To Helen

[inurbanus]

TO HELEN
Edgar Allan Poe
I saw thee once - once only - years ago:
I must not say how many - but not many.
It was a July midnight; and from out
A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring,
Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven,
There fell a silvery-silken veil of light,
With quietude, and sultriness, and slumber,
Upon the upturned faces of a thousand
Roses that grew in an enchanted garden,
Where no wind dared to stir, unless on tiptoe
Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses
That gave out, in return for the love-light,
Their odorous souls in an ecstatic death
Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses
That smiled and died in this parterre, enchanted
By thee, and by the poetry of thy presence.

Clad all in white, upon a violet bank
I saw thee half reclining; while the moon
Fell on the upturn'd faces of the roses,
And on thine own, upturn'd - alas, in sorrow!
Was it not Fate, that, on this July midnight
Was it not Fate, (whose name is also Sorrow,)
That bade me pause before that garden-gate,
To breathe the incense of those slumbering roses?
No footstep stirred: the hated world an slept,
Save only thee and me. (Oh, Heaven! oh, God!
How my heart beats in coupling those two words!)
Save only thee and me. I paused - I looked
And in an instant all things disappeared.
(Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted!)

The pearly lustre of the moon went out:
The mossy banks and the meandering paths,
The happy flowers and the repining trees,
Were seen no more: the very roses' odors
Died in the arms of the adoring airs.
All - all expired save thee - save less than thou:
Save only the divine light in thine eyes
Save but the soul in thine uplifted eyes.
I saw but them - they were the world to me!
I saw but them - saw only them for hours,
Saw only them until the moon went down.
What wild heart-histories seemed to he enwritten
Upon those crystalline, celestial spheres!
How dark a woe, yet how sublime a hope!
How silently serene a sea of pride!
How daring an ambition; yet how deep
How fathomless a capacity for love!
But now, at length, dear Dian sank from sight,
Into a western couch of thunder-cloud;
And thou, a ghost, amid the entombing trees
Didst glide away. Only thine eyes remained;
They would not go - they never yet have gone;
Lighting my lonely pathway home that night,
They have not left me (as my hopes have) since;
They follow me - they lead me through the years.
They are my ministers - yet I their slave.
Their office is to illumine and enkindle
My duty, to be saved by their bright light,
And purified in their electric fire,
And sanctified in their elysian fire.
They fill my soul with Beauty (which is Hope),
And are far up in Heaven - the stars I kneel to
In the sad, silent watches of my night;
While even in the meridian glare of day
I see them still - two sweetly scintillant
Venuses, unextinguished by the sun!

Electric ozone, opaline notes, moonflower, white amber, beeswax, and three roses.

I'm shocked that there's not a thread for this already, but I've looked every which way for one in vain, so here it goes.

This does not smell like I expected it at all. I thought there would be some similarities to Her Voice, but these are very different. Her Voice is fresh, dewy flowers, while To Helen is deep and sweet with just a hint of the roses. What I smell over everything else is a little bit of ozone mixed with what have to be the "opaline notes" in the scent description. I had no idea what those would smell like when I ordered this one, but they turned out to be smooth and radiant. This one is very clingy and oddly seductive. I'm surprised by To Helen, but not disappointed.

4/5

ETA: Lab description

[Melenass]

To Helen, in the bottle smells attractive, and in my skin in the beginning also: opalines notes (a smooth, dark and cold musk) with ambar. I do not smell beeswax and ozone .

 

Heat of my skin, beeswax melts and drowns other notes, turning To Helen scent very similar to hot honey (i suppose that is white amber with the beeswax), smooth, sweet and sandy.

 

This scent, to remember me distantly, to Crhisantemum moon and Honey moon.

 

I will have to prove it in locket

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: A tangy and almost creamy mix of ozone and beeswax… it’s very hard to describe.

