The Snow Maiden

[puck_nc]

Ylang ylang, osmanthus, spring berries, and daffodil cloaked in hoarfrost.

Origin: decant from eviltemptressdq's circle

Initial Thoughts: I didn't try this back in 2006. Maybe it was because I was still relatively new to BPAL then and inexperienced. Maybe I looked at "berries" and associated it with blackberry/raspberry. Maybe I looked at "hoarfrost" and assumed "dirt". Whatever the reason, I saw the daffodil this time around and decided to try it.

In the Vial: The evergreen version of the BPAL snow notes, with an herbal undertone. Reminiscent of Skadi, if I remember correctly, and of Mistletoe and this year's The First Soft Snow.

Wet: The evergreen is strong, but underneath there are florals stirring and an edge that I think is the berry. This is so chilly it's still cool on my skin after several sniffs.

Drydown: I need to do a side-by-side to be sure, but this is most definitely giving me a Skadi vibe. Rich cool evergreens with an underlying tinge of berry and floral and herbal.

Verdict: If the side-by-side confirms that this is the closest to Skadi I'll ever get beyond my half-decant, I'll definitely be grabbing a bottle or two.

[Prism]

in bottle- frost on red berries.

 

wet - berry, with frost, and i think osmanthus (leaves and flowers I think? there's an evergreen scent) in the background.

dry - there's the ylang ylang and lillies. it's now mostly evergreen but i can get flowers and berries and frost still.

 

The osmanthus isn't working out for me here. It's reminiscint of other berry/evergreen/snow scents that have been released over yule, but the osmanthus turns masculine slightly on me and becomes the dominant note.

 

Rating - 4/10

 

 

[izile]

'09 version:

 

in the decant: fruit and flowers sweet, almost no hint of "cold" like a lot of the other "snowy" scents.

 

wet: Very sweet. There's now a kind of powdery, soft, cool-ish scent to it as well (powder not the Baby Powder of Doom). More fruit than flowers now, but I can't quite name that fruit.

 

dry: much more of the powdery, soft and cool-ish now. It's still sweet, but there seems to be something at least attempting to cut the sweetness, I don't think it's pine, exactly, but it is evergreen-y.

 

I'm uncertain of this one.

[lunaticana]

oh wow. I love it!

so yummy..those berries make it a very cute and pretty scent to use whenever you feel girly

ylang gives it a sexy touch, which is always good right hehe

[ami226]

On the skin: Smells kind of like snow on branches with some floral hint. And tart berries.

[musichappens]

EVERGREEN. All I get is evergreen. In fact it smells exactly like the Evergreen room spray that I purchased from BBW last year. Not a bad scent, but not something I would wear as a perfume.

[KesHiro]

Review is for the 2009 version.

 

This is a very pretty, feminine perfume. In the bottle, I get mostly berries with a touch of yellow florals. Once I have it on it does not morph much, with both the frosty and floral notes coming out a bit more and blending with the berries. Like her grandfather Ded Moroz, Snow Maiden seems to combine together both the warm and cold aspects of a sunny winter day, with chill surrounding the flora of the forest.

 

This is very lovely and delicate, with a reasonable throw -- any stronger and I might have gotten a headache, but it stays just low enough to give pleasing wafts whenever I move my arms. I find that it also works well when I use it in combination with Ded Moroz (with Moroz on the wrists and Maiden on the arms). I also find this comes quite close to a lot of the mainstream scents available in the department store, so if you want to enable a friend who enjoys florals, this might a good candidate.

 

This is so pretty and I'm glad I decided to buy the bottle unsniffed.

Edited December 12, 2009 by Kejiaron

[goblinshark]

2009 version. I actually bought this on accident; I meant to get Snow White because I loved Snow White 2008 so much and failed to get a bottle before it was gone. But i think Snow Maiden is actually a lot like SW 2008! Snow + crisp florals. It smells like a classy lady to me. love it.

[divaberry]

I received a decant of Snow Maiden from the sale forum just last week along with a couple other yules, my first LEs to play with :-)

 

My first impression was pure pine candle, and I didn't like it at all...but then as I went about my Yuletide affairs, namely, singing concerts in churches decked in pine boughs, I started to smell something in natural pine I'd forgotten about. There is a sweetness to pine, not the harsh, sharp, woody, pseudo-minty scent I generally associate with pine, but a sweet sap scent that I started to crave. And so I gave Snow Maiden another try.

