Season of the Emergence

[Lycanthrope]

SEASON OF THE EMERGENCE
Month after month the gathered rains descend
Drenching yon secret Aethiopian dells,
And from the desert's ice-girt pinnacles
Where Frost and Heat in strange embraces blend
On Atlas, fields of moist snow half depend.
Girt there with blasts and meteors Tempest dwells
By Nile's aereal urn, with rapid spells
Urging those waters to their mighty end.
O'er Egypt's land of Memory floods are level
And they are thine, O Nile -- and well thou knowest
That soul-sustaining airs and blasts of evil
And fruits and poisons spring where'er thou flowest.
Beware, O Man--for knowledge must to thee,
Like the great flood to Egypt, ever be.

During Peret the Nile's waters retreat, leaving a lush, fertile black silt behind. This is the time of plowing and seeding: crops and herbs were planted and cultivated, and prayers and sacrifices were offered to ensure a bountiful harvest later in the year.

The seeds and the seedlings as the sprout forth from the deep black silt: cucumber, flax, wheat, radishes, leeks, sesame, and beans, with thyme, frankincense, chamomile, coriander, spikenard, cumin, hyssop, and juniper.

This is very odd. Quite an herbal, thick, rooty vegetable scent.

It kind of smells like carrots and oregano, and has this very smooth... rooty scent. It's not terribly dirt-scented. It smells like a very nice herb blend, in terms of cooking. I'd love to eat a chicken that smells like this.

...

Did I just type that?

[zankoku_zen]

This smells like a green, rooty sort of scent. Definitely on the drydown I can smell the coriander.

[hkhm]

bottle: flowering vegetable shoots. this has a sweet yet herbal scent. clean and refreshing.

 

wet: i thought there would be a dirt note in this, there is no dirt at all. instead, this is all sweet, spicy, fresh roots and leaves, like snapping vegetables in half while you're washing them in the sink and a breeze from over your garden sweeps into the kitchen window. it is so fresh and bright and earthy without a hint of dirt.

 

dry: this is the freshest, cleanest herbal scent i own. soft and delicate while bursting with an understated spicy snap. this will be my go-to scent this spring. total love.

[surlygurl]

I got a decant of this because, well, radishes? Gotta try it. Novelty scent at it's best.

 

Fresh on my skin, it's: Holy crap! This is delightful! I feel like a 4 year old running around chasing butterflies in the garden. I get sweetness. Waves of sweetness, probably from frankincense, cucumber, chamomile, and spikenard (I recognize this from other scents). There's a tiny bit of juniper dancing around, which gives the impression of clear & strong. This stage is crazy good.

 

As it dries, the sweet backs off a little and a soapiness comes in. Not a bad store bought soap, but what soap root might smell like - something natural. Sniffing up close I still get the crazy sweet smell, but the (very limited) throw is less sweet & a bit soapy/earthy. Still, I like it. Unfortunately, the scent is a fast fader. The soap does go away/ blend in eventually, but the throw is less and less until I barely catch faint whiffs when moving my arms. It's an absolutely lovely scent; I just wish it lasted longer. Do I need a bottle of a scent that fades this fast? But it's so pretty!!!

 

[greenranger]

A very fertile smelling scent will all sorts of green growing things, with coriander hanging around behind.

 

After a while, it starts to smell like a farmer boy. A really idealized farmer boy who has been out in the garden working hard harvesting radishes and sprouts and green things because he smells of them. Have you heard that country song, "Good Directions" about the guy selling turnip greens on the side of the road who gets the girl in the end? If he smelled like this I might turn around and come back too.

 

I don't know if I need to smell like this, but, scents like this just break my heart that my guy's nose is too sensitive and can't deal with BPAL.

[Coldfire]

 

 

 

Decant: BREAD! I smell the wheat and Flax and sesame.

Wet on Me: Still bread.

Drying Down: I'm still getting bread first and foremost. But some juniper wants to sneak into the picture.

Dry: This is a harvest-y grain scent. Did not get any of the herbs or veggies in this. Just bread-, grain-y ness

 

[PeshaRocha]

In bottle: fresh greenery and bread

 

Wet: cucumber, coriander and grains

 

Dry: cucumber, herbs, grains, a tiny tad soapy

 

This is a very unusual combination and hard to describe. Kind of sharp, kind of fresh, kind of dry (grains), a teensy bit sweet and an unfortunate hint of soap. I'd like it better if the cucumber was less prominent on my skin and if the dry grains stood out more, though it's hard to imagine how such a subtle scent could stand out. I'm really loving that grain/seed scent! Altogether quite nice and a definite keeper, but I probably won't actually wear it very often--too many other scents I adore. But lovely and worth having as something entirely different from anything else.

[strahlend]

In the imp it seems herbal with a little hint of a zippy edge to it.

On my skin it smells like a faintly herbal soap.

