White Rabbit

[Ajila]

Strong black tea and milk with white pepper, ginger, honey and vanilla, spilled over the crisp scent of clean linen.

Sadly for the first couple of hours of wearing this all I got was tea, and not fresh tea either, this was the smell of teabad which have been used and then left to sit, in enough liquid to keep moist, until they've gone cold. It does finally settle into a gentle vanilla/lemon/ginger syrup, but I don't want to smell like aging teabags whilst I wait for it.

[Imbrium]

I knew I'd love this as soon as I saw it on the site, and ordered a bottle unsniffed. Yay!

 

In the Bottle: Though the linen note is a bit strong, this is very well blended - I don't distinguish a lot of different notes in the bottle.

 

On: Wet, this is a very lineny scent; for a moment I thought I'd put on Dirty by mistake. As it dries, the milk, honey and pepper, and a hint of tea come out on my skin; it's a very lovely creamy, slightly spicy scent.

It has a great deal of throw, as well - I couldn't smell it much, as it had dried down to a sort of creamy skin scent, but a Bpaler I was having dinner with asked who smelled like milk and honey.

 

Overall: I absolutely love this scent. It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever smelled - creamy, soft, and slightly sweet - and I reach for my bottle all the time.

[pickman's model]

It really does smell like tea.

 

I got really nice chai with honey, and the clean linen. Like snuggling in bed with a big mug of tea.

 

The only downside was after about 9 hours it abruptly became baby powder.

 

But chai-snuggling does equal love.

[olympia301]

 

I love The Lion and Alice from the Mad Tea Party collection and had tried White Rabbit before when I first came to BPAL. I found it pretty so-so, but I have tried it again in the hopes that my nose has become educated to the blends.

 

I can pick out something which I say is apricot, but only because I have been told that's what it is. I get an herbal/grassy undertone from it next. I just never was able to bring out tea, milk or honey. That's sad but true. No ginger at all, and black pepper? Not so much as one grain!

 

I have a habit of comparing scents in a category if there is a unifying thread among them, in this case the two great scents from The Mad Tea Party are Alice and The Lion, and White Rabbit has to hold its own against them, give me something different and yet attractive.

 

As a scent progression, White Rabbit starts out as "Hobby Lobby" on me and collapses into a discordant mess on my skin. OK, the word "mess" makes it sound bad, it isn't, but it is chaotic on my hide and doesn't organize itself into something faintly recognizable and greater than the sum of its parts like Alice and The Lion do.

 

One good thing which came out of this retry of White Rabbit was the icon. I consider it among the best I have done. Why do I get the best icons out of scents I am indifferent to with rabbits as their themes? (Centzon Totochon was another).

[Tesseljoan]

I can smell the tea and the vanilla at first: a bit lemony and sweet. After 10 minutes, it becomes far more spicy, and I can really smell the ginger, but not the black pepper, really. after half an hour the honey is starting to come through more, together with the lemony teaness.

 

Wish I'd ordered a bottle of this instead of Dorian. I like this a bit better because this has a nice spicy kick to it as well.

[Kaygee]

Alack a day....

 

 

The White Rabbit and I are not to be.

 

Wet I can smell the tea abit, and sweet milk, and something quite...proper...like a White Rabbit's waistcoat ought to smell, when pulling out a pocket watch.

 

But then the linen took over, and that was all I could smell after dry down--very nice, correct linen, like clean, well-Bounced sheets.

 

 

Much too button-ed down for me.

 

I have a friend who's knickname is Bunny--I will send it to her, and see if sympathetic magic will make it work better on her skin.

[oatmealneko]

Vial: Ginger, tea/linen, slightly peppery.

Wet: Ginger is lemony like Kumiho. pepper, tea, with a bit of vanilla.

Dry: Lightly gingery lemon with sweet vanilla tea. Linen kicks in hard around wet/dry stage to the dry stage, & it becomes very overpowering. I think it is the linen, because it smells similar to white tea, & I know black tea smells different. The sweet scent grows stronger over time & my wrist reeks of sweetness & pepper & linen.

 

Blech.

[13bodies]

in the imp: Powdery, then cream and a touch of spice. Nice.

 

Wet: still a bit powdery, but the spice is stronger and I can smell a whiff of tea.

