Esbat

[Atrous]

The silent rays of the full moon piercing the shadows of an ancient grove: a ragged canopy of moonflower and morning glory, dew-touched mosses creeping over gnarled oak roots, and shimmering beams of mugwort, cuckoo flower, and rose mallow.

I was really excited for Esbat since the other HM scents are some of the best BPAL has to offer.
Esbat is so disappointing. No Moonflower. No Morning Glory. No Rose Mallow. All I get is a very bitter, sharp herbal with something moldering underneath. I had to scrub it off cause it gave me a headache.

[zankoku_zen]

So Esbat IS a moonflower scent. But its the moonflower that grows in a gothic cementery. I get the aquatic moss, a hint of herbals, moonflower and some other white floral.

 

It does a fair bit of metamorphosis from wet to the drydown - like the elements themselves creep, twine, and bloom. At one point after immediately applying some of the florals were super white and aggressive. I let it do its thing since while it wasn't altogether pleasant, there were enough elements that I hoped would shine through.

 

After an hour, it smells like moonflowers growing on moldering cemetery grave patches, overgrown with weeds, moss and other plant life.

[lady_pandora]

I was a little worried about Esbat based on other reviews, but at least on me, it does have an unpleasant stage but it only lasts a few minutes. Right when it's first applied, it's kind of harsh and chemical-y, like a cleaner. The only individual note I can make out at that point is oakmoss.

 

It develops really quickly into oakmoss with an ethereal floral haze of moonflower, and as it continues to develop, the oakmoss recedes and the moonflower becomes more prominent. The eventual effect is a really nice, refreshing, maybe slightly soapy moonflower with a little bit of moss in the background. I like it! It does become faint within a few hours.

 

I'll probably buy a bottle of this when it comes back. I could see wearing this on a hot summer night or in ritual.

[freyasfae]

Lesson learned: mugwort is not for me, because when first applied this is MUGWORT in your face. I smell like a fairy tale witch who eats small children. But it changes pretty quickly as it dries and eventually settles into a wispy and faint moonflower - quite the metamorphosis from aggressive mugwort to delicate moonflower. I really like the idea of this metamorphosis for an Esbat scent, but I really, really don't like the mugwort stage.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Ooooohhh man that`s a lot of mugwort. It`s like a slap in the face. Kind of clears your sinuses. I don`t actually dislike mugwort, in fact, I find it kind of compelling, however I have never been able to convince myself that I really want to wear it.

 

 

Dry: Still mugwort. Sadly, still don`t think I can wear it, but it really does intrigue me!

[supreme_c0rt]

This one is really intriguing, because it morphs so much. Right off the bat it's earthy, musty, vaguely floral. Actually spooky, like a foggy graveyard. Much goth. 

 

Then it shifts hard into a dusty, dry (desert-dry) floral, like blasting hot sands. Peeking through that is a crystal clear floral note that I'm very unfamiliar with. Moonflower. Hello. It's pretty, bright white, soft. It does veer a little into Secret Deodorant territory sometimes, a floral powder. Then it's replaced by the desert sands again. Then deodorant. Then desert. With that little white flower poking through like a flashback.

 

What a weird little bat this is. From a murky midnight graveyard to a bright searing desert. I don't have anything quite like this. I don't think I need a bottle but this is maybe weird enough to keep. 

Edited August 3, 2019 by supreme_c0rt

[Lucchesa]

Wet, I was thinking there was ivy in Esbat, which must have been the twining morning glory.  To me it smelled like ivy strangling a deciduous tree.  And then I got hit with the mugwort.  I don't have a lot of experience with mugwort, but I'm pretty sure that it was the strong, kind of musty herbal smell that dominated for 30 minutes or so.  Once it receded into the moonlit gloom, Esbat became a floral, which is where it lost me.  It wasn't a woody-herbal-green floral, it was just a floral.  And while it was a lovely ethereal sort of floral and quite long-lasting, I just don't wear unadulterated florals.  This might have worked on me if everything had presented at once, but it unfolded in stages and the final one just isn't me.  

[HerbGirl]

I love this so much. I finally used up my imp and wanted to snag a bottle before this round went away and am so glad I did. It smells like a moonlit magical garden. I look forward to wearing this on the first night of each full moon. Beautiful.

[doomsday_disco]

Esbat starts off strong on the mugwort, with touches of moss and perhaps a bit of oak around the edges, but after a while, the rose mallow and moss help tame the herbal mugwort, softening and (in the case of the rose mallow) sweetening the scent. After a while, the moonflower joins in, and it settles into a lovely herbal, floral, woody scent that is evocative of moonlight shining on a grove like in the description.

 

I enjoy mugwort, and I like Esbat more than I was expecting to! It's not something I need to obtain more of -- I'm not sure how often I'd wear it -- but I'll certainly be hanging on to my imp.  

