Mourning Moon

[yeahbutnobut]

Ethereal, somber, and woeful: Chinese musk, wisteria, white grapefruit, calla lily, violet leaf, orange, gaiac wood, balsam of Peru, and Florentine iris.

Mourning Moon

In the imp: orange, grapefruit and something a bit floral. Reminds me of Schrodinger’s Cat.
Wet on skin: glittering citrus and wisteria. There’s orange here and it’s such a gorgeous orange note.
Dry on skin: interesting! The floral notes have the potential to go funny on me as they smell a bit bitter. But other than that this is, for now, very pretty. Orange is dominant, and it is swiftly followed by wisteria, iris, hints of grapefruit and violet. A hint of soft white musk. If anything, this is uplifting and pure, not sombre or woeful-but it does smell ethereal, a bit pale and ghostly. The floral notes seem to hint at the Ars Moriendi scents. The orange smells so happy though! The citrus scents remind me of Schrodinger’s Cat.
After a while: I knew it. The floral notes have turned bad. The lively citrus notes have faded, and sadly the flowers-lily and wisteria-are starting to smell off on me. Like wilted flowers. No soap yet, but they do smell bitter and wilted. There’s also something else in here that smells strange, like a kind of oily green scent that’s gone rancid. However, I like the musk here, it reminds me of Nuit for some reason-it has the same light sparkly feel. But everything else is failing badly.
Verdict: I liked the start of this scent-it was a zingy and bright sparkling citrus. Seems a little strange, for a scent called Mourning Moon! But it does have that ghostly and ephemeral feel to it as well, especially with the flowers. it reminded me of Schrodinger’s Cat crossed with the mournful floral scents. Lots of orange and grapefruit with a pale base of flowers and musk. But then the flowers reared up and turned bad on me. I think it’s either the lily or the wisteria, maybe both. They turned to what I usually get with such flowers, a wilted soapiness, and there was a kind of musky funk (as opposed to a pleasant musk) that popped up as well. Not a Lunacy scent I’m crazy about, I’m afraid...
Emoticon rating:
Is it a keeper? No.
If you like this, try: White Moon, Psyche, Schrodinger’s Cat, Oberon

[QueenFae]

This is light, airy and understated. It's a very white scent for me. I can mainly pick out the lily and what I believe is the violet leaf, but the is a certain "greenness" beneath it all. It's soft florals with a hint of earthiness behind them. There is also a bit of muskiness that begins to show itself the longer this is on my skin. There is also something rather sharp in there, but I'm not sure which note it is.

 

A very interesting moon, just not quite my thing.

[Gin]

Mourning Moon 2008

 

This is soft and well, sad. It seems gloomy. I couldn't even pick out notes, they all seemed grey and dampened. Slightly aquatic floral.

[Eucatastrophe]

Honestly, I just ordered it because I love the name.

 

I'm getting a weird "salty" smell from this. If I get very close I can almost make out something citrus-y hiding behind it, but it's fading very fast and all I can really tell is that it's not for me.

[Argentwolf]

This was actually the first lunacy that I ever purchased, and it was a really great choice.

 

Initially, I get a light, sort of tart citrus scent -- definitely grapefruit, there. As it dries, it quickly picks up...a sort of body and depth, from the violet leaf and other, darker notes, while the citrus notes keep it sweet and feminine. This is a beautiful, rich, classy perfume, not entirely woeful to me; more like the air of a mourning widow who is determined to keep her head held high and keep carrying on. There's a sort of sad determination to it, as well as a hopeful appreciation for the beauty of life in the here and now. Truly gorgeous.

[reynardine]

In bottle: Musky, hints of citrus and wisteria

 

Wet: orange and grapefruit

 

Drydown: Now I'm getting a bit of musk again, with the citrus (orange and grapefruit dominating) and wisteria. Perhaps some other florals back there, but wisteria is what I'm picking out.

 

An hour later: Soft and pretty, more fruity than floral. Absolutely beautiful. So glad that someone sold me their bottle!!

[skyelyric]

the citrus in this is very elusive to me, i have to be sniffing very specifically for it. an early reviewer mentioned there being something "classic" about this scent, and i really get that. in the imp it reminds me of a fine perfume, something in a fancy ornate bottle that my mom would wear for an elegant dinner.

 

so of course i tromp upstairs and find her, basically brandishing the bottle at her and going 'here, this smells like something you used to wear, what is it?' so there's kind of a vague theory at the moment of Halston(?) as that's the bottle that 25 years of memories is slogging up for me, but we're really not sure...i also mentioned that i bet it would smell lovely on her as it so reminded me of her old perfume, and i have now successfully BPAL'd my mother! *cackle*

 

as far as the actual scent, it's a faintly citrusy, woody floral to my nose, really lovely. mom mentioned the citrus right away. on me it dries down to something a little powdery, a little mournful/nostalgic, but soft and elegant. chinese musk seems to be a lot tamer on me than most. on mom the scent stays much crisper; her skin seems to hold on to the citrus notes longer than mine.

 

Mourning Moon isn't my typical scent style, but it's really beautiful.

 

Edit: My aunt's take on this is that it has a Shalimar type feel to it, so maybe that's the mainstream comparison.

Edited February 8, 2010 by skyelyric

[crebbsgirl]

So this was interesting. For awhile on my skin it stayed pretty much Chinese musk and grapefruit with a hint of flowers underneath. It was sweet and light and fresh with a really easy-on-the-nose musk. About an hour in it went soapy on me. Unfortunately. While it was behaving, though, it was a light, clean scent without the dryer sheet overtone I usually get from those kinds of scents.

Edited May 6, 2010 by crebbsgirl

[raisin]

Oh, how pretty! It went on almost candy sweet (citrus has a bad tendency to do this on me) but the woods and muskiness are beautiful and win out as soon as this dries. It's got a sharp coolness to it that make me think of the masculine, cologne-type scents, and I dig it.

 

I think I may have to look into finding a bottle.

[filigree_shadow]

I'm not sure what I'm smelling in this. I put some on, and a single note or impression wasn't jumping out at me, so I thought I'd let it dry and see what happened. Well, it's dry now, but it's so faint I can barely smell it. So I put on a little more, and this time I noticed orange straight off. But then it turned a little sharp, like herby. Not sure what that's from. It gets a little floaty and kind of ghost-like, but the citrus in it gives it a kick. Then when it's totally dry, it's just sort of a light, indefinable soft scent that's barely there. Again.

 

I sort of see where this is trying to go, but I don't think it quite gets there for me.

[countessmouse]

Okay, I absolutely hated this when I first put it on. There was an odd "old wood" smell mixed with something I just couldn't identify, and for the first 15 minutes it was horrid! I have learned, however, to attempt to tolerate the bad in hopes that the good might show up.

 

This time, I was rewarded. What's left is a haunting white floral tinged with grapefruit. Absolutely lovely!

[theseagrows]

i think this scent is all musk, lily and wood on me. woods often tend to smell weird on me...they can go kind of sour, and it is no exception with this scent. the sourness overpowers, and yeah, this just doesn't really work on my skin.

 

[coldandsleepy]

In the bottle and straight onto my skin, this is oranges and wet woods and dust and I freaking love it.

 

Within 15 minutes, it's dried down into nothing but musk and a faint hint of lilies. And there it sadly stays.