Posted 12 February 2006 - 09:22 PM
La Fee Verte
In the imp: lemon! This is a greenish herbal lemon scent. It’s not as absinthe-like as I expected, I don’t get the boozy anise note from the BPAL Absinthe.
Wet on skin: honeyed lemon! This is like a lemon herbal tea sweetened with honey, it’s lovely.
Dry: oh, I like this! This is herbal, lemony, fresh, effervescent, slightly boozy (but in a clear, cool way-I think that’s the wormwood) and with a hint of honey and musk in the background. It does bear a similarity to the Absinthe scent but it’s much nicer-there’s no anise here, but there is a lovely herbal lemon (Melissa? I think this is lemon balm?) and other green notes, it’s a scent that makes me think of summer, and has a nice ‘fizzy’ feel to it without it smelling like soft drinks. I am getting hints of Antique Lace-style musk (no vanilla yet though) behind the lemon herb scent.
After a while: after 30 mins-1 hour, this scent is now very fresh, crisp and cool. I get a hint of clean linen to this scent-but not that of the soapy kind, this is more like Antique Lace’s linen note, along with the lemony scent. It’s a breezy, airy scent, it reminds me of ozone at times, but it’s different. I think that’s wormwood-it added a coolness to Absinthe which was clear, airy, transparent and a bit alcoholic. I also get something reminiscent of Black Opal, which I think is the musk, and the honey note adds its golden sunny sweetness to the blend. I also am starting to detect the vanilla; however this blend isn’t very sweet overall-it’s more of a bracing, bright scent.
Over time, it moves away from fresh lemon and clean breezy linen towards a more exotic scent…vanilla and sublime musk with honey and a hint of spice. It reminds me of Antique Lace, Dorian, Black Opal and Morocco (which is no doubt due to the Moroccan spices). The blend still retains its effervescence and breeziness, and its slightly tangy lemon and ‘clean linen’ scent.
Over the course of the next few hours, the scent moves from clean-lemony to vanilla musk then to honey and then back to vanilla musk...
Verdict: this is really lovely stuff. A bright, fresh, carefree blend of herbs, lemon balm, the slight alcoholic coolness of wormwood and a nice twist of honey, with a wonderful undertone of lightly spiced vanilla musk. This is a sunny, light hearted and airy scent, to me it fits not only the absinthe theme (the scent is similar to the Absinthe BPAL, only without anise and more complex) but it fits the image of a sprightly green fairy in flight amongst herbs on a summer’s day, but this fairy leaves her enigmatic scent of vanilla-musk and exotic spice behind as she flies. The blend goes through several stages-first, the effervescent herbal lemon stage, a summery scent of greenery and gentle tanginess. Second, the ‘clean’ stage, cool, bracing, reminiscent of clean linen left to dry in the breeze, with a hint of musk peeping through. Then the drydown…this is where the scent fits in with the vanilla-musk/spicy musk classics of BPAL-it reminds me of a combination of Black Opal, Antique Lace, Dorian and Morocco. This is my favourite part-it’s a gorgeous vanilla musk with hints of honey, spice and clean lemony linen. I wasn’t keen on Absinthe but I am very fond of this scent-I may not need the entire 10ml, but I love it nonetheless, and this will be something I will be wearing a lot in summer.