Mermaid

[tativa]

Peter was not with them for the moment, and they felt rather lonely up there by themselves. He could go so much faster than they that he would suddenly shoot out of sight, to have some adventure in which they had no share.

He would come down laughing over something fearfully funny he had been saying to a star, but he had already forgotten what it was, or he would come up with mermaid scales still sticking to him, and yet not be able to to say for certain what had been happening.

It was really rather irritating to children who had never seen a mermaid.
― JM Barrie, Peter Pan

Lilith, I hope you never stop seeing mermaids. I hope your invisible friends always sing with you, and that the ghosts in your attic tell you stories every night. I hope you never forget how to dream, and I hope you never forget why dreams matter.

A tiny siren’s perfume of pink seaweed, lotus petals, Tahitian tiare, white gardenia, orange blossom, sea salt, and vanilla-infused benzoin.

Words fail me with this one. There is that Lilith note, you know that sweet innocent lovely note that all the Lilith scents have a touch of. The other two notes I really capture distinctly are the sea salt and seaweed, but they are soft and sweet and tied to the rest of it. It isn't a floral scent, as one might fear from the plethora smorzeboard of listed florals. It smells like watching mermaid movies when you are a kid and then tying your legs together with pool toys so you can swim like a mermaid... because you secretly are one that is just being raised among humans.

This is much softer than other mermaid scents, like Thalassa. It's not as strong in your face perfumey, more soft and lovely. It's sort of related to Thalassa and Sunrise with sea monsters, but softer and more feminine than either.

[GypsyRoseRed]

So freaking lovely. I've told Beth that I think the Lilith scents are amongst her best work, and that's definitely the case yet again.

 

This is definitely a mermaid, with the salt water, the faint scent of kelp, but it really just smells pretty, and sweet. Something faintly floral or sweet is there that takes this away from being your usual aquatic. Even if you don't love aquatic scents, try this one. <3

[Astarial]

This is an aquatic for aquatic haters, a floral for floral haters. While the seaweed and salt are strong in the bottle, with only a touch of floral sweetness, on the skin they soften significantly and the florals come out and play. I can't pick out any individually - I know the orange blossom is not super prominent because that doesn't play nicely on my skin and this blend doesn't display that, but the lotus, gardenias, and vanilla combine to make this a creamy, soft, feminine blend.

[Gateau]

This is a girly perfume that even a grownup can love. I get a really juicy note here, and though I'm never one to think that orange blossom smells like orange juice, I kind of get that fresh-squeezed Florida vibe here, like the little stands you used to find by the ocean selling oranges. I can pick out a vanilla scent, and the tiare. Lotus, which often goes bubblegummy, isn't doing that here, but is adding to a sense of warm tropical waters. The kelp and sea salt give it tang without that grating aquatic thing that sometimes happens. I think this is super summery, super girly, and will give a feeling of that tropical vacation any time of year. My little boy loved it at bedtime.

[sqwook]

Aww, this is so sweet and lovely cool and clean, light and fresh and sweet. It reminds me of another scent that is beloved to me for when I need to clear my surrounding atmosphere and bring in some freshness, Marc Jacobs' Rain.

[EphemeralFey]

Purchase: Imp from a decant circle

 

In the imp: A creamy tropical, salty aquatic scent. I am definitely smelling the salt, seaweed and orange blossom. Not really smelling the other notes, but I think they are contributing to the sweet and creamy part of the scent. Not sure how Beth did it, but when I smell this I think pink.

 

Test Area: Arm

 

Wet: First sniff I get smacked in the nose with sweet vanilla biscuits?? The salty notes peak through here and there. I’m get faint wiffs of some of the floral notes, but it’s hard to pinpoint which ones.

 

Dry down: The vanilla biscuit has faded and the florals are coming out to play! The orange blossom, and I think the lotus petals, are the main players. So far the aquatic and salty notes have vanished.

 

1 hour later: The aquatic notes have slightly returned! It’s become a pretty vanilla sweetened floral aquatic scent. Can’t pick out individual notes at this point, it’s just a pretty tropical scent.

 

Thoughts: After getting over the surprise, bakery! scent, I really started to like this. I don’t need a bottle of this, but I’m happy that I have an imp for those times that I want to feel tropical!

