Séance

[copyshopclerk]

A mysterious, enigmatic blend of dry, mellow rosewood, crushed rose leaf and the slightest touch of warm hazel.

In the imp: Dusty dried roses

Wet: Dusty roses, something sweet but unpleasantly so underneath

Dry: Silly putty?

I don't usually have luck with anything rosy, so I passed this along. Edited September 30, 2007 by Shollin

[Meg]

In the bottle: Rose, rosewood and hazelnuts.

 

Wet: Same as in the bottle, starting out with a strong burst of rose before all the woods stifle it. It's nearly a green scent from the wood and hazelnut.

 

Drydown: Delicious rose starts coming back out, along the spicy woodsy rosewood. The hazelnut is fresh and crunchy, it reminds me of eating unripe hazelnuts picked off a tree when I was a kid. The rose mixes wonderfully with the woods, softening them and giving them a fresh greenness.

 

Overall: This has a very special atmosphere... dark, mysterious, the smell of abandoned dusty houses with antique furniture and just a bouquet of roses there. Another of these blends that smell like England to me - and an immediate love. A perfect balance between floral, woodsy and green.

[wanderlustlover]

Oh, soft, soothing love. It smelled too nuetral in the imp. On my skin I was pleasnantly surprised with refreshing scents crowding upward for freedom. The rose smell, not dominant or overpowering, but faint and light. The hazel, warming the foundation. This reminds me of a walk through the forest at dusk in late spring. The trees are swining in the wind and the musk of bloosmed flowers lingers. This matches my having dressed up today completely. Another keeper.

[Phaedra]

Wet this is pure roses. When first on it's mainly roses like the ones in Rose Red- crisp, clean red roses with a hint of warmth far in the background. After a few minutes the warmth develops adding depth to the rose notes. This is a lovely warm rose blend. It's not very long lasting on me but it's still lovely.

[brownbear]

Mmm this is very fresh roses. There is something almost fruity underneath. Crispy fruity, like maybe apple. As it dries it gets more woody. Not too heavy though, it's cut branches. I like it, but it isn't something I'll likely get much wear out of.

[melrose]

I know it's supposed to be roses, but I get a breeze blowing through a room filled with old books and maraschino cherries - and I love it! Too bad it doesn't last because it's wonderful.

[mmmitchell]

Wow. This one sure is a changling.

 

Initially: I get the "rose" smell, but it's not fresh big rose petals....it's the smell you get at the florists, when you open the door to the refrigerated area where they keep their roses. This is the smell of the stems, and leaves, not just the petals.

 

Wearing: This dries down, for me, to mostly rosewood. Something, I guess the hazel, is spicing it up a bit, but it's a subdued and quietly classy scent. I like this very much, and I guess it'll have to go on the "yes, must have more" list.

 

This surprises me, a bit, to like this so much.....it's not the sort of thing I usually wear. But that's half the fun of BPAL for me, sort of stretching myself, scentwise. I agree with some of the other reviewers who imagine this as a room scent. I'll have to try that, too.

[supremegoddessofall]

Ooh! The pretty rose! Gotta be the rose leaf. A GC version of Rose Red, only not as wet. Yummy and I want more!

[theseagrows]

this is a very strange scent but i really like it. it instantly reminded me of an old house or hotel with dusty red carpets and velvet walls. i love finding wood scents that work on me, since it's a rare occurence! this smells like a woody-rose (the rose is very slight) and dust. very evocative.

[for_the_nonce]

Wet: Vibrant, dewy, red roses. Lovely.

Dry: The roses fade more and more as this dries, and the hazelnut takes center stage. I can still smell the rose in the background, though.

 

On me, there wasn't anything 'mysterious' about this blend. It was a beautiful, clean rose scent with a side of hazelnut; very unique. However, I must say that this is the first rose blend that has actually worked on my skin (I've tried ten or so), and I am in love with it.

[Miss Lynx]

Interesting... at first sniff, this is very, very green. I can definitely pick up rose leaf, even without having a clear sense of what that would smell like beforehand. It's very pungent at this stage, and not entirely pleasant. Somewhere between perfumey and medicinal.

 

Once it settles in a bit, there's a definite woodiness coming out from underneath, which smells cedar-ish -- I suppose the rosewood, but it's smelling more like cedar to me right at the moment. And there's a sweetness overlaying it that's almost like rose (as in the actual flower rather than the leaf), but not quite -- I've noticed rosewood having a slightly "rosy" scent before, so I suppose that's where it comes from (and I suppose would account for rosewood having that name).

 

At this stage, it's reminding me a bit of Pulcinella and Teresina from Carnival Diabolique, though there's still a little more greenness in it than that one has. It smells a bit like some kind of Victorian perfumed sachet, a sort of floral/woody/herbal blend. Or maybe a wooden box full of potpourri -- real, traditional, potpourri, not the perfume-doused wood shavings that pass for it these days. Not getting any discernable hazel, though.

