The Hanging Gardens

[BuxomM]

This perfume is an interpretation of the Hanging Gardens by night, based on further accounts of its fruit and flora: date palm, ebony, fir, pomegranate, plum, two pears, quince, fig, and grapevine with plumeria, three gardenias and dry rose.

It's a sweet floral with a bit of fruit. At first I can smell pear and plumeria, but as it dries it turns to mainly gardenia with something a bit sweet in the background.

[bubblefish]

Undeniably floral, but a bouquet of more delicate-smelling flowers than overpowering ones. And it has the best undertone of lush green foliage, like a greenhouse full of exotic flowers, humidity, and everything's just been watered.

[redderz]

In the imp: Pears! And a lot of other whoa!floral things. It's nice though!

 

Wet: That must be gardenia? And pear. It's still pretty! And no rose yet! *hopes it doesn't make an appearance*

 

Dry: My skin is eating this! Getting a hint of green now. Mostly florals though. Quite nice!

[Reaver]

Bitter sweet floral - very 'hot-house'-ish. Smells more tropical than English flower garden and there is a twist of fruit, but it's not a fore-runner. This dries down to a rose-tinted tropical floral and I'm not too impressed - there are nicer BPAL florals out there for me!

 

3/10 Nice, but a bit confused. Are you tropical fruity joy, or sweet rosiness?! You're not amazing while trying to be both.

[rayvn1]

I don't know what went wrong with this one, fig usually loves me, but this was a blast of chemical florals. Not good at all on my skin and it amped to high heaven! To the swaps!

[Venneh]

In the frimp, I'm getting fruit and florals. On my skin, I get that as well as the trees, deepening the smell by a lot and making it absolutely beautiful. Yeah, this is definitely going to be a bottle, no questions asked.

Edited October 26, 2009 by Shollin
Removed Lab description --Shollin

[silver_springs]

I think I'm beginning to notice the only time florals work on me and don't turn soapy is when they're paired with fruit notes. I love the labs fruity scents, they're some of my favorite. And this is an undeniably beautiful scent. It's musky fruit and flowers. It works so wonderful. I don't know yet if I want a big bottle as it didn't have much of a throw but it is definitely at least an imp keeper.

[fairestrocza]

In the Imp: floral with a bit of wood behind; more 'perfumy' (alcoholy?) than others; ??tequila??

 

Wet on Skin: a darker or more serious floral, slightly sweet but not in a candy way (the fruits?); is that rose?

 

While Drying: scents unifying…almost seemed borderline soapy, but then backed off to a unified scent

 

After a Little While: periodic pears but dominated by florals, no trees in sight

 

Later: changes, every now and then if I try I can get a hint of something else, but mainly a sweet floral with a sharpness in my nose; too floral, and something is turning rancid

 

Final Thoughts: oddly, The Boy smells pot pouri and fir and bananas; I am disappointed that it doesn’t have more woody emphasis. This was much nicer on my friend, with a lovely pear scent in the wet phases.

 

The Hanging Gardens earns 2/5 on my skin.

[maika]

In the imp, my immediate thought was lotus. Sweet, bubblegum lotus. But that disappeared/changed, and of course, that sweet fruity thing is pear. There's also a fresh green note floating around in ther too.

 

Wet, pear, and a woody note. The pine is there, butthe other woods are blending with it. I can't seperate them out, but it's a blend of woods, which is a good thing, because I tend to amp single woods, and these are holding each other in check.

 

Dry, the rose is wafting out now...and a gorgeous rose it is too. It's not overpowering anything (I tend to amp rose, too) so that's all good. I'm getting little waves of gardenia and plumeria, but what I mostly get is a really well-blended floral...and it's beautiful!

 

 

Ultimately, this is nothing short of a masterpiece. I'm definitely going to be needing many, many bottles of this.

[Phantasmagoria]

In the imp: Thick, dark, heavy floral

 

Wet on skin: Same as in the imp, only warmer.

 

Dry on skin: It gets lighter as it dries. It also gets this 'generic flowery perfume' smell to it.

[Victory]

This is a real head-scratcher for me, because I smell lilac and smooth lavender but they're not listed notes. Can't be the gardenias because that note's always very high-pitched and screeching to me and what I smell is very soft (in feel, not strength) and smooth. The only real experience I have with plumeria is my mother's body lotion but that's got to be what I'm smelling. Plumeria is a tropical scent, which this isn't, so I suspect the pear and other notes are adding their influence to moderate the tone. There isn't any morphing on my skin, which is ok because whatever floral this is, I like it. It's like standing under a lilac bush (or really, I guess a plumeria plant) on a spring/early summer night and just breathing in the perfume. My mother has a bottle that I enjoy using when I visit her, and apparently my skin chemistry does very different things to the oil than hers does- I have not smelled it on her that I recall, so I can't report what the difference is.

[musichappens]

This starts out as a very spicy floral, which is weird since there are no spices listed in the notes. I was hoping the fruits would emerge as it dried down, but the only thing that happened was the fading of the spice (smelt like cinnamon). This blend ultimately only lasted 10 minutes on me and was spicy the entire time.

[countessmouse]

Wow, I had no green notes in this at all -- it was very sweet florals all the way. Nice, but not going to be one of my favorites.

[lunchboxmonkey]

This scent is perfect for the hanging gardens. Its bursting with gorgeous, heady flowers and dripping with juicy fruits. I really really like this, its just beautiful.

