Grappling Octopus

[The Forest Floor]

Green tea and honey with orange peel, hay absolute, bergamot, and cypress.

Wet/fresh on: green tea and bitter orange peel/bergamot, quite sharp no honey yet, no hay, no cyprus. A fresh scent, very alive.

20-30 mins later, the honey has blossomed, and it is neither a light airy honey nor a thick syrupy one but a golden medium-bodied one (my favorite). The bitterness/sharpness has softened considerably and something else is emerging... something soft, subtle, and woodsy underneath. After about 2.5-3 hours the tea has mellowed to faintness and its mostly a honey-woods scent.

To be fair, I tried this on the back of my hand and my hands have been hella dry lately. I need to try this again on my wrist or crook of my arm and see if the tea sticks around longer on properly moisturized skin. I like all the stages of this so far but Im in the market for a nice tea scent so ideally Id like to smell the tea for longer.

[VetchVesper]

On me the orange came across as lemon, very bright and not particularly sweet, with a backing of green tea. As this wears, it turns into a soft, honeyed green tea similar to the one in Serving Tea After Coitus. It's a pretty scent, but not really me. Probably good for someone who enjoys fresh, light scents that aren't too sweet or floral.

[lizabelle]

This is a pretty, light, sweet scent. The green tea and orange peel are present in equal measure, and the honey is similar to the one in Hetairae/Les Bijoux but a little stronger and darker. The bergamot adds a little kick and the hay smooths everything out. I don't get any cypress out of this, and I'm starting to think my skin eats it. That or the hay is overpowering it. Regardless, this is lovely. I don't think I'll get a bottle, but I'll probably keep the decant.

[theredkilt]

This is a light powdery hay scent. It's suited more as an office inoffensive neutral blend.Reminds me of last year's On the Porch in the Rain

[galahad]

In the Bottle:

Orange, hay and soft cypress. Smells fresh and clean

On the Skin:

Lightly honeyed orange. The cypress adds a soft balsamic quality and the bergamot peeks out to add a little dry citrus.

On the Drydown:

I am so glad I blind purchased this. It's a sparkling but complex scent of citrus, very light honey and cypress. The hay adds a backing or warm dryness. This is a beauty

[zankoku_zen]

Green tea, honey, orange and a touch of bergamot. This is fresh, clean, skin scent. UGH. So good. Low throw, good wear length.

[archaesophilia]

In the bottle and at application, this is all about the citrus. It very promptly dies down, though, and becomes a close, citrus/cyprus/tea scent. Evokes earl grey, this is a good gender neutral scent. Not a sweet scent, though I suspect the hay/honey are there in the background keeping this from becoming too screechy. Lovely!

[Aveya]

Bottle Sniff: How my brain thinks matcha should smell always. Tart, green, but piney.

Initial Skin: Sweetens up, citrus blooms. There's a level I want to call buttery - I think it's hay + Honey.

Drydown: Starts to fade fairly quick on me. the citrus kind of gets eaten up - super bummer. The honey however takes forefront for me. It remains a buttery awkward honey that I'm not so sure about. As it sits I get random wafts of something citrus/fruity.

 

Verdict; neutral honey-citrus-skin scent with initial notes of citrus and tea. It stays close to the skin.

Edited May 7, 2018 by Aveya

[Lucchesa]

Green tea scents always seem to fade really quickly on me, but I tend to get great wear length from honey blends. Grappling Octopus lies somewhere in the middle. Wet, I get bright citrus and green tea, a fun, lightweight summer scent with just a hint of evergreen. The honey and hay emerge in drydown, and the citrus and tea fade a bit. On me, after about an hour it becomes primarily a honey blend -- warm honey and hay with hints of citrus and tea. I pretty much lose the cypress altogether. I'm not always in the mood for such a sunny, sweet, optimistic scent as this (and I live in gray Seattle), but it is a lovely summer number.