Blackbear Moon

[Akurarei]

In February, black bears give birth to their cubs, nurturing and protecting them as the snow melts, the days grow warmer, and winter gives way to spring. Hazelnuts, acorns, black cherries, wild winter berries, and warm black fur dusted by moonlight, honey, and pine needles.

In the Bottle:
Berrylicious Honey

On my Skin, Wet:
Honey, Pine, Nuts & the sweetness of the berries, but no actual fruit

On my Skin, Dry:
Honeyed Berries with whiffs of nuts & woods

Verdict:
This is very warm & comforting.
the throw is surprisingly strong for such a delicate scent
excellent job Beth!

[meredevachon]

In the bottle: nutty, with a hint of pine

 

Wet: I get acorns more than hazelnuts, but whiffs of the latter at times too. I think, if I'm getting any pine, it's just wishful thinking.

 

Drying: Same as above, with a little sweetness every now and then, not specifically honey or berries, but mildly sweet. Almost starchy or yeasty. Popcorn, but not. On the cusp of being too foodie for me. There's almost a chill to it, even though it's a very cozy scent. After about 15 minutes, honey becomes more prominent, and I start to see where people were reminded of huffing cat belly. *nuzzles semi-sleeping cat* Yeah, there's a similarity.

 

Dry: Slightly foodie. Warm and cozy, but still wintery. Cuddling with a kitty.

 

Overall: I like it. I'm not sure how often I'll wear it, or whether it was worth getting a bottle unsniffed, but I'm not disappointed in my first lunacy.

[Sateki]

A very warm and comforting scent! A little bit foody at first, though that fades away after about twenty to thirty minutes.

 

It starts off with mostly hazelnut. Very nutty, in a warm way. I don't get any berry or wood. Can't pick out any honey, though it may be what's lingering in the background and keeping it sweet.

 

About thirty or forty minutes in, I start smelling candle. Burning candle. It makes me think of roasted nuts, or eating nuts by a roaring fire. It's a very cozy feel. I really like it! Very glad I got a bottle!

[Little Bird]

Most of the lunacy blends don't really make sense to me. They never smell like their imagery to me, which I realize is a highly subjective thing, and they rarely smell like their listed notes. Most of them just fall into a perfumey, soapy mishmash on my skin. But Blackbear Moon really matches its theme for me. It smells like warm fur (like the warm, almost resinous black musk/fur note in some of bpal's kitty themed blends) and a hint of pine with lots of sweet little touches. There's a sweet, dry, woody hazelnut with an almost brown sugared sweetness and a little bit of sweet fruitiness. It smells like a bear's fur, a bear's den, forest, and the sweet nuts and berries that they'd eat. Very cute.

Edited April 1, 2013 by Little Bird

[Mokiefraggle]

This was the first bottle I actually bought, and I'm still not sure if I like it, though I'm finding new layers to the scent every time I put it on.

 

In the bottle: whoa, hazelnut! First sniff and all I get is something that smells like my dad's much-loved hazelnut coffee creamer, which almost put me off. It's not exactly a favorite smell, which is odd when I consider that I like hazelnut otherwise. It took a lot of subsequent sniffing and considering to recognize the other scents in there. After a few weeks, I began to be able to separate out the hazelnut from a more musty smell I associate with acorns, a light scent of pine resin, and something furry (though oddly, unlike the common "cat-tummy" association many have noticed, I'm more reminded of the scent of just-groomed horse or my Ren-Faire fox-tails). Not really getting the berries or cherries, though I'm getting a thick sweetness that's probably the honey rounding out the background.

 

On my skin: again, I get a thick cloud of hazelnut that just sort of hits the nose like a hammer, dominating the initial scent when freshly applied. It takes some time and drying for those other scents to come out, and I still never get anything that smells like either of the fruit. I was really sort of looking for the berry scent to help balance out the dry, heavy smell of the hazelnut and honey with something wet and juicy, but it's just not really there. Or it's drowned out by the other scents getting amped by my skin chemistry, but it seems that this is going to be a very nutty, dry scent on me.

 

I think maybe if I had something fruity to layer it with, it might work out. Unfortunately, most of what I have now is either flowery or incense/resiny, so it wouldn't really work. Otherwise, this is just a little too dense with dry, nutty scents to be used in any other way but sparingly, as it tends to hit me with a wave of sticky-sweet hazelnut that can be a little dizzying. It's nice, but a little overwhelmingly one-note to be used on its own. *Goes to hunt for appropriate fruity scents for layering*

[Dark Alice]

I smell like a payday bar. Literally...the Payday candy bar. My skin amps nutty scents and this is no exception. There is no fruit, winter notes, or even pine. Just Payday. Nuts.

