Teatime in Roswell

[brilliantcat]

Aliens at high tea: Earl Grey, biscuits, Battenberg cake, and strangely-glowing cucumber sandwiches.

Another birthday gift I asked for unsniffed. And I am THRILLED that I did! This one is absolute love on me.

In the bottle I get sweet tea and cakes with a bit of cucumber. Wet on my skin, it's definitely tea with a bergamot slant, slight orangey hints, and delicious buttery cake. Upon different applications, I've also gotten some almond, which is a note I adore. As it starts to warm up, the tea stays but the cake mellows and I get more of the cucumber which is a slightly sweet, juicy note. The drydown adds a bit of musk and sugar to the picnic and it's absolutely yummy. I've now worn it multiple times and I can say with a fair amount of certainty that it changes very little from application to application and my only disappointment is that it doesn't last long, as others have said. I may have to look for an unloved bottle to purchase as a backup.

[sarielswish]

In the vial, cucumbers and sugar! It definitely smells edible. Color, pastel green.

 

Wet on my skin, it smells like the raspberry filling and icing from the Battenberg cake on me. This is one of the few foody scents I've liked, I think.

 

10-15 minute drydown - Starting to get a little of the biscuits - smells kinda like shortbread. Still smell raspberry and icing, though. I don't think I'll be buying a bottle, but I'll keep the imp.

[voorishsign]

I was a bit too cautious to try a full bottle of this when the helicopters were up, but while shopping for imps the other day I found one decant on the sales list of a person I was already ordering from, so I thought I should try it

 

Unsurprisingly, this starts off as very lovely almondy Battenberg cake and biscuits with a splash of tea. Very foody but delightfully so. The cucumber dries and freshens it and I think there is some kind of musk going on there too . . . maybe not my kind of fragrance but so very tasty!

[Andrea912]

For those of you looking for Crumpet Rebellion, look no further...here it is

 

It is everything the description promises BUT there is one extra note that I amp, that I hate, and that was not mentioned...

 

some derivative of anise or fennel or licorice is in this and it is just vile...imagine spilling a jagerbomb on some yummy toast...

[whisperstilled]

I tried this one all the way back at C2E2 and am just now finally getting my hands on a decant. I remember it being sweet cake and cucumber.

 

In Imp: Sweet cake and cucumber, exactly as I remember!

 

Wet: There's the earl grey, and this is sweetening on the skin as many things do on me. The cake is coming in high and drowning out the cucumber, which I have no issue with (cucumber is fresh and all, and I can tolerate it, but it's not my favorite thing). Unfortanately I am left with a slightly weird, musky cake scent.

 

Dry: Something that the tea, cucumbers, and cake do simply does not work on my skin. What a disappointment! I love foodie scents, and cake scents are usually totally my thing. 2/5

[alterosen]

I thought this one would be a total win on me but no such luck

 

It was too green & cloyingly sweet for me.

[ravenscanary]

Source: Fresh decant

 

In the decant: CAKE. Hi cake. Very sweet. A tiny hint of cucumber.

 

Wet: Oh, there's the tea, too. Still, it's mostly a very sweet, buttery cake/cookie scent with a hint of green cucumber. I have a feeling the tea will come out more as it dries, which is what happens with most tea scents on me...

 

Dry: Oh, yeah, the sweet treats are fading and the tea and cucumber are coming to the fore. It's still, overall, a sweet scent, though. I do like the Earl Grey note here, it's very recognizable, but I'm not loving it overmuch with the cucumber.

[catpyjamas]

Teatime in Roswell is definitely better once applied, at least on me.

 

I don't love the bread-y note; I've smelled it before in other perfumes, and it tends to totally overpower everything else in a blend. It's headache-inducingly strong in this bottle-- the olfactory equivalent of being run over by a bakery truck.

 

Fortunately, I decided to give Roswell a chance anyway. Once it's on skin, the bread dies down and the scent becomes complicated, interesting, and all-around enjoyable. I smell tea and cucumber and a hint of mint, with a faint creaminess in the background. It fades unusually fast (it's gone after two hours), but it's nice while it lasts.

[devotchkadebones]

When I first started getting into BPAL seriously, which was a whole two or so months ago, I kept seeing this around on sales pages. I was vaguely aware that it was part of the Black Helicopters collection, which did not seem to suit my fragrance desires (of course, looking up the notes was way too logical, right? In my defense, BPAL has released a lot of scents, and I was trying to wrap my head around them, and acquire some more time-honored, beloved gourmands). When I finally got around to reading the notes and a few reviews, the Earl Grey, and - primarily - the 'strangely-glowing cucumber sandwiches' put me off, and I dismissed it. However, I purchased a cheap imp of this as an afterthought when purchasing a couple of bottles, and decided to dig this out of my ever-increasing imp collection yesterday to give it a try.

