Regan

[grrrlennyl]

A deceptively sweet orchid vanille with a faint trace of stephanotis.

at first: sweet, but musky.
on: lovely. definitely reminds me of lush's butterball.
half an hour later: sweet and beautiful. floral and soft. i love this.
1 hour later: still sweet and lovely.
2 hours later: still sweet and musky.
overall: i love this. i'm so glad i found something butterball-like.

[silver_springs]

This was a very pretty and elegant scent. I could picture a gorgeous woman in a flowing white evening gown wearing this.

 

While, I did like this one. Nothing really stood out for me. I don't think I'll be purchasing a big bottle.

 

Lovely but just not me. But something to be said is that my mini-daschund absolutely loved this scent. He licked my wrists, I haven't gotten a reaction like that from him with any of the other scents.

[Lilithlefay]

Vanilla with a bit of a floral to it. I smell something slightly smokey as this wears. It isn't an edible kind of vanilla but it is creamy. The floral comes out more too, but the vanilla stays as a creaminess underneath. Phenomenal.

[spanishviolet]

For the first twenty minutes or so I had this on, I was being absolutely smothered in orchids. My boyfriend said I smelled really good, and I'm glad he thought so, but I could barely stand the smell of my wrists & had to keep them trapped against my body for a while.

 

Then all of a sudden, I was left with a lovely floral vanilla, not as foody as I usually like, but quite beautiful and ladylike. If I could only get there without that initial blast of orchid ... I'm glad I got to try this imp, but it has been passed on to a friend now. Maybe she likes orchids more than I do.

[Orodemniades]

Ah, very creamy and oh-so-slightly sweet. It's not vanilla-y to my nose, but it does have that same kind of soft 'n' gentle resonance. I'll have to try it again when it's colder outside.

 

Oro

[herdivineshadow]

This smells very much like the Honey B ballistic from lush - very sweet and warm, it also smells a lot like the honey chocolate I've been nibbling on lately. I love it!

[Ajila]

Wet on me this was very sweet and slightly sharp vanilla. Dry on me it's like delicate powdery florals drizzled with honey. While this is very pretty, I don't think it's me.

[Little Bird]

I've worn Regan 3 or 4 times now to try to give it a fair and proper review. It's odd because it starts off rather perfumey and strongly white floral on me, which I hate, but it quickly dries down into something light and almost edible. It does get powdery. It's not a bad powder though.

 

It smells like a creamy vanilla dusting powder. With perfects some musky floral lingering in the background. It's very light and comforting. This is a 'wearing sweatpants and watching TV curled up with the boy' fragrance for me. Lazy, comforting, and ready for a nap.

[coulrophobe]

Holy crap, that's vanilla!

 

On me, the florals are very, very subtle... the soft, creamy vanilla note really takes center stage.

 

There's not a lot of difference between wet and dry stages with my chemistry. All in all, its a lovely and very feminine blend... I can see some of my guy friends really digging this on me. Hmm, can something still smell "innocent" if there are not-so-innocent ulterior motives involved?

[Muppetk]

In the imp, and wet on me: very pretty! Hard to ID. It's almost like a honey floral,rather than a vanilla floral.

 

Drying: slightly less honey, slightly more fruity, but still pretty.

 

Dry: oh that figures. Dissappears quickly.

 

Dry: The scent stays true -- honey-flower (I guess that's the scent of orchid?). Very pretty. But is absorbed quickly enough that the throw is pretty minimal after a pretty short period of time. Still, this might be worth a shot at trying again another day (maybe I'm having an odd nose day) and/or mixing into a lotion or something 'cause it's SO pretty.

 

Dry several hours later: Hey neat! This is one of those scents that gets stronger again over time! It's still the same scent -- rich honeyed orchid (or rich honeyed Stephan... whatver that note was). Either way, it's pretty. I will seriously be thinking about buying a bottle of this.

 

EDIT, 4-5 years later: As it turns out, that was a fairly aged imp I had there. I wound up buying a bottle, and it smelled different. More the vanilla-orchid I was expecting. Nice enough, but not the beautiful honey-drenched flower. A couple of weeks back, I pulled out the old bottle I had of this, and it's apparently finally aged into honeyed-orchid again! Whodathunkit!

Edited March 3, 2010 by Muppetk

[erikasilverstein]

Sweet vanilla/floral on my skin. Goes a bit powdery over time, and actually has quite a lot of throw.

