Worm Moon 2008

[yeahbutnobut]

Since April is Black Phoenix's Month of Absurdity, we present a melding of Victorian Grotesquery and springtime fecundity: mold-crusted dirt, decomposing organic matter, coffin wood, drooping funeral flowers, congealed blood, gloomy lunar oils, cuckoo flower, and a gruesome burst of overripe red fruits.

Worm Moon

In the bottle: dirt! Very similar to Graveyard Dirt, also reminiscent of Penny Dreadful and Madeline.
Wet on skin: soil, but also hints of wilted funerary blooms and dust.
Dry on skin: is that a bit of rose I smell here? I don’t know, but something here reminds me of Zombi, The House or Madeline, but not as powerfully rosy. But I’m sure I smell some rose in here. It still smells like soil, but now it’s less of a rained-on wet soil, more of a slightly damp compost, but not a bad smelling one-I’d say this is a humus made from decaying leaves, bark, and mosses. There’s also a lovely dusty, stony aspect reminiscent of tombstones or catacombs. But something else, the flowers I think, make this smell like perfumed dirt. A sharp note like dry rose petals and possibly white lilies, a funeral bouquet thrown upon a grave. That’s what makes it wearable-it doesn’t smell like straight up soil, but like soil with a sophisticated undertone. I don’t smell the fruit yet but I do smell something like blood, a slight hint of metal, but not as sweet/fruity as the usual blood accord.
After a while: eventually the dirt fades away fast and all I’m left with is rose perfume! How odd. I think I’m the only one who’s getting lots of rose here? Not that I mind though, I do love rose, but this is a particularly tart, wilted rose. I also smell narcissus, or daffodil perhaps…it’s a soft spring floral note. I also smell more in the way of dust than soil, and also a sharp fruity note which may be pomegranate or currant, but there’s nothing sweet in the fruity notes here, just sharpness. There’s also a hint of dragon’s blood, which may explain the bitter floral and metallic scent this has. It’s not bad, but a bit sour for my likings…but I really miss the dirty note! Now that the soil’s disappeared, it seems the worms have nowhere to play…another thing is that the scent as a whole gets much fainter now, my skin is eating it up.
Verdict: at first, this smells gloriously dirty, a floral-rosy take on Graveyard Dirt, a lighter Zombi. This to me smells of rose cologne mixed with dirt, hints of old wood, sharp blood and decaying moss. Fragrant dirt with a touch of the perfumey to it, but with scent evoking graveyards and rotting houses full of dark secrets. This has something to it reminiscent of the Poe scents, both in scent and theme-it has that similar dirt note that I get in the Poes, and also an old, almost faded and dusty floral scent (I myself get a lot of rose from it) which reminds me of the dark mood of the Maelstrom and DD scents. the sad thing is, whilst I love the earthiness, this stage doesn’t last as long as I hoped it would. I really wished the dirt would stick around more, once that’s gone, the perfumey scent turns sour, and then fades away very fast altogether. I don’t even get that much fruit. I’m a tad disappointed but not too much, I’m certainly keeping one bottle of this because it’s my birth moon and such a unique Lunacy scent. I just wished it stuck around for longer and was earthier.
Emoticon rating:
Is it a keeper? Yes-this is a really unusual scent and it’s my birth moon too, but I’d rather keep the one bottle.
If you like this, try: Zombi, Thanatos, The House, Premature Burial, Madeline, Destroying Angel, Penny Dreadful, Burial

[Tulliver]

Ahhhhh... this is lovely, rich, dark soil. There's no dust to this dirt at all. It's the sort my dad loves to dig his hands in.

 

I don't know how Beth makes up the Lab's earth/dust/dirt notes, but they're so wonderfully... RIGHT. Even if the smell itself doesn't appeal to me, it's still so perfectly evocative of the scent.

 

THIS! Is wonderful. On my skin and right through dry-down (which is lengthy but I'm not complaining), all I get is the soil. There are VERY faint and occasional hints of background florals, but everything is so overpowered. It's not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing at all.

 

Once dry, the florals do come a little more to the fore. No rose though. (Sorry, yeahbutnobut, I am trying to find roses, I swear). They complement the soil wonderfully. In spite of the gruesome little poem that accompanies this, this is NOT a mournful blend. It's not even remotely sad. I find it rather cheerful and it makes me want to regress to 9 months old and eat the soil from the plant pots all over again.

 

... not that I will, of course.

[Mountaingrrl00]

This has the great dirt smell I loved in Graveyard Dirt - and like Graveyard Dirt, it doesn't have a lot of staying power, alas. I also get some white floral smell and what could be the blossoms of fruit trees. It's very fresh and evocative of spring. There's a slight powdery phase, but it doesn't last long. I get the faint incense note too, kind of gingery. My favorite phase of this is when it's wet and smells like fresh soil and springtime breezes.

