A Mirror of Spring Pleasures on Kites (2013)

[boomtownrat]

Hemp, white honey, amber, black currant, beeswax, and wild honeysuckle.

The hemp seems to leap out with a leafy green kick from the bottle and for the first few minutes after it's on my skin. As the oil begins to dry, I start to feel that A Mirror of Spring Pleasures on Kites could be a greener cousin to last year's Entangled, which is a favourite of mine. I don't really know where the similarity lies; maybe the honey? For the first five to ten minutes, the hemp makes me think of salad, but it's oddly not off-putting. That stage gives way to a creamier green scent as the honey, beeswax, honeysuckle, and just the faintest hint of amber emerge. Then the late arrival, black currant, slides in like a whisper after it's dry to mingle with the creamy notes.

I probably need to let this rest, as it only came in the mail today. So far I do like it and can see myself wearing it when I need something subtle.

ETA: I've worn it a few more times now and I really like it. Hemp is still the most prominent note on me, but it's already mellowed (I no longer think of salad while it's drying). The scent lasts all day and it's very much a springy fragrance that I think will appeal to people who like Entangled.

[Balame]

From the bottle I get honeysuckle, honey and beeswax. It's a really yummy, dreamy, creamy sort of blend.

 

The imagery I get from this is milk streaming through a field of white and yellow flowers. The hemp and amber don't really darken this in any way, and it's not rich in the heavy sense. It's both romantic and surprisingly refreshing, and like boomtown mentioned, there is a certain "green" vibe behind the gentle florals and honey.

 

I have to compare this to Banshee Beat because of the hemp + sweetness... and it is indeed like a lighter, greener sister. Very pretty.

[tinyvulture]

First impression: a warm spring day, a field full of green grass, a giant honeycomb with bees buzzing all around. The hemp and honey dominate at first. Then the beeswax and amber come out. I didn't think I would like the greenness of hemp, but it blends in well. It's actually the amber (which I normally adore) that's worrying me here. It has a sharpness and sourness to it, which clashes with the beeswax's soft haziness. I want to like this blend and there are moments that I do, but then that strange sourness returns. Off to swaps.

[Gateau]

Wet, I get three very distinct scent impressions. First is a leafy grassiness, that I think must be the hemp. I also get something that smells sort of white chocolate, which I think must be the honey, amber, and beeswax interacting. Then there's the bright floral wild honeysuckle. This is interesting!

 

Dry, those two scent groupings stay in place, and kind of swirl around each other. I'm not sure I get the black currant distinctly, but it might be hiding there with the leaves and grasses.

 

After an hour or so, it's become predominantly hemp and beeswax. It's sweet, smooth, earthy, and leafy. Unfortunately, it's a little too earthy-leafy for me, and lacks the fruity-floral component I was hoping for. Will probably take this off to the swaps so someone who can appreciate it better can enjoy it.

[Lethran]

In bottles: This is gorgeous in a pale early spring floral sort of way. The help, honey, and amber create a beautiful backdrop on which the delicate beauty of the honey suckle can shine. Black currant is a juicy and sweet undercurrent threading through the help and amber. The beeswax does a quiet humming dance with the honey. If you like honeysuckle, help, and honey, this is the blend for you. Wet: Really different on me as my skin brings out the amber, drastically altering the proportions. The honeysuckle/hemp alliance stays strong, as does the amber/honey/beeswax alliance, but now there is this powerful currant/amber nexus moving to the front and pushing the honeysuckle, hemp, and honey into second. It changes the feel. It’s lovely, but less unusual. Dry: Black currant and amber with a little hemp, and a touch of honey.

[ND¢]

First thought: HEMP. Wet, it's a blast of hemp with sweet undertones. I like the near-brashness and the very faithful hemp scent. As it dries, I can smell a background, but none of the other notes except, I think, the honeysuckle are really distinguishing themselves at all. Maybe I smell the beeswax a bit. Hemp with a touch of honeysuckle and beeswax. I am not displeased in the least. First potential bottle purchase of my Luper decants. I like light, springy scents that aren't Floral.

[crebbsgirl]

There is a blast of hemp in the opening stages. Very green and a bit disconcerting. As it dries the beeswax and honeysuckle come out. It gets a floral sweetness and a depth. The hemp smoothes out and blends a little better. I can see this aging gorgeously.

