Hungry Ghost Moon 2006

[maijasu]

... 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.

Candied fruits with a dusting of baby powder, medium throw and poor lasting power. I was really looking forward to this one, but I'm not that impressed.

Will try again, just to be sure, and edit if I have a change of heart.

[Victory]

When HGM first goes on, there's a fruity, melon-ish scent, which is lovely, but it soon moves to becoming a green aloe-y fragrance. I'm sad to miss out on the vanilla and ginger, and even the grapefruit, but I'm ecstatic the sandalwood isn't screaming its fool head off on my skin. People are right- this is lovely, and wonderful for summer.

[nightbird]

the description of this scent made me excited; I love vanilla musk, and all the other notes sounded delicious.

 

when I first apply it, HGM smells a bit like melons or sweet fruit - maybe that's the grapefruit. my husband says it smells lemony. I'm also getting something herby or minty - is that the aloe?

 

when I put on a teeny dab of HGM, it mellowed into vanilla when it dried; when I put on more, I smelled like some kind of minty toothpaste. I am going to experiment with this a bit before I decide if it stays or goes.

Edited August 1, 2006 by Nightbird

[gingersnapp]

This is sweet herbs and resins. I get a little bit of citrus, but it's a light, bright, white citrus and not a normal blast o' sunshine like oranges or lemons. It's only a little bit musky, but that could also be the woods and resins adding a bit of dry dustiness to the blend.

 

This is very light and pretty. I'm glad I wore it today because it's not overwhelming in the 100+ degree heat we're dealing with here.

[oatmealneko]

Smells like sweet ginger candy in the bottle.

 

Goes through various layers of sweet, woody, fruity - ahahaa...grapefruit scent I can smell for once! Green & musky - it's similar to Embalming Fluid, minus the citrus, but much light than that. Ghostly sandalwood lurking behind a grapefruitish musky-aloe-something something...uh, it's wonderful. There's nothing overpowering here, & the rice wine gives it a lot of lasting power on me (go go alcohol notes!).

[faifai]

I have no idea what I'm smelling here. It smells very skin-scent-y, like what I'd imagine those "suede" type scents to smell like.

 

I can kind of smell something like grapefruit, but it's blended with vanilla or sandalwood or whatever, so it makes me think of the color off-white. It reminds me of Antique Lace in its lightness, yet it has equally long lasting power and a decent amount of throw for such a warm, light scent.

 

ETA: I know what this smells like now. It smells like gummi bears! Creamy, delicious gummi bears for adults. I liked it, but eventually sold it because I simply didn't have the desire to smell like gummi bears all that frequently.

Edited February 21, 2007 by faifai

[LittleGreyKitten]

Oh my. I guessed good! I heart this scent more than any since last year's. Beautiful. It smells strongly grapefruity first, which I adore. But the sugary vanilla goodness beneath bolsters the citrus and eventually the citrus backs off leaving mainly a vanilla sugar scent on me with a hint of citrus beneath. It does fade fast though. It may get stronger as time goes on- I've noticed that has happened with some other vanilla scents that initially disappeared fast when fresh, but then as the months passed, started lasting longer and longer (Eat Me, Antique Lace, Drink Me for example). This is a beauty of a scent. Ethereal and sweet.

 

5 out of 5, glad I took a gamble on an extra.

[sihaya09]

When grapefruit-y reviews started coming in on this one, I was initially disheartened. It's not that I don't like grapefruit, it's that the only reason I caved and bought this blend was for the ginger.

 

Alas, I like it a lot in spite of its citrus. It starts off with lots of grapefruit and melon, very delicate and crystalline. However, the longer I wear it, the deeper it gets. After awhile, a sweet, soft vanilla musk emerges, and occasionally, I get wafts of sweet woods. Yesterday, I was trying to figure out what smelled so good, and it was me! I didn't notice because the scent had morphed.

 

This is rather ethereal. Beautiful. I very much like it and it's perfect for this horrid, humid weather.

[aestien]

Bottle: grapefruit, vanilla, sugarcane

Wet: grapefruit, aloe, rice wine, ginger candy, sugar cane, vanilla, this is complex, definitely pale and ghostly

Dry: the incense and the sandalwood start to show, on me this goes through a short powder stage which fades quickly to a sweet sugar cane vanilla musk with hints of wood, resins, herbs, ginger, and rice wine.

 

This blend is sweet, airy, ghostly pale and complex. Predominantly citrus sweet at first, it rounds out as it dries, but maintains the sense of something hovering.

 

Gorgeous.

[oedipa]

I didn't buy a bottle of this during the update (d'oh!), but was thankfully able to purchase it off another forumite.

 

Wet on skin: Oooh, vanilla. And grapefruit! I've recently learned (thanks to Baobhan Sith) that I love Beth's grapefruit notes so this was a welcome background smell.

