A Specific Aberration

[shibagast]

These… spectres – may be all around us and only the “developing agent” – those with the specific aberration can see them…

 

Or perhaps we only notice things when the time comes for us to pay attention to them. When they need us to see them…

 

The scent of a pierced veil: misty white petals drifting through ambergris and frankincense.

In the bottle, I smell the ambergris and frankincense first.

First application, I can smell something very slightly floral.

After it dried, mostly floral and frankincense. If this is the ambergris that I'm smelling, it really rounds out the scent. It's very subtle and delicate. If I were going to slip past the veil to the other side, this is what I would be smelling.

[Lycanthrope]

Wow.

 

This frankincense sparkles. It's a beautiful, crisp, soaring frankincense. I love how it glitters. Meanwhile, the ambergris makes it rounder and grounds the glitter. I'm trying to figure out the misty florals... I wonder if it's a touch of tuberose, maybe, because I'm getting a similar feel to this tuberose-winter scent (A Cold, Clear Winter's Day?). It gets a little bit sugary near the end, so not sure if that's the ambergris doing what it does on me like a sweet musk.

 

I like it. I'm not sure I'll wear too much because on dry down, like most top notes in perfumes, this goes to me like a sweet soft floral (not my style!) but I think I'd love to slather it when it's snowy out, or foggy.

[absinthetics]

Wow, I really can't add anything better than what Lycanthrope wrote. This is a glimmering ambergris focused floral. But it's not overly floral. The dry down can become a little powdery but it also becomes more sweet. There is something hard to grasp about the scent, and though it doesn't really morph, it's hard to catch a distinct impression of. It is a very cool scent!

Edited November 22, 2015 by Absinthetics

[Little Bird]

I've been on the fence about this scent, but it's ultimately going to my swap pile. I want to love the golden, delicately sweet frankincense, but the white florals come in sharp, sour and almost rubbery smelling. The ambergris adds a watery amber-aquatic-salty cologne thing that I don't like with the white floral. The amber quality turns powdery in the drydown. I don't hate this, but I never really find myself wanting to wear it either.

Edited July 28, 2016 by Little Bird

[velvet]

This scent is beautiful, airy, but present. The more ambergris scents I try the more I am in love. The wet stage is glittering, ethereal, present but light. It is floral, but so well blended it has a creamy quality. I will need to try it a couple more times to decide if I need a bottle.

[zankoku_zen]

This has to be one of the more jarring BPALs with my skin chemistry.

 

I think there is tuberose in this which makes it a weird blend to me since tuberose rarely works on my skin. It's like a smoky tuberose fighting for dominance against frankincense, and it just smells... unpleasant. It smells sharp, and acrid, and just... unpleasant. In other news, its kinda spooky and very atmospheric. Good throw, good wear length.

 

Smoky florals, sharp, jagged.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Immediately there is this fascinating scent that I can't place - must be one of the "white petals" and it's stunning. I think it's in Muse of Fire as well. This actually is also a bit effervescent and a bit creamy, like Muse of Fire, but the florals and the whole feel of it are totally different. This is amazing. I can hardly describe it. The whole CP line makes me feel that way. AMAZING.

 

 

Dry: I keep coming back to the Muse of Fire comparison (which I adore). It's the only thing I have ever smelled that comes remotely close to this. It's simply amazing. Lycanthrope was right, it glitters. Hoard worthy. It will be a favourite of mine this spring and summer.

[Aviatrix]

This is very pretty!

It's heavy on the frankincense, with the white flowers giving it a nice, slightly powdery glow. I'm not sure I'm getting a lot of ambergris, actually.

It feels like something that would be perfect for warmer spring days and summer, but the chilliness of the white petals could also work well for winter.

The throw is good, but it doesn't last very long on me.

[LiberAmoris]

A Specific Aberration smells both ghostly and summery—it's such an interesting juxtaposition! I'm not sure if the white petals here are tuberose or some other white flower, but they do seem to actually drift through the ambergris and frankincense like an apparition drifting through a wall. There's something truly supernatural about it, and also supernal...there's an effect here of an open space. The ambergris here seems pale compared to ambergris in other blends, and the frankincense is light as a feather. This seems like the kind of scent I'd want to wear with a white dress in summer. There is something a bit soapy about it at first, but it doesn't bother me...it smells fresh and haunting at the same time.

[Poenari]

This is a beautiful ghostly scent. I get almost single note ambergris on my skin, however, with a hint of something light and floral. My skin usually amps frankincense and I cannot even detect it here. This is very similar to 2012 Singing Moon on my skin, but with floral instead of aquatic marsh. Again, ambergris apparently goes to 11 on my skin. Lovely scent, but my decant will suffice.

[sarandipitee]

Usually white petals, white florals of any kind are a huge hell no for my skin chem, but i took a chance because frankincense and ambergris are two of my favourite notes.

 

I'm so happy I did because this one, wow. It's light and somehow effervescent and clean and very soft on my skin - almost goes soapy but stops (frankincense for the win).

 

I'm unsure how much I'd wear it though - it's beautiful but not really my style. Maybe see about getting another decant, I don't think I'll need a full bottle.

Edited January 24, 2016 by sarandipitee

[OctoberGwen]

Beth's best ghostly scent to date, as far as I'm concerned. The "pierced veil" description is perfect: this is a drifting, haunting scent - with my beautiful ambergris and a surprisingly subtle frankincense to keep it from being both too airy and too flowery.

 

It's not white, it's misty grey. And it's stunning.

[Cali]

Not getting the white petals but it's a lovely soapy scent with something else (likely the ambergris it's just that I don't know what that's supposed to smell like) with a lot of frankinsence.
The colour's a clouded light purple, and really has a spectral cold edge to it. Preeeettyyyy!

[PrinceofcatS]

Several people called the white petals in this tuberose, so I got it out of excitement because I love tuberose and it's a rare note from BPAL. This might have tuberose, but it most definitely has jasmine, which I know because the BPAL jasmine note gets a musty, weird scent on my skin (and only BPAL's; I can wear jasmine in other perfumes and oils and have it smell like jasmine just fine). I think the ambergris and frankincense would have been promisingly pretty without the musty weird note taking the fore, but alas.

[tinyvulture]

This is one sharp frankincense note. Crisp and sparkling, as Lycanthrope said. I'm not sure about the white florals or ambergris... A few minutes later the ambergris comes out. It's sweet, warm, fizzy. Still no florals. Dark but also festive. This scent means business, nothing soft about it.