 

Immediately on skin: This is a very well blended scent… and hard to describe, but I’ll do my best! On my skin it smells like ozone plus something creamy but powdery and slightly warm that I think may be the white amber and beeswax. While I don’t know what opaline notes smell like, there’s definitely a cold musk feel to this, kind of like the mineral note in Black Opal. Which makes sense since they’re “opaline.” I also get a hint of moonflower, which is a note I almost feel in my nose more than smell.

 

After a little while: On my skin right now, this almost smells like a mix of Black Opal and the Oval Portrait, but not quite as cool as either of them. It has a warm feel to it from the beeswax and amber, but there’s a cool muskiness from the opaline notes, ozone, and moonflower. There’s a cold, rocky quality to this, but also a creamy floral feel. The ozone is there, but it isn’t as high of a note as in other blends because of it blending with other notes here.

 

Overall Impressions: This is a very interesting, complex, and deep blend. The notes all come out and blend together almost seamlessly, creating a scent that is cool and deep, but also warm, musky, and floral. The ozone gives this a crisp feel, while the opaline notes and moonflower add a blue feel to the blend. The white amber and beeswax make an almost warm and creamy base for the other notes.

Edited February 14, 2008 by Delirium1009

[heathercaley]

Oh my!! This is BEAUTIFUL!!

 

Its so creamy and soft.. I smell honey and roses and powder... but not the nasty powder some people get with certain blends that smell like a baby.. this is like a creamy vanilla powder.. that must be the amber. God I love this!!!

 

I totally thought that with the ozone, that this would be a sharper scent, but I am sooo wrong. And SOOO happy I bought it on a whim

 

 

I'm thinking I may have to get another bottle!!!

[lavinia]

Just bought a bottle tonight...mmmm...on the skin, it wears similarly to Chaste Moon a favorite of mine

[sookster]

straight sniff from bottle is creamy rose...

 

once applied very ozoney with some florals; rose and moonflower...

 

after some time the amber and beeswax peek through...and

back to that lovely creaminess...

 

pretty...i think this might work better for me if it was in a scent locket so i will try that out

[tarotgirl99]

Subtle, creamy gorgeousness. I was afraid of the ozone, but I guess it's afraid of me, too, because it's hiding. As are the roses.

 

Maybe it's my weird skin, but I get a sweet, flowery pear smell. Not a juicy pear, though. A pear treated very gently with amber.

 

This is a rare, very unusual, exquisite scent. Its subtlety requires slathering and it doesn't last as long as I'd like it to. In fact, it completely disappeared and then came back in a lower dosage. But I have practically sucked my wrist up my nostril. It is that gorgeous and irresistible.

 

***

 

Actually, it came back again even stronger...12 hours and I still want to ingest my wrist. This may be my favorite of the new scents--and it has a lot of competition.

Edited February 24, 2008 by tarotgirl

[mothglitter]

To Helen has a dusky kind of elegance; the colors I associate it with are dusky pastels, like a dusty lavender & a pale tearose.

 

At first, I smell roses, not bright red roses, but pale classic roses, dewy and soft. The moonflower is almost an afterthought, but the ozone touches the top of this fragrance very subtly. This would be a very chilly, moist scent, but the beeswax & amber lend a warmer, creamier element that keep it from being too sharp. This scent is perfectly balanced! It reminds me of a garden full of pale flowers, lit by a full moon, and laced with dew, but on a spring night when the warmth of the air lends a golden tinge to the cool silver of the atmosphere. Just gorgeous.

 

I bought another bottle

[lilirose]

This smells so very wonderful on me.

 

In the bottle it's soft creamy rose.

 

Wet, it's so creamy that it almost smells like beeswax and vanilla (though I know there's no vanilla in it).

 

After drydown it's a luscious, sweet smell- beeswax, honey, and rose are the predominant notes. I don't get ozone from it at all, for some reason, even though ozone usually amps on me. It's a very "ivory" sort of scent colour-wise (if you're weird like me and associate scents with colours). Despite its softness it has a ton of throw.

