Cordelia

[Aevie]

The essence of faith, love and devotion: lilac, lemon, green tea, wisteria, osmanthus, white cedar, and Chinese musk.

In the bottle, this one smelled a little sharp, in a good way. Very crisp, and clear. I could smell florals with a hint of lemon, and was very eager to try it on.

Wet on my skin, I could smell the florals still with just a very slight kick of spice, but something almost powdery started to surface.

Dry made me a little sad. It smells primarily like baby powder on me for some weird reason, with just the slightest hint of lemon. It was so pretty in the bottle, but my chemistry had to go and mess it up! I may keep this one for my scent locket instead.

[loubric]

I had high hopes for this scent because of the green tea and lemon but alas it turned to musky old granny on me

The musk being the primary note on me. Oh well can’t win em all.

[frecklestars]

In the bottle: strongly musky cedar, very masculine. not surprised, given how ethereal the other ingredients are (at least in comparison to those two). I catch a teensy tiny bit of the wisteria, which makes it quite a bit more moody, but not enough to call attention away from the cedar and musk. dreading it, since I know those two things just don't do it for me.

 

On my skin: strongly like cedar and musk when first put on, with the more pleasant floral aspects coming through on the dry-down (mostly wisteria and lilacs). the green tea comes in later on, with an afterwhiff of lemon. this is surprisingly complex! finally changes to osmanthus and a hint of lemon. quite a journey, but the beginning is definitely icky on my skin.

 

Last thoughts: there is just too much to muscle through at the beginning for it to be worth it for me. I love wisteria and lilac (so somber!), and the green tea/lemon combination as well, but that first part with musky cedar at the forefront...no thanks!

[lilyliza]

In the bottle: Lemon, green tea, musk...something spicy?

 

Wet: Lots of lilac and wisteria, pretty. It rounds out quickly to cedar and musk prettied up by florals, lemon, and green tea. There's a sense of clarity and quiet but unmistakable strength. The brighter notes and florals keep it from being traditionally masculine. The blend is fabulous. There's a definite spiciness about this- it reminds me most of cinnamon, like others have mentioned.

 

Drydown: The lemon and the lilac come out more, making this decidedly feminine. This is not a strong scent, but I really like its soft subtlety. The cedar and musk give it a little punch at the same time.

 

It's lovely. There's a sort of calm resoluteness about it that I adore.

[Chelse]

I am finding that florals go 'public bathroom' scent on me.... Cordelia included. Boo.

[KittyHawk]

Imp: A light, fresh floral smothered in woody musk. I like it! It's sharp but not acrid.

 

Wet: As soon as I applied this to my wrist, the lilac and wisteria bloomed. Lilac is one of my favorite notes, and luckily for me my skin loves it too. There's still a nice base of musk here.

 

Dry: Lovely bright summery floral stays grounded thanks to the musk and cedar. I'm so glad flowers love my skin; it certainly is a fine line between beautiful flowers and truck stop restroom. Thankfully, my skin keeps this scent on the correct side of that line.

 

Cordelia is a more feminine version of Lysander. I am in love with this, but I'll have to try this and Lysander together to decide which I'd prefer a bottle of sooner. Regardless, this is a definite keeper!

[milo]

Wet, fresh bright floral, though I can't seem to determine which ones. Dry, powdery floral, kind of like an orris blend would be. That's it folks, no musk or tea, just a powdery floral, and it's pretty strong. Cordelia is not my cup of tea, though it does smell kind of pretty and would be awesome on the right person.

[BoneBone24]

Wet: Gorgeous lilacs!

 

Drydown: Sparkly (the lemon I'm guessing) orgasmic lilacs with a bit of cedar and musk in the background.

 

Dry: Same as the drydown but slighty softer, almost powdery but not quite. Soft woodsy lilacs.

 

 

Well, this confirms my love of lilac. It's very very nice but probably not the lilac blend for me. I will happily wear this until I find my lilac blend though!

 

8.5 out of 10 bones

Edited June 21, 2013 by BoneBone24

[karykeion]

I all kinds of love this, and I am really not sure why. I don't like the smell or taste of lemon, I'm really not a floral person, and while this is an extremely pretty scent, it's also super girly, which is not my thing. By all accounts, I should hate this, but I don't. It's not my favorite scent but I really love it nonetheless, it's like the perfume equivalent of that one sweater you own that isn't really you but it's just SO comfortable that you keep it to wear around the house anyway.

 

 

In the imp: WHOA BACK UP STOP THE TRAIN. It's That Weird Note from Bewitched, but less aggressive. Okay, so I guess That Note was dark musk, and this is Chinese musk? Cool. And lemon! And flowers! I can never smell the tea note, and as a tea lover this makes my soul cry. Eh.

