Tea

[AnArtfuldodger]

Darjeeling tea, lemon verbena, star anise, and honeycomb.

Wet on wrist: This is so true to the description, it's uncanny. Lemon verbena, tea, and the honeycomb are all mingling so perfectly, it really is like sniffing a steaming cup of tea with some lemon verbena fresh from the garden.

On the drydown: It stays true! So far, I'm not morphing into anything else. It really is straight up tea-lemon-honey on me. I get the ever so slight whiff of the star anise as well, which is a really nice compliment to the tea-lemon verbena-honey.

I'm going to need, like, 2 more bottles STAT. My husband says it's sort of chemical-y, but I attribute that to the lemon scent, which *could* smell sort of like lemon dusting spray...but my husband has a notoriously bad sense of scent as far as BPAL is concerned, so I still give this an A++ in my book.

[Venneh]

Lemony tea, I've smelled this somewhere else before in the BPAL catalogue, but I can't quite place this. On my skin, tea and lemon, and it's kinda going Fruit Loops on me... That's it! This is what Crib Girls did to me, though with more of a tea note.

[cherrycherry]

I adore lemon verbena, that's one of the main reasons why I bought Lolita when I first found the Lab. I bought Tea for the lemon verbena, darjeeling and honeycomb and was initially very worried about the star anise. I shouldn't have worried. This is like Lolita's older, wiser sister. There's playfulness there (what is it about lemon verbena blends that make me feel so naughty?) and also steady sweetness from the tea and honeycomb. The star anise is blissfully absent, when I used it.

[angelicruin]

I'm getting mostly lemon tea from this. Very lovely scent for lemon lovers.

[cfrancesca]

This is a very nice, simple, fresh tea blend. I get white tea, lemon verbena (which starts amping almost immediately), and soft honeycomb (but there's hardly any sweetness). It somewhat reminds me of Spirits of the Dead, but tarter and papyrus-less.

[edenssixthday]

Tea - This is so fresh and warmly crisp and pretty! On me, the lemon verbena takes front and center and is such a beautiful, beautiful note! The tea is pretty faint, but the honeycomb is absolutely lovely. It gives a sweet warmth to the fresh crispness of the lemon verbena and really helps balance out the lemon verbena, keeping it from turning into a Lemon Pledge scent. I get only the faintest trace of star anise that I can barely pin down when I smell it -- as soon as I identify it, it's gone, only to peek its head out again when I'm looking elsewhere. Overall, this is an absolutely gorgeous spring/summer scent. I'm not sure it's one I would reach for, as my scent preferences trend away from this type of fragrance, but it's still really, really pretty and I bet that if I don't keep it, there will come a day this summer when I wish I had. Oh, one more thought -- this would make an AWESOME soap or shower gel scent. It would be so great to wake up to in the morning!

[pandorasmuse]

In the decant: Tea is predominant. I can’t really pick out other notes. I’m especially glad I can’t pick out the star anise—that’s one note that is always iffy on me.

 

Wet: Lemon Pledge, unfortunately.

 

Drydown: The Pledginess disappears once the oil has dried, leaving a pleasant, distinctly tea-like scent.

 

Later: It’s a nice, true tea with lemon. It reminds me of the way tea shops smell, actually. A nice warm weather scent. Unfortunately, it’s gone after about 4 hours of wear. It’s nice, but I don’t need a bottle.

[calivianya]

This is an overpowering blast of lemon at first, but the lemon calms down a little bit so that I can smell the tea after about ten minutes. It really does stay smelling like pure lemon tea.

[diBenjamin94108]

I love this. It's very much like lemon verbena which is lovely. It doesn't seem synthetic to me, it's fresh and like real verbena (which I get in the summer and keep in a pot). I don't smell star anise at all. I'm really happy with this one.

[Blood onmy hands]

In the bottle, this is tons of sour lemon and a little bit of cool iced tea. On my skin, Tea smells like lemonheads candies and a hint of honey, but no tea or anise. As it dries down, even the honey disappears and I'm left with nothing but lemonheads candies. Disappointing...

[astarinel]

I really like the tea note in this.

 

However, I have problems with lemon verbena, and it is definitely not playing nice here. I normally like anise, although it can tend to dominate a blend for me, but I don't get any from this blend. I'm very disappointed at the verbena taking over, I can smell this amazing almost smoky tea scent underneath verging-on-lemon-cleaner verbena. A really nice tea scent, though, and like no other tea scent I've tried before. Curse you lemon verbena!

[wolfie13]

In the bottle and initial application - almost all lemon verbena. However, I LOVE lemon verbena, so I would be quite happy with just that.

 

After about 10 or 15 minutes, the verbena dissipates quite a bit (so people not so excited about the lemon, you may want to hang in there for awhile), and I'm left with the scent of lovely tea.

I get some honey, but not really any star anise (it's probably just adding depth to the scent, without an outright "licorice" or whathaveyou vibe). It's very balanced and all the notes come together so smoothly on me.

