Queen Gertrude

[Hallows_Eve]

Imperial violet softened by wisteria and chrysanthemum, but edged with the regal iciness of delphinium.

In the bottle- though this seems like a floral based scent, it smells very clean and leafy to me. A little like gathering ferns in the woods- also a little bit like freshly shampooed hair.

On me- The violet is really in the forefront on me. Still smells clean and green beyond this. Still regal, but a gentle sort of regal, it doesn't come off nearly as icy as I would have guessed by the description. Its a good outdoor spring and summer scent for me.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Watery lavender-blue flowers, with big flared petals, floating in a clear crystal bowl in a great hall.

 

Wearing: I wish I was better at picking out specific floral notes. Queen Gertrude reminds me of jasmine, but it’s far less sweet, softer – almost fluffy around the edges – and very pale purple. It smells like something an older woman would wear without being an old-lady scent, if that makes sense. An older woman like Lauren Bacall – that same sort of elegant, unflashy dignity. About twenty minutes on it’s gone powdery – at this stage it smells quite a bit like Lush’s Bathos, which definitely isn’t a favourite of mine. It sticks, too – it’s been about ten hours since I put it on and I can still smell it faintly on my wrist.

[any_old_actress]

FIRST SNIFF: violets!

 

WEARING IT: rich violets with a bit of dark greenery...this to me is a more regal and loud nocturne. a bit overpowering on me...

 

VERDICT: a little too regal, it gave me a headache!

[TygherRayn]

In the bottle: Pale blue. A cool spring morning, with the early flowers just beginning to bloom, and as you walk out onto your patio you smell the wisteria draped over the trellis above.

 

Wet: Sweet and dark. Rich. This smells like a rich, dignified older woman. This scent would waft out of her Rolls-Royce when she arrived at some state function, and would carry around her, making everyone smile. Wisteria is one of my favorite flowers, and I love it in this. Soft and lilac-y blue and wonderful .. and the fact that there's delphinium in this .. I'd love to get the single note of that, as it was part of my wedding bouquet and I'm dying to know what it alone smells like.

 

Wearing: Elegant, proud and warm but still aloof. This is an older woman's perfume .. though that's not to say I won't wear it even now, as a still younger woman! I love this. It's pale and sweet and powerful all at once.

[Astra]

This seems like it would be a very cool, delicate floral with a hint of stately queenliness.

 

Unfortunately on myskin this turns into Palmolive dish soap so I can't wear it.

[omly]

I think it is the violet that makes this so familiar. A little part of my brain keeps saying "I know this smell." I haven't figured out from where exactly. It is a cool pale blue lilac sort of fragrance. On the bus this morning I found myself half meditating about mist: cool, damped, unrushed and delicate. This is truly elegant, yet powerful.

 

I accidently grabbed this the other morning thinking to pick up Queen Mab. Whew not what I was expecting at all! I am so pleased that I did though. Many oils get sucked up right into my skin completely within an hour or two. Queen Gertude not only is not disappearing, if anything bloomed on my skin staying with me all day.

[Northernminx]

Somehow this has been sitting in my imp box for two orders now...bought time to try it!

 

In the bottle: Violets!

 

On me: I'm finally able to pick out that buttery but floral scent that is violets. (Beths' oils have been an education in defining single notes that I never otherwise would have been able to identify.)

Lots and lots of violets, but there's an edge of bitter chrysanthimum and I can detect the delphinium cooling this down a little. It is a very regal scent, and a very haughty one. Pretty but not quite me. I'll probably send this one off to swap as the violet's just a littttle too strong for my tastes.

[Donnababe]

I don't get along with violets but I tried this regardless. Sadly I couldn't smell much else. It has a sweetness which makes it similiar to the Parma Violet sweets.

 

Just as the description mentions it's a very cold scent indeed. It's very prim and proper, a bit 'snooty' but not me.

[Ina Garten Davita]

First Impression: Violets!

