The Lady On The Grey

[Ceri]

Ethereal, opalescent, and radiant: pearly sandalwood, white amber, tobacco flower, orris, castoreum bouquet, soft resins, and pale petals.

In the vial: Floral soap.

Wet: The most prominent note on me is the sandalwood, but I can definitely smell resins and soft floral in the background.

Dry: Floral powder.

Overall: This is a very soft and beautiful scent. I'm really disappointed that it turned powdery on me.

[pinkstardust420]

This a sharp soapy floral when first applied...almost similar to that of Christine. It then softens and sweetens beautifully with no soapy after scent. Very pretty and pale!

[eatingthesea]

is it just the word "opalescent" appearing in this scent's description that is calling to mind the association, or does this scent seriously remind me of Black Opal? hmmm... i'm definitely loving this scent, apart from my deep and everlasting love for said Black Opal. the big difference between the two being a soft powderiness to Lady on the Grey (which i'm guessing is in care of the orris) and the deliciousness of the tobacco flower, which sooo reminds me of my beloved, long-gone tobacco flower scent from the body shop! i wasn't terribly interested in this scent when it first appeared in the catalogue but i was frimped it by cheshirecat (thank you ) and now it's going onto my ever-growing bottle list. feminine, demure, and does actually make me feel a little radiant! i'd buy that for a dollar...or two...or twenty...

[Veronica]

I amp tobacco like no other, but its surprisingly light in this scent for me, there's definitely a smoky background, but the overall scent is still very pretty and clear. I get mostly sandalwood and amber. The smoky tobacco and sandalwood smell amazing together and this is definitely not an unpleasant scent, but alas its just not me.

[fairnymph]

Pale yellow oil. Sharp and dry; white florals, dry resins and loads of white amber and dry, dry sandalwood. A bit powdery - definitely orris. Bright from the tobacco flower and white amber.

 

Softer, less sharp and bright. More orris, and the tobacco flower and white amber are smoother. The sandalwood's less dry. This feels more resiny, more grounded, and sadly quickly more powdery from the orris. A little soapy - like Ivory Soap or Irish Spring - must be those 'white petals'.

 

Much nicer! It's lost most of the soap and all of the sharpness, though the tobacco flower is still beautifully luminescent - it has amped up, and it works wonderfully with the sandalwood which has become more musky. I still find this quite dry, too dry for my tastes, but it's no longer unpleasantly dry. The orris a very light and surprisingly pleasant powdery note, like well-behaved violet (think Violet Ray).

 

This is a pretty unisex scent, and actually, I think it'd probably be better on man. There's a definite cologne aspect and the dry whiteness of this brings to mind businessmen in crisp white shirts who've been spending a lot of time in an expensively wooded boardroom. Not my style, but a surprising and lengthy evolution. Low throw and decent longevity.

[lunchboxmonkey]

This is such a beautiful, luminescent, scent. Its a silvery grey with pale pale florals... it smells like a misty, moonlit glade, slightly dewy with moonlight washing out the bright colors and clinging to pale flowers and grass... beautiful and very evocative.

[Katherynne]

After asking about tobacco flower, this was a blend I got recommended. I am so glad I finally just went ahead and bought a bottle -- on me, this is purely tobacco flower with a soft sandalwood & floral background. It's perfect, perfect, perfect. It definitely feels pearly and luminescent, it's soft and demure enough for work, it's strongly tobacco flower which I have been CRAVING... yeah. Exactly what I was hoping for out of this one. A+

[ralenth]

At first, Lady on the Grey is a swirling, ephemeral musk with tinges of soft, white floral. She is elegant, but slightly aloof. However, after an hour, I get a bit of sharpness and it goes a bit powdery. I think this lady is locket-only for me.

[misscoldheart]

I recently got frimped a partial decant of this (woo thanks!!) and I was really expecting it to be a winner. Unfortunately it just didn't work...In the vial it smelled kinda floral soapy, not really offensive at all. But after it wore for a while that horrible thing happened that happened also when I have worn BPALs with plum notes...My skin amped something in this one so horribly that it smelled like super sweet...something- and made me feel really sick. It sucks when this happens because for some reason it doesn't want to wash off, either. I scrubbed with soap, witch hazel, water, and soap again throughout the day before it finally went away. Not too sure what caused the gross amping this time, but it was a huge bummer cuz I really was looking forward to trying this one...

 

ETA: I also noticed a distinctly "cologne" scent when first applied. It wasn't too bad at first, but definitely bothered me after a while, before the amping started. Never figured out what caused that, but gaah..how awful

Edited May 7, 2010 by misscoldheart

[Saya]

I'm surprised at how much I like this blend. It's soft, sophisticated, and very lady like. Well blended, everything works together without any one note dominating the blend. I wish it lasted a bit longer about four hours in and this scent is pretty much gone. I'll definitely be keeping this imp.

