Today’s post brings my first review from the Pandora Winter 2016 collection, with an in-depth look at the Starry Night Sky murano. My reviews from this collection are running a little later this year, as I have primarily indulged in Christmas charms and I wanted to feature them closer to the time – this particular charm was a rather impulsive addition to my collection. I hadn’t intended on buying it at all, but it was so pretty and crisp and wintry in person that I found that I had to have it! ^^
This has a few different names, depending on each region, so you might be familiar with it as simply the Night Sky bead or other variations thereof.
This post is brought to you after a great deal of angst, mostly due to my laptop abruptly refusing to charge – thereby restricting my ability to access the photographs for this review and to edit them! After a great deal of jiggery pokery and cussing, we are happily back in business, and so –
Read on for some styling inspiration and close-up shots of this rather stunning bead!
Pandora Starry Night Sky Murano Review
Each star has a little CZ at its heart, accentuated by a glittering sparkle deep within the glass. The stars are hand painted on to the glass, meaning that there is some variation between each murano – as you might expect. My stars are pretty crisp, but not as well defined as some examples I’ve seen online. The overall effect is beautiful in every murano I’ve seen in person, however – a lot of its loveliness is derived from the beautiful sparkle and deep colour of the glass, which really set off the stars and make them glitter, regardless of their shape!
As you can see, the murano glass itself is a deep, bright blue, rather than clear. A darker colour and the glitter effect itself is wrapped around the core, meaning that the glass looks darker from face on, but rather brighter from the side.
The murano features the smaller Pandora core, as pictured below. This image also really works really well to show off all the depth and variety of colour in this one little bead – the deeper navy at the core of the bead, the hint of iridescent sparkle and the brighter blue of the glass itself. The pretty white of the stars really sets it all off, too!
One thing that struck me is that the pairs of stars are not evenly spaced around my murano – the three pairs of stars are spaced closely together, with a big gap between the first pair and the third pair. Again, just another reason to go and pick out a murano bead like this in the store – that way you can check that every little detail is to your taste, if you prefer! :) It isn’t really that noticeable when you’re wearing it, but I know that many bead enthusiasts are particular when it comes to these sorts of things!
For a point of comparison, I’ve photographed this charm along with the Fascinating Aventurescent and Midnight Effervescent (Fizzle) muranos from previous years. They’re of a similar navy blue and work well together (particularly the Fizzle and the Starry Night Sky) – however, the closest match would be between the Fizzle murano and this new one, which have a similar effect in person.
Styling
For my first styling, I wanted to use this bead to give a more dramatic twist on a Christmas design. ❄️ This is my Night at the North Pole bracelet styling, using the murano and some starry clips to create the idea of the night sky, accentuate by the moonstone cabochons, with Santa’s Home and a little pave Tree of Lights charm to tie the whole thing into the idea of Father Christmas and the North Pole itself. To emphasise this, you could also add a Reindeer pendant, perhaps!
Secondly, this is how I am wearing my murano – on the double-wrap navy leather bracelet, which is one of my favourite leathers! It’s meant to be a kind of romantic, wintry stargazing bracelet: the boy and girl represent a couple, the stars in the middle the crisp night sky, while the frosty Snowflake bead and the gorgeous two-tone Winter Wonderland clips add a little winter magic. I just love gold and navy blue together, and it works so beautifully in a Pandora bracelet styling. You could definitely bring that out in this design more, perhaps by adding a couple of gold spacers either side of the murano, or a couple of two-tone festive beads.
And here it is on my wrist! I took this picture while waiting for my car to defrost this morning, as the glass looked so pretty in the early light. ^^ There are a fair few of my Rue La La purchases on here, too, with the blue pave stars, the snowflake and the Winter Wonderland clips!
Conclusion
It’s been said numerous times now how far Pandora’s glasswork has come in recent years, and I can only reiterate it again here! This is truly a lovely bead. The depth of colour is so striking, and the starry detail is very cute. I had no plans to buy another wintry blue charm, as my existing midnight-themed bracelet has been full for a long time, and yet I find myself putting together a whole new leather bracelet design to accommodate this one! It’s perfect for a more dramatic Christmas bracelet, or for any other starry design.
The only hesitation I would add is that it would be nice to see more variety. We’ve had navy blue muranos for the holiday season for the past three years now, and it would be wonderful to see them apply these new, sophisticated glass techniques to a greater variety of styles of murano bead. <3 That said, this bead is gorgeous and the great thing is that it works so beautifully with the muranos you might already have purchased from the previous two collections!
What do you think of this latest murano design? Did it make it on to your wish list?
Love it! I’ve been wanting to do a night sky bracelet for awhile now. I have the Fascinating Adventurescent and I want to get Midnight Effervescence and the two-tone Night Sky. I don’t really mind the spacing of the stars.