[Gateau]

This was all about the hazelnuts and honey on me, with occasional hints of the bright fruits. A warm and welcoming scent, but ere is something about sweet nutty and/or grain scents that are too cloying for me to enjoy (see also Brood XIX). I was afraid of the pine and musk, but never got the slightest hint of pine and the musk/fur behaved. It really does smell like milk and cookies time for bear cubs, it's just not for me.

[crebbsgirl]

Wet, there's A LOT of hazelnut, but as it dries the woods and honey come out more. Berries sweeten this up just a bit! I actually quite like this, and the hazelnut calms down considerably in the dry stages,

[Klolly]

In imp: sweet and nutty with a sour scent laced in which I assume is the berry.

 

On wet: Same as in the imp only sweeter, like cinnamon honey. The berries have a nail polish like smell to me I'm not too keen on.

 

Dry: The nail polish sharpness has softened now. This reminds me of hellcat and I'm wondering if hellcat has hazelnut in it. It's very sweet and way cute. It really fits the title.

Edited February 29, 2012 by Klolly

[sunshinedaisybliss]

Hazelnuts, oh hazelnuts

Sometimes I quite hate your guts

Cumin, cumin, how 'bout you

On my skin you're baby poo

Amber, amber, cannot lie

I love you 'cos you're soft and dry

Cardamom I think you know

How I love your spicy glow

Labdanum, so woodsy sweet

Smelling you is quite the treat

Tobacco tar, you stinky beast

Of all these notes, I love you least

Sweet and golden honey dear

You're the note I always fear

 

Blackbear Moon starts off all hazelnuts on me - like someone's just eaten a big bowl of hazelnuts then burped in my face.. warm, nutty air. But then mama bear comes out, and she's all soft and fuzzy and I smell the beautiful warm earth of the patchouli and the golden tones of the spices and honey together, and I'm right there in the forest, breathing in the trees and the earth and the musky animal smells and I'm loving it - it's warm and snuggly. The labdanum here is stunning - it has everything it should.. gorgeous resiny woodiness, soft leathery fruitiness and wonderful smoky earthiness - I think that's the note most responsible for the 'bear' feel that I get from this. Honey is not a note that my skin wears well - it's just a wee bit cloying here, especially with the strength of the hazelnut smell, but I'm handling it OK - it fades away nicely once the oil has fully dried down.

 

Blackbear Moon is a beautiful, beautiful blend that I think will deepen and become even more lovely with some age on it.

[zankoku_zen]

Honey, furry musk, nuts and a hint of berries. On the drydown, my skin amps up the nuts and honey, so it makes me think of some of the Yule scents like Hanerot Halalu.

[GlowJob]

When I first read the description my initial thought was "Beth made a late winter/early spring blend JUST FOR ME". This is definitely very nice but unfortunately too much honey+berries and not enough nuts+warm fur for my liking. When I smell it straight out of the bottle or dabbed on fabric, it retains more of the creamy qualities of the nuts so maybe I'll have to cave and finally get a scent locket. I mean-I have no other choice, right?

[lunaticana]

I am slightly beginning to think that I might have a thing for pine needles

or atleast, my skin

since the Wiley Grasser also is a HUGE succes with me.. get it

 

this Blackbear Moon oil is so super thick, it really does remind you of honey at the same very moment you let the drop touch your skin!

the first to me honey and hazelnuts

when it is on my skin, after a boit 15 minutes I can smell those wild winter berries very good!

also black cherries come out to play

I am veeeeeeeeery happy that I got this,

it goes very well together with my Winter Fairy bath oil from the Trading Post

[KatharinaNordh]

Got a decant of this because the description sounded like all of my dreams come true. Like so:

 

Hazelnuts: One of the best things in the world <3

Acorns: Love.

Black cherries: The only thing I love more than cherries is black cherries.

Wild winter berries: Like picking them off snowy little bushes

"Warm black fur dusted by moonlight": Like cuddling an animal in the forest at midnight - I've done that, it's my childhood \o/

Honey: Honey loves me.

Pine needles: Forest of my birth

 

...so imagine my surprise when it -when wet - smelled exactly like Hellcat.

I mean, exactly.

