Lunar Eclipse

[ouch!]

Red musk, black currant, violet leaf, wild frankincense, lavender, black orchid, Darjeeling tea, vetiver, red moss, myrrh, Moroccan spices, blackened fruit gums, and tobacco.

Wowzers this one is interesting....!!!

The wet stage on me is horrible, it smells kind of like a very animaisitc vetiver with lots of musk and wood. I thought...oh no this is nothing like I expected at all. It's got a bit of a eucalyptas vibe to it too which is a BIG no no for me.

However...

The drydown stage of this is where the magic happens...this is soooo nice, it's like a blackberry gummy jelly sweet. And I had a compliment on it too. A friend hugged me and said..you smell YUMMY!!!

I really really like the dry down stage of this and wish it would stay like that.

The dry stage is different again, a true morpher, it's much more sharp. It smells more like a floral now and there's not as much musk as before, it's still got the slight tinge of the fruity gorgeousness that was in the dry down. But..now it's not as interesting. It turns more "Perfumey".
This is one of those oils I really really want to smell on someone else so I can get the full effect.

Not a bottle for me but still a really interesting oil to go from something so yuk into something so beautiful.

[hlinspjalda]

In the vial: Something sour first, then strong vetiver, then musk, frankincense, lavender; a lot of intense notes all in one place. I wonder how they will blend?

 

Wet: Immediately dark and sharp: vetiver and something woody, astringent. This is quite intense.

 

Half an hour: Sour, astringent, but also pungent. It smells like an old-fashioned health food store, the kind with herbs, spices, and loose teas. There's a sweetness at the very bottom of it, but the herbs are almost overpowering it.

 

One hour: This has blended down quite nicely. I don't particularly like the blend, but it is well crafted. I get vetiver, something fruity, tea with spices, and something herbal. The resins are fairly well hidden, which is odd for resins on my skin; usually they pop right up. It still smells like a shop to me.

 

Two hours: Vetiver folded into something thick and red, like resin or gum. Too bitter for me, but very nicely blended.

 

Three hours: A little more mellow now, but still somehow makes me think of a thick red resinous gum, something I'd almost want to chew.

 

Five hours: Now that the vetiver's ceded control, this is very nice, although it's obviously near the end of its life. Resin, some musk, some spice and herb.

[Coldfire]

Bottle: musk, incense and lavender. So pretty.

Wet on Me: The vetiver is trying to peep thru all the musk, incense and lavender. It is threatening to ruin this for me.

Drying Down: YAY the vetiver took a hike! It’s musky incense again with the lavender and wee taunts of the black currant.

Dry: This is lovely. It was an unknown and I took a chance. So glad I got a bottle of this.

[TheOneTheyCallLuna]

This particular lunar eclipse for which this perfume was created has very deep significance for me. I went into intensive care exactly one month after this lunar eclipse occurred. I have never been a big astrology buff, but I checked out my horoscope once I was discharged from the hospital, and it said that if I was born on January 29th that I would feel the effects of this eclipse exactly one month after it happened, and that the effects would include life-altering, earth shaking health issues being raised. Well, I was born on the 29th and that is exactly what happened. So I had to get this blend to commemorate that strange occurrence. It helps that the notes appeal to me as well...

 

This blend is as dark and foreboding as they get...so it's really suitable and perfectly encapsulates the energy I would want out of a blend depicting this eclipse. I get a lot of smoke and incense and later on some bright flashes of fruit as well. I'm not sure what vetiver smells like, but I am assuming it to be the earthy type smell that comes on very strongly when this oil is first applied. I find that it mellows out quite quickly revealing the darkest fruit and incense blend I have ever smelled in my entire life. This is a keeper for me based just on smell alone...the fact that it accurately evokes my own feelings about the particular lunar eclipse that occurred around this time last year makes this blend that much more meaningful. Oh hey, did I mention that I found out that this blend existed on the exact one year anniversary of the actual eclipse? Yeah, I had to have a bottle of this without question!

Edited March 10, 2009 by OneTheyCallLuna

[crebbsgirl]

I quite enjoy this one alot. It's dark and sweet. Very difficult to pick out the individual elements but wet, there is an initial blast of vetiver, and as it dries, the fruit gums and black currant come out, sweetening the scent. The vetiver stays way in the background here, adding a smoky tinge, while the myrrh and red musk become more predominant throughout the drydown. This is very well blended, and reminds be a little of Prurience.

[QueenFae]

Holy vetiver! I was hoping the vetiver wouldn't be a stand out in this blend, it never works on me. That's mostly all I can smell. There is a hint of a reddish, spicey background that is actually quite nice in contrast to the vetiver. This scent is strong, bold and deep. Definitely not one that's working for me.

[WidgetAlley]

St. Dalfour's Organic Darjeeling Tea is my very favorite of all time, and when I saw that this had darjeeling in it, I had to have it.

 

Bottle: Allow me to be the very first to say that this smells utterly rank in the bottle. It's the most horrible combination of ugly, smoldering weeds (vetiver), mildew (moss), baby powder (violet + lavender) and heavy dust (myrrh or frankincense or possibly both.) It's seriously hideous, like Highwayman without the screaming florals.

