The Nun and the Courtly Lady

[CiCi]

White sandalwood, Italian bergamot, Siamese benzoin, tobacco flower, and caramelized honey.

In the bottle this smells so familiar to me but I just can't place it. It is warm and inviting, tantalizing with an underlying subtle sweetness probably from the caramelized honey. After wearing it I find that it is very light and not as heavy as I expected it to be after smelling it in the bottle. There is a light (very light) spice, some gentle whiff of citrus that is really soft and pretty. The warm sandalwood combined with the other notes makes this a beautiful fragrance that wears almost like a high end perfume. This is light and airy and delightful!

[Lethran]

In bottle: The dominant bergamot makes this smell like tea also, since bergamot is what make Earl Grey taste like that. The benzoin and tobacco flower are good support. The sandalwood is understated and plays well with others. The kiss of caramelized honey lends a faint air of decadence. Wet: It is now benzoin dominant with strong bergamot support, which makes it less tea like. The tobacco flower is more distinct, and the sandalwood a scooch more assertive. I really like this, it’s very directional, in a good way with all the parts working towards a single impression. Dry: Sandalwood.

[DovaKitten]

Gwydion's review is a better description of my experiences than mine is going to be, but I'll give it a shot anyway.

 

Wet, this is assertively BERGAMOT. It's so citrus it's almost astringent, but also a little peppery. I think that peppery note might be the tobacco flower, but I can't be certain because I have no idea what tobacco flower smells like.

 

As it dries down, it turns into ... evergreen? pine sap? That's weird. Oh, wait, nope. Not weird. Wikipedia says that benzoin "appears as off-white crystals, with a light camphor-like odor," so that explains it.

 

The pepper and the sap notes make this a very masculine scent to me. It smells like something my stepfather would wear. There is a little sweetness, but I wouldn't that I get recognizable honey or sandalwood. I'm sure they'll make themselves known as it fades.

 

All in all, a very refined and perhaps even traditional (for BPAL) unisex scent, but it smells too much like my stepdad for me to want to wear it. Off to swaps!

[Alaeidrel]

Wow, this is gorgeous. It just came and I couldn't wait to test it - I wonder if it'll settle out differently.

 

Wet, it's all sweet honey and tobacco flower with a little hint of bergamot. I don't get a lot of the sandalwood but I can sense it lurking around in the background.

 

Dry, it's very light honey with a nice spice to it - but it's so light I can barely smell it! It just continues to fade away... I'm definitely going to have to let it settle and then do a slather-test. So far I love what I can smell but there's not much of it.

 

Edit:

Even having just settled for 2-3 days, wow, what a change! It's much spicier now, and as it dries the sandalwood comes out beautifully. It does stay pretty muted on me, but I'll catch wafts of it for hours after application. 5/5.

Edited March 10, 2014 by Alaeidrel

[LiberAmoris]

I'm delighted with how many of the Shungas this year become skin scents on me within a half hour or so. The Nun and the Courtly Lady starts off strong, all bergamot and tobacco flower and honey, and for a while, I'm not sure it's something I want to smell like—the bergamot is too high pitched for me, the tobacco flower is too dusty, and the honey is too sweet. But within an hour, it's really calmed down, and the sandalwood has pulled ahead. The drydown is an equal blend of sandalwood and honey, with a little tobacco flower on the side. I like it, but I think this would be even better on my husband...I think he'll be getting my bottle, along with a plea to put a little on today.

[GinnyMoonbeam]

This is the first definite love of my Luper decants. It's definitely feminine but in a dry, elegant, reserved way that I love. As befits the name, it's reminiscent to me of a beautiful woman who's inaccessible to all but a carefully chosen few. As I catch whiffs of it it's triggering a memory that I can't quite grasp... Oh! It's reminding me of BBW's white tea and ginger, which a friend of mine always used to wear. I don't think there's any ginger in this but it's that same kind of lightly warm, elegant tea scent. Anyway, if you liked that scent I'm betting you'll love this!

 

As it dries I'm getting more of what I think is the tobacco flower, [ETA: and honey! The honey just popped out and it's lovely!] bringing in a hint of smokiness and passion... the nun and the courtly lady disrobing and going to town. Thankfully the honey is not going sour on me as it sometimes does. This is a big bottle for sure.

Edited March 14, 2014 by GinnyMoonbeam

[tziporra]

What is this I don't even?!?

 

Did I possibly get a mislabeled bottle?

 

On the other hand, this was a blind purchase, so I have no idea what it's supposed to smell like except from the above reviews.

