Moon of Small Spirits

[hkhm]

The baby moon, a canoe, a silver papoose canoe, sails and sails in the Indian west.
A ring of silver foxes, a mist of silver foxes, sit and sit around the Indian moon.
One yellow star for a runner, and rows of blue stars for more runners, keep a line of watchers.
O foxes, baby moon, runners, you are the panel of memory, fire-white writing to-night of the Red Man's dreams.
Who squats, legs crossed and arms folded, matching its look against the moon-face, the star-faces, of the West?
Who are the Mississippi Valley ghosts, of copper foreheads, riding wiry ponies in the night?-no bridles, love-arms on the pony necks, riding in the night a long old trail?
Why do they always come back when the silver foxes sit around the early moon, a silver papoose, in the Indian west?

Snow-blanketed wild grasses, sage, swamp tea, cedar, giniminagawunj, copal, rosehip, juniper, clover, elderberry, sweet flag, butterfly weed, wood sorrel, and pine.

bottle: i get sweet pine, sage and a spicy grassy woody-sweet scent.

wet: this has a cold scent to it, sort of a slushy-sweet pine scent. there's a definite crisp berry sweetness in the background.

dry: this dries to soft, spiced woods on my skin. this puts me in mind of the kodama forest in the film mononoke hime.

(edited because i forgot to put the dates in the title) Edited December 16, 2008 by Shollin

[Lethran]

In bottle: Several of these notes are completely unknown to me, so it’s hard to pint down what is causing what. The scent is rich and sweetly herbal, the berries well mixed with tea and greenery. I like BPAL’s “snow” scent, which is pleasantly strong here, cooling what would otherwise be a late summer scent. Wet: The snow/pine scent is stronger on my skin, but the richness of the under scent is undeniable. I think this is the first time I’ve enjoyed juniper in anything. Dry: A clean powdery, vaguely outdoors in winter sort of scent. There is more juniper in the dry down, alas.

[Lycanthrope]

I was very excited for this fragrance as I love scents with grassy notes, and I'm also a big fan of Beth's snow/ice/slush scents.

 

This is a good scent, one that I will enjoy wearing, and will keep a stash of (as I tend to). Wet and in the bottle it smells green without being overtly grassy, and there's a hint of dry brush grassiness. This isn't A Blade of Grass raging, rollicking verdant leaves, but this also isn't the hay absolute note of Hay Moon or Bezoar sharpitude.

 

This reminds me a lot of a colder, less musky Coyote, with a very pleasant slushy snow note overlaid on top. There definitely is a softer pine here, it's not supremely sharp, and it plays together with the grasses to create a delicate, wistful winter scent. For me, this is a dry prairie without much snow at all, just a few smatterings, like a tundra.

 

It's very pleasant!

 

In the vein of yeahbutnobut: If you like Coyote and/or Talvikuu and were always curious to know what would happen if they were combined, this is a pretty good example. Minus musk.

[lothien]

This is really my first experience with a "snowy" scent, and I was really not sure what to expect.

 

In the bottle it is beautiful - soft evergreens, subtle sage, herbal with with a bit of sweetness. Not ozoney, as I'd feared.

 

On wet, I get all the evergreens first, but not intense like, say, Black Forest, but cold pineiness. As it dries I start to get more berries and the pine starts to soften, so the evergreen top note stage is pretty short on me.

 

Dry, I start to get more of the other things - the grasses and plants, a faint bit of a sort of citrus I'm guessing is the rosehip and or wood sorrel, but overall I get a feeling of berries and winter greenery. It doesn't strike me as either feminine or masculine, either.

 

As time passes, it gets softer and more woodsy/grassy/resiny close to the skin, though I still get whiffs of that tangy sweetness that isn't cranberry, but reminds me of it.

 

The only unkind thing I have to say about it is that while I really like the scent, it will have a limited wearing time.

I find that after a while, I'm "full" and I don't enjoy it any longer.

I could stand more grass and less berry, but maybe that will change as it gets older.

 

ETA: Unfortunately, the more I try it, the more I am getting bayberry potpourri, which sort of reminds me of the folks' bathroom at Christmas. As cute as the label is, I may have to let this one go to someone who doesn't amp the berry in this. Boo!

Edited December 13, 2008 by dragonsidhe

[unlaced]

I bought this one because of the "snow" aspect to it. I'd never had a BPAL scent with snow and I really wanted to try one and, lo and behold, this one came along so I had to try it.

