Singing Moon

[ouch!]

Moonlight over grave grass, meadowsweet, marsh hellebore, rock sea-lavender, Irish Lady's-tresses, melancholy thistle, and wood bitter-vetch, with the scent of autumn fires in the distance, sprayed by wind howling over the Atlantic.

This is probably one of the most unusual lunacy oils I've tried. Amd the first time I've gotten to smell the famous "Dirt" note!

When it's wet, it's a strong almost medicinal smell that consists of dirt, moss and a tiny spark of Lunar oils.. it's very strange but still nice. It's like..moss with flowers in it, I can sometimes get a sort of Eucalyptus smell too..that's when it's first on the skin though..

The dirt and moss smell calms down a bit as it dries..and it's much more floral/aquatic...but I couldn't pick out any in particular. It's now just a mixture of flowers with a slight earthy note in the background swirled with a bit of aquatic.

I'm not going to get a bottle but I'm glad I got to try it, and I LOVE the name and poem that goes with this blend!!

[donnatron]

Bottle: I almost recoil in horror. A smell a general sweet floral aquatic, but it is overpowered by this incredible, stinging, bitter TREE scent. I've encountered it before in the BPAL ouvre, but I can't place it. In the bottle this smells like Blue Moon 07 with the melon swapped out for angry trees.

 

Wet: Angry, bitter, evil trees. Sort of like what I imagine the forest to smell like in Lord of the Rings when the hobbits encounter the talking trees and don't know they're on the side of good yet. Evil tree sweat over soft, sweet florals and a light ozone note. Bit of fire to this as well.

 

Dry: Craziest thing ever. Super crazy, in fact. It smells like chocolate. Slightly piney chocolate. It's nice, actually. Sweet and clean and really warm and pretty. It reminds me of Golden Priapus, but I think that's just because I love Golden Priapus only after the drydown kills the juniper note. This is... insane.

 

Throw: Good. I can definitely smell it wafting off my arms.

 

Overall: So not expecting this to smell like... this. I was looking forward to dark, woodsy and smoky. It's a nice scent, though. Clearly weird on my chemistry but does it's damndest to smell delicious. Glad to have a bottle but I think I'll be seeing more in cooler weather.

[mgrazulis]

In the bottle: green and watery

 

Wet on the skin: lavender, wildflowers, thistle and wet rocks

 

Drydown: Very dreamy, primal, smoky background. Oohhhh, this one is sooooooo mine!!! Wild oats and sea grass.

 

Verdict: I need more!!! Why do I love the limited editions so?? This is my favorite Celtic themed lunar oil so far. This one haunts me. I pick up so many impressions from this. There are some unknown notes here. Something intangible strikes me--rainy walks on a wild meadow to the edge of a watery cliff, the weeping of banshees over a freshly hewn grave, the earth meeting the sea...

 

I'm glad that I have this! A treasure! No other BPAL scent affects me the way this Singing Moon does...

[isisonearth]

This is very nice a fresh, ocean scent. Touches of green, a bit of astringent lavender, salty air and wave splashed rocks. It reminds me of Selkie but where Selkie is the summer sea this scent is beyond a doubt autumn. Amazingly among the aquatics there is a pronounced burning note representing those distant fires. It never ceases to amaze me the vivid pictures Beth is able to paint with scent.

[femmefatale]

This is very nice a fresh, ocean scent. Touches of green, a bit of astringent lavender, salty air and wave splashed rocks. It reminds me of Selkie but where Selkie is the summer sea this scent is beyond a doubt autumn. Amazingly among the aquatics there is a pronounced burning note representing those distant fires. It never ceases to amaze me the vivid pictures Beth is able to paint with scent.

 

 

This is it exactly, though with very little lavender.

At first it is very herbal with a bit of sweetness, but as it dried down the saltiness and smokiness comes out. This reminds me of walking around Cape May in the fall, coming out of this one particular candle/bath shop, catching the lingering smell of candles mixing with salt air and the smell of autumn. I need another bottle.

[Coldfire]

Imp: Wow! It’s floral and bitter at the same time.

Wet on Me: how can I describe this. Almost antiseptic in a good way. Just when my nose thinks it can pick out a note it swirls and dances and becomes just one nebulous scent

Drying Down: More herbal now over the bitter and antiseptic and then sharp earth. Also getting a sea scent haunting in the background

Dry: A scent for remembrance is what I’m getting out of this. I may just wear this tonight for our open Samhain Ritual…..to remember those gone on before.

