Maiden

[pale]

A gentle vision of purity, goodness and virtue: white tea, carnation and Damask Rose.

In the bottle: Roses, dry tea, carnation, and a little bit of citrus.

On my skin: Roses on an empire building war of conquest. Roses who think they are Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, and Sunni Ali, all at the same time. I like roses, but not quite this forceful! Definitely a swap. Edited February 7, 2006 by Shollin

[niter]

Imp

This is very green and fresh. It shares the same coolness with a flower shop...cool, damp, fresh.

 

Wet

Wet, fresh rose. This is well blended with the tea, toning it down. I do not detect the carnation yet I hope this keeps the rose note at bay. I love rose but not an overwhelmingly rose.

 

Dry

This is all rose. It is very strong, but such a pretty rose. It has a cleaness to it and almost a spice to it. This is very reminscent of the vintage rose scents of Crabtree and Evelyn. Gorgeous.

[Heretic]

In the vial: Crisp, clean floral.

 

On my wrist: wet: Bright floral, slightly soapy, but not in a bad way. Vague scent of something grapefruity in there, too.

 

After 20 minutes: Nice top note of slightly spicy carnation. This is very light and innocent, but not over-the-top. The carnation keeps thing from being too delicate.

 

After an hour: The carnation has faded away, leaving a soft, powdery scent. Perhaps this is the tea. Not much of a throw, but it will be a nice summer fragrance. I'll hang onto this imp.

[dcmo]

After Carnivale I've been on a mission to try all of the Carnation scents offered. When I apply this wet I don't actually smell anything at all, but as it dries down the rose, a tiny smidgeon of carnation and the white tea make themselves apparant. It is very soft and delicate though. I only get the tiny bit of carnation after about two hours. I was hoping for something a little more spicy. While this is very pretty and nice for daytime at work, it's a little softer than I usually would like. Will use the imp for sure though!

[terrierhead]

On me, Maiden's almost pure carnation with the roses and the tea playing back up. The overall impression is of a bunch of fresh carnations with a green note, oddly enough. It's gorgeous, and I will be buying more of it.

[hangingfire]

In the imp: Tea and carnation, which reads almost as a citrusy note. Very fresh.

 

On, wet: More emphatically floral now, as the rose makes its presence known.

 

Drydown: Rose and carnation, with a slight herbaceousness from the tea.

 

Very pretty and light. Not sure if it's my style, but it's a nice blend.

[Meg]

In the bottle: a very pure scent, light rose, some tea, and carnation.

 

Wet: mostly carnation, and quite a bit of tea. Where's the rose?

 

Drydown: it dries down to mostly carnation and tea. The rose is there, but very light, smells like a white rosebud that's hardly come out yet, very fresh. The carnation has a rather nice spicy/vanilla scent.

 

Overall: A very gentle, quiet perfume, but unfortunately it's not particularly interesting. It smells nice, but it's so discrete that I need to stick my nose on my wrist to smell it. Besides, there's no balance between rose and carnation, the rose is extremely faint and the carnation quite strong. And it has no staying power... oh well.

[Silverstrike]

On me, this starts off as white tea and rose, which is not bad, but I think I like my white tea without rose, now that I've tried this. After about an hour, the scent changes and it's much more astringent, green and powdery--I think it's the carnation coming out because the white tea and rose have all but disappeared. Well, the white tea is completely gone, but maybe there's a hint of the rose with that astringent-ish note.

 

I'm going to pass this on.

[gingersnapp]

This reminds me of the flower garden my mother had in the first house we lived in. There were gigantic heady roses and big lush carnations, and all you had to do was open a window or just step one inch outside the back door in the summer and you would smell them. It reminds me of summer in that house. Hot and heady and floral.

[storme]

In the imp: carnations! it's such a green note I sometimes think it's a herbal scent, but here it's got enough floralness to be truly carnation.

 

On me, wet: carnation, tea, and a really crisp, biting acidic citrusy scent behind it. Really lovely and bright.

 

On me, dry: Hey, the rose came out and took over. It's made it a bit powdery - this is now really similar to Moon Rose on me, but with a slightly hint of greenness where moon rose had white florals.

 

Edit, some time later: And oho, there's that clove note that people were talking about. Interesting.

 

Verdict: I don't think I need a big bottle of this, but it's certainly a very weird scent. This was maidenly and light and bright at first, then the rose had a thorough romp with her and finally she settled down with the clove and became a somewhat naive but definitely unmaidenly scent. Think I'll keep this imp around.

[bifemmefatale]

I'm skeptical about this because I hate roses. Wet, it's very light and lemony-tea. On the dry-down the rose comes out, but it's a white citrusy rose. Not bad at all, fresh and light, but still not me. I get a slight whiff of something like mosquito spray off this too, and not a bit of clovey carnation. Oh wait, the carnation comes out later, about 20 minutes into it, sweetening up the citrusy scent.

[PixieSkull]

Imp: I immediately thought Kumiho! due to the white tea. Very nice scent from the imp.

Wet: The white tea is in the front, and I LOVE that. It's beautiful. The damp spiciness of the carnation mixes very well with the tea. No rose yet.

Dry: Again, this smells a lot like Kumiho. The white tea and the spicy, dampness of the carnation is similar to the ginger of Kumiho. This is soft and lovely and very wearable. Finally the damask rose comes out to play, rounding out the blend beautifully.

 

Category: White tea/Light floral

Rating: 5/5; This is so lovely and light and perfect for spring

Overall: I love white tea blends. I love Kumiho but it didn't last long enough for me. This blend lasts longer and has the same lovely white tea scent. The carnation and damask rose are very damp and full and darken the tea a little bit. This is one that I will keep, it's beautiful!

