Road to Versailles at Louveciennes

[SweetEpiphanies]

Camille Pissarro

Cream vanilla, frankincense, and velvet-brown sandalwood with coriander, petitgrain, thyme, and wintry musk.

Whoa. This is such a morpher. In the bottle it smells disjointed and sweet and confusing.

 

But then you put it on and it turns into a very chic, expensive, French perfume. I kid you not, it smells as though I walked into a French perfumery and doused myself in all its fine perfume. Despite all the dousing it stays away from being heady and old ladyish. This is the scent of a young, modern French woman.

 

In a word: lovely.

[Minh Scent]

Whoa, what do we have here? As SweetEphanies said above, this smells like a fine perfume. The frank is the dominant note I get from application to drydown, going from sweet to more incense-y on my skin. The vanilla, sandal, musk and spices are all blended so well, they do not stand out on their own. The coriander and thyme in the note list gave me pause when I was ordering, but definitely they do not come out as individual kitchen spices. Low throw. Non-cloying magnificence!

 

This may be my Yule winner!!

[Jenjin]

Decant sniff is sweet, fruity and creany taffy chewy i'm pretty sure is the woody, orange Petitgrain. Something about this reminds me of the Luper, Florette's purple snails or Adante con Fantasia, but I love this much more. Stunning! Magnifique!!!

After application, it dries down to a spicy, fresh and feminine fragrance. Very proper, creamy yet darkly victorian. More Please If you're into corsets, stockings, garters and white leather paddles YOU NEED THIS! Something about it makes me want to put on those thigh high boots I can't walk in, and sit in a swing. Don't tell Santa!

Edited January 5, 2017 by Jenjin

[Balame]

My experience of this scent starts like Jenjin’s then ends worse. At first I get a fruity, sort of orange SweeTarts scent from the petitgrain and cream. Since I’m not big on “candied” scents it wasn’t very appealing. As it dries it retains the citrus vibe, but also adds a musky yet resinous layer with an extremely dry and dusty note lingering in the back.

 

I would almost swear it was BPAL’s moss because it gives such a chokingly dry vibe, but I suppose it’s the coriander really flaunting its spice.

 

For me this smells as if someone spilled cooking spices and orange Kool-Aid on a wood table… bleh, not for me at all. (Didn’t help that my imp broke and I spilled 1/3 of the decant on my hands. Was washing for a while!)

[LizziesLuck]

Frankincense and I don't get on - he's a bully note on my skin, and stomps all over everything else. But vanilla cream, and all....

This is fresh out of the mail today. I should be letting it settle a bit more. Can't wait longer though!

 

Wet: Mmm, the vanilla cream is nice. Hmm, doing that powdery, sweet-tart thing others had mentioned. WTF? Where is the fruity smell coming from? After applying a bit more (I have found to small an amount of oil makes my skin chemistry corrupt things worse) I get the lovely sandalwood and musk. Mmm. Much better. Still quite a light scent, but not powdery and awful anymore. The Frank hasn't taken over, and is just providing a light incense background to the sweet vanilla cream and musk base. The wintry musk is what was going fruity and powdery before. I can smell it clearer now, and it's like the lab's snow note, mixed with pale musk. I think this is one of those scents that is going to need some time to settle in the bottle, and also on my skin. It morphs with every sniff right now.

 

 

Dry: Mostly wintry musk, which is quite lovely! Cool, crisp. Similar to a snow note, but not exactly the same. I had to check to make sure I hadn't confused this with another Yule, but no. This is the note my skin picks out of all those notes. It's nice, but not the vanilla cream I hoped for (it totally is in the bottle - thanks, skin chem). I'll likely try again after it's had more time to settle.

[t_for_tau]

Holy petigrain - this is NOT the note I expected to jump out of this! In the bottle it smells unpleasantly like an artificial sweet orange scent. When it hits my skin it blossoms into something far more floral than I'd expect petigrain to be but with that neroli-sh edge - just not dirtied up by the woody resiny bits of petigrain the way I'd prefer. I'm wondering if there *is* some orange fruit in here (a petigrain accord, maybe, rather than the oil itself?) because with the vanilla behind it it's *very, very* sweet - or maybe it's the specific snow note in the "wintry musk". I'm used to petigrain being more of a dirty, woody, almost indolic vesion of neroli, but this is high-pitched floral.

