Hymn

[grrrlennyl]

hymn

 

A paean to true holiness, spiritual purity, and sacred enlightenment. Based on an incense blend sacred to the Virgin Mary: perfect rose absolute and Palestinian Lily of the Valley with olibanum, labdanum, frankincense and myrrh.

 

at first: the lab tossed this in as an extra. this is so soft that i can barely smell anything. what i can smell is pretty, though.

on: interesting. much stronger than in the bottle. i can smell a bit of rose, but can't really pick anything else out. there's definitely a lot of other scents mixed in. it reminds me of flowers in church.

1 hour later: interesting. there's a bit of a plastic-y smell that i didn't get before, but it isn't unpleasant. still floral and church-like.

2 hours later: hmmm...i don't think i like how this is changing. i can't really describe why, though. it's rose, but with some other scent that i don't really like on me.

3 hours later: this smells like a lot of old women with way too much perfume on sitting in church. can't decide if that's a good or a bad thing.

overall: i'll be keeping my imp. i'm going to try it in my oil burner. i really don't know if i love or hate this one. at least it's interesting.

[OdetteOdile]

Floral and a bit powdery.

It strongly reminds me of a little girl lotions and perfume line they used to carry at the FAO Schwarz toy store when I was a kid - ("Princess-something-or-other"). Very girly and light and youthful. Roses and lily of the valley.

Maybe it's Easter at church - ladies in their straw Easter hats might smell this way.

[Damask Rose]

I am a huge rose fan and am always ordering imps that contain rose, but with this all I can smell is lily of the valley, and lots of it!

 

Floral BPAL scents usually fade really quickly on me but this one lasted ages and was so strong it gave me a headache!

 

Unfortunately all I can smell is the lily of the valley and the "incense" smells don't develop on me at all which is a shame as they are the reason I chose this scent.

 

Oh well, it's not awful, it's just not what I thought it would be. I'll use up the imp but won't be buying a bottle.

[Northernminx]

A light, incensey floral in the bottle. On application this was predominantly a dry, dusty rose, light and not too overpowering. There's a sweetness of lily underneath that begins to come out and a defininte incense dryness from the frankinsence. I found this very soothing and soft and not too overpowering. I think it will become a keeper for the list of bedtime scents.

[Nepthys]

In the imp, this is delightful - but on me it turns into an old lady churchy-rose smell and stays that way. Definitely a house scent.

[phaedrine]

In the bottle, this one smells lovely, all frankincense and myrrh sweetened by the florals, but not anything heavily floral.

 

On, sadly, this is one of those blends where my skin grabs the rose and eats everything else. Five minutes later, it was ALL rose, no lovely frankincense, no lovely myrrh, no anything else.

 

Sigh.

 

In to the swap pile with ye!

[VelvetSky]

Hymn is a sweet, white, ecclesiastical blend...the only thing saving it from utter purity on my skin is the myrrh.

 

The topnotes of white rose and lily are very pretty. The florals sweeten and become stronger as it warms up, becoming incensey and soapy midway thru.

 

The bottom of this fragrance is basically rose and resiny frankincense on my skin, which is very lovely and feminine, although it's extremely difficult to separate myself from the church-y impressions this blend makes for me.

 

Hymn is nice. I'm not sure how often I'll wear it, but I appreciate the sweet powdery character of this oil.

[JazzieCazzie]

I ordered an imp of this based on the notes, but received it as a frimp in the order before that one comes so I will have two of these soon ...

BOTTLE: A really wonderful floral. Somehow so familiar and comforting, I can't really pick out any of the individual notes in the imp.

WET: It's a very rich and lovely and warm scent, and as I said, somehow familiar from childhood. It's really clean. The "church smells" keep it from being too overwhelmingly floral.

DRYDOWN: Sadly, it went a bit soapy on me ... I have figured out that I am pretty sure it is the lily that does this to me. But the scent has a lot of legs and by the end of the evening it was still subtly there, a bit less soapy but rich and sweet ... I keep thinking that though it's not in the description, there may be some honey in it ... I had a bottle of Sephora's honeysuckle scent that was heavily honey, and this reminds me of the drydown on that.

 

I don't think I would wear this as a perfume but I think it would make an AMAZING bath oil and plan to put aside my two imps for that purpose.

[feline.by.design]

Ah, Hymn... strong, floral, very "perfumey." At least that is how it was for me.

 

The florals on me get a bit powdery. Ah, the note of rose, how fickle you are to me. Aside from my animosity towards the rose, these flowers really give one the image of "bright" flowers. Pale blossoms that radiate their own light.

 

To a person who likes floral fragrances, Hymn is something that would no doubt please you. But for me, this just wasn't my can of Spam.

 

-doreen

[UltraViolet]

Hymn is a burst of medium soft powdery roses. I don't smell the myrrh, nor the frankincense, and I can't pinpoint the lily either. No overtones or undertones to my nose, just rose. It’s not too sweet, it's calming. There’s a definite watery note carrying the rose. This one is powerful in the reaction it causes in me. It’s not so much a scent as an idea or a feeling.

Though this isn’t a scent that I would wear during my workday as it is too emotional for me, it is a scent that I would most definitely wear when doing meditation or other such “work” as it has a lot of healing, west element, emotional, feminine energy.

