The Deep Ones

[snowball]

Black algae, drooping seaweed, salty brine, and crushed coral.

In Bottle: Salty and sweet, reminds of the sea.

Wet: Salty, bitter, citrus

Dry: Tropical fruits and flowers, still salty aquatic, slightly bitter.

Very interesting, but I won't buy it again.

[madscientistdh]

Purchased from Galahad

Let's tempt fate by reviewing this scent during Hurricane Sandy, shall we?

 

In Bottle: Murky water, slight incense quality- very much like the China Rain incense/oil my mom used to enjoy

 

On Skin: Bright soapy detergent aquatic. A hint of something darker in the background, almost ozone.

 

Drydown: Clean detergent smell, very fresh. Whoa, one wrist just went salty. And the bit I swiped in my cleavage has somehow gone floral. Like an assortment of flower petals soaking in seawater.

 

Verdict: Unconventional morphing scent! I rather like it, overall. I get the 'clean' vibe very strongly from it, probably my association with detergent and the like. I do enjoy it, though it's not as dark as I would have hoped.

[mymymai]

In the Imp (ITI): Aquatic toilet cleaner and brine. Ick.

 

Wet: I get something that smells sweeter and a bit muskier, which might be the coral. However, the brine and aquatic are intense.

 

Dry: Okay, it is less offensive as it dries. I get a pleasant aquatic with lots of brine and that oddly sweet and musky note. It's borderline pleasant.

[brilliantcat]

I love aquatics. I love Lovecraft. Let's hope they turn into gorgeous

 

Imp: Sharp and yet soapy. I get the impression of opium incense, kind of harsh and dry. A bit odd for an aquatic.

 

Wet: It still has that "dry" feel to me. It's hard to describe. Oh! On first sniff I get the opium-incense and then underneath a spark of ozone and THERE'S the aquatic. It's edging on masculine but I can't keep my nose off my arm. It's supremely interesting and complex. This is deep, deep water not the surface of the sea with crashing waves. This is down where it's always dark and creepy blind fish live.

 

Dry: Smoky opium incense UNDERWATER. I don't even... It's crazy and fabulous! And does have a distinctly unsettling vibe. I doubt I'll wear it often but my imp has a happy home.

[BoneBone24]

A clean and sweet aquatic. There's a fresh and cool note blasting through, juniper or mint perhaps. Some ozone too. Light blue-green hues abound. It's quite refreshing and sinus-clearing. Pale, frothy, and cool.

[Deliciousness]

Why did you have to go and do me like that Deep Ones? I thought we were cool. I was obviously mistaken.

 

You lured me in with your cool aquatic sensibility, salty airs. I thought I was in heaven. Then you turned. Wrapping your tentacles around my wrist, you turned into a noxiously sweet version of Axe body spray. Thats right, Axe body spray! I feel nauseated just smelling you.

 

You have left me no other choice but to wash your briny poison from my now tainted flesh.

 

I'm converting from the Esoteric Order of Dagon. There will be no more sacrifices or prayers for you, you vile creatures of the deep.

[LateOne]

Tried this at Dragon*Con (among about twenty others!). I liked Cthulhu, so I figured this was worth comparing.

 

In bottle/wet: Salty and musky, a good aquatic scent.

Drydown: The salt mellows down and becomes musky and green.

Dry: Softer salt, green plants, and a mellow musk.

 

This is significantly less harsh than Cthulhu and remarkably pleasant. This replaces my "must-buy aquatic" and is worth a bottle for anyone into salty scents. Would be excellent on a guy who likes Irish Spring but wants something a bit more calm.

[revyn13]

Got this as a frimp in my order that arrived yesterday, and as a Lovecraft fan who wants to try ALL THE ARKHAM SCENTS, I was pretty excited. This is also my first review, so sorry if I do it wrong/weird!

 

In the bottle: A bit salty, very evocative of the beach and seawater.

 

Wet on skin: Very similar to what I smelled in the bottle. A little bit less salty, but I could still smell it. Visions of murky underwater landscapes with seaweed floating across my view.

