Ophelia

[Lux667]

Wistful and vulnerable: lotus, water blossom ivy, stargazer lily and white rose.

Initial: Very sweet and fruity floral. Some hints of green and musk.

During: The rose and the green notes are very apparent when its still wet and retains a very soft fruity edge. Once it dries down, it's less fruity and remains sweet smelling but has a sort of papery/powdery smell that still hints at musk but less like any green notes.

Final: Very soft and has a velvety or papery quality. The rose stays apparent throughout the wearing. It wears off quickly though- I had it on for only a few hours before the scent really faded off.

As always with perfume and chemistry, your mileage may indeed vary.

[Witch's Dagger]

I got this one as a freebie from the lab - thanks!

 

Preconceived notions:

Very first thought (upon reading the description ages ago): It's Ophelia, but there's no rosemary or pansies???

 

Then (after having come to terms with the lack of rosemary and pansies and adding it to my tentative wishlist): Well, it's on my tentative wishlist as possibly aquatic or ethereal, but, grr... it's gonna be another light floral. *opens imp, slowly, and hopes for the best*

 

In the vial: Ooh! This is nice: rosy, full-bodied, and complex. I have to try this now! Maybe light scents will be okay!

 

First impressions: Wow, this is even better! There's a lovely green scent in here that's coming to the forefront, not piney, but definitely somewhat sharp and herbal. Mmm... Must smell more...

 

After an hour: The herbal note is gone. It's rose, the kind of rose I would associate with a dark-haired women in her 40's. She looks somewhat exotic in my mind - with a hooked nose, black hair, and big, staring, dark eyes, but she isn't actually exotic. This is a woman you'd see every day - at the post office or the grocery store. She's somebody's mom, and she's going through the attic to get rid of things she no longer needs. Strong-willed and determined, and reliving the past.

 

After two hours: same as 'after an hour'.

 

Final impressions: This isn't bad, but it's a little too 'normal' for me, and I really miss the nice green herbal note that made this so complex earlier on. However, I think this would be a lovely scent for a character I play in a role-playing game. Much better than the synthetic 'tea rose' I used last time. I also don't find it at all aquatic or ethereal. Makes me reconsider my wishlist *sigh*

 

~Vorona

[shadow]

I like florals, and I mostly like aquatics, so I figured this one would be a given.

 

Immediately after application it's gorgeous - lotus usually turns to candy, but something is keeping this one light. You definitely get the water feel, and the flowers - big light pink blooms. But after 10 or 15 minutes another note is creeping through. I don't know what it is, but it's not good on me. It's not rot or mildew, but it makes me think of those giant seaweed pods. It's weird and it doesn't fit into the prettiness of the rest of the scent. Maybe I'm projecting the character on the scent, but I don't think I'll be able to wear this one on my skin. I do think it would be a perfect smell for linens though.

[omly]

Ophelia is a beautiful green aquatic floral. I usually think of aquatics as whites and blues, but this one has an underlying greenness which I think others are calling herby. On me it is not pronounced enough to call it herby, but it is most definately green. I am not particularly a fan of florals, although I do like rose. In Ophelia the rose was not nearly as prominent as it is in other BPAL blends. In fact after sitting on my skin for a few minutes it is lost in the murky depths.

 

On a more emotional note (as opposed to a purely olafactory one) this made me feel kinda sad. It is wonderful in how exactly it captures this Shakespearean character, but I don't know that I want to feel like Ophelia very often. This might be good to match a kind of blue day.

Edited September 11, 2004 by omly

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

Ohhhh, Oh Yes! One drop out of the imp and Ophelia made it to my Buy the Bottle list. This is my idea of personal perfection--I haven't smelled Pisces yet, but to me this is what a female Pisces (i.e. me! ) should smell like--mystical white rose, delicate aquatic florals. A romantic, a dreamer.

 

This is not crazed, mad Ophelia; this is the Pre-Raphaelite paintings of Ophelia-- the lovely girl sitting in the shade by a burbling river bank, quietly graceful, or floating gently on the river's surface in her gorgeous dress.

 

I am absolutely bonkers over this one and could wear it every day--except that there are so many imps left to try!!

[diabolique]

this may sound weird to some of you (read: every single one of you), but i establish the mood of beth's oils by the way that they flow. they either flow positively or negatively, that is, they seem to lift upward or drag down. that smell that you get the last few seconds you smell your wrist deeply is what i'm talking about. the sadness of this scent is apparent by how its direction seems to flow down.

