Thalassa, the Galapagos Mermaid

[dronzeka]

Seaweed, kelp, salty ocean spray, bitter almond, night-blooming jasmine, frankincense, and benzoin.

 

I find this quite lovely. For me, it's a classic aquatic - salt-sprayed green freshness. It reminds me a LOT of Y'ha-Nthlei, although that may be because that was the first BPAL aquatic I've tried; for me it's not as salty as Sea of Glass. It is a little brighter or fresher than Y'ha-Nthlei (which I find fairly dark), maybe because of the jasmine? I think I can get a hint of the jasmine in this (which works for me, as it's a note I enjoy), but I don't get any almond or frankincense particularly. But it's an incredibly well-blended scent, so that doesn't surprise me. If you like aquatics, you'll like this (unless jasmine hates you, I guess!). I like it, and wouldn't turn down a bottle if it was offered to me, though I'm not sure it's "me" enough to seek one out on my own.

[GypsyRoseRed]

I'm definitely not a lover of aquatics, but Thalassa is an impressive piece of work. Seriously. It smells very oceanic, but without the overload of ozone and that slightly bitter tang that usually come with those kinds of blends (City In The Sea, etc). Slightly sweet and very refreshing!

[reenie212]

I was really looking forward to this scent, since I absolutely love mermaids, and I wasn't disapointed! This is the first aquatic blend that has worked on me. Thalassa is wonderfully clean smelling on me. It does seem to be a bit soapy, but I like soapy (makes me feel clean!), so that is not a problem for me. Very refreshing scent! I think this will be perfect for the summer, when I'm feeling all sweaty and gross. I've added this to my bottle wishlist!

Edited March 4, 2007 by reenie212

[supremegoddessofall]

Interesting! Definitely aquatic, but not overwhelming. This has a feel of "expensive perfume" - the benzoin maybe? Pretty. Not really getting the almond or very much of the frankincense.

[Emma2403]

In the bottle: aquatic, fresh and clean

 

On my skin: ooh, nice. A little salty, still very aquatic, with distinctive seaweeds.

 

After a couple of hours: doesn’t morph much. Still a very clear smell of ocean. I don’t get any jasmine but there’s the tiniest almond showing up… it goes very well with the seaweed (to my surprise!). It has quite a good throw, especially considering aquatics are often faint on me.

 

Verdict: it’s gorgeous. Now the question is: am I going to wear it? I really like aquatics, but I noticed I never think of wearing them… still, I’m pretty much in love with Thalassa!

[jessiesquash]

Wow, this is gorgeous! I hoped and hoped that this would work. I had a texturizing spray from Bath & Body Works made of kelp and I just loved it and I've always kind of been looking for something similar. Lo and behold, Thalassa is it! Classic aquatic with just enough salty spray to really envoke the deep green ocean. It has great throw and staying power. And there is something slightly sweet that just holds it all together. This will be a great scent for those hot summer days!

[presotm]

I echo most of the other reviewers who proclaim this to be a gorgeous blend! Thalassa is my favourite so far of Beth's aquatics, and she has done a masterful job with the Mermaid.

 

No notes stand out and scream to me, but I get the impression of a warm summer breeze fresh from the ocean. Our summer is just ending here, so I will be saving Thalassa for December.

 

Just lovely.

[Doomramen]

Thalassa smells lovely in the imp, sweet and wet and almost citrussy.

 

On me it seems to be missing. Like, it's almost aquatic, almost floral, almost citrusy (not sure where I'm getting that from) It is almost sweet. There is some frankincense, bit it isn't doing anything interesting. It is a bit smokey, but not all there.

No kelp, no salt. Nothing in particular.

Weird.

[Kimocean]

Oh how I love this mermaid. This really is what a mermaid would smell like. The ocean and gorgeous flowers with just a hint of a smokey mystery! I don't smell the almond which I'm glad of because almond scents and I don't get along tremendously well.

 

Yum, yum, yum!!!

