Mata Hari

[Jerre]

Mata Hari

...Her scent is striking and bold with a delicate yet dark undertone: five roses with soft jasmine, warmed by vanilla, fig, tonka bean and mahogany, spiced with a drop of coffee bean.

 

Sweet jasmine flowers- a strong, silent woman’s perfume: both lovely and powerful at the same time!

 

Summary: Irresistible! I perceive an assertive, feminine woman who always gets what she wants!

[kuanyin]

Mata Hari is quite a quick change artist by these reviews! Which is fitting I suppose. It is hard to believe that I can't smell 5 roses, but the floral I get is very creamy and white jasmine. Coffee is fleeting, which is a shame, but then I get the creamy jasmine, I'm guessing the vanilla adds the creaminess and tonka balances it nicely. I don't find the mahogany, though I'm sure it adds depth. This is a very deep blend with tons of throw that lasts for hours and hours. I put mine on 9 hours ago and I don't have throw at this point, but I still have a lovely scent when I sniff my wrists, which I find myself doing a lot. This scent reminds me of a Georgia O'Keefe white flower painting. Maybe because I tend to mix up jasmine and gardenia and she painted gardenia blossoms.

 

This scent also has the remarkable distinction of getting an unasked for comment from Mr. G Spot! Mr. G Spot only has a sense of smell when he takes his allergy meds, which he hardly ever does and didn't today. He actually smelled it and when pressed, said it was rather overpowering! Now THAT impresses me!

[supremegoddessofall]

I think I'll like this. *sniff* Oh no...the rose and the jasmine are *not* playing well together. It's feminine, but there's a...plastic aspect to this. I do smell a smidge of coffee, but the vanilla and fig are completely absent for me.

 

Score: 2 out of 5

[Shannihilation]

In the imp this is stale coffee. Very strong stale coffee with a rose undertone. I actually wrinkled my nose. But I put it on anyway. This has been on my wishlist forever so I was excited to get it as a frimp.

Wet on my skin it stays stale coffee and roses for quite awhile. Now that it's dry though (two hours later) I still get a bit of coffee but it's more floral now. The jasmine and roses are the dominant notes with the tonka and vanilla keeping them from being too cloying. And the coffee is just barely there, keeping the scent crisp and bold. It's fading fairly quickly though.

 

Now that it's dry I like it alot better. I'll leave it on my wishlist I think.

[sanachan1]

So today I got my first ever BPAL order. Needless to say I was filled with glee. But unfortunately I was a bit unlucky with my imps. Mata Hari was one of the ones I was really looking forward to, but I really couldn't stand it.

 

In the bottle it smelled... icky. Someone said stale coffee, and maybe that's what it was. It honestly smelled like bad breath to me. I soldiered on and applied it to my wrist. Luckily the halitosis smell disapeared quickly, leaving an odd green sort of smell. I think it smelled like rose leaves. Wet rose leaves on the verge of rotting. It stayed that way for about an hour, and then just smelled like old lady. *sigh* Halatosis, rotting leaves and old lady; not really what I had in mind. Back to the drawing board.

[MidgetCoconut]

In the vial it smelled strongly of coffee and ever-so-slightly floral but once I put it on, the coffee note took a back seat to a beautifully soft rose scent laced with a hint of delicate jasmine.

 

Wonderful, Beth - will be ordering a full size!

[maijasu]

I love the coffee in this--it's not the sweet Irish coffee of Misk U, but a thick, black coffee. It's very fleeting, though, and this scent turns out to be mostly floral. I appreciate that the rose doesn't go all soapy on me, but it's very sweet and borders on cloying. I wish this were more woods and coffee, and slightly less floral, but it could still be a very pretty scent on the right person.

[PilotKitten]

Ick coffee... I *hate* the smell of coffee. And this is like the most bitter, acrid coffee note ever. >_< I'm not even getting any of the other listed notes at all... just this overwhelmingly nauseating coffee bean scent. Definitely a swapper.

[mmmitchell]

This is definitely one of my hit-parade oils.....it all just WORKS for me, in a unique and wonderful way.