 

In The Imp: Cake and biscuits, primarily. Both seem to be present in equal parts. I love this scent from first sniff, and I am fairly certain I'm going to love it on on me (cake and cookie* scents in particular do very well on my skin, which is fantastic, as they tend to be my favourite). This smells fabulous. I'm sensing a similarity between Teatime and I Fell In Love With A Floating Brain, which is a comparison I'm not sure anyone else has made. I get cucumber behind the lovely bakery scent, and a dash of pepper, which I'm attributing to the Earl Grey.

 

Wet: Similar to previous stage, but immediately upon contact with my skin, both the cucumber and the tea start to come out (the former moreso). This is as delicious as before, just different. It is very much a gourmand, which I know some people despise, but Teatime strikes me as fairly inoffensive to the gourmand-haters (unless one is very much against them). That isn't to say it lacks personality; quite the opposite, actually. The cucumber takes the main stage here, with tea as a side act. I have to note here that I'm not familiar with this tea, so I'm getting a light pepper (perhaps white pepper, as opposed to the stuff usually served alongside table salt?). I do drink tea, but only herbal and chai, so I wouldn't be able to tell you the difference between Earl Grey, and, say, standard black tea.

 

Dry: The cake and biscuits return! All four notes blend very well here, and no one note takes precedence over the others. Again, I'm drawing the comparison to Floating Brain. I have two bottles of Floating Brain, and I do like it, but every time I try it, I'm disappointed; it's not love. I feel like I should love Floating Brain, but it lacks bite. This is like a better Floating Brain, like cucumber and tea on a backdrop of the cake-and-biscuit-fest that is FB. It's unlikely, and unexpected, but it works, very well. It's delicious. This may be one of my most-loved gourmands yet!

 

I love this. Definitely a bottle purchase. Probably multiples.

 

* = In Australia, we use the word 'biscuit' instead of 'cookie', generally speaking. This smells like vanilla-flavoured biscuits, in the Commonwealth English sense of the word.

[grrrlennyl]

Tea Time in Roswell

 

On: A foody, cake scent with a nice amount of watery cucumber.

1 hour in: Sweet bread and slightly sweet cucumbers.

2 hours in: Sigh. I'm getting this odd vegetable note I sometimes get with sweet scents.

3.3 hours in: A sweet, bready scent.

5 hours in: Slightly vegetable-y, but mostly sweet and bread-like.

Overall: This didn't work on me.

Edited March 29, 2011 by grrrlennyl

[imaginepageant]

In the Vial: Yum! I think this combination of notes is amazing. This is definitely a cake smell, but it's not heavy and thick like other cake blends I've tried; the tea and cucumber are keeping it nice and light. And the cucumber is fresh and crisp, but the sweetness of the cake and biscuits keeps it from getting too green or aquatic. It's a perfect balance for me.

 

Wet: This one doesn't morph a whole lot, which is strange for me! The tea comes out more, but that's about it.

 

Dry: It's slightly less sweet now. The tea and cucumber are winning out over the cake and biscuits, making it more floral, somehow, than foody. As time goes on, it veers back towards foody, and gets a little buttery.

 

An Hour Later: Not much of a change! And miracle of all miracles - it didn't turn into rancid butter, which I'd been expecting once it started to smell a bit buttery.

 

Overall: I'm impressed at how little this changed - most blends morph like mad on my skin. I'm also surprised at how much I like this, considering I don't usually go for fresh, crisp scents (though I suspect those that do wouldn't even consider this a fresh, crisp scent). I can see this end up being my go-to light blend. It's pretty and delicious, and fits the title perfectly - I can totally see a group of alien debutantes sitting in a garden, daintily nibbling on biscuits and sipping tea with their pinkies extended.

[achromance]

In the vial: It's cucumber and something sweet, the cake maybe? Quite yummy.

 

On my wrist: This is an interesting scent. I can't really pinpoint anything besides the cucumber, but there's a lot going on. It's very fresh smelling and quite light. Very good for a hot summer day.

 

After a few hours: The cake and cookies have come through, and there's still that cucumber. Sadly, I'm still getting no Earl Grey. Overall it's a lovely fresh scent, and I do get that "sitting down at a cafeteria for some snacks" vibe from it, which only brings me memories of good times.

