Cathode

[The_Merf]

A negatively charged scent. Ambergris, Spanish Moss, oakmoss and three electric mints.

In the imp: Minty!

Wet: The "electric" part of this scent's description had always put me off, but this is actually quite interesting on my skin (I would say that the snow/mint/winter category is the category of BPAL where I have done the least testing). It's all mint at first, and very much reminds me of my Mint Medley tea, which is peppermint and spearmint. After a few seconds of contact with the skin, the oakmoss starts to emerge.

Drydown and wear: As the herbal edge of the oakmoss started to emerge, I was afraid of smelling "stale," as herbal notes often have problems combining with drastically different notes, like the mint. However, this remains pleasant on my skin, and the strength of the mint "burns off" and leaves a mixing of oakmoss and ambergris that almost reminds me of Black Cat, except with a mint cloud around it.

[little_galaxie]

Oohh, this is really nice. Smells like green grass, dark moss, and a hint of mint. I was frimped this and expected something woody and more forboding (Cathode=cathedral, get it?). Very fresh scent, but not something I would wear everyday. I'm keeping the imp, though!

Edited February 18, 2007 by little_galaxie

[sixthsentinel]

I was frimped this, & had tried it before, but it wasn't a must-get-bottle for me, so it was just "meh". But, I liked the concept, so I decided to try it again...and I think I might have to get a bottle afterall, because come summer, I can see myself reaching or this one a lot. I tend to like the way Beth's mossy notes smell on my skin, which I never would have dreamt of when I first discovered BPAL, but that's part of the glory of BPAL for me...you never know what you will discover.

 

At first, the minty & watery notes are what's noticable on my skin & I really, really like this stage. In minutes, the mossy notes subdue the others (although they remain present in the background). It smells clean & cool & earthy, maybe a murky brownish-green if I had to describe it as a color.

[Medici]

In the imp: Mint-aux-max and mossy moss.

 

Wet: Sweet mint and fresh grass. I've always been a little off-put by ambergris. In fact, in the two or so years I've been worshipping at the Altar of BPAL, I don't think I've ever actively sought out a scent with the note. So this is a first, and while I love minty scents for their cooler aspects, I really can't pick off anything particularly offensive to my nose here (as I thought ambergris and I wouldn't agree with each other.) It's barely there. In fact, I quite like it actually.

 

Yay, a revelation!

 

Drydown: Still minty with a little musk, almost cologne-like.

 

Cathode's fresh. Maybe not my favourite mint from the catalogue, but nonetheless refreshing and pleasant.

 

3/5 on Medici's Scale o' Lurve

[jasmine]

I expected something high-pitched and unpleasant, but instead this is a simple, warm (not spicy, just warm) medium tone that seems a bit masculine to me.

 

Given a bit of time, it layers quietly to itself and stops being so masculine. I would almost swear I had a floral on top, now, though there isn’t one in the notes list. The mints are polite and do not announce themselves.

 

This is nice, but it’s difficult for me to describe it to myself in a way that will make it come to mind later. It’s not generic, but everything I have to say about it sounds generic; this scent blends together so well that no aspect of it is obtrusive. I need to learn to recognize the scent of ambergris alone so I can try to pick out the ambergris and the oakmoss.

 

It still strikes me as masculine, but in a nice, unintrusive way. Good enough; I’ll try it on somebody else.

[brit_brat100]

Imp: Sweet minty goodness.

 

Wet: This reminds of Thalassa, in mint. Very pretty. Not what I was expecting at all.

 

Dry: OXY Pads. I used these when I was a pre-teen and smelling this brought back flash backs of those evil things.

 

Final Thoughts: I wish it stayed in the orginal imp and wet form because it's very pretty. The dry form does remind me a fresh and clean, but my pre-teen and teen years were dreaful. I don't like thinking about those times. Even though I can't use this scent, this has now inspired me to look at other mint blends that I might have passed up just because I thought they might not suite me. So this wasn't a total loss. =)

 

Hopefully, someone else can love it more.

[mspixieears]

Strong, fresh-breeze scent - at first very commercial but calming down into something floral and perhaps a hint of fruit. The balance of fruitiness and powdery florals is just right but I find that I want the fruitiness to emerge more as it's very yummy. This ended up being too masculine to my nose and it's not a keeper for me.

[n1k1ta]

Holy mother mint! Mintmintmint. That's all Cathode was in the beginning. Very green and very fresh and very enjoyable.

 

The mosses tone down the minty bite after half an hour. The perfume becomes less electric and more soothingly natural. However, there is something very scientific about this perfume. It's almost... nerdy.

 

The ambergris in here is delightfully sweet and earthy. Of course, since it has mixed with me, there is a spice note that rounds out the ambergris. It's almost floral and rather delicate.

 

If you want a green, Spring-like perfume, I highly recommend Cathode.