 

The longer it stays on my skin, the more the woody notes come out. It still has a gentle floral-herbal sweetness overlaying it, but it's now more of a wood scent than anything. It's quite subtle at this stage, nothing like the sharpness it has when it's fresh. And there's something very old smelling about it -- I don't mean in any sort of bad way, but more like the scent equivalent of some treasure you'd find in a vintage store. Very much a Victorian sort of feel to it.

 

It lasts quite a long time, but seems to swing back and forth between likable and not so likable, with the end result that I really don't know what I think of it. It's very unique, though, that I can say. Maybe I'll try it at other times of the month and see if it settles down to a case of like or don't like.

 

Grade: B, B+ or B-, from one moment to the next

[urbanruralferal]

well, I don't know. I sniffed this in the imp and oh it smelled aquatic. huge deal breaker.

I wasn't going to try it, but I couldn't resist, and it was light, and had that "fresh" swiffer pad smell, aquatic on me and no doubt.

washed it off.

[Rouge]

I don't usually have visual interpretations of BPAL perfumes, but Seance is so unique that it demands one. This perfume is a Victorian parlour, long locked up and abandoned, with dust lying thick on the rich rose-velvet covered furniture, cobwebs covering the heavy drapes. There are whispers in the air that sound like the rustling of black silk dresses and chiffon mourning veils.

 

Although the room has been shut up for decades, on the table in the middle of the room is a pearlescent vase in the centre of the table stands a large bouquet of dark pink roses, which eerily seem as fresh as the day they were picked.

 

In the bottle - A dry, ticklish and dusty scent, but with a green prescence, like a vase of freshly cut roses with sap still seeping from the stems.

 

Wet on the skin - The thick, velvety dust-like note is a little alarming at first but it soon settles into a quiet pall of scent to mix with the rose leaf and wood notes.

 

Dry down - The roses have finally crumbled, leaving only the mellow, warm rosewood and the ever-present dust. Seance fades a little more quickly on me than I'd like, but it's neverthless a fascinating blend.

[The_Merf]

I had hoped that Seance would be a really deep rosey scent, as I often find I love the red roses blended with lots of other notes and generallly "____" leaf is a real ticket for good times. However, this is all sharp rose. There's no depth from the rosewood (which has worked well with me in other blends), and the smoky quality I get from raspberry leaf or tomato leaf notes (in Alecto and The Jersey Devil) is absent.

[porcelina]

Bottle: OOOH. Seance is amazing! I guess what I smell is just the rosewood.

 

Wet: All I smell is the rosewood and I really intensely love it.

 

Dry: It just keeps getting better. Mmmm.

 

Overall: I'm in love with this. *I* don't want to smell like it, but I want my room to!

[LadyCrow]

In imp: Green, fresh-cut rose.

 

Wet: Fresh rose, and -- Lwas be praised -- NOT the rose note in Rose Cross that goes bug-repellent on me.

 

Drying down: The hazel note actually comes out a bit before the rosewood; they combine nicely to give that sense of mystery along with age -- what is that hazel presence in this attic? The rosewood almost has a cedar edge to it as a result of the fresh rose, so again, there's that sense of age and storage -- which is its own mystery. A light scent -- appropriate to the scent concept.

[simplethings]

Séance in the bottle: Really interesting. Familiar, yet I'm not sure how to describe it.

 

Wet: I definitely get a sense of the warm hazel. I think the scent could do without it though. I really like the crushed rose leaf and rosewood. Very clean, earthy, and soothing.

 

Dry: As it dries it's becoming a bit floral, powdery, and feminine. Definitely better in the bottle, but, still quite nice and pleasant.

 

After a few hours: Green comes through every so often. I think the warmth of the hazel is gone. I get a bit of cedar as well, like, hampster cage lining cedar. Later I started getting hints of crayon.

 

Overall: certain aspects of the scent were wonderful, at my last sniff séance become powder, but, there were definitely great things about it. 3.5 out of 5

[funkmoppet]

Oh lordy, wet from the imp and onto the skin, this is spectacular!

 

Sensational rosewood and hazelnut. It's a small, darkened room full of old wooden furniture, books and assorted curiosities. At this point I'm in love.

 

Drying down, it all seems to fade as a breath of faded rose takes over. Very whispery, very dusty. It lingers like this when dry, with the occasional whiff of faint wood, but unfortunately it's lost that crazy old room smell that had me so completely at the start.

 

I have a feeling my skin is misbehaving today, so I will definitely test this one again. I'll also give it a whirl in a burner, because this definitely would make a fabulous room scent for when I'm writing.

 

Keeping the imp. I'm not done with this blend yet.