[Magycmyste]

In the imp: Salty, with orange and a hint of sweetness

 

Wet on skin: Orangey salt

 

Dried down: As it dries down, there's a hint of sweetness underlying the salt. This scent makes me happy!

 

Throw: There's a bit of salty sweetness in the air, and it keeps making me want to breathe it in.

 

Verdict: ***** Yeah, ok, this is a bottle buy for me. I'm not sure how often I'll wear it, but I want to make sure it's on hand when I want it.

[Soniadevi]

I really wish that I felt the same as the other reveiwers, because the notes listed sounded like a real win to me, but... as soon as I put this on, I just thought PINK SNOWBALLS! It smells like a dead ringer for pink snowballs to me, which was a real surprise because the notes listed didn't add up to pink snowballs in my mind when I purchased this. Maybe it's just my skin chemistry that makes it smell this way, but when I get home tonight I'm going to have to do a side by side sniff test to figure out the differences, because it's always really disappointing when you buy something untested only to find out that it smells like something you already own and only marginally like!

 

Having said that, I have been surprised time and time again with how much a scent can develop when it's been left to mature for a while, so I might have to retest this in a week or so once it's had time to settle down from it's transatlantic journey :-)

 

In any case, I'm being really picky here because it IS a pretty scent, a pretty, PINK scent, and perfect for when wearing pink, and feeling soft and girly and sweet

[schneagl]

In the bottle: Light aquatic, salty, with almost a nutty underpinning. Also some floral that reminds me strongly of Almond Blossom.

Wet on my skin: The first blast is…buttered popcorn. Like, the smell you get from the concession stand at a movie theater...so weird. That burns off quickly, though! Moves into sea salt and more of the same floral. All the notes sseem to rotate around and hit me very separately.

Drydown: Finally, the notes fused into a single complex scent - the components are all still there but are collaborating more. Less overt salt smell, and the overall effect is a lovely floral aquatic.

Later on: Burndown is, again, very similar to Almond Blossom's for me. Smoldering pretty florals.

Mermaid ends up working together really well. The throw is light, but the duration is fairly long on me. There's more going on than the average aquatic (and I likes me those blends), and it could be worn anywhere.

[zankoku_zen]

Mermaid, there is something here that smells like popcorn to me.

 

So I have fresh gardenia, bubblegum and popcorn with a dash of sea water to keep things from being too sweet or too floral. It's more of a dressing up as a mermaid than an actual mermaid blend.

 

Cute, sunny, and sweet.

[nunchi]

The fragrance starts off with the salt and seaweed first before the florals start popping out. And omg... this smells EXACTLY like Dolce & Gabbana's Dolce perfume, except a bit more rounded.

[barilace]

This is just beyond words lovely. It's very creamy and aquatic to me. Slightly salty.

 

eta: the longer i wore it, the more it started to remind me of a clothes softener. it's nice but not as nice as it is in the bottle at least for me.

Edited November 8, 2014 by barilace

[OctoberGwen]

The sea salt note starts off nice and strong - it's the same note from last year's My Mommy In a Boat, and it's delicious. After a few minutes the florals become more apparent and blend beautifully with the saltiness. This is pretty and fresh, and only very slightly aquatic-smelling. As Andyl said above: "this is an aquatic for aquatic haters, a floral for floral haters." It's a blend I'll reach for when I want something light and happy-making, smelling of the innocence and magic of childhood dreams.

 

Another absolutely lovely blend from this year's Lilith update. I really hit the trifecta with my blind bottle purchases this time.

 

ETA: On me, the vanilla-infused benzoin appears in the far drydown, lending a deeper resonance to the scent that is subtle and sticks close to the skin. This prevents the whole affair from being dismissed as too girly and/or immature, imo. Very nicely done.

Edited November 9, 2014 by OctoberGwen

[Jangzonrice]

In imp: super girly pink tropical aquatic, reminds me of another bpal...can't think of the name though...

 

Will update when I get to try on

[strahlend]

Interestingly, Mermaid opens up with the candy notes from Elephantine Colossus. It reminds me of kettle corn. That fades off pretty quick though and what emerges is a very mildly minty ambergris. I'm not getting anything floral, orange, or vanilla infused. There is something that's keeping this soft aquatic musk on the lighter side and I would guess it's the tiare I'm smelling. Not what I was expecting, but a pleasant scent.

