Penumbra

[Nachtwulf]

Rich purple musk, moonflower, red sandalwood, black amber, oakmoss, copal, lavender, neroli, tobacco, and pomegranate.

I actually gave Penumbra a miss, just from the description. Some musks (in fact, all but Black, generally) go pretty nasty on me, and I'm not familiar enough with 'purple' musk to really identify what that was. Most of the other components seemed kinda flowery, so I labeled it 'probably gonna go to soap' and moved on.

One of my coworkers ordered it, though, and I ended up convincing her to swap it for Mead Moon... and I am not the least bit sorry. This is a lovely scent.

It shares a fair bit in common with Purple Phoenix, but where that ended up being 'grape Jolly Rancher' for all intents and purposes, this remains a more subtle fruit, just a hint musky and spicy. The 'floral' qualities are almost nonexistent on me, only enough to make the scent lighter and more accessible than Blood Garden or any of the other much heavier 'purple fruit' type scents. If you like those, but would like something more for daily (or workplace) wear, this is a great call. It's sweet (but not candylike), pleasant, and all around easy to live with. I wish it were a little -stronger-... but then again, maybe it's better that it isn't.

[hlinspjalda]

In the bottle: Dark, tanniny, a bit sharp.

 

Wet: Mossy, lavender, and a fleshy floral is coming up. Soapish, maybe from the moss.

 

Half an hour: Yummy wow chewy, a lot of flavors here. There's sweet, mossy, woody, floral, and amber.

 

One hour: It's gone a little dry, tart, and sour now. I fear that's the red sandalwood, which sometimes sours on me. Too bad, because this is otherwise complex and pleasant.

 

Two hours: On the good side, amber; on the less-good side, oakmoss and sour sandalwood. I don't want this one to fail on me, but I think it might. It's just a little too dry and astringent for me.

 

Four hours: Still sourish sandalwood and oakmoss. I'll probably trade this one away.

 

Seven hours: Not much change. Persistent! Too bad it doesn't work better on me.

[Czarina]

In the bottle: herby musk. It's like the love child of Wulfric and Smut.

Wet: Wulfric and Smut are still getting it on, but here comes the neroli and ... tobacco.

Drydown: oh, this is getting very complex. And a bit like a commercial perfume scent...are there aldehydes in here?

 

In a few more minutes, I'm smelling a grape note.

 

Really great throw.

[zankoku_zen]

Man, this is purple. It's a musky floral that ends up in a blackberry-like note on me. It was a little tart on me. For the first hour or two it had this 'man's cologne' overlay to it.

[QueenFae]

This is a tricky one indeed!!

 

When I first sniff it, both in the bottle and on my skin, it smells very sharp, herbal and astringent. Then, after a few minutes, it settles into something very nice. It becomes fruity, like pomegranate with an intriguing light musk in the background. It's a haunting, soft, feminine fruity smell; very pretty. I always love pomegranate scents. This is a definite shape shifter, it's like 2 different blends on me!

My only complaint is that it doesn't last very long, and is gone completely within an hour or two.

[Lamia]

This is very NOM. I should have sucked it up and bought a 5ml at the time, expenses be damned! It started, both wet and fresh on skin, as something that reminded me a lot of something my mother wore when I was young, but that changed rapidly to fruit. It doesn't shout POMEGRANITE at me, but it does say DARK DIPE RED FRUIT, juicy and firm, like the curranty joy of Frumious Bandersnatch. And clearly I should get me a 5ml of that, since I compare it positively to so many other BPAL scents.

 

Thr fruit takes some hours to shift to something dustier, I'll guess the moss and sandalwood and musk, in some combination. Not the most ZOMG EXQUISITE MUST HAVE IT RIGHT NOW DEAR GOD of Lucifer, but a delicious round scent all on its own.

[fireweaver]

sort of candylike with musk, deepens into a sweet dark fruit/musk combo.

[plunderparlour]

on wet i found this kind of weird. dry this is resinous grape wine. a dark succulent scent. yum.

[asciident]

Wet: Dominated by red sandalwood, black amber, and copal. It could be good if it stays here, but I'm wary of the musk and tobacco.

 

First on: It became faintly spicy, but nothing else was noticeable in particular.

 

Dry: Well, the scent disappeared entirely too quickly.

