Callisto

[DiesMali]

Tidally locked to Jupiter's sacred plants: white musk, salt-touched white sage, Oman frankincense, nutmeg, and gently honeyed saffron.

In the bottle: Slightly cologne-y aquatic with a bit of spice.

Wet on my skin: White musk, salt, and sage all typically do a cool, slightly aquatic cologne thing on my skin, and this is doing that while wet.

Dry: Sadly, the frankincense and honeyed saffron aren't really showing up in this yet, and I think it will require some aging to bring those notes out. Right now, this is that cool, salty cologne, with the nutmeg contributing to the cool feel of it and bringing in some spice as well (nutmeg and sassafras go coolly herbal on my skin). I know this doesn't seem like it should be an aquatic, but it really kind of is on me, and I actually rather like it even though the frankincense and saffron are MIA so far. This is a close-ish cousin to Pottaskefill from the '15 Yule run, and a more distant cousin of Mary Read and Calico Jack.

[Lycanthrope]

I'm so confused.

 

On the skin, the salt note, I've determined, turns into a bit of corn-tortilla type situation. I've experienced this in a few other oceanic/ocean salt scents. It's different from the bladderwrack seaweedy salt, this is a warm, foody salt. I don't know if it's my chemistry or what. This is the same thing that happened to me with that Lilith scent I can't remember the name of for the life of me that featured a humpback whale or some type of marine whale-type crittermon. Also, tortillas. Happy tortillas, but same.

 

After it dries down, it smells like a foody type of spiced bread. What. But, it's like totally BREAD and not like CAKE. I wonder if this is the saffron and nutmeg and the salt note + Lycanthrope chemistry reading as such.

 

So, I'm not getting much ocean from this, and the sacred plants are very quiet - I think even the sage is processing to me as kitchen.

 

Don't get me wrong, it's super comforting, but this is not too aquatic to me.

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: There are some lovely cool herbs and spicy incense hiding way down at the bottom, and every so often I get a fleeting whiff of them, but mostly it's just SALT SALT SALT all the time. I very much agree with Lycanthrope - this is a foody, tortilla chip-y salt. Man, I hope this one morphs on the skin...

 

Wet: Kicks off with EXACTLY the smell you get when you first open the little container of warmed tortillas at a nice Mexican restaurant. It slowly starts to mellow in the direction of an herbal, cologne-y scent after that, but the "warm tortillas" note remains jarringly present for much longer than I'd like. Eventually, it settles into a fresh, aquatic scent with a touch of what I'm pretty sure is sage. Which is actually a bit odd, since aquatics *never* work on my skin. They almost universally turn to soap, but whatever is creating the impression of fresh, running water here is working!

 

Dry: A soft, musky, herbal scent - the kind of cuddly that's appropriate for warm days like this. Warm without stifling. Looks like my wish for a morpher was granted! Now, if only there was something I could do about the warm tortilla opening note...

[sarandipitee]

Initial hit when first applied to skin is a very warm honeyed food (maybe bread but I feel more baked good) vibe. Then the sage and the slightest hint of aquatic (very slight because aquatics typically mean headache on me). The salt mingles a bit with a cologne vibe but then the most stunning, and I mean STUNNING frankincense emerges Now, I'm biased because I adore me some frank but this is the good stuff - it doesn't go to powder on my skin.

 

After a good hour of sweet frankincense the white musk comes out. It mixes with the faintest tinge of honey and what I'm assuming is saffron.

 

I have a full dry down on one hand and on the other I'm about 15 min after application. If you were to sniff each one you'd swear they were different perfumes.

 

I am very happy I found a bottle. After my success with Europa and now Callisto, I'm going to start paying better attention to the lunacies.

[zankoku_zen]

For me, this starts off as a salty aquatic with notes of honeyed food, and then dries down to a salty sage with frankincense and nutmeg. This is one of the more interesting BPAL blends that the Lab has put out in a while. You get that salty oceanic/aquatic vibe on wet, and then it dries to a warm, beachy sort of herbal frankincense. I'd actually say this smells like a summer day at the beach, honestly.

 

Not in the typical coconut-suntan lotion way. But more of like a beach that isn't populated by humans. Just cool ocean water, marshes and a bit of warmth from the earth/sand.

[Elspethdixon]

This is glorious, probably one of my top fen BPALs I've ever worn. I get a hint of the salty/foodie chips during the wet stage (though I didn't mentally peg the smell as "tortilla chips" until I read other people's reviews), but mostly it's a clean, somehow outdoorsy scent. It makes me think of a salt marsh - not of the fishy brackish river mud smell salt marshes actually have, but of the idea of a salt marsh. In a perfect world, the Chesapeake Bay shoreline would smell like this. There's just a hint of aquatic freshness (probably created by the salt - I don't get the usual "soap/dryer sheets" aquatic scent from this at all), combined with clean/fresh sage and sweet, warm frankincense and nutmeg. Once the drydown begins, the salty-fresh notes fade slightly and the nutmeg note combined with the frankincense starts to remind me strongly of the nutmeg and resins in Mars Ultor. This isn't a sister scent to that one, exactly, but I'd say it was at least a second cousin.

 

It's not a gourmand scent by any means, but it's definitely foodie-adjacent. I forgot all about the "honyed saffron" in the notes until I came here to post my review and re-read them, and thinking about it now, that's probably what's giving it the sweet, foodie-adjacent warmth. It lasts well, too. If I put it on my skin and hair before bed, I can still smell traces of "fantasy salt marsh + hints of Mars Ultor + honyed maize" on me when I wake up.

[Little Bird]

Metallic, herbal honey-sage with a drydown that's mostly soapy aquatic on my skin, with just a hint of that herbal honey.