Shanghai

[jj_j]

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

My spring/summer staple! Sparkling, pure, and clean without the "cleaning supply" smell many lemon and tea scents take on. One of my all-time favorites.

Old Shanghai is a multi-tasker: wearing this puts me completely at peace while invigorating me at the same time, clears my senses, soothes my toddler when she's fussy, and - you're going to laught at me for this one - shuts down a hungry tummy.

[shriekingviolet]

Initial Impression:

Like a fruit laced tea. Spa-like.

 

After Wearing It:

Very clean scent. The tea notes are very prevalent, with light suggestions of honey and lemon in the background.

 

Final Thoughts:

I'm not really big on tea scents (or really any scent that smells "clean"), but this would be a winner for someone who does. Would probably make a relaxing room fragrance as well.

[allamanda]

From Venerable Cities

 

Lovely smell in bottle and when first applied. Green tea hit me first, rapidly followed by lemon. Very light. Fading quickly to a pretty, light, lemony fragrance. Clean smelling and very nice. Mellows out on me to a light daytime-type fragrance. Can still smell the green tea and faintly the lemon, never did detect the honeysuckle. I reckon this would smell great on a man. A keeper

[viciousviolet]

A fresh, clean herbal perfume. The scent is almost perfect, pure green tea with a very slight touch of lemon. Although I love this as a perfume, I love it even more in my bath and in a burner in my home. To me it is the scent of purity and inspires calm and serenity in me and my household.

[Lady_Ell]

This is one of the few scents that smells the same on me as it does in the bottle, just toned down a little.

 

When I wear this I smell like I am a freshly washed and still damp load of whites (hot water wash with bleach added, cold rinse) that I have taken out of the wash and hung up to dry outside on a sunny but cool and windy day. I can't pick out many of the individual notes in this, just the freshly washed sheets smell with the barest hint of lemon.

 

This is the cleanest smell I've ever smelled. It's lovely.

I don't think I want to wear it in winter since even just smelling it makes me feel cold, but in summer I might live in this one.

 

ETA: unfortunately, this fades pretty fast on me. I also am a nice daughter and gave my bottle to my mom, who loves it and it lasts a lot longer on her. But as soon as I have enough $$, I'm going to get myself another big bottle and slather it on, because this is my favorite summer scent

Edited December 1, 2004 by ladylatemar

[Alice Aforethought]

This does smell very much like green tea with lemon! Very fragrant, refreshing and moodlifting, with a very slight, rounder floral hint in the background. The honeysuckle comes through slightly more once it has mellowed a little, but the lemon and the slightly green-astringent tanginess are prominent. It doesn't seem to last long on me but is very pleasantly uplifting while it does.

 

 

Homemade lemonade in the garden, clinking with ice cubes and lemon-geranium leaves floating on top...

[pinky]

This is a very clean tea scent,very light and refreshing - perfect for a day when you're wearing jeans and flip flops. This scent is pretty and unobtrusive, soft and clean but with a bit of zing. This doesn't last as long as some other's do, but it's enjoyable while it lasts.

[Pandorra]

At first I smelled overwhelming lemon. I was a little put off as many lemon scents make me think of Lemon Pledge furniture polish and end up smelling that way on my skin also. But within a minute, it toned down and softened into something wonderful, crips, clean, refreshing. The lemon was balanced perfectly with what I thought was tea and honey.

 

Its a sunny scent. The image I got was a beautiful Sunday afternoon with blooming flower bushes beside you as you sipped your honey sweetened tea. There are clean sheets flapping on the clothes line a short distance away.... Aahh...

 

This is wonderful. I admit I love clean scents so maybe I am biased, but this is beautifully clean and cheerful. Sunshine in a bottle. I will buy a full size of this.

Edited March 26, 2004 by Pandorra

[sagitare]

I had next to no lemon smell with this one, just green tea. Not a scent I'm crazy about on its own. Old Shanghai disappeared extremely quickly on me, not lasting even the previous record of 1/2 an hour set by Belladonna.

 

For a similar scent I much prefer Embalming Fluid. With that blend the lemon is predominant on me and it has much longer staying power.

 

Old Shanghai is a swap for me, alas.

[TygherRayn]

I wasn't sure about this one, as it wasn't something I imagined working with me. This was one Beth added to my first order for me. But she was so dead on.

 

I love it. It goes on a bit oddly on me, perhaps too lemony .. or maybe it's the tea note that's so strong. I'm not sure. I just know that it was surprising at first. After 20 minutes or so it had mellowed. It reminded me of lemonade on a summer day. Very cleen, very crisp. Not what I thought I'd like, but I do.

 

Now that it's been a few hours, it's not nearly as strong, and I think I'm defnitely smelling the honeysuckle now. This one is for certain a keeper .. probably in at least a 5ml bottle.

[darklorelei]

So, I'd been back and forth for a while with this one, and I've decided that I love it! While I don't really see myself as a floral girl, this shows that I can be, given proper balance.

 

This one doesn't so much fade fast as assimilate. I can still vaguely smell it hours later, which is good. On me it smells just like freshly washed me, scrubbed and fresh. This is CLEAN, but not like soap/antiseptic...what you'd normally think of as clean/fresh.

 

I don't really get the lemon verbena so much, but I can definately tell that there's something there tempering the other floral notes, particularly the tea, which is often overwhelming in many perfumes.

