Water of Notre Dame

[hkhm]

Brings peace to the spirit, a sense of calm and fulfillment, and attracts the aid of beneficial spirits.

imp: this is an amazingly sweet, fresh floraly scent that is not the least bit cloying. i'm already thinking i'll get a bottle...

wet: darn, this must have some rose in it. it's threatening soapiness but the background scent is still quite lovely. if this did not have rose in it, i would be ordering a couple of bottles right now.

dry: the rose is fading and i'll be on the fence about whether or not to buy a bottle. i detest the rose but everything else is breathtaking.

[undream]

i'm a fairly nervous, anxious person on the inside, especially when in most social situations , so i was really really looking forward to trying this particular oil.

 

i think i fell in love the moment i removed the cap and just took a quick whiff! it's so soft and beautiful and immediately i can see(smell) that, yes, this is absolute calm in a vial. oh, bliss. oh, thank you thank you thank you, beth.

 

wet, it's a soft, gorgeous violet for me, with a verrrrry subtle citrus just sort of peek-a-boo dancing out around the edges. i thought maybe i was a little crazy with that note, but i've seen other reviewers saying the same thing here, so i know i'm on the right track! once on, that already incredibly faint hint of citrus disappears and it's all violet and . . . is that rose? oh, this is so beautiful. it wafts so beautifully as well, and although i did slather it on it is not at all too strong or overpowering for me.

 

it also is watery but not in the sense of "flowers in a pond" sort of watery? for me it's more like a rose water or violet water, that pond filled with violet water and velvety rose petals under a lush summer purple evening sky. gorgeous and soft and sweet, delicate, beautiful. i love it.

 

ETA: uh oh, is there any jasmine in this? because i am getting this faint hairspray thing that jasmine always does on my skin. it's coming and going, and really i'm unsure if i am smelling it at all sometimes, but something in this is worrying me now. nooooooo, my special place!

Edited July 15, 2008 by undream

[jizatt]

What I got out of this scent was VIOLET. And this is officially the first scent to turn my stomach. I don't think its the Water's fault though, I have just learned that I really really don't like violets, in perfume anyway. I got the vaguest sense of something watery behind it, but the violets were so busy screaming that I really couldn't tell. If nothing else, I definitely know the scent of violet now, nothings ever wasted =)

[Heeroluva]

This is a clean, fresh smell in the bottle, like floral in a damp spring breeze. When it hits me skin it's a blast of floral and just keeps ramping up. It eventually gets so strong I just have to wash it off.

[Razoth]

Honestly, I can't see the "green" that everyone is mentioning here. It's a very light, aquatic scent, a pale blue. It actually reminds me QUITE a bit of lotus blossoms and lily pads, with the water around it lightly scented from the flowers. Not really to my taste, as I'm not much of a floral person, but I can see this being a very comforting, calming scent for some people.

[sqwook]

Frimp from the lab - thank you!

 

Wet: green - cool - blue - water

 

Dry: Green, over time turning to rose.

 

Comparisons to other scents: Similar to Lucy's Kiss, which seems better to me scentwise, though both are a bit too floral for my tastes.

 

Effect: Could be -- I was a little too calm today at work- couldn't get focused!

[crebbsgirl]

Alright have I mentioned I don't do aquatics well? This is actually the first aquatic I like. Its very comforting as others have stated. I also get a hint of white flowers. I think I can also pick out some tea notes as well, but they are very light. It's light but the staying power is remarkable. I don't get violets here - as violet and I do not get along and I've gotten very good at picking her out!

[Ravenclaw79]

A watery, faintly sweet smell, but when it settles in on the skin, it turns into dishsoap. Meh.

[greenranger]

Ashy, smoky, santa ana winds always make me nervy. I spotted this and thought that I'd give it a try.

 

 

In the frimp(Thank you lab. Your timing on this was perfect.) it is a soft almost aquatic scent.

 

On me, I can tell there are flowers there...I can even almost smell the rose.

 

 

A wet, soothing scent, like a fountain running almost out of hearing range that keeps other noises at bay....plus roses. I know the roses will fade soon on me, and that's ok. This would probably work better for me either in a locket or applied on something other than my skin.

[PinkoCommie]

This is one of the few conjure bag oils that works with my chemistry. This is even more amazing because it's somewhat aquatic and they tend to hate me quite a lot.

 

This scent is soft, subtle, indescribably well-blended. It smells like clean, running water (no chlorine), soft bankside florals (but it's not a floral scent), a breeze and just enough sunshine to warm rather than overheat.

 

It's a fantastic blend and it really is quite calming.

