Lycanthrope

Violet wolf checking in.

Sniff from the bottle, a sharper, slightly green and gritty mist over a subtle violet.  

Fresh on skin, quite sharp, getting a lot of initial ambergris, some sweetness from the opium segueing into a resinous mossy green, I think maybe a hiiiiint of coconut.  Right now I can't find the violet, oh no!  It's reading very much as a somewhat sharper aquatic misty ambergris musk.  There's a shadow of patchouli lurking in the background.  Coconut and orris is giving it a bit of a Black Pearl vibe.

On for about an hour... ok, there's a bit of violet base now, but like the painting, I think this scent is more about the ethereal, airy white gauziness of the dress and the violets are a complement, not the main focus.  It's quieted down a bit so that most of what I can smell is a bit of powdery violet petal, with a planty, leafy moss-musk.  It's a very interesting blend of scents.  I think from afar I get whiffs of pure violet but just like the ionones do, the petals peek into and out of presence, hiding in the folds of the misty white of the dress and the shadowy gritty dark of the patchouli/oakmoss.

It's definitely unique!  I would say: if you love violets, and are expecting them, they are here but not front and forwards.  If you usually dislike violets, this won't whomp you on the head with them, and may be a more tolerable experience of them.  It's a very beautiful interpretation of the painting.

I really love the concept of this scent!  Alas, it is perhaps one of the least rosey Rose scents from BPAL that I own, and it is a bit cacophonous and chaotic.  Overall, it reads as a fruity tropical floral, which may be totally up someone's alley - it's not quite the type of scent I wear or reach for often (the fruits - I'm a tropical floral wolf for sure)

Whiff from the bottle and immediately on is a very sweet blackberry, primarily, on the skin and for the first few moments it's really orchid forward, with a smidge of sweet opium-like smoke, but not very much of that lingers or remains.  As a violet lover I was really hoping for that to be up center, but I can't really detect that.  It must be, like the rose and blue musk, sort of lending an undercurrent of sweet - but I think the blackberry and orchid really steal the show here.  Even with more time, I can't get much more than a very well blended and chewy blackberry scent, with a floral backdrop, but not a classic rose at all.

I'll still keep and reach for this here and there, the bottle and concept are wonderful, a bit of a miss on this violet and blue musk lover.

A whisper of the vanilla mint, and on me, the honeyed sugar and strawberries brings to mind Pink Moons of yore with a smidge of chilly snow.  It's pretty much perfect and a great transition scent balancing Yule and Lupers!  On me the red wine comes out more and more as times passes, to lend a bit of Athens-like goopiness to the whole blend.  I could have swore this had rose in it but maybe it's my mind inventing florals when I think 'Valentine!'

For me, foody to start with the buttercream but veers straight into cinnamon and clove territory, and slight pistachio nutmeat in the dry down.  Very excellent if you’re a spice gourmand lover.  

If you missed out on Stealthily, Stealthily, this feels a very similar type of fragrance. It reads as a well blended misty and puffy purple scent, a bit powdery from the orris, and some sweetness from the violet.  I think it has more of a honeyed aroma and a smidge salty from the ambergris.  I like it bunches.

I'm really not sure what's that different, except this is definitely more black musky than the usual red musk.  Less woodsy, that I can tell, it has a bit of spice.  Maybe cinnamon?  

Ok, this is weird.

It's definitely an interesting, teeter-totter mix of foodie and floral, but also kind of... woodsy?  Initially I get a ton of frosting like buttercream, and the sandalwood supports this with a bit of chewy smokiness.  The main floral I'm getting is actually the gardenia.  There are sparks of Sugar Skull's sugar throughout, and then gardenia makes the floral more sassy.  The tropical floral background is not overpowering and it adds a floof, like tutus, but overall this remains mostly a lightly floral foody vanilla buttercream.  It's very interesting, I don't think I need more than one bottle, but I'll see how this ages.  It's definitely quite unique.

