Lady Una

[Gwydion]

Honey musk, green tea leaf, blackberry leaf, vanilla bean, and fae spices.

In the bottle: Honey spiced tea and vanilla, so sweet and tasty. It smells a lot like Bigger critters, if you like that. Very foody, but also smelling a bit like blackberry bramble on a hot day, though the scent itself gives the impression of a chill breeze rising suddenly on a warm day, which suits the theme. I wouldn't have guessed green tea if i hadn't known, but rather Queen Victoria blend with honey and milk. (This is a blend of three teas including green and black. It's a heavier scent than I associate with pure green, but in a good way). Wet: The spice really comes out, blending well with the other elements. Dry: vanilla honey tea mostly, with a hint of the other elements.

[TereFaerie]

Another Gaiman scent that I'm crazy about, go figure.

I smell honey tea/ Dorian from Lady Una when wet, with a sharp ammoniac blackberry note that soon fades.

The drydown is much nicer than the vanilla musk Dorian leaves me with. It is more of a fruity honey spice, but oddly not foody on me. Very nice in my hair to lengthen the wear and passed the husband test; he sniffed it off of the back of my neck in the morning and loved it.

It has a wild yet refined scent, not unlike the character for which it was named.

I see a bottle in my future.

[PurringPulsar]

In the bottle: oh dear…under a delectable honeyed vanilla is the dreaded 'cat pee' blackberry…
Wet on skin: oh no, this smells suspiciously close to cat pee…
Dry on skin: ok, this is heartbreaking. It smells like the Oblation, and the Oblation was horrid on me. I was hoping that the blackberry leaf wouldn't smell like blackberry fruit, but in here it does, and it's the blackberry note that smells like my kitty's marked his territory on me. Normally I adore honey, but I notice that when mixed with blackberry, it tends to make the urine-like smell stronger. (The only time it doesn't is in Faiza.) and there's a slightly rubbery undertone to the honeyed-blackberry too. I smell pleasant vanilla sweetness, and musk too, and yes it does remind me of O, but I just can't get over how this one smells like cat pee *sobs*
After a while: still smells like naughty kitty on me, sadly. The honeyed vanilla musk, which is really lovely and I wish it could stand out more, is a tad stronger, but that blackberry underneath is still taunting me with that 'tomcat-marked bramble' smell I got in the likes of Monster Bait Closet, Montresor and Agony of Heartache. It still reminds me of the Oblation but I think, if I was to choose a preference, I'd choose this one.
Ok, now this is even more heartbreaking…because it smells really nice. After a moment of such strong cat pee blackberry, which I thought would never end, now that has faded and I get a gorgeous honeyed vanilla musk. There's a hint of fruitiness but it now smells like proper berries. And I think I smell a hint of spice. Dammit, this smells good. It reminds me of the honey-musk in Freak Show, but sweeter and lighter. This smells approachable. If this scent was all about this drydown and didn't start of smelling of blackberry, I'd be all over this. The other disadvantage is that at this point, the smell is a little bit faint. But it is so lovely…I can see why other people love this so much. It reminds me of a 'blackberry vanilla musk' scent now, it is soft and sweet but also ethereal, with a hint of something purple and bright, like Una's eyes.
Verdict: at first, when I tried this, I was so sad. I know that Lady Una has the ears of a cat, but that's about as cat-like as I expected her to be. As with most scents with blackberry, this smells like kitty sprayed all over my wrist. It’s the same honey-blackberry combination as the Oblation, and it just doesn’t work on me. And it smells like this for at least an hour. I love Lady Una’s character so this was very painful…but then, she changed into something so gorgeous that it was almost like the cat pee stage was a distant memory. I've never had a blend veer from something nasty-smelling to something truly beautiful like this before. The drydown is a soft, gentle, sweet and welcoming vanilla-musk edged with honey and made purple with a touch of blackberry, which now smells like berries. it’s such a gorgeous soft vanilla-honey-berry musk with a hint of something magical and ethereal to it. If this was all I got in the scent I would have gone straight for a bottle. But sadly, the catty stage of this scent is too much for me so I don’t think I’ll get a bottle.
Emoticon rating: (just-applied stage) and (drydown)
Is it a keeper? no, sadly…despite that delightful drydown.
If you like this, try: The Oblation, O, Faiza, Monster Bait Closet, Montresor, Eat Me, Dana O'Shee

[Emu Nymph]

I was so excited when this one came out. Being as Lady Una was my favorite character in Stardust.

In the bottle it is wonderful honey and vanilla.

As it drys is turns into as other people have put it Musky cat pee. This one got so bad the more it dried that I had to wash my whole arm just to get any trace off. It gave me such a headache that now I can't even open the bottle. I was so sad.

