Night Snow at Kambara

[rainbow]

Utagawa Hiroshige

Cascading frozen cherry blossoms, iced lily, and wisteria.

This is lovely. It's a bit understated, but it has lasting power. To me, this smells mostly like woods in the winter- a slightly damp deciduous forest (no pine), with maybe some moss and lichens growing on the trees. It's complemented by the cherry blossom, which sweetens up the wood, and works beautifully with it. I wasn't so sure about this one when I opened the bottle, but on me it is lovely. This is a classy scent. I could wear it pretty much anywhere.

[pinkstardust420]

It so hard to explain this one, but Rainbow definitely explained it well. It's absolutely gorgeous; like a sweet frosted fragrant winter forest!

[puck_nc]

Origin: decant from Trailer Trash Princess' circle

 

Initial Thoughts: This has wisteria and does not have any instant deal-breaker notes. This was always going to be tried.

 

In the Vial: Icy, airy, sweet floral. I'm not sure which of the floral notes is strongest at the moment.

 

Wet: Not as icy to start and a bit soapy. Sometimes lily does that on my skin. Sometimes it works out. *crosses fingers*

 

Drydown: Uh-oh. While my beloved wisteria is making its presence known, there's still a strong soap element to the scent.

 

Verdict: I am going to try my decant again before I give up. There's not enough wisteria blends in the BPAL arsenal to give up so easily.

[NoNoNo]

I'm not really a big floral fan, but I love this one. A clean, white floral with the sweetness of cherry blossom underneath. It has fantastic staying power and the day after I catch hints of it on my clothes and I can't resist reaching for it again.

[Jenjin]

This is pretty, but something goes sour and bitter on me, almost soapy. I like the fresh, clean quality of it, but i'm not loving the floral notes. It has an asian undertone to it, but there's just not enough creaminess to make it wearable for me. Sad Panda~

[Little Bird]

I love the lab's cherry blossom and wisteria notes, but the iced lily turns very soapy on my skin. It's still a lovely, sweet, breezy, creamy cherry blossom and pale, blue, lilac-ish wisteria, all gentle and delicately sweet florals, but with an undercurrent of generic white bar soap.

I prefer the cherry blossom and wisteria to be paired with more of a honeyed note that plays up their sweetness. This amps up the clean aspects of those notes, and I'm not huge into soapy fragrances.

Edited January 4, 2017 by Little Bird

[crimescenecleanup]

This reminds me a lot of BPTP's Sakura atmosphere spray.

 

It also has a cold, clean note similar to that in BPAL's Snow-Flakes.

 

On drydown it is very heavy on the cherry blossom, which is nice because I love that subtle note and find that it often gets hidden in complex blends. Here it is a star player.

 

The lily is very faint, but helps to round out the other notes.

[sailthetethys]

"Oof, I wasn't expecting it to be this floral," said the jackass who once again ignored the fact that LITERALLY EVERY NOTE is a flower of some kind.

 

The jackass is me, by the way. I am the jackass who now smells like flowers. Again.

 

That said, this is very pretty if you're a flower person and not a jackass.

[izile]

Hand soap.

 

Floral, slightly cool-smelling, hand soap.

 

I've had good success with the lab's cherry blossom and wisteria notes, so I don't know if it's the "frozen" component or the lily part, but 100% hand soap.

[freyasfae]

This is just pretty, whites, pinks, and purples, but sophisticated, not girly, feminine. This was actually what I thought of when I tried this: It's like wearing a pretty soft pink coat in winter - like the one Lorelei wears in Gilmore Girls, and I covet so hard.

[joopjoop]

Sadly, my experience is similar to a few of the other reviewers: this turns immediately to soap on me. I can smell the wisteria and a little cherry blossom and then soap soap soap and more soap. I waited a while to see if the soapy stage would pass but if anything it got stronger.

 

I think it must be the lilies. They just don't agree with my skin.

[sunlitgarden]

In the decant: Along with the florals, I smell a "cool air" note that's not ozoney. I have trouble picking out the individual flowers but this smells a little sweet. Color associations: white to light purple (that might just be me thinking of the color of wisteria though).

 

On my skin: it's sweeter and a little powdery. Violet doesn't work well on me at all, but wisteria works better in the same sort of category. Unfortunately, I'm having the same soap experience as others. As it dries, it's turning soapy on me; it's a nice, high-quality soap, but still... bar soap. Some scents remind me of how a nice soap would smell but don't smell like the soap itself, but some blends (and this is turning out to be one of them) DO smell like the soap itself. And this would be really nice IN soap, but I don't really want my perfume to smell like the actual bar of soap. I start almost tasting the soap in my mouth when I get whiffs of it that close.

A little while later, the "bar of soap" actually fades and now I like it better again. It still smells like a nice soap, but the actual bar part is gone, which is mainly the part that bothered me.

I tried both this and Drum Bridge for wintery cherry blossom scents and I like Drum Bridge better on me, overall. But this is nice too except for the "bar of soap" stage. Soap always seems to be a risk for my skin with white florals, unfortunately. (Later Edit): After skin testing last year's Luper scent First Cry of the Warbler on the Plum, which also contains wisteria and cherry blossom, I think I can narrow it down to the lily causing the soapy effect here. I don't have that issue with First Cry.

Edited January 16, 2017 by sunlitgarden

[VetchVesper]

Floral and perfumey rather than soapy on me. This reminds me a little of Witch Bride, but WB was harsh on me where as this smooths out pretty quickly. This is a "fancy" floral. Very ladylike and classic, like a pencil skirt and a silky blouse. I don't get any snow note in this. It's pretty, but I'm not sure it's me.

[zankoku_zen]

Cherry blossoms and lilies in the snow. This one is light, fresh, and floral. Very Asian to my nose and would have been perfectly at home with the Shungas as well. Good throw and wear length.

 

I would see this being very appropriate for a young girl.

[Aviatrix]

This is sadly soap terriroty for me as well!

I was hoping for a cherry blossom dominant scent, but it seems to be mostly the soapy lily and some wisteria, with very little cherry blossom to speak of.

What a shame; I love the concept!

[Pyretta]

Bottle: A very sweet floral - mostly cherry blossom, with a bouquet of white florals underneath. Not as fresh as I'd hoped, and I'm also getting no snow here, sadly.

 

Wet: Yikes. The cherry blossom is drowned out by loud, perfumey white florals. I think the lily's the culprit here - I have a feeling that it's one of those notes that just always turns soapy and overpowering. I hate using the term, but it has that cheap, old-lady vibe on my skin

 

Dry: I'll admit that I washed it off after 10 minutes. It hadn't changed from that overpowering lily scent, and I think that any hope of getting Shunga-like wintry cherry blossom is shot.

 

Verdict: I blind-bottled this one, hoping to get something sweet, fresh, and wintry, but I got old-lady cheap lilies instead. It seems as if a lot of other people got the intended effect, though, so probably just my skin chemistry going crazy with the lilies. Too bad - off to a better home for this one