Midway

[nannan45]

Midway

A bombardment of edible carnival indulgences. Funnel cake, caramel apple, cotton candy, salt water taffy and sugar tart.

 

Honestly, reading the description for Midway with its sweet and salty and oily notes kind of scared me. They don’t sound like they’d smell good together at all! But after reading and re-reading (and reading again) the wonderful reviews here, the more I knew I just had to try it. Being a self-proclaimed foody, I just knew I had to at have a bottle for my life to be complete. Snagged one at a Will Call and after a whiff, I think I’d died and gone to heaven!

 

Oh Lord! Oh my!

 

I would never have imagined that this strange combination is so amazing – the diabetes-inducing sweetness of the cotton candy – pink cotton candy with a bit of bitterness that food coloring can have sometimes, a bit of saltiness from the saltwater taffy, the oily butteriness of the funnel cake, and a tiny bit of apple. This truly is a bombardment of carnival treats!

 

From the bottle it was so light I could barely smell it. This worried me a bit until I put it on. On my skin, it warms up beautifully and becomes stronger – in a good way. It’s very soft and well rounded. Love it!!!

[GlowJob]

In the bottle:Whoa,coconut cream!Makes me gag alittle!

 

Wet:Warm coconut cake with a hint of salt.

 

Dry:The starchy notes of fresh fried dough start to come out and mix with the coconut.I get no caramel apple note whatsoever.

 

A nice mix of salty sweetness.Smells exactly like Jessica Simpson's Dessert fragrance in Taste.

[Deiicide]

I bought this bottle when the Carnival Noir was revisited. I knew it would be one that I would love for quite a long time! When I got it, it was stronger of funnel cake and sweet taffy vanilla. There was a hint of butter and just the barest breath of salt held the scent together. I opened it again about 4 months later after giving turns with all my latest loves and it had turned /better/. The salt is more prominent now giving a spidery web of vanilla and taffy smells held together in an interlocking fragrence. It's perfect and oh so comforting vanilla that reminds me of Antique lace without the flowery edge. If you didn't care for Midway in the beginning, try it again later and you may find yourself surprised when it's aged!

 

ADDED 2/18/10:

 

If I've reviewed this before, let my analysis of this be one that has been aged for about 3 years or so. (My bottle now is nearing 5 years..) There is no subtly between the different confections, it's a very mellow salted vanilla BUT it's good. Kind of reminds me of antique lace except the billowiness of the vanilla to be replaced with a salted proportion. Very nice either way.

[Iceblink]

This reminds me of fried pies--I guess that's the funnel cake note. Fried dough and powdered sugar. I don't get any apple, caramel, or salt at all. It's an interesting concept for a scent, though, and might be nice to layer with something else in the foody family.

[jasmine]

Just off the wand, this is a blast of entirely familiar sweetness -- caramel appels and cotton candy and maybe the hint of elephant ears all wrapped into one. It smells like Food Vendor Line at the fair. I really like it.

 

After a few minutes, it dries and fades, unfortunately. What it fades into isn’t quite as edible -- the cotton candy is gone, and the caramel that remains is a slinky, dark brown caramel instead of the innocent light caramel on apples. The sweetness starts ebbing as well, leaving a slightly smoky scent behind. I dislike smoke in my perfume.

 

This solo caramel scent reminds me a bit of Drink Me, which went very hostile and aggressive on me, and a bit of Miskatonic University, which had a similar now-you-smell-smoke now-you-don’t attitude on me. It doesn’t smell as aggressively sugary as Drink Me, though, and so I am inclined to forgive.

 

I’m going to have to compare this to Miskatonic University, because it really reminds me more of that scent the longer I wear it. I suspect the two are quite similar in composition, although Midway does not have the same endurance as Miskatonic University did.

[grifyn_whiffs]

In the bottle, this smells naggingly familiar. I would not be surprised to know that Midway is a sort of BPAL "base" -- i.e., this is Snake Oil without the Indonesian spices, and Dragon's Milk without the dragon's blood... I don't get the myriad sweet notes from this one that other seem to. There's some cotton candy and some sugary, sugary vanilla, but that's all I get.

 

It goes through an unfortunate powder-and-plastic phase on me, but once that's over, it's quite a dry, sweet scent. I do get that "outside, whiffing on the wind" vibe from it, but I really wanted to LOOOOOVE this one, not just like it. Ah, well.

 

I'm going to let the partial 5ml age a bit. Maybe come summertime and beach weather, when I'm feeling more festive in general, my nose will be more inclined to suss out those other notes.

