Sansan: An Olfactory Fanfic Part 1/?
This is an ongoing experiment where I attempt to distill Sansan into various perfumes. PM if you want to be included on my perfume distribution list - free sample vials will be sent out at the end of the fanfic.
Sansa's Perfume
From Sansa III ASOS:
On the morning her new gown was to be ready, the serving girls filled Sansa's tub with steaming hot water and scrubbed her head to toe until she glowed pink. Cersei's own bedmaid trimmed her nails and brushed and curled her auburn hair so it fell down her back in soft ringlets. She brought a dozen of the queen's favorite scents as well. Sansa chose a sharp sweet fragrance with a hint of lemon in it under the smell of flowers. The maid dabbed some on her finger and touched Sansa behind each ear, and under her chin, and then lightly on her nipples.
Cersei herself arrived with the seamstress, and watched as they dressed Sansa in her new clothes. The smallclothes were all silk, but the gown itself was ivory samite and cloth-of-silver, and lined with silvery satin. The points of the long dagged sleeves almost touched the ground when she lowered her arms. And it was a woman's gown, not a little girl's, there was no doubt of that. The bodice was slashed in front almost to her belly, the deep vee covered over with a panel of ornate Myrish lace in dove-grey. The skirts were long and full, the waist so tight that Sansa had to hold her breath as they laced her into it. They brought her new shoes as well, slippers of soft grey doeskin that hugged her feet like lovers. "You are very beautiful, my lady," the seamstress said when she was dressed.
"I am, aren't I?" Sansa giggled, and spun, her skirts swirling around her. "Oh, I am." She could not wait for Willas to see her like this. He will love me, he will, he must . . . he will forget Winterfell when he sees me, I'll see that he does.
*****
Perfume: Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's Delirium
http://www.bpal.org/topic/466-delirium/
Maker notes: A contrary, conflicted scent, bubbling with merry madness. Contains apple, rose, and lemon.
*****
My notes:
No maddness here just a lovely floral scent with the hint of lemon. Very nice, youthful, maidenly scent. I got a lot of compliments, including from both a coworker and my husband.
From the bottle: sharp lemon scent mix with the heady smell of flowers, I didn't single out rose in particular.
Wet on skin: First twenty minutes were the best as the perfume shifted constantly. Fresh flowers, both the scent of the head of roses and the green smell of rose stems, cut with the sharp tinge of lemon peel and the warm scent of milk from a baby's breath.
Drydown: After an hour, the scent of candy lemon (Lemondrops) dominated. Lemon shifted into green apple after another hour. After 5 hours, lemon and apples are gone, only a powdery rose scent like the kind either very young girls or very old women like.
What others say: My favorite review of it from the bpal forums is the following. The reviewer sounds like she's criticizing Sansa.
Merry is a good word to describe this. It's very lemony in the bottle, and with the apple it has a very perfume-y edge. The rose is a bit soapy - probably the lemon - but quite fresh.
It goes on and the rose comes right out along with the apple, and a whiff of what almost smells like vanilla - this is a very creamy, smooth scent. It smells far less like lemon furniture polish than it did in the bottle. Here it smells like something edible, like little fancy cakes.
This is a very playful, light, clean scent that reminds me of having tea parties outside with all my stuffed animals. It's very girly, and just a little childish. It's also squeaky-clean. It smells soapy, but in a fresh and nice sort of way, not a yucky, cloying way.
Final thoughts
I found myself quite sad wearing this perfume. It evoked its context in canon: the passage above is blalantly erotic (12 year old Sansa dabs it on her nipples!), she's full of pride over her womanly beauty, elated at the thought of escaping from the Lannisters through marriage to the lame but courtly Willias Tyrell. Little does she know that all this effort to fit her into new adult clothes, all of Cersei's motherly clucking is just a part of Tywin's plot to claim Winterfell through Sansa's name via marriage to Tyrion.
The perfume is not childish in my opinion. But it is very maidenly, the scent of an apple ripe but not yet plucked from the tree. I'm going to include it (as well as Sandor's scent) in my care package to anyone who wants to participate in my experient. Dab it across your collarbone. And smell the scent of the sacrifical virgin.
