Under the Harvest Moon

[crebbsgirl]

Blue and white musk, summer roses, wild crimson leaves, grey amber, carnation, lavender bud, and vanilla bean.

Alright, this was the one I was most looking forward to out of all of the late summer scents. The roses came out in the initial wet stages but seemed to fade to the background as it dried. Which is good, as I seem to amp rose or turn it to ammonia normally. This turns very creamy, with a little bit of spice from the carnation. The drydown here is just gorgeous, and it reminds me a little of a more feminine Wulric.

[pinkusmaximus]

On the plus side, the rose in this blend is indeed faint--it stays in the background on me even though I amp rose like crazy (and dislike the note very much). I would probably not be able to pick out the rose in this blend if I didn't know it was there.

 

On the meh side, I can't really pick out any notes in this scent. It never really morphs the way some blends do; instead, it smells the same when I apply it as it does when it's fading away. It's not offensive--it's even pretty. It's just...generic. It's floral, it's nice, and that's pretty much it. It doesn't really evoke a particular mood for me, and that makes me think I probably won't reach for it much. I generally take a second to think about the kind of day I'm going to/hoping to have, then choose a scent accordingly, and I can't imagine when I'd reach for this scent.

[milo]

This starts as a really gorgeous blend. A soft lavender and musk, along with a beautiful, creamy vanilla. Soon, it is still very nice, but not "OMG, this my HG scent", like when it's wet. Very difficult now to pick out the notes, but it is still a soft, white grape-like (huh? where did this come from?), delicate musk blend. Unfortuneately, the grape like note is translating to a white wine for me, probably the ONLY alcohol note I don't enjoy. The vanilla shyly peaks around the corner after an hour or so again, and man is it one beautiful vanilla. A diamond in the rough, if you will, the pretty girl hiding behind glasses. You get the picture.

I like this blend as a whole, but LOVE it wet, and I probably will get a bottle just because it holds such promise. I'm hoping the winey note will disappear, the vanilla will get stronger with age, and crossing my fingers that the lavender holds it's own. Pretty much a win.

[opticnerd]

This blend is lovely, but possibly too rosy for my taste. I normally turn roses into something awful, but the rose is staying true in this one, which is good, but still rather prominent to me. I do love the creamy vanilla and cool musks that are very similar to Antique Lace (one of my staples). I wish I got less rose and more carnation and it would be a total winner. As for now, I'm just on the fence. It is lovely for a classic, floral perfume and is a very pretty blend, so I'm going to hold on to it for a while and hope for the best.

[moon_lemming]

This is my fave of the Summer's End series. It starts off as a sort of autumn-themed TKO, and as it dries carnation starts spicing it up. Eventually a rose note comes along, making it a little more perfumey. It would be a bottle-worthy winner if it weren't for either the musks or the grey amber -- one of those suckers is making Under the Harvest Moon have a horrible new-carpet undertone that I just cannot stand. Boo.

[Schmoozy]

 

 

Wow. Such a soft wispy scent. This is sweet, earthy and herbal all at the same time. The spice from carnation, the sweetness of vanilla bean, the herbal lavender all combine beautifully with blue and white musks. I love how I can barely detect the summer roses. I mean I like rose, but I think if they were dominant in this blend it might overpower all of the other good things. This is so pretty.

[boxinghelena]

:@&*$!:

 

What the hell??? I should have listened to my uh... spidey sense & passed on this one but because people were raving about it, I ordered a bottle. Well, I smell like a darn Lesser which means I smell like baby powder. I HATE the smell of baby powder!!

[Suu4LC]

This scent is so gorgeous...it isn't something I thought I would love based on the description, but I fell in love sniffing it at will call. Lavender haters, beware, I definitely notice the lavender in this-it's not sharp though-it's a soft, pale lavender that along with the vanilla reminds me a bit of Lilith Victoria There's just the right amount of musk, and normally I don't do well with roses and leaves DEFINITELY aren't my bag, but they are just hinted at here in just the right amounts! Amber is also another problem note for me-it usually goes powdery, but it is SO perfect here-not super powdery at all.

 

This is seriously just the perfect blend of all of these notes into a gorgeous, delicate creamy lavender/vanilla musk, with a touch of rose and the teeeniest hint of leaves. Exquisite!

[zankoku_zen]

This one is a soft musky rose with a hint of lavender. It's soft and girly, and very comforting. I can see this being appropriate for a young girl.