Ever since the Tiki Lounge scents, there has always been a soft spot in my heart and hole in my wallet for tropical and coconut scents.  I'm one of those guys who likes the idea of summer rather than actually sitting in it, so tropical florals mixed with pineapple, coconut, anything that elicits the concept of summer and the Tropics is a call to me.

Cold sniff from the bottle, it's a mix of a warm coconut meat, not husky, and mostly awapuhi (ginger lily/maybe the red torch ginger?), with a smidge of Alba botanical's Gardenia shampoo (a staple of mine).  It's a bit more foody at this point, like the coconut meat is strong and forward.  It settles pretty quick though as the palm fronds come through as a slight grassiness, but also a bit of a... green plant-yness (yes I know, that's not a word), but this is reminding a lot of 'Under the Palms' from Yankee Candle, which featured a very fine coconut kissed with greenery, with a slight rubbery sappiness that elicited a realistic aroma.  At this point most of the florals I am getting are subtle, but well blended.  I get hints of watery freesia, the frangipani isn't too high pitched, and the usual flashy florals like gardenia and plumeria aren't dominating the scent.  It really is, like the painting, a zoomed out scent of the landscape as opposed to focusing on the individual parts.  I suppose still the torch ginger is more flower than spice, though overall this is a warm, well blended tropical floral green.  Meaty foody coconut has definitely receded this far in on wear and it is quite nice and not overbearing.  

Thumbs up and definitely a try for anyone who likes a wearable tropical floral that is more on the subdued and conceptual side.  

Aw man, ever since turning forty, my frequency of Menage a Troising has declined precipitously.

That being said, every now and then, this old, grizzled, gray furred wolf stirs and gets intrigued by the skimpy underpinnings of a delectable and promising trio, so when he, bleary eyed and without a budget, stumbled upon this combo, he was 'huzzah!' and 'stir forth my loins,' as well as 'maybe I'll have ramen this week!' to get this into his paws.

From the bottle sniff, it's an interesting, very pistachio-forward nut smell, with just a bit of that vanilla butteryness.  I detect no macadamia... yet.  This is that moment when you've opened that door and your Grindr trio for the night appears.  Trepidation and definitely a lot of 'not what I was expecting' is the name of the game... as I slather a smear on my back of my hand, it mysteriously smells extremely strong of... butterscotch?  But just for a moment, maybe that's pistachio as he ruffles vanilla's hair a bit.  Macadamia is down the hall, complaining that there's too many stairs and 'is this guy worth it?'  The butterscotch, odd sharpness, fades, and I think there's maybe the smell of a leaf or some kind of greenery.  Maybe pistachio nutmeats.  Nutmeats.  Heh.  

Oh wait, macadamia stumbles into view.  I don't usually encounter macadamia, it's just rare, or maybe I'm just not normally macadamia's type.  At this point it's mostly pistachio and macadamia leaning forwards, the macadamia leaving a sort of... toastiness... aura around him as he sidles up close.  For me, maybe too close?  I am reminded of a very distant memory of that One Christmas Everyone Gave Us Mauna Loa Macadamia Clusters But We Were Too Kind to Not Eat Them For Weeks Afterwards, wherein my childhood was schmears of milk chocolate and pieces of macadamia lodged in my back molars, desperately trying to dislodge the creamy triangles, but instead only amplifying the nutmeats swirling in my mouth.  ... nutmeats.

... heh.

On me, fairly quickly, the two nuts become pretty indistinguishable and vanilla remembers he left ... something... in his car, and has to go.  No!  Don't go!  You're the basic bro I wanted in the first place!  Pistachio looks a bit irritated and resigns himself to just, I guess, putting his hand on my shoulder, while Macadamia leans his bony thigh a bit too sharply onto my crotch.  Ow, bro!  Bruh!  My nutmeats!  (heh)

This has pretty low throw on me and very modest sillage, which I guess is good, since when I'm done, Mr. Nosy Rosey McPeekison has her apartment door cracked wondering what all the hubbub is, but by then, all the guys are gone.

