The Red Queen

[fragrantgrasse]

The Red Queen....

Deep mahogany and rich, velvety woods lacquered with sweet, black-red cherries and currant.

 

 

Here's a scent memory....when I was seven my father gave me a black & red laquered jewlery box and the Red Queen smells exactly like the inside of this box. So I am guessing it is laquer that hits my nose instantly when I swiped this one. I detect absolutely no sweetness, no juicy cherry, no cedar even.

 

Just red and black laquer.

 

Off with her head!

[joseybird]

Wow....

 

This is tart, deep, rich, sweet black cherries...not at all the cough syrup smell I've gotten from O and others. The woods are smooth and deep and gorgeous...This is deep mahogany with a sleek, polished cherry glaze--I LOVE this!

[elphaba]

I've yet to encounter a BPAL where I didn't like the final drydown at least a little and Red Queen is no exception. When it's dry, it's a subtle blend of cherries and what smells to me like cedar (the mahogany, I assume). It smells like a exquisite, commanding, sweetly perfumed woman sitting in a wood-paneled library and I like it. You can't help but listen to someone wearing this.

 

Wet, though...ugh. Wet, this smells like wood varnish. My husband actually sniffed my arm, screwed up his nose, and said, "Oh my god! Who would want to smell like that?" The varnish smell is worst in the bottle, but it hangs around on the skin for a bit and the payoff is just not worth it for me. It sounds like others see the transformation into something beautiful happen a lot more quickly than it did for me, so I'll leave this one to those for whom it works.

[gdogs]

out of the bottle, this one smells like fingernail polish remover, layered over cherries. i think it is sometimes the cherries that do that funky thing on me.

 

after it dries, the acitate smell goes away, and it becomes a very deep cherry scent. yum. . .nice.

 

after about 2 hours, i begin to get a cedar scent from it, but that is the first wood scent i can recognize. i was surprised, i expected more woody scents.

[Witch's Dagger]

The Red Queen

 

This was a freebie from the lab. Thanks!

 

Preconceived notions:

I like berries and cherry, but usually a pure fruit blend will be too sweet or tart for me. I love the thought of adding wood to give it more of a backbone.

 

In the vial:

A very tart cherry, but with hints of the sweetness in maraschino cherries.

 

On me:

 

Whoa, this is heady. It’s what I’d imagine of cherry wine. I want to drink it. Well, maybe not. The wood is coming out, making it a little bitter smelling. In a few seconds, it’s now going from predominantly cherry/berry to predominantly wood. The wood is now the main scent, with the cherry and berries giving it a roundness and a sweetness. As the name suggests, this is very regal.

 

In 10 minutes:

It’s beginning to blend more, as the wood softens. Cherry infused wood. I know it’s mahogany, but I can’t help but think of sandalwood.

 

In 1 hour:

Completely gone.

 

Overall:

I think I like this, but I want to try it again. I wish I could keep the cherry wine scent, too.

[yellowrose]

The Red Queen is very cherry at first. This is an almost medicinal cherry.

 

As it dries, more of the woods come out. At this stage, it's iffy as to whether this might be an appealing scent. It's not unpleasant.

 

Overall: Eventurally morphs into Eau de Head Shoppe. Evaporates into a whisper within two hours. The SO was decidedly not enthusiastic. Sadly, The Red Queen is not for me. I may hang on to it to try again, but with so many other scents I want to try, the experiment seems moot.

 

Must say that it does combine oddly well with Blood Rose for those experimenters among you.

[blaqpearl]

At first sniff, thick cough medicine. Although I like the taste of medicine...I know I am wierd. I didnt like this one on my skin. It reminded me of kids who have white shirts stained with cherry kool aid. LOL. Glad to have smelled this one though.

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): Wow, citrus, sharp bright citrusy fruit, and sweetness.

 

Just On: Holy cow, I like the citrus fruit blast I got here. I smell something else trying to come out as well, so we'll see how this plays out. I could love it like this, or if it changes the right way on me.

 

An hour or two later: Ouch, this is turning rather bad with my skin. Not what I was hoping for, that's for sure.

