gelfling

Hello lovely forumites! I've recently developed a hankering for sweet, sugary, cotton candy type scents and would love to hear your opinions on what the best blends are!

 

I have a bottle of Go to Sleep, Darlings from this year's Yules on the way to me. I'm also considering Mouse Circus, but the popcorn note (that several reviewers liken to peanut butter?!) scares me. And what about Boo? Would that fit in this category?

 

And perhaps most importantly, oh great hive mind of BPAL-dom, what scents have I missed?

I love sugary cotton candy scents!

Mouse Circus is pretty great if you can get past the prevalent peanut butter/popcorn aspect it has when it's wet. Once it's dry, there's a really lovely cotton candy in there.

My favorite cotton candy-esque scent is Uncle Brian from the Pickman collection that came out over the summer.

Other fun candy scents:

Candy Phoenix - smells just like sugared blackcurrant pastilles you can sometimes find in Asian supermarkets

Xanthe the Clown - for me, this is practically a bubblegum single note, with just a bit of white pepper around the edge to keep it from getting too sweet

Jailbait - also very bubblegummy

This was one of the first BPALs I smelled in-person and was scared off by the prominent butter note. Now, a few years later, I'd been wanting to give it another try and finally have the opportunity to do so, since the Lab included a frimp in a recent order

The butter note is still there, but much less scary. The bread and sugar appear more prominent -- I find it's not a white sugar as described, more of a mapley, brown/burnt sugar. All together, it smells almost like a packet of instant Hong Kong-style milk-tea swirled with maple. The bread creates an almost dry, dusty base.

This is most definitely foody scent and the associations with HK-style tea and toast give it a nice nostalgia factor for me -- I'm just not sure if it's something I'd wear regularly.

Testing a bottle from Etsy. This. is. so. good.

In the Bottle: A strong swirl of foody notes all fighting for attention - chocolate! coffee! vanilla! cinnamon! something nutty! something creamy! and is that coconut?

Wet: All the notes meld and suddenly it smells exactly like walking into a really good Italian bakery: cinnamon-dusted cappuccino and chocolate-dipped cannoli. Amazing! (Close to the skin, the cinnamon is strongest and I get a hint of the Red Hots/Big Red gum others have mentioned.)

Drydown: The scent continues to settle into a general spicy vanilla baked good. Very good, but I miss the initial creaminess.

I love this a lot. Such a cozy, yummy scent!

I bought this on a whim off of Etsy, mostly because of the previous reviews (blackcurrant pastilles? Yes, please!) and am so very glad I did!

Wet: a rich purple/pink fruity scent, sweet, and surprisingly heavy. I can't quite pick out any specific fruit note, but it's overall beautiful and oddly nostalgic. It reminds me of something, but I can't figure out what!

Dry: Still sweet and fruity, but much of the heaviness is gone. There seems to be a touch of musk and a little bit of tartness has begun to appear around the edges. Finally, I realize what it reminds me of: Pink and Purple Nerds!

So good. Fantastic candy scent!

When I opened the package and sniffed the bottle, I got grape soda, then realized it's more like Fresca (citrus soda with grapefruit, lime, and lemon, among other things). Wearing it, I'm getting what's trying to be citrus, and what's trying to be fizzy... but it's ending up as an old-lady powder/strong floral. It's trying to be cute and effervescent, but I'm getting no creamsickle, no lemon. Maybe pink grapefruit, but I can't pin anything down underneath this rampaging floral!

 

Either this blend has slightly corrupted over time, or I'm not wearing what I think I'm wearing (I have about twenty bottles that need testing!) or I just amp something that's in here to all high heaven, because I'm not getting what everyone else is getting.

This is very similar to what I found. I just got a bottle from The Lab's Etsy page and was so psyched to try it based on the reviews.

