On skin though, given half an hour or so, The Night melts on the skin into something sweet and soapy, salty and smoky, then very soon a rich Turkish rose makes a dramatic entrance. Parmesan, ancient wood timbers buried in earth, smoke, TCP!, are a few of the comparisons that spring to mind on first sniff. This means that first impressions can be a little off-putting for the uninitiated. Created by ‘nose’ Dominique Ropion for Malle, the Night contains around twenty percent oud, in all its unadulterated full-bodied authenticity. ![]() On the subject of challenging, although Malle’s The Night is a much earlier release (2014) it’s also part of the Desert Gems series and it represents an authentic foray into the world of oud. Truly unisex too, it’s sweet, dry woodiness would suit both men and women equally. Sniffing this delicious concoction on my wrist at the moment though, I think the Moon would most definitely be something of a crowd-pleaser. This is why so many perfumes by Frederic Malle are very distinct, at times even challenging. There’s no corporate directive, just the go-ahead and big budget to create their dream perfume. The concept behind perfume house Frederic Malle, is to invite the world’s top ‘noses’ or perfumers (in this case, Julien Rasquinet) to create scents without restriction. I’ve not listed all perfume materials in the Moon (indeed perfumers rarely release the true list of perfume ingredients since it would include a long list of unpronounceable aroma chemicals!) but the balance of this perfume is thanks to a large supporting cast of florals and resins, as well as the more obvious oud, sandalwood and fruits. The question is, would anyone make these imaginative associations without the title, The Moon, from the Desert Gems Series? It’s hard to tell, but having been given those suggestive titles, this perfume is indeed evocative of a warm night breeze in a hot, arid country. The fruitiness of sweet raspberry and lychee somehow mimics the idea of perfumed wind across the dry desert, lending a strange romance to this very interesting perfume. Combined with sandalwood it becomes softer (good quality sandalwood has a velvet smooth quality, almost milky) add saffron for its association with soft milkiness and you can see why these perfume materials create a balance of dry, soft and dusty. Oud (a fungus produced on the bark of the Agar tree, then dried over years) has a dusty astringent quality – arid and dry. Perfume reviewers tend to err on the side of hyperbole when describing perfume, so I’ll attempt to qualify that last paragraph with a description of what gives this perfume a velvet, dusty, soft texture. Launching off the skin with a cloudburst of bitter smoky oud contrasting with raspberry and lychee sweet fruitiness, Malle’s The Moon gradually settles into dusty,velvety-soft depth the perfume equivalent of man’s first step on the moon, perhaps? Malle’s the Moon was launched as part of their ‘Desert Gems’ series and that’s where the association begins to make sense. Well, it’s not the Lady Luna of imagination – all silvery rays and dream-like mist, but rather the concept of moonlight on the desert. Luckily, we can at least travel in virtual terms via perfume, but how does a perfume smell like the moon you may ask? Also, since you are just "starting out", you might want to explore more affordable fragrance (unless you are that kind of person that can afford to spend big "f**k you money").During the lockdown when I was sniff-testing Frederic Malle’s recent perfume launch, The Moon, I was struck by the irony that, here in the UK, we couldn’t travel farther than five miles, but NASA astronauts are about to travel thirty three million miles into space to visit Mars! ![]() That said, I'd strongly suggest to choose based on scent, not performance, as performance can be improved, not the scent. As far as I remember, The Night is nuclear, The Moon is great, and the other two are average/good. Last thing: you inquired about performance. I guess you are a man, but should you be a woman, I would also suggest to try HdP Fidelis, which is a more feminine take on the same theme as The Moon. ![]() The last two have been made for who wants a fragrance listing oud, but don't really like its smell. The first two have been made for oud lovers. At the opposite, Promise, imho, is a total rip-off. The Night and The Moon are expensive because there is a noticeable amount of oud oil in these, but both worth the money. The Promise is unfortunately often cited as the most interesting of the 4, because many love that unfortunate apple note, made famous by fragrances like Boss Bottled and PdM Layton (two fragrances that I personally find repulsive). I agree with both the previous poster, and my "ranking" would be the following:
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