[rayvn1]

Very, very pretty oil! I get a lot of golden honey out of this one mixed with some light aquatics and topped off with some sweet, light florals. Glad I have a bottle!

[TheOneTheyCallLuna]

This was totally different from what I expected. I got Death Cap plus perfumey florals. It's okay, but I think I'll stick with Death Cap since I'm not much of a floral girl and it's GC.

[Andrea912]

EW; mossy and woodsey...

[Lamia]

Started light and clear, cold soft florals, but almost immediately turned to damp earth. The florals keep trying to push through the dirt. After about 2 hours, the dirt has faded, leaving only light florals.

 

Pity, this was one of the few Lunacies that seems to have worked well on me, but this has become so light that it almost seems me that I am wearing nothing at all.

[CynicalPink]

Imp: Something great. Sweet aquatic, heady florals, and earth

 

Wet: A touch cologne-y, but with plenty of flowers. Fells like an amped up Phantom Queen

 

Drydown: Like a tall cliffside that's being beaten constantly by some brutal waves. Strong, hardy flowers can hang on, but the rock and water do their best to overwhelm them. This is not a foofy, shrinking floral scent.

 

Overall: I'm keeping this decant if only for how evocative the scent is. It's a very down to earth flower scent with the beauty of the rocks and waves, and that landscape really appeals to me. I must say, it's a pretty good smelling perfume, as well

[maewitch]

Oh my, what a little aging will do!

 

When I first got this, I had an immediate gagging reaction to the scent of it in both the bottle and on my skin. All I could get from it was a very sharp dirt note and incredibly pungent, bitter greenery - and all of it damp.

 

To say I did not like it would be simplifying dramatically. It was one of the very few bottles that I wanted to put into swaps immediately.

 

For some reason (probably laziness) I did not. And I am very glad I didn't.

 

It's still not a perfume I would reach for often, but over the last couple of years it has matured into something else entirely. That marshy grassiness is still there, but rather than dominating the blend it lends a quirky top note to an otherwise smooth, restrained floral. I would still categorize this as an aquatic floral, but without that heavy dampness I got initially. The wetness here is light and airy, like fine mist carrying the scent of moss and grass and highland flowers, grounded by a very faint earth note.

 

Like I said - not really a 'me' perfume, but lovely. I'm very glad I gave this a second chance, albeit years later.

[filigree_shadow]

DIRT. THERE'S DIRT.

 

I almost bought a bottle of this during the Singing Moon update because I loved the concept and the art. I'm glad I didn't. I would have been upset to find out there's a soil/dirt note in it that's not listed in the description. I can't handle the dirt scents.

 

That's not all it smells like, but I wouldn't be able to tell you what else is in this. Mostly it smells like a very sweet dirt scent with a touch of something dry (something woody and planty). No lavender, no autumn fires, no ocean.

[voodoocatwoman]

Singing Moon starts off as dirt. Yippee, don't I just love to smell like I have been rolling around on the ground. Fortunately, that wears off quickly and what emerges is flowers dancing in the ocean breeze. Mildly aquatic and not overpowering except at the beginning dirt stage.

 

 

[poisondove]

This blendwas suggested to me when the Ghosts of Arroyo Seco Bridge refused to smell like home on PCH and instead became bathroom airfreshner.

I was looking for ocean-ness but sadly Singing Moon didnt want to helpme out either.

 

Wet/Skin: Sure it hasa wet/watery undercurrent but there are no herbs/lavendar or anything mentioned above. I admit I amp (and dislike) dirt notes

and singing moon is no different. I am wearing wet dirt. Its like I walked through some mud and have no dragged it into the house. Major dissapointment.

 

Overall: Don't judge the blend on me. Its wet dirt for me,but this is my epic fail and mydarn skin chem seeking out and screaming when Iput on dirt (or sometimes lemon or cinnamon notes that aren't even listed). Bummer

[loubric]

Magical

 

I smell like I've walked through a dew laden hillside full of lavender bushes. Sweet, wet and herby. There is a hint of dirt but it is overshadowed by everything else. Hints of aquatic ocean notes come through as well.

[raisin]

Purplish, greenish, slightly aquatic, mostly herbal and earthy. I wouldn't be able to pick out a lot of notes anyway, but they blend together into something pretty solid here. One sniff, and I knew I'd found my go-to nighttime scent. (And, when I discovered how quickly this one fades on me, I realized that's about the only thing I can use it for.)

It's certainly got that nose-to-the-ground smell of grass and dirt mingling, with some light herbal/floral throw. It's dazzlingly unique, and just makes me want to drift off into a peaceful sleep.

