Rose Moon 2026

[doomsday_disco]

An elegiac perfume for the waning hour between harvest and snowfall, this is a scent that is tender, rueful, and mournful, carrying the weight of absence like a shroud. Sunlit rose petals fading beneath a silvering sky, dusted with warm hay and cold orris, gleaming with resinous red benzoin and sorrowful elemi.

 

A little while to walk with thee, dear child;
    To lean on thee my weak and weary head;
  Then evening comes: the winter sky is wild,
    The leafless trees are black, the leaves long dead.

  A little while to hold thee and to stand,
    By harvest-fields of bending golden corn;
  Then the predestined silence, and thine hand,
    Lost in the night, long and weary and forlorn.

  A little while to love thee, scarcely time
    To love thee well enough; then time to part,
  To fare through wintry fields alone and climb
    The frozen hills, not knowing where thou art.

  Short summer-time and then, my heart's desire,
    The winter and the darkness: one by one
  The roses fall, the pale roses expire
    Beneath the slow decadence of the sun.

- Earnest Dowson

[AEris]

A lunar rose sealed with an icy kiss. I sense the familiar beloved BPAL lunacy accord, as distinct as a fingerprint, herbal and glowing with moonlight. The rose petals are delicate and pale pink. Overall the blend is so harmonious that I can't easily parse out many notes and instead I simply feel peacefully enchanted. Truly a silvery rose scent, crystalline and chilled. 

It's quite rare that I love a new perfume so much that I need to wear it again immediately the next day, but here we are

[galahad]

In the bottle: musty rose

 

On the skin: soft rose tempered with bezoin.  A slight fishiness that burns off fairly quickly.  The orris does not play well with the rose.  Nope.  Not great for me.  This lunacy has not been kind to me.

 

[roseus]

It is so funny how moving scent is, and how something can smell so atmospheric - like moonlight and cold night air. Initially I get a big blast of velvety rose petals and orris, powdery and threatening to go musty on my skin. It settles quite quickly on me, the rose softens slightly and the orris down into a pleasant sweet powder. There is a 'chilled' effect, not icy and not reminiscent of Yules but truly like cool night air. 

[Elspethdixon]

Freshlyapplied, it’s a cool, tangy yellow rose that has an almost pungent/herbal quality, like a spice you would cook with (I’m assuming this is the lunar accord AEris mentioned upthread). Over the first hour of wear it gradually warmed/mellowed as the hay note emerged over time.

 

I really like this and wish it lasted longer than 2 hours on me. It reminds me of some of the Une Douzaine ofRoses scents from the 2018 Lupers.

[OxfordComma]

Wow the rose in this is really pretty! I don't get any herbal notes, but maybe that's just blending in with the rose for a fresh cut/stemmy vibe? The cool notes remind me of some of the marble themed scents from the lab over the years. Cool and almost mineral. The rose smells to me either very similar to or the same as in Rose Quartz Phallus, which I was really on the fence about full sizing. But honestly, this kind of has the same feel as Love Lay Upon Her Eyes to me, which is one of my favourite BPAL roses ever. Plus, I love the label art! I suspect a bottle is in my future. Great throw on me as well!

 

ETA: ok sniffing close to my skin, I see the tangy and herbal vibe others mentioned! But the throw is really lovely. 

Edited Thursday at 12:11 PM by OxfordComma

[leptonpyr]

Rose Moon opens with a soft rose (it smells identical to the white rose in Beatrice & Dante, to my nose), cooled by orris, and shot through with the bite of bright, peppery-citrus elemi. The elemi is sharp and austere, like facets of a diamond. It truly feels sort of crystalline and lunar, cold and glittering. Over the next hour or so, the elemi burns off, and Rose Moon really deepens and blooms on me. The sharp-cold-bright elemi departs, slowly giving way to benzoin, which is all soft, glowing, sensuous warmth. I don't think I would have this image without the supplied copy, but the benzoin really does feel to me like the softly glowing red embers from a dying fire. The powdery-soft orris is contributing beautifully to the delicate, skin-close sensuality. It's quiet, and gradual, but this perfume goes from sharp and cold to warm and glowing. 

 

I am not sure how to pick out hay, but I'm wondering if it's playing a part in what is powdery and warm here, possibly bringing a faint tobacco-herbaceous quality, and a honey-warmth.

 

Low-to-average throw, about average longevity on me, maybe 4-6hrs? Still detectable on me at the very end of the day, but only if I shove my nose right up against my skin.

 

I am intrigued by this one, in fact borderline-obsessed. What it's doing with cold/warm is *so* cool, and I just keep wanting to wear it again to try to understand it. I wasn't totally sure I needed a new BPAL rose scent when I already have several, but after I tried this Moon's accompanying hair gloss with it, I was pretty much sold on the full bottle. (They are GORGEOUS together, like insanely gorgeous. I'll review the HG separately, but suffice it to say I don't think I will ever want to wear this Moon without its HG.)