Unseelie

[with coffee spoons]

The wicked, malicious dark side of the Court of Faerie, Unseelie literally translates to ‘Unholy’. The Unseelie Court is ruled by Titania’s corrupted twin sister, the Queen of Air and Darkness. The Court rides the nighttime winds spreading chaos and miscief; woe be to any mortal that crosses its path. A misty, otherworldly scent laced with ethereal florals, crushed herbs and soft, dew-covered grasses.

Interestingly enough, I don't get anything remotely floral in this. When it goes on it goes Opium-esque on me-- very spicy, not at all sweet. A bit masculine. It stayed spicy through drydown, although a green background began to emerge. Spicy green might have been okay had it been a bit sweeter, a bit more feminine on me, but as it stands, my chemistry is apparently very odd. Since my reaction seems so much different from most everyone else's, I'll try this again--perhaps it was reacting strangely with the body lotion I had put on that day?

[Northernminx]

Unseelie - tried this one yesterday.

 

In the bottle - just kinda a strong musky scent. It's odd that I'm not getting some of the complexities on these and yet others I spend hours smelling all the different notes.

 

On me - still kinda a strong musky scent. This really seemed to seem more like a guy's scent to me and never really warmed up or altered all day, just staying sorta musky and vague. It was not unpleasant but it reminded me of an ex-boyfriends cologne and I think psychologically that was a nono. I wasn't getting any of the floral or anything else on this one. Hrm. Wierd.

 

Ah well can't win 'em all!

Going into the swap pile

[amberbella]

This scent has that same something in it that I smell in all the Aveda products. While I like that scent, it tends to be cloying on me, so this isn't a scent I'm likely to wear.

 

It turns rather powdery on me....now mind you, I like powdery scents, but this powdery just isn't me.

 

It IS however a very interesting scent and I totally understand why some people absolutely adore it. This is signature scent material....it's a second skin scent on me.....just a second skin scent that isn't me. (if that makes sense)

 

I have a feeling hubby will like it though.....so I may end up keeping the imp.

[Sistinas]

In the bottle it has a nice amber/floral scent to itit that I just adore. When I put it on my wrists the fragrance disappears almost instantly. I tried reapplying the oil several time and each time I get the same result, nothing in a matter of minutes.I really loved the smell of it in the bottle but I guess soft scents like this and Old Glasgow do not seem to last on me.

[GothicMissManners]

This started out very floral on me, with just a hint of some more bitter green note (my immediate thought was jasmine mixed with wormwood, but I'm probably waaaay off base).

 

Over the course of the day, the extremely strong florals settled down to being a mild(er) floral note on top of something that was simultaneously very sweet and woody.

 

Don't ask me why, but I expected Unseelie to have a bit more ... bitter, deep green scent to it. To me, it seemed to evoke late-afternoon-just-before-twilight sense, and I was expecting much more of a twilight mood. However, that doesn't mean I don't like it. I think it's lovely.

 

I'll need to wear it a couple more times to see how it reacts with my body chemistry when I'm *not* completely crashing from lack of food, because I couldn't tell if my headache yesterday was from low blood sugar, or some part of the scent.

 

-Jilli

[babykitty]

This was a bonus imp for me. I should have known it wouldn't work for me after spilling 1/2 of it trying to get the top off!

 

In the bottle--interesting, soft floral.

 

Wet--still soft floral

 

Dry--smells a lot like baby products, powdery, less flowery.

 

End of the day--UGH. Smells just like playdoh!

 

Rats. I want to love all my new BPAL.

[Ina Garten Davita]

First Impression: It definitely smells green. The herbs and grasses are fresh and almost sweet rather than sharp and soapy.

 

Second Impression: This is a beautiful blend. I didn't think I was going to like it based on all the reviews. The flowers sweeten up the green elements of this blend.

 

Final Analysis: I felt mischievous, with a spring in my step while wearing Unseelie. I love it.

[magpiedee]

Argh!

 

Baby powder and... well... diapers. La Petite Diaper, I believe Beth coined the phrase? A warm, sickly sweet smell on my skin. I am not getting dew-crushed grasses, which is sad, because it sounds so lovely. And it is quite long lasting, so I can't scrub it off.

 

I hate it when a scent gets rave reviews, has a wonderful description and turns rancid due to my skin. What is the secret ingredient that, when combined with my skin, equals baby poo??? It's all my fault. I let you down, Beth. I make Unseelie stinky.

[FireInCairo]

I think this would be very suitable for males. I find it to be masculine. It's very strong...powerful. It kind of reminds me of "Obsession" for men by Calvin Klein for some reason...or perhaps Opium by YSL? I do not find this fragrance to be for me. However, if I smelled this on a guy- I'd go nuts!