 

So far this is my favourite of the Love Poems, though I haven't gotten to try all that I ordered yet because I had a cold. Definitely a 5/5.

Edited February 24, 2008 by lilirose

[coldandsleepy]

In the imp: really beautiful cold roses, nice crisp ozone, and a little bit of beeswax.

 

On me, wet: Soft, round scent full of sweet roses and amber. I get a hint of beeswax, but it's definitely a background thing. The ozone seems to have disappeared entirely on contact, and i don't notice any florals in this other than the rose.

 

On me, dry: same as wet. Very consistent. If anything, the sweetness has deepened just a touch on drydown.

 

Throw and duration: excellent throw and duration.

 

Overall: Hum. This is really curious-- To Helen smells almost exactly like Versailles does on me. The only real difference is that where there would be citrus in Versailles, there's the beeswax in To Helen. It smells like... Versailles in a Catholic church.

 

To Helen is really quite beautiful, but i don't think i can justify buying a full bottle of it.

[GreenSpine]

This is stunning.

 

Ozone notes typically do not work for me; they seem very strong and harsh. But this smells fresh and a little bit wet, like someone's just misted the flowers. The beeswax and amber are gorgeous, smooth and creamy and sweet without being overly so.

 

I bought a bottle of this for my roommate, and now I'm going to have to order one for myself because she'll probably get annoyed with me if I use hers up.

[maribouquet]

This is just lovely - it's the best parts of Black Opal, and the notes are so well balanced. The ozone plays nicely and overall this is creamy and liquid, but not foody. It smells a little like coconut when first on, but doesn't enter into sunscreen territory, instead it lingers on a high, ethereal plane. Really just gorgeous. Am seriously contemplating a bottle...

[fairnymph]

In the bottle: In order of potency: caramel-beeswax, ozone, and a hint of rose.

 

Wet: Same, but I can detect a bit of amber too. The moonflower is a bit soapy, as usual, but it's thankfully faint.

 

Dry: The ozone has faded a bit, and the roses have amped slightly, but the beeswax remains in the fore. The amber is a constant but distant dry-warm note in the background.

 

Summary: Ooh, some musk came out. An intriguing blend of caramel-beeswax, summery rose, sexy musk and warm amber. The moonflower and ozone dissipate, leaving it seductive, golden, and foody-floral.

 

I predict this will be a very popular blend, but it's too foody-sweet and amber-dry for my tastes.

[soonyi]

wet, sweet beeswax cut w/white amber - it's almost like caramel with ozone to frizz out the edges.

 

dry, yummy beeswax is strong and ethereal moonflower in the lightest possible way to sweeten and soften. the electric ozone stays at the edges to keep this from getting sludgy-sweet. so much yummy honey

 

this is so wonderful - i never thought i would find a honey/beeswax scent that would work on me, even though i like it in nature. this one is such a surprise and a huge success, porlly my fave of the love poems. all hail goddess beth.

[zankoku_zen]

*sigh* Okay, at the beginning, this is very ozone and opalescent notes, which I was fond of.

 

And then it dries to a soapy/powdery mix of roses and something honeyed.

 

Yeah, the drydown kills me. *shakes fist at roses* Curse you! I have been foiled again!

[angelicdemise]

At first To Helen smelled like overwhelming potpourri. Oddly, it reminded me of a cross between two stores I used to go to at Silver Dollar City when I was a kid, the candle shop where you would dip your own candles, and this store with kinda fussy, kinda Victorian things.

On the dry-down, it settled down to a powdery scent- which is good cause I like powdery notes. It reminds me somewhat of the scent of the makeup my grandma wore when I was a kid, like the big powderpuff she used. But if it’s a powder it’s a “complicated” powder. The roses are very light and there’s a hint of something I want to call spice but that’s not quite it.

About thirty minutes later it starts to remind me of an Estee Lauder perfume my mom wore when I was a kid.

