Chiroptera

[Eros]

A bat-friendly bouquet! Evening primrose, night-scented stock, moonflower, night phlox, lemon balm, lavender, honeysuckle, sweet sage, salvia and thyme.

I was so sorry that I missed this when it was available, the Bat Conservation thing... On top of that, if its got anything to do w/bats, more often than not, I'm all over it

5ml purchase off LJ.
Let me preface this by saying, reviews could all say that this smells like total crap(bat guano?) and I'd still want it.
In the bottle and upon application, lavender quickly followed by tart lemon. Quickly sweetens to a spicy honeysuckle, which is ever so nice! Not familiar with some of the other notes but I get glimpses of more subtle sweetness and spice that I don't recognize, love it!! Nice throw & long-wearing too. It does try to make me sneeze, but not quite.
Reminds me of Chuparosa, w/added spice.
Overall, spicy, floral sweetness w/green undertones. The smell of the desert at night accompanied by honeysuckle. Kinda creamy, too.
I might not wear this often, as I lean more towards darker, richer scents, but definitely a keeper and I'll more than likely snag another bottle when the opportunity arises...Just cause, I love bats & now, I love Chiroptera, too!

[e_miche]

Upon opening the bottle, I first thought, "Ooh. This is a snuggle scent- to be worn at night"; and I loved it. It was all light floral goodness.

 

But then I put it on. I loved it for a bit, and then I smelled soap. Flowers and soap.

Now, 10 hours later, I think I smell lemon and soap- and the combination isn't working well on me. It's not bad, or even something that I really dislike, but it's just not clicking with my senses.

 

I'm going to give it a few more tries and hope that it does click. If not, then off to swaps.

[amberlox]

This will sound weird... but... it smelled like friggin' bacon bits on me.

 

In the bottle it smelled like 'flower soup'. But on my skin...... bacon!?!? bizarro.

[Electra]

When I first got this (back in November or thereabouts) my review would have read like this:

 

"Ooh, pretty light spring flowers!...aaaaaaaand soap. Damnit."

 

Chiroptera sat, lonely and forgotten, in the back of my box for months. Recently I thought to pull it out again.

 

Good gravy, this is nice! Within about twenty seconds of hitting my skin this morphed into a deep, rich herbal scent. There's still a hint of the soap under the velvety herbs, but you have to sniff really hard to find it.

 

This is totally intoxicating. Wow. Yum. Love.

 

(I do have to note that I had my first skin reaction ever from this oil. Odd! I can handle cinnamon and most of the other usual suspects just fine. Oh well. This is so pretty I'll wear it anyway.)

[summer]

This is nice and soft -- muted, in a way (as the color I associate it with is kind of a muted bluish-purple). It smells like balmy lavender in the same way that Arcana (one of my favorites) does. It's also quite lemony, but as it dries down the lemon becomes just a slightly sweet nectar smell, and the fragrance of herbs starts to surface.

 

Perfect for a humid, rainy summer day.

 

My husband keeps commenting on how good I smell.

 

[harlequin]

Origin: Oblation Caravan (so, many of these are going to very short reviews because I've got about 4 of the circular swaps at once right now.)

 

 

the lemon balm is strongest in this to begin with.. the overwhelming power of that

evaporates pretty quickly, though. I'm not sure what a lot of the florals in this smell

like on their own, but i can definitely pick out the lavender. the herbs and florals

blend suprisingly beautifully with the lemon balm, though. I'm more impressed by

this one than I thought I'd be.

[urraca]

Got this in a swap and I am so happy I have had a chance to try it.

 

In the vial it is lemon and green herbs but wet on my skin it changes to lemon balm (good, because I like that better than lemon) and soft, warm florals. The flowers in it make it feel very much to me like a lemon blam version of Midnight, with which it shares some notes (like moonflower, phlox, and evening primrose), another scent I love. In the drydown, the honeysuckle comes out more, but never dominates it.

 

If it ever comes back I'll buy a bottle, for me and for the bats.

[magdalene]

I'd had this on my list for big bottles to get, solely for the fact that the proceeds went to a bat conservation charity, but was unable to order it before the Oblation scents were discontinued.

 

I hunted down a decanted imp for testing.

 

In the bottle: it's all honeysuckle and lavender, two scents that I love quite a bit. But mixed together, they're just a bit overpowering. And the honeysuckle has an odd note to it that makes my nose itch.

 

Wet on skin: more honeysuckle and lavender, with lavender being the more dominent of the two. Still very powerful.

 

Dry down: The lavender's calmed down a bit, but the honeysuckle still smells odd to me. I don't know if it's the addition of the other florals in the blend that's making me sneezy, but it's just too much for me. It's a beautiful scent, just not for me.

[dreadeddragon]

In the bottle: Mmm...this is night time florals covered in dew.

 

First on: It's starting to get rather sweet on me, which is not a good thing. I can still smell the florals in the background, but it's getting all bubblegum. Is there lotus in this?

 

Drydown: It's become a very very faint floral. I can barely smell it, but it's a cross between a floral and clean fresh air. If that makes sense. I'll probably keep it to try once or twice more, but I'm not sure about it.

