Toasted Marshmallow - Sixteen92

First sniff: 
Creme brûlée - sweet vanilla with a creamy toffee note


First applied: 
Still creme brûlée, but less sweet and more toffee-ish. Liking this a lot so far.

After 30 mins: 
Not much change, more sweet again than toasted now though. Sillage is quite low and it's faded a bit so not sure how  long it will last. Really like this - it's mah jam. It's a warm, sweet-but-not-too-sweet gourmand, very comforting. 

After 3 hours: 
Almost gone, didn't change really. Needs frequent re-applying and slathering but that's okay.

Longevity: 
Not long, could really only notice it for about two hours, if that. 

Actual notes/description: 
Everyone's favorite hot chocolate topping, gooey marshmallows lightly toasted over a campfire. 

Availability: 
Sixteen92
Seasonal - Winter 2014 Hot Chocolate Bar Collection
Currently available in sample and full size, but not sure for how much longer. 

Chocolate Macaron - Candida Virgo

Details: 
Chocolate Macaron
@CandidaVirgo

Notes: 
Unknown. My guess - chocolate, coconut, almond... maybe vanilla or something else sweet. 

Well, this was a bit exciting. I had a DM from Candi a couple of weeks ago asking if I would test some perfumes for her. Never one to turn down the opportunity to try new smells, of course I said yes. And oddly enough, after being completely over foody perfumes for a while now, I've just started getting back into them now that the weather is cold and I want cosy smells. Timing!

In the vial this smells quite heavily of almond, with the chocolate there but not front and centre. There's something else there too. it's quite sharp and I can't work out if it's just the almond being potent or if it's another note entirely. Once applied the almond settles down and is almost imperceptible in minutes. The chocolate comes out, then the coconut, and soon it smells like a rich, dense, moist chocolate mud cake. I tried this out after dinner on a cold night, and as I was sitting on the couch sniffing myself compulsively I seriously considered getting up and making a chocolate self-saucing pudding or something for dessert. (Laziness won - it didn't happen.)

The dry down is still heavy on the chocolate and coconut but something sweeter as well. Maybe vanilla, though it isn't a specifically vanilla-y note, and it's not sugary either. Whatever it is, I like it - it adds a nice balance. Sillage is medium, as is longevity. I could still smell it when I went to bed 6 or so hours later. I like this one a lot, and I think the blend would be really nice in bath and body products as well.

Rating:
4/5

Day 185!

Cenobite - Solstice Scents

Details: 
Cenobite
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
A deep and rich vanilla for vanilla lovers. 

The vanilla of vanillas. I have long loved vanilla-scented fragrances. Even before they became a thing and perfumes generally smelled like flowers, I would nick Queen's Vanilla Essence from my mum's baking cupboard and dab it on my arm so I could sniff it at my leisure (it's not creepy). In the 90s I discovered vanilla fragrance oil in a hippie shop and I was all over that for years, along with the classic version from The Body Shop. And then it was almost ruined when companies like Glade discovered it and started making vanilla scented toilet spray, which had the effect of then making most vanilla perfumes smell like... well, toilet spray. (In hindsight maybe it's a good thing because it forced me to branch out with scents and become the hardcore perfume junkie I am today.)

Cenobite is most definitely not a toilet spray vanilla. It's a deep boozy gourmand scent that just smells divine. There's no point saying much more about it. It doesn't have any other notes that jump out at me, it doesn't change on me. It just is what it is, which is the perfect vanilla. Sillage is high - this is a potent perfume. Longevity is FOR. EVER. I have put this on first thing in the morning and I can still smell it on myself 24 hours later before my following morning shower.

Rating:
5/5

Day 184!

