Halloween: San Francisco

[Voleuse]

Salt air wafting in from the bay. Rain falling on rain-soaked leaves.

This is intensely aquatic on first sniff, but in a minute, it settles into the salt-water freshness of Penthus. Or perhaps Bayou? I don't know why, but those are the two GC scents that spring to mind when I sniff this. There's a hint of greenery that rounds the blend, almost but not quite edging into soapiness. It's faintly foggy, cool and damp at once.

[wolfensong]

Expectations: ... Added this on to a decant circle order with the muttered explanation of "... I like rain?"

 

In the bottle: Wow, totally not what I was expecting. This is way green, green the way Loup Garou and Roux-ga-Roux are green, wet foresty green, but not with rain, more like with... I don't know, fog or dew.

 

Wet on the skin: Totally changes. This is the rain in Mag Mell and Visiting the Temple, cold and grey/blue and calming. It doesn't exactly smell tragic, but definitely... solitary. A reflective kind of scent.

 

Drying: The green is coming back, making the rain a little less cold, a little more fall-like rather than straight up frigid. There's moss in there, and maybe some earthy, mushroom-y scent.

 

Dry: Only now do I get the salt air kind of feel, as the smell warms up a little bit more. It's like before this was in the middle of a rain storm, and as the smell evolves and progresses, the clouds clear up a bit, the mist rolls out, and the fog lifts a bit as the sun comes out. It gets almost musky, and a little bit sweet, like the memory of caramel and sea salt, or sweet vanilla flower.

 

I really like the progression of this blend, it evolves really well and tells a truly beautiful story. The throw stays pretty close, but it's not the kind of scent you necessarily want to spread around the room: this, like the memories that inspired it, are things better kept close. Not a lot of staying power either, my skin ate it in almost 45 minutes, but still, very elegant and well-layered.

[annaham]

This one is super-floral on me, with a bit of saltiness, immediately after application. It dries down after about 15-20 minutes, however, into a nice salt-air fragrance that's VERY reminiscent of Bayou. I was really worried about the floral (leaf, in actuality) note the first time I tried it, as I ordered a bottle unsniffed (had to have it since I'm from the Bay Area!). However, I am over the moon with this one after the dry-down; it exceeded my expectations. Fantastic; a must-have for people who love aquatic scents.

[PurringPulsar]

In the imp: like a wetter version of Windy Moon or October.
Wet on skin: now I smell the salt, along with the soggy leaves and rain.
Dry on skin: slightly chypre-like, definitely masculine. This has an overall scent of manly cologne to it, strong and piercing and reminiscent of a sophisticated aftershave. Having said that, it also smells just like the description-I smell the wet leaves, the rain, and the sea air. I smell coastal forests (hints of wood and moss) and also shining ozone/metal that evokes the glass and steel of the city. But there’s definitely a scent of strong aftershave to it.
After a while: salty air. The cologne scent does fade away somewhat, and what’s left is the perfect sea air scent…actually this does smell a little bit like how my skin smells after swimming in the sea. I do love that. Finally, a scent that smells more like 'cool water' than the perfume bearing that name ever could.
Verdict: though this is much too masculine for me to pull off, this is actually a really effective atmospheric scent. I’m not crazy about the strong cologne-like aftershave scent, but I love the salty sea air scent. It’s not soapy or overly ozoned, what ozone it does have evokes hints of an urban landscape, skyscrapers and shining metal, but cooled with salty air and a hint of forests and parks. The wet leaf and rain notes are spot on, it feels cool and airy and wet, and the drydown is amazing, it smells just like sea air, or sea water, or that ‘beach skin’ scent I love (but without any sun lotion to it). I’m sad that this wasn’t released as a room spray, as I think this would work better as a room scent rather than a skin scent. It’s so wonderfully evocative, but I don’t know if I can stand the first hour of wear-too manly for me.
Emoticon rating:
Is it a keeper? The decant.
If you like this, try: Windy Moon, Visiting the Temple at the Winter Solstice, October, Aeaea, Kingsport

[Schmoozy]

Airy, aquatic, salty and green. It's simple, wispy, and pretty.

[zankoku_zen]

Halloween: San Francisco is definitely a more aquatic version of October. It's got the same green/fallen leaves note + water. On me, it's slightly masculine. So it ends up smelling like manly leaves and water.

 

It sort of reminds me to Davidoff's Cool Water for men. But... uh... waaaay better.

 

Aquatic, clean, manly.

[Suu4LC]

This is a salty ozoney/aquatic scent + wet soggy leaves in the imp.

 

Unnghh. Very salty salty salty on my skin. Super salty water and leaves.

 

Thankfully, after a bit of time on my skin the saltiness fades away. Then I am left with a pleasant soft foggy wet leaves smell. Very pretty and subdued.

 

On full FULL drydown, it sort of becomes an aquatic cologney scent. I can see how others would get davidoff cool water from it. This is the most pleasant of this blend's phases to me, but it still isn't really something I would wear.

