Lycanthrope

Has no one reviewed this yet? Whoa.

I bought one out of my really strange 'orphan BPTP/BPAL' thing where if something has no reviews or hasn't been as popular, I tend to adopt a bottle, lol.

It smelled kind of jasmine-y from wet sniff, probably the lily skatoles. It's definitely very creamy, maybe not pink stargazer lilies, but white ebony funeral home lilies. The frankincense does add a sweet resinous glimmer, but it's not super resinous. I think there's probably a touch of a fabric or linen note but it's not like, super lacey. It's predominantely a strong white floral, pleasant. It has only light power though, otherwise it's me getting used to the floral scent really quick. I think it's nice, definitely will use up the bottle but it'd be real strong for bedtime. Unless I use my coffin, then I guess that'd be just perfect!

Huh. This is very, very similar to Snow Bunny to me, maybe just a hint on the sweeter side and even less pine-y than Snow Bunny, but it's still a predominantly slushy snow note. It is the Nuclear Winter / Spearmint-y 'sweet snow' note. The mint really is a wisp. Not bad, but I think I can forego stocking up.

[No additional description given.]

So, fiber optics have a special place in my heart because I've always had a little crow in me - love sparkly things, shiny things. And now I do flow arts, many of which glow and sparkle.

The bottle is adorbs, with the red BPAL icon struggling to peek over the giant paragraph of text in the name.

Wet, it's definitely a pine, spruce-y type of scent. I'm trying to detect if there are other notes, nothing is abjectly metallic or tin-like, so not detecting the 'iron note'. On my skin, this is not exactly straight up pine, because I'm getting a... strange tiny edge of like sparkliness. Good god, I'm terrible at this hah hah! But it's certainly not like a cacophony of fruits, or other 'bright' notes that will occasionally represent multiple colors in the BPALverse.

Drydown, it stays a lovely Christmas pine scent, without much deviation. Mild throw, so you won't destroy coworkers.

If you love pine and spruce notes, this is a straightforward, but wearable, pleasant scent.

This is surprisingly foody on me - more so like the vanilla-snow note (Kind of like Waltz of the Snowflakes), mixed with a hint of berry. The currant is not strong, but the overall scent does read a bit as 'soft snow berry tart,' which is wonderful. I think the sandalwood is adding the kind of crusty note that makes me think of pie. The violet leaf is not strong. This is soft and close to the skin, but would be great for anyone who enjoyed the soft vanilla-snow type note Beth uses.

Oh bother.

 

It's a trouble that I love oceanic scents and marines, but now I think some of the 'beach' scents or anything with 'sea salt' does the dreaded tortilla on me. The corn-chippy like smell starts off amping on me and I can't move much past that. Eventually it becomes a sweeter, less corny atmospheric light sky-aquatic, which is nice, but I just have so much trouble with the 'sand' or 'sea salt' note... sadness.

Ok, so I like this a lot!

This definitely has almost a cool, Yule-like feel to it. It smells like mud, in a good way, kind of loamy and sweet, but not as pungent with mushrooms as Graveyard Dirt. So it's a bit rich, like Penny Dreadful-level soil, a grittiness. The wood is kissed with mint, but only enough to bring the snow/slush note forward. The tar component may be like a vetiver-ish smokiness smoldering under the surface. I can definitely detect the labdanum in the drydown, which mingles with the opoponax to create a pretty unique gummy resinous base. Over time it hovers in the air a smoky resin, more than an environmental scent, and it's a lovely darkness.

I really like this!

Fresh from the spray top it smells very sweet, almost honeysuckle-ish, altough that's probably the awapuhi/white ginger blossom. The gardenia also is apparent but not the front and center player. I can detect both the sweetness of vanilla and a slightly citrussy orchid floral mixing together, it's definitely an exotic mix. The coconut does start coming forward... I was driving in my car today and sort of thought about LUSH Alkmaar, with the coconut twang and meatiness. The white musk is probably there but I can't really say it's super prominent.

I'd love to save this for a tropical vacation.

I guess the closest comparison to this is The Woman in Black.

Sprayed, it's definitely very red-musky off the initial blast, and then it definitely gets a bit more floral and is lighter in spirit than The Woman in Black. The spices are a bit lighter, and the patchouli is not 'dirty,' it adds a nice leafy depth to the red musk. The carnations are definitely a tickling high, fainter presence so they're not front and center. All in all it's quite a nice, spicy oriental floral, with emphasis on the sweetness as opposed to the spiciness. It's like... uh, I guess part of the spicy part of Morocco but definitely more forward on the patchouli, so it's not quite as smooth as Morocco. I hope that makes sense.

