A Woman Practicing Calligraphy on Her Lover’s Erect Member

[thecaitycat]

Ink, white moss, and rose petals.

 

In the bottle

Dark, deep moss with something darkly floral. But mostly moss. And definitely an ink note.

 

Wet on skin

True to my skin chemistry's form, I get a luscious, red rose note as soon as this touches my skin. But it works beautifully with the moss and inky darkness. This is not a dark scent, per se. It's lovely.

 

Dry on skin after 30 minutes

The rose fades a little bit into the background and this smells a lot more like the ink and moss. Not woody, really, but more green and almost like very fine paper and ink with flower petals and greenery. It has a nice throw, and the overall scent has not faded.

 

Thoughts

This makes me think of a fancy lady writing a letter with a fountain pen, expensive ink, and expensive paper, then spritzing her finest perfume on everything before sealing the envelope. Unexpected and beautiful. Really glad I went for a full bottle.

[PrinceofcatS]

The rose and moss note of this reminds me so hard of A Young Woman Appealing to a Witch (Halloween 2015) that, as much as I love those notes, I kept cringing and waiting for the weird bog scent that aged into that one to appear on me.  Fortunately it does not!  And the moss and roses get more beautiful as I wear it, plus the lovely ink note I recognize from The Manuscript (Crimson Peak) emerges.  Love love love love love!!!! 

 

Of all the Lupers this year, this one was the one that made me immediately have to buy and it did not disappoint.  It's everything I hoped it would be, and i know all of these notes age beautifully.  Totally worth the embarrassing name.

[zankoku_zen]

Ink, deep moss, and a whiff of rose. I get mainly a deep inky blend. It sort of reminds me as a softer more accessible Manus Dei/Typewriter Incident. Medium throw and wear length.

[roseus]

In the bottle I get the ink very distinctly, dark and smooth and a bit peppery. Like a deep dark resin and the smoothest perfumiest oudh. On my skin the rose comes out, to me it smells like a dried pink rose. The moss is light, fresh.  The whole effect is almost papery, but maybe my mind is thinking of the ink and is going to books. Very soft and romantic. 

[Aviatrix]

This is a deep, dark rose (probably due to the moss as others have suggested) with a sharp ink note, without it feeling too much like a "book scent". The notes are well blended and nothing dominates the other notes.

Very darkly elegant.

[annemathematics]

when this first landed, it was a lovely rose/oakmoss combo that was soft and a little powdery. since then, however, she's morphed into a sophisticated velvet parfume that flaunts a juicy haughty red rose that swirls over inky shadows.  yes, it really does feel like wet, dark ink. can't describe it better than that.  i wore this to the theater to watch the Favourite, and it felt like the perfect scent to compliment that movie: regal and full of secrets.  good through and lasts all day and night, with the rose holding strong and not fading on me as lovely roses scents often do.  brilliant!

[Lucchesa]

I was hoping A Woman Practicing Calligraphy would be mainly an ink and moss scent on me, but of course it's mostly a rose scent.  It's a really beautiful one, and the rose stays true, kind of a deep purple rose, or maybe that's red rose plus black ink.  At any rate, there's no sourness to it whatsoever.  I don't need a bottle because I don't wear rose-forward scents that often, but if rose is your jam, this is unusual and compelling.  

[theseagrows]

this starts off with a soft powdery mossy rose. i am liking this even more than i thought i would! i think i smell the ink after a few more minutes. it seems almost like a soft white leather note. this has a vintage feel to me and i like it a lot. a pleasant surprise for me. it ends up as a fairly powdery rose after the drydown.

 

[DiesMali]

In the bottle: Sharp moss and rose.

 

Wet on my skin: ROSE. Deep, dark, almost-purple/black red rose, with some gorgeous woody/herbal moss. Oh, it's niiiice.

 

Dry: This is instantly in my top 3 rose scents. It's so, so pretty. I had a suspicion that it might be, because my #1 favourite rose blend (Beauty the Aggrieved) also has oakmoss and non-ink "dark" notes. This is a dewy, luscious, velvety deep red rose, almost purple like other reviewers have said, with a woody, herbal richness from the moss, and another almost oudh-like note that must be the ink. This is, as far as I remember, the first BPAL ink scent I've tried, and I have no regrets. Surprisingly, I get none of the "dill pickle" weirdness that some red rose notes start off with on me (ever since I got my IUD), which is very nice. As it wears, the rose keeps its spot as the primary note with the oakmoss and ink supporting it and darkening it up nice and good. Mmmm.

 

The only trouble I have with this one is that, as happens with some rose-forward scents, my skin amps it like CRAZY. I'll definitely have to be careful with when and where I wear it, because two drops (one shared between the backs of my hands and one shared between my forearms) seem to have scented the entire room I'm sitting in, plus some of the hallway. Probably something that would be best worn at an outdoor event or as a nosegay in a metal concert full of huge, stinky dudes. 

[doomsday_disco]

In the decant: I smell red rose petals, moss, and some ink.

 

On me: Mossy rose in a puddle of spilled ink. The rose is the strongest note, but the moss is doing its best to catch up. The ink is kind of sharp and adds to the sharpness of the rose. The moss, as usual, increases with strength over time, so that it becomes a very mossy rose scent swirled with black ink after a few hours of wear.

 

Verdict: This is definitely a unique rose scent, but not something I'd choose to wear. But I am really glad I got to try it to experience that ink note!