Venice

[cranberry]

A complex, voluptuous scent that captures the robust beauty and of the Italian Renaissance: lemon, red currant, wisteria, red rose petals, heady jasmine, Florentine orris root, waterlily, red sandalwood, violet plum, and violet leaf.

Initially I get strong dose of florals, mainly jasmine but what also smells like spring flowers - tulips, what I image to be daffodils, and maybe some lilies. This is a lush, heady scent. After smelling it a bit, I'm also getting a trace of rose.

I'm not getting any lemon at all; it remains a lush rich floral scent. As it wears, the other florals recede and rose dominates the scent. It’s pretty but not really my style.

[Voleuse]

This is sweet lemon on first application, tart and overlaid by florals. As it dries, the wood and greenery blooms over the lemon, wrapping around it, but never overwhelming it.

 

As it dries, the blend sweetens, but there's a musty aspect to it, like it's swathed in velvet. It's still fresh, however, and the florals are beautifully complex. Definitely a keeper.

[filigree_shadow]

At first it smells lush; I don't know how she did that. It's also slightly sweet, but it's kind of a fruity sweet, not what I'd consider a floral sweet. It doesn't have as much jasmine as I was afraid of, and the tiny amount of lemon I can smell doesn't bother me as much as lemon usually does. It's a pretty floral that smells rather grown-up. It gets slightly heady when it's dry, but not offensively so.

 

However... even though it's nice at first, after about an hour I don't like it. It smells like pretty floral soap. So this is one for swaps after all.

[aestien]

Bottle: rose, jasmine, lemon, currant

Wet: sharp soapy rose and jasmine with a little lemon and currant

Dry: powdery sweet plum, violet, and orris with a hint of sandalwood and a litte currant

 

At first sniff this scent was gorgeous, on my skin, it became too sharp, too soapy, and finally too powdery. I may see if I can find other ways of using this without wearing it on my skin.

[sofiaviolet]

This is very rich and kind of fruity. On my skin, it's nothing special. My chemistry sucks all the awesomeness out of it. It fades superfast.

[Meg]

In the bottle: Very complex! Lemon, rose and jasmine, as well as wisteria and possibly some violet.

 

Wet: Very fresh florals, with jasmine coming out first, then lemon, and something quite rich, possibly the plum.

 

Drydown: It's lemon and jasmine with some rose and sweet juicy plum. It's softened by wisteria, I think, and a woody base. It dries down to a pleasant plum and jasmine mix, which is rich and sensual. After a while, violet comes out a little bit from the shade of the jasmine. It disappears pretty fast, though.

 

Overall: It's surprisingly simple, from all the notes given, I only get the plum and jasmine and some violet after drydown. It's a pretty, non-powdery jasmine that I like, and a delicious plum. It smells very clean, and I do tend to identify it with a laundry detergent than a perfume. Pretty, but I probably wouldn't wear it.

[wanderlustlover]

It started out garishly soapy that almost gave me a headache and mellowed an hour later into spicy soap, but with no noticeable note scents from above. It had a wear life of only a handful of hours, because what's left on my wrist now six hours later is very, very faint. This is sad to me, because now when I can catch it the soap has faded entirely and I can catch the sweet violet or wisteria, rich sandalwood, and deep currant, but it lasts only seconds and becomes just neutral empty.

[PilotKitten]

When first applied this smells very strongly of lemons... but not the Pledge lemon scent of Delirium for example, this is a pure, juicy lemon scent. After the initial drydown, I get more of the jasmine come out and it just smells divine. This was an imp I'd ordered in June and before it even got here I had talked myself into a 10 mL bottle.... I'm glad I did... lol. This is a very heady floral, a bit cool and aquatic in nature. With a bouquet of red roses floating about. Wonderful wonderful scent. (broken imp cap)

[steffanina]

Venice-

 

In Bottle: Rose, lemon, a bit of baby-scent.

 

Wet: Ooh, this blooms oddly. Lemon, plus something rancid underneath.

 

Dry: This is bizarre--it fades quickly and leaves me with a big ol' "Wha' happened?" No impression at all.

 

Overall: Uninteresting. Swapper.

