Sweet Pea

[grrrlennyl]

at first: very interesting. i'm not sure how to describe it. a bit watery, but mostly sweet with an herbal edge.

on: a very fresh, very green flower. sweet, too. very lovely and light.

half an hour later: still very pure. a single flower. very nice.

1 hour later: this is such a beautiful, simple scent.

2 hours later: this is a tiny bit powdery now. still lovely.

4 hours later: this is just too wonderful. i'm so glad i tried this!

overall: i LOVE this. it's perfect on its own, but i think it could really help lighten and sweeten some other scents, too.

[hypothermya]

Sweet Pea: Single Note

 

I used to attend a May Fair each year, when I was younger, and each year there would be small glass jars filled with freshly picked sweet pea flowers. They were viney looking, with small gree tendrils, and had the most amazing variety of multi-colored pastel flowers. And the scent of the pic-nic tables covered with these bouquets was amazing. The scent of spring incarnate. For a while, I was trying to grow my own sweet peas in an attempt to keep that memory and scent with me. Unfortunately, it didn't end up working out (due to living situations mostly, since growing this flowers is beyond easy).

 

So instead, I ordered a single note. This is mainly because I don't wear most florals very well, and I haven't yet found a blend made by Beth that combines sweet peas with other notes I can wear. (Titania, for example, is just *lovely* on everyone else, but on me it's pure, overwhelming rose.)

 

Initial Impression

 

I don't think I will ever be disappointed by the quality of oils that Beth uses in her blends. This, for example, is the essence of sweet pea flowers, put into a little glass vial. It's a strong, wafting fragrance (no need to sniff closely to smell it), that has the watery essence of sweet peas combined with their bright strong pollen scent. This scent, for those that haven't smelled it before, has the sweetness of honeysuckle, the wateryness of a lily, the strength of jasmine, and the softness of lotus. It is, in my opinion, the perfect floral. Few others (myrtle and jasmine, perhaps) can compete with the beauty of a fresh sweet pea.

 

Wearing It

 

There's just a touch of powder in this scent, which is barely noticable and mimicks the scent of sweet peas perfectly. On my skin, this smells closest to a sweet pea, although in some ways reminds me of the scent of fresh callalilies... There's not much I can add that I didn't mention in the above description. The scent stays very true on my skin (a surprise!), and has a stroke of greeness in it that just reaffirms my memories of the beginning of spring. Beautiful.

[Ina Garten Davita]

This is the perfect green pink scent. I immediately recognized this note as being in Endymion. Just lovely, fresh and spring like.

[nevermore]

Sweet pea is lovely and floral, slightly aquatic, and fairly light. It's nice enough to wear on it's own, even though I'm not a big fan of florals by themselves usually.

[Gin]

Sweet Pea

This is a sweet floral. I always think of it as a "watery floral" because that's how grrrlennyl described it to me when I couldn't decide if I should order it or not. It is watery, but not in a marine/aquatic way. It's just sort of pale, like a watercolor painting. As it dries, it goes slightly powdery.

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: Very green, very watery floral. I've never smelled a fresh sweet pea blossom but the Bath & Body Works fragrance with this name doesn't much resemble this. This is greener, and lacks the interference of violets.

 

On me: Watery and light. It does go powdery very quickly, which I found disappointing. The scent was quite thin; I expected something much more robust.

[sarada]

Yep, this is the floral in Desdemona alright!

 

I wrote a review of this in the booklet we are sending around with the single note swap but I forgot to transcribe it before I sent it on, so I will go from memory -- this was very sweet and gentle but did not go powdery, which is quite an accomplishment for a floral in my book. It's too sweet for me but it's good to know that I can recognize it now.

 

Hypothermya hit it on the nose in describing it as having kind of a pollen scent as well as being soft, marine and sweet. Those aren't things that work on me in a scent but it's a very refreshing, bright spring scent.

[VelvetSky]

Super-sweet, girly, and feminine....Sweet Pea is one of my favorite soliforal notes. I like mixing a little of this single note oil with some lotion to layer underneath Desdemona.

 

As everyone else has mentioned, this is a slightly green floral fragrance...absolutely gorgeous if you love sweet, clean florals.

[shelldoo]

sweet pea is stronger then i expected, it is sweet and floral very pink to me

[quimerula]

My skin loves florals so much!

Lovely floral note, a bit powdery buy pretty strong.

[scourgeotheseas]

Sweet Pea - from the Single Note swap circle.

 

In the bottle: Light, bright green floral.

 

On me: Ack! Sweet, cloying, almost waxy (I can't describe the way it smells to me ) This is not a winner for me - I smell like toilet bowl deodorizer!

 

Perhaps I shall avoid Sweet Pea in the future!

[quikslvr]

Via the single note swap circle.

 

Sweet, sweet, sweet, and syrupy. Crazy bright, and a relatively loud note by itself. Greeny. Definitely the note from Desdemona--more relevant, it may be the note from Desdemona that went toward latex balloons on me.

 

(later) Yes, yes it is. Notable, though, is that it doesn't do so by itself. That may have been a freak accident or a weirdness of the combination of notes.

 

This is a clean, light, albeit powdery floral.

[hadaverde]

In the vial this scent is a warm, wet, yellow-green floral, with an herbal edge. Wet on the skin, it remains a warm but lightweight herbal sort of floral. It is reminiscent of freshly-cut green foliage and a light spring floral scent fresh from a warm rain. As the oil dries down, the scent also loses its wetness and becomes more of a pale whitish-green. It loses some of its warmth and becomes sweeter and less herbal than it was in the imp. It ends up a lovely light sweet floral.

