Lucy Westenra

[Alchemy21599]

A wanton beauty, corrupt, hypnotic, seductive, and feral: magnolia, iris, Moroccan rose, frankincense, crushed jasmine blossom, blood orange, tobacco flower and white musk.

I received this imp in a swap with a lovely Forumite

In the imp: yummy blood orange!

Wet: blood orange with a combination of floral notes.

Dry: oh, noes! How did this turn to powder? Even the strong citrus could not rescue this scent from a powdery doom. Alas, not for me.

[slave1]

LUCY WESTENRA

 

In Bottle: Soapy floral

 

On Skin: I smell the rose right away, slightly sour. The white musk adds a clean soapy note. The florals are the strongest notes by far, a big beautiful bouquet. The blood orange is sour and fruity and almost not noticable around all these bold florals. The frankincense offers a soft incesne that helps cut through the extreme florals. I’m actually shocked when the scent starts to fade right away. A blend that started fo floral and strong has faded into a soft and very subtle floral blend. It’s pretty but much to subtle for me, I like stronger fragrances. Very feminine and to me it doesn’t really fit it’s description. I don’t find it corrupt or seductive, to me it’s more innocent and plainly pretty. Overall it has a light throw and very short wearlength.

[Phaedra]

Wet this is orange or bergamont maybe mixed with a sweet almost foody note. Like honey and nuts. When first on it's light and fresh florals. After a couple of minutes it warms up and becomes a bit powdery. This doesn't really change much on me. I can't really smell the frakincense either This smells like a department store perfume on me. It's nice but I'm not sure if I'll keep it or not. It is very long lasting though.

[harmonyfb]

In the imp, this was very commercial-smelling. On my skin, it was a gentle blend of lavender and rose. Very feminine and light - it had very little throw, and was quite pretty. Unfortunately, it turned a little soapy at the end.

[Em-]

Mmmm, very sweet and fruity, with a hint of something darker - probably the musk and the frankensinse. Surprisingly, to me, the jasmine is behaving and just adding a floral tinge to the blend, but not causing any pain.

 

I really like this!

[filigree_shadow]

When it's wet I get a strong orange scent, and as its drying it becomes more floral. Well, mostly all floral, actually. My nose has a terrible time trying to discern floral notes from each other because I'm not familiar enough with the way each individual flower smells. So I can't say whether the scent smells like one particular flower or another, but I can say that what I smell is not singularly rose or jasmine (which are two I can usually pick out).

 

Unfortunately this is not the kind of floral scent that I like, though. I tend to like soft white florals or the ones that smell sad -- I like them to be creamy or dewy. This one doesn't smell soft at all (although it does smell feminine). There's nothing in particular wrong with this scent, but to me there's doesn't seem to be anything in particular right about it either. I guess it's just not my kind of scent.

[Naamah_Darling]

This is so floral it's not funny. Immediately on opening the bottle a cool raft of flowery notes assails me; most prominent are the rose and jasmine. The strong citric tinge of blood orange makes this soapy.

 

It goes on with more subtlety. The musk and frankincense give it a hint of depth it wouldn't otherwise have; the magnolia is a fresh, wet, heavy note. There's a fresh greenness here, like crushed petals. Overall, the very picture of lush beauty on the verge of overripeness. A flower so fully-bloomed it seems the petals will fall at one touch. The orange keeps it from being too sweet, but only just.

 

This one is more interesting the drier it gets. Once the florals die back a bit and the citrus fades, it's very strongly incense and musk, and it lasts forever. This phase of it is beautiful, but I don't know if it's worth getting slapped around by the flowers.

 

In the end, it's just like Lucy: pretty, but doomed, and at its most alluring when it's half-dead.

[lapillus]

In bottle: yellow and thick, rather bubblegummy.

 

Wet: more of a balance between floral and bubblegum.

 

Dry: more floral but nothing particularly striking

 

Later: fades rapidly, leaving very faint floral sweetness behind.

 

Summary: Not exciting enough to look for more. May trade.

[savage_rose]

I can't believe I never reviewed this! This is one of my favorites from the series, but is not very wanton. Sweet floral with a sharp undertone I can't quite make out. This is definitely pre-vampire, white dress, "Ooh I do so love Arthur and my dear Mummy" Lucy. White dresses and the innocent act, all the way .

[shellyshells]

For the first two minutes, this is a blood orange magnolia flower... then poof! all gone and I'm left with white musk. Argh... if only the white musk didn't dominate

[alicia_stardust]

The jasmine and blood orange sit the strongest on my skin, followed closely by the skin musk. Those three notes alone complete this scent for me. I love the mood of it and I feel it very accurately captures the character of Lucy Westenra.

[cinderfallen]

I get mostly the orange floral, but it gets strangely powdery.... Not super compatible with my chemistry.

[mystery213]

I had such high hopes for this with the notes listed (though a bit fearful of the Jasmine)...

 

Thankfully, the Jasmine did not really show up at all, which is a bit odd, as I usually amp Jasmine quite a bit. This did not really send much out for the noted florals at all though, but instead started out sweet and powdery with the Orange Blossom being the only floral really coming through. After a short drydown time, this went really musky and powdery, and lost most of the sweetness for me. I actually got a smell a bit reminicent of hairspray underneath it all!

Wet, it was nice (I love Orange Blossom!) but it just ends up waaaayy to powdery for me on the drydown.

[jessu]

I tried to guess the notes on this one without looking up the description, and my best guess was lotus, orange, and white musk... hey, two out of three ain't bad!

 

I guessed lotus because I am also getting the bubblegum thing, and it doesn't fade away. I don't mind it, though. I don't get ANY rose at all, which is fine.

