Blood Moon 2008

[Delirium1009]

In October, the crop harvest has past, and all hands turn to the Hunt: the third and final harvest before winter. Blood Moon shines over huntsmen as they ride over reaped grain in pursuit of their prey.

In Christian mythology, Blood Moon may have a darker significance:

"And I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind." -- Revelation 6:12-13

The feral scent of the heat of the chase, deep woods, undulating musks, brushed by forest flora, swirled in the incense of the anointed cherub that covereth[/i], and touched by blood-dimmed lunar oils.

In bottle: Lots of musk, dry woods, with a red, deep sweetness and a touch of herbal floral notes.

Immediately on skin: This smells dark but still perfumey and slightly “clean.” I get a lot of musk in this, but it’s sweetened almost like Hunter Moon 07. There’s a deep red scent to it, and without any metallic notes (I thought blood might mean metallic). It’s warm, dark woods, incense and musks with some deep forest florals and a bit of a clean note far underneath.

After a little while: This just seems to get stronger and more dry-smelling on my skin as I wear it. It’s a warm, musky clean scent with a lot of incense (not smoke, but more like incense sticks) and hints of dry wood and herbs. This is also getting more unisex as it sits on my skin; the hint of florals I got at first have faded, though a little sweetness still remains. This is rather dry-smelling as well.

Overall impressions: This scent is deep and warm… it’s full of musk and incense with hints of dry woods and herbs. It’s a very dry, unisex scent and has an overall clean feel which is something I just wasn’t expecting. Blood Moon is blended well and has just a hint of sweetness that tempers all of the dry notes just a touch. If you’re a musk or incense fan, I definitely recommend trying this. It’s not as rich and sweet as Hunter Moon 07, but it’s similar to the feel of that blend. Edited October 3, 2008 by Delirium1009

[Lycanthrope]

Definitely different from Blood Moon's past incarnation. It's less sharp, more sweet. For some reason it reminds of a LUSH product... the heady scent is something brighter, really on the tip of my nose but I can't tell... On my skin it segues again towards something more like Hunter Moon, as posted above, the musk note that's in Ivanushka, Coyote, coming to the surface. On top of it all there's this smokiness without quite crossing into ashy vetiver zone.

 

It's not quite as hoardworthy to me as the original Blood Moon, which is more fiery and violent, this is more sweet smoldering.

[charshark]

In the bottle: Woodsy, musky and spicy.

Wet: At first, there's a little sour note to it like a wet woodsy-type musk, but that goes away almost immediately. It smells a bit like Coyote but without the grassy notes in it and has more of an incense-type note in it instead.

Dry: Smoky with a hint of blood resin with musk and woods.

Overall: I think this would be a great oil for someone more masculine than me. I think my husband would like it. While I do like how it smells, I don't think I would wear it personally just because it's too woodsy for me.

[hkhm]

bottle: woodsy underbrush. a little musk.

 

wet: more musk and heavy woodsy resins.

 

dry: this dries to a very woodsy green scent. not green like grass or cucumber, green like damp forests and thick fog.

[Elanya]

Wow, it has been forever and a day since I posted anything in here! But I got two bottles of this for my birthday, so here goes. I should also note that I've got a bit of a cold, so I may come back and edit this in a few days.

 

In the bottle - a very earthy base with a electric high note

 

wet - a slight metallic tang, very woodsy with a slight hint of musk, and very very dry.

 

fades and settles to be a mild woodsy scent.

 

I like it but I don't adore it as much as I adored the first!

[wl552]

This is my first time trying a Blood Moon. I'm really glad I went ahead and got this... very nice!

 

In bottle - smells like a toss salad of herbs and freshly fallen leaves with a sprinkle of incense; a very pretty combo.

 

Wet on skin - more of the musky dryness that others speak of, but after about 30 seconds a sweetness bubbles up from the background.

 

Dry - a sweetish incense-y almost animalistic musk with a sparkle of the herb.