[naeelah]

I really can't describe this as anything other than enchanting. The first time I tried this, I had no memory of what the notes are, and the wet scent made me go, "OMG what is this?" It was something peculiar and unique, somehow totally new and comfortably familiar at the same time.

 

Turns out, it's the honey musk! I usually find the lab's honey note a somewhat nauseating -- it's a little bit too thick, sickly sweet, and it tends to hate my chemistry -- but this is utterly MARVELOUS. I have no idea what the musk is. It's bright, but it doesn't smell like white musk. The honey and musk definitely do not smell like distinct entities -- they're blended together perfectly.

 

I can't really pick anything else out. I can definitely tell that the other notes are there, they just blend really well. I never get a fruity feeling, specifically, from this. It only adds flavor to the vanilla honey. Once dry, after several hours, the musk fades a little and the vanilla is more prominent. (ETA: I was originally testing from an imp. My 5ml has a much more noticeable blackberry scent. Not a bad thing at all, I just wonder if maybe the honey and vanilla get stronger with age?)

 

The throw is pretty good, and the wear life seems better than average. I LOVE this. Try it if you like O, Jezebel, Snake Oil, Dorian, Hone Mone, etc. They have some similarities, but there really is nothing else like this. Try it even if you don't like honey, but don't try it if you won't like a scent that's sweet, because this is very gourmand.

Edited March 4, 2008 by naeelah

[MeiLin]

In the bottle: It smelled very sweet, almost too sweet. I really got the blackberry.

 

Wet: Blackberry and honey musk.

 

Dry: Honey musk, vanilla and spice. The blackberry is almost gone. It's intoxicating on me and has vaulted up into the "favorites." Must buy bottle NOW.

 

Wear time: On me, quite good. Several hours later I can still smell it on my wrists.

[GypsyRoseRed]

Aaah. Gorgeous. This has such a pretty softness to it! Honey usually kills a scent for me, but thankfully the honey musk here does nothing but hint at sweetness, blending with the vanilla bean and balancing out the blackberry leaf (which by the way is NOT the usual BPAL blackberry on me, the note that always turns into OMFG jelly explosion) and spices. It's not strictly foody, but there's a pleasing prettiness that just doesn't fall into any other category. THIS is foody in a wearable way, for someone who doesn't just want to smell like something on a bakery or diner menu. *This* is the kind of foody that makes other people think you smell good enough to eat. *nod*

[ymmat]

I bought a bottle of this on a lark because it sounded like something I would enjoy. I was right.

 

In the bottle, it smells delightful - green tea and spiced fruits. For some reason, I have an easier time picking out higher notes in the bottle. Lower notes don't jump out to me as much. So, when I put this on I was expecting something at least vaguely similar to what was in the bottle, but the green tea and the fruit completely vanished. On my skin, it becomes a beautiful honey vanilla.

 

I very much like Lady Una as the scent manages to be sweet and warm without evoking the sense of edibles. It's also particularly light without compromising the staying power. I've had it on about 4-5 hours now and am still able to easily smell it on my wrists.

 

Lady Una has leaped to the top of my favorites list.

[jwhxtna]

I tried this once when I went to a friend's house, and I've been eager to get a decant of my own since then.

 

IN THE IMP: Mmm, SO yummy. I smell a lot of the blackberry leaf. The honey musk is lovely and not the usual BPAL honey, which my nose does not like very much. And there's some green tea and spices.

 

WET: Oh, the blackberry really comes out on me. It's turning really sweet, with some honey vanilla. And some spices, I think. I wish the green tea would come out more, though.

 

DRY: Same as the wet stage. Foody but not. Really, really lovely

[edenssixthday]

When I first smelled this in the vial, it smells like heaven. I love the scent of the blackberry and vanilla together. However, as soon as it hit my skin, my nemesis (honey) moved to the forefront and it instantly started to smell like pee on me. As I stepped outside this morning to go to work, the wind picked up the scent and wafted it around me and once again, it smelled amazing - soft and etheral, a blackberry-honey-vanilla-musky gorgeousness. But when I lifted my wrist to my nose, the honey was still misbehaving on my skin. So it's at least good to know the sillage is lovely even if the oil on my skin turns a bit rancid due to the honey. That means this is going to make a phenomenal oil burner and scent locket scent! Anyway, it's been two hours since then, and now, I can barely smell the scent on my wrists, but the rancidness of the honey has disappeared and the only thing I smell is a bit of softly musky blackberry vanilla. It's incredibly gorgeous and y ummy and I really wish it were a bit stronger. Still, it's stunning and I love it and it really do understand how Lady Una inspired this scent. I'm going to try it in my oil burner next. Mmmm.... good.