 

In color, this scent is a yellow-orange-gold with a hint of pink. It reminds me of afternoon light filtered through a sitting room window, when you can see the specks of dust floating in the streams of light.

 

This scent is very sexy and sophisticated, and a little playful. This is the scent I picked for a classy holiday cocktail party.

[alhbooks]

The orange scent everyone mentions is in the background, but happily it sneaks in and around the blended florals, no one of which is standing front and center. Losing my ability to articulate beyond "ooh, niiiice...." but as it dries down, the floral mix is softening to more iris than anything else.

Edited December 2, 2007 by alhbooks

[moonstonemama]

In the bottle: old fashioned floral perfume. it smells familiar somehow, like something my mom used to wear, or something of my mom's I used to borrow. I can't quite place it.

 

Wet: the same as in the bottle.

 

30 minutes later: powdery vanilla disaster.

 

 

I really thought I would love this, I thought the description sounded just gorgeous! I don't know how this went to vanilla on me, but that means I'll never wear it again and I have to wash it off soon or it'll give me a migraine.

[glass_cat]

When Lucy Westenra first came out, I was very new to BPAL, so I wasn't ready to start taking chances on LE's yet. Otherwise, I'm sure Lucy Westernra would have been one of my first purchases. The character Lucy Westenra is a major motif in my life. People compare me to her, send me things that have to do with her.... you get the picture. Of course there is Lucy's Kiss in the general catalog, which I have and adore, but I've always wanted to score a bottle of the LE Lucy Westenra as well. I mean... there are two BPALs based on one of my favorite literary characters. How could I not want both? Needless to say I was thrilled to win a bottle on eBay recently for a very reasonable price.

 

Lucy's Kiss, with it's innocent Victorian lady blend of linen and rose, always made me think of Lucy before she was turned into a vampire. Lucy Westenra makes me think of her after she was turned into a vampire. There's something in it that is quite aquatic, and it makes it smell incredibly clean and fresh, reminding me of Lucy's original spirit. However, the heavier florals, the blood orange, and something vaguely spicy and funereal that I can't quite identify make this smell like the bolder, blood-thirsty Lucy. This is still very much the scent of a beautiful, dignified, Victorian lady, but it's a lady that's been around the block and learned a thing or two about the dark side of life.

 

After it's been on a while, Lucy Westenra dries down to a heavy-ish floral aquatic. I will need to remember to apply it with a light hand in the future, but I absolutely love it! It reminds me of Black Dahlia, actually, and that has been my go-to BPAL for days I'm feeling vampy for a very long time. I like that I now have an alternate for those days. I'm definitely glad I purchased this. I can tell I'll be wearing it often.

Edited April 8, 2008 by glass_cat

[gchris]

Vial: Nice fruity floral

 

Wet: A little better green and fruity. This smells nice. This feels tingly on my skin.

 

Dry: This seems get astringent.

[stillalive]

Lovely. Absolutely lovely. Soft Victorian florals that don't go horrible on my skin. Similar to the Brides of Dracula without so much bitter amber. Quite beautiful.

[donnatron]

Bottle: Strong magnolia and tobacco flower with a bit of sweet tart dustiness from the blood orange.

 

Wet: Lucy Westenra smells like orange candies. A little powdery, a little sweet/tart. Very... lickable but not in a sexual way. Just like the type of orange candies you can only buy in specialty sweet shops.

 

Dry: Fully dry the florals really unfold and give this a beautiful edge. The strongest notes are the magnolia and tobacco flower with traces of the rose and jasmine. The frankincense is adding a slight, spicy kick and what I thought was a moonflower note is probably the white musk. This isn't necessarily what I would classify as feral for myself but I can definitely see how this would be considered feral on a proper Victorian lady. This is wanton.

 

Throw: Not particularly strong. It wafts--I definitely get new and different hints of it all day.

 

Overall: A strong, classical but still unique floral. I wouldn't necessarily classify it as a holy grail scent but am glad to have the bottle and it will see heavy rotation if spring ever starts actually springing around here.

[rayvn1]

This was a bit harsh and floral on me. It softened up after awhile and the rose became more prominent. Hours later I still have some jasmine and a bit of frankincense. Not for me

[Lamia]

This is a nicely dark floral scent. It seems to cycle between that and a curious paste, but the floral is dominant.

 

Interesting scent, although it seems to be fading fairly quickly.

[fieryredhead]

This scent holds a scent memory for me that I can't quite place yet. I really think I used to wear something similar YEARS ago but I can't quite place it yet. Does this scent smell familiar to anyone else? Will come back and edit if I can figure it out.

 

Lovely scent, quite a bit of throw and lasting power. I am not a huge floral fan so I bought this only for it's name but I am glad that I did!

[Venneh]

I'm getting magnolia and frankincense and a bit of iris out of the tester. We'll see how this goes, but not optimistic. Ends up being mostly frankincense, not quite for me, sadly.

Edited June 13, 2010 by Venneh

[OctoberGwen]

I've always found Lucy the most compelling part of Dracula, so I was very disappointed to learn that I'd become a BPALer long after this series came out. Sometimes I am truly thankful for eBay.

 

Anyway, to me, Lucy Westenra (the scent) perfectly captures the character as depicted in the Coppola film version, "Bram Stoker's Dracula." It's a sweet floral on top with just enough of a resinous undertone to make it interesting. The quality of the floral aspect is youthful but not girlish; nor is it stuffy or Victorian...it's lush and heady with a very faint whiff of something that teeters on corruption.

 

I imagine this is precisely the scent that wafted behind Lucy as she ran through the hedge maze towards her doom in the film.

 

Perfect.