[Phaedra]

Wet this is sweet florals, tobacco and musk. When first on this is herbal, floral, misty and sweet. There's something mossy in here too. After several minutes this becomes a soft floral blend. It smells a lot like Purple Phoenix but softer and less sweet. After a couple hours this smells mostly like moonflower which I love. This doesn't change much more on me. This is nice. Fans of Purple Phoenix will like this one.

[alhbooks]

shadowy but faint. An herbal start softening into a great subtle blend but it fades quickly on me, sadly.

[yeahbutnobut]

Penumbra

 

In the bottle: red musk, amber, tobacco and a bit of lavender.

Wet on skin: juicy pomegranate joins in, along with sharp neroli and moonflower.

Dry on skin: this is gorgeous! The purple musk in here smells, to me, like red musk, and I love that! I also smell the black amber, sweet and resinous, combined with the lavender I get a scent almost like the Emathides, but not identical. The pomegranate note is nice and strong, it’s sharpness enhanced by the neroli. And a gorgeous tobacco smoke swirls through the scent. This is deep red and shadowy, but with a hint of fruitiness.

After a while: this has sweetened up, lost it’s sharpness, and now this is all about the musk, amber, tobacco and pomegranate, which in here has turned to a wonderful wine-like note, very rich and red. It’s like the pom in Mme Moriarty. At times I swear I even smell a hint of blood accord, something about this reminds me of the Blood Garden, Mort de Cesar or Crypt Queen, it’s even a little bit metallic like the blood scents. The amber is sweet and dark, the musk is rich and red, the tobacco is sublimely smoky. This smells a little bit like Midnight Kiss as well, but a bit fruitier. This smells magnificent.

The scent moves through stages of blood musk, pomegranate wine and purple incense, rich and sumptuous and mysterious.

Verdict: this is stunning! I loved Lunar Eclipse, but this may be even better! It’s a beguiling and shadowy beauty, luring me in with wafts of smoke, amber, tempting pomegranate and lavender, laced with hints of red. I adore the purple musk-it’s a lot redder and deeper than expected. It starts off very lavender-y but then the pom kicks in, merges with musk, and the scent gains those sanguine crimson tones that makes it such a darkly seductive delight. Purple Phoenix was really bad on me but this is wonderful. It’s another one of those musky incense with fruit scents that Beth does so well, and I’m glad I bought two bottles.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? Of course.

If you like this, try: Midnight Kiss, Emathides, Blood Garden, Lunar Eclipse, Mme Moriarty, Crypt Queen, Dark Delicacies, On Darkness

[Nimthiriel]

Initial impression:

At first sniff, this is sandalwood, copal and moss – it reminds me ofmy all-time favourite, Greed, which also shares the copal and oakmossnotes.

 

First on:

Straight on, I get a lot of moonflower, a touch of neroli, and something Ican't pinpoint – something dark.

 

Dry:

After about 10 mins, it'sa surprisingly powerful scent that smells... purple. Bizarredescription, I know. Sandalwood, amber, musk, moss, copal, neroli andtobacco all crowd for attention.

 

20 mins later, it's alush pomegranate scent with sandalwood, copal, oakmoss, neroli, amberand musk – it's fantastic.

Finally:

I loveloveLOVE this. Yum.Keeping this precious little decant.

[naeelah]

I tend to amp oakmoss to the extreme detriment of anything else in a blend, so I had some reservations about this. When I first tried it, I remember my impression being of tart, purple fruit with flowers.

 

Trying it now, my immediate impression is cool musk (similar, to my nose, to the lab's blue musk), cool, light florals, and a woodsy, herbal blend. I didn't realize there was lavender in it until I looked at the notes, so it blends very well. Pomegranate lingers on the finish.

 

Once dry, it's a bit fruitier and definitely has a purple feel. The pomegranate here smells just like Fruit of Paradise -- sweet and tart at the same time. The fruit, florals, and musk are the most prominent notes, colored by bitter herbs and wood. The copal just adds a nice fuzziness that blends everything together. The sandalwood and oakmoss, mercifully, do not take over.

 

On me, this is not a masculine or earthy kind of scent. I would say it's unisex, but in the truest sense of the word. I imagine this one varies a lot from skin to skin. For me, this is beautifully balanced. Definitely a decant to keep!

