Aeval - Resurrected

[donkehpoo]

These long-dead scents are back for a limited time in a slightly tweaked form!

A raven-haired Fairy Queen of Ireland.

One of her eternal duties dictates that she must hold a midnight court every season and hear the pleas of married Irishwomen. The court serves only to determine whether or not husbands are adequately serving their wife's sexual needs. A judicious yet powerfully sensual blend, a mingling of justice and sexuality: sage, sweet pea, bold pale musk and warm tonka.

(Side note: I haven't tried the original, so I can't really do a comparison.)

Wet: Sweet, warm musk, and hint of sage. This is very light on the skin; I had to do multiple swipes with the imp wand to get a good sniff.

Dry: I don't think I would describe this as a "warm" musk anymore; it's very clean smelling. It's mostly musk, and sage on me. Sweet pea is a note I really enjoy, but I'm not getting any from this. I'm not sure where the tonka is hiding, either. (This is still incredibly light on the skin, btw.)

I'll set this aside to re-test in a few weeks, but it's not really working for me right now.

[thebarricadebabe]

Never tried the original.

This reminds me a lot of the Sweet Pea lotion my mom used to wear from Bath and Body Works. It's also a very shy scent on me, it really takes a lot to get any throw from it. It is a beautiful feminine scent, just weak on me.

[Lady_Fire]

I have a very aged decant of the original and the new version. The new version is much softer with less throw. It's lovely, but I won't be buying a bottle because it really has no projection and stays so close to the skin you have to huff your wrists to smell it. It's a light, sweet pea scent. I don't get the sage but I get some vanillic sweetness that must be the tonka. I wish it was as strong as the original because I would snap up a couple bottles.

[roseus]

Never tried the original but always wanted to! Hoping for a nice gently warm sweet pea scent, a softer less sweet counterpart to Mouse's Long Sad Tale. In the bottle I get light, clean sweet pea. Almost soapy. Wet I get very light, natural smelling sweet pea and what smells to me like skin musk. Warm, but clean. Also getting the nutty, vanillic scent of tonka grounding the scent. Dry it stays relatively the same but with warm sage mingling. The sweet pea is fainter at this stage as well. Overall very soft and close to the skin, a very your-skin-but-better scent. Would be great for an office with a no-scent policy.

[LizziesLuck]

I have never tried the original, but I always wanted to!

 

Wet: Very sweet. Much sweeter than anticipated, but I do love sweet scents. This is like a candied, sugared floral. I don't get sage. but there are hints of green. I can't pick out the Tonka either. The musk is really sugary. The whole scent is very "pink" smelling. I don't usually describe scents in colour, but this one is so very pink. It would be a little too "girlie" (meaning suited to a little girl) on me if it weren't for that hint of sage greenness. Hoping the musk comes out more on dry down.

 

Dry: This calms down a lot, and the musk does come out a bit to round it out. A lovely sweet musky floral scent that will be perfect for spring. Not too much throw, it's very soft and feminine.

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: A light, clean scent, but not soapy; more like clean air and running water. Right now I think I'm getting mainly the pale musk and sweet pea, although the sage is also evident, transforming the sweet pea from something unabashedly sweet and cotton-candy pink (as in Mouse's Long and Sad Tale) into something a little wilder, a little more complex.

 

Wet: ...And there's that soap I was worried about. The sweet pea is more definitively itself, but the white musk is developing soapy overtones, as it sometimes does on my skin. It's nice soap, but still soap.

 

Dry: I agree with roseus - this would make a great office/enclosed space scent. It gets very soft, very quickly, and the soap fades, albeit slowly. What's left is an herbal-floral take on "your skin but better" - like you've been gardening, or washed your hair with really really nice shampoo that morning, or just naturally smell amazing.

[Elspethdixon]

In the imp - soft, sweet/light, sweet pea with a hint of sage giving it a slight green/vegetal quality. Very girly and fresh/innocent.. This isn't a fairy queen; it's one of Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies.

Pictured: Aeval in the bottle.

Wet/freshly applied - sweet pea dominant, like Mouse's Long & sad Tale without the vanilla & sandalwood. After a moment or so it starts to go soapy. Nooo, you were so good on the little imp wand. On my hair, it basically disappears.

Five-ten minutes in - Freshly scrubbed skin musk/hint of soap. We started out flower fairies. We are now a vintage soap ad. This is an extremely light scent, with very little throw. The drydown has only just started and it's already in nose-to-wrist territory.

Pictured: Aeval on my skin.

Half hour in - Soap, maybe nice sunblock, clean skin musk. Freshly-scrubbed skin if you were naturally sweet-smelling. Totally gone from my hair.

By the time an hour and a half have gone by, all traces of Aeval have completely disappeared. This is a short-lived, ethereal fairy.

[Alethia]

Thoughts before testing: I first tried a frimp of Aeval in 2013 (you can find my original review of Aeval here) To date, I've drained that bottle and two imps and when it was discontinued I was so sad. My excitement when it was re-released this summer was enough to get me to order 3 bottles immediately. I don't have the original to compare against so I'll try to review this on it's own merit.

