Shanghai

[usamimi]

The crisp, clean scent of green tea touched with lemon verbena and honeysuckle.

To me, this smelled like a less urban version of Neo-Tokyo! I was pleasantly surprised. I might have to get a bottle of this eventually.

[madeleine]

From what I understand, Shanghai is disgustingly hot and humid a lot of the time. My idea of the city is not at all like this perfume - but BPAL Shanghai is lovely. A perfect hot weather scent. It's fresh and green, really lifts you up. The way the honeysuckle comes through is beautiful.

 

If I smelled like this naturally, I would go through life always happy.

[ralenth]

Wet: Honey and lemon with a splash of tea.

 

Drydown: As it dries, Shanghai becomes lightly floral on my skin. It blends rather nicely with honeyed lemony tea scent.

 

Dry: Very lemony. It's light and crisp and would make a perfect springtime scent.

 

Overall: Shanghai would be a great every day scent during the warmer part of the year.

[jcdracon]

^^ the labbies were all about the Wanderlust this time around, this was my third freebie from the Wanderlust group with this order, which I've gotta say made me really happy.

 

In the bottle: sweet green tea and honeysuckle. Mmm, this is gorgeous, gentle and clean.

 

Wet: sweetened lemons, a hint of green tea

 

Dry: ooh, this is really nice, a clean, lemony scent without smelling like lemon pledge. There's something underneath that's probably the honeysuckle and green tea. I'm thinking it's the honely suckle that's keeping this nice and sweet.

 

All in all a very nice scent, I might get a bottle for summer time.

[Apple]

Oh, I had such hopes for this one! I am one of the lemon Pledge/floor cleaner people (meaning that although I love the smell of fresh citrus fruits, citrus scents often turn unbearably chemically-smelling on my skin), and so I was intrigued to read that this is lighter than Embalming Fluid. I thought perhaps I would just get a pleasant lemony freshness... but no. No, it's pretty much instant Lemon Death on me, gradually fading to Lemon Death Lite, and finally... hamsters. Yes, you read that right. Like picking up a hamster out of a cage with cedar shavings and nuzzling it, only to discover that someone spritzed it with lemon Pledge. This may have been the weirdest morph ever.

[akiko]

Imp: lemony fresh, very clean

 

Wet: lemony, lightly floral, sort of sweet (honeysuckle?)

 

Dry: musky lemon? maybe that's the green tea. It's definitely like Phobos and/or Embalming Fluid's cousin.

[Honeygirl]

Bottle: Green tea

 

Wet: This scent is very close to Emblaming Fluid, which I love! Clean green tea and verbena as well as some citrus make this a definite love!

 

Drydown: Ooh, there's the honeysuckle! It's very light and summery, which I like!

3.5 outta 5

[crazyredhead17]

In the imp: Glue? *sniffs again* Defintely glue-like.

 

Wet, I can smell the green tea and a hint of the lemon. It's got a softer feel than F5, which is the only thing I've tried that's close to this.

 

As it dries though, it gets a bit soapy, and I'm getting the weird, almost light-headed feeling I get sometimes at the beginning of a sinus headache. And the longer I leave this on, the soapier it's getting. Oh well.

[jwhxtna]

IN THE IMP: A lot of lemon with some green tea.

 

WET: This is really, really light on me. Green tea with lemon and light florals?

 

DRY: Lemony green tea, with a bit of florals. Pretty! But not very strong on me, so I'll have to slather.

[arsenicsauce]

In the bottle, this smelled like lime to me for some reason. Definitely a hard citrusy edge, not quite the sharp artificial lemon associated with cleaning products but stronger than I expected.

 

On wet: I was hoping for a little more green tea out of this, I'm still getting the bitter fresh-scratched-lemon-rind citrus with green in the background. Not what I usually think of as green-tea green, more of a snapped-woody-stem green, I'm not sure which ingredient that is. It could be just the way green tea usually comes out in oils, this is the first one with the note I've tried. Maybe a tiny bit soapy now, but not overwhelmingly so.

 

Dry: There's the tea and honeysuckle. Sweeter and a little more mellow, but still primarily lemon on me. I might give this one another chance later, but I'm not that crazy about it and it doesn't have a lot of throw.