 

I love tea scents, and this may well be my favorite one thus far from the lab. All of the others seem to have one note that destroys it for me.

 

Agreed that this will be terrific for spring/summer.

Edited March 4, 2011 by wolfie13

[Invidiana]

Here we go again with the lemon verbena. Behind it I can sense some lovely rich golden honeycomb with hints of anise and tea, but the verbena is just so LOUD on me it drowns them out. So sad.

[ACVail24]

This is a honeyed lemon sugar tea on me - absolutely gorgeous & backup bottle worthy!

[Deek]

Bottle: Lemony goodness without the sharp! I kind of want to eat it, honestly. Like a Lemon drop tea.

 

Wet on Skin: Oh wow, the lemon almost disappears completely for me on my skin. Now it's mostly just tea and honey. I don't get any anise.

 

Dry: Very fresh and crisp. I think it gets a little more warm over time, the tea becomes more prominent. I don't think it'll last long.

 

Overall: 3.5/5. It's very nice, a warm weather scent. I can't decide if I want a bottle or not. It seems very light, maybe too light for my preferences. If you like lemon I would definitely rec this.

[Ondine]

Tea and lemon, heavy on the lemon, light on the tea. No anise or honeycomb on me. This is the lemony scent of Crib Girls or The Vortex for me, an almost-sharp lemon that doesn't veer off into Pledge-land. I can barely smell the tea, which is a bummer--I wish I could smell it more.

 

This is pretty much like what I wished Severin was like; it has some note in it, probably the leather, that doesn't work perfectly on me, but this is like Severin minus leather and therefore much more pleasant for me. (Leather never works on me, sadly.)

[zankoku_zen]

This one is a light, citrusy tea. Refreshing, although it ends up going a little powdery on me (combination of the honeycomb and the lemon verbena perhaps).

 

It's a nice, refreshing blend, sticks close to the skin and I think would be a fabulous bath product scent, since it's got that nice clean edge to it.

[surlygurl]

Oh. Well. Whaddaya know. Lemon tea with honey. Was I expecting something else? I guess I was expecting the anise to show up more or throw a curve ball. The lemon is kind of chemical smelling.

 

It's a lemon pledge kind of scent on me. Pass.

[Polly]

In the Vial: The lemon verbena is strong. It's almost all I smell.

 

On Wet: The lemon is still strong, but there's the tea and honey playing just underneath. Sadly I am not sensing the anise.

 

On Drydown: The lemon verbena calms down to a perfect lemon/honey tea. That Darjeeling Tea note is wonderful! I need to get a bottle to have for summertime wear before it's gone. I really enjoy this one!

Edited March 18, 2011 by Polly

[thekittenkat]

In the decant: Getting a lot of the anise. Bad sign.

 

Wet: "And now, passing Star Anise on the inside, here comes Lemon Verbana. The rest of the field is trailing by 15 lengths or more." Looks like I bet on the wrong horse.

 

The dry-down: After quite some time, over the course of hours, the anise and verbena settled down, and I got more of the lovely tea (one of my fave teas in real life), sweetened by the honeycomb, but not overly so. It does get a little perfumy as it wears on, though, so not bottle-worthy.

[Antoinette]

I don't know what went wrong with this one. Lemon verbena is one of my favorite scents, but in this it becomes overpowering - it's not soft, more like it's yelling for me to acknowledge it. Normally, I'm ok with that so it must be the way it smells combined with the other notes. I suspect it's the combo with the star anise. Weird, I like it at first application but as the day wears on (I've tried this two times now) it becomes almost cloying on me. Sad.

[AmyO'Shields]

This is lovely! I smell lots of tea and lemon verbena, sweetened with honeycomb. There is a moment of funky-ness between the wet and dry stages, but so worth both of them. I'm assuming this is the anise (which I'm not a fan of) and I am thankful anise doesn't overpower this blend. Again, lovely - 4.5/5

[hkhm]

bottle: lemony tea, very fresh and clean.

 

wet: very, very, very lemony. brisk, crisp and clean.

 

dry: instead of tea with a twist of lemon, this is lemon with a twist of tea. luckily, i like lemon.

[asciident]

Wet: Very strongly lemon-flavored tea. Hint of something green.

 

First on: Sadly, lemon cleaning supplies when it’s first on my skin.

 

Dry: The tea scent is back, just barely, but it’s too green/cleanser and I don’t think it’s going away.

 

 

[cuervosueno]

I love tea scents, but anise is a note of doom and verbena is dubious too, so I didn't want to get this, but I did get a decant of this from a lovely mysterious forumite who included it in a suprise package for me.

 

When this goes on, it is gorgeous: lemon tea with honey! Really lovely! I can smell that suspicious lemon verbena, but it is not dominating the blend. It remind a bit of tea I have with verbena in it (I don't mind drinking verbena tea; I just dont want to smell like it!) After a bit, the verbena starts to go a bit soapy as it is wont to do, but so far, this is a pretty scent. Not as bracing with black tea as I would like, but pretty. I'm hoping the anise doesn't make an appearence!