 

I have my fingers crossed that maybe my decant is just wonky because I bought a bottle thinking that this would be in the bag. I'll check back in when the bottle gets here.

[edenssixthday]

Season of the Emergence - This is a strange little blend. It's not perfumey at all. It's the scent of green, growing things and fresh grains. It opens up with a blast of cucumber and radish, but quickly settles down into a very soft and subtle, warm, grainy fragrance that's backed up with the mellow scents of seeds and roots and herbs. It's actually a really fascinating scent that's entirely different from anything other perfume I've ever smelled. However, having said that, I also have to admit that it's not the type of fragrance I'd ever choose to wear as an olfactory representation of myself. It's unique and interesting, but I'm going to have to pass on this one.

[childoftime]

I'll have to try this one again, because on me this was sort of earthy floral rather than rooty or herb-y. It is definitely different than anything else, but smelled interesting and alive. Like a garden full of the green smell of growing vegetables and the perfume of blooming white flowers.

[Blood onmy hands]

This is an odd scent. It's very light and fades fast on me, and it's hard for me to really get a good impression of it. It goes on smelling like fresh, watery, green cucumber and a bit of something bready/grainy smelling. Then it morphs into something like cucumber scented soap, before drying down to a pale green, light, herbal soap smell.

 

All in all, this is too light and too soapy for me. I'll stick with Planting Moon and Squirting Cucumber for my garden scents.

[fiddledragon]

In bottle: Wheat and cucumber and hyssop.

 

On me: Wheat and cucumber and sesame and hyssop and juniper. The wheat and sesame are very faint, but I can almost taste them at the back of my throat, sort of an after-scent. It's mostly a high, tart, perfumy scent, very different from what most people are getting. Part of it might be the spikenard? I amp hyssop beyond all reason, so on me this is basically Tzadikim Nistarim plus sesame crackers. Oh, and radish! That's what part of that sharp scent is! Great, I amp radish! At least the cucumber goes away after the first burst of freshness; it tends not to work on me.

 

I think I'll keep this around and try it again in the spring, but it's more amusing than something I'd actually want to wear. I'm glad I got to try it.

[aquazoo]

Spicy and a little bit minty. It's an unusual incense type of scent, warm and subtle ad kind of creeps up on you.

 

[Dormouse]

This is a very odd scent. It starts out smelling of herbs and warm bread and makes me think of sunny kitchens but as it dries the cumin comes out to the fore and it begins to smell like sweat. Fairly fresh and not too unpleasant sweat but sweat non the less. I don't think I'll be wearing this one.

[Seismogenic]

Another silt scent! I adored Season of the Inundation's silt note, so I was thrilled to see that listed again here. I was also curious about a greenery scent that's vegetable rather than forest, but indeed, the silt (and a test at Will Call) is what pushed me over into bottle territory here.

 

In the bottle: Chlorophyll-sweet and mineral-dusty.

 

Wet on skin: Soft rich silt, with an edge of greenness. This greenness is a very specific type - like the soft fleshy leaflets that come out of a seed first, rather than the mature leaves. It's overall less sweet now.

 

Drydown: Freshly dry, silt is still the main note, though the fresh green is still definitely there. At one hour in, the plant aspects are a lot more prominent, though fortunately not to the point of drowning out the silt.

 

Five hours later: Quite faint by this point, and largely greenery as opposed to silt. There's the slightest hint of something salty going on, but it's not persistent.

 

End of the day: Gone.

 

Overall: Yay silt scent! I have to say, I do like Season of the Inundation better for my soft sweetish dirt scent needs, but Season of the Emergence is still very nice, and certainly quite unique compared to other BPALs I've tested (largely due to the vegetable notes). It very much smells like springtime, which is a good smell to have in a bottle.

[Aldercy]

I am just shocked. I love every "earth" scent I've tried, but...

 

... this literally smells like sweaty male armpit to me. And I seriously can't even describe what a bad sort of sweat it is. This poor guy has been wearing the same shirt for a year. And he may have the plague. It smells so realistically and foully human that it's actually quite amazing.

 

Also, I think the "bread" and "wheat" others are referencing is for me translating to "sickly sweet, yeasty rot." I'm afraid I really, really can't bring myself to put it on. I'm so glad I didn't spring for a bottle unsniffed like I was contemplating.

 

Very rarely have I had such a strong reaction to an oil. I can't blame it on skin chemistry, as I have very deliberately not touched it, but I guess it's a strange case of nose chemistry.

Edited April 10, 2010 by Aldercy

[pekeana]

In the bottle, this is all radishes, flax, incense and dirt to me. Which is great!

 

On my skin, it smells like the worst possible BO ever. There's cumin in here somewhere and that's the culprit - cumin smells like the worst kind of working-up-a-sweat-not-showering-for-a-month kind of death on me.