Paris

[stellans]

Paris came to my hand this morning from my imp box, so I had a lovely lavender scent for my Monday morning blues.

 

In the imp: lavender, but not the normal tangy, zappy lavender I like -- this was a really soft, sweet lavender, tempered into mellowness by the lotus, I guess. I didn't smell any spices at this point.

 

Wet on skin: Still that mellow lavender with the sweet lotus notes. Lotus are both notes which for me, so I had really looked forward to trying this scent. Still no spices though.

 

Dry: hmmm... just a bit of warmth on my skin indicates a bit of cinnamon (as others mentioned) but there wasn't enough to really even tingle, much less burn, thank goodness. I love the way this scent kept its integrity all the way from imp through drydown on me, and when I read the reviews which mentioned cinnamon, it explained the warmth.

 

Verdict: I slathered to prove to myself that the cinnamon wouldn't hurt, because I love this oil and didn't want to give it up. It didn't burn! Woo-hoo, Paris is a keeper! Now, of course, I need a bottle.

Edited March 20, 2009 by stellans

[little_galaxie]

The same thing happened here as with Viola and Queen mab; florals and spices together just don't like me. They both amp up really strongly on my skin and muck everything up, until it's like a muddy pile of icky spices and sour florals. Sadly, I am obseesed with everything French and this sounded like a perfect match...at least I still have Le Petit Mort.

[xoe]

For me Paris was at first all lavendar. a bit spicy, but mainly lavendar and strong. But the lavendar quickly faded, then I had a soft sweet spicy blend.

 

It's quite nice. It isn't me at all. But it is very nice.

[Nia]

I had no idea what lotus smelled like, but now I guess it has to be close to apples, because this smells to me exactly like caramel, candied apples and lavender. I can attribute the candied aspect to the spices, but the intensely sweet appleyness is a mystery.

 

I would have never thought that a lavender scent could be anything but soft, soothing and relatively simple. This does smell sophisticated and decadent. Like lavender tea with tarte Tatin.

[alliekat13]

This is predominantly a lavender blend on me, I dont get much of the lotus or spice. It's nice, I think it will be a great scent for bedtime.

[Phaedra]

Wet this is sharp lavender mixed with very sweet pear or bubblegum. When first on it's kind of plasticy (bleck!) and sweet. This is not a good combo. After several minutes the plastic note fades and now it's all bubblegum/lotus. Unfortunately this is a read dud on me. I guess now I know that lotus isn't for me. Too bad this doesn't smell like Parisian desserts

[Browneyes]

Imp: Sweet strong lavender and lotus (I hope the latter doesn't go all bubblegum on me)

Wet: Interesting! The spice sort of puffs/billows out from this scent on top of the lavender and lotus. It seems to be cinnamon, and it reminds me of the sweet cinnamon in Harlot, which I love. The lotus seems to be behaving, although it is quite sweet.

Dry: The bubblegum aspect of the lotus does come out a bit unfortunately - le sigh. But it's not too bad. And my general impression of this scent is quite good. It's soft, feminine, sweet and powdery (in the good way, to me). The interpretation of this scent makes me think of old Parisian lace and well mannered ladies definately not contemporary Paris.

 

eta: still don't know if I'll be keeping it. I think it would be a good bedtime scent.

Edited May 13, 2007 by Browneyes

[Mimicake]

A crisp bright lavender with a hint of spice. I love this one. It is a creamy green scent as it dries on my skin, the lotus just beginning to bloom a bit as the lavender begins to fade. It is almost too much to take while fresh on the skin, but after about thirty minutes it is divine. This one will go on my want a bottle of list!

[Naamah_Darling]

This is a rich and rather soapy lavender tinged with some sweet, candylike floral and laced with red spice.

 

The lotus really comes out on my skin, a bloom of sweet, sweet floral. The spice is fleeting and hard to pin down – I can't tell if that's cloves or cinnamon or allspice or nutmeg. It's quite faint.

 

This is low-key, distinguished, and just a little mysterious. Feminine and deep, soft and low, it's like a caressing hand or a chance meeting. The scent of serendipity. The woman you see once and never forget. The smell of mutual attraction and no shared language.

 

After a while, the lavender gets pretty skunky on me, but until then it's very nice even though it isn't my thing. I have to admire it, it's a very well-crafted scent.

 

Paris is very pretty. It's unfortunately not for me.

[moon_lemming]

I am feeling nostalgic for Paris these days. Honestly, though, I expected something more atmospheric. When I visited Paris, it was raining ALL THE TIME, and we did a lot of walking, so I remember the smell of warm roads and rain and grass and the Seine. That would be a great perfume.

 

This, on the other hand ... not so much. At least, not to me. It's got the medicinal bite of lavender and as it warms up it's got a huge gob of the sugary bubble gum smell lotus sometimes brings to the table. It's just sweet in a really gross way, underscored by a nasty sharpness. This really doesn't work on me. Maybe if I didn't amp lotus it would be better, I dunno.

 

Hey, now, as it settles in even more, the lavender leaves the scene and the lotus just becomes this watery slightly sweet scent that is, as other reviewers have noted, very innocent. It's not worth waiting through the ten-minute stage of badness for me, when there are so many other scents I love start to finish, but it's okay.

[erraticprophet]

Paris was a frimp with my last order. (Retried it recently, found the lotus overwhelmingly sweet and modified my review)

 

Initial Impression: Sweet and slightly spicy.