[surlygurl]

I was really excited to see honeysuckle in this. I was hoping for a floral honeysuckle scent for spring. On my skin, the hemp and a bit of amber. The honeysuckle & honey come out as it warms up, with beeswax bringing up the rear. It turns from a yummy floral into a powdery slightly sweet beeswax scent. It's a very quiet scent that lasts longer than I'd expect. Quite lovely.

[hlinspjalda]

Of all this year's Lupers, this is the one that appealed to me the most. It has many of my notes of love plus hemp, a note I've liked in other blends that didn't work out on me.

 

In the vial: The same round chewy note that's in Banshee Beat (which I can't wear) and, surprisingly, U Mutter Museum (which I love). And sweet. But mostly the round note. Is that hemp? If so, then I think there must be some hemp in U as well. (Or balsam/parchment in this? Unsure.)

 

Wet: Great, the round note has subsided some. It would have dominated the scent in a way I wouldn't like, I think. But the beeswax and amber seem to be holding it down. I hope this stays this nice.

 

Half an hour: The hemp note is still foremost. Everything underneath it is still there, and it's not as sweet as I feared it was going to be. I might still like this; time will tell.

 

Three hours: Hemp is still running the show. The fruit, honey, and beeswax have turned soft and waxy rather than sticky and jammy, so that's good. The amber's still in there holding the scent together at the base. Overall this has an almost strawlike impression now, grassy if you will.

 

I like it. It's not the home run I was hoping for, but it's still very nice and I may need a bottle of it.

[zankoku_zen]

HEMP! This smells very HEMP-Y *like Banshee Beat hemp), but greener and springier. This one was a green hemp and flowers (you know, like if you stumbled upon it on a sunny field), and there's a sweetness from the honey.

 

On the drydown, several hours later, its mainly a honey/amber blend with a tinge of hemp.

 

Green, warm, springy

[karykeion]

Thanks to Fright for the decant! Oh god, I really want this to work. Beeswax and honeysuckle, say it ain't so.

 

In the decant: Very leafy and hemp with this strong sweet undertone. Not quite what I was expecting, less honey-flowers and more hemp, but I can deal with it!

 

On me, wet: This basically smells like sniffing a honeysuckle bush on a spring day. There's something about it that I can tell is going to get kind of sharp, which I'm really afraid is the honey--I think it might be time for me to just give up and admit that BPAL's honey note does something wrong on me no matter how much I want to smell like honey. The hemp kind of punches me in the face after a while, but that's not all there is--there's a creaminess to it that I think is coming from the beeswax.

 

On me, dry: Yeah, it did that sharp thing. I like the beeswax and hemp combination. I can't smell the blackcurrant at all. I'm not sure how I feel about this; it's either fantastic or a really bad idea and probably deserves another test or two like Angry Crab.

[mymymai]

ITI: Slightly green with honey, beeswax, and a touch of light floral from the honeysuckle.

 

Wet: The hemp is a bit stronger on my wrist, but the beeswax is thick and sweet, trumping

everything save the honeysuckle, which is desperately trying to show.

 

Dry: It doesn't seem to last long on my skin. It's rather light only after three hours, but I can still tease out the beeswax and amber.

[brilliantcat]

Hearing this could be a sister to Banshee Beat has me excited as that's one of my all-time favorites

 

Imp: I definitely get the honeysuckle and the greenness of the hemp, though it's a much more tempered hemp than in BB. Someone else mentioned it having a creamy tone to it and I'm getting that as well.

 

Wet: The hemp is more pronounced on me. This is creamy without being sour or rich, green like fresh, growing plants, and ever so slightly floral. It's definitely a greener, more herbal BB. It makes me think of spring and growing things and is really lovely.

 

Dry: Utterly lovely. Slight herbalness from the hemp, creamy honeysuckle, soft honey. Much less a relative of BB but I still love it, I think it will be a wonderful spring scent.

[Zaani]

Oh, honey... I thought it would be different this time It hasn't turned to B.O. on me like some honeys do when mixed with resins, but there is a definite funk that I'm pretty sure the honey is responsible for. It smells awesome wet, though....

