The Lady of Shalott

[Aredhel]

The scent of calm waters just before a raging storm, limned with achingly-beautiful blooms, an icy scent, but somehow warm, and mirror-bright: bold gardenia, crystalline musk, muguet, water blossoms, clear, slightly tart aquatic notes and a crush of white ginger.

Rating (on skin): 4/5
Summarised in one word: Beautiful!

In the imp: This is very hard to describe! I can discern ginger, but beyond that, it's a jumble of notes, which isn't a bad thing. It's sweet, but not cloying.

On skin, wet: Ginger and gardenia! I don't usually care for gardenia, but this is lovely. It's an entire flower -- the soft, white petals, and the slightly tart leaves and stem -- in a pool of water. As I said, hard to describe, but beautiful.

On skin, dry: I really, really like this, which I find very strange, being the Anti-floral girl I normally am. The slight aquatic element becomes more pronounced, which only adds to the scent's beauty.

Conclusion: This is a gardenia scent for those that don't like gardenia. It's (gardenia) tempered beautifully with something fresh and herbal, but that same herbal something isn't as bitter as it might be without the gardenia. It's a jumbled mass of notes for me, all told, but I find it rich, complex, and beautiful. A 5ml will be in my next order. Edited June 1, 2008 by Aredhel

[wingedcorset]

Beautiful and complex and utterly not me. I would love to smell this on some pretty elegant Jackie O. type. Clean and crisp and always proper.

 

Oddly, on my skin it turns into the smell of cucumber peels.

[SeaMonkey]

Oh this is so pretty!

 

I bought a bottle of it unsniffed for my mum for christmas because she loves gardenia.

I snagged an imp of it from a forumite just to smell it before it got here. She's going to LOVE this

 

Its all gardenia and water blossoms.

 

 

I let her sniff my wrist without telling her I bought her a bottle. She DOES love it

[ajcj213499]

This scent is like lying next to a forest pond in the spring, light, fresh, green, floral, and cool at the same time.

 

I put it on at 9:00 before I went to church (I just barely resisted the urge to keep smelling my wrist again and again while I was there, not an easy feat...). I could smell it lightly beautiful as I moved around, but unfortunately, it was gone by the time I got home around 1:00.

 

A very beautiful, haunting scent.

[Sycorax]

I the bottle, this had a very strong aquatic smell, given a bit of bite by the ginger note in the background.

 

Unfortunately, on my skin, this became aquatic, aquatic, and more aquatic. It was almost as though I was wearing a single-note "aquatic" perfume. That might appeal to some, but it definitely wasn't for me.

 

I'll have to pass on this one. Skin chemistry strikes again.

[sarahj]

Lady of Shalott

 

received in a swap

 

in vial: strong gardenia

 

wet: same

 

dry: slightly powdery blend of musk and gardenia

 

verdict: nice...I will use the imp but don't need a big bottle

[Fefferbella]

Frimp from the lab:

 

Lotus blossoms and gardenia! This smells like a gorgeous watergarden in full bloom!

Clean, fresh and floral. The Gardenia did turn a little soapy on my skin, but in combination with the other elements, it was still really lovely.

[Meg]

In the bottle: Flowers, very wet flowers, clearly muguet and possibly gardenia, it smells rather thick and sweet, like nectar.

 

Wet: The muguet comes out beautifully, it smells... flowing, white and creamy. Then the aquatic note comes to slice at my sinuses, dang.

 

Drydown: Aquatics aquatics aquatics. I can hardly smell beyond that, and it's a pity, because people sniffing me find it very nice, flowery and summery. Actually I get a whiff of ginger, over something sweet which must be the flowers. Later the musk develops into a slightly vanilla-ish and gingery soap scent, as white musk always does for me.

 

Overall: It's not working out for me because I can't smell it properly through the aquatics and I'm not a fan of the musk part either. I think that it's rather suave and perfumy, and perhaps the flowery equivalent of Titania, but with even more aquatics. Really not something for people who have problems with aquatic notes, but a very pretty, blend. Perhaps it's a little too happy, not really mournfoul enough, for Tennyson's poem, though? This is going to have to go to swaps, unfortunately.

[yeahbutnobut]

The Lady of Shalott

 

In the imp: clear, aquatic blossoms. Flower petals and autumn leaves on crystalline water. I also detect the type of gardenia that totally grosses out on me, so I sure hope this doesn’t happen because it smells really lovely in the imp!