Smoky Mountain Mallow - Solstice Scents

Details: 
Smoky Mountain Mallow
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
Wood Smoke, Fossilized Amber Resin, Lapsang Souchong CO2, Guaiacwood, Labdanum, Nutmeg EO, Marshmallow

I bought this maybe 6 months ago, but when I first tried it I got nothing more than smoke, so I put it away for a while to see what would happen when it aged. I still get little more than smoke, to be honest. In the vial it smells like a resinous smoky fire. Once applied, it's pretty much the same though there's an element of cigarettes as well. It's ever so slightly sweet, but just barely. It didn't really change on me at all in the 8 hours or so it lasted.

I have a lot of these smokey kind of scents because I really love them, but this is not one of my favourites. I wouldn't buy it in a full size. However, I appear to be in the minority as many people love this one, including Liber Vix, Amanda, and Rachel.

Rating:
2/5

Day 180!

Troika - Haus of Gloi

Details: 
Troika
Haus of Gloi

Notes: 
A trinity of soft milks, almond, oat and coconut, lashed with sweet agave nectar and the ethereal scent of clean white.

Troika is my favourite Haus of Gloi scent and I haven't worn it in forever, so I hauled it out on a whim. In the bottle the almond is the dominating note, which did not bode well for me the first time I smelled it, because I really dislike marzipan and other almond-related whatnots. However, that note softens dramatically when applied and on me at least disappears almost entirely once it dries down. The result is a creamy, milky, sweet gourmand scent, comforting and warm.It's a 'snuggle' perfume for sure. Sillage and longevity are medium, but I have a tendency to slather this one in every available spot so it does hang around for a while on me. It's just beautiful.

Rating:
5/5

Day 150!

Vanilla Pipe Tobacco - Solstice Scents

Details: 
Vanilla Pipe Tobacco
Dark Spring 2013
Solstice Scents

Notes:
Vanilla Absolute, Tobacco Absolute, Tonka Bean Absolute and Sweet Clover Absolute.

For the longest time this perfume smelled like nothing but pipe tobacco. My grandpa - who died about 30 years ago - smoked a pipe, and this is the exact smell I always associate with him. It's funny how there's something I find comforting and warming about pipe tobacco smell, but if someone was standing next to me with a cigarette I'd be giving them stink eye.

After about an hour I could finally smell the other notes - well, not really specifically, it just morphed into a warmer, sweeter pipe tobacco. I wouldn't wear this as a perfume - I don't want to smell like I smoke a pipe - but I really like it a lot. Sillage was medium, longevity also medium - about 6 hours before it was too faint to really pick up.

Rating: 
4/5

Day 145!

Dark Winter's Tale - Deep Midnight Perfumes

Details: 
Dark Winter's Tale
Deep Midnight Perfumes

Notes:
The winter night air freezes your breath on your scarf as you walk towards a waiting haven of light, safety and the inviting smells of a winter cottage. Hurry to get inside from this dark winter night, and an evening of warmth and joy awaits you! Inspired in part by a fantastic cookie recipe from Morgan Crone, this holiday perfume contains many wonderful scent notes, including: dark gingerbread, rich vanilla, molasses, cardamon, anise, and black pepper. A scrumptious, gourmand, rich and spicy unisex winter scent!

I've pretty much come to the conclusion that most of Deep Midnight's perfumes are sadly not for me. The vanilla note - which is in a lot of the ones I chose or were sent for free (from memory, the owner was particularly generous with free samples) has a distinct synthetic element that just bugs me. It's not that hideous toilet spray vanilla that some companies use, but it's just a bit NQR on me. Dark Winter's Tale has that note and it immediately put me off as soon as I realised. It's kind of an odd thing - it almost smells like coffee. There's a spice note in the vial as well, gingery but also probably the cardamom. Something like allspice in a Christmas cake. Once applied the ginger really comes out on me and combined with the pepper it actually made me a bit sneezy for a couple of minutes. When it settled a bit I didn't mind the ginger, if only that synthetic note would have gone away. After 20 minutes or so it started going dusty on me and stayed that way. Sillage is low and it didn't last terribly long - very, very faint by about the 3 hour mark. 

