Morana

[Lycanthrope]

Snow drifting on black pine, blood red apple, rosewood, osmanthus, and lemon peel.

Wet, this is pine, and a hint of the slushy delicious wintry notes of Beth's Yules.

The comparison for sure would be to Snow, Glass, Apples, which this does have some relation to, but the pine is definitely present in this scent. It doesn't make it masculine, but it does take the scent from a purely poisonous, translucent apple (SGA) to a more grounded, earthy kind of scent.

On me, the snow/slush note goes more into the 'sweet snow' note, similar to the room spray Christmas Present, so not the spearminty/eucalyptus snow present in things like Nuclear Winter/Country of Eternal Light. This is a cold scent but illuminated by an unearthly warmth, even if the lady's skin is pale white you know beneath it there's blood, pulsing, purring. The apple note is also not a green/winesap type of scent, but rather the fleshy, slightly mealy (in a good way) red delicious, one that gives way under the teeth a bit too well and lets your incisors rend through its flesh. I don't get a huge amount of lemon peel, or the rose part of rosewood. I think the osmanthus and rosewood are lending a bit of complexity to the scent but not overpowering in any way.

This reads most forward as a top note pine/forest that segues into a snow-kissed apple resting on an ornate perfume box carved of rich, brown wood, sparkling with devilish, cold intent.

[zankoku_zen]

Agreed with Lycanthrope. This is like a piney-variation of Snow Glass Apples. Not kissing cousins, but still related. I get sweet snow, red apple, and pine. There's a bit of rosewood that peeps out as well, giving it a more floral feel to the snow. It's snow, poisonous, and cold. I think the rosewood and pine make it more sensual and warmer, since SGA was just a cold blend to me. Medium throw and wear length.

 

So while not SGA, if you liked that, you probably will enjoy this. If you've wanted to try SGA, this is enough to give you a taste of what that was.

[Numanoid]

Sniffing in the decant, I get a very pretty sweet pine-ish type smell coming out. It smells so good... let's try it on!

 

On skin: So far, this is very nice. Seems wintery to me.. and like above, I am getting a sweet pine vibe, but the pine is tame. Most can smell like pee to me!

 

Drydown: Yep.. I get the Snow Glass and Apples vibe as mentioned above. That appears as it warms up.

 

Medium throw for me....it is lovely, but not sure it's for me. Smells better in the decant than on me.

[galahad]

In the Vial:

Apple, the Lab's snow note and a touch of pine

On the Skin:

Cold air (like Kumari Kandam), red apple (definitely red) and a sugary note. The apple, which started off so strong heads towards the back of the blend to allow the osmanthus to peek through. This smells so much like my beloved Kumari Kandam with more sweetness.

On the Drydown:

I really love the Lab's soft sweet snow note which is present in this blend. The pine is more prominent on the drydown but the apple has largely vanished. I was expecting to be "Meh" about this blend but I really love it. It seems to have good staying power on my skin but the snow notes normally do.

[roseus]

In the decant: Sharp cool pine and crystalline snow. Cold, nipping frost. Smells a lot like Tres Riches Heures du duc de Berry to me.

 

Wet: a good dose of apple sweetens the snow.

 

Dry: There is a mix of apple, pine, rosewood all softened and subdued by a layer of snow. The snow is softer and sweeter than it had been in the vial. A very lovely blend, considering a bottle.

[BoneBone24]

Expectation: Ghostly Frozen Apple

 

Wet: A great big juicy apple, that’s a touch frozen in the center. I think I recognize a cold note from Blood Popsicle, and something wistfully romantic that reminds me Lady Amalthea.

 

Drydown: The apple becomes less distinct and the rosewood steps up. It becomes a sweet, creamy floral blend that is somehow both juicy and powdery at the same time. By the end of the drydown it’s become so creamy that I actually had to check the note list several times to look for tonka, or milk, or vanilla. Is it the snow? I’m not sure where it’s coming from, but I like it.

 

Dry: A creamy, ethereal blend of rosewood and osmanthus with a hint of frozen apple in the background. It’s a strange and beautiful scent that I can see myself reaching for often.

 

 

 

8.5 out of 10 bones

Edited August 24, 2017 by BoneBone24

[Deliciousness]

Wet on skin: Strong pine and a sweet, almost soapy component - maybe the osmanthus?

 

Drydown: Whoa, the pine is really piney and he snow note is cloying and chemically on my skin.

 

I'm not too sure I'm the right person for this blend ... all the other reviews I've read make this scent sound just amazing. But when I try this out ... bam! Cloying metallic bathroom cleaner

[RedAoife]

I've never had the blessing to sample Snow, Glass, Apples...but one of my all-time BPAL favorites (and the only scent for which I've ever purchased two bottles at once) is the Yule scent Skadi. And Morana is a dead ringer for her.

If I had to distinguish, I'd say that this is perhaps a bit sweeter--the apple and the rosewood seem to take more prominence, but only subtly. It also reminds me a lot of the Ship of Hel (which for me was Skadi + strong woodsy scent). It's gorgeous, but just not different enough to warrant a bottle purchase from me. Anyone who missed out on Skadi, Ship of Hell, or SGA; though, snag this straight away! It'll be your go-to winter scent for certain, and the bottle you pull out in those sweaty months when you're looking for a wisp of frost.

[gloame]

I wouldn't have thought I would like this if I'd been buying from the Lab's website, but I got to sniff it at a Lunacy event and omg. Bought it immediately. Lemon often goes Pledge on me, so I tend to avoid it, and I have loads of pine already (which tends to amp). I expected this to smell like cold Pledge on a pine table. It doesn't. The lemon is a sugared lemon, maybe from the apple. Apple's another hit-or-miss for me, but it's a hit here -- probably because I can barely smell it. And over all that is the snow note. Beautiful. When I bought this, I thought I might be able to give up my Snow White bottle because I thought I'd have enough snow notes. But I need both.