 

In the Bottle: Wake up and smell the Starbucks! BIG coffee note in the inital bottle snuffing, with just hints of white florals in the background. This doesn't scare me, big time coffee addict that I am. I can see how this initial BIG note might be off-putting if coffee ain't your thang. But be thee not afraid, because......

 

Wet: .....BIG coffee note dissipates after about a minute. And then, here come ALL the florals! I am sometimes NOT a fan of rose-y scents on me. I love roses, but somehow feel they can be a bit insipid as a scent for me. But here, and in combo with the jasmine and other notes, they become feminine and mysterious. A GOOD thing.

 

Dry: As it dries the coffee almost completely dissipates on me, seeming to morph into the warmth of mahogany, which anchors and rounds the scent. Dry, it seems so well blended that I don't really pick out the individual notes anymore. I never seemed to actually "get" vanilla, tonka bean, or fig, but I think that those notes are evening out the florals, to give me this mysterious, and very wearable floral that has plenty of depth and substance.

 

Only drawback for me is that while the throw is quite decent, it fades pretty quick on me.....maybe 2-3 hours. Then I have to reapply. For those that intensely dislike the inital "I smell like a cuppa joe" phase I can see where that might be a negative. Doesn't bother me though.

 

I'm planning on using Mata Hari as a scent for a body scrub that incorporates coffee grounds that I plan to give to some of my coffee-lovin' girlfriends as Yule gifties. Enabling? You betcha. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

[starrynight06]

I really don't want to be mean with this one, but it is the most vile smelling perfume I have ever sniffed. It smells like old coffee mixed in with an old man's dentures. Ug, I don't smell any roses or any jasmine. I could not even bring myself to put it on my wrist. This will be swapped away quickly.

[talula_fairie]

I thought I really loved this scent at first, but I think it was my plugged nose (getting over a cold) playing tricks on me.

 

It's not bad, certainly a tolerable rose on me, but not something that I really like.

 

In the imp: it smelled very nice, soft jasmine, a touch of rose and some warm coffee/tonka/musky notes. I was very hopeful but...

 

On my skin: smelled alright at first, but once it was fully dry it turned into a soap-ish rose smell. No other scent was detected, just rose. I wore it all day long (had to reapply every two hours, this one fades completely away on me after that time period) just to be sure of the scent since I appeared to like it so much at first but not later (I think my nose was blocking out the rose smell at first, I really don't care for rose....) It ended up reminding me of a grandma or a sachet that I'd put in my underwear drawer.

Edited November 20, 2006 by talula_fairie

[outofrhyme]

In the bottle:

Florals - especially jasmine; tonka bean; mahogany.

 

Wet:

Ehh... not me. The jasmine and fig are going wonky. Ick.

 

Dry down:

Whoa. Ick. Ick. Ick. Baaaaad chemistry. Behind the ick, I can just barely smell a touch of mahogany and coffee, and it smells like it might have been nice if the jasmine hadn't gone EVIL. Sickening. It just gets worse and worse.

 

Final thoughts:

Definitely a disaster with my skin chemistry. Will definitely swap away.

[almeda]

* First Sniff: Richly floral and rose-y.

* On: Got some serious throw on it immediately. It also baby-powdered a bit. Uh oh, that time of month already? I'll let it mellow to see if it passes.

* Dry: The powder DID quiet down, thank goodness. Some lavender is showing up; I'm waiting for the rest.

* Long-Term: Lots of floral and rose, and nothing else, even hours after application. Not for me, though I bet it's someone else's total favorite.

[captainecchi]

This one started out on me as overwhelmingly rosy and floral. Smelling it in the bottle, I thought, "Yep, going to turn to soap on me," which florals, especially with jasmine, seem to do.

 

For the first hour or so that I had it on, my skin was screaming ROSE ROSE ROSE. On the good side, it reminded me of a single-note rose perfume I once had which I loved; on the bad side, it was strong enough that I began to feel a headache coming on while driving to work. There may have been something about the jasmine that amplified the smell of the rose; dunno.