[Padparadscha]

I purchased this directly from Haute Macabre (in fall of 2017 if memory serves). Upon arrival, I found it extremely sharp and green, piercing and astringent; it read entirely as moss and mugwort with a hint of a rooty and dark oak. I got none of the floral nuances both in the bottle nor when applied at this point. I tested it only once within a month of receiving it and I'm glad I only applied two drops, one on each inner wrist, as it was strong--seriously potent. If I had applied more, I know it would have given me a headache. So I set it aside to age, only applying it on myself one other time, same method of application, nearly identical results, about a year ago. I've used it for anointing purposes for magickal tools multiple times since purchased, but otherwise never on myself. It felt fitting to wear it today for the Full Moon in Pisces and now I'm ready to give it a proper review.

 

In the bottle: Almost entirely moss and fresh mugwort, against a dark backdrop of oak roots. I'm getting absolutely none of the florals, but it is sliiightly less sharp than I recall it initially being a few years ago, certainly less astringent but only just.

 

Wet/top notes: Initially, this is entirely moss with a hint of mugwort on me. And this is indeed a damp moss and fresh mugwort, not dried and bound in a bundle for smoke cleansing. I work with mugwort as an herb in my magickal practices and I'm familiar with its scent both dried and fresh. The mugwort here is clearly still growing out of the ground; it's fresh and astringent combined with the moss. Sillage is stronger than I expected with a solid projection. I get absolutely none of the florals at this stage, but maybe a hint of the oak peeking through now and then. Ultimately, this is mostly just moss during its opening, wet and green. I find I tend to amp moss and lichen notes and I am very much doing so here; I'm wary about how this will progress.

 

Dry down/heart notes: After about twenty minutes, the moss is calming down a bit and some of the rose mallow is showing up on my skin; it's very, very close to my skin, mind you, and I get little wafts of it in the sillage when I move, but it is lovely and creamy. I can also detect some of the other florals showing up at this point, particularly the moonflower. The moss and mugwort are still fairly strong (moss is definitely winning still) and underscored by a very gentle, earthy oak. I cannot pick out the other florals individually, but they are there, acting as a sort of powdery, musky white floral support system. I'm actually really glad that they showed up at all as they initially were nonexistent when this bottle was fresh. The moonflower is leading the florals: as a group, they're contributing a nice musky cloud and softening the herbaceousness of the moss. They're also getting stronger with time; at the 45 minute mark, they're almost as strong as the moss (which has also calmed down a lil bit from earlier) and the mugwort has faded considerably. Sillage is the same and so is the projection.

 

Dry/base notes: About an hour in, this turns into a powdery, mossy, white floral with mugwort. Kinda surprised the mugwort came back so strongly, but it's on equal footing with the moonflower lead white florals and the moss. Mugwort might even be winning here at this point, and that's really saying something as that mossy floral haze is no joke. I also get a nice little snootful of the oak closer to my skin, but it's definitely more of a distant shadow to everything else--kind of the same place it's been since applied. I feel like the projection has lessened, but the sillage might've increased as this oil blended with my skin chemistry. By hour two, it's a musky, powdery, green, white floral scent: moonflower & co. tangled up with moss. It stays this way for its duration--about 4-5 hours total on me--with a mild to moderate sillage; the projection decreases proportionally to wear time until it fades to a skin scent.

 

Verdict: This is not a gentle scent: this is a scent of sudden and sharp clarity in the dark, "full moon piercing the shadows" indeed. I find the herbal qualities in its opening to be energizing (if you're into that). I can easily see this going into headache territory if I wore it on the wrong day or overapplied. Even after aging it these past few years, I find it to still be very sharp, very mossy, very green, and very herbaceous for much of its wear. It retained much of its original character from when fresh, but it feels much more well-blended and musky than previously. It also let some of those flowers come forward, particularly the moonflower, though they are still more of a back-up chorus to moss's lead for the first hour or so. If you're sensitive to herbal or green blends, dislike those types of fragrances, or they tend to give you headaches, then definitely skip this. I myself never gravitate towards blends such as this, but I like having just this one bottle in my collection. I also like using it for anointing purposes for crystals and other magickal tools during full moons (again, if you're into that). If you like herbaceous and mossy green scents, hunt this down because you'll probably love it. If you're drawn to this for the white florals, it's hit or miss depending on how aged your sample/bottle is as well as your skin chemistry, so I would recommend testing for those who prefer the floral aspects. This scent is both very pretty and very annoying; you can't ignore her even when she's ignoring you. But she definitely knows herself--and probably more than she's letting on about you too.

[nikaida]

Utterly gorgeous. 

I get a kick of the mugwort up front, but on me this dries back pretty quickly. Most mugwort notes I've smelled in perfumes aren't very appealing to me but it isn't offensive here. Lots of moonflower, lots of moss, a gentle and lovely powdery vibe, and lasts for a l o o o o o o n g time on me. I applied some last night and it was going strong 12 hours later when I reapplied before work (it's an ESBAT KINDA DAY, OK). 

 

I tried this in 2019 or 2020, but didn't really enjoy it then. I'm glad I gave it another chance this year, because it's being discontinued once Haute Macabre runs out of their current stock! So beautiful. Full-sized this cutie and got a second backup imp to store at work.