 

Yay.

[Northernminx]

Another of Beth's additions to my order. I'm still wondering how she pegged this one.

 

In the bottle: Lemon much?

 

Application: Ka-bam the lemon smoothed right out, picked up the green tea scent and made my nose tingle. A very fresh, clean scent, sunny and bright. After about a half hour the lemon mellowed its happy self out even more and now strangely my skin smells a bit like cherries - real cherries, not the marichino kind. I finally picked up the honey suckle as it started to mellow and it's a little more of a clean floral now.

 

Staying power: Ack the only problem! After four hours it's fading fast on me. I will try a more liberal application tomorrow.

 

As this one is certified "school safe" to not drive the teenagers in my classes to hormonal frenzies, should I manage to get it to stick this one is getting added to my bottle list for summer/spring wear. Purr.

[Summerpixy]

Clean and beautiful, this is a fantastic scent to apply on a nice chill morning. I can definetly smell the lemon, but I think the verbena is coming through too, I've only worn it about an hour and it really hasn't died down all that much.

 

Yum. This'll be one that I use down to the last bit, very well done.

[ceithern]

This was an extra Beth tossed in.

 

On first smelling in the vial, it was very verbena and green tea, with a bit of the honeysuckle in the background. Very nice. My mother was up for a visit over the weekend and she really liked it.

 

I put some on today to test it, and it first was very tea and verbena on me, which I really really liked. I have an Earl Grey green tea blend I love to drink and this smelled very much like this, but lemony rather than the orangey bergamot. After a little while, those notes dropped right out and then the honeysuckle came in and it turned very generic floral on me, a bit too sweet for my tastes.

 

2 hours later, it is almost gone.

 

It's a very nice pleasant light scent, but I don't think it is really me as a body fragrance. I will probably use it in a sachet to scent my guest linens. I think it would work really well for that.

 

----

Kate

http://www.amberdragon.ca

[savage_carrot]

It's something like elizabeth arden's green tea...only far more sophisticated and well rounded...It has a citrusy/bergamont/green tea thing going and it's just heavenly...All these notes blend perfectly to give a great upligting experience...Loved it.

[AmberBreathing]

Unfortunately I have nothing good to say about this one. Old Shanghai is sharp and mildly unpleasant to my nose; smells like cheap man cologne on me.

[la-roja]

Old Shanghai reminds me very strongly of a really good smelling shampoo. I like the smell quite a lot. It is a pure, herbal, green smell. However, if I want to smell like shampoo I will wash my hair. It might be a good scent to wear when you don't have time for a shower but want to give the impression of being clean.

[Mitzy]

The only note I could pick out of this scent is Lemon. Strong, biting Lemon. It was *ok*, but since the only thing I could smell on myself was lemon I probably wont wear this too often. The staying power wasnt so great, after 3 hours there was nothing but a faint sweetness - chamomile? - and I could only find it with my nose pressed hard to my wrist. It is a very clean smelling scent.

[Ishtar]

Old Shangai brought a smile to my face when I first smelled it, because it is exactly like I imagined it to be, only better.

I love my tea, and I have been looking for the perfect tea fragrance for years. Everytime I smelled this kind of scent on someone else, I used to think "Ooh, I would love this... if only it wasn't so sharp/bitter/cloying".

Yet another of Beth's creations that achieves perfect balance where department store perfumes try too hard.

 

It is a straightforward but beautiful "lemon tea with a little sugar" kind of scent, and it smells almost the same in the vial and on my skin. It doesn't seem to change much upon drydown either.

 

Since I expected it to fade quickly, I applied quite a bit this morning and it lasted a good 7 hours on my skin, which is not bad at all. A definite hot weather staple for me!

[isyche]

At first I tried this on a cold/rainy sort of evening, and I liked it, but it was more a "very nice laundry soap" smell than a "perfume" smell to me...probably because of the lemon. Then I pulled it out again on a recent hot, humid, icky day, and it was exactly what I needed to cancel out some of the mugginess. Definitely a great summer scent.

[JazzieCazzie]

I would have thought I might have liked this by the description, but it is absolutely horrible on me ... smells like cheap department store old-lady perfume and, naturally, is almost impossible to wash off.

 

Of course, I had the exact same reaction to Embalming Fluid and many have compared the two, so I guess it makes sense.

 

I would rank this with Kitsune-Tsuki at the very bottom of my BPAL list. I wonder what note my body hates so much???

[Dolly Dimple]

A beautiful hot summer's day scent, clean and refreshing, and the lemons and green tea are perfectly balanced. Unfortunately it disappeared completely after an hour.

[xoe]

Such a nice, relaxing tea sent. It reminds me of Lady Grey tea. I don't know how many people have tried that, it's a lighter version of Earl Grey.

[Electra]

This one smells identical to Elizabeth Arden's Green Tea on my skin. Citrusy, refreshing, and light, great for summer. I won't be wearing it myself (prefer Kumiho, which I find a little more unique), but I ordered a 10 mL for my best friend for her birthday, because I think this scent is perfect for her.

[summer]

Very clean, watery, and lemony, with the green tea acting as a somewhat grounding (but still watery) base.

 

I found this very pleasant, but it dissappeared from my skin in, like, 30 seconds. I think this would be a lovely scent for laundry, or to infuse throughout the house during spring cleaning. Pure, light, fresh, and natural.