Meliai

[femmefatale]

MELIAI
Sisters to the Erinyes and the Gigantes, the ash tree nymphs were also born from the union of the blood gushing from Ouranos’ castration wounds and Gaia’s fertile womb. These nymphs were the mother of the Bronze Race of mankind’s third age.

Ash manna and ambrosial honey.

Wow, this is a lot greener than I was expecting. It a green tree scent almost pine-y but not quite and vaguely herbal. Luckily this isn't one of those green notes that goes soapy. It stays rich and lush smelling. The honey is more a background scent adding a bit of sweetness.
As it dries down the honey comes out just a touch more, but it is in no way strongly honey. It's not a super sweet syrupy honey, but more of an herbal, raw smelling honey. Oddly enough, I could've sworn there is leather in this. My chemistry must be really wonky today. I can't wait to see what others have to say.
This leans masculine, but it's strangely appealing. I'm thinking it might be more dh's speed though, unless the honey gets stronger with age.

Very good throw.

Overall I like it though. I can't keep sniffing my arm.


ETA: It's been a couple hours now and it's calmed down quite a bit and the honey is a bit stronger. Still not very sweet, but more herbal and a bit less green now. A bit more unisex at this point. I have a feeling this will age nicely. Edited March 14, 2010 by Shollin

[Christi]

This is quite strong on the sap scent. It's herbal with a touch of weak pine. I really have to work to find the honey in it. I've had it on for about 30 minutes and Ash Manna has remained the dominant note.

[hkhm]

imp: rich, sweet greenery.

 

wet: imagine the scent of a florist's shop with the sweetness amped up. that is exactly what this smells like to me. i don't know what ash manna smells like exactly but if this is it, i like ti a great deal. very pretty!

 

dry: this softens a bit as it dries, it gets a bit less bright. it is so pretty, i wasn't expecting to like this as much as i do, it's unusual yet very feminine.

[Iceblink]

Starts out on the green side but this dries into straight-up honey on my skin--a new, fresh honey. Delicious!

[Sapphy]

There's something brighter green here. Like plant material. Also a little smokiness and something sweet. Like tree sap, but before it gets all sticky and gross.

[moon_lemming]

Hmmm, I get really weird things from Meliai. Normally I like to look through others' reviews to see what I'm getting wrong, but I can't do that here, so I'll just write my scent impressions which are probably 98% incorrect, lol.

 

I get a lot of changes from this blend. The oil in the imp reminds me of a very quiet wintergreen mixed with a little . . . orange, maybe? Something bright and sweet and almost citrus-y. A piney scent comes out to play as it dries. It squashes whatever that bright scent is. About ten minutes in the pine starts fading and a thin honey shows up, mixing with that soft nip of wintergreen again, like a diluted mint tea flooded with honey (definitely not the heavy honey from, say, Mead Moon).

 

I assume all this wintergreen business is how my nose is interpreting the pine when it's not PINE PINE PINE PINE.

 

After a couple of hours the overall effect is sort of a smoky herbal cologne. I'm not sure how it got here from there because I haven't been sniffing my wrist the whole time, but it's interesting. It's not very ~~me~~ but I like it.

 

I really enjoyed every part of this perfume, and that's coming from someone who normally hates anything resembling pine. Nice.

Edited March 21, 2010 by karen

[fairnymph]

Disclaimer: I am a great lover of honey, whether to eat or to wear, and I love all the various honey notes the lab uses. This blend has a 'BPAL feel', but this particular honey note smells new to me, unique relative to any other honey note used in other blends, and would thus probably be a great thing for those who don't do well with honey to try.

 

Opening the bottle, I'm hit by a bright waft of juicy pink grapefruit, a Springlike and softly sweet, gentle girlish floral, with a bit of slightly, very pleasantly bitter fresh greenery in the distance, and then all wrapped up in a golden, warm, and delicately sweet honey note. This scent feels angelic, divine, and fantastical - but in an attainable way, like lying on a perfect late Spring's day in a lush green meadow, soaking up the sun and inhaling the sweet, fresh air.