 

And since then, I have worn it every day :-) I don't get the berries or flowers at all, I just get a sweet sugary pine and snow scent that keeps growing on me. This is how I'd imagine Charlie Brown's little tree would smell, all sweetness and snow and gentle pine. Very nice :-)

[MeiLin]

In the decant: Kinda spring-scented-candle-y, to be truthful.

 

Wet: That odd, berry-candle scent, daffodils. No ylang ylang, or maybe that's what's giving the berries the candle impression.

 

Dry: Meh.

[Sawasdee]

'09 version

Snowy ozone pine coldness, mixed with bright florals. No hint of berries, darn it. This is a very clean smell, reminiscent of fabric softener dryer sheets. Very strong throw. The florals verge on being headache inducing.

[DeltaCat]

~09~

 

Sweet. Smells of sweet-tarts to me. Sadly no daffodils. Straight up sweet-tarts with maybe a hint of berry and evergreen.

[reynardine]

In decant: Chilly florals

 

Wet: Aquatic scent, very cold, with some underlying floral? There’s a touch of spice here as well.

 

Drydown: That “spice” was evergreen (maybe pine). It’s really taking over in the drydown.

 

Later: This has turned into a forest scent. Very wintery. Reminds me a bit of Yew Trees, just softer. There’s a sweetness to it as well. Have to test it again before the Yules go down—I might want a bottle of this.

 

[sqwook]

I love this so much I can't even review it. Can I just say, I do much better when the notes are *not* listed, as they weren't for The Snow Maiden 2009. I am REALLY terrible at knowing what will work on me, and on knowing what a given list of notes will result in. I never would have ordered this had I seen the list of notes from the prior release. AND I LOVE THIS.

 

In the bottle: OMG, brightness, light, sweet frasier fir and bright sweet herbs, maybe a hint of cinnamon.

 

On me: Like Christmas and the first of spring, all rolled into one. It's not floral in any normal sense. I really can't describe this, it's not like any other BPAL I've tried (perhaps a bit like the sweet drydown of Yggdrasil maybe, after any semblance of wintergreen has faded from Ygg).

 

It is JUST WONDERFUL in some ineffable way.

 

This reminds me of The Thymes' Frasier Fir line, which is just fabulous. FF is more fir-tree, Snow Maiden is sweeter.

 

Love love love.

[Invidiana]

I absolutely, positively love this scent and was so lucky to get it in a swap. It came out like the loveliest sweet and slightly frosty vanilla cream with an undercurrent of juicy winter berries and a distant hint of evergreens. I'm also getting a big kick out of the label while huffing my wrist.

Edited December 30, 2009 by Invidiana

[Katherynne]

09 - evergreens, berries, frost, and cleanliness. this is a kissing cousin to villainess's "Frostbite" on my skin, and as such, is totally and completely bottle-worthy. Snow Maiden is so bright; silvery winter, like a blanket of snow untouched by wandering feet.

 

It also has a very strong throw!

Edited January 8, 2010 by Katherynne

[fairnymph]

2009

 

Extremely pale nearly colourless yellow oil. BPAL's piney-hairspray snow note, first and foremost, with florals below - more osmanthus and daffodil than y-y, fortunately - and some definite fruity sweetness, though not something I can readily identify.

 

PINEY PINEY CHEMICALLY SNOW, yech. And unfortunately the ylang ylang really pops up, making this all together very heavy and cloying and just far too much - bad drugstore perfume-style, trashy hookers, cheap teens. The sweetness is a bit candied, like fake strawberry lollipops.

 

Fading a little - thank god - but still very harsh. It reminds me greatly of L'Inverno, though less sweet. The daffodil adds a lovely creaminess, and the osmanthus an almost citrusy brightness, but they simply can't compete. The fruity note remains light and pleasant.

 

Going a bit soapy on me and the osmanthus is a bit sharper/brighter/stronger, but not a lot of evolution beyond that. Still mostly that nasty snow note, with everything else present but smothered below. Still incredibly throw (to the point of painful distraction).