 

On me, wet: Not much lemon! I'm getting two really strong things in particular; one of them is this incomprehensible mix of flowers and one of them is the musk. There's just a little bit of wood, and there is this one note that I cannot for the life of me place but I want it, it's just all hanging out in the background being sweet and kind of creamy and just popping out to say hello if I ask it very nicely. Basically I feel like this smells like a summer afternoon, if that makes sense. It's really yellow to me. It's getting a little angry, but I think perfumes just do that on me at first in general.

 

On me, dry: This is the phase that made a friend of mine describe me as smelling, and I quote, "like a Serta mattress in the middle of a field of posies". I guess Chinese musk doesn't get angry on me at all--it's teaming up with the cedar and making me smell less gratuitously girly! Also, that one pretty note decided to quit being shy and come join the rest of the class, but is still using its inside voice, and whatever it is, it's getting along excellently with everything else. God, what IS that? I have no idea what lilacs smell like, but everyone else is going "oooh, lilacs!". Is this lilac? It's amazing!

 

It doesn't have a lot of staying power, and my imp is going fast. I am dangerously in love with it.

[bpalscentsual]

1/20/2012: Cordelia (Illyria)

 

Previous scents: Dove ‘fresh’ scented women’s deodorant-antiperspirant.

 

In the bottle: Sweet, light floral.

 

Testing: Two swipes on both wrists.

 

Immediately: This is like Sweat Pea from Bath and Body Works, but with much more depth.

 

Fifteen minutes: What’s that one white flower with the waxy, leaflike petals? That’s this. This is deepening from merely ‘sweet’ into ‘sweet and tangy’. Very feminine.

 

One hour: I am pleased to report that this is a floral without anything musty or musky about it. Very “white” flowers, too. This is evocative of how I interpret Cordelia’s character.

 

Several hours: The floral has deepened somewhat from a pure white to a light blue. This is starting to echo the sadness in Cordelia at her exile. It seems longing.

 

Overall: I’m testing Desdemona soon as well, but it may be in for a run of its money. I’ll use this imp of Cordelia and then some, maybe. Lovely, refreshing, feminine floral.

 

Addendum: I wrote this review without the scent description at hand, and I didn’t get anything like musk, lemon, tea, or cedar from this! I'm starting to wonder whether I didn't pick up Desdemona by mistake. However, this is pretty much The Wisteria Show, so...

 

DISCLAIMER: Due to differences in skin chemistry, inherent olfactory powers, and other scents that an individual might use throughout the day (i.e. scented deodorants, shampoos, room sprays, cooking odors), these oils will smell different on every individual. This review is only intended to illustrate my personal experience wearing it throughout the day.

[mymymai]

In the Imp (ITI): On initial sniff, the scent is rather soapy and floral. It reminds me of the French soaps one typically finds in luxury hotels or B&B’s. The lilac and wisteria are rather overpowering and it’s difficult to pick out other notes on the first and second sniff. After a while. I get a little lemon, some tea, and perhaps just a touch of musk. Unfortunately, sniffing deeper in making me want to sneeze – it’s a rather potent scent.

 

Wet: Again, lilac and wisteria are the strongest notes, but it’s sweetened a bit by the tea and the osmanthus. There is a faint hint of citrus and just a little woodiness from the cedar. It’s nice on the skin than in the bottle.

 

Dry: After 8 hours, the scent is rather light, but still distinctly floral in its lilac and osmanthus notes. There is still just a hint of tea and musk, and perhaps just a little of the wisteria. It’s a pretty scent, but it’s too sharply floral when wet. My husband likes it, just not as a perfume. He said he would like the house to smell like it.

[sessile]

at first: white florals after a rain in spring

 

then: musk/white cedar come out, with lilac/lemon on top. the white flowers are faint in the background.

 

really delicate, feminine scent, with the white cedar bringing a little gothic to the proceedings.

[whitsunweddings]

Cordelia is my middle name, so I had to try this.

In the imp: Cedar like whoa.

Wet: The most planty and green perfume I've ever smelled. Not floral, or woody, or piney, it literally just smelled like leaves.

Dry: Peculiar! Musky florals and leaves.

After fifteen minutes, it seemed to be mostly green tea and musk, with maybe a bit of violet and lemon. It's a remarkable scent, so fresh and multi-faceted.

[brilliantcat]

In the imp, it's delicious lemony green tea. I'm a bit concerned because lemon usually behaves one of two ways on me: dish soap or furniture polish.

 

Once on me, it's predominately lilac though and I adore the scent of lilacs. They remind me of great-grandmother, who had a huge lilac bush in her backyard that I used to use as a cave when I played. My mother took a cutting from that bush and so I have very strong scent memories attached to lilacs. There is no hint of dish soap OR furniture polish, yay! As it warms, the lilac takes on an almost aquatic note. This is just beautiful. I rarely wear florals but I'd make an exception for this.