[princessbeena]

This scent has definitely made it to my top 10 list....very clean and refreshing...like a salty summer breeze coming off of the ocean.....it's a little sweet and a little salty with the right amount of something green smelling thrown in. Growing up in San Diego I have always had unlimited access to the beach....this scent takes me there while sitting at work in an office building with no beach in sight. LOVELY

[Miss Lynx]

Very sweet, and very aquatic. Despite being a Pisces, and liking the ocean, I usually don't do very well with aquatic scents -- they don't usually actually smell like the sea to me, they usually just smell like -- well, perfume.

 

But this one is nicer than most aquatics. It still has that perfumey edge -- I don't know if there's really any way to attempt to replicate notes like "sea spray" without having them smell synthetic -- but it's not nearly as bad as most. My skin is amping the jasmine a fair bit, so that it becomes pretty much the dominant note, but it doesn't go so far as to become screaming jasmine hell as can sometimes happen.

 

I wish I got a bit more of the incensey notes, but on the whole, it's not at all bad. I don't think it's something I'd wear on a regular basis, but it would be great for doing any sort elemental water work, so I may save it for use as a ritual oil.

 

Grade: B

 

P.S. Wow - this is my 400th BPAL review! Er... I do have a life. Really.

Edited May 3, 2007 by Miss Lynx

[jasmine]

Aquatics make me hesitate, and while this doesn’t explicitly say "aquatic" in the notes, I’m fairly sure that’s what "ocean" means. Still, I love the name of this fragrance -- it’s evocative and beautiful.

 

Thalassa, upon first application, is very fresh and faintly tingly in the nose. There’s a definite saltiness to it, which comes off more as sweat than as sea spume, but it’s the sweat of work instead of stinky sweat -- a light, refreshing overlay of salt upon an exotic green scent. I blame this on the jasmine, which gives this scent a lush fullness, thus evoking the physicality of sweat instead of the ephemerality of sea spray. There’s just a hint of green as well. This is very unusual and very nice.

 

Between the jasmine, the greenness, and the aquatic bent that manifests later, the perfect term for this is “refreshing” -- it’s refreshing like rain on a summer day, without the stickiness of saltwater on your skin. The jasmine might be a bit too overwhelming to turn this into a summer scent, but I’m currently betting not.

 

I didn’t expect to like this anywhere as much as I did. I’m going to keep it in mind for the future.

[Meg]

In the bottle: salty ocean spray and seaweed

 

Wet: frankincense and sea spray, with something lovely and green, more seaweed, perhaps

 

Drydown: it's a very light, discreet scent, as frankincense frequently is. I get a slight breath of salty air, and maybe the faintest hint of jasmine. It goes animalistic on me, afterwards, sort of musky sweet, a bit like ambergris.

 

Overall: It's a very discreet scent, with some really nice notes, but they die out too fast. I think I recognise the benzoin, because the incense resembles Carfax Abbey, and I know it's not pure frankincense. Speaking of which, I'm just waiting for the moment when it will make me cough my lungs up. A pretty ocean blend, but too faint for me.

[PurringPulsar]

Thalassa

 

In the imp: a sweet-salty floral aquatic. Very pretty…I hope this doesn’t turn to soap.

Wet on skin: a warm, seaweedy yet slightly soapy-floral aquatic.

Dry: mmm, this is not bad! It is slightly soapy, there’s definitely a feel of clean laundry to this scent, but it’s more along the lines of Dirty and Toxin, ‘clean-ozone’ scents which I like. It’s a very pretty, soft scent with a definite marine salty-seaweed scent to it, but a nice seaweed scent, more like warm tropical waters. The sea spray note is very much like the ones in F5 and Jolly Roger (ie it smells a bit like salty washing powder), but in here it’s mixed with a lovely soft floral note, no doubt the jasmine. I don’t smell any almond in here at all, which is odd considering that almond usually is very prominent in the wet stage. The frankincense gives a beautiful golden warmth to the scent. To me this scent conjures up the colours of light coral pink and aquamarine.

After a while: the scent’s initial salty-seaweed tang does calm a little, and the scent remaining is a very pleasant clean, warm linen scent. Very much like Dirty, with that fruity-floral salty ozone scent to it, but warmer. It makes me think of a light pink-lilac coloured cloth in the sun…in this case, a beach mat. This is the kind of ‘clean laundry’ scent that I like, in that it reminds me of fresh washed clothes but not of washing powder itself. But the sea air adds a scent to it which strongly reminds me of summer holidays…and this makes it extremely relaxing as a scent, it makes me feel like I’m in Greece, on the beach, away from it all. I think it’s that ‘summer beach’ scent that makes this so nice for me.

