A Nocturnal Reverie

[sarandipitee]

Violet musk and oudh with black amber, ambergris, agarwood, black currant, dark musk, fig, and lavender incense.

 

Sigh. This had so much potential. Dark musk, black current, fig and lavender incense? This should be epic. Instead, I suspect the violet musk turns this into a soapy mess on my skin. I'll give it a week or two and retest but I have a feeling Reverie is off to the swaps pile.

[crebbsgirl]

This went a little non-descript on my skin before vanishing completely within an hour. Before it disappeared, it was mainly black currant and lavender.

[evekrieg]

In the bottle is a shock of lavender. Wet on the skin it's lavender as well, but as soon as it starts to dry, the sharpness fades away and something soft, floral and sweet comes out from underneath. It's absolutely lovely, but seems to stay close to the skin. A little too close, unfortunately. I wish this one had more throw, because I adore it!

 

[Will probably need more, if it comes back next year!]

[PurringPulsar]

In the imp: herbal lavender and a hint of something soapy.
Wet on skin: not soapy and more, it’s actually a purple musk with lavender.
Dry on skin: ooh, this is pretty. This reminds me of a lighter, less sweet version of the Emathides. It’s very much about lavender and violet with a hint of dark amber incense and musk, a dry blackcurrant note and some woods. I can’t smell fig here yet but the combination of all those deep hypnotic purple notes is quite something. The scent has a surprisingly clean feel to it, but not soapy. If the amber and musk get a little stronger this could be a winner.
After a while: SOAP. Powdery dusty soap. I am very disappointed. The amber and incense notes are nowhere to be found, all I can smell is a violet musk that has lost it’s character and has turned to a grey, powdery and slightly old fashioned smell with a hint of hotel soap to it. No fig or currant at all.
Verdict: this one really, really let me down. I was hoping for something reminiscent of Odd Portents, and I usually love those lavender-blackcurrant-amber-incense blends, and I can’t work out which note what malfunctioned on me because the note list suggested this would be amazing. It started out nice with its lavender-violet-fruit-incense scent, but then it turned to an awful dusty soap scent, like washing powder and cheap violet-scented soap blended together. All those lovely notes from before were gone. What a shame…
Is it a keeper? no.
If you like this, try: On Darkness, The Emathides, Ninon, Odd Portents, Penumbra

[Helas]

A Nocturnal Reverie was the major disappointment of the Halloween update for me. The notes make it sound like a smoky, mysterious, dark purple scent, in the vein of Morgause and Medea from the General Collection. When I apply it, the lavender takes over and smells thin, sharp, and metallic. The smoky oudh and incense, and the musk and ambergris, should have been able to ground the sharper top notes, but they never show up. Fortunately, Muse of the Night from the same update gave me the dark, musky, purple scent I was looking for.

[milo]

This is really pretty on me. I'm getting lavender and another soft floral. Kind of wishing for the dark musk to show up, but maybe it will later.

[The Planet Queen]

I bought this on a whim to try. I love the artwork on the bottle!In the bottle: strong lavender without much elseWet: again strong lavender which I like but it was almost too much. I was getting ready for bed so I decided to continue on seeing it is a soothing, relaxing, sleep inducing scent. I grow lavender in my front yard and dry it out. I put it in a little pouch in my pillow normally.Dry down: the lavender starts to calm and the other notes start to come forth and mingle. Violet, a bit of musk, sweet smelling.Dry: it smells quite nice. I kept smelling my wrists. It has a bit of throw and wear length. I could still smell it 6+ hours later.It's a keeper!

[impolight]

The notes listed in A Nocturnal Reverie mark it for potential greatness; this is a blend that has all the trappings of purple poltergeists in a dimly lit fugue. Somehow, though, this one escaped notice for an inexplicably long time. That this was ordered from London on a foreign exchange program and sent Stateside probably had something to do with it. Anywho, the excitement is palpable! Time to twist the top, nuzzle the neck, and breathe the beauty...
From the Bottle: The Lavender is luscious. This purpled perfume is the most magnificently frocked of the Lavenders encountered thus far. Ordinarily Lavender is a blessing although it can have, however, a tendency to behave as a medicinal element and lend an unnecessary edginess to other notes. This time the Lavender is posh, purple, princely, and phantasmagorical. The Violet element makes this formula all the more luminous, and there is something else... Though it hasn't been included in the notes, there seems to be a very faint element of something Ozonic here too, but only just. These would be vestigial at best; the very last of the tendrils of a morning mist snagged in tree tops as they flee the breezes blowing off the bay. This formulas has a very lush and ddistinctly European feel at this phase.
On the Skin: This is Lavender at its most succulent. Not only are the flowering tops here in their actinic splendor, but a fistfull of dew-dropped, crushed green stems fills the senses.
As it wears for some moments, the Violet Musk develops a nice, powdery plushness that softens the Lavender enough to let some of the subtler elements borrow some of the glory... The Amber's presence is sweet and revered; jewel-toned and opulent. The Oudh is dark, rich, and has an almost perverse edge to it... Sex magic performed at the base of a glittering waterfall in the middle of some sylvan sea during a full moon.
A Nocturnal Reverie is brilliant and massive. Anybody who is a fan of GC's Libertine will find this an exquisite counterpart.
On Her A Nocturnal Reverie is a sable-haired vision wearing garnets and a plunging neckline that makes you wonder how she can be so comfortable when it's so cold.
On Him A Nocturnal Reverie is bemusement that verges on cruelty and looks dashing no matter hoe effeminate the hue of his raiment... if necessary, this poi t can be driven home with a silver-topped cane.
Exquisite genius.
A Nocturnal Reverie gets a 54 out of 5.