 

No sign of the frank, sandalwood, coriander. As it dries I can detect the thyme contributing to that high-pitched feel and the musk giving it a powderiness (it's definitely a powdery light modern musk rather than an old-school animalic one - alas). Honestly it smells like something a young girl would wear from the Body Shop or somewhere; not at all what I was suspecting. The further it dries the more it fills out into a commercial-type perfume with one-dimensional musk, floral, citrus and vanilla, with a hint of dryer sheet scent (from the "winter", I'm guessing). I'd swear there's an aldehyde in here, maybe C10 or something else fruity.

 

It does fill out a little further and become a little more interesting, but still very much in a commercial perfume style. On a very close sniff there's a wintery-ozoney-herbiness contrasting with the musk/vanilla/fruit/floral; by this point a slightly more sophisticated woman could wear it. If that aspect came out a bit more it might start to veer slightly unisex, but as it is it's very feminine, with a soft powdery edge.

 

The sandalwood might be contributing to that powder, but it never shows up as a note, and neither does the frank; anyone expecting incense from this would be disappointed. I don't know where the "velvet-brown" is - unless it's a velvet pink-brown hatpin cushion sitting on the dressing table of a late Victorian lady getting lightly sifted with face powder. Not what I hoped for.

[VetchVesper]

Sigh..... all the notes in this sound like they should be right up my ally, but oh, that wintery musk... It blankets everything and turns right to laundry detergent on me.

 

Road to Versailles smells very sweet, cool, and slightly astringent to me in the bottle. It's cheery and unusual. It makes me think of the feeling the tip of your nose gets when you're out on a cold but sunny day. Then it hits my skin and turns into laundry. Oh well.

[pinkstardust420]

To me, this is reminiscent of Snow White, the "powdery sweet vanilla" version! I LOVE it!!!

[lucycat]

In the decant, this is sweet vanilla cream: delicious. On second sniff, all I could think was “something from the 80s.” I can’t put my finger on what, but there was a scented toy or a dessert or something in my childhood that smelled like this.

The various herbs are present beneath the vanilla, and it’s both interesting and pretty.

 

And then…boom. The wintry musk comes forward and drowns out everything. It becomes pure laundry detergent.

 

After a little while, I can smell a musky vanilla sandalwood on the back of my hand. If it were like that everywhere, Road to Versailles would be pretty nearly perfect, but on my arms, it remains laundry detergent.

 

Curse you, wintry musk.

[hem246]

I LOVED this for the first hour, a very sophisticated, sweet frankincense with the barest hint of something herbal. But in hour two, the sandalwood and musk take over, creating a very dry, powdery scent that is not awful, but not what I wanted.

 

This decant might end up as a locket scent, since I'm 99% sure it's my chemistry ruining it on dry-down.

 

EDIT: a few hours later, the vanilla is peeking out again, giving the sandalwood a little more sweetness, but it's still too powdery for me.

Edited January 16, 2017 by hem246

[JazzieCazzie]

In the imp: This smelled just straight out "NO!" to me ... very much like the scents which I know are going to be complete skin chemistry failed from the get-go, like any of the blends that have either "wine" listed as a note or grape or plum, even though none of them are in there. I'm guessing it's the orange that others have referred to. And I don't even get the vanilla cream, which for me is the one "danger note" ... and in case you're wondering why I ordered this, the other notes listed are big favorites and coriander, which is rarely found in BPAL blends, is the predominant note in my favorite non-BPAL perfume so I was curious about this one and bought one imp.

 

Still forged on, though ... applied a dab on my wrist and a dab in the crook of my arm.

 

Wet: Absolutely NOTHING like how it smelled in the imp! Like others have said, crazily morphy! It has a rich, high-end fancy perfume smell and I am NOT saying that as an insult. It's very hard to differentiate the notes once it hits the skin ... it's got the slightly incensey dreaminess of the frankincense and sandalwood and, I guess, the coriander and musk and other notes. Not getting ANY orange or fruit.

 

Drydown: Slightly sweet but in a comforting way, not a plastic way ... very subtle. Very CLEAN but not quite soapy. Very complex and yet simple, if that makes any sense ... I guess to try to explain that, it's complex in that I can't put a finger on the individual notes, but simple in that it combines for one truly lovely final product.

