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Belladonnastrap

A Moonlit Winter Landscape

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Smoky grey amber, frost-black oak, snow-covered soil, Tuscan iris, storm-grey musk, fenugreek, linden blossom, and benzoin.

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First review but I have to sing its praises. If you love dark, broody scents, run, don't walk to this!!!! It almost reminds me a bit of Voluptuous Wantonness (one of my all time favorites) in feel/atmosphere but mistier and broodier and way more iris rather than having the same sweet fruits (this lacks any kind of sweet fruit!). As if Voluptuous Wantonness was less plum, and more floral. They just both have a similar purple, dark feel to me. This definitely is heavy on the iris, the benzoin, the moonlit atmosphere.... It's a dark, deep purple floral and broody atmospheric!! It's amazing and captures its theme so fantastically and please lovers of iris you have to try this!

It's a sad, broody, stormy, moonlit perfume that smells way better than ever I expected. Run don't walk if you like these notes!!!! I love it and I rarely do backups because although I'm new to BPAL I have a large fragrance collection in general.... but I'd consider it for this.

 

Lovers of dark, introspective, floral without being overwhelmingly floral scents, don't sleep on this!!!! This I think might just be in my all time favorites.

 

However!! I can see where this would turn powdery if iris usually does on you, but if iris behaves with your skin chemistry... this is a must have. Sometimes iris just doesn't behave on certain people. It behaves well on me, so I love this, but I can see where this can get powdery if your skin doesn't do well with iris.


I don't usually like oak, but I don't get oak at all from this. This is all about the broody iris and misty, foggy, purple moonlit florals on me.

Edited by Kanra

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Upon first sniff, I get cool, moist dirt with a breath of fresh sweetness. This makes me think of the Crimson Peak collection in a way, but without the clay or decaying wood. It just somehow gives me that vibe.

Wear test: Ohhhh, this is lovely. The sweetness blooms on the skin and the soil is present but gentle. I definitely can see snow-covered soil. The fenugreek, I think, is the sweetness in the background. I almost get that maple syrup note fenugreek can have, but this is in NO WAY a pancake breakfast type scent. The amber is soft, not powdery, and the whole blend is just a wonderful mix.

While pretty, I definitely wouldn't wear much of this. I'll hang onto my decant (but wouldn't mind a second!) for those days I want to evoke this wintry, desolate-but-not-hopeless feeling.

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Moonlit Winter smells grey and moody.

 

Unfortunately, while it is wet, it also mainly smells astringently chemical to me, though I get a soft touch of iris and lovable, cottony linden blossom around the edges. Looking at the notes list, I don't know what smells so off.

 

After drying, it softens a bit. The chemical smell somewhat resolves into a damp earth note. The flowers grow partly over the chemical, obscuring it. I can read a bit of a maple warmth from it.

 

I think this one is a bit of a mess for me, though.

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I adore the dirt note here (it really smells like cold dirt), and the florals and maple-y fenugreek are really interesting together with it. It kind of reminds me of Destroying Angel, but if you added misty gray notes, flowers (which are gorgeous, I can pick out the iris and linden), oak, and a hint of sweet maple to it. Very atmospheric and calming. Decent throw, medium wear length.

Edited by feyofthefellwood

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Well this captures the scene and the mood incredibly well. Not really a smell I want to carry with me, though. The oak and the soil combine to be very vegetal to my nose, approaching mothballs and mildew. I love cooking with fenugreek and wanted to try it in a fragrance, but not sure it came through for me. Nor did the iris, another of my favorites. I was hoping they would develop further, but it didn't happen. No sweetness whatsoever.

 

For those who love dirt notes, this would probably be a big win. Damp, cold woods - nailed it!

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Dark soil and oak bark form the body of the scent, while fenugreek and flowers slip in and out of focus in the periphery. This is definitely a rich grey, vegetal scent, balancing between warm and cool when it's wet. I got more of the fenugreek in the bottle; when it dries on me, iris and linden are much more dominant. It's a very brooding shadows and slivers of moonlight kind of mood. Amber usually amps at the end of a drydown for me, but here it stays in a supporting role. Very, very pleased with this one!  