 

I'm gonna go slather some more on.

[Helas]

I hunted down a bottle of this one based on the gorgeous description and I'm glad I did. Singing Moon is my perfect outdoors scent.

 

On first application, it is sharp and mineral with a faint spark of ozone in the background, and evokes to me cliffs towering above a stormy sea. The grass and herbal notes emerge upon drydown; they are very sweet but in a wild and unkempt sort of way, and remind me of raw clover honey. The ozone note is discernible but remains in the background. The atmosphere is wild, smoky, and mysterious. This is how I would imagine the Giants' Causeway in Ireland would smell like on an autumn night.

 

I am fascinated by the atmospheric BPAL blends but find a lot of them to be too strange to be wearable. Singing Moon is atmospheric AND perfectly acceptable for everyday wear. I can see myself craving this one a lot once fall comes around.

 

A poem in scent form. 5 out of 5 stars.

[biocarolyn]

Wow. It smells like Stinky, or rather Stinky smells like Singing Moon. My skin must be ODD. It's Stinky with the slightest hint of dirt underneath and sone light windy-oceany something I can't identify. Really pretty not what I expected, but I like it...

 

ETA: was I smelling ths same thing? I don't know what I was thinking, but this is really beautiful either way. Now I smell light dirt Note, airy wind and ozone, herbal lavendarish something, and....spearmint? Huh. Anyway. Light outdoorsy, gentle, and pretty. I really like this!

Edited December 2, 2011 by biocarolyn

[n3m3sis42]

Way back in 2007 when I ordered this, I was in love with the concept and so wanted it to work on me. However, I guess I had forgotten that I hate most aquatic notes. When I opened the bottle the first time, smelling it made me gag and I never even tried it on. It was my first unsniffed-bottle BPAL disappointment. I was heartbroken but couldn't bring myself to swap it away.

 

Fast-forward to today. I've been culling the bottle herd pretty relentlessly, and I almost just tossed this one straight into my swap bucket. Instead, I tried it first, and I'm pretty glad I did. I don't even know WHAT this smells like on me, but it's pretty and much different from any other blends I own. It's sort of a soft-floral-slash-aquatic, and while I don't normally go for either florals OR aquatics, it works somehow.

 

Huh.

[EmseeSugarPlum]

all i smell is mint..mint and grass. it's way too light on me. sigh back in the swap pile

[undream]

i wish that i was getting some of the beautiful notes that other reviewers are experiencing - i adore loamy, earthy, air, grass, water - but unfortunately, this went from evoking a cool, aquatic perfume feel on application to a choking hairspray scent on drydown.

 

off to swaps.

[milo]

Green, fresh, and florally, but the floral is not heady, it just adds to the airy quality of the blend. I'm getting a 'wet' vibe, though I wouldn't call this an aquatic, more like dew touched meadow ,flowers and grass. This is a lovely spring blend, kind of reminiscent of a GC, but I'll have to look. Maybe Kumiho or Amsterdam? I'll certainly use up the imp, this is quite nice.

 

eta: This is the 2012 version. If a mod could move this, that would be appreciated.

Edited September 16, 2012 by milo

[Zii]

Wet: Ahhh, my beloved dirt note. This is a very dirty green and slightly damp scent on me.

 

Drying: I'm going to have to test this next to Graveyard Dirt. They have a similar strong herby dirt feel to them, though Singing Moon seems to be more like grass covered dirt after rain than freshly turned soil.

 

Dry: This is more like zombi without the rose now. Dirt and herbs. A very nice addition to my collection of dirt based perfumes.

 

(Only at BPAL is a dirt based perfume not frightening.)

[mooncityminx]

I traded for a bottle of this, shortly after it came out, because someone had compared it to Shangai Tunnels' "wet stone" note. Initially, I wasn't feeling it. The bottle gives off a top note of what I think is generally considered dirt, but on me amps to something like mildew. It's in Zombi and a few other popular blends that just don't work on me.

 

However, it has aged a few years since I last tried it. I am going through an expected aquatic phase in my bpal fandom. Suddenly, I want to smell like a salty mermaid. So, I decided to give Singing Moon another try. Boy am I glad I did!

 

The bottle still smells like damp earth, but on, I smell like cool water. It's very slightly musky, and very slightly floral. It has a mist-like quality. It makes me think of taking a dip in a cold creek during a full moon. I feel very mysterious. It's very evocative of coldness and moonlight. I just love it. It is perhaps a little more swamp-maiden than mermaid, but I can live with that.

 

Sorry, but I really can't pick out any individual notes.