Alien/Siren

[zankoku_zen]

A sebaceous, slick reptilian perfume: green and black vegetal musks, kelp, sea salt, blackened opoponax, violet leaf, Siamese red benzoin, davana, squid ink, and ambergris accord.

Edited September 14, 2020 by zankoku_zen

[wendyb1063]

Wow, this is an intense and very interesting perfume, as I had hoped from the notes.  

 

Wet, I definitely get the musks and a clean but dark marine vibe.  It's like laundry soap/dryer sheets on steroids!!!  With a definite hint of danger lurking underneath.   

 

As it dries, it becomes more of a sweet aquatic.  It's pleasant and not so intense but not quite my thing (I'm not into aquatics, as a rule).  We'll see what happens later.  

[feyofthefellwood]

I'd describe this as a musky, briney aquatic. I definitely smell something like seaweed at first (the kelp, perhaps?) before it dries down into a citrusy aquatic. I don't know why I'm getting such a citrus note here, although I can't decide if it's grapefruit, orange peel, or orange blossom that it reminds me of. I think the musks keep it from going dryer sheet or cologne like, but my nose is not trained enough to pick out many of the listed notes. This would be fitting for days when you want to feel like an evil mermaid (or sea witch?), but probably won't be something I reach for too often.

[Threemoons]

First up: If you like real, polished aquatics, this is a MUST. In the bottle: Strong, almost soapy aquatic notes along with some salt notes. Not stale bracken aquatic but really like a high end body wash kind of aquatic. On, wet: The darker listed notes open up immediately; I get damp green and black musks as well as deep dark resins, and a pop of something almost like creosote but not quite. Drydown: Medium throw and wear length, final drydown is still high-end aquatic with some woods/resins in it. Very nice.

[Juliamon]

Whoo boy, that's some dryer sheets, baby! With a twist of citrus, maybe my nemesis lemon peel. After giving it a few minutes to dry down, the sea salt seems to have surfaced and helped tame the zingy aquatic into something more authentically beachy. And REALLY good. I'm loving what the musks are doing in the background and I swear I can taste the brine in the back of my throat. My head is still reeling from the opening blast though, so this is one I'll need to admire from afar.

[fairybites]

Darkly clean aquatic with a little bit of greenness. I personally didn't get the ink, but I got a metallic seaweed note along with citrus as the main players. This is a lot going on here at one time, kinda fitting for the name. It's interesting as hell and weird, but not as off-putting as some other scents with these notes would be to me. It's like a sunken ship's laundry room got covered in seaweed. 

 

Intriguing and worth a try even if you don't wear aquatics much like me. 

[rivetted]

I am really loving Sea Salt notes lately, and this is a new favorite.

Extremely wearable, feels fresh & wet. Probably the most wearable "Sea Salt" note that I have, and I've been collecting quite a few!

Definitely grab this if you'd like to check out more Sea Salt/aquatics

Crusted driftwood planks & clean, beachy, kelpy goodness. 

 

Edited 3 weeks later to add: 

After going on an adventure to find as many salty aquatics I could - & Out of 14 different perfume oils I have tried that listed Sea Salt as a note, Alien/Siren is my favorite one. Hands down, a great aquatic. If you like aquatics, definitely try this. 

This one is fresh in a way that I cannot quite describe, not crusty-old-salt-wood-planks - the "High-end-body-wash kind of aquatic" described above is probably the most apt description, although the "Sunken-ship's-laundry-room-got-covered-in-seaweed" is, y'know, not wrong? in a way? haha

this is one of the things i pick often when i'm fresh out of the shower, to add that "fresh from the beach" feel

i think i kinda love Kelp as a note!

Edited August 4, 2021 by rivetted

[VetchVesper]

Salty!  VERY salty.  A bit of wood, a bit of floral, and maybe ... some vanilla going on??  Woah! Found some green musk in the dry down.

 

Hmmm.. okay.  Retesting and looking at the notes.  STILL salty!   I think I'm smelling opoponax, which I have mixed feelings about. It always smells sort of treacly thick and sickly sweet to my nose.  Maybe that's what is reading as vanilla-ish as it mixes with the benzoin.  I still can't identify the violet, though I do think I smell the sort of astringent, clean-floral davana going on, and the ambergris is giving me Lyonesse vibes.  I don't sniff much squid ink, so I'll have to leave that one to the judgement of other reviewers. 

 

I might like kelp?  I DO like salt, and apparently, these kinds of aquatics work with my chemistry. There's a threat of soap in the beginning, but then things decide to behave themselves. 

 

I like this. I wouldn't purchase a bottle, but it was super fun to try it out, and I'd use an imp.  A salty, dark, semi-aquatic, with resins and green musk.  Definitely unique.

[Llanval]

thanks to rivetted, i tested enough of Alien/Siren to get a good feel for how it wears and this one! this one is really really really cool. this is the murky, creeping, unsettling, salty deep dark ocean aquatic i have been searching for.  this stays, from wet to dry down, the perfect salty, murky, smoky black kelp and dark water scent. the cthulu scent i was hoping to find in the arkham line. on second testing, i get no citrus, this is just straight up the description of this scent. don't clearly get the violet leaf and i have less than zero familiarity with siamese red benzoin or davana but none of it does anything i don't enjoy on my skin. don't know if i can genuinely smell the squid ink or not, but there is an inky quality to this, like the results of a finely ground calligraphy ink stone. whatever it is, whatever is going on in this bottle, i am HERE FOR IT. ambergris isn't detectable either, but i don't know enough abt wearing bpal's version of it to clearly make a judgement, but it isn't making it tough to wear, for anyone who is iffy on ambergris.

 

this does smell oily and sebaceous but not in a bad way, this is a really unique experience and if you aren't afraid of aquatics and laundry detergent/dryer sheets doesn't kill a scent for you, absolutely give this a whirl. this blend didn't give me any laundry detergent/dryer sheets, unlike one or two other aquatics i've tested and i haven't figured out what keeps it at bay in certain blends yet...but I am trying!!!

 

this is another "to buy" bottle i'm tossing on the long loooooong list.

[Fefi]

This scent makes me feel like a murky mermaid/siren lurking in deep dark ocean depths. Out of all the BPAL aquatics I've tried it's by far the darkest one. It's what I thought Cthullu would be like heh. It certainly fits the description completely. The strongest notes I get would have to be the ambergris, squid ink, and benzoins with the musks in the background. I don't get much kelp, sea salt, violet leaf, davana or opoponax . This is a perfume that for me really benefited from a long rest. When I first got it, it was very much dryer sheet like others have mentioned but with aging this toned down and everything else blended much more and it grew in depth. It's also got a killer lasting power I can smell it on my clothes days later and strangely enough get the kelp and sea salt much more strongly there than wet on my skin.

[Ennikar]

I stayed away from this one for a long while because some of the reviews mentioned dryer sheets, and I like the smell of the ocean (fish and all) but not soap. Ambergris and kelp are promising, "ocean" doesn't always come through. Fortunately for me, my experience was more beach than laundry; Alien/Siren isn't really dirty per se but the musks cut through the threat of soap. I had to look up davana, but a description of its "sweet, tea-like scent" made perfect sense for this blend. I can see the citrus comparisons as well, though I wouldn't have guessed that myself.

Despite the slightly intimidating notes list, the overall impression is a fairly simple "mermaid" type scent, but a touch dark and musky rather than pretty or floral.