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 I was on the fence when I first put this one in my cart, because I have so many other "night" scents, but the promise of a musk, linden, and wet soil made me keep it. SO glad I did. This one is another morpher. In the bottle: Cool, damp, earthy florals and some kind of damp resin. On, wet: This becomes a damp soil note almost immediately; think wet embankment at a stream after the Spring thaw...also getting the iris notes and some of the musk. Drydown: Long, slow drydown to a surprisingly dry resin and floral thing, with a hint of some kind of woody note.

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In the bottle: juicy berries and iris.

 

Wet: same berry and iris combo, which is quite dark and still juicy. Has a sharpness to it.

 

Drydown: this has really morphed and I can detect the amber and benzoin now. Iris usually goes powdery on me, but I believe the other notes are preventing that. Unfortunately there isn't much throw, but for me it's a slightly berry/musky "sweater" scent. I'm wearing it during the day, but it's almost too soothing dried down so I will try it at night. I think once it dries down it would layer beautifully with lavender.

 

I initially tested this during shark week and I really amped the fenugreek, which I think is the note coming across as berries.

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In the imp the first thing I get is sweet, breezy linden blossom. I get just a tiny bit of soil underneath that. There's a chill around the whole thing. On my skin it's similar but rounded out more with amber and musk. It's a bit sweeter, and has a soft musky resinous base to it now. I get a bit of iris, and luckily it's not going musty on me this time. The soil is barely there for me (which is fine, not a preferred note for me). It's cozy in a grey, rainy day sort of way. It smells like a sweater (but not like the sweater note from some recents BPALs if that makes sense). It's in the same family as Sapphics to me. It's very elegant. I really love this, and it will def get upgraded. 

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Cool, dark iris, grey musk, and a whiff of snow. This one is a delicate white floral, and I sort of really love it, and I think I may need more. Great throw, medium wear length.

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This is very earthy on me.  Lots of rich soil and iris.  It smells purple and cool, though I don't get a typical "snow" note per se.  It feels like it belongs with Deep In Earth, Crossroads, and Zombie, that sort of loam and floral combo.  It's odd, but rather addicting, and manages to smell both regal and dirty at the same time.  :) 

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Thia is so enchanting! the first strong note for me is earthy, and then all these lovely flower smells which I wouldn't expect in a winter scent, Deep vines and flowers that are just on the edge of candy ,  but the dirt  really keeps it grounded (sorry)  and an undercurrent of wet undercuts  the sugaryness if that's a word....  it is pretty expansive. I bought it because I love dirt,  and it keeps swirling around  it! 
thank you to the decant circle that helped me try this!

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A Moonlit Winter Landscape is very much a soil scent on me.  Gritty and earthy at first, almost a Graveyard Dirt feel on me.  Then the florals came through, especially the iris, and it was an evocative musky graveyard with scattered flowers, lovely and haunting.  No amber or benzoin until very late drydown.  If you like the GC blends VetchVesper mentions, or Graveyard Dirt, this is a must.  

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This is lovely but elusive. Soil is definitely the star -- a dark, damp humus of sweetly-decaying tree bark, under a thin dusting of snow. The snow note is truly icy, no carrot seed detected. There's definitely a whisper of florals running through, but they're very delicate and sort of blend into the mush of snow and soil. Less like flowers blooming in the frost, more like a few petals fallen onto the forest floor. I get a little baby powder at the beginning, probably from the iris, but it quickly settles. I don't detect the fenugreek I know from cooking, but it might be what's adding a general musty fuzziness, and conspiring with the ambergris to mimic a wool note. The dirt and wool combo makes this very similar to Druid, but without the juniper. Sadly my skin eats this up, but it's very pretty while it lasts. 

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