The Hesperides

[Shollin]

The Hesperides, from Bewitching Brews:

The Hesperides are the Nymphs of the Evening who dwell in a verdant garden located in the Arcadian Mountains, guarded by the terrible three-headed dragon, Ladon. Within their garden lives the tree that bears Hera’s sacred Golden Apples. Their perfume is that of sturdy oak bark, dew-kissed leaves, twilight mist and crisp apple.

 

The version I tried is a prototype.

 

First sniff: Apples of gold, twined with greenery and soft flowers. A quiet night in an orchard in full fruit, sitting in contemplation in a patch of moonlight on the grass. The dragon is sleeping quite soundly. Here’s an obscure reference: If anyone ever played the old Sierra game Hero’s Quest – the really old one, in 16 colors, before they changed the name of the series to Quest for Glory, back when you had to do such mundane things as type in commands! – this scent is what I imagine Erana’s Peace would smell like at night.

 

Wearing: Wonderfully tart, but there’s a hint of sweetness around the core. It’s more straightforwardly appley on my skin – I don’t get the moonlit-orchard thing as much – but it’s still really gorgeous.

[magpiedee]

If you likey likey Lush's Honey, I Washed the Kids, then you are going to *LOVE* The Hesperides!!! It is the same scent, except lovelier.

 

Caramel apples eaten in a sunny grove, lots of sunlight and green leaves and gooey drippiness. A honey-colored afternoon, when one simply must be wearing a cool, swishy skirt and going barefoot in the soft grass. Or maybe a caramel sunday dripping down your arms, with your hair in pigtails, still in the apple orchard, laughing with a golden-haired boy who might like you. This is a scent of golden honey, the sun shining through leaves, a cool breeze, grass warm and soft, learning against something strong, feeling free and easy as time slows to a standstill.

 

Memories, warmth, honey, green, gold, leaves, blue sky, pigtails, ribbons, bare knees, bare arms, ice cream, caramel, sweetness, innocence, carefree youth, whistling, whittling, skipping, crunchy sugar, fresh sweat, new love, amber-- that's it! A beautiful moment caught in amber forever.

 

I seem to think it would provoke beautiful dreams, the kind one remembers fondly for years. A dream that feels better than real life.

[friendthegirl]

This made my noise tingle.

 

 

All I can smell are the apples, and I'm thinking that although apples taste great, I don't really want to smell like them. It's also a little too sweet for my tastes. It does have an apple sparkler smell to it, kind of sparkly, which could be the "dew." It's sparkley and bubbley.

Edited June 27, 2004 by friendthegirl

[TygherRayn]

Jason tried this one on almost first of all of the imps we got, and it was a surprisingly odd scent on him. Very sharp. So now, it's my turn.

 

In the bottle: This smells dry. It's hard to get anything out of it, in fact .. there's an apple-tartness to it certainly, but I can't seem to smell anything more than I'm feeling it .. that shiver I get from a really tart, crisp apple.

 

Wet: More apple-y now, though that crisp-ness clings for a while. There's something veiling the apples for me .. I can smell them every once in a while, but usually I get whatever is layered over them, that leafy-woody smell that hides everything. This really is like getting a glimpse of the golden apples within the garden, then losing sight of them and trying to find it again.

 

Wearing: This stays too sharp for me .. I don't think it quite agrees with my nose .. despite desperately wanting this one to mellow out a bit, my chemistry just isn't allowing that. I will note that this one wafts very well .. Every time I took a bite of my dinner tonight I could smell it.

[any_old_actress]

FIRST SNIFF: harvested apples before you wash 'em.

 

WEARING IT: apples still and definitely oak bark...when first applied i didn't like that strong oak "kick" i was getting everytime i smelled my wrists...but after a few minutes of wear it's become less dominant and blends more with the apples. i'm becoming really fond of this scent as it reminds of family trips to "apple fest."

 

VERDICT: it's become a PERFECT scent on me. *sigh* a bigger bottle is in the works...