 

Now it's an hour later, and the rose has settled down, and the vanilla is really coming out. There might be some other scents in there; maybe a little figginess, but they're hard to identify (I'm not sure I'd know what tonka smells like if it bit me). I like how the vanilla emerged not so much as a second smell but a mellowing of the rose scent--I didn't think those two scents would go together so well. Also, yay, no soap!

 

Seems to have medium throw once it settles down (i.e. I can smell it consistently without sticking my nose to my wrist, but nobody's telling me I smell like roses/vanilla), and I'm betting the vanilla will give it staying power. This might be a floral I'd consider buying, maybe for spring use - it seems a little too flowery for a New England winter.

[nikkoblue]

THis is one of those scents that really works on me, but I'm so temperamental about rose that I don't know if I could ever buy a bottle of it.

 

Imp: Stale over roasted coffee bean and roses. intriguing! After working for a coffee company for 3 years and working at the roasting facility, the smell of stale coffee is kind of comforting to me.

 

Initial, wet on arm: The coffee's fading fast the rose is really asserting itself. It's not pure rose though (maybe the jasmine is tempering it?). The coffe is keeping the rose from being cloyingly sweet though, which is nice.

 

Dry: This is turning very sexy and pretty on me. I'm not getting any coffee anymore......the rose and jasmine are popping up at different moments. I don't think I want a full bottle, but I'll most likely use my imp.

[ariosa]

I received Mata Hari today in an imp package sent by a fellow BPAL'er, and of all that was sent, I was looking forward to Mata Hari the most.

 

Unfortunately... Mata Hari was not looking forward to me. I'm still a newbie at picking out scents, but I'm pretty sure it's the jasmine going all crazy on me, and amping to the nth degree. Which I find strange, considering of all my favorite commercial perfumes in the past, jasmine has figured in most of them. Just... not the dominant note, I guess, and in this case -- it was all jasmine, all the time. Sadly no hint of the coffee I was interested in, or any of the other notes!

 

It's just too heavy. Too sweet. It gives me a headache, and after an hour, I had to wash it off because it was just taking over everything. I just couldn't take it anymore. Now that I've washed it off, though, I'm loving the little that I can't seem to get off with the soap. So maybe I'll have to give this one another go sometime before finding another home for it.

 

Alas!

 

ETA: with a bit more BPAL experience, I'm thinking it's not so much the jasmine amping here. It's the rose. Most of the BPAL fragrances I've tried with rose as a dominant note totally don't work for me at all.

Edited March 12, 2007 by ariosa

[kat15lee]

I was really hoping for a sweet coffee scent. A bit disappointed that the coffee makes a guest appearance at the beginning then disappears.

 

Mata Hari is really a VERY FLORAL scent. Overpoweringly floral. Beth is such a genius. How in the world did she get coffee and florals to jive?

 

Woah.. these florals have a strong throw! Its 3 hours later and I can still smell them!

Not what I was looking for, but I like the floral throw.

 

4.5/5.

[filigree_shadow]

This smells like bitter coffee and soap on me. I've tried it a couple of times and it just isn't working on me. That's okay though -- I have yet to want to wear anything coffee-scented as perfume, so I didn't expect this one to work.

 

ETA: I received a new imp of Mata Hari in December 2021, and it actually smells really nice on me! Not bitter at all, and not soap. It smells like a dry woody scent with a bit of round rose floral and deep fig. I am really enjoying this now.

Edited December 28, 2021 by filigree_shadow

[naeelah]

In bottle: COFFEE! And rose!

 

Wet: Woah, this is rose, rose rose. After a minute I start to smell something a little bit spicy, fruity, and sweet... fig? (I checked the notes -- yes! fig! My nose rules!)

 

Dry: Oh my god, this is so gorgeous. The top note is definitely rose, but the jasmine adds a sweet twist. The tonka bean and vanilla have come out, warming up the whole blend wonderfully. The fig adds just a hint of tartness, and the coffee lingers in the background, setting the ultimate tone. Exactly like the notes description.