Rating: 
2/5 

Day 143!

Snow on Bare Skin - Possets Perfume

Details: 
Snow on Bare Skin
Possets Perfume

Notes: 
Sweet but not foody, sexy but not crude this would be a perfect scent for a midnight Yuletide wedding with the bride dressed in winter white carrying a bouquet of blue flowers, the church lit only by tapers, and a handsome groom in breathtaking blue-black. Romantic as it can be. Midnight blue and purple. Strong smell of snow in the air, your nose is cold but you can feel your hand on your breast and it's warm and soon all of you will be cozy. One of the most sexy scents I have ever made. So good, it's even perfect in the summer! Musky, spicy, perfumy.

In the vial this is a really faint, cold vanilla. It smells like almost nothing. Applied, it’s a sweet vanilla with a light minty note. Pretty much your generic ‘snow’ smell. Is this what snow actually smells like? The last time I was anywhere near snow was when I was a little kid and as soon as my feet got wet and cold I sulked and sat in the care reading a Laura Ingalls Wilder book while my family enjoyed toboganning. Crazy people.

Anyway, this doesn’t change much. The mint fades and the vanilla hangs around for about 3 hours and then disappears. Sillage is quite low. It’s... meh. There’s nothing bad about it, but nothing really interesting either.

Rating: 
2/5

Day 105!

Snowdrift - Alchemic Muse

Details: 
Snowdrift
Winter Collection (2012)
Alchemic Muse

Notes:
White jasmine and crisp heliotrope floating over rose, carnation, gingered peach, and juniper berry in a sheer base of aged patchouli, smoky vetiver, sandalwood with a stray drop of black vanilla.

In the vial, this is sweet and lollyish - no idea what in the notes is making that happen. It smells like a candy carnival sort of perfume. Applied to my wrist it changed to a snowy white floral peach. Ugh... I think peach is pretty much my most hated of all fruit notes. The heliotrope makes it smell a bit synthetic as well, which is not always a bad thing (to me - I know it's an instant deal-breaker for many), but in this case combined with the peach it's not great. The dry down is a little nicer - it mellows to a slightly smokey vanilla blended with a light patchouli that doesn't overpower. Sillage is quite high on this - again I was wearing it when I was with Ben the perfume hater and he complained about it. It lasted about 4 hours.

Rating:
2/5 - maybe 3/5 I'm not entirely decided how I feel about this. I hate the peach, don't love the heliotrope, but the dry down is pleasant. Not a full bottle, though.

Day 69!

Pink Snowballs 2012 - Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Honestly, it's late at night, I've had a few wines, and I can't be arsed getting up and taking a picture - here's a Google image of 'pink snowballs'. 

Details: 
Pink Snowballs
Yule 2012
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Notes: 
A lighthearted winter scent: chilly vanilla rose snowballs! Dainty, soft, and certainly unfit for flinging!

In the vial this is vanilla with a chilly, sort of mint note. Wet on skin the rose comes out as well, and it’s a bright, cold girly scent. I’d say this is quite young – I could see Noodles pulling this off nicely. The rose goes powdery fairly quickly and stays that way for quite a while, but it mellows nicely eventually with a lovely musk note. The sillage is fairly low but it has really good longevity – I could still smell it on my wrist at the end of the work day. 

Rating: 
2/5 I think I’ll put this one away and age it for a while. I like the opening quite a bit, but I’m not keen on the powdery dry down bit in the middle before it finally goes to a musky rose. BPALs generally age well, so hopefully it will improve if it’s tucked away for a few months.

Day  50!

Luminaria - Possets Perfume

Details: 
Luminaria 
Yule 2012 - Dark Revels
Possets Perfume

Notes: 
No idea. I can't find the original description. Mint, vanilla, something-something...

