Melisande, The Puppet Mistress

[voodoocatwoman]

Jasmine sambac, dark musk, violet water, vanilla bean and mimosa.

I love jasmine and I love violet so this is magnificent. The only problem is that it does not last very long. Definitely fodder for scent locket.

LOVE.

[TereFaerie]

Mostly jasmine, and ammoniac jasmine that my skin loves to amp. I get this note as a predominant note in other oils that I like, but this one is not doing it for me.

I smell a bit of powdery whiteness that might be the violet, but it is just so flowery.

 

Not a winner on my skin.

[brsis]

Initial thoughts: Jasmine and musk and violets... oh dear. I doubt even my love of vanilla and mimosa is going to rescue this one.

 

In the bottle: Jasmine with a hint of violets - it's heavy and very floral.

 

On the wrist, wet: Still predominantly jasmine - which goes very plastic and fake on me. Hmm.

 

Drydown: Plastic jasmine. Alas, this is definately not one for me.

[maika]

In the imp, jasmine and that's about it. It's all good though, because I adore jasmine.

 

Wet, jasmine, violets and vanilla. Again, all notes I love. I can't see this one being a problem.

 

Dry, the musk comes out, while the jasmine and vanilla stay. The violets flit in and out, sometimes I smell them, sometimes I don't. But again, all notes that I love, and notes that work well together, so I'm not complaining. Plus, it brought me a huge string of compliments while I was wearing it...from my daughter and my parents, to the waitress who brought us dinner, to the ticket guy at the concert I went to later that evening. This lasted hours and is gorgeous...I will need more of this!

[rayvn1]

<muttering quick prayer to the BPAL gods> "Please don't let this be only jasmine on me. Please oh please!"

 

Phew! Melisande works against all odds on me. I amp jasmine and especially vanilla to the point where I usually avoid blends that contain those notes. But the art for Melisande and the other parts of it made me really want to try it! I'm happy to say that on wet I get quite a bit of jasmine, but it calms down after a very short time to an almost cocoa-bean flavor with sweetening flower in the background. I've never tried anything with vanilla BEAN so maybe that's the difference. This is grounding and earthy, with enough sweetness from the flowers to make it complex. It's a little bit dark and I am so happy I have a bottle coming soon!

 

 

edited for grammar's sake

Edited October 9, 2008 by rayvn1

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

i hate jasmine almost as much as it hates me, and i don't like violet.

mimosa can go either way, i generally like dark musks and vanilla bean.

 

so i'm terrified of this blend, but i've got a few drops so i figured i may as well try it out.

 

verdict: jasmine overload (smells like poo), urinal cake and cheap vanilla air freshener.

 

i knew it wouldn't work, but it doesn't work in fantastic, awful, migraine and nausea inducing ways.

[ami226]

Mmmmmmmmm! So good! Besides the snakes, this is one of the first CD scents I have fallen in love with!

 

In bottle: Orange jasmine flowers! So pretty and tasty at the same time!

 

Wet: Orange smell comes out a bit more. It is such a nice sweet orange with a bit of florals in the background.

 

Dry down: I love it!! The orange and flowers mingle together into something that is not foody, but sweet and flowery at the same time! This is what I was hoping for when trying Faith (sugared violets), but with Faith I got more of a sickly sweet soap smell. Melisande works so well in my opinion. Now I just have to get approval from the boyfriend.

[blacklacestatic]

This is another one of those cases where I hesitated, took a chance, and should have just stuck with my first instincts. Jasmine and I rarely get along. I was hoping maybe the vanilla bean would smooth it out a bit, but nope.

 

In the bottle: Soapy jasmine. It kind of smells like baby wipes. Baby wipes dipped in jasmine. I think I've had this happen before, when the violet turns soapy. Hopefully it will smell better on skin.

 

Wet on skin: I got teased for a second there, in which the violet came forward in it's pretty floral form. Then the jasmine beat it back down into submission. She can be such a bitch. Now all I get is strong jasmine. REALLY strong jasmine. The soapy thing starts to come back a bit too, but it's mostly harsh, loud jasmine.

 

Drydown: It all vanishes into soft nothing within about two hours. I'm left with a trace of a creamier, muskier, sweeter floral. I think this is the jasmine that I have smelled on other people. But on me it's a ghost of the party that jasmine crashed. The aftermath where everyone is passed out and the sun is coming up, and you're thinking, "My house is trashed. Damn that jasmine for making such a mess."

 

Overall: Like I said above, jasmine and I rarely get along.

[WidgetAlley]

My friend Christi gave me a sample of this to try... what makes it even more awesome is the fact it's contained in a chem-lab sample tube!