[BaronLaCroix]

Received just last week, my first eBay bpal ever.

The scent is wet and woodsy, like walking through the forest just after the first rain of fall. The fruit seems hidden, secret, but clearly there.

For some reason it reminds me of Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite; dark and rotting but tantalizing at the same time. Which I mean in the best way possible, to be sure.

I think I'm going to put on some and re-read that book!

Now I need the t-shirt.

(Stupid skulls with tophats fetish.)

[waternight]

In the bottle: Moist potting soil. On a deep sniff, there IS a hint of sweet overripeness, and a hint of blood.

Wet: Soil, but lighter than in teh bottle. Coffin wood appears and is a steady presence, making this a wood and soil blend. There's something tart here too - lunar oils? Cuckoo flowe? Hell if I know. Whatever it is, it's almost citrusy-sour, but in a really great way. Ah! It could be the coppery tang of the blood note. Wow, this is a lot more wearable that I thought it would be. There's a sharpness here that I'm just loving. Not really getting any fruits, red or otherwise, and the florals are a mere suggestion. This is gorgeous. Intoxicating. Moist potting soil mixed with coppery blood and a sprinkle of rotting sweet things. In a wooden box.

Dry: Rich, moist, sweetened potting soil.

 

LOVE. And to think I almost didn't get this.

Edited June 7, 2008 by waternight

[Alchemy21599]

In the vial: rich soil with a whisper of spring flowers.

 

On skin: freshly amended soil and a crush of fresh spring blossoms. A perfect balance of earthiness and floral.

[LadyLuckDoubt]

In the Bottle

Soft green florals with a hint of wood. VERY subtle.

 

On Me

First time I wore this, I had a cold, and I couldn't smell much barring the slightly woody note which I think is either cedar or teak. What I could smell, though, I liked, though I couldn't smell it for long. The second time I wore it was tonight, and here's what happened...

 

First off-- it amps. I'm getting the woody coming through loudly, but also a lovely dirt smell, and underneath that, white florals-- lily and daphne and baby's breath. Gorgeous. Everything tones down though-- first to go is the dirt (AW!), then the wood REALLY amps-- a few hours later, I'm left with a faint echo of woody astringentness, and the lovely flowers.

 

This is gorgeous-- not at all silly or absurd, either, IMHO-- it's a very sensible yet individual fragrance, and yep, it worked on me. Pity it isn't that strong, though, because I want to slather it, and unfortunately, I only have one bottle.

 

Also: I'm kicking myself for a) not ordering a few bottles when it came out, and not ordering the Tshirt. I LOVE the bottle art on this one.

Edited June 14, 2008 by LadyLuckDoubt

[Leopard403]

Just like a greenhouse... and, sadly, just awful on my skin. I mean, it smells like freshly-turned earth, all right, but I don't think I like smelling like earth. This is much more of a novelty scent: "Hey, sniff me! I smell like dirt! Seriously!"

 

And admittedly, I almost kept the bottle simply because I fell in love with the label... but it ended up going to a loving home via swaps.

[sprocket21]

In the imp: Woody and sharp

 

Once applied to my skin, the dirt comes out to play! Other reviews have already described this dirt note far more poetically than I have. It's totally accurate and wonderful to sniff. I still don't think I want to smell like it, but I love to smell it. BPAL has certainly opened me up to new ideas of wonderful smells.

[QueenFae]

Oh definitely as wormy as it gets!! This is a very deep "dirty" smell, but without actually being dirty, if that makes any sense! When I first put it on, I can smell the lab's famous dirt note right off the bat, but not much else. Then, a few minutes later, it relaxes into a melancholy, medicinal earthen scent with a hint of overripe fruit in the background. Sort of like a gravedigger at work who's still all cologned up from last nights date, lol.

 

This is a fabulous embodiment of Worm Moon, but unfortunately not my cup of tea for an everyday scent. Perfect for Halloween though!

[fairnymph]

Sniffed in imp: SOIL, wood, faint flowers. As expected, this smells very dirty in the literal garden-like sense. I don't get any blood or fruit notes. It's a neutral scent, not sharp or sweet or sour.

 

Not a fan of soil.

[Monster]

In bottle: Wet dirt! Wet dirt! Wet dirt! Ohhhhhh!

 

Wet on skin: Wet dirt! Fresh, loam after a summer rainfall. Oh how I love this. Graveyard Dirt is one of my all-time favorite Bpal scents and this is it's more feminine sister.

 

Dry: The fresh dirt smell is still apparent (whew!) but now it's paired with the smell of smooshed flowers. I'm imagining flowers in a graveyard, stomped into the mud after a fresh rainfall. Yup, that's pretty much it

 

 

Give me more dirt scents! I love this!