[countessmouse]

Floral in the imp, almost delicately so, but almost nothing but tobacco flower on my skin. It smells a bit like pipe tobacco and floral powder. It's a nice mix, though, and I like it.

[edenssixthday]

The Lady on the Grey - This opens up with the soft, delicate scent of the pale petals mentioned in the scent description. It's a pretty and ethereal floral and I think I smell some light resins beneath the layer of flower petals, but then WHAM!!! it suddenly and instantly turns to soap. Gross, floral soap that's been sitting in an old lady's guest bathroom soap dish for way too long. Ick.

[filigree_shadow]

I really wanted to try this one because I'm so picky about florals but that description sounded like this might be the sort of floral I like.

 

Well, I was half-right. This is one of the ones that's heading in the right direction but gets waylaid by a problem note. It's not heady -- it's soft and fairly light. It certainly has an ethereal quality. BUT the amber is making it powdery. My skin has trouble with some ambers, and this kind isn't the kind I can wear, unfortunately.

 

Minus the powder, I like the scent, but I feel like I've smelled this before. A few times. There's a note in here (don't know which one -- I'm not very good at picking out floral notes) that's particularly strong, and it's familiar to me. Except I think whatever I've smelled it in before, that other blend worked better for me.

[Suusje]

I mostly smell tobacco Flower, but that's fine by me, I love the smell of tobacco flower

[theseagrows]

damn my skin chemistry to hell! this is another scent that i was fairly sure would work, that smells amazing in the vial, but just does not work on me in the vial it smells like soft, bright florals and oakmoss! i love oakmoss scents, and they tend to work on me, as do most of these notes, most of the time. what i am getting from lady on the grey is a pretty tobacco-floral, with a hint of something sharp, that i generally get from paper/parchment notes, and maybe sometimes wood notes? so it could be the sandalwood or the "soft resins" but something is ruining this scent on my skin, and sadly, i will have to swap it.

[angelamaria]

In decant: tobacco flower, sweet pink flowers, and faint resins. There's a green sort of five here, somewhat feeling.

 

Wet on skin: smoky floral, resinous, and almost vanilla-ey. Very pretty! I'm getting soft sandalwood, slightly powdery amber, and faint pink and white flowers, fresh and sweet. I'm quite in love! Such a beautiful, ethereal scent.

 

Dry: this doesn't morph so much from wet to the dry phase, aside from a further smoothness and a lessening of that vanilla-ey feel, which I assume is the amber--makes sense, if the amber is a bit powdery. Smoky florals (which is, I suppose, why whatever powder the amber is turning into, it's well camouflaged)--this reminds me a little of Liz without the leather. Tobacco flower, white flowers, and soft resins. Very, very wearable floral.

 

Verdict: oy vey. When I first tested this I was worried it would be difficult to find, and I'm right. Since it was a more expensive general catalogue/special edition scent, likely not a lot of people have bought this lovely scent before it got discontinued. I'm so sad. It's such a beautiful scent and so slather-worthy I'm having difficulty with my lone decant!

[Monday]

I was lucky enough to swap for a decant of the Lady.

 

On my skin wet: Tobacco flower! This is a bit more aquatic than I had anticipated.

On my skin dry: Faint tobacco flower, overall it's a very airy scent almost like there is ozone in here. I'm not smelling much of the other notes at all.

 

Unfortunately this ends up rather faint on my skin.

[coldandsleepy]

So I've had a bottle of this sitting around since-- well-- I think since it was first released. I smelled it at the time and set it aside. Things were busy in my life and I thought oh, I'll get back to it...

 

And here I am 5 years later. I was looking for a scent I hadn't worn in a while and stumbled across my bottle of this. Couldn't remember anything about it but thought I'd take a gamble and dabbed a bit on.

 

In the bottle, it smells very faint to me. There's something that reminds me a little of Selkie, a bit aquatic and wildflowery, but nothing that stands out.

 

Straight on my skin, it's the same thing turned up a bit. I keep thinking "crushed wildflowers" though I've no idea how crushed fits into that. It has a sweetness to it that I quite like but it's still overall very gentle and faint. So much so that I nearly forgot about it...

 

Ten minutes later: what is that smell? That lovely smell? Oh! It's the Lady on the Grey! Which has now opened up and amped quite a bit on my skin. Still getting the wildflower note (whatever that is), but here comes a bit of sandalwood and just a little hint of spice. I get the comparison to posh soap. It really smells... expensive. Like something a classy lady would apply whilst wearing a silk slip in front of her vanity. Really very lovely.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Tobacco flower, overtop of sweet amber. A really interesting combination. It`s not very strong on me, considering those notes generally have much more throw.

 

 

Dry: This could be tobacco flower single note on me. I do tend to amp it in some things. It`s really lovely, but goes a tad soapy on me. I will be keeping my decant for sentimental reasons (I love the book so much!) but I don`t think I need to try to hunt down a bottle (which is kind of a relief, really!)