Monster Bait: biggerCritters

[mspixieears]

A deceptively sweet scent; just like the Critters themselves, the perfume is fluffy, poofy, soft, snuggly, and googly! Five vanillas with Moroccan jasmine, white gardenia, and pink grapefruit.

Lemony sugary delight! I'm loving the various vanillas and the jasmine mingling in the background with these various foody scents. I cannot believe how well the jasmine and citrus go together! Usually citrus doesn't work so well with my body chemistry but this blend is an exception. It reminds me of lemon sugar pancakes. It's a daytime scent, very fresh and uplifting and I think would be wonderful in summer. I don't know if a sole imp of this will be enough! Once it's settled on my skin it goes a tad powdery - I imagine that's the jasmine. The gardenia is also made fresher and more tart by the citrus which is in this case grapefruit. The composition moves from initially being a foody scent to a soft yet captivating floral. Definitely one for lovers of jasmine, which I am though according to other reviews, it may morph a fair bit on different people. Edited September 21, 2007 by Shollin

[purplemoonshoes]

They weren't kidding when they said five vanillas! I can't smell the other notes at all in the imp. On my skin it's all about the pink grapefruit, but muted by the vanilla. Still very sweet. I don't like foody scents, but this one is more fruity on me. I like it, and love the name. A keeper.

[zankoku_zen]

In the imp: Vanilla and something floral that smells kinda musty. I think it's the gardenia.

 

On Skin: Vanilla and a graham crackery floral

 

Drydown: Musky vanilla and a hint of wet wool

 

Verdict: I've always suspected that BPAL gardenia does not play well with my skin (ever since the incident with Lady of Shallot), but this confirmed it. Which makes me sad because I really wanted to like this. Really. Oh, the heartache.

[steffanina]

Monster Bait: BiggerCritters-

 

In Bottle: A sweet fruity rich smell, but also a little rotting-meat, plastic-diaper smell underneath. Is that the jasmine, is that what gives me that impression so often? Oh dear, if that's so. Odd that I haven't figured that out before this, in trying nearly five hundred scents.

 

Wet: Oh, that is much nicer initially on--something foody and sweet, and that rotting-meat whiff seems to be not nearly so prominent. Let's see how this dries down.

 

Dry: It dries down to something that can't be denied is a little rot-whiff jasmine; if I hadn't bought a 5ml of this unsniffed, I'd probably be saying, "Eh, not for me." But I want to like this, darn it, so I'll keep sniffing at my wrists and see if I like it as we go further. --I'm not sure I do. I'll have to try it again and see if it grows on me. Some of these "maybe" scents, or scents I wish I liked, do grow on me, like Smut and Snake Oil.

 

Overall: Not sure. Will try again.

[LadyCrow]

Even though my decant has a picture of one of the adorable Critters on the label, it's pretty clear to me that I have the second version.

 

Imp: Butter? Lemon? O hai, I can has cake?

 

Wet: CAKE! This plastered a big, silly grin all over my face. This is exactly like making a lemon cake with my mother, way back in the day. You could seriously cause a riot in any office by walking through wearing this at about 11:30 am.

 

Drydown: The vanillas hang around for a long while, as does the lemon note. Excellent throw. The jasmine and gardenia start to come into their own next, but by then this is nearly a skin scent, and as musky as it is vanilla.

 

A major advancement of the MB tradition. I might be just saying that because it caused me a happy-nostalgia flashback... nah. This really is some good shiz right here.

[asciident]

To the best of my knowledge, my decant came from a bottle that was sold without the critter.

 

Wet: Vanilla cake!

 

First on: Vanilla cake, gardenia, a bit citrusy. Very froofy and pretty.

 

Dry: The vanillas have a strangely buttery lean, and the citrus is both grapefruit and lemon. The gardenia is barely hanging on; I kind of wish it were more prominent, but alas, it isn't.

[gailnilsson]

I bought this without a critter on the last day it was available. Plain label, "biggerCritter".

 

This was my first big bottle bought without testing the scent! I do like it a lot, thankfully.

Edited December 7, 2010 by gailprentice

[Gale]

I got my 5ml in a swap, and am thrilled to death!

 

In the bottle and wet: Not much vanilla, but plenty of jasmine. This is not surprising for me.

 

On wet: As soon as this hits my skin, the vanillas appear, making the jasmine sweet and delightful (which is surprising).

 

Dry: This turns into a beautiful creamy vanilla with just a hint of floral. It stays true for hours afterward (7 so far), just with the volume turned down.

[ariosa]

I had high hopes for this scent. Anything with gardenia has me hoping beyond all hope it will be my new favorite fragrance.

