Worm Moon 2011

[ellebelle]

WORM MOON
Do not smirk as a hearse goes by,
For you may be the next to die.
They wrap you up in a big white sheet
And throw you down six feet deep.
They put you in a big black box,
And cover you up with dirt and rocks.

All goes well for a week or two,
Then things start changing; all is new.
The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out,
The worms play pinochle on your snout.

A big green worm with rolling eyes,
Crawls in your stomach and out your eyes.
Til your blood turns mossy green
And oozes out like Devonshire cream.

Worm Moon marks the season of rains, when the worms scuttle forth, aerating the earth with their movements and enriching the soil by digesting waste in organic material, which creates organic fertilizer.

This is a melding of Victorian Grotesquery and springtime fecundity: mold-crusted dirt, decomposing organic matter, coffin wood, drooping funeral flowers, congealed blood, gloomy lunar oils, and cuckoo flower with something moist lurking underneath.

This smells amazingly like dirt; moist, loamy dirt just after the rain. This is perfectly appropriate for Worm Moon. I'm not sure I want to smell like damp dirt, but I'm amazing at Beth's skill in capturing just what it smells like! It makes me imagine mounds of just dug up soil in a graveyard.

Oddly, I don't dislike it.

Low throw, and it dries down to something a little more wearable. Same notes, but slightly less dirty and more just ... earthy. Some of the floarls come out, with a touch of a metallic edge. The drydown reminds me of the darker, more "adult" florals in the BPAL collection.

Least helpful first review ever. Edited April 2, 2011 by Shollin

[MtMoonKitty]

In the bottle this smells exactly like dirt... and yes, graveyard dirt is appropriate. It really has a mildewy dirt smell but it doesn't stink. When I first put it on though it smells just like sugar beets. We have a sugar beet factory in my city so it is a smell I am very familiar with. I don't like this stage much, at least not in a perfume. But I love the dirt smell. Honestly, I didn't get all the way to dry down. I had to wash it off at a point because it is not something I think my fiance would care for, at least not during the sugar beet stage and we were on our way out to dinner.

I can see myself wearing this for earth rituals. I bought it more for the song it goes to as it brought up some great childhood memories for me. I will hang on to it, even if it doesn't get worn much. I suspect it might mix well with some of my more floral blends.

[AnArtfuldodger]

In the bottle: dirt and florals

 

Wet on wrist: Dirt....good slightly damn mulch, actually. This is the smell of mixing mulch with the earth while gardening.

 

Dry: I get a hint of florals wafting over the dirt. As it continues to dry, I get more and more florals, less dirt.

 

Low throw, which is good...I think this is a good understated dirt-y (not dirty, dirt-y) scent. Because of the florals overriding the dirt with my skin chemistry, I don't know how often I'll wear this...I'll see if it ages to where the dirt is a little stronger.

 

I think this is a relative of Planting Moon...

Edited April 6, 2011 by AnArtfuldodger

[CiaoBonefish]

Interesting. It smells really well... lovely to my nose, but extremely unusual. I definitely get the damn soil after rain scent, but it is definitely fresher and lighter than the word "dirt" implies. I get a touch of wood and floral, but mainly damp fresh soil with wood. Oddly enough I totally get the beet note MtMoonKitty was talking about! I don't think I'm adverse to it though.. It is fresher and greener than Zombi but definitely has a decaying type feel to it. Extremely evocative hmmmm. Very unusual but surprisingly lovely. I didn't know if I would like dirt scents, but this one is really wonderful. I'm not sure if I need a bottle, but I will definitely hold on to the decant! Also stays pretty close to the skin in an almost sinister ethereal way, if you know what I mean? Really great!

Edited May 18, 2011 by ciaobonefish

[gniwle]

Dirt and rain! This is so gorgeous, and no fruitiness like the reviews of WM 08 mention. I love dirt and I love rain, so this was perfect on me. My skin amps this kind of smell so it was pretty strong on me, but I loooove it, so no worries. This was the first bpal I've worn that people have commented on, actually! I was told it smelled "clean", which is funny, considering the description.

[edenssixthday]

Worm Moon 2011 - I don't like dirt scents and the last Worm Moon almost made me nauseated, so it took me quite a while to work up to actually giving this one a test run from the leftovers of my group. It does go on smelling distinctly of wet dirt (not mud, just fresh, springtime, damp earth in the garden) and the tang of coppery blood. It's not bad at all. In fact, as it dries down, it gets more and more wearable, and the earth note moves into the background while the wood and blood become dominant, and I could swear there are unlisted resins in this scent (myrrh?). It starts to remind me a bit about what I love about The Midnight Carnival. There's not much leftover from my group, but what little is leftover I'm keeping and wearing. This turns out to be a really amazing, amazing warm, woody, resinous scent that's deep and rich and sophisticated. I'm completely blown away by how awesome it is, especially compared to what I expected. I can't remember the last time a BPAL blend surprised me this much.