Edited June 30, 2004 by any_old_actress

[sarabeegee]

 

Initial smell: The oak smelled really strong in the bottle, and when I first put it on my skin there was a really sharp, though pleasant, fresh apple smell.

 

Dry down: it became softer, although still fruity, but like honeyed golden apples with a woody, slightly vanilla undertone.

 

Verdict: It would be fresh enough to wear in the summer on hot humid days, but also a good perfume for golden sunny fall days.

[enozgirl]

Yowzah, both myself and The Old Man thought this smelled just like chocolate and apples in the bottle.

 

Wet: Still very appley -- tart apples. Like granny smith. And it still smells like chocolate, but now some warmer smell, like caramel. Sort of like those Harry & David chocolate and caramel covered apples? Nummy

 

Dry down: The apples are still there, but less pronounced. The chocolate scent has faded and now it's got a nice mellow vanilla and woody scent, too. I'm sooooooooo loving this. I have to agree, the apple does play hide-and-seek with my nose. I'll get the warm woody scents for a bit, and then *poof* a breeze of apples. It's just often enough that I'm really liking it. Hopefully it won't turn sour during my workout later.

 

Though, it seems to fade really quickly on my skin. I brought along my imp just in case Might have to get me a bigger bottle of this one. Huzzah for apples

[Astarte]

Normally I hate earthen scents, but this is something else. The crisp tartness of the apples are the first note my nose can detect. For some odd reason my skin just doesnt pick up the oak bark but focuses more on the apple and a slight ozone smell. This is just wonderful.

[VelvetSky]

Apples. Chocolate. Wood. In that order. I think this will be a lovely Autumn scent.

[pekeana]

In the bottle, it smells like apples and floral.

 

On me, it smells like caramel apples resting in a dew-kissed flowerbed.

 

I love the delicacy of the apple -- apple is usually a scent that turns my stomach, but wow, I'm in love with this scent. I must have a big bottle.

[ninglor]

Being a Sagittarius, I am frequently blunt, and will exercize my penchant for being so here: this oil is hideous. First sniff sent me reeling, but I'm open-minded enough to give something a second chance, so I dabbed some on my wrist. Slightly less pungent than in the bottle, but the sweetness leapt out so sickly that I gagged. Cakey, sugary excess. Not my vial of oil.

[astrid]

I have to admit that when I first smelled this out of the bottle, I sensed a weird combination that made me think of nail polish remover and chocolate nuttiness! On me, it has changed to something that smells almost black chery-ish with a touch of apple. Really intriguing scent! Not my absolute favorite, but wearable for a Surrealist day!

[Tesseljoan]

Yes, like Lush' honey I washed the kids. But far better.

 

It has that sweet caremelized scent, but there's a very bright green apple underneath that. The kind of apple that is so crisp and sour that it makes your eyes water.

 

I'm not sure if this is too sweet for me. But I love the greennes of the apple.

[Faerykin]

Swiped across wrists and along collarbone.

 

Initial Wet (8-8:30am): This is the scent of an apple orchard in late autumn ... the fruit so over-ripe that it falls from the tree of its own accord. The scent is definitely wet, as if the orchard is still covered in morning dew, just as it begins to dissipate in the midday sun. The scent of the apples is definitely enough to overpower anything else – but it is almost like a candy apple scent – deliriously sweet.

 

Initial Dry (8:30-10:30am): I still smell the apples, but there is something thicker underneath – chocolate, vanilla, caramel – I cannot quite put my finger on it. There is definitely something dessert-related here. This scent definitely has a very distinct change from wet to dry.

 

Hmmm … Apples dipped in chocolate? Caramel apples? A gourmet caramel apple - an apple not only covered in caramel, but dipped in chocolate, drizzled with vanilla, covered with nuts – sugar shock on a stick.

 

Throughout the Day (10:30am on): This is another one of those short-lived scents. I don’t even detect it unless I sniff my wrist, which still holds the scent of gourmet caramel apples – with an underlying woodsy scent. Almost like eating a caramel apple in the middle of the orchard.

 

I really didn’t think I would like this scent, as I am not a fan of the smell of apples. I was wrong. This is a reminder of cool autumn days – and it’s making me hungry.