 

This is butchest sapphic scene I could have imagined. In the bottle it's straight cologne. On my skin I start to amp a note that rings the "Irish Spring" alarm bell, and if I wasn't sitting here with the note list in front of me I would have said, "woah there is a lot of moss in this". But I can see there is NO MOSS. I also would have said, "this is a lot like Nuages Gris on my skin, but more masculine." But I can see that this and Nuages Gris share NO NOTES.

 

I'm so confused.

 

Anyway, on my skin this a very green but not herbal cologne. I really really like it (and my husband is going to adore it, he always wants me to smell like a boy), but it is exactly nothing like I expected.

 

Tzi

[zankoku_zen]

Bergamot, tobacco, and honey.

 

This smells like a green cologne, slightly gender neutral. Its honey, tobacco, and very smooth.

[thekittenkat]

In the imp: Hints of all the notes blending together.

 

Wet: Mostly sandalwood, lightly sweetened by honey.

 

The dry-down: The sandalwood is more spicy now, less sweet, but still mild and delicate. I suspect that the bergamot is to blame. Very much a skin scent. The lady doesn't want to wear her rich rose perfume when visiting her sister, the nun.

[tinyvulture]

The benzoin and tobacco make this a surprisingly tough, bold blend. Nothing courtly or demure about it! It's almost like a masculine cologne. I really like it; for some odd reason it makes me think of what a stylish Italian gentleman would wear. Others get lots of bergamot, but there's nothing about it that screams Earl Grey to me. Just a very light, vague citrus that brightens things up. Mainly tobacco and benzoin notes.

[Zii]

Wet: Bergamot and honey. Very masculine and citrusy. The incense is making this almost washer soap like and the honey is doing it's powdery sneezy thing.

 

Drying: It's getting more and more powdery and sweet, and less and less what I wanted. Something green is hanging around that's keeping this nice and wearable though. Hopefully that will amp up.

 

Dry: Curse you honey... CURSE YOU! Your powdery sweetness has taken over everything and now I smell like an incense drenched honey comb. All of the smokey tobacco/bergamot stuff I liked in the wet stage is just gone....

 

Edit

The honey has backed down a little while I've been wearing it, and it's not a bad smell, persay, but I have other warm resinous scents that are richer and I like better. I'll probably hold onto this a little longer for some aging to see if the deeper notes come forward at all.

Edited April 29, 2014 by Zii

[milo]

I'm mainly getting sandalwood here. It starts off woody and sharp, as sandalwood does, and turns kind of sour and powdery after awhile. There may be a bit of tobacco flower here, but it's pretty much all about the sandalwood. I actually like the powder, but this is not really a unique blend to me, it smells quite a bit like other bpal sandalwood blends. I wish the honey and benzoin came out, two of my favourite notes, but sandalwood tends to really like me.

[theseagrows]

The stars off with what I think is white sandalwood and tobacco. maaaybe a hint of bergamot but I really don't seem to get much else. it's really mostly just strong tobacco and some white Sandalwood.

[d0gbones]

In the imp: Tobacco flower

Wet: Sandalwood and benzoin, still a bit of tobacco flower.

Dry: The same as it was wet, really. Could work well on either men or women.

[emanomaly]

Bought this coz the notes sounded amazing. Benzoin and carmelized honey?!?! Yes plz!!!

Turns out this is, to my nose, a quite masculine scent. I was hoping for something a little muskier, sweeter, and tea-like. That being said, I am not disappointed. After the initial sharp-grassy dry down phase, this settles into a smokey sandalwood with the faintest hint of sweet. It's far more mature and mellow than I had anticipated it being. I think it would smell amaaaaaazing on a fella, and despite (or maybe becoz of) its masculine tones, I find it quite pleasing and comforting to wear around.

Interestingly, in my oil burner, I am getting the smell that I had anticipated it being my skin. Much sweeter as a room smell and much deeper and demure as a perfume. Either way: I win.

Edited August 20, 2015 by emanomaly

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Fucking tobacco flower!! I am so sick of amping this note to high heaven. It is so crazy strong on me in everything, turning it into a single note, essentially. I guess I should know better at this point. There is something else coming through a bit, and it's actually making it worse - a sort of sour green smell. This is not good on me at all.

 

 

Dry: Ok, ok, so I was all mad at the tobacco flower, but it has calmed down a bit, and I can smell the other notes a little bit. I do actually like tobacco flower, it's just that I hate that all tobacco flower scents smell almost identical on me. I think I have enough of them that I likely don't need to keep this one, though it is quite nice.