Parthenope

[angelicruin]

Honeysuckle, orris, moss, musk, benzoin, oakmoss, and star jasmine.

Inside the imp, mostly honeysuckle.

On my skin, honeysuckle and moss to start. Jasmine is faint on my skin.

Dries down to powdery honeysuckle and musk.

[NoinHime]

Smelled alot like Thalassa on first sniff, but sweeter.

 

Now that it has dried it pretty much turned to just Jasmine on me. It's a very lovely jasmine that's not too strong or sharp; it has just a little tensy bit of swetsness (maybe from the honeysuckle).

 

I like jasmine but I was hoping for more than just that from it.

[Venneh]

In the decant, I get honeysuckle, and what I'm pretty sure is the mosses. On my skin, it's really sweet floral, with something else lurking underneath. We'll see what this does. Ends up drying down to a really powdery floral, not for me.

Edited January 19, 2010 by Venneh

[pandorasmuse]

This has a couple of things that are iffy on me, but a couple of things that are awesome. The oil is very orange, which I didn't expect.

 

In the decant: Mossy and mysterious. Lightly floral. Unexpectedly light, considering there’s jasmine in it!

 

Wet: Whoooo! Moss and musk.

 

Drydown: More and more moss.

 

Later: This smells a little too manly on me. I’m glad I got to try it, but I think I'll pass.

[Evilynn]

In the imp: Honeysuckle and mosses

Wet on the skin: A blast of honeysuckle and oakmoss

Drydown: The honeysuckle chills a little, and oakmoss, moss and benzoin come forward.

 

I find similarities with Voyeurs Among the Cherry Blossoms (for some reason), and somethin reminds me a little of The Unicorn. If The Unicorn had travelled to a swamp.

 

I quite like oakmoss, and I'm hanging onto my imp, although I'm not sure I'll get a bottle. We'll see how often I reach for it.

[aquazoo]

Anybody remember Jergens lotion? That's what I get. I could pick out various notes, but for me it's an old comfort scent.

 

[sarielswish]

In the imp, it's very sharp, almost bitter. Not at all what I was expecting. Must be the benzoin and oakmoss. Color, green-brown.

 

Wet on my skin, there's the honeysuckle and a bit of the jasmine. Hopefully, the orris doesn't turn this into soap on me.

 

10-15 minute drydown - Ugh. This is Worm Moon, without all of the good parts.

 

30 minute drydown - Hi, Old Lady Powder/Perfume/Soap. On me, this smells almost dead on like Evening in Paris - you know, the one in the big blue glass bottle that sat on grandma's dresser.

[SophieCedar]

When first applied it's incredibly sharp, green, and acrid. The honeysuckle and star jasmine clash when 1st warmed, but quickly let go of each other. It becomes a very harmonious scent. Oakmoss & musk come out with soft powdery orris behind it. This makes it more palatable and meaty. The impression is very soft green. Not very aquatic, but soft green and earthy with flashes of emerald green, aqua, and yellow.

 

The throw is very low: that's my only complaint. But then again, I can't ask the ingredients to do something chemically impossible on human skin.. That would only happen if they were synthetic (none of us want that anyways!)

[Gin]

This is surprisingly soft on me. Usually I get oakmoss like whoa, but in Parthenope, it's quiet. Soft honeysuckle, powdery orris and musk. It may be the power of suggestion, but this feels watery to me, even though none of the notes strike me as watery notes.

[grrrlennyl]

Parthenope

 

On: Very pretty and hard to describe. I think I'm mostly getting orris and moss with some sweet floral notes.

Half an hour in: So amazingly pretty. It's hard for me to pick out the notes in this still, but I think I'm getting a lot of star jasmine, which is gorgeous.

5.5 hours in: Sweet star jasmine and other really pretty sweet flowers.

Overall: This is just such a different sort of floral. So lovely.

[fisharescary]

In the imp, I get

powdery floral- on skin,

super baby wipes.

[Lady_Fire]

This smelled like the sweet, putrid scent of something dead on my skin. It was really unpleasant. I kept thinking there was a rotting, dead animal nearby. I think it was the jasmine. After about 2 hours it settled down into an unoffensive floral, mostly honeysuckle. But the opening makes this a never again for me.

