Love

[JazzieCazzie]

LOVE

Marker on craft paper, 2012

This is a card for my daddy. I spelled it by myself.

Marshmallows and rose sugar with whipped vanilla cream and a hint of strawberry.

 

One of my most highly anticipated decants from the lovely Pickman Gallery April Fools update, but I just had to hope upon hope that the rose would not amp on me.

 

IN THE IMP: All of the notes listed are present and accounted for in different little waves. The whipped cream? Yummmmm. The marshmallow? Nom nom nom. The strawberry? Not bad but holding off judgement (I find that strawberry when sweet can be great for me, like in Strawberry Moon, but it's touch and go as a red fruit) ... and ... sigh ... rose. Go away, rose.

 

Dabbed on one wrist and in crook of arm.

 

WET: Rose rose rose. Then the occasional intoxicatingly delightful throw of delicious whipped cream, and sweet luscious marshmallow. Then ... rose again.

 

DRYDOWN: Just too rose rose rosey for me. As it dries, there is less and less sweet dessert-y deliciousness and more and more old lady perfume.

 

OVERALL: Oh well. Sigh. This is what it says it is, and the fact that rose can kill a blend for me is my own problem. It did, though, make me VERY desirous of a blend that is nothing but whipped cream and marshmallow. A girl can dream. I wanted to love this for so many reasons. And I love it for what it is. It's just not for me.

 

On a scale of 1-5, a 2.5 for me.

[puck_nc]

Origin: decant circle by Absinthetics

 

Initial Thoughts: I have a couple of strawberry scents I love and the occasional sweet/candy scent. The rose worries me, but perhaps rose sugar won't go icky-collard-greens on me.

 

In the Vial: Extremely sweet vanilla marshmallow with a hint of strawberry. This is definitely going into a scent locket.

 

Wet: The rose surges, but at least at first it's not going icky. It's surrounded by clouds of sweetness.

 

Drydown: Dammit! The icky green is there - not as strongly stinky as I've experienced in blends that include the flower note, but it's enough to taint the whole thing. If it would only behave, I'd probably have a delicious marshmallow strawberry scent right now.

 

Verdict: Well, the decant will get used up in my scent locket. We'll see if I use it often enough to justify a bottle or simply keep an eye out for more decants.

[MtMoonKitty]

This is amazing. I LOVE Love! I can pick out all of the notes. I was afraid it would be plastic on me or that the rose would be too much but this scent works so nicely on me. It is everything I hoped for from Self Portrait but better. It's fresh, soft and sweet. Not cloying or over floral at all. After about an hour the strawberry really comes out but it doesn't smell fake or candy-like. This is yummy and I am sure it will be a go-to bedtime fragrance. It smells like sweet dreams.

[minniemoo]

I'm trying to love this, I really am... This was the scent I was most excited for from the Tremulous Song series, it's full of my favourite notes so I couldn't see how it wouldn't work.

 

Sigh. In the imp, I get mostly rose with a hint of creamy sweetness. On my skin it is ROSE ALL THE TIIIIIIIME. Thankfully it's the rose that I like, but I'm super disappointed not to get any of the other notes. It reminds me strongly of Pink Snowballs- which I do actually love, I was just hoping for something a little different. I've tried it on several occasions since my decants arrived, but every time is the same *cries* Guess I'll be sticking with Snowballs

[Missy_killer]

To my nose: Cakey sweet and strawberries. No rose in the bottle at all.
On: Ooooh.. I instantly get rose, but not the normal lemony roses that I always smell whenever there is rose in a scent. This one is dark pink or deep red. I smell some vanilla here too, it's trying to mellow out the rose and keep it from stealing the entire show.. It gives it some creaminess, like luxurious creamy rose-soap (but without any soapiness!!). So far I detect no sugar, no ultrasweet marshmallows and no strawberries.

Now, you should know that I'm not a flower-loving gal, I don't like to smell like roses or any other floral. I'm also migraine-sensetive to vanilla, and can't do buttery/warm vanillas. And when I read one disappointed review after another becuase of the rose, I was afraid I'd hate this. But this is PRETTY!
I've tried Pink Snowballs, but the rose in that wasn't nearly as good, and I was only happy about PS when the roses left the party so the coconut/vanilla could shine.
It is very rose-heavy on me, but now and then there is this creamy note that swirls up and makes it SO beautiful.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we seem to have found the one and only rose-perfume I'll ever want to wear!

