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BPAL Madness!
Seajewel

Cerberus’ish 

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This is amazing! I couldn’t wait to try even though it arrived yesterday. It’s a vanilla-honey-cream when first applied but immediately a note of early fall campfire appears. The scorched marshmallow becomes stronger as it dries and I assume the “sticks” are contributing to the overall campfire feel. After a few hours I’m left with scorched vanilla marshmallow. I love it. 

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This is amazing! It’s a delicious spicy chai! I get marshmallow too and it’s so good! The notes work well together. I don’t get much honey and that’s ok. Not much stick either but the toasty smoky note just rounds it all out! 😋

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I'm getting all the notes and lots of stick! A delicious chai flavored stick. Honey is subtle, marshmallow is definitely present. This reminds of misk u in the way that it is a creamy sweet drink scent but has an interesting note that gets louder as you wear it (dusty wood). The stick adds an earthy quality- as if this scent had a wee touch of patchouli. Nice! Good for layering I imagine

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In the bottle: Chai spice buttercream seems about right. It's chai spice but softer and creamier. You could convince me there's a vanilla component to it, which I hope doesn't mean my skin will eat it. 

 

On my skin:

 

There must be a vanilla component because on my skin, the "buttercream" aspect is instantly gone, and it's replaced by honey (though chai spice is still there). As it dries, all the gourmandiness fades back (but not away completely), and the scorched and stick bit (you could convince me I'm getting sandalwood here) take center stage. For a good long while, nothing really happens to change that. The stick and scorch are soft rather than screeching -- so they must be softened by things like the marshmallow and the honey and chai spice -- but they are very much the starring notes of this blend. 

 

After some time --- about 90 minutes from application -- I get considerably more honey wafting away from my skin. But honey is only barely detectable in the skin scent, which is still very much pretty scorch and stick. Like, it's scorch and stick, but it still smells genuinely pretty

 

I have concluded that I think my bottle needs to rest more. It could be that this is just going to be a morpher on me, but the sort of strange order of note dominance on me makes me think this still has a bit of settling to do. 

 

Edit 11/6 -- I tried this again yesterday (11/5), and it was all chai spice buttercream honey. I got only the briefest hint of scorch or stick on the initial drydown, which is a little disappointing since that turned out to be my favorite part of the initial test. However, since that's such a big change from a week ago, I think I'm still at the "rest and retest" stage with this. Not ready to call this one yet. 

 

Edit 11/13 -- Tried again today. It went through the chai spice BUTTERCREAM phase much faster this time compared to the second (a lot more like my initial test). I do get some scorched marshmallow stick, but it ultimately settles down to very soft chai spice with a lovely hint of smokiness. The final version of this trial is a very skin-close but delightful scent. But. I think still too different from my last trial. Test again in a week or so. 

 

Edit 11/23 -- WTF, Cerberus'ish? We're back to overly sweet honey marshmallow buttercream that I just cannot handle. 

Edited by torischroeder9

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Nummy, at first. But a fast morpher away from that, sadly...

 

1. At first, I get lots of chai buttercream and a little scorched stick. Lovely. No, toasted marshmallow stick (the "scorch" appeared before the floof). 

 

2. The buttercream vanishes. Cerberus quickly turns spicier, with pepper making me want to sneeze.

 

3. The marshmallow, stick, and chai vanish, leaving just scorched pepper. o.O

 

That was all just the wet phrase, yo.

 

Unfortunately, this is just peppery scorch with a hint of wood after that. I'll see how it settles and ages.

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So much butter in the buttercream and strangely "nutty"? I've been looking for the perfect chai scent, but this is almost butterscotch on me, morphing into maple syrup cakes. Where's the chai spice or even the wood? It does remind me a teeny bit of my beloved "The Storyteller" with a dollop of rich cream, but pushed way into foodie territory. I can see alot of people loving this. Oh so cozy and cuddly, Cerberus'ish would be beautiful wafting up from a warm coat against skin in winter, making you hungry dream of creamy hot drinks and puddings. The "ish" in my delish :P

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Three intensely different stages to this one. Wet, it's super sweet, decadent buttercream: all richness and frosting, gently spiced. Yum!

Dry, the sweetness is suddenly gone - how?! so quickly! - and I'm getting a scent that reminds me of a room where a stick of incense has been burning. Incense scents are not my jam, so unfortunately I can't tease it apart more finely to tell you what it is exactly is going on here, but I suspect it may be the "stick". Something about the wood with a dry smoke/spice undertone. This stage lasts for an average amount of time.
After a couple hours, I get the third stage - a close-to-skin scent that's a classic BPAL gourmand drydown. The sweetness has somehow crept back in, the spices which were previously background players find their balance, and there's a hint of creamy woods smoothing it out. This is the first stage where I really detect the honey. This stage is soft, and lasts.

