Séance

[Seanan]

A mysterious, enigmatic blend of dry, mellow rosewood, crushed rose leaf and the slightest touch of warm hazel.

What I say: So in the bottle, this basically smells like...God knows what. Seriously. I'm pretty good about picking out BPAL notes, as a general rule; even when I can't identify them all, I can usually find two or three of the dominant notes. But this? Just sort of smelled, well, sweet. Not like roses, not like leaves, not nutty, just...sweet. I sniffed it a lot before daring to put it on, because with things that have no defined notes, well. Sometimes they're awesome. And sometimes they kick the crap out of me and take my stuff away.

On my skin, the sweetness promptly took off its robe to disclose a fabulously dry and understated sort of dusty rose scent. I'm assuming this was the rosewood, but alas, it didn't stick around; very shortly after it appeared, it was attacked by the rose leaf, which had a much stronger, sharper, rose-i-er scent, and which seemed intent on beating the living crap out of it. For about fifteen minutes, I smelled like fancy rose soap from a very nice whorehouse, which was nice, but...not really my thing.

Luckily, it turns out that rosewood is stealthy, and difficult to kill. It lurked under the miasma of rose leaf until the rose leaf got distracted by something shiny, then crept out of hiding and clubbed it to death with the hazel. I now smell like pleasantly dry, dusty rose sachets, something that's been lurking in a chest for generations, waiting to be found and used to summon the spirits of the dead. Who will hopefully be friendly. A nice, mature scent, and one I approve of.

My score: 6 out of 10. It's evil a little too much of the time, but it settles nicely.

[laforetnoire]

To me Scéance is a dusty dried bouquet of roses and flowers, and wood. Once dry, the wood become much stronger then the flowers. I think I can smell a hint of hazelnut in the background.

 

I really like this scent but not on me, it's a truly mysterious and ghostly scent (like everyone said before).

[jwhxtna]

A frimp from the Lab!

 

IN THE IMP: This smells very green to me. Crushed leaves with dry rose in the background.

 

WET: The blend gets sweeter and the rose comes out more. It's a soft, fresh rose. The wood came out for a while, but faded again. There's something almost... minty?

 

DRY: Soft, sweet rose with dry wood and a hint of green. It smells like... an antique wooden desk with a vase of pale pink roses. Not for me, but definitely interesting to try!

[Mckerr]

BPAl, BPAL, how you toy with my emotions!

 

In the imp, I didn't quite know what to think -- I caught some kind of sickly sweet presence I couldn't identify. But I put it on and was absolutely joyous for the next 10 minutes, even though I couldn't pick out a single note. I sat down and read a slew of reviews, perplexed, because I didn't get all the dusty, powdery references. But alas -- 15 minutes later, I smelled like somebody's great-grandma. What a shame.

 

I wonder - if I put it in an aromatherapy necklace, could I capture that lovely wet scent? Worth trying.

[zankoku_zen]

This one is a very dried rose and wood blend. My coworker said "You smell like potpourri" and I have to agree.

[rayvn1]

This was a drier, lighter rose scent than the usual BPAL blends. I liked it! Pretty subtle.

[crebbsgirl]

On me this is all dry woods with a slight hint of rose. It's a rather nondescript scent on me. It dries down to a rather unnoticeable skin scent. I usually like my perfume to be a little sweeter and slightly more noticeable.

[GlowJob]

To me,this is Old Lady in a Bottle.That's about all I can say about that.

[awesomeoverlord]

I've thought of trying this one since I really like rose, but given bpal's slew of rose blends, this never really drew me in enough to actually buy an imp. And then I got a frimp of it with my last lab order.

 

Oh. My. God.

 

Seance, where have you been all my life?

 

I was a bit weary at first -- in the bottle it's a dusty, almost musty (in the way that old houses that no one's lived in for decades might be) rose. If I concentrate, I can pinpoint the hazelnut -- most likely combining with the wood -- as the cause of that mustyness. Don't get me wrong, it's really nice. It calls up this nostalgic sense of history...old journals and faded lace, maybe a small bouquet of dried roses someone left behind on top of an antique wooden table. Still, I don't know that I'd want to smell like this all day.

 

As it starts to dry down, though, it's pure roses. All that mustyness from before just disappears and I'm left with something surprisingly fresh. Like that old bouquet just came back to life. This is the first rose scent that I haven't found overly heavy or cloying. It's soft, fresh, and everything I would ever want from a single note rose.

 

Very subtle and understated, but unbelievably beautiful.