 

dry: POWDER! Johnson & Johnson baby powder to be precise. Seriously, I had people ask me if that's what I was wearing.

 

I really wanted to like this. Ah well, I can't control my body chemisty. Stupid body chemisty.

[Muppetk]

imp: light honey

 

wet: sweet tea, and cleanliness. I guess that would be the "fresh linen." No spices though. Where are my spices?

 

Dry: where'd the tea go? It's still lightly honey/vanilla clean linen, but where's my tea?? For that matter, where are my spices? I love spices, darnit!

 

Overall: Very pretty, light, clean scent. The kind of scent I almost never wear. Maybe if the spices had come out on me it'd be a different story....

[quikslvr]

A bit high in the nose. More pepper than tea to me. Soft tea milk thereafter. Very similar to Sudha Segara to me, although a bit less ginger and more pepper.

[Little Bird]

White Rabbit conjures up a picture of a boring garden party with bored rich women lounging around holding dainty china cups filled with bland tea.

 

I'm not saying that this is a bad scent at all, but it's sort of simple, cold, and odd. It smells mainly of clean white tablecloths that are laying out in the sunshine, and used teabags, with an odd slap of sharp pepper. I had hoped that the vanilla and honey would sweeten things up, but I can't really pick up on either of those notes. It's mostly clean linen and milky tea with sharp pepper. A bit sour.

 

I kinda like this and how unusual it is, but often it seems like the notes don't really work together, and I can't stand leaving this on my skin for more than an hour.

Edited January 15, 2011 by Little Bird

[urraca]

In the imp I get a milky greeness. Wet on skin the greeness fades quickly and I get a lovely milky honey scent that lasts and lasts. It is just gorgeous. There is a freshness to it which suggests the linen, but I don't get the tea, pepper, or ginger. Still, an absolutely beautiful combination.

 

 

The dry down on me is very similar to my nose to Queen Mab with which it appears to share absolutely no notes. Oh, the mysteries of BPAL!

[QueenFae]

This one goes on a little strong for me. I'm normally a big foody fan, but the sharpness of the black tea and pepper doesn't quite work with my body chemistry. It ends up smelling like black licorice over crisp linen, eeeew. A shame, I had so looked forward to trying this one. I'll find my impie a good home.

[oakmoss]

I had a really hard time smelling ANYthing on this one, either in the imp or on my skin. I kept applying more and more, as I wanted to wear it to bed, and... nothing. The very faintest scent of lettuce, softly green and cool. I thought maybe I was just stuffed up, but when I applied some Baku it was as strong as usual, so... I think I got one of the special invisible rabbits -- or perhaps he was so very very late (oh, my ears and whiskers!) that he zoomed off before I had a chance to smell him. I'll try again later, or perhaps with a new imp from the lab.

[Janie]

I tried this some time ago, liked it well enough but decided to put it aside for another test or two before I wrote about it.

 

I wore it last night and was enchanted by it this time round. I so enjoy honey and honey came to the fore in this for me.

 

In the opening notes I caught mint, pepper and tea, with a drizzle of honey and vanilla. As it dried down the honey/vanilla accord came out to play and stayed around for longer than I remembered the first time. I would still smell the sweetness this morning - 12 hours after applying it.

 

Very nice indeed.

[binkyboots]

I had very high hopes for this one, tea, honey, linen, crisp tablecloths.... the stuff of dreams (mine anyway!)

 

in the bottle, it's gorgeous, but sadly on my skin it's invisible, I smell, maybe just the tiniest whisper of a scent... not enough though, it's a swap I'm afraid.

[zankoku_zen]

In the Bottle: Smells very sweet. Like a melon.

On Skin: Still very sweet. Now that I place it, it actually smells more like apricots on my skin. I think its the combination of honey and vanilla.

 

On Drydown: Still sweet. I can smell something else though - perhaps the linen, perhaps the pepper, perhaps the ginger.

 

Verdict: Still too sweet for my taste. Off to the swap pile. And I had such high hopes for this one too. Ah well, my body chemistry simply doesn't like it.

[Sara]

Okies, so I tried this one two times. Normally if a scent doesn't work the first time I just let it go..but I was trying so hard to love this one I gave it a second shot.

