Victoriana.Goth

[Roogna]

English rose, lilac, frankincense, violet leaf, French lavender, and wisteria encased in amber and splashed lightly with a ghastly garden herb tincture.

VERY floral. But, it's not too overpowering and it doesn't go soapy or clean. It has a nice mix of flowers that round out to one floral scent, a little heavier on the rose than the others. Usually rose goes crazy bad headache strong on me lol - but here I can smell it in without being knocked over by it
for me, this is the best rose scent I've tried
I still don't think I want to smell like a rose though so I wont be keeping it, but it was nice to not have to wash it off immediately (it's 2 hours after putting it on and no headache!)

[myth]

Strong, instantly headachey, powdery florals. Not something I can wear at all.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

When I heard about this scent, I absolutely freaked out--Victoriana.Goth sounds like my personality! I knew I needed a bottle, not just a decant, so as to have the adorable label as well. Well, I was finally able to buy one, and it arrived yesterday. Wet, it reminds me strongly of London: tea rose and lavender. However, as it dries, the warm amber emerges, along with some rich spice (much be the frankincense actually). Really lovely when dry, and more complex than London, finishing with a flash of herbal green. I wish it lasted longer, but hey, I have a bottle for slathering!

[zankoku_zen]

Rose... and my old nemesis, WISTERIA. It's like I get tag teamed by ROSE and WISTERIA. I do get whiffs of lavender, and something murkily green underneath. It makes me think of old rose gardens. But if they were planted... oh, I don't know. On top of an old witches' garden. You know it wasn't JUST a pretty garden...

[Ondine]

This one smells almost exactly like The Clod and the Pebble on me, which is interesting given the cedar note of The Clod. But yeah, pretty much exactly the same--rose and cedar.

[thestrangeheart]

When I first saw the scent list on this, I hesitated because of the frankincense and the lavender, since I've never had great luck with either of those notes. But then I decided I'd give it a shot, and found only .

 

I agree with the reviews that said this sounds like a much more complex London, which is my go-to everyday scent. I think it's the green swampy notes that really make the blend for me— it's a tiny bit similar to the green in Garden Path With Chickens, but without the light springtime florals and the herbs. Victoriana is that delicate old-fashioned floral— the rose and wisteria and a bit of the violet leaf is primarily what I get out of here. I get very little lavender and really no frankincense.

 

Verdict: If you're looking for a more complex, old-fashioned floral and love London or Rose Red, Victoriana may be a true love.

[milo]

Hmm, nothing but rose for me from wet to dry. Its a nice sweet one, though, and doesnt go sour or pickly at all. This is OK, but I wish the other notes came out a bit more for me. I blame my skin, as it most definitely loves rose.

[filigree_shadow]

A soft, pleasant rose scent. Not really remarkable on me, but I'm very picky about rose scents. This one smells kind of old-fashioned rather than the bright dewy cute rose scents that I tend to like.

[VioletChaos]

In the Vial: VERY English Garden- all roses and green things in bloom, with a hiny of earthiness in the background. Like walking through a garden after a rain storm. Lovely!

 

Wet On Skin: Hi Rose! Hi, hello! Hi! This is seriously rose. Like, all rose, all the time. A tea rose- slightly sharp, definitely pungent and clearly holding it's own!

 

Dry Down: Still pretty much all rose. The rose has shifted, though, from tea to a more powdery rose, with a bit of dust and incense under it. More like being in a Victorian sitting room with the heavy velvet drapes drawn and vases full of dead, dried flowers arranged artfully in each corner

 

In All: Medium throw, a strong rose with mere hintings at anything else, this, as with Romanti.Goth, easily lives up to it's namesake

 

Now, to track down a whole bottle...

[mistressfizz]

Sniff: Rose!!! Powdery soft rose.

 

Wet: Lots and lots of florals, dominated by rose. I do get a spike of something sharp, I think that’s the lavender. This is very much a late summer garden, but a shadowy corner of that garden. While the flowers are strong, they aren’t quite bright and fresh. They are slightly muddled, bordering on sour and almost becoming heavy. Sometimes I catch a whiff of something like cotton or linen.

