Summer's Last Will and Testament

[Schmoozy]

Doomed summer, supported on the shoulders of winter and autumn: citrus-infused Baltic amber, red valerian, marigold, blood orange, and sunflower subdued by somber myrrh and dry geranium alongside the leaves of autumn and a breath of winter wind.

For some reason this reminds me of Labores Solis. It must be the amber and myrhh. This is a tart, bright scent. It definitely has citrus and combined with amber and myrhh makes for a really warm, sun kissed scent. It is perfect for this time of the year, when the cold is slowly creeping in, and you want to capture the last few rays of sunshine and hold on to the memories of summer. Edited October 1, 2009 by Schmoozy

[lacyjae]

Ohohoho, all this citrus?... ohhhh yes. God so pretty. I think the citrus and the flowers work really, really, REALLY well together. Oooohhhhh. Mrr. And, actually, this makes me think of our just-past hothothot fall days. LOVE.

[Deek]

Summer's Last Will and Testament

 

In Bottle: Okay I know this is weird, and my boyfriend thought I was crazy, but I seriously get fried chicken. It's like a bam! pow! of cleaning agent which is very yellow to me, and then I get... fried chicken. I have no idea why and I can't tell what that note is.

Wet on Skin: The fried chicken is gone, and the cleaning agent has died down a lot. I can't really tell what it is, evidently I haven't tried a lot of citrus florals.

Dry Down: Gets sweeter, almost bearable. Now I can smell the sunflower.

Dry on Skin: Sunflower, sunflower, sunflower. Ick.

Overall: 1.5/5. It's meh, though if you like light florals I'd suggest it. Definitely not for me.

 

[zankoku_zen]

Okay, at the beginning this was delicious. I could smell the citrus and the blood orange and it was totally yummy. Then that disappeared and I was left with sunflowers. And now, on the drydown, I have soapy sunflowers and geranium.

 

I'm kinda torn on this. I love geraniums and there are not enough BPAL geranium blends out there. On the other hand, just getting a whiff of this makes me think I should put on Winter Stress Relief Elixir instead.

[aquazoo]

Orangey. It's got all the warmth of the amber, and the other notes come up as the orange fades back. It does evoke the change of seasons, with the blend of new fall and the lingering summer pleasures.

[ellebelle]

In the bottle: Bright, bold citrus.

 

wet: More citrus, but with something very sharp behind it. I think that is the geranium in it.

 

drydown: This one isn't really much of a morpher on me. I don't really get any of the traditional floral notes, just the spicier floral of the geranium. The sharpness dulls a bit, but there is still something vaguely unpleasant about this blend.

 

final verdict: I regret buying a bottle. This is one that I could keep and wear occasionally, but I would rather wear stuff I truly love wearing.

Edited October 13, 2009 by Ellebelle

[lainevierge]

On wet, this reminded me very strongly of the Piper at the Gates of Dawn, one of last year's yule scents. Probably it is the blood orange and the amber that is similar.

 

Yes! I was coming to this thread to say exactly this. I decided to test this one after putting on some Piper at the Gates infused lotion after my shower and the two are quite close. I'd say that the big difference is that Summer has a sharper, wetter citrusy note in it without the resins that back Piper.

 

It also reminds me a bit of Severin, in a lemony-anise sort of way. I like it enough to not wash it off, and I'm happy it didn't turn into the the lemon horror I was expecting (lemon is usually a very bad note for me), but I'm not sure if I'll keep my decant.

[Invidiana]

This really is summer's dying breath in a bottle: the citrus-infused amber evokes the first golden and copper leaves to fall to the ground, mingling with the last blooms of August and one final blood-orange squeeze of summer sun, all touched by the faintest whispers of an arctic chill. It's a vivid and poignant picture of the summer's last signs of life sucking in one final gulp of air before they are laid to rest another year.

[MCS4096]

God this smells divine I'm not generally a citrus fan, and so avoid them as a rule, but this just sounded so darn pretty. I get a lot of the blood orange (so juicy) and the flowers, which smell very dry. Theres also loads of geranium, which does give it a bit of a cleaning solution tinge to my nose, but once on it's like a hot dry wind blowing through an orange grove that has spent, slightly rotting oranges under the trees. I mean that is the best way! its just.. it smells like the end of something. Very awesome!

[yewberry]

Goes on soapy and stays that way. Geranium and I do not play well.

 

[smgudan]

In bottle: a citrusy slightly floral mix, very delicate

 

Wet on skin: holy citrus!! very lemony and grapefruity

 

Dry on skin: Less citrusy, a delicate pretty amber scent. reminds me of a softer version of ralph lauren's romance. fades VERY quickly on me though, so off to swapping it goes!

[trinitysite]

This goes on almost grapefruity, a little bitter even. Initially I'm only getting a really bright citrus and...the marigold? After a while the citrus becomes less sharp -- and the longer it stays on the mellower it gets. I guess that's the amber and myrrh coming through? It's clean and fresh and sunshiney, and does not quite match this dead-of-winter day but I like it already and can tell that it's only going to grow on me.

