Cristina

[topazphoenix]

CRISTINA
(For the Blood is the Life by F. Marion Crawford)
He was near the village now; it was half an hour since the sun had set, and the cracked church bell sent little discordant echoes across the rocks and ravines to tell all good people that the day was done. Angelo stood still a moment where the path forked, where it led toward the village on the left, and down to the gorge on the right, where a clump of chestnut trees overhung the narrow way. He stood still a minute, lifting his battered hat from his head and gazing at the fast-fading sea westward, and his lips moved as he silently repeated the familiar evening prayer. His lips moved, but the words that followed them in his brain lost their meaning and turned into others, and ended in a name that he spoke aloud -- Cristina!

With the name, the tension of his will relaxed suddenly, reality went out and the dream took him again, and bore him on swiftly and surely like a man walking in his sleep, down, down, by the steep path in the gathering darkness. And as she glided beside him, Cristina whispered strange, sweet things in his ear, which somehow, if he had been awake, he knew that he could not quite have understood; but now they were the most wonderful words he had ever heard in his life. And she kissed him also, but not upon his mouth. He felt her sharp kisses upon his white throat, and he knew that her lips were red.

So the wild dream sped on through twilight and darkness and moonrise, and all the glory of the summer's night. But in the chilly dawn he lay as one half dead upon the mound down there, recalling and not recalling, drained of his blood, yet strangely longing to give those red lips more. Then came the fear, the awful nameless panic, the mortal horror that guards the confines of the world we see not, neither know of as we know of other things, but which we feel when its icy chill freezes our bones and stirs our hair with the touch of a ghostly hand. Once more Angelo sprang from the mound and fled up the gorge in the breaking day, but his step was less sure this time, and he panted for breath as he ran; and when he came to the bright spring of water that rises half way up the hillside, he dropped upon his knees and hands and plunged his whole face in and drank as he had never drunk before -- for it was the thirst of the wounded man who has lain bleeding all night upon the battle-field.

She had him fast now, and he could not escape her, but would come to her every evening at dusk until she had drained him of his last drop of blood. It was in vain that when the day was done he tried to take another turning and to go home by a path that did not lead near the gorge. It was in vain that he made promises to himself each morning at dawn when he climbed the lonely way up from the shore to the village. It was all in vain, for when the sun sank burning into the sea, and the coolness of the evening stole out as from a hiding-place to delight the weary world, his feet turned toward the old way, and she was waiting for him in the shadow under the chestnut trees; and then all happened as before, and she fell to kissing his white throat even as she flitted lightly down the way, winding one arm about him.

Chestnut trees, juniper berries, violet leaf, labdanum, dazzling, moonlit white musk, and night-blooming summer flowers.

Wow, I love this one! Smells like buttery chestnuts and sweet florals and yet there's a sophisticated loneliness in the sharpness of the musk....nom nom nom. I can see a big bottle of this in my future. Nom.

[Heavenlyrabbit]

OH CHRISTINA!

 

How lovely you are. You smell like Chestnuts mixed with Incense and enticing Florals that cling to your undead body.

 

I lean my face into my skin where you waft off it and sigh.

 

How could I have doubted you?

[edenssixthday]

Cristina - I tried this on without reading the ingredient list, and was surprised at how foody it is. I had it in my head that it was going to be an ethereal floral...and it is, but it's foody, too. And now I know why -- chestnuts! It's definitely the scent of warm, roasted chestnuts. I wish I smelled the juniper berries in there, too, as I think those two notes would go together super well, but I can't smell the berries for the life of me. Behind the scent of warm, roasted chestnuts is the ethereal musky-floral blend I was anticipating from this one. It's actually a really lovely blend. I can't normally wear foody scents, but this one works on me. I'm surprised at how much I like it. After drydown, the throw is pretty weak, though, and the wear length is fairly short.

[greenranger]

I haven't found any flowers in this yet. On me, this is almost all chestnut, with resin and musk in the far background. The chestnut is verging on foody...but always seems to stop short because of a very slight woody scent.

 

It is also lasting pretty well on me at 6 hours, and still going strong. That's pretty much the wear I'd expect on me from anything with trees, resin and musk in the notes, though.

[theseagrows]

crap, the chesnuts are more prominent than i was hoping for. when i first put this on there's that strong foody note, but then it calms down a bit and gives way to the other notes, once it dries. however, now i've had it on for a half an hour+ and it is overwhelmingly chestnut. it doesn't smell bad or anything, i am just not a foody scent lover for the most part. i think i might love this if the chestnut was more subtle.

Edited September 18, 2009 by theseagrows

[angelicruin]

This starts out on my skin as a nutty caramel scent. I also pick up an Incense note a couple minutes after application.

