Crow Moon

[hkhm]

This is the final Full Moon of winter. The call of the crow signals the end of the frost, and their scent, of vervain, black violet, white musk, and Chinese cedar, is brushed by the last cold wind of winter on their wings, and the scent of evergreen boughs touched by the season’s final flowers and the first blossoms of spring: wintersweet, green-barked dogwood, primrose, snowdrop, and lenten rose hellebore bouquet.

bottle: this smells like soft pines and sweet new flowers.

wet: i definitely smell the everygreen but the background smells like greenery, there's a sort of minty sweetness as well. so pretty.

dry: this turns into swoon once dry, all lovely green sweetness on my skin.

[goth_huntress]

Spicy and sexy. I got this for a friend of mine who loves the Crow. She really loved the scent when she got it too.

[hellomoonglow]

In the bottle this smells like something fun! Many times I open bottles only to find "meh" I can do without it. But I like this, even though it's quite strong for quite a long time. On the dry down it smells fruity and flowery. After half an hour it's become more manageable, not in your face "hey! over here!" like it is wet. I like it but would willingly decant from it if needed.

 

ADDED March 20:

 

Cold and minty with a hint of florals. Mint just goes funky on me for some reason. All except for peppermint. I love the florals, and I get that "chill" feeling, but the mint is a deal breaker.

[zankoku_zen]

There is something earthy/dirty about this scent. It's got the flowers in dirt, just planted. Underneath the floral is the warm, wet earth smell.

 

Unfortunately, I'm not an earthy sort of gal. Ah well.

[LadyLuckless]

My first ever bottle of BPAL!

 

Sniffed from the bottle, the following exclamation burst from my mouth: "That is one WEIRD scent!!!" Lol, it smelled like earthy, minty, floral shampoo. But newbie though I am, I know you can't judge a BPAL by it's bottle, so my delight continued unabated as I happily slathered my new treasure on and prepared to enjoy the ride, not knowing what to expect. If this WERE a ride, it would be a serene carriage ride through the chilly woods, just as spring thaw is setting in and the first early flowers bloom. Anyone who smells like this wouldn't be trudging through the slush on her own two feet. This lady would be reclining at her leisure, completely at ease and just radiating elegant composure and sophistication. This smells EXPENSIVE! This is one I'll reach for when I want to feel confident and put-together. Aloof really is the word for it!

[fairnymph]

In the bottle: Cold, floral, woodsy. Fits the description perfectly. A little piney, a little sweet and violety. Some minty notes too.

 

Wet: Muskier, sweeter. Soft but still cool. The flowers are less heady but no weaker. Woods are complex, but light. The evergreen and some spearmint (and maybe wintergreen?) make this cool, but I detect a little dry cedar.

 

Dry: Sweeter, mintier. Woods and floral remain light. Musk has amped a bit and the violet too, which is very nice and not powdery. I can pick out the rosy-green hellebore and bright snowdrop.

 

Later: This definitely has that lunar feel; it's a bit herbal now, pleasantly so. The pine is very distant and totally wearable (this coming from a pine-abhorrer). The flowers are feminine and have amped up a bit, the minty sweetness has receded. Most notably, the dry, woodsy cedar is really amping.

 

Summary: Strongly dry cedar and musky woods with delicate wildflowers on the drydown with lighter notes of cool-sweet mint and evergreen. It's a lovely, complex lunar blend, cool-woodsy-floral and slightly feminine, though the right man could pull it off. Sadly, while the cedar doesn't completely takeover as it usually does, it's still too strongly amped on my skin.

[Schmoozy]

First Sniff: Cool, sweet floral with a touch of cedar and musk.

 

On Skin: The feeling that spring is in the air. Cool, airy, an hint of floral. There is not one floral that is dominant, a spring bouquet, that is more green and leafy than full of flowers. White musk and cedar, combined with violet, and a leafy green bouquet.

 

Drydown: This doesn't morph much. It gets a tad bit sweeter, and the bouquet of florals seem to bloom slightly with primrose and snowdrop branching out. I love white musk and the combination with cedar makes this ever so sweet.

 

Fianl thoughts: Truly a coming of Spring oil. This has light, sweetness and growth. Great throw, and long lasting.