 

Definite bottle, once I use up my imp

[kjirstiben]

Séance has befuddled me somewhat… it's not an oil that's easy to describe or to come up with a reaction to.

 

Going on, I'm struck by a mushroomy character to the scent… it's got a vaguely floral accompaniment, but there's definitely something slighly dirt-like or fungal about the scent at first.

 

Over time, the floral comes out slightly, and then the whole thing virtually disappears… it turns into a vague afterthought of roses, barely-there against my skin.

 

Recaplet: Mushrooms and roses, then the ghost of roses.

My rating: 2 of 5 (Meh.)

Color Impression: Dried rose-petal pink-brown.

[serafina pekkala]

Now, this one is really interesting. At first it smells forest-like, vaguley similar to The Hesperides. Oh right, wet wood = ghostly old houses? (I love these, by the way). Then there is something like a... toothpick - and I mean that in the most positive of ways! It's wood, with a wisp of something sweet.. oh, it's the rose! It flows to the top when I apply it, just like spirits would.

 

This scent is unlike any of the BPAL's I've tried before, and utterly beautiful. It's a pity it doesn't last longer on me than it does, but Séance is definitely one for the 5mls.

[MCS4096]

In the Imp: Yep.. a bouquet of dried roses, leaves included.

 

Wet: I get a dirt component as others have said.. this is beautiful! This is a long dead bouquet of roses literally crushed into a musty dirt ground.

 

Dry: The throw, as expected, is pretty much straight up rose. But for myself as the wearer, I do get the other components that were initially present. That rose though.. so damn strong!

[Bluestocking]

In the imp: OMG, this is exactly the smell of my Grandmother and her house: rosy and woody and sharply, pleasingly herbal. (Note that this does NOT mean "Old Lady Florals"--Grandma was an eccentric artist who collected exotic wood sculptures from all over the world and had a huge rose garden in her backyard.) I get the green, faintly sweet rose leaf over everything, amazingly true to life, with some mellower rosewood beneath. It's a little bit dusty, but the rose leaves add freshness.

On, wet: Dry, burnished rosewood furniture in a dusty, cluttered but not decrepit house. (Rosewood never smells as totally rose to me as it seems to do for other people—for me, it's always a wood with hints of rose.) The rose leaves disappeared for a moment, but they're already back, drier and more crumbly than they were, still providing some nice sharpness in counterpoint to the softer, sweeter rosewood. It's warm but mysterious, slightly sweet and—for me—incredibly comforting.

On, dry: The rosewood and rose leaf have blended together so well that it's difficult to separate them; they're just a woody-sweet/herbal-sharp whole, pleasantly dry and just a little bit rosy. The hazel has come out beautifully—it's very subtle, but it just gives this a warm, sweet, almost buttery quality that softens the dry wood and green leaves.

Later: An actual smell of rose—as in the flower itself—has finally bloomed, further softening the wood and the greenery. It's a lovely, slightly faded rose, sweet and natural and dry but not at all powdery, warmed with the hazel. It sticks very close to the skin—sort of a second-skin scent.

Overall: It's hard to emphasize just how much this reminds me of my grandmother—this is like the distilled essence of her and her home in a bottle: woody, a bit dusty and dry, overlaid with the sweet-sharp smell of a rose garden and greenery. Naturally, I love it. For me, it's a slightly bohemian, unpretentious scent, warm and comforting but still reserved and sharp enough to be sophisticated. It would be beautiful as a room scent, but I think it's also very nice as a perfume, the kind of blend you reach for when you want to smell nice but not like you're wearing perfume. In other words, it's a perfect everyday blend.

[magikalbrownies]

this is such a comforting smell --- im not too fond of roses but i like this stuff.. smells very woodsy but with a tinge of sweet floral. and im a sucker for anything sweet.

 

winner.

[Dybael]

Thanks for the frimp, Lab, but I'm not wearing this one ever again. Something about dried roses, wood, or the combination thereof takes a wrong turn on my skin straight into Shoe Polish territory. The last order I got from the labs had a frimp of Ouija in it, which turned some sort of stanky wood polish / shoe polish / hospital disinfectant smell. Seance, a frimp out of my latest order, was much the same deal.

 

I'm sure this is wonderful on somebody, but unfortunately, that person is not me.

[othelloperrello]

I get this exactly as it is said, that is exactly as I would have been led to believe from the description ("dry, mellow rosewood, crushed rose leaf and the slightest touch of warm hazel", although I would not have picked out the note of hazel I can see how it adds to the mix.

 

Lovely.

 

[femmefatale]

...a slightly bohemian, unpretentious scent, warm and comforting but still reserved and sharp enough to be sophisticated.

