The Caterpillar

[diabolique]

Heavy incense notes waft lazily through a mix of carnation, jasmine, bergamot, and neroli over a lush bed of dark mosses, iris blossom, deep patchouli and indolent vetiver.

i don't like this one at all, and amazingly, i thought it was going to be my favorite one! i have too many terrible memories of walking through department stores and being bombarded with the "old woman" smell.

i didn't mean to put this on because the smell in the bottle made me go, "OLD PEOPLE!" i was opening it up to smell it, perhaps to give it another chance, and a little bit spilled on my fingers. i honestly cannot smell anything but that chemical old person smell. i'm so sad. i wanted to like this one so much.

i'm gonna go wash my hands now.

[Belladonnastrap]

Thanks to the lovely fairywingmaker I have a decanted imp of The Caterpillar which makes me very very happy

 

First sniff

Heady...very heady. It smells like an incense shop covered with flowers. Actually I don't know how many of you are into manga/anime but if you've heard of the series Petshop of Horrors this is what I imagine Count D would smell like. Which is very fitting.

 

When wet

I've smelled this before...Oh yeah! THis smells exactly what a bag of incense smells like when you lump in a bunch of different kinds together.

 

Drydown

Much less incensey now, it's a very subtle heady scent....comforting and a bit numbing actually. Very sweet as well.

 

 

Aftermath

While the first sniff and inital wetness put me off a bit I really loved the drydown for this and so the caterpillar gets a thumbs up. I'm not quite sure if I'll ever buy a full bottle of it but I'll most definitely use up the imp!

[LiberAmoris]

The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid sleepy voice.

 

“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I--I hardly know, sir, just at present--at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”

 

I was expecting to like The Caterpillar, because so far I’ve loved all of the incensey scents I’ve tried, but this far exceeded my expectations.

 

It’s definitely a shape-shifter on my skin, starting out with a riot of florals suspended over a carpet of moss, patchouli, and vetiver. Once it dries down, it smells just like what I imagine the underbelly of a caterpillar to smell like: grasses, earth, and a throng of sweet florals. In particular, I can smell the carnation and jasmine---yummy!

 

This lasts all day on me and makes me smell like I’ve been tramping about in the woods. I’ll definitely get a big bottle of this when my imp runs dry.

[lixolux]

The caterpillar is such a lovely complex scent - it really is a shape shifter as others have mentioned. It starts out upon wearing heavy on the spicy carnation for me, like the sizzle-ly carnation in Alice. (i feel like its a more alice hanging out with the caterpillar, as this smells like alice but with way more notes layered over it). Then its very jasmine-y, and then the final drydown i get a very very dry sandalwood-patchouli which smells exactly like my grandmother! Its the Bee Brand Sandalwood scent with a patchouli base - i love it!!

[DukTape]

I like this fragrance! It's the first BPAL one I've tried. I got four packages in the mail yesterday from other BPAl people, and sniffed until I determines which one was making my mailbox smell so exotic.

 

The Caterpillar reminds me of incese store on the coast where I've bought scarves. I take them home and don't wash them until they're done smelling so lovely. THis dind't make DH feel sneezy at all and he enjoyed being around it. I was smelling a kind of murky green, and grayed green, among the flowers. Patchouli is definietly right there, it seems to be the dominant note on me. Everything goes together so well.

 

After a few minutes I thought I smelled a freshly cut wood smell in there. Then I fell asleep, taking a deserved nap, and woke after a half hour smelling cardamom, a tiny bit. There's no cardamom in this stuff, but I smelled it. Intriguing scent. I thought it might smell all mixed up with so many different things in it, but it's a great blend. Love it.

[sihaya09]

At first, this was very generic perfumey, very floral. I eventually was able to pick out some of the jasmine and bergamot, but many of the scents mixed together. Nice, but not my favorite.

[Splendid Molerat]

The Caterpillar is earthy, smoky, sunshine-warmed flowers. And kinda furry too -- not so much the scent, but the sensation of planting your nose on a fluffy kitten.

 

Unfortunately, this was my shopping experience on Saturday:

Cashier- "Did you find everything you were looking for?"

Me- "Yes, thanks."

Cashier- "Excuse me. Wah-choo! Ah-choo! Ah-choo! Ah-choo! Ah-choo! Ah-choo! Ah-choo! Ah-choo! Ah-choo! Ah-choo! "

Me- "Um. Would you be allergic to patchouli at all?"

Cashier- "Wah-choo!"

 

I could have sworn I only dabbed on a little.

[Penance]

I came by a 5mL of this lovely scent quite unexpectedly in a swap, so I'm quite excited.

 

It didn't have a reducer cap and I ended up dousing my hand, but that just let me smell it a little better, or something...

 

First sniff:

 

Flowers and something that smells like a cross between incense and sweet pipe smoke. This is exactly what I would imagine The Caterpillar's abode to smell like! On a side note, my mom says it smells like "outdoors," which, for her, translates to flowers and grass and fresh air.

