Eternal

[moon_lemming]

Stephanotis, cyclamen, heliotrope, white rose and gardenia.

This was a frimp, otherwise I'd never have tried it -- the description alone tells me that it will most likely be nothing but detergent on my skin.

In the imp, Eternal is a gorgeous white floral, very pretty, sweet. One flower sort of leans over the others and pokes me in the shoulder. I think it's the gardenia, although I'm not sure. I'm not great at picking out florals.

On me, it shockingly does not become a floral mish-mash, but instead firms into a sweet floral. It's the noticeable floral from before (gardenia?) and it stays strong as it dries. Not really my style, but pretty nonetheless. Edited April 1, 2007 by karen

[isabella]

white floweres and astringent. like a facial wash i used once.

[Nia]

On the imp this is very fresh, very floral, with a slight sour /acid undertone that must be the rose.

 

On my skin, the floral freshness is still there but a peppery note turns up. It reminds me a little bit of carnations. According to wikipedia, stephanotis is "Madagascar jasmine" but this smells nothing like my pot of Madagascar jasmine, which is a bit like a sweet mix of jasmine and vanilla. There is no sweetness in Eternal.

 

This is a nice, not too gentle, not too intense, floral. It's original but not so much that I'd want more than the trial imp.

[Ajila]

In the bottle – Rose, rose and more rose

 

Wet on me – Rose and gardenia

 

Dry on me – Soft powdery florals

 

Overall – I’m not a floral person, but this was pleasant enough, it’s the sort of perfume my Gran would prefer me to wear

[Gemini noir]

A lovely, sweet, creamy, scent.

 

Picture a tear-stained woman holding the back of her wrist to her forehead melodramatically, and frowning, but beautifully. She slowly lifts her other hand, bringing a bouquet of flowers to her nose. The bouquet is over-stuffed with flowers, which are lush, but you wonder for how much longer? The bouquet is tied too tightly with browning lace.

 

It's difficult to discern most of Eternal's notes at first. It's like the rush of flowers you get when walking into a florist's; it takes a moment for the nose to acclimate so you can try to pick out individual flowers from the bunch. (That is, if you wanted to do that at a florist's without actually going over to flowers to smell them.)

 

During the first stage, (my beloved) heliotrope and jasmine were most noticeable. "Creamy" kept coming to mind to describe the scent. After roughly a half hour, a sort of rose/gardenia blend peeked out. I wish it hadn't because I liked Eternal better before those notes emerged, but it was still pretty.

 

All in all, it's a very well-blended, evocative (clearly), and pretty scent. It's definitely not one I'd wear on a date, though. It's way too in-your-face floral for that.

[JennyGardener]

Eternal is very flowery, indeed. It's like being suffocated with funeral bouquets, if you like that sort of thing. It smells like Hawaiian flowers but without the smell of the sea I associate with Hawaii. It does last a long time, with a lot of "throw". Unfortunately, I'd rather smell like something other than the deafening sweetness of cloying petals. 'Tis a very airy perfume.

[LadyMedb]

This is a beautiful, delicate, soapy kind of rose scent, which is very sheer. The gardenia adds a little bit of body, but the whole heliotrope-stephanotis thing, while pleasant, doesn't help to ground the overall composition. It's a really pretty scent, but it's not the kind of thing I would wear - I like my florals to be a little more va-va-voom. On the right person, however, this would be lovely.

 

Overall, this scent difficult to dislike, in a classic, Crabtree & Evelyn kind of way.

[starwild]

Bottle: Sharp note of something floral over a blanket of floral notes.

 

Wet: Pretty much the same as in the bottle, actually.

 

Drydown: Lovely and full-scented, yet light, floral. This is the smell of a church laden with flowers, but is it for a wedding or a funeral?

 

Later: Now it's mostly soap.

 

This is the kind of scent my mother would pick for me, but I wouldn't choose for myself. Lovely but not for me. Going to swap this one for sure.

Edited July 15, 2007 by starwild

[MissLily]

In the bottle: I smell gardenia, neroli, and sandalwood. However, I see from the description that only one of those three notes should be there. Olfactory hallucinations are symptomatic of a brain tumor. I am concerned.

 

Wet: this is an inoffensive white floral. There isn't much else to say about it.

 

Drydown: Whatever I think is sandalwood, but apparently isn't, is trying very hard to convince me of its existence. At the same time this oil is actually getting sweeter with the drydown which is a rare quality I appreciate very much. I think I'd wear this if I wanted to convince someone of my innocence, good intentions, and complete freedom from any desire to manipulate them. Heh, heh, heh.

[aquazoo]

Gardenia? This is one of those favorite-perfume-as-a-child scents. Ends a little soapy but who cares. A nice keeper.

[filigree_shadow]

This smells pretty much just like gardenia on me. I can tell there are other floral notes in there with it, but I would never have been able to guess what they were. Gardenia is the only one I can identify because it's overwhelming everything else. It usually does that with my skin, though, so this is not a surprise. But I can say this scent is soft. Not bold and eye-watering. Rather delicate and pretty.