 

Overall: I'm pretty much sapped in terms of being able to buy more bottles right now but this is definitely going on my wishlist. I think it's something that I could wear regularly and not be afraid of bothering people ... I bet a lot of people would think I smelled delicious.

Edited January 16, 2017 by JazzieCazzie

[Casablanca]

On the wand, the strongest impression I get is a slightly woodsy and tart orange — presumably the petitgrain — with sides of musk, coriander, and creamy vanilla. It’s like a chilled summer white beer.

 

On my skin, it’s similar, just more tart and now with a spray of thyme. It’s still got me thinking of Hoegaardens and Blue Moons. I don’t smell frank or sandalwood in this while it’s wet, and the vanilla is faint. This is mostly petitgrain-orange, coriander musk, with a sense of paleness behind it. Medium throw.

[SophieCedar]

Ooh man. This is a total winner. Its sweet creamy vanilla with a frankincense and herbal base. Perfection The petitgrain and coriander stay in check. I asked for more scents with unusual herbs, specifically thyme, and maaaaannnn did I get it. Hoarding.

[zankoku_zen]

Creamy vanilla, sandalwood, frankincense and a touch of musk. This one is a more perfumey sandalwood blend than I expected. Warmer and muskier as well. Medium throw and wear length.

 

This one is a sophisticated sandalwood blend. Hmm, may consider more of this.

[Kay Torres]

I've worn this a few times since I got my decant because I wanted to try to do this justice. I can't. All I can say is that it's gorgeous and it's all things at once; sweet, clean, warm, bright, rich, soft, sexy, beautiful, stylish.

 

I regret only getting a decant, so it's a full bottle for me.

Edited January 26, 2017 by SunsetKay

[lizabelle]

Between this and Egg Nog, I'm kind of heartbroken. Clearly I picked the wrong Yules! It starts off soft and a little vanilla-y, with some clean woody/herbal notes. Then amber amps enough to make my eyes water from feet away. Nose-wrinklingly sweet and powdery, but then that's ever amber that doesn't work on me. I would have loved to get the smooth, elegant scent everyone else did! I guess I'll swap this off to someone else who will love it more than I would.

[Aviatrix]

I'm not entirely sure how to describe this at all. It seems like the frankincense is quite strong on me, with some warmth, probably from all the herbal components, and a little sweetness that must be the vanilla.

It doesn't remind me of anything I have smelled before, so it's definitely unique! I quite like it, too, but I doubt I would wear it very often.

 

The throw is fairly strong, too.

[LiberAmoris]

If a vanilla cream soda transformed itself into an upscale perfume by wishing on a star, it would become Road to Versailles at Louveciennes. Cream vanilla is the headiest of the notes when first applied (it's almost fizzy), then I get the yummy brown sandalwood. There's an herbal quality to the blend that comes forward as it dries down, and the base of wintry musk also gets stronger with wear. An hour later, this is a creamy vanilla and sandalwood with musk and just a breath of petitgrain. Lovely.

[Blood onmy hands]

Road to Versailles is very light on me, and is mainly a warm, powdery sandalwood incense type of scent. Clean woods and a touch of dry herbs, but mostly just a soft, powdery sandalwood fragrance. Fades away by the one hour mark.

[mistressfizz]

Sniff: Honey and vanilla sweetness. Almost cloying.

 

Wet: OK, this is really hard for me to describe. It's quite beautiful and reminds me of a regency sitting room. It matures and morphs over time. It retains a soft sweetness, but there's a dry, warm resin which emerges. And also a slightly high pitched, tart and woodsy citrus. And I also get hints of spice. And hints of powder. And hints of leather. It's a complex incense, not overpowering but definitely a strong presence.

 

Dry: Creamy incense, with a bitter undertone. Maybe just a tad of powder. This lasts quite a long time on me and is really lovely.

[Lucchesa]

If a vanilla cream soda transformed itself into an upscale perfume by wishing on a star, it would become Road to Versailles at Louveciennes.

 

This! What a beautiful description, LiberAmoris. I was afraid wintry musk might involve a soapy snow note, but the musk stays very much in the background for me. I don't get much frank, either. What I get is an elegant vanilla cream sandalwood with a little bit of earthiness from the herbs.