Edited February 23, 2008 by arsenicsauce

[Gwydion]

I’d heard nice things about this one, so I was curious to see. In bottle: Green tea with lemon. It’s very like embalming fluid, though the honeysuckle turns it sweeter.

Wet: Not as much intensity as I expected from the bottle. It’s not bad, but if I was planning to smell like this I’d be more likely to get embalming fluid, because this isn’t quite as interesting. Dry: fades to nothing super fast, so I can’t make any good observations.

[LadyLuckDoubt]

In the Bottle

It's sweet and light. I'm definitely detecting the green tea, I can see where the honeysuckle comes in, and there's a clean, astringent note there as well.

 

On Me

YUM. This reminds me of this lovely Avon Aromatherapy sleep range they had out for about five minutes, only Shanghai doesn't have a plasticy smell lingering around afterwards. It's sweet and light and almost edible. Very fresh-- while all the notes I'm getting sound in tune with what's on the label, on me, I could SWEAR there's a dash of lilac and a smidge of watermelon.

 

This is so pretty. Well, pretty and slightly comforting-- it's a perfume I could wear anywhere. Consider me a fan of this one.

[bodegaselkie]

Wow. Shanghai was included as a free imp in my order, and it's not something I would have thought to order, but I love it. The scent is very clean and crisp, lemony in that beautiful way lemon verbena is, and just barely sweetened by the honeysuckle. The only trouble is, my skin drinks this stuff, so it's barely noticeable 10 minutes after I put it on. I'll slather from the imp, but doubt I'll buy more.

[sadtomato]

yum!

this is a spring/summer need.

very greed, invigorating and clean.

tea with a kick.

[rachel2205]

This is quite a nice scent, but nothing special - mostly I get a slight hint of fake lemon. Not exactly Pledge... I know, it's more like those hot towels you get in Asian restaurants after your meal. That's the lemon scent. I can smell a bit of tea, and it has a slightly effervescent, sparkling quality, but I think if I want a clean, fresh scent I'll go with F5 or Aizen-Myoo.

[Iceblink]

Lemony green tea. Like Embalming Fluid, there's something in here that makes my head feel funny if I sniff it too much--but it is very light and refreshing. I may need this when the mercury hits 100.

[AEris]

This is right in line with the description - a fresh, lemony tea scent. My skin tends to burn off lemon, and in this blend, the lemon calms down from its initial intensity while still maintaining a balanced presence.

 

It takes a few minutes, but the sweet, gentle honeysuckle comes out in the background, making the overall feel more complex and intriguing.

 

I got a little of the oil on my fingertips when I was opening the imp, and it's strange - the honeysuckle is much more pronounced on my fingertips than on the back of my hand, where I tested it.

 

A pretty, fresh blend, as you could already tell from the notes. If you like clean perfumes, this is a must-try IMO, because I normally don't gravitate towards citrus/tea scents, but I feel like this one is really nice.

 

It's also evoking scent memories - I feel like I've smelled it before. It seems to me like it would be a great scent for a young, ambitious girl.

 

4.1 out of 5

[VioletChaos]

in the imp: lemony and tea-like, yep. strangely, it's reminding me of Body Shop's Dewberry scent, which i used to wear about 16 years ago.

 

wet on skin: yep. dewberry all the way.

 

dry down: ok, it morphed. the green tea has lightened and become really faint, subtle. it's not that my skin ate it, it just became a very present, but very, very light scent.

 

in all: another good one for hot days, this also might be one to enable your friends who don't usually like perfumes because they think they're all too heavy.

[Aldercy]

This is good, very good. Shanghai is a soothing, meditative scent and I do get at least a little bit of all the listed notes, mostly a honeysuckle base with a light, cold splash of green tea. This gives me a very faint impression of the aquatic for some reason, just as though maybe there's a significant body of water in the vicinity. Overall, this is an all-around inoffensive oil that I think will be a great staple for the summer.

[fairnymph]

In the bottle: Very, very 'green' green tea - like Japanese style, matcha or tamayokucha, not Chinese imo - and verbena. Very fresh, almost sharply so. Recalls Embalming Fluid and Phantasm.

