Wolf Moon 2016

[Lambent]

This incarnation of Wolf Moon honors the She-Wolf who nursed and sheltered Romulus and Remus in her den, the Lupercal, after they were cast out into the wild by King Amulius.

 

By the order of Amulius some of his servants took the babes in an ark and carried them to the river, distant about a hundred and twenty stades from the city, with the intention of throwing them into it. But when they drew near and perceived that the Tiber, swollen by continual rains, had left its natural bed and overflowed the plains, they came down from the top of the Palatine hill to that part of the water that lay nearest (for they could no longer advance any farther) and set down the ark upon the flood where it washed the foot of the hill. The ark floated for some time, and then, as the waters retired by degrees from their extreme limits, it struck against a stone and, overturning, threw out the babes, who lay whimpering and wallowing in the mud. Upon this, a she-wolf that had just whelped appeared and, her udder being distended with milk, gave them her paps to suck and with her tongue licked off the mud with which they were besmeared. In the meantime the herdsmen happened to be driving their flocks forth to pasture (for the place was now become passable) and one of them, seeing the wolf thus fondling the babes, was for some time struck dumb with astonishment and disbelief of what he saw. Then going away and getting together as many as he could of his fellows who kept their herds near at hand (for they would not believe what he said), he led them to see the sight themselves. When these also drew near and saw the wolf caring for the babes as if they had been her young and the babes clinging to her as to their mother, they thought they were beholding a supernatural sight and advanced in a body, shouting to terrify the creature. The wolf, however, far from being provoked at the approach of the men, but as if she had been tame, withdrew gently from the babes and went away, paying little heed to the rabble of shepherds. Now there was not far off a holy place, arched over by a dense wood, and a hollow rock from which springs issued; the wood was said to be consecrated to Pan, and there was an altar there to that god. To this place, then, the wolf came and hid herself. The grove, to be sure, no longer remains, but the cave from which the spring flows is still pointed out, built up against the side of the Palatine hill on the road which leads to the Circus, and near it is a sacred precinct in which there is a statue commemorating the incident; it represents a she-wolf suckling two infants, the figures being in bronze and of ancient workmanship. This spot is said to have been a holy place of the Arcadians who formerly settled there with Evander.

 

A mother’s unconditional love, soul-deep compassion, and destiny: date plum, myrrh, black mulberry, black poplar, and Pan’s sacred pines.

Really quite nice. A deep, rich, "purple" scent.
Date plum is apparently persimmon, but I'm not sure I get much of that at all. The black mulberry in this reminds me of the blackberry in Scorpio 2016. But thankfully, Wolf Moon contains no patchouli. I do recognize some myrrh and there's a balsamic aspect to this.
The scent evokes a trek through a forest at night, wolf paws crushing berries underfoot. There's a sweetness and a murky quality to Wolf Moon. The pine in this doesn't degrade into cat piss on my skin, which is a first. It's the perfect forest/pine scent I've been looking for.

[sailthetethys]

I love love love pine. Pine and I are bff. I hear people talk about the whole cat pee thing and I'm like "Y'all are bananas, but whatever, more evergreen glory for me."

 

So idk why I smell like cat piss and grape soda right now, but I'm pretty much refusing to accept it. First stage of grief and all that. I keep sniffing, hoping it'll morph into the gorgeous purply night smell I caught a whiff of when I first opened the bottle. I even re-sniffed the bottle, and no, now that's cat piss too.

 

The cool, crisp berry scent is becoming a bit more prominent, but there's still that faint whiff of feline vengeance that all shithead cat owners are familiar with lingering in the background. Still in denial that pine would betray me, after all we've been through together.

 

Edit: So 15 minutes later this turned into Nocturne (which naturally shares zero notes with Wolf Moon) and then abruptly disappeared. So I got mad (hello, second stage of grief) and slathered myself. Sniffing my wrist is like slapping myself in the face with a pee-covered sock. AND YET, as I type, I keep getting wafts of this gorgeous woodsy purple scent that is similar to what the poster above me described.

 

I'm hoping this is just a temporary skin chemistry fluke. I'm going to try again later to see if there's any improvement.  

 

3 years later edit: Nope, still smells like pee.  

 

3 years and 10 minutes later edit: Holy shit the pee went away and this is LOVELY. Purple and cool and mysterious. FINALLY. SUCK IT PINE, I WIN.

Edited March 20, 2020 by sailthetethys

[LizziesLuck]

Pine scares me, but the rest of the notes in this sound amazing, and I am so excited about the return to the old style of Lunacy that I had to have it! I gave it a few days out of the mail to settle. In the bottle this is rich and purple, fruity, a little tangy. I think it's mostly the mulberry I'm getting. There's hints of pine, but I'm hoping if I ignore it, it'll go away.

 

 

Wet: Ermahgerd pine, what was I thinking??? Cat pee and menthol. Blaaah. With lovely purple fruits and Myrrh underneath, just out of reach. The throw is actually much more pleasant, more like a real pine tree plus fruit and resins (not the horrid thing my skin does to pine), but nose to skin this is horrid right now.

 

 

Dry: Uh, this is so beautiful when it dries down! It's a cold, wintry, purple fruit scent with hints of Myrrh...so lovely. The pine eventually almost burns off entirely, the hints that are left just give the scent that outdoorsy quality. It really is lovely. Getting passed the cat pee stage was haaaard though. Considering aging this to see if that pine note settles down. The dry-down is worth not giving up on this right away. If you have no issues with pine going off on your skin, I bet this would be gorgeous start to finish.

[Dark Alice]

This one worked on me! I amp the hell out of pine, but b/c it's my birthday moon I had to try it! The pine is mellow, and the poppy and all the other notes blend into this gorgeous, almost mild fruit like floral on me. I love it! Finally a Birthday moon that works!!!

[zankoku_zen]

Pine, plum, and snow. This one is an odd mix between the plum/mulberry notes which are very bright and purple, it's almost like they were sugared, the pine which is very present, and then a soft whisp of snow. It's snowy, and wintery, and actually would make a great room scent. Good throw and wear length.

[Little Bird]

Sour, dark berries mixed with a very cold, mentholic pine note. It's sort of medicinal, and very much reminds me of berry-pine scented air fresheners. The mulberry has a sour edge, but mostly smells very artificial. I might try this as a room scent, but it's a no as a perfume for me. I don't get any resins or myrrh.

[lady_pandora]

This starts out plum with woods, and then the plum dominates for a while; it's a really "purple" scent in the vein of Oya/Purple Phoenix/Bathsheba/Morgause. As the scent develops, I begin to pick up what I think is the mulberry along with the plum; it's sweeter but less loud, and reminds of of the Lab's blackberry note. There's also a subtle sensation of "cold" when I sniff close to the skin. I'm not totally sure if I'm imagining it based on other reviews or if there really is a bit of menthol here. Anyway, the scent is really pretty and I like it.