Lycanthrope

 

Bright mimosa in the bottle with a hint of spices.

 

On the skin, this is a swoosh of mimosa petals and neroli.  This reminds me a LOT of Mania, for some reason.  There's not strawberry listed as a note but I get a very edible candy sweetness/floral.  With a bit of time, there's a bit of a uniform greenery, almost like... basil?  or some kind of neutral herb, adding some light leafiness to the floral fruit, then it starts getting closer to an orange / orange blossom aroma.  Hanging in the far back is a whisper of the deep base of Snake Oil, but it's not overpowering.  

 

With time, it actually even veers a little into lemony-citrus territory, and I wonder if the mimosa is doing some of that.  

 

Overall very light, youthful, quite unique.  I like it!

 

This is so... very different.

 

Wet, I get a very gravelly ice, just like Black Ice's sleet and slush note.  I don't know what I'm getting as a rocky scent.  It's not a very sweet mint, for those concerned this is a Yule-bright peppermint.  It's quite dark, muddy, in fact.  There's a bit of a gray-blue coldness to this.  Distant, and I'm not getting a lot of Snake Oil's general sultry red-ness.  I wonder if maybe the snowdrop is adding a bit of a strange, waxy petal-ness over the slushy snake, but it's an intriguing combination.  If there's some salt in it, I'm getting some of what BPAL's salty note does to me, which is a touch of tortilla-corn.  

 

Very odd.  I'll keep at wearing it.  It's not quite what I envisioned it to be.

 

This smells very smooth in the bottle, sweet woods.

 

On, this immediately brings to mind Liz but without the pepperyness or the smoldering smoke.  I'm getting more of the vanilla and amber, and less of the milk and smoky frankincense.  The clove, if present, truly is just a little drop since I'm not getting a very strong spicy vibe.  This stays very close to the skin, and does have light throw, but it's silken smooth, and remains a non-foody vanilla floating over a dry, medium weight sandalwood.  I'll have to give it more wear time.

 

Very much a beautiful lavender when wet.  I anticipate this would be an excellent bedtime scent.

 

After it sits for a while, I'm getting a bit of that rich slightly sweet resin from benzoin, but it's just a hint.  The carnation is a delicate white whisper in the background, just enough, without being too flashy.  I love carnation.  There's a bit of a hoppy/herbal backdrop from the juniper and hops together, grounding it a bit.  I think the blue musk (which generally evades my detection but is present) is lending an ethereal whisper glow to the whole blend.  It's so elegant and restrained!  

 

TKO for me is nice but often too sweet, this seems a nice alternative.  Going to give it some wears, including bedtime.  If this helps me drift off to sleep... there may be multiple bottles of this in my future...!

 

From the bottle, this smells buttery, coconut, marshmallow.  I'm excited.

 

Fresh on, this is milk, chewy, syrupy coconut milk, with the benzoin adding a bit more depth to the foodiness.  

 

I'm really looking for the lilac or petals... but am not really finding either.  It's settling into a very rich, dense, marshmallow/vanilla resin scent, with a little sprinkling of coconut.  

 

Hrm.  Either the flowers are so well blended that they're hard to find, or perhaps this is more about the foodier notes.  It's still very potent, and would please coconut lovers and marshmallow lovers.

Definitely fresh, bright, tart yuzu from the bottle.  A bit of a departure from past Snow Moons?

 

On, the yuzu does its thing, and gets a bit... settled, and then I'm getting white apple and yuzu, a very fruity moon.  I can get a bit of the snowdrops and a very, very faint slushy pine, but at least on me, the fruits really keep it up and I still get a rind-y orange/yuzu, almost kind of sangria-like in its intensity.  I'm not getting musk, not on myself at least.  

 

My chemistry must be super weird, since I invited the Queen of the North to my party, and instead of being Isabelle Humprettia the Third, all reserved, icy, and judgy, I'm getting Becky Noonan from Delta Tri-Kappa-Phi-Pi-Delta, who has brought her own fixins' to make a proper southern (or Japanese fusion?!?) white wine sangria, with sliced apples and yuzu.  Becky's fun, don't get me wrong, but this is a bit of a surprise given the moon concept.

 

Definitely not what I was expecting, but marvelous.

 

When I first sprayed this, the combination of notes read forward to me as 'Christmas?' 'Pine?'

 

That probably was the oakmoss and tea together conspiring to make me dream of Yules.  That burned off quickly though to reveal a very fresh, tasty mint.  I think it's a combination of peppermint and spearmint, since it's not the sweetest pepperminty scent, but like the perfect butter mint, and then behind it is a swell of gritty, growly patchouli.  A little smokyness from the frankincense, but not enough to launch it into incense territory, it's a very unique, cold, green, chewy, patchouli-mint.  