 

i agree with laurel. this is not the insane ophelia, but rather the aftermath of ophelia's madness. this is a bitter, slow-motion whirlwind of depth and moodiness, which i feel is entirely appropriate. ophelia has amazing dual personalities. there's a twinge of bitterness and hatred as the madness dies down, but it's amazingly placid.

Edited September 25, 2004 by diabolique

[malanna]

On me, this is a powdery sort of scent. The powder isn't quite so strong, because of the wee bit of water mellowing it out. This is definitely a white scent. It made me think of how Queen of Hearts makes me think of an upright woman in a starched black suit at a Sunday brunch--this is the powder that makes the suit so stiff. I didn't really have any other impressions besides that, though. It's also soft and wispy, but it lasts for three or four hours.

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Watery floral. It smells sweet and gentle, like flower petals floating on the surface of a pool of water. It's a bit fruity, which surprised me.

 

On me: This is a VERY strong fragrance on me. Rose dominates the scene like it usually does, but it's sweeter, fruitier than usual. So in an hour it's going to smell a bit funny on me, but right now it's lovely. Lovely and sad, it's rose petals on top of a tiny spring, burbling up from the ground. The petals are floating downstream, getting wet but not being destroyed. It captures the character of Ophelia quite well.

[glampyre]

Ophelia.

 

I put Ophelia on my wrists and the first thing I thought was,

 

"How did they DO that?"

 

I can smell flowers floating in water!

 

It is definitely a treat.

 

If you're looking for a light, pretty floral with something a little 'extra' to make it complex and interesting, this is it!

[Camilla T]

This smelled really nice in the bottle. Soft, floral and innocent. Then I put it on and I was overpowered! It almost smelled like a very strong cleaning product - just too much!

Luckily it only lasted about five minutes and then I could suddenly smell soft roses and other flower notes again.

After about fifteen minutes it goes more powdery which I really like. It ends up smelling like in the bottle again - soft, floral and innocent. Lovely. Just have to work out if I can live with the five minutes of cleaning product

[JazzieCazzie]

Although most people here are referring to this as a floral, the fact that lotus and water blossom were the first two notes listed tipped me off that I might find this to be more aquatic than floral ... and while I love many of Beth's florals, aquatics are right behind fruity on my "sadly don't work for me" list ... but I swore to try each of the lovely generous imps I was gifted with and forged ahead.

 

IN THE BOTTLE: Actually struck me more as fruity on first sniff than aquatic OR floral. Sharp and yet not unpelasantly so ... rather sweet and spicy and ineffable. Definitely couldn't place any of the notes.

 

Swiped on both wrists and crooks of arms.

 

WET: There was something slightly medicinal about this but not in a bad way, more in a healing herbal way ... the fruitiness I'd sniffed in the bottle disappeared and the aqueous notes came out. Like a flowery swamp in early spring ...

 

DRYDOWN: At first dry the rose forged to the forefront but alas only briefly (I love Beth's roses) ... for a few minutes there I actually thought it might be a keeper! However within about a half-hour it dried to almost completely aquatic floral that just kind of assaulted me ... I know this sounds crazy, but I kept thinking "plastic toys in plastic boxes."

 

It also stayed very strong for several hours until, I confess, I washed it off.

 

It seems to be popular though, so I am sure whoever I pass this along to will love it!

[Pixie-elf]

I don't really know how to describe this... I came home from the hospital, and a procedure that went very well for me, and found a package from the LOVELY With Coffee Spoons with this and Pandora in them, and put it on first!

 

This comforted me greatly, it was sweet, but not as sweet as Pandora or Black Lotus, it's floral, but soft... It comforted me because it reminded me of my Granny...she died when I was 14, I was very close to her.... She was my best friend and also ill like me and it took me a while to realize why it reminded me of her, because she did NOT smell like this...

 

Then I realized, it reminded me of a toy she gave me from my childhood that smelled like this! I could swear it did! I don't remember what it was but I remember it's smell, so it comforted me a lot... I already got ONE gift on Monday, my procedure going wonderfully.... but this was a whole nother one, anything that reminds me of my Granny makes me smile and comforts me... it was like I was a little girl again.... It comforted me and to me, that's something very precious....

