Hope

[contrary_wise]

Simplicity and innocence, gleefully despoiled! Sugared rose.

In the imp: When I first got this decant, Hope smelled like sugar with a little bit of rose underneath. After six weeks or so, it now smells more like soft roses with a bit of sugar. Either way, very true to the lab's description.

Wet on skin: This lovely soft rose scent peeks out some more. It dances back and forth with the sugar so sometimes I smell sweet and sometimes I smell floral and sometimes I smell both. I'm surprised at how happy this makes me. It's a little powdery, but powdery like floral candy covered in confectioner's sugar, like rose pastilles might be.

Drydown: This, like previous reviews suggest, becomes creamy, almost vanilla rose.

It's yet another of the light simple pretty feminine floral blends that I'm discovering I like so much. The rose calms down the longer this is on my skin, getting softer and creamier with a powdery edge. You'd think I'd hate this because I usually don't like powdery scents. But, like the powdery sweet lemon that Polyhymnia dries down to, Hope maintains that sugary note that pleases my nose. It's lovely, giving me a calm and centered feeling as I sniff Hope floating off my wrists all day.

If it weren't labelled with the BPAL logo and accompanied by the story, I would totally turn up my nose at something labelled rose vanilla. But once again, the lab's magic has tricked me into trying something totally outside what I would think I'd like. I can see myself wearing this enough to warrant a full bottle.


Edited to add lab description. -contrary_wise Edited June 30, 2008 by Shollin
Fixed description to be consistent with previous pages. --Shollin

[Suu4LC]

Alright, I got a bottle of this because I NEEDED Faith, and Hope just HAD to tag along! Here's the thing-it's not that I dislike the idea of sugared rose...it's that rose just tends to go wonky and sour on my skin. There have been many bpal rose scents that I have thought smelled lovely in the imp, but I still haven't found a rose based scent that meshes with my skin chemistry. Hopefully Hope will be an exception.

 

Sniffed from the bottle this is exactly what I would expect-sweet sugared rose-like rose candies! Very beautiful and pink!

 

Hm, ok, on the skin! So far...this is not bad-the sugar is saving this from going too sour on my skin, but I feel like the rose is already struggling to dominate the entire scent.

 

Eh...meh...the sugar is burning away and the rose is coming out stronger and stronger and I just don't like the way rose smells on my skin. *fusspout* It's not HORRIBLE and it is my favorite of the bpal rose scents that I've tried, but this just isn't for me. If I kept this bottle I would never wear it, so as cruel as it may be, I will have to split up the sisters!

 

ETA: Ahh, ok, now I'm waffling. On FULL dry down this is really nice!!! It loses that sour note completely, and I just get sweet soft rose and mountains of sugar!! I think it's worth the drying phase for this...I just might need to hold onto this bottle for a while yet....

Edited June 20, 2008 by Suu4LC

[LadyLuckless]

My first try with BPAL roses. Fingers crossed, I NEED some rosey goodness!

 

Smells gorgeous in the imp, but I've read in reviews how quickly things can go south

 

On: Mmmmm... sweet, enveloping rose. I get a mental image of thousands of pink and white rose petals raining down on me while licking super sugary vanilla icing off my finger. Pure, unadulterated bliss! If Hope is any indication, I'll get along beautifully with both the Lab's rose (YAY!) and sugar notes, and I couldn't be more thrilled about that.

[AEris]

A sweet, creamy, almost musky rose scent. As it dries down, a swirl of light vanilla comes through. It's a little cloying for my taste, but it fits the description perfectly.

 

Enjoyable. Again, it's not me, but it's nice. If someone else walked by wearing it I think I'd like it more. I'm just picky when it comes to rose, and today's not the day for it, I guess.

 

3.5 out of 5

[nightbiscuit]

Hope smells exactly like a very sweet rose incense on me. Interesting, I think that my skin chemistry does something weird to sugar and maybe caramel notes.

*pout*

Well, it's not bad, anyway, I think I can still wear it.