As Love dies down the rose gets softer, but on me it never really disappeared. I didn't get any marshmallows or strawberries on my skin, but to be honest it didn't really matter too much - because it was so pretty on its own.

Edited to add: The staying power is medium I'd like to think. The drop I made on my hand was smellable for about 5 hours.

Updated July 14th 2013: Sooo... Love has warped up to my top five favorites and is probably my most worn oil next to L'Essance de L'engougement. I still love it just as much as when I tested it, and it hasn't given me a migraine even though the weather has been really hot.

Edited October 28, 2014 by Missy_killer

[sarandipitee]

Rose. Sweet, soft and kinda vanilla rose. But still just rose. Sharp drydown midway through - it doesn't quite hit soapy rose territory but it's close.

[MCS4096]

Super strong, heavily wafting rose that eventually dies down and goes through a sour milk phase after about 30 minutes, it then becomes a not unpleasant doll's-head scent. Always smells a little off to me, like the notes arent blending quite right to my nose, but I do like the final scent once everything settles... problem is I have to live through the rose and sour milk phase to get there, and once I do the throw is so light I have to sniff my wrists to appreciate it.

Edited May 19, 2013 by MCS4096

[cherrycherry]

Love is exactly what I hoped it would be. I had pretty high hopes, given that I don't really like rose perfumes and was keeping my fingers crossed for a predominantly marshmallow blend with a hint of floral. On me, Love is all pink marshmallow, cream and strawberry with only a faint yet warm blush of rose. It's an incredibly comforting scent and is also light and not overly foodie. Simply beautiful and my favourite of this particular collection by far.

[theseagrows]

i had high hopes for this, but sadly from the outset the strawberry-marshmallow combination just does not work on my skin. i was hoping this would be mostly rose sugar and vanilla, but my skin is amping everything else. the strawberry smells overripe on the verge of rotting and literally almost makes me gag. my skin does not do foody scents very well, but this one is particularly bad there is an almost alcoholic note after about 5 minutes, which doesn't help things much.

[zankoku_zen]

Love starts as - no joke- a subway ride straight into my childhood. It smells like a strawberry and vanilla ice cream that I would get as a child. It evoked summer days, being in the pool, hearing the siren call of the clarion from the ice cream vendor, tearing through the grass in the yard to get to the man before he had ridden off to parts unknown. By no means was this the most expensive ice cream you could buy, in fact, it was pretty low in the totem pole, but the blazing pink and white vanilla was one of my favorite flavor combinations. It came in a little plastic cup, with a wooden spoon, and you would have to hunt for the slightly less popular strawberry/vanilla combination - which was eclipsed by the more popular lucuma/vanilla.

 

And after about an hour, the rose makes an appearance and hijacks the lovely strawberry/vanilla ice cream bits.

 

If it had stayed as a strawberry/vanilla ice cream, I'd be all over this like some sort of wild feral animal. Sadly, the rose plays a spoiler in this relationship.

 

But, wow, what a trip down memory lane.

[milo]

Powdery rose and fresh, realistic strawberry at first. Powder disappears after a bit, and this ends up being a nicely balanced strawberry and rose. I'm getting some sweetness from the marshmallow, but wish it came out a bit more. Not that this blend isn't sweet, far from it, but I guess I mean I wish it smell marshmallow-y more than it does. I like this, it's kind of interesting, but not something I'd probably reach for on a regular basis. My decant will be enough.

[ajansuz]

Sometimes you read a BPAL description and hope with all your heart that it will deliver exactly what it says and that your skin chemistry will cooperate. And sometimes it happens just so.

 

In the bottle I was a little concerned. It was more rose than anything else. While I adore rose, I already have more rose blends than any one person should at one time. The rose had some stem going on, a touch of strawberry, and that was about it.

 

Wet the marshmallow made itself known in a glorious fluffy burst of puffed sugar goodness and dragged strawberry along to play. It was dizzyingly sweet without making it into cloying territory. It was pretty much exactly what I had been hoping for. The rose came out more strongly in the crook of my arm than on my wrists. Even so it didn't dominate, but complimented.

 

The throw was medium, the staying power around five hours before it began to fade. After the fade, a faint vanilla/marshmallow/strawberry sweetness lingered with a touch of red rose at my elbow. This isn't a sexy, va va voom fragrance. It's fun and playful and kind of comforting in a sugary dessert kind of way. Foody without being overly gourmand. If you're afraid of rose, you don't really need to be with this. I usually amp rose out the wazoo. It behaved itself very nicely in this blend.

