D&G La Lune 18 (2009)
by Dolce & Gabbana

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.

26th June, 2011.

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.

2nd February, 2011.

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.

11th January, 2011.

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.

20th July, 2010.

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.

17th July, 2010.

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.

3rd July, 2010.