Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse

[donnatron]

A voluptuous and brittle blend of lunar oils and white chypre shimmering with darkly glowing red musk, golden amber, black currant, patchouli, rose peppercorn, blackberry, ylang ylang, and daemonorops astride Yuletide’s holly berry, white pine, winter rose, and myrrh.

Bottle: Oh Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse. I sniffed. I did this: and then I sniffed again and I did this: I get a high pitched white floral scent on top with really prickly wood and pine notes beneath. This is swirled in with a tart berry note and underneath all that, a faint hint of dragon's blood. This scent left a soapy aftertaste in my mouth after I sniffed it. It was WEIRD!

Wet: There is definitely a public toilet cleaning solution scent to this. I am perplexed because on paper this scent is made of a million different win notes. Probably what is really killing it is that I do not smell any of the musks or patchouli, which is sad making, and the pine is really aggressive.

Dry: Oh. I know what it is. Blackberry. When this dries down, I get a very faint, creamy red musk/dragon's blood combo and a bit of pine, which is aiding and abetting the blackberry to dominate on my skin. I don't dislike the scent of blackberry but I can definitely smell some of that cat pee note others have talked about when it comes to blackberry. In fact, the longer I sniff this, the more I am starting to think of it as a wintery counterpoint to Lady Una.

Throw: The blackberry throws for miles. The rest, not so much.

Overall: This is a really complex and intriguing blend. I think I will need to hang onto it for a while and let the blackberry settle down and see if it is more in line with my chemistry and tastes. It does remind me of a dry, wintery, sort of severe Lady Una and I would say that the one thing that might hurt it is that it doesn't have the same lush sweetness LU has to balance out the blackberry and if some of the stronger notes (musk, patch, amber) don't emerge to wrangle it this may be a swap away.

[milo]

At first, this is musky berry, though it doesn't smell like red musk to me. The resins come out after a bit, and now it's resiny, musky berry. The musks here are beautiful, but the berry makes it smell too generic department body spray on me. I'm curious to see how this ages, but for now, this is a 'no go'.

[mistressfizz]

Sniff: A woodsy resiny base with hints of citrus and pine. I immediately get an image of frost dusting the ground and inky night sky.

 

Wet: This is very well blended! Grounded and herbal, without any sharpness. I don't quite know how to describe it, except as magical and mystical, a deep core of earth overlaid with seasonal berries and pine. It definitely evokes mystery and secret things in the night.

 

Dry: Settles to a soft red musk, mingled with patchouli and highlighted by herbs. A rich, warm darkness underneath a cool, white exterior. I waited a long time to try this one, and now I wish I had sooner! This is all sorts of love on me.

[Vega]

Sniffed: Airy, cool, floral-herbal -- and distinctly red. I can pick out a mix of berries, herbs, resins and dragon's blood, all contributing to a red scent colour.

 

On skin: The blend really blooms on my skin and reveals all its beautiful nuances! I initially smell a panoply of juicy berries, rose pepper and dragon's blood; gradually the deeper notes emerge, myrrh and patchouli in particular. All these notes have different qualities of "redness", and they all contribute equivalently to the deep redness of this scent. If these were all the notes in the blend they would be rich, heady and deep, but in WSLE they are lightened significantly by the herbal and floral notes, which are pale and light and wintry. I'm reminded of the herbal-floral notes that were in the Blue Moon blends. WSLE is a very complex blend and no note dominates, all of them contribute together to create a fascinating, evocative lunar blend that is simultaneously wintry and celestial, and deeply, liquidly red. Colour impression is deep red with a shimmering ivory-white sheen... or was it the other way around?

 

Verdict: Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse truly evokes the cold of winter solstice and the red darkness of lunar eclipse. A very beautiful scent, but this combination of cold herbal and redness doesn't quite grab me, and I prefer the Blue Moon blends for a lunar herbal scent. Even so, this is a very beautiful Moon that holds its own, and I'm glad I got to try it.

Edited August 21, 2011 by Vega

[a_llb]

In vial: Daemonorops and pine.

Wet: Resinous but in a way I haven't experienced before - it feels quite cold, when usually (to me at least) resins are unmistakeably warm. Naturally sweetened by berries, softly gleaming with ylang ylang & winter rose.