 

Imp... er, tube: When jasmine attacks. Smells a lot like the Perfumed Garden, but spicier and darker. I really don't know why I'm reviewing this now, as I am on the rag as of tomorrow morning so my hormones may be responsible for any weirdness rather than the blend. Wikipedia tells me jasmine sambac is more commonly known as Arabic jasmine.

 

Wet: Violet + jasmine + a dark vanilla. I don't get a whole lot of dark musk out of this, which is probably good since black musk is one of those notes that can just kill a blend for me. Surprisingly deep and creamy for an almost all-floral blend. If you were a floral hater this might be a good intro for you, if you can deal with jasmine.

 

Dry: Pretty much the same. A tame, very pleasant floral and a touch of foody vanilla. This is quite nice, although since I have a bottle of the Perfumed Garden I'm not sure I'll need to hang on to it. I would certainly recommend it to those easing into the floral realm, though.

[Limelight]

I didn't like the Perfumed Garden, and while this is better, I get some off-putting similarities. This scent isn't really special either, just a face-in-the-crowd generic BPAL incense. I like jasmine in and of itself, but this scent bores me!

[asciident]

Wet: Sharp soap, ew ew ew.

 

First on: Still soap, and now I just want it off me.

 

Dry: Unchanged, bleh. Jasmine and violet together are bad on me, I think.

Edited February 21, 2009 by Melissa Della

[crebbsgirl]

On my skin, this starts out as a dark floral. The jasmine is the kind I can wear, it doesn't amp to the exclusion of the other notes in the blend here. The mimosa adds a bitter tinge in the wet stages. As it dries, the violet water adds a purple vibe here, it's not aquatic, and not overtly violet either - more like a hint of purple flowers. (I should note the more often than not violet is a note of doom on my skin - going sharp and effectively turning me off. It didn't happen here). Much MUCH later in the drydown the musk and vanilla bean came out, creating a bit of a creamy dark floral on my skin. It was nice, but not something I can see reaching for very often.

[CynicalPink]

Disclaimer: I bought this in a fit of fever madness. I have no idea why. Best I can guess is that I mistook it for Mme. Moriarity. They both start with M, I guess. Good thing I like florals!

 

Bottle: I guess that's jasmine. My only other experience with it was drowned in Oneiroi's lavender.

 

Wet: Oooo. Me likey. Very delicate scent, but a bit of a musk to it as well. Not so sweet and cutesy as I'd thought.

 

Drydown: Oh cool the mimosa came out to play! This scent is fun! I absolutely *hate* using this word, but it feels very "flirty." Is pretty, feminine, but grounded at the same time by the musk and vanilla. I really like this!

 

Overall: What a fun surprise! Something I thought I was only ever going to be interested in a decant of is totally bottle-worthy on me! The jasmine isn't going plastic, the mimosa brings a fun fruity edge and a I *love* what the vanilla and musk are doing together. No need to update the swap page for this one! The lady's a keeper.

[fairnymph]

In the imp: Apricot coloured oil. Floral and dark. Mimosa and violet water jump out. A bit sharp. Very 'traditional' perfumey.

 

Wet: Same, with a powdery edge presumably from the violet. There is a sort of sweet depth that is probably a combo of the vanilla and musk, but I can't pick out either note, or the same sambac.

 

Dry: Increasingly powdery; violet is taking over. A little bit of musk coming out, but it's losing against the violet. Mimosa is going strong, too - very white, feminine, rich. Okay, getting a headache. Sink.

 

[Andrea912]

Hmmm...I don't know about Jasmine sambac, dark musk, or

violet water, but I like vanilla bean and mimosa.

 

Impression: Gag; is it the jasmine? Flowers…getting more sour by the second...

 

[AlarmAgent]

In Bottle - Not entirely pleasant, a sort of acrid, poolside smell. Something in there is registering as chlorine for me, or some other pool chemical. I'm tentative to continue, but I know that so often you can't judge an oil by the smell of the imp wand.

Wet on Skin, First Applied - Mawgh, that is some jasmine. I like jasmine, too. This is jasmine extreme, tampered down only by violet. I also like violet, and the driplets of violet water I smell in Melisande are very gorgeous. It is a different sort of violet than what is in Faith, or any of the other violet blends I've tried. Too bad the jasmine keeps jumping in front of it and mugging.

Dry, on Skin - A little more musk, a little more violet, and yet the jasmine does not let up. Like I said, I'm one of those people who enjoys jasmine (it always stays true on me, never goes 'poopy' or...any number of the other awful things jasmine translates to for people), and even I can't help but wish it'd settle down a bit. There is a little bit of a powdery finish to this, but over-all it is a pleasant, if not all-together 'me' sort of scent. I was hoping for more vanilla, as vanilla and jasmine were one of my first favorite combined notes...going way, way back to the very beginning of middle school. As it stands though, I wouldn't turn my nose up at Melisande, and if I was just reaching around my imp pile for a random imp to wear that day (I do this a lot), and I picked this one out of the lot, I wouldn't toss it back in the pile. I guess not a glowing endorsement, but if you like floral-heavy blends, speaking most of jasmine and violet, I'd say you may fall in love with Melisande. It just didn't have enough 'base' to grab me and never let go, I suppose.

