Circe

[Gin]

Surround yourself with an aura of lethal allure. An incomparably enticing blend of intoxicating aquatic scents and florals.

Ooh! Gardenia! This is beautiful, but its very strong and sweet, almost to the point of being overwhelming. Maybe that's the ylang ylang? Nevertheless, it's a very pretty scent.

[supremegoddessofall]

Interesting. Definitely aquatic, and the floral I'm getting here is mostly jasmine and ylang ylang, I think. However, I'm also getting a touch of something fruity - grapes? It's a little too cloying for me, however.

[yeahbutnobut]

Circe

 

In the imp: sharp gardenia with some sweeter flowers, maybe lotus?

Wet on skin: the peppery bite of gardenia, maybe some black pepper too, with a sugary floral.

Dry: interesting. Normally this is the gardenia I’d term as the ‘evil’ variety, it’s harsh and biting and a little acrid and ‘burnt celery’ at worst, but I can handle it in here, because another floral scent, maybe lotus or jasmine, is beating it into submission with sugar. So there’s spicy gardenia with something which could be pepper, and a sweet-sugary-nectar floral scent. I’m sure it is lotus, the more I smell it, though it may also be plumeria or frangipani. This reminds me of Sacred Whore and Hanging Gardens, where the ‘Evil Gardenia’ was in bearable amounts.

After a while: the gardenia doesn’t fade like it did in HG or SWoB, I’m afraid. It sticks around and if anything, gets stronger, eating up the pretty sugared lotus fragrance that was trying to subdue it. it now develops that dry and acrid scent that I dislike from this particular gardenia variant, with just a whisper of lotus underneath.

The eventual drydown of this scent is a dry, gritty gardenia scent (maybe with a grey wood note at the back?) with just a hint of aquatic lotus, but the gardenia isn’t as well behaved as I hoped it would be.

Verdict: this contains the gardenia note that is usually my bane, but in here it wasn’t downright evil. It was a little nasty, but not at it’s most malevolent (although it did get worse at the end). at first it’s a very bearable scent, a mix of peppered gardenia and sweet, sugary lotus which I thought would at least become the dominant note, because I love a bit of lotus, and it’s candy-sweet touch seemed to soften the aggressive gardenia-at least for about an hour. Then the Flower of Doom becomes dominant, crushing the poor lotus and taking over the scent with a gritty, uncomfortable scent of dry, burnt petals and celery. Still, it’s not as bad as some gardenia scents were on me (like Has No Hanna and Lady of Shalott) but as far as discontinued lotus-gardenia scents named after ladies from Greek myth are concerned, I much prefer Pandora. This is going to swap.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? No.

[zankoku_zen]

In the imp: Sweet floral

 

On Skin: Very sweet floral. I smell the tell tale bubblegum smell, which means this has lotus. I also get a whiff of wet wool, which means... gardenia. There is an aquatic overtone to all this.

 

On Drydown: Bubblegum water and flowers.

 

Verdict: This fades fast on my skin... but in general, I'm sad that lotus smells like bubblegum on me.

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

ever had banana Runts?

 

or sniffed "Ladyboy" from Lush's sister company, B Never?

 

there's the tangy-candy banana (not the outer, sweet shell... but the inner sweet-tart bit) but it is laid on top of a cheap industrial air freshener (urinal cake, gas station air freshener).

as it wears, the banana gets more faint and the generic industrial bathroom air freshener smell takes over.

 

what i get as "air freshener" might actually be lotus or ylang ylang, some of the Lab's florals go wonky for me.

 

overall verdict... this is much too much like Ladyboy (Banana and Violets) for me.

[fairnymph]

Sniffed: Deep orangey-red oil. Fruity-sweet, almost boozy/winey/grapey, rich floral. I do get a sort of aquatic soapiness underneath. Ylang-ylang and lotus?

 

Wet: Lighter, definitely more aquatic. Still fruity, and I do think it's a wine note that boozy, sweet-tart grapeyness, as well as slightly bubblegummy lotus. A little powdery, in a floral way, though it could be an aquatic thing.

 

Dry: I definitely get some of the florals from The Unheavenly City (and I'm convinced they are responsible for both oils being red). Ylang-ylang perhaps? I almost get a citrusy note - a very juicy grapefruit, maybe, too.

 

Later: More aquatic-soapy as it dries down, and sort of powdery (this could be the lily someone detected) - mostly the florals stay rich and creamy, and some of the boozy fruitiness dies off.

 

Summary: Ylang-ylang, lotus, and wine with a little bit of soapy/cologney aquatic. Possibly some other florals like gardenia, honeysuckle and lily - it's a complicated floral blend that's hard to pin down. Good throw & great longevity.

[stellans]

I must join the chorus of dislike I'm seeing here: the uppermost note my nose picks up is bubblegum, sliding into public restroom airfreshener. Lurking underneath this rather icky sweet smell is an unpleasant sourness which leads me to believe either jasmine is in this, playing her usual nasty tricks on me, or there's yet another floral note which hates me, which is as of now still unidentified.

And another rare breaks my heart. Edited June 5, 2010 by stellans

[LizziesLuck]

I would guess that there is Jasmine in this, and maybe lotus? Both things I am not overly fond of. This is very sweet, a tad spicy, and makes me want to sneeze. I do like florals, but not these specific florals, and aquatics never work for me, so it is no surprise that this is a fail. I'll pass it on to someone else to try.