News from Afar

[zankoku_zen]

Amber silk, golden cream, oakmoss, and cypress.

[Little Bird]

I've been loving Bpal's monthly painting inspired fragrances.  I've learned a lot about different artists and history by always looking up the paintings that intrigue me and I think that they have resulted in some of bpal's most elegant and interesting perfumes.

News From Afar smells incredible in the first five minutes where the oakmoss and cypress have a juicy, vibrant, almost tropical fruit juice quality to them.  I've been cooking with pine lately and this is the sort of evergreen that smells edible and mouthwatering.  I love the vibrant and aromatic opening stage, but it moves quickly to a drydown of amber and cream, which is still beautiful, so I'm not too sad about it.  The amber silk leans powdery and clean rather than warm and deeply resinous, and the cream is not a sugared or sweet vanilla, but something more like cold milk without any of the sour or buttery tones that milk can have.  I think the cypress is adding a cool, airy freshness and foresty sweetness as well without smelling distinctly like evergreen anymore.  It makes me think of opening a cabin door on a cold day in the woods after a while and just that.. clean air scent (but not fabric softener or soapy clean air).

I really like that this is clean without being soapy, powdery without being too dry or reminiscent of baby powder, full of rich amber that isn't the usual woody, vanillic, or deeply resinous variety of amber, and that it has a noticeable rich cream note that isn't sugary or sour.  It smells cool, calm and collected.  Refreshing like a chilly morning in the country.  Really beautiful.

[RoseThornAndOak]

In the bottle and fresh on, very evergreen, reads more pine than cypress and oakmoss, but that cypress freshness is there behind the pine. These notes recede for the most part and what I am reading as the amber and cream floating up together is not sour on me either, however...

 

Unfortunately, ever since Covid, this blend like many others, goes sharp on me. Not all the time, however, I can pick up that this is the type that I get from many commercial perfume blends. So, I would suspect that on the right skin, this would coalesce into a very wearable, beautiful creamy amber with evergreens draping around the edges. I do get some similarities to The Queen and The Page, which works better for me.

 

So think high end evergreen amber cream. Very regal and elegant, and totally fits the painting, although I could see this on a Viking woman too, very Freyja. MAN I wish this worked on me! I might keep it for a scent locket or atmosphere blend.

[sea turtle]

For some reason I don't pick up a whole lot of evergreen in this one - if it is, it's verrrry soft on me. This is a young, charming cozy amber fragrance that's a bit ubiquitous to my nose -- I get the same type of commercial vibe as RoseThornAndOak.

[Llanval]

I really enjoy this one, reminds me of the perfume section at Sephora!  I wish the pine was more present, because that's what I came here for, lol. Despite the too-subtle pine, this a soft, high-end, commercial leaning scent that would offend no one. Everything behaves, nothing loud. The oakmoss is an excellent supporter of the other notes, and brings out the classy, high-end vibes here.

 

I agree with sea turtle that this is a young, charming cozy amber fragrance.  Because this reads as generic perfume counter, it won't be an FS for me, but it is lovely and will surely make someone quite happy!

[HerbGirl]

Oh how I love this. I love how it smells like Golden Sunrise but with cypress in place of bergamot. Creamy sweet amber with a hint of lush dark cypress...an instant favorite.