[sharkdiver]

I bought this bottle unsniffed, because I had seen some comparisons to Hope floating around...I LOVE Hope. I have a cherished decant of it. I had rose red, but sold it, because it went on really strong, and I never reached for it...not like I do with Hope. So when I saw this being compared, it was a no brainer!

 

I am VERY happy I went for it. I can definitely see the Hope similarity, as it has the sweet rose element, but more than anything, once this reaches dry down stage, it reminds me of a "pink" version of Delight & Copnsternation! Or even Katrina Van Tassel! It's that sweet CREAMY rose element...it's gorgeous. I can also smell the hints of strawberry, which is where the "pink" comes from, and I love it! I do already have bottles of both KVT and D&C, but this is just different enough, that it's a welcome addition to my collection! Also, the rose in this, even though it says "rose sugar" in the description, smells like BPAL's White Rose note...the same that is in KVT and D&C.

 

Try this is you like: Bon Vivant, Katrina Van Tassel, Delight & Consternation, Schlafende Baigneuse

Edited June 4, 2013 by sharkdiver

[yakiguri]

Mmmm, Love is what happens when you combine Boo with The Peacock Queen. I was hoping for a sweet creamy rose, and that's exactly what I got. Luckily the rose in Love is a red rose, not yellow (which screeches on my skin) or a tea rose (which turns to nail polish remover). I was leery of the strawberry, which can go plastic-fake on my skin, but luckily it's so faint I wouldn't have known it was there if I didn't read the scent description first. Longevity and throw are decent--not sticking around all day but not gone in a flash, smellable without screaming its presence to the world. Juuuuust right.

If you love rose, you probably already have this, and if you don't, FOR SHAME. If you've wanted to try rose, or if rose and you haven't been working out, you should give this at least a try.

 

The name is definitely apt. LOVE.

[amanderinorange]

I agree with thatbrownelf in that this is very much the cream from BOO, which is what I was hoping for. Most other creams turn to plastic on my skin, but this is sweet marshmallow and sugared cream with just a hint of rose and strawberry. Very much a summer version of BOO. The throw isn't very strong as I have to put my nose a few inches from my wrist to smell it, but it's very lovely.

[elka_knits]

I apparently amp strawberries which may explain why I don't own any scents with the note....usually they are really fake and plasticy with a strong green stem to them but this, this, oh my...

 

I am getting strawberry jam enriched with rose petals... very sweet and warm and oozing. That sounds kinda gross but I honestly sense a warm jam or compote dripping off of a warm piece of toast tho not toast cus toast is not sweet. It really is, on me, that dribble of strawberry preserves that you quickly lick up before it plops down to the plate. Luckily it lasts for a long time. I kept getting whiffs of strawberry late the next day.

 

I love love and am sad that I cannot do another lab order until the next update which I suspect will coincide with takedown.

[thekittenkat]

In the decant: All the notes!

 

Wet: The rose sugar dominates, as I was afraid it would.

 

The dry-down: Now becoming candy-sweet, perhaps too much so. Reminds me of a perfume spray from Avon that I had as a little girl. Another great scent for a young lady. I like it, but I liked the cold sniff the best. May get a bottle, but really not sure, and this was the scent I expected to indeed love the most from this wonderful series.

 

ETA: The longer I wear this, the more I like it.

Edited June 20, 2013 by thekittenkat

[bellumed]

I think the Lab’s marshmallow always smells a little sour to me—- I get it from Boo, as well. So there’s that and full, very present rose. On my skin, I can sense a tiny bit of the other notes- elusive strawberry and sweet vanilla cream. The rose is still steering though, as it usually does. I really want to like this, it’s sort of nice, but something about the rose just isn't working. I think I will stick to Maiden for my rosey needs and pass Love along to one of its many admirers.

[themeaningofV]

This was a total whim purchase for me, having not been interested until I saw it in somebody's Sales thread while looking for something else, but I'm glad I'm decided to go for it. The stars of skin chemistry were in perfect alignment today, because I kept sniffing myself and smiling all day long. Starts off wet as mostly sweet rose, then slowly morphs into the most WONDERFUL sweet rose/whipped cream scent. The strawberry's there if I look for it, but it's not overpowering at all.

