Cycling for Pleasure

[zankoku_zen]

Sea water, sea salt-dusted cypress, pink carnation, oakmoss, and white vetiver.

[VetchVesper]

To me, this smells like sweat at first, but sans funk or B.O.  It's very salty and a little off putting, but it has a clean, freshly-showered undertone that keeps it from being gross. It's also an aquatic that doesn't turn strait into soap on my skin, which is unusual. The burst of salt water fades after a bit, and the other notes emerge  Mostly, I smell oakmoss, warmed a touch by vetiver and gently sweetened and spiced by carnation.  The sweat impression is gone.  Now, it smells like resting in a shaded meadow after a long bike ride.   

 

That first sweat impression is a little much for me, but I really love how the fragrance changes and how well it works with the Shunga concept. If last year's aquatics worked for you, this one probably will too. If you like salt and mossy notes, this one is fun.  If you're hoping for tons of carnation, you might be disappointed.  

Edited April 22, 2021 by VetchVesper

[blacksambuca]

Wow, this is gorgeous! I'm getting a super salty aquatic, softly supported by oakmoss and warmed up by a little carnation. I'm not getting a ton of vetiver (a little sad because I love vetiver), but I'm not really familiar with white vetiver specifically. If I really huff there's a sort of reedy, grassy note that resembles what I think of as vetiver. Overall though this is really well blended and evocative. Salty, airy, breezy but warm. Not quite sex on the beach, more like a tryst in a secluded oceanside cove. 

[Casablanca]

Freshly applied, Cycling smells like I encrusted my arm with sea salt. I tend to amp salt to the moon, but this fragrance listed some interesting other notes, so I wanted to see if this could work on me.

 

It doesn't. Throughout its life, Cycling is crusty sea salt; after drydown it becomes crusty sea salt over corn chips. That's the only story this one tells me.

[zankoku_zen]

Crusty sea salt, whiffs of both carnation and aquatic skin. This smells like a mermaid would smell. Slightly salty, slightly floral, aquatic. Medium throw and wear length.

[AprilB]

I think this may be the saltiest BPAL scent I've tried? This smells very much like the beach. It's got a fresh, marine tang, like wind whipped over murky teal waves and through beach grass. It's a wonderful scent memory for me (I grew up near the beach), but not necessarily something that I would reach for often as a perfume.

[Jenjin]

This one is somewhat avant garde - experimental to me. It's very interesting and atmospheric like a salt white beach linen spray. 

An up close skin scent, i'm getting how skin and hair smells after spending the day washed in azure waves. The seawater, salts and sand blending together with ozone and heat. I don't get any carnation, except that it could be adding a tiny bit of sweetness. Definitely try this if you love Thalassa or other BPAL mermaid gems. 

 

[groovyrooby]

I say savory, husband says 'perfumey'. Wouldn't mention it, because it's not terrible helpful, except that the two takes would seem contrary, yet indeed they both stand. Tested from a decant.

 

This starts salty and almost peanut buttery, salty-sweet and rich on me. Very fresh. Reminds me a bit of Haunted Beach or Salt Phoenix, both of which I love. Fresh, salty beachy air that dries to dry beach dune plants. Really nice and a rather unique vibe that only appears in the catalog on occasion.

[puellacaerulea]

This stays salt-forward throughout. In the decant, it's all salt all the time. Once it's on, the carnation, cypress, and vetiver start to bloom, but they're still a background player to the salt. Very evocative of the beach -- the notes other than the salt don't really suggest things like carnation so much as they do dune grass and vegetation -- plants you'd be smelling the ocean breeze through. Not 100% sure if this'll be a bottle purchase, but I do like anything that's a scent memory of the beach, so maybe.

[rivetted]

I *love* the sea salt/body salt combo of this one. It plays like fresh salt air out of the bottle, with some background floral/woodsy notes.

I had to try nearly every Shunga '21, and this the second one I just had to try. Day 2 winner right here.

It does fade to a lightly salty skin-sweat scent after a few hours, but not a bad sweat / body odor type - more like the scent of a lover after a long day that you want to huff

It's a new favorite to add to my collection, as I do not have anything like this. It is both unique & lovely to smell (I also grew up by the coast, so there may be some nostalgia for me there!)

