Naiad

[Shollin]

A soft, beguiling, seductive scent: lotus, lavender and neroli.

First sniff: More traditional, but with a bit of sharpness.

Wearing: Soothing and lavender - not the herb, the colour. A teeny bit of a citrusy smell - it's a little bit cleaning-product-ish at this stage. Faded into a floral baby-powder scent, which was very nice, and I can still smell it in the morning after applying it at bedtime.

Second wearing: There's something bright green in this that I didn't notice before. Definitely sharp-edged. The sharpness fades after a few hours to the floral baby powder, at which point it smells almost like Unseelie at the same stage, and Unseelie is more pleasant for the rest of its wearing.

[upsidedown]

I expected to really love this one, but I hadn't thought to factor in the neroli - whoops. Naiad smelled like lemony cleaning products on me for the first hour of wearing. True, after that it did fade into a lovely lotus deepened with a hint of lavendar, but Old Paris smells that way almost the entire time. I will try this again, but unless my body chemistry was just being entirely up a wall today, I doubt it's something I'll be buying a bottle of.

[iris]

I could smell the lavender quite strongly throughout wearing this one.Although I found that it faded quite fast on my skin.

[Northernminx]

Hm...I expected something lightly floral, maybe a bit aquatic on this one.

 

However:

wow... no lemon and it smelled like a lemon drop (those little candies) on me. Highly strange, and VERY strong initially. It soaped out after about twenty minutes and I can barely smell anything now. I had high hopes for this one, but my skin sayeth no. I think you have to have a chemistry that works with this one for it to smooth out properly. Sad minx

[saintpaulia]

I picked this one since I love lavender and citrus combos.

In the bottle: First smell was filed with the lotus and lavender, essentially a very strong floral.

 

Wet: The lavender is starting to back down a bit. I can detect a hint of the neroli in the background.

 

Dry: I was thinking after what I experienced with it as being wet that my skin would pick up the lotus more, but the lotus seems to have moved to a background note, and it's picked up a wonderfully juicy neroli scent, combined with a soft and unassuming lavender. It's sweetened up, but the lotus prevents it from being anything less than sophisticated. It's also reminiscent of Lush's therapy massage bar. It's soothing and mellow.

 

While I'm not a huge fan of the initial wet phase, I love the drydown. If it lasts, then I'll be getting a bottle of this one.

 

 

ETA: after an hour, the lotus, lavender and neroli are all mingling in mellow happiness. It's calming yet uplifting at the same time. The lavender has moved back into the foreground, neroli in the middle, and lotus in the back.

Edited July 15, 2004 by saintpaulia

[TheDarkMother]

Mmmm....lavender....gotta try it.

 

In the Bottle: Quite a lemon soap smell to it. The lavender is hardly even there. Funny, I don't remember seeing anything on lemons or lemon verbena in this one. That's rather odd.

 

On Me: Ah HA! Neroli turns to lemon candy on me too! Bugger! However, this is lemon candy with a hint of a musty lavender smell if I put my nose to my wrist. I'm not tempted to do that very often, however, because this one is Uber Strong. My hubby would love it. I, on the other hand, am not so certain. I have quite a few that turn to lemon on me, and this one is really strong. I'll keep it for the hubby, and pray for a good dry-down, but if this continues to get much stronger, I will have to go scrub it off.

 

On second thought, its really making me sick to my stomach, so I am going to put this one in the swap pile.

[Lux667]

A lavendar and lemon punch in the nose. Seriously. It made my nose sting but I tried it anyway because I was so intrigued by the description.

 

Mid-dry down the aquatic notes and the green notes are really coming up but its starting to take on a cloying scent... I'm not sure what exactly to call it but it could go eithe way...

 

Dry down it smells like Chloe Narcisse, which I think smells terrible and gives me headaches.

 

Swap pile for this one.

[Ishtar]

Naiad really did not work on me. I am not too good with aquatic notes to begin with, and unfortunately lotus does not like me. It smelled quite nice and lemony in the vial, so I hoped I would be able to wear it. Sadly, it quickly turned cloying and vaguely sickening on my skin.

I ended up swapping this one.

[briteyes]

I got this scent off of a friend--we combined an order of imps, and this is one of the freebies that came with it. I must've liked it at the time, but when I opened it yesterday, all I could smell was Lemon Pledge.