 

The initial wetness on my skin is shockingly tart-sweet, citrusy-fruity, juicy pink grapefruit and some delicate sweet floral, that upon closer inspection and comparison to absolute EO I have on hand, is absolutely, definitely, without a doubt linden. Those are my two favourite fruit and floral notes in perfume OF ALL TIME. And then there's honey, which is really just icing on the cake, or more accurately, a subtle glaze that allows the fruity and floral notes to shine, too.

 

Unfortunately, as is nearly always the case with citrus, the grapefruit fades my skin once this dries, and the linden even more so - this allows the honey to take centre stage without overly dominating. It's a very subtle, soft, and almost 'fluffy' sort of honey - it's most like white honey, but I find white honey is a bit brighter and fresher, almost a little astringent - this honey note is similar in that it's not syrupy, or boozy, or powdery and it's only lightly sweet and it's delicate. I'd almost say ephemeral - and the honey note itself might be - but this blend has mildly a grounded feel - sort of rustic, close to the earth, naturalist vibe. Something a nymph or an elf would wear.

 

Sniffing with great effort and all cerebral cylinders firing, I DO get a wisp of something that could be considered 'ashy' - but it's EXTREMELY faint and I'd bet that 90% of people wouldn't be able to pick it out at all. This vague hint of ash, combined with the honey, reminds of the Witch's Repast to a small degree, but this is a much simpler and more elegant blend. What is most surprising to me - and overall, I am very (pleasantly!) surprised by this blend since the short note list and presence of ash had me on edge - is the greenery. There is something clearly, definitely a little green and stemmy, perhaps a light dandelion note - it's not grassy, but it's almost verging that way. I don't get it until a while into the drydown when the other notes (all, but honey the least) have faded a bit to reveal it. I also get what I can only describe as a pollen scent - I think it's related to the 'greenness' I'm getting, or it merges with that note - either way, it's fantastic, intriguing and unique.

 

The evanescent qualities of the earlier stages solidify into a blend of golden honey wafting over greenery, with a very faint musky-earthy note (oakmoss?) and that hint of ceremonial, almost magical-feeling ash. There are faint wisps of the earlier fruity and floral notes if I huff and strain, but they burn off on my skin in less than half an hour, sadly. Still, the drydown is gorgeous and it's so warm and glowing that I almost suspect heliotrope - actually, I think it's very likely there IS some here, as that's a note that tends to sneak up on me. Also, I'm positive that one of the balsam notes from Ü is present here, though MUCH more faintly - as I get the same faintly papery, wood-pulpy grassiness. I liked it in Ü, and I like it here too, though it makes the blend firmly unisex.

 

A very interesting scent that morphs gradually but significantly on my skin. It is the simplest honey blend other than the SN, so I would value it for that alone, but this is definitely a bottle purchase; the versatility means I could wear it in my hair or a locket for one sort of effect or slather it on my skin for another. I think this blend would also layer very well with others because while in the end it's quite complex, it's a very unified scent that could be a good base for fruity or floral blends that need a bit more to round them out.

 

Beth, you've been producing some stunning blends lately!

Edited March 24, 2010 by fairnymph

[sqwook]

Meliai is not what I expected… I was thinking it would be something sweet, soft, with smooth honey, and if anything, would fade away and be pleasant enough but non-descript. It is not any of these things.

 

In real life, Meliai is an extremely bright loud green scent, almost astringent, with something like pine or sour lemon in it. I tried it twice since I thought my expectation was coloring my opinion of it too much. After all, I *love* green scents, and pine, and lemon, and herbs, and trees; sometimes it just helps to be expecting them. But alas, this is too … something … for me. Might be better on a guy?

 

[CitizenBree]

This is floral with more greenery than petals. The honey is barely there for me, but maybe just adds a touch of sweetness.

 

The greenery dies down on the dry down and then it turns into a floral baby powerdy scent (but not straight up baby powder).

 

Every once in a while, as it's dried, I'll get a whiff of sweet honey.

 

I took a gamble because of the honey and while it's not offensive, it's nothing special either.

 

[angelicruin]

Yes this is definitely pine, honey, and bit of smoke. Interesting, but not anything I'd wear often.

[zankoku_zen]

This one was very interesting to my nose. It definitely had a white flower/honey + citrus and yes, I would say its more of the pink grapefruit variety. And now that I read fairnymph's review I do see that the white flower I was getting is linden.