[Lori]

Well, since I am about to part with all of my much sought after and hard won Single Notes from BPAL, I thought that before they go, I would do some reviews.

 

Imp: Tarted, won in Ebay auction

 

Oh, this is so soft and pretty!! My Mom used to grow sweet peas in our garden, back home. I remember being a child, bare legged and free and kneeling down to smell these and maybe take one to carry with me. I am a real girly girl and florals are my favourite oils to smell and smell like. This oil smells like it should be worn on a summer day, walking barefoot in the grass, with a picnic basket in hand, and flowers entwined in your hair. Did I also say I was a romantic?

[Little Bird]

I am not fond of florals, but I've always liked sweet pea for some reason. Perhaps because it doesn't go perfumey on me or give me a headache; it actually smells sweet, aquatic, and very pink/green. It's gorgeous and fills my mind with lovely images whenever I smell it.

 

Sweet Pea singlenote makes me think of beautiful pink flowers floating around in a glassy green pool of still water. This one has a lot of throw, a tiny dab lasts strongly all day for me. It also stays true to the sweet aquatic impression, but manages to be complex and pretty enough to wear on its own. This is one of my favorite 'girlie perfumes'.

 

I would get many bottles of this one if I could

[UltraViolet]

BPAl blends which use Sweet Pea as one of it's ingredients: Aeval, Annabel Lee, Desdemona, Erato, Juliet, Pink Phoenix, Titania.

 

In the bottle

This is a clear blend. Oh my, it's so lovely and "fresh" is the one word I'd use to describe this. Like flowers and fresh air.

On

It's almost citrussy and fresh. Like Amsterdam meets plumeria or something.

God this is even better than Daffodil.

30 minutes

It gets a bit sweeter as it dries which is okay but I like it best when it's wet because it's less sweet and more fresh air smelling. It really lasts too for such an airy floral.

Throw:

Yes, a bit.

Scent category:

Floral single note

Summary

If you like "fresh florals" this is your blend.

Has a bit of lovely throw.

Has better than average lasting power.

Turns sweeter when dry.

Purchase again?

Yes.

1-5 rating (5 being best)

4 or 4.5

[slave1]

In Bottle: Girly floral

 

On Skin: Sweet Pea… the name fits it perfect. It is such a sweet innocent scent. I think this is the alltime most “girly” flower and embodies the feeling of a child. A very white/light pink scent. Vibrant, fresh and juicy. A little ozoney/watery which adds to the freshness. The throw on this is unlike any scent I’ve reviewed… as is the staying power, everyone will notice it. I love that Beth uses such great quality oils. This smeels perfectly fresh, like it was just cut, nothing artificial about it. I am not the biggest fan of florals so it’s not a scent I’d wear on it’s own, but I’m thinking of layering it with other pink scents like Pink Phoenix or Pink Moon.

[cupide430]

Sweet Pea

 

This is a sort-of airy smelling floral. Very light, quite gentle and very springy. There's a touch of something here that doesn't quite work on me, it almost goes a touch plasticy, but I could see this being lovely if it worked a bit better with my skin chemistry.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Oh yeah. Soapy and hollow. I suspected sweet pea was the culprit that messed up Juliet and Aeval on my skin, and now I’m positive I was right.

 

Wearing: Yech. Just yech. Plain icky soapy soap.

[VenusFlyTrap]

One of my favorite single notes!

 

It's clean, fresh and unassuming. Very innocent and not overbearing at all.

 

Ideal to wear on a temperate spring day.

 

I would love to get a bottle of this.

[dawndie]

This is a strong bright floral, with a tinge of lemon juice -- not fake Lemon Pledge-smelling, but tart juice. Or could it be lime, or grapefruit? Some elusive citrus juice that floats above the skin and makes me a bit sneezy.

 

This SN was a big player in Titania for me, peppy and girly.

[malanna]

This smells just like Desdemona, after the initial strongly bitter stage! Just like it! It's watery, green, and white. It's a clean floral with a bit of bite. It makes me think of that painting with the woman in white, floating in her pyre (or whatnot). I think there's a BPAL scent based on that painting. Well, this smells like the style of painting (plus the water), sort of prettily vague; the figures aren't clearly outlined, yet they are clear (not sure if this is making sense). Sweet Pea is softly determined. Desdemona, I say! I really should try to get a hold of Desdemona so I can see if it's just like Sweet Pea.

[edenssixthday]

Sweet Pea - Sniffed wet in the vial, this is a lovely, sweet, soft floral. The instant it touches my skin it turns to soap -- a strong, acrid, bitter soap. And the longer it's on my skin, the more it seems to amp up on my skin. I've been pretty sure for a while that sweet pea is one of the "soap" culprits in my BPAL experience (e.g., Desdemona), and sure enough, this single note proves that my suspicions were correct. Into the swap pile it goes!

[princessbeena]

I was lucky enough to find a 5ML bottle of this on an ebay auction. I've been desperatly trying to hunt down any single note that I could find! Luckily I was able to snatch a 5ML bottle of this wonderful wonderful oil. I immediatly fell in love with this scent. This is sweet pea in it's purest form! Very green and girly, not fake or artificial like the bath and body works sweet pea scent. I can see how the others thought it smelled like soap in the bottle...but once it hit my skin I felt like a fairy sweet pea princess This one is never leaving my hands! Ok ok MAYBE I would let it go for a bottle of FEE but that's it damnit

[wikkidraven]

oh no...sweet pea!

 

i have to agree with sam on this one...my skin amped this up like WHOA and then the scent went soapy. but before this stage, it's very fresh and green. quite the summer scent, i can see why other people would love it, but it's not for my skin chemistry.