[AEris]

Coolly minty, lightly musky, walk-in-the-icy-woods scent.

 

This is hard to describe, but it is very pretty. It's delicate, and I think I can pick up on the pine and the florals - but then again, it's so well balanced and blended that it really just creates a wintery atmosphere.

 

It is serene and calming. I think this could be magnificent when used as aromatherapy.

 

I will keep my decant. : -)

 

4.3 out of 5

[acidrica]

My mother says this smells like cheap perfume.

 

Personally, I kind of like it, even though I hate florals. This might be a mental thing though, because Crow is my totem, and I'd be heart broken if I ended up hating this. I'll admit, I can totally get where my mom is coming from with the cheap perfume thing, but as it drys down it gets woodsy. I catch pine behind the violet (which normally hates me), along with cedar. Smells like a murder of crows flying through a winter forest.

[rayvn1]

This smells exactly like a commercial perfume I used to have - although I can't remember if it's Estee Lauder Beautiful, or Celine Dion's perfume...It is a dead ringer, though unfortunately Crows and ravens have always been my spirit symbol, so I'm a little disappointed they came across so...flowery. Golden glow with floral notes.

[femmefatale]

This smells like a commercial violet perfume on me. So sad.

[aquazoo]

A little bit fruity, and fresh. Lots of flowers in there. Once it warms to the skin, the flowers really come out.

[Invidiana]

This is a lovely, haunting scent that manages to blend an icy winter breeze and boughs of frozen evergreen with the tangibility of musk and warm woods. The mingling of the musk and wood notes creates a soft and eerie blend truly evocative of soft black feathers. The florals are not very prominent on me, just a "feathery" bed for the other notes. As this dries down on me, the warmth of the woods and musk slowly comes forth with just a hint of chill wind and evergreens in the backdrop. This is cool and mysterious, and at the same time has a raditating come-hither warmth.

Edited November 24, 2009 by Invidiana

[Gwydion]

In bottle: Complex and floral, with a pleasing evergreen edge. It’s very sharp and pure smelling. Wet: The Cedar and other evergreen woodsy notes are on top, with the florals creating a gentle halo. This is that rare rose scent I might actually be able to wear. Or not. I’m guessing it’s the vervain that’s going ugly, as it’s the one I don’t know. It’s suddenly have and wrong in a way I’m having trouble finding words for, which is sad, as I can smell the things that were working so beautifully through what isn’t. Dry: Light an green with that delicate floral halo. The vervain backs down a bit, but still sets my teeth on edge. I think we’ll file this under “doesn’t quite work, but close, so close.”

[Dharklady]

In bottle: Musk and cedar with the hint of black feathers.

Wet: Musk and cedar with a panoply of other notes that swirl in and out among those two base lines and sweeten the whole affair.

Dry: This smells like a sweet musky perfume. It evokes images of a black feather floating over an sweet herb garden.

Notes: It’s pretty though I’m not certain it's a keeper.

 

[strahlend]

I started avoiding crow and raven named scents because I had the impression that they all contained violets. Color me wrong. I really love this scent and I don't get any hint of violets at all. What I do get is a bit of woods including but not limited to cedar, some evergreen and pine - which normally take over a blend but in this case are remaining supporting notes and adding a really lovely lightly foresty element, a bit of snowy/slushy coolness, and a feeling of light florals and green ivy. Along with Twisted Oak Tree and The Macabray this is one of my favorite scents. I can't wait to get some back up bottles in my stash, I know I'll be reaching for this quite often.

[Ashenrook]

I will admit I was drawn to this because of the promise of violets, dogwood, cedar, and primrose... But if my forum handle is any clue, I like crows and ravens. So...that might of had a hand in this as well. *cough*

 

In the Bottle

Musky black violet with cedar. Ooo, I am excited!

 

On Skin: Wet

I must have fallen face first into a snowdrift in Siberia, or something, because I think the mint in this gave my nose frostbite! Right now, it's nothing but frigid evergreen, with the barest hint of cedar. I will admit... I was beginning to panic when I noticed that the evergreen was so prevalent on me, because that's usually a sure sign that it is going to overtake EVERYTHING or I am going to amp it to ridiculous proportions and have a cloud of pine sol following me around.

