Lady MacBeth

[Saya]

The essence of ambition, covetousness and manipulation: sweet Bordeaux wine, blood red currant, thyme and wild berries.

In the Imp
Berry flavored cough syrup. This is a pretty sweet scent but there’s definitely something sinister about it.

On My Skin
Once this hits my skin it turns into a lovely sweet wine scent. None of the notes are really standing out at this point, it’s very well blended. For some reason I keep catching sniffs and thinking it smells fruity.

After a Bit
I keep changing my mind about this one. I’ll sniff it and think it’s wonderful and then in the next breath I’ll get the hint of cough syrup.

Rating 1-5 (5 being the best)
Scent - 2 Throw - 2.5 Longevity – 3
Overall (not an average) – 2.5

Final thoughts
I think I’ll have to re-test this blend. If I get the cough syrup scent next time then I’m going to have to find a better home for this imp.

[awesomeoverlord]

I really wanted to love this one, if only because of the Shakespeare association.

 

I really should have learned by now that I can't pull off bpal's berry notes, but I keep trying anyway.

 

In the imp, this is ok. I don't know that I like it -- there's something funky in there that's setting off olfactory alarm bells for me. I don't know that I'd call it cough syrup, but I can't really think of anything more fitting either. The wine is lost on me.

 

On drydown, the thing I might have identified as cough syrup turns into something that I can only describe as those chewable kids' vitamins. Yeah, the Flintstones kind.

 

Oh well.

[anastasia]

I have never really understood the character of Lady Macbeth. I did not expect her to smell robust in quite this way. Possibly even roly poly. And she is handing out children's multivitamins...

Now that is sinister!!!

[n1k1ta]

Drydown is candy sweet and a little tart. I find it mouth-watering in that 'just stepped into a candy store' way. Once dry, Lady Macbeth is juicy wine. It reminds me of sangria.

 

After an hour or so, I get something akin to Bor.dello, but not as dark. There's definitely wine, but the berries are the stronger note. The throw hasn't weakened at all.

 

The sangria vibe keeps going and after seven hours it's still strong. I don't think I'm going to buy a bottle of Lady Macbeth, but I will enjoy my imp!

[Bluestocking]

In the imp: Berry, berry strong! I'm getting almost all the fruit at the moment, juicy red berries and currants with a hint of tang/booziness from the wine and a whiff of the thyme.

On, wet: Sweet fruit and wine, but the thyme seems to have done a disappearing act. It's now very red and bold, very sweet, though not cloying. Honestly, it's almost wholesome. Incongruously, it makes me think of red gingham and hampers full of fresh raspberries, which would be... odd for Lady Macbeth.

Later: The thyme has reappeared and brought some green freshness, which reins in the almost candy sweetness of the red berries. There's more wine, too, which is making this less wholesome and a bit more ominous. The longer you wear this one—and it is both potent and super long-wearing—the more the darker, more sinister aspects are revealed.

Overall: It's very nice, though sweet. It's very round and fruity, and when the green thyme comes out, it calls to mind ripe red berries, wild and fresh-picked, or perhaps a bottle of raspberry wine. Definitely a summery scent to my nose, though, so I might put this one away until warmer days arrive. Massive throw, and this lasts forever.

 

 

[kjirstiben]

Initially, this is a strongly wine (grape) scent, with a certain… floral? herbal?... quality behind it. A bouquet of red fruits with red grapes… on the drydown, it turns into a candied version of itself on my skin.

 

An hour later, this is an amping berry-currant candy scent, a pinky-red scent like the biggest red lollipop ever. The herbal quality that must have been the thyme has completely disappeared, and all I can smell is the red candy scent.

 

After a while, the candy scent does start to tone down somewhat, and what was sweet is now starting to smell tart, a bright-red fruit and berry scent now… and then the sugary scent goes a little burnt and sour on me.

 

Sadly, this just wasn't going to work on my skin chemistry, which turns berries into The Candy That Ate The World! and turns sugar into burnt charcoally sugary ickiness. At least now I know for sure that this family of scents aren't really my thing.

 

Recaplet: Red, red, RED candy with a side of burnt sugar.

My rating: 1 of 5 (I'm not fond of it.)

Color impression: Red as red can be.