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This is very cozy! Chai, marshmallow, buttercream, and yes, I too get a lot of stick! This was a winner for me and a perfect scent to wear out to a cafe in late autumn, or even at home cozying up with a hot cup of chai on a cold day. It's foodie but not too foodie to wear out day to day (for me at least), and is a fairly straightforward yet cozy gourmand to get you through cold autumn and winter days. The stick adds a bit of intrigue that keeps it fresh and different than other chai buttercream gourmands.

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I am not fond of spices and generally amp them. I only purchased a decant of this scent out of curiosity as I was prepared for an epic spice fail.

 

Spice sensitive people, rejoice! This remains a very softly spiced buttercream it doesnt have the usually cinnamon bite that chai can present as, nor does it smell like a pumpkin spice blend. It is also truly foofy with marshmallow. It is cozy and warm and not so foodie that it couldnt be worn in an office setting. A win! 

 

But alas, it lacks something for me… something which would give it depth…. and I played around in my mind considering what would fix it for me and now spoiler for depth:

 

Spoiler

Snake Oil! Holy carnage, venom! Snake oil makes this the most amazing chai blend ever and I think I will always use this blend for layering with snake as its everything I want in a gourmand snake oil blend! ❤️❤️❤️❤️ 

 

 

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At first, I get lots of buttercream, backed by some chai spices and lemony honey. The scorched marshmallow is quick to emerge, but isn't overly scorched, and it is accompanied by the stick. The honey-swirled buttercream and scorched marshmallow become the stars of the show, backed by the chai spices and the stick. It stays like this for some time, until my skin eventually amps the smoke. It's not an acrid smoke, but a more prominent version of the smoke found in some Yule scents last year, like the Fir Needle and Smoke duet. It's not the type of smoke that reminds me of roasting a marshmallow over a campfire. The smoke ends up reigning for a few hours, but by the end of the day, it's back to a super light sweet marshmallow with a bit of buttercream that stays close to the skin (I had to press my nose to my arm in order to smell it).

 

I wish I didn't end up amping the smoke in this one, as it started off really nicely in the beginning before it took over, and then it was too light once the smoke calmed down for me to enjoy it properly. I'll retest this once it has more time to settle, but I don't think I will need more of this one.

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The cutest bottle artwork and the cutest 2021 Lilith blend, absolutely! This is such a cuddly, cozy scent that starts out with friendly smoke (as Doomsday_Disco put it, the Yule smoke from recent years) tinged with some woodiness (STICK) and sweetness from the marshmallow, and morphs into a skin-hugging puppy musk that is so fuzzy and warm. I am sure there is some amber in here, it is so sweetly resinous and pretty. The chai spices don't overwhelm the blend, just subtly lending a hint of fall to the air, and the buttercream is not of the dairy variety on the skin, so it stays nicely creamy for me.

 

This is such Happy Place for me. I'm so pleased that the smoke is kindly rather than acrid, the stick is a very friendly stick, the honey is a light little drizzle and not floral in the slightest, and everything goes into a perfectly smoky-woody-yummy-puppy direction that makes me very happy. I would like it to have a BIT more throw, because it turns into a very close-to-the-skin scent and it's so delicious, it needs to be stronger! I hope that aging will accomplish that, but otherwise, I will happily slather every hour from my future full size bottle!

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holy crap this smells like buttercream FROSTING.

 

waaaaayyyyyyyyyy too sugar-high intense for me to ever even imagine wearing this......

 

this SCREAMS SUGAR in your face.

 

after a while of being applied once it's calmed down, it mellows out to some brown woodsy "oud" type of smell ...... but i am not patient enough to get there

 

way too sugary and fake smelling for me. i will be keeping my distance from this one. 

 

i dont eat that much sugar, so just SMELLING this insane amount of sugar feels like smelling DANGER.

 

edited to add: i was super excited for Chai spice, specifically. but it overall smells more like super fake sugary frosting

Edited by rivetted

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this is very, very light on me! this is mostly chai and honey on my skin. maybe a little bit of the stick? no buttercream or marshmallow, which are the notes i was hoping to get the most of. 🍯

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this is a yankee candle. that's it. that's the review. if you want to smell like yankee candle's buttercream frosting with a little *hint* of chai spice, this is the bottle for you. fake fluffy buttercream and "spices". no marshmallow. no stick. just pure sugar-shock inducing buttercream.