 

As it happens, gardenia is one of my least favorite floral notes due to overloading myself on gardenia-scented stuff a few years back. I used to love it. Maybe in the future I'll love it again. But for right now, this isn't what I want to smell.

Edited September 7, 2007 by filigree_shadow

[darkblade]

Bottle: (Imp) Woah, gardenia.

 

Wet: Yep, gardenia, and.. I think the stephanotis? I'm not sure. Part of it smells like my wedding bouquet. Gh, it's starting to go HARSH gardenia though. I'll have to see what it does when it dries.

 

Dry: Overwhelmingly floral.. gh.

 

Verdict: Swap pile. I already have florals I like, and they are far more polite about it. This one seems to be strong enough that the DECEASED would notice.

[daiconharuko]

Smells way too floral.. but on me it turned into a shampoo scent.

[dreadeddragon]

In the bottle: Gardenia, rose & lily? Is there lily in this? I don't have the description in front of me.

 

First on: Very heavy on the gardenia, and from there it's just a big mess of floral. It smells like when you walk in an expensive florist and are just browsing before going up to the counter. It reminds me of a shop like that when I was a kid, they had 2 doves in a cage and it was run by a girl I knew's parents. Ah, memories.

 

Drydown: The gardenia calmed down a lot to where this is such a perfect blend of oils I just smell flowers in general. Not as strong as the initial floral shop, and still a bit heavy on the rose.

 

Overall: This is nice, but not the right floral for me.

[maribouquet]

Wow, I would have sworn there was violet in this - it has that 'bubble bath' smell that I associate with violet. Hmm. I'm not familiar enough with most of these flowers to pick out the notes. The rose is not discernible. This has a sort of pollen-like smell, the way lily sometimes gets on me. Kind of oddly bitter on me in the dry-down.

[YoakeNoKami]

Imp: an interesting conglomeration of faint gardenia and stephanotis.

On: There's that lovely white rose coming to play with the stephanotis! The stephanotis is familiar from my imp of Hades (I believe...), as well, and very welcome… but something in this turns it to floral baby powder during drydown...and then to soap. *unhappy*

[Ravenclaw79]

In the imp: Palmolive -- totally dishsoap.

 

Wet: Still very soapy, with a hint of rose. I'm starting to think that I amp rose; it seems like even in a jumble of stronger stuff, that's what I pick out the most. It's still just the barest hint, though; mostly, it's dishsoap.

 

Drying: Bleargh. If I want to smell like dishsoap, I'll go wash dishes.

[suileach]

Mmmmm...gardenia. One of the few florals I actively like. I was worried the other flowers would drown it out (like the dreaded rose), but instead they ground the gardenia in a really pleasant way. In this blend, the gardenia doesn't have that high-pitched, cat-pee-esque edge that it can sometimes have.

 

There was an odd burst of peppery something when I sniffed the vial at first, and it reminded me strongly of something that I can't put a name to.

 

Drydown is a creamy, light, somewhat cool floral which is predominantly gardenia. I think this will be a good scent to wear during the summer.

[erraticprophet]

Initial Impression: white floral blend

 

On Wet: white floral blend

 

On Dry: light white floral blend

 

Final Impression: It's pretty, but I'm not into flowers.

 

Rating (on a scale from 1-5): 2.5

[dragon_moon]

This was a lab freebie, and a lovely one at that! I'm hesitant to pick up the all-floral scents because they rarely work on me or appeal, but this one was a pleasant surprise.

 

Eternal starts out really strong and heady, but has already mellowed down to a lovely strong yet not overpowering floral scent. Simply beautiful.

[seashell]

Eternal, on me, was anything BUT.

 

Lovely floral that, so sadly, faded to NOTHING- not even a hint, in 2 hours.

 

Ohhhh welllll.

[hkhm]

imp: straight-up gardenia.

 

wet: still gardenia... and rose. urg. gardenia and rose guest soaps.

 

dry: at least the rose fades a bit and leaves me with... gardenia. i suppose if you really like gardenia then this is for you.

[ouch!]

Ok,

 

Me not being a fan of crazy florals, I was worried about wearing this. Also because Gardenia has ruined blends for me in the past. It was a frimp...so...of course I'm always grateful to try anything new!!!

 

This..is a mass of swirling flowers, Gardenia most prominent at first. Thank god though...it doesn't overtake this blend. It's much calmer thatn usual with my chemistry. I cannot detect rose in this.. If it's there it's being beaten down by the other flowers.

 

Once the Gardenia calms down even more, this does go extremely soapy and floral on me..I think it might be the first soapy incident I've had. I cannot pick out things individually but...yup...a whole mass of flowers. (Maybe I have an untrained nose)

It's still really nice, but...it's not something I would have bought before.

 

Thanks labbies for enabling me to try this blend!!!

[taramarie]

On me, Eternal is light, white flowers. No individual note really stands out, but that's not a bad thing. It's very pretty and a good way to introduce someone to BPAL.

[aleciarivas]

Oooooo too floral for me!! I kept sneezing once this dried down, and it took me quite awhile to realize what I was sneezing over!