[fairnymph]

In the bottle: Goldenrod-coloured oil. GRAPE-berry candyish bubblegum, with a hint of tart-sweet, juicy red currant. Not getting any time or wine (beyond GRAPE).

 

Wet: A bit more currant, but pretty much the same. Intensely grapey, and then raspberry. A little powdery, like pixie sticks flavoured powdered sugar. There's a distant hint of herbal thyme.

 

Dry: The grape is finally backing off a bit, and the thyme has majorly emerged. There's still the super bubblegummy pink candy rasperry, though, and it combines poorly with the almost minty thyme. Clashing to hell.

 

Later: The powdery thing makes me think of sweet pea - which does a similar thing on my skin. Wine, where art thou?

 

Summary: Sweet, cloying, fake raspberry tinged by powder and grape candy, with fainter hints of mentholic thyme and tart red currant. Good throw, fades fast.

Edited March 27, 2009 by fairnymph

[AnArtfuldodger]

In the imp: very fruity-pebbles purple-y!

 

Wet on my wrist: WHOAH that's sweet and fruity-pebbles some more!

 

On the drydown: It evens out, and now when I sniff my wrist, I get a whiff of sharp berries, and then an after-scent of deep, bloody wine, a very rich merlot, something like that. Ooo, I like that.

[Babette]

I don't know why but this scent confuses me. It comes off as simple (candy berry and grape) but there's something dark and bitter lurking beneath. Slightly fizzy. Very interesting. I might not get a 5ml but definitely keeping the imp.

[odalisque]

BPAL berry scents always seem to dry down on me to one of three things: dryer sheets, fake scented candles or overpriced mall lotion.

 

I thought Lady Macbeth was going to escape this fate because wet on my skin, the berries were pretty good, like sweet creamy berry cake filling. But nope -- now she's dried down to "berry" scented mall body-wash-and-lotion set.

 

No wine. No thyme. No evilness. Sigh.

[Mayhem27]

As much as I wanted to instantly love Lady Macbeth, I really don't think she's for me.

In the imp, this smelled like super potent cherry cough syrup. I debated about even putting it on, but I like to give everything a chance. On my skin, this was even worse. The artificial cherry scent almost knocked me over. It smelled slightly boozy, but I honestly couldn't stop gagging over the sticky cherry-ness. Thankfully, once this dried the medicinal cherry went away and this turned into a dark, almost smokey, wine. MUCH better. Later on, I caught whiffs of blackberry every so often, which was wonderful since I love blackberry! I may have to give Lady Macbeth another try, if I can get past the initial phase of the scent!

[sylvanusurban]

In bottle: Perfumed berries.

 

On me, wet: Yup, berry perfume. It’s reasonably nice, but it’s not blowing me away.

 

On me, drying: Now I’m getting what I assume is the “wine” note. It doesn’t smell like alcohol (which is good) – it just deepens and makes more rich the berry smell. I don’t think the thyme is going to make an appearance.

 

Verdict: It’s not bad, but it’s also not for me, I think.

 

[springheeljane]

All I get from this scent is sweet tarts. I really had high hopes for it! After reading an earlier review, all I smell is kids vitamins, too. Which is kind of worse...

[satinworship]

For the first hour on my skin this was Dimetapp Children's Chewables. Nasty fake grape powder, I can see where people got "chalky vitamins".

 

I tried really hard with this scent to get the wine, berry, herby smells described. I could pick up a faint hint of the soured wine, and a tiny bit of the thyme with the berries, but as a whole this just smells like medicine to me, and not in a pleasant way.

I wanted to like this one so much

[topazphoenix]

Red jolly ranchers! This scent is candyish in a pleasant way. The Lady refuses to have any throw on my skin, though.

[Balame]

In the Imp: Aah, so much grape and juiciness. Just what I was looking for, and all the notes in this are huge wins for me.

 

Wet: Great stuff! There’s a small but noticeable herbal feel from the thyme swirling around in all the berries. This would certainly be a full-bodied, lip-licking good wine. And speaking of licking lips, it’s quite sexy. Almost a dripping sensuality (but not overly sweet), a noblewoman all the men go wild for, but understand that they’d better respect her strength.

