Chaotic

[Tramp]

CHAOTIC
A whirling mélange of multicolored musks with wasabi, rooibos, heliotrope, and mastic.

Heliotrope is a favorite scent of mine so am very happy that I can pick it out in this blend. Chaotic is very much a warm musk blend sweetend up by the sweet vanilla of heliotrope. There is a hint of something plant/spicy in the background.

[ajansuz]

This was another one I was really excited about, because I love heliotrope. In the imp, it's very much sweet heliotrope, a blast to the nostrils of it. I don't know what mastic smells like, but I do detect some other note, something just a little dry.

 

Wet: Still blasting heliotrope. This is a very perfume-y scent. I don't mean that as a negative, but it's closer to commercial perfume than most of what I get from BPAL. I desperately wanted wasabi. Not detecting that yet.

 

Dry down: The musks start to rise and make this a lot richer than a straight floral. Also, a very fresh, herbal grassy scent emerges that might be the rooibos. I'm not familiar enough with rooibos to pick it out well. I think one might be Egyptian musk. It tends to really like my skin and I amp it. Throw on this is huge. My husband smelled me from all the way across the room, and I only dabbed on a little bit. Of all of the RPG scents I've sampled so far, this is the first I think I'd be perfectly content wearing without layering again and again.

 

Good last, too. Several hours before fading.

[Penance]

Origin:

 

5mL from the Lab.

 

Preconceived notions:

 

Honestly, I'm not sure what to expect from this one. The wasabi and rooibos are throwing me, since I don't think I've ever tried a perfume with either one before. Heliotrope also has the potential to go all wrong on me since I hate florals. But the musks and mastic sound good and I was too curious not to order a bottle in my second round of RPG scents.

 

I've tried a tester of the unreleased prototype version of Chaotic (as well as the proto, v3) and liked it. It's definitely a multi-colored musk blend with some fruitiness to it, so I'm hoping that this version might be somewhat similar.

 

First sniff:

 

Interesting. This does smell fairly similar to the unreleased prototype (to my nose, anyway, based on my little tester). It's fruity in a berry-like way (which has to be the rooibos), but the main players are the musks. I definitely smell something similar to the musk in The Night-Raven, so indigo musk is probably in here. There could be some red musk, but it's hard to say with the berry/rooibos adding a fruity redness to the scent. Other than that, I couldn't say what kinds of musk are in here, but they're soft and almost velvety smelling somehow. Like a soft, swirling cloud of fog that's so dense it's almost solid.

 

Wet on skin:

 

Now I'm getting something that's almost like a combination of the unreleased prototype (berry and musks) and the v3 prototype (anise, musk and mint). It has an odd note to it that makes me think of anise, but evidently it's something else, because there's none listed here. I don't know if it's my skin chemistry bringing it out (or creating it), because it's not listed, or if it's just one of the unlisted notes that are sometimes in BPAL blends.

 

Dry down:

 

I really, really like this. It's totally unique and unlike anything else in my collection. It's gone back to something similar to the bottle scent, but with more musk and the addition of beautiful, resinous mastic. It's incensey in some ways, but also slightly fruity and musky in a very unique way. There's nothing perfumey about this on me. This isn't your standard musk blend. It's multi-layered and, yes, swirling.

 

The bottom line:

 

I think this smells beautiful on its own, so I'll definitely be wearing it that way, but I can also see this working well for layering with some of the other RPG blends. I'll have to experiment with this one.

[Iceblink]

Every blend I've tried with rooibos so far has ended up amping that note like CRAZY on me. Lots of red tea here, with musk. I get a little spicy kick from the wasabi. No heliotrope, although it would be hard for it to be distinguishable with so much tea and musk!

This does have nice throw, and would probably layer well with the darker RPG blends.

[StevenBoatman]

Interesting. On me, Chaotic smells like some sort of spicy, floral, sweet drink. I like it! It goes really well with Good, IMHO.

[Diva Urd]

In the vial: MUSK! And something that smells almost like strawberry to me. I've had "fruity" reactions to heliotrope before, so this might be how it manifests here.

