New Orleans

[dcmo]

Reminiscent of hothouse blooms on a humid night, ripe, but touched with decay. Sweet honeysuckle and jasmine with a hint of lemon and spice.

This is the first Wanderlust scent I have tried, and wow it's beautiful! In the initial wet stage this did smell very soapy but has dried down so nice. Very floral, humid, sexy, southern scent. I'm definitely getting the imagery of sitting on a screened in veranda sipping something cool on a very hot day.

Big bonus points on throw and staying power as well. Definitely in my top five.

[shelldoo]

wow in the vial and wet i got no floral, i got the decay and ozone.

 

as it dried it went very jasmine w/ a hint of honeysuckle, i was hoping for a bit more spice another for swaps

[magikfanfic]

In the bottle: Fruity floral with a spice background note. I can't pull any of the notes out just by sniffing the bottle, which is weird as lemon is usually like "Here I am! No here. Right here!" It's a nice floral, damp kind of smell. Heavy but still bright.

 

Wet: When it touches my skin the jasmine leaps right out followed very closely by the honeysuckle in the throw. The jasmine is the main note, though, and sits happily on the skin while the honeysuckle prefers to waft around it and dominant the throw. Together these are quite lovely. The spices are only reallt detecable if I sniff my wrist straight as they sit behind everything else, and the lemon appears to be gone.

 

Dry down: Hm. Maybe not so great. The spices are beginning to perk up and demand their time in the scent though the throw is still sweet honeysuckle with a trace of jasmine. Still no sign of the usually very loud lemon, though. This is still something of a heavy, wet, ponderous scent. It speaks of being mansions with vines coiled around old marble statues and wrought irons gates heavy and locked. Now the spices are dying down again and the jasmine is very close to the skin. The throw is sweetened by the honeysuckle with the jasmine sitting close underneath. Again no real sign of the lemon.

 

Dry: Still jasmine and honeysuckle with the jasmine being the strongest scent and sitting the closest to the skin. The spice has all but faded away and the lemon never appeared. This is a very nice scent, though. A heavy floral that remains bright in spite of the weight of it. It helps that I love both these florals scents because they really dominate the blend. I may end up having to get this in a bigger bottle as I imagine that it would be a perfect spring and summer scent.

[Spastik_Kitty]

In the bottle: Holy flower power Batman.

 

First on: Extremely strong floral

 

After a few seconds: The floral notes are still very strong and a soapy note is coming forth. It reminds me of a Victorian soap.

 

After an hour: I can still smell a floral soap but now some other notes of burning wood and pecans are becoming the dominant scent.

 

A bit after that: No more floral or soap, just a nutty campfire scent which is nice but rather faint.

 

To me this smells nothing of the New Orleans of today, but I can imagine this is what it would smell like walking around the quarter at the begining of the 1900s. Strong floral soaps, burnt wood and pecans. A time where the city caught on fire on a regular basis, people doused themselves in strong floral scents to hide the fact they hadn't showered for days and the pecan trees pelt you while you walk past (they still do this mind you). An innocent scent hiding a sordid past.

Edited February 27, 2005 by Spastik_Kitty

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 3/5

Summarised in a word or two: Honeysuckle!

 

In the imp/bottle: It's surprising, but it does remind me of New Orleans. In the vial, I definitely notice the jasmine first, with a tiny, weak hint of lemon under it. It made me sneeze at first.

 

On skin, wet: The honeysuckle comes out, right alongside the jasmine, which becomes a bit warmer after a minute or so. I can sense the "decay", actually, which I think is caused by the spice coming out. Very, very nice.

 

On skin, dry: The spice comes up to mingle with the honeysuckle, and the jasmine fades slightly. The lemon mades a re-appearance, though again, in a very subtle way. Again, the entire scent seems a bit warmer.

 

Conclusion: I never really cared for jasmine, but the honeysuckle tempers it very well on my skin.

Edited December 24, 2005 by Aredhel

[surf-tormented]

Nice, one of my favorite Wanderlusts (?). Heady and romantic, like your first kiss at a voodoo shop. Fantastic.

[quimerula]

Wet it's jasmine and lemon, with a spicy and honeysuckle undertone.

 

Step by step the spices are growing, specially the cinnamon...

 

It's intense but fresh, exotic and sexy; maybe a big bottle?

[ChupaChup]

New Orleans was a gift from the lab, thank you for letting me try it! I was pretty sure this wasn't going to work on me, jasmine doesn't usually. It didn't - the only thing I get from this is jasmine and the "rot" smell, no lemon, honeysuckle or spices. The jasmine just kept getting stronger, I tried to last it out but after an hour I had to wash it off .

