Lady Una

[Tramp]

"Why, you are crying."

She said nothing. Dunstan pulled her toward him, wiping ineffectually at her face with his big hand; and then he leaned into her sobbing face, and, tentatively, uncertain of whether or not he was doing the correct thing given the circumstances, he kissed her, full upon the burning lips.

There was a moment of hesitation, and then her mouth opened against his, and her tongue slid into his mouth, and he was, under the strange stars, utterly, irrevocably, lost.

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

First on it is a beautiful, decadently languid scent. Thick golden honey, bursting ripe blackberry, and the tang of something sharp like a grapefruit. As it dries the smooth vanilla comes out to play. Simply gorgeous. Edited November 30, 2007 by Shollin

[violetflower]

My first review! I feel nervous, but I wanted to do it, because I love reading the reviews, so it is nice to contribute something back!

I first put this on last night before bed, and I thought WOW, I love this this!

In the bottle, to my untrained nose, its smells fruity, berry fruits, that is all I can smell.

Wet: Sweet and chocolately, that must be the vanilla and honey, it very quickly morphs into honeyed berry fruits, rather than the vanilla, but still sweet.

Dry: This has settled into a beautiful delicate honeyed vanilla scent on my skin, and I love it! I could still smell it this morning when I got up (so it lasted 9 hours!), and I just HAD to reapply some, I am so glad that I have another bottle of this coming!! YUM!

Last night while cuddled up with my husband, he kept sniffing, and finally said, 'I keep getting wafts of baby powder!' I don't think it smells like baby powder at all!

[willowtreeling]

It dries down like Tresor on me...which is pretty, but not a scent I will wear a lot--too sweetly perfume-y. This makes me sad, because I think it is the second or third of the Stardust ones that haven't worked on me....

[alicia_stardust]

WET: Honey, tea, and a voluptuous fruit-vanilla background.

DRY: On my skin this starts as a honey musk: sweet but not too sweet. It's sensual and heady and has an almost skin musk-like quality. Behind that I get a lush combination of blackberry and vanilla with a cool, clean base of tea. Light, sweet spices linger in the background. This is a truly sophisticated, intoxicating, sensual blend.

The blackberry leaf/fruit scent stays bursting and ripe but does not have the same dry-down as any of the other blackberry blends I've tried. It's the sweet fruit without the thorns. Lady Una has a medium throw and a slightly shorter than average wear-length. It sparkles. Purple.

[cabinwench]

Oh, my!

 

This is so lovely.

 

In the bottle, it's somewhat fruity (light citrus, maybe), with a backbone of the herbal leaves.

 

I don't think I've smelled honey musk before--it's not a strong honey note, but a subtle sweetness.

 

Then the low note of the vanilla creeps up.

 

I can see the softness reminding someone of baby powder, or expensive dusting powder of days gone by, but then the green leafiness pops back up and and makes it unique again.

 

Fae spices--maybe sage (I know, it's an herb, not a spice...)?

 

I am soooo glad I got a bottle--this is going on my skin and in the oil burner. I want my house to smell like this!

[blacklacestatic]

This is wonderful!

 

In the bottle: Very sweet with a kick. Fruits and spices. Compelling.

 

Wet: My goodness this is gorgeous! Very sensory. Perfectly captures the feeling of what I imagine the other side of the wall to be. Very beautiful and sweet, with a naughty, playful side. Totally Lady Una herself! A great combination of honey and sweet spices. The blackberry note is lovely as well.

 

Dry: Pretty much the same as wet, but a little softer, warmer.

 

Overall: This is so inviting, alluring. Its kind of summery, so a great scent for colder weather as a pick-me-up. A very sexy mood booster. 4.5 out of 5.

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

sniffed from the bottle: i get a very Candy Butcher sort of feel from this.

like clover honey sweet, but then again not... i do get the bitter leaves/spices but no actual vanilla.

 

end verdict - interesting and i'm glad i have a bottle, but i doubt i'll need another.

[kwsix]

Even in the bottle, Lady Una was love at first sniff for me. On my skin, it doesn't disappoint. Unless I'm looking at the description, I have a hard time picking out the individual notes in the blend, probably because my brain turns into a big slobbering lump of happiness when I smell it. It's the perfect amount of sweet for me. Despite all the honey and vanilla, it really is too clean to be classified as a foody scent. There's something in the blend that nibbles gently around the edges of my consciousness and reminds me of my beloved original, white-labeled 13. It also reminds me a little of Florence, but Lady Una is much more smooth and delicate. I will need gallons of this beautiful scent.