[brilliantcat]

A salty, feminine aquatic in the bottle. So many aquatics have the tendency to pull masculine (I blame commercial colognes like Cool Water for this misconception) but this is not masculine at all. Wet, it's a lovely, soft floral-aquatic blend that has both a salty note and a sweet one. "Pretty" seems inadequate to describe it, but that's just what it is. Perhaps if I used "jolie"? The French seem to be able to capture the nuances of a word so much better. While "pretty" is bland, "jolie" makes me think of sweet yet sophisticated and feminine, but not childish. Very soft, feminine aquatic but I'm not sure I need a bottle.

[sariasister]

This one is a pretty straightforward aquatic for me, and I'm not detecting as much of the complexity that everyone else noticed; I don't get "pink" at all. I thought it smelled a lot like Sea of Glass, so much so that I did a side by side comparison to see if I could tell the difference or if maybe I just have aquatic-blindness. They are different--Sea of Glass is a little sweeter, I think?--but I'm not an aquatic lover so I think I will let this one go.

[sarahmarie]

This one invokes pink, turquoise, and pearls to me, perfectly mermaid!

 

I saw someone compared it to Pink Snowvballs in their review. Wet on my skin, I do detect some similarities, but it is dramatically different to my nose. It's perhaps a similar pinkiness, but clearly aquatic and more...perfumey, by which I probbaly mean floral. Now, I am not a floral person and aquatics often give me headaches. This one, though, is so gentle and light that it works for me. It's pretty and girlish, but I think it can be thought of as sophisticated too.

I'm glad I went against my general scent type and got a bottle of this!

[wonderwoman9]

This is beautiful. When I first applied it I could immediately smell gardenia and I don't love gardenia smells but it quickly turned very aquatic, salty and just lightly floral. Love it!

[mystery213]

This is absolutely the most beautiful aquatic type perfume I have ever smelled. I usually do not really care for aquatics as perfumes (more as bathroom scents ), but this is so beautiful and sweet and so well blended that it was one of my favorites of the Lilith's, which took me by absolute surprise. It has the faintest hint of foodiness (maybe from the vanilla), and none of the sharpness that I usually get from this type of blend. It vaguely reminds me of Selkie, but a sweeter, prettier version, like Selkie's cute little sister, or something. A big hit!

[milo]

Aquatic, but with a touch of foody, like cookies or something like that. Sweeter that other aquatics, fresh. Ok, but fades fast.

[hammy]

In the bottle - A tiny, pink aquatic. My nose’s gut reaction to aquatics is to scrunch up in distaste, but there’s a floral in here that’s allowing me to fight that urge.

 

Wet - The aquatic disappears pretty quickly (thank goodness) and it’s a nice, soft floral. And a touch of something citrus, maybe? It’s got that lovely Lilithness to it that makes all of the Lilith blends just sing.

 

Drydown - This is surprisingly tolerable for an aquatic. It’s not an ocean-in-your-face kind of scent; it’s a sunset stroll on the boardwalk with a hint of flowers blowing your way on a gentle sea breeze.

 

Verdict - I quite like this, and I don’t like aquatics. It gets better the longer I wear it. Even if you don’t like aquatics, do yourself a favor and give this a try.

[andabri]

This smells like aquatic seaweed over fresh white cake in breezy ocean air. Every so often a light whiff of lotus appears. A bizarre, yet delicious mix. It has a soft, innocent, fresh feel to it.

Edited February 16, 2015 by andabri

[quintessentially]

I think if you like tiare flower, you'll really like Mermaid! It's a lot more complex than just tiare, though, because there are definitely other florals in there, and lotus petals make a splash for sure. It's beautifully blended with different levels, and it's perfectly seafoam-y and it feels like a pale green scent to me. It's GORGEOUS.

[gchris]

In the bottle smells of a nice unisex aquatic.

Wet on skin it turns even more lovely.

I think this might be my favorite Bpal aquatic so far.

Later this becomes so soft and lovely. Definitely more feminine.

I'm in LOVE!