[GoldenRubee]

I was given an imp of this and found it to be a light floral, a little lemony with a twist of mint. It dries down quite nicely and will be perfect for those hot summer days when you just can't escape the heat. A little bit of Cathode and you can almost feel the breeze from the ocean!

[Meg]

In the bottle: Mosses and mints, as advertised.

 

Wet: A fresh green mint, very marine from abergris underneath it.

 

Drydown: Still mint and ambergris, and slightly gummy mosses coming out behind it. I get a rather sweet and powdery but also earthy scent from the oakmoss, with mint hovering above it and the aquatic ambergris at its core.

 

Overall: This is like nothing I've ever smelled before. It's earthy from the oakmoss, marine from the ambergris, and fresh with mint. It's very intriguing, it smells both familiar and very different from what I know. I think I quite like it, but I'm not sure what feelings it evokes for me.

[eatingthesea]

who knows what ambergris smells like? quick research says that its synthetic sister is often derived from clary sage. so that gives me some idea. maybe that's what gives cathode its herbaceous feel? either way, i <3 cathode very much and cannot wait to get a bottle. i love both mint and moss and they are happily married here. a little mischievous green wood sprite in a bottle. cathode is so tasty i wish i could convert it into something drinkable. perfect for those rather nasty los angeles summer days. i can't wait to battle them out draped in cathode!

[cassandrakfreaq]

this burned my nose...even after a few hours of wearing it I would sniff my wrist and my nostrils would tingle. the smell underneath the burn smells pleasant but I can't get over the harshness of the mint to get to the nice smell.

[ariansdreams]

I actually said "Yow!" out loud when I opened this frimp. How cool of me.

 

In the imp: Wintergreen and something else. Reminds me of The Apothecary, but less herbal.

 

Wet on skin: Very similar to The Apothecary. This is a minty, fresh scent. I once had a similar-smelling Dial body wash. Not the most flattering comparison, but I did like it!

 

Dry on skin: This is like The Apothecary's younger cousin on me. Yes, it is minty, fresh, and invigorating, but it doesn't give me the same "WAKE UP" feeling that I get when I wear The Apothecary. I'd say that this is the scent for you if you found the Apothecary too strong.

[Laz]

I loved this in the vial- beautifully woody and minty. However, as with most mint-based scents, my skin ate all traces of the mint and left me with a scent similiar to moss on a rainy day. It wasn't unpleasant, it's just not for me.

[gwynhwyfar]

I love mints and this was on my wish-list for a long time. Today was a hot day and I decided that it was a perfect day to give this a test-drive.

 

In the vial ... I get lots and lots of bright, shiny, LOUD mint. A very blue-green and rather zingy kind of scent.

 

Since I love mint ... I don't even pause before putting this on my skin, prepared to do a happy dance of minty joy.

 

For about four seconds, that was what I did ... And then I-don't-know-what came up off my wrist and tried to strangle me. Instant headache -- If I were going to guess, I'd guess that it has pennyroyal in it because this is the same kind of headache that I get from pennyroyal.

 

Sadly, I had to scrub the top layer of skin off and the scent is still faintly there. So it definitely has strong staying power. It's a shame that it wants to kill me.

[Miseraya]

Let me preface this by saying I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking when I decided to get this, almost none of the notes play nice with my skin.

 

In the imp: Sharp mint, spearmint I think.

 

On the wrist: Briefly the same as in the imp, and then powdery.

 

Dry: Powder, minty talcum powder. I have no idea what made me think this would work on my skin.

[Contrary]

Hmm, this was a much more complex scent than I expected, particularly from the descriptions. I got it because I wanted a mint, but so far I've gotten no more than a faint undertone (and most of hte time I can't even smell that.) I don't think I've ever had a scent change so many times on me.

 

Wet, it's a very aquatic, light green scent; NOT mint; someone here mentioned honeydew, and that's not quite right to me but closer than anything else I can think of.

 

As it dries what I guess is the moss came out. It went into a dusty moss with some cooler greens phase, and then for a little while was exactly the scent of hay bales, wet and drying in the sun. I like that kind of scent a lot, so no problems there.

 

Sharpened up again and for a bit I got detergent or fabric softener.

 

Then for a while I got cool wet blue-green again, like sniffing a bed of lush moss or leaves just after someone let an ice cube melt on it. Here if I looked for it I could get just a hint of mint, but it certainly wasn't waving its hands around at me.

 

Now it's settled down into something oddly earthy - from the description on this page:

http://www.profumo.it/perfume/natural_perf..._ambergris.html

I think it must be the ambergris. Very interesting.

 

I haven't decided if I like it overall yet; it definitely had some interesting moments. If I needed a scent for horseback riding or hiking, this might well be it.

[Naamah_Darling]

Hmm. Not as bad as I had feared. This is subtle and cool green, slightly mossy and slightly minty in the bottle. Pretty, if not my thing.

