A Lady Tall and White

[Gwydion]

A fur and cap all made of snow: frosted vanilla sandalwood.

 

In bottle: Ozoney snow with a mint edge, sweetened with vanilla, kissed with a hint of sandalwood. This used to be my favorite snow note, but I can’t wear it any more due to skin chemistry changes. No point in skin testing, alas.

[Balame]

Nooo, why is this lemon mint on me? Sandalwood and vanilla are two of my favorite notes, so I thought this would be a nice, frosty take on them...

 

Instead literally all I'm getting is cool mint. I'm familiar with the Lab/Post's snow note and usually the intense minty, ozone-y facet fades away or at least calms down as the blend develops, but it isn't happening here.

I'm in the same boat as VioletChaos and others - just frost, forever. The nice drydown some are getting never makes an appearance on my skin.

 

Bummer!

[Aviatrix]

This starts off very icy and with the typical minty snow note in front. For a long time that is all I get, but after a few hours I get a wonderfully soft vanilla scent with slightly more warmth because of the wood. If you are unsure of this one at first, try giving it some time to settle.

[thekittenkat]

In the decant: It's the ozone snow note, very chilled, permeatting the vanilla sandalwood.

 

Wet: Much as on cold sniff, w/ a little bit more of the vanilla sandalwood coming out.

 

The dry-down: Mostly the frosty icy ozone snow note, with just a hint of the vanilla sandalwood note. A very pale and frosty lady, indeed.

[DevilsCandyCane]

This is one of the most beautiful Christmassy BPALs I've ever encountered I don't get much vanilla *or* sandalwood, but I also wouldn't call it particularly aquatic - I read a few of those reviews before I got mine and thought ARGHHH, I hate aquatics, this is a *disaster!* Happily it's not, for me

 

When freshly applied, it's a little bit Yankee Candle smelling, lots of sparkling snow and what smells a lot like...a piney foresty scent, which I love, but in this it's definitely a snowy forest. It reminds me quite a lot of the Fae Forest linen spray, which I also love. This just smells so calm and magical, it really does remind me of walking completely alone in snowy countryside, the total silence except for snow scrunching under boots, and the sparkling white expanse of the fields and sky, it's such a beautiful scent and I do wish I had more than one decant, though it's so season-specific that I wouldn't want a whole bottle either. This will be a huge Christmassy favourite in years to come though

 

At the very bottom of the drydown, I occasionally catch the strangest hint of almost bonfire smoke - not like the Bonfire SN, I didn't like that, it was acrid and dirty, this is a cleaner, lighter smoke scent, which I guess is finally the slight woodiness of the sandalwood coming out...but then other times at the bottom drydown stage I do get a little bit of the dreaded aquatic thing going on - the final stages seem quite odd and unpredictable, but happily the magical snowy forest stage lasts a pretty long time

[milo]

Hmm, I could have sworn there was a citrus in here, it smells almost lemony at first. Dry, sweet snow, much the same as Wintertime. Not getting the sandalwood. I was expecting more from this one, but alas, it's just another snow blend. Pretty, kind of like Ice Queen without the berries, kind of like Go To Sleep Darlings with more snow. Yeah, not very original.

[Poenari]

At first sniff on my skin, there is the same snow note present that I get from Skadi. I'm not fond of most wintry and snowy notes, but I love Skadi, so this is ok. As it dries down, I can smell the sandalwood, but it is not typical of the other sandalwood scents that I have. There is nothing of pencil shavings like I sometimes pick up in other sandalwood scents. An hour after application, this is very soft and faint, a wintry whisp of woods. I like my decant but don't need a bottle.

[poofie]

I have to struggle through the snow part of the oil to get to the vanilla sandalwood, but it is worth it to me. Snow scents don't really work for me, and it is a definite snow BLAST when first applied. I'm two hours in now, and it is a light, close vanilla wood with a bit of snowy freshness, and it's nice. It is pretty faint and low throw, and I would apply more generously but the SNOW! when fresh is a bit much for me.

[brineydeep]

I'm getting mostly frost and sandalwood from this perfume. The frost note is definitely dominant and more on the citrusy end, slightly high-pitched and fresh. The sandalwood comes in underneath to round out the blend.

 

There is very little morphing from bottle to wet-on-skin to dry-on-skin. On the skin it has pretty good throw and staying power.

 

Overall, I like this one but it's not a I-want-to-reach-for-this-everyday perfume.

[freyasfae]

Received this as a frimp from a forum sale.

 

This is not a foodie vanilla, as the vanilla sneaks in and swirls about. I suspect my skin must amp sandalwood because this was spicy sandalwood on me, laced with vanilla to soften it. I smelled some of the frost in the imp, but on my skin, nope, nada. Like Ina Garten Davita said, I do associate it with Winter, but not in an outside way, but in a curled up my log cabin with my fur (faux) throw, staring out a frosted windowpane, a cup of tea in my hands. If I had to give a color palette, it would be this:

 

(via Design-Seeds.com)

 

On my 1-5 BPAL scale, I am right on the fence with this one at a 3. I think I will store it until next winter and revisit it then.