[alexandra]

I'm a sucker for sweet florals so I had to try H & F.

 

In the bottle: heavily sweetend rosewater

 

Wet: young pink roses dipped in eggwhite and sugar then placed in a jar of vanilla sugar. Swirly girliness.

 

Dry: Dries very quickly down into a rich, sweet rose, an older, darker rose now, nearing its peak. The throw is good, surrounding me in a waft of a masked ball in a rose garden. The sugared florals of lots of etailers tend to go dry, brittle and paperlike on me at the end of the drydown but Hope stays sweet and lovely. Hurrah!

 

And?...I have worn Hope three days in a row as the dry down is so rich and glorious. It is perfect day wear, leaving me feeling confident and approachable. I was complimented on it by three people. I expected to like her sibling more but Hope, at the moment is winning over Faith.

[ladyver]

in the bottle and wet on skin this smells like turkish delight and drys down to the sweet rose scent of rose martini or sugared rose petals used in to decorate cakes

 

verdict: very edible!!!!!!!!!!

[Lamia]

Delectably feminine without being cloying. On skin there is a bitterness, but the scent aura ("throw?") is sweetly rose with none of the aggressively girly putridness expected from sugared roses.

 

Not an everyday scent, but a good feminine floral.

[milo]

I got the twins mainly for Faith. Hope is a surprise like, however, and I'm pleased to say that this is a rose scent that works for me. It does take about half an hour or so though before the sharpness wears off, and the most creamy sweet vanilla rose comes out.

[vikitty]

Does what it says on the tin. A very soft, feminine rose with that creamy sugar/vanilla tinge to it.

[kisha]

In the vial: Soft tea rose with a touch of sugar

Wet on skin: Candied pink tea rose scent

Dry: That same candied pink rose scent layered over a soft powder

 

This one stays close to me (as far as I can tell) but stays for a while. I thought this one would disappear within a couple of hours, but it's still going after 6 hours and has no intention of quitting just yet. I love rose scents, so that's just fine with me. I'll be getting a bottle of this (and Faith ) soon!

[TooMuchTemptation]

This has been on my wishlist forever. I got Hope all on her lonesome in a swap. When I saw sugared rose, I had to go for it. I was kind of waiting for this to be a really simple, one-note scent.

 

Sniffing from the bottle, I definitely get the sugar before the rose. It's like rose syrup or rose jam. But as soon as I sniff something in my head says "Oooooo I like this!"

 

Wet on my skin, it's sugar sugar sugar, and roses. Wait, is that vanilla? It's something creamy, and it briefly reminds me of Possets Silver Roses, except where Silver Roses is delicate and ethereal, Hope is sweeter and headier.

 

As it dries my initial Silver Roses impression goes away almost immediately, and the sugar note dies off a bit. Rising up from my skin is a very sensuous rose scent. It's still sweet and a tinge creamy, but now I'm getting something that my brain calls musky from this scent. This rose wants to edge towards soapiness I can tell, but the sugar and cream keep it from going there.

 

Later I'm still compulsively sniffing my arm. Hope, that little minx, is turning sexy on me. Often rose either goes very green and stemmy or sour, but this is warm and soft and sweet. It's gotten a bit drier and more powdery. I don't like the use the word powdery because I often use it in a negative sense with fragrance, but that's what it is to me. The sugar has gone from wet and syrupy to a light dusting of powdered sugar over musky rose. and just a touch of violet maybe? It's not enough for this scent to be violet-y, bit I feel that it's there. Hope and Faith are Siamese twins after all. Every once in a while I get wafts of the initial rose jam scent, but it's fleeting.

 

I'll have to wear it for a while to be sure, but I think Hope is the BPAL rose scent I've been searching for. Right now, I like this even better than Rose Moon.

[skepticism]

If you're someone who 1) loves sweet/sugary scents and 2) is indifferent towards rose and other strong florals, you should give Hope a try.