About an hour or so later it’s a very nice, very feminine (but not girly or sultry) perfume that isn’t quite like anything else.

I like To Helen. Once it’s dry it’s not overwhelming, and it’s very pretty. The lasting power is great, I put it on about eight hours ago and I can still smell it on my wrist!

[slave1]

TO HELEN

 

In Bottle: Honey floral

 

On Skin: The beeswax in this is freaking gorgeous. I love that note. It’s soft and sweet but so warm and like a nuzzle from my kitty. This is such a pretty scent, and it wears nice and close to the skin, a very comforting and snuggle worthy scent. The roses are there, which scared me at first, but the beeswax is so sweet it completely balances them. I don’t smell the ozone, which shocks me because ozone tends to amp on me. The moonflower blends nicely and the amber is powdery and compliments the soft fuzziness of this blend. After about 10 minutes the roses start to get stronger and more sour… darn! Why does rose do this to me? Luckily the scent doesn’t become too overwhelming, but with the amped rose I don’t love it as much anymore. But if I had to wear a rose scent, this would be it since I love the beeswax and amber in it so much. Very feminine by the way… Medium to strong throw and long wearlength.

[Little Bird]

To Helen really surprised me the most out of the new Lupercalia blends. In the bottle, I get a strong, sticky-sweet sort of honey note, with a hint of tangy ozone and rose underneath. I suppose that the beeswax is giving off the honey note. It's a very deep & dark smelling honey fragrance. On my skin, it's much the same, dark honey and waxy, soft, creamy beeswax with hints of clean, almost perfumey ozone. Surprisingly, none of the floral comes out on my skin. I usually amp up bpal's amber into dust or powder as well, but I don't smell any amber in this either.

 

This is pretty much beeswax and ozone on my skin, which is an intriguing sort of combination. It's creamy and sweet, and doesn't go sharp or powdery as I was expecting.

[Czarina]

This is going to be a strange review, but I hope helpful to someone.

 

I bought decants of as many of the Lupercalias as I could through a circle, and then they took a while to arrive (as decants do). I consequently could not remember what To Helen was "supposed" to smell like, and I tried it without looking at the description.

 

Well. This smells exactly like honeyed cream to me--kind of a cross between Egg Nog and Chanukiyah, although not exactly like either of them. I can't smell the roses at all (for me, this is a plus) although my daughter says she can catch a faint whiff of them.

 

Lovely scent, but puzzling. Where are the roses? And what is an "opaline" scent supposed to be, for Pete's sake?

[PurringPulsar]

To Helen

 

In the imp: honey and a soft powdery sweetness.

Wet on skin: mmm, honeyed amber and that cool sweet ‘opal’ scent I get in Black Opal.

Dry: now I smell the moonflower and a bit of the ozone, but as far as ‘electric ozone’ goes, this isn’t bad at all-usually electric notes turn horrid on me. But this is lovely. It reminds me of the ozone in Aeaea, I think-that deep blue scent. Only this time it’s not mixed with watery/woody notes, but with honey, floral and even mineral notes. The beeswax note smells less like wax and more like honeycomb, and the moonflower adds a lovely crystalline floral aspect. The white amber is fabulous…but it’s the opaline notes that are really interesting. It’s that same powdery-sweet mineral scent from Black Opal, only this time with blue ozone and golden honey notes. I don’t really smell roses in here. This is a really beautiful scent.

After a while: this gets even nicer as the slight sharpness of the ozone and honey tones down a lot, and the scent becomes really smooth. Now I smell more of that delightful amber, as well as more of the powdery opal scent, and now the honeycomb smells sweeter. The ozone is still there but it’s not misbehaving at all on my skin…it adds an edge to this otherwise totally smooth scent.

This just gets smoother and smoother until it is a beautiful and feminine scent of soft powdered honey mixed with luminous amber, a dusting of minerals (this smells like wet rocks-how does Beth do that?) and a hint of flowers and the gentlest breath of ozone. This now reminds me of a more grown up version of another favourite Poe-themed scent, Al Araaf.

