Conservatory Tableaux

[angelicruin]

Lacquered beech wood and old books.

I love this scent. It's old books and sweet, smoky wood notes on my skin. Definitely the surprise hit for me from the WKAP scent collection. This one is going to age beautifully.

[crebbsgirl]

Whew! This is heavily lacquered wood when I first applied it. Like PAINT FUMES lacquer. I had to let it settle for about 1/2 an hour on me before I tried to sniff myself. Once I did, the resulting product smelled amazing. Sweet woods and books. I agree that it's probably going to age into gorgeousness though.

[Apple]

This was tied with Leaf Strewn Couch as the WKAP scent I was most excited about. Yay wood and old books! I eagerly unscrewed the bottle, only to be greeted by a repugnant, almost rotten smell. My husband also sniffed the bottle and made a disgusted face, exclaiming, "That is TERRIBLE."

 

I remained hopeful that Conservatory Tableaux would smell better once it was on, and so I tested a tiny drop on my skin. At first it had a very solvent/chemical type smell (lacquer?), but almost immediately I start to smell the sour funk of jasmine, which is one of my skin's mortal enemies. There might be some ylang-ylang, too. And then, under the funktastic jasmine/ylang-ylang, is the smell of the perfume my mother wore when I was a kid - Estee Lauder's Youth Dew.

 

I want to wail. HOW?! How is this possible? No books, old or new. No wood. Just paint fumes, jasmine, and Youth Dew.

 

But wait... the longer it's on my skin, the more it reminds me of The Forbidding Foyer. Maybe there's hope yet? Okay, I can kind of smell what might be a mahogany note buried beneath the BPAL "rot" note, which is sort of camphorous. But the blend is still dominated by the scent of heavy oriental perfume, and not at all what I was expecting. I thought this would smell like a library, not a department store. So sad.

 

ETA: During the final phase of the dry-down, this scent turns to plastic, which is what certain wood notes (oak, in particular) do on my skin. So, there is definitely wood in here, it's just being drowned out by flowers and aldehydes during the initial phases.

Edited October 26, 2009 by Apple

[zankoku_zen]

Okay, this definitely smells like polished woods. In fact, I would say it most resembles wood polisher as opposed to the actual polished woods. I do get a bit of oak out of this though.

 

Meh.

[milo]

At first, this is a dry, dusty blend. Smells just like my Mom's books from the 50's. As it dries, it becomes very soft and pretty. I'm detecting a light, sweet woody note here along with the dusty books. I like it, but probably not enough for a bottle.

[Saya]

For the first 10 minutes this smells like a wood varnish. Pretty harsh, the fumes others have mentioned is dead on.

 

I only start to like this blend about an hour into having it on. It eventually calms down and sweetens up. Not a whole lot, but it's a sweet wood primarily with a bit of, at least to my nose is, leather.

 

I like the more advanced stages of drydown, but the first hour was pretty rank so I'll pass on a bottle.

[stellans]

*sigh* I wanted to like this one so much! I wanted soft, gentle book smells, smooth wood, and all the goodness described by others. But it wasn't to be... instead, I get mildew, bad mulch, and chemicals. Back to the Lurid Library for me... Edited June 5, 2010 by stellans

[Gwydion]

In Bottle: I know this isn’t a rose fragrance, but the wonderful wood and book fragrances blend in such a way as to hint at old dry roses nevertheless. It is strangely femine in general. The wood note is unusual, and the books pleasingly familiar. Wet: Ooo! This does some interesting things with my skin chemistry, going all smokey. Dry: A gentle, mostly woody blend. It works nicely with my skin chemistry, but isn’t a stunner.

[Little Bird]

This definitely doesn't smell like books to me. It's kind of gross, actually. It sort of smells like the salty olives and dry woods of Bezoar plus a sickly sweet perfume (sort of creamy, sweet, musky, girly perfume). The drydown smells a bit like woodsmoke.

It's really weird and unpleasant on me overall, with the mix of unusual, harsh notes and the generic pre-teen girl perfume smell. Conservatory Tableaux smells very mismatched and off on my skin...

 

Story Time at Dark Delicacies will remain my favorite book/library scent.

[ChaosKitty]

I received this oil in a swap, really wanting to try it because of the notes listed, but (I admit) a wee bit doubtful if it would work on me. In the bottle and fresh on my skin, I was hit by the smell of heavy resins and (woe!) laquer. But I let it dry, and boy was I in for a surprise! The chemical smell evaporated completely, it deepened and sweetened into an almost honeyed, woodsy floral. For a while, it turned almost foody with a scent like hazelnuts, and then the honeyed florals and woods came back to blend with it. I absolutely love it to bits!

 

[moon_lemming]

Conservatory Tableaux is, indeed, woody. It smells like oak to me, but I'm not a wood connoisseur so it could be beech, I guess. There was a chemical tone to it at first, which I guess is the lacquer. I don't really get any "books," just a vague sort of quiet floral, almost vanilla-y but not quite. Soft oak and vague florals.

[edenssixthday]

Conservatory Tableaux - I smell oak and a strange chemically odor plus something that's slightly vanillic, but not entirely. This smells nothing like books and bookshelves. It's an odd and mostly unpleasant scent on me. The only thing good about it is the lovely oak.

[tharsei-thanate]

Got a tester of this in a forums purchase!

 

In the imp: Lacquer, sharp and chemical, with the barest hint of old book.

 

Wet: This smooths out quite nicely! This is woody and sweet and a tad papery. Sometimes book blends don't work on me (even though I desperately want them to) because they're too dusty or musty, so this is a really good start!

 

Dry-down: Similar to the wet stage, but with less wood and no paper. And I think I'm catching very faint florals? It's actually a rather light, non-descript sort of blend overall. The sweet wood and faint florals are pleasant, though they don't really come off as bookshelves filled with old books at all.

 

Dry: This really hasn't morphed much, except the wood is bit quieter.

 

I do like how this smells, but it's different from what I expected. It's more generic than I thought it would be- I own other blends that smell similar to this. Still, glad I could give it a try!

[Aviatrix]

I am getting mostly sweet, kind of dry woodsiness with just a tiny background hint of aged paper. As it dries, it somehow becomes a little "green", but at that stage it's mostly faded, so I don't notice unless I really try to.

 

I wanted a nice old books smell, and it definitely is. Although, maybe more like the dusty wooden shelves that the books are sitting on.