[tartchef]

Oh golly, this is pretty... In the bottle it's all honey, but an herbal, natural honey, not the unctuous stickysweet honey of O... On my skin, it deepens & the blackberry emerges, lending a dark juicyness that balances the vanilla & spices that lurk at the edges. I don't get tea, per se, but I suspect it's the green-ness that grounds the whole scent, keeping it from veering into cloying blackberry jam territory.

 

Lady Una is so far from my usual repertoire of deep resins & smoke, but I swapped for her on a whim & am eternally grateful to nursekins... this will be spectacular as the warm weather approaches & my thoughts turn to floaty frocks & pottering in the garden....

[phantasmmysteria]

I love blackberries, but I have been really frightened of honey notes until recently. Emboldened by my recent good luck with honey scents, I thought it was high time I tried Lady Una.

 

In the bottle: On first sniff, this has me a bit nervous. It's positively sticky with honey, and very sweet. I love sweet scents, but sometimes honey can go sour on my skin -- yet, I press on and dab a bit on my wrists.

 

Wet: This starts to really bloom upon my skin, and its transformation is wonderful! The first new note that comes along is the blackberry and green tea leaves. This is not the smell of ripe blackberries, but the fresh greenness of the foliage that surrounds them. This is how I'd hoped for the blackberry leaf to smell in The Oblation (which sadly never worked for me). The sticky-sweet musk and the greens blend together and separate at times, really making this not only pretty, but interesting to sniff.

 

Drydown: This dries down to a soft, honeyed vanilla musk. I catch a whiff of sourness every now and again (which, actually, could be actual blackberry now that I think about it), but I think the musk does a great job of keeping the honey in check. There's not hardly so much dimension to the scent dry as there is while it is wet, but it is equally pretty in drydown as it is in the beginning stages

 

Overall, this is a short-wearing and faint scent on my skin, but I love it. I think it will do very well in a scent locket, or layered on in a lotion (yum!).

[LauraB]

Pretty blackberry, but it's so sweet it's almost blackberry candies. I'm guessing that's the honey, but it's not really obviously a honey note, just sweeter than I would expect blackberries alone. All the other notes don't really come out at all, but I don't mind - it is very pretty as it is.

 

It doesn't really change at all and starts to fade after about 2 hours and is completely gone in 3, which is a bit disappointing.

[vampkat]

Wet: I'm smelling the leaves and some spices

Dry Down: Oooo, something sweet is coming out, maybe the honey?

Dry:OK! Everything mixed together VERY nicely. The spices and leaves and honey and all are there, but there doesn't seem to be any fighting among them. I really like this!

7 out of 10

[fairnymph]

In the bottle: Sweet, sweet true vanilla with hints of spice and something green.

 

Wet: Honeyed blackberries (I know it says leaf but I smell FRUIT) layered with vanilla and musk. Still the lingering spice - it's light though. The blackberry and musk combo is simply amazing, but I find the heavy sweetness and vanilla a bit too much and far too foody. No more green.

 

Dry: Musky, sweet and heady vanilla. A wee bit of honey and blackberries and spice remain, but barely. Alas, this is not for me. Vanilla, why must you amp on me so?

 

Summary: I had to wash this this off; the vanilla was just so overwhelmingly sweet and cloying, and once again ruined a scent for me.

[alsatia]

Expectations: No idea, other than sweet.

 

In vial: Vanilla and a Butterfinger bar.

 

On skin, wet: Green tea, honey musk, some kind of spice. It smells a bit dirty.

 

On skin, dry: At a distance, I get honey and vanilla. Up close it smells like...it smells like...*thinks*...like this cat my cousins used to have. Blech.

 

After time: The skin where I applied it is glistening. The smell? Less pretty. It's only been 20 minutes, but it still smells like dirty cat, and there's nothing in it with potential to be beautiful smelling enough later on to make up for this stage.

 

Conclusion: Absolutely not for me. I'm pretty sure all musks are going on my Do Not Want list for the future.

[Lavada]

Hmm. Apart from playing with kitties through cage bars and baskets in pet shops... I've no idea what badcat!smell entails.

 

However, if it smells like Lady Una... I approve!

 

It's warm and sweet with a Dorian-like feel (I suspect the combination of tea/sweet/vanilla/musk is reshuffled in different ratios and slightly different notes) but it's definitely very fey. I don't imagine a person when I sniff this. I imagine an animal of some sort - sleek but docile, with beautifully soft golden-brown fur. While wet and early drydown, there's a fresh and slightly spicy edge that'll eventually move on.

 

The throw is average, but it still feels like a second-skin as it eventually settles into a sweet musk. I'm beginning to think that I could live if I came home to discover that the sibling has yet again pilfered my bottle of Dorian. I might not even ask for it to be returned (but I do love him so - Dorian, that is. ).

