not disappoint!

At first I was expecting something like tea with berries and honey, so when I opened the decant and noticed a very green smell I was kind of upset. Green scents don't smell all that great to me most of the time because they NEVER get sweet enough for my liking, but I was not going to give up on Lady Una.

 

I took another whiff of the decant and i could definitely smell the tea leaf and blackberry leaf. The blackberry smelled pretty fruity but not overpoweringly so. I'm pretty sure the greenery was coming out because the tea and blackberry scent is coming from their leaves. No hint of vanilla or honey yet.

 

I applied some on my wrists and woah. The effect is almost instantaneous. A sudden sweet powdery and slightly creamy vanilla honey comes into the mix. I'm guessing the honey is slightly powdery on account of it being honey musk. The blackberry lightens and sweetens but only very very very slightly and the tea acts and vanilla act as a kind of base for everything.

 

As the hours go by the scent gets sweeter, warmer, and more sensual fading beautifully into a light sweet honey vanilla skin musk. Positively beautiful. Way more sensual than I was expecting but delicious all the same. If you're thinking this scent is foody, you may want to think again. A light green and musky powdery sweetness prevents it from being so.

 

Ahh I love this. Not exactly what I was expected but beautiful nonetheless. To fully appreciate this you really have to wear it from its life/application to death/fade.

 

In short. Lady Una is a sensual ravishing

 

I'll probably need a bottle eventually. I have a feeling she will age beautifully!

 

 

 

 

[HamletsKeeper]

Highly reminiscent of Jersey Devil initially which was unexpected. To me it smells a lot like hazelnuts which must be the honey (always smells nutty on me) and blackberry leaf. It's very sweet, turns powdery and starts to smell strongly of fake berries on drydown. Entirely too foody and weird for me to enjoy. In the end it smells like grape candy.

 

 

[angelicruin]

Spicy blackberries and honey on my skin. This is sweet, but not too sweet and not foody either.

[sarajane]

This went straight to an acrid, ammonia-ish scent with soapy undertones on my skin. Shame, because it is so beautiful in the decant.

[ow1goddess]

I get a lovely raw honey smell with a bit of feminine muskiness and just a hint of vanilla/spice which isn't identifiable as specific things but makes it more complex. This was decanted from a lab-fresh bottle so I'll try aging it. I don't get the fruit or tea at all. It's a lovely, sweet/sexy feminine smell but it's so faint I can only smell it if I stick my nose right to it. Maybe in a few months it will amp up, or I'll have to bite and get a bottle so I can slather a bit, because I love it, but I want to be able to smell it more clearly!

[undream]

wet in the imp, this smells, to me, of baby powder & a subtle berry scent? once on, it becomes a strong baby powder in the throw and an awful peach scent up close to the skin - which is off, i know, as there are no peach notes in this(!), but that is what it smells of! &sadly, it just does not work on me at all. blech. (this is, it should be noted, a case of beautiful oil / bad note; i have never really liked peach scents.)

 

fortunately, after about an hour the "peachy"-ness disappears, and it settles into a soft baby powder smell, which worked beautifully as i put it on right before going to bed, and i have always found the scent of baby powder to be very calming & lulling.

 

when i awoke this morning, i could still smell this long-lasting oil on my arms(!), only a deep golden honey note had developed during the night. lovely, thick and heady, but alas! i'm afraid i can't handle honey scents, either.

 

off to a better home!

[bluerose]

Thanks to the lovely Suusje for a partial of Lady Una to try.

 

I can smell the honey musk and blackberry leaf with a hint of spice in the bottle. The green tea leaf note appears to taper the honey musk preventing it from being too strong.

 

Initially, Lady Una is a musky vanilla blackberry on my skin. After a couple of hours the blackberry disappears turning the scent into a light musky vanilla for the rest of the day. Though I wish the blackberry would last all day, it smells wonderful either way. Bottle worthy.

 

[Venneh]

In the decant, I'm getting the honey musk and the vanilla, I think. On my skin, it's honey musk, vanilla, blackberry, and a bit of the tea. Mmmm. This is absolutely amazing, getting the full skin test to be absolutely sure, but the odds are this is going to be another bottle in my future.

 

On the full skin test, I'm getting this wonderful honey-musk-vanilla spicy blackberry with a hint of tea, and absolutely knocks my socks off. Bottle, and sooner rather than later.

Edited April 5, 2010 by Venneh

[hlemonds]

I can not believe it has taken me so long to try this.

 

 

Lady Una is utter perfection. I definitely get the rich, sweet vanilla, along with the most amazing honey musk. Gah, this is soooooo good. It is creamy, and sweet, but the sweetness is tempered just enough by the tart green tea and blackberry leaf. There is a fruitiness to this that I would probably associate with blackberry fruit moreso than leaf. Unbelievably delicious. There is a green element to this that reminds me of 51, but more sweet and subdued, as opposed to the fresh brightness of 51. I would guess that is thanks to the honey musk and vanilla.

 

All in all, this is just amazing. I will be wearing this a great deal during the spring and summer months. It very much makes me think of sitting in a warm meadow, near a blackberry bramble. The scent of the blackberry patch is wafting on the sun warmed breeze. I'm drinking iced green tea with honey from a thermos. The scent of clean sun-warmed skin, scented with vanilla and honey, mingles in the gentle breeze.

 

Now I really wish it was warm outside today, and that the sun was shining. This makes me yearn for a gorgeous spring day.

[tailoredshirt]

This smells to me very similar to Fairy Wine to me. I definitely get the honey and berries, and there's a sharp, tart sweetness to it that I got with Fairy Wine - definitely a honey/fruit wine scent. But it's softer than Fairy Wine, probably because of the vanilla. I amp vanilla and sweet scents, so after a while the vanilla gets stronger on me, but otherwise this didn't morph very much.

 

I like this a lot, although it is definitely very sweet and I don't usually do sweet scents. This is a grown-up sweet fruit scent, though. I might try to hunt down an imp (I'm testing an empty), before I decide whether or not I need a full bottle.

 

Overall, I think fruit and honey lovers will really like this one.

Edited May 4, 2010 by tailoredshirt