Ok, this is always a challenge mode when there are no notes listed. I really love both the animals, and the story... The world is a scary place but there's so much love in the passage.

 

From the bottle, I get these three notes: red musk, cedar (soft), and a little bit of... maybe mint? A hint of sassafrass or chocolate?

Immediately wet on the skin, still musky, then I get something... like from Tzadikim Nistarim, like, uh, something reedy? Papery? Oh, wait, that left. Now I get more dryness, definitely the cedarwood or sandalwood coming to the midground.

About ten minutes in, it's still pretty musk/woodsy, definitely a ... burgundy brown color to me, is there pepper in this? No, it's not pepper, but it's warm... saffron?

About thirty minutes in, it's like... a gruff snake oil + fuzzy brown resinous fuzziness.

It's really good. I think it's kind of similar to WILF and Fenris Wolf but much deeper than Fenris and not as... uh, forward, as WILF.

 

Thanks for dealing with my weird notes and my train of thought rambling.

I really wanted to like this one, as I love and adore honeysuckle (it's a rare component in BPAL, it seems). I really really like the one in Liaidan and Curuthir, that sort of honey-sweet sparkling white-gold floral. Apparently in Heel, it's just too much! I put it on and was enjoying my little honeysuckle cloud, but quietly it started amping up on me over time and then everything became just too much floral. The grassiness was present but it was like the honeysuckle sweet turned up to eleven.

 

I may try to use it in a diffuser or as an addition to a bath but on my skin it does something really odd. A very potent creamy SWEEEEEET heady floral for sure.

I'm reminded a lot of a more lavender-y Bly. This starts off with a very nice, smooth lavender, definitely not terribly herbal or anything, probably offset by the white / pale musks. The drydown is a soft rain-lashed asphalt, very much like Bly with that quiet concrete grayness, mist, and it smells kind of like... rainstorms... the smell of the road afterward.

 

Yes, I totally go outside after a rainstorm in Denver to smell the earth.

It's interesting what our skin chemistries do to this scent, apparently mine eats cake.

This is like a very true cardamom seed essential oil - so for me tons of cardamom all the time with a teeeeeensy bit of cake.

Mod Note: This topic name will remain 'San Cristóbal de la Habana', despite the post-release provisional name change on BPAL.com to 'A Perfume That Tells a Story About My Daughter But Had a Name That Made Our Payment Processors All Feisty and Stuff So Now We Have To Change It and This is the New Name Yay'.

 

Wet, this is warm, white, sweet ginger lilies. I have some 10% diluted white ginger lily essential oil, and that is a glorious top note. I have come to realize that the current sea salt version that is being used in some of the more recent aquatic/oceanic scents, reads to me as 'warm tortilla chips and salt,' which may just be the unfortunate behavior of my skin. After the oil is on my skin the ginger lily note recedes and gives way to the more interesting warm saltiness. This is significantly less fruity than I expected it to be, as I'm looking for the mango and the guava, and mostly getting a gentle, spicy tropical 'pulpy' note, without the abject ferociousness of artificial mango/guava 'fragrance,' This is good, but I'm surprised that what I thought would be a fruit-heavy scent is more a close to the skin, spicy, warm tropical 'haze' or 'aura.' The white tobacco is not terribly potent but I've only had experience with the darker tobaccos, I'm terrible at identifying the white version (was it in... some Moth?).

All in all, definitely not fruity. A warm scent, close to the skin. Somewhat salty, tropical, with the sea salt note that sometimes does a little tortilla moment, but in the end lends a salt-kissed skin type of scent. Fruits in the background, present to give a bit more tropical feel. This is walking down a boulevard with all the commingled scents of a city, the ocean, the markets, all around.

 

Smells like wet grass in the bottle.

Oh, and then on, there's the dandelion sap, milky, blending with the grass to lend the immediacy of FIELD: VERSION SPRING, WET. Wow, this is like, catch a football, have terrible grass-stains, realistic. The florals are probably quietly present lending a hint of sweetness to the leafiness. This is not like, heady orchid floral, but just a subtle background mellow kiss of something light and pollen-y. The stone is not terribly potent, so not like mineral 'Black Opal' strength, but likely present lending a bit of stoic base to the overall scent.

This is like a more leaf/grass-forward 'Summoning Stone Play Structure.'

Excellent if you love grass and field and natural notes. So very green! I'd whip this one out in early summer to run around with.