 

Wet: This goes, I swear, nutty for a second, and then smooths and warms and breathes into something much more palatable. The vetiver calms down to a mere trace of dense green, and the tobacco, black currant, darjeeling, fruit, red musk and spice all come out to play. Mmm.... there is an almost gummy, sticky feel to this, but it's also very dry, like fruit jellies covered in powdered incense. The orchid sweetens and lightens it and the lavender gives it an almost herbal bite. Ungh. This is so good. It's like a masculine Crypt Queen... greener and wilder and less refined, but still that same smoked-wine darkness. The tobacco/fruit/tea/musk combo is just dynamite... I feel so powerful and sexy.

 

Dry: Crap! This fades pretty quickly, which makes me sad, 'cause I was totally diggin' it. But I'm sure aging will help. After a few hours, all that's left on my arm is a lingering, green-scored, fruit-traced impression of deep, bitter red wine and musk. I just love it... it almost seems like it should be a Dracula scent to me, because it's so dark and deep and rich and bloody. This is most definitely an undiscovered BPAL treasure... and you can pry it from my cold, dead hands.

[djsiberia]

vetvier, moss, tobacco and berries.

 

this scent has lots of notes, but when i sniff, all i get are vetvier, moss, tobacco and berries.

 

[rayvn1]

How can something with so many notes I adore be so....meh on me?!? I get a dry, herby smell and that's it! Nothing else. Little to no throw and didn't last long on my skin either. Dratted skin chemistry...

[Zeljana]

I love Lunar Eclipse's dry dusty feeling. It's like blooms of flowers on a hot dry day and they smell like peace.

wonderful afternoon in late summer, just before the end of vacation.

[devilot]

Lunar Eclipse

I was hoping for mainly tobacco, and less, well, everything else. As it is, this blend winds up smelling a lot like a Chinese herbal/ medicinal shop. Which, is one the scents I hate most. *shudders* I don't know who the major culprits are, though I know that vetiver and moss (guess this is a red kind) are a big part of the problem for me in this blend.

 

Verdict: This decant needs to find a new home. Now.

[Venneh]

In the decant, I'm getting vetiver, tobacco, and lavender. Devilot's comparison to a Chinese herbal medicine shop is very apt. And this makes me nervous.

 

On my skin, it's a really pale herbal scent that's quickly fading. And is quickly gone. Yep, lavender continues to kill blends dead on me. :/

 

Swaps/sales.

[voodoocatwoman]

This is an odd scent. It starts out as a sweet floral, which is lovely. Unfortunately, at the very end of the sniff, I get hair product. Hair dye, that chemical sharpness that lets you know without a doubt that you are in a hair salon.

 

Too bad, because the floral is really nice.

[crazyredhead17]

In the bottle, this is floral, but kinda dusty. I can definitely pick up the vetiver, as well.

 

Wet, it's strongly vetiver, florals in the background.

 

After a few minutes on, this is.. medicinal? Metallic, almost.

 

Fifteen minutes or so - delicate florals with.. metallic notes, almost like hair dye.

 

After half an hour or so.. it's faded a lot but still floral with a side of unpleasant. And a little bit of spice.

 

Every so often I get a whiff of something promising, usually followed swiftly by something a lot like hair dye. Such potential, such silly skin.

[ShannonElisabethJones]

Wowie. Sharp, dark herbals at first. I can definitely catch the vetiver and tobacco. And something almost...minty? Menthol-y? I can taste it in the back of my throat.

 

After a few minutes, I got a whiff of dusty florals along with the tobacco. Veerrrry interesting...

 

I hope it sweetens up a bit. Overall, though, I like it.

 

 

ETA: I just couldn't do it. It was like sucking on the bowl-end of my grandpa's pipe. I washed it off, but I can still taste the ashy tobacco.

Edited February 6, 2011 by Sionann

[AmyO'Shields]

This is such an amazing perfume, very incensey to my nose - red musk, lavender, tea, myrrh, vetiver and tobacco are the notes I smell most. The orchid peeks out after a while and the frankincense lends a mystic quality to the whole scent. LOVE this. 5/5

 

I was wearing this while I was signing up for classes and one of the women behind the counter remarked that something smelled like a candle had just been blown out (and wrinkled her nose). I LOVE that smell, even though Lunar Eclipse doesn't smell like that to me. Oh well!

Edited February 25, 2011 by Shollin
Removed Lab description

[undream]

this one, on me, starts strong & resiny but warms over time into this thick, wafting sweet scent that just wraps itself around you and promises to never make you cry. though as lovely as the dry phase is, i remain undecided on this one! that initial application feels a bit sharp and biting to me on occasion, though i'm suspecting this might be one scent that is very mood dependent for me.

 

overall a beautiful scent, and though i'm placing it in my "maybe" pile, i will happily try it however many more times i may need to to make up my mind!

[catalyst]

I had much the same experience as other people here, where it starts off too sharp and kind of funky, but then after about five minutes morphs into something really, really nice. It's complex, dark, and a little sweet but only in a dark fruit way like the "blacked fruit gums" listed. No one note really sticks out to me, it's very harmonious and everything blends well. As time goes on, it turns more powdery and the fruit's more in the front, but it stays unisex and dark and sexy. Keeper.

[oatmealneko]

This is a review for a 10 year old bottle of Lunar Eclipse, because my stash is old and I felt like wearing it today.

 

I have completely forgotten what this smelled like when I initially purchased it, but now it smells like orchid incense. It has a strong floral note and it's still going strong two hours after I put it on. The frankincense, red musk and black orchid are at the forefront on this oil and if there were fruit notes, they have long since faded away.

Edited June 26, 2018 by oatmealneko