Juliet and Romeo

[doomsday_disco]

The Lovers suspended beneath hostile stars; innocent, youthful love caught in profound celestial tension. Two households, both alike in dignity, are bound by ancient grievance, and beneath their banners walk two young hearts caught in the inexorable turning of the spheres. “A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life whose misadventured piteous overthrows,” and the heavens themselves draw down to witness and grieve the dazzling catastrophe of first love. Their passion is as swift as lightning, tender as dawn, perilous as prophecy.

They move as mirrored flame, twin spirits divided by inherited hatred, Gemini energy refracted through vendetta and family saga. In one another they glimpse completion, a reflection unmarred by the violence of the world beyond the balcony that hems them in. The polarity that surrounds them only sharpens their longing. Night and day, Montague and Capulet, poison and potion, oath and silence: each intrinsic, fated duality entwines them closer together.

The “black-brow’d night” shelters their whispered promises and heart-rending declarations of love, wrapping them in a darkness that protects and consecrates, while the “garish sun” exposes, divides, and drives them back into the machinery of blood feud and overweening pride. In this reversal, shadow is mercy and daylight is threat, and their passion flourishes in secrecy as though it were a nocturnal bloom opening only when the world’s vigilance sleeps. Night gathers them into momentary wholeness, but the harsh light of dawn demands polarity. Their struggle is not only against their families but against time itself, against the relentless return of morning that tears them from the refuge of darkness and thrusts them toward consequence. Their love is not permitted to grow and thrive, and instead it burns brief, bright, and absolute with the shattering, pure conflagration of a supernova.

In the long, shadowed sleep of death they accomplish what life denied them, and the warring houses, confronted by the cost of enmity, lay down their arms. Love as transmutation, sorrow as reconciliation, and what was divided is brought, through tragedy, into uneasy harmony.

This is the Lovers as one soul divided, as the soul split and reunited through fate and consequence, union under celestial tension, and devotion that outlives breath and fundamentally alters the world that sought to forbid it. Crushed red rose and night-blooming jasmine unfurl over Verona stone warmed by summer dusk, sugared violets and bitter orange peel steeped in pale cypress smoke, with a single thread of myrrh rising like a whispered vow in the dark.

[VioletChaos]

In The Bottle: I get the violets (less 'sugared' and more 'candied'- a seemingly small distinction but the Lab's sugar note is incredibly specific, and a combo with Violet I'm very familiar with because Faith is a long-time favorite). I also get hints of the jasmine and a hint of that myrrh reading very incense-y at this point.

Wet on skin and then warming up, the scent starts to shift and bloom. The rose emerges, very fresh, like it's just been cut from the bush in a garden, that edge of green clinging to it. The combo reminds me a bit of Marie, another classic violet/rose pairing. Of course, all these other notes are in the mix too, so hang on, 'cause we'r not done here  

Upon dry down, the above notes settle more into themselves, warming and blooming further. I get just little hints of the jasmine and cypress, and the orange peel brings a touch of citrus but is in no way sweet or fruity. 

In all- I get a low throw but definitely dab sparingly until you see how this reacts with your personal chemistry: part of the charm of this scent is that while it's bright and clean-smelling, it's not soapy in the least. I've noticed over the years that when Beth interprets scents related to Italy that there's a certain touch she brings to them. It's not anything I can point to specifically, not a particular note or what have you. But the vibe is there. A lot of my heritage is Italian and there's something about the interpretations meant to be of that part of the world resonate with me in a very particular, personal way, and this is no exception.

A light, delicate blend of non-cloying florals and a citrus incense that will be great throughout spring and summer ❤️ 

[OxfordComma]

Ok, so. Sorry to the above review. 😅 To me, this smells exactly like soap. Not like generically 'oh it's soapy' but deadass Saponificio Artigianale Fiorentino soaps. I used to sell a lot of those gift sets and this smells like my car loaded with violet, rose, and citrus soap sets. It's so uncannily spot on I can feeeeel the texture of the bars. Once it starts to dry it's all violet and rose, soft and romantic, a little spicy-resinous edge from the myrrh. It's really pretty and oddly nostalgic. 

 

Update: A month later, I've worn this a couple times to bed and it's been largely the same as above. However! This latest wear was a totally different experience! Gone was my nostalgic soap vibes and left in their place was a fresh green rose with sweet jasmine and a lovely sense of greenery that made me double check the notes for olive leaf. I thought maybe it was a one-off hormonal thing but I wore it again today and got the same thing. It's really quite lovely, but sadly my skin eats it up. Lasts fairly well on my sleeves though! Wasn't expecting such a dramatic change ( maybe the change of the weather?), but I'm not mad about it. A bottle is tempting. 

Edited July 15 by OxfordComma

[divadienst]

so interesting to me how different people's skin chemistry reacts to certain elements so differently! like @OxfordComma, this went very soapy on me. i am learning that citrus notes really do not work on me; even though here the orange peel is listed quite far down, and some of the other notes are ones i not only usually love but also tend to do well with - jasmine, myrrh, my beloved rose!! - here everything simply goes soapy and quite sharp. i do not want to smell like soap!! - a couple of other scents i've tried have felt clean and fresh (by candlelight, which i've also been wearing recently and enjoyed testing) without being explicitly soapy in this way, so that world is possible...but only evidently as long as orange and lemon are not involved. otherwise they really do take over. 

 

i don't think i get much violet or cypress, but i am less familiar with these so i probably find them harder to pick out. in all, i've found the luper scents i've tried so far very well-blended, so perhaps they do still contribute to the overall picture even if i don't get them. the throw is also quite low on me; i couldn't really smell it well until i put my arm right up to my nose. 

[kinneret_rising]

Hypnotic florals, jasmine and rose. Everyone knows this story, where a tragic love drives the reconciliation of two warring families. Is there a touch of bitterness beneath? That bitter orange peel? It makes me think of BPAL’s discontinued scent Venice, though this is more sophisticated. Of the Faces of the Lovers series, this is the only one that threatened to become soapy for me, although on drydown, the stony and smoky notes saved it. I imagine Italy when I smell it.