Certainly if you like the smell of nutmeats, fire up this baby, but it's nuttier and less creamy on me than I thought.  And all I really wanted was vanilla playtime, hah hah.  Oh, Grindr.

This is a bit of a marvel.  It's been a while since I've reviewed a scent, but here goes:

I was so very intrigued by the description for Crane Moon that I immediately bought two bottles, and I don't regret that I did.

Wet, it has that same type of 'wing and feather' feel that is present in things like The Raven and in particular Crow Moon, but whereas the other two veer a bit more towards dark violet/floral and definitely the darker, shadowy side of things, Crane Moon starts off with that same sweet feathery medium/high tone.  I can feel the slight dry, bitter cedar and cardamom floating above the sweet vanilla/sandalwood combination, which is what I think is the similar feather-scent in the other birdy scents.  

On my skin, the cedar and cardamom continue to dance a bit and give this potentially sweet scent some balanced depth without being overtly spicy.  The orris root dusts things up a bit, kind of like how I'd imagine a cascade of white feathers would smell if they were falling around me.  I can definitely see that if a crane was mostly white with a few accents of black on wing tips, that the dry woods, dry spice, dry root give it a shadowy side without going full raven (that's so?).  

I am not getting too much direct ambergris, but I think it's giving a smidgeon of aquatic feel, like the water the Crane is standing in.

As I wear this, the cocoa emerges here and there as a dry tickle that again grounds the whole scent and balances it.  

There's plenty going on in this scent but overall it has a similar feel to other avian aromas but with a bit more dryness probably from the cedar and cardamom combo, kissed with a bit of dry cocoa powder (not chocolate!).  Very wearable and I think a great evening scent.  

Well, this is definitely a bit of a detour from the usual 13s, which to me have generally read like a spicy melange of dark dusty cocoa, punctuated with like spicy bits and cinnamon, allspice, and the like.  Like a swarthy cocoa and maybe some tobacco like tones.  

This is... well.  On me, it's definitely honey forward but lapping at the back is a maple type of snap.  I amp rose, so oddly, the rose comes up but not super strong (a surprise for me) but I can pull the petal out in the mid notes.  I get a lot of the caramel like notes which are a bit of a crisp and burnt sugar.  Swirling in and out is a rock crystal like note.  I think I'm hallucinating?  A bit further away from application and with my nose snorfling higher up, I swear I have a bit of that Pfefferneusse powdery sugar tone, but then the rose rises a bit and is now mixed with cocoa (but less than past 13s, I feel).  It dries down on me to, oddly, a honey bear's head encrusted with white sugar.  

This is actually kind of what I wanted Sugar Skull to do on my skin!

I can't add much to the above.  This is a strong, very flower forward lilac, with enough greenery to smell like the leaves and the twiggy twigs (yes that's an official biologist term dammit) so it has some true plantiness (also a term).  If you were a bit concerned it would have a lot of the glassy and amber notes like House of Mirrors or the like, it does not.  I really like it.  I also own a metric boat-ton (not a real term) of lilac scented things so I'm good to not hoard.  

I do prefer my lilac shaken and stirred with other things, but if you like lilacs, this is a definite winner.

Plantiness of the twiggy twigs.

Super desserty and syrupy-liquor sweet in the bottle.  It definitely has a bit of a claw to it initially!  On my skin, it goes towards smoky notes real fast, the toasted/caramel to the forefront, but in the scorched sugar way.  There is cocoa and it's a bittersweet dark cocoa note.  I do like the vetiver adding a sort of ... rooty dustiness to the whole feel, whereas the amber and musk give it a prowly tone.  It's kind of like... a cocoa-dappled and incense bathed Bastet?  It really smells like huffing a box of Hershey's Cocoa, with like, honeyed nuts or the idea of them in the background as it dries down which is pretty fascinating.  

