Dark Chocolate Fudge Taffy Pull - Violette Market

First sniff: 
Just lots of chocolate.

First applied: 
Chocolate and something a bit watery, sort of reminds me of Tom Ford's Black Orchid. There's a definite floral note but I can't place it - something delicate. This is quite faint too - I slathered a bit but the sillage is not at all high.

After 30 mins: 
A watery floral with a bit of a chocolate base note, pretty but not at all what I would expect by the name.

After 3 hours: 
The base has deepened a little and it's slightly more chocolatey than it was at the 30 minute mark; the aquatic floral is still there and seems to be the main focus. The perfume overall is quite faint now - this one doesn't hang around too long.

Longevity: 
Two to three hours. 

Actual notes/description: 
Dark chocolate fudge with hints of Bourbon vanilla, vanilla cream, pink sugar cane, lemon blossom, orange cream, raspberry truffle, blueberry and caramel. 

Availability: 
Violette Market
Limited Edition - State Fair 2012 
No longer readily available. You might pick it up in private sales.

Genteel - Arcana Soaps

Details:
Genteel
Arcana Soaps (from The Rhinestone Housewife)

Notes: 
Made exclusively for The Rhinestone Housewife by Arcana, Genteel is the well-bred housewife who pens perfect thank you notes and always matches her carpet to her drapes. Aniseed, 2 vanillas, dry amber, sugar and cashmere musk with wisps of fine sandalwood and cedarwood. 

Oh my. You know I love a liquorice scent, and this is one gorgeous example. The vanilla and sugar sweeten the aniseed, the woody notes deepen the dry down and whatever the heck cashmere musk is it's awesome and should be in everything because I'm assuming it's the amazing musk note hovering around poking everything else. Oh my. I don't know what else to say. Full bottle, stat.

Sillage is medium, longevity also medium. I reapplied after about 6 hours, but I could still smell it. I just wanted to smell more of it.

Rating:
5/5

Day 159!

Les Girls: Sugar Puss - Possets

Details: 
Les Girls: Sugar Puss
Possets Perfumes

Notes: 
Sassy enough to grab all of the attention, clever enough to keep it. Sugarpuss is very very sweet but manages to maintain a sophistication and character which puts it squarely in the vanguard. Sugary, with a kiss of red jam and the smooth creamy note which Possets is so famous for.

This is a super sugary fruit cocktail of a scent - very strong and perfumey. It smells like something between jam and port wine jelly. I actually quite like it despite how sickly it is, but I feel way too old for it. Might pass this one on to Noodles. It lasted quite a long time - over 7 hours - and sillage was high at first, mellowing out a little after an hour.

That name, though. I'm not touching that.

Rating: 
2/5

Day 135!

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!
 

Marzipan - Alchemic Muse

Details:
Marzipan
Alchemic Muse

Notes: 
A truly delicious confection of sweet almonds creamed with raw sugar and delectable notes of buttery vanilla, almond milk, shortbread and a touch of sweet cherry.

This was a freebie sample - I would never have bought it in a million years, because I detest marzipan. It's smell, its taste, its very existence is offensive to me. I am eternally grateful to the person who discovered in the 1990s that wedding cakes did not legally have to have almond icing on them. Finally, marzipan began to die the slow painful death it deserved.

In the vial and when first applied, that hideous almond stench is all it is - marzipan, marzipan and more marzipan. I stuck it out, wondering if that's all it was going to be (I hadn't looked at the notes yet), but finally it started to mellow and that sharpness faded into the background. The drydown is a sweet pastry vanilla. I like quite a few of the Alchemic Muse perfumes but they almost all have a synthetic smell about them, sometimes not an issue (for me), and sometimes kind of  "Ew, cheap scented candle!". This one is somewhere in between. It's not unbearable, but there are so many better sweet desserty vanilla scents out there. The longevity and sillage was thankfully quite low on this one.

Rating: 
2/5 Not quite a scrubber, but not impressed.

Day 84!