[galahad]

In The Bottle

Green and floral

 

On Application

Strong rose!

 

Dry Down

Rose with a bit of greenery. Alas, not me

 

Rating (0-5)

1

[ouch!]

This has melon in it, and when it's wet it smells like a light aquatic, with some melon. There's a flower waiting to burst forth and it does!!

 

ROSE, This is the same sort of rose that's in Othello, it's that very fresh almost drier sheet rose (I have no idea which one that would be).

 

So the melon only sticks around for a very short while before the rose dominates. Once it's dry, it's now a light aquatic with rose on the top. It is a very clean scent...and is very refreshing.

 

I'mnot sure if it's calming on the personality, I've been quite calm today when I think about it..considering the hour and a half journey to work with the driver shouting road rage insults to other drivers. It's been an OK day. Obviously this didn't work on the guy who drops me to work haha!

 

There's alot of throw and lasting power to this blend on my skin, but there's already place in my bottle box filled by Othello which I much prefer!

[TheLetterL]

Ah-HA! Violet! That's what I'm getting. Thank goodness for these reviews. I couldn't place the floral note in WoND, but this thread made me realize it's the same kind of sharp soapy-ness that I get from those violet candies.

 

Very sharp to me in the bottle, and very sharp for some time after application. Not a fan. Instead of calming me down, I felt unsettled. However, I put it on before bed, and by the next morning it had faded into a fresh floral that I loved.

 

Oh, and add me to the chorus of those saying go easy on this one. It's deceptively strong!

[PersephonesChild]

I get rose from this. Pure rose. Soppy rose. Sickly rose. Now, I love rose, especially tea rose, and my skin tolerates most roses pretty well, but this smells to me like a rose blossom that's been floating in a dish of water for a week too long. Time to throw it out.

[NotTheRedBaron]

I decided to try this on a crazy whim. Well it is ROSE!!!!!!!!! Not so good on me but I'm sure many of my female friends would enjoy this. It is just not a guy scent.

 

ADDED Jan. 10:

 

This was a frimp in my last order. I will sample anything so I decided to give this a try. First sniff: wow this is a very cool, light, watery floral. Dab on the wrist: I am having an immediate emotional connection with this fragrance. I'm transported back to a small chapel in a Catholic church I attended in my youth. This chapel is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It is just after Easter and this chapel is filled with the most delicate fragrant flowers. There is a pool of running water, in the center of which is a statue of Mary, seated, her hand dipped down into the cool water. Petals from the flowers have fallen into this pool. Radiant blue light filters into the room through stained glass above Mary's head.

In this little vile I am immediately reminded of the sense of peace and calm that chapel brought me.

I would not wear this as this is quite a feminine scent and I'm a guy. But I am keeping the imp so that I may sniff it from time to time. It really is a very lovely fragrance.

Edited January 13, 2009 by Shollin

[Bamels]

I bought this based on a few reviews I saw. I was hoping for a murky greeny/blue water smell.

 

In the bottle I get a sweet smell closely followed by something sharp which reminds me of water. Like a shower; it possibly smells similar to one of my (many) shower gels? I can almost smell a fruit; a touch of orange zest? Possibly another that will be sweeter than I expected.

 

When wet I can smell soap, yuk! I hope it fades otherwise this will be a disaster. It smells good when my arm in resting on the table infront of me though, not what I was imagining but a slight creamy floral. Up close the soap is starting to wind down and the floral is peeping out resulting in a floral soap smell. Eeww now I can taste soap in my mouth!!

 

When dry it is just soap soap soap. Yuk yuk yuk I'm so dissapointed with this. There must be something in it which is disagreeing with my chemisty. I'm off to wash the soap out of my mouth now.

[Dymphna]

Scent: Rose, violet, and cucumber. Somehow, the rose doesn't go soapy and the violet doesn't go powdery. It smells like floral water, like the kind of cool, clean, naturally scented toilet water you'd find on a woman's dressing table a hundred or so years ago. The kind that would be used to scent handkerchiefs. It's really beautiful in a calm, gentle way. A quiet, pale blue-violet scent.

 

I got this as a frimp from the Lab last...summer, I think. I liked it in the imp, but just dabbed it on my hair because rose doesn't usually work well with my skin. It smelled really beautiful and calming, so I kept it in case of emergency. Months later, I was having a cranky, crabby day and I knew any scent I normally loved to wear would just end up irritating me. So I dabbed a tiny bit of WoND on the back of my hand. And it not only made me feel calm and happy and relaxed for the whole day, but it smelled fantastic, even on my skin. It's now a go-to scent for me when I'm feeling cranky or a bit anxious, and it's extremely soothing as a bedtime scent.