Edited January 13, 2016 by freyasfae

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: This is all piney frost note on me. No sandalwood, no vanilla. This isn't the frost note that I care for from the Lab, either. Hoping the other notes come out as it dries

 

 

Dry: This remains mostly that frost note for hours and hours. Later the vanilla comes out a bit, but this is still not something that I want to wear. I was hoping for vanilla/sandalwood, which I love, but sadly this is not meant for my skin. Glad to have tried it though!

[Cali]

...I'm not getting a whole lot of vanilla. I mean, it's there, but I expected something more like Edith Cushing. ...Not the case.

That said, it's not a bad mix at all, perhaps just not for me. Slightly citrusy (or is that fir?) with the same mint note as in winter-time.

[celestia]

♔ Lady Tall and White

 

In the Bottle: Sugary Sparkly crystalline, woodsy vanilla

 

Wet: Oh! I bought this scent almost half a year ago! I knew I bought this for the vanilla sandalwood, and I can tell from the bottle, the vanilla will amp up nicely. It’s a delicate, sugary sweet vanilla. The snow note is almost sparkly. I don’t agree that it smells like mint, or ozone.. it’s actually sparkly and crystalline… the same kind of effervescent fairy dust note in Butterflies Flowers and Jewels Attending (BFJA), Ava, Muse of Fire, and Fairy Market. This sparkly, sweet crystalline snow note is much more gentle compared to what I get from Go to Sleep Darlings (GTSD), and while GTSD smells more like minty cotton candy, this smells much more like a crystalline vanilla. And although I would have expected a vanilla sandalwood to smell golden on me, it smells ethereal and ‘white’. Just lovely!

 

Drydown: This dries down to a sparkly, creamy, crystalline vanilla musk. The vanilla smells kind of like a vanilla sugar.. it’s really pretty and quite a lot sweeter than I expected for this blend, actually.

 

TL;DR: crystalline sugared, slightly woodsy vanilla

Edited February 27, 2017 by celestia

[Lucchesa]

Wet, this is a lot of sweet vanilla snow, and I don't get pine or mint at all, fortunately. I think Beth somehow interpreted "frosted" as both snowy and sugary frosting, which is so lovely. The sandalwood starts to emerge on drydown but is never strong on me. Since the frosty vanilla was reminding me of Frostbitten Dorian, I put that on my other wrist. On me A Lady is a little higher and brighter than Frostbitten Dorian. As much as I like A Lady Tall and White, it checks a lot of the same boxes for me as FD (which, unusually, lasts really well on me), so I don't need to go in search of a bottle. But I'm so happy to have had the chance to test it!

[artisjok]

A Lady Tall and White is Snow White’s austere aunt. She is kind, yet believes in leaving the least amount of imprint on the world, so she is distant. First impression is chilly. Resolve to be separate from the world doesn’t give in to the common please-like-me approach. Then, you notice how everyone she daily interacts with gets a smile. How it seems like they are cheered in her wake. She is always alone. No lunch partners, no shopping buddy, yet she draws people in with smooth grace, and leaves them with equal poise. A longing to see an authentic human moment, emotion, anything come from her sparks within. You begin to obsessively seek to encounter her on the street. Her daily morning cafe is now your haunt. The lady never slips. Charmingly objective and always on time. One night you follow her home, totally out of your rational mind. At dark, you slowly climb the house’s lattice work to peer in a lot window. Looking in, your eyes scan the room quickly, then shock sets in. She sits in a chair, looking straight into your eyes. The next moment is a blur as your foot slips and you fall clumsily, hitting head and losing consciousness. Blearily coming back to your body, there are paramedics checking your vitals, asking you questions about your senses. You look up and see the lady stands near you looking down at you angelically. No sign of suspicion or challenge or anything in those passive eyes. No questioning why you are unconscious in her lawn. You quake inside. You go home and hide under a blanket the rest of the night and stay home for the next month. 
 

So, I actually love this scent. A blast of sharp coolness that gradually fades into a warm sweet powdery blanket. It lingers a long time with low throw, though low is my skin’s norm. I’m finding it relaxing as I get prepared for bed.
I’m also now really considering grabbing a bottle of the Mountain Temple, in hopes it’s a similar experience, with a more spiritual aura rather than sweetened. 

[myoubi]

This one, unfortunately for me, smells more like the Lab's description and less like what earlier reviewers described.

 

After the reviews, I was hoping for a chilly winter queen. It starts off promising -- a blast of snowy, piney, slightly minty chill, the Lab's familiar snow note that I love. I took a big sniff and thought aw yeah, that's the stuff! And then it went... sweet. And it got sweeter, and sweeter, until it was this almost icing-sugar-sweet vanilla ringed in snow. I was hoping for Skadi's more feminine cousin and instead got something like a frosty vanilla holiday drink. I don't know why my skin does this 😥I'll let this sit for a few months to see if it changes, but if it's still this sweet-vanilla on me, it may find a new home.

Edited February 2, 2023 by myoubi