[Dolly Dimple]

Oh god, this is gorgeous. When I first put it on, it was overwhelmingly apples, fresh and green, but not tart - these are the sweet green apples that don't make you suck your cheeks in! There was also a hint of something that smelled very much like pistachios or cashews - a creamy, nutty, apply smell that I quite liked, but wasn't knocked out by.

 

An hour later, it had morphed into the caramelly smell that other people have mentioned. Yup, that's 'Honey I Washed The Kids' all right. Where did that come from?! I've been wearing it for about four hours now, and it's now a warm sweet chocolatey smell - like Lush's 'Ma Bar', for those who know that one, but with the occasional waft of apples still. I have to get a big bottle of this!

[Ina Garten Davita]

First Impression: Ripe, juicy apples hanging heavy on the tree.

 

Second Impression: Oh this is such an evocative scent. This brings me back to all those times every autumn going apple picking at Honey-Pot Hill with Nerissa and her family, my sister and my mommy. And my mother would always "take home" a few extra apples in her big, giant hand bag. This is the smell of the orchard full of fruit-heavy trees, overripe apples on the ground, the cider and the donuts. It's very, very special.

 

Final Analysis: It's not something I'd wear as perfume, but I *must* have it around to smell especially now that I live in Atlanta. As much as I love it here, the autumn time just isn't the same as in New England. I have another imp coming in a pending order. I'll save one for sniffing, the other will go into the oil burner in the fall.

[feline.by.design]

I received my first BPAL order today, and I was able to pick out The Hesperides first, since I think this was one of the ones I was really interested in seeing how it would work with me. I grabbed the little vial as I dashed off to my evening classes.

 

In the imp - Eh? It smells sweet, very apple-y, but... plastecine??? My word, I thought to myself, this smells like apples under Saran Wrap! Undaunted, I do my usual perfume spots. Wow! That baby's strong (but then again, this is my first contact with BPAL).

 

On me: first contact - Still very sweet, I think I lost a bit of the smell of plastic. I don't get any of the sharpness or tartness that others have mentioned, but rather like friend the girl's experience. The apples were very fruity, and I guess they were "sparkly." I would venture that that sparkle was due to the dew scents. It smelled nice, but I felt kind of odd smelling like it.

 

On me: after five or so minutes - The sweetness is wrassled down by a spicy note that smelled like cinnamon or nutmeg to me, which could probably be the oak manifesting itself. I really liked it at this stage. Unfortunately, it didn't last too long, although this would probably be a good scent to layer with clove oil or something with a bit of a bite.

 

On me: after thirty minutes - The sweet, ubergirly smell of liquid sugarapple is back, just not as strong as it was when I first applied, and missing a good part of the plastic scent. The scent stayed on me for a decent while, though I did reapply after an hour and a half, when I could only smell it when I got my wrists close to my nose.

 

I reapplied among a few of my classmates outside when we were seated during break, and one of them noted the sort of plastic-y smell as well, and she named the scent spot-on: "It smells like those Strawberry Shortcake dolls with the scented skins!" Maybe not exactly Strawberry Shortcake, but once she said that, I thought of scratch n' sniff dolls and My Little Ponies.

 

All in all, the scent was a nice scent, but it's not something I would see myself buying a bigger bottle of because I was hoping for something a bit more tart and a little less feminine. Since I LOST THE @#$!! IMP somewhere between my last class and home, I won't be able to give it another go or try and use it to scent something else, like pillows or something. It's a shame, because I didn't *dislike* the scent at all, but it's just one of those that I probably wouldn't wear.

 

Oh well, at least I got to write the review, right?

 

-doreen

[summer]

This is sharp green Granny Smith apples in the bottle and wet on the skin, but as it dries, it mellows into the most lovely light golden honeyed blossom scent. I would be able to describe it MUCH better had I never smelled Lush's Honey I Washed the Kids soap, but it really does smell very much like that. The crispness of the apples is still present behind the dappled golden fragrance, making this a sweet fragrance that remains very fresh. It's absolutely gorgeous. Before BPAL, all of my favorite fragrances contained an apple note, so it's no wonder that this appeals to me. I can see it becoming something that I wear very frequently, because it's light, fresh, and wearable while still being unexpected and interesting.