[LadyCrow]

In the imp: Fresh rose. Will this be the kind of rose that works on me?

 

Wet: Hmm, it just might. Big, soft, wet tea roses, a bit sour... and then a rush of rosewood.

 

Drydown: Sneaky and close to the skin. A quick vanisher, as ephemeral as its name would imply... but I'm fully willing to use up the imp for special occasions, because not only do I get the hazel on drydown, but this is more or less the result I was expecting of Rose Cross! Only that has The Wrong Rose , where the tea rose in this is ever so much friendlier to my peculiar chemistry.

[hushmesilent]

I love the idea of Seance and was so looking forward to trying it. However, this scent is the kind that is much too prone to give me headaches - I have a lot of trouble with 'sharper' scents, if that makes sense.

When I pictured Seance, I was thinking of a much.. powderier, creamier version of what this is! However, it is absolutely evocative and I wouldn't so much as wear it as smell it to bring back a memory or envision a place. It also reminds me of something that should be used as a room freshener, or in a reed diffuser. I would absolutely use this as a room scent, but it's not for me.

Imp: Sharp.. Yowch! Bright, thorny, green roses with their heads chopped off. There's the sharpness of the wood in there too.
Wet: The sharpness gets really intense and then starts to die down.
Dry: The rose petals come out, and something like cream begins to emerge. The sharpness has turned into an oaky, earthy sort of scent that reminds me of the satchets people sometimes store in their closets. It does smell like a very old Victorian home, and it's much smoother now that it's dry!

Again, I love this scent and although it did wear well on me and definitely calmed down a lot that initial bite when I first apply it is too 'roomy' for me. I'm going to save this one, but it probably won't be on my list of big bottles.

UPDATED 9/5/08:

This scent is straight up the dry, dusty (but somehow and oddly immaculate) Ouija board as it's pulled from the box. Candles burn and suddenly blow out and there's a wisp of smoke left hanging in the air- the roses surrounding the table are dried. The windows are shut, keeping the myraid of scents encased in the room - if the windows were to open, the scent would blow away and down the hills, into the streets. However, here they are. And here they'll stay.

Lovely. I doubt I could wear it, but this is still an amazing and true to life 'scent memory' kind of thing, so good that I wonder if I remember all this from one of my own past lives.

UPDATED 3/21/2015:

 

Soft, woodsy bliss. Warm, dusty, dry. Absolutely perfect and absolutely evocative. This tiny imp that I had misplaced for so long has just melllllllllowed. So lovely and perfect!

Edited March 21, 2015 by hushmesilent

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Light, sweet, and floral with a sharp note to it.

 

Immediately on skin: This smells like roses and sweet wood. It’s a very pleasant, warm scent, but still floral enough to be pretty.

 

After a few minutes: This is really gorgeous. It’s light and woody with a lovely soft rose note.

 

Later on: This has really mellowed and become a glorious, light scent. The rose is there, but it is soft, and the wood adds a dry and almost dusty note to it. I love this!

 

Overall, I like this... it's a light dusty rose, and is a very pretty and muted scent. The wood adds depth and interest to it.

[somnambular]

This scent is so beautiful I can hardly stand it. Wet, it smells almost like the smoke from a woodfire. As it dries, the wood is still there but faint touches of rose and hazel push their way to the surface and it becomes perfectly balanced. Normally I'm not one for warm scents but this is just gorgeous.

[filigree_shadow]

This smells quite woody and dry on me, with just a touch of a sweet rose scent. It manages to be deep but delicate all at once, which is very pleasant. I usually like rosewood scents, and I definitely like this one. I'm not sure how often I'm in the mood to wear something like this as perfume, but I do know that if I came across a bottle in a swap I wouldn't turn it down. This is just too pretty to pass up, even if I wouldn't wear it that often.

[daiconharuko]

This scent reminds me of the Haunted Mansion at disneyland. It reminds me of an old musty house that has a rose garden in front, the smell of the roses wafting in through a drafty window.

 

This is soooooo lovely. Remind me to pick up a bottle for my wedding, eh?

[greencat03]

Got this as a frimp with my weenies order. Rose and I tend to not get along, but let's give it a try:

 

in imp: rose plants with a sharpness that I'm guessing is the hazel. I'm liking that this is a rose that's more of a plant and less of a flower.

 

on me: Hmmm this is a kind of schizo scent. on one hand there's a nostril-grabbng sharpness, on the other it's also started to take on a candied sweetness. I wish I was getting the wood others are describing, it would help the two halves play nicely.

 

after a few mins: Hmm the sharpness has dulled a bit, and the candy sweetness has ramped up even more.

 

Overall: it's not bad, but it has a bad psychosomatic effect on me. I'm feeling very jittery and anxious. I think I'm gonna go wash this off. To ye swaps!