Then the scent turns to the most gorgeous soft warm powdered vanilla sugar wrapped in white musk! As of late I’ve been getting this reaction to a lot of scents, not just in BPAL, it could be a skin chemistry change, but it’s a positive one and I love it! In here this scent is mixed with honey dust.

Verdict: this is such a fascinating scent and one I thought the ozone note would totally ruin, but it’s really beautiful! The electric ozone, normally one of my bane notes, doesn’t smell electric at all, just sharp and airy. But it’s the beeswax, opal notes and amber which really make this stunning. The beeswax is like honey, very strong, and the opaline notes, of course, smell like the mineral vanilla-musk I love in Black Opal. I also smell a touch of bright moonflower, and the amber is so gorgeous here, sweet and luminous. It’s a wonderfully unusual scent-sumptuous honey and amber, gentle flowers, and the scents of sweetened minerals and night air. A masterful blend, one I shall be wearing a lot of.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? Yes and I need a bottle or two.

If you like this, try: Black Opal, Al Araaf, Spirit of the Komachi Cherry Tree, Kindly Moon, Brides of Dracula

[jwhxtna]

Again, another scent I got to try courtesy of my friend.

 

IN THE IMP: Oh, this wasn't what I'd expected at all. The ozone, which is a bit too sharp for me sometimes in Lightning, gives just a bit of "fizz". It blends with the opaline notes, and they really make the scent glow. I definitely smell the moonflower, but there's also something really sweet and creamy and warm. I'm tempted to say vanilla, even though I know it's not a note, so I'm guessing beeswax and amber.

 

WET: Still that warm, creamy sweetness that keeps registering in my head as vanilla. There's still some of the ozone and the opaline notes, which make me think of Black Opal. Plus the moonflower, which is just light and pale and gorgeous.

 

DRY: So lovely, like moonflower and vanilla, with just a hint of the ozone and opaline notes.

 

This one is just lovely, and very well-blended. I've never tried a scent quite like it, so it was a very interesting experience. I'm not sure I'll get an imp of my own, but I'm really glad I decided to try this.

[Rovylern]

In the imp: Is there something in there? I can't smell anything. How weird.

 

Wet: Powder, but not baby powder. There's something swirling around underneath that is threatening to turn evil on my skin.

 

Drydown: Powder, but a creamy powder. I'm not getting any floral notes at all. This is pretty, but it's not something I'll wear often at all. I wanted so badly to hoard this one because of the name, but I think I'll just stick with my imp.

[savage_rose]

It smells nice at first, but there's some note in it that turns to perfumed rubber on me. In the bottle it's nice, but not so much on me. Sigh.

[alianthe]

In the imp: Round and warm, and sweetly floral. I can see what she means by "opaline notes," and it's really the only accurate description. All together, it's... pale and shining, at once round and sharp. Something there on the side that worries me, though. I'm beginning to feel a little nauseous. 

 

On me: Those opaline notes went... weird. White like coconut. But it's ghastly, sticky sweet rotting coconuts. Like, I'm expecting to see maggots. I'm so sad! I thought amber couldn't go wrong on me, and I *love* ozone, but between the sweetness of the flowers and... I'm not sure what else. I couldn't stand it all the way to drydown, to be honest. It made me feel ill, and my gentleman sneeze repeatedly. Yes, it's almost kind of rubbery... but also like sugared decomposition.

 

Conclusions: An unhappy surprise: one for the swaps box.

Edited March 22, 2008 by alianthe

[twilighteyes]

In the bottle this is honey and vanilla with a teeny hint of amber and floral in the bottom notes.

 

On my skin it's all warm glowing amber honey and vanilla.

 

Darn it, now I want another bottle or two. There are too many lupercalias that work on me!! And the ones I thought I'd love, I didn't. Still learning I guess!