Zorya

[kikithepirate]

Spices of the Orient mingle with crystalline musk, midnight flowers and cereus, jasmine, primrose and vesper iris.

To me, this is a good, fresh jasmine. Sometimes jasmine can get strong and overpowering in perfume blends, but this one is perfect. The musk is very quiet in the background, but it's still there. It does go a bit soapy on me, but it's a nice springtime floral.

[SophieCedar]

Upon application, I smell something similar to a desert oils set origins put out years ago. I bought it convinced I would eventually like it, but didn't...too strong. It has that same carpet cleaner pouf that origins uses as a base for a lot of stuff. I think it's tuberose and vetivert.

Wet: the carpet cleaner dies a bit and gives way to strong primrose, cereus and jasmine, with something similar to tuberose and aloe.

Drydown: ouf. going to wash it off. not the way I want to start my birthday morning.

 

ETA: 1/1/2013... apparently my chemistry has changed drastically. This smells amazing on me now! Sweet oriental spices and light musk with a touch of jasmine and nightblooming flowers.

Edited January 1, 2013 by SophieCedar

[Vega]

Sniffed: Jasmine jumps in front of gentle flowers and musk.

 

On skin: Zorya is well-blended, a scent of gentle spices and white flowers, surrounded by cozy musk. --Well, except for the jasmine, which overwhelms the other notes and obscures whatever nuance and complexity they could add. After drydown, I really couldn't smell any other note beyond jasmine (or what I perceive to be jasmine!). It is gentle, airy and feminine with an innocent, girlish touch.

The Zorya scents definitely are sister scents, all are gentle, airy, and pale like stars. Zorya definitely evokes the calm, contemplative serenity of the stars at midnight. Colour/imagery is the glint of pale pink light off crystals on a midnight-blue background.

 

Verdict: If only the jasmine didn't dominate Zorya! I would've liked to smell the rest of the blend. Alas, for swaps.

Edited October 15, 2010 by Vega

[yakiguri]

This is not the scent for you if you don't like jasmine, so if you're in that camp you can stop reading now and don't try Zorya ever.

 

However, if you're like me and you do like jasmine, Zorya is a pretty, delicate, soft yet spicy jasmine/cereus musk. While the initial phase is pretty strong, it tones down within 5 minutes and never hits that cloying stage I found in Rapture. Staying power is long, and Zorya gently wafts up rather than hit you in the face with its scent. I don't get the primrose or iris thankfully, as those can be hit-or-miss for me. Apparently my best flowers all grow at night.

 

Zorya evokes visions of lying in a lightly flowered meadow, all beneath a veil of softly glowing stars. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

[Suu4LC]

In the imp this is a sharp jasmine. Crystalline is a good way to describe it. But it is VERY jasminey...I like jasmine, but usually only in small doses or mixed with something else...this may be a bit too jasminey on its own.

 

Oof-on my skin this really is a sharp jasmine scent >_o. Heady and sharp and ZOMG JASMINE. Jasmine haters beware-this is a jasmine heavy scent. And very very floral. I don't really get any "spices of the orient" though I do get pleasant musk.

 

This does mellow out moderately quickly to a soft, sweet jasmine floral. Not quite so sharp heady. It's pleasant, but a bit uninteresting.

 

Overall, this just didn't work for me, but it you are a jasmine fan or enjoy sharp, crystalline florals, then this is worth checking out.

[Mamma Badger]

It started with a nice clean musky floral, after drydown though it turned in to death by primrose and jasmine. So many wonderful scents ruined by what my body does to those notes.

 

Why oh why does my chemistry hate so many of the florals I love out of the imp?

Edited February 25, 2011 by Mamma Badger

[arrow]

I usually LOVE the smell of jasmine. Unfortunately, after epic failures with other BPAL jasmine blends that I really wanted to love, I must simply conclude that BPAL jasmine does not love me back. At all.

 

In the bottle, I smell the crystalline, starry night time. It should be a lovely one.

 

But on my skin, Zorya swamps me with a sickly, almost ammonia-tinged jasmine that overpowers any of the other notes. I can sense them in the background-- it's like the notes are a bunch of little kids scrambling to show off the lovely things they could do with my skin, but jasmine is the big sister who won't let the little ones even try.

 

Dried down a bit, Zorya is a softer, but extremely powdery floral-- which unfortunately is not the kind of scent I like. Perhaps if there had been more musk, or Oriental spices... but life can be wasted on 'perhaps', so I will just try some more blends. But probably fewer with jasmine, in the future.

[grrrlennyl]

Zorya

 

On: These is gorgeous. Lots of lush jasmine and creamy, white flowers.

2.5 hours in: This smells like a single, lush, creamy flower.

8 hours in: A pretty floral. A bit creamy and powdery.

Overall: This isn't anything particularly fantastic on me.

[Invidiana]

This is the jasmine that actually likes me; not just likes me, but really likes me. No cat pee but a soft, feminine, crystalline scent that seems to carry the essence of magic with it. Even if you don't like white florals (though I do), the florals in this are gentle and not at all overbearing. I get a lot of the Lab's gorgeous white musk in the drydown, and thankfully no spice of any kind. That could be because the spices in this are white spices, but in any case I don't amp them. I discovered this a little late but am so glad I've been able to collect enough imps to fill a bottle.

[griffonner]

In the imp- I first smell the spices, then the floral notes. Eventually the jasmine seems to take over.

Wet- Spicy jasmine.

5 minutes- The jasmine has mellowed out, but now is a little soapy.

Dry- Very faint scent left of soapy, spicy jasmine.

