Lines: The Cold Earth Slept Below

[artoria]

The cold earth slept below,
Above the cold sky shone;
And all around, with a chilling sound,
From caves of ice and fields of snow,
The breath of night like death did flow
Beneath the sinking moon.

 

The wintry hedge was black,
The green grass was not seen,
The birds did rest on the bare thorn's breast,
Whose roots, beside the pathway track,
Had bound their folds o'er many a crack
Which the frost had made between.

 

Thine eyes glowed in the glare
Of the moon's dying light;
As a fen-fire's beam on a sluggish stream
Gleams dimly, so the moon shone there,
And it yellowed the strings of thy raven hair,
That shook in the wind of night.

 

The moon made thy lips pale, beloved—
The wind made thy bosom chill—
The night did shed on thy dear head
Its frozen dew, and thou didst lie
Where the bitter breath of the naked sky
Might visit thee at will.

 

- Percy Bysshe Shelley

The moon’s dying light: cypress boughs and yew, death-cold beams of white musk, white thyme, marbled orris, Spanish moss, grave soil, and a sprig of rosemary.

In the bottle: Herbaceous, with white musk in the background. The white musk has a familiarity to it, and it strikes me that this is one of the musks used in Dorian. However, the herbs are the forefront of it; the musk just sort of ties everything together. The herbal scent is STRONG, mind you. This makes me think of a frozen landscape, just on the edge of an evergreen-laden forest.
Wet, on skin: Still herbal, but with something deeper. Is this the cypress and yew? The musk comes out more strongly on me here. I also smell a bit of the grave soil, but the dirt smell isn't too overpowering. This smells sharp and clean, but it has an underlying softness and darkness to it.

 

Drydown: The sharpness of the herbs starts to die down as this dries, and the musk and moss and wood come out more, and the notes balance each other out better. I'm not sure what marbled orris smells like, so I can't speak on that. However, to me, this smells clean and soft and herbal, with just the slightest tinge of something sharp, and a very faint sweetness that grows as it wears. It's not too terribly soapy on me, likely thanks to the soil and musk and yew. I find this scent to be very unisex. I can't stop smelling my wrist! I really do love herbal scents, though!

 

I'm glad I grabbed a bottle of this. It's really lovely.

[zankoku_zen]

Moss, cypress, on a bed of thyme and white musk. This one smells mossy, herby, and cold. Like if an artic blast had made it to Louisiana and frozen everything there. Very gender neutral on me. Good throw and wear length.

[VetchVesper]

Dry, herbaceous, and very green in a way I haven't smelled with other BPAL "green" scents. I'm not getting anything "snowy" from this, though I do agree with other reviews that there is something cold about this fragrance. It reminds me of death. I think it catches the melancholy of the poem very nicely. Very evocative and atmospheric.

Edited January 7, 2018 by VetchVesper