 

5 minutes: Oooh, sugar and vanilla and grapefruit! It smells a little like a sweet breakfast cereal at this point, but I will hold out.

 

10 minutes: Warm ginger and vanilla and sugar and grapefruit and there's now a bit of a woody scent that ties them all together.

 

2 hours +: Amazing, amazing blend. It seems to ebb and flow - I smell it in little whiffs and starts throughout most of the day, so it has pretty good staying power. Overall I'm thrilled I managed to snag this bottle and I'm considering hunting down another one.

[em_h]

Wet: Light, fresh, leafy and somewhat citrusy scent.

 

Drying: It's extremely pretty, especially now the vanilla is emerging, but it's also very light, and fading very fast. I really like it -- even the grapefruit seems to be behaving, which is rare for me -- but it hardly lasts ten minutes.

 

Different weather and different time of the month would probably improve the lasting ability a bit, but I don't think ever enough to make this viable for me. It's such a shame, because it's really a beautiful scent.

[Diana]

This is way more impressive and awesome than I can have ever expected. It's sweet, slightly tart, mouthwatering, refreshing, and pretty.

 

I think the combination of sugared ginger + sugar with the delicate sweet-tart grapefruit and really soft woodsy musks is amazing. I have no idea what Ti or Ho Wood (though that brings several bad images to mind), the overall effect is so wonderful, clean, crisp, juicy, sweet.

 

I love sweet. I love cute. This is such a winner.

[isyche]

Hungry Ghost Moon is a very light and elusive grapefruit, like diluted juice, at first. Then there's a hint of ginger candy and something more complex underneath (rice wine and incense smoke?), but it stays light and ethereal. It's a very clear/watery scent to me – sweet but not sticky or cloying, and hard to describe.

 

I keep smelling my wrists to try to define it, but I can't pin it down. It definitely has a feeling of emptiness or negative space to it - transparent, ghostly, floating.

 

I was afraid it would be too fruity-sweet from the reviews, but I really love it.

[midnight_aeval]

In the bottle it smells like tart fruit.... grapefruit? Nnnnoooo!!! (as you can see I'm not a fan of this grapefruit.. I know I was taking a risk in ordering it, but I needed it at the time)

 

On my skin, the drydown is really nice. Almost a musky fruity, herbally blend of sweetness. Unfortunately my skin eats oil so I have to use a scent locket.... and in the locket all I kept smelling was grapefruit and aloe.

 

I suppose this is one where the dry down kicks ass... the wet stage is not so good with me.

 

I'm swapping you Hungry Ghost Moon. You already ate all the food in my fridge

[tidesong]

In the Bottle: Mmm, citrusy grapefruit. Very clear and crisp. Faint touch of sandalwood. It's making my mouth water.

 

On Application: Musk. Sweet musk, clarified by a sweet grapefruit. Faint undertone of resin. Very, very pretty.

 

On Drydown: This is really light and refreshing. Bright grapefruit, really softened a lot by vanilla and sandalwood.

 

Comments: While not something I'll wear often, I definitely think it works on me and I'll probably wear it ocassionally. EDIT: I think this is what's giving me a headache. I'll have to test it again to be sure, but it might be off to the swap pile for this one.

 

Verdict: Not sure yet.

Edited August 5, 2006 by tidesong

[Beatrice33]

I can't add much to the reviews to this one, as I can't really pick out any of the notes. It's very well blended and I LOVE it. This is a love-at-first-sniff scent. It's a bit sweet, a bit fresh ... smooth. Obviously I really don't know how to describe it, but I'm oh-so-glad I decided to order two bottles.

 

ETA: After wearing this for the entire evening, I still like it, but it reminds me very much of Lancome's Tresor which I used to wear. Somehow it makes me feel like I'm revisiting the past which I'm not interested in doing, so I'll probably swap one of my bottles though perhaps I'll still keep the second.

Edited August 7, 2006 by Beatrice33

[finecurvedhips]

first sniff - grapefruit! and some spicy stuff.

 

on me - oh.em.gee. *drools* i get mostly grapefruit with a bit of sandalwood. very citrus/spice, and i love it sooo much.

 

i've already tracked down a second bottle. *sheepish grins*

[Syzygy]

My first Lunacy, and it's a keeper.

 

I have no freakin' clue what's going on in here. I don't get 'crisp' or 'fresh' like other people have described. It starts out as a sharp jumble, then settles into a sweet, mellow scent that hangs in there for a good long time. Different notes appear from time to time without any major shifts: this is a quiet little morpher.

 

This doesn't smell like sweets so much as a ghost's faded memory of sweets: I used to love ginger candy as a child. I can almost remember... Too ghostly to be real, and thus little consolation for the living who require what is warm and solid. This is the smell of comfort food for ghosts.

