Haunted Seas

[Dark Alice]

A gleaming glassy ocean
Under a sky of grey;
A tide that dreams of motion,
Or moves, as the dead may;
A bird that dips and wavers
Over lone waters round,
Then with a cry that quavers
Is gone—a spectral sound.

The brown sad sea-weed drifting
Far from the land, and lost;
The faint warm fog unlifting,
The derelict long tossed,
But now at rest—though haunted
By the death-scenting shark,
Whose prey no more undaunted
Slips from it, spent and stark.

 

-Cale Young Rice

Seaspray and flecks of foam welling with opoponax and labdanum's sepulchral moans.

This smells like grey days on a ship. No wooden floors or tar or pitch. Just the scent of warm grey sea spray and the wind in your face. It's. amazing. This will find a new home in winter and possibly summer rotation this year.

[zankoku_zen]

Aquatic with laudanum, which adds a very resinous note, and then you get the moss. This smells like dark, depressive seas. Resin lovers, if you were ever tempted by aquatics, give this a whirl. Aquatics, if you ever wanted to try a resin, I'd give this a whirl. It's an odd Venn diagram of both combined. Medium throw and wear length.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Oooh, that's kind of interesting. I love the aquatic note that's in this. It's not overly clean, more...ozoney. It does give an impression of dark brooding seas under stormy skies. The resin in this grounds it and keeps it from being high pitched like a lot of aquatics are. I like this.

 

 

Dry: Blarg. There is something in this that is not specifically listed...it smells sort of vegetal? Maybe a moss? It does not agree with me and ruins the scent on me. Too bad! Loved the seaspray note with the resin.

[thekittenkat]

In the bottle: Water (more fresh than salty) haunted by resins.

 

Wet: This just blooms on my wrist. Lovely resins floating in the ocean, but near the land.

 

The dry-down: Slowly the perfume softens on my wrist into a lovely combo of all the notes. A perfect blend for fall or any rainy day.

 

Let me take the opportunity of this evocative poem's presence to just express my amazement for Beth's knowledge of poetry, as has been shown throughout BPAL's existence! I majored in English literature at uni and had an excellent grounding in American literature in high school by a great teacher who challenged his students every day. And yet, there are a number of poems that Beth has introduced me to, that I had never read nor studied. Thank you so much for broadening my literary as well as perfume knowledge.

[LiberAmoris]

Haunted Seas is definitely a dark aquatic. This is the water under dark skies, more grey and black than blue. I get ozone and saltwater plunged into opoponax and labdanum. As it dries, the resins settle and the water rises, so this ends as a tempest-tossed sea recovering after a storm. For those who like their aquatics on the moody side.

[gchris]

First whiff: very perfumey, strong a bit of sea that smells dark like being deep under the sea. Later it is still perfumey but the labdunum is coming out more. Not really a fan of that particular note. That note pretty much stays true. The scent of it to me is savory. I love water scents but this one is not for me.

Edited January 14, 2018 by gchris

[mandragora369]

On my skin this is a very intensive aquatic scent. I get no dark aspects, only fresh ocean scents. Does not smell good on my skin.

[Brigdh]

In bottle: A sweet, sticky, almost medicinal scent. Not sure what that's from... the opoponax, maybe? A google search says it reminds some people of honey. 

Wet: Smokey. It reminds me of a faint gray tendril of ashes.

Dry: It’s a dry wood/resin scent with a note of musk or leather, something faintly animalistic but not in a stinky way. Unfortunately I don’t pick up any sea spray/salt/foam notes at all, which is too bad because I’m a huge fan of aquatics. I definitely get a dark, haunted sense from this perfume. This is the scent a sexy monster would wear, a succubus or vampire. It's really not what I expected, but I like it a lot.