Hungry Ghost Moon 2006

[harmonyfb]

... Offerings of ginger candy, sugar cane, smoky vanilla and rice wine mingle with a ghost’s perfume of white sandalwood, ho wood, ti, white grapefruit, crystalline musk and aloe. This scent is tapered by the presence of seven herbs, woods and resins used in the purification of the spirit and the purging of earthly concerns from the soul.

I adore the label of this scent. I'm tempted to keep it just for the label.

Unfortunately, I don't really care for the perfume itself. I don't really smell any grapefruit; it's all musky and green on me. Bleah. Obviously, not for me.

Happily, I have the t-shirt, which is beautiful and looks divine.

But the perfume? Off to swap. Edited November 28, 2007 by Shollin

[bifemmefatale]

I really wanted this to be all ginger sugar candy. The top note, as I expected, is the grapefruit, and just enough of the vanilla and sugar shows up to make it soft instead of skunky strong. I don't really like grapefruit scents but this is the nicest I've tried. The ginger and sake come out next, but sooo faintly! The drydown is lightly ginger sandalwood herbal with a faint breath of musk, but true to its name, this is a ghostly perfume with very little throw on me. Alas. Not an off-putting scent like ELF, but not a keeper either.

Edited July 25, 2006 by bifemmefatale

[yeahbutnobut]

Hungry Ghost Moon

 

In the imp: gorgeous candied grapefruit. A bright, happy, sunny grapefruit.

Wet on skin: fresh grapefruit with aloe and fresh cut ginger.

Dry on skin: fresh, tangy, sharp and very citrus-y. This has so much grapefruit, but that's a good thing-it's tangy and bright, and I think the aloe is there too-I get a bit of something like Berenice from the aloe-white musk combo in here. Maybe rice wine too? This smells like cologne on me-very fresh and almost perfume like. I don't get any vanilla or resins for now.

After a while: still grapefruit-aloe sharpness with clear white musk, but the scent seems to become 'broader' and not as tangy-I can now make out ginger. Not candied ginger, but fresh ginger root. I think I can also smell some vanilla and perhaps some resins and woods…yup, I smell a delightful vanilla note now, underneath the grapefruit-ginger. This scent is just perfect for summer and for some reason, it makes me feel nostalgic. Maybe it reminds me of a close relative's perfume, a holiday somewhere or a good friend but I can't tell right now-all I know is that I am reminded of happy summer memories which are hazy now but still make me smile.

The scent becomes a bit greener after an hour, not as blatantly citrus-y but still fruity and juicy. It's now more of a greenish-aloe-musk with a hint of sandalwood and vanilla that seems to have impressive throw. This scent is becoming even more unique and complex.

And then, about two hours later, I get the most wonderful scent…hints of aloe surrounding a delicious, moist, juicy scent of sugar cane further sweetened by vanilla. It's both fresh and green but also rich and creamy and sweet with a hint of musk…it's gorgeous and so unique.

Then I get a woodier drydown-the sugar cane remains but I'm getting more wood now.

Verdict: this is one of the most complex and wonderful-in fact my favourite-of the Asian moons. It starts off with a sharp, grapefruit dominated blast, zingy and zesty, with fresh ginger and aloe, it had an almost cologne like feel. But the drydown was even more amazing-the most incredible fresh-sweet/foody scent ever. Green aloe and clear musk with herbs and 'juicy' notes contrast with wet sugar cane (it smells like fresh sugar cane, the stuff I used to chew on) and creamy vanilla against sandalwood. It's beautiful and I've never smelt anything like it in BPAL or anywhere else for that matter. The scent has excellent throw and is delightful as a summer scent. I love the way it slowly morphs and has many facets, it's complexity fascinates me, it's sweet-fresh scent so much nicer than I expected. I should have bought more of this. HUNNNNNGGGGGGRRRRRRYYYY!!!

Emoticon rating:

If you like this, try: Berenice, Manhattan, Holiday Moon, Aizen Myoo

Edited September 28, 2006 by yeahbutnobut

[Megh]

In the bottle: Green, and subtly fresh herbs emenate from this liquid. I can smell a hint of grapefruit, and something sweet, ebbing and flowing underneath all of the combined notes.

 

Wet: That green topnote (aloe?) is winning, though I can smell the grapefruit, rice wine, sandalwood, and ginger duking it out. Very, very complex.

 

5 minutes: Still herby. I love the herbs and the sweetness. A wee bit of musk is haunting this blend, but its hanging out in the background. Still liking it!

 

30 minutes: D'oh. Grapefruit has left the building. I miss the bit of bite it added, but this is turning into one awesome sweet scent. Its almost foody without being even remotely foody.