[Mitzy]

I love this. in the imp it smells very chocolate-appley, but that changes when it hits my skin. the first thing I smell is bark and leaves and wet, very damp-woodsy but then then apple comes out...

to put it in a nutshell I smell like an orchard in the rain. delicious.

[Ishtar]

You should have seen my face when I first smelled this. I was bracing myself for some bark and damp leaves, praying that I would like it (not too good with earthy scents)... and I thought for one fleeting second that my nose had gone mad. Or that I got a mislabeled imp. Or that I was suddenly suffering from a rare illness that turns earthy scents into chocolate

 

Anyway, all I can say is that it smells delicious. Especially once it settles down and the chocolate turns into caramel

The drydown is a fresh but not biting apple, almost like a very good cooked apple, not too tart, not too sugary. Delicious.

 

The first time I wore it, I wondered if it was not a bit too sweet to be worn during the day. The second time, the crispiness of the apple really cut through the overall sweetness, making it much more wearable. Now I am in love with it, and I even wore it to work today.

 

I would call this an unusual blend (the scents are familiar, but unexpected in a perfume), but in a really, really good way.

[clover]

First Impression: Carmel appels.

 

After a few minutes: Thank goodness the sweet carmel scent has worn off! Mostly apple now.

 

A few minutes after that: Well, now the apple has worn off too. Unfortunately I think that my skin devours apple just like it does lemon, because I couldn't get the single note of green apple that I tried to stick either. The good news is that even though the apple faded this is still delightful.

 

Conclusion: After about an hour this is lightly golden. Like the fresh scent of a branch of an apple tree that has been stripped of its bark. I ordered a botle of this unsniffed, and am so glad I did.

[TheDarkMother]

In the bottle, it smells kinda like apple cider, maybe a caramel apple cider? Actually, it kinda reminds me of cooking caramel apples during Halloween. Have I ever told you how much I LOVE Halloween?

 

On me it is very caramel apple smelling. It reminds me of the county fair that we have here, with the smells of the caramel apples and the hay for the horses. In fact, that's just it, that's the scent! Its the smell of the county fair, and all the memories that come along with it! You have the woodsy smell of the hay for the livestock around you that is paired perfectly with the caramel apple scent as well.

 

This is a very memory provoking scent for me. I love this as much as Ace of Pentacles for that reason! This makes this very special to me. Thank you, Beth!

[Northernminx]

In the bottle, clear clean crisp apples. It sweetens when I first put it on, giving the caramel apple smell others have talked about. After a half hour or so that sugary sweetness had dissapeared leaving a ripe, golden, apple smell.

 

It's gorgeous. This is the smell of walking into the local orchard store, Mack's Apples, and just standing there surrounded by apples and spices and glorious fall scents. I'm worshiping this scent, a straight dose of part of new England's fall (the only season I WILL miss when I move)

 

love love love love it. Huge bottle.

[UltraViolet]

I recently got an imp of Hespirades and I wasn't that excited about it. I put some on my wrists before I go to bed. (I find I can read scents a lot better that way) and I couldn't believe the apple I was getting, just golden apple through and through. I really started taking a liking to this. It lasted longer than some but not that long if you know what I mean. I wouldn't buy it again but I will finish the imp.

[nevermore]

It seems my skin likes to eat apples as much as I do. In the bottle, the perfume is nicely apple-y, complete with the slight tang of a good granny smith apple. Once it hits my skin though, the apple completely disappears, leaving the caramel and oak bark, which is actually quite pretty. However, even the caramel and oak are gone after about an hour – I even asked my mother to sniff me, in case I had simply become accustomed to the scent, but she couldn’t smell anything either. It’s a shame really, because I really enjoyed smelling like apples and oak bark. I think I may have to try the cotton ball in the bra trick to get it to last.