 

On me: A little less chemical-smelling, but the lemon was still predominant. In fact, it smelled like lemons and corn chips. Not at all appealing, and in fact, it started to make me feel a bit ill.

 

As it dried, I could make out a faint whiff of something floral. It wasn't quite lavender, so I'll assume it was the lotus. Still, it was mostly lemon, and went back to the cleaning-supplies scent as the day wore on. I feel bad that my first review is for something that smells so awful on me!

 

I should note, however, that I stuck my wrist under a male friend's nose, and he liked it (it's easy for him, he always smells delicious...).

[zapevaj]

I love lotus mightily, and can smell a teensy bit of it here, but mostly Naiad is just lavender, lavender, and more strong lavender! It would make a nice room scent, and would probably freshen up the air in a room quite well. But man, I cannot imagine liking how it smells on anyone.

 

-Rae

[antimony]

Lotus and Neroli are both scents that rarely play well with my skin chemistry.

 

It started out really pretty, all light and citrusy, with the lavender pulling it all together, but not long after, the Neroli totally overpowered the Lavender (which is pretty hard to do, at least on my skin), and then it just started to smell out of balance and unharmonious.

[omly]

I love naiads, so I really wanted to try Naiad even though it has been discontinued.

 

Lotus often dominates a fragrance on my skin, and this is no exception. During dry down there was more lavendar and I found that I liked the scent better on the whole. Once dry though it heavy on the lotus with just a touch of lavendar. I got some of the citrus smell too, although I don't know where it is coming from. Once it was dry this citrus scent was practically gone though.

[Pixie-elf]

Naiad

 

In the Vial: I smell citrus, and something sweet (Neroli and I'm guessing the Lotus)

 

Wet: At first it just smells orange on me... Then the orange takes on a sweetness, it's not a big change but still enough of one to notice.

 

Dry: It's a sweet orange scent... I don't know how to describe it other than that. My chemestry isn't letting the Lotus come out at all, sadly...

 

Conclusion: While this is a beautiful scent, I was hoping the Lotus would come out a lot more than it did, sadly, but, being that this is discontinued, I'm glad I got ot try it!

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Sharp, as I usually find neroli to be. The creamy lotus seems as if it is trying to soothe the neroli and the lavender, but despite the gentleness beneath the initial sniff, the neroli lingers even as I pull the bottle away.

 

On me: Eh. Neroli hates me, and lotus doesn't always seem to care much for me either. There's a pretty, almost-candy-like orange and lotus scent, but something in the way the other components blend give this a cat-piss thread that winds throughout the scent, ruining it.

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): Quite sultry and smooth, a lot like an expensive cologne.

 

Just On: Yeah, sultry, smooth, exotic. A bit sweet.

 

An hour or two later: Hmm, still fairly exotic and sultry, not sweet now, and not as smooth.

 

Around 6 hours: Some of the sultryness left, but fading quickly.

 

12 hours: Almost all the way gone, the last bits of smoothness left.

 

Overall: It's a fairly nice scent, but nothing I go nuts over.

 

After reading other reviews: Hmmm lavender that doesn't take over the scent and bash everything else off my skin. Nice.

[Little Bird]

Neroli often smells like slightly spicy orange candies on my skin, and that's what I smell when I first apply Naiad. Then the lavender starts to build up in the background and smells rather sharp and herbal. The orange and lavender mix is kind of odd and unpleasant to me, so I hate this stage.

 

I was hoping for this to be a sweet bubblegum-lotus and sweet lavender combo, but I never smell the lotus at all and the lavender smells really medicinal on me. Oh well. Lavender so rarely works on me. I'm not surprised.

[PurringPulsar]

Naiad

In the imp: lavender and orange blossom.

Wet on skin: whoa, that's some sharp neroli! It's biting and quite astringent, very citrus-tangy…this is one of those orange blossom notes that amps up on my skin.

Dry on skin: the neroli tones down a bit but is the dominant note here. Not a bad thing, though I wish it weren't so loud…and I still get the lavender. This is a very tangy, zingy scent as opposed to a soothing lavender scent. It is slightly similar to something I've smelt before-maybe Lush's Therapy? I'm hoping the lotus comes out soon and softens up the scent.

