Moon of Horses

[ellebelle]

MOON OF HORSES
One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

Grape vines, cinnamon, frankincense, olive leaf, red wine, saffron, stacte, galbanum, costus root, smoke, and brimstone.

This is a really interesting scent. This is fresh out of the mail, so my opinions MAY change. But!

In the bottle, I smell mostly grapes and wine. When this is applied to the skin though, the first scent I can only describe as vegetal. Not green, like grasses or herbs, but green like the BPAL scents with the tomato notes in them. My nose detects easily the olives and the smoke/brimstone scent, but I can't pick out any of the other scents individual. Cinnamon fearers, rest easy; I cannot smell cinnamon in this a bit and it does not give me a skin reaction.

Overall, I don't know if I really like this or not. It is certainly an interesting scent. Try this if you like the earthy scents.

[Penance]

Origin:

 

5mL from the Lab.

 

Preconceived notions:

 

I've got no idea what to expect here. I ordered this as much for the concept as the notes, although there are notes in here that I enjoy or that should work on me. I love resins and most of the other notes should be fine. The only thing here that's got me a little worried is the grape vines. If they're viney rather than grapey, it'll be fine, but if they're more than subtly fruity, this could go all wrong. I love to eat grapes, but I don't like the smell of them in perfume.

 

First sniff:

 

I didn't know what I was expecting, but it evidently wasn't this, because I'm surprised. This is a surprisingly sharp, tart scent straight out of the bottle. I think some of the sharpness is coming from the grape vines and the tartness is most likely from the wine.

 

Wet on skin:

 

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I get the grape vines (they smell like a combination of the Lab's ivy and wild, slightly sour grapes to me), the wine and the olive leaf. But there's a strange sharp plant-like scent going on here that's a bit unsettling. It doesn't smell bad. It just doesn't smell...right, somehow. I don't know quite how to describe it. I suppose it could be the costus, since I've seen it compared to the smell of wet dog, but this doesn't smell like a wet dog. It just smells strange.

 

Dry down:

 

I actually really like this once it finishes drying. The weirdness of the wet stage passes and I end up with a scent that's heavy on the grape vines (with an emphasis on the vines, rather than the grapes, although they're here) with hints of wine, saffron and smoke. It's not fruity. Instead it's a sort of green-brown scent that makes me think of tangled vines in a vineyard during the dormant season.

 

The bottom line:

 

I wasn't sure Moon of Horses was going to work at first, but I like the drydown. It's unique. The closest I've come to something similar has been the Lab's ivy-heavy scents, but even they're not that close to the scent of this. I think this is one of those scents you're going to need to actually smell for yourself to know if you're going to like it.

[Invidiana]

I'm always going to think of this one as Dothraki Moon because of the whole horselord thing.

At this point I'm not really sure how I feel about it. It's initially sharp out of the bottle, with strong grapevine and olive leaf tones. As it dries down it sweetens more from the wine and resins. This isn't a wine that goes sour on me, thankfully; in fact I feel it smells more like dark grape than wine. The smoky notes also emerge in the final drydown as the vine/leaf ones take a backseat. It ends up being a smoky and slightly sweet fruit and resin scent. To get a real opinion on this I think I'm going to have to age it.

[absinthetics]

In the bottle it's sweet. I was hopping for cinnamon but I don't get any. (this is straight from the mail box so after it settles I may add opinions). On, this becomes more masculine, almost a complete turn around. The olive leaf comes out. This reminds me of a lot of the roman inspired scents. There's something ausi-hairstyle products about this. Something in there that is reminiscent of Deathrock too ..maybe?

Edited May 31, 2011 by Absinthetics

[rinster]

Ditto what Absinthetics said. It's got a slightly aussie hair product vibe from the grape/wine note, but it's very subdued. I'm not getting the sense of pounding hooves and fire at all. This strikes me as a very laid back, informal sexy guy scent but I'll defintely wear it, too.

Edited June 1, 2011 by rinster

[StevenBoatman]

I don't think this review is going to be helpful at all, but here goes:

 

Bottle: I get grapes! Plump, juicy, deeply purple grapes! Yummy!

