This coming weekend is that moment when I finally can take a moment to kick back and relax. There are no more parties to attend. No more special meals to prepare. No more places to be; other than on my sofa. This is the weekend where I sit with a bottle of wine, junk food and never get out of my sweatpants. Perhaps my favorite combination of post-holiday cocooning sustenance is a deep red wine and an even deeper dark chocolate. This year it is going to be a selection of Spanish Ribera del Duero reds along with a 15-piece box of dark chocolate confections from our local chocolatier Artisan Confections. This is the smell of recovery. Now I’m not sure independent perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz agrees with me but her Holiday release for 2016 is a red wine and chocolate gourmand called Dark Moon.
Dark Moon is the sixteenth Holiday release from Ms. Hurwitz. On her website, she describes it as a “chocolate chypre”. The foundation is most certainly chypre but she is leaving out something which really allows Dark Moon to stand out; her red wine accord. In the perfume description she names two; “fragrant wine” and “madeira”. It is the latter accord which I found to be particularly pleasant within the overall structure.
Dawn Spencer Hurwitz
Dark Moon opens with a dry dark chocolate which forms the nucleus of Dark Moon. She uses nutmeg to give a bit of traditional seasonal cheer while also using black pepper for bite. Then her madeira accord comes out. Madeira is a dry sweet wine. The accord is also dry and sweet which harmonizes with the chocolate providing deep thought about sweetness that isn’t the typical pastry gourmand territory. To this a subtle floral bouquet of rose flits through before heading for the promised chypre base. In this chypre accord Ms. Hurwitz takes brown oakmoss, fossilized amber, and labdanum to form something with depth to match the chocolate and madeira. Throughout the later going there are flares of other resins but for the majority of its time on my skin Dark Moon is wine, chocolate, and chypre.
Dark Moon has 6-8 hour longevity and little sillage.
The Madeira accord is the reason to check out Dark Moon because you will not find anything like it elsewhere. It is another example of the joy of independent perfumery. It is also sort of interesting that Dark Moon has a kind of vintage feel even though it is a gourmand which has only been around for as a fragrance style for twenty-five years. I think it comes from the chypre accord but that doesn’t always impart that vibe to me. I look forward to putting up my feet this weekend, pour a glass, grab a square of chocolate and anoint myself with Dark Moon.
Disclosure: this review was based on a sample provided by DSH Perfumes.
–Mark Behnke