[Ajila]

In the bottle - Conflicting high florals and a dab of citrus.

 

Wet on me - Soft and bubbly lemon, with the jasmine in the background.

 

Dry on me - Bright berries, tart by sweet.

 

Overall - Not at all what I expected, nice enough, but not really me.

[Medox]

A blooming pile of jasmine, with a few jasmine petals thrown on top. Jasmine.

[stepho]

In The Bottle: The sweetness from the red currant and violet plum shows up to the party first, but suddenly the gentle rose and lemon make an elegant late appearance. The heady jasmine and red sandalwood provide a solid foundation to the blend but are subtle enough to allow the juicy notes to take center stage. The violet, wisteria and orris root are the chorus behind the scene adding a subtle boost to the main event. Overall this is a fruity floral scent which is very feminine to my nose.

 

On The Skin: Suprisingly the waterlily invades the spotlight for a brief moment as the currant and lemon decide to go home early. Rose and jasmine are wearing the same dress and violet is whispering about them in the back to her shy friend wisteria. Sandalwood is nonplussed and continues providing a modicum of decorum until waterlily leaves in a huff with the others in tow. At the end it's jasmine and sandalwood left dancing to the last song. Overall it's an intimate blend I imagine would be perfect at a summer party, pressing close to your lover oblivious to the drama unfolding around you.

 

6 out of 10

[supremegoddessofall]

Tried this at a meet and sniff. Soft canals at night. I didn't think this scent would work on me because it's got three of my 'hell no' notes - lemon, jasmine, and violet. But it's actually pretty good. Primarily aquatics and light florals.

[maribouquet]

imp: citrus

 

wet: musky citrus (perhaps from the red sandalwood? I don't know what orris smells like.)

 

drydown: Soft florals begin to appear as Venice dries. Pretty! Oh dear, ten minutes in and jasmine is doing it's sour thing on me. This one's a no go, I'm afraid.

[columbus]

They weren’t kidding when they called it complex! It is at the same time strikingly floral (well hello there, jasmine!) and sweet and juicy with just a little bit of citrus tang. As it dries a lot of the other florals but the jasmine seem to fade, along with the redcurrant and plum. What I’ve got after the drydown is a mix of jasmine, lemon, and sandalwood. It has the feeling that it should be a nice subtle blend, but in actuality it’s quite strong, even with a tiny dab. If only it were a bit less powerful!

[oh_the_horror]

This smells like clean water glittering under the sun. I think I smell the jasmine underneath going weird or maybe it's another floral. This is a very pretty, clean floral. It reminds me of lily of the valley. If something in it didn't disagree with me, I'd probably want to keep some of this around.

 

Something pretty and fruity came out after a while. It smelled like watery floral grapes. I'll have to figure out what it was. It was lovely.

Edited January 1, 2007 by oh_the_horror

[monsteralice]

Wet: Rose and lemon with a little sweet fruit.

 

Dry: A very fresh scent - the idea of Venice, lush in the sunlight, with canals that don't stink and no mold problem. A little gem, like the Fenice theater.

 

Finish: Sandalwood and something flowery, but not straight rose.

 

Duration/Throw: Still good at 4 hours, present at the wrist after 8.

 

This is definitely a keeper for me.

[juniperus]

Bottle: lemon, but a lovely and delicate lemon (not assertive, and not Pledge)

Wet: I can get the feel of florals, but not the specific floral notes themselves...

Dry: jasmine beginning to amp, it's mainly that and lemon and a bare hint of currant, now.

Later: mellowed, but almost all jasmine. it's a lovely jasmine, for a change (it's not gotten sweet-rotty on me), but still...I had really been looking forward to the plum and sandalwood.

[dronzeka]

I love love LOVE this scent! In the imp, it's lemon, jasmine, and a bunch of other lovely stuff that I can't identify. On me, I get lemon and jasmine, and the rose comes out to play as well. It's a gorgeous, rich but light floral. It's beautifully blended, so that I can't pick out most of the notes, but they all work together to create something wonderful. It's sunlight bouncing off the canals and soaking into warm golden stone, and candles and lamps shining out of the windows of Renaissance houses along the water. It's just so lovely! Unfortunately, it's faded fairly quickly - I will have to get a bottle so that I can slather myself with this.