[SeaLady]

Ok, I have a cold so it's all a little muffled, but I am just too excited about this one to wait. Even through my unhappy nose I can tell how amazing this is.

Because it's absolutely delicious! The end result is warm honeyed vanilla and very light fruits and a little bit of the same green tea that's in Gennivre (which is sometimes too bitter for me). I re-read the notes, and said "that is honey musk!" It's creamy and sweet and fae, and I'm absolutely mad about it. I will need more of it, and I already want to wear it all summer long.

 

(At one point, though this may be caused by my temporarily defunct sinuses, it goes through a vague cat pee stage, which I see is not unusual. I suspect the berries. The wafting never smells anything but gorgeous, but for a period of about twenty minutes, there's a cat pee note when I put my nose right up to my wrist. However, it's totally worth the wait for it to go away.)

 

This scent is gorgeous, and much more like book!Lady Una than movie!Lady Una, who I think was portrayed rather less than justly.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Berries and dark honey and a fantastic deep sweetness.

 

Wearing: Gorgeous honeyed fruit. Seductively sweet. The berry develops a crisp tartness as it dries.

[theseagrows]

in the imp i smell the vanilla bean and spices and not much else. once it hits my skin the honey musk comes and blackberry leaf come forth. i don't detect any green tea, and when it dries it's a pretty musky vanilla with a hint of blackberry. i like this and will keep my imp.

Edited September 16, 2020 by theseagrows

[cranberry]

Wow, this is gorgeous. Wet, it smells of honey, blackberry, vanilla, and musk. I’m so glad that I finally tried this. The vanilla in this reminds me of Snake Charmer, and it is in that family of scents. Musky, vanilla, fruity, spicy. So sensuous and beautiful. It’s intoxicating to smell.

 

It’s not changing too much on me as it wears. The vanilla is a touch powdery, rather like the powdery vanilla musk in Antique Lace. The biggest change would have to be the blackberry - it gets softer as it wears. I’m enjoying all aspects of this scent. I have to get a bottle.

[alterosen]

I adore this scent!

 

When it came out, I thought the notes all sounded nice but knew I would have to try it before I could justify a bottle purchase. I finally found some in a swap & moments after I tried it on I was trawling the sales pages for a big bottle

 

I was a bit afraid after reading the reviews that the blackberry would go bad, but thankfully, no cat pee, just tart berry goodness with a honey background. I often amp vanilla & find it cloying but this combines nicely with the green tea in a similar fashion to Dorian though there's no citrus listed in the notes.

 

Honey & blackberry are generally scents I don't really get that excited about but this combination with the Dorianesque vanilla tea & musk with hint of spice is incredible.

 

My only quibble is that it's quite light & requires slathering & reapplication throughout the day if, like me, you want to be surrounded by a Lady Una cloud. Fortunately, I now have a bottle on the way & can try doing some layering with lotion & major slathering. I imagine this will be one of my warm weather staples.

[lainevierge]

To me this smells like rubber and grapes. I really wanted to like it, but I can't get past those initial impressions.

[AEris]

Holy yum yum yo yeah!!

 

This scent is GORGEOUS at all stages, and a yummy morpher.

 

In the imp, it smells like Beaver Moon 05. I take a second whiff, and I smell tea. This is when I know I love teh Una.

 

On my skin, it's a gorgeous swirling of notes, dancing harmoniously. I smell honey, vanilla, berries, and tea. If I concentrate on one note, it stands out from the rest. If I sniff without thinking, it just smells amazing. It's sweet yet fresh, a difficult feat to achieve....it's hard to describe, but it has a beautiful yummy sweetness while avoiding any cloying vibe.

 

I am reminded of Gennivre, which is honeyed tea, but add blackberries and vanilla cream....and you'll have Lady Una.

 

I really love this! I can see 5mLs in the future : -)

 

4.9 out of 5

 

Edit to add:

I bought a 5mL fresh from the lab, and I have to say that the blackberry note amps the crap out of me and smells fermented and kind of nasty. It takes a while for it to dry down and chill out. I find that fruit notes in BPALs tend to mellow out as they age, so I'm hoping that my bottle of Lady Una will age into the scent I fell in love with as a decant. As it wafts, I can smell the scent I remember as Lady Una, but up close it starts out all berry.

 

Long story short: If you test Lady Una and it's all berries and it's not that great, let it age for a while and test it again - I think you'll be glad you did!

Edited July 5, 2008 by AEris

[SilverSerenity]

Oh.

 

Oh my.

 

I got a sniffie of this, and I kept sniffing the baggie the q-tip was in - sooooo good! So I decided to test it by swiping it on my wrist.

 

Really, I'm in love. It's a lovely sweet honey-vanilla with just a hint of spice. Normally I cannot stand vanilla (far too sweet) but it's just perfect in this.

 

Must get my hands on this one...