Queen Mab's Lace

[zankoku_zen]

And pleasant is the fairy land,

But, an eerie tale to tell,

At the end of every seven years,

We pay a tithe to Hell,

I am so fair and firm of flesh,

I'm feared it be myself.

 

The scent of twilight in a secluded grove. A tinkle of laughter in the distance echoes through the woods discordantly, and the shadows are thick with menace: a gossamer vanilla lace enveloped in a veil of honeysuckle, wild jasmine, poppy, crushed grass, evergreen, white cognac, white amber, lilac butter, tobacco, indigo musk, and bee balm.

 

To me, this is like if Antique Lace and Host of Air had a child, and dropped it into a bed of honeysuckle. I get light florals (honeysuckle being predominant), vanilla lace, crushed grass, and a whiff of musk. Beautiful, light and ethereal.

[fenharel]

A gentle symphony of wildflowers, sweet and fresh. Cool, damp grass. Sweet and rich vanilla/tobacco/cognac lace gives the scent a backbone and emerges more when dry. Neither the jasmine nor the tobacco are overwhelming, as those notes can sometimes tend to be. This scent is very well blended and balanced. The throw is WILD, though. My skin eats oils so I usually apply by tipping the open bottle over with my finger blocking the top. For this I just dabbed the little bit of oil that gathers on the inside of the cap, and it was more than enough.

[doomsday_disco]

I let mine settle for a day before testing it.

 

In the bottle, I smell the honeysuckle, poppy, jasmine, and cut grass.

 

On me, the honeysuckle is the dominant note, backed by a light (non-heady or stinky!) jasmine, and crushed grass. I was worried about the poppy note, but it is not problematic on me in this one. After a while, the honeysuckle calms down, and it becomes mix of floral notes on a bed of musk and a much softer grass note. The vanilla note finally shows up after about four hours of wear (I was beginning to think it wouldn't show up on me) and mingles with the floral notes. This lovely lace is perfect for spring!

I love honeysuckle, so I am glad that I grabbed a bottle of this, since the jasmine and poppy in this are well-behaved. I just hope that the vanilla comes out more with age!

[Just Kitten]

I don’t get much vanilla from this. It’s very green on me and a little hint of jasmine and it’s the least lacie lace that I own. Reminds me of Swans on The River a little. I like it, but I like Tea Roses better. I may offer a couple decants of it away because I won’t wear it THAT often, but the bottle is too pretty to give away. 

[archaesophilia]

In the bottle, this is a lovely spring green honeysuckle scent. After an hour or so on, it becomes a gorgeously balanced floral vanilla amber/musk. The deep notes come out a lot more with time and the florals fade and aren't as sharp. Towards the end of the day, the florals burn off and what's left behind is a lovely lace.

[SophieCedar]

Queen Mab's Lace evokes a field surrounded by forest at summer dusk. Cooling air pouring in from the already darkened woods in turn amplifying the smell of grasses and summertime wildflowers... and a sense of magic. Get your lanterns ready and wait for lightening bugs!

[PrinceofcatS]

Directly on, this reminds me of Leanan Sidhe, one of my first ever bottles from BPAL and a favorite scent to this day - but it has a sultry vibe to it and something reminding me of the color blue.  Leanan Sidhe is "Irish herbs and flowers" and mist and dew, but a lot of reviewers pinpoint it as a lily scent, and I've always gotten a bit of a grass note among the general atmospheric vibe of it - Queen Mab's Lace has so many well-blended notes that it's difficult to pick any point, but it's a heady floral over a veil of vanilla lace (that grows more prominent with time), a general sense of twilight blue-tones and coolness.  When I analyse the notes list I can pick out some of the specifics - I think poppy gives it some of its haze, honeysuckle its headiness, and especially as the scent wears I think I get lilac in particular; the grass I do notice, but I think the evergreen gives it its depth and forest-specific feel, and idk what indigo musk is but maybe that's why this does remind me of that blue color at that time of the evening - but it's mostly a scent that smells layered than a scent in which I can pick anything out.