[milo]

At first this is a tropical floral of a lovely kind. I'm surprised, as I usually don't like tropicals. Maybe it's the combination of the jasmine sambac and mimosa (?). The tropical fades pretty quickly and we're left with violet. It actually kind of reminds me of Violet Ray, minus the mint, which I love. I really like this, but really get nothing other than violet in the drydown, which I can get from Violet Ray.

[sarajane]

I'm the very rare person who loves jasmine, but I was very leery of the dark musk. I could smell very little of the jasmine on my skin. Either the jasmine went bad on my skin for the first time EVER, or something else in this dislikes me. It smells very sour. It gets better on the drydown, but I had a rough time LETTING it get to the drydown.

[papermaker]

Florals and I are hit and miss.

In the bottle this is orange jasmine and violets. It's interesting in a good way.

Wet it loses the orangey scent, and becomes all jasmine and violets. One whiff it's jasmine, the next it is violet.

Dry it is a swirl that has been rounded out by the vanilla and musk so it is neither too sweet, or too dark. This floral was a hit.

 

9+ hours later I get the barest hints of jasmine and vanilla on my skin.

[donnatron]

Bottle: Sweet vanilla and jasmine with a bit of violet bite and darkness.

 

Wet: The jasmine/vanilla combine to go almost... banana-y? Not quite banana but almost in that range. Odd. The violet disappears and probably takes the mimosa with it. The dark musk goes dark and furry and sultry. It's quite lovely at this point.

 

Dry: The vanilla and jasmine dominate with the musk holding down the fort. I don't smell any mimosa but smell a faint hint of violet. It's very pretty and a little dark. The black musk makes this very, very interesting and prevents it from being a sort of harmless, floofy floral. It's still sweet but there's a dark edge to it.

 

Throw: Good.

 

Overall: Man, the Carnaval just keeps getting better. This is gorgeous and I am considering a back up.

[Bamels]

Frimp. I'm not sure what I can smell in the bottle I'll have to put it on. Another jasmine. Sometimes they work on me but I've just tested one that was hideous so I'm reluctant to go much further with this. Nothing much is happening with the drydown, maybe a littlemusk coming out, but I just can't get past the jasmine.

[reynardine]

Almost generic perfume smell on this. Jasmine is hit or miss on me, but honestly, I think the problem with this scent is the dark musk, which makes it smell almost sour. On me, this almost smells like men’s cologne (which is a bad thing, as I hate men’s cologne for the most part). On the drydown, I am getting a bit of vanilla and mimosa to sweeten things a bit, but it’s too hard to get past that awful musk.

[tativa]

I have no idea why I ordered a decant of this... but tried it out today because it seemed to fit the dark purple dress I had on. Initially jasmine was the strongest note, but within 5 mins on me violet and vanilla have completely taken over. I liked it best when it was somewhere between JASMINE and Faith's less sweet older sister. I think I will def keep the decant for when I feel like something elegant and girly and clean... but its not different enough from, well anything I have ever tried on with violet in it, to spring right for a bottle. But who knows, she might grow on me with a little aging. Especially since it seems to be drying down after an hour to a dark musky vanilla that is sexy and sophisticated rather than overly sweet as most vanillas seem to go (which I like... but not all the time)

[SophieCedar]

Wet: jasmine sambac and violet water with a touch of the other 3. The violet and jasmine clash on my skin for a minute then the vanilla bean warms up, making the other 2 amicable.

Drydown: this is a very light scent. I can see it was a tall order and making the mix too strong could be fatal.. but I wish it was slightly stronger. Maybe a touch more dark musk? The drydown is lovely, regardless. The vanilla develops a lot, making it a creamier scent.

[angelamaria]

In decant: well, straight up floral: jasmine and violets in seemingly equal parts. Deep and heavy floral, sad and sorrowful--but well, the latter two impressions are probably my own takes on these two scents: they smell like a funeral. *ducks and hides*

 

Wet on skin: well. Jasmine and violets! I can't really get anything else from this scent, it seems. Maybe it will change when dry; it's becoming slightly lighter, not as heavy, I think.

 

Dry: sigh. Still jasmine and violets. Definitely not a morpher, at all, haha. Oh well!

 

Verdict: Yeah, not too much of a fan of this combination--I may like both notes, but together they are too heavy and sorrowful for me, and a bit on the perfumey side.