 

It dries down to chestnuts, a little juniper, sharp musk, and incense. I'm surprised by how much I really like this blend.

 

 

[ami226]

Wow! This one smelled so.... foody?

 

Very strange. On the drydown it becomes kind of bitter. Must be the chestnuts... The wet phase is yummy, but the drydown stage? Not so much.

[mgrazulis]

Well drat! This is foody chestnut on me...I get an itsy bitsy bite of juniper berries, but no green or florals. An undertone of light musk there after a while.

 

 

[devilot]

Cristina

In the Vial: Something sharply piney-- do juniper berries smell like that?

 

Wet: As others have mentioned, instantly "foodie." The warmth and sugary nuttiness of the chestnuts. Just like the delicious ones my aunt roasted last Christmas. Delicious, but not exactly what I'd like to smell like.

 

Drydown: Still the nutty sweetness, but much mellower. And now a floral feel to it.

 

Verdict: It's a neat scent, and one I'm glad to have tried, but ultimately, don't need a bottle of and doubt I'll keep the decant either.

 

ETA: Awhile later, I can still smell this, and it's gone back to being a bit piney and actually smoky. Much more complex and interesting before, but again, don't like it enough to get a 5ml of, unless someone has a killer deal.

[satinworship]

I didn't expect this one to agree with my skin, considering the floral part in this. But on my skin, for the first hour or so, it was mainly earthy/wood/roots. Similar to Penny Dreadful in that it smelled like roots, dirt, and leaf liter over some perfume. However this is very soft, and there isn't much of that spicy ting that PD has.

After a while the white musk and the flowers in this kind of grew and balanced it out into a really nice, slightly different smelling feminine scent.

I didn't pick up any juniper, and this didn't really come across as foody to me. Overall it's nice, but I'm not really sure if I like it a lot, or just kind of like it. It's definitely a complex scent, and I look forward to wearing this several times to really get a good feel for it.

 

It invokes the feeling of walking in a well lit wooded area on a cool day, smelling some of the late blooming flowering plants as you crush them underfoot.

[zankoku_zen]

Oh Cristina, you are definitely a nutty one. I mainly get chestnuts and florals. I get a slight 'vanilla' overtone to the entire blend. Not into nutty blends, but I can see people who are into Wezwanie/Hold liking this one.

[obsidienne]

I am surprised that this one isn't getting more love from the forums -- Cristina turned out to be another surprise winner, and I'd been so sure that I'd find The Girl more interesting based on all of the reviews.

 

Cristina starts off very strongly, with warm nutty chestnuts, violets, and musk. It's warm and yet also sparkling and airy, and the various florals and juniper give it an interesting outdoors element -- so much so that I can imagine a young lady walking through the woods in fall at dusk, her perfume wafting behind her and mingling with the scents of the outdoors.

 

I am by no means a violet lover. Violet rarely works in my nose and smells candy-fake-sweet to me, almost ridiculously so, like something a 10 year old would want to wear. But here, I am liking it. A lot. The labdanum probably helps that out quite a bit. Also, perhaps those night-blooming summer flowers, although I am hard pressed to pick out anything in particular.

 

It dries down into a very light, creamy, vaguely resinous violet (but not VIOLET), with the chestnuts and juniper adding little flashes of interest. The far drydown loses a lot of complexity and is reminiscent of the drydown of a lot of other scents that tend to fade to a somewhat generic sweet floral musk that sticks close to the skin, although Cristina does retain a ghost of her original character.

 

This blend proves that I can enjoy violet blends.

 

Edit: I have to add in that over a half day later, my initial love of this is fading a bit. Not because it's not gorgeous, but because the drydown is consistently a boring, generic sweet violet-musk. It's fantastic while wet, but the drydown keeps bumming me out, and is leaving me with the thought that there are other blends that I'd rather have bottles of. I try not to buy blends that I can use only in a scent locket for their full effect, as that takes some of the pleasure out of actually wearing the perfume for me. So... maybe one day I will have to find a 1/2 bottle of this, but it's not quite enough for me to want a full 5mL.

Edited September 30, 2009 by obsidienne

[Lycanthrope]

Spicy gingerbread nuts, but mostly big spicy nuts at the drydown. No big whomp of violet, which I was snorflin' for.

 

 

 

 

 

... nuts.