[upsidedown]

Unseelie sounded really wonderful, I was looking forward to trying it, but, alas, I don't think it's for me, or at least, it wasn't today. In the bottle, I get a very particular floral smell that smells exactly like a little glass heart full of amber colored perfume I was given as a child. I probably still have that somewhere - I'm positive it's the same scent. While there's nothing particularly bad about that, I had a feeling it might be a little too overpoweringly floral for me, and unfortunately, I was right. I put a little on and immediately felt like I was being suffocated in all these cloying, sickly sweet, floral smells, and my first thought was, ugh, icky old lady perfume. After an hour passed and it still wouldn't lighten or morph, and with a headache growing, I tried to wash it off but I can still smell it lingering slightly in the air around me. I may try this again at some point, but I don't think these pretty girly floral scents really work on me.

[isyche]

I was really looking forward to trying Unseelie too, but alas, I am one of the people for whom it just smells like baby powder.

Possibly very slightly evil baby powder, but baby powder nonetheless. Sigh.

[fallow deer]

This was the first BPAL oil that I picked - from the descriptions and reviews it sounded really lovely.

 

Unfortunately, my skin didn't like it and it turned into 'Moonwind', an old Avon scent which I had a sample of when I was about eight (in fact you could call it my first perfume - ugh!). I couldn't get this association out of my head and Unseelie remained slightly harsh generic perfume which I had to wash off.

 

 

-fallow deer

[Faerykin]

Swiped across wrists and along collarbone.

 

Initial Wet (8-8:30am): This is a very enchanting scent, light an airy – with an underlying darkness, as if it is just around the corner, or sneaking up on you. I imagine myself walking through a secret garden during dusk or twilight – the ‘tween times. This is the scent of that otherworld … the darker side of Fairyland. I imagine this to be the scent of the trickster Fey – the beautiful little people who could be kind, so long as you remain on their good side.

 

Initial Dry (8:30-10:30am): Aside from getting lighter and a bit powdery, this scent didn’t really change much. Where I initially smelled more of the dew-covered greenery, now the florals are more prominent – soft, powdery, florals.

 

Throughout the Morning (10:30-11:30am): This scent really dissipated quite quickly. I can smell it on my wrists, but otherwise it is nearly non-existent. I shall certainly have to reapply before I go out tonight.

 

 

Edit:

Into the Evening: I was admittably dissapointed to find that the powdery scent I tried so hard to ignore this morning was all that this turned into after drying - when re-applied this evening. As with Fey, I shall have to try this on my clothing instead of on my skin.