 

Dry: This dries a tad soapy, but pleasantly so. Now the soft incense and warm amber come into play, taming the flowers and creating a wonderfully feminine and elegant blend. I will definitely treasure this bottle!

[angelamaria]

In bottle: powdery floral. This doesn't really bode well for me, but let's try anyway! Light, feminine, and pink with white powder. Quite apt: it suddenly made me think of those powdered wigs that used to be worn (though I'm sure this smells nicer!) and while this wasn't what I expected, it's rather pleasing.

 

Wet on skin: mostly the same as the bottle scent, but I'm getting the herbal-ness of this more than in the bottle--the dustiness/powder I was getting earlier is actually the herbs, I can see that now. We'll see if English rose is a rose I can wear! If i dont think about it, this is still rather powdery (as opposed to herbal); and if I sniff deep enough, I actually feel like sneezing. I can pinpoint the rose and lilac, and a hint of lavender too, but the latter is not immediately apparent.

 

Dry: dry, this is a dusty, dusty, dusty floral on my skin. This is probably contributed to by the aforementioned herbs, the rose, and the amber--as the latter two do that to my skin almost without fail. Even so, quickly whiffing my skin test, this is a slightly powdery beautiful floral, very Victorian. The floral notes are not heady at all, they're rather elegant and kept well in check by the other notes.

 

Verdict: I'm sad, so far I haven't found a Bat's Day scent that works for me! This was quite promising, and actually passable, but with that horrid powder and the multitude of my other light floral blends, this doesn't make the cut, sadly.

[sunlitgarden]

A lovely forumite sent me some testers as thanks for doing a fairy pickup for her at a Seattle WC awhile back, including Victoriana.Goth. I've been hoarding it ever since, but decided it was time for a proper test and review.

 

In the imp: Rose, mostly, but I can smell some frankincense as well. I recognize the combination from Rose Cross, which I've been wearing a lot lately. On my skin, I can smell the "light purple" florals (lavender, lilac, wisteria), that add a pretty and soft powdery edge to the blend. Violet leaf behaves better on me than violet flower. Rose is still the strongest note, though. It's very pretty, but given its rarity, it's not different enough from Rose Cross on me to warrant tracking down a bottle. It's inspired me to try layering Rose Cross with Needlework.

Edited May 25, 2012 by sunlitgarden

[Katlyntje]

In the imp this is a lovely floral. The rose and lilac melded together with a touch of wisteria.

 

Wet on skin, still mostly rose and lilac

 

On drydown I'm definitely getting a bit of amber coming through. I admit I was a little afraid of the lavender but I cannot detect any. This is a nicely demure floral with a touch of resin.

[Magycmyste]

In the imp: A sweet floral, like a light gardenia

 

Wet on skin: A drier floral now. I definitely get the rose, but it smells like there's sandalwood in there

 

Dried down: Interesting, sniffing my wrists gives me a sandalwood rose, but the throw is a lighter, sort of sweeter scent.

 

Throw: Light, but it's there. The longer it's on me, the more it seems to go between the lighter, sweeter, scent and the darker, drier rose/sandalwood.

 

Verdict: **** 1/* I really like this, and I'm surprised, because it does seem a little like the kind of dark scent I'd avoid, and a little close to those traditional perfumes, whereas I tend to like BPAL because it isn't traditional. I'm also surprised that I seeem to be picking up notes that aren't there, though that's probably because they're similar to certain notes that are in there, but I'm not as familiar with. I think I may have to grab a bottle of this next time I see one, and hope it doesn't break the bank. Definitely keeping the imp.

 

ETA: I just realized - Victoriana.Goth is the way I wanted Seance to smell and keep smelling.

Edited December 4, 2013 by Magycmyste

[RobberBaroness]

A lovely, sedate garden.  Is it gothy?  Not necessarily, but it definitely feels old timey.