 

Yay!

Well, now, this is a beautiful floral with a hint of sweetness.  It's the best honeysuckle ever.  On me, honeysuckle gets all sharp and shrill, so I have to be careful wearing it.  In the air, though... oh my.  

 

Please don't miss this if you're a fan of BPAL's honeysuckles.

 

If you do, you'll... totally... suck...le.

 

:L

 

Wow!

 

Well, this is definitely very, very leather-forward.  It's the cool leather note, and when first spritzed, I swear it's almost a sprayable harness, hah hah!

 

In all seriousness, there's a hint of the lavender present when you're smelling the top of the sprayer.  When dispersed into the air, yes, leather is very apparent, but behind it is a very well blended warmth, although it's a bit of a stand-offish warmth, if that makes sense.  The amber, musk and labdanum give a bit of support, but in no means do I get resinous from this at all.  It's very sensuous, but also callous, in only the best way.

This smells very similar to the Wretched Rose Window and Numb on me.  I really, really loved Numb.  That being said, I don't know if I can wear something so... dry powdery floral?  And it may be that a decant is sufficient.  This doesn't smell too 'creamy' for those wondering if the whipped cream goes into foody territory.  

I've made a sachertorte from scratch before.  You chop lots, and lots of bittersweet chocolate, a bit of flour, but also make a meringue base to fold the cake base into.  There's an apricot jam reduction you boil the fruit and strain out the pulp for a liquid glaze alone (some varieties allow for raspberry, but I think the authentic one is apricot only).  You also melt EVEN MORE chopped chocolate into a liquid chocolate glaze to pour over the large single tier sponge cake.  It's pretty dry, but you have to eat it with authentic, fresh-whipped heavy cream.  

 

This scent is a dry, dark, dark chocolate.  This is liquid richness, with a hint of apricot jam to my nose.  It's perhaps one of the most true chocolate scents I have tried from BPAL, and I'm hard pressed not to blow my budget just to get a few bottles of this!  

 

In bottle, smells wet, a bit rainy, tiny bit soapy.  This is how ambergris reads to me.  

 

Immediately on it takes a nice little swing into very soapy category, but that mellows out pretty quickly as a little bit of a brighter, sharper tone underneath shimmers.  This has a very metallic type of scent, I think of aluminum or a shiny stainless steel.  I have some flashbacks to Bed of Nails, in that it's a metallic, modern type of fresh scent.  I'm sure there's a some blue musk in here, since I get that kind of sweet, round background musk that recalls Blue Moon.  

 

I'm always looking out for violet scents, and that being in the description I jumped at it, but I'm not really getting anything floral-forward or violet petal, if it there it is very quiet.

 

This reads as a metallic rain, mixed with a kiss of blue musk.  Not bad, but I think the one bottle is good for me.

 

Very snowy, like Snowball fight in NYC snowy.  A sweet, fruitier slush.  

 

I'm trying to seek out the black leather.  I'm sure it's there, but this is not a leather-forward scent.  I get a few hints of the cleaner, crisper cold black leather note but it's supporting the snow.  I can imagine this would be a discarded riding crop lying in a snowbank.  It's nice, and straightforward, striking more of the pine-slush-snow note buttons rather than leather, which was the opposite of what I hoped.  Will take some more wears to get a full impression.

This is extremely juicy and fruity. A salty kind of lime-yellow citrus bright, bubbly blackberry, with a hint of that salt and sea note. I don't get very much violet

It's very youthful, and very potent. Does read as neon, but definitely less floral than I thought it would be! Going to give it some wears.

It's summery, brash, and quite loud.

I was hoping for the violet ice cream above, but I don't get too much of that, just very dusty orris (like Staged Moon landing?) The lily of the valley adds a distinctively pompous white floral, but it's a bit of a sour/sweet one (as lily of the valley is). The vanilla cream on me is not too foody, but this turns out to be more of a dry, powdery dusting powder on me instead of violet ice cream. Hope springs eternal and I'll wait for that someday, but this is still ok. I don't think I'm as head over heels as I hoped I'd be.

Super light and airy wet from the bottle.

On skin, it's a very wonderful topnote of frankincense (olibanum), with a bit of creaminess and thrummy warm gumminess of labdanum. The olive blossom reminds me of Succor (I love(d) that blend!). The spikenard/cade/cardamom add a little herbal spiciness to the resins and it ends up feeling very comforting, supportive... for me those resins send up meditation vibes. It's still very light, not too 'churchy,' though as it dries down sparkles of the frankincense resin predominate. Cardamom is nice but not too powerful, as it can be, just a kiss.