Wet on skin: oh dear, no, please no…the gardenia is evil and is turning to that burnt acrid peppery pickled petal scent I hate!

Dry on skin: stupid evil gardenia. If it weren't for that it would smell quite nice…underneath it there's a cool watery scent, so much like water it's uncanny. It's also got some sweet florals like waterlily and lily of the valley, maybe white musk too…but on top of it is that astringent, harsh gardenia. I have no idea why that note hates me…

After a while: the gardenia still lurks around after a while, though not as strongly. Now I get more of that crystal clear aquatic scent, very clean and glistening, with hints of white dewy flowers and a little bit of musk as well. The gardenia just adds a sharp edge to the scent. It's more pleasant now, though.

After a few hours, the gardenia is bearable enough and the scent has unbelievable clarity, with hints of gentle white blooms here and there.

Verdict: if it wasn't for the gardenia, I would have liked this. It's an aquatic floral which smells just like cool, clean, crystal clear water…like a spring with water so transparent, it's like glass, you can see straight to the bottom. You want to drink this beautiful water, it looks so sweet, so pure and tempting…but it has a bitter bite. Yup. As soon as it hits my skin, the gardenia freaks out and spoils it. It has this peppery, acrid, harsh, abrasive scent which is nothing like gardenia (funnily enough-the gardenia in LE scents doesn't react like this), but this does mellow out slowly so the gardenia retreats and the clean aquatic notes and other white florals are more apparent. That's the part of the scent I really like. but I'm afraid it seems most gardenia scents don't like my skin, this one included, so it's up for swap.

Edited January 20, 2006 by yeahbutnobut

[Abbie]

In the bottle: A very soft and light scent. I can detect cucumber, ginger, and milk...with some richer, lily-like undertones

 

First on: This is very very subtle on. The ginger and lilies get stronger, and there's a darker undertone of gardenia and musk. It's almost a little rank, actually.

 

Dry: Hard to get a read on it... this faded FAST. But it's mostly a spicy gardenia sort of smell now, with still that sort of rank scent.

 

Overall: This might be nice for a room scent, but the combination of it and my skin is not a good thing. I'll keep it unless something really awesome comes up in swaps.

[moon_lemming]

Hmmm. I'm having a hard time deciding how I feel about this one -- before I read the reviews, I could have sworn this was a fruity scent. I get peaches and white flowers surrounded by pretty, clear water. There's a little bit of spice in there too.

 

For a few minutes, it does the detergent thing, but soon that calms down and it's just a clean peachy floral. Again I say hmmmm. I think I'll keep this imp and try it again before I decide.

 

edit: An hour later, I think it's safe to say that this one isn't going anywhere. Clean floral yumminess. There's still a little bit of fruitiness, but it's more like being in a garden beside a clean pool of water on a warm spring day. Gorgeous.

Edited January 24, 2006 by karen

[Ayln]

The gardenia is giving me a huge, flower-induced headache, and that's all I really got from this scent. Shame, because I was hoping for more ginger.

[astridclaire]

White florals like gardenia tend to give me a headache, but this blend is truly lovely!

 

I had to try this because I'm a HUGE Anne of Green Gables fan, and I just couldn't resist a scent named after poetry Anne loved.

 

In Bottle: It's an aquatic, herbal, melancholy floral. A young maiden with porcelain skin that will die before she's lost her virginity.

 

On: Smells like rain on a lake surrounded by blooming gardenias.

[Chrysantza]

I wanted to like this because it has some beautiful floral notes. But alas, the aquatic and "cool" notes amped way up and smelled like hairspray on me. Plus it fades really fast.

 

Off to the swaps.

[sissa125]

Mmmm. Crisp, mildly citrusy, aquatic with an edge of tart floral, which would be the gardenia, methinks. The white musk is a soft cushion underneath the sharp high-notes. I think this is my happy fragrance. I also think I am enamoured with gardenia and white ginger now. More of it!

 

First impression: there is hope and joy bursting out of the seams of this scent - wasn't it supposed to be melancholy? I'm not complaining. This is clear springs burbling past grassy banks with wildflowers. The sun is saturating the air with brilliance. My joy. My joy.

 

Then: becomes rounder and deeper, a late afternoon rather than midmorning sun. There is no scent of barley, but it feels like long fields of barley and of rye.

 

There is maturity here, but no despondency. The Lady has given up her comfort and security for a terrifyingly uncertain fate, and she has no regrets.