 

Dry: This makes me so sad… I’m now getting the grape bubblegum/synthetic scent some of the other members have talked about. I originally tried this during

that time of the month

so maybe that was helping to amp up the greener notes, but now it just smells fake. I’d rather have something that’s consistent the majority of the time, and I don’t think I can deal with the candy feel whenever my skin isn’t working things out.

 

Verdict: Started out promising, the initial stage is wonderful, then it went goopy. If only I didn’t absorb the herbal scent this would’ve been more grounded and really nice.

 

Rating: 1/5

 

*edit - Ugh, I'm so sorry to change this on you gals but this one really had a complete turn around for me. I tried it again today and, well... read from "Dry" on. What a shame.

Edited August 14, 2009 by Balame

[biocarolyn]

This one smelled like those old scent flavored markers- grape marker and sweet wine. It's sad, but unfortunately it's too sweet for me. I love berries, but this one is extra berry! Too sweet...sad.

[reynardine]

In bottle: wine, I smell wine. Grape wine.

 

Wet: GRAPES, omg, it smells like Bubble-Yum Grape Flavor. Please tell me that this will change!

 

Drydown: I must amp booze, I swear. Wine. A fruity wine.

 

Later: It morphed. Still grapey, but less with the wine and more complex.

 

Not instant love, but I like it. Have to test it more, I think. In the summer--this is more of a summer scent and it seems off testing it when it's 20 degrees F outside!

 

 

[Beckiemort]

Wet: It's super sweet and seems all too innocent to be Lady Macbeth.

 

Dry Down: It's still very sweet but there is a hint of something hiding behind that sweetness, could it be madness or ambition? It is quite sweet in the end and I like it but don't think that I could wear it all that often being as sweet as it is.

[CitizenBree]

I got this imp as a freebie from the lab -- AFTER I had added it to my wishlist and purchased it from someone on the forum.

 

When I try a scent, I make my own mental notes first and then I read through a few of what other people write to see if i've gotten a scent completely wrong or have that "A HA! that's what it is!" moment.

 

Well I was pretty surprised to see the first page of this scent described as red. I don't often associate scents to colors but this one is PURPLE PURPLE PURPLE. There is no red here at all. Seems like people on the last page are getting more purple than red, so i'm not that crazy.

 

In the imp and going on wet it's very grape-y. I don't get the booze-y layers at all, not even on dry down. What comes out more on dry down are the berries. Frankly, I like fruity scents but i'm more of a peach person than grape so I don't think this is one that I'll get a bottle of, but i will probably keep and enjoy the imp.

 

I've never tried layering before but the other "back up" imp i pulled out today was Viola and that is a lighter purple scent to me (lilacs) so i wonder if they'd work together. on second thought...maybe i should wait until i'm a more experienced sniffer.

[musichappens]

Very sweet, red and boozy. As it starts to dry down the thyme seems to invade and conquer the blend; which actually isn't that bad because it helped to tone down the booziness. Unfortunately, the throw and longevity are both pretty much no existent for this on my skin. I'll have to try it in my scent locket and see if that helps it at all.

[Venneh]

In the imp, I'm getting the wine, the currants, and the berries, it's really nice. On my skin, it's really sweet, with the wine underlying, and the currants and berries coming forward, almost candyesque. We'll see how this goes. .The candy turns into Kool-Aid. Seriously, this smells like Kool-Aid powder on me. Not quite working out.

Edited April 15, 2010 by Venneh

[SueTigger]

This is an interesting scent. At first all I smelled was the richness of the grapes in the wine (not the wine itself). As the day is wearing on, though, the raspberries and wine are coming out. So far, so good! I'm not sure it's an every day scent for me, but I do like how it's developing.

 

[heywilma]

I honestly expected Lady MacBeth to be strong, sexy, wicked. Instead it's almost overwhelmingly sweet. Definitely not what I expected, but had its own charm, I guess. It goes a little boozy very quickly, though, and the throw is good (I have about five different oils on my arms and all I can smell is this). Will probably be keeping the imp, for those sunny days and a cute dress – not very Lady MacBeth-like at all.

[Gwydion]

In bottle: Rather unfortuneate. The wine makes the currents and berries smell a touch spoiled. Wet: Way to sweet like smarties, the floral magnifying the sweetness and the wine adding a sour note. Dry: The wine is stronger now and more distinct from the berries. It’s still not my thing as the wine works badly on my skin, but it might be pleasant on someone else.