Wonderful!

Another earthy offering from the Empress!

From the bottle, this is more fir-heavy, but is a swirl of mostly coniferous, sappy evergreens, but backed up with a touch of oaky woods. The cedar and cypress are trying to peek through.

Dabbed on the skin, whoa, whoa nelly, oh, man, I am Become Conifer!

STAND ASIDE, YOU ANGIOSPERMS
FOR WE ARE THE STUBBIER, SCRAGGLIER PIONEERS
TO CONSERVE WATER WE DEVELOPED THICK NEEDLES
(WHICH REQUIRE SIGNIFICANT SUN EXPOSURE)
IN MOST FOREST ECOSYSTEMS WE PROMULGATE FIRST
THEN YOU FROO FROO BROAD LEAFED WHIPPERSNAPPERS
COME IN AND OVERSHADOW US
KILLING OUR TINY IMMOBILE SAPLINGS

...BUT WE LIKE CLEARINGS
AND GROW IN COPSES WHEN ONE OF YOU FALLS
SO WATCH YOUR BACK!
GYMNOSPERM PRIDE
FIE, FIE YOU OAK
BEWARE NEEDLES IN YOUR BA®K!

In more fragrance related news from that odd divergence: This is a HUGE blast of needly green things. It's on me almost a bit much and reads almost as Single Note: Holiday Christmas Tree to me. It's very natural, just strong, and even for its strong opener, it actually fades pretty fast on me. This is common when I'm wearing any 'evergreen' note. With about half an hour, it's a whisper of mostly a bit of dry fir, and some cedar warmth, but beyond that, not too much else comes roaring to the surface.

If you're a big fan of evergreens, don't pass this one up, it's an experience, true, but at least on me died down pretty quick.

This sounds like an amazing Shunga Salon-type blend. I had to try it for the sakura and hiba cedarwood alone!

Sniff from bottle is ... confusing. It's very subtle, light, at first, but then I think it's trying to be topnote of neroli, a hint of frankincense resin, and then I get a background of warm peachy peach. A hint of honey sweet that then turns a little syrupy, I think of crystal clear simple syrup. No idea why.

Wet, it's... cedar? But like hinoki type, clear, not too woodsy, oh, and there's the spicy cream of cherry blossom. There's a bit of a swell of orange-blossom candy neroli and peach roiling together in the first few minutes, and I'm reminded of fruit candies, like some kind of exotic floral candy (There's actually an old-school Japanese candy called 'Flower's Kiss,' which has inexplicably pictures of flowers all over the wrappers but is in actuality an apricot hard candy... I used to have these a lot as a kid, and couldn't place the flavor - what a naive non-BPAL person I was! Apricots!). This does remain fairly sweet, and light, on my hand.

With a bit of time, I can start to get more of the slightly sharp cedarwood - japanese cedar? Or something... It's definitely taking this a bit away from pure candy and sweetness. It still remains pretty strong on the peach/peach blossom, with the sakura and cedarwood giving a distinctively Japanese-style Salon flair. I'm not getting frankincense as a dominant scent, but it must be doing something to unify everything and ground these lighter notes, like a background glow.

From the bottle whiff: High pitched, bright, clarion call creamy gardenia petals. A bit of sweetness, but without too much foodiness. Waxy, but waxy like buttercream frosting, not candles.

Wet, the gardenia is joined by tuberose, and the two make for a distinctively LOUD opener. Heady, sensual, yes, but very tropical and extremely white floral! There's a more floral vanilla attempting to bring down the florals over the first 10-15 minutes, a little tickle of cream at the edges of the floral bouquet. I'm sniffing around, it's getting... somehow, smoother? The initial very potent tropical blast is starting to calm down into a very interesting combination of scents. I'm getting a little bit of a salty, smoky amber, but just a hint. Like an extinguished vanilla incense stick. I think I'm actually getting a kiss of white musk, but again not dominating.

Over time, this has a bit of a 'gauzy' overtone with the florals amazingly draped over but not dominating the central notes of the blend, which strike me as being a very inoffensive, well-blended melange of subtle incense, a white or light amber, and a mysterious vanilla that grounds this, without making it dessert-y.

Over time, the tuberose starts to be stronger than the gardenia, but that could just be my skin... as it does that to tuberose.

Glittery diaphanous gauze over a polished ivory marble stone, strewn with ripped tuberose petals.

From the bottle whiff, I get immediately a pine scent, with a swirl of very verdant, wet and sappy greenery. Not foreboding, but definitely a lot going on. The image I get is a glossy mix of obsidian and emerald. There's a bit of a 'Tramp' feel from this, for you LUSHies.