 

I completely agree with this. Is is slightly bohemian, but not hippie, and somewhat comforting.

 

I really like the beginning where it starts out as fresh roses and quickly morphs into a mix of fresh & dried roses and greenery mixed with woods. But then something a bit off comes out and ruins it for me.

Oh well. I have plenty of wonderful rose scents so I'm not too upset. I'm glad I got to try it and maybe I'll give it a shot in my locket.

[donnatron]

Imp: [singsongy voice] Rosewood, rosewood, rosey, rosey, rosewood... I love you my friend rosewood! Oh, and there's some roooooose!!!!

 

Wet: I don't know what actual hazel is but the scent that comes out in the wet phase is closer to witch hazel than hazelnut. The rose sort of overtakes the rosewood but I can still my note obsession of the moment languishing as a base note.

 

Dry: A bouquet of blue (I'm not actually sure what colour the roses would be, but this registers as a very blue scent in my head) on a polished rosewood table. The hazel adds a needed note of astringency to keep this from getting too powdery. This is a pretty, lush sort of rose.

 

Throw: Decent.

 

Overall: I think this has pretty. It has potential to grow into a bottle purchase but falls into a scent family with a few other Victorian spirtualism/occult themed scents and I think I'll have to have a battle of the imps to see which one is truly worthy of being upgraded to a bottle.

[EdenIris]

First sniff: Metallic roses

 

Drying: Something dusty, like gold motes floating in the air, with gentle, dry roses behind it.

 

Later: Sweet liqueur (that would be the hazel). It starts out dusty, but warms on the skin to become almost creamy. The roses add some greenness to keep it from becoming too desserty.

 

Very little throw on me. It's a warm, comforting scent that I would not wear regularly, but I'll keep the imp around. It makes me want to sit in front of a fire on a cold, rainy day (and maybe read ghost stories).

 

 

[copagirl]

In the imp, this smells green. Green leaves, and woody. Once I put it on, although it still smells green and woody, now it smells like camphor (?), mediciney. Dries down to more green. Yuck, I don't like green/herbal/leafy smells.

[ouch!]

WTF? Has someone secretly filled my imp with Rose Red? That's what Séance smells like to me. But slightly more woody.

 

Smells like a very realistic red rose with greenery and some wood in the wet stage. Let's see what happens on drydown.

 

Ah....as it dries..now I know what Hazel smells like. It's kind of got a sandalwoody vibe to it, and it's making the blend gorgeous. Not something I'd wear all the time but I can see the beauty in this.

The very real rose has taken a backseat and it's all hazel/woodsy with a slight rose mingling in.

 

Cool rose blend, but not one I'd get a bottle of.

 

[HKB]

I almost feel hostile towards people who didn't like this scent because I love it so much. It smells like the pages of old books, dried roses, and wet wood.

[Lamia]

Gentle, pleasant. Floral, sandalwood, quick fade.

[Tess]

In the bottle - Very leafy with an astringent hazel bite to it. I'm getting a touch of rosewood, but the green is so jarring that it's hard to focus on it.

 

Wet - I use witch hazel on my face and this smells so strongly of it...

 

Drying - Rosewood is THERE, it's just under all that astringent green. It seriously is smelling like I'm wearing rosewood perfume right after having used my witch hazel toner, it's that strong. It just needs to calm the hell down and mellow out and it could be nice. Right now it's headache making territory. >_<

 

Dry (3 hours) - It stayed green until it had faded to a light, soapy rosewood. That's all it is now.

 

Overall - I could sense the things I wanted from this, but it was just stomped on by that darned leafy note. Grr.

 

 

[malaliath]

Seance

 

IN BOTTLE: Wet wood with roses. There's a salty quality to it but it's mired down under heavy dead roses...wet, dead roses. I like the tone of the wet wood.

 

WET, ON SKIN: A wet forest floor laden heavily with sodden bark. The dead wet roses are still lying there. There's a spicy astringency to this that I believe must be the hazel. That astringency is keeping the scent from softening down.

 

DRY, ON SKIN:

 

The hazel has died down, allowing the softness of this scent to come through. The wood is still damp and the rosewood is just that, rosewood. It's a pleasant change from the heavy wetness of the dead roses. I don't think this scent suits me very well - it's not what I'd normally wear - but I could see myself pulling it out for solitary times of nostalgia.

 

LATER:

 

It's still a very nostalgic scent, but decidedly powdery and old-ladyish on me. I could see pulling it out and putting it on when I'm in a Victorian mood (which does indeed happen!) so I'll keep my imp.