 

Dry on skin: Seems to alternate between the previous murky seawater and a cleaner sea smell. Reminds me of Mary Read, but a little less feminine, more straight oceanic. Remained with very little fading for hours. Put it on at about 2:30 pm, could still smell it just the same when I went to bed. In fact, I sniffed the crook of my elbow this morning and it was still there, faintly! A little will go a long way

 

Verdict: Nice! I'll continue to love my Mary Read but this imp will get used when I want to be a little less feminine and more unabashedly Order-of-Dagon-ish

[IambicDearie]

Putting this on gave me a vivid flashback to kayaking in the middle of a kelp patch in the Pacific ocean. Briny, crisp and deep, salty green, the counterpart to the more zippy, foamy oceanic scent I got from Humpback Whale. These are still waters, but ones that run very, very deep. Definitely a keeper for me!

[theseagrows]

got this as a frimp from the lab. i am surprised by this scent honestly, it is not as aquatic as i imagined at all. it smells slightly sweet and slightly dusty in a way. i guess that's the salty brine and the coral, if i had to guess. i cannot pick out the notes in this. it smells fresh in a way, but it's not apparent what the notes are. after about 15 minutes a clean aquatic floral seems to be present, but i can't place it at all. i think people who like slightly clean aquatic scents would like this.

[KakashiMorph]

This imp is aged.

In the bottle: Clean detergent.

On my skin: Clean detergent again! It smells like the "ocean/sea breeze" smelling detergents smell like which is nice, if only that scent hadn't been spoiled for me by them already. Then again, I do smell of clean clothes so, win? It takes some minutes for the ocean detergent to slightly tone down itself and become a tad more mellow but I can't quite place the mellowness yet.

Drydown: A very pleasant mellow scent... The coral? I can't really tell.

[Heaven_Star]

In the imp: Brine and seaweed and, oddly, something sweet? It reminds me of juniper berry or something similar - maybe it's the coral?

 

Wet: Brine! A whiff of something that reminds me of sunscreen? But that disappears almost instantly so it could be some sort of exciting brain association rather than anything in the imp. This really does smell like the sea. As it dries the brine remains but adds a clean, green kelp smell and that sweetness starts to come back.

 

Dry: Soft saltiness with a hint of sweetness. It smells like I've stepped out of the ocean and let myself air dry. The Deep Ones indeed!

 

I don't think this'll be big bottle worthy but I'll be keeping the imp, it's my favourite aquatic scent so far and I think it'll get a lot of use in summer when I'm too gross to want to smell too strongly of anything, but not able to stand not wearing any perfume at all.

 

Side note: the boy thought he smelled a nutty "undercurrent", I think he was getting some sort of earthy sweetness I wasn't. I'm blaming the coral. Everything in this scent that I don't understand is being chalked up to "coral"...

[Lunasariel]

I got this as a frimp, and this is the genius of frimps in general. This isn't a scent I would have ever tried on my own, and while I still don't think I'm going to go for a full-sized bottle, it was an interesting sensory experience, and plugged a sizable gap in my BPAL knowledge (namely, the entire aquatics family).

 

In the imp: The main note I get is something fruity and a little sweet. There's something else in there that could be a seaweed/brine/kelp smell, but I'm completely unfamiliar with BPAL's aquatic notes. It has a bit of a tang to it, whatever it is.

 

Wet: Soap, for sure. But that kind of soap where they at least try to make it smell nice, so while it's definitely an artificial, chemical smell, it smells like, say, clean clothes or my aunt's bathroom rather than those industrial pink hand soaps. Say, Dove or Irish Spring rather than generic.

 

Dry: Maybe a hint of musk? Still pretty soapy, though. And unusually short-lasting, too. Maybe it's the soap thing, but this one faded to a barely-noticeable skin scent after, like, three hours, and was 99% gone by five hours.

[DiesMali]

In the imp: Nauseating. Why am I going to put this on my skin...?

 

Wet on my skin: Still nauseating. Bitter, salty, and full of ozone and strange things.

 

Dry: This remains very unpleasant on me for some time, but despite my first inclination to wash it off, I let it sit to see what it did. There's a vague notion of something sweet and maybe floral, but it's mostly just that dark, salty seawater. It actually starts to smell rather nice after it's been on a while, but I'm afraid the first hour+ of this is probably one of the more unpleasant BPAL scents I've tried. I definitely chalk that up to skin chemistry. Something in this just goes rank on me, and that initial unpleasant smell just doesn't fade quickly enough to make the later stages worthwhile.

[Veronica]

This is a fresh, sweet aquatic. The coral gives it an almost juicy apple scent, with a salty background. A lighter aquatic, probably one of my favorite aquatics from BPAL.

