The Peacock Queen

[amrita]

In dramatic contrast to the soft innocence of Snow White and the dew-kissed freshness of her sister, Rose Red, this is a blood red, voluptuous rose, velvet-petaled, at the height of bloom. Haughty and imperious, vain, yet incomparably lovely to the eye, but thick with thorns of jealousy, pride and hatred.

I usually shy away from rose blends because they have all smelled strange on me, but I was very curious about this one and Rose Red.

If I closed my eyes and alternately smelled this blend and a real red rose, I could identify which is which, but Peacock Queen smells amazingly close to the real thing. I am pretty sure I smell oakmoss under the rose, and that the oakmoss is what gives it the velvety depth. I don't actually think of this blend as haughty; it seems more mysterious and withdrawn. This is the first rose blend I would actually wear. Edited December 23, 2005 by Shollin

[ChupaChup]

Peacock Queen is a dusty, musty, sour rose on me. It's almost like pickle juice, I wonder if it's the moss that the reviewer above mentions? I much prefer Rose Red, it's so much fresher on me.

[jessamynit]

this is wonderful. I love rose red, but have to admit I always thought it was a little too wussy for a true rose scent.

peacock queen is the un-wussy version of rose red. I can't tell why, because it still smells like a perfect, fresh rose; but it doesn't have any green stuff to it like rose red.

just yummy, delicious, velvety rose!

I do wish it lasted a little longer.

[gingersnapp]

This is a more mature, sophisticated Rose Red. Very heady, very perfectly rose. I love it!

[hangingfire]

In the imp: Hey, I remember when roses smelled like that. Not the pretty, generic things you get in most flowershops these days; they're like what my grandfather grew. Maybe not picture-perfect, but they smelled so lovely.

 

On, wet: Yep, fully blossomed roses wet with morning dew. Mmm. I like the slight green note; it really sets off the rose nicely.

 

Drydown: Goes a little sweet, which is interesting. It loses some intensity and throw as well, but it's still a very lovely rose scent.

 

I may have to order a bottle of this before the Yule scents go away!

 

Edit: Drying down further still, the rose fades (sadly; but rose scents tend to do that on me), leaving a delicate, white-musk-like scent. I still like it, though. This is something that would be worth carrying around a bottle for touch-ups.

Edited December 20, 2005 by hangingfire

[girlmadasbirds]

wow, that's strong!

i don't really have anything new to add. it's definitely a rose in full-bloom. very heady. and did i mention strong?

 

it's pretty, but not something i'd wear much.

[Julilla Regina]

It's hard to add to all of the reviews that say "Rose!", I mean it's a screeching Valkyrie wail of a rose. I love it, but my skin is eating it like mad and taunting me. Fantastic, gorgeous.

[zenvodunista]

Rose Red broke my heart with her fleeting beauty. the Peacock Queen healed it again with her voluptuous and ripe scent.

 

magnificent. gorgeous. strong.

 

just stunning.

 

n.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

Some of you all know how much I love Beth's roses and how I'm always looking for more of them. I've got just about every "personality" a rose can have in my BPAL collection. But Rose Red was not for me--she went all green and odd, which was just so sad for me on Yule last year! But, another Yule, another rose LE, so here's to Peacock Queen!

 

I love the label, by the way--the new Art Deco-style images are so cool. This one shows a lovely lady preening naked before her mirror, one of my favorite hobbies.

 

Sniffing the bottle--oh boy, I'm excited! This is FANTASTIC! This is the rose connoisseur's (connoisseuse's?) scent. Completely pure; no other notes that I can detect. A ripe, rich single long-stemmed red rose. This could have been named for Dorothy Parker's poem--"One Perfect Rose".

 

*standing ovation*

[Voleuse]

In the vial and on first application, this is brightly blooming rose, one of the kind whose blossoms whose petals spill over your hands, if you dared touch. This isn't actually very strong on me, but it reminds me of rose gardens I've visited, where every plant is meticulously labelled for its breeding.

 

After a while, it takes on a bit of a green tinge, but for the most part, it stays the same. This isn't my favorite of the rose scents, but it's a pretty one.

