Planting Moon

[bheansidhe]

As is the garden such is the gardener,
A man’s nature runs either to herbs or to weeds.
– Francis Bacon

This Full Moon marks a time for new growth, both within nature and within our spirits. It is a time of fertility and fruitfulness, for sowing seeds to ensure blessings and bounty later in the year.

Budding summer squashes and pole beans, tomato leaves, upturned earth, May's wildflowers, and sun-warmed herbs.

I hesitated to post this review as a thread-starter because it's not very informative. By the time I got home from Will Call, my arm was a mishmash of scents and I couldn't find this one to sniff while typing a review.

However, there seems to be some uneasy speculation about this one, so let me reassure you: it's WONDERFUL. This was the only scent I tested twice, because I was so pleased with it. It was crisp green tomato leaves, thyme, and wildflowers on me, and the dirt note is moist and loamy.

I disliked Graveyard Dirt on my skin, and I normally shy away from the all-florals, so if those are dealbreakers for you, don't fear Planting Moon. No obnoxious pollen or shrieking florals. I don't remember any vegetable components, but then my nose was numb from Eau de Will Call. Edited April 14, 2009 by bheansidhe

[Dybael]

This. This is perfect.

 

 

My family has a big vegetable garden - maybe 800 square feet? It used to be double that before the trees grew too tall for the other half to get enough light. It's a lot of work, and from the moment things start getting green outside my mother and grandmother and aunt go into Garden Mode - Are we planting Big Boy tomatoes again this year -- We haven't done potatoes in a while, those funky blue ones were fun -- do you have any idea how hard it is to find kohlrabi seedlings around here?

 

Garden-Smell has been embedded in my brain as "This smell, right here, it is Home, it is Family. It is digging in the dirt wearing battered gloves that haven't been serviceable in thirty years, it is snarking with your siblings as you set up fences and drag out rocks, teaming up with your aunt to persuade your mom to try watermelons one more year even if groundhogs and rabbits ate them all the last five times, dragging heavy bags of fertilizer down the big hill with your dad, carrying pails of blueberries up to the house for your grandmother."

 

My 'everyday' BPAL scent is Squirting Cucumber layered over Graveyard Dirt, because it was the closest thing I could find to Garden-Smell, earthy and wet-and-sunny. It's an awesome combination, it smells great, but it doesn't bring the memories. One vegetable isn't a garden, that's like saying one instrument is an orchestra. But it was the closest thing I could find.

 

Planting Moon is Garden-Smell. One sniff was like a kick to the back of my brain. If you walked straight to center of our garden on a sunny, breezy day, grabbed a handful of string beans and snapped them in half, it would smell like Planting Moon: Sunlight, a thousand different growing stems, nutrient-rich earth, and fresh, juicy vegetables. The dirt smell is strongest in the bottle, and fades very quickly as it dries. I definitely get lots of beans and squash - the tomato leaf and herbs are there, but less tangible. It fades sinfully fast, but that doesn't matter because I am going to obsessively hoard every single bottle of this scent that I can find until I can bathe in it every day. (Or rather, I'm going to scrape and save until I can afford a backup bottle, but shh! Please do not break my beautiful delusion.)

[binkin]

Oh, this is intimidating... First post.... I'm not sure how to get the descriptions!

 

I had to order Planting Moon because it's for the full moon nearest my birthday this year. The label art is just gorgeous, maybe my favorite of any of the bottles I have so far.

 

In the bottle: It smells like dew-laden spring. Maybe with a hint of soap?

 

On, wet: I am torn between "spring" and "soap" as a descriptor. There's definitely something savory going on on the background, which I would say is the smell of squash blossoms. The tomato leaf is there but not very loud.

 

Dry: This smells like a garden. It really does. It smells like spring, although maybe more June than May for those of us in Michigan On me it still has a slight soapiness when it hits the middle of my sinuses, but if I get my nose close to my wrist and breathe deeply it's a relaxing sunny day puttering around in the garden. I think it's more airy than I expected it to be, which might be why I am perceiving it as "soap" -- I was expecting a heavily earthy smell. It might still morph into one.