 

Second Impression: I was hoping for a third violet blend to wear but it's not to be. Other than Veil and Le Serpent, violets smell terrible on me. It's gone from headache inducing violet knock out to dirty dishrag in about 5 seconds.

 

Final Analysis: Not for me and I think I've learned my lesson not to tempt the violets, they don't like me.

[spark]

I love Queen Gertrude.

 

I actually did a side-by-side comparison of QG and The Raven: violet vs violet. Whereas The Raven is a purple violet, QG is a GREEN violet... it is very clean and light and fresh. As others have said, it doesn't seem to change much on the drydown.

 

Althought the notes are different, I'd call QG the violet version of Zombi.

[LiberAmoris]

Queen Gertrude reminds me of the Ice Queen for some reason, although I'm not sure why. The florals should evoke summer, but there is something distant and clean about this fragrance that seems like purple flowers strewn over snow. Perhaps it is the 'regal iciness of delphinium" per the BPAL definition.

 

Violets amplify themselves on my skin every time, and always strike me as being too dense and sweet in the air. But this is a lovely blend, and I think I might try adding it to a carrier for a diluted body oil.

[twistygirl]

Wet, this is, as everybody else has said, violets, violets, violets.

 

The violet stays predominant throughout the entire drydown process, but it does morph from Violets And Nothing But into something more subtle, more sophisticated. This is a really lovely scent - it's clean and florally and the height of good taste. This is the fragrance of a refined, dignified, gracious woman. It's the scent of manners and good breeding.

 

While I personally like my fragrances to be a bit less proper, this would be something great to wear on a special occasion where one wants to evoke taste and elegance, like a formal wedding. Great staying power, too.

[Penance]

Got this one as lagniappe from the Lab in my last order.

 

Preconceived notions:

 

Let me start off by saying that, as a rule, I hate floral perfumes with a passion. They give me headaches and make me think of old ladies and just generally don't work fo me, so just because I don't like them, it doesn't mean they're bad scents, just that they're definitely not for me. I say this because I have a feeling Queen Gertrude and I are not going to get along. At all.

 

First sniff:

 

Flowers. Lots and lots of flowers. For me, this is a bad thing, but I'm sure for someone else it would be wonderful. I'm not good at naming floral notes (to me, they're all just "flowers") but I can smell, quite distinctly, violet and wisteria in this right out of the vial. It's heady and powdery and, above all, floral.

 

Wet on skin:

 

This smells like violet pastilles on a bed of flower petals. This, to me, is what flower shops smell like and, unfortunately, I can't tolerate too many floral notes in one place. Floral notes = instant headache for me.

 

Dry down:

 

The violet seems to be gone and now it's all heady, showy florals practically screaming for attention and it's making my head ache. This is the complete antithesis of what works for me in a perfume, unfortunately. I gave it a shot because it was three and I believe in giving everything a try unless I know it'll make me sick (i.e. anything with almonds in it), but it's definitely not for me.

 

The bottom line:

 

A floral lover would probably love this, but I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a floral lover. Queen Gertrude is going to have to find another home.

[malanna]

After application: Light violets. Over time, the violets deepen, meaning that the violet scent isn’t more concentrated, but more complex. It’s almost as if they’re in a field—not that there’s any greenness coming out—because it’s less like I’m smelling a bouquet of violets than that the violets are buried within something else. This remains a violet scent to the very end. Quite pleasant.

[Theravada]

As you can probably tell from the other reviews, if you like violets you'll probably like Queen Gertrude. This is a very clean, crisp, and proper type floral. It could easily be described as regal and I think it's a fabulous depiction of this character.

 

 

But I, unfortunately, do not like violets. I don't really like florals at all, so Queen Gertrude is going up for adoption.

[voodoobaby]

In the bottle: A light yet solemn floral scent. The violet is listed first in the description, and it is the first to catch my attention. There's some herbiness in the background, adding a lovely, stabilizing effect to the violet.