 

Thankfully... I was wrong. The evergreen did not overrun everything, but, in fact, only got better. It was not a fake smelling tree like that in Troll, but I think this is where Crow Moon kicks me into nostalgia mode. It reminds me of when I was little, living in Flagstaff, when my family would go out to the forest to cut down our own Christmas tree.

 

On Skin: Dry

Finally, I am starting to notice the Crow. The black violet must be what is associated with it, but since my nose was experiencing freezer burn I had a hard time detecting it at first. Though... I wouldn't consider that a bad thing. Here's why.

 

This scent really does make you feel like you were dropped in the middle of this dark, murky, forest that is covered with permafrost. You can hear the crows, but you can't see them. It's now at this time that I look up to the boughs above me and notice a pair of beady little eyes peeking down at me.

 

The fluff of the feathers, signified by the white musk, accompanies the murky beauty of the black violet.

 

Minutes later, the scent actually starts to thaw. The mint becomes more cool and watery instead of biting, the flowers hidden in the background are starting to bloom as the musk and violet become a trifle more prominent.

 

Afternotes

As many people said about this... It has turned into spring's first thaw. The evergreens and snow are still there, as is the cedar, but now instead of a deep and murky green scent it is now slowly brightening into something more soft and gentle. I smell the dogwood and primrose, nestled amongst the other flowers.

 

 

Verdict

On an American scholastic grading scale, I'd give this a B+.

 

Crow Moon is a very complex, chilly, deep green scent...and a pretty amazing morpher. While it does not do anything severe, it presents a very convincing tapestry, if my rambling is any clue.

 

However, the only reason it is getting a B+ right now is because I feel this is the wrong time of year to wear this and it, actually, gave me a bad bout of seasonal displacement. I feel if I wore this in, say, November or December, it'd be just perfect.

 

So I just might have to revisit this in the proper season. Until then, I am definitely keeping this one.

[Mamma Badger]

In the Bottle- Very floral with a hint of musk and evergreen.

 

On- The primrose and violet kills everything at first. After about 15 min.I start to get hints of musk and something cold but the primrose and violet is still way to strong on me. I wish I could smell more of that musky cold but alas, no.

Pretty enough but not to my tastes.

[starfish327]

this is a very strange blend on me. it's very definitely high, sharp, and white, but there's something earthy and fruity grounding it as well. it goes on very very painfully sharp and aggressive, and almost overly strong but the longer it's on the more it mellows and grounds. there's a certain sweetness that comes forward and helps to control the florals.

 

the florals actually don't feel like florals, though the more i wear it and the more i think about it this does feel a lot like grief. however there's a certain woody-ness and a certain...fluffiness? that isn't there with grief. i can defintely see both the commerical perfume and shampoo aspects of this blend but it's a lot less off-putting for me that most of the blends that do that. it's a very loud blend though, i'll have to use it sparingly.

 

i will also say that this is a blend that shouldn't work on my skin, at all. there's at least 3 major death notes in this for me- the white musk, the violet, and the cedar. primrose is also really hit or miss on me.

Edited August 24, 2011 by starfish327

[MonkeysInk]

I got an imp of this from another fabulous BPALer - I love crows and was curious about what their moon would smell like. I get a cedar base, with floral and mint over it, wafting in and out. First floral, then mint, then back to floral, then it faded away. Hours after I put this on, I could still smell soft cedar when I put my arm to my nose.

[SlySionnach]

In the Bottle: Woah, pine.

 

Wet: It's all the winter smells. Snowy, piney, and sort of...shaving cream? I always did enjoy the smell of it but never to wear it.

 

Dry: As soon as it starts to dry, it becomes full on floral. I get the whole bouquet, no one note standing out among hte others with any given sniff. It's sitting among the snow notes, which still frosts over everything. I can smell the cedar/evergreen mix but it's as if I've just walked out of a forest into a field of flowers - it's underneath it all.

 

I'd originally bought this thinking the Boy would like it, but he's just going to have to get another bottle. This one is mine! (And I may need to buy one more...)