On the first sniff of this on skin there’s a rush of cold air, like that iciness you get in extra strong mints. It’s odd and a bit startling. It’s very fleeting – I could almost convince myself I imagined it – and then I’m left with a creamy, cakey scent with a touch of mint. The dry down is a slightly smokey vanilla, like buttercream icing that’s heavy on good vanilla extract. The kind of vanilla that Ina Garten would use. This perfume didn’t have much throw on me, and faded a lot within a couple of hours. I’m undecided about whether or not I like it. I certainly don’t hate it, and it’s interesting enough that I kept sniffing my wrist all the time, but it wasn’t what I expected. For some reason I imagined in my head that this would be more like BPAL’s Snow White and it’s not at all. I remember snow was mentioned in the description, but I don't get anything like that other than that weird cold rush at the very beginning, just a warm gourmand perfume. Oh well, I have a full bottle so I can keep trying it to my heart’s content until I make a decision one way or the other. 

Rating: 
Undecided.

Day 39!

Parkin - Haus of Gloi

Details:
Parkin
Yule 2010
Haus of Gloi

Notes: 

Glorious ginger cakes celebrating Guy Fawkes Day! Brown sugar, black treacle, oats, a peculiar blend of white spices tossed with chopped roasted chestnuts and coated with the lightest of icings.  

Ginger! This is gingery and sugary and rich. Although it's very foodie, the ginger and spiciness keep it in the realm of something more interesting than the usual vanilla or chocolate gourmand scent. In the dry down, it becomes more creamy and less sugary as the treacly porridge makes an appearance. It's definitely a winter scent, so probably not the best for an Australian summer. I would pull this out again in the colder months and wear it - it's kind of an Aran jumper perfume.

Rating:
3/5 I don't love it enough to buy a full bottle, but I do like it.

Day 9!

Snowshoe Pass - Solstice Scents

Pic of my recent Solstice Scents haul as I no longer have this vial.

Details:
Snowshoe Pass
Winter Collection 2012
Solstice Scents

Notes: 
White Amber, White Musk, Vanilla Accord, Peppermint Cream, Cold Winds

In the vial this smells minty and cold, and when first applied it's a sweet pine-ish (thankfully not nausea-inducing) kind of scent, with a minty amber hovering in the background. It leans towards masculine. I like head kicker perfumes, but the amber in this is quite strong and overpowering - it actually gave me a bit of a headache.

It took a good hour to calm down on me, and I almost scrubbed it off as it was bothering me quite a lot. Eventually it mellowed to a pleasant, undemanding vanilla amber, but it stayed too strong for too long.

Rating:
2/5 Nice when it finally calms down, but it's too much for me.

Day 7!

Snowdrift - Firebird Bath and Body

Details:
Snowdrift
Firebird Bath & Body

Notes:
Snowdrift is a wintery blend of peppermint, vanilla and evergreens.

For the second day in a row, my childhood memories come into play.  My whole life I have suffered from motion sickness, and in particular I would often get car sick as a kid. One of the strongest smells of my childhood was a pine-scented air freshener in my parents' car - it contributed greatly to the nausea I felt every time I had to sit in that back seat. That smell is what this perfume makes me think of.

In the vial Snowdrift is a minty pine; when first applied the mint retreats and I mostly get pine with a bit of a resin note lurking about.

The dry down is more resin-ish, but the pine is still there, the two mingling in a queasy soup that makes me feel like I've just done a road trip around the Great Ocean Road. I'm a fan of Firebird generally, but this one is definitely not for me. I had to scrub it off after about an hour as I could no longer stand it. I tried using a liquid soap, a body scrub, and even a nail brush. On me, this perfume was the very definition of a scrubber. Even then I was catching whiffs of it for hours after when I moved my arms - it did not want to leave me!

Rating:
1/5 Yuk. Sorry, Firebird - I'm sure there would be many people who would like this on, but it has too much of an unpleasant connotation for me.

Day 5!