 

3 hours: Light musk, I can still barely make out the ginger and wood notes. At this stage, it smells very much like Snow White 2005 does. It has that creamy 'something' to it that tickles my nose. I'll bet this will be lovely on those crisp autumn days. Yum!

 

For me, on a 1-10 pain scale (haha) its an awesome 7/10.

Many thanks to Carolyn for the bottle, I'm enjoying it immensely!

[siriusstar]

In the bottle: This smells like vanilla with a bit of fruit sweetness, but nothing stcky and icky.

 

On my skin: The fruit goes away almost immediately, replaced by a dry vanilla coconut with a curious herby base.

 

Drydown: Pure vanilla musk on my skin. There is still a bit of coconut on my sleeve and hair.

 

I never expected to like this one. I was sure it would be all sticky sweet fruit and ice cream. I am so happy to have been wrong!

[opheliaslily]

There's no way I can describe how good this is in a way that makes sense.

 

I seriously would be happy bathing in this. It's that good. To me it's sophisticated and flirty but not haughty. It's putting on a dress that you've always felt a little shy about wearing then finding out that all of a sudden it's as if it were made for you. It's so confident but a little sweet, rich and...tangy somehow.

 

I'm hunting down another bottle. Must have more. .

[beccabluesky]

I love the way the vanilla emerges from behind the aloe/grapefruit/musk, because at first, there's no hint of the vanilla being present. As HGM dries on the skin, the vanilla begins to come out nicely.

 

Ginger, which is hit-and-miss on me, plays a supporting role in this blend - it's present, but not in the foreground. It works beautifully with both the aloe/grapefruit stage and the vanilla stage.

 

As others have said, this is a wonderful summer oil.

[Tesseljoan]

In the bottle, this smells beautiful, like sugared citrus with just a dash of creaminess. A pinch of herbs, and all really well-blended. I was so looking forward to wearing this.

 

Of course, my skin perverts it into something generic, sharp and uninteresting. The bastard.

 

It'll have to wait until the Trading post comes out with a new batch of scent lockets....

[Kittyflop]

In the bottle, it smells complex in a foody way – fruits, spice, sugar. On my skin, however, for the first hour or so it’s candy. Jolly Ranchers. Watermelon, to be specific. Or Watermelon mixed with Sour Apple. Maybe that’s grapefruit and I’m just not recognizing it?

 

After about an hour the candy memories fade out and are replaced with an unusual scent. This doesn’t last long on me as a wide-throw ‘hey I’m wearing perfume’ kinda thing, but it lasts for a very long time very faintly on the skin. It is during this long period of drydown, after the top notes have long since evaporated, that I can smell vanilla. Vanilla and rice wine, reading the description, seem to be the closest to describing this phase. No woods for me here. This is nice, lovely and sweet, but not overwhelmingly fabulous.

[crazyredhead17]

It is that time of the month, so I will retest this in a week or so.

 

In the bottle, this is super fruity.

 

Wet, it's very sweet, and very grapefruity. Like the grapefruit frolicked in the sugar first. As it dries, the grapefruit calms into a bright, sparkly, more generic fruitiness, with green undertones. I don't get any of the vanilla, ginger, or sandalwood, and after a couple hours I have to shove my nose down my cleavage to get a whiff of any residual scent.

 

It's a wonderfully foody scent, but I wish it had more throw and more staying power.

 

edit - a week or so later - Similar in scent as before, but lasted much much longer. Yay!

 

And for funsies, I had my sister put some on, and she's amping up bubblegum. lol

Edited August 8, 2006 by crazyredhead17

[zenvodunista]

In the bottle: Whoa! That's way drier than I thought it would be. I was worried about all that sugar and stuff, but this is the smell of dry sugar, not the carmelized sugar of Sugar Skull.

 

On: No ginger. No rice wine. Yes to aloe, or is that the ho wood? I dont' know but it's reminding me of something....

 

The smell of sugarcane. Real sugarcane. My teacher, my kindergarden teacher was from Jamaica, and brought us real green sugarcane. Not dried out. Plump with sugar. And green. This smells like green sugar cane, which doesn't really smell sweet so much as green and cool. Oh, this is really lovely. Really, really lovely.

 

I'm really impressed.

 

n.

[slave1]

In Bottle: Sweet candied grapefruit

 

On Skin: This is so light and sweet! The grapefruit does cut through the other notes with a ripe tart note. The sugar cane and vanilla sweeten it up and the ginger rings true and gives a beautiful light candied note. I love the woods… I thought they would be heavy and make it a woody scent, but no they are very soft and give a nice base that compliment the other notes perfectly. The musk is soooooo pretty!! It also adds a velvet feel and keeps the scent so balance. I was worried this would be so tart from the reviews about the grapefruit taking over the scent, but to me although it is the dominant note, it is wrapped up in the other notes so well I can handle it. It is foody, but not bakery overlysweet foody. I think the resins also soften the scent overall and give a beautiful deep and slightly dark contrast. The rice wine starts to come forth, and it is also sweet, but not overwhelming like normal berry wine notes can be. This scent is so pretty and feminine, I love it! It is one of my favorite Lunacies for sure. Light throw and average wear length.

