Old Moon

[pseedie]

A dark, still winter's night. The cold, white moon shines on frozen ground dusted with silent snow: evergreen, juniper, winterberry holly, bayberry, Viking black chokeberry, hemlock, and yew, ice-rimed, gilded by traditional lunar herbs and flowers.

...my very first review of my very first bpal scent.... Old Moon

Bottle: When i opened the bottle and sniffed, it was heavily evident that this was a winter scent, as a forest of evergreens went flying up my nose with a fury that made me wonder "why did i choose this fragrance?!!"....then the scent hit the back of my throat and i got bigtime juniper...and something really sweet.. i then realized that the scent wasn't as simple as the evergreens lodged in my nose...it was much more layered than that....


Wet on skin: Where the heck did the evergreen go?? Were they all lodged in my nose and none left for my wrist?? I was confused! On my wrist was berries....tart, sweet, almost unripened berries...the kind your friends dare you to eat, and you say yes cuz you've seen birds eat them and the birds seemed to like them but you end up spitting them out cuz they're so dang tart?....yeah, those sour-sweet little red berries. Something sweet was still lurking in the background, but since this is my first bpal fragrance I couldn't place it. Was it the winter blooms? Or is it what folks call the "slush/snow"? Hmmmm.....

Quick Dry: Phew! What a morph!! All I get now is sweet sweet sweet!! The juniper is still there....The fruit is still there, but some other fragrance pushes the sweet to extreme. Unfortunately, I don't like sweet perfumes, especially sweet florals...my jury was still out when i took a nap.....

After nap (about 2 hours later): It has changed yet again. Now it is just barely there, quietly dusty sweet with a teensy mint/evergreen/juniper in the background. I like it like this....but it's also right about the time that you'd normally think about putting more on!! Ah, the dilemmas in life....

Overall: You know, sometimes it's not the destination, it's the ride that makes the journey worth it....and this was like a wrong turn in the mountains on a winter's night....it may not be what you had in mind, and it may take you longer to get there, but the ride itself was gorgeous.

Verdict: I'll keep this one for the ride.

[AuroraLlew]

Pine, juniper, ice, cold air and a touch of sweetness.

 

On drydown the ice and cold air are much more predominant with a touch of juniper, even less pine, but still a fair amount of crushed tart berry sweetness (not the kind of berries I would eat, rather leave them for the birds).

 

However, the magic of Old Moon is not in picking apart the notes, but rather the entire scent taken as a whole. For me it really does evoke a fresh crisp january day out in the woods. How beth manages to do this never fails to amaze me.

 

Not one I take out of the box all too often these days as it is not the usual scent type I go for, but unfailingly beautiful none the less.

[reynardine]

I managed to score an aged bottle, and I've been wanting to try this since I missed out on it 2 years ago.

 

In bottle: a complex, woodsy scent

 

Wet: WHOA PINE!! (I must amp that note or something). But there are other things going on back there...wait for it...

 

Drydown: Pine is still strong, but I'm getting other wood scents now, evergreens, a touch of berries.

 

An hour later: This has blended into a beautiful, beautiful subtle and complex forest scent. I may have to place it in third behind my love for Vinland and Pomona on my favorites list. Will give it a few more test runs before reworking my favs list though.

 

And oh, yeah, I am SO keeping this bottle!!!

[Victory]

I got to take a sniff of VeronikaGalt's imp at a recent Meet 'n' Sniff- thanks! To me, sniffing the oil in the imp immediately threw a strong picture up in my mind. There's thick snow, the air is silent and very cold, and right before me, in the bright moonlight, is a huge tree with dark bark. The oil really provided an amazing snapshot of winter, which I can still see in my mind now. Reading the notes is scary, and I'm glad I didn't know them when I sniffed (other than the juniper, which is pretty apparent) or I'd have skipped it. It's an amazing oil, really.

[CiaoBonefish]

In the bottle it is all evergreen with juniper and some snow crushed in for good measure. Mmmm. Tasty. Rather sharp and nose clearing though, kind of like icy rain. I'm a huge fan of crisp and cold scents so I'm loving it right now.

 

On my wrists the evergreen takes the tiniest baby step back moving the juniper forward (but only slightly!) and now a surprising sweetness comes into play. I can't smell anything super berry-ish or flowery, but I have a feeling this combined with the juniper is making it sweeter.

 

Dry it is the same scent as it was wet on my wrists... but better! The scents have all rather morphed together into something beautiful.

 

What kind of image do I get from this?

 

I picture myself walking through the mountains in very early spring. When the mountains and snow don't know that their time is up; they cling to the ground trying not to melt away in the sun. Now I'm walking into an evergreen forest adorned with juniper and winter berries are crunching under my feet. I jump around in the snow creating slush under my feet. All the while my cheeks are red with the icy cold. Ahh. So pretty.

 

One of my absolute favorite snowforest blends and one of my favorite bpal's ever!

[Schmoozy]

 

Frozen berries and evergreen. It's sweet and slightly spicy. Soft florals help temper the evergreen after it has had a chance to morph on my skin.

[Greensleeves]

In the bottle: Pale yellow oil, smells like a fruity, sweet Christmas tree.

 

Wet: Fresh spruce and some sort of sweet fruity note, almost like Belladonna mixed with Slobbering Pine.