[Tiada]

Imp: LILACS! I just love lilacs so much.

Wet: Yup, still lilac. Unfortunately lemon and something that makes it smell like cleaner are trying to take over. I'm afraid!

Dry: Totally killed. It smells only like a bathroom cleaner that's lemon (as that fake lemon) and lilac (but the bad smeller kind, not naturally), and cedar.

 

I'm so disappointed, since I was really hoping for some lilac love, and that's obviously not the case.

[filigree_shadow]

I like lilac scents a lot, but this one smells bitter on me. Not soft and fluffy. BPAL has other lilac scents I like better, so this one can safely go on to another home.

[fairestrocza]

This starts out as a sweet/spicy floral. Just when I thought Cordelia might go into the keeper box, it turned soapy. I now smell like I washed with the purple seashell soap at grandma's house. It is a nice, fancy soap scent, but not what I am looking for from a personal fragrance.

[Lethran]

In bottle: No skin test for lemon. This is a strange mix of earthy and ethereal. Lilac is dominant with wisteria support, but the cedar with osmanthus support is almost as strong and the factions play well together. The florals give a juicy liveliness to the paleness of the blend, which might otherwise render it dry. The green tea is a pervasive base with its touch of lemon. The musk is beautifully blended with the pale elements.

[melrose]

In imp and on, wet: Lovely lilacs and a hint of lemon. If only it would stay like this.

Drydown: All the other notes come out. All at once. There are so many of them that I get only a ''it's okay'' vibe. Pity.

[Jupita]

In the imp: cedar with a little something of wisteria. a bit icky to my taste.

 

Wet: lilacs and lemon are coming forth. lilacs being the main theme here. this is... a bit poisonous to me.

it's floral, no doubt to that... but it just doesn't feel right. it's not soapy, nor granny type. and it's going more and more lilacy on me by the second.

 

agh... here comes the wisteria again. it's the note I was afraid of the most, and yup, it smells just as bad as the flowers smell to my nose.

hopefully any other note will come back any time soon...(

 

here comes the osmanthus.

 

dry: it's a floral, quite white to my nose, despite it all. like sitting in a park, in the beginning of summer. it's soft, fresh, floral. the cedar isn't present to me, at all. the tea might give this a bit of crispness, but isn't very present either. the lemon note seems to have faded at the very beginning. it's all florals, and not much else.

[false.azure]

Testing some lab frimps from my last order.

 

In the imp: Lilac, green tea, and musk. It's a clean, musky floral.

 

Wet on skin: It smells like...perfume. It's a bit green, and a bit white, and the lilac is very prominent, but at this point, everything just smells like a really generic floral perfume (and not a good one). I think it's because I'm amping the lilac a bit.

 

Dry on skin: Something has gone a bit powdery in the background, and the musk seems to overtake everything else in the background. The foreground and mid ground are entirely "generic plant matter" and "strong lilac." I'm not getting any of the lemon or cedar. It's a really generic "perfumey" scent to my nose. I didn't wear it long enough to tell how or if it would morph over time.

 

Verdict: This is one of those scents that isn't "soapy" as much as it "smells like soap." The lilac is really strong on me, and the type of musk used in the background are very similar to the types of musk used in various soaps. It feels like an old grandma scent to me. I don't think I'll be wearing this one again. I guess I amp lilac, and not in a good way.

[DiesMali]

In the imp: Smells exactly like the lilacs blooming in my backyard right now.

 

Wet on my skin: Fresh, newly-bloomed lilac, green cedar needles and bark, and a bit of musk.

 

Dry: That same fresh lilac, fresh cedar, with musk and a hint of the wisteria. It's very green and lilac and beautiful, and there's a slightly sharp edge from the lemon and tea. Those last two notes don't stand out by themselves, but serve to freshen and "green" the rest of the blend. I love lilacs (and realistic-smelling lilac scents), and this is definitely one. Pretty!

[Veronica]

Wet, this is a clean, sharp floral--very fresh and white. As it dries, the sharpness burns off, but this still remains one of the wettest, freshest florals I've tried from BPAL. It smells like a freshly picked bloom.

[freyasfae]

This is a pretty, bright floral. Wet it is mainly lemon and green tea, but then florals round it out on the drydown and it becomes more floral than citrus tea. The musk and cedar stay close to the skin, making this a layered and complex scent. I love when BPAL makes their scents an experience like this.

[Joyleaf_]

I received this in a recent order as a frimp.

I usually tend for more spicy, musky scents, so I would have passed right by it.

However this floral is clear, a little creamy has a spice to it that reminds me of carnations.

Its alright for a floral, but not something Ill pick up again