 

The wear life is pretty great, too. After 3-4 hours it's going strong, and it still has a purple fruity feel, but the wood and moss notes are a little stronger. By the 6-7 hour mark, it's still surprisingly strong, but mostly sandalwood.

Edited January 8, 2009 by naeelah

[MisterShrapnel]

Purple musk?! Eee. It's just strong enough here, not WOAH-MUSK as I sometimes like.

Gently resinous and shadowy with dark red and deep purple fruits (yummm), but the moonflower and maybe the neroli give it a more floral/traditional perfume vibe, and I can handle it! Woo! Despite the gentle florals, though, the planty oakmoss and tobacco keep it from getting too girly. I can understand comments that this feels a little like cologne. It's has a slightly dry/powdery edge on me, perhaps from the sandalwood and the amber/copal. This part used to bother me, but today I like it.

This feels complex and sophisticated, but also manages to be BPAL-strange. Awesomeness. I'd wear this with a dress in the evening.

It actually took me a few tries to like this, but I've become quite attached as it was part of my first lunacy. I will forever associate the scent with BPAL.

[Miss Lynx]

This is a little reminiscent of Lunar Eclipse -- unsurprisingly, perhaps, given its inspiration. But it's a softer, gentler scent, without the bitter undercurrent that LE has.

 

On my skin, it's more floral than anything, though not overpoweringly so. There's a soft, almost powdery musk base, a little reminiscent of the Body Shop's White Musk scent, and an element of warmth from the amber and sandalwood. The pomegranate is almost a background presence, adding just a faint hint of wine-like tartness to it, on the very edge of perception.

 

Overall, it's very feminine, in a mature and sophisticated way, and not really as dark or earthy as you might think from the list of notes. It initially seemed perhaps a little too feminine for me -- I tend to like somewhat less sweet scents, usually. But the later stages of it, after it's settled down to a really soft, subtle skin-scent, are very nice, and I found myself catching little whiffs of it throughout the day and really enjoying them. So perhaps a little more experimentation is warranted before I decide that it's not a keeper...

 

Grade: B/B+

 

ETA, OK, I don't know if it was a few more months of aging that made the difference, or just the change of seasons and the fact that I often like sweeter scents in the spring, but I LOVE this scent now. This and Red Rose (from BPTP's Lupercalia set) are the two scents I've been reaching for the most since the weather began to turn springlike. The pomegranate seems to be more of a presence in it now, balancing the florals nicely, an the earthy side from the oakmoss, copal and tobacco gives it an exquisitely lovely, incensey undercurrent. This has gone from B/B+ to an absolute A in my books. Love, love love!

Edited April 2, 2009 by Miss Lynx

[Coldfire]

 

 

 

 

Decant: Musk and Sandalwood and Copal, dark and warm

Wet on Me: rich, sweet musky incense

Drying Down: still a rich sweet musky incense so far. I think the sweetness comes from the Neroli and Lavender

Dry: getting a fruity vibe with the sweetness of the neroli and lavender and that is over the musky incense. I seem to have been saved by my not amping amber and sending this to baby powder land. HUZZAH! This is pretty!

 

[jewelbug]

Bottle: A very masculine cologne scent. Quite dark.

 

Wet: Still a very masculine dark cologne scent, with a hit of “woodsiness” and a deep green bitterness (a la orangutans musk?). Its extremely difficult for me to pick out the notes here, just dark and manly musky woodsy cologne. Not very helpful, am I?

 

Drying: Fruitier tone comes in with the bitter greenery cologne.

 

Dry: much fruitier, a berry-wine tone, sweet and red/purple, over a musky base. Its actually a little to berry-sweet for me now. No more masculine cologne left, though, which is A-OK in my book.

 

Overall: This started with a masculine cologne that was nice, though not me, and morphed like MAD in a direction I never would have suspected-- to a musky winey/berry scent. Its very nice and pretty and sexy, and I like the extreme morph personality it has. But the end result isn’t really my preferred category of scent, either (goes too far to the berryish spectrum), so I’ll be passing this on.

 

[ljaylh]

 

Reading the previous reviews has been interesting.. it seems most people were tentative about Penumbra due to its unusual mix of notes.. me too, most of all I was worried about the lavender (a known traitor to my skin).. but everything else sounded so good that I just had to give it a try. And like others, I'm sooooooooooo glad I did.

