Queen Alice

[oakmoss]

Carnation, posies, and white amber with a hint of inky treacle, sandy cider, and wooly wine.

I put this on without referring back to the notes description and now that I've read them again, I have to say that even straining my mind's nose to detect what everyone else here seems to be smelling, I don't get any carnation, amber, cider, wine, treacle, etc. I'm getting a heavy sort of mishmash, that sort of generic perfume-y perfume scent -- although some other blends that list amber have done the same thing on occasion, not consistently -- for example, House of Mirrors, which was very perfume-y on me. I tried to let Queen Alice morph into something else on me, but after two hours it's still unpleasant and doesn't seem to want to wash off. Oh well, chalk it up to odd chemistry, because those notes SHOULD work on me! Off with her head! Edited April 8, 2007 by Shollin

[SoapyRN]

Thanks to my lovely SW, I was gift imped this to sample as I has listed it on my wishlist. In the imp, very wine boozey. I actually put in back and put something else on. Just seemed not the right time. Today, though, I did feel like a Queen, so I gave it a whirl.

 

Wet on the wrist, I was very cautious, and did not use the same amount that I would normally put on, in fact I kept it on one wrist. Having read the reviews I knew the comparison to Harvest Moon, which I love and own all of them. Rushed out the door for errands, and about three hours later, I caught a smell.

 

Lady in Heaven, this is so classy. I think in the imp I expected a brash heavy perfume, but this is so fantastic, not at all like Alice but the ballsy woman Alice can be.

 

bottle please.

[lady d]

oh, the sheer concept behind this is lovely ... i got this in the same package as alice, and alice put me in mind of a child's tea party, where the cups are full to brimming with milk and cream and sugar (no child would think of taking her tea straight, would she?) and alice is there with a bow in her hair and a clean cotton dress she'll muss by the time the day is over, leaving the table to follow white rabbits with the smell of sweet tea still clinging to her wrists.

 

but queen alice is another story -- or, if we want to be technical, already towards the tend of another story. queen alice is all amber and wine ... she's softly-spiced cider, sophisticated and strange, and suddenly you're at a feast with looking-glass creatures that fill up their glasses with treacle and ink. she's the tenniel illustrations of alice ... alice in pearls and a bustle skirt, a crown in her hair and her head held high ... still utterly sweet, but (trying, at least, to be) utterly adult. but there's no pretense, just grown-up and gorgeous, without ever losing her childlike wonder.

 

it's wild because i don't drink, and i'd always thought i didn't want to smell like anything alcoholic ... but this is the little bit of wine my mother let me taste at new year's, and it feels the way that tasted, intriguing and new and just a bit sharp but nothing coarse or corrupt about it at all. and when it dries down, it's still got the softly-spiced cider i drink every winter, with whipped cream and caramel. it soothes me and i wonder whose dream this is.

 

just ... i love the way the lab's blend tell stories in a way i've never known a perfume could.

[PilotKitten]

This is a weird fragrance. It's hard to pick out any one note but it's warm, slightly powdery, and slightly spicy on my skin. The spice is light fromt the cider and I'm guessing the amber is where I'm getting that warm, powdery scent from. It dries down to a faint, sugary cider and baby powder after a while. It's okay but nothing awesome.

[minnalavender]

Gorgeous! I can't wear the original Alice - it's too girlish for me - but Queen Alice is my cup of tea.

 

In the vial, I mostly smell the carnations, wine, and treacle/molasses/caramel, all favorite notes of mine. Wet on my skin, the carnations and treacle amp, the spiciness of the carnation mixing beautifully with the smoky creme brulee caramel note. As it dries down, the combination of the two notes is almost tobacco-ish. I'm really glad for the treacle/tobacco in QA - the way I amp sweet notes, it would be cloyingly sweet without them. However, as it dries the deeper tones continue to emerge, creating a dark, ultra-sweet blend of floral and spicy smokiness.

 

Goddess, I love this! My only complaint is that I wish the wine note stuck around longer because it smells so good on me, but it rarely does past drydown. Fleeting thing. It must be like the dream rushes.

 

The throw is medium, but close up QA remains strong and intense. This is a scent to wear when being nuzzled, I would think. There's nothing girlish or innocent about this version of Alice, for even though she's sweet and floral, she's all grown up now.

 

Dead effing sexy - that's Queen Alice. Bottle purchase next time!

