The Queen of Hearts

[vegasblueblood]

Lily of the Valley, Calla Lily, stephanotis and a drop of cherry.

One of my all time favorite blends from BPAL. Gorgeous lily of the valley with a flood of deep red cherry. I absolutely adore BPAL's cherry note and there is lots and lots of cherry in this one on me. It has huge throw and staying power and after hours and hours of wear, it will finish up with a lovely white floral.

[jehrichardson]

Green floral. Pleasant.

 

Meh.

 

I'm not really a florals gal. This is entirely pleasant, but not my cup of tea.

[Andrea912]

Imp: wow; bold agressive white flower...medicinal cherry

 

Wet: what is that smell? It's a flower that is so gaggingly sour and strong...is that stephanotis?

[binkin]

I put this on for the second time today. To me it comes across as a heady floral with a sharp edge of cherry. I love it rather a lot, and I think it's a nice springy springtime sort of scent.

[theseagrows]

i really am only getting a subtle lily from this, now that it has subdued on my skin. at first i got a weird sour note, but that faded. there is no stephanotis or cherry to be found, my skin eats it right up. unfortunate too, because stephanotis is my favorite note here.

[thelaurenator]

Hmm, stephanotis is rather a bad note for my skin. It smells like some sort of medicinal poison.

 

Okay, here goes:

 

Wet: BOLD cherry and fresh white lilies.

Dry: WHOA. VERYYYY green, fresh smelling lilies. A bit too sharp. Suddenly, though, after about ten minutes, the cherry reemerges, along with the nasty poison smell of stephanotis... but I'm still getting sharp white lily.

 

Hm. This is alright, but my favorite lily blends have already been found. If you want a well-behaved lily, try Tiger Lily

[angelicruin]

Sniffing the imp, it's astringent citrus.

 

Wet on my skin, it's just lily. On dry down, I smell a little bit of the cherry, but this is mainly all floral lily on my skin.

[magikalbrownies]

in the imp it smells like lillies with cherries on my skin---nothing but sweet with lillys and cherries.

 

overall: love this...GONNA GET IT~

[Veronica]

Sharp, sharp LILY. Wet, I get a hint of cherry, but after drydown it disappears completely into super strong LILY. After a while, the lily softens some what, but still too sharp and strong for me.

[Monster]

In the imp: Bathroom spray

 

Wet: MAJORLY floral soap

 

Dry: Lilies and white florals...no cherry.

 

Verdict: Based on the notes listing, I knew this wasn't for me (not into white florals at all).

If you love lilies and all things girly, come hither!

[moon_lemming]

I've never tried QoH because of all the white flowers, which almost never work on me. I forgot what was in it before I looked up the notes again, though, so all I thought when I opened the imp was: CHERRY! Oh, and a bit of astringent florals.

 

Once the oil hit my skin, the cherry slooowly disappeared, leaving detergenty white florals in its wake, until I was reminded of one of those fancy new "designer" detergents Tide and everyone else puts out, like "Maraschino and White Flowers" or something like that. Fifteen minutes later it's just white florals, detergent city, but it's fading fast, unlike most detergenty florals on me. That's a plus, it means no headache! Not that I'm going to buy a bottle or anything; it's good to know I can generally count on white flowers to act in a sturdy, dependable manner.

[buryheratsea]

Very yummy cherry with a hint of floral in the bottle. On my skin I get no cherry (and that's the thing I was really wanting to come through a bit) all I get is a very strong floral and I'm not a big fan of that.

[sarajane]

This smells great in the imp, but on my skin it goes straight floral soap and cherry-flavored cough syrup.

[milo]

I love Lily-of-the-Valley as a flower scent, and recognized it here right away. Something about this blend smells a teeny bit spicy as well. Like a lot of florals, though, I don't really like how it smells on me. Maybe the Cala is making it too heady and sweet. After a bit, it gets powdery. Very glad to have tried this though!

[lauramw71]

Ok, my very first review, but before I say that, let me add this: I am NOT a floral or fruity scent lover, BUT

WOW! I just LOVE this!!!! In the bottle, and wet, hmmmm I smell cherries. Like a wonderfully open bottle of marachino cherries. Few minutes later, I'm smelling flowers and I like it!! Wait a minute, I'm opposed to floral scents! What's wrong with my sniffer? This is fabulous. Now dry I'm smelling soap. A wonderfully expensive soap that I am just in LOVE with! I am SO going to buy a bottle of this. I can imagine getting out of a hot shower on a hot night and putting this on right before bed. Ohh, to sleep on sheets with this smell? Mmmmm

I've found my very FIRST bpal scent that I'm hooked on!!!!!

[Tess]

In the bottle - Cherry and lily are very front-loaded in this. I'm not usually a cherry fan, but the lily is really mixing in a very nice way with it, keeping it from being overly sweet.

 

Wet - Cheeeeeeerry!

