Bath & Body Works has launched Moonlight Magic, a flanker to their Moonlight Path fragrance for women:
Master perfumers have layered night blooming jasmine, white amber and wild goji berries to create a dazzling new scent inspired by our iconic Moonlight Path fragrance. Moonlight Magic is a cosmic blend of luminous flowers and luscious fruit celebrating starry skies and a world of boundless imagination.
Additional notes include strawberry, raspberry, gardenia, peach, coconut musk, vanilla and sandalwood.
Bath & Body Works Moonlight Magic is available in 75 ml Eau de Toilette, $29.50. Other bath & body products are bound to follow soon. (via bbw)
Looking at the bottle – and the notes, especially strawberry – I’m guessing this scent is geared for people about 40 years my junior. Pity. Moonlight Path’s not bad at all. It’s a little sad when BBW starts dumbing down its fragrances!
I don’t know…I guess, but in general I think they’ve been improving their fragrance offerings over the past couple years.
They used to have a prominent Kids section in the back of the store that has been shrinking over time. I was rather fond of their Rootbeer Roundup shampoo, and was sad that a lot of the kids stuff has been discontinued.
I would guess that they are introducing new items for kids, but mixing them in with the mainstream items so kids can feel a little more grown up, and aren’t relegated to a pink dungeon in the back of the store.
I used to adore B&BW. Admittedly, I haven’t worn any of their fragrances since they first introduce the Japanese Cherry Blossom — which I loved. I remember the ‘kids’ section, my local store phased that out years ago.
I still lament the loss of their old cosmetic line. They carried the most lovely, long lasting, high shine nude lipgloss that I swore by as a teenager. Went into the store one day when I was maybe 16 or 17 and found out that they had sold off all their remaining cosmetics and were discontinuing them. What a shame. Never had the chance to even stock up.
B&BW brings back so many memories, though. I feel like I may drop by the local store and try out the newer fragrances if only to get a whiff of the cucumber melon hand soap which puts me right back into the 9th grade.
You could be describing me with The Body Shop! I remember when a big Fuzzy Peach bath gel was the ultimate birthday gift from a friend. Last year I bought some fuzzy peach and Dewberry oils for nostalgia sake. I might slink off and wear some Dewberry now.
BBW is definitely worth a visit. They have brought back a number of their scents so they have a good mix of new and old. And every time I go I find at least one pleasant surprise.
Dewberry and Fuzzy Peach are wonderful! I wore those when I was in college. I wish they still made the perfume sprays. I’m not crazy about the fruity stuff, but I did like those. A lot.
Oh, what a pity BBW isn’t available here in New Zealand. I love night blooming jasmine, and would try this even with strawberry and coconut etc.
Hey, Laken, where are you in NZ? What’s your weather like at the moment?
Hi Mals, I’m in Auckland, North Shore. The weather here has just started to be amazing. Yesterday was so beautiful, sunny with a gentle breeze, and the sun wasn’t too harsh like it was before. I think we’re in for a few good days because theres a big high over us at the moment. However there has not been enough rain in some parts of the country.
Moonlight Path body products layer nicely with No. 5. Don’t see what it needed a flanker for.
And I tend to be a fan of B&BW, too. The fruitization of smells continues to disturb me.
I’m with you, Mals. I really liked Moonlight Path, and I love the BB&W bubble baths and body washes. The fruitiness of this flanker scares me.
Guessing it needs a flanker because it sells!
But… this is B&BW… why a flanker when the shelves are just covered with row after row of products in different scents? I mean, it’s like a candy store. They’re always tweaking the list of scents, releasing new and discontinuing old – they must have 50 scents available *right now* and they all get equal space inside the store. Freeeeaaky.
It’s true…it’s kind of overwhelming to go in there. But as has been pointed out many times, the whole industry has trained the customer to demand newness rather than to stay loyal to existing products.
I love Moonlight Path, but have been told IRL and online that it is an “Old Lady Perfume” (ugh!!!) and my guess is word got back to Corporate, and so they’re trying to “fix” that.
Ah, maybe that’s it.
The only goji berries I have ever seen were pictured in Paltrow’s unintentionally hillarious GOOP newsletter. BBW does trendy health food for the nose?
It’s trendy, sure — also in Love Ralph Lauren & Rocawear X, & others I’m sure.
A warning to readers: If you do what I did and google BBW, the results are decidedly NSFW.
Oh!
What is NSFW? I am so out of the loop. And now tempted to google, which I’m guessing is a bad idea at work. (By the way, whenever anyone says “BBW” I always think of the defunct magazine Big Beautiful Woman. ) 🙂
Oh, good lord! Never mind– I made the mistake of googling that.