[DangerInRed]

Lady Una definitely reminds me of another oil on me at first, but I can't remember which one!

 

When first applied, it's a honeyed vanilla, with just a hint of blackberry sweetness.

 

After about 10 minutes, the blackberry is starting to come out a little more. I agree with evilmistressoftoast, it's not really foody per se, more just like sensually sweet. I was expecting it to be more foody, but I like it nonetheless.

[Iceblink]

First whiff, this reminded me of that fruity cereal feeling I got from Beaver Moon '07. I can't explain it, it just happened. But ooooh once this dries down a bit, it's awesome...very musky vanilla, with the blackberry keeping it from being overly sweet. It's really sensual and feminine and warm. This might become my first Gaiman bottle purchase. The vanilla + musk in this reminds me just a teeeeeny bit of the vanilla musk in Victoria, too.

[SurrealReality]

In the bottle: Honey musk, vanilla, and very tart blackberries

 

Wet on skin: About the same as in the bottle

 

Dry: The vanilla and honey musk have faded quite a bit. Now it's mostly sharp, tart blackberries and green blackberry leaf

 

This has very little throw on me, and fades very quickly. It only lasted about 2 1/2 hours

 

In the bottle/decant: 4 out of 5

On my skin: 3 out of 5

 

It's pretty in the decant (even though the blackberries are too tart for me), but on my skin there's just not enough honey musk or vanilla

Edited November 19, 2008 by SurrealReality

[bryghtrose]

Sweet, honeyed fruits. It does have a sense of fairy about it. It's not too fruity, thankfully, and I can wear it

[LadyCrow]

In the decant: Almost nutty, followed quickly by a candy sweetness.

 

Wet: The honey musk predominates, and then the vanilla follows, in a sneaky, sneaky way that is somehow reminiscent of Snake Oil.

 

Drydown: Low throw, but yummy. Vanilla takes over the most, then is followed by blackberry; the tea is quite pale and is, to my nose, more of a hint than a strong presence. Strangely, this becomes more straight-up foody on me than I had expected -- where the opposite was true of Fairy Wine, possibly because of the latter's dandelion.

 

Verdict: This is going to require another test, I think, because the sweetness almost becomes overly candied. However, I have not yet worn this around The Boy, and I have a glimmer of suspicion that the effect on him might be rather positive.

[puck_nc]

Origin: decant from eviltemptressdq's circle

 

Initial Thoughts: Honey is usually not a good note on me. But vanilla is. I decided to take the plunge and see.

 

In the Bottle: Sweet, honeyed, spicy and herby. The honey is the strongest note to my nose.

 

Wet: I'm getting pretty much solid honey right now.

 

Drydown: Something green develops underneath; perhaps it's the blackberry leaf, since I don't recognize it for tea. And then I get a sense of pizza-spice, which usually means that there's sage or a similar spice behaving badly with my chemistry.

 

Verdict: Not for me, apparently, which is too bad since it's so promising in the bottle. But for those who love honey or have it work well on their skin, it's something to try.

[zankoku_zen]

This is a very interesting scent. It's sort of like a more ethereal O, meaning if you combined Fairy Market and O, this might be their child. Well, at least on me it is. I get honey and sweet vanilla, and the swirls of something else.

 

Much sweeter than I expected but I'm glad that the vanilla behaves. A very pretty, feminine, slightly foodie scent.

[ladybird]

Wet: Sweet honey and vanilla, very full and sensual. (Is it just the quotation that accompanies the description that's got my mind thinking in those directions, or is this a really sexy scent?)

 

Dry: A little fruitier and lighter - the blackberries are coming through now. But the honey is still dominant, and it's still summery, sweet, sensual, and other things starting with S.

 

I'm on the fence about whether to keep this one. On the one hand, I'm not sure if I'll ever be in the right mood to wear it. On the other...like Fairy Market, this scent keeps making me sniff my wrist, trying to figure out what it's all about, and trying to get those elusive bits of summer. Mm. I just sniffed again. I think I'll keep it.

[Miss Lynx]

Oh, this is really nice! It's kind of like a lighter, more ethereal version of Bewitched, which is one of my all-time favourites. There's a bit of a similarity to Maenad and Glitter as well, that slightly intoxicating edge.

 

The blackberry leaf gives it a definite element of fruitiness, but it's a little less... juicy, I guess, than blackberry fruit would be. The tea adds tartness, the vanilla and honey musk soften it, and then there's just a soft kiss of spices to enliven it a bit further. Lovely!