 

First off, it's not a blend I like since I don't like sugary notes. However, the description is exactly on the dot. It smells like overripened roses sitting in a cool tub of sugar water. Pretty much Antique Lace of Fairy Market with a hint of rose. The throw on this is amazing (just like Antique Lace). Longevity was alright; it faded withing two hours. But that may have been due to the fact that I wanted it to come off and didn't dab on too much in the first place.

 

ETA: It smells like Turkish Delight!

Edited September 17, 2008 by skepticism

[ImperatrixMundi]

Very straightforward rose, obviously. It is not a light white rose or a heavy red rose, it is fresh and dewy and sweet.

I never ever wear anything with rose, it just amps so much on me and becomes screaming. Therefore as soon as it dries I dont get anything more subtle and sugary any more, just screaming rose.

But I guess if you love rose it is an absolute must-try, like Faith is for a violet lover like me

[innocent]

A decant from the lovely kikithepirate!

 

I was expecting to love the twins. Rose and violet are my two favorite florals and I almost just ordered the set untested. I'm glad I decided to go with decants instead, because it turns out the twins are not for me.

 

Hope worked better on me than Faith did (Faith turned to Playdoh). In fact, Hope smelled exactly like she was supposed to - like candied roses. I tried to layer the twins, but that failed, so I just tried Hope on her own. She was okay at first, but then the sugar smell began to remind me of chemicals and give me a headache. It's not that Hope morphed oddly on my skin, because she didn't. In fact, when I was delibrately sniffing myself she smelled as good as ever, but just catching the throw when I was occupied with other things made me feel icky. Hope was by no means my favorite rose to begin with (I find myself vastly preferring the freshness of Rose Red or the sultry Gwyneth). I guess I'll be trying Katrina Von Tassel next in my search for rose love.

 

I think I'll be keeping the twins around anyway, because those sugared florals are really something in small doses.

[eatingthesea]

i love rose scents all-around, as they jive with my skin quite mildly, never over-amping or doing weird plastic things or whatever the usual complaints about rose are in these parts. so i was quite excited to try hope! it is everything i had imagined...and more. yes, it is definitely exactly as described: sugared rose. i imagine a crystal-sugar-sprinkled pink rose, small and fresh. but i also imagine vanilla in the mix, somehow, though it's a waft of vanilla, nothing more and nothing less. the word that comes to mind most often when i'm wearing hope is "confection." it really is like a delicate sweet, though it's not candy-shop girly fun...it's more like a dainty treat served at a tea-house for ladies.

 

i notice that when i'm wearing this, guys tend to get ever so much closer to me...leaning in and such. it is yummy, so i don't blame them, haha. this definitely makes me feel feminine and alluring, i have to admit, and i feel quite comfortable wearing this as a day-to-day scent. however, we'll see; i think hope could possibly cause diabetes! now, i can't wait to try faith.

[Sapphiremo0n]

I love love love love Hope. She is a sweet and Beautiful feminine oil.

 

In the bottle Hope is all sugar and sweet floral.

 

When she hits my skin, the rose takes an undertone while the sugar dances ontop. Some would think that with the sugar, it'd be sickly sweet and gaging, But it Isn't. It is a delicate sugar, like a fine spun sugar sculpture.

Hope also smells very pink to me. I recommend it as a Rose fragrance that isn't too sickly sweet, and isn't too cloying with rose.

 

Props to the lab!

[Myrrha]

This has surprised me by becoming one of my very favorite scents.

 

It is very sugary, yes. With a breath of rose in there somewhere. But I don't think people smell you and think "she smells like sugar", it blends with your own natural scent and it just smells sweet and clean.

 

My boyfriend described it once as "alluring". He seems to like it quite a bit on me even though other rose scents just get a shrug and "Oh, flowers?"

 

Best of all it lasts a good 4-5 hours on me and most bpal is gone in about two hours. It has quite a bit of throw, especially for the first couple of hours. At certian times of the month I get a faint play-doh note but only when I sniff my wrist directly.

 

It makes me feel feminine and attractive and the sugar note is relaxing for some reason.