[EmmiKristiina]

This is so yummy!! Cucumber and biscuits and a soft scent of Earl Grey. Absolutely delicious, I could eat my arm off.

[Penance]

Origin:

 

5mL bought second-hand. I don't remember who I got it from, but I do know that I got it very cheap, which is why I took a chance on it.

 

Preconceived notions:

 

I bought this before finding out that Battenberg cake has almond in it. Unfortunately, I loathe the smell of almond. Almond oil in perfume makes me horribly nauseous, so I'm nervous about trying this one out, although I've been told that the almond in this is virtually non-existent. I'm hoping that's the case. Everything else sounds...well, interesting. I'm not really going to say it sounds good, because I can't really imagine a perfume that smells like cucumber sandwiches and Earl Grey tea. It doesn't sound bad, either. Definitely interesting.

 

First sniff:

 

Foody, but not in an overpowering or cloying way. Teatime in Roswell is very mild. I get soft, faint cucumber, light cake and just a touch of tea. It's almost clean smelling in the way that cucumber-melon scents smell clean, not in a soapy way.

 

Wet on skin:

 

Uh-oh, is that almond I smell? I do believe it is.

 

It's faint and it's on the marzipan end of the spectrum (which means it's more tolerable than flat-out, in-your-face almond, but still not something I'm going to enjoy smelling), but it's there. I don't get cucumber or tea at this point. Instead, it's all light, white cake with marzipan filling. It's still a mild, gentle scent. I can see this being a great scent for a child or for an adult who can't or doesn't want to wear a strong scent but wants to smell nice.

 

Dry down:

 

Thank God, the almond has faded quite a bit. It's still there, but it's a lot like the pseudo-marzipan note in Snow White. It adds a touch of marzipan-like sweetness without crossing the line into true almond territory. Mainly, what I'm getting is a mishmosh of buttered bread (which is like a lighter version of Bread-And-Butterfly), cucumber (adding a light, watery greenness) and a touch of white cake. It's a very pastel scent. Pale green, yellow and white. The tea is nowhere to be seen. This tea party is all about the food, not the drinks.

 

The bottom line:

 

This isn't the sort of scent I typically wear and it's not something I would wear everyday, but I have to say that I actually like it once it dries completely. I could do without the wet stage, but it doesn't last long and (thankfully) it doesn't trigger my nausea the way strong almond scents to. It's just not a scent I enjoy at that stage.

 

This isn't bad in the end, though. It somehow belongs in the same mental category as TKO for me. They both have a sort of "little girl's fantasy land" sort of thing going on, although I'm not sure how many little girls fantasize about eating cucumber sandwiches at their tea parties.

[tajana]

The bergamot, tea, and cucumber make for a cooling scent when freshly applied. Perhaps it is the power of suggestion, but it does have a bit of that glowing green vibe. However, the glowy cucumber/bergamot tea notes seem at odds with the foody, baked notes beneath. I smell like I've layered two discordant scents. The cake adds a dense and heavy sweetness that really weighs everything down, and the bread and biscuit notes don't sit well with me. Smelling like dessert can be iffy, but smelling like lunch and dessert is just weird to me. After this dries down the fresher notes really fade out, and I'm left with a residual splash of tea over a too-literal yellow cake and biscuit smell. Even later on, it's just spongy white cake. It was an interesting blend to try, but it's not for me! Too bad, 'cause I love the concept and I'm predisposed to enjoy Earl Grey scents.

[Ghost of a Rose]

I really love the concept of this, since going to tea houses and tea parties is one of my favorite things to do!

 

In the vial: Very sweet. I can pick up cake and the apricot jam from it the strongest. Next the tea (a little), and cucumber. I'm not getting any marzipan.

 

On me, wet: Too sweet and fruity to smell like Earl Grey tea as I had hoped, so it's a little disappointing. But nice, though. The various notes are so well blended and balanced that it's hard to differentiate any specific scent.

 

On me, just dried: The cucumber is coming out more strongly now, although the overall impression still mostly sweet and fruity.

 

After 30 minutes: Again, it's hard to identify any particular note. Sweet, cake, maybe some black tea. Subtle.

 

After 1 hour: Faint vanilla/white cake.

