Miss Ida

[GypsyRoseRed]

MISS IDA
Miss Ida Thompson keeps a first class house at No. 126 E. Twelfth street. This elegant parlor house is furnished in the most elaborate and magnificent style. The landlady and lively young ladies are a very pleasant set, full of fun, love, and fond of amusement. The carpets, mirrors, furniture, and paintings are of the latest and most costly designs. This is a truly splendid establishment of the very first class.

French vanilla, white gardenia, Moroccan jasmine, and lemon verbena.

I was SO sure this would not work for me at all, thanks to the lemon verbena. I should just ignore lemon verbena when it's listed as a note, and you should, too - or at the very least, give it a chance, regardless. Unless I was REALLY looking for it, I would never guess that there was anything citrus in this at all. Soft vanilla smooths out the creamy white gardenia and jasmine, and the end result is a scent that definitely smells.. well, womanly. It's floral without being gaudy or powdery (though I do get a slightly soapy twist from it right before it vanishes), and it's not overly sweet. Again, I wish this would stick around longer but I'm thinking that's a problem with my body chemistry right now and not the scent. I'd love to retest it and see how it morphs and changes over a period of longer than 10 minutes.

[absinthetics]

GRR's review is perfect. I ignore lemon verbena scents for the most part. And jasmine to be honest. And it is amazing how both of those are just...Not here! I seriously have an issue with jasmine...

 

This is a beautiful vanilla with gardenia scent. I am seriously amazed how the jasmine is really not there, it usually screams at my nose. (I can't drink jasmine tea without my tongue feeling weird and funny.... it's not an allergy it's just a very keen dislike.) As I wear this and type, the jasmine does begin to come in, but it is so smooth and creamy with that vanilla and gardenia. I really love this scent. I think that this scent is a true representation of Beth's sophisticated way of blending. It's amazing.

 

I think foodie people who don't only like foodie scents (they are willing to go elsewhere) ...will think this is amazing. Hoard worthy, even.

 

 

(The jasmine is indeed coming out more.... but the way it works with the vanilla... I love it.)

 

 

Amazingly, I am off to see a Fiona Apple concert... and I have chosen Miss Ida to be my scent for the evening. If that doesn't say a lot, I don't know what does!

Edited October 13, 2012 by Absinthetics

[izile]

I grabbed this one, because in the bottle, I got a great gardenia smell with just a bit of lemon verbena - never noticed the jasmine, and the vanilla was nice and subtle.

 

Wore it today, first time by itself for a full day. Yup - totally different, it's gotta go.

 

French Vanilla, how much, specifically FRENCH vanilla. Gardenia? I dunno, no gardenia here. Jasmine, maybe a touch of powder from that (I tend to baby-powder-of-doom on jasmine) and a lingering edge of lemon verbena, just a light little herbal citrus hint. But *BAM* I smell more like old style French Vanilla ice cream than anything else. That is not a good thing to me.

[pinkstardust420]

The first two reviews nailed it. No lemon verbena at all, very little if any jasmine. Absolutely stunning gardenia vanilla blend.

Edited to add, I'm getting more jasmine in this!

Edited October 21, 2012 by pinkstardust420

[Dark Alice]

Oddly...this is the one I wanted to work and it didn't. The combo of French vanilla and Jasmine made my stomach turn every time I smelled it. I am glad that it has a new home but I was definitely not a fan of this one. ETA: Every review is correct as far as I am concerned, there was no lemon verbana in this blend at all.

Edited October 20, 2012 by Dark Alice

[OctoberGwen]

For some reason, the combination of the overly-sweet French vanilla and the jasmine and/or gardenia does not work on my skin at all.

 

I get no lemon verbena, either, which may have saved this for me if it had made itself known.

 

I'll bet this is gorgeous on the right person, though.

[Alethia]

I couldn't even make it through a regular test for this one This was STRONG jasmine and vanilla on my skin and it made me sick to my stomach. But a big thank you to my pick up fairy for the chance to smell this!

[aphrodite]

This was so close to being swoonworthy for me, but I think the French vanilla instead of a darker vanilla made all the difference in my decision to re-home it. I also didn't detect the lemon verbena at all, which could've helped. It reminded me of several Solstice Scents perfumes I've tried - I want to say Nightgown in particular, though I may be remembering that wrong. The vanilla is prominent at first, and then the blooms start to peek out. That all sounds divine to me, but again, it was the wrong vanilla to work with these particular florals for my tastes. It was a bit too pink and poppy (as in pop star, not poppy flowers) for me. I do think it could've grown on me if I'd aged it a bit, played with putting it on different pulse points in different amounts, layered it with something darker, etc. but I felt for such a limited blend it made more sense to pass it on to someone that would love it as is.

 

But, dear Lab, if you ever want to remake this blend with a deeper vanilla and kick up the verbena a notch, I'll buy ten.

[zankoku_zen]

Gardenia, jasmine and vanilla. This is a very rich, opulent gardenia/vanilla blend. The gardenia, as it tends to, gets the barest wet wool smell on me.

 

Other than that, its a gorgeous blend.