Those would be perfect picks! I do love a bit of two-tone with the deeper blues, it looks so beautiful. The spacing of the stars didn’t bother me either, and I hadn’t really noticed until I was taking the close-up shots :)
This didn’t even make it to the wish list-I bought it!!! So beautiful and fits perfectly with my Blue Christmas bracelet
Aha, I love it when you instantly know that a charm is for you!
:-) This one’s really pretty!
Congratulations on the beautiful charm.
Still didn’t make it to the store. Work is crazy these days… hope eventually I will and then I’ll let you know.
Take care xo :-)
Aw, I hope that work slows down and that you can enjoy some Pandora again soon :) It’s a shame that you didn’t get to go your press event!
Take care, too, and hope you have a great rest of the week <3
Ah, Ellie, if I could only be as creative as you when styling my bracelets! I keep trying but it means I have to buy more charms! Haha :) I too was not planning on buying this lovely but it matched the deep blues of my fairy tale bracelet. The vintage night sky charm also complimented this piece so I bought that too! At this time of year no one needs to ask what I want for Christmas-they know my Pandora addiction. Happy Holiday!
Aha, doing themed Pandora bracelets is always a dangerously expensive business. ^^ I never used to do it, but I’ve started making bracelets to accommodate charms I want, rather than always picking charms that go with bracelet designs I’m already working on, which is a very bad habit indeed!
Ah, I love that you’re doing navy and deeper blues for your fairytale bracelet. It’s not a colour scheme you see all that often for that kind of styling, and yet it’s so appropriate with blue being something of a royal colour. Happy holidays to you too! <3
I´ve seen it in peronand it´s really gorgeous!. Unfortunately, it´s not on my wishlist because muranos are too big for me, so I don´t even consider them. It´s a shame that they don´t make them in a smaller version. I think they would look beautiful in a rounded shape, like the petite faceted ones. That would make them more easy to wear, too.
By the way I got the snowflake dangle today. I don´t mind the inscription,since it´s really tiny and well hidden. Nobody is comming so close as to read it.
I like your starry night, wintry bracelets. I´m still working on my own blue design.
And last but not least, I hope your laptop has recovered completely after its failure. It is of geat importance to all of us as it keeps us well informed and up-to-date about Pandora things! ;)
Aw, that’s a shame but a lot of people feel the same way :) I am a complete murano addict, and I add to them almost all my stylings, whether they’re full silvers or leathers or bangles! They should definitely keep doing the facets – some glass ones would be beautiful, as you say, and some made from coloured pearl would be my ideal!
Aha, thank you! The laptop is up and running and completely functional again now. It was annoying, as I was mad at myself for not backing all my blog posts up somewhere else – I’d just copied them over from the camera and left them on the laptop and then it just would not turn on! Luckily it’s feeling a bit happier now. ^^
I felt the same way about Muranos at first (thought they were too large). I bought hardly any Muranos the first year I collected, but now I have at least one on almost all of my bracelets! Pandora has come out with so many amazing Murano designs over the past few years that I am a total Murano addict now!
Aha, I’m so pleased to hear that they won you round :D I have been a murano glass fan from day one, but the range of glass they’ve come out with the past couple of years has been beautiful!
Gorgeous styling as always! I purchased this bead and a pair of the alluring cushion spacers so that I can start a midnight blue themed bangle, using the limited edition complimentary bangle. Can’t wait for them to arrive. A number of Christmas charms caught my eye too at Rue La La. I had been good for a fairly long time. Looks like the Christmas spirit is getting into me already.
Thanks, Ariane – lovely t hear from you! A midnight blue themed bangle sounds beautiful, especially with the pretty snowflake clasp to bring out all the sparkle in the blue glass. :D Hope your Rue La La beads turn up soon!
I like your style on oxidized bracelet, simple & festive.
Thank you very much! The oxidised bracelet is a favourite of mine. ?
Both your Wintery Night Stargazing and the Night at the North Pole are beautifully styled, and your photos are always perfect. You are right about the variations in Murano glass beads and that is what I love about hand made-made glass beads.
I wish I had a whole bracelet full of Starry Night beads with the tiny stars spacers in between each one. For those of us who love Stars, they’re the perfect bead! Lovely review, Ellie, thank-you.