 

This morphed a lot on me. Upon initial application, it was mostly pure vanilla, with something... off. It was kind of sour and smoky... the smokiness I attribute to the gardenia, and the sour I guess was the grapefruit. After a while, though, it settled, and is mostly smoky vanilla -- no grapefruit at all, which is okay, considering it was the sour note in the mix for me. I like this, and will be keeping my imp.

[Emma2403]

In the bottle: sickly sweet. Vanilla and something like hazelnut (not exactly that though).

 

On my skin: buttered vanilla, and something sour and bitter (grapefruit?).

 

After a while: encensey jasmine. I don't like jasmine and it seems vanilla has totally faded away to let jasmine take all the room.

 

Verdict: really not my kind of scent.

[supremegoddessofall]

In bottle: Cake with a touch of grapefruit.

 

On me: Still basically cake with a touch of grapefruit. The florals are pretty much drowned out.

[ubersmurfy]

I ADORE this blend. It's one of my favorites, I've worn it every day this week.

 

It smells like cookies, or maybe cake, with creamy citrus icing. Vanilla doesn't always work on my skin - sometimes it turns powdery or plasticy - so obviously I was worried that this one wouldn't work on me, since it contains FIVE vanillas. But oh God, does it work on me. *swoons*

 

NOTE: I have the GC version with the plain black and white label.

[Schnax]

In the imp: mostly vanilla, with jasmine hiding in the background. No sign of grapefruit or gardenia that I can tell.

 

On me: the jasmine amps up, and combines with the vanilla to smell almost like bubblegum. It's a little strange. The scent stays true, and fades completely after about seven hours. It's definitely sweet, and I think "googly" is a great description for it!

Edited July 27, 2007 by Schnax

[rockchickie]

For the record, I *think* I have the first version but I'm not sure.

 

Wet: Vanilla and buttercream! Yes!

Dry: Gardenias. No jasmine (thank goodness) but the vanilla bunch has taken a backseat (wah). I mean, it's nice and all but I'm a vanilla girl through and through. As time goes on, I can only get the vanilla if I close my eyes. Overwhelmingly floral on me.

[hackess]

(I honestly don't know which version this is. I received it in a swap, and it has a very cute custom label with "Decant by Korshka" noted.)

 

Imp: for the first time, I can smell every single note listed. The grapefruit is the last thing you're left with, a very sharp crisp note. The vanillas are laced pretty heavily with the two florals, neither more prominent than the other.

 

Wet: Hm, the jasmine and grapefruit are coming through much more now. They're very sour and demanding attention. They're not a good combination on me, unfortunately.

 

Dry: For once, my skin didn't amp vanilla. It's turned into all jasmine, and the grapefruit is still hanging around. It's starting to smell very strongly of cleaning solution.

[robozwil]

In the bottle and on first application the grapefruit is very sharp in this. It was almost boozy to me. For the first 15 minutes the scent was very disagreeable to me. I kept imagining an old cigar tucked away somewhere and forgotten about. How rude! Thankfully, someone found the cigar and tossed it out. The vanilla is able to peek out to play with the jasmine. Hopefully they arm wrestle, but they don't. They just stare at each other. This one kind of sticks in the back of my throat. Meh..

[arsenic]

This is the version with the GC label.

 

In bottle: Citrus and buttercream frosting.

 

Wet: A whole lot of gardenia, some grapefruit and a little of the frosting.

 

Dry: Grapefruit and minimal frosting. It has something else to it, but no sweetness.

 

Scent almost has too much grapefuit. On me it overpowers the vanilla and gardenia and there are zero hints of jasmine. It's a pleasant smell but not "wow!"

[kopper]

MBBC, you my HG right now!!

 

This stuff makes me all happy and shit.

 

Wet: Vanilla, cream, gardenia

 

On skin: Gardenia, buttery vanilla, grapefruit, a twinge of Jasmine

 

Drydown: Alas, not much staying power, but this is f*ing good, and therefore I will re-apply as needed and just hope my bottle lasts me until I can get my grimy hands on another bottle.

 

You amazing alchemy people!! HEART!!!

[Xiabelle]

 

I wanted to love this. I did. After all, vanilla, grapefruit and jasmine? Jasmine often plays nice with me. Gardenia is hit or miss.

 

In the bottle it was quite arresting. Hello citrus! And a bit of jasmine and vanilla. I wasn't sure, but I held out hope!

 

Fresh on, I was assaulted by... dirty diapers. Vanilla-scented dirty diapers. It was truly a nightmare on my skin, and my skin LOVES vanilla. Amps it, and that makes me happy. But not here. It just did not smell good on me at all.