[Luxari]

In the bottle: smells like sugar alcohol and roses

 

wet: smells like the perfume Tea Rose, only you dont think of an older woman- it's younger and sweeter.

 

dry: Heavenly- soft roses, like I'm burying my nose into soft rose petals, but they're sweet, like every petal has been dusted in sugar!

 

This is an amazing scent- roses dont normally blend well with my skin- neither do sweet scents- but this is perfect!

 

I'm glad, too, as my name is Hope =D

 

[MisterShrapnel]

the word that comes to mind most often when i'm wearing hope is "confection." it really is like a delicate sweet, though it's not candy-shop girly fun...it's more like a dainty treat served at a tea-house for ladies.

Eatingthesea says it perfectly! The initial dainty crust of sugar crystals on Hope dissolves after several minutes and leaves a soft and sweet rose (roses can go so sharp on me, I've discovered). I honestly don't wear Hope or Faith ever, but there's something about them that I know I'd miss if I swapped them. I enjoy sniffing a small dab of either twin (or one on each wrist) just for the experience! They both make me think of traditional lady-like Victorian... something. Or maybe I unconsciously think of my mom because she loves keeping roses and violets in the garden.

[quigza]

Anyone remember Annick Goutal's Rose Absolue? If you took a stick of rock candy & dipped it in that perfume, you would get Hope. There's a lot of sugar an concentrated roses. Yes, roses (plural). I can't identify how many though.

 

This is very long wearing on me, and the roses bowl me over. It kind of makes me light headed

 

This is perfect for my mother. She's a rose fiend. As I haven't been able to get my hands on more of the Annick Goutal fragrance (and because I happen to love Faith), I'm giving my mother the Hope bottle in the set.

[anna1850]

This smells very similar to Rose Cross to me, but with just a bit more sugar and without the frankincence.

 

But unfortunately it has that funny lettuce/socks smell that I got from rose in Rose Cross too and although the bad smell fades a little bit after an hour or so, it never really leaves the scent.

 

2.5/5 Not for me.

[cinnamonster]

I'll start by saying I don't normally like rose scents for the simple reason that I amp up the rose to the exclusion of everything else, and it seems such a disappointment to smell like pot pourris refresher oil instead of what you expected!

 

So I was very interested to try something that was just rose and see what happened.

 

Well I don't just get rose here. I do get rose, a gorgeous rosewater type rose, not the terrifyingly strong rose I normally get, and SUGAR!! Powdered sugar, there's a real powderiness (NOT I should say, a baby powderiness), almost like you could brush a smudge off the end of your nose after getting too close the turkish delight when you thought no one was looking..

 

 

I really like it.

[amanderinorange]

I was excited about this because I love the sugar note of BPAL and roses!

 

In the bottle: this is more tea rose than anything else, but behind that is a sort of sharp green with a hit of sugar.

 

On me: yup, still tea rose. It gets more sugar as it dries, but the green scent is still there, which was something that I was not expecting. After a little while longer this goes a little soapy on me.

 

Overall: Sadly, I have to pair this with Faith in order for it to not be overwhelmingly sharp and for the sugar to develop a bit more.

[donnatron]

Bottle: Sweet, sweet sugary roses. Smells like Turkish delight.

 

Wet: Hope doesn't morph much from bottle to wrist. The roses have a tea rose/pink rose quality and are very soft and girlish. The sugar note acquires a sort of "granular" quality on my skin. It doesn't necessarily smell gritty, but I feel a bit of a gritty texture in my mouth when I smell it.

 

Dry: So beautiful. Lovely soft, sweet pink roses with a perfect swirl of spun sugar. It's really not a complex scent but it is a beautiful one. I don't actually have a lot to say about it. It's a gorgeous scent and I love it but there's not a lot more to say than "sugary roses."

 

Throw: Intense.

 

Overall: I really like Hope. I think she's a lovely fragrance for sunny days and creates a great balance between traditional and avant garde fragrance. If you're fond of rose scents she's a must try.