[Blood onmy hands]

Spring Pleasures starts off with a green, herbal scent mixed with honeysuckle (lightly sweet, slightly sharp smelling floral) and dries down to more of a warm beeswax and powdery amber scent with just a hint of floral. I sort of like this one, though it might be a bit too powdery on my skin after a while.

[OctoberGwen]

Mirror of Spring Pleasures starts off fresh and sort of grassy on me. It's very pretty. I'm getting the beeswax, for sure, which gives a slightly creamy and almost chewy quality to the scent. The grassy note is not fresh-mown, it is more like grass that is recently uncovered from Winter's snows, still brownish in places and flattened. There's no wetness here, though.

 

I completely agree with boomtownrat: it is actually very reminiscent of Entangled, without any of the smokiness. They definitely share a quality that I'm having a hard time defining right now. Entangled is uncut hay in high Summer, and this is that same long grass earlier in the season.

 

Later Mirror of Spring Pleasures becomes a bit more perfumey, which I assume is when the black currant and honeysuckle make an appearance though I don't necessarily identify those notes singularly.

 

This stays close to the skin and is very different from things I usually wear, but it has a place in my collection when I want something similar to Entangled but a bit more fresh and Spring-like.

 

I do not find this resembling Banshee Beat at all.

[astarinel]

Surprisingly green and fresh and grassy.

 

I guess I was sort of looking at this hoping that the notes I liked (beeswax, honey, and currant) would outweigh the notes I don't really (hemp and honeysuckle), and unfortunately for me it's exactly the opposite of what I wanted.

 

It's a light, green, fresh scent that is definitely dominated by the hemp while wet. As it dries, the honey comes out a bit more strongly, but it's still just not what I was hoping for given the note list. Hemp being the first note is not an exaggeration, here.

[Evilynn]

I wasn't sure what hemp would smell like, but the rest of the notes should work just fine on my skin and in the bottle it's all grassy with a bit of beeswax underneath, yet this smells an awful lot like there's violet hiding in there somewhere, and violet on my skin lives on the barf <---> moat of stagnant water scale.

 

Off to swaps it goes.

[windbourne]

This bottle was not quite what I was expecting after testing it at Will-Call. That bottle was super-hempy with a noticeable beeswax note and only a little bit of honey and sweetness on the drydown. This one is like this:

 

HONEYSUCKLE, HONEY, black currant, amber, _hemp, beeswax.

 

The honeysuckle/honey one-two punch is sweet and pretty cloying. It's more summery than spring-like, a warm, damp, yellowy scent dotted with little deep blops of dark fruit. I kind of like it, but I was really hoping for a meeker substitute for Licwiglunga's herbal-hemp madness, not crazyface honeysuckle. That is not this perfume.

 

Drydown is a little drier, and the hemp steps up a little bit, but it somehow mostly still smells of honeysuckle on me. Dried honeysuckle. Hm.

[milo]

Beeswax with something green and weedy. I'm guessing that would be the hemp. The green note reminds me of that oil that was available through Mutter Museum, but I can't think of the name of that one. There's also a bit of floral poking through. The wet phase is crappy, I don't like that particular green, pulpy note, but the drydown is rather lovely. Beeswax, honey and slight floral with a touch of the green pulpy note. Nice, but it's not something I would wear.

[Ajila]

In the bottle - A green, almost minty floral with just a touch of waxiness

 

Wet on me - A bright green grass scent

 

Dry on me - A light touch of honey musk

 

Overall - A little too light and green for my tastes

[theseagrows]

this starts out all hemp- just greenery. i think after a few seconds a hint of honey and honeysuckle peeks through, but it's still very green and continues to be 97% hemp after 5-10 minutes. after awhile i think i can smell a tiny bit of honey and amber along with the hemp, but not much else. it becomes a honey-hemp scent for the most part after being on the skin awhile.

Edited August 11, 2014 by theseagrows

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Mmm. Pretty. Hemp, honey, beeswax, currant, honeysuckle - all the notes come through in unison and are blended gorgeously together. I think the honey comes through a tiny bit stronger than the others, but they are all very present, and sooo beautiful.

 

 

Dry: I love this. It dries down to a soft honey scent (one of my fave notes) with hints of fruit and green and floral. So lovely. I likely need a bottle.