Dry: More of the same, with an undernote of clean. This isn't a dirty, sexy blend by any means.

 

After a few minutes: Fresh bayberry, almost, underscored by spruce and clean.

 

After first hour: More of the same.

 

After two and a half hours: Almost completely gone.

 

After 5 hours: Gone.

 

Final verdict: I like this very much, but not enough that I can't part with it. I think it would be a great Christmas scent, but I've got Hemlock and Slobbering Pine for that.

[sunlitgarden]

Old Moon

 

Pine/evergreen, with some tart berries in the background. Makes me think of walking through a forest on a cold winter night. This is really nice! It lasted several hours on me before fading.

[DifferentDances]

Bottle: Wintery fresh evergreens.

Wet: Wintery fresh evergreens.

Drydown: The berries are surprisingly juicy, but there's something here starting to cause my nose to itch. After looking through my spreadsheet, I think I'm allergic to the evergreen note used.

 

Removed this from my skin because I like having a clear throat for breathing.

[NicoleJoy]

Mmmmmm, this is the scent of winter. It reminds me of picking out a Christmas tree for some reason, even though we never actually did that in Florida. Pine, frost, and frozen berries... I picture Narnia to smell like Old Moon, and if I close my eyes and sniff, this is exactly what I envision.

[mhickle]

It's a Christmas tree strung with a garland of fresh berries. This is a winter scent for me--I just can't wear it at any other time of year. As it dries down, the berry takes a bit of a backseat, and the greens really come out. There is a coldness to this scent, but it's the cold that's on the other side of the window, while you're in your cozy room.

[cuervosueno]

This one doesn't seem as true to the usual BPAL "snow" scents. Before I looked up the notes, I thought, huh, mint? Menthol? Eucalyptus? Not a strong note, but something like that, something sharp and minty. There is also something like dried herbs. I don't get nearly as much of the evergreens as I do in some other blends, but perhaps it is that they are of a different sort (like Yew and hemlock). I do get some of the bayberry too. It doesn't have the lovely evergreen/snow which has an almost citrus edge that I love in Skadi and Snow moon.

 

It's ok, but not my favorite.

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 5/5

Summarised in a few words/smilie: Dark green

 

Preconceived notions/pre-review thoughts: I'm surprised that I haven't tried this already. None of the listed notes dislike me outright, but just the same, I'm not entirely sure what to expect.

 

In the imp: Equal parts evergreen and juniper, with a lovely herbal undertone.

 

On skin, wet: I usually dislike evergreen/juniper combinations, but this is lovely. Cold and and green and just a touch floral.

 

On skin, dry: This fades into an incredibly lovely evergreen-juniper combination, neither note truly distinguishable from the other -- and that's not said unhappily.

 

Conclusion: This is Green with a capital G - a deep, dark green, a few shades south of #002F14. (How geeky is it that I actually found a hex colour that fits how this smells to me?) It's an evergreen tree covered in snow, just after you've cut it down and before the thing has started to wither, maybe with a juniper garland (as suggested above) or a the scent of a nearby juniper candle. It's a lovely thing, and I'd love to find more of it.

[MandyCassandra]

This is Yule, made into a perfume and poured into a little decant vial. This is every holiday season I treasured when I was young, spent in my grandma's immaculate, cozy house with all her snowy village figurines and houses. Sentimental? Very much.

 

The bayberry is what I pick up from first whiff in the vial to the last smell on my wrist as it slowly fades (yes, slowly...this one has staying power). Bayberry...then the fir and juniper. I'm smelling the snow a *little* bit...but it's mainly that Yule forest smell. This is December in the forests of Norway or Sweden (or at least, how I picture it to be...); this is a frozen Yule in some remote, beautiful place that still carries reminders of the old ways and the old gods.

 

Vial: Fir and Bayberry.

 

Wet: Bayberry and Juniper, framed in and surrounded by pine.

 

Drydown: The pine stays....oh, does it ever. But over time, the smell grows imperceptibly sweeter. Somehow, the bayberry lingers on, so that after five or six or seven hours, the sweetness prevails over the pine a little and you're left with a holly berry kind of smell.

 

Honestly, I can't imagine wearing this at any other time of year than Yule. But...this is an amazing piece of art, and it's one I'll happily keep and cherish. I really love what it invokes.

 

Rating: 9.2 out of 10.

[donnatron]

Imp: Juniper and a hint of fruitiness. Smells like a nice sippin' gin on ice.

 

Wet: Juniper is definitely the dominant scent. It combines with the bayberry/general berry scent to make this smell a bit like Christmas pot pourri. The snow/ice scent is still there, however. It keeps this from being a bit to "Christmastime at Michaels".

 

Dry: I like the cool, menthol-y drydown effect this has on my skin. Seems like it would be a good call for hot summer days The drydown is unremarkable on my skin but still pleasant. It reminds me of a lighter version of The Jersey Devil, although it is a bit more aggressive/earthy with that strong juniper note. The berries seem a bit too sweet on my skin in comparison to the deeper forest and snow notes and the sweetness brings down the overall effect of the scent.

 

Throw: Good. A few inches from the skin but not overpowering.

 

Overall: I think it would be an incredibly interesting perfume if my skin didn't turn the berries ungodly sweet. A nice addition to the cold/snow scents the lab does so well.