Thank you so much, Sarah! :D You know how much I love your photos, too, so that is lovely to hear from you. That Starry Sky bracelet sounds beautiful – if only! Luckily just one of them sparkles beautifully and really sets off a whole bracelet rather well, so we will have to make do with that. ^^
Thanks for commenting, Sarah! <3
I wasn’t planning on getting this Murano, but your post is making me reconsider! Also, your styling on the dark blue leather bracelet is making me think about getting this leather too even though the last thing I need is another bracelet! I have a winter blue/starry night bracelet that is full, but Pandora makes so many beautiful celestial-themed charms that I’m thinking I may need to create an additional mini-design. I have several bangles I could put this mini-design on–my star, dainty bow, and snowflake bangles are all empty–but I really love the theme on the dark leather, so I have a dilemma haha.
Yay I am glad to hear that! At the risk of being a bad influence (as usual), the navy leather is beautiful – and so versatile! It also looks gorgeous with the Filled with Romance oxidised heart bead, which is how I wore it for some time – it’s great for giving a bit of an edge to more romantic charms as well. I think a little mini starry design sounds perfect – even better if it’s on the leather ? if not, the star or snowflake bangles might be very pretty with it too!
I can imagine the Filled with Romace bead would look lovely on the navy leather. I have actually tried this charm with my celestial theme in the past, and it looked great!
Ah, I bet that looks stunning too – I will have to try that myself :D
Hi Ellie, I totally get what you mean. I too did not plan on getting this glass bead seeing that it is rather similar to the Midnight Effervescence (Fizzle), but once I saw it in the display window the morning the collection released, it immediately became a must-have for me. Like yours, the stars on mine are not evenly spaced. I do not mind that as the stars on mine are crisp and well defined. I picked it up in the store with the help of a lovely SA. I’m totally in love with this bead and currently wears it on my Xmas bracelet. ?
Hi Jen! That’s the thing – you can often be more pragmatic when you’re just looking at stock images a few months in advance, and then the excitement of a new collection comes around and you see how lovely a particular bead is in person and all resolutions just go absolutely out of the window! ^^
I don’t mind those things either – it’s definitely all about the overall effect and ‘feel’ of this charm for me. The glitter is just lovely! I always try and put my ‘murano fanatic’ hat on when I do these reviews, however, as I know that a lot of people do like to get every detail exactly right. ? I am sure your Christmas bracelet looks beautiful and very sophisticated with this beautiful bead on it!
Hi Ellie,
I love this Murano, picked mine out personally because there was a lot of variation. It was purchased in conjunction with the new two tone clasp bracelet. I agree the gold is a great match for the Starry Night Sky nurano. I love all your designs. The navy leather bracelet is my favorite.
I will be wearing it with my snowflake clasp bangle. & the star shine spacers.
Cheers
Lisa K.
Hi Lisa! Ah, good plan – I got mine online, but I was pretty confident that I’d be happy with whichever example I got. I’ve not seen a ‘bad’ one yet! :D And so pleased to hear that you’re putting it with some gold! It really does look so opulent and beautiful with the blue glass. What else are you adding to it?
His Ellie,
Sorry for the delayed reply. We have had some wicked snow storms & I was away on a training course all last week. Doesn’t take long before I fall behind. I used three of the same charms you used in two of your designs above. I put a galaxy spacer on either side of the Starry night Sky Murano, then I worked my way out with a gold Galaxy charm ( a reward for completing my Masters Degree field placement) star shine spacer & twinkle night clip (the one with the moon).
On the other side I used a blue follow the stars pave charm (the same one you used), star shine spacer & Starry clip.I wish now I had bought the Starry night clasp bracelet but I have to say it does look great with the two tone clasp bracelet and twinkle twinkle safety chain. I plan to wear this murano on my necklace.
This has quickly become my favorite murano.
I agree any variations this charm has only adds to the overall beauty of this charm.
Cheers!
Lisa K.
I love this Starry Night Sky murano so much that I have bought four. I’m using them now for a winter night sky design, but I also have plans for patriotic designs for summer. I wish Pandora would give us more muranos. The ones they’ve offered the past two years have been just lovely, but not nearly enough. Good luck with your recalcitrant laptop!
Excellent! :D I would absolutely buy more if my budget allowed it. As Sarah said above, a whole bracelet of these muranos couldn’t even be overkill! I totally agree regarding the number of muranos that have been coming out recently. They are beautiful but nowhere near as plentiful as they used to be. I used to like all the different colour kits they did.
Haha, thanks Angie! The laptop was in disgrace but is now working properly. I don’t have much luck with technology (this is the second time it’s had a near-complete meltdown in two years of ownership) – my OH claims that I am ‘hard’ on my things, but I really don’t see what I do differently to anyone else aha!
My friend got last promotion set from Outlet yesterday, Can $90 2015 LE Black Friday Snow Globe, cz X’mas Tree & X’mas Stocking value$190. I paid $10 for Stocking since I have the other two already.
