Penthus

[klavierbarrette]

The Greek God of Tears, Patron of Mourners, who dictates and accepts honors paid to the dead. He is the personification of grief and the sorrow and emptiness that comes from loss. Weeping is his hymnal, and this is his perfume. Salt tears over white roses, the fumes of thin funereal incense and the hollowness of calamus.

this is an interesting oil.

imp: SALT WATER EW.
skin: salt water, then whoah rose. still salty but there's a TINY musk.

nice blend. not really the type i like, but nice frimp. <3

[Ajila]

In the bottle - A kind of oddly high pitched incense

 

Wet on me - Rose and acrid soap

 

Dry on me - Sweet softened incense

 

Overall - Light and dry and barely there

[lady_pandora]

I'm beginning to wonder if I'm developing more of a tolerance for aquatic/ozone notes. Initially, they all gave me a headache. Over the past few months, I've found a few aquatic blends that don't. And with Penthus, I've finally found one where the aquatic note does what it's supposed to do--which is make me smell like water. This is a very good thing because I love all those candles, etc., that smell like "Rain" and have been saddened by the thought that I couldn't wear things like that as perfume.

 

I get mostly the aquatic note, with a slight undertone of rose that vanishes after half an hour or so. In the throw, it's pretty much all aquatic. And it's lovely. It's reminiscent of tears, yes, and is a little melancholy. But it also makes me think of a gentle rain.

 

Pardon the personal woo-woo stuff, but I've always found rain comforting when I'm in emotional pain; it's almost like it infuses me with power and gives me strength. Or maybe it really does.

 

So this is not just the scent of sorrow to me, but also represents the way sorrow yields to--if not happiness--a wistful sort of acceptance. It's lovely, and I must thank Beth for creating a "rainy" blend that I can wear.

[phedre]

in vial: peppermint?! *re-reads description*

 

wet on skin: this smells like mint mixed with vanilla to me, something like those creamy mints that come in pastel colours. A mix up maybe? Label definitely says Penthus on it. *is confused*

 

Ten minutes later: Maybe the calamus is confusing me. There's sweet rose coming out now, and the incense is there. I guess my nose is just confused on this one!

 

An hour later, it hasn't changed much except that it's gotten lighter. Nice, but nothing to write home about.

[filigree_shadow]

I have had this imp for a long time -- it still had the original owner's tape on it from when she sent it to me. I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to get around to trying this, but...

 

I didn't look at the notes before I put it on, and what I smelled was kind of a wood/incense scent at first, and then a very light rose scent started to come out. I thought, "Hmm, is this a rose and incense scent?" I looked it up and was glad to find out that my sniffer was right on the money. Now that I've seen the description, I can tell that there's also something salty about the scent, but I wouldn't have thought so unless I was prompted.

 

Rose scents are tricky for me, but I like this one. It smells rather sad. It's very soft and floaty. I like it.

[Browneyes]

In the Frimp: this is very strong!

Wet: very strong perfumey smell, quite pleasant, I guess the strongest note to me seems to be the roseyness

Dry: Strooong rose perfumey smell with soft overtone of aquatic saltiness. Nice, but don't see myself wearing this often, so it's off to swaps! Very good throw and lasting power on me though.

[eleventhousand]

I LOVE this one.

 

It is soft and sweetly rosy, with a salty, faintly herbal edge.

It is the only BPAL aquatic that has not turned into Irish Spring via my unfortunate chemistry.

It doesn't smell sea-like, just wet.

 

So pretty and gentle.

It reminds me of something from my childhood.

[stellans]

 

white rose goodness! Yellow roses and red roses are my favorites, but white roses have a special place in my heart because they were my great-grandmother and namesake's favorites. She was quite a good gardener as well, and developed several new iris too.

 

Anyway, this imp was my replacement daily imp after an unfortunate experience with Phantasm this morning. What a relief it was!

 

In the imp: roses, roses, roses!.

Wet on skin: Again, roses, but I get a little hint of that saltiness others have mentioned. This is a meditative scent for me, which is why it made me remember and miss my Mom Beane so much. I would like this scent around me in a green bower, with a lovely little seat -- a calm, peaceful place for reflection.

Dry: No more saltiness, however slight during the wet phase -- it's all floral, with some green notes moving forward now. Still, calming and meditative to me. I like this rose blend.

Verdict: I have rose blends for love, and rose blends for joy. Now I want a bottle of this for meditation. I love it so.

