Snow Moon 2024

[doomsday_disco]

Some consider December’s full moon to be Snow Moon, but the cold, bleak white silence of February also bears the name. Snowfall is at its heaviest, food is scarce, the past year’s harvest has been exhausted, and driving winds, sleet, and bitter cold make hunting near-impossible. It is a desolate time, a solitary time, a time of conservation and introspection; in February, we are confronted with loneliness and want, and are challenged to find strength in the darkness. 

 

Snow, endless snow, and a glimmer of hope illuminated by the reflection of Brigid’s flame. Snowdrops pushing through a pale white blanket of crystalline musk, pale white frozen apples, white tea leaf, yuzu, and angelica root.

Edited March 8 by doomsday_disco

[Lys]

TLDR Summary: A very lovely citrus/frost scent. Aldehydic and bright, hints of green. Decent longevity for the kind of notes it has, medium throw. Refreshing. 4/5, seems like a perfect scent for “Snow Moon”!

 

How much resting/source: Bottle from the lab. I first tried this the day it came in, and it was a lot of biting citrus and frost without anything else so I figured it needed a little rest. I’ve now tested it a couple times after a 1 week rest. If it significantly changes in the next month, I’ll try to come back and edit in my notes.

 

1 week after arrival, combination of two days of testing:

Starts off with strong yuzu and frost. Very aldehyde heavy frost. I am not sure which snow note this is - def similar to the one in Snowy Mountain and Kingfisher. Maybe more of a eucalyptus/menthol/boozy snow than the vanilla/coconut snow note or the pine leaning snow note. It doesn’t smell minty to me, but it’s got a similar bracing aspect.

 

I can smell hints of apple and crisp lemony white tea a few minutes in. This is really lovely, and much better blended after its small rest. Up close it’s bracing and brisk. At a distance, the throw is soft wafts of frosty/citrussy/fruity/lightly-musky. It’s very slightly sweet because of the fruits. Definitely aldehydic, making it refreshing and energizing. But not so much that it is giving me a headache, nor is it overpowering like some aldehyde heavy blends. However, if you’re very sensitive to aldehydes, I’d probably give this a miss.

 

30 mins in: Some of the frost disappears, and this is still a very citrus forward, bright scent. Every once in a while the apple is detectable, but I do wish there was more. There’s a bit of very fresh green - I think from the snowdrops and the angelica root. There is a very light/floaty musk that ties everything together, but I would not say this is a musk-forward scent.

 

First test day, 3 hrs in: still about the same, light citrussy/musky.  Had to wash it off for bed, but I suspect it’s got decent longevity for an aldehyde/top-note heavy blend. 

 

Second day of testing: At 2 hrs, I can still smell it, but it is fading. I think I rubbed some off by accident. By 4 hrs, I can smell it close up, but the throw is almost gone. My skin eats perfume, so it actually lasted pretty well considering the notes.

 

Dog’s impression: My dog jumped off the bed we were sitting on when i first put it on, but within a couple minutes he came back to curl up against me. Makes sense - citrus is known to make dogs more energetic/agitated, haha. Part of why I washed it off the first testing day was that my dog wouldn’t settle for bed, and I wasn’t sure if it was related. 

 

Other thoughts: Based on some of my BPAL perfumes from previous years with similar snow notes and fruity/musky backdrops, I think this will probably smell even better after a month or two of rest. It’s still great right now - but I think once the snow and citrus chill out a tiny bit, it’s going to be spectacular.

[Little Bird]

The first time that I wore this, it kept reminding me of citrusy gummi bears.  I wish it had stayed the way that it was fresh out of the mailbox.
Today, with some rest, Snow Moon '24 went on like limoncello shaved ice spilled over clean, damp laundry, and then it settled into a perfumey-musky, soapy, harsh floral. 
I don't get any of bpal's traditional, slushy snow note (which doesn't go soapy on me).  The snowdrop is adding the soapy white floral tone and the crystalline musk a clean, perfumey, department store type of musk. 
After a half hour, the sweeter, juicier notes that I enjoyed have disappeared entirely and I'm just left with soapy, powdery floral and sharp musk, which started to give me a headache until I scrubbed it off around the 1 hour mark.

[samanare]

This is almost pure pale ice on me. The ice note here is a little more pale than what I associate with the Lab's usual ice note. I would not describe it as soapy, but it's in that direction. I think it's the mentioned crystalline musk. I get vague hints of the fruit notes, but neither the apple nor citrus come out particularly strong on me. Overall, more of a frostbitten scent, like apples and citrus left in the cold far too long and largely covered by delicate ice.

[roseus]

A more delicate, twinklier sister to Morana. Chilly tart green apple and yuzu, with fresh musk and snowdrops. It has clean breezy quality from the musk and snowdrops but it's mostly about the ice and apple and yuzu on my skin. Glittering and crisp.

[doomsday_disco]

I wasn't planning on getting a decant of this, since I have a bottle of the 2019 version, which features the same notes. But it was cheaper to get a full set of Snow Moon decants, so I got to try this and deathmatch it with the 2019 version.

 

I don't normally think there's that big of a difference between releases featuring the same notes, and they both are mostly yuzu, frozen apple, and white tea on me, but the 2024 version is much smoother. There's a bitterness to the 2019 version that I didn't realize was there until I deathmatched it with the 2024 version, so I think I'll destash my bottle of the 2019 release and keep the decant of this year's release.

 

Since I had the full set of Snow Moon decants, I did layer each one with Snow Moon as Beth intended. Here are my layering results:

 

Snow Moon + Apple Liqueur and Brandy - Makes for a more apple-y experience, of course!

 

Snow Moon + Coconut and Icicles - The apple and yuzu of Snow Moon still was the most prominent feature, but the frozen aspect was amped up, with some coconut on top.

 

Snow Moon + Roasted Tea Leaf and Night-Blooming Jasmine - This was my favorite of the duets, so it's not surprising that it was my also my favorite of the layering combos. It was mostly Snow Moon plus the toasty green tea note, with a bit of airy, non-indolic jasmine floating over that.

 

Snow Moon + Yuzu and Blackcurrant - So the earthiness of the duet is still present during the layering combo... I think it must be something in the blackcurrant? The yuzu was amped up by layering the two, and I love yuzu, but I just don't dig the earthiness of the duet, which just isn't tamed by layering, sadly.