 

I like the sweeter honey-vanilla notes, but am getting too much floral for my taste. Good experment, but off to swaps (again -- as I received this in a swap, lol).

[LiberAmoris]

My review of Regan is much-delayed. I got an imp a year ago, tried it once, wasn't infatuated, and promptly put it into a pile to give to a friend who needed a little enabling.

 

I recently got another imp, as a freebie from the Lab, and thought I should at least give it another try before sending it to the swap pile. It's so funny how my tastes have changed since I started wearing BPAL...now I love Regan. I don't wear it often, but it's an imp I like to have around. Regan is almost like milk and honey on me, with the teeniest smidge of mint. It actually reminds me a bit of Milk Moon. On me, it's Milk Moon with white florals.

 

Here's to trying things twice.

[maewitch]

Ya, I think this vanilla and I just don't see eye to eye. On me it smells just like those cheap, powdery discount department store vanilla spritzers. I may have liked this when I was thirteen.

 

Off to swaps it goes.

[slave1]

In Bottle: Vanilla and floral

 

On Skin: The vanilla is sweet but overshadowed by the dominant orchid. I love vanilla scents but this one doesn’t seem to stand out to me. It’s pretty, but not really unique. There is a bit of a honey note which I love, but I’d rather wear a scent with that note being dominant, like “O”. I will keep my imp, but I don’t think I’ll order a bottle.

[niter]

Bottle

Soft floral base that I belive to be the orchid with a creamy vanilla note. There is a tweak at the end of my breath in that I can only guess is the stephanotis. I love these three note mixes because they help teach me notes for distinguishing them in more complex blends.

 

Wet

The vanilla is a very subtle base, but I pick it out first from familarity. Next the orchid. There is a scent of florals that make me think of baby powder (and baby diapers and baby tolietries). Very clean mix.

 

Dry

The vanilla is dominating now, but the orchid is fighting with it on my skin. I keep catching flits of the stephanotis, but I do not get as much as I want. This particular vanilla is being amplified by my skin into a giant room candle. Gorgeous scent, but it is not for my tastes for personal wear. However, my husband the vanilla slut is in lust with this scent. He grabbed my wrist and licked it causing me to pout that I would not be able to review the scent properly.

[urraca]

I knew I'd love this one; the question was how much. The answer is a lot. Like many people, it reminded me in its sweet orchidy vanillaness of both O and Queen Mab so I tried them all together on different bits of my arm. First I should say that trying them together probably changed my perception of each one. But they were quite distinct, more so than my sense memory of them. Queen Mab was much more floral while O was distinguished by its amber. Regan seemed to stand in the middle. I liked its faint hint of stephanotis, so much so that I would have liked more.

[LyndaM]

There isn't much to say about Regan that hasn't already been said, it's exactly as described, orchid and vanilla and marvelous. I love it, it's just perfect for a soothing bedtime scent, or when I just want something light and beautiful to wear. I enjoy wearing vanilla that isn't too foody, and this fits the bill perfectly.

 

I just got my imp today, and it made my top ten (out of 40 or so BPAL imps tested). It is pretty light, I really slathered to get it to the level I wanted it. I'll need to get a 10ml, I think I'd use up a 5ml too fast. I just wish it lasted longer! It was gone without a trace in about three and a half hours. All the more reason to slather, and slather often, I suppose.

 

Edit: This lasts longer than I first supected. I put it on before bed, and I could still smell it pretty clearly in the morning. It made my pillow smell heavenly. I think I overwhelmed my nose with it yesterday and couldn't smell it for awhile. A definite favorite.

 

Update: Almost 100 BPAL scents tested now, and Regan remains in my top 5. There are only a few scents I truly need (as opposed to just wanting and coveting like crazy), and Regan is one of them.

Edited October 25, 2005 by LyndaM

[Firewaver]

This smells like a garden party attended by sophisticated artiso-faeries... nibbling daintily on sugared orchids and sipping liquid sunlight.

[angharad]

In the imp, mainly florals. Not very heavy, so I thought I'd take a risk (since heavy florals make me ill) and apply some. Wet on my wrist, still mostly floral. Now, hours later, I can still smell Regan on my wrist, and it's beautiful. At some point over the past several hours the vanilla has come out and blended so well with the florals that it makes me sigh very happily. I'm not sure if I'll get a bottle of this, but the imp is definitely a keeper.