Edited March 20, 2009 by stellans

[porcelina]

bottle: why does this smell like sushi?!

wet: salty flowers.

dry: salty flowers.

overall: this does nothing for me... so much so that i can't think of anything else to say about it.

[The Perfumed Ferret]

This reminds me of standing in a rose garden protected from the vast sea by a crooked fence with white peeling paint.

 

The weather is cloudy and damp, and I am standing there in a long sweater staring into the sea.

 

 

This is a beautiful, yet lonely scent. May lead to daydreams...

[hipslike___cinderella]

Very very salty, and rosy. That's the initial waft. This smells very "vintage"... that word just sticks. It's like something I'd find in my grandmother's drawer (I mean that in the best possible way; I am not phobic of "grandma" scents!). Once applied, it's a streaming bouquet of whiteness...white roses and a touch of salty wetness, but not half as salty as in the bottle alone. Given a few minutes, I can catch whisps of incense (almost unmistakably frankincense) from my wrists. The incense doesn't stay around long (poo) and neither does the salty aquatic, and I'm left with solemn, elegant, clean white rose and flowers. I'm not sure what calamus smells like alone, but for some reason, I could NOT stop comparing Penthus with Queen of Hearts- minus the cherry and lily. And, er, I guess no rose either. Perhaps that doesn't make sense, but they both give me a distinct, regal, lady-like feel.

 

I like. Although I'd only wear it when I felt the need to put my head high in the air.

[Mixxi]

In the imp: Really strong.. very strong typically 'perfumey' scent to me.

 

Wet on skin: Still really strong and just perfumey.. wondering if this was going to go to soap on me.

 

Dry: Finally after quite a while this blend calms down and seperates out to a pleasant soft, light white rose & salty aquatic. I'm glad I didn't wash this off because it does turn out to be quite nice. I keep getting a picture in my head of a watermill with hundreds of gentle, white roses grown around it. Overall I don't think this will turn into a 5ml bottle but it could be a scent I may grow to love. I will definately use my imp though.

[Nimthiriel]

Initial impression:

It's gentle, very gentle... Like a soft whisper. I can't make out any individual notes.

 

First on:

Guh, it's ALL green. Green, green, green. Please, little frimp, go anything but pure green?

 

Dry:

After about 10 mins, it's become a paradox to my nose – it's gentler than before, but it's also sharper. o_O

 

20-30 mins afterapplication, it's actually a really pleasant scent. I still can't tell what's what, but it's nice. It has mellowed now, and it really is a soft, gentle and ”sad” scent. I have nothing to use this for, unfortunately, but if I had, it'd been a keeper.

 

Finally:

Swapping it, but I actually enjoyed it. It was an oddly kind scent.

[bryghtrose]

I found this to be very cologne-like. A high, herbal scent that didn't impress me. I really didn't get a sense of the rose, which was unfortunate.

[Miseraya]

In the imp: Salty. Salty flowers. Hmm, a floral aquatic. That's about all I get from this at the moment, it's floral and it's aquatic and that's all my nose is telling me. I'm not getting any specific floral notes yet.

 

On the wrist: Powdery already! Freshly applied it's already starting to be a bit powdery on me. It also smells thick and cloying, like it has lily in it. Lily always smells really heavy and overpoweringly sweet on me. Surprisingly the rose isn't coming through. I've lost the salty note.

 

Drydown: The salt smell comes back, but faintly. It doesn't smell like tears to me, it smells more like a lightly perspiring teenager. The teenager bit comes from the sweetness of the florals in this. The final impression I am left with is a 15 year old girl about 15 minutes into basketball practice. Which could seem creepy, but I used to be a 15 year old girl who played basketball, so it's not weird, really. I'm just retroactively smelling myself. *nods*

 

Overall: Not for me. I don't want to smell like this. Swapped.

[ImperatrixMundi]

Firstly, thanks to xiangshui for the imp!

 

Wet in the imp and on the skin: a salty mixture of rose and incense, with a strange hollowness that is hard to describe.

 

Dry: I amp rose, so this becomes a hight pitched, salty and slightly sharp white rose with a hint of incense. The strange hollow feeling is still there.

When inhaling I first smell the sharp and salty rose and then just a whiff of the incense.

 

It is like there is something else supposed to be where the whiff of incense is, something that is missing from the blend that would round it out. Like the part that is suddenly missing from your life when you attend a funeral and realize someone is gone.

 

I hardly ever get such strong impressions from a blend, but this is one of those where I seem to get the smell that this was intended to be.