Edited January 31, 2005 by UltraViolet

[Finny]

Sniffing from the imp, I smell rose, frankincense, and myrrh.

 

On though, the frankincense and myrrh fade to the background. Rose, and a soapy smell, lily? with the resins softening everything together. The soapy smell disappears after a bit. It has a lot of throw on me, I dabbed a tiny amount on my wrist and my whole room smells of this. I like it, as it dries down it becomes soft and resiny. I can still smell the rose, but the soapy smell is gone, and the resins keep it from screaming floral. I have a hard time finding florals I can wear, the floral notes usually drown out everything else in the blend. I'm not sure what olibanum or labdanum smell like, and I'm not picking up anything but soft rose, frankincense and myrrh.

[autumnviolet]

Hymn: a curious, spiritual smell.

In bottle, wet: wow! amber and rose. Maybe myrrh. Strong. I'm afraid to put too much on.

dry down: church-y with roses. Amber. Relatively strong on me.

Hours later: this really dies down on me. barely sniffable. like a beautiful hymn, fading away into the ether, light streaming through stained glass windows.

Still sweet amber, with roses.

[requieminblack]

First sniff from the bottle- Frankincense and Myrrh.

 

After 10 minutes- Now the florals are coming trough and over powering the resins. There must be rose in this because now that is all I can smell.

 

After 30 minutes- I am really sad that I can't smell any of the resins in this anymore. After a few minutes this has turned to nothing but rose on me.

 

Summery- Rose and I are not friends. Off to swaps!

[darkling]

Wet: Hymn consist of pure rose deepened by the frankincense and myrrh.

 

Dry: The rose takes on a soapy quality although it still smells bright.

 

The soapiness made this scent unpleasant for me although the soap smell was not as strong as with some other scents.

Edited February 20, 2005 by darkling

[Splendid Molerat]

Hymn is initially clean and airy, with the rose absolute and lily of the valley. The resins are dark and smoky, and the light and dark together do seem to enlarge the space.

 

I could see adding this to the oil burner when I need to clear everything away.

[Hikaru]

I got this as an extra imp in my last order.

It's clean and sort of woodsy/musky at the same time. It definitely has a special, holy feel to it and would be a lovely anointing oil for a ritual.

For some reason, I smell wood, not the florals, but there is just enough lightness in it to cheer my spirits. the word "uplifting" comes to mind.

[Loligo]

I always wished I attended a church that used incense -- as far as I'm concerned, the more senses you can engage during worship, the better. Several years ago I went through a phase where I burned incense during meditation every day, and rose was my favorite scent, followed by frankincense. So I was prepared to like this scent a lot. In the bottle, it smells absolutely perfect, with a clear floral top note rounded out by the resins. It smelled the same way upon first applying it, except for there was a sharp, soapy after-smell that prickled my nose. Then the soapiness faded, and I got a nice hour of rose&resin -- the two smells were completely entwined. I never did smell any lily of the valley, which is too bad, because that's another smell I love. Alas, an hour later, the floral notes faded away, and I was left with a soapy incense smell.

[kmasden]

A beautiful rosy scent. Unfortunately for me, rose dominates and on the late drydown, it was just plain old rose.

[anmorata]

Hymn:

Wet: Very floral. The rose is very detectable, with hints of the lily peeking through.

Drydown: Resin notes start peeking through, too. This scent reminds me of Church at Eastertime.

Longterm wear: Hymn stays light on my skin, but leans predominantly towards the lily and rose. Not bad, but not an everyday scent. I'll still maintain that this scent is Church at Easter.

[rainbow]

In the bottle and wet on skin- beautiful, sweet floral- I can definitely smell the rose.

 

Wearing- there's something almost spicey or woody beneath the flowers. It's hard to discern exactly what it is, though. This is very floral, but it still smells pure and clear.

 

Overall- the scent is beautiful, complex, and comforting. It's mainly floral, but there are some other elements which I'm not very good at recognizing. Definitely something I'll want to wear again.

[Digital_Hypoxia]

I had such high hopes for Hymn…the roses, the lily, the myrrh…

 

Unfortunately, all I got was a slightly stale rose and nothing else.

Needless to say I was disappointed. Oh well-off to the swaps it goes.

[helarctos]

Hymn was very difficult for my nose to comprehend. I could swear there was jasmine in this, but the Lab's description has no such thing ("perfect rose absolute and Palestinian Lily of the Valley with olibanum, labdanum, frankincense and myrrh") I didn't catch the frankincense or myrrh at all, and I'm not sure I would know how to recognize olibanum or labdanum. What I did get from Hymn was a sweet sharp high floral, almost overpowering.

[quimerula]

Wet it's rose and lily of the valley, two perfect floral notes, over labdanum.

The bottom line of incense and myrrh is wonderful.

 

A awesome floral with something more, light and suitable for wearing every day.

[shelldoo]

hmm this is very floral, the rose is not as strong as i had hoped, the lily (unfortunate for me) is the top note, i also smell labdanum, and myrrh. as it dries the myrrh becomes more prominent and teh lily is tamed a bit thank goodness all in all a pretty floral scent very light and summery

[joseybird]

Incense and florals....lovely...

 

Wow, I never thought I'd feel so confident about saying florals and lovely in the same sentence =P

 

I can't pick out the individual notes, but it's very clean smelling without smelling like soap. very pure!