 

Overall, 4/5 -- it's not one of my top 10 but I'll certainly be keeping it, and I think it will be absolutely perfect for days when it's too rainy to actually be outside in the garden.

[Lycanthrope]

Whoa.

 

Iz like I've been shucking corn and cutting the tips off of string beans from Mom's garden.

 

Like Whoa.

 

Totally not a 'wearable' scent for me, but srsly like whoa.

 

It's snappy, herbal without being super green, and smells like leaves.

[AnArtfuldodger]

Oh my goodness. This is like standing in a sunlit herb garden with a light breeze. Not too herbal (I was afraid it would be The Apothocary, but it's DEFINITELY not) and barely any dirt, and it's very...crisp! Not cleanser-green, either, just a ruddy spring clean green, but herbal, too.

 

Crisp!

 

Love! And that's coming from a foodie -- I really think this is one of the first real green/vegetation sort of blend that's worked on me!

Edited April 17, 2009 by AnArtfuldodger

[hkhm]

bottle: bright, crisp greenery.

 

wet: wow. this smells just like fresh beans snapped in half. i don't get dirt of tomato leaves of anything... just fresh beans.

 

dry: the dirt note has finally appeared, but it's the softest i've ever encountered, the fresh vegetable leaf scent is primary. very evocative.

[dawndie]

In bottle: water and earth

 

On skin: garden greenery, verdant and slightly sweet

 

Half-hour later: snappy green beans, almost peppery, with the watery dirt

 

In conclusion: I feel like I can drop a seed into the bottle and it'll germinate. Fertile earth and teeming plants. How great for spring and summer!

[femmefatale]

At first this is very green with the barest hint of florals. As it dries dries down the tomato leaf comes out and it really does smell just like a vegetable garden. As it dries even further I can detect the wildflowers a bit more and the vegetation calms down. This is when it starts to cling a bit closer to the skin.

 

This smells so lifelike! Even dh was surprised. The only thing was that I got virtually no dirt or soil, so I just layered some Graveyard Dirt with it. Wow!

 

 

[amyw]

This scent is highly... evocative. As others have noted, it smells just like gardening. I got it because I love the smell of tomato leaves.

 

This scent won't be for everyone, but I happen to love it right now, and I really hope it doesn't turn to soap on me. I have an unfortunate tendency to turn ozone and green notes into soap. I'll be very sad if that happens with Planting Moon, but if it does, I'll find another way. I notice it cycles through each of the notes, none of them overpowering, but each of them having a turn both in a single inhale and in what tends to come out for a half a minute at a time. I wonder how this will smell when it's aged and blends differently. At this point, I smell more dirt and tomato leaves than anything else. The florals sweeten it up just a tiny bit, and I'd say the faintest of the notes are the vegetables. Some people might not even notice them - I certainly wouldn't if I didn't know they were in the blend.

 

This isn't a seductive, sexy kind of scent. It's an earthy, get-your-hands-dirty, outdoorsy sort of scent that brings up images of the sun, white flowers, kneeling in the grass, freshly picked vegetables, and wiping clean sweat off your brow. It's not a scent I'll wear for others; it's definitely one I'll wear for myself. That's generally true of most of the BPAL I wear, but I don't expect compliments on this sort of blend.

 

As I've typed this (with a few puppy-related interruptions), every note except a soapy dirt note has faded. But as I said, I'll figure out another way, whether it's scent locket, clothing application, or something else.

 

Ooh, and I walked said puppy after writing the above paragraph, and now the veggies are coming out.

 

Really interesting, different blend. In a very good way.

 

 

ETA: depending on where I look, wildflowers are not listed as a note. Did I imagine them? They smelled kind of like the green stems of white flowers where the stem meets the bloom, so maybe that was something else.

Edited April 18, 2009 by amyw

[surf-tormented]

Dirt after a spring rain.