 

In the bottle it smells woodsy and and grassy. Overlaid by the clean scent of fresh fallen snow. It puts me in mind of a kind of swampy (in a good way) forest on the edge of a tall grassy field on a bright, cold night when the snow has just fallen.

 

On me the snowy scent fades but it stays nice and woodsy and wintery... with something else I can't put my finger on.

 

Overall, I like it a lot. It's a good scent without being too overpowering or heavy.

 

______________

 

ETA: Right at the end of December I tried this again. It's the first time I've touched it since I bought it when it first came out, and WOAH there's a big difference. When I opened the bottle it was cola and fizzy, something there was absolutely no hint of for me the first time I tried it.

 

When I put it on my skin the cola smell disappeared instantly and the snow/ice note the I loved before was still there but barely noticeable for me. The dried grasses and herbs phase seems to come faster now to cover up the woodsy and mossy stage.

 

Don't get me wrong, it's still a supremely beautiful scent, just very different than the one it was before. I wasn't expecting it to change so drastically so fast!

Edited December 29, 2008 by unlaced

[jehrichardson]

Oh, it's good. Very good. Complex too... mmmm...

 

We start with snow, sweet hay, and the warmness of copal and swamp tea. I'm thrilled to see the swamp tea note - I love that stuff.

 

Now, the cedar swings in - very faint, but giving this a bit of bite. Giving it teeth, as it were. The pine emerges too, very delicate.

 

After a while longer the herbs come in..

 

It is easy to imagine American woods and American meadows with this one. It's absolutely gorgeous.

 

Loves it.

[Seismogenic]

When this one was posted, it read like a list of notes I know I like the smell of (plus some that I don't know what they smell like, and one I have no clue what it is or how to pronounce it). It sounded awesome from the site alone, and a brief test at last month's Will Call confirmed its awesomeness. I am so glad that it is mine now, for the more extended wearing and reviewing!

 

In the bottle: Frosted herbs and grasses with a hint of tea. Dry, mostly, but there is sweetness back there.

 

Wet on skin: The snow note is prominent, but it's not as if there are several feet of snow on everything. It's really as if the grasses and greenery are frosted over so you can still see the color beneath the ice. The grass is definitely under there, as is the swamp tea (at least, I assume that's what smells like tea). Smells like there's some soft dirt on this forest floor, too.

 

Drydown: Freshly dry is much the same as wet, though the wild grasses (and perhaps the green parts of the other plants) are, if anything, a little more prominent. The pine and the sage are also making themselves more apparent right now. The flowers and berries are adding a little subtle sweetness, but I wouldn't call this a floral at all. At one hour in, it's much the same as freshly dry, though perhaps a little less snowy. The throw is pretty good.

 

Five hours later: Still going strong, and at pretty much the same combination of notes that's been there since it dried. The snow is gone, but it's still winter.

 

End of the day: A faint whiff of sweet dry herbs.

 

Overall: I still love this. A lot. It's absolutely a winter scent, but it's different from the stereotypical evergreens and red berries and mulling spices kind of winter. This is a very wild and natural scent - it has the evergreens, but they're just part of the entire forest, which also is inhabited by annual plants, in the process of fading or drying out when the winter hits. As I said before, the snow note in this blend is more like everything is coated with translucent frost than a thick layer of snow, but the disappearance of this note later on doesn't warm things up. It's just a different stage of winter. The smell of Moon of Small Spirits creates a very specific kind of landscape in my mind, and I think it's wonderful. I'm very glad to have a bottle!

[ivyandpeony]

I am so glad that I gave in and ordered a bottle of this. It's a soft, fluffy, slightly sweet snow scent - a cold winter scent that doesn't scream out "SNOW! ICE! BRRRR!" The elements are balanced so well that I don't get floral, or herbal, or fruity, or grassy - all these are present with a layer of soft evergreen on top, a little bit more dominant but barely so. It stays close to the skin in a cuddly, cozy way. Really beautiful.

[Persephone76]

I agree with Lycanthrope, this one smells like a prairie with smatterings of snow (in a good way). It's very ethereal and devastatingly gorgeous--like the angelic child of Skadi and Unseelie (two of my all-time fave BPALs). It really is that good. Yet another work of art and proof of Ms. Beth's genius.

 

Rating: Holy sh*t

[angelicruin]

This is a gorgeous scent. I almost did not order it, but when it stayed up a little longer and I decided to pick up a few more bottles of Yules, I added this as an after thought. Boy, am I glad I did. This is such an enchanting scent. I get no pine on my skin. Mostly a light snow, tea, and something slightly sweet, but not cloying nor foody. I can almost detect the floral notes, but something has really softened them and the cedar that I worried about, I cannot even smell in the bottle, wet on skin, or on dry down. The snow and tea are probably the 2 notes that jump out most for me, but to say it smells like just those 2 notes is not accurate either. All of the notes are just so well-blended together, it's hard for me to pick out each individual one.

