Regan

[lookingglass]

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

Light, fresh and sweet. The floral is clean, not cloying in the slightest. She is Spring~like...lovely...renewed...not as innocent as she seems. The drydown the the deep vanilla is breathtaking.

A bit like Alice and the Doormouse together. Edited November 11, 2005 by Shollin

[Chrysantza]

In the bottle: Greenish? Sharp. I can't tell where the stephanotis is.

 

On me: I cannot wear orchid. This is my conclusion after trying two orchid-based perfumes which have gone sour on me. Regan has a horrible weird grass-clippings or squashed-lettuce reek on me. Not that those are foul smells per se but I don't want to smell like them! And, to boot, it has a powdery undertone.

 

Verdict: Swap pile. And NO MORE ORCHID. I love orchids but I don't like what my body chemistry does with their smell on me.

[AngellicMystique]

This is a sweet, light floral with definite vanilla tones. Very sweet and pretty.

[empi girl]

Very lovely. This works out to what I've always wanted Snake Oil to be. In fact, it is like a light, clean, less "burnt spice" Snake Oil. There is a sweet vanilla, with a faint spiciness underneath. It is lovely, and even my husband likes it. I don't know if I will get the bottle, as I love Antique Lace, but I might.

 

Edited to add: Don't know what was up with my chemistry last week. Now it is very sweet tropical almost peachy, with hints of vanilla, no spice, not at all the same vanilla as Snake Oil. Same imp, so no accounting for it. Oh well Still nice, but I preferred the other version, as it was more vanilla-y than what I'm getting now.

Edited January 2, 2006 by empi girl

[Katinka]

This one is a shape-shifter. Upstairs in my house, it was mostly vanilla. Downstairs, it was mostly floral. But I think that's part of Regan's appeal -- you're not tied down to just one scent family! I've been looking for a scent that is predominantly vanilla without being "Hi, I'm a cookie", and this might be it. Must try Regan more.

[Em-]

Regan started out very very pretty, but so much so that she was almost headed for the swap pile on the grounds of being too perfumy floral for me to actually wear, loveliness aside.

 

Then the vanilla came out. Wow, did the vanilla come out, along with a touch of herbiness that turns this into something that is similar to Alice for me - one of the prettiest perfumes that I could ever hope to want to wear.

[weaver]

It starts as a sweet vanilla orchid. It's the same orchid as in Queen Mab, gentle and beautiful. Then a steely core shows up. Is it stephanotis? I don't know this note.

 

Ok, I googled stephanotis. Stephanotis basically smells like jasmine. And here's one intersting quote: "Stephanotis is another name for Madagascar jasmine (Stephanotis floribunda) ... When fully open the flower emits a repulsive scent, which is strongest at night..." All right then!

 

In the end I am not sure I like the bitch underneath the sweetheart exterior.

[Thaleia]

In the bottle, Regan is a warmer, darker Queen Mab. The same orchid's there, but warmed by vanilla instead of lightened by roses and florals. She wants you to believe she's just a nice girl, until you turn around and she stabs you in the back.

 

She's a bitch, alright.

 

She says, "Come and get me. I dare you," the second she's on. The orchid's sharpened by stephanotis, which means business, and the vanilla lends enough sweetness to keep me believing that Regan's my friend and means well. After a few minutes, the stephanotis takes center stage (my skin likes jasmine, apparently), and there's no question anymore about who Regan really is. She's screaming, "YES, I AM A BITCH."

 

She ends as a combination of vanilla and jasmine, with Queen Mab's orchids lurking in the background. Maybe she's not so mean after all. I love her. She's the kind of bitch I could only hope to be. 4.5!

[AlaskaSnows]

Wet: Vanilla overlaid with a VERY strong orchid.

 

Dry: The vanilla and orchid meld and mellow and become a sweet, creamy yellowish sort of scent, warm and powdery. Feminine yet fresh. Nice. Sometimes the orchid is a bit imposing. I will keep this one. I totally get the "bitch under the sweet interior" with this. One minute it's creamy, one minute terribly sharp. Intriguing!

