Midnight

[Aurelius]

An ethereal bouquet of night-blooming flowers. Evening primrose, ruellia, flowering nicotiana, wild petunia, panani-o-kai, night phlox, night gladiolus, moonflower and the elusive scent of Nottingham Catchfly.

This was a generous freebie imp. I couldn't stop myself from ordering more while my first order was still en route, so I ordered this. But I don't mind! This is lovely!

In the bottle: This smells dark and rich.

Wet: Wow. Flowers. A big fat bouquet. I'm not sure about this.

Dry: Oooh, pretty! The flowers have calmed down. This is a very pleasant, calming scent on me. It smells like my mom, and that's a good thing. I feel like she's giving me a hug! This is gorgeous. Not too flowery on me, but just the right amount.

Yay! Thanks, Lab! You rock!

ETA: I wore this a second time. This time I smelled a slight bitter note, something with an edge. It still makes me feel like my Mom is giving me a hug, but also telling me to go kick some ass. I felt both calm and slightly bitchy, if that makes sense, as if I'm having a bad day, but I know it'll pass (and if you cross me, god help you). I like this even more!

[blackrayne]

Very beautiful blend! None of the flowers is predominant in this blend...they fit so well together, it's like walking through a garden at night, with only the full moon to guide you on your journey.

 

Soft, light, summery...it is a nice, happy blend.

[Ina Garten Davita]

First Impression: Oh lovely night blooms, sweet and glowing.

 

Second Impression: This isn't just Midnight, it's Midnight in the garden of good and evil. This is a night walk in Savannah in the heat of summer.

 

Final Analysis: I'm in love, it takes me back to the long, languid weekend Rob and I spent in Savannah in July.

[any_old_actress]

FIRST SNIFF: full blooms drooping in the moonlight

 

WEARING IT: i find this to be a sorrowful scent, it's quite light and appealing yet the FEEL and mood of it is heavy. it reminds me of flowers drunk on moonlight or the idea behind night blooming cereus, only coming out at night. i can't tell one flower from the next, it blends so incredibly together. i thought a blend like this would surely give me a headache from the sheer number of flowers in it, but it's so light and comforting, like a dew drop on a petal.

 

VERDICT: love it - it's pretty, soulful, deep and light.

[VelvetSky]

I agree that this is a very sad and melancholic scent. Sweet, pale blooms in the moonlight, the kind that throw off a heavy, moist scent.

 

This is an absolutely gorgeous floral blend, as others have said with no one note standing out. Also, this is one of the few of Beth's oils that didn't morph on my skin, the notes stayed fairly steady and linear from the beginning, although it did get stronger as it warmed up.

 

I'm adding Midnight to my big bottle list. It's perfection.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Midnight is a cool, dark, green floral. Wispy.

 

Wearing: There’s a lot of greenery in this bouquet, and it grounds the sweetness of the flowers very nicely. After it dries for a few minutes, it weirdly reminds me of all the various floral arrangements that are put behind the altar at my hometown church – specifically, the look of the flowers in that environment, with the polished-wood backdrop behind it. It’s very pretty – reminds me somewhat of Unseelie, but this one is very real and present (best word I could find), while Unseelie is decidedly ethereal and otherworldly.

[shadow]

I have no idea what any of those flowers smell like individually. I didn't even have any kind of idea what the fragrance would end up being like (I actually figured it would be a sharp, unpleasant, powdery floral), and the only reason I ordered it was because I liked the idea of a perfume of night blooming flowers.

 

Oh. My. God.

 

This is it. This has shot straight up to the top of my favorites. I never figured myself for a floral person, but this one... it makes me want to wax poetic, and I have NEVER been poetic. Not in the least. When I put this on I fell like I'm sitting on a bench in a lush garden. The day was hot and muggy, and now it's completely dark and there's just a slight breath of air beginning to swirl around me, catching the fragrance of the flowers and wafting them all together.

 

It's got good throw (not enough to choke people around me, but enough that someone sitting next to me, and maybe even one over, will catch a whiff). It's got incredible staying power, lasting about 12 hours.

 

This will be my first 10ml bottle.