[aidenraine]

Well, I have to admit that this smells the closest to actual rose of any BPAL scent I have ever tried. It does smell just like leaning in on a fresh bouquet of vivid, dewey red roses. I love roses, so the smell is a welcome one in general, just not in a perfume.

 

So gahhh my arm smells like roses. Beautiful roses. I expected nothing less, and now I shall go wash it off.

[Chrysantza]

Mmmm, gorgeous. Beth has somehow managed to distil the very essence of a full-blown, fragrant, deep red rose into a perfume. In the bottle and on my skin, it's rich, pure rose that stays rich, pure and rosy. No weird toothpaste, soap or urine notes that I sometimes get from rose scents - this is ROSE.

 

I used to go to this little shop in San Francisco called "Uma's Tools of Magick" where I bought this perfume oil called Shameless Hussy Oil - a mixture of different varieties of rose that became more than the sum of their parts. In The Peacock Queen I have found a substitute for my long-gone and much missed Shameless Hussy Oil.

 

I do not get "haughty" from this (not like Black Rose) just pure undiluted essence of roses. Oh Peacock Queen, where have you been all my life?

 

Verdict: Stockpile and update wish list!

[desu]

In the bottle: Just like sticking my nose into one of those giant grandiflora roses: enchanting, smooth, and rich.

 

On my skin: Holds true without going to soap like so many other scents with rose notes in them before it.

 

Later on: Spoke too soon, this one has started going soapy in about 15 minutes. It was certainly nice while it lasted. :|

[perclexed]

I think the Lab does remarkable things with the rose scents, and this is no exception. I love roses. Peacock Queen has a little bit more of a plastic scent to it than Rose Red does, but that disappears once it's warmed up on my skin a bit. It isn't one that invites you to bury your nose in the bloom though; it's more of a 'smell me from over there and don't you dare get close enough to marr my perfection' kind of rose. This is one of the few that matches the Lab description of the scent once it's on my skin.

[zillah37]

This is a very plastic rose on my skin, like the cheap rose perfume little girls wear. [wrinkles nose] I wanted to like it and I wanted my mother (a huge rose lover) to like it as well, but alas, neither of us are a fan of the Queen.

 

I'll just stick with my lovely bottle of Rose Red when I want a rose scent.

[Northernminx]

I have a hard time distinguishing between this and Rose Red until I put them side by side. Potentially because my Rose Red has aged a year,this is a little more heady a little more in "full bloom" and almost past it than Rose Red is. Rose Red remains my preferred of the two but this is really beautiful and amazingly true to the real thing.

[PurringPulsar]

The Peacock Queen

 

In the imp: freshly cut rose, but there's a strange, almost plastic like scent behind it…

Wet on skin: oh good, the odd plastic note is gone now, and this smells like a soft rose scent.

Dry on skin: this is very light on me at first, but it's a pure rose fragrance. This rose is fresh, yet has tartness to it, it's like a tea rose scent, reminiscent of Havisham, a classic Victorian rose. I love rose, so I really like this. There's a tangy sharpness to this; it seems fitting with the oil's description of a thorny, vain, haughty rose scent, as opposed to Rose Red's purer, innocent rose. It also reminds me, very slightly, but very appropriately, of Pride. This imperious rose keeps to herself and detaches herself from others, she is distant and aloof…and also very soft on my skin, there's not much throw.

After a while: the super-sharp rose stage doesn't last. After about 15 mins, it starts to soften up, it becomes more approachable, gentler, but it still retains it's slight tang, with a slightly bitter undertone. This is a posh and stuck up rose, not an open and friendly rose-despite this, I love the scent. The only problem is that it's so soft on me, I have to sniff right up to my wrist to smell it.

It gets a bit sharper and thorny once more upon drydown.