 

Tomato vines coming out of the soil.

 

Weeds growing around those seedlings.

 

Grass swaying by the garden, wildflowers at the gate, winding about the wooden planks.

 

A hint of growing squash in the crisp, gentle air.

 

The scent of a tomato vine as you press your fingers against it to cut off a stem.

 

All under the full moon, night time, talking with close friends walking outside in the country, after a long hot day of labor.

 

 

It's a fantastic scent. There are a lot of lunacy perfume oils I skip due to being overly flowery, fruity or sugary. This is a nice blend of a Demeter Tomato scent (which amps up really high on me, which is what I wanted it to do) and a scent of freshness...fresh soil, fresh seedlings, fresh air, squashes starting to grow...it takes me back to the farms of my youth, since I was raised in the country. My grandfather's garden.

 

I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't like the typical offerings of scent like ones that are fruity, flowery or sugary based. Definitely for those into earth scents with grassy fresh notes. And if you love fresh tomato vine smell, you should get a bottle.

 

I wish more lunacy oils were like this.

Edited April 20, 2009 by Madame Nyx

[Jenn2D2]

In the bottle: Sharp and sweet high notes of tomato leaf with a bit of dirt around the edges. A second pass gets a bit of the other plants, and a background of some very (very!) light florals.

 

Wet: tomato leaf is still at the fore, and the dirt fades to let in the herbal and green plant notes. This is an extremely cheerful smell, like a garden just after dark when the plants begin to breathe and you can hear all of the night bugs come to life.

 

Dry-down: this goes through several stages on me. The "tomato and plants" of the wet smell lasts for an hour or so, gently fading to green herbs with a very light hint of floral. At this point the dirt note starts to become a bit more prominent. Finally, all of the scents blend together for a very light green smell.

 

I think this might be the scent of summer for me - this is easily one of the most evocative scents I've ever worn.

Wet, it is directly a garden at dusk - I can see my mother's vegetable garden when I was young. As it dries down, it becomes such a pleasant green smell. It is almost impossible for me to feel "down" when wearing something so full of life.

 

As a side note, it has been a great scent for my clocket - the tomato leaf note remains more prominent, but the whole things smells very cleanly sweet after a couple of hours.

[Inventrix]

At first sniff in the bottle, it just smelled very fresh and green. And then I dabbed some on my skin.

 

I swear, it is a vegetable garden in a bottle! I don't know if I just don't recognize a tomato leaf smell, but tomato plants didn't pop into my head. The first image was of large deep green slightly fuzzy leaves, (which I thought were the tomato leaves, but realized were squash when I checked the notes), and string bean vines with the first crisp pods poking out. I didn't smell "dirt" specifically, but it wasn't just vegetable plants. It was a vegetable garden. I was so giddy and excited! It brings me back to the garden we used to grow when I was a child.

 

Two hours later, I casually sniff my arm to get some of that lovely garden smell... wait, soap?!

 

I tried it again this morning and got soap again with much less of the amazing wonderful garden-in-a-bottle scent. I could cry! I'm going to give it one last chance this evening, but I think Planting Moon and I just might not be meant for each other. Maybe I'll try a scent locket type thing instead and see if that works.

[stellans]

Last night was my first wearing of Planting Moon, and it was wonderful! As others have said before, and far better than I, this is wonderfully green, garden-y, and with a sweet, moist dirt note which is enough to make you close your eyes and dream of being outside in the coolness of a late spring/early summer night.

 

I wear a Lunacy every night, in alphabetical rotation, to fall asleep by, and I've kept a dream journal of sorts for quite some time now. It's interesting to note that different Lunacies tend to lead to different dreaming. Last night, I dreamt of my Great-grandmother's garden, in west Texas, a garden she got to enjoy for only a few short months every spring before the summer heat killed pretty much all of it. But she planted anew every spring anyway, for those few short months of enjoyment, and shared the love of it with me as well. This scent brings all of this back to me, and I dreamt of my Mom Beane last night, and woke up with tears in my eyes. But they were good tears.

