Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: Chaos Theory VII: Emergence, Oriental Series #149!

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

BPAL Scent of the Day:  Chaos Theory VII:  Emergence, Oriental Series #149!

It's Chaos Theory time!

The fun of a Chaos Theory is in the testing.  It's like sticking your hand into the proverbial box of chocolates; it works out better if you have resolved to enjoy yourself beforehand, no matter what.

I bought an Oriental Series bottle because I love resins which are the backbone of the so-called Oriental class of perfumes.  That already gives me a leg up on liking my Chaos Theory!

In the bottle my CT smells light and aquatic.  I'm thinking maybe ambergris.  No noticeable frankincense, olibanum, galbanum, myrrh, labdanum, benzoin, elemi, mastic, or any of the other more weird resin notes.

Wet on my skin it turns warmer than before, but still greenish aquatic.  Pretty sure this is ambergris, but I don't know what else is in there.  There's a slightly soapy impression, maybe lilyish.

As it dries down, I notice a soft light amberish base under this, a bit powdery.  I still get the ambergris note foremost, but the soapy note is less obvious now.  It's definitely bitter and greenish, this scent, a sort of herbal aquatic.  There might be a tiny smidge of galbanum in here giving that green grounding.

After three hours, it's about as mature as it's going to get.  It's still a very light scent, more amberish than anything else.  I get a vanillic cast to it, almost a caramel overtone, but it is still light.  It's not the golden amber note; it's more like an echo of the old Egyptian amber note.  The green and ambergris notes are mostly gone, but it retains the memory of green.

It's kind of funny:  the preponderance of the Chaos Theories I've bought from the Lab over the years have had that light aquatic element to them and the soapy overtone.  The soapy lily note I recognized from other blends, but I just now figured out that I've been noticing ambergris in many of my CT bottles without realizing what it was.  I guess it's lucky for me that ambergris works on me, much better than most aquatic notes.