Edited January 9, 2007 by Grifyn

[CrystieSC]

This was the first BPAL scent I bought (in a swap), and the first BPAL scent I had the pleasure to smell. I adore Midway!

 

I love food scents in general (they seem to help me stick to my diet better), and this one is the BEST! I can smell the caramel, a buttery note (probably also the caramel corn), funnel cakes, and a slight undertone of salt. (From the salt water taffy?) It blends together wonderfully, and the wonderful smell lasts for a good, long while on my wrists.

 

I can't stop sniffing it when I'm wearing it, and I'd love to track down another bottle one of these days!

[lightgatherer]

Yup, sugar, candy, and fried sweets - amazing how Beth got that in a bottle! I'm a little surprised and very pleased that this doesn't turn to plastic on me as a lot of the cake-or-cookie-scented oils do. The throw is fairly subtle, but the scent does last for quite a few hours. I didn't love this quite as much as I thought I might, so I don't think I'll be needing more than one bottle. It's a fun scent, though, and I'm glad I do have a bottle.

[GoldenRubee]

I am from Minnesota but live in CA. now. Every summer I go to visit my parents and we go to the county fair. This scent brings it all back! The ferris wheel, the tilt-a-wheel-all the games, the carney caller. I can smell the funnel cakes, the waffle cones, even the wrapper from the popcorn. I swear I can even smell dirt in there too. How does Beth do it? This scent brings fond memories flooding back to me!

[mooncityminx]

I finally hit the jackpot and scored a bottle of this. Shout-out to the generous people on the swaps board! This is the one blend that I have most wanted to try in all of BPAL history but missed the boat.

 

In the bottle Midway is a little boozy. It actually smells a little heavy in that bottle like butter and rum and sweet sweet caramel fried vanilla with a hint of smoke.

 

I would have loved single note funnel cake (or doughnut), which is what I thought this might be like, but on the skin this is lacking the fried batterness. It does still have a butteryness but it is more like vanilla butter than the heaviness of Gluttony (Gluttony was not my friend, even though I love the foodies.)

 

I was worried about the caramel apple because apple doesn't always love me but I haven't caught even the slightest whiff of apple.

 

Overall this is very vanilla. On my skin after drydown I get a lot more smoke, but to get more lasting enjoyment I've started wearing this in a scent locket. Calico Jack (my locket) enables it to last and last. I'm still using the original piece of cotton ball unrefreshed from more than a week ago and it is going strong. It's the ultimate comfort scent. Reminds me a little like eatting cookie dough while sitting in front of a bonfire when the person next to you is drinking some Sailor Jerry's.

 

Not as rummy as Hellcat. And less buterscotchy too.

More boozy and complex than the vanilla in Antique Lace.

Much more refined than Gluttony and not as yuck-butterball.

More dark and naughty than Eat Me.

Much more foody than the Candy Butcher.

More fried and smokey than Haloa.

More sinister than Mr Nancy.

 

I think any foody fan should try this if they can.

[Jheya]

In the bottle: Ahh Midway, how I do love thee. Sugared sweetness with a warm, rich tone underneath.

 

On skin: Sweet and warm and mmm. There's a slightly dusty note if I press my nose up close, but not in an unpleasant way. The reason I notice it so much is probably because I can't seem to resist having my wrist pressed right up to my nose whenever I wear this. Atop the warm base a candy sweetness dances lightly, not in a cloying syrupy way but with pure sugared glee, the kind that melts delicately in your mouth and over your tongue.

 

The dustiness is the dry kind you get from old books, and for a while there's a little too much of it for my tastes. But in time it fades back, and I'm left with a gorgeous warm sweetness that I keep getting wafts of hours later.

 

This is one of my favourite scents, and I love it dearly, as is evident from the full bottle and two partials I've managed to track down so far. I'm glad I've managed to collect a reasonable amount of this, as it's one I wouldn't want to be without.

[vegasblueblood]

I won a bottle of this on Ebay and it is so unbelievably delicious. In the bottle, it smells like fried dough and cotton candy. Like a Midway. On my wrist, the fried element subsides a bit and it's all sweet, buttery, candied, sugared yumminess. I obsessively sniff my wrist when I wear it. After several hours, it is a sugary vanilla scent. Beth captured the scent of a Midway exactly in this oil.

[LadyCrow]

In imp: I'll be damned. Cotton candy.

 

Wet: Ew! Burned plastic and cotton candy!

