The Passionate Shepherd To His Love

[clover]

THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE
Christopher Marlowe
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
That valleys, groves, hills and fields,
Woods or steepy mountains yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair-lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my love.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning;
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.

Heather, clover, Irish moss, English ivy, tea rose, and carnation.

So often I start reviews with "this is not how I was expecting this to smell", but in the case of The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, it smells *exactly* as I was expecting (and hoping for) it to smell like. Sniffing from the bottle the first thing that hits me is green grass - the scent of standing in a field. It must be the clover, it smells exactly like standing in a clover field. I almost feel like my allergies are going to start acting up. I always think of heather as smelling ever-so-slightly-like-curry on me, in a floral way. And I like it, but only in very small doses or it can be overwhelming. This is staying pretty true on me - after a bit I can start to sense a very light rose if I think about it hard enough, but not enough rose for the scent to go soapy. Overwhelmingly it's the scent of nature and spring - green and pastoral with just a hint of floral to balance it out. Just perfect.

[Leopard403]

I had high hopes for this scent. I wanted it to be complex: A little green, some cold florals, with the spice and underlying bite of carnation.

However, on my skin it just smells like unidentifiable white flowers, with the slightest hint of green fields.

It is a lovely scent, very gentle and fresh--it matches the poem beautifully!--but it is just not for me.

Edited February 1, 2008 by Leopard403

[errosenzweig]

On me this was a wonderful green mossy scent with just a bit of rose in the background. It is like being outside after it has stopped raining in the spring.

[AliBabble]

wow. this one is right up my alley - i love the smell of clover, and the passionate shepherd has a nice healthy dose of it. it's a very fresh and invigorating scent - clover, grass, a touch of moss and rose - this scent gives me the sense of motion and wind - of running through a field with wild grasses, flowers and weeds overgrown and blowing in the wind. it's almost got a touch of rose red's coldness. this is a very alive, energetic scent - wild and green, with just a breath of florals. it's quite strong too, i think i will go easy with application. something in this reminds me of villainess' pearl diver, maybe the moss? anyway yeah - it is green, strong and fresh, and i will definitely use this one when i need a blast of fresh air.

[hipslike___cinderella]

This could be one of the greenest blends I've ever tried. Not the "stem" variety of green, but "clean grass" variety. Big, fat, green clovers in a Crayola-green field. On me, this gets paler and even a little heady. It's so realistic. Tea rose as a note scares me a little, as it has a tendency to scream on my skin... for the most part it behaves here. I'm not too sure I get the carnation.

In the end, I felt... hhmm. I don't know. Unfullfilled? This didn't change much, and the throw is considerable, but I think maybe it's just too clean for me. It's incredibly bright and grassy and, uh, shower fresh. Methinks I need my greens to be earthy and dirty. Someone at sales will love this, though!

[thecaitycat]

In the bottle: Very, very green, but more of a sweet, soft green. I can smell the clover in this.

 

Wet on skin: Not much different from in the bottle. Very very STRONG on me!

 

Dry on skin: Still very strong, still very green! The clover is still the prominent note here.

 

Verdict: This was a huge gamble, because though I love the poem, I normally dislike green scents. The gamble proved to be a lucky one, because I really like this! My skin is amping up the clover, which is nice and sweet without being sickly.

[Jilara]

Once upon a very long time ago, my favorite scent was Coty's Clover, from their Sweet Earth collection. The next favorite was tea rose. I think you can see why I had to have a bottle of this.

 

Wow. Oh wow. I am going to have to order another bottle. If ever there was a clover scent to die for, this is it. Rather like how One to Tie, Two to Win was grass and dandelions, this is grass and clover. But it's so much more.

 

Straight out of the bottle, it's a grass-and-clover sort of smell, a spring meadow. But then as it dries, it literally blossoms, and becomes a wildflower meadow. It's making you want to go out and make mad passionate love in the tall meadow grasses, among the flowers of spring. It's amazingly well blended, with a soft floral under the clover, and nothing actually identifiable, in terms of the flower notes. Just a soft lushness of wafting blossoms and damp meadow on May Eve. Love in paradise must smell like this. This has got to be one of the most gorgeous scents ever!

[bellis]

When I wear this, I'm standing in a meadow, making wreaths out of clover. It is very grassy, but the light wildflowers sweeten it and it's beautiful. I'm really loving the Love Poems I've tried so far.

[alicia_stardust]

This smells like clover to me. It's as if I have taken a fresh sprig of clover and smeared it into my hand, giving an extra release of the green fragrance. The ivy and moss add more green to this blend, but they are not heavy at all. Beyond that, I can smell the heather. The rose sweetens it up just enough, and the carnation is barely there but definitely adds a touch of warmth.