 

I dabbed a bit on my wrists and a few strand of hair before going to bed last night and it was so relaxing to fall asleep wearing. I loved it so much last night, I re-applied immediately this morning after my shower.

 

It's not as long lasting on me as other oils--it lasts on my skin for about 2 -3 hours then fades. But it's an amazing scent while it lasts and totally worth keeping for myself.

[greenranger]

This is very soft on me. The most prominent note is the lavender. I shouldn't have worried about the snow. There was nothing amping in this at all.

 

It is lovely...but, unfortunately on me it is very soft, and I don't identify with soft as much as I do with spicy.

[Blood onmy hands]

Moon of Small Spirits is such an odd scent. It's great in the bottle and on fabrics, but awful on my skin.

 

In the bottle, this smells like bpal's snow note, but darker, like snow deep within a pine forest. There's also something sweet and edible smelling to my nose, like a mix of cola and lime fizz gummis.

 

On my skin, this instantly brightens up and takes a bad turn towards soapy and sharply perfumey. It's like perfumey white florals, dryer sheets, and the sweet snow note. It's so gorgeous in the bottle, and such a disappointment once it touches my skin. I'm not sure what's in this that's going sharply, fakely floral on me. Over time, the snow note actually fades and I'm left with nothing but sharp, floral dryer sheets and something like sweet tarts . It doesn't smell much like what other reviewers have described, so I'm not sure what my nose is doing with this scent, lol.

 

Moon of Small Spirits is just a major disappointment on my skin. I'm keeping it, though, because I accidentally got a drop of this on my sweater and it smells awesome on fabrics (just turns to awful when it meets my skin chemistry). On my sweater, it makes me think of Christmas ribbon candies, cola, and a soft greenery like pine trees mixed with meadow grass, but it's not overly sweet or green smelling. It smells candied, dark, and gorgeous, though it does start taking on a bit of a 'clean' edge after a half hour or so.

Edited December 23, 2008 by Little Bird

[alterosen]

I really like this one.

I mostly get sweet snow, a bit of pine/juniper & well-behaved berries.

Very pretty. I'll have to dig up my Skadi decant to compare but I think this one is quite a bit softer with less evergreen. On my skin, it stays close but sure lasts nicely (9 hours so far).

I was really on the fence about ordering this because I was iffy about a lot of the notes but I'm sure happy now that I did!

[rayvn1]

Cold, slushy scent with hints of juniper and berries. Oooh, the pine and cedar are hanging out in the background and there's a sweetness from the grasses that I really enjoy! I don't know how it can be dry and slushy at the same time, but the snow is slushy and the cedar/grasses are dry Gorgeous, just gorgeous! I knew I should have sprung for a bottle...

[zankoku_zen]

This blend has the soft, slushy snow note that I love in Ice Queen. In fact, I was reveling in its IQ dupeness for the first half hour. After that, it changes however. It becomes a much grassier scent and the lovely snow goes to the background.

 

In some ways, I feel like this is IQ's little brother. The kind that likes to play outside and likes Spring a little too much to be all wintery all the time.

 

ETA: It's an effervescent sweet pine, but unfortunately, it dries to a floral soap. Now I remember why I didn't hold on to this.

Edited February 19, 2010 by zankoku_zen

[ACVail24]

dry: this dries to soft, spiced woods on my skin. this puts me in mind of the kodama forest in the film mononoke hime.

 

Moon of Small Spirits: What hkhm said, exactly

[Dymphna]

In the bottle: Snowy, but not in an overwhelming way. It's a very gentle scent.

 

Wet: Soft, powdery snow, the kind that's fun to take walks in because it makes the world seem hushed and special, the kind that gets caught in your hair and on your eyelashes and makes you look like you've been showered with fairy sparkles. Quiet, soft, delicate, magical snow.

 

Dry: This is definitely a January snow scent. (Yes, I know it was the December Lunacy.) By that, I mean there is none of the festive, hectic cheer of the winter holidays, no sense of group celebrations or jolliness or any of that. It's just a quiet walk in the snow. It's lovely and calm and sort of solitary-but-not-alone. It strikes me as a very personal scent, the kind of scent that reminds me of taking a walk by myself (or with my husband, but not talking too much) or sitting with a book or a journal and a cup of something hot and just enjoying my own company. And it's very soothing. I wore this scent to bed on New Year's Night (January 1st) and it was the perfect accompaniment to the relief I felt that the holidays were over for another year. Just...calm and peaceful, a hushed whisper of a scent.