 

Imp Sniff: Hmm... kind of smells like a heavy, borderline curdled milk. There is also some spice wiggling at the back.

 

Swipe: The first time it was all "Blech, curdled milk!", but the second went a little better. The apricot (yes? I haven't read the description/review in a loooong time) began to peek around the icky milk smell and the spices also piped up more.

 

Drydown: It just has this "thick milk" smell to it I really don't care for. I love Suave's Milk n' Honey conditioner with a passion, why can't I like BPAL's milk smells? I hated Dana O Shee (made me nauseous), hated Snow White (made me nauseous as well), and this one has a different milky feel to it, but I think I hate it as well. It's a heavier, thicker, more curdled milk than Dana. the spices are nice, staying in the background and adding a wonderful touch. The apricot was loverly on the second application...it's just that damned milk.

 

Overall: *sigh* I honestly thought I was going to worship this scent. I love spiced black (chai or chai like) tea with lots of honey, sugar, and milk. Yet for some reason the tea and milk scents just don't go over well with my nose or skin. I'll give it another shot, but sadly I don't think it's going to work out. Damnit. I don't get pissed about scents not working for me often, because there are so many more to try out, but I'm really angry about this one. It sounded heavenly, and yet...it's a no-go for me.

[brownbear]

In the vial and wet it was very gingery/peppery.

As it dried on my skin i caught a whiff of the linen for like, a second. Then as it dried it went to milk and honey with a floral background. Now, a few hours later, it mostly smells sweetly floral. I asked my roommate what he thought it smelled like and said, "uh, flowers." It's nice and mellow. Never got any tea though.

[Cagedflame]

On me, none of the pepper, ginger, vanilla, or milk comes out, and barely any of the tea. I was highly disappointed. It smells like fresh grass and white clover blossoms with a bare hint of tea on me. I think it was the honey doing it, as BPAL and other honeys don't seem to get along with my skin. While it's a pleasant scent, it's not me, and not what I was looking for.

[Em-]

I absolutely adore this scent, but for none of the reasons I thought that I would. I received a frimp of Dirty in a swap which helped me identify that the linen is the predominant note that I smell both in the bottle and on my skin. The tea, milk, honey, pepper - they are there, but in the background - spilled across the tablecloth by a careless tea party guest.

 

I bought this imp for all of those other notes, and I love them, but mostly I love the lightness of this scent - someone else mentioned the similarity to my beloved Sudha Segara - this is the lighter, more...airy cousin. Where Sudha is a sea of milk and honey, White Rabbit is a tea drenched splash. I love them both for amazingly different moods.

[planetjess]

I was very much looking forward to trying this imp, based on the description and most of the reviews--whether it was to be milky tea or lemon or ginger or a hint of vanilla, I thought this one would work. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

 

I have to echo one of the posters above--on me, it went immediately to sickly-sweet baby powder, with a touch of floral added to the talc--but most of all, strong baby powder. I couldn't put my finger on what was freaking me out for the longest time, until I realized that I smelled exactly like my grandmother. Very strange.

[gangstaknitta]

This scent morphed on me so many times. It smelled like lemon and tea with a little bit of sweetness in the bottle.

On my skin, it changed from tea to a clean scent (the linen?) and then onto a clean vanilla smell, which morphed into a creamy tea smell. I can't make this one out. It seriously smells like several different fragrances. I'm going to experiment with this one. Def. one to try as a room fragrance.

[laochodia]

White rabbit went from a glorious tea party to a faint linen scent to nothing in a matter of minutes on my skin. While it lasted, it was pure honey, tea and vanilla with an undertone of sharpness (I'm guessing the pepper) that made me think of picnics in the sun.

[k00kaburra]

This sounds so promising. White Rabbit, pray don't disappoint me!

In bottle: Black tea and pepper; it's nose-tickling. Then the linens - so crisp and clean! - wafts up amidst the darker notes. The sweetness of the honey and the vanilla are detected, but they aren't overpowering.

On me: Vanilla and pepper lightly drizzled with honey. On my skin it is very, very weak; a shame, for I certainly looked forward to this scent and wanted so much for it to like me. But the tea is undetectable, which disappoints me to the extreme.