[Northernminx]

This is a beautiful scent, very floral but unlike others, it never lightened on me. It is standing in the middle of a New Orleans garden at night in sweltering heat and being overwhelmed but the subtlety was lost on my skin. A beautiful, rich floral but unfortunately too overwhelming for me.

[Donnababe]

First Sniff

 

Sharp cool, greenery.

 

Drydown

 

Much the same but a tad sweeter.

 

After a While

 

I can smell the flowers now but it's impossible to pick out individual notes in this blend. This is still quite an aloof blend. I don't find this particularly inviting.

 

Final Verdict

 

This has grown on me a little, it's very pretty but I still don't find it warm enough if that makes sense. I will try again when perhaps my mood will be more forgiving.

 

(Staying power - excellent)

Edited August 4, 2004 by Donnababe

[TygherRayn]

In the bottle: Wet, cool nights walking through a lush garden of night-blooming delights.

 

Wet: jasmine. Honeysuckle. Moonflower. Gardenia. Evey white flower I can think of goes into this one, it seems like. But the scent itself isn't white so much as it is moonlight. The moon high above you, full and big and gorgeous. Not white .. but almost golden.

 

Wearing: This is almost sweet and light enough to be the scent of my wedding bouquet, but it's not quite it. It's missing the lily I think, and the rose. but it's lovely, just the same, A definite keeper.

[madame royale]

Midnight, though whitish in feel, is neither a young, innocent floral nor a proper, old-ladyish one. Rather, it is full-bodied, wise, and…triste. There's an infinitesimal trace of powder around the edges--not enough to turn me off--which eventually disappears. Midnight is incredibly well blended, as its notes are simultaneously familiar and alien to me. The refrain is: what is that scent?

 

The woman who wears midnight is witness to the vicissitudes of life and all of the disappointments therein. She prefers to live alone, looking at the world by moonlight, and takes comfort in her nocturnal garden. What is that scent? Lovely.

[autumn24]

I fell in love with this scent immediately after I read that it contained all night-blooming flowers. There's something inscrutably mysterious about this batch of blossoms, and everyone is right-- this scent is so perfectly blended, it is like the clean silk of a pale petal reflected in the moonlight-- flawless. The sugary phlox presence is perhaps most compelling and prominent to me, soft, almost apple-blossom-y, but cool and remote. A touch of powder, creaminess, and moisture. Perfect.

[sarabeegee]

Midnight reminds me of a garden at night full of white, sweet flowers--a garden that would attract lots of bats!! I like how it doesn't smell like any single flower.

[Splendid Molerat]

When I tried Midnight a month or so ago, I was left scratching my head -- for some reason I couldn't smell it at all. A vague hint of earth, otherwise nothing, so I gave away that imp.

 

New imp: Now I can smell it (odd!), and I quite like the blend. There's some humid leafiness, and something peppery, and waxy white flowers, the kind that look like they're floating in the moonlight.

 

I could see myself wearing this after a hot evening soak, and sitting outside to watch the fireflies.

[malanna]

In the bottle and upon application, this was gorgeous. This is the moon lighting up a garden, with the sweet pollen (okay, I don't really know if pollen is sweet) and beautiful dark flowers waving about. After a bit of time, it still has that floral but loses that beautiful edge. Maybe it's a watery note, or a slightly astringent note--it's hard to say what it is. Or, maybe I've just gotten used to the smell.

[kimberlygem]

Soft and wafting like a warm summer night full of the most fragrant blooms. I love this one. It smells soft, feminine and subtly sexy at the same time. This grows more beautiful the longer I wear it. This one goes on the big bottle list.

 

 

 

 

Kimberly

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

Midnight is by far the most "perfume-y" BPAL oil I have tried; I could easily believe it was an expensive French perfume...one in a dark-blue crystal bottle with a tassel on it. The flowers are lush but completely blended; no one note stands out for me. It's sweet and white but, thank goodness, not that cloying icky sweet that heliotrope does on me.

 

This seems like something to wear on a hot summer night in Paris; it's a standing-on-the-balcony scent, a tryst-in-the-garden scent. Sophisticated, sexy, and intoxicatingly feminine.