 

Oh, and I love the bottle art Sunflowers are my favorite.

 

[thebirdofhermes]

In bottle: Sharp citrus with bitterness. Like biting into the skin of a citrus fruit.

 

Wet: Still very citrus skin like, but fast fading to a warm, earthy floralish scent. Has just a bit of orange peeking around the flowers. Hmm... op, there's the myrrh. I knew I smelled it somewhere.

 

Dry: Oddly, I think I smell honey. That might be the amber, though. There's still a very dusky, baked earth quality grounding this. Of the florals, the most prominent is the marigold; although that may be because I assosciate marigolds with very pleasant things, so my nose is picking out the happy assosciations. And if I concentrate, I can just detect the smell of a leaf pile... you know, that oddly papery-smoky crisp sort of smell? Just like having to rake up the leaves from our yard.

 

I'm going to stop fussing with notes here and give you some impressions of the scent. First, I really don't get much summery qualities from this. I was expecting more of a late summer/early autumn scent from the name, which for here is September, but it doesn't smell like September. It smells more like late October, possibly even early November if the weather stays warm. Not a complaint, though. It's actually better than I expected.

 

Second, I would consider this to be a decent replacement for The Piper at the Gates of Dawn in a pinch. Given that I have almost four bottles of The Piper, I can't say I'll be needing to stock up on this one. It's a warmer scent than The Piper; the brilliant red of maple leaves to The Piper's pale orange, if you want to know my colour impressions. Not quite as snuzzly, though, and I suspect that it's the lack of musk in this scent that's causing it. This is stepping outside on a warm autumn day in the country and taking a deep breath, just basking in the warmth of the sun as it chases off the slight chill of the breeze. It's a place scent, as opposed to an alive scent. Not that trees and flowers aren't alive but... There's a much more impersonal quality to Summer's Last Will and Testament.

 

I'm trying to judge this one on it's own merits, but in the end, my mind assosciates it with The Piper no matter what. For me, it's a good scent, definitely in my Top 10. Same scent family as The Piper, but it lacks the same feel. Given the choice between more of this or more of The Piper, though... I'd swap my half bottle for a half bottle of The Piper in a heartbeat.

 

However, if you liked The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, but it was just not quite something enough for you, you might find what you were missing in Summer's Last Will and Testament.

 

I will note that Summer's Last Will and Testament seems easier to find than The Piper. That's probably because I'm not buying every bottle and decant of it that I can get my hot little hands on.

[Muppetk]

Very pretty. Starts out slightly sharp citrus but quickly dries down to something lovely & warm and fuzzy - an orange-y version of Litha 2006 on my skin. Quite lovely... though having 2 bottles of Litha 2006, I don't think I need to drive myself nuts looking for more of this. But It does make me want to layer something citrus-y with my Litha.

[anastasia]

i am definitely saving up for the end of summer fragrances this coming year. i only got two this year and they are both perfectly evocative. i am not a summer person. fall is my favorite. but this smells like when i was a child and i was standing on the grass in the evening and everyone had gone in and i could feel something slipping away, day into night, warm into cool, presence into isolation. that summer evening slipping away feeling. in a bottle.

[yamiko]

In Bottle: Kinda smells like shampoo. It's pretty citrus-y with a faint herbal background.

 

Wet on Skin: Citrus. I think I smell the myrrh and amber in there, as well.

 

Drydown (3 minutes): Still super citrus-y. It hasn't changed too much on me.

 

Drydown (5 minutes): Still hasn't morphed at all on me.

 

Overall Impression: This kinda smells like a sunset in the very end of summer. Very bright, golden, with a small faint inkling as to what lies ahead.

[DraloreShimare]

In the vial – Florals, with a definite citrus undertone.

On the skin – Citrus, and how! Occasionally the citrus will die down a little, but then it hops right back up again. I get a specific hint of blood orange here and there.

Dry – Even dried down, the citrus remains to haunt me.

[ravenscanary]

Source: Decant

 

In the decant: Amber and citrus, predominantly orange. Floral sweetness, but I couldn't put a name on it.

 

Wet: Blood orange seems to be the dominant note on my skin, though the amber is there (slightly powdery undertone) and the floral. I'd never guess marigold and sunflower as the floral notes, but they are very pretty.

 

Dry: The amber comes out more, which is common for my skin chemistry. I don't really get the autumnal/winter edge to this, it's very red-gold late summer to me, slightly powdery due to the amber. Very warm scent.

Edited August 16, 2010 by Bad Wolf

[biocarolyn]

It's finally cooled down a bit, and I pulled out last year's Summer's End scents to see how they are aging. Last year, this was very strongly citrus to me, bright sunny orange, but that faded after the first hour or so and I ended up with the amber and sunflower scents.

 

Sometime between then & now, my bottle has changed DRASTICALLY. If you were afraid of the citrus before, definitely give this a try again because mine has toned down from screaming to the barest hint. I'm getting a spicy scent (the myrrh?) and the sunflowers and geraniums, a breath of dead leaves, and a hint of winter wind.