 

Never would I have thought a tomato plant, nor squash, nor pole beans, nor dirt for that matter would be components in a perfume blend I would so love. But so it is. This is such an extraordinary blend I almost regret only buying 2 bottles, and barely restraining my urge to hunt down and buy more just for hoarding. Really. I love it that much. Except for Snow and Singing Moons, I don't think I've had such a reaction to a Lunacy, though I have loved many others. This one is special, and I am grateful to have the chance to enjoy it. Thank you, Beth, thank you so much.

Edited June 8, 2011 by stellans

[Aldercy]

Yes, yes, yes.

 

Planting Moon is eerily spot on. I've wanted a good earth scent for a long time and none have worked until now. And I'd hoped for a wonderful tomato leaf note in The Jersey Devil to no avail. But this oil has both, and it is lovely.

 

This is not a stylized, idealized version of a garden at all-- it is so, so naturally wonderful without any embellishment. The sweet earth note is tangy and fertile, and it's probably the most prominent thing going on. It's so real and yet not "dirty" at all. Laid over that is the incredibly distinctive smell of tomato leaf with some delicate mosses/ferns and fuzzy shoots and sprouts.... Watery, bronze sunshine casts some warmth over everything.

 

Planting Moon isn't a striking, sophisticated scent, but it's rustically pretty and so very comforting and healthy. Glorious warm weather scent, and I think it would make anyone wistful for spring if whiffed in the dead of winter. Very glad I purchased this bottle. Freaking masterpiece.

 

P.S. Today I got a very faint "pesto" note from Planting Moon, leading me to theorize that basil might be one of the "sun-warmed herbs" included in here.

Edited August 19, 2009 by Aldercy

[Little Bird]

In the bottle, this smells like wonderful planty things and cool earth <3. It really smells like a garden.

 

Both of my parents love/loved to garden. Our garden was always filled with at least three things - tomatoes, green beans, and strawberries. Planting Moon smells so much like the green bean section of our garden. It's a green, soft, fuzzy, earthy smell. Really good, slightly damp, happy soil and healthy green beans. As it dries down, I can smell a hint of the spicy tomato leaf creeping in. Love. I am in love.

 

I'm so glad that this is the May lunacy. I can pretend that it's my birthday scent now, lol. Planting Moon is just a perfect, uncomplicated, vegetable garden fragrance. Earthy and awesome. I'm very glad to have a bottle, as this is such a comforting, familiar scent to me.

 

ETA: My bottle of this did not age well at all after a year. Turned to a faint, watery green pepper and plastic-y smell.

Edited June 17, 2013 by Little Bird

[Gwydion]

In bottle: Wow! It really does smell like vegetable garden. The bruised tomato leaves, the snapped squash vines, the damp, fresh turned Earth. I’ve never smelled anything in a bottle remotely like this. Wet: On skin, it’s sweeter, with more herb garden elements mingling with the three dominant elements. Garden in the sun, glorious. I’m in love. It shifts, revealing different nuances as it wears. Dry: delicate, yet still lovely. I am suspecting a sandalwood component here.

[hologhost]

OMG Beans! BEANS!

 

My husband is laughing at me.

 

But he never had a garden. I grew up in the full midwestern garden experience. This like standing amid the bean poles and breathing in deep. I can smell the tomatoes off to the side and other greenery here and there. Also fresh dirt. (The dirt comes out stronger on me than it has some of the others who have posted.)

 

All thats missing is the soft bzzz of a fat bumblebee.

 

Oh my. I love this. Love, love love. This is a perfect scent for in the depth of winter, when everything is dead and cold. Open it up and smell magic.

 

BEANS!

[riflmom]

This smells just like my garden on a warm summer day -pole beans and squash, sweet healthy dirt and tomato.

Planting Moon disappears almost instantly on my skin (as most light scents do), but that's why I have scent lockets!

 

Perfect for those of us that don't do florals!

