Reviews of D&G La Lune 18 by Dolce & Gabbana
Genre: Fruity Floral
D&G offers its new Fragrance Anthology line niche style, in plain, (non-sequentially) numbered bottles. (Parfumerie Generale, Le Labo, anyone?) The five scents themselves are all hilariously bad. No. 1, Le Bateleur, is a fresh, aquatic sports fragrance so monumentally dull that I'm nodding off just thinking about it. No. 3, L'Imperatrice, is a crude, derivative, adolescent fruity-floral, for the likes of which neither I nor the world have any use. I took home samples of the other three scents for review: No. 6 and No. 10 because they showed faint signs that they might actually come to smell like something, and No. 18…well, because there was room for a third sample vial on the card, and it was the bottle in the front.
No. 18, called La Lune, starts on a crass, chemical froot note that's common to a few of the D&G Fragrance Anthology entries and decides to make a meal out of it. There's not much else going on here. What (except a possible point of origin,) this note has to do with the moon eludes me entirely.
D&G offers its new Fragrance Anthology line niche style, in plain, (non-sequentially) numbered bottles. (Parfumerie Generale, Le Labo, anyone?) The five scents themselves are all hilariously bad. No. 1, Le Bateleur, is a fresh, aquatic sports fragrance so monumentally dull that I'm nodding off just thinking about it. No. 3, L'Imperatrice, is a crude, derivative, adolescent fruity-floral, for the likes of which neither I nor the world have any use. I took home samples of the other three scents for review: No. 6 and No. 10 because they showed faint signs that they might actually come to smell like something, and No. 18…well, because there was room for a third sample vial on the card, and it was the bottle in the front.
No. 18, called La Lune, starts on a crass, chemical froot note that's common to a few of the D&G Fragrance Anthology entries and decides to make a meal out of it. There's not much else going on here. What (except a possible point of origin,) this note has to do with the moon eludes me entirely.
Another musky-floral untemperamental and common. Some starting tart citrus (mostly lemon), a sharp tuberose, a touch of dry musk and nothing else. Really synthetic.
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After a liberal dousing, I got the distinct impression that the homeopathic principle of attempting to achieve potency through dilution must be the idea behind this fragrance. I doubt it works in homeopathy, and it certainly isn't working here.
About 15 minutes into this non-event an enervated whine arose from my skin. This is what it said: I'm pale, I'm pink, I'm trying to be nice by just fading into a wash of girly sweetness. I have no contour, but to call me seamless would be a compliment. I'm now going to hang around here palely and sweetly at the periphery of your being in my shapeless shift dress, hoping you'll like me.'
Flat, synthetic, overblended rubbish aimed at pleasing newbies who enjoy fabric conditioner.
About 15 minutes into this non-event an enervated whine arose from my skin. This is what it said: I'm pale, I'm pink, I'm trying to be nice by just fading into a wash of girly sweetness. I have no contour, but to call me seamless would be a compliment. I'm now going to hang around here palely and sweetly at the periphery of your being in my shapeless shift dress, hoping you'll like me.'
Flat, synthetic, overblended rubbish aimed at pleasing newbies who enjoy fabric conditioner.
On the tester card, this fragrance is easily the most feminine of the series. The lily and tuberose are the most dominant notes to my nose. In fact I couldn't sense any woodsy or leathery notes at all.
I was rather enjoying the soft, powdery white floral blend which reminded me of a lighter, not as complex version of Fracas. I liked it enough to test it on my skin.
Oh the horror! When applied to my skin, the pretty white florals disappeared leaving behind strong leather and musky notes. Forget this fragrance being feminine, this is purely masculine on my skin.
It had an almost sour cream like smell, that was extremely off-putting to my nose. I'm a girly-girl, and as open-minded as I am, I couldn't possibly see myself wearing this and pulling it off.
The lasting power wasn't all that great, so thankfully the scent disappeared completely after a couple of hours.
Now this fragrance could work either way. If the La Lune agrees with your chemistry, then it's a beautiful, feminine, powdery white floral with refreshing and watery lily notes. If it disagrees with your chemistry (like it did with me), this is masculine, leathery and strong, perfectly suitable for a man to wear. Your skin will decide whether you'll like it or not.
I was rather enjoying the soft, powdery white floral blend which reminded me of a lighter, not as complex version of Fracas. I liked it enough to test it on my skin.
Oh the horror! When applied to my skin, the pretty white florals disappeared leaving behind strong leather and musky notes. Forget this fragrance being feminine, this is purely masculine on my skin.
It had an almost sour cream like smell, that was extremely off-putting to my nose. I'm a girly-girl, and as open-minded as I am, I couldn't possibly see myself wearing this and pulling it off.
The lasting power wasn't all that great, so thankfully the scent disappeared completely after a couple of hours.
Now this fragrance could work either way. If the La Lune agrees with your chemistry, then it's a beautiful, feminine, powdery white floral with refreshing and watery lily notes. If it disagrees with your chemistry (like it did with me), this is masculine, leathery and strong, perfectly suitable for a man to wear. Your skin will decide whether you'll like it or not.
Utterly, utterly pointless. Does the world really need another fruity floral? The minimalist bottles and allegedly unisex approach flirts with niche perfumery, but this scent has nothing resembling a personality. On me it starts off with the usual "fresh feminine" accord incorporating the usual citrus (lemon, orange?), fruit (green apple, pear, peach?), a very clean rose. After a while it goes more fruity and very slightly spicy (cinnamon?) and you can detect some vague woody base, possibly sandalwood. Deeply uninteresting, YAWN.