 

Nothing I would wear on a daily basis. Unfortunately this falls to pieces on my skin, like most roses do it goes powdery and soapy. No. Suddely it is back sharp and salty? Weird. Nose getting tired.

[starwild]

I've had this for a while, but just now got around to trying it.

 

It's what I'd consider one of the more perfumey, generic BPAL scents, utterly inoffensive if a bit strong. It's your basic saltwater floral, like beach-blooming flowers. Not particularly standout. I notice I've started getting a Lemon Pledge note from a lot of watery scents...Water of Notre Dame, and now this one. It's not bad, just a bit odd. It may be my skin chemistry.

 

Not the scent I typically think of when I think of BPAL, but not bad. Just not my thing.

[GoldenRubee]

In the imp, the first whiff is mildly salty followed by soft roses. I lived by the beach in my teen years and my mom had a huge garden of every type of rose. There must have been thirty plants of every color. My mom would spend hours every day pulling weeds and watering those roses. The scent of the different rose fragrances would mingle with the salty ocean air and combine together to make the most glorious scent. This is what Penthus smells like-all in a tiny imp. It is really remarkable how Beth gets all that in such a small vial. Just that one sniff brought back all those memories of my mom-all those years ago.

[scake]

This was a free imp from the Lab. Thanks, Lab!

 

Hmm. Wet on my skin -- salty soap. Very strong. Soapiness is very short-lived. I'm getting salty roses now.

Roses drenched in tears, indeed. Drenched in salt tears. Very very slight hint of incense in the background. I'd like it to come up more.

 

Drying down, it becomes this softer salty rose. The salt stays right out on top. I'm not a huge fan of salty food, so the salt in this... is odd, to me, as a scent. It's unusual. Not bad, but not me.

 

Sure glad I had a chance to try it before it's gone for good. I don't think I'll shed any tears over its passing, though it is nice.

[aleciarivas]

Salty roses. Literally, all I get is what I would imagine salted roses would smell like. Hm. Not for me, for sure! My apparently uneducated nose gets nothing else all through the dry down.

[naiade]

I actually like this, and will treasure my imp

 

It smells delicate, sweet and poignant. Clean, like you've been crying. This scent requires a specific mood but is perfect when the time comes around.

[contrary_wise]

In the imp: Intriguing, but slightly headache-inducing in its floral/incense blend.

 

Wet on skin: Whoa, roses and generic incense. I'm surprised I'm not sneezing or getting a sinus headache; with every whiff, I get a little tickle in my nose. This is intense. Roses roses roses. Maybe there's a tiny bit of salt in there, but mostly it's just mega-roses. Old fashioned perfume roses, not the lovely juicy roses of my lovely Rose Red.

 

Dry down: The longer I wear Penthus, the more I get hints of other notes, a little more salt tang to cut the rose intensity. This is heady but oddly calming. It's a very "perfume-y" blend which I don't usually much like. But there's an element of this that I find strangely haunting. I want to know how this will morph over a few more hours, cos it's definitely sticking around on my skin.

 

I wrote that a few days ago, the first time I tried the frimp from the Lab. Since then, I've been thinking about Penthus and the lovely calming effect it had on me. I put more on today to see if my memories were worth a bottle before it disappears. The sneeze-inducing note is still there, along with the calm, so I don't think I need more. But I do like elements of Penthus, way more than I expected. Maybe another aquatic floral sans incense will have the same effect on my mood without the sneezing.

[sadtomato]

in the bottle i didn't think i'd like it. it was rather strong and cologne-like smelling. it was one i thought i'd end up giving to my husband.

but i tried it today and, oh my...i'm so bummed it's retiring!

wet this was such a delicious floral bouquet. very soft and feminine.

dry, the same floralness, but lighter and that interesting salty kick comes out and makes it just fabulous.

i mean, really...who else on earth could come with this stuff.

floral salty smelling perfume.

wonderufl, amazing, perfect.

i love it.

i'm so sad it's going away=/

[taramarie]

In the bottle and wet on my skin, Penthus smells like Irish Spring. Not soapy, just a really clean, fresh scent. Dry, it's saltwater, white rose, and something green. Still fresh and very pretty. I'm glad I got a bottle.

[zankoku_zen]

Oh good, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that is getting mint from this. I get a light minty rose at the beginning and as it dries, I get more of the incense base.

 

This is actually quite pretty and I think I'm sad that its gone away. Boo.