[hkhm]

bottle: glorious, beautiful dirt.

 

wet: rich, loamy dirt. very mush like graveyard dirt but rounder somehow. this is wet and rich, very nice.

 

dry: this is straight dirt. the drydown is almost identical to graveyard dirt on me.

[killerklown]

In the bottle: Dirt, the damp kind from a freshly turned garden

 

Wet: Dirt

 

Dry down: The dirt takes a backseat and out pops these amazing dusty florals. You can literally smell the dust on the petals, but it's not a bad smell at all. Interestingly its almost comforting in a way. Can't quite explain it.

 

Dry: Pretty much the same as the dry down, with the dirt and florals switching back and forth in strength.

 

I was surprised by this one because dirt is just not my thing. But being my birth month I decided to give it a shot. Glad I did! It reminds me of working out in my grandparents garden in spring after a quick shower and adding some of their dead flowers to the compost heap that gets buried in the corner.

[Blood onmy hands]

I like this blend a lot and wish I'd ordered a bottle (why is it that almost every lunacy I purchase a bottle of smells awful on me, and I enjoy the few that I initially pass up? :/). I wasn't crazy about Worm Moon 08, but Worm Moon '11 doesn't have the sour, high pitched edge and rotting wood smell that 08 has on me.

 

First on, this smells like damp black dirt, perfumey florals (a bit sharp and unrealistic), and a bit of green plant stem. As it dries down, the whole feel of the scent starts to smell dry and better to me - sort of like dusty earth, dry woods, and sweet incense with hints of dark floral perfume.

 

Hopefully I'll be able to get more than a partial decant of this at some point.

[zankoku_zen]

Worm Moon 2011 is very wearable, esp. compared to Worm Moon 2008. It's got dirt, but its a damp earthy foresty kind of dirt, and woods and green plant smells, one which I think is tomato leaf and a tinge of florals. I found it pleasant and wearable, but sort of unremarkable which is nice since the connotation of Worm Moon makes it sound like it could be unpleasant.

 

So if you like dirt but don't want to smell like dirt, give this a whirl. It's more of the scent of having been in a garden where there is *gasp* some dirt.

[mymymai]

ITI: It smells like damp loam with a little bit of perfume. This isn’t the putrid mess I expected from the notes.

 

Wet: It still smells very similar on my skin, although the moss is more present, as are the lunar oils. I’m starting to like this, actually.

 

Dry: The sense of dirt has disappeared and I’m left with lunar oil, lilies, and other funeral flowers. I’m impressed with the dry-down, as it is a complete morpher and it changes into something I like.

[catalyst]

Low throw, and it dries down to something a little more wearable. Same notes, but slightly less dirty and more just ... earthy. Some of the florals come out, with a touch of a metallic edge. The drydown reminds me of the darker, more "adult" florals in the BPAL collection.

 

Least helpful first review ever.

No, actually, that was pretty accurate. I didn't get nearly as much floral, though. But dirt, a hint of something metallic and then... I'm not sure what. A dry leafy woody something with a hint of dried flowers.

 

Whatever the heck is in it, I really like it a lot. I consider it unisex because the dried flowers are subtle and maybe a little elegant, like a sweet wood or a sweet tobacco. Where I didn't like the dirt in Zombi because it was just too moldy (ignoring the overbearing rose, ew), this is much more dry and goes with all the other dry elements. This is a keeper.

[ND¢]

I get the metallic edge too.... wet, florals and a base note that reminds me of dirt. Was expecting it to smell more dirt like. Drying: thankfully the florals are mellowing. I got this one, as not-a-floral-lover, because sometimes I do love them-- Mum Moon, Tamamo, Shoggoth, so on and so on. And Penny Dreadful: now that's dirt and flowers. There's a smell that's almost citrusy and gives me an 'Asian' association in the drying down.... the florals are quite well blended and sophisticated. Very intriguing. The edgy metallic note went away gradually.

 

I'll let this sit a while and see what I think of it, but I'm suspecting that nothing is going to do until I finally get my hands on Planting Moon. I ought to have just gotten a bottle of Graveyard Dirt and dabbed a bit of Tamamo or some such on it.

 

Huh, and there's something familiar smelling about the florals. I don't get why all I smell is FLOWERS SPICE AND FLOWERS and now basically no dirt. What the heck is this reminding me of?

 

Sigh, disappointment. On a positive note (ha ha, note, get it? Note?) this might be my favorite label design of all time. Maybe I ought to track down a shirt and swap the bottle.

 

ETA: So once it's fully dried down the floral has changed into a still-sophisticated, spicy, almost-wood, almost-cologne. For all it's not what I hoped, it IS a very interesting scent. Anyone who enjoys florals would greatly enjoy this, I should think.

Edited December 24, 2012 by ND¢