[jehrichardson]

Fresh, green, clean, and light. Has a cucumber/melon overtone and some aquatic back notes.

 

This is really lovely, but tends to get a bit soapy and a bit too melon-y for my tastes.

 

Likes it. Does not loves it.

[obsidienne]

WoND has a sort of grapey/cucumberish floral hairspray smell (is that perhaps gardenia? no, geranium? maybe violet? all of them? some of them? I'm awful at this), both wet in the imp and on my skin. It's almost salty and aquatic, too. Water of Notre Dame.

 

Problem is, it also makes my sinuses pick up the mucus and start flinging. I get totally stuffed up within minutes, & then there's the sneezing. What the hell?

 

Drydown and several nose blowings later, it smells like all of the above the above, but now under a veil of rose. Interesting and... interesting? *shrug* This is meant to calm me down, but with the sneezing and the stuffiness that ensue each time I try this blend, it's not exactly working.

 

My sinuses do settle down eventually, but WoND does not quite smell right to me.

 

This is very strong both in intensity and throw until late drydown (and I suspect that's saying a great deal, as I don't seem to find most BPAL scents very strong... my nose is probably not very efficient).

Edited February 11, 2009 by obsidienne

[savage_rose]

Wow...I've had this forever and I've never reviewed it!

 

Without thinking about it too much, I've always thought this was the BPAL version of White Light. And I never got the same "feeling" as I did with White Light, and I wasn't as crazy about the scent, so I just never used it. But sniffing it now, and comparing it...I think it's very good and a nice scent, it's just a different type of oil. White Light has a clean, purifying herbal dryness to its scent...on an emotional level it seems to reduce or remove negativity. But Water of Notre Dame has a touch of the same clean vibe, but instead of the herbal dryness there's a sweet floral note. And it doesn't make me feel less stressed out or anything, although it does make me feel a bit more peaceful. So maybe White Light is the purification scent, but Water of Notre Dame is the peace that one fills the vacuum that the negativity left when it was removed with White Light? So they're not even meant to be alternatives, but partnering scents, the White Light taking energy away and Water of Notre Dame adding it back?

 

Er, I think I'm delving into the Quantum Physics of perfumery here. So sticking to the perfume side of it ("Just the notes, ma'am"), it's a very clean scent underneath with a floral, perfumey top note. It's not an old-lady floral, but more of a nostaligic floral. It's nice enough scent-wise, but it's nothing that would become my favorite scent in and of itself. Although I think I'm going to experiment partnering it up with White Light!

[catatonic1242]

In the imp: Light, very light, floral and perfume-y in almost the traditional sense of perfume. To me, this smells very white and clean. It's not at all a muddled or confused scent.

 

On, wet: So very light. Others are saying that they got huge throw from this, but I absolutely did not. This clung very closely to my wrists and smelled very clean the whole time.

 

On, dry: There's a floral presence, so of course it turned a tad soapy on me, but because the throw is so very minimal, it just smells clean and fresh. It makes me feel like I'm wearing clothes fresh out of the dryer. I will say that it didn't bring me a whole lot of peace, since I think I may have had a minor anxiety attack while I was wearing it (not related to the oil at all), but I wasn't wearing it for the calming effects, so that doesn't matter much to me.

 

Overall, I liked it, in a strange way, because it's a floral I can actually wear.

[aquazoo]

Citrus floral to start. Lilac/violet.

 

[CynicalPink]

Imp: Light, citrus-y floral

 

Wet: Lilac, orange, and something green

 

Dry: Aw hell, it went soapy.

 

Overall: S'okay. There seem to be plenty of floral-citrus team-ups in BPAL, but this is a really good example of one. Rose doesn't steamroll the whole thing, lilac is a very nice note I shall have to look further in to...it's just not doing much for my skin

[Yoginispirit]

I was kindly frimped with this by BloodyDutchess (thank you!!!)

This is an interesting scent! Very herbal and 'cool' I can see how appropriate the name is. On my skin it warms up and there's a strange sort of rotting scent (glares at rose) underneath the herbal. Over time the rotting note begins to disappear and I get some sweetness.

I added just a tiny bit of Aunt Caroline's Joy mojo to sweeten it up and am happy with the results.

 

Mainly I'll keep this for the healing properties which do seem to have a calming effect on me. I'll experiment in my hair and in my locket. I'm very glad I have the frimp and may even get a bottle!

[Lamia]

Blargh - the worst sort of french soap.

 

And it lasts FOREVER!!!!