 

Around 6 hours: I'm getting back a bit of the sweetness, and the citrus thing is totally gone. Whatever was seeming bad is now gone.

 

12 hours: Just the last few bits of sweetness left.

 

Overall: I was blown away with the citrus thing at first, and then it faded down into a lovely sweetness after that little hint of ickiness.

 

After reading other reviews: Hmmm, currant is probably what made me think it was citrus. I really didn't get cherry or cough syrup at all, which is nice. I like it.

[Kittyflop]

The squashed maraschino cherry at the bottom of a Manhattan cocktail glass. This is bright in the bottle, but quickly quiets down to a voluptuous, earthy sweet luxury. I'm addicted.

 

ADDED Aug. 29:

 

This is a re-review (mods, no extra point for me!) but it’s different enough that I didn’t just want to edit my previous entry. I just got a big bottle, and the batch variation is so great that it’s almost like a new scent. I wonder if empi girl’s imp may have come from this batch, for while it’s not unpleasant as it was to her, it definitely has a sharp medicinal tang that was absent from my first imp. My original imp of Red Queen was all squashed cherry cocktail with a little woodsy backup. This bottle, however, is all sawdust-up-your-nose wood, with a little tangy cherry layered on.

 

I still like this a lot, but it’s not quite the Queen I fell in love with.

[dcmo]

Wooden sweet cherries. Interesting combination. This doesn't go cough syrup on me, but also wasn't instant love. This is nice but think it would take some time to grow on me.

[delicate_fangs]

Oh, my. I like the Red Queen.

 

First sniff from the imp: All cherries and red things. Almost a deep velvety red rose scent around the edges, even, or something with that texture. (Maybe some of the red is those currants.)

 

On me: Cherries! Yay! I smell edible. (This, for someone who used to wear vanilla extract as perfume in high school, is a pleasure.)

 

Drying: Oh, here comes something nice. Deeper. Woods, I guess. Not exactly cedar. I don't know what mahogany smells like, but perhaps this is it.

 

Later: Ooh. A very faint waft of red cherry and other red delights, and a wonderful smooth sandalwood scent. Might be some other woods in there too, but what I smell seems like sandalwood.

 

I like this. My big bottle wish list is a bit longer than my budget, but I will think about this. The only reason I might not get it is that it doesn't last quite as long in the cherry phase as I would like, but the sandalwood phase is lovely too.

[zankoku_zen]

In the Bottle: Medicinal cherry.

 

On Skin: Very woodsy. I think its the mahogany that I'm smelling. This is a very warm scent.

On Drydown: Some of the woodsy smell fades a bit, and I can smell a fruity undercurrent. It doesn't smell like cherries. There's a slight incensey note at the end.

 

Verdict: A pretty scent but not me. Thank goodness because these were the last drops I was able to salvage from the imp that leaked in transit.

[pensive]

This scent is distracting as all get out at work.

Imp: Oh baby, bring that cherry loving right here.

On me: As advertised. And sexy, to boot.

Impression: OK to me, where Hearth is the gentleman in the study and such.. this is the woman in the red velvet dress that snuck off from the holiday party and met him there. Good times, good times.

Verdict: This is HearthLite. Deep winter for me. Just a 5ml sometime.

[Caltha]

The Red Queen

 

This is the first smell I actually got quite right compared to what it's supposed to smell like. It's an original and demanding yet not unpleasant combination of sweet cherry and currant candy, and newly polished furniture. The wood smell in it is kind of spicy. It's also sort of "sweet and sour" due to the candy and polish combo, but the sour aspect of it softens as it dries, and so does the hysterical candy sweetness. What's left is an interesting, sweet, brown/red candy smell with a hint of sour berries and a hint of wood. I will definitely use this one.

Edited September 6, 2005 by Caltha

[Undine]

Wet: chocolate overlain with cherries, backed by woods. Warm, sort of unsettling, much like the Red Queen herself I suppose. Interesting, but I don't really like it. … As it dries down, just cherries. Yuck. Not for me.

[magdalene]

in the bottle: candied cherries.

 

wet on skin: I've a jar of whiskey-spiked maraschino cherries in my cupboard, that I bought ages ago. They are thickly alcoholic, completely decadent and there's nothing more sensual then eating them straight from the jar with your fingers.