[yakiguri]

Despite being comprised of mostly win notes, Miss Ida turned so VERY wrong on my skin. I don't know if I'm amping the lemon verbena that no one else seems to be getting, but I primarily get a harsh acid-ashiness that tends to crop up when citrus hits my skin. I get a cream note that I believe is the French Vanilla, but it has a twinge I can only describe as meaty that makes my stomach churn.

 

An hour or so later I *finally* get a soft vanilla'd gardenia/jasmine that's quite pretty, but I don't think I'm willing to wait that long to get to that point. I'll give Miss Ida another month in the aging box to behave and see what happens. On my recently-enabled friend it smells like all sorts of awesome from the second it hits her skin, and luckily she offered to buy my bottle if it doesn't work out. She might very well get a backup if more aging doesn't mellow it out.

[Blood onmy hands]

I loved this when I first got it, but six months later it has turned and is kind of awful on me. It used to smell like cosmetic powder (almost sweet & violet-y) and fluffy vanilla with perfumey floral. Now it honestly reminds me of urinals (sour, funky jasmine) and the cheap white floral perfumes at Walgreens. The jasmine and verbena are just sour, dirty and off smelling, the gardenia has turned very sharp and perfumey, and the vanilla seems to have disappeared entirely. The sweetness that I used to love in it is just completely gone. Almost all of the event exclusives from this round have aged really poorly for me.

 

Really sad. I've already sold off my bottle...

Edited April 16, 2013 by Little Bird

[The Poison Queen]

In the bottle: Floral with a bit of lemon lemon verbena.

 

Wet: Ack! Horrible fake gardenia! It didn't smell fakey at all in the bottle, but my skin turns it super sweet and chemical. Noooo. There's no jasmine or verbena here at all to my nose.

 

Drydown: Still more chemical gardenia and a bit of the french vanilla, which also has a bad chemical tone to it. I wanted this to work so badly but my skin just ruins it. Bad skin!

 

Status: Swap Pile.

[Monday]

On my skin wet: lots of fluffy sugary vanilla with a bit of gardenia. Jasmine is nowhere to be seen. It smells a bit fruity like strawberries with vanilla and lots of sugar. So far so good.

On my skin dry: It's still strawberry-like. The vanilla isn't going to plastic. There is finally a hint of jasmine but it's very quiet and plays nicely with the gardenia and vanilla. The lemon verbena is way in the background and is making the blend smell like there is a hint of violets in here.

 

Frilly is a good word to describe Miss Ida. It's a sweet, friendly feminine scent ready to attack you with its kindness.

[mymymai]

ITI: Oh, that's pretty. I can pick out the French vanilla and the white gardenia.

 

Wet: The florals are more prominent on my skin - jasmine, gardenia, French vanilla, and just a hint of verbena.

 

Dry: Rich vanilla, sweet gardenia, and thick jasmine - it's floral but so wonderfully appealing and feminine.

[milo]

Yummy vanilla and very realistic gardenia at first. I don't usually like heady tropicals, but this really is a lovely vanilla and it's nice on a wet winter day. This reminds me a lot of Coconut, Vanilla and Tiare hair gloss, and would pair up nicely with each other I think. It does make me want to eat something vanilla-y though, it's kind of foody in a way. I'll certainly use the imp!

[angelamaria]

In bottle: creamy, lemony floral. This is vanilla with lemon and jasmine. It's got a foody vibe to it, although the florals are keeping it from all-out foody. New, it has a sharp edge for me but with a bit of aging that's gone away.

 

Wet on skin: a bit softer on the floral, and the lemon also dies down. The flowers are more prominent. Soft, pleasant, but very creamy vanilla floral. The jasmine and gardenia are of the heady variety here.

 

Dry: soft creamy gardenia-leaning floral with a dash of lemon. When I tested this new, it was soft and faint, a bit like posh lotion; with a bit of aging on it, the throw has gotten considerably better. It still has a posh gardenia lotion feel to it. It feels quite voluptuous, but slightly understated, less in-your-face than if the florals were all out there.

 

Verdict: I liked this new but was on the fence about it, and wanted to see how it ages. It's very pretty with a bit of aging, but still narrowly misses the cut. I like my florals less headier.

[theseagrows]

this is a lovely creamy vanilla-floral. i get mostly gardenia and vanilla with jasmine as a backing note. there is a hint of lemon but it's not a super herbal lemon verbena or anything. this has a similar feel to robert piguet's fracas, which i love! perfect for hot weather days like today...

Edited May 2, 2016 by theseagrows

[nefta]

My favorite scents from BPAL so far. It turns into a dreamlike floral-vanilla for me, which I love a lot.

 

Unfortunately it doesn't stay for very long. There's something about the vanilla and jasmine/gardenia/verbena here.

 

I can't differentiate the floral notes very well, please forgive!

[LiberAmoris]

Miss Ida is a heady, sweet floral that's perfect for a humid, lush summer night. It's really almost a candied floral on me, with the French vanilla and gardenia really producing a wallop of vanilla-ed tropical blooms. This would be right at home with the Tiki scents. I do get both jasmine and lemon verbena, and they're lovely here, but I love BPAL's jasmines and lemon verbena is usually my friend as long as she's not the star of the show. The star of the show here is the gardenia, and it's in full regalia.