 

Drying - Really, I feel like I shouldn't like this but I somehow do! It's a strong oil with lots of throw and it's all lilies in cherry syrup. But somehow it works! I know a lot of people in reviews say this doesn't remind them of the Queen of Hearts, but it really does for me. Story time: When I was a little girl, my parents encouraged me to try out for a kiddy musical, "Alice in Wonderland." At first I very much wanted to be the Cheshire Cat (another favorite oil, BTW!), but due to height and my low, booming voice, I was cast as the Queen. My family was beside themselves and worked hard to make my part a success. My grandmother helped with the costume, my sister got us a videocamera to tape it... It was such a fantastic experience that I stayed with drama for many, many years. And this scent brings up that memory for me. It's cherry candy for the Queen's overly fake-sweet treatment of Alice with a regal lily perfume that she could anoint herself to show her station.

 

Dry (2 hours) - And sadly, it soaps all the way out.

 

Overall - Darn it, I wanted this to work.

[HamletsKeeper]

Frimped again, just as well since I wanted to try this as the King of Hearts didn't work out for me. Maybe I'll have better luck here.

 

Bottle Sniff Cherries, just cherries

 

Wet Cherry disinfectant. It seriously smells like something they'd clean dental equipment with. Oh now, now I'm smelling dental cotton wads and my mouth is going dry.

 

Drydown Lily has made an appearance to now complete the picture with the handwashing basin in a dental office and soap. Sorry but I guess cherry will never be anything except medicinal for me. It dies pretty quick on me but the damage has been done leaving me with a single note lily that just smells of soap.

 

I'm seriously not having any luck with Mad Tea Party scents.

[theandorran]

It's funny, when I smell this in the bottle, it smells exactly like the color red to me. Maybe it's the cherry, but it's not something I would have automatically identified as cherry without looking at the notes.

 

Unfortunately, it turns soapy floral on my skin, which is less than nice.

 

Edited to add: Okay, I thought I had this scent pinned down, because normally scents don't morph on me after they've dried. However, after only five minutes, I sniffed my wrist and got something completely different from the soapy floral there was there five minutes ago. It's a really strange scent and I have been sitting here, trying to figure out what the scent reminded me of, because it was FAMILIAR, but I couldn't place it. And then I realized it smells exactly like the beach house my parents rented in South Carolina for years. The scent of sunscreen and salt water rubbed into furniture along with one of those strange but not unpleasant 'other people's house' smells, if you know what I mean.

 

It's a nice memory, but the thing that my skin turns this into is kind of bizarre considering the notes listed.

Edited October 21, 2009 by theandorran

[Yuurei]

First review of the first imp I ever tried...ah, nostalgia.

 

Queen of Hearts:

In the bottle: Sweetly floral. Probably the note of cherry coming through to blend with the lilies, since it was more of a fruity note I detected.

 

Wet on wrist: A really elegant lily blend. Classy, not overpowering.

 

Dry on wrist: Goes kind of musky on my skin after awhile...one of the reviews I read said it had a bit of a soapy scent to it, and I agree. Like French-milled type soap, but still soapy. I'd recommend it for big lily scent fans, though.

[fairestrocza]

In the Imp: CHERRIES! And roses! Fun!

 

Wet on Skin: Floral soap, with a brief hint of incense

 

While Drying: Makes my nose tingle. Too perfumy/floral for me.

 

After a Little While: Uh oh... something in here is giving me a headache.

 

Final Thoughts: Definitely not one I will be wearing, but I am tempted to keep the imp around to sniff occasionally. On the other hand, I have a friend who loves rose scents, so enabling might be the better option

Queen of Hearts earns a 2/5 on my skin.

[ChaosKitty]

I tried this on without reading the composition, and I could have sworn it was roses instead of lilies. However that wasn't the dominating note, it was cherry and almonds (though I don't see any of those in the scent description). Later it dried down to a lovely cherry-floral, and now I recognize it as lily too. I like this a LOT, which surprises me because I normally can't stand lilies, but they absolutely work in this scent.

 

[skylarkza]

In the imp: Cherry cough drops?

 

Wet: Cherry cough lozenges. Halls brand.

 

Dry: Lillies! Boquets of lillies! Lillies of every shape and colour you can imagine - with a cherry or 2 thrown in.

 

A while later: Lillies. Sweet lillies. Just gently wafting over the skin.

[lensflaaare]

Wet: Nail polish remover.

 

Dry-down: Nail polish remover with a bit of cherry.

 

Dry: Pretty white flowers with a hint of cherry.

 

The wet and dry-down stages were not pleasant, and I'm not too fond of cherry, so I think I'll swap this off.

[donnatron]

Imp: Delicious cherry lilies.

 

Wet: Strong green lily scent. The cherry backs off.

 

Dry: Oh... well played, skin chemistry. Stemmy, green, almost aggressive lilies and cough syrup. It's not as bad as that sounds but it's a little weird. Minorly gooey and sweet but kind of bland at the same time. A very blah lily blend.

 

Throw: Minor.

 

Overall: Did not work on my chemistry. The in imp smell is gorgeous though--is Queen of Hearts the scent that sends me careening towards the scent lockets?

[Venneh]

In the imp, this is cherry and lilies, pretty straight forward. On my skin, it's an equal balance of lilies and cherry; we'll see how this goes, being cautiously optimistic. It's nice, but nothing I need a bottle of. I'll keep the imp.

Edited January 20, 2010 by Venneh