Edited August 9, 2006 by Syzygy

[minnalavender]

I am sooo in love with this scent.

 

I recently found a rare bottle of Queen of Diamonds on eBay. HGM is exactly what I wanted it to smell like, but it didn't. At all. That disappointment was tempered by already having HGM.

 

Everyone has already wonderfully detailed descriptions of all aspects of the scent - all I can add is that it makes me feel happy when I wear it. It's just absolutely beautiful.

[nevermore]

Hungry Ghost Moon is the first bottle of a lunacy that I've bought in a long while. Wet, it's mostly grapefruit, with a sweet, slightly woody background. It dries down to the sweet woody scent - the grapefruit all but disappears. I was hoping for more ginger and vanilla, but what I do get from it is better than I anticipated. The only downside is that it doesn't last very long on me - 3-4 hours, tops.

[ellemir]

Wet: Clean fresh grapefruit.

 

Dry: Warm, Spicy, almost incensey Grapefruit.

 

It smells like I would expect Sol's baby sister to be if made with grapefruit instead of Lemon

[Dymphna]

I had no idea what to expect with this one, but it sounded so intriguing that I bought two bottles unsniffed, something I've never done before.

 

In the bottle: Whoa. There was so much going on in that bottle that at first I couldn't sort anything out. It was sort of like opening the door to an apartment where a loud party is taking place. Just a big tangle of impressions. After a bit, I can identify the grapefruit, and I guess the ginger candy, because it smells fruity and sweetly spicy. Very juicy!

 

Wet: Ping-pongs like mad between the juicy grapefruit plus a bit of tangy ginger and a fresh, green scent that I think is either the aloe or the bamboo. It's mostly grapefruit, though. At this point, it smells foody, but not in a creamy way. Foody like a fruit salad, but sweeter. This has the distinction of being the first BPAL scent that my husband has actually really liked. (Other than Snake Charmer, which I don't like.) He says it reminds him of "those fruity, candy-flavored cough medicines we got when we were kids (Triaminic) and that he finds that scent comforting. He's so cute.

 

Dry: It keeps that grapefruit-candy scent for a couple of hours, with the "smoky vanilla" peeking out after a while. After about three or four hours, it dies down to a sort of "watery wood" scent that I recognize from some other BPAL blend--I wish I could remember which one. I don't particularly like it, but it's not horrible. It just seems weird, almost sour after all that sweetness.

 

Nutshell: This isn't really a "me" scent, but it's sweet and I like smelling sweet sometimes. Besides, my husband likes it, so I'm really glad I have a spare bottle!

Edited August 12, 2006 by Dymphna

[Brianne]

In the bottle:

Grapefruit!

 

On me:

I wasn't sure what to expect from this scent, because it has so many notes in it! But I like how it ended up. At first it goes on a very fruity grapefruit and citrus (perhaps lime, or maybe lemon - I know neither are listed, but it definitely smells like one of those. Perhaps a combination of the aloe and ginger help to create that effect). It does have a sweet "candied" effect, which I imagine is both the musk and the vanilla. It's not so sweet that it puts me off - I find it more playful actually. The grapefruit still comes through loud and clear and overall it's just a lovely, sweet fruity scent.

 

After just 15 - 20 minutes, it becomes far less fruity and is more a soft, playful musk with fruit undertones. It's very soft and pretty - and I can't help but be reminded of another recent scent - Et Lux Fuit. They both have a similar musk in the drydown stages and the results is a softly sweet musk with fruit undertones. Similar, but not exactly the same. I find HGM to be more fruity and an overall softer scent.

 

Final note:

Beautiful and soft, not too sweet and not too fruity.

[lorajc]

Hungry Ghost Moon is another softer lunar blend. I think Beth was in the same creative mindset when she made both Hungry Ghost Moon and Harvest Moon's this year.....as they are slightly reminiscent of each other. Hungry Ghost Moon has a grapefruit top note. It's not in your face grapefuit and the top note fades quickly to give way to what must be the sugar cane, vanilla and rice notes with sandalwood. When I first saw this scent description, I imagined something a lot deeper and stronger than this light lunar blend. It is quite lovely, but fades quickly on me. This will be another one that ages well, as I think it will wear stronger. The sandalwood is barely noticeable. I tend to be a very cold person, so this scent will be best on me when I am overheated or I can't smell it (like Midway is with me).

Edited August 14, 2006 by lorajc

[fairy]

I LOVE it. Another lovely clean, watery scent. It's sweet, but not sticky, sickly sweet. It has a GREAT throw to it...you don't have to slather. And it has a floral side that counters the fruit and makes it into one luscious yum-fest. I wish I had found BPAL in time to order this myself. Must find a bottle!