 

On, wet: The grape smell is still there, but it's joined by a deeper wine scent, as well as something green. It's actually really nice, especially for something that sounds so apocalyptic.

 

On, dry: Still a wine scent, but without a lot of the grape smell I got in the bottle. The green is there, but faded. And something else has drifted up-a little sweet, but with a hint of sourness and bitterness, a little bit of powder, and some smoky incense. It's hard to describe, but it's awesome-this is going in my "wear often" stash!

[bloody sore]

Somehow, this is just rose to me. Icky, soapy rose. WTF? I've got to let this sit a few days and test again, right now, I'm really disappointed.

[ow1goddess]

I get something liked scorched earth and like a garden on a blazing hot day. I like that the brimstone and cinnamon seem to make this smell hot but aren't identifiable as notes. The plants give it a little sweetness but are balanced against the hot and earthy scents. When I opened the bottle, the person with me got a lot of grape in the throw, but I didn't- to me it smelled almost like chocolate. But yes, on the skin I got hot, sweet, and earthy, like a scorching summer day, and I really like it!

[ami226]

In the bottle: Grape and hay? Interesting!

 

On the skin: Green hay and.... a few flowers? Huh. Not what I was expecting. My skin completely gobbled up the grape! This is such an outdoorsy scent! Makes me feel like I am in a field!

[edenssixthday]

Moon of Horses - Like the reviewer before me, I smell grape and hay. Maybe a hint of the olive leaf, but mostly warm, sweet grape (like a real grape, not artificial candy-grape) and dry, dusty hay. Or maybe that's the frankincense that my nose is interpreting as "hay" since this is a "horse" scent and when I think of horses, I think of hay, because I'm allergic to both. Anyway, I like the scent wet, but when it dries down, the sweet, juicy grape dissipates and I'm left with mostly a dry hay scent. It's too warm and earthy for my taste, I'm afraid.

[stellans]

Like so many reviewers before me, I had no idea what to expect from a blend containing the mentioned notes. But...I love Beth's Lunacies so I was intrigued enough to try a bottle. And I have to say, it's a definite keeper.

 

I let this one rest for quite some time after shipping due to the heat, and I think that was probably the best thing I could have done for this blend. Last night, when I decanted a bit into my rollerball bottle (the way I apply Lunacies for bedtime), I was enchanted by the slightly sweet grape, the lush hay, and the oh-so-fleeting hint of smoke I caught. And at bedtime, when I actually applied it for the night, it was love. There was all the goodness glimpsed earlier, and even better, the cinnamon lent only a touch of scent and didn't make me break out in welts (the usual reaction)!

 

Moon of Horses lasted a good long while on my skin, as I drifted off to sleep with it wafting softly around me, and there was still a vestige of it left this morning when I woke up. I don't think it influenced my dreams (as Singing Moon always does), but it definitely was a lovely scent to fall asleep to, and it now has a place in my nightly rotation. Three of 5 stars.

[Suusje]

Such an odd scent. It's sweeter than expected. When it's wet it's all grapes and wine. But when it dries there's definitely something lurking in the background and I can't seem to identify it, it's not really smokey, it's not really incensy, it could be the olive leaf...whatever it is, it just makes is rounder. It's not scent I'd normally wear but it's oddly intriguing.

[zankoku_zen]

Grapes, red wine and flowers. I find this to be very sweet, floral, and very wearable. Feminine and kinda outdoorsy.

[lilwhiterabbit]

Confession time; I wasn't expecting to like this scent. I ordered a decant of it on a whim to round out my order because I didn't want to purchase only a single decant of this cycle's 13. I'm not a big fan of grape or wine scents, and I tend not to like boozy notes. The only reason I picked Moon of Horses to add to the order was because I liked the name.

 

There's no booze in Moon of Horses and the grape isn't the cloying, overblown scent I'd learned to dread. As other people have said, this grape is green, and sweet, and warm. There's something summery about it, and almost aquatic. The olive leaf is especially strong on me and, like others, I smell something like hay and smoke. I don't get any cinnamon, which is another note I don't particularly care for. All in all, Moon of Horses is very surprising. It's warm, and wet and sweet and green, and I sort of wish I had more of it. It's nothing like I expected.