Verdict: I love the different takes on the scent of rose that Beth experiments with. This flower has so many different forms and scents, each of Beth's rose scents is unique. At first, when applied to the skin, this was a sharp rose scent, a tart tea rose, but not a dry rose like London. I find it fits the description very well, this rose comes about prim and proper and quite snobbish, this rose wants to detach herself from others, she's self-centred. It also is incredibly soft on me. In a way, I both like and dislike this scent's lack of throw-at times it seems nicely discreet, at others it's a bit too soft. I'm not sure if it's my favourite rose BPAL yet, but it's another one of Beth's delightful interpretations of the rose theme.

[Fefferbella]

Ack... The Peacock Queen reminds me of an arrangement of fake plastic roses sprayed with cheap rose perfume.

 

This blend turns to cheap rose perfume with a plastic bag note underneath. *yuck*

[sarada]

Mmmmm....

 

Shh, I haven't tested this but I sniffed the bottle I got for my friend. I had to know what kind of rose it was. Any fears I had that it would be too similar to Rose Red are dispelled. To me, this is a dark, deep pink rose. In other words it's a slightly sweet, full bloom...and it is not overly spikey or powdery or, erm, headachy. Rose Red was a very cold green rose to me, and gorgeous but it does tend to get up in your sinuses.

 

From sniffing this, I know that it wouldn't give me a headache if I wore it, but I simply don't wear rose scents very often. There are SO many ways to approach rose, though, which is why it's such a wonderful scent. If you love rose in all of its manifestations, try this! If you want a pure rose ~different~ from Rose Red, try it! If you found a lot of other roses too perfumey or powdery then this might also be worth a try. I'm glad I got a sniff!

[Phaedra]

Wet this is pure old fashioned tea rose. When first on it smells the same. This doesn't change too much on me. It does mellow and warm up a bit and definitely feels warmer than Rose Red. This dries down to a soft, sexy, close to the skin scent. This is a really beautiful, pure classic rose. A must for any rose lover!

[Capriquarius]

To me, The Peacock Queen is like Lucy's Kiss without the spice! I adore rose scents like this, which are warm, juicy, alive, rather than the chilly, dewy, "cut flowers" rose scents such as Rose Red. All a matter of personal preference, of course. This scent gives me a very strong mental impression of a rose garden on a hot summer day, with the strong, womanly perfume of mature roses wafting from sun-warmed blooms. Maybe the wanton Peacock Queen waits there for her secret lover... all in all, bravo to Beth on this one! Funny how rose can smell so different in so many scents. I still strive to own, or at least try, them all!

Edited January 3, 2006 by Capriquarius

[empi girl]

Sweeter, warmer, lighter rose that stays close to the skin, but lasts forever! I prefer this to Rose Red, which was a little too green for me. I don't think of this scent as haughy or proud, and do think that after the initial 15 minutes or so, it becomes very like smelling a fresh tea rose.

 

Also, most roses either amp on me, or give me a headache, and this one does neither. Another selling point!

[spidersinmyhair]

I am a lover of rose scents,which I never realized before discovering BPAL.I love 2,5 &7,Ace of Hearts,Persephone, and Rose red.Peacock Queen is much more grown up than all of them.I can't pick out any other notes,but it doesn't matter.This rose holds it's own and stays there too.It is just drier and more mature somehow.I believe it is my favorite rose so far.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: a cold rose.

on: a rather pretentious rose. beautiful, but offputting.

1 hour later: a perfume-y rose.

2 hours later: a nice rose, which alternates between sweet and powdery. interesting.

3 hours later: nice. not as perfumey.

overall: pretty, but i like rose red much better.

[Chaos the Crazy]

When opening the bottle, I remembered a stunning velvety black red rose called "Night Time" that I grew when I was in high school. Taking a deep whiff instantly reminded me of walking past that rosebush at dusk in the summer, with the heady aroma smacking me in the face several feet away from blooms that almost vanished in the shadows.

 

On my skin it is indeed an imperious rose scent, demanding attention as a queen will. One of the best I have smelled on my skin, and it amps up within 2 minutes of wearing and holds strong for a couple of hours. It dries down to a powdery rose. I've gotten nothing but compliments while wearing this and am definitely considering adding this to the multiple bottle club in my collection.