The sea spray does get stronger over time, developing more ozone like tones. I think the frankincense adds a hint of smoke to it as well, and the jasmine here is beautiful. It smells almost spicy at times and I smell a dryness to it, it makes me think of a laundered sarong, sand sticking to floral scented sun lotion and hints of a sea breeze.

And then it sweetens so nicely after a few hours. It’s a gorgeous jasmine incense sort of scent now, or like a high quality jasmine scent sprayed onto linen, with that wonderful frankincense note really showing now. And there's a little touch of fabulous amber/vanilla sweetness from benzoin (I swear, it’s the same benzoin from Jacob’s Ladder *swoon*)…with a sea breeze wafting over it all. I never thought sweet resins, flowers and marine notes would work together but they work amazingly together here.

Verdict: I haven't fallen for a sea themed scent for a long time until I tried this. a lot of BPAL marine notes have been going soapy or detergent like as of late-this one does this, to an extent, but I find it very acceptable in this scent. It smells like Dirty (a laundry scent I do like) on the beach, the scent of cleanly washed beach towels draped on the sand with a hint of warm sea breezes. The jasmine is the night blooming variety that I love, and it mixes beautifully with the clean marine ozone. this scent just makes me think of summer holidays and that's enough to make me love this scent…but then I smelt the drydown after a few hours. That's when the resins do their thing. I was wondering how frankincense and benzoin would work with sea spray, and they work surprisingly well. The scent still smells of the beach, but now with a wonderful resin-amber sweetness to it-very much like Jacob's Ladder…I love the benzoin in here! I couldn't stop huffing my wrist at this point. That clinched it-I had to get a bottle of this beautiful mermaid scent, and now this one is set to be a staple in my collection of scents for summer.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? Yes! I love the way the jasmine bonds with the clean sea notes, and the drydown is so gorgeous.

If you like this, try: Dirty, Jolly Roger, Port Royal, F5, Olokun, Perfumed Garden, Jacob's Ladder

[hipslike___cinderella]

This was a gorgeous sea mystery from start to finish. From the reviews I could tell I would love it, yet I still wasn't prepared for this to be the very EPITOME of "ocean" scents. This is like a perfect, sophisticated version of what every generic perfume company is trying to do with such things as "ocean breeze", etc... it even smells expensive. It's impossible to pick out separate notes from the bottle, and in fact, reading the note description and then sniffing, I just think, "how does Beth do that?". Furthermore, this oil provides a gushy, happy feelings for me, because it reminds me of one of my grandmothers; when I was little, she always had her huge bathroom ornately decorated to the brim with everything ocean- seashells, seasponges, seahorses; and she always had dishes of lavish blue soaps and fragrant room sprays, all with that familiar "oceany" smell. This scent captures all of that. If she were alive today, I would ship her a lifetime supply of Thalassa.

 

So alright, I will try to describe Thalassa already. This is cool; not a warm, bright sunny day at the beach, but rather late spring, 60 degrees out in the early morning, with a soft breeze rolling off the tide. As I think others have said before, not blue, but a blue-green. I am not an almond fan by any stretch, and I held my breath as it wore on my skin, but nothing ever changed; it was an upholding, strong tidal wave of beauty... goo, sorry, I'm getting all emotional and poetic over a perfume oil. Anyways, I am tragically logical, so I tried my very hardest to "find" the notes... at best, the jasmine seems to warm and peek into foreground, but without every getting floral; I suspect it's the frankincense and benzoin giving it body (I must stress, this was me trying REALLY hard to pick apart the notes). This is a full-bodied blend, carries well, and with a good throw. My, dear.

 

So there you have it; I tend to either love aquatics of despise them, and this is at the top of my aqua list. I need to invest in many bottles before the carnival leaves town!