After a while: the lavender fades and now I get a pleasant orange blossom and lotus scent. it's tangy fizzy neroli underscored with the smooth, sweet, light floral scent of lotus. It actually makes me think of sherbet powder, and smells almost lemon like at this point!

Hmm, this is interesting. After a few hours, I get pure sherbet lemons. That's the neroli and lotus reacting, but it's really nice. It's lovely and bright, quite effervescent in scent, sweet and light.

Verdict: this is an interesting scent. At first, it's a huge blast of neroli, here it amps up like nobody's business, but there's a bit of lavender calming it down. Then when the lavender fades and the neroli calms a bit, I get the delightful scent of sherbet lemons on my skin-a tangy citrus candy scent, thanks to the lotus. It's a very nice, pleasant scent, youthful and zingy, bright and with a good balance of sharp and sweet. And it smells like sherbet, which can only be a good thing. I like it and I'll keep the imp I have of it.

[zillah37]

Whew. This is strong. In the vial it's kind of a sharp, minty scent. But on my skin it smells exactly like Lemonheads taste. And it kind of makes me a little dizzy when I sniff to deeply.

 

Yeah, this isn't a scent for me, but it's oddly enough the best lemon bpal scent I've smelled on my skin. I wish it didn't make me dizzy.

[coulrophobe]

In the imp: Without even checking the description, I could tell there was neroli in there - to my nose, neroli is a sharp, earthy floral.

 

On: Like a lot of folks, I get lemon. Actually more of a lemon-candy scent, very similar to what I get from glitter - the common note is lotus (which isn't lemony on me in other blends), so I'm betting there might be unlisted ingredients coming in to play.

 

The lavender doesn't really come in to play, and for me, that's a positive thing (especially in combination with lotus - Paris was not very kind to me).

 

During drydown, it gets a bit powdery/dusty and less noticeably lemon - I find this one quite pleasant and pretty.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: lots of sharp lavender and neroli. i'm not getting any lotus.

 

on: sharp, almost bitter neroli with a bit of lavender. very different and pretty nice for a warmer day. refreshing.

 

1 hour later: oh, wow. this is bad. really bad. like rotting wood. i hate my skin chemistry sometimes.

 

2.5 hours later: salty, odd wood.

 

overall: i wish that this stayed the same after drying down as it was when i first applied it, but...what can you do?

[VenusFlyTrap]

Naiad is quite the interesting scent.

 

The lotus, lavender and neroli are definitely a creative combination. It's one of those components that make you wonder how it will *really* be on your skin and how it will smell. Which one would be most prominent? Or will each one cancel or enhance the other?

 

On my skin, the neroli seemed to take the top note. Hence, I get more citrus from this scent upon initial wearing. It reminds me of a fragrance from one of the French perfume houses from a while ago. A lady of the manor type scent.

 

The lavender brings a potpourri quality to this fragrance.

 

But wait, isn't a naiad a water sprite?

 

Final impression:

An elegant, feminine scent that is quite wearable and regal. Definitely different!

 

I like it.

[edenssixthday]

Naiad> - Wow, when I first applied this blend, the lavender reached up and smacked me in the nose with its wet, thick, and gamey scent. It's yet another reminder to me that 90% of the time, I really dislike the lavendaer oil that Beth uses in her blends, as it seems really "gamey" to me. Fortunately, upon dry-down, the lavender recedes significantly, taking backstage to the lovely floral-citrus scent of the neroli in the blend. As time goes by, the lavender disappears, and the neroli stands out strong and crisp, but after about two hours, it two begins to fade very quickly. In the end, it's a nice enough scent, but I don't think I'd wear it due to the "gamey" scent I get from the lavender initially.

[Gin]

Naiad

 

On me, Naiad is all lavender with a hint of neroli, but no lotus to be found. It's very sharp at first, but mellows into a softer citrus-herbal scent. Much to my surprise, I like this one quite a bit.

[Ryvre]

In the imp: Lots of lavendar. The neroli gives it some bite.

 

Wet: All lavendar. I smell like a walking potpourri dish.

 

Dry: Still potpourri. This is really not me...

[sofiaviolet]

Mmm, I can hardly smell either the neroli or the lotus. They're just present enough to differentiate this from other lavender blends. Mmmm. I may give this imp to my mother, because she'll have more use for another variety of lavender than I will.