Still don’t know what the acronym meant, though. 🙂 My knowledge begins at “BTW” and ends at “WTF?”
NSFW = “Not Safe For Work” aka don’t use your corporate computer to open while you’re at the office, lol
Is a perfume “iconic” now when it’s been in production for three whole years? Looking back at the old one though, it didn’t sound bad, as this one does.
I think MP has been around much longer than that…the link above is to a LE collector bottle they did in 2007. Sorry I don’t know when it launched, but reviews at MUA in 2006 say it came out “years ago”.
Yeah, I would say at least ten years ago, probably longer.
Gotcha. Thanks.
Gardenia and coconut…I’ll bet this smells like summer. The fragrance I wore on my very first date was a gardenia soliflore :).
Aw, nice!
…all it needed was something like “fig”, but I’m guessing the berries might do a solid job of replacing it…
I smelled this in the lotion a few weeks ago when I was at the store, and it smelled a little “grape-ish” to me.
I bought the Passport Tahiti Island Mimosa a few weeks ago and love it, especially on dreary, snowy days (like today).
Oh, grape-ish is not for me.
I wasn’t too crazy about the lotion either, although I didn’t actually dislike it – just almost indifferent. I actually like how this sounds when reading the notes and I love Moonlight Path. I think it’s light and airy, it doesn’t smell like old lady’s perfume to me. But then again, this is always such a subjective perception. I will try the new one in the store before I form an opinion, since I like the original Moonlight Path so much.
Now that you mention it, though, I think I did smell something resembling grape, indeed – which I usually don’t like. Maybe that’s what put me off a little.
Oh, I forgot to say: the Passport Tahiti line is really good. I’ve been wearing the Coconut Vanille fragrance mist and get compliments every single time. For a fragrance mist it’s surprisingly good. I like wearing it for casual situations, or running errands or right after shower before going to bed. I’ll probably get the Island Mimosa too. They have really good staying power for what they are.
They do, don’t they, Patricia? The Island Mimosa is very well done. It stays on all day and even makes its way into the threads of my shirts (which I love), which many of my fragrances don’t do since I wear such light scents.
I bought the home fragrance oil in Carribean Escape today. Maybe it will make spring arrive even faster. 🙂
Bath and Bady Works… did any of you ever smell the Breathe Romance line when they had it? It has been gone a few years now. Specifically, the lotion smelled AMAZING- as many fragrances as I have tested across all prcie ranges, it is still one of my all-time favorite scents… and I am dying to find a perfume that smells similarly! if any of you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them! Thanks! 🙂
I didn’t, sorry!
I wasn’t a fan, but my sister LOVED Breathe Romance. If I can get her to wriggle her brain for the notes, I’ll let you know. 🙂
You’re in luck. Breathe Romance is one of two fragrances in the Breathe line that has been temporarily brought back for spring. I’m not sure if they’re available in stores, but they’re online:
http://www.bathandbodyworks.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=4017166&cp=2484525
I saw that too and was really excited! Haven’t seen it in stores yet and when I asked someone at my local store about it, she said that if it’s online, it’s probably going to hit the stores back because it was a really popular line. She said she was surprised they even took it out of the stores at all, being so popular.
I wasn’t living in the US when this line first came out, but I have a friend who has the lotion and a body mist and I love them! The body mist isn’t available, though – in stores or online.
I love Moonlight Path and I am not an old granny. I hope they do not get rid of the original. I have an aversion to fruity scents and from the sounds of this formulation it bends on the fruiter side. I will pass this one by.
Hopefully they’ll keep making it.
I was given Moonlight Path as a gift one year, and practically ran to exchange it. I ended up with a shoe box full of glycerin soaps. 🙂
I do love those soaps!
moonlight path was pretty enough, but had lavender as one of the strongest notes, and some people associate that with old ladies.. I think that’s what they are trying to dilute, perhaps?
Personally I am REEEALLLY excited about their orange one coming out, but not sure if it will be too sweet, or just another armani code-esque thing. I mean, I like armani code, but we don’t need a knockoff of it.
The orange one does sound nice!
Robin, I tried the new orange one on my skin and though it was surprisingly good. At this point it probably sounds like I love everything from BBW – lol, I don’t, there are many scents in the signature line I can’t stand. But I’m looking forward to the orange one for spring and summer.
Oh good, glad to hear it.
I don’t think that I’ve ever tried the Moonlight Path in the edt, but I love the lotion and I’ll definitely have to try Mals’ hint of layering it with No. 5. I I don’t think that I’ve ever smelled the Breathe Romance, but I love the regular Breathe lotion – if that’s the one in the orange container.
