Caliban

[copyshopclerk]

The scent of the salty seas, bittersweet wine, palm and tropical ferns.

In the imp: Grassy, cool, tropical

Wet: Smells like a waterfall surrounded by greenery in a lush tropical forest, but I'm not sure I can see wine in this

Dry: Grassy edge calms down, becomes almost a creamy sweetness but still very clean (not a foody sweetness at all!). Very summery and tropical. I really like this, but it's not the right time of the year to wear this. Will definitely revisit in the spring!


(edited to add description) Edited June 24, 2008 by Shollin
added coded lab description

[femmefatale]

This was actually the first bpal scent I wanted to try and I am soooo glad I finally did.

 

In the bottle it smells just like fresh cut grass. OMG, it is so yummy. I loved that smell growing up in Fla, the mix of cut grass and something wet.

As it begins to dry a sweetness comes out and something floral. Also, a wonderful salty aquatic. I don't really get the wine, which is actually fine with me.

It's very tropical and seductive. I absolutely LOVE it.

[enigmae]

Initially it’s water and woods, with a hint of greenery. Somewhat masculine. It gets greener and greener and more floral, very pungent and almost bitter. Soon enough that goes away though, and it’s just a very fresh, clean outdoors scent that’s very evocative. I'm not sure if it's "me", but I like it enough that I'll try it a few more times before reaching a verdict.

[alliekat13]

In the imp: smells kind of like a generic men's cologne.

 

On skin: green, fresh, and herbal. The ferns and palm really stand out, but the aquatic is very faint. After a while a fruity scent emerges-that must be the wine. A good masculine scent, but I think the wine kind of ruins it.

[Holly]

In the imp: like cut grass...sort of that "crushed stems" smell that Beth does so well

 

Wet: bitter! Still very green w/ a tiny bit of the wine poking through

 

Dry: settles down to a very clean grassy scent with an occasional light sweetness

 

Not something I'd wear very often, but I'll keep the imp. I think this would be really nice on a man.

[gailnilsson]

In my scent locket: smells like freshly cut green grass - I love it! It is like something I wore in junior high school in the '70's - I have no idea what it was. And it is similar to Jo Malone French Lime Blossom Cologne which I adored until finding bpal. Caliban smells more natural, though, which is why I like it better.

 

On my skin, this fades very quickly and morphs into a faint, non-descript floral - nothing like in the locket.

 

Interestingly, the Jo Malone Lime Blossom does not morph on my skin, but it has a sharpness that Caliban does not have...Caliban is nicer.

 

I will wear this in my scent locket but not on my skin - very fresh, springtime scent.

Edited March 4, 2007 by gailprentice

[Mianjo]

In the imp: Smells a bit like when someone has cut the grass in the early morning...you go out, pick up a handful of freshly cut, dewy grasss...that's that smell.

 

Wet, on my skin: Interesting. I get a bit of floral, a bit of the greenery. The "fern" is coming out a bit. Chlorophyll--green juices from a picked leaf on your fingers.

 

Dry: Not bad. I smell something a little creamy? underneath the green/floral. Nice scent for spring. I'm not sure that it's *me*, though. I might give it another go soon.

 

 

ETA: One of the listed notes is "bittersweet wine." Generally speaking, on my skin Wine is like the smelly kid in the Moon Bounce--once he joins the party, all the other kids leave as quickly as possible to let him have the space to himself. Not this time--Wine played nicely and blended with the other notes. Maybe because it's bittersweet?

Edited March 30, 2007 by Mianjo

[porcelina]

Bottle: Fruity winey salty aquatic goodness.

 

Wet: This is what started my love affair with wine notes in perfume. Well, that and the fact that I'm a total wino. This is gorgeous. The salty sea thing it has going on is brilliant.

 

Dry: More of the same. Less green, more salty, though. In the latter stages, this starts to go really laundry detergent on me. I don't know why. I wish it would always smell like it does when it's wet!

 

Overall: I love Caliban, except for when I've been wearing it for an hour or two and I start to smell like a box of Tide.

[tinyvulture]

i mainly smell the aquatic notes and green ferns (like fresh-cut grass, but a little sharper), with just an undertone of wine. i’m usually not big on aquatics, but i admire the complexity of this one. it’s tropical and cooling – you can almost feel the cool island breeze on your skin. this is definitely a “salty” water scent – and it stays salty, rather than turning cloyingly sweet on my skin like most aquatics do.

[t_for_tau]

This would be so lovely without the wine - green and salty and fresh. Unfortunately, the wine note goes (as ever) sickly-sweet on me, so that I seem to be standing in a beautiful tropical breeze next to someone who's drinking a can of extremely unpleasant fizzy drink. I can almost hear the wasps circling.... I'm sticking with this in the hope that the sweetness might fade after a bit longer, but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere fast.

[jessiesquash]

This is all salty fresh with light florals on me and it dries into a lovely fresh breezy scent. In a scent locket however, the wine just overpowers everything and the throw is just POWERFUL! I eventually had to take the locket off because the throw was more of a cloud and people were starting to comment. I think I'll reserve Caliban for my skin only since it behaves with my skin chemistry!

[herbhealer]

I love this scent - and I'm not sure why. It's not sweet or dark, there's no resins or musk. But on hot days, I find it really refreshing, I enjoy the saltiness and the slight bitterness. I find this easy to wear, and I reach for it often. Glad I got a bottle!

[tartchef]

Wow.

