Perfume Review: BPAL's The Butterfly (Last Unicorn collection)

By Unknown

Purchased

Today I'm reviewing an oldie-but-goodie from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's The Last Unicorn series, based on the Peter S. Beagle classic. The scent is The Butterfly.

Price: $26 for a 5 mL amber glass bottle of perfume oil with polyseal cap.
Samples: Can be purchased as part of the Last Unicorn Imp's Ears: Unicorn Horn 1 collection of 7 samples from the Last Unicorn collection for $38.50.
(More details about price and shipping can be found in our Company Overview post about Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.)
Description from the website: "Then one afternoon the butterfly wobbled out of a breeze and lit on the tip of her horn. He was velvet all over, dark and dusty, with golden spots on his wings, and he was as thin as a flower petal. Dancing along her horn, he saluted her with his curling feelers. “I am a roving gambler. How do you do?”

Fuzzy brown tonka bean, golden amber, bergamot, and petitgrain."

The citrus notes of the bergamot and petitgrain jump out at me immediately when I first dab this perfume on, so the alleged "fuzziness" of the scent is not immediately apparent. It doesn't smell like fresh citrus, though, either; it feels like it hovers in a peculiar middle ground between a fresh scent and an Oriental perfume.

The top notes fade down and the amber becomes more apparent as the scent dries down. An orangey lightness remains but the velvety warmth of amber and tonka spread out over the skin--mostly amber, with bergamot and petitgrain tinging the top.

I find the scent quite light and eventually rather powdery from the amber; it reminds me of a lighter version of Guerlain's Shalimar, actually, the combination of that powdery vanillic amber and the Earl Grey bergamot note, but much, much lighter than Shalimar. It's almost like a grown-up creamsicle--a completely inedible creamsicle made of perfume, but it shares that same type of feel, the warm creaminess juxtaposed with bright citrus.

I always feel drawn to this scent for its description, and because I love The Last Unicorn as a book, but I don't actually find this all that appealing or intriguing as a perfume, to be honest. It's fine--it smells pleasant, work-safe and inoffensive, but it's not the type of scent I could become obsessed with, or fall in love with. Have you tried it? What do you think of it?

For other reviews of The Butterfly, you can also check out the BPAL forums, A Scent A Day, or We Heart This.

Note: this scent is vegan.