[outofrhyme]

In the bottle:

I don't know what I was expecting, but I don't think this is it. Cider, yes, and foody treacle. It's somehow very amorphous, high-hitting. I think I could get the posies too, and a little bit of carnation spice. It's extremely different from Alice.

 

Wet:

Treacle, cider and wine. Eh. Maybe some posies.

 

Dry down:

Softer - the white amber has come out. Some floral powder with a little bit of foody notes. Left wrist - serious yummmy treacle on top of the floral powder.

 

Final thoughts:

I liked this better when I first tried it the other night. Actually... it's because my left wrist amps the treacle and smells really good (I tried it on my left originally), while my right wrist is blah. Very very strange. I still really like the amped version, but the blah version might limit its wearability.

 

 

Edited to fix a weird error that duplicated the content of my post.

Edited April 11, 2007 by outofrhyme

[wikkidraven]

i like queen alice more than the regular alice...it starts out as overpowering wine which put me off, but in the drydown i could detect the treacle, and also the apple cider that seems like a sugar skull throwback.

 

this one is nice, but it fades fast like most of the newer scents i have tried. i'll stick to sugar skull

[Miss Lynx]

This one sounded odd enough that I had to try it, if only out of curiosity, and I am so glad I did! This is quite possibly the best new GC scent since Hymn to Proserpine.

 

It's a warm, complex, spicy-sweet mix of wine, apple, spices, amber and carnation, and I fell in love with it pretty much on first sniff. I'd just received a Lab order with 12 imps I'd ordered of the various new GCs, plus a whole bunch of frimps, and was going through giving each a quick sniff before deciding what to try first, but when I hit this one, my reaction was "To hell with the rest -- this is going on me now!"

 

Carnation is one of the few florals that generally works very well on my skin, probably becomes it comes across as more spicy than floral as such, and it's no exception here -- it lends a gloriously cinnamony warmth to the scent, which coupled with the wine note is a bit reminscent of Tintagel, one of my favourites. Amber is just always good, especially combined with any sort of spice, and the wine and apple give it a bit of added richness and lift. I'm not sure what treacle smells like, but there is a faintly sugary element in here that's a bit like something in Smut, so maybe that's it.

 

All in all, very lovely, apart from a few points early on where the apple seemed to have a bit of a synthetic edge to it, but that faded fast. And thankfully, it's not overly sweet despite the threat of "posies" -- if there are any florals in here beyond the carnation, I'm not picking up on them, and my skin usually amps florals like crazy.

 

I think this may be the winner of the entire Mad Tea Party line for me.

 

Grade: A

[Jilara]

Queen Alice does NOT like me. And it sounded so nice... But Hymn to Proserpine didn't play nice with my chemistry, either, and people have compared Queen Alice to it.

 

Wet, it's a disgusting cough syrup scent with hints of listerine.

 

Dried down, the burnt applesauce is NOT playing nicely with the carnation. I swear there is a hint of cinnamon in this (from the carnation??), which is probably the best part. There is a hint of brimstone, too, which might be from sulfur in the treacle?? I was hoping for a slightly foody floral. What I'm getting is none of that, as something is souring the carnation into vinegar play-doh weirdness, overlaid with this burnt overripe apples scent, that is NOT pleasant.

 

Later on, I really amp up a cinnamon note, which is making this at least endurable. I wanted to at least give it a chance, rather than scrubbing it off within half an hour. There's cider vinegar in the background, now. Definitely not a good one for my body chemistry, though this later stage is at least tolerable.

 

Queen Alice is going to go reign elsewhere.

[LiberAmoris]

Another BPAL blend I'm glad I tried several times! The first couple of times I wore Queen Alice it seemed too subtle for me---the notes were so low-lying and muted on my skin that I thought I hadn't gently swished the (closed!) imp enough times before application to blend the oils. But on the third try, this was a beauty!

 

I pick up on the cider and wine notes, and there's definitely something sweet going on, and then of course those carnations. But everything is really working in the service of the whole, and it manages to be both playful and elegant at once. I think I would wear this for the carnation alone---it's just so warm and spicy here. I'll ponder whether a full bottle is necessary, but I have a feeling it might be.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

I was interested in Queen Alice as perhaps a more grownup version of Alice, which I like but find a little *too* young for me. Out of the imp, I got Alice's lovely spicy carnations and cream, with a strong floral that at first registered as rose but then morphed and developed a wine edge. I almost love this, but the drydown went a little weird--maybe it's the white amber; it smelled like the cream had gone a tad "off". Ah well.

