Berry Moon 2009

[plainjean]

A golden summer musk with warm fig, orange blossom honey, sweet blueberries, and bright velvety crimson raspberries.

I got a decant of this from the lovely Dralore! I'm so sorry it didn't work for you.

In the imp, it's a slightly musky berry with a hint of honey and a bit of smokiness, I assume from the fig. I like!
Wet, the blueberry is coming to the forefront, and I can smell a bit more of the honey now.
Dry, it's just magical. It's as if I'm lying in the middle of a meadow, with the sun beating down. I'm surrounded by bushes upon bushes of berries, all warm and ripe from the sun. The berries are mingling perfectly with the fig and the honey, and it's just so beautiful.
I'm so happy I was able to locate a bottle of this to purchase. It's like summer in a bottle, and it will help to get me through those cabin fever stages of winter.

[proserpine]

Wet: Fresh sweet berries and warm golden musk

 

Drying: The fig begins to come out. It reminds me of a warm fruit cobbler served with whipped cream.

 

Dry: Figs with sugar and spice, like a fig tart?

 

Overall: I like this a lot. The end result smells like a warm fruit tart cooling on the counter. It is a perfect berry scent for cooler weather.

[lookingglass]

ZOMG!

 

Wet: Bright raspberry, bitter orange blossom, and snapped bright green stems.

Drying down the honey note emerges more, still so fresh with the tart fig, the musk is all breezy but starts to get creamy. I'm so glad. I have to have a scent that melts into my skin.

Dry: The berries and fig darken and meld with the honey, like tart filling, but the musk keeps it lifted and not too foody.

 

I imagine that if I wore Fae, Honey Moon, Heitaerie, and washed my hair with my VO5 Sun Kissed Raspberry condishioner I would smell something like this. But I don't have to! I have my very own PRECIOUS bottle! And how often do we get RASPBERRY in our BPAL???

 

Crazy, happy, Berry Moon LOVE!

Edited January 2, 2011 by lookingglass

[Ishtar]

On paper, this should have been perfect: musk, some of my favourite fruits, and orange blossom honey (on a completely unrelated note, if you ever find orange blossom honey in a store, buy the biggest jar you can get, it's fantastic!)

 

Alas, it was not meant to be. When I first received my bottle, Berry Moon was, I am sorry to say, actively nasty on me: plasticky and sour, with a heavy overripe fruit note drowning the wispy musk underneath.

 

A year of extra aging did it a lot of good, allowing the fruit to settle and the honey note to develop. It's warm, bright, almost playful, definitely uplifting. I would have loved for the musk to be more present, though; as it is, the blend seems to still lack a solid foundation on which to pile all this honeyed fruity goodness.

 

I may attempt a few layering experiments with Berry Moon, or I may send it on its merry way, as it seems to do magical things on other people - might as well share it with those who love it!

[grrrlennyl]

Berry Moon

 

On: Very pretty berries. Sweet, but not heavy, with a nice amount of musk.

1 hour in: It's going a bit powdery and odd on me. I think the fig smells funny on my skin.

2 hours in: Sweet and powdery, with an odd vegetable note underneath, which I think is the fig.

3 hours in: An odd wood/vegetable note. A bit powdery.

Overall: This doesn't work on my skin.

[Tiada]

I was really excited to try this out when I bought a bottle from Scrappy, but was a *tad* worried that it wouldn't work on my skin as much as I hoped. I think I did ok!

 

I really liked this wet, the berries were juicy and sun kissed and delightful. As it dried the fig and musk started to level out the scent and ground it, just enough to balance the berries from the sweet high they had when wet. I had a moment of fear after it had been on about an hour though. I wear Lady Speed Stick's raspberry anti-perspirant and at one point I kept smelling like I do when I'm pretty sweaty and my deoderant is starting to fail. Raspberries with BO. ICK! I'm going to attribute this to the skin musk being rebellious. I checked myself a few times to make sure it wasn't my pits, and hoped the scent would shift and not stay this way. Thankfully it did! For the rest of the day it smelled just like raspberries and blueberries with a hint of depth that I'm not sure what to attribute to. But overall, great stuff! Glad I have a bottle, I'm sure I'll use it regularly in the summer as it's clearly a summery scent.

