RedPersimmon

I get a soapy blast in the bottle, but within seconds on my skin, I get the aforementioned purpleness and the iris and sage. This has low throw and now, just a few minutes after I applied it to the back of my hands, I can barely smell it. Oh wait! Now I'm getting the leather. Not getting much patchouli... but a little blackcurrant around the edges. It smells very clean but also very dry. Might be the ambergris--salty and dry. Interesting. The scents come and go and there's a dynamic interchange here where you think one note has gone away, but it comes back later on.

I like scents with low throw because I easily get headaches from strong scents and with this, I forget it's on and then I smell my hand and it's like I have a little secret that no one knows about.

This is very musky on me. Animalic, leathery, sweet with a little cardamom. Medium throw. I applied it in 75-degree F weather (That's winter in LA for you!) and three hours later, it's become a woodsy, vanilla musk skin scent. The sweetness (fig?) in it does remind me of something in the night sky, but the leather and musk definitely bring things down to earth.

Orion actually reminds me of a large, furry, winter animal. This could easily be named Ursa Major instead of Orion.

Edit: So I've had my decant for about a month, and I think I'm obsessed with it now! In the beginning, it was an odd scent that I neither loved nor hated. I don't really like it when it's wet, but after the first 15 minutes, the tobacco-leather-musk-spice thing becomes sooo intoxicating: comfy and confident and sexy but not in-your-face. Out of the 2017 Yules, Orion ties with The Air and the Ether for my favorite but it's Orion that I crave the smell of. This is going to be my first BPAL bottle!

Quick in-the-decant review: Bitter, woody, spicy oudh. Pretty strong while wet.

Edit: Smells like Sprite (the carbonated drink) while wet. I also get the red musk vibe. I'm definitely liking it better the second time around. I layered it with a non-BPAL, Briar Rose by Ineke (Black raspberry, bitter almond, exotic spices, black violet, patchouli and cacao absolute) and LOVED it.

Quick in-the-decant review: Damp, woody oudh. If this scent had a color, it would be red. Actually, maybe that's the cinnamon that I'm smelling. The Magis would do well layered, as another reviewer mentioned.

Quick in-the-decant review: Very strong, spicy, rounded rose scent. Well blended. None of the notes are fighting against each other.