 

[Belladonnastrap]

Midnight is LOVELY. Absolutely lovely

 

 

First sniff

Oooh like a midnight garden. I'm surrounded by trees and lush greenery and dark.

 

When wet

Ooo lovely! Its a bit aquatic and very floral but not nearly overpowering as I feared. A bit sweet and a bit tart but very very lovely. Is that lotus?

 

Drydown

Mmm very subtle nowand green but not overpowering at all. It's a bit greeen but not too much...very much a grounded scent.

 

Aftermath

I NEED A LARGE BOTTLE. This is goregous! Lovely! And smells pretty damn good too.

[TroubleDoll]

Midnight is floral, but like no floral I have ever smelled before. It's sort of otherworldly. It has a hypnotic, lulling effect. As it dries down it reminds me of the soap children use to make giant bubbles in the yard in the spring.

 

Love it!

Edited October 16, 2004 by TroubleDoll

[inkstone]

In the vial

Very, very floral. Like a huge bouquet, where one scent blends with the next. I can't differentiate the flowers at all.

 

Wet

Huh. Something astringent is coming out on my skin and it's starting to overwhelm me. The flowers are blooming and well... This could be really bad.

 

Drydown

The astringency mellowed a little, but didn't quite go away. The florals softened a bit, but not nearly enough for my tastes. That edge is still there. I can feel the beginnings of a headache starting in my temples.

 

Final Thoughts

It is a very sorrowful scent and very appropriate for both its name and category. However I don't think it's me. I tried washing it off, but it seems insistent upon sticking to my skin. I think I need to accept the fact that I can only tolerate sweeter florals and even then, they need to be balanced out with other notes. Pure floral mixes seem intent upon giving me a headache. Le sigh. Into swaps for you, Midnight.

Edited October 26, 2004 by inkstone

[reina]

sweet, nocturnal bouquet of flowers.

I would guess that the image that would capture the essence of this scent would be a flower arrangement all in very dark blue and violet.

 

on me it was on the verge of becoming overly sweet. once that sweetness fades, the overall floral note is rather nice. It's a keeper, I like it. I can't imagine wearing this very often, it doesn't go anywhere near the perfection of Xiuhtecuhtli's floral note, but I'll finish the imp up. all in all, 3 stars out of 5. good job!

[isyche]

Oh, lovely. On me, Midnight is a delicate, cool, sad, misty floral, not too sweet or heavy.

 

And it's made up of night-blooming flowers but with no jasmine! I love the idea of flowers that only bloom at night, but jasmine does not work on me, so this is good.

 

Midnight smells like the color of moonlight to me – pale and luminous and slightly blue. I really like it. Thanks for the imp, inkstone!

[AnnetteL]

Soooooo floral. (Well, what did I expect when every note is a flower! Heh ) It went a bit soapy on me, but almost every white floral does, it's just a skin chemistry issue and probably shouldn't put anyone else off this. Anyway, it is well blended, and quite evocative of midnight/moonlight, but florals aren't my thing so I'll be passing my imp on.

[Rheliwen]

I took this out of the bubble wrap and I can smell it all over my house! This is potent stuff.

 

In the bottle it smells just like potent night-blooming flowers should and a bit of aquatic. It's a bit potent, but I was compelled to try it because my house was starting to smell lovely because of it.

 

Wet, it's very sharp. All flowers here. Sea of Glass is a little similar to this, but less flower and more aquatic.

 

Dry, it turns a bit grainy (not quite powdery ) and also calms down a bit. It's a very clean smell. I get a muskiness to it as well...which is good since I can't take really floral fragrances. The musky smell tempers all the sharp florals, but I don't know what ingredint it is.

 

It's not as in your face floral as I expected, both from the ingredients and from the smell from the bottle. It's mellowed quite a bit and I like it.

[Lit Chick]

You know how sometimes when you apply and oil, your skin just eats it? It vanishes without a trace? Well, this oil ate me. One tiny dab, and I was overwhelmed with a garden is full, wet bloom. This is a juicy, deep purple scent, with lots of damp green moss. Lucious, heady, and in the end too much for me. I'm kind of in love with it nevertheless... the blend is so well crafted.

Off it goes to my friend who loves intense scents.... I hope it suits her.