 

That being said, not a fan of roses, so pass.

[hellomoonglow]

The Lab's rose scents always stay strong on my skin, and this is no exception. A delicious, creamy rose.

[Leopard403]

This is really lovely. Very similar to The Atrocious Attic, which is one of my favorite blends of all time. I don't get the lavender that so many others do, but instead I get a creamy vanilla rose with a hint of fresh (not spicy) carnation that manages to be soft and voluptuous without becoming baby powder-y. The musks are very soft (not the In Your Face Musk! that the lab's red musk scents tend toward) and the amber is very light but anchors the other notes nicely. This is another favorite!

[Venneh]

I'm getting rose and lavender in the decant, here, with maybe some vanilla in the background? On my skin, I get rose and vanilla, which is an interesting mix, before the lavender makes it fade to absolutely nothing. Goddamn fucking lavender. Aaagh.

 

This'll probably work better on someone else. To the swaps!

Edited October 12, 2009 by Venneh

[tartchef]

I think I squeaked a bit when I first read the description of this - so many beautiful soft notes and a slash of that gorgeous leaf note Beth's been using... I hesitated, though, as roses and I have a rocky history at best...

 

Turns out "summer roses" are akin to the rose note in Katrina van Tassel, creamy & pale & well-behaved The carnation & vanilla are thick & sweet, sweeter than Hod but in that vein. Normally I'd shy away from anything quite so sugary thick, but it's a necessary foil, rounding out the edges of the pale musks & lavender & muting any soapiness... As it is, there is a trace of soap, but it's a beautiful, rock-hard, triple-milled luxury bar, so I can forgive that I rather wish I got more leaves, but I'll take what I get - just one or two scarlet leaves, the barest hint of that bitter spicy sappiness.

 

:sigh: Just beautiful A perfect moon scent - not a lunar oil, but a scent that really captures the colors of a full late-summer moon, its light shining radiant through an open window & falling on clean, creamy sheets.

 

ETA: Six hours later, I'm left with the most deliciously scented vanilla amber - it's sweet but not foody, per se, and with none of the powderiness amber often brings. There's a gentle thickness beneath, the lavender, carnation & rose's final throes...

Edited October 14, 2009 by tartchef

[saralaughs]

This comes close to being wonderful on me.

 

The musk is clear and a bit sharp in here, with the lavendar calming it down. The rose is barely noticable to me. The carnation, however, is the reason this is not going to be bottle-worthy for me. It mixes horrorably with a sharp note in the blend (I'm thinking the musks but I dunno for sure) and becomes strong, spicy, sharp baby power on me. Not pleasant.

[vividdreamer]

This is just gorgeous, both in the bottle, and on my skin. It's a soft, creamy, floral musk that somehow smells SO familiar to me but yet can't place. I can't easily identify any of the notes--the carnation is definitely there, and I suspect that the rose is too, but I generally don't do rose well at all, and yet this is perfection on me. The musks, amber, and vanilla round it all out into something so smooth and beautiful that I just want to huff the bottle (and myself) all day long.

 

I may even try to grab another bottle, if I can. I really, really like this one, and it's unlike anything else in my collection.

[Invidiana]

This is such a lovely, complex blend that I couldn't stop snifffing because I got something new out of it every time. For those afraid of rose, fear not because this is really the faint scent of roses wafting on a cool autumn breeze, not in-you-face old-lady rose. The blue and white musks and vanilla bean come to the forefront in what is a sweet and sensual mingling of notes reminiscent of the romantic vision of a full harvest moon bobbing in the night sky and bathing the newly barren fields in its incandescence. A true symphony of scent!

[obsidienne]

The notes list really kills me: I expected to freaking love this blend and want it to have my babies; instead my nose rebels and receives a... a diaperish vanilla for all of its sniffing efforts. Weird.

 

I don't know why, but while wet I get very little other than an extremely musky & sickly vanilla bean with hints of "grey" amber and lavender and carnation and rose, all jumbling around down there a bit, too. I wanted more rose, but it's being bitch-slapped by all of this musky unpleasantness. Crazy musks, crazy sweet vanilla.

 

It starts to calm down and get much more pleasant as it dries, becoming a soft light vanilla musk, very relaxed and pretty. I don't know what else to say -- it goes from an overwhelming scent to something really quite.... nice! That was fast. Not the most long lasting blend on my skin.

