leptonpyr

I've been *fascinated* reading the other reviews, because very few of them seem to reflect the experience I'm having with this one. I am new to fragrance, so it's quite possible I'm just not correctly identifying what I'm smelling, but I definitely have not noticed anything "green" or "wet stone" at all. I've tried other fragrances that definitely evoke the wetness of moss, for instance (one BPAL example would be The Witch/Strega, which definitely evokes dampness), but this one I can only describe as dry and spicy. It's pretty much been one-note on me all day, just very sharp and peppery; no other notes have made an appearance. It smelled complex and a little fruity in the bottle, and I was excited to try it, but whatever fruitiness I got from the bottle disappears completely on me. I hate to gender fragrances, but to me this just smells so strongly like something that would be marketed FOR MEN in an all-caps sans serif font, you know the kind of marketing I'm describing. It almost reminds me of aftershave? I don't think this one's a match for my skin chemistry, sadly.

So I bought a decant from another forum-user and I think I'm in LOVE, will probably see if I can find a bottle at some point. I'm sad I hadn't discovered BPAL yet when this was released! On me this is a delicious blend of every note listed, except for fig, which I don't think I ever got. I would describe it as smelling both creamy and resinous--I get a little toasted rice, a little coconut, a little champaca resin, and those three notes seem to be a MAGICAL combination on me. The champaca resin is very noticeable/prominent at first, but it blends gorgeously with the other notes and doesn't blot out everything else. After about an hour or so the champaca recedes a bit and the toasted rice/coconut becomes more prominent--I was delighted to find that when I sat outside in the sun, it brought the champaca right out again! Seems to be more champaca-forward in heat/sun, more rice/coconut-forward in the air-conditioned indoors. By the end of the day it had developed a really lovely, almost smoky vanillic aspect, and I started getting more of the almond cream. Really swooning over this one, sad I have so little of it!

So this was a fascinating one for me--I'm new to fragrances, and I think this was the first time I was finally able to really "get" the skin musk note! In the bottle and immediately after putting it on, the predominant note is the lemon. I wouldn't say it's an especially intense lemon, it's a little softened (perhaps by the "sugared"-ness), but stands out as the only note I can identify at first. After a bit I started noticing the musk and amber, then it went a bit powdery on me for awhile, then it went QUITE powdery and I was worried it might not work out for me (I've noticed Bastet goes very slightly powdery on me too, so I wonder if that's the amber?)--but weirdly the powdery phase only lasted an hour, then went away completely and it was like the most gorgeous slightly lemony ambery skin musk! Smells fresh and kind of gentle. Skin musk is hard to describe, but wow, it really does just kind of smell like skin when skin just smells really good? Lasted most of the day, towards the end of the day I could only detect it by putting my nose right up against my skin, but it was definitely still there. Really liked this one, think it's made me curious about trying more skin musks. eta: I'm not sure if I ever got the honey or the vanilla cream tho (or if they were present, I just wasn't able to identify them)