Edited April 11, 2005 by ChupaChup

[anmorata]

New Orleans:

 

Hm. I didn't really get a lot of jasmine out of New Orleans.. not like I expected. It's there, but it's not predominant. What I smell is mostly honeysuckle and a touch of lemon. The spicy tone didn't come out for a good 20 minutes or thereabouts. I really like the way it mellows out with the spice.. it's a nice addition. I don't know if I'd wear this regularly, but I really like New Orleans.

[blackrayne]

I put this on about two hours ago, and forgot entirely about reviewing it right then.

 

It, on me, is amazing. Lightly floral, with the jasmine a bit stronger than the honeysuckle, and a very faint hint of spice... to the point where it's barely noticable.

 

I feel like I should be exploring an ancient cemetery, in the sweltering heat and humidity of the summer, just as the sun is setting.

[Eros]

Upon opening~Jasmine, which my nose always seems to pick up on first.

 

Same thing wet, the other notes are there, but not enough that I can actually *say* I'm picking them up. More of a, I can *feel* them, if that makes any sense.

 

Dry down/wearing~Definitely lives up to its description! Humid and sticky but in a good way.

 

Worn it a few times & I really like it! But since there are others I also want to try I'm letting this one go to a new home

[leahcat]

New Orleans

 

in the bottle: BAM! Honeysuckle without a doubt.

wet: Honeysuckle with a faint touch of lemon. Nothing else in there yet. Okay, 5th sniff or so I’m picking up jasmine, actually stronger than the honeysuckle....ooo I like this. (jasmine being my favorite flower!)

drying/10 minutes: rather faint now but no single note that is taking over. I can’t even really make out each part. I get a wiff of lemon over jasmine and honeysuckle (which I can only ID because they were so distinct when wet). Whatever spices in there are very subtle – I can convince my nose that they exist, but I could not tell you what they are.

dry/45 minutes: a soft floral is all that’s left. A touch of spice, I’m not sure I can get any lemon in it. Rather nice, actually. I’m just not a floral person.

[VorpalBunny]

Ooh, Beth has created yet another fabulous floral. It has a predominantly night-blooming floral scent, but spicy, darker and more intense. The smell comes across as mostly jasmine and cinnamon to me. I love it.

[pekeana]

It should scare me that I like this, what with my complete hatred of most florals and all, but somehow, it doesn't.

 

New Orleans is very, exceedingly, extremely floral. That being said, it's a light, sweet floral, backed up by warm, humid air and just the barest hints of citrus and spice -- it's a deep, sexy, powerful blend. It works so well with my skin that I might have to eventually break down and buy a bottle of it for when I'm having a "must wear floral, must be girly" moment. But for now, the imp will do me.

[cupide430]

New Orleans

A frimp from the lab, but I did order it in my Milk/Flower Moon order after hearing it was similar to my beloved Eos.

 

Of all the jasmine blends, this smells the most like Lush's Flying Fox to me. It has a sweet fresh honeysuckle note which is absolutely lovely. It is the closest to the way that honeysuckle smells on the vine. There's some heady note hanging out with the lovely fresh honeysuckle, it makes the blend a bit heavy and makes it smell sort of ripe and fruity. I think it is maybe a lily note? If not it has that lily ripeness going on. Looming in the background taunting me is a smoky/cigarette/ashtray note that is threatening to ruin this for me. I think I'm going to need to try this again to see if it is a skin chemistry issue or something else. I really want to like this and I'm so close... Wow, this is really really strong. I did put a good dab on, but wow. Major throw on this one. Might be a bit too strong for me.

[ismene]

Hothouse blooms indeed! This scent is all honeysuckle and jasmine on me, but there's no hint of decay or even spice. It reminds me of walking past the huge honeysuckle bushes when traveling in the south and of the tiny honeysuckle bush in the front yard of my childhood home - though it never got so big or so fragrant, since the climate here isn't mild enough for a long flowering period.

 

New Orleans is a heady floral but still somewhat delicate. I can't speak to it's staying power, since the jasmine started giving me headache after a bit and I had to wash off the oil.

[urraca]

This went weird on me. I think I know why.

 

A week or so a friend asked me to try her favourite perfume (not BPAL) which she described as spicy. Erp, I said, it's kind of foody. Kind of like uncooked cake batter. And not spice cake batter either, which might make some sense.

 

Flash forward to New Orleans. When it goes on the lemon is the strongest note, on top of something that might be the jasmine and the honeysuckle. But not ten minutes later it has morphed into that odd cakey smell. I think it must be the spice that disagrees with me. I've never seen anyone review a scent as going batter-y on them. I wonder if this is the scent that some describe as playdoh?

 

Anyway, I have learned something about spice which is: No.

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Super-jasmine that has been darkened by a spicy note. Honeysuckle really amps the florals up in this blend.