 

After about two hours, it settled down to a lovely citrussy-vanilla, somewhat akin to dreamcicles. That I loved, but not enough to wait through two hours of smelling like diapers!

 

I just recently sold it off in a swap.

 

 

(I had the lab-labeled bottle, FWIW.)

[lilpinkchainsaw]

So I got this as a decant from someone just recently and thought I'd give it a try! Not exactly what I was expecting!

 

Bottle: I definitely get a whiff of something citrus-y, but not grapefruit in particular. Just a bit of a sharp note that's kind of hard to distinguish. There are other notes there under the citrus but I can't really pick them out. Something creamy, maybe?

 

Wet: I... smell like ... a Dreamsicle! Seriously. I know this is supposed to be pink grapefruit, but okay - this just tickles me. Very funny. I let my housemate take a sniff of my wrist and when I told her what it reminded me of, she laughed. Creamy and the citrus just winds up smelling like orange on me. Not a bad smell, per se, but definitely not what I was expecting! Definitely a light and creamy and sweet scent. Not usually my thing, but it's different and was a delightful surprise!

 

Drydown: Still Dreamsicle. For quite a long time. I put this on at about... ohh, 11am today, I think? It's 6:30 now and I'm smelling creamy vanilla and a very faint floral note (omg I love gardenia! and it, apparently, loves me!) The citrus calmed down quite a bit (around 3pm or so) and has since faded almost completely. Which is a good thing, because while I like Dreamsicles, I'm not all that thrilled about smelling like one.

 

Final verdict: 3/5. Not my usual, but definitely great fun!

[sprocket21]

I ordered this decant from an LJ user because I absolutely love vanilla, and I figured that something with five vanillas meant that the vanilla would overwhelm everything else in the blend. Boy, was I wrong .

 

This is basically a slightly creamy jasmine-y grapefruit on me - hardly a whiff of vanilla! I normally dislike citrus, but this is actually quite pleasant. Most of the citrus scents that I've tried, like Embalming Fluid, are very light, but this is stronger and has more presence. I'll keep the imp around, but I don't love it enough to buy any bottles.

[TereFaerie]

In the imp this is definitely cake and grapefruit. On the skin, the citrus fades within a few minutes and I'm left with a plasticky vanilla and a powdery floral vying for attention.

 

The jasmine is a bit sharp and the final scent is vetiver, not my favorite. This is a nice scent, don't get me wrong, just not what I was hoping for.

 

I'll update after a full day's use.

[Gwydion]

Very foody. At first, it smells like cake, mostly. I am not sure why vanilla plus flowers plus grapefruit smells so much like cake, but it does. The vanilla is not kidding, oh no. Actually, I am thinking it is reminding me of my Mother's flower flavoured angel food cake, which kind of makes sense. If you give it enough time, the grapefruit and the flowers get much stronger though. It's not something I'd pick for myself, necessarily, but the sweet foody/floral combo is quite nice. It turns out that the vanilla blends really well with the jasmine in particular.

[edenssixthday]

Monster Bait: Bigger Critters – I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed this yet! On me, this smells like flakey, buttery, pie crust combined with lovely, sweet vanilla and a hint of jasmine. This is the first jasmine blend I’ve really, really enjoyed and found oddly fascinating. One strange thing is that to me, this is a very foody scent, but when my husband smells it on me, he doesn’t think it’s foody at all. This is his #1 favorite BPAL scent on me and he says he likes it because it’s not foody at all to him. It’s really lovely, but turns slightly plasticky on my skin when I smell my skin up close (so I just don’t smell my skin up close!) It doesn’t last as long as I’d like on my skin, but lasts for days in a scent locket. Fantastic blend!

[UploadedLobster]

Jasmine and me usually don't get along, and my first shot at Biggercritter wasn't a pleasant one. But clearly it's seen the error of its ways, or SOMETHING, because it's all sweet love now and I have to leave a review.

 

At first it's all grapefruit, then BAZANG, jasmine. Big jasmine. Big fat jasmine stomping over grapefruit, crushing cars, eating houses, etc. The grapefruit is utterly destroyed.

 

Thank goodness that's over in a few minutes, because when the jasmine fades a bit the vanillas come out, and what nice ones they are! I've never smelt a vanilla that was so much like vanilla pudding--pudding specifically, and the good stuff with real milk and eggs too, not the plasticky insta-mix. A whiff of jasmine stays on it, so it's jasmine vanilla pudding and it's so sweet and elegant, like a dessert from a fancy restaurant that comes in a very small dish and costs twenty dollars.

 

I feel fancypants AND edible while I'm wearing this. Definite win.

 

 

Lobster Rating

better than: patent leather Mary Janes