 

Wet: YES. This is it! It smells exactly like I remember the original Aeval smelling. It's really pretty, clean, and sweetly floral.

 

Dry down: The sage is crisp and clean and slightly green; the sweet pea is vintage and sweet.

 

Dry: The musk finally comes out to play and blends beautifully with the sage and sweet pea.

 

Final thoughts: This winds up being a really lovely softly sweet floral musk with a generous helping of beautiful clean sage. The throw is pretty much nonexistent and it doesn't last for very long at all (3 hours on well moisturized skin in humid Ohio) but neither did the original. Aeval was my go-to perfume for work due to it's close throw and inoffensive prettiness and I'm so very happy this was brought back.

 

Verdict: Hoarding, with a potential fourth bottle on the horizon.

[Ghost of a Rose]

Imp fresh from the lab.

 

In the imp: Flowers and sage, very pretty.

 

On me, wet: At first, it's mostly sage.

 

At 5 minutes: Sage and sweetpea, more of the sage. This is what I hoped Mouse's Long and Sad Tale would be (no vanilla!)

 

At 10 minutes: The sweetpea is stronger, but hasn't quite caught up to the sage. This is so light, fresh, pure, childlike.

 

At 15 minutes: Wow, it has begun to fade already! It's almost like a floral soap. As light as it is, other people might not even realize I am wearing perfume. They might think it was just the remaining traces of soap on my skin. This is not a criticism, just an observation. It would be perfect for wearing in public, where I might be around people who are sensitive to perfume,

 

At 30 minutes: I can smell the musk now. It warms and deepens, and darkens the scent just a hair. Our little girl is growing up, but hasn't yet lost her innocence. I think I can detect a little tonka too, although I'm not that familiar with it, so I'm not sure. I don't think I've ever smelled tonka by itself.

 

This is perfect for hot weather, too, because of its mildness, light throw, and impression of coolness.

 

At 1 hour: The fragrance is almost gone. It has faded down to the familiar baby powder scent that I always get from white musk in the final drydown. But somehow it still retains the fresh feeling.

Another blend that I put on my other wrist 10 hours ago is more evident than the Aeval!

 

After 3 hours: Given how faint the scent was two hours ago, I'm surprised to find it still lingering. Barely there, though.

 

Verdict: In strength, throw, and longevity this is more like a classic cologne than an essential oil perfume. But people have been wearing such colognes for at least a couple of centuries, and just reapplying as needed. So I can do that with this as well. And there are situations when those characteristics can be an advantage, too. Plus which, to make it last longer, the labbies would have to add different notes, and that would make it another perfume entirely. Some notes are just naturally volatile. So I'm not going to complain or lower my rating for that reason. It's an exceptionally pretty scent and should stay just the way it is!

 

And, if I want it to last longer, I can always put it into a scent locket.

 

6 out of 6 stars

Edited September 2, 2018 by Ghost of a Rose

[VetchVesper]

I got a brief whiff of the original several years ago. These were my notes.

 

"Very sweet and bright w/ a softness that reminds me of Fae and a juicy sweetness that reminds me of Titania b/ better. I can smell the sweet pea, reminding me of BB&B. It's nice, but I like Fae better."

 

This version smells pretty different than Fae to me, but it does have that soft, feminine musk note. It reminds me a bit of the Mouse's Long and Sad Tale as well, undoubtedly due to the sweet pea, but also b/c of it's gentle, feminine, and cozy feel. I have a set of soft, baby blue pajamas that this scent seems perfect for.

 

The musk is powdery soft and feminine. Hazy. I can smell a gentle, dry sage, and the light fruity floral bouquet of the sweet pea. There's a touch of dusty green to the smell, but over all, it's an unobtrusive floral. I don't really get the tonka note, but perhaps it grounds Aeval and adds to the coziness. I bought a bottle, and will be wearing it as a night time and bumming around sort of scent.

Edited September 9, 2018 by VetchVesper

[rhonorv]

Very light, very pretty, very soft. I don't get any tonka, just a lightly musky sweet pea. As others have noted it goes on really light -- I expect it'd be nice if you're in an office or a workplace where you can't wear a heavy perfume! After two hours it was almost gone from my skin.

 

It's like you used a pretty soap (though there's no soapy harshness, thankfully!), rather than a perfume. In fact, it reminds me a bit of the bar soaps that Avon used to make -- it smells clean and innocent.

[BoneBone24]

Wet: White, clean, a touch creamy, a touch herbal. 

Drydown: Soapy, yet creamy. A bit fuzzy. It smells pure, soft, and white. 

Dry: Sweeter and a touch indolic once dry. Overall it's very pale, clean, and creamy.

 

Compared to the original version (going off my notes), the wet and drydown stages are pretty similar, but where the dry stage had previously smelled like lathered shampoo, with this newer version it's less soapy and more sweet and floral. Or my nose and/or skin chemistry have just changed, who knows!

 

8 out of 10 bones