 

Wearing: A couple of minutes after application, the violet has retreated to almost nothing. It's the ghost of a violet, with a lack of a better comparison. There's another, less full-bodied floral coming out, which I'm thinking must be the wisteria. But right now, the herby notes have taken over for the most part. This is the smell of a garden without the soil. It's a very lovely garden, complete with little white, intricately carved marbel benches, and trellises with dark-hued flowers growing on them.

 

Couple hours later: Nothing! Bah, darn scents not lasting very long. If you can get past this, it's a nice blend. As the description says, it is regal, and it is lovely...but it is not me. To the swaps!

[surf-tormented]

A nice floral with a very foresty feel. Like flowers in the woods. I do like some violet based oils from BPAL better, but this one is nice...though doesn't last very long.

 

I re-reviews this today, five years later to add:

 

"Regal violet zing turning into a pear scented floral.

 

If I didn't like Ultraviolet so much, I would really be into this perfume more.

There isn't a fruit note in it, but upon dry down, it gets sweet.

 

Not too sweet though. A fruity floral for those not into fruit or florals.

 

The violets remind me of Victorian violet breath mints. "

 

Yeah, it's about the same, like Ultraviolet better, doesn't stay for very long! Etc!

Edited February 10, 2010 by Madame Nyx

[Julilla Regina]

Oh my...quite Queenly indeed. And how wonderful, too, that the scent matches perfectly with my ideas about Gertrude herself. Don't know how Beth does it, but damn...re-read Hamlet if you want to know what this smells like. Probably none of us could put together a perfume like that in a million years, that's why we buy BPAL.

 

Majesty, cool almost cold, rich, secret sensuality, treacherous.

 

It is a floral, but a touch of green gone almost to ice. It's not me, but it's amazing anyway. Wow.

[VelvetSky]

Strangely, I'm smelling mostly the base note in Queen Gertrude when it hits my skin. I'm not really sure what that is....sandalwood maybe.

 

The sweet violet is washing over everything, but it's not a fresh, cool violet....this is a heavy, cloying, sweet, incensey violet. It's quite strong and brash and a bit too candy-like for me to really enjoy it.

 

My skin doesn't want to interpret this blend as "cool". I know that it will smell absolutely gorgeous on the right woman.

[shelldoo]

i am a violet whore, so i was excited to try this one

 

this stays pretty true thru all the stages for me, it is a soft sweet violet, edged in green, this is very very soft and sweet a gorgeous spring scent i totally am not dissapointed and will be buying a bigger bottle

[nhough73]

This ends up a very soft violet on me - almost no throw whatsoever and it fades out within 30 minutes. A pretty scent, quite feminine but a little too ethereal for me.

[gangstaknitta]

In bottle: Lovely...it smells a lot like the perfume Cabotine, but waaaay better

 

Wet: I love the sweet grassiness of this scent. Definitely a good one for the spring.

 

Dry: It still smells wonderful!! Sweet sunshine and fresh spring grass, with just the right amount of floral. My only regret is that is doesn't linger as long as I would like.

 

A winner, to be shared my friend who wore Cabotine for 3 years.

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: I need only open the lid to smell the sweet violets wafting up. A beautiful fresh bouquet, quite soft and feminine.

On me: The watery element of the violets vanishes after a few moments on the skin; too bad, it's one of the things I like best about the flower's scent. It and the other blooms have mellowed to a rather generic floral bouquet, good when you want something nice and standard. It does have a bit of an 'older woman' vibe, but I'll keep it and see if I wear it out regardless.

[violetblue]

So light and gorgeous- sometimes violets can be too heavy on me, but this one is soft and beautiful. It reminds me of a bridal bouqet for some reason. I'd love to scent bath products with this!

[Celogrl]

Queen Gertrude somehow strikes me as being a wistful fragrance. It is definitely a mature fragrance, cool, icy and chilly with the beautiful violet at the forefront. Most reviewers have mentioned 'green', but to me this is a very blue scent, making me think of violets that have been laid upon fresh snow. I sadly can't come up with more than that, but it's just what this Queen reminds me of. It is my favorite violet thus far of all I've tried. Lovely.