[mymymai]

In the Imp (ITI): Strong jasmine and iris -it’s a clean but strong floral scent. There is just the faintest hint of musk.

 

Wet: Strong jasmine still dominates with other notes, but the iris is close on that note’s tale. Primrose shyly makes an appearance. It does have a certain night-quality to the feel of the scent, which is the combination of cool floral and perhaps the cereus (night-blooming cactus). It reminds me a blittle bit of walking past the night-blooming jasmine in Berkeley on may way home in the dark of winter. While it smells good, it also reminds me a bit of a certain Glade air freshener.

 

Dry: When dry, the jasmine is still rather strong. I can faintly smell iris and midnight flowers, but it’s a very dark floral scent, and not in the typical exotic way. It's okay, but not something I would reach for on a regular basis.

[jkfagtongpun]

I think this is probably an aged imp - old logo on the label.

 

Again, I keep ordering jasmine scents even though I'm scared of it - it sometimes goes really wrong.

 

However! This is an absolutely beautiful smell. Delicate and lovely. I definitely get the jasmine, primrose and musk and possibly the other florals but no spices. The jasmine is behaving again - or maybe it's that my body chemistry is changing as the birthdays tick away.

 

It is so light though that I have to really put my nose to where I've slathered it on and sniff really hard to get the scent. But I keep sniffing. I wish this was a bit stronger. I will probably use this imp up very, very slowly considering it's discontinued.

[IambicDearie]

I think night-blooming flowers really work for me! I didn't know what to expect from Zorya, but thus far it's treated me quite well. It doesn't have a whole lot of staying power, but when it's there it's a lovely, delicate breath of jasmine and spice.

[theredshoes]

I LOVE jasmine. //rubs hands //slathers

 

In the imp: Heady musky gorgeous overblown floral. Come to mama, baby, this is gonna be good.

 

Wet: Nooo there's some kind of acrid almost plasticky note coming up -- this isn't the jasmine, as it doesn't go to cat pee on me. THANK GOD, that's going away. Might be the iris or the night-blooming whatsit. It dies down and a hint of musk comes up and a lot of pretty pretty jasmine. Still slightly sharp, but it's an interestingly dark -- dusky -- floral.

 

Drydown: Gets both fainter and sweeter. Decent throw, fairly long-lasting. As a friend of mine noted, the throw is sweeter than the on-skin smell (I've noticed this with a number of BPAL sharp florals). A little bit of that sharpness stays, which makes me sad, and it goes slightly soapy, too. Flowery and femme, but sophisticated. The musk definitely comes up more.

 

Hours later: Much sweeter, and the musks and spice really come out. Very very pretty. Almost creamy.

 

Verdict: I could've sworn I tested another imp of this years back and it was more flowery, less plastic. Maybe it ages well? I might try it in a scent locket to see if I can get that gorgeous in-the-imp blast to stick around. I'm guessing either the iris or the primrose is the culprit here. If you're looking for an old-fashioned big sweet WHOOM! FLORAL scent, this is a good one. ("Perfumey, in a good way" is very accurate.) It'd be great in summer, or on a late-night date in a cafe, a midnight rendezvous on a verandah....sorry, got carried away there. It reminds me a lot of walking on summer nights in Santa Fe, when we'd pass a big lilac bush and there'd be this sudden wall of heavy sweet scent you could almost see, and kept smelling after you walked through it. Substitute jasmine for lilac and this feels very similar. I wish the on-skin smell wasn't as sharp/green, but the move from floral into sweetened musk is interesting.

 

 

Husbandly verdict: "You smell like flowery hotel soap in a plastic bottle." SIGH. (He likes O. No, he loves O. If every BPAL were like O, with very slight variations, he'd love it.)

[Casablanca]

On the wand, a subdued, slightly floral crystalline musk. It does smell crystalline…

 

On my skin, ah, where’d it go? (Slathers more.) Still barely there. But I get a super-soft cereus-jasmine mix in a translucent musk. I can imagine getting something plasticky out of the “crystalline” part of the musk, but thankfully it’s not going there with me. This discontinued frimp probably has some age, because this might just be the softest jasmine ever. I like the cereus, especially. This reminds me a little of Long Night Moon.

 

The blend comes out a little more after warming up, but stays soft. Eventually, I get enticing hints of spice. Pretty and light.

[Lucchesa]

I don't do jasmine or straight florals but I ended up with a Zorya in a bunch of DC'd imps I'd bought, so I thought I should try it.  At home in the evening in case anything went awry, which was a good call.  Not because Zorya is bad, but because it's STRONG.  Looking up a couple of reviews, I see "old-fashioned big sweet WHOOM! FLORAL scent" and that's exactly my experience.  This smells like something my aunt Ginia, who was always wearing too much perfume, might have worn.  If I'd worn it out, I might have scrubbed it off because it is so not me it would have made me self-conscious.  

 

But if flowers are your jam, it's absolutely gorgeous.  I don't get any spice from this.  The jasmine is soft and heady.  I can't make out any of the other individual flowers, but they float over a base of pale musk, put out phenomenal throw and last forever (neither of which is common with my skin).  I think this has aged phenomenally well.  

[Brigdh]

In bottle: Strong floral with some background musk; mostly jasmine.

Wet: Jasmine and iris and other bright spring florals. Pure floral as far as I can tell. A very light, spring scent. Very pretty.

Dry: A light, elusive floral (too well-mixed to pick out exactly which flowers, though I think primrose might be the dominant one) grounded by soft musk. I don’t get any spices at all. It’s a creamy, spring floral. Great last too for how light it is - 4+ hours and still going strong.