 

Comparing the notes shows that Hellcat has: hazelnut, buttercream, honey mead, rum and sweet almond - and I guess Hazelnut is always hazelnut, Honey mead would possibly resemble honey, at a quite big stretch, the almond can occasionally resemble cherries and the other way around for me with Bpal and the Rum could answer for the berries - so, I death-matched them.

 

Sadly, Blackbear Moon won. By a MILE and more, once drydown kicked in :/

 

Then again, I would mainly wear this in the winter, and so I figure Hellcat is GC and if I can find something suitably Dark to layer it with (to account for the missing Fur) it could just be better than weeping over a LE that I will never be able to hoard.

 

Skin chemistry is an amazing thing, I might add - I don't see anyone else having the same result, so that just about shows how wonky it can get

[megank4]

Anyone remember the commercial from the 90's I think it was, for the cereal Nut N' Honey? This is what this scent reminds me of. Very strong nut and honey.

Get almost no cherries nor berries, and no pine needles thank god. Just a warm fuzzy scent. Perfect for when it is raining out.

[milo]

Lotsa nuts and honey here! It's making me rather hungry, in fact. There's a bit of a 'bite' here, which I'm thinking is the berries, it kind of adds a tang to the nuts and honey. Though I'd love to eat something like this, I don't wear these kind of blends, they're just too foody.

[brilliantcat]

Hazelnuts always add a warm creaminess to any blend on me, which is probably why I love the note so much. I initially wanted this blend because bears remind me so strongly of my mother but the note list had me intrigued as well. Hubs loves cherries and cherry blossom though the latter tends to go powdery on me. Not so here. It stays marvelously juicy and mixes well with the creamy hazelnut and furry note to become something truly warm and cozy but with just a hint of bear's bite. 4/5.

[tinyvulture]

The softest, cuddliest bear ever! This is such a sweet, comforting blend. Buttery hazelnut, sour black cherry, and warm, musky fur are the notes I can detect most clearly. No pine at all. I adore the lab’s hazelnut note, so ordering this was a no-brainer for me. So warm and lovely.

[WidgetAlley]

Bottle: Soft, sugary hazelnut, green acorns, pine needle honey, and a huge mound of ripe black cherries-- but where this should be so sweet that it makes me want to hurl, it's all balanced perfectly by a deep, soft, shadowy musk that really does smell almost like animal fur. Oh my.

 

Wet: Hazelnut, grounded by foresty, slightly bitter acorn, and powdered sugar, and honey, and pine needles, and bark, and a very faint white floral, and a gorgeous touch of deep, dark berries-- not at all the Sweet Tarts that I usually get-- all topped by that incredibly wonderful, wrap-you-up-in-it musk.

 

Dry: Dark cherry musk, warm hazelnuts, and animal fur. Oh, man, this isn't too sweet or too fruity at all, and it lasts all day too! This makes me want to be a bear.

[a_llb]

In bottle: Hazelnut, caramel tones and sticky globs of honey. Seems way foody!

 

Wet: Nutty, warm and softly musky. Not detecting any berries or pine, but I like it more than expected on my skin, so far.

 

Dry: Soft fur! It smells like cuddling with a clean, fluffy bear. The nuts have toned down a bit, thankfully, but the honey is keeping the humectant, gooey vibe there in the background.

 

Verdict: I only tried it because you can never tell - even though most nuts, berries and pine are usually unpleasant on me. To my great surprise, I actually like this! The honey and whatever equals moonlight + fur redeems this blend for me. I'll admit that the nutty sweetness is a bit much for the first little while, but it eventually calms down into a fuzzy, cuddly glow. I keep thinking - it's Winnie the Pooh in a bottle.

[vanilla323]

I love Bears!

 

Well this scent was a little strange after aging. I bought a bottle when it was released and when I got it and tried it it was all hazelnut and cherry and I loevd that. I really didn't get the other notes. It had a little woodsiness to it maybe the acorns. It was a fun scent and I adorded the label so much! Well fast forward to a year later and this scent totally changed and I was sad. It was mostly all woods, major pine, and it had a weird hay type note that I didn't like at all. No more cherry or hazelnut. Not sure what happen but I had to let this bear go. Back to the wild it went to be loved by another. I do miss the label though...

[Aviatrix]

I don't get a lot of wood or pine from this, actually. It is, to me, a sweet, honeyed nut blend, which was surprising but pleasant.

It definitely feels a little fuzzy like bear fur

 

It lasted a reasonable number of hours, and the throw was good.