[concrescence]

it has a definite vanilla and flowers smell. very perfumey. perhaps that's the orchids. it's fine. it don't think i'd wear something this flowery very often. it's a little high class or something for my taste.

[LittleGreyKitten]

Oh wow, this is an amazing one. It is definitely reminding me of some other general catalogue scent, but heck if I can recall which. It's incredibly creamy, not precisely vanilla on me, but a creamy warm amazing floral. I'm not always a fan of florals but the right ones are just YUMMY. Regan is one. It also tickles me since it's one of my names. Mmmm! Regan is awesome and I need a full size.

 

Full on 5 out of 5. Discovering this today almost made up for me hating all but Smut of the Lupercalias.

[Magda]

Oh, so that's what people mean when they say a scent has gone soapy on them. It's a lovely, floral soap, but soap nonetheless. It was soap from the moment it hit my skin. I waited a few hours to see if it would morph into something non-soapy, but it didn't. It's so lovely in the vial, though, such a rich, creamy floral, that I think I'll keep it for when I get a scent locket.

[PurringPulsar]

Regan

 

In the imp: gorgeous, soft, sweet vanilla with flowers.

Wet on skin: oh, so pretty! There's a slight hint of honey to this, not sure where it comes from, but the scent here is vanilla, honey, and something floral and greenish.

Dry on skin: this is such a delightful scent! It's the same orchid note as Magdalene-that greenish, honeyed scent, I think…with sweet, gentle vanilla and another jasmine-like floral note which I think is stephanotis. It's so pretty and feminine and soft and white, with a hint of tartness thanks to the 'honey' note. I can see why so many people like this…but to me this is a bit like O with flowers, but gentler. It's sugared and sweet but not cloying. The more I smell this, the more I love it.

After a while: oh my goodness. I smell Fairy Jasmine here, with added vanilla and orchid. This is another BPAL that reminds me of Fairy Jasmine/Alkmaar…it's not as identical to FJ as The Perfumed Garden was (well, that actually had a jasmine component to it) but it's very close, and isn't LE! I think it's the stephanotis that is giving a jasmine-like impression. The 'honey' note has become true greenish exotic orchid now, but the vanilla note is wafting like crazy! And that's a good thing…I've noticed a lot of BPAL vanillas do that and I love it!

The drydown is so gorgeous, a sweet, soft, dainty scent of vanilla-orchid and Fairy Jasmine-I mean, stephanotis. I adore this! And there's even a phase when it smells like my beloved Al Araaf!

Verdict: I can see why this has quite a lot of fans, it's truly beautiful. A wonderful vanilla-floral, soft, dainty, pretty and ever so feminine, at first the scent has a slight hint of honey to it, but then it becomes a wonderful fragrance very reminiscent of Lush Fairy Jasmine, but with added vanilla which wafts nicely. It even resembles Al Araaf at times. This isn't cloying or sickly at all-it's light and sweet and pale and so delightful-like a magnet, this scent attracts my nose to my wrist and it's hard to separate the two! This is definitely a big bottle scent, perfect for spring, and perfect for girly moments.

[moon_lemming]

I suppose this is strange because it's not listed in the notes, but for me, Regan is just dripping with honey! In the imp, it's honey and a floral that reminds me of roses, delicious. On, it picks up lemon from somewhere, and the honey kicks up while the florals step back. It reminds me a lot of a stronger Alice, actually.

 

Dry, it makes me want to devour my arm -- vanilla smeared together with honey. It's gorgeous. I'm not sure whether I'll get a bottle because I have so many honey/vanilla goodies already, but the imp is definitely staying here.

[lady_pandora]

This one actually goes really honey-ish on me, or at least that was the way it smelled to my nose. A friend remarked that it smelled a bit like coconut! Anyway, it was this warm sweetness that reminded me a lot of O (maybe O is a similar type of vanilla and *that's* what I'm recognizing here and not the honey? I sometimes fail at picking out notes, but I can usually tell you what they remind me of.)

 

As it dries down, I get a subtle whiff of floral. It's a floral I can't identify--but then, I'm unfamiliar with stephanotis. It's a youthful, almost effervescent floral note, very pretty and sort of flirty.