 

~~~

 

Placed on clothing (collar and cuffs).

 

All I can smell is powder - a deep, dark, flowery powder - but a powder nonetheless. =<

 

This must contain one of those ingredients that just doesn’t agree with me.

Edited August 5, 2004 by Faerykin

[Murron]

Wet: this reminds me a lot of baby powder, soft and innocent.

 

Dry: hmmm, lovely! It starts getting more floral and dewey. To me, it really reminds me of soft springmornings, where there is just a little bit of dew hanging in the air. Very clear and soft. This is a wonderful scent for me for warm days, due to it's lightness. Very ethereal.....

[Morrighana]

I haven't worn this one in a long while, but I feel guilty putting it up for swap without giving my $0.02 here, so:

 

Unseelie is a gorgeously sweet, fresh scent in the bottle, but it turns to complete baby powder on my skin. I could certainly see using it for kick-ass body and bath products, if I made that sort of thing, but it's not the kind of perfume I would actually wear on a day to day basis.

 

[Dolly Dimple]

Amberbella mentioned Aveda products, and to me this smells exactly like their Madagascar room fragrance. I love that scent, and I'd been hoping to find a perfume like it for years. I think I've finally found it with Unseelie - it's warm, spicy, and comforting. This is straight on the 10ml list.

[TheDarkMother]

In the bottle, Unseelie smells like a dryer sheet. No kidding. When I first smelled it it reminded me of Snuggle dryer sheets. I hope that it wasn't just me feeling guilty for not doing the laundry:) I hope to god my hubby never finds this scent.

 

On me it still maintains that dryer scent. Nice, clean, maybe a little green smelling, like juniper or sage? Its nice, not anything that really jumps out at me or anything.

 

To tell you the truth, as most dryer sheets have something in them that make me gag after awhile, I think I might water this down and spray it on my bed sheets or something. It has a nice airy scent that might do very well with that.

 

After a while though it just becomes nice, yummy babypowder. I don't know why I love babypowder scents on me so much;) The babypowder saves this imp totally!

Edited July 28, 2004 by TheDarkMother

[Rheliwen]

This one reminded me of a chanel No. 5 type perfume. It's very musky and seductive. I imagine my grandmother wearing this when she was younger. There's something very glamouros and classic about this scent. I've pulled vintage clothes from the racks that had lingering smells like this one.

 

Like others, it turned a bit powdery on me, but lasted quite a while. I don't know if it's unique enough for me though. To me, it's a staple classic scent. Something that you can wear and feel confident without being too risky.

[Lady Ravenglass]

Floral? Baby powder!?? Seductive, musky and dark, yes.

 

 

I'm getting a dark patchouli scent - straight on it smelt like a hippy shop - bells and incense and brass-inlaid wood.

 

It's certainly Unseelie - I used to LARP with a group called the Tuatha De Daanon in the UK, and this smells like those weekends: incense sticks in every patch of ground, guitars, night skies and a hint of dubious legality and amorality.

 

Perhaps my imps swapped labels on the long flight over... I can barely place a single note from everyone else's replies, especially not the 'innocent' bit!

 

 

Helena

[Nepthys]

I do get the baby powder associations others have mentioned but this also comes on as very green and grassy to me. It dries down into something soft and half-innocent, half-mysterious. This is an addictive scent that can grow cloying worn every day but worn once in a while, it's beautiful. My only concern is that it might be stronger than I perceive it to be, because twice I have had strangers lean in and sniff and ask what perfume I'm wearing.

[Neko]

This scent must share some notes with Dissipation because it is affecting me in an extraordinarily similar, if less notable, manner.

 

I enjoy the scent in the imp: a spicy, moderately fruity, herbal/floral fragrance. It isn't one of those "oh my gosh!" scents, but it could be considered pleasant. In the vial, Unseelie reminds me of a solid pefume I bought at a Ren Faire years ago (though I bought that mainly for its container, and less for the actual scent, which I believed smelled something like a cinnamon donut).

 

After application to my wrists, the scent remains true to the imp for roughly five minutes, though I can immediately sense something under the jumble of aromas that doesn't sit well with my nose.

 

After the five minutes pass I am left with an old woman's dusting powder: the heavy scent of expensive department store perfumes intertwined with the cloying, sweet scent of baby powder. I catch the faintest whiffs of what I know the blend should smell like... grasses, sweet herbs, like a field allowed to grow wild... but these are all totally and completely overpowered by the scent of old oriental perfumes and talc.

 

This scent gives me the exact same headache that Dissipation did, only to a lesser degree. In fact, this smells almost exactly like Dissipation did to me (at least on my skin). Thus, I shall rename Unseelie Disspation Jr. and I shall put it up to swap.

[Dianella]

I had such high hopes for this one!

 

From the bottle: Hmm, smells like a high-end, really expensive perfume. Really floral though. No hint of greenery or herbs...

 

Wet: Wow, this is floral and is going very powdery...

 

Drydown: Still very powdery. I get an occasional whiff of of darker scents mixing with the powder, but all in all just powder.

 

Dry: All I can smell is baby powder. Now baby powder isn't the worst thing I've ever smelled, but it's certainly not what I was aiming for.

 

This one didn't turn out the way I was expecting, far too powdery for my tastes. My skin doesn't seem to like florals much, even though I do. I'll give it another shot but if not, I'll probably swap it.

[omly]

Unseelie is not what I was expecting for some reason. Part of this may just be my chemisty. I never end up finding dewy crushed grasses. There is a stage in the beginning with a scent similar to the drier long grasses of autumn as you walk through them. I could see that many people might describe this as babypowdery, but on my skin at least there is a subtle difference. It is silken and smooth like the high qualityfinishing powder you might find in at madame's dressing table (which I think someone else mentioned as well). This is a feminine scent to me, but there is definately some musk in their too, which might make others disagree. Timeless and carelessly cruel, but it is not as dark as I thought it would be. It's time of day would be when the shadows are long, either late afternoon or early morning before the sky becomes that bright.

[pekeana]

Unseelie is one of the ones I counted out because of the florals. But someone sent me an imp of it, and oh!

 

In the vial: I get the grasses and some herbal greenness -- with a hint of floral. But it's all very sweet.

 

On me: *dead from bliss* It's a soft floral powdery scent that's grounded with a hint of something dark and woody-herbal beneath it. There's also a hint of sweet across the top that keeps it from morphing completely into baby powder. Unfortunately, the grass and floral scents are all but gone. But it's so divine that I can't help but keep it! It's light and airy, perfect for those days when I want to smell good, but not like I'm trying too awfully much.

[Summerpixy]

This perfume seems to morph on everyone who wears it.

 

On me, it's all male. Musky and just slightly powdery floral. Unfortunetly I don't like smelling this way myself, but I must test on the bf and see if it'll work on him.