 

I don't quite so much like how it dries down, though -- there's a certain note in it that comes out after a while that smells a bit waxy and vaguely synthetic, kind of like scented crayons. I get that in a lot of scents with fig in them, but there's no fig in here, so I'm not sure what it might be. It doesn't overpower the nicer elements of the scent, but it does detract from them a bit. Really, that's the only thing keeping it off the A-list.

 

Grade: B+

[Blood onmy hands]

In the bottle... this smells like a tea party. Honeyed, refreshing tea and spiced teacakes. Yummy.

 

On my skin, the green tea and vanilla bean seem to dominate at first. This is a very soft, subtle scent on me, clinging close on my skin. Crisp, cool green tea sweetened up with vanilla and honey. I can barely smell a hint of sweet spice, and I don't get any fruitiness/blackberry leaf from this that I can pick out.

 

Within five minutes, this has almost disappeared on me though it fades into a powdery-honey-muskiness and then just disappears. It almost turns a bit sour on me before it fades away completely, sour green tea and powdery honey musk... it has hints of sweetness that I do enjoy, but it's too dry and musky, and it fades far too fast.

 

I wish this smelled as good on me as it does in the bottle.

[porcelina]

in the bottle lady una is very sweet and refreshing. when it first hits my skin it's very sweet and green. light, fresh blackberry leaf and a little green tea leaf. after it dries the musk really comes out, lightly dusted with sugar, but that ethereal greenness is still there. it's like picking berries in a fairy tale. it's not thick or sticky sweet like i would think a honey scent would be. this is *lovely*. i don't think it will get much use right now in winter, but i see myself reaching for lady una a lot in the spring.

[Electra]

I can easily imagine Una smelling like this. Unfortunately, that said, I don't like it.

 

I tend to prefer darker, more masculine scents, but I wasn't necessarily doomed to hate this one -- Trish McEvoy #9 is historically one of my favorite perfumes (I wore it for a couple of years in college), and it shares two notes with Lady Una -- blackberry and vanilla. I thought that this one might work for me too. Not so.

 

Lady Una is strong, fruity and candy-sweet. Smelling it on my skin almost makes my teeth ache. I don't get any of the fae spices, or anything that would ground this scent and make it wearable for me.

 

Oh well. Candy-scent crowd, this one is for you!

Edited December 11, 2007 by Electra

[sookster]

straight sniff from bottle is honey and blackberry...

 

once applied the honey is amplified 10-fold...gorgeous

 

beth's honey blends never cease to amaze...this is astonishing...

 

fruity, slightly floral and honey notes this is nothing short of incredible ....l-o-v-e in a bottle

[Emera]

IN THE IMP: Honey, followed quickly by smooth, rich vanilla and a dark, fruity tang.

 

ON MY SKIN: This is VERY yummy, and almost (but not overly) foody. To go with a foody comparison, it’s like a moist, dense, golden honeycake with berries and spice – a far more elegant and less overwhelming version of Eat Me. The blackberry leaf is really just delicious, unlike any other berry scent I’ve smelled. Ripe but tart, and completely realistic. There’s a dry, sweet edge of spices as it goes on.

 

LATER: Remains a delicious balance of nearly all of the notes (although I never got the tea leaf) – clear, fresh blackberry leaf and yummy honey/spice/vanilla. This is compulsively wearable, especially in winter weather. I can’t get enough of it; this might become my first bottle buy, since decants are so hard to come by!

[gwynethr]

Good lo' , this is gorgeous! I get that same almost nutty scent at first whiff in the decant that someone else mentioned, and then it settles down a bit. I wouldn't really call this foody, either, but it almost teeters on the edge of that. The fae spices, whatever they are, bring it back from foodyness and give it a roundness that's really pleasing to my spice-loving nose.

 

This one's a total wow factor for me and I'm definitely going to have to get a bottle.

[slave1]

In Bottle: Musky cat pee

On Skin: Yargh!!! Blackberry and black currant have an odd tendency to go to cat pee on me. Here that is the case sadly. The honey and vanilla are sweet and yummy, but I can’t get past the blackberry. Very bitter and pungent on me. Why does it do this? Just to be mean? Damn, because without it this would be a gorgeous scent on me. Alas, I have to wash it off. So not sure of wearlength but throw is about medium.

[isyche]

On me, Lady Una is like a cross between Dorian and Bewitched with honey poured over it -- it starts out more Dorian-ish with tea and musk and then gets richer and sweeter with the blackberry and honey, but not too sweet. Blackberry notes sometimes go very odd on my skin, but this one seems to stay under control.

 

It's a really lovely, sensual golden-purple wild-nature scent and my favorite from Stardust so far that I've tried. I want a bottle.