 

This is gorgeous - greengreengreen, verdant, lush ferns & the faint whiff of sea air. Really vegetal, not at all "fresh" like laundry detergent or Jolly Roger, say. I barely get any wine, just a faint waft about 6 inches off my skin - it disappears if I press nose to wrist. Up close, now that it's dry, I'm getting lovely bracken & hairy brown stems, like I've gotten down & crawled under a thicket of ferns. It's perfect for a hot, humid day...

 

An unexpected delight... the Mister is strangely taken with it, and it seems to have gotten him all frisky-like...

Edited June 25, 2007 by tartchef

[zankoku_zen]

In the imp: Piney

 

On Skin: Green and with a certain warmth to it

 

On Drydown: Green, kinda salty... it's like a plant that has been left in the sun (all warm and green)

 

Verdict: I don't get a distinctive note from this... but it does strike me as more masculine than not. The husband says it's pretty but I'm not feeling the love. I would definitely recommend this one for a guy that wants an aquatic.

[steelxrose]

In the bottle I found Caliban to be quite tart.

Wet on my skin, the tartness was amplified.

Dry, it's a wonderful explosion of sweetness.

 

I vaguely remember the scent, but I can't quite put my finger on where I smelled it before. It sort of reminds me of my grandmother. I wasn't sure if I would keep this one until I sniffed myself a few hours after application and loved it then. If I can just get over the initial dry down, this one is a real winner for me.

[Miseraya]

In the imp: This smells green, grassy and a bit herbal to me. I like! It smells like freshly cut grass and a chopped up bell pepper. Green bell pepper, of course.

 

On the wrist: So, so green. Like crushed flower stems, seeping their green sappy goodness onto my skin. But lurking underneath is a floral note that could turn on me. Something very heavy and white, like gardenia or jasmine. More like gardenia than jasmine. Hopefully the greenness will prevail! So green and clean and lovely.... I'm not getting a wine note from this, or for that matter much aquatic. After re-reading the description, I catch something I missed the first time around and now I know where the green smell is coming from. Ferns! How wonderful that there is a fern note!

 

Drydown: My skin ate it. One minute there was ferny loveliness everywhere and the next... my skin ate it. All that is left is a faint hint at what was. A very faint hint of that lurking floral and nothing more. A very intimate scent. This bears more thinking about. It may be swapped though.

[Christine Daae]

In the imp, this is a bitter, green aquatic.

 

On my skin, it instantly develops into a light, refreshing, tropical aquatic. Interesting.

 

This smells very much like tropical greenery, with a hint of something floral underneath. I, like some of the other reviewers, don't get much of a wine scent from this. Actually, none at all, really. This is actually really pretty. We'll see if the boyfriend can handle it - the only other aquatic that I've worn around him has been Sea of Glass, which I loved, and he thought smelled "like hairspray." D:

[Nia]

I have consciously avoided any salty or oceanic notes. I like light herbal scents, but I didn't like the idea of smelling of the sea. But Caliban is one of my favourite Shakespearean characters, so I had to give it a try. I'm so glad that it works so well on me.

 

It starts out scary, with a strong herbal bite that quickly goes away and leaves a fresh grassy scent for hours, It is quite mild, as if poor Caliban was in hiding. I think it would make an excellent masculine scent. Let's see what The Boy thinks.

[mspixieears]

Smells like the sea with a hint of green and sour fruit, yet unripened. I suspect that is probably the palm which is very strong whilst the fragrance is wet. It reminds me of the greengrocer’s and not at all in an unpleasant way (I rather like the green, earthy smell of vegetables which is what this specifically reminds me of). Now that it’s dry it’s become very floral with a hint of the mentioned ferns and an even smaller hint of fruit. Maybe that’s the bittersweet wine? The floral nature of the fragrance is very short-lived and it then becomes super-ferny again. Probably my favourite aquatic tried thus far.

[prettybird]

A freebie from the Lab- I seem to keep getting scents that I would never order that end up in love with.

 

Caliban renewed my love for aquatics. I can never pick out the wine in it, which is unsurprising, as my skin seems to just swallow it. The best way I can describe it is as a calming scent. It's much like Sea of Glass, only Caliban has a nice green edge to it.

 

I'm not sure I love it enough to get a whole vial, but I'll definitely get another imp if I run this one out.

[voodoocatwoman]

An interesting scent, to say the least.

 

In the imp: Very green- I smell grass, freshly cut.

 

Wet: Goodness, now it's very fresh, sweet with a hint of saltiness. I don't detect any wine.

 

Dry: It's gone straight to powdery soap. Porcelina mentioned Tide detergent. I'm thinking that too.

 

Oh, well.

[Rovylern]

In the imp: Something about this reminds me of one of those "After The Rain" air fresheners.

 

Wet: Yep, definitely an air freshener. It's very green and fresh, but something about it comes off artificial and chemical to my nose.

 

Drydown: Wait, where did it go? This was completely gone after only 35 minutes. I put more on, and it disappeared again. I applied it a third time, very heavily, and again it vanished. Apparently I am not meant to smell this for more than half an hour. How very odd.

[twilighteyes]

Frimped from the lab!

 

In the imp it is very much an aquatic. Salty!

 

On my skin I can smell it turn a bit green.

 

Don't smell any bittersweet wine. On me it's just a salty green aquatic.

[gchris]

In Vial: Whoa! salty seaweed

 

Wet: Very green and salty aquatic

 

Later: This becomes more and more green with salt and water scents in the background

[CrazyPretzel]

Lab frimp, and not one I would ever have thought to try. But actually it's a success! I get no bittersweet wine from this at all (happily), and it's a surprisingly fresh salty aquatic with gorgeous lush green palm notes. No seaweed or fishiness. Very beach-y