[elfmaiden]

From the bottle: A dry sweet, rather light smell of candied fruits and grapefruit.

 

On my skin: Wow, there are like a hundred different notes in this and I don't think I am familiar with any of them. It's very light and sweet, but the smell is strong on me and the throw is pretty impressive!

 

It smells foody, but in a way you wouldn't eat. Like artful sugar and pretty fruits mingled with woods and I think I can detect the aloe and ginger. It's 'pretty' and juicy, but dry, maybe it's the wine that makes me think like that.

 

Anyways

 

Jenn

[PixieSkull]

Bottle: Smells a bit like Queen Mab but with more citrus

Wet: Wow did this fill the area with citrusy goodness! Ginger and white grapefruit and aloe are first in the smell range. A little bit of herbs and musk and sandalwood make a nice, solid base. Gorgeous!

Dry: It's musky like sweaty skin but citrusy and nice and light. I maintain the gorgeous opinion as it's nothing but nice scents. The drydown reminds me of Clinique's Happy, which I love.

 

Category: White/Fruity/Citrus

Rating: 5/5; Pretty much flawless, it's beautiful and light and gorgeous and nice.

Overall: I would DEFINATELY wear this again, I'd be glad to. It'll be one that I can wear pretty much anywhere. It's great for casual occasions and great for something more formal. I could see this as a bride scent in the summer or spring. Hopefully I don't fall helplessly in love with it and can't get another bottle.

Edited July 27, 2006 by PixieSkull

[theshapeshifter]

Hmmm. Hungry Ghost starts out lovely on me, a mix of that tart greenness that seems to be in a lot of the Asian moons, plus a kick of grapefruit and ginger.

 

The jury's still out on the drydown, though - there's a nice hint of vanilla there, but it mostly seems to be veering in a slightly soapy-rice direction on my skin chemistry. I'll need to try it again on a day when I'm not sweating buckets, I think.

[LiberAmoris]

Hungry Ghost Moon really exceeded my expectations, which, admittedly, were kind of vague since the note list was so extensive! I tried to imagine what all those notes would smell like together, and just couldn't. Well, I now can say that they smell amazing together!

 

First applied, I get loads of beautiful grapefruit tempered with ginger. The rice wine gives it a tart and slightly astringent twist, with effervescence. As it starts to dry down, I smell the wood and the aloe with light musks underpinning it. Then it sweetens up a bit and smells a bit like Japanese rice candy---those sweets wrapped in rice paper.

 

It's an amazing scent progression and wearable and lovely at all stages. I wore it all day at work the other day and just loved it.

[cuervosueno]

I had no hopes of liking this though I love a number of the notes: sandalwood, vanilla, ginger, grapefruit. Still, the lunacy blends--Asian or not--are mostly a miss on me. I keep ordering them, but have kept 2 out of....well, more than a year's worth. So the odds were against this.

 

But I fell under Beth's spell immediately. And now I have three lunar oils to cherish.

 

In the bottle, it is green, tangy, very slightly citrusy. I'd forgotten what was in it other than ginger candy, and I didn't get that, but I did think of green tea. Oddly, esp. after reading these reviews, I got no grapefruit at all, not in any of the stages.

 

I put it on, and the scent immediately turns sweet. What I get is a slightly boozy scent (must be the sake) and the sweetness of sugar cane, and I must agree with Zenvodunista here--it really is like fresh sugar cane--sweet and green. There is also a middle stage that is slightly like a tea-based men's cologne to me, and though I liked that, I was a bit dubious about that stage, but it didn't last. the vanilla comes out, tempered by wood and something else, something incensy. It does remind me slightly of the scent in some Shinto shrines--a light incense and something else. This note is underneath the sweet candy and vanilla (which, for once, doesn't dominate the blend on me. I love me some vanilla, but my skin tends to amp it). And its still soft green--ho wood? Ti?

 

Overall this is lovely, and reminds me of Obon in Japan--candles lit in the stone lanterns at Nara, the doors of the great temple open so the Buddha's face glows golden in the night. That is one of the loveliest things I've ever seen, and I can imagine this scent with it. Or imagine walking down a path in Kyoto, stone lanterns lit, approaching an Inari shrine. Incense (resins and wood) is burning, and before you a geisha in a scarlet kimono rings the brass gong, claps her hands, before kneeling to place her offerings in the shrine: ginger candy, rice balls, saki. She places these before the stone fox guardians, and when she turns, for a moment her shadow is elongated, fox-like. then she stands, smiles--woman or kitsune?--and leaves, and you're left with the clack clack clack of her geta on the stone path and the smell of the shrine, of enchantment.