[jiggahava]

Interesting. This scent comes on pretty strong, but it's all but faded after 3 hours. Right away I get wisteria(FAVE!), Jasmine, violet, and not much else. Not super complex, but it's nice. I don't think I'll get a bottle because I like other scents with these notes better, but I'll keep my imp around.

 

Edit: near the end I get just a touch of waterlilly. Whod've thunk?

[whimsitini]

In the past rose, lemon, sandlewood, and jasmine are dominent notes with my skin chemistry and are simply too much. Violet, even when it is a principal oil never comes to play.

 

With Venice, again no violet scent but the lemon and rose are far more muted and I can't detect the sandlewood or jasmine at all.

 

The dry down comes pretty quickly with the rose and lemon replaced by the water lily before dissapearing after a couple of hours. One of the strangest reactions I've ever had to a scent.

[Ciircee]

All I get is roses. I obviously can't wear anything with rose in it because for eight hours--no matter what else is in the blend--I still smell nothing but roses.

[quarble]

Venice came as a freebie with my first ever order, and I was very excited to try it out. This is the first review I've ever done, so bear with me while I give you the play-by-play.

 

Bottle: OMGLEMON. Boyfriend says it smells like furniture polish

 

Wet: LEMON (and roses) and LEMON

 

Drydown: Thank God, the lemon has calmed down. The floral notes are coming out, and they're really quite lovely. It's complex and beautiful, and the jasmine somehow reminds me of sneaking drinks out onto my parent's patio on late summer nights.

 

Venice, however, is not a scent for mid Frebruary. Also, as much as I like it (once the lemon overload fades, that is), Venice may be a bit too "old" for me. I feel like I'm not sophisticated enough to pull it off just yet. Or maybe I just have a cold. Either way, I'll save it for springtime and see how it goes then.

Edited February 8, 2007 by Canpake

[Jilara]

I almost freaked when I first put this on. Wet, it was a floral-toned Robetussin!

 

Drydown started making the cough medicine undertone fade out, to my infinite relief. What popped out was almost exactly my "Bellagio Las Vegas" perfume, which I LOVE. It stayed Bellagio Las Vegas for about half an hour.

 

The final morph seems to be Bellagio Las Vegas (soft and sophisticated floral) with a slight bitter and brambly undertone, which gives it interesting complexity, rather than just smelling expensive and sophisticated. This undertone (maybe the lemon and red currant melding?) speaks of loss and regret, but in a way of strength and resignation, rather than wistfulness. Definitely a scent for a mature woman, who's seen a lot and been through a lot.

[Ghost_Light]

Venice

A review in dialogue

 

Geolinguist: Hey, Ghost Light, I got some new imps in the mail. Want to try one before rehearsal?

 

Ghost Light: (casually leaping over chairs and small children to reach the imp box) Oh sure, why not?

 

Geolinguist: Here, try this one. It's Venice.

 

Jasmine: (lurking in the imp) Heh, heh, heh.

 

Ghost Light: (sniffing imp) That's really floral. It's pretty.

 

Jasmine: (hiding behind Rose Petals with a hand over her mouth and a gun to her head) Shhh....

 

Ghost Light: (Dabs, sniffs. Wisteria and Waterlilly attempt to make a run for it.) Ooo! That's really floral! It's really pretty, smell this.

 

Geolinguist: Ooo...you smell like an English Lady's garden in Venice. That's nice.

 

Jasmine: (snaps poor Rose Petal's neck with one casual gesture. She rises up like a bad ass Chow Yun-Fat in some Hong Kong action film. The other notes scream in terror, trying to flee their inevitable doom at the hands of Jasmine.)

 

Ghost Light: (sniffing again, oblivious to the carnage) Yeah it's...aughghgh! It's JASMINE!

 

Geolinguist: No, it's nice. It's (sniffs)....go was that off, it's Jasmine!

 

Jasmine: Heh, heh, heh.

 

 

 

Keeping the imp? It's all Geolinguist's

 

Bottle? hah!