 

Uh, wow. My shirt came down and rubbed most of it off and now it's really nice and reminds me ALOT of Kitsune-Tsuki, with osmanthus and daffodil and something musk. The ylang ylang is less heady and there's only a hint of that horrible snow, and the berries are a vague sweetness. Alas, I really can't handle the earlier stages and a hint of snow is a hint too much. Strong throw and longevity.

[starfish327]

2009, decanted today.

 

in the bottle: light mint, sweetness, and berries. i'm not getting any florals at all, just mint and berries.

 

wet: more minty sweetness.

 

it reminds me of frozen mixed drinks actually.

 

dry: light, still sweet, and almost boozy. i'm hoping that some of the florals come out more as this ages.

[pandorasmuse]

I'm very very excited. I didn't think I was going to try any 2009 Yules, as I only got into BPAL in December of '09. Plus, this has DAFFODILS in it--my favorite flower!

 

In the imp: The oil is very pale yellow. It smells like delicate florals with crisped minty, frosty edges. I really am thinking of flowerbeds after a frost.

 

Wet: More light florals with a hint of minty sweetness, almost like candy. It's very pleasant, a nice winter floral smell. I only smell the barest hint of daffodil. I think the ylang ylang is dominating. Which certainly isn't bad! This is a pretty scent.

 

Drydown: Retreat! Everything retreats. The flowers are somewhat diminished, and the frosty mint has smoothed out its edges.

 

Later: A bit generic. Pretty, but nothing too special on me. I'll keep searching for that perfect daffodil...

 

EDIT: Snow Maiden, I apologize for calling you "nothing too special." I love daffodils, so I wore the decant a few times even though I wasn't super-impressed with the initial test, and I fell in love. Thank goodness I changed my mind before it was too late to order a bottle. Snow Maiden, I love you.

Edited February 8, 2010 by pandorasmuse

[voodoocatwoman]

This is the scent of evergreens. It's clean and fresh and untouched. Definitely a winter fragrance.

[CiaoBonefish]

This is for the '09 version.

 

Wow. This is so awesome. I can't quite make out the individual notes apart from the spring berries, but I can tell you what this reminds me of: a more feminine, lighter, sweeter, Old Moon (I LOVE Old Moon by the way).

 

In the decant this smelled promising, some kind of cold forest-y scent with berries and pretty flowers. It didn't seem very sweet, but was surprisingly sharp and green to my nose. Really pretty snow-forest is what I'm getting, but a snow-forest that is almost thawing for spring.

 

I applied this and it instantly became less sharp and much sweeter. I get snow covered forests with spring berries peeping through and the first display of gorgeous daffodil and ylang ylang. As time goes by the flowers and berries get stronger until balancing out the green trees. So feminine but green and cold at the same time. Lovely! I can smell the spring turning into a frost covered spring!

 

I don't think I'll be grabbing a bottle though because I have Old Moon, and feel it satisfies my ultimate snow-forest blend need. Gorgeous, gorgeous blend though. Definitely recommended! If it comes back next year, I may have to pick up a bottle

 

[milo]

Wet, this is ozone/snow overload. I really don't get much else. As it dries, cold florals appear, and it really is kind of pretty, but rather generic. This kind of smells like the Snow Maiden bath oil, but with no evergreens. Snow rarely works on me, so I'm not surprised here.

[Ishianti]

When I first received this and sniffed, all I got was this overwhelming pine scent that totally made my eyes burn.

 

Then this past week I decided that I needed something different than my usual sweet scents and gave it another try. I guess either it warmed up a bit since my first sniff or there was just something different with my body chemistry, but the pine had definitely toned down and I could smell more florals and a touch of sweetness that I really liked.

 

As it dried the florals definitely increased. The berries weren't emphasized much.

 

So taking this one out of my 'get rid of' stash and putting it into my winter scents rotation.

[svelterose]

On wet, smells like a fizzy drink. Dry, it smells like a man's soap. I can't quite figure it out but it's strong, not too feminine, a bit sweet but only if you stick your nose in it. It isn't a favorite but I do appreciate the many notes. Dry down - smells like perfumed spit.

[imaginaryheroes]

To me, it smells different on the skin than it does when taking a sniff from the bottle, so it was a pleasant surprise after ten or so minutes went by and I curiously sniffed at my wrist. It's not an overly feminine sent, but I don't believe it's masculine, either. It reminds me of midwest winters! And Christmas! And a fresh feeling, which is especially why I love it.