 

Wet on skin:

 

The incense smell picks up as soon as it hits my skin, overlaying the flowers and turning them into the backdrop rather than the foreground. While I liked this in the bottle, this is infinitely better for me because I adore incense and don't generally care for floral scents. It's a very soft incense, though, like a brasier lit in a meadow rather than the strong, dry, resiny smell of something like Cathedral. This puts me in mind of nature rather than a church.

 

Dry down:

 

This has settled down into a very light, comforting incense smell that's perfectly entwined with the floral notes lurking under the surface. It reminds me of the jasmine-sandalwood incense I used to burn in high school - very light and airy and calming. This is the perfect olfactory accompaniment to the mental image I have of The Caterpillar smoking his hookah pipe in the middle of the forest.

 

The bottom line:

 

I was worried about the flowers in the description, but this is gorgeous. It's incensey without being overpowering or musty as some blends are and it's floral without being distractingly flowery, ass odd as that sounds. This is a very happy scent for me, I'm so happy I got a 5mL of this instead of an imp!

[Azrhiaz]

On me, this was mostly jasmine and patchouli, and something vaguely soapy. I read the description after I tried the Imp, and saw...the dreaded carnation. Must be the soapy note, as Old Morocco struck me as horrifically soapy, at least before it turned to Raid on my skin. I will say that this was much, much less carnation, and in the mix it was okay. In fact, I realized that I smelled like Native Sun, a very cool "hippie" shop we have locally, full of Burt's Bee's soap and incense and batik.

 

It was just starting to grow on me when poof, it vanished. Completely. Was gone in under two hours. Eh, well. Nice enough, but not for me.

[dreamwalkblue]

I hate my body chemistry. I didn't get anything deep or spicy or incensy....just powdery, dusty plastic mixed with some soapy and musty jasmine. I wish I liked this one, the earthy/incensey floral description sounds right up my alley, but alas!

[AnnetteL]

Some time later I am once again getting a very faint curry odour. I have noted that my body-chemistry has done this with several other perfumes. I thought it was sandalwood + neroli/bergamot that was doing this on me, but I'm not sure if sandalwood is in this one.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

*nod* I agree, after the first hour or so (which come through as a quick blast of incence, then a floral) this is definitely heavy on the sandalwood.

 

Unfortunately it ends up very much like Ave Maria Gratia Plena on me - i.e. slightly, unsettlingly unpleasant. I think I may be having the same reaction you describe, it is slightly curry-ish.

[Falathwen]

I am not sure of my opinion about this one. It is more heavy than I would typically prefer, but I am happy to have a chance to try it as a freebie from the lab. Caterpillar is so rich and drowsy. I feel about as confused as Alice trying to figure it out. Jasmine stood out, and I can sense that the others are there, but can only name them from the description. I just asked my husband to bring me a carnation so that I can refresh my scent memory for that, since I remember being very fond of them, but remembering scents is like trying to remember a dream.

[Jasminepearls]

First sniffs turned to sniffles as The Caterpillar took my nose and turned it upside-down while sticking soapy jasmine up my nostrils..mean Caterpillar.

As he dries, his odor turns shrieking and sharp, tingling nostrils, overload of incense dipped in a cloying flowerbed.

He turned quite mysterious on me for a while after settling back down on his shroom-bed, there are spices, ones that I recognize...it smells like cumin and dill under the incense...

...And his final decision was to swiftly twirl me around and powder me with all of the mixed and confused scents of a senile old lady's toiletries...

...And I was just trying to find a way out of this strange place! some help he was!

Harumph.

[octopusgrrl]

In the bottle: strong incense

 

Wet: a mix of dark roses and patchouli

 

Dry: the patchouli dries to an earthy scent, reminding me a lot of Zombi

 

Verdict: intriguing and complex, but not really me. The drydown ends up too powdery and earthy for my liking.

[klowey]

In the vial it was lovely with jasmine and incense.

 

Then it hit my skin and it became a bowl of my grandmother's rose-shaped guest soaps. The ones that we weren't allowed to actually use.

 

Then it got washed off. I can still smell it, but it's no longer giving me a headache.

 

I think this is the first scent that's going into the swap pile with absolutely no regrets or "but it's pleasant, it's just not me." Too bad, since it's nice in the vial.

 

ETA: Of course, with the addition of soap it becomes a nice, light floral. But still not enough to keep

Edited December 31, 2004 by klowey

[magikfanfic]

In the bottle: Carnation blends and I have a history of not getting along so this one worries me, especially since it has "heavy incense notes," which also tend to bother me. Oh well. Kinda smells like incense soap in the vial. Not bad but nothing that really strikes me as something I'd like either. Oh, no, moss. Moss and I are also enemies.

 

Wet: Incense and moss and patchouli have all been invited to a party together...on my skin. I smell like a head shop, a term I picked up from the boy. It's not bad. It's just really not me. I've never had the desire to smell like hippies. I do not like patchouli at all. something is already giving me a headache. I'm washing this off now and letting the boy try it.

[luxuria]

Smells kinda incense-y, kinda floral in the imp. Two of my most hated perfume components, but I decided to be a trooper and put it on.

...

 

I smell like a soapy hippie that's been rolling around in the mud (yes, something can smell both soapy and dirty). Strong incense, patchouli, and moss (which i've discovered smells HORRIBLE on me most of the time) and unidentified soapy notes. I may cave in and wash this one off.