 

Thank you With Coffee Spoons, thank you so much sweetie. =) I really appriciate it...

 

This smells beautiful and in a way romantic, it makes me feel sophisticated, in a way... my Granny didn't smell like this but I think she would have liked it...

 

--Mystina

[Lucretia]

This is the cleanest, most crisp floral I've tried to date. It smells white and pure and sharp and very very clean. I would love to put this on if i didn't have a chance to shower, because it smells sooo clean. It smells cold almost it's so clean and white. There is no juicy sweet in here at all. This would have to be one of my very favorite florals. Nice!

[magikfanfic]

In the bottle: That's a very different kind of floral than the ones I've grown accustomed to with BPAL. It's kinda...not heavy but cloying. I could see how this would drag Ophelia down. There's also the hint of something sweet to it and, yes, water, clear streams.

 

Wet: It's got something of a green scent to it and there's that sweet note. It's a very fruit sugar kind of note. This has a pretty good throw and the throw smells a little different than the oil that's right on my wrist. It does smell like a nice, upscale perfume.

 

Dry down: It's still got that heavy, sweet note. I have no clear idea of what any of things in it smell like on their own other than roses and who knows if white smell like the others. Oh, I can smell the rose in the throw. And that bright green is probably the lotus as I had something else with the ivy and it surely didn't smell like this. This is bright and trickling, a very water over stones and petals kind of scent. The throw is really incredible. Usually, I just smell scents straight on my skin so it's odd that I can smell the throw.

 

Dry: I like this. I do, even though it's a bit more floral and less water than I had imagined. It morphs with time, too, the distance between the oil and my nose. It smells like a candle or incense or something that I had once. It's very nice. It's a little serious, though, and I don't know if I want a big bottle. I'm definitely keeping the imp and wearing it. probably more in the spring or summer than now. I'll give it a few more wears and decide how much I need for the future.

[sarahmarie]

Gasp! Could it be? A floral I like! And not only do I like it, but it seems to work reasonably well with my skin. (Okay, so this has happened before, but it's pretty rare.) Ophelia is very pretty, very feminine, and quite strong on my skin...but the flowers aren't choking me. It reminds me of spring. It smells a lot like lily-of-the-valley on me, which is great - I missed the lily-of-the-valley single note and I've regretted it every since. I can also pick up on the tea rose, and a green note.

 

As it dries down, it is turning slightly sharp, but florals always do that for me and it's not enough to ruin it. If your skin is floral-friendly, definitely try this blend - it's really lovely, even if you don't usually like florals.

[Rheliwen]

In the bottle: Soft white forals. Not as potent a floral as desdemona, more soft and understated.

 

Wet: Mmm, floral, aquatics and fresh greenery. I definitely smell the lily and water blossom in this. The forals have a musky quality to them.

 

Dry: The white rose is coming out to play, and I have decided just now that it's my favorite normal rose smell. I don't get any old grandma rose in this. Everything about this blend is bursting with life. Is this supposed to counter Ophelia's tragic death...lol?

 

Verdict: The aquatic is much more subtle against all the florals and it evokes images of small little ponds or inlets. It's a very green floral blend, which rounds out all the floral scents nicely.

 

And you know that fresh green scent in Rose Red that makes it to die for? I totally smell it in Ophelia. It's almost like this is Rose White, Rose Red's little sister.

[surf-tormented]

Soft.

 

This Ophelia is thin and wasting away. Drowning over her lost love.

 

Which is odd to me, because if Ophelia was a Dane or of German decent, wouldn't she be more buxom and meaty?

 

Oh, nevermind me. I always saw Ophelia as blonde, blue eyed and curvy.

 

But this is more the Ophelia of Reviving Ophelia, the whole system of the world poisoning girls, driving them to eating disorders, madness and maybe suicide. The floral brings this out...a sad, fading floral...trying to become powerful, but falling into the river, lazy and depressed..."there's rosemary...that's for remembrance..."

 

Soft, dying Ophelia. Wanting more than she got. Standing at the wall when she wanted to be in the limelight. Drifting, drifting, lapping under sweet water.

 

I imagine people with anorexia wearing this or maybe The Fasting Girl, Mollie Fancher, wearing this. A girl who was trying to waste herself or live on air. It isn't a pretty vision, but the perfume oil is just that...the smell of the image of a girl wasting away.