 

I was (am?) a violinist, so this spoke to me.

I also love bubblegum scents, but have been hard pressed to find anything that surpasses Lilith's Bubblegum and Roses.

Immediately wet, this is a very similar scent in terms of the type of bubble gum - very pink, very fruity, very chewy. I'm not getting much other than the sweet fruit and even the powdery covering of the bubble gum (think... Bubble Tape... original. I can even taste it!) I'm searching for the rosin, but not really finding it... I'm sure it's probably there. I can detect something kind of sweet, syrupy, a little amber-y, tickling around at the edges.

It's remarkable how this reminds me of the smell of unchewed gum with the cornstarch powder sitting on top of it... surreal...

Even after a good ten to fifteen minutes I'm not getting a big change from the super realistic bubblegum scent. I think the rosin, sweet as it may be, complements the scent so well it's pretty seamless.

If you love Jailbait, Courtney, any of those types of scents, Pop!, Lil's BG and R... this is a very good cousin, pretty straightforward, but awesome.

Wet, this smells almost a little marzipan-y, but definitely nutty. Hazelnut, yes. Like when you're biting into a toasted one and that top crusty toasty aroma. On the skin, whoa, whoa, egads, that nuttiness gets a little cloying, but then it burns off that first topnote and settles towards a more gentle, warm hazelnut aroma. The tonka lends this a sweetness or sugariness which is excellent. Oh. Now the pine comes back a little bit... kind of like the sort in Golden Priapus, so this is not completely and utterly foody. Ah, there's the cocoa, thrumming in the background. This is pretty gourmand, except for the pine, which steers it away from being BPAL Nutella SN. (... yes please).

I like this, it's primarily forward as a chocolate hazelnut, sparkling with sugar but a little botanically unique with the pine.

Like, chocolate dipped hazelnut crusted pine trees.

Over time, the pine fades, and you're left with a pretty tasty desserty fragrance. Mmm. Nutella.

 

Wet from the bottle, this is not a very 'dirty' scent. I get a little bit of moisture, like a hint of aquatic, but mostly very green viney waxy leaves. On the skin immediately there's a pretty good stemmy / leafy scent kind of like broken dandelion tubes, but without as much milkiness. If there is dirt, it's very silty, more like a muddy type of scent, akin to the Season of the Inundation rather than, like, uh, Badger, or the Down the Rabbit Hole Atmosphere spray. On me, there's even a kind of... birchy, aspen-y type of note, but I'm very surprised by how very uniform the scent is. It reads definitely as 'canopy, green, thick.' I think probably there's a kiss of orchid but it's not very prominent.

This is a remarkable atmosphere scent. On me, too, it's a very unique green, subtle but evocative aroma. I think I could get away with wearing this at work!

I use my scent locket, I happen to have a clocket from BPTP. I find that when I wear it against the skin, it warms and then I smell a little puff of fragrance. This is generally when I'm charting or doing office stuff. Then if I wear it over my clothing it tends to not emit as much fragrance - sometimes I slip it into my white coat, although with my absentmindedness that would be a recipe for disaster. It's worked out pretty well and worst comes to worst I just put it in my work bag and take it off completely.

 

They make variants of scent lockets and scent jewelry online if there aren't any current scent lockets available.

The oil smells cool, like a little wisp of the eucalyptus. On the skin, it's a very rich, resinous oil. Quite thick.

Reminds me very much of Oblivion, the chewy, costus/labdanum is strong, and one of my favorite essential oils. There's just a tiny little whisper of cold. I don't detect too much brightness from olibanum.

It's nice, and quite resinous - a little bit like a colder Jacob's Ladder from the Yules, but not nearly as complex. It's a chewy resin that does veer towards cold, but not minty by any means. Once it's drier, the dry aldehydic notes do arise, kind of like an aura of shine.

HAI I'M A BULL AND MADE OF ROSES AND YOU WILL SMELL LIKE ROSES (do you want to? no? MOO BAD!!!)

 

 

 

 

So much rose. It overpowers everything else, even the jasmine (which is probably there but I can't tell, it's all floral!) Please be aware my skin amps rose.

I am a Leo. I don't know all the rest of my zodiac spread because... reasons... like not remembering what time I was born... but I am a preemie so I was supposed to be a Virgo.

 

I've been doing all the Starstrucks - some good hits, some really weird ones, and then there's Taurus, which is like HAI I'M A BULL AND MADE OF ROSES AND YOU WILL SMELL LIKE ROSES (do you want to? no? MOO BAD). POW.