[zankoku_zen]

I do get a very similar-like base to Alice in a floral sort of way, but at the very minute of application I get something that smells like roast turkey!

 

After a while, I just get a hint of treacle/sugary sweetness and floral warmness.

 

It faded after an hour, so I think I'm going to stick to the original Alice.

[cranberry]

Initially, this is a mix of apples, a touch of spice – it reminds me of how I remember Verdandi. As it dries, the sugar comes out and it’s a mix of sugared apples and spice. It smells delicious and edible.

 

After it dries – it is a completely different scent. Such a fantastic carnation! It’s like carnation plus – more complex and deep than some of the other carnation scents (i.e. Pink Moon 07, Hod). The amber rounds it out and gives it a wonderful deep base and darker flavor, while the treacle adds a touch of burnt sugar sweetness. I like this one a lot!

[captainoats]

In the imp: Light florals and toffe, with something definitively inky smelling beneath it all.

 

Wet: It smells so god, but I can't place any individual smells - definitely flowers and something sweet and oody, but also in a light way. Something bitterly boozy as well. I need to get better at identifying notes

 

Drying: The notes are becoming even more indistinct - it's pretty much just a sweet floral, now.

 

Final Verdict: The bf says that it smells like any Yankee Candle, and I understand, because it's a pretty indistinct floral on me, which happens with a lot of florals. I wish the toffee was a bit more pronunced. I'll keep and use my imp, but I don't think I'll buy more.

[gingersnapp]

There is a sugary softness floating around me with this blend. Other than that, and there isn't much to it, there is not a whole lot of throw. Up close to the skin where I applied the oil, I get a juicy apple-coated floral. Must be the cider and the carnation. It's sweet and creamy and mellow. I like this blend a lot.

[jade_starlight]

This scent is really interesting. The florals are light, and there's a hint of cider in the background that's really very nice. But as it dries the nice florals and cider fade a bit, and something else takes center stage and gives me a headache. Off to the swaps.

[GoldenRubee]

The first time I tried Queen Alice I didn't find it remarkable at all. But then again, I had several different scents on at the time since I was at Will Call when I tried it on. I knew that this should work on me it had all the notes that I love. So, I decided to but a bottle and give it a try again.

I'm glad I did too. Another thing I discovered is that it makes a difference where you apply the oil too. Sometimes I apply it on my forearm, sometimes on my wrist. I did both with QA. My wrist smells delicious while my arm smells unremarkable. I think that's where I went wrong at Will Call-I applied it to my arm instead of my wrist.

At first sniff, I smelled smokey wine with a hint of spicy carnations. There is a very soft undertone of lilies although there are none listed. Maybe that is the posies I am smelling. The amber is light and alluring and adds to the mystery surrounding this scent. I could wear this everyday or every night!

[PurringPulsar]

Queen Alice

 

In the imp: soft sweet delicate posies of flowers, with an undertone of treacle and subtle booze.

Wet on skin: so pretty! Now the carnations come out, as well as a touch more wine.

Dry on skin: I really like this one! I smell the same wonderful carnation that was in Pink Moon 07, along with some other floral notes-I'm sure I can smell freesia in here. Maybe phlox too as it really does remind me of Pink Moon. I also smell something fruity and sweet almost reminiscent of plum/plum blossom, or maybe champaca or lily? There's also the wine, cider and treacle notes-the wine is nice and deep and red, the cider adds a lovely apple-y fizz to it and the treacle is being good and not taking over the scent, but it is adding it's dark sweetness to it all.

After a while: there's a plum-like note to this, not sure what, but along with the carnation I get the impression of a lighter, pinker Frumious Bandersnatch in here. I still smell the soft florals (which are now very fruity-sweet), as well as the cider and wine and dark treacle. This is a complex mixture but the notes seem to mix very nicely, giving a light, dainty but booze-tinged fruity floral with a hint of spicy sugar. The amber seems to hold everything together, maybe that might be what's giving it that fluffy (white amber is a little airier than other amber notes, to me) yet rich sweetness.

There's a moment when I worry that the sweet fruity-floral note will make this cloying but then that tones down, and the scent rounds off into a gorgeous pink carnation and freesia scent, a posy of scented flowers, kissed with spice and deepened by amber and red wine.