 

Edit: I think my bottle was shocked, because this smells really good now. Very sweet musky vanilla, with some lovely carnation. Amber and leaves still MIA to my nose. I also disappointingly get no rose and if there is lavender there, it's just giving it a slightly slushy feel, but it's not very noticeable as lavender, per se. This reminds me a LOT of Antique Lace, although less sweet (AL smells insanely sweet to me, it would be hard to smell that sweet!). I like this, it's very warm and yet sparkling, somehow... but I won't keep my backup, as I know I won't reach for this often enough to ever get to it.

 

Edit 2: This now reminds of a much lighter (or less musky), floral Dorian.

Edited March 22, 2010 by obsidienne

[Lamia]

Oh my. I really thought that there was some leather in here when I first applied it.

 

The throw is musky-sensual and demure, hints of flowers and the roundness of vanilla. This is ALMOST worth finding a bottle of, but not quite.

[aine]

Oh no. Too sweet. Killer vanilla beans. Smackdown musks.

 

I should have listened to the reviews that mentioned Lilith Victoria, Dorian and TKO.

 

I had hoped that this blend would follow more closely the theme of late summer and be drier, more leafy, more herbal lavender. But it is big and round, sweet and thick. It's just too much.

 

I have a ridiculous compulsion where I talk myself into believing that lavender blends just might-maybe-perhaps work on me despite all evidence to the contrary. I really should have known better.

 

Colour me surprised that this isn't more popular though.

[papermaker]

I love this, but it reminds me of TKO and Dorian, so that may be why. It is a musky vanilla with a smidge of rose, a touch of lavender. It is really pretty, and comforting. It is nice to wear everyday.

[revinn]

I so wanted to like this! Ugh! It's just too high-pitched and perfumey for me.. I'm not sure which note is doing it, but it gives me a headache. I'm going to let my bottle age a bit to see if it smoothes out a little. I want the perfection other people are getting!

 

Out of 10: Inconclusive.

[Victory]

Wow, Under the Harvest Moon is gorgeous. I had almost talked myself out of getting a bottle even though it sounded so perfect, and now I'm sad at the thought of ever running out, even though I will never, ever make it through the bottle. Sometimes the musks make me think of dry laundry soap, but in this case it's actually a good thing. (This is what the soap wants so dearly to smell like. Fabienne from Possets/olympia301 did a podcast that talked about musks being used in laundry soap, which may be where my brain is making the connection.) They're soft, not at all powdery, blue and white smelling... it's how I wanted Blue Moon to smell. The rose is a little bit sour, which cuts through the sweetness of the vanilla bean some, but the vanilla bean is so delicious. The vanilla bean + musks combine to make such a heavenly vanilla musk smell that's so different from the vanilla musk of say, Inez, which makes me somehow think of a cookie. The lavender + carnation is different enough from the lavender in TKO for my nose not to recognize the scent but there definitely is that floral tinge. The waft drifts between the glorious vanilla bean to vanilla musk to floral musk to floral, with the amber and leaves not popping up on my nose radar. I suspect the amber is swirling with the vanilla and musks to create such a delicious smell. This makes me thing of moonlight, and I'm just delighted by Under the Harvest Moon. So often nighttime florals have moonflower, which amps up on me, so this is going to be a much loved oil in my collection.

[MCS4096]

I can pretty much smell all the listed notes in this blend in the bottle.. and it's glorious Once on its definitely musks and dried leaves (spicy from the lightest hint of carnation) with a creamy vanilla background. Lavender (which I was initially worried about) adds only a slight dryness. The rose comes out more and more as it dries down, and unfortunately this fades away pretty darn quickly on me. Gorgeous while it lasts.. wrist huffingly so!

[rayvn1]

I got this primarily hoping for leaves and grey musk. It's aged from a non-descript rose scent on me, into a light blue and grey musk combination. It's fairly sweet as well and not overly rosy. Pretty! Think I'll keep it and hopefully can find an empty bottle to store it in.

[irishelf]

In the bottle: floral, leafy, with some sweetness from the vanilla.

 

Wet: Oooh. Amber, the musks that love me (white, especially), and warm floral, carnation, I think. I likey.

 

Dry: White musk and roses, wrapped in warm vanilla. Can’t get much better than this. As a huge Dorian lover, I am not surprised, and I’m glad that I have this as a more floral alternative. Must find more!!