Miss Jessell

[stellamaris]

Black roses with myrrh, benzoin, and guiac wood.

Ooh Me First? So intimidating...
Well, can I just say how happy I am that I cannot smell whatever wood is in this, so I don't feel like Fine Furniture? It's the same lovely rose as in Elizabeth of Bohemia to me, but deeper and rounder, with a lot of lasting power.
Rose lovers rejoice! This is not a Rose Red or The Rose, but still a juicy rose, not dead or dry.

[Foodie]

I am a rose lover and I am rejoicing!

 

The previous poster is right, this is juicy. Juicy, and sweet. A sweet smelling, nature-like rose scent, with a bit of incensey-goodness.

 

It makes me feel happy. I absolutely adore Miss Jessel. I don't know what "black roses" are, but they sure smell amazing!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited to add...

I wanted to say that after a month of wearing Miss Jessel I can't get the idea out of my head that this smells like tree sap. It smells exactly like roses mixed with tree sap. I love it!

Edited December 28, 2012 by Foodie

[Dark Alice]

Rose. Not the soft sweet kind. This is the angry, lover betrayed, roses scattered to the damn floor rose....and nothing else. This rose is trying to bitch slap my sinuses. But I won't let it. Off to the sales page with ye!

[ih8perfume]

Guiacwood has a very unusual fragrance. It is very sweet, fruity, and floral but with a little light sappy wood. Guaiacwood is woody like like petigrain is woody (i.e. um, not woody at all).

 

First impression of Miss Jessel is a lightly incensed rose, but with something mysterious, sharp and warm like black pepper, lurking in the background.

 

I will give it a more thorough skin test and report back , but it seemed a little strong at first.

[becca_s]

This starts out with a strong burst of roses - these are definitely dark, black roses. When it dries down I can smell the warm myrrh and what I think must be the guiac wood in the background. The guiac wood is interesting - kind of green and woodsy at the same time. This is a really unique rose scent, and I will be using up the decant and could possibly upgrade to a bottle if this keeps growing on me.

[Gateau]

I got the black roses, and they come through loud and clear. I can get a hint of the other notes in the background, but perhaps I amp rose too much, but they really don't have much of a presence. Not the resiny-inflected dark rose scent I can smell in my mind's nose. Later, as with so many roses, I get a soapiness.

[theseagrows]

i really liked this a lot at the outset, which is usually the opposite of how things go for me and perfume. anyway, it was a nice black rose with a hint of myrrh-something warm and pretty. however, once it dried and settled into my skin, it became mostly wood with rose. not bad necessarily, but the rose turns a bit sour with the wood mixture and i don't like it as much. i love rose scents, but my opinion changes a lot depending on other components. this one is just too woody for my tastes.

[Blood onmy hands]

I was hoping for dark rose with sweet myrrh, but the rose here is more sour and chemical/perfumey smelling. I agree with the reviewer who said it smells similar to Elizabeth of Bohemia, which didn't work on me either. I like roses to either smell fresh or very sweet, and this sharper, perfumey variety doesn't smell good to me. I also don't get much of an incense or resin feel from this. As it dries down, it's sour rose perfume and dry wood on my skin. Not a fan of this one.

[ralenth]

Rose doesn't do well on my skin, usually, and Miss Jessell is no exception. Sharp, dark roses - bitter and angry.

[zeldaZ4]

ITI: Mmmmm…. Strong rose with an underlying rich, dark, creaminess. Super high hopes for this one!

 

On Skin: Wet, the dark rose from the imp is prominent, but something else immediately jumps out. Something foody, but savory, not sweet. Curry powder? Sage? And onions??? An odd juxtaposition.

 

Dry, its still smelling like a huge vase of aging roses in the kitchen while the Thanksgiving turkey cooks. The bird has been stuffed with onions, sage, and celery. Maybe a touch of butter. Is this the guiac wood? Savory vegetables? I like to EAT them, not wear them!