Opening the bottle, I got bright fizzy orange soda. In wearing it, the citrus faded really quickly and the "fizzy" note turned into a powdery rose. I don't mind it at all; it's actually quite pleasant, if a bit unexpected... I really like this, I'm just a little bummed that I didn't get the creamsicle phase some of the other reviews mentioned. Now wondering if I should seek out the released version to try too...

Random discovery: an old Game Boy game case makes a perfect imp-case!

Not sure if this is the right thread for this...

If anyone is trying out the current set of lupers, I'd love to know how "Dark chocolate with merlot infused black cherries & star anise" compares with "Vice" or "La Vita Nuova" compares with "Delirium". From the notes listed, each pair sounds pretty similar...

 

Also, does anyone have any recommendations for cake-like or pastry scents with a milk or cream note that isn't super heavy and buttery (e.g. movie-theater popcorn)?

 

Let's see....

 

-Sprinklecake is more sweet than buttery and is light and a little creamy...LE, can be a little tougher to find...

-Eat Me's currant note keeps it from being too buttery, but it has a creamy vanilla frosting scent to it...and is one of my favorite scents of all time! And it's GC...

-Sugar Cookie is yummy spicy cookies, not too creamy though...LE, often on swaps though

-Cockaigne, this one could be just what you're looking for, the lab description is...The weather is always mild, the wine flows freely, sex is readily available, and all people enjoy eternal youth. The Land of Plenty, also called Luilekkerland – the Lazy, Luscious Land: milk and honey, sweet cakes and wine. It's pretty amazing and available in the GC...

 

Those are my thoughts...

Thanks so much! I've had Sprinklecake and Eat Me on my "maybe/to-test" list for a while. Perhaps it's time to finally try them out!

Can someone recommend scents that have a gourmand aspect but aren't pure foodie? Scents with edible-smelling elements tend to work well on me, but I'm not interested in smelling exactly like cake, and I prefer candy scents to contain something to cut the sweetness a little.

This sounds very much like the direction I've been headed in! I'm finding I like things that are more on the foody side of things, less cake and milk, more vanilla and fruit.

Especially if you're headed in a more candy-direction I'd recommend:

Lemon Scented Sticky Bat -- it's like the sweet sugar stage of Lemonheads

Gobo (Fraggle Rock) -- creamsicles with a long-lasting smooth vanilla finish

Red (Fraggle Rock) -- kind of like red kool-aid and sweet tarts

Any of the Lick Its -- minty vanilla goodness (I like Lick It Softly)

Stimulating Sassafras Strengthener -- pure root beer with a nice herby-ness around the edges

Bon Vivant -- candy-sweet strawberries with a slight boozy tinge

Tweedledee is not at all one of my favorites but may also work... I find it's candy-like and kind of strange; almost like an orange chewable vitamin, if you're into that kind of thing

Also, does anyone have any recommendations for cake-like or pastry scents with a milk or cream note that isn't super heavy and buttery (e.g. movie-theater popcorn)?

[edited multiple times because italics tags hate me.]

It's like vanilla bean creme brulee with a warm, dry, floral vanilla feel all around it.

 

I was afraid of the rum in this, but it quickly dries down to no rum on my skin. It's more like a warm, sensual, floral vanilla with a crunchy, sugary crust. It's pretty sweet on me, but doesn't get anywhere close to turning cloying.

 

Exactly this! Once the huge rush of boozy rum dissipates, it's a beautiful warm, sweet vanilla with a smokiness that's reminiscent of freshly-torched creme brulee or toasted marshmallows. And I find it lasts for hours and hours!

Lovely! So glad I got a bottle as backup.

I absolutely love Lemon Scented Sticky Bat, but when I wore it this past weekend, something about it gave me an intense migraine (possibly the icy note?). A stabbing headache and the beautiful lemon turned into a nauseating furniture polish...I had to scrub it off.

I'm really, really hoping it was just the changing weather that actually triggered the reaction and the scent was just an unfortunate co-player...it's one of my favorites and has never done this to me before.