 

This blend is gorgeous! It's light and green. It smells of springtime and ivy and moss. Something about it is so fresh and buoyant.

Edited February 6, 2008 by alicia_stardust

[mothglitter]

First sniff, a pale pink tearose, blooming in a green field of wild, delicate beauty. This reminds me of moors or the wild, dewy fields in southern England, where tender roses bloom in hedges surrounded by lush, herbal fields. It takes the faintest spicy turn with the carnation, but to me it's like fragile dianthus flowers poking up through sweet clover blossoms.

 

A botanical floral, green on the bottom, with a touch of spicy & dew on the top. Good throw & staying power. Initially, it reminded me, ever so slightly, of Rose Red, but it must be the greeny-carnation scent I get from Rose Red. Doesn't smell the same, perse, just reminds me of it.

 

I LOVE IT.

 

ADDED Feb. 19:

 

It's raining today, and I think that is helping me love this scent even more. It's just a wonderful scent.

 

YES! It reminds me of a spring rain over medieval English fields.....so rain is perfect for this scent!!!

[Christine Daae]

In the bottle, this smells like Her Voice, almost. Greener and less floral, more of a grassy green than a stemmy green, but still similar.

 

On my skin, this is primarily carnation and rose, with the greenery complimenting the pretty florals. Oh wow, this is so pretty. Again, I am reminded of the springy-greenness of Poisson d’Avril, which is never a bad thing. This is so clear and green and pretty, while still being floral.

 

I am debating over whether I love this or Her Voice more – they’re similar like Rose Red and Peacock Queen are similar, this one is ‘younger’ and ‘fresher,’ and it lasts longer. It definitely evokes the poem to me, which is a good thing. It really does smell, I don’t know if this sounds right, ‘English’ to me. Like well-tended English gardens in the countryside.

 

So lovely. This and Her Voice are duking it out for a place in my top 10!

[CrazyPretzel]

Wet: green grass! But not a cool, damp scent; this is more like sunlight on a freshly-mown lawn.

 

As it dries, the florals become more noticeable, especially the clover, but the grass stays strong. The final drydown is warm, grassy clover.

 

I think I like Her Voice better... but only slightly. Very nice!

[tartchef]

In the bottle & wet, this is dewy clover perfection - fresh, green, with just a hint of sweet & spicy carnation... oh I swoon It's very similar to Mag Mell, minus the lemon verbena... raindrops glittering on verdant fields.

 

Alas, on my skin, the heather & moss conspire to warp The Passionate Shepherd into a mess of soap & dry potpourri. Amazing, as I'd pegged the tea rose to be the only potential issue... I'm going to pull out every trick in the book to try & get this to work for me, because it's just too beautiful in the bottle to let go just yet.

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Green grass, heather, and moss… with a touch of the ivy.

 

Immediately on skin: This is very green, but it’s a mix of different green scents. I’ve never smelled a clover note before, but this scent has a mix of grassy green and more aquatic green notes. In this lush blend also lurks lots of sweet and almost herbal heather and soft, flirty rose. It’s strong and a little on the sharp side because of the grassy note and the heather, but the other notes do a good job of cooling it down and making it a bit smoother.

 

After a little while: This is just such a pretty scent. The sharp grassiness has calmed and what remains is heather, cool moss and ivy, a hint of girly rose, and a base of sweet, warm carnation. The heather note is almost soapy, but the other notes are all so cool and calm that they create this very smooth fragrance.

 

Overall Impressions: This is a very beautiful scent to me. It’s very fresh and cool with a good bit of green aquatic moss and ivy notes and some herbal heather balanced by the softness of tea rose and carnation. It’s a little grassy at first, but it is very complex and balances out beautifully after just a little bit. This is going to be a great spring time fragrance.

[bryghtrose]

Heather

 

It's wet and green and lovely, herbal, but not floral. It has a pleasant throw. It's raining today, and I think that is helping me love this scent even more. It's just a wonderful scent.

[sookster]

straight sniff from bottle is the brightest, loveliest of lush meadows speckled

with tiny wild flowers in yellow, white and purple...

 

once applied this is magnificent!! so freshly invigorating...the heather &

carnation balance this out nicely...

 

this is a little bottle of love that i will cherish

[puck_nc]

Origin: decant from the circle by eviltemptressdq

 

Initial Thoughts: Rose can be wayward on me, but I love carnation. However, what made me want to try this was the combination of heather and clover, like an olfactory tour of the British Isles.

 

In the Bottle: Bright grassy green with just a hint of the florals in the background. Very clean, very much a scent of the outdoors on a cool dewy morning.