Immediately on the skin it's patchouli and pine, both vying for attention. Around this vacillation between airy, clear and klaxon pine, patchouli grumbles and gives everything a loamy, soily feel. I'm now getting the hay, which is of a slightly damp persuasion. This is all forest, a coniferous one. Not too heavy on the soil and dirt notes, although there is the patchouli, but what makes it so foresty is the combination of all the subtle, woodsy/oak, gummy, rooty scents. The moss and lichen does add a bit of an ashy/rocky feel to it.

As time passes, this actually gets a touch drier, more of a solid wood, with pine needles gracing it but not dominating. It settles on me into a very smooth, non-cacophonous 'forest.'

Although this isn't a dead ringer for the sadly discontinued LUSH Tramp, it has the similar feel of moss, patchouli, and nymphlike greenery.

I like it! I think one bottle is enough for me since this is very environmental. Lovers of Black Forest or similar aromas, please try this!

Wet, this is a spicy, warm frankincense with a bit of a gummy, resinous sweetness from the labdanum. It's definitely very magical smelling, like the curl of a smoldering frankincense tear. The saffron is providing a bit of a dry pepperiness in the background. I think the oudh and red musk are making this a bit more 'warm' in tone, but strangely it's not super 'oriental,' and in fact remains very crisp and clear. None of the resins are 'gummy' per se. The musks are smooth and straightforward, and I think the white musk makes this have a bit of a chillier, bright tone.

It's very nice, very magical.

Super intrigued!

Wet, it smells very cold, almost like a splinter of blue-black dark. I bet there are some opium notes in this because I get that soporific swell in some of the poppy-containing blends. Labdanum is one of those notes I love, but also jumps out on me, and the poppy-black-musk opening becomes gummy with warmth on my skin and lets out a spicy-sweet cloud of labdanum, made gritty and husky with the patchouli. This is really, really heavy and basically is prowling off my skin. Interestingly, it isn't until at least 15 minutes later, that I can get a bit of the oakmoss/lilac/violets. These are not whomp you on the head florals or greens... a tangle or dark crown or wreath of gray-green foliage scattered with dark, subtle petals, but still a menacing arrangement, lurking in the shadows.

I like this, but it is farrrrrr to dark for this bright violet-wearing metal-aquatic werewolf.

Still, this is super dark, moody, sexy. Complicated and layered. Even with the florals, I think this is unisex and may even transform based on who's wearing it... again on me, a guy, it's an unconventional, dark musky in tone with bruised purple florals lurking but not showy in the background.

In the bottle, this is surprisingly less citrus than I would have guessed from the notes. It's mostly a whiff of a lemon kiss gliding over the meat of a coconut. The lemon like notes then veer more towards lemongrass, but it's subtle and not super sharp, as that note can be. With a little more time and heat from my skin, the coconut becomes more apparent, deepening, and then kissed and brushed with dusty medium brown sandalwood (a sweet, not super sharp, but just thrummy enough woodsiness to ground the higher notes)... and there's a bit of gourmand from the vanilla. Certainly not truly foody, but having elements of both the resinous citrus and yet creamy spice variety. With even more time, the lemon notes deepen and I can swear that the spritz of a lemon rind is now more apparent.

On me, the scent does become quite subtle, and mostly a tasty buttery lemon-coconut.

I'm questing a lot in Stormheim in World of Warcraft... so this scent spoke to me as a Valarjar / Questing type of scent!

Wet, this is a very cool, ozonic scent. Kind of murky deep cobalt blue, not very 'snow/slush' as I would expect initially.

On me, I get an immediate lift of eucalyptus and spearmint together, all kind of sitting on a bunch of fir and dark spruce. I think there's a tiny touch of rock in this, because it's got a bit of grit. I can get the juniper as well, that's probably what I'm interpreting as a melange of coniferous scents. As it dries it definitely veers quickly into the conifer territory, mostly a mixed northern forest with a hint of cool from the breeze of mint and ice. It has very low throw on me, but I can get whiffs as I type.

Get this if you love Beth's interpretation of forests, this is definitely a chilly, borean one.

Very lilac when wet. A beautiful, light and sweet lilac. There's a hint of fruitiness. This reminds me of Blue Flasher, with its slightly berry floral. The blueberry is not terribly potent, though. A hint of squishy blue juice! There's a streak of brown-gray smoke, the tobacco adding a little darkness and depth. I can also smell a bit of a powdery sparkle, clay-like, but lighter. Must be the sage and orris! I think there are kisses of sweet pea dancing about as well. This is very complicated. Lilac lovers should try this. And if you liked Blue Flasher, you should definitely give this bolster a whirl.