 

On: RED BERRIES with a hint of musk. This is very, very fruity on me, though it's hard to pinpoint just WHAT berry it smells like. The body of the scent is strawberry-like, but it has a cranberry-ish tart twang to it. There's also something vaguely lemony to it - maybe this is how the wasabi shows up here ("Nostrum Remedium" had a similar note to it).

 

Later: That red berry, now in single-note. Too berry for me.

[a_llb]

In vial: Spicy musk.

Wet: A tingle in my nose from the wasabi, and the soft warmth of heliotrope.

Dry: Piney mastic pipes in, clear and sharp.  It seems almost lemony, but that could be the rooibos, I'm not familiar enough with it to know other than that it's a kind of tea. As time goes on, the musks re-emerge, along with the shock of wasabi.

 

Verdict: I was more excited to try Chaotic than any of the other RPGs- and I am so happy with it! I am realizing that I love heliotrope, and here it adds the sweetest hint of herby vanilla creaminess to the blend. It's like a spicy, slightly resinous & musky tea with lemon and wasabi. Sounds odd, but is oddly delicious! 

[astarinel]

One of the musks in here is the darker musk note I don't like, alas.

 

It's definitely very bright and mixed and swirly almost. It's musky and floral, and the wasabi note is so spicy and sharp that it almost makes my eyes water to smell it. Interesting, but not for me!

[Monday]

First impression: Badedas! Ick how can something with these notes smell like that? Something floral and manly musk.

This stays Badedas on dry-down and has amazing throw. Not for me.

[Gwydion]

In bottle: Heliotrope dominant with a surprisingly strong rooibos as support. I say surprisingly, as in Rl rooibos is fairly mild, but this definitely smells like it concentrated. It is very sweet. I’m not sure I like mastic. Do not expect much kick from the wasabi. It’s mostly heliotrope tea, though. Wet: Heliotrope dominant still. Did I mention the heliotrope? It’s a lot of heliotrope. The mastic blends better now. The rooibos becomes more background, but the wasabi starts asserting itself a little. The musks are mostly subsumed into the heliotrope, really. Dry: Mostly heliotrope with some musk.

[tkannon]

At first the musks were out to play, taking turns up to my nose and frolicking around my desk. After about 30 minutes, all the musks ran away becuase heliotrope started picking on them. Now all I have is sweet soapy horribleness running around cheering because it has me all to itself.

[jizatt]

on drydown, I get a slightly kicked (because its not spicy exactly) red tea with red musk

[Little Bird]

I liked this at first, but my bottle turned quickly to a heavy baby powder type scent. It's one of the heavier RPG scents, but still smells cheap to me and doesn't do well with 'aging' over a couple months...

Edited September 9, 2013 by Little Bird

[milo]

Wet, I get a bit of fruity musk. Dry still the musks, but the fruity aspect fades and some vanilla comes out, which I'm guessing is the heliotrope, which I love. In spite of this, it still reads somewhat more masculine than gender neutral, the musks are pretty strong. Still, this is nice to try, and I'm looking forward to the layering possibilities.

[zankoku_zen]

I really enjoy this blend. It's got a good musky base, loads of heliotrope and enough of a spicy kick to keep things interesting.

 

I am not sure how well this will play with Gnome, but I can see it being a good counterpart to Evil.

 

I will experiment later on and report...

[fireweaver]

This smells a lot like Red Moon 2007 on me. Red musk, some spice/incense and the vanilla-y heliotrope.

[porcelina]

i find myself really liking chaotic right out of the bottle! it's super musky and delicious. let's see how it fares on my skin…

 

ooh. smooth, sweet musk with plenty of rooibos and a bit of floral sweetness… maybe a bit too much for my tastes. i don't get a lot of wasabi- maybe as a slight spicy-astringent kick when i inhale deeply? i did not expect the heliotrope to be this strong… as time goes on, it dominates the blend. i am sad. i will have to see if the plain musk in neutral can calm it down some, so i can actually wear my alignment!

[maoric]

In the vial: Sweet, with a small wasabi kick.

 

Freshly applied: Deep, earthy, wasabi.

 

Drying: Mostly vanishes at the start, and then turns into a sweet and spicy earth with a sharp wood scent. Then the musks start coming out.