Sansa's Perfume
From Sansa III ASOS:
On the morning her new gown was to be ready, the serving girls filled Sansa's tub with steaming hot water and scrubbed her head to toe until she glowed pink. Cersei's own bedmaid trimmed her nails and brushed and curled her auburn hair so it fell down her back in soft ringlets. She brought a dozen of the queen's favorite scents as well. Sansa chose a sharp sweet fragrance with a hint of lemon in it under the smell of flowers. The maid dabbed some on her finger and touched Sansa behind each ear, and under her chin, and then lightly on her nipples.
Cersei herself arrived with the seamstress, and watched as they dressed Sansa in her new clothes. The smallclothes were all silk, but the gown itself was ivory samite and cloth-of-silver, and lined with silvery satin. The points of the long dagged sleeves almost touched the ground when she lowered her arms. And it was a woman's gown, not a little girl's, there was no doubt of that. The bodice was slashed in front almost to her belly, the deep vee covered over with a panel of ornate Myrish lace in dove-grey. The skirts were long and full, the waist so tight that Sansa had to hold her breath as they laced her into it. They brought her new shoes as well, slippers of soft grey doeskin that hugged her feet like lovers. "You are very beautiful, my lady," the seamstress said when she was dressed.
"I am, aren't I?" Sansa giggled, and spun, her skirts swirling around her. "Oh, I am." She could not wait for Willas to see her like this. He will love me, he will, he must . . . he will forget Winterfell when he sees me, I'll see that he does.
*****
Perfume: Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's Delirium
http://www.bpal.org/topic/466-delirium/
Maker notes: A contrary, conflicted scent, bubbling with merry madness. Contains apple, rose, and lemon.
*****
My notes:
No maddness here just a lovely floral scent with the hint of lemon. Very nice, youthful, maidenly scent. I got a lot of compliments, including from both a coworker and my husband.
From the bottle: sharp lemon scent mix with the heady smell of flowers, I didn't single out rose in particular.
Wet on skin: First twenty minutes were the best as the perfume shifted constantly. Fresh flowers, both the scent of the head of roses and the green smell of rose stems, cut with the sharp tinge of lemon peel and the warm scent of milk from a baby's breath.
Drydown: After an hour, the scent of candy lemon (Lemondrops) dominated. Lemon shifted into green apple after another hour. After 5 hours, lemon and apples are gone, only a powdery rose scent like the kind either very young girls or very old women like.
What others say: My favorite review of it from the bpal forums is the following. The reviewer sounds like she's criticizing Sansa.
Merry is a good word to describe this. It's very lemony in the bottle, and with the apple it has a very perfume-y edge. The rose is a bit soapy - probably the lemon - but quite fresh.
It goes on and the rose comes right out along with the apple, and a whiff of what almost smells like vanilla - this is a very creamy, smooth scent. It smells far less like lemon furniture polish than it did in the bottle. Here it smells like something edible, like little fancy cakes.
This is a very playful, light, clean scent that reminds me of having tea parties outside with all my stuffed animals. It's very girly, and just a little childish. It's also squeaky-clean. It smells soapy, but in a fresh and nice sort of way, not a yucky, cloying way.
Final thoughts
I found myself quite sad wearing this perfume. It evoked its context in canon: the passage above is blalantly erotic (12 year old Sansa dabs it on her nipples!), she's full of pride over her womanly beauty, elated at the thought of escaping from the Lannisters through marriage to the lame but courtly Willias Tyrell. Little does she know that all this effort to fit her into new adult clothes, all of Cersei's motherly clucking is just a part of Tywin's plot to claim Winterfell through Sansa's name via marriage to Tyrion.
The perfume is not childish in my opinion. But it is very maidenly, the scent of an apple ripe but not yet plucked from the tree. I'm going to include it (as well as Sandor's scent) in my care package to anyone who wants to participate in my experient. Dab it across your collarbone. And smell the scent of the sacrifical virgin.