 

Thankfully, the vegetables start to simmer down in about half an hour. Two hours later, I can smell faint rose on one wrist, faint wood on the other.

Not a keeper for me!

Edited January 14, 2013 by zeldaZ4

[Aldercy]

Watery rose, but in a weirdly good way?

 

I don't normally care for aquatic notes, but there's a certain bright, tart water note (which is not just some generic, commercial impression of "freshness," but actually smells like fresh water) swirling around super creamy resinous black rose. The myrrh, benzoin and wood are blended together very, very thoroughly as a base for the dark, almost gooey rose note. Strange, sexy and uplifting at the same time!

 

I thought I wouldn't need a bottle of this because I have quite a lot of rose scents, but this is appreciably different from any other rose BPAL I've tried. Perhaps I will need to buy this before the Yules come down...

[zankoku_zen]

Myrrh, benzoin with a touch of rose.

 

Actually, my skin eats this up and I can barely smell after 20 minutes. Weird.

[milo]

A bit pickly at first, but dries to a soft, lovely sweet dark rose. I don't get any myrrh or wood here, which I think would really add to the blend, as it seems kind of one dimensional.

[Vega]

Sniffed: Dark, heady roses deepened by myrrh, and the other notes.

 

On skin: Black rose is the showcase note, floating upon the solemn base of resins and guiacwood. If "black" is meant to evoke darkness, these are indeed the darkest, richest roses I've ever smelled in any BPAL perfume, And yet it remains warm and definitely feminine. Overall, Miss Jessell is full-bodied and gentle, deep dark roses mingling with gloomy resins... and a distinctly sharp, sour greenness. Reading the other reviews in this thread, it must be from guiacwood.

 

Alas, this completely spoils the blend. Miss Jessell is simple but evocative: calm, soft, melancholy, sunk into an enfolding gloom. --Then this wet, sour, freshly-broken-branch-greenness strikes a harshly dissonant chord amidst this harmony of rose and resins. The guiac seems to emerge more on warmer body parts, but even on cool skin it remains just out of reach, threatening to spoil the scent.

 

Colour impression is an exceedingly dark purple-black.

 

Verdict: What a pity, what a disappointment! Miss Jessell would've been such a wonderful blend, if guiacwood wasn't present. Then again, it may be delibrate: I haven't read The Turn of the Screw so I don't know anything about the character Miss Jessell, but if the scent is anything to go by, she is a melancholy, genteel, lovely lady with a biting or fickle side. Evocative, but sadly I won't be keeping my bottle.

[killersandliars]

I bought this because I really loved Elizabeth of Bohemia and I didn't buy a full bottle. Miss Jessell has the same kind of feeling as Elizabeth of Bohemia, but a little darker and more autumnal, whereas EoB is more springy. Anyway, I loved Beth's combination of oud and rose in EoB, so when I saw Miss Jessell I knew that it would be a good replacement. I actually ended up liking Miss Jessell better than EoB because it is a little more complex, or deeper. It has a nice rose in there, but it really plays behind the other notes in a way. Like the rose is definitely there, but it isn't the most prominent. I don't think I especially amp rose, but it is usually the forenote in most of the BPAL rose scents I own, so this is definitely a little different. The oud is probably the most prominent note for me, but it isn't overpoweringly oud-y either. All in all, I would say Miss Jessell is very complex yet also balanced. Another scent I think it is somewhat reminiscent of is Theotokos, but that is more incense with rose in the background and Miss Jessell is more woody. All in all, this is a beautiful scent, and I like how darkly feminine it is without being smoky.

[d0gbones]

In the imp: Rose water

Wet: Rose petals

Dry: What I assume is the guaic wood has come out now, but the myrrh and roses are still there, neither one is stronger they just sort of fade in and out and the other takes over. There's not much left in the little imp I was given, so I'll have to try and be stingy with this oe 'til I find a larger size!