 

I'm definitely ordering some of this at some point.

[harmonyfb]

Wet, this smells like a hothouse of exotic flowers.

 

Drying, the vanilla rushes to the forefront, with just a hint of exotic flowers underneath.

 

There are apparently two kinds of vanilla used at the lab - one smells yummy and foody, and the other smells...well, kind of like a candle. This one is the latter (in fact, it smells like the vanilla in Lick It and Milk Moon.) My husband says it reminds him of pipe tobacco. I really don't care for it at all.

[Alchemy21599]

In the vial: light floral. Must be the stephanotis because the floral is not as exotic as the other BPAL orchid scents.

 

Wet: Light floral and kind of medicinal. Where is the vanilla?

 

Dry: Medicinal and flower-y. Huh, I tried this twice and had the same experience both times. I am disappointed because orchid scents usually work so well on me.

[feline.by.design]

Regan reminds me quite a bit of Dorian in the initial whiff-sniff, but as the skin chemistry works its magic (damn you!), I smell something else that doesn't quite sit well with me. It smells like sweetly melted plastic. And bug spray.

 

Aw, poo. Tropical blooms just don't play nice with my skin. I can see someone else enjoying the heck out of Regan, but it's too sweetly floral for me.

 

-doreen

[Nekomata]

Bleh, too floral. This smells like orchids in the bottle and dries to a vanilla-y floral.

[GemmaCat]

Initially this is all heady orchid; really in your face. Because my skin tends to amp up florals, it takes a long time for the sweetness of the vanilla to emerge, but it's very rich when it does, reminding me a great deal of vanilla bean SN.

 

Overall, this reminds me a lot of Psyche actually, since it has that nice equalibrium between florals and sweetness.

[PirateMaggie]

A frimp from the Lab. I cannot believe I overlooked it in the catalogue.

 

Lately, my beloved Tamora has been doing an unfortunate Play Doh thing on my skin and I've been looking for a blend to replace her that is similar in spirit. Regan fits the bill. It's also a sweet, golden scent that sounds as though it would smell foody but really doesn't. The vanilla orchid is sweet and lush but not at all sticky.

 

Wet, it smells slightly fruity, but on drydown is most definitely a warm, soft, gentle vanilla orchid. I can't pick out the stephanotis (unless that is what was lending the fruity smell). Throw is slight to medium; it's noticeable close to me but isn't invasive. Regan reminds me of Snake Oil's virgin kid sister, and as such is a perfect daytime work/school partner of the Lab's number-one favourite. Regan sates my vanilla craving in situations when Snake Oil, Hunger, or Blood Kiss might be too much. Staying power is good--I touched up only once about halfway through an 18-hour day and was still getting wafts of it when I was finally able to go home and shower. This is not as complex as Tamora, but it's beautiful. I'm going to require a big bottle, as I've already used up half of my imp.

 

edited for typo

Edited May 1, 2006 by PirateMaggie

[arabella]

First Impression: Honeyed petals.

 

Dries down to: A light, creamy floral.

 

Additonal Comments: This is beautiful but I wish it were stronger. I really have to work at picking up the scent. The vanilla orchid and stephanotis are in perfect balance here.

 

Lasted: Two hours or so.

 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

[Celestyna]

I work in a flowershop and I can't stand stephanotis! It smells like the solution the rats we had to dissect in Bilogy came in. Ickypooh.

 

I keep waiting for the medicinal portion to die down, but it's been 30 minutes and I give up.

[elfmaiden]

This is my first Vanilla scent from BPAL and I'm really liking it! From the imp it was very floral with the barest hint of Vanilla hiding in the background. On my skin though and for the next hour the Orchid dimmed and the Vanilla came to the front and centre!!

 

Again I think I amp the sweet notes alot so this is what I was hoping for!

 

Love it!

 

Jenn

[beeboppin]

I really liked this at first, a rich sweet floral that smelled 'lavender' to me. Unfortunately, after drydown, it went very plastic-chemical-ick with a strong, unpleasant and intrusive throw. I have had good luck so far with BPAL vanilla and orchid notes, so I'm at a loss...I suppose I will blame the stephanotis.