 

Where I'd wear this: New Years Eve, Seattle

[joopjoop]

On me this starts off beautifully - chilly pine with apple and a touch of lemon. But on the dry down.... something just doesn't quite work. I think it is this particular snow note, which on me gets sweeter with time. After a while it smells like an apple jolly rancher with a touch of half-melted breath mint. I've had that problem with a couple of other snow scents, unfortunately.

 

I'm sure this one is going to get a lot of love, but it is not for me sadly.

[whisperstilled]

Got this as a tester from my decant circle! I likely wouldn't have tried it otherwise due to my pine/apple fears, but I've got high hopes for the rosewood.

Wet: Sharp pinesol-like lemon-pine and apple.

Dry: I have negative scent memory associations with this kind of harsh pine, so not wearable for me, but definitely wintry and lush. Pineheads, this one's for you!

[LizziesLuck]

I just have to say, this latest act of the Carnaval is AWESOME.

 

 

Wet: Wet - I have to admit, this was a bit of an experiment on my skin. Pine and Snow are both notes I amp to high heaven - they become single notes on my skin. So I wondered what would happen if they were in the same scent? Which would win? The answer is pine, though I don't know I would call it winning, as it mostly smells like pee. It smells like a cat peed in a snow bank where someone had discarded some compost consisting of apple and lemon peels. That's surprisingly not as terrible as you'd expect, and it's getting better by the second. This might be the type of pine that recovers on my skin and eventually smells like tree rather than pee. I like the lemon and apple with the snow note, which is a different snow note than I am used to - powdery and sweeter. This actually kind of smells like winter in the woods, the more it dries. Huh, what do you know.

 

Dry: Quite pretty. The snow note actually came through stronger in the end. It's powdery and sweet - almost candy-like, but also cold. This is nice, but I have other snow scents (Mat Night) that I like much better.

[torikitty]

I honestly don't know what I was expecting. I think I was reading reviews, and got some expectations mixed up. I think galahad nailed it. I can get the snow note from Snow Glass Apples, but it stops there. I wouldn't get this in comparison to SGA, hoping for something similar. It smells clean, which I guess is the pine. The apple eventually vanishes, and the sweet snow note lays thickly over the pine. Overall, it's okay, but does nothing for me. And I don't pick up any Rosewood.

[doomsday_disco]

I gave my boyfriend a birthday wishlist of GC scents and Unimpables that I've either tried or thought I might like based off of the description, and this was one of the scents he chose for me.

 

In the bottle: Snow, apple, and pine. I'm getting a lot more pine from this than I did at Drag Con.

 

Wet: The red apple and snow are the strongest notes on my skin, with the pine lingering in the background. I can tell that the lemon peel and rosewood are playing their part, but I'm not getting a lot of either note (and I'm not particularly good at picking out osmanthus).

 

Dry: The snow and the apple remain the dominant notes. I've never tried Snow Glass Apples, but I do think it is reminiscent of Snow Glass Apples v4, although that scent has a green apple note instead of red.

 

Hours later, the snow and apple continue to reign. I do get more of the rosewood beneath the apple, snow, and pine (and more pine than before as well), but the rosewood is still not a main player.

 

Verdict: I like this! I probably would not have asked for a bottle if I had known it would remind me of SGA v4 so much, but I do enjoy apple scents and snow scents, and this will be nice to wear in the summer and winter months.

[torischroeder9]

In the decant: Apple and rosewood, with an undercurrent of pine. 

 

On my skin: 

 

Wet, it's rosewood and apple. The rosewood seems to want to go a little soapy as some rose-rose notes like to do on me. A few minutes later, once it's dry, I realize that said soapiness was actually the lemon peel struggling for dominance on my skin. The soapy phase is quite short-lived, and now the lemon peel is in the foreground, with an undercurrent of rosewood. The quality of the lemon peel is quite nice; it's avoiding the Raging Lemon Pledge that is too often lemon on my skin. The apple note, not independently detectable, may be helping with this. 

 

It may not be Raging Lemon Pledge, but more time turns it into Amping (Real) Lemon Peel, though. 

 

Finally, it settles in on being a pretty nice lemon rose with a fair amount of throw. The iterations of these notes, both of which can go wonky on me, are quite well balanced in this blend. I don't often find myself wanting to smell like lemon rose , but I might use this for warm-weather wear. 

 

 

[Lucchesa]

Morana smells a lot like I remember Snow Glass Apples smelling on me (I frimped my tester to doomsday_disco, not long after she wrote the above review).  It is mostly snow and apples, with a little pine; I'm not really getting a lot of lemon peel or rosewood.  Snow and apples are kind of iffy notes on me, and I probably wouldn't have tried it if I hadn't won it in torischroeder9's awesome Rodeo PIF.  And it's better on me than I expected.  It lasts a long time, and frankly there are occasional days when I want to channel an ice maiden vibe, and this would be a lovely choice for that.  So glad I got to try it!

[Soupy Twist]

Lovely minty menthol snow, which dries to sweet snow plus berries. Definitely another sister to Skadi and Almond Blossom. Throwing a bottle in my cart!

[crystaltongue]

For folks saying this invokes Snow, Glass, Apples - they are 100% correct. The pine is far stronger in the bottle than on the skin. It is apple first, with snow and pine a distant second. I got a lot of lemon peel while it was wet on the skin, but almost none on drydown. I haven't done a side by side test with my tiny decant of SGA, but plan to do so eventually.