 

...

 

A few hours later, I got the same unmistakable "old person" smell that other people are getting, except more of a vile old person. There was nothing bad about this in the imp, my skin just did horrible things to it

[surf-tormented]

The Caterpillar on me smells like jamine and patchouli. The vision in my head is of unwashed hippie girls dipping themselves in floral oil and then hanging out at the local head shop. Somehow, that seems fitting.

 

The scent is good, a very nice blend of florals, resins and fruit. It is really weak on me and I have to bury my nose in my wrist just to get a good sniff of it. But what I smell, I like. I would rather not have to get so close to smell it.

 

Ooh, the vetiver has come out to play. That makes it better and downplays the jasmine. I can see this getting richer as it wears, as long as it doesn't disappear quick, which it might.

 

This smells strangely familiar to oils I have been wearing in the last 10 years of my life, so I will pass on this one.

[miss apple]

I was intrigued by the Caterpillar but the vetiver and patchouli notes made me a bit hesitant. I thought it might be too heavy but I was quite wrong.

 

In the vial it's a very earthr sort of scent - kinda reminds me of this head shop that used to be in town where the guy behind the counter would smoke cigars and burn incense.

 

Once on....mmm this is a really interesting scent. It's a cross between dark soil, smoke, and flowers. It's sultry and indolent. I can see the hippie quality to it but it's much more sophisticated. I'm suprised at how much I like this - and I will be getting a big bottle for sure.

[Northernminx]

I was really amazed this wasn't stronger as I thought it was going to knock me over the head in the bottle. Deep, earthy green scents and a hint of mysterious shadowy places. The vertiver and patchouli add a sort of herbal twist to this but overall it's quite wispy on me. Interesting and intriguing but not for me.

[Theravada]

Yum, yum, yum! This is a carnation-lover's fix. What starts out as a very complex blend mellows into a carnation surrounded by damp mosses and incense. Smokey, mysterious, and just a bit spicey.

 

If you're like me and a rabid fan of carnation, you'll definately want to try this one soon!

[halowrites]

my first ever review!

 

freshly applied, and like it says in the description, this smells very incense-y. like, very heavy incense-y, which is the kind of smell I really like. I'd liken it to sandalwood, except perusing the list of ingredients, I see that sandalwood isn't even in it, so, um. ahahaha. um, okay. possibly it's the patchouli then, but not the same patchouli as I smelled in Depraved, because it's not as 'earthy' smelling.

 

half an hour later, and it's still very incense-y, but not quite as heavy, and I can detect the floral notes-- the carnation especially, which is nice and spicy. I can't really pick out the jasmine in this one, which is unusual, because that was one of the first things I noticed when I tried Mata Hari-- unless that wasn't the jasmine I was smelling. which, um, is entirely possible, because I'm still new at this.

 

if this scent had a colour, it'd be deep, rich red, threaded through with shimmers of violet. very, very nice.

[sarahjay]

I love this - it's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful blend

 

it's not too incensey, not too floral, the patchouli's not too much in your face. the darker notes seem to ground the florals - it's complex and smoothly blended. it reminds me a little of lauder's 'youth dew'.

 

it's a grown-up perfume, but then, I am grown up! I had to order 5mls at once and I'll have to ration out my imp whilst I wait for the bottle to fly over to london.

 

I loves it, I do.

 

3 march - I am still loving this. I've managed to get hold of another imp until I get my 5mls. I persuaded femke to try it, and she loved it too. it's gorgeous.

 

do try it!

Edited March 2, 2005 by sarahjay

[TheDarkMother]

In the Bottle: A little iris, but very incensey. Very hard to pull out exactly what notes, but somehow a little buttery.

 

On Me: Mmm....carnation, iris, neroli....it all combines for a heady floral scent. The velviter isn't very chocolaty in this at all, and instead this is just a thick floral that I am just totally falling in love with. The neroli gives it just enough to make it exotic.

 

A big bottle must be had of this.

[byrdie]

Bottle ~ Smoky, resin, and a touch of pine. Languid, but sharp.

 

Wet ~ A smoky grown-up perfume. I think there's sandalwood in this. Mature and bohemian. I keep expecting it to turn into a "real" perfume -- dissolving into a diluted, alcohol bite.

 

Drying ~ This oil has turned towards a spicy incense smell in a short amount of time. It does make me think somewhat of hookah smoke.

 

Drydown ~ I really can't describe what I'm smelling past "a lacquered wooden box in a funky/hippie imports shop."

 

Dry ~ It's settling down into a nice incense-ash scent. It's a teeny bit sweet in the way that sugar is used to bring out the flavor of some things -- it's not a sweet scent, but it's sweet relative to when it's wet. If someone made an incense dusting-powder, it'd smell like this.

 

Fade ~ Um. Something happened. I don't know what, though after helping a friend clean up their home, the phrase "bong water" leaps to mind. Oh, dear.

 

Final thoughts ~ This would probably be a very lovely oil for someone who is into strong incense perfumes. It's not doing it for me, though it may make an interesting room scent sometime.