Dry: The pine in this blend is something special indeed. I have been searching for one that would work on me, and this fits the bill spectacularly. White pine, I LOVE YOU! You shimmer and sway in the icy air so ethereally. Later I get the sultry myrrh & red musk afterglow, radiantly rosy yet still chilled.

 

Verdict: I found a pine that doesn't hate me! This evokes scenes of a still, bright forest awash in reddened shades of moonglow & soft powder snow. Gazing in wonder at the disfigured yet beautiful moon. This is going immediately to the top of my list for must-have winter blends.

Edited November 1, 2011 by braybrigade

[tdiym]

This smells piney to me, and that's the only distinct note I get. I got it more because of the event than the fragrance, so even though it smells like nothing in particular on me, I'm keeping it anyway. I never get anything that I can pick out other than the pine, but it's not even very piney. It has a whole lot of different things going on, the berries, the herbs, the pine, but nothing becomes distinctive enough for me to recognize and like or dislike much. Overall rating: meh

Edited October 26, 2011 by tdiym

[MtMoonKitty]

This is my all time favorite bpal scent. Originally I bought a bottle and split it with my friend and found that I liked it so much that I was going through it quickly. Thanks to a swap with tuesday, I now have an additional full bottle and I feel like I can wear it whenever I want.

 

This scent is incredibly hard for me to describe because it is so complex. How can you call something frosty and warm at the same time? Because this really is. It reminds me of curling up in a warm blanky in a forest cabin with a mug of mulled wine. The moon is shining and the forest floor & trees slumber under a deep snow. :love!:

 

WSLE is the epitome of a winter holiday scent for me. When I open the bottle, I immediately think of all the things I actually love about winter (which is good because I NEED reminding).

 

This one doesn't morph on me that much. It is definitely more potent wet, but dries down to smell very much the same. It has significant throw on me and while it doesn't last ALL day, it doesn't disapate quickly either. When I apply it to clothing or my hair it will stick around longer.

[Midnight Eris]

I'm new to BPAL and didn't realize this was an offering...lucky me, I found a full bottle on ebay! This is a birthday scent for me, and I was determined to love it...and guess what, I DO!! As others have said, it does come over strongly peach at first. I hate florals, and peach, but this one is just working for me. It comes over floral and peachy at first, and then something else takes over and I start getting a perfect winter's evening. You know how you breathe in cold air, and how you can taste it in the back of your throat, more than you can actually smell it? This scent mimics that feeling, almost perfectly. I don't get the pine or holly or any traditional winter scents that I was excited about, but I get that snow cold scent that makes me think of home, and for that alone I am in love.

[Zeljana]

I found a bottle of this scent in the forgotten box in the back of my closet. It's been almost 9 years and oh my goodness...This is a rich scent of pine and berries with silent musk sneaking in from the background. It is just lovely. I also get hints of laurel bay or some other dry mediterranean herbs. As it is summer now, and everywhere around me is Mediterranean pine forest here in Turkey, I can picture a Greek goddess wearing this on a full moon night. Mystical, deep and so very feminine with a little sharpness.

It also reminds me  very much of Masabakes, another one of my favorites, in a best possible way. Must be the black currant in both of them. 

[trinitysite]

I never reviewed this and it's actually one of my favorites! So here is a story: I grew up in Madison, WI, and one of the things tweens and teens do for fun is walk up and down State Street, which is a pedestrian-only street connecting the state capitol building to the university. One of the stores that I would always stop in was called Soap Opera >does a quick google search, it still exists< which had all sorts of good-smelling products, so I'd always walk around there and smell all the things. So Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse initially gave me an intense memory of stepping in to Soap Opera. Very comforting and relaxing and nostalgic.

 

That being said, winter solstice and lunar eclipses are things that I like very much! And this scent strikes me as complex! There's a fruitiness (currant, blackberry?) and the white pine note feels familiar from Perchta, more of a sweetness than piney-pine. Cold and wintry - I always like wearing this around the solstice, and it wouldn't feel right any other time of year. Not fruity, not floral, not spicy, just something different. Chypre would be a great Scrabble word but I'm not sure how it contributes to the scent. Decent throw, and sticks around for a while. 

 

If I had a never-ending supply of this, I would also make bath bombs!

 

Anyway, I love love love this.