Calgon Moon Petal Musk 1999

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I remember a long time ago when I got my first set of body mists. They came in four. They were body mists, and they were Calgon. They started my long sordid decline into the perfume obsession I find myself in today. Now, Calgon’s never really gotten any better with these fragrances but I can’t help but feel that little sting of nostalgia whenever I smell one of these.

Moon Petal Musk

In Bottle: Sharp floral twang with a bit of fresh greenness up top. The greenness is very fleeting because it’s easily overpowered by the floral bite.

Applied: Strong flowers floating in ozone notes. Moon Petal Musk might as well be standing ontop of a mountain and shouting, “OZONE!” for the whole world to hear because that ozone note is what lends to the sharpness and powerful fresh smell in this. And fresh, in this case, is defined as overly clean and very sharp. The ozone does fade, however, leaving you with a rather pleasant bouquet of white florals. The most prominent notes being lillies and roses. Mix lily and rose together in equal parts and you will get this vague feel of white, powdery flowers. As Moon Petal Musk dries down, the florals devolve into a very vague floral fragrance where you can’t really tell what flower it is you’re smelling, but you’re sure it’s at least a flower. The florals are mingled with a sharp white musk to usher out the fragrance completely.

Extra: It should be noted that Calgon re-imagined and reformulated Moon Petal Musk since my bottle’s time. The new Moon Petal Musk smells nothing like this and one glance at its new notes list should tell you that. So, if we were going to be ridiculous, I’d venture to say my bottle of watery perfume is a vintage–but we’re not feeling ridiculous right now. I will say that compared to the new Moon Petal Musk, the original is far more competent.

Design: All body sprays tend to be bottled in the same way. Tall cylindrical plastic container with plastic sprayer nozzle. It’s not fancy, it’s not exciting and it’s not meant to be any of those things. This is simply functional, with a little bit of plain and ugly thrown in.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Floral

Notes: Ozone, orchid, rose, freesia, muguet, white musk.

I took a stab at the notes list with what rarity of information I could find online regarding the original Moon Petal Musk’s notes. I refused to believe the one place I found a notes list that “airy green expression” was a serious thing I was supposed to smell. It’s like when you’re playing Pictionary and some smarty pants decides to make you illustrate the concept of humility. My thanks to LittleGnome on Makeupalley for the notes list I referenced. I believe her list might be the official word on this fragrance, so take mine with a grain of salt.

Reviewed in This Post: Moon Petal Musk, 1999, Body Mist.

Common Perfume Notes Made Easy

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Ever try to read out and make sense of a notes listing for a fragrance you love? Just what on Earth is muguet supposed to be? How do you even say that? And what’s this coumarin that everyone keeps talking about? And if you thought the notes list was complicated enough, just wait until you hear about the stuff they don’t list.

The following is a brief overview of some perplexing but common notes you might see in perfume.

Benzoin: Pronounced, “ben-zoh-in”, can refer to either the “benzoin resin” from trees in the Styrax genus or the organic compound, “benzoin”. Benzoin resin has a creamy, honey and vanilla fragrance.

Champaca: Pronounced, “cham-puk-uh”, is a tree from the magnolia family. It smells woodsy, spicy and green.

Coumarin: Pronounced, “koo-muh-rin”, is a chemical compound found in tonka beans, sweet grass, and a wide variety of other plants. It has a sweet hay scent.

Galbanum: Pronounced, “gal-bun-num”, is a gum resin from plants of the Ferula genus. It has a green, herbaceous and bitter scent.

Labdanum: Pronounced, “lab-dun-num”, is a resin obtained chiefly from plants of the Cistus genus. Labdanum smells sweet, dry and woodsy.

Muguet: Pronounced, “mew-gey”, is Lily-of-the-Valley. It has a light, very sheer but distinctive sweet aroma.

Olibanum: Pronounced, “O-lib-bun-num”, is frankincense. Smells like incense to me.

Opopanax: Pronounced, “oh-pop-pan-nax”, is a gum resin that smells woodsy and lightly floral undertones.

Oud: Pronounced, “ooh’d”, sometimes referred to as agarwood is the resin that is produced when an Aquilaria tree is infected with mold. Oud is said to smell dense, sweet, warm,  and woodsy.

Ylang Ylang: Pronounced, “ee-lang ee-lang”, is a flowering tree. Ylang ylang has a delicate, white floral fragrance.