[surf-tormented]

This is the Bay of San Francisco in a bottle. Rainy days by the water and the green saltines of the ocean, yet I feel I can smell the urban parts of SF in it too! It's a bit like Leaf-Strewn Couch but more salt and aquatics. A bit like Bayou too, but I like this much better than Bayou. I would recommend it to people who like their autumn scents a bit wetter than the typical dead leaves/wet grass/dirt/spices scent a lot of autumn perfumes have.

[rayvn1]

Light, salty aquatic at first and then it smashes you over the head with leaves Thick, wet, abraded leaves dripping with water. It becomes a sweet, foggy scent kind of hovering around. I'll hold onto this one for more testing. Love my water scents!!

[HerbGirl]

I can't say anything that hasn't already been said about SF - it's glorious! Reminds me of October but with an aquatic twist. So much for my originality!!!

[SophieCedar]

Wet: exactly as described. I can smell pacific salt air, fresh rain, and damp leaves. Very fresh. Reminds me of damp Tuesday mornings (don't ask..my brain just makes correlations that I can only somewhat control)

 

Drydown: things dry out. The leaves win over the rain and salt air.

[Xanon]

Sorting my horde and decided that it was about time to review this baby.

 

In the bottle this is like a very aquatic version of A Blade of Grass.

 

Drying the leaf note pops on my skin along with the salt. I am holding with my assumption that the leaf note is the same from ABoG. This is pretty.

 

Dry this hangs closer to the skin, and turns a little perfumey. However, my impression is salty cement and trees in the rain. Very evocative of San Francisco in October. I love how Beth does that.

 

Overall this is a very pretty scent. I think that this will get most use when I am going out for an evening with the hub, or out on the town (which happens to be SF for me) with the girls.

[Larinessa]

There is a spot just south of the golden gate bridge, at the top of 19th avenue where the air is saturated with. Eucalyptus, mint and pine, with the salty air of the bay in the background. That is the scent of San Francisco to me. Had this scent been like that, I would have bought gallons, gladly. Sadly, this was damp grass on me, and I had to pass my bottle on.

[stellans]

When I first sniffed this in the bottle, I didn't care for at all. The fresh greenness wasn't what I wanted an autumn scent to smell like, and then there was this really strong aquatic note which gave me a bit of a headache. Sadly, I closed the top and put it away. After a year of waiting, I am in love! The green scent is there only in the bottle, while the headache-inducing aquatic note seems to have mellowed to the point of bearability, yay!

 

On, this blend smells exactly like a pile of wet leaves, but there is the definite sense that the wet is more sea-spray than rainwater. There's no burning note, as in a leafy bonfire, but the sense of nearby ocean waves and breezes is unmistakeable. Not quite The Phoenix, nor Pirate Moon, but similar in feel - with leaves! I love this scent, and I'm so happy I still have it. Sometimes aging a scent is all that's needed.

 

ETA: 4 of 5 stars for this Halloween blend.

Edited October 25, 2011 by stellans

[theredkilt]

this reminds me a lot of Autumn Overlooked My Knitting, minus the red currant note. It has a cologne vibe, but doesn't last too long.

[batsy]

In the bottle: green aquatic froot loops. Sigh.

 

Wet: The same, for a long time. I can't remember which aquatics I tried way back in the early days of my BPAL discovery but they did the same. It's a headache in a bottle for me.

 

Dry down: It's still wet sugary cereal. Depressing.

 

Verdict: I love San Francisco, and even though I've never been fortunate to spend a Halloween there, I desperately wanted to love this blend. Unfortunately, testing it now aged 11 years (and back when it was released, though I'm not sure I reviewed it then) it hasn't changed for me. So sad. Hopefully someone else can enjoy the bottle.

 

[ShadowEtienne]

I grew up just south of San Francisco, and I spent a lot of time in my childhood and teens in SF - Chinatown, both Pacific and Bay Side waterfronts, the Castro, Golden Gate Park, and just walking all over The City. Fall in SF was always one of my favorite times. This scent launches me back to rainy days walking all over the city in the early to mid 00s in my teens. There are sodden fallen leaves, a mix of yellow and still green just starting to yellow but ripped loose by the wind. There's rain falling, starting to wash away the fog, which still lingers in sheltered spots. There's the two distinct salt air smells of the Bay and the Pacific that mingle into a uniquely SF ocean air scent up on the overlooks and hills.

 

I'm emotional over this scent. It reminds me of some really good moments in a really hard part of my life, and also just some moments of peace and clarity found in The City of my early years. It makes me want to see SF in the fall again, with fully adult eyes, to go back and tell The City where I felt there was at least a chance of being accepted for who I was that yeah, I made it out OK, and it's not my City anymore, but it will always be an important city to me.

 

While my melancholy and nostalgia does not stem from the same place as that feeling in the description, I think that this scent managed to gather those feelings well.

 

I'm so glad that I have this bottle, I'm not sure that it's a scent that I'll be able to wear often though because too many emotions.