[alexandra]

In the bottle: dirty earthy squeedom. Yum. I love rolling in damp earth, on the few occasions it is possible, and this makes me feel all wormlike.

 

Wet: Immediately the sweet flowers pop out of the earth, tempering the dirty dirt smell.

 

Dry: On my wrist there is no dirt at all, but flowers and sweet blood and a snifter of that berry. It is soft, warm and lovely. On my upper arm the dirt is still there, so I can nuzzle that and get my shot of soil while enjoying the waft of the corsage round my wrist.

 

And?...; I love Deep in earth and Zombi and it is lovely to have a soil blend that isn't so full on rose. It is so jolly and Spring-like. Worms must be happy little creatures if they get to smell this all the time. The only minor downside with the scent is that it freaks my husband out. I watched him go round the room sniffing the walls then look at me: "either you're wearing one of your earth scents or we've got mould". He he.

[skepticism]

Vial: Tangy, sweet with a hint of fresh soil

 

Wet: Absolutely loving my skin. A little citrusy and clean, but still retaining the fresh soil notes.

 

Dry: The tangy scent is still sharp, which was a surprise to me. I think I've fallen in love with my first LE.

[milo]

This has the same kind of dirt scent as in Deep in Earth. I do detect some floral here, but the dirt note, I really don't enjoy, and it gives me a headache to boot.

[zankoku_zen]

I get dirty flowers with a hint of fruits. This blend kinda reminds me to Zombi, actually. The flowers have a slight rose tinge to it.

 

Meh.

[rayvn1]

This is pretty much just powdery funeral flowers with a smidge of dirt stuck to their stems. Rats. I'll stick with Graveyard Dirt and Potter's Field for my dirty fun.

[ShadowsDance]

In the bottle it smells like, well, dirt!

On my skin the dirt is definitely still there, but it is lightened with a somewhat floral background. It's not quite as deep as, say, Graveyard Dirt.. but very similar to that.

[tragedy]

Was dying to try, due to my dirt fixation!

 

In the bottle: a chemically dirt, strange smell.. but I definately get the dirt.

 

Wet: Oooo this is like my fave Premature Burial, but the floral is lighter... like springy floral instead of funereal floral.

 

Drydown: The dirt is divine, and instead of dying down is slowly amping on my skin. The dirt is a little "wetter" than graveyard dirt.

 

Love!

[hmelt004]

Two words: clean dirt!! This is a light, fresh sort of linen scent over a soft, gritty loam. I'm not getting any fruit or florals, but that's okay. This is the most wearable of the "dirt scents" I've encountered, which means that I can wear this out without people sniffing me strangely. I don't mind being sniffed strangely, but there are some times when it's inconvenient.

[strahlend]

This reminds me of dirt and dryer sheets. Clean, linen, powder and cotton... but with dirt. It's kind of odd. I prefer Graveyard Dirt since it's just dirt and nothing else, but I love the name and label of Worm Moon.... and maybe someday I'll want to smell like clean laundry and dirt. It could happen.

[moon_lemming]

Worm Moon has that beety soil smell that reminds me so much of the woods I drive through on the way home in springtime. It smells like good, earthy land that is just starting to grow things, mostly turned-over soil but also a little bit of something that makes it more than a soil single note.

 

Love, love, love. I do have two other scents that are similar: one from Possets, and Penny Dreadful (although that one has the additional ginger), but I can't help but keep this one as well.

[good_mourning]

I totally agree with karen; this is basically a grown-up, outdoors-y version of Penny Dreadful, with a great big splat of blood on the pages. (And while I can't really articulate how, it truly does smell 'congealed,' though not in a nasty way.) The Lab's "lunar oils" and I traditionally do not get on; they are detectable here in all their flat, metallic murk, but they are blended (or overwhelmed) well enough that I can actually wear this.

 

Out of my vast hoard of dirt scents, this is not a particular favorite, but that's only because of the lunar blend. Definitely worth a sniff!

[DifferentDances]

Bottle: Warmth, some sort of booze.

Wet: Wet dirt and flowers.

Drydown: Burst of ladylike florals. Whoa, was not expecting this to be so...Sunday church pleasant.

Dry: More dirt, more wood, some flowers. This is a very strange scent. I think I like it, but I don't know when I'd wear it or would feel like THIS is the scent for the day.

 

My rating: 3/5

Edited August 7, 2010 by DifferentDances

[GeorgeJr]

Don't get the fruit so much , but do get earth & some floral for sure . This one stays with me pretty good throughout the day , but is not crazy strong wafting . Not a bad scent , but not in my favorites . Nice to have on those days I'm feeling like parading my oddness to others