 

Later: This fades relatively quickly. An hour later, and many of the notes had faded, leaving a somewhat sandalwoody tonka bean in the fore. I could still smell the rose, less so the coffee. It has been about 3 or 3.5 hours and it's still noticeable, just quite soft. But I can live with reapplying it.

 

final thoughts: This is a gorgeous, womanly, exotic scent. I've been after the perfect rose scent for a long time. Single note rose just isn't quite right for me, and it's something my mom wears, so I felt like I was coopting her. This is just the fragrance I've been looking for. It's rose, but different. Rose and jasmine are my favorite floral notes, and I love all of the other notes present in this. The rose and coffee stop the vanilla from being too sweet. The vanilla, fig, and tonka bean keep this from being strictly floral. And the coffee adds a unique spin on the entire blend. It's just too beautiful. Definitely going to get bottle after bottle of this!

Edited March 17, 2007 by naeelah

[goth_huntress]

The jasmine overshadowed everything else in Mata Hari for me. I was hoping the coffee would fight its way through.

[Meg]

In the bottle: roses, jasmine and COFFEE

 

Wet: Coffee with a jasmine backdrop. Rose and tonka come out slowly, and rose slowly takes over the blend as coffee recedes to the background.

 

Drydown: Rose and jasmine, which is slightly plasticky, as well as some vanilla, I think. There's a slight cool woodiness from the tonka and mahogany, and the coffee has all but vanished. If I pay close attention, I get the tonka strongly beneath the rose, it's a cool, creamy earthiness that goes very well with florals.

 

Overall: It actually reminds me a lot of Wicked without the myrrh, a very pleasant jasmine/rose blend, heavy on the rose. Definitely a floral, the coffee bean just gives oompf in the startout but then it mellows down into a cool, elegant rose. The exotic dancer, the courtesan is well represented in rose and jasmine, and the stronger side of her personality is brought out by coffee. You can also smell that there's more going on, vanilla and fig as mere hints hovering in the background.

[dorothy humbird]

This was a frimp from my swap with artofsuicide -- thank you!!

 

Goes on quite strongly jasmine to my nose, with perhaps some rose rounding it out. It's not nearly as overpowering as some florals I've tried (esp. heavy BPAL rose blends), but also not quite to my taste.

 

A little while into drydown I started to smell some fruitiness in the blend; I'll have to look at the notes and see what that might be. [Fig? It must be.]

 

Further into drydown I could smell drier notes kicking the jasmine and rose out of the way and coming to the fore; right now, about 2 hours after application I'm not getting much at all throw wise, but if I shove my nose directly up against my wrist I smell a fainter, softer version of the original jasmine-rose. I have gotten absolutely no coffee from this, unless it's the 'dry' stuff I identified earlier. Interesting.

 

This is nice, and not nearly as scary as I was imagining jasmine blends to be, since it bothers a number of people if prominent and/or seems to amp a lot. While Mata Hari itself doesn't seem like it's going to be my blend, I'm glad I got to try it so my worries about jasmine were allayed.

[isabella]

spicy, rich mahogany, with coffee. it intereting buut developed a bitter burnt smell on me.

[lyricalwaters]

In the bottle: Coffee! Woah, coffee. Actually, it makes me think of standing in a coffee shop sniffing straight coffee beans. I've seen a lot of people describe it as stale coffee, but I actually LIKE whatever this smell is.

 

Wet: Still coffee, but something floral is fighting its way through, and not necessarily working. Rose, maybe? It reminds me of Ouiji.

 

Dry: The coffee's all gone. Now it's just floral, but kind of a dusty floral... and the rose completely drowns out the jasmine on me.

 

Later: It lasts, at least! Definitely fades into rose+jasmine. I miss the coffee, though.

[neuilly]

Alas, jasmine does what it always does on me...turns everything into soap! On me this is a rose-jasmine soap. It's very strong and rather pretty but not what I'm looking for. The coffee note was only there for a few seconds when I first applied the scent.