[Deidre]

This one was love at second sniff. It actually made it to my sales page, because when I got it it smelled sharp and strange and I was both underwhelmed and disappointed.

Turns out all it needed was a few days - I retested this on a whim, and yes, there still was that initial sharp note - I'm guessing it's the orange blossom, maybe combined with the berries, but it calms down immediatly on my skin and then everything melds together into a warm, honeyed, fruity musk. I love it!

[Suu4LC]

I have such high hopes for this blend but I am so worried it won't work on me. I love every note in it, but sometimes I have trouble with blueberry notes-they always smell so great in the bottle but tend to go weird on my skin.

 

This is lovely in the imp-so very warm and musky-love the orange blossom honey and velvety berry notes. Not a super sweet fruity kind of scent.

 

Actually, on my skin, the strongest note is the orange blossom honey! Very lovely. Warm golden musk and orange blossom honey with a touch of the slightly bitter velvety skin of dark fruits. Blueberry isn't going weird from what I can tell.

 

Oh this dries so beautifully on my skin! Rich sweet orange blossom honey and warm berries! I love lab honey and mixed with orange blossom it is just magical on my skin. Also, just the right amount of musk and fruit.

 

On full drydown it's sort of a powdery figgy scent-doesn't last too long so will need to be reapplied a lot, but it will be worth it-zomg orange blossom honey goodness!

[ami226]

At first: Tart berries and a honey note that isn't playing too nice....

 

Drydown: This is actually quite nice! Musky honey sweetness and a hint of berries. Much sweeter now than it started out.

 

I definitely don't think this one is for me, but I do have to admit that the dry down is quite nice if you can get past the tart/green/funky honey stage!

[stellamaris]

I was once again the lucky recipient of a barely used bottle of this, and I do like it. It is all fruit for me, with a bit of a slightly but not unpleasant heavy honey note. There is also something there that I can't put my finger on, slightly creamy, but not green whatsoever. Like not love.

[Gateau]

Imp and wet -- musky green fig with a cloying honeyed berry that smells somewhat artificial. There is a funky sort of vinegary note as well.

 

Dry -- it smooths out and blends, loses that unpleasant vinegar edge and the ripe berries start to emerge. The other notes keep them from overtaking the scent so they hang out in the background giving a touch of fruitiness. The fig is green, not ripe and purple. I can't identify any specific berry, there is just a wash of berriness. It's a close to skin scent, less spicy than Pussy but is summery in the same way, makes me feel like I'm part of the musky sticky heat, not trying to stay cool in it.

 

After a while I get a brief doughy note, that creates the impression of a fruit cobbler. Doesn't last very long overall. Might be a good candidate for slathering, if I can get through that early funky vinegary phase. We'll see how much use this gets--my kids like it so I might wear it.

[porcelina]

ooh, i forgot how much i liked you, old berry moon!

 

there is that gorgeous golden musk that i love so much, paired with the sweet earthy fig. the honey is sweet and, yes, scented with orange blossoms; the berries are ripe and juicy. i can detect each individual note here, but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. the overall effect is like a fragrant summer sunset- all reds and golds and pinks.

[rivercitylizzy]

Considering how much I love fig, and berries, and orange blossom honey, I had high hopes that I would love this one, so I took a chance and bought a bottle (okay, 2) from Stella's massive destashing sale post. And oh, I was not sorry!

 

In the Bottle: very green--freshly split Mission figs (LOVE that!!), orange blossoms, and what to my nose is raspberry leaves with a bit of the warm amber & honey peeking through, though only a bit.

 

Wet: yes, there's that fresh green still, and now the blueberries are coming forward with just a hint of the raspberry. The honey & amber are also warming up and it is Just. So. Lovely!!

 

Dry: thoroughly warmed up to my skin now, I smell fresh sweet berries and figs drizzled in orange blossom honey (my absolute FAVORITE kind, OMG! ), with a gorgeous amber base.