Edited January 8, 2005 by Madame Nyx

[VelvetSky]

I was gifted of an imp of Ophelia by the wonderful and generous fairywingmaker. Thank you so much, Bernadette, for giving me the chance to try this fragrance!

 

I can think of little to add to the reviews above. This is an absolutely gorgeous sweet aquatic floral....colors of soft pink, cool white, spring green and pale turquoise.

 

Ophelia is a bit too similar to my beloved Desdemona for me to put this on my big bottle list, but I do love this scent. So feminine.

[starrykitten]

I have to confess that I really didn't like Ophelia when I first tried it. It smelled like peach Jolly Ranchers to me. I went back, though, and tried it again, with much better success.

 

It's a floral that has a lot of staying power, sweet and wistful, but aquatic enough that I didn't feel like I was just wearing blossoms.

 

It's good for a day when you feel a little bashful and shy, but also feminine and a somewhat mysterious.

[phoefromelsewhere]

In the bottle: Watery and sweet.

 

Wet: This is very very pretty. Very girly and sweet but it’s dark and watery. If it stays at this stage, I may be able to wear it.

 

Drydown: This is completely evocative of Ophelia and it’s very nice but the rose and lotus are trampling poor Ophelia into the swap pile.

[paperdoll]

Initial Sniff: A delicate, watery, sweet floral.

Wearing: This is very pretty. The sweet pea dominates at first, but after a while it is pure rose.

Final Impressions: I don't wear rose well, and this scent is no exception. It is truly beautiful in the initial wet stage, though... perhaps a bit too delicate and wistful for my personality, but it is really beautiful.

[UltraViolet]

Wet

Oh my. (It seems I always say that when I'm blown away by a scent)

What a lovely powdery scent.

Now THIS is the most perfect rose blend I've ever smelled, period.

This is one of those scents that really encompasses the description "Wistful and vulnerable".

It's a light medium scent.

It has some throw.

It's airy and watery at the same time to me.

10 minutes

It hasn't changed (yay!) in the least, it's still the same balance of the notes and it's so lovely.

It has this powdery scent, it must be the stargazer lily, I would almost call it ethereal.

I know there isn't any in this blend but I could swear I smell peach way, way in the background. am I outta control or does this smell like Chanel No.5 a bit?

20 minutes

It needs some more staying power but it's not too dissappearing like Alice et al.

 

 

I would buy a 5 ml of this without hesitation.

[joseybird]

I wanted to love this--I really did! the aquatic notes pop out immediately and are absolutely exquisite. However, the florals in this blend soon overwhelm the pretty aquatics and develop into a heady "perfumey" scent that becomes astringent and scrapes at my nose =( Why why why?? When first applied it perfectly captures the sad, drowned innocence of Ophelia...

[phaedrine]

Florals and I don't often get along, but I picked this one up because I love white roses, so I thought I would try a white rose blend.

 

Sometimes lotus turns sickenly bubblegum on me, but not in this blend, thankfully.

 

It was ... nice. Pretty, white floral. That's about it...I didn't have too long to sample it, because it was mostly gone within a half hour. An hour later, I smell nothing on my skin at all.

 

*adds another to the list of white florals eaten by the skin*

[Macha]

I bought a bottle of Ophelia, unsniffed, because of the "what smells like LEs" discussion where a number of people mentioned they thought Ophelia was a good stand in for my precious, precious Rose Red. So...

 

In the bottle: Florals, a little rose, and an aquatic note that tickles my nose like champagne or some other bubbly alcohol. It does smell very delicate, very pale, very fragile.

 

Wet, on skin: I do not find this smell pleasant. In fact, it reminds me of nothing so much as cheap permanent wave setting solution. I am not at all pleased, particularly since it seems to have a healthy throw. I bemoan the fact that I have indeed managed to buy a bottle of something that it looks like I'm going to loathe....

 

Dry, on skin: Or have I? As I finish having breakfast with my boyfriend (pineapple pancakes, yum!) I start to catch whisps of a clean, crisp, rather refreshing rose scent, and yes indeed, it turns out that I'm the source. It's not a perfect match of Rose Red, but the more I smell this, the more it's growing on me. It seems to have fine staying power, and excellent throw, and I think I'm beginning to understand why Ophelia is so well loved (by BPAL fans, if not by a certain Prince of Denmark.)

 

Conclusion: Despite a bad beginning, I think this could be a winner.