 

I will gladly go through my decant and may even hunt down a bottle. I LOVE LOVE.

Edited July 7, 2013 by vthesiren

[Victory]

Sadly, I like the idea of Love and the list of notes more than the actual perfume. Love goes on as an alcoholic strawberry, like a strawberry that has been steeping in alcohol for weeks, or maybe a strawberry margarita, although the alcohol-note doesn't last more than 10 minutes. The perfume then becomes somewhat indistinctly sweet, maybe the rose and strawberry together or perhaps the marshmallow, and dries down to an impression of whipped cream that's dried like a meringue and then smashed with a hammer so it is powder. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's nothing special.

[tharsei-thanate]

I got this in a decant circle and I don't remember ever trying it! Time to rectify that.

 

In the imp: Jesus take the wheel Marshmallow and sugar and cream with a light touch of strawberry and an ever lighter touch of rose. I wish I could eat this, it's amazing. Skin, please don't ruin this.

 

Wet: Gets a bit boozy, and the strawberry becomes more prominent. Actually, this smells a bit like a strawberry shortcake. The sugar has a burnt edge but it's not all that bad. The marshmallow and cream and rose are very light.

 

Drydown: Hi, plastic. Vanilla really needs to get a restraining order against you. At least the throw suddenly disappeared? Wait, the throw just came right back, what the heck. And now it's boozy strawberries! Strawberry daiquiri, not too bad.

 

Dry: Shortcake soaked in strawberry daiquiri sitting on plastic with slightly burnt sugar crystals sprinkled on top. The scent of the plastic comes in waves, sometimes I catch it, sometimes I don't. The throw is waxing and waning as well.

 

I have no idea what's up with my skin chem today. Obviously this smells best in the imp, and it smells nice wet, but then plastic joins the party and chaos ensues. It's really like a tide of scents going in and out. I'm keeping this, of course (this would probably be fab in a scent locket!), but I think I definitely need to do some retests once my skin chem stops going haywire.

[titania]

What can I say? It's rose and the best strawberry yet, blended with marshmallow vanilla cream with a bit of sugar coating the outside. Love is love. It is truly beautiful. Pillowy sweet goodness fit for a princess. I would love a tea like this, and desserts, and basically everything. I'll just have a whole room scented like this. This scent would be nice for a cute outing, making cupcakes (and smelling better than them), and falling asleep and having sweet dreams. Complete win.

[aphrodite]

I bought a 5 ml of this immediately after trying several Pickman decants. I wore it a few times, but I have so much BPAL that I never added it to my actual 5 ml cabinet - left it, along with a fresh 5 ml of my beloved Laurel Honey and a bunch of imps, in the box - and forgot it had ever happened. Yesterday I peeked into a box thinking it must just have a bunch of random old decants in, and discovered this forgotten order. So this morning I slathered on Love and immediately remembered why I bought it.

 

I never liked rose scented things before BPAL, and even in my first year-ish of wearing BPAL. But certain scents have changed that - mostly anything that combines rose with fig - and by the time Love came around, I was ready. Dear gods, it's magical. The rose and strawberry are both noticeable for me, but they intertwine so seamlessly that it's neither too perfumey old lady nor too sweet. I have had the plastic vanilla experience before but have also had a lot of incredible vanilla experiences; this is more the incredible vanilla but it's not amping the way it does in some other favorites. It's just there to add an intriguing new element to this. And the creaminess, ahhh! I've yet to find a version of Boo that works for me - I think it's the cotton sheets that aren't my thing - but this is Boo cream without the cotton and it makes me so happy. It's a glorious scent, perfect for spring days, any day as a season is turning, and any cold winter day when you need a boost and a mental escape.

[tinyvulture]

What a gorgeous confection of a scent! At first, there's the powdery, sugary marshmallows and tartly sweet strawberries with just a touch of fresh green, like strawberry leaves. After just a minute, what I identify as "marshmallow" fades and I pick up a more general creamy, vanilla note. And then, the rose pops out! Soft, pink, powdery rose. It all blends together beautifully. Very sweet and girly-girl.

[Ajila]

In the bottle - A thick sweetened cram and just a hint of rose

 

Wet on me - The rose comes through more strongly leaving a cotton candy scent in the background

 

Dry on me - A sweet hazy vanilla with wafts of roses

 

Overall - I was worried that in the present heat wave it would be too rich and cloying, but actually it was quite light and airy and really pretty like a girlish Antique Lace