[PurringPulsar]

Summer’s Last Will and Testament

 

In the imp: citrus, but it’s borderline soapy-herbal.

Wet on skin: blood orange bursts into life and I think I also smell geranium.

Dry on skin: this is nice. It reminds me very much of Piper at the Gates of Dawn. But this has the pine in Piper replaced with herbal notes and autumnal floral and leafy notes. The citrus notes are no longer soapy, but whoa they are strong! This is one of the most powerful citrus scents, is it the amber that’s magnifying them so? The blood orange and also something that reminds me of grapefruit are dominant, and they evoke shades of gold and red, like a sunset. I can’t really smell amber but the autumn leaf note smells lovely, it isn’t at all like the one in October, I’d say it’s more like the one in To Autumn? I can also smell a rich geranium note, which makes me happy because it’s not often that geranium is strong.

After a while: after a moment when an odd earthy-dirty herbal note comes through, this then mellows very nicely. The citruses seem to melt into the amber, which I now smell, and it actually reminds me a bit of white amber, but the amber then darkens as the scent develops. I think the myrrh adds a touch more resinous goodness to this scent, I think I also smell a bit of spicy marigold.

The scent morphs incredibly, sometimes I smell more of the sunflower, sometimes more of the myrrh, at other times I smell more of the earthy, mossy notes. It’s also amazing how long the orange note sticks around, I think it’s held down by those wonderful warm sweet resins.

Verdict: I love how Beth creates perfumes that are very hard to pigeonhole into a particular category like ‘foody’ or ‘floral’ or ‘woody’. This is one of them-it’s one of the most intriguing, unique scents I’ve come across. Though it’s predominantly citrus, with the blood orange leading the way, this is no ordinary citrus. It’s a dark citrus, not bright and sparkly but evokes the deepest red-orange, and is weighed down with earthy leafy notes, with the resins adding a golden glimmer. The geranium adds its warm balmy scent and the flowers are subtle yet add yet more dimensions to this already complex fragrance. This scent is a work of art, less like a perfume and more like an olfactory painting, very evocative of summer’s last stand against the encroaching autumn-I can really sense the turning of the seasons here, the lengthening nights, the reddening sunsets, leaves falling and the last warmth of summer just barely lingering. It’s beautiful and fascinating, and unlike any other perfume I’ve tried.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? Definitely.

If you like this, try: Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Pepper, Death of Autumn, Three Gorgons, Sunflower, Maltese Cross of Sanctus Germanus

[Truelove]

I just put on Summer's Last Will and Testament - it seemed appropriate today with all the windows open, a cool breeze blowing through the house. A perfect day. This one has a big throw at this point - I can really smell the Marigold and Geranium - it's a little stong. It has sort of a dry smell to it - wonder if that's the winter wind or the leaves of autumn.

Edited September 5, 2010 by Truelove

[Vega]

Sniffed: Bright, golden citrus. A touch of breezy coolness?

 

On skin: The blood orange and citrus notes dominate here: this is golden, radiant, and light. Summer must just be pondering over her last will and testament, because she's clearly not going anywhere at this stage. A shining -- and thankfully not overbearing -- citrus, with a touch of fresh greenness. The citrus gradually burns away and the scent softens, becoming graceful and a different kind of sweet; the other notes must be playing into this, but I can't tell them apart.

Colour impression is a bright orange with a faint tinge of leaf-green. I'm reminded somewhat of Aizen-Myoo and Death on a Pale Horse: these three are all radiant and rounded citrus with minimal grounding, though they all smell somewhat different of course.

 

Verdict: Quite befitting the name: the radiant orange summer gradually gives way to a dusky, early autumn sweetness. But I can't help but feel that I'm not getting everything that Summer's Last Will and Testament promises to be. It's a lovely scent, but not spectacular.

[cupcakegernade]

This is really strong citrus over a base of amber and marigold. One my skin the sunflower and myrrh join the mix. This is very bright and golden. I get a faint hint of the autumn leaves peeking out, they add a bit of dryness to the bend, giving it the feel of late summer/early fall. This is quite lovely and truly evokes the dying summer. In the dry-down, the geranium comes out, and along with the amber, this morphs into a soft and creamy floral.

[Gin]

Oh, right. I bought Summer's Last Will and Testament and promptly got rid of it and I couldn't remember why, so I bought another bottle (I know, I know ). I opened the bottle, and it smelled like a late summer sunset--the sun's in your eyes and it's all orangey and the grass is dry and brown and it's still hot even though the sun's going down and days are getting shorter and it's almost time to go back to school so you're going to cherish every last bit of the days you have until that happens. On my skin, it smells like soap. Sad.

[tdiym]

On me, at first strong and distinct marigold, which I like a lot. Dry, it reminds me quite a bit of Lines Written Among the Eugenian Hills, which I also like a lot. I hadn't noticed the similarity at first, but it's been aging and has gotten smoother and more blended. Very nice I like this quite a bit.