 

Overall, I wouldn't call this a calming scent; I can almost feel the panic of the chase at night in the woods in the full grips of fall. It's not a warm scent, but more of the warmth felt from exertion on a cool day - I get a sense of both warm and cool; definitely very dry. A very complex scent I'm enjoying very much. I can't wait to dilute this down into an atomizer so that I may go spritz happy. ^__^

 

Edit: I was huffing my hand as I typed this and when I was finished, I took a drink of my coffee. When I resniffed my hand, I got sharp salty tang; I wonder if it was the coffee mixing in my nose. I'm rehuffing and am definitely getting more of a tangy herb now. Very strange! I am loving this even more now; I like scents that keep me on my toes. I'm keen to know how this will evolve with age and the flow and ebb of my skin chemistry.

Edited October 5, 2008 by wl552

[forspecial_plate]

I'm glad I got this, although it's a little hard to describe, and it changes as I wear it. It seems brighter and more tart than the older Blood Moon, with some sweetness, but also dry, if that makes sense at all. There is something floral deep in the mix that turns slightly soapy, but not so much that it ruins the scent. I also smell something that's in Sagittarius from last year, maybe they share an herbal note? But mostly it's musk, lunar oils, and I guess incense, but this doesn't strike me as an incense-focused blend. It's a bright red night-time scent, tinged with blood. It does fade kind of fast on my skin but overall, I like it! Oh and I agree that somehow it's similar to last year's Hunter Moon, but more red, and more of a night scent. I would call it neutral, not really masc. or feminine.

[livingdead71]

This is such an interesting scent! Based on the description and even the other reviews, I wouldn't have expected this to be a very me scent at all. I'm glad I followed my instincts and ordered it anyway. First of all, it's absolutely gorgeous in the bottle. I passed it around to a few people at work to smell, and they fell in love with it too. I'm sorry I don't even know how to describe it. I just love it. It's not exactly what I would call feminine, but it made me feel very pretty and clean all day. Definitely a keeper!

[butcherbaby]

in the bottle: very sweet, slightly herbal, incensey. sweet enough to make me wonder- dragon's blood? smells like a pack of juicy fruit gum, which is not a bad thing.

 

on: it just EXPLODES into a cloud of very sweet musky incense. there is a darkness to it, and a redness. it's beautiful, yet despite the sweet it is dusky dark red. i think "this is what demonesses must smell like". the throw is magnificent, like i'm surrounded by sexy infernal smoke.

 

this fades fairly fast on me, though i still do get some throw and skin scent. for only this reason i am hesitating about buying a backup at will call- the oil itself is gorgeous! decisions decisions....

Edited October 8, 2008 by butcherbaby

[juniperus]

bottle: light, sweet, and warm without being cloying

wet: sweeter, but woody underneath

dry: muskier, but the sweet is still a little overpowering (although still not quite cloying)

later: the sweet has calmed, thank goodness! it's now warm and woody and musky and a little sweet and a lotta sexy. yussss!

[NixieCakes]

Blood Moon surprisingly turns to Bounce dryer sheets on me. Thats great if I like to smell clean, but I'd rather smell a little roughed up. Pooey. I'll give it a little time, but it might be off to swaps for this one.

[angelicruin]

I just received my bottle yesterday and tried it out for the first time today. I adore it. I am not getting any woodsy throw from it. It's mainly a smooth musky blood resin. It smells gorgeous on my skin. In fact, I received my first BPAL compliment at work today when one of my co-workers caught me at the printer and had to know what I was wearing.

 

Definitely a keeper for me!

[Mamacat]

sweet incense. I really love the smell of Blood Moon when it is freshly applied to my skin. After it dries down it gets a clean and soapy smell going on that I don't mind either. I didn't expect to like it so much!

[Anarchy99]

When I sniffed this in the bottle I fell in love with it.

 

I was very worried about the musk in it though. My chemistry tends to amp up musk and make it smell well, like a funky locker room on me, so yeah I was a bit worried. I figured if my skin didn't like it, I could still use it in a sachet or something.

 

I shouldn't have worried, the other scents were blended perfectly with the musks so it came out as a lovely incense-y sweet, dark scent that works wonderfully on my skin!