 

It dries to a sort of spicy floral, much warmer than when first applied with a drizzling of honey.

 

Very torn on how I actually feel about this one. My first impression was that I liked it. Now the question is - how much?

 

ETA: Testing it again - I definitely got the pink grapefruit and more 'ash' on wet, which made it very pearlescent. Unfortunately, the ash has amped up and it ends up a smokey light honey, slightly powdery.

Edited April 9, 2010 by zankoku_zen

[Dormouse]

I had no idea what Ash Manna was but on googling it I found that it was the sap from the Flowering Ash Tree so I was expecting something very sweet and sticky butthis scent is actually very green and sappy and not very sweet at all.

 

Wet this is almost citrussy with a little floral. A couple of people have mentioned linden flowers so I wonder if Ash flowers have a similar scent. I know we've got some in the park down the road so I'll have to remember to go and sniff them later in the year.

 

Gradually the citrus fades and the flowers and honey become more prominant but the heart of the scent is still this spicy, sappy, balsam type scent. Quite unisex, even tipping towards masculine possibly.

 

I get wafts of very light honey at a distance but not up close if I sniff my wrist.

 

It's really very lovely and I think it will be perfect for warm, early summer days.

[abejita]

I'm not at all into green herbal scents, and this is much more green than it is golden honey. Not for me!

[crebbsgirl]

I have to concur with other reviewers about the greeness of this blend. It's a little sharp for me. The honey is really stunning, when it starts to come out, but instead of going smooth like I was anticipating, the green-ness and honey make this a little bit cologne-y. I'm not really enjoying this as much as I thought I would.

[benthic]

Honey-lemon-pine on me wet. I amp honey a lot, which means I often can't wear it, or rather I can wear it but every honey blend smells the same on me. This is probably why I'm getting more honey out of this than a lot of you. This is very nice with my chemistry. The strong honey note balances the pine/lemon-ness of it perfectly, making it a nice green herbal-smelling honey (not unlike Osun). I can see how this would be very astringent on someone else, but on me it's an awesome backdrop to the honey, something that makes it smell different on me than the typical BPAL honey blend. It has a very "things you would put in tea" feel without an actual tea note.

 

As it stays on, my skin amps the honey even more and everything else fades into the background, which is disappointing but typical for me. As fairnymph said, though, this doesn't smell like the Lab's usual honey note. There is a very notable difference between this honey and the honey in, say, Jezebel. This smells fresher and less powdery, sweeter and lighter. It's very, very nice. I'm sad that it's become so dominant over the resin and the lemon, but it still manages to not smell exactly like every other honey blend ever. A lovely sticky-sweet blend with no trace of the baby powder that I usually get with BPAL's honey notes, tempered just slightly by citrus and resin/herbal. This is gorgeous on me and probably my new go-to honey blend when I'm in a honey mood.

 

ETA my cat also likes this, amusingly. Usually he flinches away from my perfume when I'm testing it, but he tried to lick this one off my hand.

Edited April 19, 2010 by benthic

[naeelah]

It goes on fragrant honey with bitter foliage and green wood. There's a somewhat gritty quality in the background. Other people have mentioned citrus or linden blossom in this. I agree with that, but personally, this didn't scream citrus or flowers to me, until it was pointed out. I just smell honey, which should always have a subtle floral edge to it.

 

As it wears, it becomes deeper and grittier, with a somewhat sour undertone. Perhaps it's wishful thinking, but I *swear* there's an actual ash element at the heart of this -- ash as in the stuff that's leftover when you burn wood, not just Ash the tree. The sweet sap and honey are less predominant once dry, but it's a nicely balanced and rich scent. A little bit woodsy, a little bit floral, a little bit smoky and a little bit sweet.

 

Definitely recommended if you're a fan of the lab's honey blends, but want something that isn't just straight up honey. They haven't made anything else quite like this. Perhaps this is a more unisex option.

Edited April 28, 2010 by naeelah

[inkaddict]

Meliai was completely different from what I expected, sadly.