The thought of the strawberry note makes me shudder though, so I’ll probably skip this one.
I answered my own question – the orange one was Breathe Delight and I loved that one.
I’ve never tried either Moonlight Path or Sweet Pea.
I’m a big proponent of Bath and Body Works, and normally I try to find SOME good in their fragrance released. But I’m really not digging this release.
Moonlight Magic is being released side-by-side with Sweet Pea Forever, a flanker to Sweet Pea. Moonlight Path was originally released 11 years ago, and Sweet Pea was released 10 years ago. They’re both among the company’s top sellers, which is what prompted the flankers. I’m not a fan of either of the originals: Moonlight Path overpowers me with its harsh lavender and explosion of musk, and I find Sweet Pea’s tooth-achingly sugary florals to be astringent.
As it were, I like Moonlight Magic and Sweet Pea Forever a great deal more than both of their namesakes, but by no means do I feel like they’re good fragrances.
Moonlight Magic is an offensively vague blend of soft, sweet berries and sheer, lightweight fruits. It bears hardly any resemblance to Moonlight Path. It’s soft, nondescript, and completely inoffensive. I smell it, and feel as though I’ve smelled something so similar to it before.
Sweet Pea Forever is marginally more interesting that Moonlight Magic, and it bears a closer resemblance to the original. The pink floral notes don’t assault your nose like they did with Sweet Pea, and the fruit notes don’t feel alcoholic. Instead, Sweet Pea Forever gets its fruit notes from citrus, so it blends differently with the floral notes. I like it better. But the longer it sat on my skin the citrus became a touch sour. It was almost jarring, but not necessarily horrible. Nonetheless, the overall composition was still very uninteresting, as it’s still just a fruity floral.
I’ll be surprised if these fragrances do particularly well, to be honest. Moonlight Magic does not cater to the same audience as Moonlight Path. And Sweet Pea Forever feels just a touch too grown-up to serve the masses of pre-tweens that soak up the Sweet Pea. Thankfully, both of these fragrances are limited edition, which means I’m willing to live with them until we get to the next fragrance.
Which is Orange Sapphire, and I LOVE it. It’s a fragrance that comes in two parts: a huge blood orange note, and mid/base notes of white florals. It doesn’t smell a thing like Armani Code for women. It’s very citrusy, and a little bit sweet. But the blood orange note feels very natural. Am I giving away too many spoilers? Sorry, I’m gushing. But I’m so excited for the launch of this one.
The orange one really does sound appealing.
Thanks for the reviews. I’m always curious to find the gems in this line. Or at least the semi-precious stones 😉
thanks, I’m glad to hear Orange Sapphire is not just their version of Code.. I love jasmine and orange in anything, this could be really fun! I am always really happy when Bath and body works puts out something I like, because it’s in my price range and they have lotions and stuff… so I am very excited about this one!
I am also not really ‘getting’ their concept in the moonlight path/sweet pea flankers… They just don’t sound all that interesting and I agree that it seems to be a vague target market. Plus- strawberry! ugh…
Looks like Bond No. 9’s Scent of Peace.
Yeah, sort of.
Didn’t mean to sound so snarky about BBW. I visit frequently, and like a lot of their stuff. Their new Sandalwood and Fig is quite pleasant, if not quite as “sensual” as it’s hyped. Their Breathe scents are quite good, and I was happy to see that a couple of them are coming back. It’s just that the minute someone feels they have to add strawberry to something….
That’s ok, snarky is allowed!
I agree: I liked the new Sandalwood Fig quite a bit, but didn’t find it sensual or sexy. It’s more in the “uplifting category for me, with something strangely citrusy I can’t quite describe. Not bad in that sense, just not what I’d expect from something being described as sensual. Good enough, though, to justify the purchase of a lotion. 😉
It irks me when jasmine is described as “night blooming” when they don’t actually mean Night Blooming Jasmine (Cestrum nocturnum). I have two of these planted in my backyard, and the scent when they are in bloom is sweet, opulent, and heavenly. I have yet to find a fragrance that captures the true scent of this flower, and having smelled Moonlight Magic last week, I can assure you it’s not in this bottle, either.
Most ad copy is at least somewhat fantastical…
Sapphie, thats good to know. I have the cestrum nocturnum blooming in my garden too, which i Love the scent of, and also are yet to find a perfume that captures it.
“sweet, opulent and heavenly”, I would add heady, fresh, disturbing, powerful, exhilirating…you can tell I loveit, ..yes?
I know it sounds nasty, but i have a bottle and it is SO yummy smelling.