 

Over time, the vanilla lace note grows stronger and gains a golden tone from what I assume is the bee balm - it reminds me of a much gentler beeswax (a note that still amps on me, though not as much as honey) - while the scent gains more shadow-tones, and over much more time, the vanilla lace, with just a breath of florals, is the only note left.

 

I love this scent.  I think it perfectly evokes the scent description.  It reminds me a whole lot of a Bella Kotak photograph, with that sense of being outside amongst the woods and grass with colored mist or smoke hanging in the way, wearing a huge gauzy dress and a halo of blossoms.  This is already on my shortlist for favorite perfumes of 2019, and reminding me I should be quicker to take chances on lace scents!

[Jenjin]

Most of my young life, I lived in a place with fields of grasses and giant oaks. We also had a trickling stream. It was so far out of the city, my shaggy dog Sadie was my best and closest friend. Over time, I grew very close to the woods surrounding me, the plants especially, singing to the flower's faces, rubbing their delicate petals across my cheeks and fingers. I made countless bouquets. These weren't made of your typical flowers, but of wild, overgrown weeds flowering into seed. Queen Mab's Lace is both beautiful and seductive opening up with a vivid memory of these prickly, bug filled bundles. I would gather them up, carefully choosing the prettiest stems I could find, sappy and sticky in the heat. Wilting almost as soon as they were picked. 
This scent charms me, entrances me to sway in its wildness, sap trickling down stems, whirling blossoms luring me to sink myself deeper into the halo of fragrance. This is a scent that only gets better as it warms upon the skin, blending and drying down into gorgeous lace that is deeply magical. I step delicately amongst the sun dappled forest, butterflies lifting my gossamer wings to keep them afloat.

Edited May 25, 2019 by Jenjin

[purestmaiden_]

On my skin, this scent is predominately fresh grass and vanilla lace, underlaid with musk, lilacs, and honeysuckle.

 

The combination of grass and vanilla put me in mind of last anniversary's Smug Yale Alchemy Lab, though this scent is more floral and a bit "darker" than that.

[Madame Mew]

someone stated this is like Swans on the River and I totally agree. I have a decant that I love and have been rationing ever so carefully as I haven't been able to find a bottle. 

Queen Mab's lace is even better! It has the fresh cut stems or grass, honeysuckle that I was looking for but the vanilla, amber and musk seem to give this more sillage and I am just so pleased with it at every stage. So glad I have a bottle of this one and will probably be grabbing this a lot over the next few months. Such a lovely floral blend!

[sunshinedaisybliss]

I was a fan of the OG Queen Mab with her gorgeous dusky black orchid and sweet musky goodness, so although this lace has none of her notes I had to try it. 
 

For me, this opened up with a very rich almost butterscotch-y sweetness, which I wasn’t expecting! But then the honeysuckle and jasmine peeped through, and the vanilla was there too, and it was all heady creamy sweet florals - almost a bit tropical, but with a dark soul.  But that moment was fleeting, because then it was all hello cognac and tobacco! And hey there’s the lovely inky musk and the gentle amber! Then suddenly all of these individual notes seemed to blend together into a gorgeous glow of slightly smokey sweet mystery. 
 

An hour later and it’s mostly the tobacco and cognac I can smell, but the vanilla is still there - with just a hint of the musk and florals. I never really got anything green, so I’m not sure where the grass or evergreen is, and the lilac never came through either. The honeysuckle and jasmine are very subtle, and there’s nothing honey/bee here either for me. It’s hard to pin down as a vibe - dark but light, fresh but ancient. Quite lovely 😊 

[Fefi]

This was my very first BPAL scent and its the one that got me hooked forevermore >:D I love all things fairy ( but spooky scary fairies) so this was a must when I saw it. It is absolutely gorgeous and I hoard my precious bottle like a dragon.  Its beautifully floral and green. While it has vanilla its toned down and I only get hints of it here and there. What i get strongest are all the flowers, poppy, honeysuckle, jasmine. I dont get too much lilac but get plenty of the grasses and tobacco. The cognac is very toned down and tends to come out later in the scent as it dries. It lasts a good while too and I would say it has a medium throw. I will be truly sad when I run out of this scent and hope I can find something similar to it.