 

There's definitely more here than the mint, though the throw is coolly minty. Up close it has a chokingly dense field of green moss. This is juicy, cool, a clean scent, very pleasant. I can't decide if it's light or heavy, though. I'm going with heavy and slightly waterlogged, but not overpowering. This is very damp on me, but has very little throw.

 

As it dries, it becomes more minty and more spicy, the ambergris I suppose. It's a very odd note.

 

The drydown is woody and funky with that same dank moss note that's in Zombi. The ambergris is still lingering.

 

Neat.

[eleventhousand]

This is very mentholated on me. I was hoping for something more chypric...what with the ambergris and moss.

 

 

 

This might sound weird, but I am going to put some on my dog.

I think I would suit her and she's just had a bath.

 

 

 

[WidgetAlley]

Given to me by the lovely Christy.

 

In the Imp: I love, love, LOVE the way this one smells in the Imp. It's almost impossible to describe-- it's not sweet, but sort of is, and deep, and cool, and a teensy bit minty. It's a bit like cool shade on a hot summer day. Ohhh, I loves it, my precious. If it doesn't work on me I'll cry.

 

Wet: Warm and green and mossy and almost... neutral, a second-skin sort of smell rather than one that screams "PERFUME!" This is how I should smell naturally. It's detectable from several inches away, but you would never ever suspect that it was coming from a person. It's very organic, only not in a gross horse manure way. It's almost... sort of.... salty? Must be the oakmoss.

 

Dry: The salt got stronger for a bit, and then started to fade, but not entirely. Maybe it's interacting with the last bits of Red Phoenix on my arm. Hmmm. Well. It's... not what I wanted it to be, but it's not bad, either. If it smelled like it did in the bottle on my skin, I'd be jumping for joy. As it is... hrm. I wonder if it would turn salty on my clothes? If not, it might be worth investigating as a laundry scent. *sigh* Why does my skin ruin everything?

[Zeljana]

first - minty, but there is so much more going on in that imp

on skin - this is so beautiful, it's cold and warm at the same time. the drydown is so wonderful, it's sweet but not your usual sweetness. it's like sweet ice, its very aquatic and woodsy at the same time (must be the moss), but so airy and close too skin.

 

I love Talvikuu and this scent is a lot lighter version it, but it definitely has this icy airy quality. The name is totally odd for this one and I don't think it's suitable. This should be Shakespeare's Ariel, or Poliahu, the snow goddess.

 

 

Love it -5/5

[Ishtar]

Cathode was an imp generously thrown into one of my orders by the Lab. I would never have ordered it for myself as ozone / aquatic scents usually turn very wrong on my skin.

Even after receiving the imp and sniffing it once, I was in no hurry to try it, as I was convinced that I would have to go wash it off after a little while.

 

Of course, we all know where this story is headed: I was wrong, the Lab was right, I am keeping Cathode

I do have a bit of a complicated relationship with this scent, though. I love the first few stages of wearing it: the fresh herbal notes and the mints combine into a blend unlike anything I have worn before.

 

Then, at around the hour mark, Cathode unfortunately does the typical ozone / aquatic thing on me and turns sharp, medicinal and artificial-smelling. Thoughts of washing it off go through my head. Thankfully, this is also when it starts mellowing down and staying closer to my skin, which considerably tones down the sharpness. OK, I can live with this, no need to wash it off after all.

 

It is only after several hours (during which I usually forget about it as I go about my daily activities) that the beauty of this blend strikes me. It is airy, watery, herbal, salty and best of all, it gets along beautifully with my skin. No matter how many times I wear it, I am always surprised by its wonderful balance.

It is also quite long-lasting, well over 12 hours today.

[forspecial_plate]

I was pleasantly surprised by Cathode. I was expecting a lot of bright mint, more of a high-pitched crystalline scent. Instead I am getting mostly moss I think, with the mint kind of dancing around the top. I was also afraid of it smelling like spearmint which I hate, but I really don't smell that at all. In fact, I don't really smell peppermint either....it's more like a minty feeling.

 

It goes through a long middle stage where it reminds me of a spice cabinet, some kind of savory herbs....not sage or basil, but something. Then long after that (I put it on 5 hours ago and it's still there), I think what I'm smelling is mostly the ambergris, although I don't really know what that smells like. It's not musty like moss can sometimes be on me. It's a little sweet, somewhat herbal. Basically I'm thinking 'masculine' when I wear this, along the lines of Antony.

 

It's a really good scent that works well on my skin. I will continue to wear it and consider a bigger amount than my imp.

[aquazoo]

I think I used this to clean my toilet the other day. Oh, is that not what I was supposed to think?

[bodegaselkie]

I put Cathode on without reading the description. It was immediately sweet and creamy -- I got almost no hint of mint, and none of the oakmoss, which is too bad since I adore moss notes. I suspect my skin is amping the ambergris, which it does with a lot of the BPAL resins. I suppose it's a nice ambergris scent, though, but that wasn't what Beth was aiming for, it sounds like.