[Leopard1241]

My first review -eek!-

 

Well the whole reason I bought this was because one of my close friends is an exchange student from Kenya and was extremely homesick. So I bought a bottle for her and an imp for myself.

 

When I first opened the imp all I got was the impression that this was the smell of everywhere not here. All those exotic fantasy of foreign lands sprung instantly to mind.

 

Just because of how potent it was in the bottle I was a little afraid to put any on.

 

Once I got over my fear of smelling like a walking fruit garden I was pleasantly surprised. On my skin the almost sickly sweet of the fig mellowed down and all the florals dry it out a bit.

 

It lasted a pretty good while, about two or three hours on me.

 

And when I gave my friend her bottle she put some on right there. Said it smelled "just like home", and I was promptly regaled with tales of climbing the neighbors' fence to steal figs as an after school snack.

 

A success all the way around, I'd say.

[angelicruin]

Sweet fruit & florals. I pick up the plum and pomegranate notes the strongest, although I can smell a little bit of all of the fruits in this blend. As for the floral notes, gardenia is strongest, but I can smell the plumeria as well. Can't smell the rose though.

[ModderRhu]

The Hanging Gardens

My stars. This is awesome!!!! It's sweet but not too sweet, fruity but not too fruity, and green but not too green! Just perfect. I smell the quince, fig, pear, and rose the most, and a little fir. It's juicy. It's humid. It's complex. It has a richness that is glorious on me. I love it!

4.8 out of 5

[loubric]

My first image when I sniffed my skin was Jasmine from "Aladdin". I have no idea why but the sweet spicy floral scent made me think this is something she might have worn. It's clean and strong without being too overpowering. The rose does stand out a bit (as it always does on me) but overall the mixture is very pretty.

[sparkleyturtle]

I am definitely picking up the floral, and I think the fruit is what brings in the sweet. Althogether, this is a nice smell, kind of a warm, sweet fruit basket with flowers, but it isn't something I would wear.

 

It definitely makes me think of walking through an area of the botanical gardens.

[Balame]

In the Imp: A very gentle, romantic scent, in a traditional way. I can smell the soft roses and juicy pear, a bit of the plum.

 

Wet: A huge burst of florals. I'm not a fan of them, but anyone who is would be in heaven. There's something a bit "wet" in the scent itself which smells very lush and yummy, and the plumeria has really come to the front for me with its sweet, highly "feminine" feel.

 

Dry: I always test scents by getting the oils on a beheaded q-tip and then applying to my skin, so I will say that with my chemistry the smell has... kind of a "lady of the night"-ish feel, but not necessarily in a bad way. It's very rich, with droves of flowers and a full sweetness that's not quite too overpowering to be alluring. It does maintain a softness despite the depth, and the plumeria is still at a peak, along with what I'd guess is the gardenia. On the q-tip it's much lighter and airier, more like a fresh garden in the day v. evening on me. So just a heads up, if your skin makes it too voluptuous for you then might want to try a scent locket.

 

Verdict: It's not my thing, but it's a well blended scent and people who love delicate yet robust fragrances will enjoy.

Edited May 13, 2010 by Balame

[FathomBelow]

This was all the way through a fruity floral kind of scent, in the same vein as Titania. You truly can't pick out any of the individual components, but they all blend together to create this rich and complex yet not too heavy, sweet but not too sweet, thoroughly pleasing scent. Delicate yet robust is the perfect way to describe it.

 

Unfortunately, unlike Titania, on me this develops a distinct waxy note similar to what appeared on me in The Unicorn. It will most likely be swapped away, but I'm glad I got to try it!

[sunlitgarden]

The Hanging Gardens

 

Frimp from the lab. This is a ripe, bursting fruity-floral. I meant to sniff it in the imp first, but got some on my fingers so I just put it on. First I smelled fig and then a floral mixture that smells sweet but a bit overly heavy. A bit later, plum. I like it better when the plum comes out. I smell a little rose in the background as well and there's almost an incense-like quality. It's a pleasant scent, but not really me - there are other fruity-florals I prefer. Will probably swap, since it's just not really a standout to my nose.

[Odinite]

My first review! I hope I do this at least decently.

 

In the imp: At first sniff fruity and juicy. I definatly smell pear and plum. Maybe the fig, pomegranate, quince, and maaybe even a touch of the plumeria. On second sniff I get a mildly green and floral scent but I can't really pik and thing in particular out.

 

Wet: As soon as I touch the wand to my wrist I smell that wonderful sweet and fruity smell. When I smell my wrist I get more of the green and floral smell. And a touch of almost spiciness. As i sit and smell my wrists I perceive something I cant name but is very familiar. Then it hits me; this smell similar to Tenochtitlan! I don't know how but to me they have something in common though I can't find any similar ingredients in either one!

 

Dry: Such a sweet warm fragrance. I can't really pick anything out.

 

This perfume is very lovely. It smells so very warm and inviting just like I would imagine The hanging gardens to have smelled. Truly wonderful but I am still a bit confused as to why it came out smelling so similar to Tenochtitlan. I could just be my body chemistry.

[taramarie]

In the imp and on my skin, The Hanging Gardens is just grape and citrus, and very light. It's okay but not me.

[sweetpessimism]

A beautiful blend of flowers and sweet fruits that my nose can't really differentiate between, but it likes! I was so enthusiastic about this scent, I ended up slathering it, but it turns out this is one of those scents that just needs a light touch, so I had to wash a bit off or it would be too overpowering for me. I'll have to try it out again, with a lighter application.