Beguiled - Haus of Gloi

Details:
Beguiled
Summer Collection 
Haus of Gloi

Notes: 
Lemon cake made with the tang of fresh buttermilk and raspberry coulis - an otherwise innocent cake corrupted by cardamom and deceptive pink peppercorns.

Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake! (That's an in joke for Jacquie.)
This perfume is not so much cake to me, more like a sweet lemon custard. It's quite strong at first but does mellow. Very, very lemony for quite a while - thankfully not the toilet cleaner kind of lemon! The lemon fades a little in the dry down and blends more in with the other notes. This is when it becomes more cakey in my mind. I didn't get the spices at all - I found it very smooth all the way through. I did say earlier in the year I was a bit over cake/dessert scents, but I would almost be tempted to buy a full size of this one. It's very well done and super pretty. If you like gourmand scents, this is definitely one worth checking out. Beguiled lasted about 7 hours on me before I felt I needed to reapply.

Rating: 
4/5

Day 198!

Edit: Liber Vix made a cake from this scent's notes and it looks and sounds amazing. Definitely going to try this! 

Perpetual Orgasm - Possets

Details:
Perpetual Orgasm
Possets Perfume

Notes: 
The divine honey which the bees make on the dry and craggy plains is the starting point for such a melting blend. Malta is an arid country and the non populated expanses are covered with tough aromatic growth which needs little rainfall. It is in that hard herbal mat that the bees wrestle the tiniest drops of nectar out of sparse light blue flowers and somehow manage to manufacture honey of such brilliance it’s almost as if the sun was captured and liquefied. Added to this is a shard of sharp lemon zest and the smooth modification of orange, both citrus which can be found in abundance in the Mediterranean, and which naturally compliment Maltese honey, and you will have found a paradise in a bottle.

So apparently a perpetual orgasm smells like orange sherbet. There is a dab of lemon, and something a bit.. not minty but kind of icy that just wafts through every now and then. It's bugging me no end what that is actually - it's right on the tip of my tongue but I just can't... quite... get it. AGH! I'm not a big fan of citrus scents generally, but there's a sweet edge to this from the honey that makes it much more palatable to me. I like it a lot. It really is just basically sherbet though. Who knew that's what an orgasm smells like? Sillage is quite high at first but mellows after 30 minutes or so. Longevity is good - 8 hours or so.

Rating:
4/5... and what the heck is that note?

Day 141!

Burlesque Lounge - Nevermore Body Company

Details: 
Burlesque Lounge
Nevermore Body Company

Notes: 
True to its name...this musky combination of Patchouli, black leather and tobacco with a floral hint of Frankincense, violet and amber is perfectly blended in fresh lemon, mandarin, juicy plum, red apple, cinnamon and fresh clove, dipped in vanilla and cherry cordial. Let the intoxicating scents of a 19th century Burlesque Lounge tickle your senses and take you back to another time.

In the vial this is fruity and sweet - I can smell the apple and plum, and there is a candy-ish note that might be the cherry cordial. It's basically the same on my skin but with a hint of lemon. This perfume went dusty on me within minutes and stayed that way. The sillage was low and it didn't last very long. I don't like fruit scents so even without the dustiness it wouldn't have been my cup of tea.

Rating: 
1/5

Day 130! 

Chiffon - Solstice Scents

Details: 
Chiffon
Spring Collection 2013
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
Vanilla, White Amber, White Musk & Lemon Myrtle EO

I almost bought a full size of this unsniffed, and I'm glad I didn't because I don't like it nearly as much as I thought I would. I've come to realise that I have pretty much outgrown gourmand perfumes, which I'm slightly devo about because a) I so want to love them, and b) I have a million of the damn things.

In the vial and when first applied this smells like a delicious sweet lemon custard - the kind of scent I like a lot, but also the kind of scent I have several more of stashed around somewhere. It's when it begins to dry on my skin that the trouble starts - the amber and musk come out and just party like it's 1999. The amber in particular is SO strong on me that it gave me a bit of a headache. I could still smell the sweet lemon fluffiness in there and I was clinging to that, but in the end I had to concede that this perfume was not for me. The headache went away just before I got to the point where I was about to scrub it off, and the scent hung around forever (of course). 12 hours at least - with reasonably high sillage. This is not one for the faint-hearted.

Let me say up front this is not a bad perfume by any means - I just did not react well to it. If you like lemony gourmands and amber doesn't tend to amp on you, you will probably love this. I think it would also be much better as a body lotion or a shower gel than as a perfume.

Rating: 
2/5

Day 113!

The Cake Is A Lie - One Hand Washes The Other

Details: 
The Cake Is A Lie
Winter 2011 (now permanent)
One Hand Washes The Other

Notes: 
But it smells so REAL! Lemon-filled butter cake with thick, fluffy frosting. Lemon, sugar, cake batter and frosting. 