 

Leo starts on me pretty much like a reddish spicy cloud, a little similar to Three Cocks but definitely a bit peppery and also herbal. I think it's the chamomile adding that weird type of grassy floral thing it does. With my skin chemistry it quickly veers towards carnation, a lush, Clemence-like carnation, with a dry backdrop and mild heat likely from saffron. On my skin saffron is a little funky but then also does not persist - it tends to retreat and just blur the edges of scents a little. In this case, the carnation showcases almost like a carnation SN to me with just a bit more complexity.

 

I already got a few bottles since this is my birth sign. It's so very different from the past Leos! I think those had more walnut or something. Nuts. Hee.

 

This is a desert warmed carnation blossoming in a handful of sand.

I'm so confused.

 

On the skin, the salt note, I've determined, turns into a bit of corn-tortilla type situation. I've experienced this in a few other oceanic/ocean salt scents. It's different from the bladderwrack seaweedy salt, this is a warm, foody salt. I don't know if it's my chemistry or what. This is the same thing that happened to me with that Lilith scent I can't remember the name of for the life of me that featured a humpback whale or some type of marine whale-type crittermon. Also, tortillas. Happy tortillas, but same.

 

After it dries down, it smells like a foody type of spiced bread. What. But, it's like totally BREAD and not like CAKE. I wonder if this is the saffron and nutmeg and the salt note + Lycanthrope chemistry reading as such.

 

So, I'm not getting much ocean from this, and the sacred plants are very quiet - I think even the sage is processing to me as kitchen.

 

Don't get me wrong, it's super comforting, but this is not too aquatic to me.

Huh.

It's very cool and bright from the bottle.

On my skin it smells like Colorado.

There's a bit of a piney bite to it, and with drydown it really smells like when you're trimming the groundcover around your house you regret putting in because it's frickin' everywhere and on a mountain but you're enjoying that halo of intoxicating pine oil mist that you're kicking up. Drying down, definitely not a sweet or perfumey type of scent or 'interpretation' of juniper. There's a hint of a reminder of gin, but probably only because gin contains juniper berries, and not alcoholic.

Very light.

Ok, Mugwort. Let's do this.

Remember me from when I tried The Waters of The Well of Wisdom? That was mugwort, all the time, sharpened by aquatics and thyme and all the glorious muddy posterior? Hours of a slightly muddled, green-gray swirling aura of a mysterious slightly chewy, but stanky herbiness?

 

Thankfully that is NOT what Cancer 2016 does on my skin. It definitely starts off heavy on the mugwort, where I'm thinking 'oh, gods, what have I done.'

 

That does fade to a very nice, Faeu-Boulanger like misty violet. It's not really as swampy as that scent but the overall drydown is a light to medium strength pulpy wet violet. I think the sandalwood is a whisper, likely a backup supporter. Like an unobtrusive support column. The cucumber is not terribly green. It lends a bit of a fleshier wetness to the scent without resorting to Lightning or Tempest like wet/marine or ozone notes.

 

Confederate jasmine does not go exotic like the true Indian Jasmines - so it's not amping in that way at all. It's a very serene, smooth blend, on me once the mugwort burns off in like 15 minutes.

 

I like.

 

Got backups.

Hmm. This is challenging, because Purple Phoenix is a stunning violet-like floral. It's on me a little candy sweet and fruity, but with plums, and purple fruits, maybe blackberry? In the meantime it also has a very lilac-petally violet. I don't think the two come together easily.

 

However, I'd recommend:

 

For the lush purple florals:

Morgause (caveat: incensy. Definitely not fruity). This is the first one that jumped out in my mind. I love it. It's definitely got some jasmine-like notes, which may be ok since you like Nocturne (that reads to me more tuberose).

 

For Violet:

Sybaris (caveat: vanilla and clove is a bit spicier. Not fruity).

Nocturne (as you know! Tuberose is wonderful).

Mokey (more lilac, and osmanthus, but still wistful violet).

Bruised Violet Compound (more patchouli/earthy, opoponax is a chunk resin. Not as bright).

 

For the plummy fruit:

Try Bordello (caveat: sadly, not very violetty, but that same sweet fruit note).

 

Those are GC.

 

I think you may also like Melisande, the Puppet Mistress (sp, sorry, lol, it's from CD). Jasmine+violet+mimosa.

Faeu Boulanger, if re-released with the Wunderkammer, is an airy slightly misty violet.

Nothing But Death from a Halloweeny is chunkier, chewier dried fruits, + violet.