[Mjanefh]

Parthenope reminds me of a softer and more feminine Highwayman. It's probably the jasmine. I really like this and am more likely to grab it when I need something floral but won't trigger a migraine. Sometimes these kinds of florals go slightly sour with my chemistry. Not so here.

After a few hours, I get honey and musk. Nice!

[LizziesLuck]

ETA: This is the 2017 version

 

Wet: I thought this might be a honeysuckle scent, but it's an orris scent, so far. Usually orris is horrid on me, but so far this is actually quite nice. Powdery and sweet, but nice. The musk is fantastic.

 

 

Dry: This is really nice. It dries down to somewhat of a skin scent on me - pale orris and musk are dominant. I'm quite excited that the orris works here, as that rarely happens. I am not sure I would ever reach for it, but it's a very pleasant scent, and I am really glad I tried it. I won't avoid orris quite so much any more - it's been raised from death note status to just iffy.

Edited October 16, 2017 by LizziesLuck

[achildoftime]

This is for the 2017 version.

 

I was looking for honeysuckle, but I mostly got jasmine. It's actually more of a mossy jasmine than anything. It's a bit green and damp, but also a bit heady. The sweetness of the honeysuckle peeks out a little bit when it dries, but it's not as strong as I was hoping. This feels like a heady floral aquatic without being an aquatic. I'm pretty sure the flowers and moss are just mixing do make it smell a bit dewy. Nice, but not what I'm looking for.

[Cali]

Honeysuckle and jasmine on me. Strangely getting flashbacks to the swimming pool place I often went to as a kid?

[tinyvulture]

I will buy anything with star jasmine listed among the notes! Unfortunately, this one didn't work out. The orris is far more noticeable than the jasmine or the honeysuckle. I was hoping for the jasmine to be front and center. Orris is sweet, so dry, so powdery. Not really getting any other notes out of it, so I will swap.

[Lucchesa]

2017 Parthenope on me is mainly musky, dusty (orris-y) jasmine.  I get some moss at first and a little honeysuckle, but they don't last long on my skin.  Star jasmine is usually better on me than the regular kind, and this is true here as well -- nothing indolic about this scent.  Parthenope is soft and pretty, but it's too floral for my tastes.  

[DigitalCoyote]

iWet: Earthy (oakmoss?) and a little seed-y.  There was the vague whiff of rotting for a moment.  Is that what's meant by "indolic"?

 

Dry: 

 

L wrist - some honeysuckle, more musky with a whiff of Playdoh.

 

R wrist - soft powdery jasmine and musk

 

Really dry:

 

Both wrists are taking on that weird plasticky note.  I'm pleasantly flowery.

 

I really had to get up close and personal to smell her.  I don't mind that: I don't always want to be huffed from six feet out.  

 

Hrm.  She doesn't love me and I'm iffy on her.  I thought this would be more salty than it is but that's my bad for not reading.  This isn't a wild free swimming open-ocean mermaid.  This is contained and while pleasant, a little melancholy.

 

 

 

 

[VetchVesper]

Creamy jasmine over a bed of aquatic moss. There's a hint of salt at first; the benzoin adds a touch of darkness, and the musk lingers with the jasmine and moss in the dry down. The orris makes this a touch powdery. This actually reminds me a bit of Crossroads, without the dirt note.  Pleasant enough I shall keep my decant. The Carnival Diabolique aquatics are a lot more wearable for me that most other aquatics.   

 

Edited July 17, 2020 by VetchVesper

[monocainsheresy]

I've been trying to find a non-aquatic aquatic (yes I know that's a bit stupid) and I think this is it! 

 

This is mostly honeysuckle on me, followed by green-ness (definitely the moss, but it's not reading specifically as moss), and a sharp edge which I think is the combo of the musk, oakmoss, and jasmine. The orris is in there somewhere making this super smooth. As it dries the benzoin adds sweet depth and the jasmine comes out a little more, but the honeysuckle is definitely the star.

It's is definitely a slightly soapy, spa-like scent, but I'm glad I took the chance on a bottle in the hopes that the benzoin would make it more warm and interesting, because it definitely does! I have no other soap/spa scents in my collection for a reason, and Parthenope shakes it up just enough to happily fill that hole. Excited to see how this ages.

 

Also, in the bottle I swear I kept getting whiffs of Chanel No. 5? Parthenope retains the slightest hint of that on the skin - more of a vibe or a thought than anything else. A non-problematic, spa-owning distant cousin, perhaps.