Notes: lily, tuberose, sandalwood, orris, musk, white leather.
An odd scent. Elements go in various directions
A brief floral opening, a bit acidic yet also quite sweet.
Settles into a fruit punch and green banana skin chord.
At times, a very light leather note may be detected.
Cool, not a warm scent in any way.
Translucent, in fact quite sheer.
An odd scent. Elements go in various directions
A brief floral opening, a bit acidic yet also quite sweet.
Settles into a fruit punch and green banana skin chord.
At times, a very light leather note may be detected.
Cool, not a warm scent in any way.
Translucent, in fact quite sheer.
Synthetic and not very exciting, La Lune seems to be the result of a whole bunch of poor ideas. The opening fruit note comes across to me as solidly synthetic it's an opening that has been offered by several scents of the past decade, and I don't think it offers much competition with the others. I don't get much of the florals from the middle level: All I get is the softening of the opening accord, although I do think that the middle has a warmer feel to it than the opening had. The base I get is pretty much a weak musk with some acceptable leather off to the side. One thing I like about the fragrance is that it isn't too sweet. It has good sillage, but its longevity is inadequate. I don't think 18 La Lune is a very good fragrance.
The leather note in this is so blantantly repulsive it makes me wince. This smells really bad to me and is the worst "dirty" fragrance I've smelled. Really put of by this. In the end, everything else dies (thank the deity) and all you get is a fruity lingering musk.
Clean and delicate - it reminds me of a crisp white shirt tossed into a flower bed.A very light fragrance with just the right amount of floral - nothing explosive here. As I see it, what the fragrance lacks in uniqueness, it makes up for in agreeableness. A satisfying everyday scent. It would be a thumbs up, save for its major downfall - I just wish this fragrance had decent staying ability.
More defense to the line here. First off, No. 18 wan't born to change the world or compete with signature scents. It's a cool feminine floral fruit with a touch of warm grounding base. It doesn't last for a great deal of time, so it's ideal for enjoying close to the skin. Interestingly it is reminiscent of Coco Mademoiselle and whole lot of others which you can bash it for, but where I think it shines is it's ambiguity factor, which can be thought of as an invitation for you to mix it with other fragrances. I'm a new fan of that ambiguity and lack of dominant competitive signature construction. So with that, I continue with curiosity about how this mixes with a range of feminine and masculine scents. After all, does Coco Mademoiselle or Flowerbomb beg to be mixed up with others? The hint of leather in this begs to be paired with other leather dominants to bring that further to the front. I think I'll mix it with some Tom Ford. Hahaha.
Notes:Top: Apple, BergamotMiddle: Rose, TuberoseBase: Orris, Sandalwood, Leather, Musk18 La Lune ("The Moon") is from the recently launched D&G Anthology collection, a me-too "niche" line from D&G in Chanel Les Exclusif like bottles. Recently nearly every perfume house has been infected with the niche H1N1 virus and its been hard to keep track of the number of launches but the Anthology is available from my local Sephora so I had a dib. German model Claudia Schiffer is the muse, and La Lune is for the "the Dreamer" - fresh, sensual, dazzling yet keeping her secrets with her ethereal beauty. La Lune doesn't have the impact of a Claudia Schiffer, but the end result is actually one of the better new fruity florals on the markets.Despite the presence of heavy hitting notes, La Lune is a sheer and light fragrance. It opens with a burst of one of the best rendered apple notes in the designer realm, expertly juxtaposed against a veil of sweet florals. This apple/citrus + florals melding act is La Lune's greatest success; the materials are good, and there are no crass, loud, synthetic accords burning nasal linings. Infact, this first half act reminds me a lot of Creeds Spring Flower which opens with a brilliant apple note that links up with a smorgasbord of florals except that La Lunes' materials aren't as rich or dense. After this inviting apple-floral display, an aquatic lily note makes its presence felt around the edges...its not quite at the forefront but you can smell aquatic spikes here and there. The base flatters to deceive...La Lune had the potential to finish off things with a grand leather and iris finish but instead takes a cheap accountants way out by throwing out a tiny musky-amber base with a barely there plastic leather note. To its credit, despite its ethereal nature La Lune lasts a good 7-8 hours.Despite an anti-climactic base, I would rate La Lune as one of the better recent fruity florals. Its apple-florals balancing act is good enough to entice me to further explore this line. La Lune is jovial, light-hearted, fun, a bit stoic, not terribly cerebral but a blast to have around for some short lived fun. Quite a bit like Claudia Schiffer actually.Rating: 7.25/10.0
This scent seems to veer between the cool melony scent (and imagery) of the top notes and the light muskiness of the base. Moonlight falling on carnal and innocent activities alike - this scent seems to follow that journey as well. Light and cool, at times gently floral, at times slighty musky. A bit remote or faint, but welcome when you notice it. It isn't overly sweet (that's left to Number 3, the empress and Number 10, the wheel of fortune), but if you want a clean, fresh and slightly cool fragrance, this is perfect for you.
No. 18 LA LUNE - The Dreamer. Fresh yet sensual - a perfect enigma. Or so the ads say. I find it fresh and slightly soapy but nothing sensual in this blend of lily, tuberose, orris, sandlewood, musk and white leather. To me it feels more like a cross between Tommy Girl and Paul Smith Story with a frugality of notes which hint at 'cheap' or 'synthetic'. And that's what the collection of washed out notes is making this out to be - a perfume on a tight budget. A shame really. In the hands of a master I believe the combination of notes can be a killer but I must concede even a master can't do much with the pocket change of a 5th grader.