I feel like as one of the resident violet lovers, I have to review this!

Just got it today.  Wet it smells like one of my holy grails, Stealthily, Stealthily, and a few of the notes are similar (orris/iris, violet, lavender) with the addition of sandalwood and champaca.  It smells very, very similar initially but on drying down, the champaca brightens it with a bit of an interesting bubbly tropical floral tone.  If there is sandalwood it's quite subtle and a bit on the dry side.  It smells a bit like the smoky, hazy purple entwined notes of Stealthily but with a nag champa incense stick lit in the distant corner of the room. 

I do like this, but I also have a lot of Stealthily, so I may just enjoy the single bottle

(un-stealthily adds 17 to virtual cart)

Aw man.

There's always one blend that catches me by description, and likely the one with violet... this is definitely sweet, deep blue-violet, and sultry.  I would call this a bit like The Stranger but a smidge fruitier (the plum is quite juicy in this), but also like a mix of night flowers and incense.  The wetness / petrichor is not a blazingly wet rain note, but perhaps there's a very subtle kiss of a dirt or dust note, definitely not super forward, but this grounds it a bit into evocative rather than lush night garden.  

Again top wet, this is vacillating between plum and sweet violet petals, which I am totally ok with, in the end the plum seems to dominate, and the osmanthus lends a bit of a fleshy sweet citrus-like floral note, I think the lavender is present but very subtle, adding that kind of subtle, roof of the nose tickling aura that it can do, without dominating or making the blend herbal (at all).  Again the petrichor is just a glaze of wet slick, not oily or excessively marine.  There's some incense swirling in the background, maybe from churches or rituals, but it's far in the distance.  What is in the forefront is a sweet, smooth, violet-plum aura with a touch of relaxing lavender buzz.  I like this a lot.  It reminds me a smidge of Stealthily, Stealthily but deffo fruitier and a bit smokier.  

Buttery cake and chocolate Andes mints fresh on, with a bit of true Lick It! like peppermint candy coming to the forefront.  The Andes mint chocolate fades pretty quick, perhaps that's the white chocolate angle, and then it gets some of the buttery vanilla ice cream notes like Detestable Putrescence, but then it settles and still gives me a strong Andes mint vibe.  Weirdly, after the initial whoosh of the ice cream richness, it goes a bit dark chocolate dry again and then...

Oh, yes, this is Thin Mints.

Oh maaaaaaan

<review ends abruptly>

This is very environmental.  Reminds me a bit of Halloween: New Orleans (the Atmo Spray).  

In the bottle it's all grassy oak, like the smell of dirt under a big tree in a park.  On me, it gets a bit of the dustiness from the orris root, and the osmanthus and/or olive blossom, kind of like the Panacea Succor... very calming, and a bit potent on the olive floral note.  It's a very distinctive, grounding sweet, slightly savory aroma.  It reminds me a lot of 'The Olive Blossom' mushy green soap from LUSH (which is amazing!).  The oak is still in the background being all oaky, and then with a bit more time, the olive blossom recedes a smidge to let the scent of Spanish Moss peek through, draping over the oak, which persists at grounding this in a very wearable, but still quite environmental fragrance.  

Huh.

Though the 'saltwater note' is not listed, something about the combination of these notes brings to mind the somewhat (on my skin) tortilla-chip like salt note that is in some of Beth's oceany offerings.  I have no clue what's doing this!  Maybe a combination of the snappy carnation, or the benzoin rich resinousness, mixed with that slight high pitch indole of ylang-ylang.  Regardless initially it's a bit distracting but may be my own skin chemistry.  