 

ETA: The more I wear this, the more I absolutely love it.

Edited October 21, 2005 by angharad

[puck_nc]

Origin: Swapped for it on LJ

 

In the Bottle: Vanilla and flowers. Very, very vanilla.

 

Wet: Still very vanilla, with an undertone of pale flowers. Not bad.

 

Drydown: Hmm...either the orchid or stephanotis starts smelling like baby powder. I bet it's the stephanotis, since I think this is the first time I've tried something with that note.

 

Verdict: Well, it's not for me, but it's a pretty scent in the bottle. I think I'll try making a lotion of it for someone else.

[merivelle]

I got an imp of this and just ordered a 5ml bottle. I was pleasantly surprized by this scent, as I was originally put off by its name. I do like vanilla scents. This is vanilla and floral and sweet and lovely! I LIKE IT!

[styro]

My first BPAL review...

 

Do you have a copy of Nigella Lawson's How to Be a Domestic Goddess to hand? If you do, open it to one of the inside covers. See the nine pictures of smiling 1950s housewives? Skip past the ones who look like they could actually be someone's Mom in real life, and focus on pictures four and six (the Claudette Colbert-type measuring milk as if milk-measuring were a gesture in classical ballet, and the Donna Reed-type getting a head-start on the cocktail hour as she sets a tiny cake next to a vase of tulips). Those ladies...are what Regan makes me feel like.

 

It's the combination of heady floral sophistication and warm vanilla comfort that makes Regan conjure up the image of a classic 1950s domestic goddess for me: it's the scent of a perfect hostess, a distinctly retro yummy mummy--impeccably coiffed, standing in a gleaming turquoise kitchen in pearls, high heels, and a spotless white apron over a ravishing New Look gown, putting the last meticulous touches on an elegant layer cake.

 

There's something so nostalgically feminine about this scent that it's almost politically incorrect. I suspect that that's why, according to some reviewers here, Regan has proven to be a bit of an emotional button-pusher for the men who have smelled it--i.e., in Lorencita's account of the husbands who "wanted their wives to smell like this" and ViolentKitten's description of her man's "dreamy" look as he told her:

 

“You smell like...home... coming home. Like what I want you to smell like when you waft into a room [...] comforting, yet sexy."

My own SO's reaction was likewise unexpectedly fervent.

 

For all its sexy domesticity, however, this is in no way a non-feminist scent. It's self-assured, on top of things, and there's a hint of something at the heart of it that makes me think Regan is the kind of woman who could use one of her stylish high heels as a weapon if necessary.

 

I don't see myself baking a cake in taffeta and pearls any time soon...but I do see myself wearing this scent. :-)

Edited November 3, 2005 by styro

[Orodemniades]

Wet and initial drydown: Ah, very creamy and oh-so-slightly sweet. It's not vanilla-y to my nose, but it does have that same kind of soft 'n' gentle resonance. I'll have to try it again when it's colder outside. Reminds me of Avon's SkinSoSoft, in fact it's reall a skin scent more than anything else...nice.

 

Overall: Hours later, this turns into an even softer scent, but loses the SSS aspect. On me it doesn't smell vanilla-y, but again, there is just a very gentle sweetness that isn't overtly floral. I like it, but I'm not sure I'll ever wear it again, if you know what I mean.

 

Oro

Edited October 19, 2005 by Orodemniades

[Ankhet]

Regan:

In the bottle: Maybe my senses are still shocked from trying Snake Oil, but I'm not smelling much of anything, except some kind of sickly-sweet flower.

Wet: Ah, okay, it's regular flower now, not sickening at all. Almost like dried flowers, potpourri, or an Illuminations candle.

Drydown: Ick. That sickly-sweet note is back, almost like O, but not as vomit-inducing.

Conclusion: sell imp

[AliBabble]

i was always curious to try this one, so it was lucky to receive a frimp in the last order. thanks!

 

well, it's pretty much straight-up vanilla for me, a bit of nice flowers (the stephanotis i suppose) in the beginning, then just vanilla. it's that dark, plasticky vanilla, but i don't mean that in a bad way...it's a rich, addicting type of vanilla for me. reminds me of "love's baby soft" from junior high. it's kind of a junior high scent to me, for some reason.... but i like it. not very exotic, but sexy in its way.