[Lady Ravenglass]

Oh my... When I first received Maiden, it was sweet, white roses, and I liked it, but then it started to be cloying, and I was going off roses entirely, so put it away. In fact, it's currently in my 'consider swapping' box.

 

No more. I just tried it on, roughly 9 months after I got it, and this is Embalming Fluid/Shanghai with rose.

 

 

Slight citrus, that lovely light note which I guess is tea, and light, pale rose petals drifting on a Spring breeze. This is going straight back in the loved-up bottle box. Just perfect. I wear EF and the other light tea/citrus scents to cycle to work, and this will add a ladylike hint to their wholesome- fresh-air style of affairs.

 

Edited April 25, 2006 by Lady Ravenglass

[moon_lemming]

Hrm, I'm beginning to suspect that white tea and I should not be allowed within ten feet of each other. Any oil that contains white tea is utterly vile wet. But the drydown is usually worth it, so I'll withhold my judgment for now.

 

This one stays bug-spray-sour even after it's dry, though, so I guess I can begin to form a little teensy grudge.

 

Oh, wait, I didn't wait long enough -- the sour smell is gone, leaving a soft floral with a bit of sweetness in its place. Very nice.

[opaleyes]

Mmmmm *sigh*

 

This is so incredibly feminine. My first whiff of the imp made me think of honeysuckle, but on further sniffing, that's the tea. I don't get much of the rose or carnation just yet.

 

This is just... wow. If I ever want to feel delicate and pretty, this is it. It's a little light on me though. This may be one for my scent locket.

[urraca]

The same sharp tea note as in Spirits of the Dead, only maybe a little sharper. It dries down to a soft rose. I don't get much carnation here, but that note is sometimes elusive on me, except in Masque and Gypsy Queen. I like it just fine and will probably finish my imp. It seems like a good summer scent because of its sharpness.

[Elrianra]

In the bottle this is florals, sweet sticky pink carnations. On me, it becomes pink rosebuds and pale yellow carnations with a breath of white tea to soften it just slightly... drying, it's gone to powder and it just turns into a perfumed powder as it warms. There is no die-down on this one because it literally powders up and practically brushes off my skin as though nothing at all had happened. This is the first scent I've had that has ever done this and I never believed in "powdery scents" before this.

[Martini]

This scent takes me straight back to my Grandmother's porch and her wonderful smelling tea roses. Man those smelled so good.

 

I do not usually wear florals. For the most part, I prefer to smell actual flowers rather than try to smell like a flower.

 

But, I want to try everything I can to better understand the BPAL notes and my likes/dislikes of them.

 

I would not wear this I don't think, but I may use it as a room scent from time to time or for a relaxing bath or just a warm, fuzzy trip down memory lane.

 

Here's to good memories.

 

Rating: 4/5

[brownbear]

This is definitely floral, but the rose doesn't stand out at all. It is very very light. At first the tea notes are kind of tangy, but they mellow out a lot when it dries. It fades very quickly on my skin. It's pretty and light, but not quite for me.

[tinyvulture]

like its name suggests, this is sweet, innocent, youthful, and feminine. the white tea, carnation, and fresh dewy rose are all very “pure” notes -- by that i mean i can easily pick them out individually. it starts out kind of gentle and faint, but grows stronger as it dries. i’ve been scrubbing tiles all morning in grungy clothes, and after a shower this will be the perfect scent to make me feel refreshed, clean and pretty.

[kourika]

Overall, Maiden is a lovely, soft scent on my skin. However, the carnation totally dominates when wet, which makes me sneeze just a tad. Then there's the faintest hint of soap from the rose before the final sweet, gentle dry down. I do like the blend, but it's hard for me to wait for the components to finally settle down and for the carnation to stop amping up uncontrollably.

[Caltha]

Maiden

Maiden starts out as a strong, fresh, green tea note with a hint of rose. As it dries the fresh green note gets more bitter, more like fresh cut grass. Perhaps it's the carnation too, I find their scent slightly bitter. In the end it gets sweeter and more powdery. I like the tea note but the rest is not my cup of tea and I have so many tea scents already.

[bellis]

Omg. I put this on my wishlist when I decided that I needed to try everything with tea notes. I was not expecting it to be this delicious. It's a very tart floral, I almost think there's a bit of lime but it might just be the combination of the tea and slight spiciness of the carnation. It's fresh and the rose reminds me of dried rose buds rather than fresh. I really really like this. I've only had this on for about an hour, but if this continues to be as bright and lovely as it is right now, I'm going to have a hard time convincing myself I don't need ANOTHER rose scent immediately.

[yellowrose]

This imp is circulating as part of the General Catalogue Swap.

 

Rose and carnation!? How did this escape my notice? Probably thanks to my satisfaction with Carnivale (carnation) and a host of other rose scents.

 

In the bottle and wet: rose and carnation. Lovely and sweet.

 

Drying: Dries to almost all rose, but still a nice rose. Not a hint of tea.

 

Although I have plenty of carnation and rose scents, I might have to get more of this!

 

 

 

How this posted without user intervention I shall never know.

Edited June 14, 2006 by yellowrose

[gloom bear]

A nice spicy floral that is lightly sweet. It's to floral fragrances what cinnamon is for gum. Great change of pace for me since I'm normally a floral or soft clean scent person. I don't think I'd buy a bottle of this, but I would probably keep an imp around.

Edited June 30, 2006 by gloom & doom bear