With a bit of time, on me at least it still keeps that same smush of salt, which may actually be what happens when I get a lot of lush petals of the rose and carnation type together.  It's sidling a bit adjacent over time to me like a tamer Peacock Queen, or Pink Snowballs - all dewy, but then the dewy floral veers into vanilla, but then I smell only the buttery part - oh, that's it - I'm getting a bit confused with the interplay between slight foodiness, probably brought up stronger by the benzoin which is making it detour out of the road of foody and into the road-adjacent resin incense vendor.  But only slightly.  We still have the flowers from before.  They still read mostly as carnation, but the ylang gives a more indolic exotic bite on top.  

Clearly this perfume has a lot to say!  It is also complicated.  Over time it goes more towards floral than vanilla, and is definitely not sugary syrupy sweet, but maybe the pink part is tea roses.  I think with more wear, this most resembles the Yule Pink Snowballs, but with added oomph with the carnation pepperiness and the ylang.  

Ok, so I definitely love the color of the hair, and I adore Beth's takes on 'green.'  With so many notes, I had no idea where this would go - would it be tropical, like a jungle, right velvety leaves and wet dampness?  Would it be fruity from the apple and neroli?  Or could it go herbal with the coriander?  Sweet with the amber?

This is a bit of a morpher.  Splashed on it is immediately a bit apple juice-like, wet and bursting with an almost top note of cider fruitiness.  Afterwards I get a bit of the coconut and palm leaves - a smidge in scents like Black Pearl or other nautical scents, and then a kiss of fig leaf.  The whole thing then cools a smidge, with a very simple mint.  I can feel the cooling on my skin but this is not wintery.  It's, breezy, for lack of a better term.  The tea leaf brings to mind Holiday Moon, although this still stays very much smooth, slight apple, mint.  The labdanum and amber are not supremely forward, but something has to be grounding this, and it is definitely not just a series of top notes.  I think it's like... a bunch of light pastel and bright yellow green balloons, swirling in the breeze.  

It has pretty light life on me, but it's very pleasant.  The cooling is a nice touch.  It dries down to a light granny smith apple touch with maybe a hint of crushed herbs and the velvety part of a leaf.

I nearly missed this, glad I checked Facebook after seeing Beth's NOT EVERY MOON IS A SUPERMOON (Karen) post.  Thank goodness!

I was like ah.  Many of my favorite notes all together?  Into the cart.

I have some infused jojoba oil with Blue Lotus, as the EO itself is rare and precious - this is from Nature's Gift and was an oil extraction of the lotus petals.  I can smell the slightly funky, cold, but also deeply sweet aroma of lotus.  It's hard to describe, but to me, the lotus absolutes have a slightly... deep, almost rubbery (but not in a bad way!) note, which is blended with a very intriguing, hypnotic... otherness.  It has always straddled the line between striking and stunning, like push/pull, slightly repellant but so much so that you have interest in still smelling.  Sort of like my relationship with mugwort, except lotus on me goes to sublime hypnotic background of smooth, soft-spoken floral on me.  

As the blend dries, I get a bit more of the sweeter topnote of violet petals.  Though, if you waved this at me description unseen, I would not describe this as violet primary (slightly sad, but also, super glad this reads as more lotus forward without being bubblegum lotus).  If there is orris it is providing a very subtle dustiness in the backdrop, but is also not overriding the lotus.  I have been a staunch collector of Blue Moons, and though they vary, I think many have blue lotus, and I absolutely love how it remains discoverable even with repeated wrist snorfling.

I admit... I blind bought a few.  If you love lotus, with a hint of a deep blue-purple cloud of florals supporting, please to get this blend.

I need something gentle, charismatic, inspiring, and why not a Twilight Alchemy Blend?

This is very strongly rose and melissa (that topnote of lemon balm), also with a thin but present note of honey floating above the rose.  Initially the rose is wet, quite dewy, damp, with a bit of time it softens a smidge but this is still very rose forward.  The jasmine now comes out a bit as a smokey almost incense-like topnote, you can tease it apart from the rose, and then... wow, there's the sweet smush of a subtle but strawberry pulp.  Though I'm not getting much immortelle (helichrysum) it may be hiding under everything or supporting the bright floral/fruit that is the initial weartime.  