 

My rating: 4 stars

[Scorianelle]

Well! This was a pleasant surprise. I ordered it because I MUST try everything with a tea note in the vain hope that it will work on me. Then after ordering I discovered that battenberg cake is made of almonds - oh no! I hate almond smells, especially marzipan, and was suddenly sure that with my luck my skin would amp these to the Nth degree. Not so! This was much more pleasant, and just as interesting, as I'd hoped.

 

First Sniff: Tea! Omigosh omigosh when I popped the lid off I swear there was a whiff of tea. It may be gone now (I'm getting cake and cool cucumber) but maybe it will come back?

 

Second Sniff: No tea, instead there's wet green and juicy cucumber. So juicy.

 

Wet: The bulk of this is a very interesting, very distinct wet cucumber, with a little bit of buzz. However there is a recognisable toasted sort of smell (I'm thinking the biscuits?) around the edges and at the base. Then just before it dries the cucumber slithers further forward to take over it all.

 

Dry (30 mins): Juicy green is the dominant scent, but it gets fruitier towards the wrist. Super throw.

 

Dry (1.5 hours): The cucumber has gentled a bit (less buzz), but is still dominant. It's more mallow/vanilla-y at the base. Is this the cake? Luckily there has been nary a whiff of almond, unfortunately there has been nary a smidge of tea.

 

Dry (3 hours): Cucumber on top still, but the toasted/nutty base is back. Still going strong.

 

Throw: Very Strong.

 

Colour association: Glowing Green indeed.

 

This should come with a warning: Super Strong Scent! The only problem I had with this was that it was overwhelming (trying to take over the world?). I tested this on ONE wrist and expected my skin to eat it as it does with everything but scents I hate, and instead my skin rejected the alien concoction and threw it back at me. First scent I like with a decent throw (and how!) but I'll have to watch how much I apply.

 

Not sure if I'll buy a bottle (I've seen a couple of people selling theirs) but I'll definitely keep the vial. This is what I'm looking for in a perfume - something evocative and otherworldly.

 

This is the scent to wear whenever I watch Stargate.

[dementia_divine]

In the bottle: The cucumber sandwiches are the strongest, but I can smell some of the cake note and perhaps a bit of the Earl Grey as well.

 

Wet: I am mostly getting the cucumber sandwiches from this (including the 'strangely-glowing' aspect). The biscuit note was briefly there, but the cucumber sandwiches quickly took over. The cucumber note seems to be turning somewhat floral. I'm not really getting anything else from this scent at this point.

 

Dry: This is just sickly sweet cucumber sandwiches on me.

 

Verdict: I was hoping to get the tea and the cake from this as well, but alas, 'twas not meant to be. I'll stick with Squirting Cucumber for my cucumber scent, as the other notes in this don't seem to want to make an appearance on my skin.

[Aviatrix]

This is much fresher than I had thought. I am not getting any biscuit or cake notes, but I am getting a teensy hint of earl grey, and the rest is cucumber sandwich. Which is what makes it so fresh, I suppose.

It's not very strong on my skin, though.

 

Towards drydown it gets a little bit powdery for some reason. But so far I'm enjoying it, and I love the concept of it.

 

Overall, this was a surprise for me, but I kind of like how it's not overly foody, but more green and fresh

[radioaction]

Bottle: slimy green note with almond, doesn't smell the most appealing!

 

Wet: Almond and a fresh green note are most predominant. Tea is definitely there with a slight menthol sharpness. This phase is difficult to catch as it seems to dry down pretty quickly (could just be my dry winter skin at the moment).

 

Dry: Tea and cake! There almost a floral quality to it. The cucumber is mild and almost aquatic. Very verdant and fresh, just barely foody.

 

Verdict: LOVE! Only issue is that it seems to fade down quickly. I'll have to experiment with applying unscented lotion first and see if that helps keep my skin from slurping it up.

[vanilla323]

In the bottle: tea and very light cake

 

Wet: this has a very lovely tea note and maybe I smell some of the watery cucumber but it's very light

 

Drydown: now I can smell the cake note way in the drydown it's light and barely there though. It is very sweet and pretty. Maybe a nice scent for a little girl. If the cake note was stronger this would be more of a win for me. But it's mainly just a light tea scent.

 

It has very little little throw and faded away very quickly.

 

It has a cute alien on the label though which was cool.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet, this was all sugary Earl Grey tea, and I loved it.

 

 

Dry, this is really perfumey. Very strong. overly sweet tea with cucumber. I don't hate it. I may even like it a bit. But it wasn't what I was hoping for. Which is kind of a relief, now I don't have to try to hunt down a full bottle of it!