 

Yep, it's PURPLE. It really should be actually coloured purple - it's very smooth, rich, warm and velvety and on me it drys down to a beautiful blackcurrant-ish fruity smokey musk. I love how no single note dominates - it's beautifully blended and a stunning mix of sweet and dry. It fades fairly quickly on my skin though, which is a shame because I'd like this bottle to last for ever and it won't if I have to re-apply frequently. Definitely a keeper.. actually I think it's worthy of hoarding.

 

Note to self: find more blends with purple musk!!

 

[Ajila]

In the bottle – The only note that I can really pick out is the lavender, but there is something sitting on top, which I can only assume is the purple musk

 

Wet on me – The lavender remains dominant, but that purple musk is still in force

 

Dry on me – The lavender is the only note that ever takes shape. There’s a little juice from the fruit, but nothing ever really defined

 

Overall – On me it’s a bit of a nothing scent – not even a top lavender blend

 

[donnatron]

Bottle: Pomegranate. And... maybe oakmoss? In the bottle this smells Fruit of Paradise with a wee bit of lavender and oakmoss.

 

Wet: POMEGRANATE! I have a few notes that kind of vary between singing and shrieking on my skin. In that I amp them but I adore them so it's okay. Pomegranate is one of those notes. The pomegranate is very strong as is a sort of sweet, ethereal note that I'm going to assume is purple musk because I'm completely unfamiliar with it.

 

Dry: This is veyr much a sharp fruity scent with the other notes lingering underneath. I get a full on hit of the pomegranate and a combo of lavender and amber underneath. Maybe a bit of neroli. The purple musk has faded into more of a skin scent. It's definitely a dark scent and a bit old fashioned or at least my own perception of old fashioned.

 

Throw: Good.

 

Overall: Do you like Fruit of Paradise and/or Lunar Eclipse? Because I like both and I'm pretty sure that if they were somehow able to spawn they would create Penumbra. Which is... appropriate, I guess. It makes me feel beautiful and sexy which is pretty much beyond the call of duty for any toiletry so A+ Penumbra.

[angelicruin]

Sniffing the bottle, the notes I am picking out as strongest are the red sandalwood and black amber.

 

Wet on the skin, I can smell many notes right away including the tobacco, lavender, pomegranate, and musk.

 

The more it dries, the black amber and oakmoss begin to emerge on my skin.

 

Dries down to a lovely wine & tobacco scent.

 

 

[amyw]

I received a decant from someone in a swap, so this is aged about a year, and it's very well-blended. It's difficult to pick out single notes, but I will say that on me it's sort of an inversion of Mme Moriarty. Whereas Mme Moriarty is earthy, herbal(ish) patchouli sweetened by vanilla and fruit with a touch of musk, it's the fruit in Penumbra that stands out in the foreground, with the herbal and resin notes in the background to ground it. There's also a small hint of something floral, and I assume that's the moonflower. I'm not big on florals, but that's okay. It's not at all overwhelming in this blend. Oh, and yes, it's very purple to my nose, as others have described.

 

Or I could say it's as if Mme Moriarty and Urd had a lovechild. Given that I love Mme Moriarty and like Urd a lot, I think this smells pretty fabulous. I don't know if I'll seek out a whole bottle as there are things I love more and I'm trying to keep only things I love lots, but I'm certainly keeping the decant.

[Reaver]

This is fairly generically sweet scent in the bottle and on first application - nothing standout but pleasant enough.

 

After it's warmed to me, it turns into a close, sexy pomegranate-monster. It remains a strong pomegranate scent for a good while, to the extent that it could be a dupe for a dried down Swank, before letting the fruit subside and the tobacco and woods rule. I don't recognise any of the purple musk, and don't think of this scent as shouting 'PURPLE!', more pink or red, which is a shame as I was really looking forward to adding purple musk to my musky line-up.

 

8/10... I prefer Swank and this is a lot simpler than I expected from looking at the notes list. Keeping the bottle, for sure. But only because I DON'T have a bottle of Swank. Yet.

[crebbsgirl]

Well this is certainly purple-y when wet. The pomegranate and purple musk combine into a rich juicy deep scent. The lavender never really showed up for me here, and I was a little disappointed as I love me some lavender. As the blend started to dry, the copal came out a little more, but didn't overtake the blend as it has been known to do for me. The oakmoss and neroli came out last for me, and the entire scent was sweet and dark, but I would say more like dusk than midnight.