Ave Maria Gratia Plena

[Teamama]

A pale, delicate, truly angelic blend. A scent created to emulate Adonis' halo of beauty: fragile, distant, and radiant. Rosewood with Sicilian lemon peel, red Mysore sandalwood, pale musks, sweet mountain sage and a dusting of lily, night-blooming jasmine and orris.

This is rare & magical on me. Rosewood frequently turns sour and varnish-y on my skin, but Ave Maria never does.

The blend is harmonious, no one note dominates the scent. The lemon peel is fresh and delicate; red Mysore sandalwood is as always, my BFF; the pale musks are gentle; lily, night-blooming jasmine and orris are pleasingly light. I don't notice the sage, but that's probably because it's doing something nice to the rosewood.

Total GC love.

[achildoftime]

This is such a delicate scent.

 

I get a lot of lemon peel and jasmine. Those stand out first, but are strongly supported by the floral components. No single supporter is easy to identify for me, but they work in conjunction very well. I don't get much of the woods at all. And this holds true for me both freshly applied and dry.

 

Overall it settles into a very cohesive blend. Nothing screams at me or demands attention, it just floats around and is pretty. I think that's all well and good, but I think I prefer something that I can pin down. Since it is pretty light I'll keep my imp for those days when just a suggestion is necessary.

[roseus]

In the imp: soft musky sandalwood

 

Wet: sandalwood, soft and slightly sweet. I get some bright lemon, and the wonky sweetness I get from orris.

 

Dry: everything is so soft and well blended I have a hard time picking things out. It's soft and dry but not too powdery. There's a slight warmth from the sage. It's innocent and reminds me of moonlight for some reason.

[SparkKisses]

I wanted to do a more thorough breakdown of this scent like I normally do - but I can't. I just can't.

 

This smells awful on me. No problem, I thought as I scrubbed it off. My wife likes wearing soft florals like roses, so she'll like it, and our chemistry is so different that fragrances that smell terrible on me smell like heaven on her. Perfect!

 

No. Not perfect.

 

This smelled like straight-up old lady. Funeral flowers in a retirement home. Fussy, powdery, overpowering. I hoped and prayed and cried that the wood notes would appear and save this scent - but it wasn't meant to be. There wasn't even a hint of sandalwood. No grounding note to soothe the nose. Just powder and floral and unwanted memories of grandma's dusty potpourri.

 

Straight to the swap pile with you, Maria.

[Lucchesa]

Hail Mary, full of jasmine. It's practically the last listed note, and it's night-blooming, which tends to be better behaved on me, but in Ave Maria Gratia Plena the jasmine squelches all the notes I was hoping to hear from: the rosewood and sandalwood, the lemon and sage. It dries down into a somewhat musky, powdery floral with good wear length. Not for me. A rosewood, lemon peel, sage and sandalwood blend would be lovely, though, if anybody's listening...