 

Wet: Oh, I so adore the green tea note in this! It's wonderfully smooth yet still so very GREEN, I can't describe it any other way, almost like inhaling matcha powder. The verbena is softer, and the blend has lost its sharp edge as result, and on the whole the scent is reminding me much more now of Tweedledum.

 

Dry: Dries and morphs very quickly. That verbena dissipates rapidly; it's a light glimmer now, not the sharp frontal note it first was. The green tea absolutely takes control, and is simply divine, so very evocative of the actual stuff (though ironically the Japanese type!). Just as it dried, I very briefly I observed a flick of sweetly floral honeysuckle, but it was sadly only a tease. At this point, I'm getting a Spell of Amorous feel.

 

Later: The verbena fades more and more, the honeysuckle never returns, and this turns almost into green tea single note. That indescribably unique smooth yet green, fresh, cool and herbal scent of Japanese green tea is stunningly delicious, I can't get enough of it!

 

Summary: After 2-3 hours, this is almost completely gone - one of the most dismally short-lived oils I've tried. It had a moderate throw at first, but that faded with the verbena to a low throw, and now only with nose directly on skin can I smell anything at all. A faint whisper of Japanese green tea, with an even fainter ghostly whisper of verbena. Lovely, but far too fleeting on me.

Edited May 8, 2008 by fairnymph

[tinyvulture]

i got this as a frimp and i wasn’t sure about it, since lemon scents are usually too strong on me. but i was pleasantly surprised. at first, it reminds me of a cologne a preppy boy would wear -- crisp and clean. but soon, the soft, powdery honeysuckle makes its appearance and now it doesn’t smell so masculine. the sweet honeyed floral combined with the lemon and tea makes me want to drink it up. a perfect, refreshing springtime scent.

[ErinZ]

Wet in imp:

fresh citrus, floral

 

Wet on skin:

pure lemon

 

Drydown:

lemony flowers

 

Wearlength:

completely gone within hours

 

Final impression:

It turned to lemon cleaner very quickly. Not a harsh cleaner, but cleaner nonetheless.

[filigree_shadow]

The green tea in this is great, but I'm not overly fond of the lemon verbena. I've tried this one a couple of times because I honestly do love tea scents, especially in the summertime, and both times I've gotten an odd sharp powder scent from Shanghai. I don't know why. But it sort of tickles my nose and makes me feel like I have to sneeze. I wouldn't have thought any of those notes would do that, but *shrug*.

 

After about an hour or so it's fine -- pretty, sweet green tea. I enjoy it at that stage. But I've been wearing BPAL for long enough now that I know that if I don't like the wet stage I never pick it up to wear it. Ah well. There are plenty of other tea scents in the BPAL catalog for me!

[gchris]

In Vial: Fresh and herbal clean

 

Wet: I can smell the green tea and the lemon verbena clearly. The honeysuckle, I'm not so sure.

 

Dry: This smells remarkably like F5. In the end the verbena is dominant.

[stillalive]

wet: strong and lemony... it reminds me of sitting and drinking lipton lemon tea with my family on our honeysuckle-covered porch in Atlanta on a breezy September day.

 

Dry: it faded so quickly... within about 10 minutes I can't smell it anymore, and within 45 minutes I have to seriously press my nose to my skin. My only complaint is that it fades so fast! Maybe it will last longer on my clothing? It's still a beautiful scent.

 

I like that it makes me feel relaxed yet energized at the same time... puts me in the mood for gentle cleaning, organizing, filing paperwork. It reminds me a lot of Seras Victoria from Hellsing and one of my best friends. It smells like quiet optimism, slightly flowery but down to earth; it's there but not an overpowering presence, subtly changing the moods and perception of those around them. Cheerful but tragic... someone who never loses hope even after living through hell, instead taking pleasure in the small things like lemon iced tea and honeysuckles in the summer.

 

I'm planning on diluting this and spraying it on my 6-year-old's favorite stuffed dog that she sleeps with every night because it has such a mellowing but cheerful effect on her. I just have to find a way to sneak in and take it for long enough to wash it and let it dry without her sobbing that I'm drowning it, lol. I'm thinking it would be better to use on objects rather than skin, assuming it lasts longer on fabric than my skin.