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A Western Idea of a Mooncake
You’re missing home. It been two years since you been near your community. Your kitchen is warm with the scent of your desperation as the smell of sweet dough perfumes the entire room. Your apron is covered in smudges of the honey-vanilla glaze, lotus and mung bean paste, and the buttery dough. You’re exhausted, and you’re sure you didn’t make them right, but the smell alone has provided you with more comfort and warmth than you’ve felt in a long time.
I tested this fragrance right after launch and I got only pure honey and Carmex lip balm. I forgot about it for a few months, only to find it completely transformed into a earthy, sweet, vanilla-centric doughy scent, though still not a scent reminiscent nor representative of a mooncake. Its not too dense, not syrupy sweet, and doesn't have the earthy, nutty qualities of the mung bean and lotus seed pastes listed in the notes. I think it is an objectively nice warm honey fragrance, but it's nothing special or awe-inspiring.
Despite it's decency, the marketing of Mooncake severely overshot the authenticity of the actual product. For a fragrance with an actual dessert as its inspiration, those notes should’ve been much stronger than the doughy, honeyed aspects of the fragrance. One of my personal grips with fragrances is misleading marketing, and this scent is guilty. If you have never tried a mooncake, never smelled or tasted mung bean or lotus seed, and had only experienced the dessert through a screen, this could be a satisfactory representation of a Mooncake for you. Given that the brand's entire gimmick is to represent and share different cultures through scent, this is a major letdown.
I tested this fragrance right after launch and I got only pure honey and Carmex lip balm. I forgot about it for a few months, only to find it completely transformed into a earthy, sweet, vanilla-centric doughy scent, though still not a scent reminiscent nor representative of a mooncake. Its not too dense, not syrupy sweet, and doesn't have the earthy, nutty qualities of the mung bean and lotus seed pastes listed in the notes. I think it is an objectively nice warm honey fragrance, but it's nothing special or awe-inspiring.
Despite it's decency, the marketing of Mooncake severely overshot the authenticity of the actual product. For a fragrance with an actual dessert as its inspiration, those notes should’ve been much stronger than the doughy, honeyed aspects of the fragrance. One of my personal grips with fragrances is misleading marketing, and this scent is guilty. If you have never tried a mooncake, never smelled or tasted mung bean or lotus seed, and had only experienced the dessert through a screen, this could be a satisfactory representation of a Mooncake for you. Given that the brand's entire gimmick is to represent and share different cultures through scent, this is a major letdown.