[gangstaknitta]

This was a somewhat sweet, lemony floral in the bottle. When I first apply it, it is sweeter, definitely with a citrus tang to it. Sadly, it fades into something that vaguely resembles Mr. Clean, which my mother used to make me use to scrub baseboards, which makes me think of getting up early to do housework. Oh well.

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): Citrus! Oooh me like.

 

Just On: Grapefruit.

 

An hour or two later: A bit of grapefruit, with lemon rind.

 

Around 6 hours: Mostly lemon rind, but I still like it.

 

12 hours: It's gone. I want it back!

 

Overall: I really like this one.

 

After reading other reviews: Ahhhh, lemon balm. Apparently that took over this scent for me. I like it.

[undergroundwoman]

I have decided to write a proper review of Chiroptera, since I am smitten with it. Yes, I am in deep smit (I stole that from Mike Myers). I think this might be trying to shove Tombstone out of the way for my very favorite BPAL blend. Thus it gets to be my first review on the BPAL forum.

 

In the bottle and wet it's a very sharp herbal with some florals--I can pick out the lavender/sage/thyme (my favorite herbs). It kind of smells like people who get bad allergies should stay far away from it. If it stayed at this intensity I don't think I could wear it.

 

As it dries, the honeysuckle, and I presume the other florals, which I don't recognize, are much more predominant... very sweet. I love honeysuckle since my mom planted honeysuckle bushes in the sandy "yard" outside our cottage in Michigan (yes I know it's invasive but it still smells pretty). This smells like June--pulling up sprouted acorns out of the yard, raking up all our neighbor's leaves that he blew onto our property with his leaf blower during the fall, hanging up wet bathing suits in the fading light after a day at the beach on the clothesline which hangs between the ancient trees where Great Great Uncle Julius used to hang his hammock. This is also thus a very bittersweet scent, since my family's agnosticism and/or "wrong kind of Christianity" will probably prevent us from being able to keep the cottage in the family. Long story. And that's all I should write about that right now because I'm tearing up already. (I originally wrote this review a few months ago--since then my mom has finally talked to a lawyer and there is no way the un-Christian Christians can take our cottage from us, which makes me very very happy)

 

The end result of this oil on me is a light, clean, and fresh herbal and sweet floral...almost soapy. I smell "faintly of herbal soap" and if you can tell me who else (i.e. a character from a book) does than you are just as nerdy as me. Even though I don't like that character. Completely inoffensive; a great everyday spring-summer scent. Interestingly, I don't get much of the lemon or citrus that other people seem to find in this. Gorgeous.

 

Did I mention I love bats too?

[quimerula]

Wet I get lavender, lemon and honeysuckle. The moon flower and the green notes (sage, salvia, thime) are softly laying in the bottom.

 

It's a very different perfume, not something you can find in a shop.

An exotic floral scent, with a nocturne and wild.

[Imbrium]

I might as well write two reviews, as this scent has been so different on me each time I tried it on. It's a real morpher.

 

In the bottle, this is a bright, lemony floral.

 

The first time I took Chiroptera out for a test drive, it was extremely floral. The lemon balm was very much a background scent - supporting the floral, which was mainly honeysuckle (mmmm), and keeping it from getting too sweet.

 

The second time, the scent more or less reversed itself. I could only barely smell any floral in the background, which is a shame since I adore honeysuckle, and the lemon balm is the most prominent note. Where the first test run was a sweet, girly floral, this is a bright, cheery citrus scent. Thankfully, I like both versions.

 

I had received an imp of this as a lagniappe in an order several months ago - in time that I could still order a big bottle. I'm glad I did, because this scent is so pretty, but nothing I would have picked out for myself, just from reading the description.

[WidgetAlley]

I got this off of eBay long after it had been discontinued as a present for my mum, who loves bats. And then... well... I had to sample it, didn't I? (Shhh!)

 

In the bottle: ooooh, very intriguing. Mostly what I could smell was lemon balm, I think, very citrusy, but there was some definite floral and a dry sort of smoky herb smell (the thyme and sage, I think). On me, it was all citrus, all the time, until the drydown, when it turned into a surprisingly sweet mostly-floral. Then it vanished. Or so I thought.

 

Then, about an hour later, I was doing my chemistry homework and started sniffing. Something smelled absolutely divine-- light and breezy and fresh and just gorgeous. It was me! That happened all day... I'd think it was gone, and then get this gorgeous waft of perfectly balanced grey-green herbs, bright, sweet florals and clean lemon balm. Lovely.... and my mummy thought so too!

[spanishviolet]

Thought I'd reviewed this already ...

 

This and Cerberus were the perfumes that brought me back to bpal. I had ordered some last year, but hadn't been back to the site in a long time (thus missing out on many a wonderful LE). But when I randomly checked out the site & saw this, I had to have it! I love bats, & belonged to this particular organization for a couple of years, so decided to try it even though these particular florals sounded like they might not suit me.