 

Later: Sweet flowers over faint musky earth. It was getting pretty interesting, but now it seems like it's another "is this too floral on me?" scent. It doesn't help that as time continues to pass, sweet scents seem to go in and out so at times this scent is really nice, and at times I can't tell if it's just too floral. Will need to come back later on this for a final verdict.

[Gateau]

I like the heliotrope and the background tang of wasabi, but this is mostly red musk on me, and red musk and I simply do not get along.

[lohengrin]

In the imp: Musk, mainly. Wasabi, IME, doesn't quite have a strong "scent," per se, but rather a feeling in my nose, and I do get that here.

 

On skin, wet: Much the same as in the imp, with maybe a hint of floral.

 

On skin, dry: And this scent has done a total 180. Now all I get is a strong green note, like stems moreso than leaves. There's still a little of that wasabi-feeling left, but not enough.

 

After an hour: Still mostly that green note. Mastic, I guess? If so, it's not nearly as painful (literally, as in headache-inducing) as pine and especially cedar usually are for me, but it's still not something I'm terribly fond of. I was really hoping the mastic wouldn't show up at all, much less take over. :/

[symbiosis]

Chaotic:

 

In the imp: Interesting, I am getting the fruity smells here some people have mentioned, toned down a bit by musk. It seems the heliotrope mellows it all out a bit. I'm not entirely sure what the wasabi should be smelling like, though I do get a bit of a "root" smell that could be it.

 

On my skin: This starts out smelling a bit like a strawberry gummy candy (one of the authentic ones made from real juice, not the overpoweringly sugary ones.) But it quickly calms down into a more earthy smell, the mastic, rooibos, and musks becoming more dominant. While I like vanilla and heliotrope, I'm glad that those stay in the background on this blend.

 

Even after the blend calms down and soaks into my skin, the green notes are pleasant, but the strawberry tingle from before is still present, and it's probably the only thing that is keeping me from loving this blend. I'm not big into smelling sweet or fruity, and while the fruit note is very subtle, it's just enough to catch my attention in the wrong way. A nice scent, but not for my wrists, I think!

[Winter_Wanderer]

-

Edited October 7, 2016 by Winter_Wanderer

[Phocion]

In the imp: Grassy? But a pleasant type of grass, not the way green notes usually go sour on me.

 

On my skin: The florals start to come out, with maybe a citrus floating around. Maybe a tea note?

 

After I reveal the name/notes to myself: What was I possibly talking about before? I guess it was the heliotrope that was giving me the floral note. It’s a bit nicer in here than it is in Gold Phoenix. I don’t smell any wasabi. Is it the rooibos that is giving me the grass note?

 

All in all, not bad, but not great.

 

20 minutes later: Eugh. It's kind of settled into a really weird grass-musk note that doesn't work. Swap.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Phocion

[Juushika]

In the vial: Almost-burnt sugar and musk, a dry spicy reddish scent.

 

On me: Rooibos as it hits the skin, dry red herbal, not quite spicy but warm. The burnt sugar/musk comes out again with drydowna combination similar to Smut, the alongside rooibos it's entirely unique; nor is it sweet, despite the impression is sugar. The scent has a good body without being too heavy, a feel of golden woods/resins; it's a dry, warm, and red: gender-neutral edging towards masculine; warm and lovely, but too dry to read as sensual. Needless to say, a distinctive if difficult to summarize scent, and has a smoothness that makes it feel more like a distinct smell than a well-blended combination of notes.

 

Verdict: I find myself reaching for Chaotic far more than I expect. It's too unusual to be called understated, but it has an unassuming smoothness that belies surprising warmth and distinction. I admire it more than I love it, but sometimes it's the perfect thing to wear, and I'm glad for my decant.

[jolarocknrolla]

I'm going to have a really hard describing why i LOVE LOVE LOVE this scent. I did not expect to like it since i don't like florals and had no idea what heliotrope was like ... but apparently i love it? This blend is musky and smells failtly of fresh wild blueberries to me (i know, crazy right? I have no idea). There is something spicy in there, and something warm. I INSTANTLY fell in love with it when i smelled it, no strange "off" notes, no crazy morphing into weird stuff, just pure heaven. This is pure heaven, exotic, spicy, slightly musky sweet heaven.