 

dry: While I'm a big fan of eating boozy cherries, unfortunately I'm not so much into wearing the scent of them.

[rellyjean]

The currant is sharp here - there's a high note that isn't quite cherry and is closer to cherry cough syrup. It starts light, with the rest of the blend woodsy and a touch fruity, but soon dominates the blend.

 

After about a half hour, all I can smell is the semi-licorice-semi-cough-syrup thin high sharp note of the currant. There's a sharp undertone as well that's less pleasant.

 

I don't know notes very well, so I can't say if the cherries are combining oddly with the currant, or if this is just how currant is and the cherries have been drowned out entirely. Either way, something isn't playing nicely with my skin.

 

In the meantime, this imp is headed for the swap pile. Sorry about that, Your Majesty.

[DarkMouse]

In the bottle: Cherry throat spray

 

On my skin: Cherry throat spray (or cherry flavored booze) and wood. It smells exactly like the waxy buildup on my parents wooden dinnertable in their diningroom that I used to scrape off with my fingernails when I was a kid. The dry down was a pretty wood and incense smell.. but that was the only part of this that was pleasant for me.

 

verdict: unfortunately the cherry medicine/booze smell and wood wax smell were too much for me to stomach to get to the pretty wood/cherry incense drydown. By that point it was so faint that there wasn't much left of it anyway. This went to the swaps and recieved a much better home.

[puck_nc]

This was one of the frimps that the ever-wonderful Molly Moon sent me along with the storage box I bought from her.

 

In the bottle: A heavy blend of dark flowers that smelled very rich and exotic (perhaps that was the currants and/or cherries). No wood at all.

 

Wet: Tangy and fruity for a few minutes, then the woods start coming out.

 

Drydown: On me the wood elements are much more prominent, with the fruits fading into the background.

 

An interesting scent, but it doesn't really speak to me.

[Dustbunnyxox]

THE RED QUEEN:

 

From the bottle:

all I smell is cherries. It's so nice. I would wear this all the time!

 

On me: cherry disappeared immediately. all I smell now is the mohogany and woods.

 

Two hours later: HA! it hasn't been two hours, how about ten minutes. I was going to wait the tree smell out, to see if the cherry came in, but it was terrible. I wont be buying this. terrible. like a furniture store. some might like it, but i don't. WAY too strong on me.

[Monster]

In the vial it smells like cough syrup. Very powerful and overwhelming..I was lamost afraid to put it on my skin at first.

 

On my skin it smells like cerries and currants...lots of cherry! The coup syrup scent has faded and i actually am beginning to like this..

 

After a while I can smell something like cedar? Something woody. The cherry smell is still prominet. Overall I really like this scent.

[tourmalinqueen]

Most delicious. On me, it translates to cherries and marzipan, sweet sugary almond. Like something out of the most wonderful bakery.

 

ADDED Aug. 21:

 

Starts out as super strong cherry cough syrup and then fades to cherry marzipan, sweet and simple, but with some faint lingering tones of medicine.

[sarahj]

The Red Queen

 

received as a freebie in my very first order, almost a year ago, and I am just now getting around to reviewing it

 

in vial: cherries and furniture polish

 

wet: strong cherry cough drops

 

dry: this fades away so quickly, it barely has time to dry

 

verdict: not for me...off to swaps

[olympia301]

Started off as almondy, volitile, candy red--just like a good paintjob on a hot car. As it started to dry down I found the woods peeking out from under the start. I couldn't believe it---from candy to wood. Then it changed entirely to wood. Unbelievable. I am in awe of this accomplishment. Maybe I never expect the topnotes to disappear so entirely, but they do. The woods are pretty, dark and deep. I do think a bit of the cherry red lingers for a bit, but it does turn into wood.

 

Not my cup of Wonderland tea but I can't say it isn't a righteous blend for the wood lovers out there, and there are quite a few.

[FireInCairo]

Ohhh... This is the smell of over-indulgence. It's so smooth....yet cherry heady. I can smell cedar here as well. Cherry woods.... and it's a very sudden fragrance...very sharp.