Hi Michele,
Sounds like a great steal at 10 dollars. I didn’t indulge in this collection. It’s very pretty but I tend to wear lighter colors so I decided not to.
You always find such good deals Michele! ☺️
I’m planning to get this murano at the end of the month. I just took a quick look at it a few weeks ago and the two I saw were quite pretty. I like it on your navy leather bracelet. Let’s hope Pandora treats us with a few more lovely muranos next year. I have to have a murano on every bracelet!
Oh, me too Judy – at least one on each bracelet for me as well, and usually more! I am hoovering up a lot of retiring glass beads as they go, too, but it would be wonderful to see more murano glass designs next year too. <3
Hi Ellie, sorry about your computer. I love this murano and it was the first bead that I bought from the winter collection. I’m trying to make a starry bracelet design, so I put it as a focal piece in the Starry Sky clasp bracelet, with the Night Sky enamel, the Midnight Blue pave Stars and the Dark Blue and Midnight Effervescence muranos. I need to complete the design with the Vintage Night Sky charms and the star shine and galaxy spacers, and a few more… I hope to finish it next year :)
Hi Priscilla, thanks – it is working again now, thankfully! I luckily know people who are far more proficient with technology than I am. :D It is the perfect focal point for the Starry Sky bracelet, that all sounds perfect. I should have used the Starry Sky for this review, but for some reason I didn’t think of it! That’s the kind of design I would have liked to have be able to put together for this review, too, but I don’t have enough of the deep blue starry beads.
Wasn’t intending to get this after much consideration, but your post tempted me. See how long can I resist the temptation because I can still squeeze this one into my dark blue starry theme bracelet.
Aha, well, I hope it persuades you! I’m sure it would be a great finishing touch for that bracelet of yours :)
Hi Ellie
Amazing review :-)
As I’ve already get one of this, so need for me to be convinced but if I was not, I definitely would be after reading your review.
I was impressed by all the details you described about this bead. So impressed, that I took mine from my jewelry box and take a closer look to it and I managed to notice everything you talked about. Wow !!!!
I adore this bead, especially its color and the stars. For me it’s a perfect match for my starry night sky bracelet. From my point of view it fits perfectly with the Fascinating Adventurescent murano and the vintage night sky dangle.
Your styling are lovely and my favorites is the one with the leather bracelet. Really beatiful….
Have a nice day
Hi Valerie! Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed it :D I often don’t notice all the little details in a bead until I get it out and put it under my macro lens to do these reviews haha. I particularly love looking at the animal and character beads, there are usually some adorable whiskers or paw prints to discover. The other ones I love are the national icon charms, which all have little hearts tucked into the design somewhere (e.g. on the feet of the Paris charm or on the faces of Big Ben!)
So pleased you like the leather bracelet, as that’s how I’ve been wearing mine! I’m sure yours looks gorgeous with your starry night design too. Thanks for commenting as ever, Valerie!
Mine were a gift
I love them
Enjoy! ☺️
It’s la nice bead but the price is almost astonishing.
I could not warrant spending €50 on a glass bead. ?
I know, the price is astonishing – this would have been £35 even a couple of years ago and now it’s gone up to £45!
Yes, it would have been $45-$49AUD in the past. It’s now a hefty $65.
Well it certainly means that I’m less likely to buy glass in pairs from now on!
Ellie I love both these designs – Night at the North Pole is SO Christmassy! I am going home to put my Christmas decorations up, you have inspired me!
Aha, I’m so pleased to hear that Debbie! We’ve been putting up Christmas lights this evening :D :D
Hi Ellie it’s lovely it goes so nicely with the other two muranos. I really want to make a starry night design at some point lol. I love how you have a story behind all your bracelets it’s so cute. I love both designs. And you could get away with wearing them all year around. I saw that you got the Santa house I got that one two I love it it’s so detailed I also got Mrs Claus who is also so detailed. I have filled my Xmas bracelet my plan is to get the snowflake bangle to put a few on there.??☺️????
Hi Nicola! You should totally do a starry night bracelet, there are so many cute starry beads out there to choose from :D
Aha I do like to do little themes and stories for my review bracelet stylings ^^ My actual bracelets I wear are often more mishmashy, with a looser overall theme! I got Mrs Claus too, she is sooo cute (but tiny!). I hope the snowflake bangle comes home with you soon!
Thanks for commenting! <3
Hi Ellie it’s lovely it goes so nicely with the other two muranos. I really want to make a starry night design at some point lol. I love how you have a story behind all your bracelets it’s so cute. I love both designs. And you could get away with wearing them all year around. I saw that you got the Santa house I got that one two I love it it’s so detailed I also got Mrs Claus who is also so detailed. I have filled my Xmas bracelet my plan is to get the snowflake bangle to put a few on there.