 

Unlike some of my other favorite scents (other than Fenris Wolf and Sacred Whore) where my skin eats the scent in a few hours, Blood Moon LASTS on me! I put it on before I went to my aunt and uncle's house at 2pm and it's 3:30am and I can still sniff it on my wrists!

 

The initial scent: Fairly sweet and musky a bit strong.

 

Dry down: more herby, sweet and getting more of an incense scent.

 

What it finally settled down to: A wonderful mix of all the above with a nice musky undertone that never morphed to that locker room scent I was worried about.

 

What it smells like over 12 hours later: what's left is faint incense and a sweet musk. Faint but it's still there.

 

The ONLY bad part about this scent that I have... I only bought one bottle!! I wish I'd have bought more!

[Akurarei]

Blood Moon 2008

 

In the Bottle:

Musk and Incense

 

On my Skin, Wet:

Musk and Incense - the "blood rimmed lunar oils" seem to be making an appearance, because the impression I get at this stage is DARK RED.

 

On my Skin, Dry:

The musk settles down some, and retreats into the background.

the Incense is sharing the spotlight with the lunar oils, and it has moved into a blackened red incense phase.

 

Verdict:

beautiful!

I was somewhat fearful that the musk would be overpowering and make me stinky, but instead it was predominantly incense - and I love incense blends so this one is a gem.

9 of 10 Ranking!

[gwynhwyfar]

I loved the first Blood Moon, which was a great 'dried hay and blood' scent on me. I was disappointed a bit that this one wasn't more harvesty, but I still got a bottle.

 

OMG. I should have gotten more. This one is a little sweeter and a little lighter -- a little more floral, but still has that blood note running through it. It's too incensely in the bottle, but luckily that clears up on my skin very rapidly. I may like this one better than the first. Maybe.

[Schmoozy]

Mmmm. Blood Moon is beautiful.

I detect forest flora, deep woods and musk immediately. It is a soft floral musk with hints of incense, lunar oils and the odd whiff of wood here and there. Musk can sometimes be overpowering on me, but not this time. It is soft and lends a certain sweetness to the Blood Moon. For some reason, I am also detecting the scent of clean cotten, which I swear is what lunar oils materialize on my skin.

This is really pretty. I am thankful the incense is not heavy and dark, but light and remains in the background.

Overall a very pretty blend. No note is dominant, but all blend together amazingly.

 

eta: All I can smell now is dryer sheets, and I adore it! This must be where the clean cotton note was coming from!

Edited October 22, 2008 by Schmoozy

[AuroraLlew]

Ugh. In the bottle and freshly applied this smells similar to vetiver on me.

 

Fortunately, this is one of those scents that smells completely differently on me once it starts to dry down. Gorgeous sweet musk, a touch of wood, something light and green. I do get a touch of clean laundry scent from it too.

 

Overall a lovely scent that makes me want to walk in the woods in autumn.

[crebbsgirl]

I want to roll around in this scent. Wet, it's dark and woodsy. Slightly incensey. As it dries, the musks start to come out and it warms to a sweeter scent. Beautiful, and I'm so glad I bought a bottle. I get a soft floral undertone, but it just adds to the depth of the blend. I love this!

[Foxglove]

I just got my bottle this week (the downside to living in Canada and having Customs paw through your stuff) and I am plesantly surprised at how much I like this scent. When I first opened the bottle and sniffed it, I was terribly disappointed and a little repulsed. All I could smell was a high, peaky note like vetiver -- which is one fragrance I really do not like -- unless well blended. Still, I have read enough reviews now to know that first appearances can be deceiving. So, I tried it on and hoped for the best. It was still a bitter green woodsy scent for the first few minutes, but then the offending sharpish note fell away and left the rich incense and a damp cool woods fragrance. My skin loves this scent and doesn't continue to change/devlop into other less appealing scents. I don't get the *clean* smell others have noted; just the deep, complex forest and incense fragrance. As this is my first introduction to the lunacy scents (or lunar oils), I am hooked. Thank you BPAL for this spectacular perfume.