[fiddlefox]

soapy yes especially when i first put it on but nice anyway. It's not too strong and it seems warm to me lol, not cool ( I mean not cold not not cool as in uncool lol), okay maybe like the verge of walkng on hot sand and then stepping into the cool ocean? with a slight sweetness to it. I'm keeping this bottle.

Edited July 12, 2007 by ivy_fiddlefox

[squintywitch]

In the bottle: nice, quite cologne-ey, certainly smells aquatic. Reminds me of a Boots "Water" bubble bath I had when I was a kid.

On the skin: Rich, complex, still very much an ocean scent.

On the drydown: Florals starting to come through now. A rich, intoxicating jasmine, a hint of frankenscence. Salt suddenly comes through.

Couple of hours later: This is now a rather sweet jasmine. Nice, but a little sweet for me. When it started to rain for some reason it amped up on my skin, and I was back in fresh seaspray heaven.

 

Very, very nice perfume. Not sure it's me, but well worth another try. May well pick up a bottle before the Carnivale leaves town.

[zankoku_zen]

In the imp: Fresh and soapy

 

On Skin: Aquatic, fresh. Kinda reminds me to Irish Spring... but with more ozone.

 

On Drydown: Soapy. Big Throw. Very masculine.

 

Verdict: I love the artwork for Thalassa. Sadly, she doesn't love me. She actually ends up smelling like Head and Shoulder's shampoo fragrance. I like Head and Shoulders... but I'm pretty sure I don't want to smell like it outside the shower.

[alicia_stardust]

Thalassa is a beautiful aquatic. It keeps from being too soapy, and the Snake Oil keeps it grounded; as much as an aquatic scent can be grounded that is.

 

Thalassa has a warm salty aspect to it that I just love! This is one of the very few aquatics that I am keeping around.

[taramarie]

All I get from Thalassa is the salty ocean spray. It's a nice smell, don't get me wrong, but I was hoping for more than that. I'll pass this one on and stick with Selkie.

[modernsaints]

Distinctly aquatic, with some strangely perfume-y back to it, and a hint of salt. (I think the jasmine is what's making me go "oh, perfume", but it's a very inoffensive jasmine. Not to worry!) Out of all the aquatics I've tried, this is the least "meh", but I'm still not jumping up and down excited about it. I think I'll need to test-drive it a couple times to see if it grows on me.

[jessu]

This is salty, salty, salty. And dry. Usually I go for more wet and ozone-y smells, but this isn't bad. All I get is sea spary and frankincense- none of the other notes appear at all, which is just fine. Often aquatic scents tend to be described as "masculine" (although I usually disagree ) but this totally and completely feminine. Without question.

[ziggystardust]

From the decant: It's not similar to fresh, sharp, salty sea spray - it simply is. How can this be?

 

Wet: The sea spray remains dominant, but I can detect a bit of jasmine underneath. Now, I'm not normally a fan of jasmine, but here it's just perfect. It doesn't make the blend particularly gentle on me, just.. gives it that little extra kick (finslap?), and makes it more interesting overall.

 

A scent memory! - accompanying my uncle on a tiny fishing boat at the age of five, leaning over the side trying to look for fish as a light breeze blew over my face. Subsequently falling in the water, and forcing said uncle to jump in after me as I had no idea how to swim. He was freaked out, but I thought it was incredibly cool (at least, after the fact, when I was happily able to resume breathing.)

 

Dry: Said sea spray tones down a bit, and becoming more balanced with the jasmine. There's also resiny note peeking out - I'm guessing this is the benzoin? On me, this lends a slightly soapy quality, and I can see why some people have made references to Irish Spring. (But then, I like Irish Spring...)

 

Overall: Definitely a keeper, yeah. The 5ml is on its way! : D

[hologhost]

Salty. It always amazing me when I can smell salt in a perfume. Very oceany, but there's a hint of floral underneath. If it's jasmine it's very well behaved.

 

This is not a warm, tropical beach. This is more of the coast here in the Pacific Northwest. To me, Southern Oregon.

[ifinena]

What I get from Thalassa, is the salty ocean spray. Sort of soapy, reminds me some kind of bathgel or shampoo I used to use, but I can't place it. Smells a bit unisex to me.

 

I was thinking of getting a bottle of this, but probably not really "me", so I will pass. Awesome artwork on the label.