 

Madly enough, this perfume reminds me of Sting...

"You'll remember me when the west wind moves

Upon the fields of barley

You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky

As we walk in fields of gold ..."

Edited February 11, 2006 by attar shanas

[Caltha]

The Lady of Shalott

This one has a certain floral scent I read as "melon" and I'm not a fan of melon (except for water-), I think melons completely lack freshness. However, it also has a bite of ginger I'm a great fan of so that makes me still like it. A very watery and juicy floral, perhaps lily of the valley, with that not-so-fresh melon sweetness. Later it turns a little soapy but I still like it for that ginger bite and the juiciness.

[couscous]

I love gardenia, love musks,love aquatics, love muguet, love ginger, and yet I did not like Lady of Shalott.

 

Wet, I smell muguet, gardenia, and ginger- but, as soon as it's on, it becomes a watered-down floral vaguely reminiscent of fabric softener and increasingly powdery with time. It's pretty, but all of the elements get watered down on me- the spiciness of gardenia is gone, the heat of ginger is nowhere to be found, the tart one expects in aquatics is gone... it's as if the identifying elements of each single note canceled each other out when blended to create something new.

 

Even though Pele lasts all of two seconds on me, I much prefer her to LoS because the FIRE of ginger is there, the savory kind of ginger which so often gets pushed away in favor of sweet baked ginger.

 

Lady of Shalott is pretty and quite wearbale (meaning that an aversion to any of her listed notes should not automatically cancel her out), but she's too innocuous and straight-on flowery for me. She needs some bite.

Edited February 12, 2006 by couscous

[smallvoice]

A beautiful, light, floral... I can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet. I, too, get the cucumber peel scent from it, but the rest is just so hard to sum up in words. It's a gorgeous, watery, fresh air sort of scent, and I'm thinking very hard about acquiring a bottle.

[ariansdreams]

First Sniff (in the imp): Very fresh and sweet. I can definitely smell something aquatic.

 

Wet: It really does smell like what I thought it would. Like flowers and water. It actually did make me feel a bit wistful when I smelled it. I can also pick out the ginger quite readily.

 

Dry: I can smell gardenia. Lovely.

 

Overall: I liked this oil. I don't think I'll swap/sell my imp, but I'm not IN LOVE. It's a somewhat innocent scent, and I tend go for more...spicier smells.

[Alchemy21599]

In the vial: gardenia!

 

Wet: gardenia. Too much gardenia! I had to wash this off before it had a chance to dry. I had high hopes for this because ginger is one of my favorite notes, yet I did not get any ginger at all.

[Nekomata]

Gardenia with a light hint of ginger. Sweet and powdery when dry. Reminds me alot of the Baba Yaga frimp.

[juniperus]

Bottle: gardenia, mostly, and a hint of another, very light, floral

Wet: water lily coming through more obviously as that floral, still mainly gardenia

Dry: nothing of the musk, the aquatics are coming through more now

Later: a very light floral, high pale floral notes, but not too-too sweet. lovely, but I'm not certain it's for me. Ah, but I am still a sucker for Tennyson...And at the closing of the day/She loosed the chain, and down she lay;/The broad stream bore her far away,/The Lady of Shalott

Edited April 24, 2006 by Juniperus Intrepidus

[blueroses]

This is achingly beautiful, a work of art. (I am up way too late tonight. )

 

So, in my life before BPAL, the commercial perfumes I favored were gardenia or aquatic blends. This is both, so naturally it appeals to me. But this is so much more complex. I imagine a base of aquatic notes and soft musk, scattered with gardenia and water-flower petals. It's very fragile - I was afraid to rub my wrists together and crush the scent.

 

So beautiful. This is something I'd like to consider one of my signature scents, which is funny, because even though I loved commercial gardenia and aquatic perfumes, I've been liking the sweeter BPAL blends. This is very light, though - slathering and re-applying is a must if you want it to last.

[gwyllgi]

I love BPAL aquatics, and muguet and ginger only promise to make them better.

 

And then I hit the gardenia.

 

I'm coming to realize that gardenia hates my skin, as nearly every blend I've tried goes rancid on me. This, sadly, is no exception. Once it hits my skin, it smells like rotting vegetation lining a stagnant pond. It never shifts from this, so this is, sadly, not one that's destined to remain in my possession.

[dragonryder]

Usually the aquatic notes are too harsh for me, but the gardenia softens and enhances it so this is a great blend.