 

I'm a big fan of the lab honey, so as soon as I red the description I knew I had to try it -only, instead of sweetness and resisns I got...greenery and aftershave

 

The honey gets a bit stronger in the drydown, and the aftershave disappears, but the throw is now so faint I have to keep my nose attached to my wrist to catch it.

I'll let it sit a bit to see if it changes, but for now Meliai is kinda made of Fail on me *pouts*

[Gwydion]

In bottle: Vaguely fruity honey with a hint of aash. Wet: Honey candy. It’s still weirdly fruity, though the ash really comes out as it warms. It’s quite pleasant, but not stunning. Dry: It’s strangely clean and sharp while retaining it’s sweetness.

[edenssixthday]

Meliai - Perhaps it's the presence of the sugary sweet ash manna, but this is by far, the #1 best honey scent I've ever encountered. It smells like fresh, organically farmed honey. I don't smell any of the green herbals, pine, or white florals other reviewers are picking up on. On me, it's sweet honey and smokey ash, and absolutely nothing else. It's so gorgeous I bought a bottle.

[pinkgyrl]

When I first applied this wet and sniffed the bottle, I got a blast of soury fruit that I wasn't expecting. At first, I thought it was going to be a red or purple scent - but it's a morpher. It seems to have dried and relaxed into an unassuming floral and honey scent - very delicate and sophisticated with that touch of tart fruit fading into the background. It's slightly smoky - it's very pretty, but not something that I would reach for all the time.

Edited May 16, 2010 by GirlinDenial

[cherrycherry]

This was a frimp that I passed on to my husband. He likes it a lot and seems to think that it smells of oranges. I can detect a citrus note in there, but to me it is mostly pine, honey and something very clean and soapy. Delightful, but not my favourite scent on him.

[Ryvre]

On my skin, this is a soft herbal soap. It's really, really soapy... Not good for wearing, but I might try it in the burner.

[Little Bird]

I wasn't sure what to expect from this scent at all, and was surprised that it smells like oranges. It's fresh, juicy, and sweet, like I've just peeled a ripe orange and smushed it on to my wrists. In the drydown, there's something sweet and honeyed underneath the orange that makes me think of picking wildflowers. I don't smell any of the greenery, herbs, or pine that other reviewers have mentioned.

 

Meliai is delicious, sweet, juicy, refreshing orange and a bit of honeyed, sunny wildflowers on me. It smells very summery, pleasant, and cheery to me. I'm going to love my imp and might need a full bottle of this one...

[tajana]

Wet: WHAT IS THIS. It smells SO familiar. It's not unpleasant, it just smells like a body wash I must have used at some point in my life. Like, slightly citrusy, slightly sweet, juicy fruity floral. This comes off as clean and fresh rather than cloying or sticky because there's a bit of sappy greenness to it, as if you were ripping some flowers out of a field. Nothing is jutting out though, it's this really blended, balanced swirl of scent that reads as rather commercial.

 

Dry: That initial strange sparkling tart-sweetness tapers off for the most part, leaving me with a whole lot of honey. Honey notes from BPAL often go terribly on me, but Meliai's stays true. Just sweet, pure, light golden honey. It doesn't go powdery or skanky like other honeys I've tried from BPAL, this one seems different.

 

Overall: It's not grabbing me, but I imagine that this could be really popular once more people test it out. Actually, reading reviews now, I'm surprised anyone got pine or a unisex feel from it! I got none of that. Just some really girly, easily accessible flair melting into pure light honey.

 

ETA: This had been rolling around my swap box for about a year, and something compelled me to give it another try. I really enjoy it now! Either it's aged into a more unisex, green blend, or it's a matter of skin chemistry or personal preference shifting. I can get hints of pineyness or aquatic- that sort of soapy touch, but that's fine, I like that clean, sharp edge here, it contrasts beautifully with the slightly floral, wildflower stemmy light honey.

Edited August 19, 2011 by findaghost

[starfish327]

very woody and sweet. it's very feminine and light. it's also quite pretty- i'm getting something faintly floral on my skin. unfortunately there's something that's also aquatic-like on my skin, and a lot of aquatics give me headaches, so while this is pretty it's not pretty enough to want to keep around and tempt the migraine gods. it is however one of the nicest honeys i've tried so far, though it smells nothing like a honey note to me.