But after a few hours, the scent does the most amazing thing. It could be skin chemistry doing weird things but this now smells like…a pink stargazer lily. Yes! I've been looking all over for a scent of stargazers in BPAL-the pink ones with that heady, spicy aroma, and none were perfect enough, not least the SN…this is the closest match I've found. Maybe there's a lily note in that posy of flowers. So as well as smelling of carnations, this smells like a bunch of pink fragrant lilies and I love it. At times it also reminds me of that Qliphoth oil that smells of lilies and carnations, and also of Morocco without the musk. And then it turns to almost all Pink Moon style carnation.

Verdict: this is Alice, all grown up, the innocent milkiness replaced by deep rich wine and with a fuller, spicier carnation to it. At first this is a posy of fragrant blooms placed by glasses of red wine and fizzy cider, there's a touch of treacle but nothing cloying or heavy to it. The flowers I smell are the carnation and something strongly reminiscent of freesia and pink stargazer lilies, floral scents I adore and haven't smelt much of in BPAL, with something which reminds me of plum. The carnation here is wonderful-I love the carnation note that Beth uses these days, it reminds me of Lush Potion, and this scent is very reminiscent of Pink Moon 07. This scent is beautiful-there are stages where I worry that the fruity-floral scent will go out of control but the clove like carnation and that gorgeous amber background prevent this from happening. And there's a magnificent stage where the scent smells like stargazer lilies, and the drydown is very much like a more floral, carnation-heavy and musk-less Morocco, so this scent is really growing on me. I'm not getting a bottle yet though, because this is so similar to Pink Moon 07. At least I know what to get when I'm running low on that scent now.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? yes! I'll keep the imp, when my Pink Moon stash runs out I'll get more!

If you like this, try: Pink Moon 07, Alice, Frumious Bandersnatch, Morocco, Hod, Ghagiel

[cuervosueno]

I tried this at Will-Call once and thought I kind of liked it, but with so many scents on, I couldn't really tell.

 

So I got an imp.

 

In the imp--or on the wand rather--and when it is wet, I get treacle and apple cider. A burnt sugary note that is not as strong as in Sugar Skull, but is still foody, and there is a hint of alcohol, which to me smells like hard apple cider.

 

I don't get any florals yet, though there is a non-foody sweetness that might be the "generic" posies.

 

No carnations though, and I love carnations. I think I like regular Alice better.

[OneFixedStar]

Queen Alice starts off with a whiff of fruit, probably from the wine and cider. Once it dries, however, it's pure, spicy carnation with just a hint of creaminess. A little less sweet than Pink Moon '07, a little spicier than Zarita, and absolutely lovely. This should fill my carnation needs nicely once I run out of Pink Moon '07.

[Athenae]

In the imp: VERY floral.

 

On me: Oh, it's all swoony woozy cider, and I love it! This was a frimp in my Red Moon order, and I may have to swap for a full bottle. Yum.

 

A.

[Bagfish]

Carnation-tastic! Queen Alice is a marvellous scent, initially a really heady scent of carnations with a side order of apples (rather than cider) when wet and on first dry-down. The carnation then mellows and sweetens and becomes very, very similar to Pink Moon 2007 (I tried them side by side and they really were identical to my nose for about 30 minutes). This similarity becomes less after a while and the Queen sharpens up a bit, possibly the wine or the treacle which can be quite bitter. And after four or five hours I really do get a wooly sort of scent .

 

Queen Alice is a definite winner and will be good as a replacement for Pink Moon when I run out, and definitely has merits of its own. Lovely

[Ajila]

In the bottle – Treacle and cider

 

Wet on me – Bright bubbly cider backed with rich gloopy treacle

 

Dry on me – Lightly candied floral, soft and whimsical

 

Overall – I like this a lot. At first it’s like a spring/summer version of Perversion, before drying to a lovely frothy floral reminiscent of Pink Moon 05. This may be a future 5ml purchase

[hellomoonglow]

Arrrggghhh! I swiped it on without smelling the imp first!

In Imp: Strong, reminds me of autumnal baking. I think I’ve made something like this in food form before.

Wet: There’s something promising in there, under the pumpkin pie spices, which are the treacle and the cider. Treacle. There’s a scent you don’t smell very often! Mixed within this concoction it’s quite manageable, however.

½ hr Dry Down: Really good for the upcoming autumn months. I don’t know what exactly it is, but as with most of BPAL’s oils, when I wave my arm in front of my face, left to right smells very different of the same swiped sample area. I get that sensation a lot. This is really, really nice! Now I also think this would be good at Christmas/Yule.

[taramarie]

In the imp, Queen Alice smells like a spicy floral. I guess that's the carnation. On my skin, I smell that and the cider. I like her but I don't think I'll get a bottle just yet.