The Disciples

[zankoku_zen]

White and red rose petals, sweet labdanum, vanilla bean, prune, red sandalwood, and orange blossom.

[starbrow]

Why hello, Elephant is Slow to Mate's virginal cousin! I've been wearing The Disciples all yesterday, having blind-bottled it thanks to Elephant breaking me of my rose aversion, and yet I didn't make the connection between the two smelling similar until just today. Duh! But it's true. If you enjoyed the plummy rosy aspect of Elephant and wanted a softer, less vampy version of her with a lovely infusion of vanilla bean, The Disciples is for you.

 

Let's make no mistake here. This is a rose perfume. But the vanilla and prune (plum lol) conspire to add a generous spritz of Sugar Plum & Vanilla Bean atmo to the rose fest. These are quite lush, creamy rose petals, like I can smell the velvety burr of the petals' surface, and it's really magical. Not a spicy rose by any means, so if that's something you enjoy, this is on the sweeter side of the rose spectrum.

 

I am a big fan of both red sandalwood and BPAL's past orange blossoms, but they are not the stars here. I wouldn't have guessed that either of them was in this scent, but inside I know that they are helping to balance out the rose with that faint touch of wood and citrus, and I give them the credit that they well-deserve. They lend a calmness to the blend, not letting rose do her ampy thing. A welcome restraining hand, but an unobtrusive one.

 

You know what this is reminding me of, strangely? Lady Amalthea. Blind, I would have guessed this had white chocolate and rose and vanilla in it. I guess because The Disciples is *so* sweet and girly, a blushing pink of a perfume, that it gave me the same feeling as Amalthea. I think someone who enjoys either that sweet floral/gourmand musk, or someone who liked Elephant and could picture a sweeter, more innocent version of her, will find The Disciples rather delightful.

[puellacaerulea]

This one starts out with rich red sandalwood and rose, with a whiff of vanilla underneath -- sweet and kind of girlish. Once I apply it, though, things start going wrong. A fruity note that is both sickly-sweet and sour on my skin amps up and clashes hard with the sandalwood and rose. I'm guessing it's the prune. While it does eventually fade after drydown, leaving me with a sweet vanilla rose that reminds me a little of Between Your Heart and Mine, that initial blast of prune was enough to put me off this scent.

[zankoku_zen]

Soft red roses, sandalwood, and a whiff of sweetness (either the vanilla or prunes). Medium throw and wear length.

[Casablanca]

Freshly applied: Soft vanilla bean red and white roses with hints of resin. 

 

Starting to dry: Add sandalwood to the above... I can see red sandalwood, though I'm not fully distinguishing its red from the red of roses.

 

Dried: So much red sandalwood! But softly creamy with vanilla and flowered with roses.

 

The Disciples' vanilla bean blends into its white roses; its red sandalwood blends into its red roses. This is a creamy white and red perfume.

 

[Viiinylflowers]

This scent is truly dreamy. It reminds me of the elephant is slow to mate in a lot of ways - but creamy, softer, and more ethereal/soothing, yet still very romantic and sensuous. 
 

like taking a spiritually rejuvenating warm milk bath filled with rose petals and other mysterious things in a marble pool in a castle atop mt Olympus surrounded by gods 

Edited February 2, 2022 by Viiinylflowers
Adding stuff

[Lucchesa]

This was passed on to me by a generous forum friend, so it's not my usual thing.  I got a lot of orange blossom and sweet rose bound by a creamy vanilla.  The sandalwood was missing on me, nor could I pick out the labdanum or prune, and if I could have picked out the notes I would have wanted at the forefront, those would have been the ones.  But if floaty orange blossom-rose-vanilla sounds like your thing, soft and creamy and innocent, that's what I got, with relatively good throw and great wear length.

[LavenderCoffee]

In the bottle this is a gorgeous rose perfume with orange blossom hanging out in the foreground and prune hanging out in the background.

Wet on my skin, the orange blossom continues to hold its own with the rose, and the red sandalwood contributes a touch of woody spice to counter the sweetness of labdanum and vanilla. 

Dry, I get a darker red rose/prune type of note below the orange blossom/sandalwood combo, and the overall effect is a heady, bright floral perfume.

 

There is clear overlap with The Elephant is Slow to Mate in the rose, labdanum, and vanilla, and although that description said red velvet, it smells more like purple to me. This one smells more red, or at least it is an orange-red to the Elephant's blue-red. I like the darker end of the color wheel personally, but highly recommend this scent if you are a rose and orange blossom fan. 

[zipegs]

Thought I'd adore this one but it unfortunately didn't work for me! It's a whole lot sweeter than I anticipated—very syrupy-floral in a way that turns cloying on my skin. Out of bottle, I do enjoy the scent, though it's still a touch sweeter than I'd normally prefer. On my skin, though, it pulls more toward a mass-market sweet floral perfume. I had a hard time picking out much more beyond simple-syrup-drenched rose petals.

[crystaltongue]

The Discples reminds me strongly of a woodier, sweeter version of Snooty Rose. The prune note echoes the plum of snooty rose; the roses are similar; and the combination with sandlewood has a similar effect. The labdindum and vanilla, though, make The Disciples warmer and more resinous than Snooty Rose, which the orange blossom is more sweet and floral than Snooty Rose's bergamot. One the whole, though, I would describe this as another surprisingly gender neutral rose-and-wood scent, and a delightful addition to my collection.

[Tamarinda]

Clearly, I hallucinate writing reviews cuz there's nothing here and I swear I typed something up. Well. My personal notes say "Fierce rose smell. I love this." And I did love it. Then for a while there my skin started to amp the blazes out of rose and I could not wear it because it went from "fierce" to "hostile." Then it became wearable again. And now? My skin ate it up in about 15 minutes. If you say so skin chemistry!