 

Others have mentioned upthread that Berry Moon '09 is like "lying in the middle of a meadow, with the sun beating down...surrounded by bushes upon bushes of berries, all warm and ripe from the sun..." and "a fragrant summer sunset" and I'd have to say I agree. It's an amazing scent that stays demurely close to the skin (within a foot or so) and just beckons you to come closer to breathe in more of that beautiful summery fragrance.

[bpalscentsual]

This Berry Moon started out slightly astringent on me, a lot like Lune Noire did. I was convinced for a few moments that it had the 'traditional lunar oils', but now I'm starting to think that hey, this oil is a few years old, it needs a little TLC and perhaps a little shake in the bottle before I start to wear it.

 

Now that it's been on my skin for a few hours, it's wonderfully berry and juicy. Golden musk and I sometimes don't get along, as I'm finding out, but I think the orange blossom honey is keeping everything in check. The honey makes the berries sweet, like a summer bowl of fruit glazed with sugar, and I can even catch what's acting like a floral in here.

 

All in all, this is amazing. We'll see how often I wear it, seeing as my other go-to fruits right now are The Vine and MI-Go Brain Canister, but it's an interesting addition that gets into the berry families in a way that other BPAL scents don't.

[sunlitgarden]

In the imp: Berries indeed! It's sweet, and I smell blueberries for sure. Mainly smell berries and honey with a little musk.

 

On skin: Honey and berries. Reminds me of a berry pie - I even kind of get a crust-like note. As it begins to dry, the fig is giving it a greenish note, that's almost a bit... nutty? I'm actually not too fond of this note. Bummer, too, because I really liked the sweet blueberry note in the decant and when immediately applied to my skin, but the fig comes out fast and I'm not crazy about it. My skin tends to turn fig into an overripe, almost rotting vegetable matter type of scent, I'm discovering. It's not as bad here as it has been in some other blends, but still not something I would really wear.

[DJ Sin]

Very berry!

 

juicy, delightful and crisp on my skin. Beautiful scent, I don't get much fig or honey in this one.

 

Has a medium to long throw.

[LizziesLuck]

I recently tried Berry Moon 2011, and it didn't work for me. Someone kindly gifted me 2009, so here's hoping it works out better!

 

 

Wet: The orange blossom honey is a bit green and bitter on me. Usually that settles out. This is nowhere near as candy-sweet as 2011 was, and that gives me hope. This is fresher, greener. More natural smelling. As it's settling down, it's growing on me.

 

 

Dry: I really liked this as it was drying - there was a green, freshness to it that I really liked. But that has faded, and it's mostly a sweet berry scent now. It's nice, but I am missing that greenness. I might try layering it with Grass Stain SN.

[Cali]

In the bottle I get a lot of fig and warm, sharp berries.

On my skin it turns to lovely, natural squishy blueberries, and the raspberries that sets a firm, but soft background.

It's all gold-and pinkish on me. So good, so soft. slightly powdery. Just enough musk to give it that imaginary glow.

 

Yum! Wish this was stronger on me.

[torikitty]

When I first ordered this in 2009, I think my skin was amping the honey. Everything smelled overly-sweet and acrid, and I wasn't enjoying it. I let it sit on the shelf for a while, and decided to try it again. I think it's definitely mellowed to the point where everything blends together better. I honestly can't pick out one particular scent. I would say it's still sweet, but it's not overly musky or fruity. It kinda ends up smelling like that ubiquitous BPAL smell when you open your treasure trove of bottles. I guess it's good for when you just want to smell sweet and fruity, without any distinct fruit.

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Warm, musky berries, with a touch of green maybe?

 

Dry: Still warm, musky berries! Almost like berries that have been sitting out in the sun for a while. It's nice!

[oatmealneko]

This review is for the 2009 version of Berry Moon, which I haven't opened since 2010.

 

In the bottle, it smells heavily of orange blossom and berries.

 

Dry and well seven hours later...it runs around screaming ORANGE BLOSSOM with a squeak of honey in the background. The berries got ditched around hour 2.