This perfume came in my recent package from Rachel, and having never tried any perfumes from One Hand Washes The Other, I was a bit excited to get in and try it. The Cake Is A Lie is one of those weird phrases that I have heard a million times but don't know the etymology of - I assume it's from some fandom or other. Regardless, I've had at least a couple of other perfumes of that name in the past. In the vial, this one smells like sweet lemon cake. I like it, but I feel like I've smelled the exact same perfume 10 times in the last few months. It doesn't change a lot on application - perhaps a bit more sugary. About 20 minutes in it goes a bit dusty and stays that way for a half hour or so. The dry down is sugary vanilla custard. The sillage and longevity are both fairly low - it was gone in a couple of hours.

Rating: 
3/5 As I said, I liked it, but I feel a bit caked out these days.

Day 88!
 

Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster - Delightful Rot

Details: 
Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster
Delightful Rot

Notes:
Invented by Zaphod Beeblebrox, the Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster is described as "the alcoholic equivalent of a mugging - expensive and bad for the head" and drinking one "is like having your brain smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick". With a bright lemon top note backed by a tropical, fruity scent, Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster is reminiscent of a posh, pricey cocktail. 

I'm not a big fan of science fiction, and I've never read The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, so I don't have any affinity with this name or anything. It was a freebie I received with an order I did recently from Delightful Rot. In the vial this is a sickly sweet lemon sherbet. Once applied it's super fruity and sweet - it makes me think of those really cheap imported lollies you can buy in junk shops like The Reject Shop. The dry down is... fly spray. Well, it is on me anyway. I really hated this. I resisted the urge to scrub it off because I wanted to see if it would improve but it didn't. Thankfully the sillage and lasting power was lowish - it was gone in about 3 hours.

Rating: 
1/5

Day 36!

The Fat Lady - Enchanticals Perfume

Details: 
The Fat Lady
KrAzy KaRnIvAle Side Show Freaks Collection
Enchanticals Perfume

Notes: 
Of all the Side Show Freaks, I think I envy the Fat Lady the most. I mean after all, she not only get’s to eat everything at the concession stand, she encouraged to do so! What does the Fat Lady smell like? Like caramel apples, cotton candy, vanilla ice cream, funnel cakes, buttered popcorn and those sweet things one may find at the Carnival.

Well, you know me and carny scents. I can't resist. This smells super sweet and cakey. It's like a rich lemon cream cake.There is a biscuit/pastry note similar to the one in BPAL's Eat Me, but unlike that, this one doesn't go dusty on me. The Fat Lady doesn't change much, but it's delicious, like a slightly lemony confectioner's custard. Or a proper fancy vanilla slice - the kind you pay through the nose for at a patisserie. The kind I went and paid through the nose for after wearing this perfume all day. AND IT WAS WORTH IT. The sillage is medium, and longevity is good - I could still smell it on my wrist 8 hours later. I really like this one, and it's going on the full bottle list.

Rating: 
4/5

Day 29!

Dirty - Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Let's all pretend we can't see that dead ant.

Details:
Dirty
Sin & Salvation
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Notes:
A wonderful antidote to an all-nighter oozing with drunken, addled perversion and debauchery. A fresh, crisp white linen scent: perfectly clean, perfectly breezy.

Well, it smells like what it says it smells like - clean laundry. In the vial I get washing powder, a slightly lemony generic floral. Once applied it is more floral than anything else, but there is a fruity note in there somewhere - something like nectarine. I can only catch that note if I bring my wrist up really close to my nose and sniff.

The smell doesn't really change at all. The throw was minimal and within a couple of hours it had disappeared completely.

While I find 'clean' scents inoffensive, I don't really get why people want to walk around smelling like freshly washed laundry. I seem to be in the minority though, as many companies have some version of this scent.

Rating:
2/5 Meh. I don't hate it, but I find it kind of pointless.

Day 8!

Carnival - Alchemic Muse

Details:
Carnival
Alchemic Muse

Notes: 
Relive the days of swing sets and carousel rides with this fun-loving scent from childhood. Sweet pink grapefruit, cotton candy, and lemon drops afloat a heart of sticky caramel, red berries, and fig leaves in a warm, comforting base of bourbon vanilla and white musk.

Whenever I see any kind of carnival or fair scent in a perfume shop I have to buy it. I am obsessed with them, and I love to see what different interpretations perfume creators have. Sometimes they're sweet, like toffee apples and fairy floss, sometimes they're warm and salty like popcorn. I rarely wear them, as they're almost always very 'young' perfumes, but I still love them.

In the vial, this perfume is sweet and citrusy, like orange sherbet. Once applied, the citrus becomes more tangy - I assume that's the grapefruit. There is a definite lolly smell, but it's not at all sickly. Slightly lemony, but I don't get the caramel or the berries.

As it dries down, it doesn't really change all that dramatically; it morphs into a sweeter, sticky candy/vanilla smell, but one of the better ones I've come across. It has a medium amount of throw, and lasted about 4 hours before I needed to reapply. 

Rating:
4/5 I really like this one a lot. Thumbs up! I think it would be an awesome soap, too.

Day 3!