[Eemia]

Nothing else smells like this. It's such a strange scent and I couldn't recognize anything in it. The only part that seemed familiar was the wine, which was strongest when it was still wet on my skin. It's fruity but still very boozy. And it has a quality that reminds me of certain blood notes.

 

It morphs into a sort of dry mixture of florals and incense. The wine seems more like a stain instead of a liquid as it wears. It's such a sultry and understated fragrance. There's more of an edge here than I would have expected.

 

I'm really loving this right now and the artwork is fantastic too.

[Little Bird]

Moon of Horses reminds me of The Zadok Allen Vineyard. The red wine is the strongest note for me at first, but it smells a bit brighter/sharper than usual (but not so sharp that I find it unpleasant at all). And then there are hints of smoky resins underneath the wine, making it smell darker, sexier, and more mysterious. Over time the scent shifts so that the dark, resinous smokiness is stronger and the wine lingers lightly in the background.

 

I love this scent. I'm really happy that I can't smell the cinnamon at all, because cinnamon usually amps up and ruins blends for me. This is all dark, sexy smokiness and decadent wine. It smells swoonworthy to me.

 

[Sabir]

Mmmm, grapey!

 

I agree with Veridian in that nothing else I've tried smells quite like this. Moon of Horses is very different.

 

The strongest note is the grape and it has a good throw to it. As others have mentioned it's not overly sweet and sort of has a woody tone to it. I think of grapes, fresh from the vine, being smashed up in large barrels to make wine. This is the note that lingers for me, and I have to say I like it.

 

Other notes are there, but I find they rest closer to the skin like the red wine, olive leaf, saffron and possibly other notes I'm not familiar with (costus root?). I do not get much, if any frankincense and no cinnamon or smoke (though that might be good because the lab's smoke note tends to go soapy on me).

 

All in all the scent is pretty and fun with a bit of a dark side to it. I'm not sure how often I'll wear it, but I'm inclined to keep it because it's refreshingly different.

[zebracakes]

Bottle: Spicy, vegetal, and wine-like.

Wet on skin: Smells better on the skin. Still spicy and vegetal, but with some softer green notes.

After 10 minute dry down: This one smells even better as it dries down. It becomes less vegetal, and more fruity grape and green/spicy.

Overall: This is a spicy-fruity-green perfume.

2.5 out of 5 stars.

Edited July 23, 2011 by zebracakes

[porcelina]

lots of sweet purple wine grape here, with resins and smoke. kind of old-fashioned catholic churchy- the wine, the incense? i usually don't do well with wine notes but there's something here that just works on me. i love the rich, wine and incense feel i get from it- and not just sticks of incense or blobs of resin but actual, smoky burning incense. ahhh.

[Ondine]

So very interesting on me; I love the wine/grape scents and didn't get much of the wine or grape notes on this one, sadly. It had a little bit at the beginning along with something dark and earthy. But after a few minutes, it smells like roses! I don't know what happened, but as I love rose scents, I will be keeping this one and just burning through the first few minutes each time, waiting for roses to appear.

[mymymai]

ITB: I liked the idea of this one before I realized wine and me were not good matches. I get red wine and smoke.

Wet: More red wine, olive leaf, a touch of saffron, and brimstone. It still has a bit too much red wine for my taste.

Dry: Once dry, the wine settles down to let the notes emerge: smoke, frankincense, brimstone, grape vines, galbanum, and stacte. It's much more appealing in this state.

[Cali]

Oof, from the bottle it's a very sharp red wine. Really fun (and not a challenge) to pick out all the seperate notes out of here, but it does work together! This intrigued me the moment I went through all the BPAL scents due to all the lovely interesting notes.
On drydown, the sharpness is a more herbal kind of sharp now, not too unpleasant now.

It's anthracity leaning towards green... Certainly interesting but I'm unsure what to make of it. Unfortunately it's a bit soapy on me, a kind of dirt-soapy like lush's Devil's nightcap? But, more sweet I guess. It's nice, for sure, but I don't like it enough to keep. Glad to have tried it, finally!