 

Fortunately, the burned-plastic bit only lasts a few minutes. However, within the drydown, such a rush and jumble of complicated foody scents fight for attention -- funnel cake, something deeply salty (indeed, something I'd call aquatic in other blends), indeed the scent of grease frying -- that I actually get a headache from this. I'm certain it's a matter of skin chemistry rather than anything "wrong" with the oil blend per se, so off it goes to someone I know will love it.

[monkey1123]

For some reason I seem to mostly get the saltiness from Midway. I actually tried one of the original bottles, and then one of the re-issued bottles because I thought that maybe the first one had aged funny and somehow amped the salty note, but I guess that it was just me. Drat!

[luna65]

Thanks to lorajc for the decant.

 

Vial: Sweet and warm, it really does smell like walking past all the concession stands at the carnival.

 

Skin: The salty note comes out immediately upon application, sort of floating over the sweet elements.

 

Drydown: This stays mostly salty on me as well, turning into a sort of aquatic scent, I suppose. It's very soft. I'm disappointed that it has this reaction, but it seems that anything with a salty note has that reaction, unfortunately.

Edited August 4, 2007 by luna65

[squirrelmonkey]

In the bottle: toothache-inducing sweetness and cotton candy

Wet: Funnel Cake!

Dry: More funnel cake!

 

Oh man, this is so good. I smell mostly funnel cake and sugar, with occasional whiffs of caramel. This is such a pleasant, comforting scent -- it reminds me of a bakery rather than a carnival, because it is so wholesome. This is a good scent to wear to bed or at home on rainy days, or just when down in the dumps. This is immensely happy and cheering.

[greymatter]

I didn't really get funnel cake or anything like that from this. I got OMGSUGARDIABETICCOMA! Not my thing. I swapped it on to someone who really, really loves it, though.

[Esmeria]

The first thing that hits me when I open the bottle is Candy Floss/Cotton Candy. It's really light and sweet. I can smell a whole variety of other things, yet can't attach a name to them.

 

It definately creates that feel of a fair. Every October, my city hosts an enormous fair. The fair is a bit rough, and seems to attract a whole manner of suspicious people, yet I still make a yearly pilgrimage! Midway just recreates all these scents, and makes me want the fair back again (even though it only just left!).

[hkhm]

(this is a review for the resurrected version)

 

bottle: lots of sweetness, there's a sort of coconutty scent here.

 

wet: like i am surrounded by vendors frying up all sorts of sugary, fattening fair food without that nasty greasy smell in the air. this is all the best parts of midway fare.

 

dry: a sweet, sugary, deep-fried, coconut-dusted, caramel-coated bite of heaven. glad i bought two bottles right away.

[Cheri]

Oh my gosh! Midway (resurrected) is so good! When it's wet it's coconut and buttery, and I can smell the funnel cake, but dry is so yummy! It's like sticking your face in a bag of cotton candy. For me that's as good as it gets since I love cotton candy. But there's more. If I close my eyes and sniff my wrist, which I don't seem to be able to stop doing, it's just like being at a fair, standing near the food stands inhaling all the good smells. I'll be needing a few more bottles of this one. It's just that great!

[n3m3sis42]

(I'm reviewing the resurrected 2007 version)

 

This is kind of sad... When I put this on, I immediately started smelling burning rubber. WTF?

 

It dries down to a sort of generic sweet scent that wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. I'll give it another shot in a few weeks, but boooooo. To make matter worse, I accidentally ordered 2 of this. Off to the swaps with the second one for sure!

[sookster]

straight sniff from imp is the exact same scent as the original...

applied, same as well...so sad...i had real high hopes

[arcadelane]

Midway Resurrected was the first bottle I bought without smelling first. I'm a sucker for sweet scents so I went for it and I definitely wasn't disappointed. It smells exactly how its described.. a carnival midway on a hot summer evening, sweet and salty like cotton candy and funnel cakes and popcorn. it stays pretty much the same on my skin, quite strong and lasts very well. i find my wearing it a lot at night for some reason.. its kinda cozy.

 

edit: im burning this in my room right now and its amazing. may have to buy a second bottle just to burn.

Edited December 17, 2007 by arcadelane

[maribouquet]

How interesting! (And I don't mean that in an "Oh. That's...interesting." sort of way!) I get cotton candy, but also something buttery and salty, which I think must be the funnel cakes and the saltwater taffy. Just like the description says - it's all there.

[suileach]

Resurrected version.

 

This is ALL cotton candy - and it's a really true cotton candy scent; smells just like the real thing - on me. Nothing else comes out on me. While I'd love to smell the funnel cake, I like cotton candy enough to like this just the way it is. Yum.

 

Throw is very light, but it did last all day when I put some in my hair. This is a good scent to slather.