 

Edit update; i keep coming back to this one. It's delicious in a way that is extremely easy to wear, and feels almost sexual. Like sex on the beach vibes. I feel encrusted with ocean spray, a hot tanline, and sandy beachy curls

Edited May 31, 2021 by rivetted

[picturesofmeghan]

in the imp- almost a citrus saltiness, but barely anything there 

wet - SOAPY - i asked picturesoffiance to help here - he said something like snuggle at this stage..

as it dries, both of us thought the site kind of dissipated into a lighter version of a typical aquatic perfume. We both read it a little differently though, I got the salt separated from the aquatic, but he got a lot of floral initially (he couldn’t place it)  and a sharper note that he said reminded him of clinique happy..

as it evolved, i did see what he meant- I got the aquatic element is much lower in the mix, with flower dominating and a sharp citrus bouncing off the whole thing, which I’m assuming must be the bergamot (which was the only thing i could find in common with happy).

it’s settled now - he called this ‘irish spring’ and i kind of agree - it also has low throw and longevity.

 

not awful, but i really wanted to love this. I have yet to found good aquatics from bpal that I really love, aside from sturgeon moon

 

 

 

 

side note: 

there’s a note present here that i’ve noticed in a few things- hair glosses esp - a weird ‘empty note’ - if that makes and sense. it floats above and it’s barely noticeable here,  but it’s mixed into other notes 

[roseus]

Dark, smooth salty in the imp and on the skin. I can get a smooth, earthy/woody sort of base. Pretty sure I can pick out the oakmoss too, a green-clean. Dry the salt is the last thing I get, very much a dusting, along with a bit of spicy carnation. The carnation sweetens it a tiny bit in the end. I wouldn't call this an aquatic. Very much whizzing past the beach for moment on your bike and catching the breeze. 

[Meirion]

Salty dryer sheets and oakmoss. This is pretty strong stuff. An aquatic's aquatic. The saltwater note reminds me of Two Westerners from last year's Shungas and GC Jolly Roger, but it's more exposed here, without the warm and sweet notes that make those blends a little more traditional. I would still classify Cycling in the same salty-cologne category, though. It's surprisingly wearable, and never reads as sweaty to my nose. I get some carnation in the drydown but saltwater and oakmoss are the stars throughout. 

[Llanval]

This one, I was a little nervous about, because I desperately want aquatics to behave on my skin and BE aquatics, not dryer sheets. Thankfully, this one works beautifully from start to finish.

 

In the bottle its salty and cypress sweet, but nothing really jumps out.

 

Wet, it's a blast of salt and cypress and, for me, big swells of sweet, salt-water fed greens. The spice, the tingle is what I'm assuming is the carnation. I can't pull it out specifically but it adds a lovely floral je ne sais quoi to the whole thing. Really, really lovely. The whole aroma is laced with warm salt and feels almost like the beach of a sun blasted, conniferous forest.

 

Dry down stays not too far off the initial application and I really enjoy that. This scent is so evocative for me. This is a cove of salt water, clean and faintly steaming with heat, embraced by thick cypress woods and tangles of salty greenery. This almost has a "sand" note hiding behind all the others, just a thread of dry heat that I love hunting for as this drys. 😍

 

I really enjoy every minute of wearing this, my only wish was a bit more strength through the dry down. But this is still really suited to the artwork and the vibe of the idea of cycling for pleasure as well. I love this little bottle, really. It's so much fun, I fully agree with the review calling this avant garde. 100% agree. Very cool, glad I rolled the dice on this bottle.

Edited July 30, 2021 by Llanval
Grammar.

[doomsday_disco]

This starts off as a pretty salty aquatic with a bit of spice from the pink carnation, but over time, the oakmoss and carnation gain strength, making it a salt-infused, slightly soapy, moss and floral scent. The vetiver in this is very well-behaved and light. It's a grassy variety and not a smoky one. 

 

The moss and salt combo ends up making this too sharp for me, but this ended up being more pleasant than a lot of aquatics on me (it wasn't straight up soap).

[wordortwo]

After testing this decant periodically over several months, my impression remains the same: extra salty corn chips mashed with soapy water. 

 

Take that with a grain of salt: Other than R'lyeh, I have yet to meet an aquatic I enjoy on my skin.