 

Which is Hungry Ghost Moon.

[anomie]

This was a real shapeshifter on me; it started out quite fruity in the bottle and on my skin, then all the green herbal notes popped up. And on the drydown, it was all sugar and vanilla and a little bit of something to cut the sweetness and keep it from becoming totally cloying.

 

Gorgeous blend. And it's about ten hours later and I can still smell it on my skin. Love it! I wish I'd gotten more than one bottle.

[elspeth]

After applying this to my skin my worst fears come to pass. The ginger amps way too far out and thats all I can smell. It was so lovely in the bottle that I was hoping the ginger would be forgiving but alas that is not to be. I can smell the wood note and a slight hint of the vanilla but my skin will not let go of the ginger. It is a lovely scent but it doesn't like me. I'm off to pout now....

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 5/5

Summarised in a word or two: GORGEOUS.

 

Pre-review thoughts: When I bought this, I was hoping for a gingered, candy-ish vanilla with a bit of grapefruit, but given the previous reviews, I'm a little wary of the sugared fruit.

 

In the bottle: Oooh, musky grapefuit! Strangely, the grapefruit smells a bit like melon?

 

On skin, wet: The only word for the wet stage is "gorgeous." Sugary, musky, grapefruity vanilla. It's absolutely divine. Oh please, HGM, don't change!

 

On skin, dry: I can safely say I am heartily in love with the Hungry Ghost, and I want to have his children, ASAP. Still strangely melon-y, a little spicy, smooth and sugared. The musk and aloe remind me of Embalming Fluid, without the lemon.

 

Conclusion/Notes: It's fate: the Hungry Ghost and I are meant to be. HGM is beautiful, wonderful, and more than worthy of the smilie. I'll be on the look-out for those selling their bottles, oh yes.

Edited September 23, 2006 by Aredhel

[locuraelegantia]

HGM starts of cloyingly sweet on my skin like grapefruit-ginger candy. As it starts to dry down it almost smells like Akuma to me (which is raspberries, blood orange and neroli).

 

After it dries it becomes a really tasty citrus cream. subtle, but very nice.

[vitawash24]

Hmmm. I don't get any grapefruit at all. It's been sweet, then an incense-y vanilla since I put it on. I was hoping for grapefruit, actually. Alas, I smell like a candle shop. (Or a head shop, according to Mom. But she thinks all BPAL smells like a head shop.)

[Rock Geisha]

In the bottle: Wow, this is the most sunshine-y BPAl oil I've ever smelled. Very citrusy. Many oils I've had to actually wear to see if I'll like them but I loved this one from the opening of the bottle.

 

Wet on skin: The grapefruit and ginger fight for dominance as a strong musk lurks in the background. This kinda reminds me of Lolita's older sister. Lolita's older sister who's really into uppers, that is--this is a very "frantic" upon application.

 

Drydown: It becomes a sweet grapefruit-y musk.

 

Overall: I should have bought more bottles.

[crescentwench]

In the bottle - sweet and green and light, i can smell the aloe, and the rice wine and the sugar

 

on, wet: the same, the aloe comes out more

 

on dry - more aloe, i can smell a hint of grapefruit and the warmth and sweetness from teh sugar and rice wine.

 

on, 1hr later - sweet ginger, with a touch of woodsyness and the hint of fresh aloe.

 

eta:

several hours later (after wearing it in the steam heat of today) - the woodsyness and aloe have faded leaving a delicious ginger and vanilla, with a hint of grounding that must be the musk and the faintest hint of the sweet powdery note that grapefruit turns on me. this is delicious! it might be a good thing i ordered two bottles after all!!

Edited July 30, 2006 by crescentwench

[space girl lost]

hrm. i'm still indifferent to this one right now.

 

smelling it from the bottle - nice, no grapefruit, but soft and lovely.

immediately upon hitting my skin i get a typhoon of wet juicy grapefruit and i LOVE it. my mouth literally starts watering!

shortly thereafter, the fruitiness disappears and the smell dries out a bit. the ginger isn't real out there. it's just soft and dry. subtle fruit, subtle woodsy, subtle ginger.

not even an hour later and i'm struggling to smell anything at all outside of this barely there dryness.

 

ho hum.

 

 

[edit] oh me oh my. the staying power has increased a bit. at work i kept noticing ... something. unsure what notes it is b/c it is all so balanced, but it's there. very faint, but there. hrmmm..... more fitting for summer, yes, so i'll just obsess on this one a while since i've got 5ml to go through. which should last me a good while.

Edited August 3, 2006 by space girl lost