[Little Bird]

I don't usually enjoy nutty scents or florals paired with food notes, so it's no surprise that I'm not crazy about Cristina. The chestnut smells slightly dry and wooden on me, but also odd and cloying-sweet (brown sugary smelling on me). I get chestnut and perfumey, soapy floral from this at first. As this dries down, this is a chestnut and musky, slightly smoky violet-floral mess on me. It just smells really odd and mismatched on my skin :/

[wl552]

Cristina starts off pine-y chestnuts with a hint of sweetness that reminds me of syrup, but after awhile turns into a musky pine. I normally enjoy musk scents, but somewhere along the line it's went sort of off. Overall, it's not stand-outish enough and is a bit too perfume-y for me.

[thekittenkat]

In the imp: The chestnut tree overwhelms everything else, not that I mind.

Wet: My goodness but that's exquisite. Like roasted chestnuts. I could eat it. However, slowly, the chestnut is being calmed by the white musk.

The dry-down: Not so very chestnut-sweet now, as I suspect the juniper berries have also taken the chestnut down a notch. I'm just not getting the other notes very much, unless there is something floral deep in the blend. There is no violet, flower, leaf or stem, thank goodness. If it could stay like it is when it's wet, it would be heavenly. As dry it's a good nutty scent. I might have to have more than one bottle of this. A lovely scent for the autumn.

Edited September 16, 2014 by thekittenkat

[aquazoo]

Starts with toasted candy. Maybe that's the tree and juniper?

 

[sihaya09]

On me, this is very subtly foody-- I do smell the chestnuts and a warm, toasted scent-- underscored by a little bit of white musk. Quite nicer than I'd been expecting! Very sophisticated and elegant.

[veronicafranco]

i ordered a decant of this before reading the reviews, then expected not to like it with the foodiness. when i sniff close to my arm it's too buttery, but the mix of musk, juniper, delicate floral, and chestnut in the throw is actually quite nice and unusual. i would definitely like more "moonlit musk" blends!

[Invidiana]

This is a frosty winter's night with chestnuts roasting in the oven and something sinister lurking outside. It's equal parts foody and alluring, with the white musk deifnitely coming into play in the "alluring" element and the juniper berries giving the essence of a chill evening. This is something I can especially see myself wearing a lot of as the nights get longer...

[symphonyinsilence]

Okay, this was an utter disappointment. It started off with a really strong chestnut note and remained there for about an hour until it turned into incense of some sort. I love the smell of chestnuts roasting but it's not like I'd wear it on myself. I was really hoping for the violet leaf, white musk and florals to pop up at some point, but they never did.

[Schmoozy]

Warm, toasted chesnuts mingles with soft musk and juniper berries. Labdanum adds sweetness and a resin backdrop. There is just the slightest touch of violet, but it manages to get lost in the other florals. Very pretty, slightly foody and kinda sweet.

Edited October 30, 2009 by Schmoozy

[fairnymph]

Rich golden oil. Buttery-nutty-spicy - extremely foody. If I didn't know better I'd think this was a pumpkin scent. Very sweet and rich. I get a tiny hint of juniper, but otherwise this is all FOODY 'chestnut' - or sweet, too-rich butter.

 

Still super foody-buttery (caramel is right, as others have noted), but more nutty now, less just straight butter, and a little more juniper appears as well as the labdanum - there's definitely a strong resin/incense undercurrent that adds depth and darkness. A tiny bit of white musk is piercing through, but so far no flowers.

 

How is there GINGER (like dried, spicy ginger - very foody, I agree with the gingerbread assessment) in this? Buttery, nutty, gingery-HOT with that hint of juniper and a little bit more white musk now. Still no flowers anywhere to be seen and still very faint incense.

 

Those chesnuts just won't fade, and the nutty note has turned sort of rancid, like peanut butter & butter both gone bad - and this does not pair well with the piney-sharp juniper berries and cheap/sharp white musk (these latter notes sort of merge).

 

The ginger has faded a little bit but is still giving the gingerbread feel. And now I'm getting some powder below everything, though I never got any actual florals.

 

Rancid nutty butter, juniper, white musk and faint incense and powder - these clash so terribly, and I can't imagine anyone wearing it as a perfume. Strong throw and longevity.

 

 

[LauraB]

What is it with my skin and curry? I mean REALLY? I get chestnuts, curry and a faint resiny twang. But mostly curry. After ten minutes, its curry with a slightly nutty edge - I smell like I've been eating pasanda or korma and I spillt some. I do not smell like a glamorous literary vampire. I do not even smell like I'm wearing perfume, let alone the fantastic smells described by some of the other reviewers here.

 

I had high hopes of this. Miffed.

 

[rayvn1]

I was all set to love this one with the juniper, musk, labdanum, and violet leaf. Then something went...weird. I think it has to be the chestnut trees. Smells sweet and nutty with a caramel(?) vibe to it. It's odd. I've never had chestnuts before, but sweet and nutty does not really mix well with the other scents that were trying to do their thing on my skin Rarr.