On me: Corruupted blossoms. The jasmine is strong, but piercing; the honeysuckle is high-strung and both hang heavy in the air. This fragrance seems very crumbly, like a headstone that's been worn down to a blank slate. That's what this perfume evokes to me; an overgrown graveyard where the stone is being corroded and the plants can't be controlled, so that wild vines coil and buds burst into bloom everywhere.

[Blood onmy hands]

In the vial, this scares me... it is an overwhelmingly strong scent of jasmine and lemons. When jasmine is too strong, it easily gives me a migraine.

 

On my skin, however, the jasmine disappears. But what does appear is not good. Not good at all.

 

This smells like something rotting and burning. When I sniff my wrist, my stomach literally lurches and I feel nauseous. And it's so strong. Like rotting flesh and burning garbage. I'm holding my hand away from my face and it's still hitting me and making me sick...

 

It's only been on for about five minutes and it isn't changing... but it's making me so sick that I have to get it off NOW. This is the quickest I've ever had to wash off a fragrance.

[JazzieCazzie]

BOTTLE: Floral floral floral. Jasmine and honeysuckle bam on the nose.

 

WET: I'm not sure it reminds me of New Orleans, but it's a great floral. Slightly smoky, very lush, hot and exotic. This would be a great vacation scent to wear with a cute silk sundress and a fresh flower behind my ear.

 

DRYDOWN: A little goes a long way. Definitely not an everyday scent.

 

On a scale of 1-5 I give it a solid 4 for special occasions.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: a freebie from the lab. very, very sweet and heavy. i can mostly smell the honeysuckle and spice.

on: sweet, heavy, heady flowers. very nice. i think i smell a bit of lilac, too.

half an hour later: this is so beautiful. it's a really dense scent, but i really love it. gorgeous.

2 hours later: a little too soapy for my tastes.

overall: if this stayed the same as when i first put it on, i would definitely keep it. unfortunately, it doesn't.

[wickedgoddess]

Origins - imp received in a swap

 

Preconceived Notions - I am completely in love with New Orleans the city, but I'm not much of a lemon fan, so it took me quite a while to actually get around to try this.

 

Wet - lemon is the pedominent note here, overwhelming the rest. I can tell there is something else in here, but can't quite get a sniff of it.

 

Dry - Still very lemony, but I can smell jasmine and honeysuckle. It smells languorish, like a humid summer night. After awhile the jasmine comes on strong, but it's the spicy jasmine of The Moon, that I love so much. This is so much nicer than I expected. Because I am already getting a bottle of The Moon, I don't think I need this too, but it is very evocative, and a fantastic summer scent.

 

On the wickedgoddess scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being best, this rates a 3.

[emmacrew]

You have to love honeysuckle to love this one. Luckily, I do; back in college I used to wear a single-note honeysuckle fragrance. This is much sexier and more grown-up than that sweet young woman scent I used to wear. The jasmine adds headiness to the honeysuckle. The lemon and spice really are there to keep the flowers company, they waft in and out of the floral haze. It's got staying power, too, I put it on 12 hours ago, with a very tiny touch-up at the wrists (but not everywhere else I normally apply, namely cleavage, inner elbows, behind the ears) 8 hours ago, and it's still there, a sweet honeysuckle afterimage.

 

This would be excellent for sultry summer nights, which we don't really have very many of up here near Seattle. But I can dab some of this on and create my own sultry summer night!

 

It also layers very nicely over Lush's Flying Fox.

[OdetteOdile]

New Orleans

1st hour - A combination of heavy, sensual, sweet flowers with bright, friendly mint (evokes Sophia Loren in a blue and white sundress, or possibly a sailor top.)

 

2 hours later - the mint finally faded and now this lady's true, unabashedly sensual nature is in full control.

Now it's mostly jasmine - but a very nice, non-cloying jasmine - very much the scent of high summer in the deep south.

This is one of my favorites of the strong jasmine BPAL scents. (It's amazing how different the different jasmines can be.)

 

Edited to say I'm aware that mint wasn't listed in the description, but I swear I smelled mint, and lots of it. In fact, mint keeps showing up on my skin in blends that don't apparently contain mint (what's up with that? I don't think I smell of mint naturally.)

Edited July 14, 2005 by OdetteOdile

[Abbie]

In the bottle: Jasmine with a watery, salty tinge beneath it. It's a very languid, subtropical sort of scent.

 

First on: This is mostly jasmine... I can't really pick up anything else. For me this isn't a bad thing, since I lurve jasmine, but it's a strong, heavy scent for others.

 

Dry: There may be a bit of lemon in here, but it's still OMGWTF JASMINE.

 

Overall: Well... I like jasmine, but I was hoping for the blend more than the pure scent, which I can get anyplace. Probably not a big-bottler.