[LizziesLuck]

This is a frimp. I don't like aquatics, but I'm trying it anyway! I'm intrigued by what coral might smell like.

 

It's very light and fresh, despite the description of being "briney" I don't get any salt from it. I can't pick out what might be the coral either. It's actually not terrible. It doesn't make me nauseous. That's about the highest compliment I can give an aquatic. I actually detect something almost creamy in this. It's sort of fascinating. Still, not my thing, but really happy I got to try it!

[Naomi Kelsey]

I love this! It's a brisk, salty, soapy aquatic with lots of throw ("you smell super soapy!" my fiance exclaimed as we got in the car when I was wearing it). I'm not the best at picking out individual notes, but this has a slight sweetness to it, and a slightly green note. Smells like very expensive limited edition soap (that's a good thing!). Not sure it would be a go-to for perfume, but I think it would make a great atmo spray.

[Cali]

A musk, soapy aquatic. It reminds me of some sort of candy. Maybe because something smells fruity to me. Quite mysterious, can't really put my finger on some of these notes. Not for me, but this is certainly interesting!

[Casablanca]

On the wand: "Wow. That's, um..." Cthulhu was a carefree skip through rainbowed New England waters compared to this. I have to gather my thoughts before a second sniff.

 

See before you a beach blackened with both a perpetual desaturated night and the leavings of all the sea's dead things upon its flat, brine-locked sand. The stench is overwhelmingly blackened grey-green, rotten, and briny. Is science a strong enough reason to put this oil on my skin?

 

On me, The Deep Ones smells so salty that my mouth waters, trying to urge me to drink something clean. But then, after a minute or so, it backs off into being just blandly salty and laundry-like, almost a soft floral. My skin turned Lovecraft monsters into dryer sheets! The mighty power of skin.

 

Anyway... um, not so much.

[whisperstilled]

Don't even need to test on the skin. Strangely green and aquatic, weirdly sweet.

[Elspethdixon]

The Deep Ones starts out a sharp aquatic, with something almost rotting/faintly-urine-like lurking underneath. Five to ten minutes into the drydown the rotting seaweed note vanishes as the expected clean "sea beeze/spring breeze/etc." dryer sheets note all aquatics become on me appears.

Forty minutes in, my left wrist is soapy dryer sheets. My right is clean laundry/dryer sheets with a hint of dry incense.

After about three hours, the dry incense came forward a lot more, giving me a mix of sharp aquatic and dry incense-y-ness that lasted at least four hours before starting to fade. I like this second stage of the drydown a lot more than I expected to. Yes! A Lovecraft-themed aquatic I can wear.

[freyasfae]

These salty ones are growing on me, and while I don't think I would wear this one as a perfume, I would definitely use it in a bath or a homemade bath bomb! Maybe it's the coral, but it has an almost floral smell to it.

[gloame]

This is so spunky. The most playful evil. Not your typical Irish Springs, but there is a touch of it in the background. Really unique and worth trying!

 

Where I'd wear this: Brewing potions with Grandmama Addams

Edited July 16, 2017 by gloame

[VetchVesper]

Huh....

 

The Deep Ones was one of the first BPAL scents I ordered. My husband is a huge H.P. Lovecraft fan, and he wanted to know what such squelchy abominations would smell like. When we got the imp, it smelled like... soap. I've gotten frimped several times over the years with TDO's and it's always been ... soap.

 

But NOT today. TODAY I smell lotus, ambergris, and a teeeensy weeensy bit of soap, which is really odd. Is my chemistry changing? Am I smelling stuff differently? Has lord Dagon finally called upon me to join him in the briney depths?!

 

No idea, but it's certainly interesting to smell this the way other's who enjoy it might be smelling it. Soft, clean, sweet, salty, and a bit reminiscent of foamy sea froth. Not a love, but certainly a like.

[achildoftime]

This is the prettiest that something deep, dark, and looming has smelled in a while. It's not a murky, angry sea, but it's also not as light and inviting as a babbling brook might smell. It's very aquatic, obviously, but it feels like the perfect example to if someone's never experienced the type before.

 

The kelp smells like the sea lettuce variety and it is very much surrounded with salt water. I don't get soap, for what it's worth. It's just a pretty sea scent with a slight edge to it. I'm glad to have it.