Moon Drops

Moon Drops is a dreamy drift on pillow clouds to snuggle-land: aldehydes in warm hues, ylang ylang rendered pastel, glowing lily of the valley will-o'-the-wisp, berry accents, carnation-punctuated powdered wood incense. As it subsides, it's a light amber honey and cuddly musks. This is comfort and repose, quelling the quarreling, muffling the din, stupefying the mind in the most magnificent way. It's a personal retreat back "home", a vacation from madness. I have a knack now for disassociating myself from any associations, having disciplined myself from leaning on lazy tropes, reducing a perfume to its intended gender, class, or context. Decontextualizing fragrances allows us to read it in an open-hearted way. So, a number of noses might associate this with another age, intended for a matronly woman, not intended for the modern, the masculine, the "with it." If that's what it takes to be "with it," while wearing this I want to just be "without it" for awhile and be suspended in its charm, and marvel that this was in the bottom shelf of the perfume case of a drugstore in the 90s (my box has a UPC bar code on the base of the box). Once discontinued by Revlon, it was produced by Prism—I haven't any knowledge of that version. This version, perfectly preserved and not so old so that I risked soured aldehydes and turned components, is stellar.

Over the last couple of years I’ve managed to pick up a couple of gift sets (cologne and dusting powder) of the original Revlon Moondrops. This has always been one of my favourites since the 1970s .. I have a bottle of the prism version which I have to say I love, but my vintage stuff I save for special occasions.. I’m not great at picking out notes but I can say this perfume is just dreamy beautiful and so feminine. We sadly live in an age of sickly sweet perfumes that all smell pretty much the same, Moondrops is very similar to Estée Lauders Estée, it was probably copied and mass produced at a time when women didn’t just treat themselves to a bottle of posh perfume (I certainly couldn’t afford to) .. for anyone who hasn’t tried this perfume I can only urge you to do so, it is stunning.

@alphairone, I absolutely love your review of Moon Drops!! I need to snag a bottle soon. My late mother always loved this one, and it smelled so good on her. I'm in the process now, of getting some vintage perfumes that my mother used to wear. I'm missing her so much lately, and I just want to smell like her. It comforts me. Your description was so wonderful, that it makes me want to get a bottle from eBay as soon as possible. I haven't tried the Prism version either, so I'm really afraid to buy that one. And I agree with you...Moon Drops sounds like something that will send you into snuggle land. Love it!!

As I understand, this was created to be an Estee economically accessible dupe for the masses. It's much more strong than Estee, in fact, it's a little bit like nasal napalm but wow it is gorgeous. My mother wore this a lot and even when it became harder to find in the 90s, she would scour places such as Makro and dusty pharmacies to procure her olfactory poison. These days since I refuse to pay the dumbass exorbitant prices for MD on Ebay, Estee is a DUPE for MD for me now lol. This is pure nostalgia for me and my mother driving me to school in a bottle.

It is easily available in South Africa, and considered an "old lady's perfume". I tried it today and it is not that heavy on me. A bit sweet, but not unpleasant. It is not expensive here. Update: I bought a bottle and to my surprise I am loving it. it starts off rather sweet, but the woody notes come through shortly afterwards and it evolves into something resembling warm spicy cream soda. I couldn't wear it every day, but I find it amusing and different. Yes, it is very retro, but at 61, so am I.