Hay Moon 2020

[zankoku_zen]

Hay absolute, tall grasses, dry honey, mallow, cardamom, amber, oat cakes, and wheat.

[Casablanca]

No one reviewed this yet? Well, here's one.

 

I amp mallow in most blends that have it, as far as I can tell, and that's also happening here. In the bottle, this smells mostly like oats, cake, and cardamom to me. But my very first impression on skin is cardamom marshmallows (!)...

 

Dry grasses and hay emerge shortly, though -- very pretty, very late-summer-to-autumn-reminiscent with the soft cardamom spice. After a few minutes the mallow calms down, and I notice wheat, oats, and a dribble of honey. It does smell like dry honey. (What is that scent of dryness sticking to the honey? I love it.) 

 

This is a gentle autumn harvest blend, a scent of soft abundance before winter.

[ajansuz]

This is so beautiful. I mean just drop dead gorgeous, both in the bottle and on my skin. I'll preface with I adore the lab's hay note. I love it in Brood XIX, and I love it in this. You can smell it right away when you open the bottle. Blending with the other notes, it has almost a sweetgrass scent. You can also really smell the oat cakes, but in a low key foodie way. I wouldn't say that overall it's a foodie blend at all.

 

On my skin, it gives a strong scent impression of standing in a field. It's a little hard to put into words how the ground and grass smell where I live at this time of year. It's definitely a seasonal thing, late summer, and this blend is that impression along with the softness of golden amber. The honey is the sweet honey of Honey Moon. The hay stays strong, a kind of dry vegetative scent.

 

It really doesn't morph much on the dry down except that the amber grows much stronger on me. This has big throw. I put it on yesterday morning after a shower and could still smell it on me quite strongly when I woke up this morning. As much as I love Milk Moon from this year, I think I love this one even more. It's late summer in a field bottled and ready for you to wear. Plus the label art is top notch, but I've always been a sucker for goats!

[Ythik]

I love this so much. It's dry and warm, a little sweet and a little nutty, from the honey and cardamom respectively I assume, but neither of those notes stands out of the mix. The dry hay/oat smells are the foundation here. It's definitely a late summer in the country kind of smell. For me it's very reminiscent of the way it feels when the sun has gone down after a long summer day, and everything still radiates the heat its absorbed back out into the cooler evening air. Just like the whole world giving off a warm, dry sigh of relief now that the sun has stopped baking it for the moment.

[Seajewel]

Here's a review fresh out of the mailbox, I love this so much and need to sing its praises. This was a surprise hit and I only threw it in my decant order out of curiosity, as the original hay moon wasn't something I loved. This goes on all cardamom honey cakes on me at first, very delicious. I generally avoid foodie scents but this is good because there isn't a hint of butter and the cardamom isn't overpowering either, it's just very lovely but not at all boring. I've been searching for a good cardamom scent after the Blueberries trio went a lovely but somewhat one-dimensional creamy cardamom on me, and this one could fit the bill. As it dries, a citrus-y note comes out that I think is the hay. It's not sharp and blends well. Overall it remains a sweet, dry, golden honey cakes scent. I have the original Hay Moon and don't love it (though, to be fair, I probably could give it another thorough test), but this I loved immediately. I think the main addition is the oat cakes note and that note definitely shines here - it makes this blend a much sweeter one than the original. I highly recommend this, and am going to buy two bottles in my next order 😍

[doomsday_disco]

Ooh, this is lovely. It started off as a sort of lemony, honeyed hay scent (it was almost cereal-like on me for a moment, but that was fleeting), but it became warmer and sweeter over time, with the mallow, oatcakes, and golden amber joining the honey and hay and dry grasses. I'm especially loving the oatcake note.   The cardamom is barely noticeable on me. It's so cozy and comforting, and I'm really glad I decided to try it. If it's still available in a few weeks, I may end up with a bottle.

Edited September 5, 2020 by doomsday_disco

[Rayleigh]

This cements it -- I love hay notes. Starting off, I get a lot of honeyed oat cakes, but then amber and hay step up. I would love more cardamom (as usual), but here it adds a spicy whisper. The hay is lush and dry and pleasantly musty, and it pairs nicely with the oats, the drizzle of honey, and the richness of the amber. This was July's moon, but to me it smells like the end of August -- sweet grasses and gentle breezes, the last gasp of late summer under an orange sun.

[momopeche]

Hay Moon takes me to a place where plants are golden. They’re no longer green from spring, and no longer floral from the height of summer, but now they are golden right before fall. It’s foodie-adjacent but not like an imitation. Oatcakes is very apt because to me, the foodie aspect completely reminds me of British digestive cookies.

[puellacaerulea]

This is a really lovely, semi-sweet, golden scent. Even though this was the July lunacy, it feels 100% early autumn to me. It's very well-blended, but the hay, oatcakes, and amber stand out right away -- something about the amber and oatcakes blend makes it smell almost like vanilla, but this scent has a more dry, not fully foodie sweetness. The cardamom sneaks in later, adding a lightly spicy sweetness. I only wish it lasted longer -- a couple hours in, I'm mainly getting a faint whiff of hay, amber, and cardamom on my wrists.

[zankoku_zen]

Comforting grains, honey and oats over an amber base. This one smells like the bounty of harvest, golden grasses and golden honeyed oats. Lovely. 

[lakeplacidskater]

On 9/25/2020 at 9:33 AM, zankoku_zen said:

Comforting grains, honey and oats over an amber base. This one smells like the bounty of harvest, golden grasses and golden honeyed oats. Lovely. 

 

This is the perfect description! To me, this is what the seasonal transition from summer to fall should smell like (if that time period had a scent).

 

 On me, the honey and the oats are very prominent. No wonder I love this so much, I also like amber, and the different notes blend together so perfectly. This is one of my new favorites! 

[feyofthefellwood]

This is lovely. It opens with an almost lemony scent that reminds me of the Lab's sugar note, then settles into honeyed amber, soft cardamom, and a hint of sweet hay/oats. The amber reminds me a bit of Inez and O. It becomes a skin scent on me pretty quickly, and so doesn't have a lot of throw, but that's part of its charm IMO. As other reviewers have noted, it definitely captures a sense of the transition from summer to fall.

[Almond Blossom]

I had very high hopes for this one, as I love the lab's hay note. Lovely as it is, I found Hay Moon strangely lacking on... hay. Yes, it is very pretty and evocative and a perfect late summer scent, but on me the hay note was barely detectable, and it was mostly about wheat, oats and marshmallow - which is nice, but not what I was hoping for. It is a very gentle scent, with not much staying power. I was looking for a replacement for my beloved My Mommy In A Boat, with its knock-your-socks-off hay note, but this is not it. It's still very lovely though, and I'm glad it's now gone to a better home.

[a_bear]

This is one of the first BPALs I purchased and was actually the one I was most nervous about since I'm not really into gourmands. It turned out to be the big hit from my order, though! I love it. If my house were on fire, this is one I would absolutely have to rescue. It's not too foody or sweet - I get more oats than cake, and the honey and amber are subtle. It's mostly cardamom with dry grass and grains on me. It's the perfect pleasantly warm early Fall day scent, though I've been wearing it here and there the rest of the year as well.

 

I also have the Hay Moon from 2008. I find it's not as warm or sweet smelling on intitial application, but after a couple hours they smell pretty much the same.