Carp and Octopus

[Caper]

Sea buckthorn berry, salt musk, white nectarine, kelp, oakmoss, green musk, and elemi.

Yay!! I have been waiting for a review of this one since people first began posting, and now that I've received my decants, I'm going to get a review up!

There have been several blends over the last few years that have had the sea buckthorn berry/kelp/moss trio in the notes.

Octopus:
Pale moss, white kelp, sea buckthorn berry, ambergris accord, Somalian frankincense, rose geranium, and salt.

Alcie:
Just a hint of gorgon blood: bright nectarine, honey, sandalwood, green musk, sea buckthorn berry, and oakmoss.

I've enjoyed both of them but the rose geranium in Octopus, and the honey in Alcie just weren't working for me.

Carp and Octopus doesn't have the same level of nectarine as Alcie and it is less salty than Octopus.

It wears close to the skin, and starts off with a light freshness that reminds me of an expensive alcohol-based perfume I can't remember. It settles down into a gentle sea scent with a hint of fruitiness.

All in all, I really like it, and I would recommend it if you liked Octopus and were looking for something less salty, or if you liked Alcie but were looking for less fruity/sweetness. There is a hint of soap at the end, but I think that is a typical interpretation of these types of scents and it doesn't bother me a bit.

[Alphakitty]

I got a decant of this because I am fickle and whimsical when it comes to picking scents and mainly I liked the name but now I am so, so happy at that "tehe look at the art!" though that popped into my head and made me get this. It's absolutely lovely.

 

While the notes sound exotic and strange when listed together, this smells closer to a "true" perfume than almost any BPAL I've tried thus far. It reads like a fancy, high-end aquatic cologne. Salty, breezy, fresh and green. It is very soft and the nectarine adds a dash of femininity but I think this is truly a unisex blend. If I close my eyes while wearing this I feel transported to the beach in early summer, when it is not that hot out and you still need a sweater to read out on the sand. It almost leans soapy but I think that is moreso due to the fact that aquatic notes are used so often in soap. It's not the unpleasant "I smell like I just did the dishes" soapy effect, but the "wow I smell so clean!" type of note. Really wonderful and a step outside of my comfort zone I'm glad I took!

[Cactus]

In the decant - and on my skin, this starts out as green, sharp, a little sappy - like breaking the stem on some herb that I can't quite place. Definitely getting a bit of the kelp, too.

 

After a few minutes, this is still definitely green, but the sharp is almost gone, and I'm starting to get this lovely soft swirl of musk. There's also something that smells like citrus leaves.

 

A while later (maybe an hour or two) The musks are stronger now, there's definitely green musk in here! There's also a slight salty edge. This is actually reminding me a bit of Mary Shelley as well! So maybe there's a bit of fennel/anise? Or maybe it's just the slightly cologne-y, polished green-ness...

 

A few more hours after that - this has mostly settled down to a green, salty, mossy musk. Very soft and understated.

[Aviatrix]

This is a salty, "green" scent with a nice aquatic undertone. I am hard pressed to distinguish the different individual notes, but the overall impression is an ocean scent with a touch of sharp citrus to round it out. Not fruity-fruity citrus, though, just a subtle hint.

It's not the kind of scent I would usually wear, but I can definitely appreciate the images it evokes!

[zankoku_zen]

Green, salty aquatic. I get hints of sea buckthorn berry, kelp, green musk and elemi.

 

It's white/green, aquatic, and very fresh.

[ReallyZeb]

From start to finish this is entirely soap on me. Naughty, naughty skin chemistry

 

After a couple of hours the mandarin peeks out but it's barely there.

[skyelyric]

I really wanted to love this, right up until it settles on my skin. Apparently green musk does to me what white does. Other than the chemical muskfunk, I get a slightly salty, fresh green fruity scent. Fresh and clean without leaning to one particular note. The evil muskfunk is turning it into the old fashioned perfumed soap smell. It reminds me of the fancy guest bathroom in my grandmother's house, so a nice scent memory, but not something I'd want to smell like.

[Astarial]

This isn't a huge morpher at all, to my nose. From imp through drydown, it's aquatic and salty, with a hint of fresh sweetness. It's well blended too, so it's very hard to pick out the individual notes in play.

 

Edit: I think it reminds me of what I was hoping for with Spell of the Eastern Sea. Where something in that (maybe the salt + willows) smelled weirdly foody, the salt musk in this avoids that. This one has the fruity and musky notes that the other one doesn't, but they really are light enough that they simply enhance the impression of fresh sea, rather than making you think "sea + other things".

Edited March 23, 2014 by Andyl

[non_boingy]

I bought a whole bottle of this mainly for the label art, which I get a kick out of, but as an aquatic lover, I'm incredibly pleased with this! Like everyone else, this is an aquatic that smells a lot "greener" to me than most--certainly more so than Octopus, which I love but is like a salty blast in the nose, or Cthulu, which verges on Windex on me. I'm not very good as describing notes, but I think it must be the oakmoss and green musk that keep it so soft and vegetal. There's a little hint of peachy nectarine just at the end of the scent, too. As this settled on my skin is smelled really similar to the smell of clean laundry--sort of cottony and fresh. This will be a great hot-weather scent!

[theredkilt]

I was so looking forward to trying this blend and had so many expectations, but sadly on my skin it turned into bathroom air freshner/ cleanser. i'm utterly devastated

Edited April 2, 2014 by theredkilt

[thekittenkat]

In the decant: Berries in the salty sea air.

 

Wet: The sea air, but not very salty.

 

The dry-down: Now it's a bit more like the cold sniff, of the berries in the sea air. Nice, but maybe not bottle-worthy. Not sure where the other notes were, but they weren't to be found.

[milo]

Nice and fresh in the imp, like a breath of salty sea air. On me, STRONG soap, similar to the Irish Spring variety. I like it when aquatics work on me, but this is definitely not one of those times.

[gingiemay]

Aquatic, soft salty musk that smells very classic and perfume-y. I love how soft it is, I don't get any green musk or nectarine. Lovely and classy.