 

Wet: Lots of the clover, some of the heather, and quite a bit of the carnation. I can smell the rose lurking in the background, trying to go green-stem skank on me, but so far the other notes hold it in check nicely.

 

Drydown: Ha! The rose goes down. The grassy greens hold out, with the spice of the carnation giving it a lovely spring-like dimension.

 

Verdict: I think it's very nice. I just have to see how often I reach for in in the next couple of weeks to decide whether I should get a bottle.

[maribouquet]

Mmm, I really like this - like a wet, country field. That's sounds sort of unpleasant, doesn't it? But it's not! It smells deep green and good. Definitely keeping my decants and may end up ordering a bottle.

 

ETA: Very peppery in the drydown - hello carnation!

Edited February 28, 2008 by maribouquet

[MeiLin]

This was one of my favorite poems growing up--don't ask me why, I just loved it. And this smells exactly like it should, exactly like the poem. The clover and heather balance the rose and carnation just perfectly. It's just...oh gosh, I'm almost in tears. It smells like early summer, like sweet sunshine. May have to snag a bottle.

[Eemia]

My skin usually amps rose like crazy but this time the rose is staying firmly in the background. I only smell glimpses of it once in awhile. It's a soft, fresh rose. This brings to mind a tightly closed rosebud, rather than the ripe, wild scented rose of Peacock Queen or Whip. I really love rose and this one is exceptional.

 

But the green notes in this are the ones that are really capturing my heart. It's a muted, overgrown green. It's not bright or grassy or intense. It's more of a dampened down scent. Like tangles of clover are everywhere but the scent of them is being blown away. I have no idea if I've smelled heather in actuality, but I love the imagery it brings to mind. Not to lesson the beauty of the notes, but they make me think of rolling layers of lushly green weeds with tiny spots of pale flowers sprinkled across them.

 

As this wears on my skin for awhile (with incredible lasting power btw), it becomes more perfumey. All the notes blend together so prettily. I feel wonderful wearing this and I think it's one of the best fragrances I've tried in a long time.

[arsenicsauce]

This is exactly what I was looking for in all the other green scents I've tried, squirting cucumber especially. Sharp, fresh-cut grass when it goes on (the clover, probably), then as it dries I get a little bit of very familiar common field flowers. The rose doesn't show up, thank god- BPAL rose always turns everything into soap for me. I don't like florals, so I was taking a chance on a bottle of this but it really paid off; I'm so sad this is a limited edition scent.

[blu°]

Sniffing the decant I get mostly sweet heather, which I had been hoping for.

 

Once on my skin, it turns a lot greener with the ivy and possibly the clover. I yet have to learn how to identify clover. It stays a crisp green scent. It might be that ivy is amping on my skin because it reminds me a bit of The Twisted Oak-Tree, albeit sweeter, softer and more rounded. The moss and carnation are lying underneath and feel almost like a white musk in here.

 

It's a lovely scent, but I'm not a big fan of green scents. I'll test wear it a couple of times more, though. It does have something intriguing about it and might be great to wear in summer.

 

It seems to be a perfect present for either my best friend or my mother. Both don't enjoy perfume much, but if they'd wear something it would be something like this.

[siddal]

I am gutted, as this was one of the few total flops I have had from BPAL, and I really wanted to love this. At first it smells like floral meadow loveliness on me, but the drydown was a like the inside of a mildewy dish glove. I think it must be the carnation. We don't seem to be friends

[evanescence]

I'm thinking that the sheep are safe from this Passionate Shepherd - he's all mine!!! LOL

 

This is all floral and grass, but in a fresh wildflower meadow sort of way. Initially, I got air freshener from it - just a blast of heather, which is prominent in most room fresheners that I choose. But it quickly gave way to carnation and grass, and I couldn't be more thrilled. I'm amping the carnation, the grass and heather keep it fresh and soft - and that just catapults it into multiple bottle territory.

[fairnymph]

In the bottle: Potent carnation, some clover, and hints of other green things. A slightly sharp, very green-fresh scent.

 

Wet: Very similar. Quite aquatic in feel. The sweet heather emerges, and the ivy too I think.

 

Dry: Carnation recedes a bit and turns spicy, yum. That's giving a Garden Path with Chickens type feel - the ivy has definitely amped. Heather and clover persist, and the clover has amped. I cannot detect any rose or moss.

 

Summary: Carnation in the fore over clover and heather, with a touch of ivy. Strong throw, good lasting power.

 

A beautiful fresh, green, rolling hills scent. I got two bottles. No rose on my skin, and I usually AMP tea rose.

Edited June 23, 2008 by fairnymph