 

On Wet: sweet, floral without being too floral, delicate, a hint of spice. I'm really amping lavender.

 

On Dry: very sweet (lotus?). There's only the vaguest hint of spice.

 

Final Impression: very Parisian and sophisticated, but that hint of bubblegum sweetness ruins it for me.

 

Rating (on a scale of 1 to 5): 2

Edited November 20, 2007 by erraticprophet

[bookofblues]

This starts out both sharply spicy lavender and sweet bubblegum lotus at the same time! Jarring, but in a good way.

As it dries down, I get more lotus with the lavender just spicing it up lightly in the background.

Lovely work. Another excellent variation on the lotus from BPAL! Might be one to substitute when I run out of my lovely Lotus Moon .

[purplemoonshoes]

This is a very sweet lavender, tempered well by the lotus. I don't get much spice, but something tickles my nose and keeps the scent grounded. Tarter in the imp than on the skin.

[CrazyPretzel]

There's something about Paris that puts me in mind of foreign sweets. Bear with me. You know how sometimes you go into, I dunno, Chinatown, or an Indian restaurant, or a Turkish pastry shop or something, and there are sweets that look really pretty and you think, 'hey, candy! I like candy; I'll have some of that,' and then the first few bites taste really bizarre and you wonder why you bothered? And then after a while they start to grow on you and you eat the whole pack. This is pretty much what Paris did on me. First sniff: lavendar and something really weird! Kind of sweet and cloying--I'm not sure if I like it or not... Then getting used to it, and the weird note starts to fade a bit, and it becomes much more pleasant -- all lavendar and spice.

 

Well, if that made any sense, good...

[Extispex]

For some unknown reason, this one starts off as eucalyptus on me. I mean really intense, sinus-clearing eucalyptus. It quickly mellows to a nice, spicy lavender.then it dries down to a powdery bubblegummy lotus.

[500ml]

Well, this was just plain horrible on me. At first I could appreciate the strong lavender note, but as the blend turned a bit bitter and medical and then just plain sweet and horribly cloying I just couldn't help hating this. Such a shame, I love Paris!

[taramarie]

All I get from Paris is lotus, and once again my skin chemistry has morphed that to bubblegum. So instead of "sophisticated city," I get "ditzy heiress." Off it goes.

[Christine Daae]

In the imp, this is all lavender. No lotus, no spice, just lavender.

 

Wet on my skin, it continues to be a sharp, herbal lavender. I'm getting a bit of the sinus-clearing that someone else mentioned as well.

 

As it dries, the lavender calms down soothingly and the spices come into play. I still don't get any lotus, which is too bad, as I like it (...I think?). Eventually, a hint of the lotus shows up as a sweetness in the background. This is lovely, calming and sophisticated.

[tuesdaynexxt]

In the bottle, this is the most gorgeous lavender scent ever!! Unfortunately, after a few minutes the lavender becomes very muted and a gently spicy sweetness takes over. If only the lavender stayed more prominent!!

 

I love it, but maybe it'll stay better in a locket....

[ClareN]

I'm basically echoing the review above me here. It's a gorgeous, sophisticated lavender scent for a few minutes, but I don't like what it becomes after that scent fades. I recognize the scent of lotus from having eaten a gross sugary lotus-filled steamed bun from an Asian fast food place. It doesn't remind me of bubble gum, as many others say, but it is nothing I want to smell like. Sort of an indistinct powdery fruity scent. I do wonder whether it would work in a scent locket, though.

[hkhm]

imp: lightly spiced lavender.

 

wet: all lavender. i'm not catching a hint of any ohter notes.

 

dry: still all lavender. i wish the spiciness was present becasue this smelled lovely in the imp. but on me it's just straight lavender.

[Mirabila]

I'm a Francophile and oh-so-muchly wanted to love this, but unfortunately it was a definite NO for me. In the bottle and on my skin it was too sickly sweet/bubblegummy for me, with hardly any lavender coming out. I wanted to wash it off, but left it on to see if it softened or any of the spice aromas came out, but unfortunately all I got was a headache.

 

Le sigh.

[anairdna]

recieved this as a frimp when i bought some imps off-forum, and never would have thought of it.

 

when i first sniff, lavender. in-your-face huge lavender.

 

the first time i wore it, it turned soapy.

 

i gave it another go, and i actually kinda like it. it feels...very grown up to me. very dignified. the lavender fades away to make room for the lotus quickly, and it just remains light and sweet.

[Kimbernunk]

Got this as a frimp in my recent Yule order. It's really lovely in the imp - nice and lavender with a hint of lotus and something else. It's calming and charmant.

 

Unfortunately, my skin eats lavender. And whatever that something else is (cinnamon, perhaps, or nutmeg). And then my skin, to be spiteful, decided this time to turn the lotus into cheap bubblegum, which makes me sad. I could see this being beautiful on someone else. I may try it in a scent locket, actually, or on my hair, before I give up on it, because it does smell lovely in the imp!

[mhickle]

I do not get ANY lavender out of this. Weird! In the imp and on my skin, it's just this weird sweet smell that smells almost exactly like the home of a friend of my husband's parents. It's weird and fruity and just not working out for me.

 

I guess the closest scent I can point to is the bubblegum that others have talked about, which seems to be the lotus. This is odd, because I used to have a lotus flower perfume that was just great...

 

I wish I could place what's up with this scent on me!