[myth]

All the reviews talking about incense kicked me over the edge into swapping for a bottle of this unsniffed. Sadly this doesn't work on me... at all. I don't get incense or woods, I just get a sour floral and the kind of musk that turns perfumey on my skin. Sometimes a soapy edge wafts up. Of all the things that could've potentially gone right with this blend... none of them did. Alas, it's back off to the swaps with this orphan bottle.

[Little Bird]

The mention of "flora" scared me into just getting a decant of this and skipping the full bottle. I'm glad that I did. While I love the original Blood Moon, this doesn't really smell anything like the original on me. Where Blood Moon 05 is all dark and exotic with spiced incense, Blood Moon 08 actually seems bright and perfumey.

 

I get a lot of perfumey musk and soapy-clean floral from this. There are hints of sweet incense and a weird, rotting wood smell in the drydown, but my skin chemistry seems to amp up the musk and "forest flora." I'm surprised at how much this doesn't smell like I expected it to. I really expected it to be a darker sort of scent, rather than a bright and clean perfume. My skin chemistry seems to have butchered this scent...

[Lyrical]

n imp: surprisingly light and floral, over a dark green foresty background.

 

Wet on skin: flowers and evergreens and musk and incense.

 

Dry on skin: sweet, botanical and incense-y. Nice but not stunning. A bit soapy.

[PurringPulsar]

Blood Moon 08

 

In the bottle: very metallic, as in, like the metal scents. A bit sweet too.

Wet on skin: smoky, nutty, vetiver-y even! I can smell sweet musks and woods, and metal.

Dry on skin: a chaotic, wild musky incense with hints of grassy herbs, and a very metallic feel to it. This has an iron note to it-it smells like the way blood tastes, it is rusty, but there’s also a sharper, steely note to it like a sword. It reminds me of the metal note in Robotic Scarab in that this metal smells genuine and true, without turning soapy or ozone-y. The incense, if there is any, is predominantly black dry smoke, not resins. There is a hint of Ivanushka to the musk, but this is the dark side of the ‘deer/mammal/fur’ musk scents.

After a while: ok, now it is turning soapy. What the hell? There is nothing in the note list that usually turns to soap…this smells like the reaction I get with ozone and some floral notes. And there are no ozone or floral notes in here…oh wait a minute, there are ‘forest flowers’ here. But I wasn’t expecting them to amp and turn to soap. This smells much too much like washing powder now, with that metal note now turning even more metallic, and the gorgeous musk, wood and smoke notes being pushed aside. It now smells muddled, a bit messy, a clash of rough bloody notes and clean soapy ones.

Verdict: I loved the original Blood Moon. It was all spicy musky woodsy goodness. I thought this would be similar-improved by incense. But this failed pretty spectacularly on me. Instead of the warm spicy musk with hints of blood accord I expected, I get sharp metallic notes, rust and soap. There is some musk here, and woods, but I don’t smell incense. Though at times this does also resemble Hunter Moon 07, this is a lot more violent. HM was more like a cosy scent of autumnal warmth and a touch of spiced wine with warm fur and incense. This is the hunt in action. It’s unnerving and frantic, it makes me think of blades, it’s not a quiet scent. The images this scent evokes are not pleasant. It also reminds me of the Black Tower in it’s mood, slightly apocalyptic, a scent of battle. I find it a very uncomfortable scent to wear at first, with it’s blood and metal sharpness, and then wham. It turns to soap and washing powder. What the? Though seeing the reviews, I'm not the only one who gets soap here. Needless to say, I’ll be swapping or selling this one off.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? No-I have two bottles of this but I don’t like it…

If you like this, try: The Bloody Sword, the Black Tower, Hunter Moon 07, Tintagel, Ivanushka, Phoenix Steamworks

[jehrichardson]

Oo... bitter and dark.

 

Sweet muskiness, herbal astringency. Complex - non woody, non floral. Whiff of incense. Reminds me of an Aveda shampoo I had called Sap Moss.

 

Dark clean woods, incense, and musk.

 

This is GORGEOUS - I love it.