 

The perfume itself is a pleasant light floral, herby rather than full-bodied. I didn't pick up too much of the lavender or honeysuckle - on me this was mostly lemon balm. It also faded pretty quickly. So, pretty but not really me. Still, I donated to the charity, and it made a perfect gift for my sister, whose taste in perfume differs radically from mine, and who is still a member of the charity 'cause she likes bats even more than I do.

[sihaya09]

(Origin: Oblation caravan.) Sweet white flowers... perhaps moonflower or phlox? This scent is distinctly nocturnal to me, like the fading lavender to sapphire of early evening. This reminds me quite a bit of Titania without the overlay of juice-dripping fae fruits. I like this, but perhaps not enough to wear very often.

[malanna]

Chiroptera smells like the best dryer sheets EVER--sweet, slightly powdery with a hint of white flowers. I have no idea what cotton blossom smells like, but for some reason, I keep on thinking that this smells like cotton blossom. After a few hours, it doesn't smell so much like dryer sheets, but more like herbs and white flowers, glistening with dew with the lemon balm and honeysuckle really coming in to play.

[Emu Nymph]

I wanted to fall in love with this one, because I love bats. But I have to agree with malanna this blend ended up smelling like a dryer sheet on me. I couldn't pick out any of the notes or anything. Oh well this one will need to find a good home.

[Orodemniades]

Oo, what a bizarre scent!

 

Damn, what is that note! It's spicy peppery but sweet...oh, I know I used to have this scent in something else....gah...d'oh, it's nutmeg!! With Lilac, maybe? Hmm...there's no nutmeg on this list, so maybe it's the thyme, sage, and salvia??

 

I have no idea.

 

All I do know is that no me it's spicey, like nutmeg, with floral overtones. It's nice, but very strong!

 

Oro

[Blood onmy hands]

First on, this smells like lemon and something green & herbal. It isn't a tart or overly sharp lemon though, almost a creamy sort of citrus. I can smell a sort of floral smell underneath the lemon after a few minutes. They smell like little white flowers.

 

In the drydown this is sweet honeysuckle with creamy lemon. I was really enjoying this one, which is odd considering the fact that I don't like florals or lemon. It just had such a bright/creamy edge to it.

 

Unfortunately, after about a half hour, this one goes to pure soap on me

[herongale]

pre-conceived notion: I ordered a 5ml of this based only on how awesome the description sounded to me.

 

in the imp: A very pretty lavender which is brightened by the honeysuckle and lemon balm. The lemon gives this a subtly different feeling from Twilight, another BPAL scent that happened to be fairly successful for me. I continue to have mixed feelings about lavender, and even just putting this up to my nose, I get a hint of the headache that is to come. I have to close the imp immediately.

 

wet: from previous tries, I noticed that this is utterly gorgeous for about two minutes. And then the headache hits.

 

drydown: let's not talk about the headache.

 

post-conceived notion: probably a lovely fragrance. But one which will never, ever work for me.

[puck_nc]

Origin: Got it in a swap here on the forums

 

In the Bottle: A high, sharp scent with some floral undertones. I think I'm getting mostly lavender and lemon balm here.

 

Wet: First I get a blast of lavender, then the honeysuckle, all on a bed of other flowers.

 

Drydown: Ooh...nice and lushly floral but cool, somehow. How odd...and how lovely. I get the feeling I'm in a chilly cave, but surrounded by flowers growing in it.

 

Verdict: I like it!

Edited November 16, 2005 by puck_nc

[yeahbutnobut]

Chiroptera

 

In the imp: lavender, herbs, and a soft floral which I think is evening primrose, since it reminds me of an evening primrose lotion I smelt once!

Wet on skin: more of the lush, moist flowers come through, with the greenness of the herbs and the soft fuzzy scent of lavender still lingering.

Dry: this is really nice…it’s the scent of a warm, humid night in a tropical garden…you can smell the moist green of leaves and bright florals here and there. It’s a very nocturnal scent, reminiscent of Midnight, but more herbal and green, much warmer and sultry, and with lavender. I think I can make out the moonflower here, and possibly the sweet phlox. I’m amazed at how humid this smells though-but it’s not uncomfortably so.

After a while: the lavender has faded, and the scent has become lighter, and it smells a bit like damp, almost decaying. It’s not bad though. It’s now more of a waxy white floral scent, but not sweet at all…there’s still that humid green scent to it as well. There’s just this damp, ‘chalky’ note to it that I’m puzzled by. I’m also getting something like cucumber, which is bizarre…

Verdict: I really liked the wet-just dry stage of this scent. It evoked a tropical night, humid, damp, green and fragrant with nocturnal blooms, but also with herbs and lavender, which aren’t exactly tropical but still...and I liked that a lot, I found it very soothing. However, it develops this odd note that I can’t really put my finger on but it reminds me somewhat of decay in the dampness, and something chalky or papery. It’s a shame really because if it had stayed the way it was when it was wet, I would have loved it more. I’ll keep the imp though.

Edited November 26, 2005 by yeahbutnobut

[AngellicMystique]

I love this scent! It s a lovely nighttime floral that makes me think of watching bats from my grandparents’ porch during the summer. I wish I had been a BPAL junkie before it was discontinued.

 

The honeysuckle is very sweet and heady.