[fairnymph]

Sniffed: Extremely pale yellow oil. Sweet DIRT, whoa. A little bit of tomato leaf, but I get more of the green bean (like fresh grean beans) and squash blossom. There's a faint wildflower haze in the background. Overall very fresh and delicate despite the strong earth note.

 

Wet: Greener, fresher, brighter - green beans the strongest - I've grown them so I know! Extremely planty, new-leafy. A little more tomato leaf but it's still light - I wish there were more. The earth is surprisingly okay - I don't really like soil in perfume, but I'm not bothered by this. Less sweet, a tad more floral.

 

Dry: Not really morphing. The wildflowers don't go crazy or soapy as they do usually on me - they are very light, making this barely floral. Floral-haters - don't be afraid of this one. I get a little bitterness, and the suggestion of other herbs, but I can't pick them out.

 

Later: Sweetens a little more and more tomato leaf emerges over time, while the flowers go very slightly, pleasantly soapy-clean. That dirt note just holds, and combined with the now more apparent wildflowers - I sort of take back what I said earlier - this is definitely not for me.

 

Summary: Soil & floral soap with fainter green beans and tomato leaves. Low throw, decent longevity.

[terrenity]

In addition to May being my birthday moon, I'm also a Soil and Crop Science major... so I had no choice but to order this one!

 

In the bottle: The exact smell of a bean pod, just snapped in half. How DOES she do that?

 

On: Much the same. Green and a little sweet and juicy.

 

Ten minutes later: The tomato leaf peeks out, just the slightest bit, but this is still 95% green bean. Mmm.

 

This is so unique and evocative! It's not an everyday blend (for me).. I'd almost call it a comfort scent. Something to wear when it's hot and you need to go touch the dirt and living things and just be. I love it.

[GhillieDhu]

On me, this is dirt for a few moments, then goes to freshly snapped delicious pole beans, just like the ones in my yard every summer. After 15 minutes or so, the beans fade and I'm left with soft wildflowers and misty rain. It's quite a lovely gentle floral, but not my style.

 

This bottle was actually ordered for my mother, and on her it's long-lasting garden soil with green overtones of beans and tomato leaf, and no flowers whatsoever. We were both a little surprised, but she loves it, so that's good!

[Phaedra]

Wet this is fresh dirt, tomato leaves and a sweet fruit or vegetable note. When first on this is tomato vines, dirt and vegetables- like a summer garden. After several hours this has really softened. The dirt is very faint and this is mainly a tomato and vegetable blend. It's quite pretty actually. On the dry down this is a soft herbal blend. I really love this moon! It's different than others I've tried before. I'm glad I got a bottle of this one. I also love the matching tee shirt

[Wwindy]

I should preface this by saying that my skin doesn't seem to tolerate anything high-concept, poetical, or abstract. If the scent is supposed to be evocative and scene-setting and providing an elaborate scent "journey"... my chemistry thumbs its nose at it. (so to speak)

 

Anyway, all I get from Planting Moon is faint dirt with a hint of ozone. If you tried really really hard, you might be able to convince yourself that there was something slightly vegetal about the ozone-ish smell, but you'd have to put some serious effort in.

 

I'm disappointed, but not blaming the blend. It's not the perfume's fault my skin is so literal-minded!

[jillybean]

I was so excited to try this blend as I wanted to see how it compared to Bathed and Infused's Garden Salad and Six Feet Under.

 

Turns out, it's both of the above scents combined. I can smell the vegetables that I smelled in Garden Salad and the dirt of Six Feet Under.

 

I had hoped for more dirt but it's a crisp and fresh blend. Not a 'me' scent but done very well.

[bristlecone]

I should love this. In the bottle, I do love it. But I'm getting mixed results on my skin. The first time I wore it, it was a lovely dirt scent with touches of water and greenery. The next time, it smelled like dog shampoo. Don't ask me; I don't get it either. Both times I wore it, it had all but disappeared an hour or so later.

 

I'm not giving up on it just yet, though. I really want it to work for me.