[ifinena]

This is a gentle blend, soft and almost (but not quite) ethereal. The snow note is more mellow than other snowy bpal blends and it fades away in about half an hour. It dries down quite green/grassy.

To my nose and skin this is more green than I would personally like, but I think it's a lovely blend for the right chemistry.

[nellieburger]

I tried this scent at the December Will Call, and picked up a bottle because it was SO gorgeous! A combination of light, cool snow, sweet tea, and berries, with a soft, undertone of florals. It's cool, refreshing, and soothing! Delightfully enchanting!

[kjirstiben]

Initially, this is all about the sage and rose hips: it's tart and herbal. I can detect some juniper, too, an herbal-smelling evergreen scent.

 

Over time, some floral qualities develop, but the scent remains primarily herbal.

 

Around the 2 hour mark, a fruity scent emerged, and not long after that I started to get the "burnt grass" effect that I often get from green-smelling fragrances. However, surprisingly, the scorched smell goes away and the scent is now floral with a touch of… spice?... underneath.

 

By its final stages, this scent is herbal, almost perfumey but faint, and with a decidedly evergreen edge to it. A very nice, very different scent, and full y appropriate to its January moon namesake.

[nekogrrl]

In bottle: very crisp, clear and clean.

 

Wet on skin: Uh.. Irish Springs.

 

Dry on skin: Still Irish Springs.

 

10 minutes later: Irish Springs.

 

Obviously, this isn't for me. I get no berry, no snow, no herbal.. I just smell cloyingly clean.

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

sniffed from the bottle, this smelled strangely almost minty-cold, which frightened me so i didn't sniff at it again until it had dried down on my wrist.

once settled in - this smells so familiar. my scent-memory says it is somewhat like Talvikuu, but a bit sweeter and with more depth. this is really nice, i like it and i'm so glad i have a bottle....even if it isn't a typically *me* sort of scent.

 

this could just as well have been called Winter Forest, because that's the feel it invokes for me

 

still wanna know what a giniminagawunj is, though.

 

eta:

In the vein of yeahbutnobut: If you like Coyote and/or Talvikuu and were always curious to know what would happen if they were combined, this is a pretty good example. Minus musk.

 

i didn't see that before i posted my review, but that nails it!

 

[Kimbernunk]

I can't figure this scent out. I got a bottle right when it went live, and I haven't been able to review it because I just don't know what to say about it. It's *fantastic* in the bottle - grassy, green, and yet distinctly snowy, as though the snow were melting and running in muddy rivulets all over a field.

On my skin, it changes dramatically depending on the soap I use, hormones, how warm/cold my skin is and anything else that could possibly change it. Some days it stays fairly cool, crisp, and green. Those are the great days. Other days, it will morph into a very herbal rosy scent. That can get overpowering and headache-inducing. Still other days, it goes a faint rosy-berry and loses *everything* that it is in the beginning.

 

All told, I'm not sure what to make of it, even after a month and a half. I really want to like it, but it's so unpredictable I'm almost afraid to wear it. However, it's so glorious in the wet phase that I refuse to give up on it.

 

I think this may be the scent that makes me finally invest in a scent locket.

[fiddlefox]

To me, this is a snowy fresh laundry type scent, but I can huff it without feeling allergic reaction which is good and it isn't too sharp smelling. It's pretty and fresh but I can't pick out the notes really... Hmm I think I can detect a bit of juniper though.

Edited March 13, 2009 by ivy_fiddlefox

[fairnymph]

In the bottle: Sweet, herbal, woodsy. PINE, alas. And that slushy snow note. A bit resiny too, and something a vaguely fruity.

 

Wet: More herbal, and spicy; still very piney/junipery. I get some floral notes too; this sort of reminds me of L'Inverno, with cologney, almost sharp white florals.

 

Dry: A bit more fruit coming out, and copal amping, going a bit smoky. An edge of soap. Some of the lighter green notes (clover, grass, sorrel) are detectable, but definitely buried.

 

Later: I can pick up the elderberry now - it sort of reminds me blackberry or huckleberry, sort of juicy and herbal. A bit of tangy rosehip. No cedar, and a bit of soft sage.

 

Summary: More fruity and smoky over time, and the grass and clover are lovely, but that hairspray snow/pine/floral thing just won't die. Strong throw & lasting power.