[WidgetAlley]

I was sad that I missed this one, and so happy when a swapper frimped me a sniffie!

 

Imp: A deep, purple scent: the first identifiable thing I can smell is the woody fig, but it's cut with an icy blast of violet and a swell of deep, resinous lavender. There's a lovely musk underneath it all as well-- white or skin, most likely. Gorgeous.

 

Wet: Perfumed violets, cold fresh figs, and an almost gritty lavender accompanied by dry blackcurrant wine. The ambergris, which is a WIN! note on me, provides that smooth golden base that I simply adore. In this stage it smells a lot like the Pickman Gallery Nightmare.

 

Dry: This dries down into a gorgeous purple incense dupe of Nightmare with a bit of added violet. Since I like the linen and vanilla in Nightmare more than I like violet, I don't feel the need to keep this, but I'm so glad I got to try it. It's gorgeous, rich, non-fruity, non-floral and generally awesome.

[JazzieCazzie]

Received an imp from a lovely person who knew it was on my wishlist.

 

IN THE IMP: Woodsy violets.

 

Dabbed on wrist and in crook of arm.

 

WET: I am getting dark fruit sweet cologne like my dad used to wear ... though he didn't wear it so much as he had it in something he put in his hair and in his suitcase so it smelled more like the air around him than him per se. Does that even make sense? Anyway, daddy smell. I would not outright call this "masculine." I think it's definitely got gender bender potential.

 

DRYDOWN: Sweet violets and wood. A dark green forest. Clean. Very very clean. It's not what I was looking for with smoke and lavender incense but it WOULD make a great bath oil.

 

OVERALL: It's a pleasant keeper. I think I would use this imp in my steam shower to try to get the feel of bath oil.

 

On a scale of 1-5, a 3 but a keeper three for other purposes.

[Missy_killer]

In the bottle: This smells like purple. A dark, almost black, blue-based purple. There's a strong smell of lavender and some fruity black currants.

 

On: Hmmm... I don't smell anything at first. Then the strong lavender comes out again. It's not a sweet one either, this is a herbal and "leafy" lavender. A couple of minutes later the fruitiness emerges. Is it fig? I honestly have no idea what fig smells like. But it doesn't smell like currants, so I'm just gonna go ahead and say it's fig.

 

The staying power isn't the best on me. After an hour I smell the currants, but by then it's already very faded.

[tealeaves]

I don't get any of the lavender that everyone else is talking about, in the bottle or on the skin, which is a bummer because I really love lavender. In the bottle the scent is robustly purple, like a sort of musky, dark grape, only it's the artificial grape flavor of candy instead of real, fresh grapes. On my skin it's much the same, a dark purple muddle that I have a hard time picking notes out of. I'm guessing some lavender underneath oudh, currant and fig - I'm getting a heavy, heady sweetness. The best way I can describe it is incense-y, sweet, musky dark muddled grapes. It has absolutely no throw on me and fades extremely fast - looks like this one's up for the swaps.

[DiZZysTARdust]

In the imp this smells very powdery and floral and clean. Going on fresh it still smells a little soapy and i swear i smell roses. On my skin the rosiness mostly disappears but i feel like it's still present in the sillage and i am wondering if it may be one of the unlisted ingredients. I mean how can you have a victorian nocturnal reverie without roses? This is a very lovely scent on the skin, with the violet musk and amber giving it a powderiness while the fig and blackcurrant lend some sweetness without making it fruity. Actually, i just tested emathides and i feel like these two scents have much in common. This is also a dark, smooth, well blended scent. If i had to call a difference, it would be that while emathides was pretty unisex to my nose, nocturnal reverie is definitely tipping the scales into the more feminine, perfumey category. 

 

As it's drying i can detect more lavender in the throw, which is really not that strong. The lavender is pretty muted tho, definitely not screaming at me, and closer to the skin it's def a more musky, powdery scent without lavender coming out individually.