I'm a huge rose amplifier (Elizabeth of Bohemia?  Ehhhh?) so after some time it still reads very much as a dewy real rose.  I think that tempering the complete floral is the honey, vanilla, and butter.  Benzoin is vanilla-like (and I am a smidge worried about using benzoin directly on my skin as it -can- be a sensitizer), though none of that is a primary note.

Throw: intense!  Immense!  

Lasting Power: <in progress> but so far, hours

Starts off very slushy, and dirty, and atmospheric.  Kind of like day old dirty snow, but not in a bad way.  I smell a little bit of that wintergreeny top note of birch.  It passes through a bit of a phase where it smells like Yggdrasil before aging morphed it super minty, and then... yes, florals.  This is quite unique!  I would say there are raccoons now rutting above me, but it's just my neighbors.

Oh... wait...

Cheers! Shards of white musk and brittle white olibanum glinting with muguet, Riesling grapes, ambergris accord, and elemi.

Wet, it's a subdued champagney scent, with maybe a hint of aquatic (ambergris?).  

Immediately on, I get a TON of the ambergris as a salty waxy resin, then the olibanum (frankincense) delicately in the background, first... then, well, here comes the muguet, as a chorus of waxy flowers, just rising to the middle of the pack.  I can definitely get a bit more of the smoky olibanum as time passes, any hint of champagne is not overpowering.  Oh!  There's maybe a hint of my beloved Sea of Glass, but it... doesn't go all the way to that crystal clarity, it's a bit more fluffy with the powdery white musk and ambergris working together to ensure this is not super high pitched.  

I'd say maybe it's a variant of Sea of Glass with more smokyness due to the olibanum.  Now that I smell this on me, I have to wonder if Sea of Glass (which has no listed notes) also has a bit of ambergris accord.  

I'm not sure what elemi smells like.  My brain does this thing where I see 'elemi' and think 'emu,' which are not the same thing... 

This is an interesting scent for sure.  Throw is low-moderate, but when I get a whiff it's arresting.

The end is nigh: sweet pink musk, spun sugar, red currant, candied rose petals, and rose jelly.

In the bottle, this is a strong, very candy-like rose, a bit of Hope, but there's definitely sooooo much sugar, even a bit of Sugar Skull sweetness?  The jelly, spun sugar, sweet, candied, so much... makes this a very powerful sugary scent.  The red currant does add a bit of sharp snappiness, but it's presenting floral forward (and that flower is... ja... no, ROSE).

Initially on, I get much more of the red currant, but only for a moment, and then a hint of a kind of pastille candy, maybe a conversation heart, but then the conversation becomes a shouting, shouting match of ROSE, PETALS, ROSE, with maybe a bit of cotton candy and bubblegum peeking around, but always walloped by the rose!  The color I get is definitely a pink.  Pink, catastrophic, end-times pink, like, the world is engulfed in a deluge of petals, and there is no escape.

With some time, it still remains rose-forward but is not a single like 'The Rose' or 'The First Rose,' there's enough extra sugary-ness and crystallized sugar around that it is a candy rose.  Much more potent than Hope.  Much, much more so.  

Wet, gritty, deep lavender.

On skin, immediately the deep, husky oudh is apparent, over a very purple cloud of lavender.  With a bit of time, the dark oudh deepens, even, getting a touch of that feral quality.  Mostly getting a dark green, velvety leaf from the oakmoss/violet leaf combination that is not terribly overbearing.  Generally rose geranium shrieks on me, but I'm not getting much of that character at all.  The Snake Oil languishes in the background as a bit of exotic sweet, but it's primarily a rich lavender-oudh.  It's so... very potent, this is a scent that does not take prisoners.

Over even more time, it fuses into a very smooth, velvety blanket of deep oudh.