 

it is absolutely not for me. 😭 i really desperately wanted chai spice marshmallow

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In the imp, its all super sugary buttercream. When it dries, its more smoky stick dipped in buttercream! Not much chai, but still warm and comforting. Some extra spice would have really set this over the top, but I still really like this and it hits the niche I was hoping for.

 

I should also note that the smoke note often goes too strong on me, but this stays in check. Honey can also go bad on me pretty easily, but theres only a hint of honey here.

 

 

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Spicy chai buttercream! Creamy and sweet, with a good amount of spice. I don't get much stick, but maybe a soft waft of smoke - but, yes, a friendly smoke, like my parents' old wood-burning fireplace, and it's in the background - the spicy creamy frosting is much more in charge! Very low throw - after only a few minutes I'm having to put my nose right up on my wrist - but it's a lovely cozy cuddly scent.

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Wet: Fluffy, buttery, creamy... butter fluff?

 

Drydown: Butteriness verging on nuttiness, grounded by a smooth wood note. There's an unexpected depth and darkness to this otherwise fluffy blend, that at first I think might be the chai spices, but after reviewing the note list, I'm thinking it's gotta be the scorched aspect of the marshmallow. Yeah - it's definitely got more of smokey smouldering quality that I wouldn't expect from chai spices. This is more of an atmostpheric and tactile scent than I was expecting (I was braced for a sweeter affair). The only really foodie vibe I'm getting is from the buttercream, with the emphasis on the butter part. The marshmallow is there as more of a fluffy feeling than as a sugary scent, and I'm hardly able to find the honey. This is in some ways more than what I was expecting (smokey! evocative! wearable!) , and in other ways less (where's the chai? and honey?).

 

Dry: This is all stick and smokey, charred af marshmallow, and I'm loving it!

 

 

8 out of 10 bones

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Vanilla spiced buttercream and soft woods. I think the wood for the stick is sandalwood, but I could be wrong. The wood stays in the background and isn't dominating the other notes. The marshmallow makes this very sugary, but to me it doesn't smell scorched. It almost resembles a smores without the chocolate, which is what I was hoping this would smell like. Close to the skin and warm, a comforting scent that would be good for bedtime.

 

I didn't get much honey at all. I would have liked more to show up over the stick, but it's still a good scent regardless. Maybe the honey will get stronger with some aging.

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I initially wavered on this one because "chai" and anything that reads as "spices" just goes generic Christmas candle on me, but everything else sounded so good, and it was the "AND A STICK" that sold me.

 

Glad I got it! The "scorched" note brings a bit of smokiness to the sweet buttercream and marshmallow, the stick adds a woody note, and the "spices" stay in check. I also don't get a lot of honey in this one, but I'm ok with that - this is a very cozy, comforting scent.

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Smoky, chai, with a hint of musk at the end. I don't really get the sweet buttercream, but I do get smoky chai, hint of woods, and a ton of spice. Good throw and wear length.

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i'll admit i'm not normally a fan of "golden" scents, but this is a wonderful exception! a whole lot of buttercream and....surprisingly yes, a stick! actually I can't quite tell if it's stick or the scorched marshmallow, but the two are probably melding so well together, it's just a mildy "burnt" quality that makes this so nice and cozy. 

 

it's not listed in the description, but I do smell (what seems to be) a bit of sandalwood which is keeping this from going sour on the skin. (buttery notes have a tendency to do that for me) also somehow this is reminding of hot buttery pancakes....UGHHHH...

 

oh, how I love this one. so happy, foodie, toasty, and warm. unfortunately this fades pretty quickly on my skin, so much that i'm only left with a faint honey and extra charred stick after an hour. sigh. I would love to have this in a hair gloss format because I believe it would last sooo much longer. i'll just continue to slather my wrists and neck in the meantime. ❤🍯

WIN!

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Heavy, dry chai spices with woodsmoke and soft, powdery sandalwood.  I get no buttercream, honey or marshmallow and I was most excited for the marshmallow.  I feel like the scent does need some extra sweetness and creaminess, so I wish the more gourmand notes came through.  Very dry and spicy smelling on me.

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I forgot honey was in this, and thankfully don't get much honey! I think the stick in this is sandalwood, too very pretty and adds a high end quality, keeping it from being fully gourmand and more wearable as an every day frag. It is sweet though, but doesn't go as cloying as I would've thought. There are some moments where it's just okay sort of caramelized sweet autumn blend, then I'll catch the throw and really enjoy it. 

 

I think if you like some of the gingerbread blends or the Ghost Milk give this a try, it is similar in vibe. There's blends I like more, but this is different enough to warrant a bottle in my opinion, and will likely only get better with age. 

 

Great blend! :wub2:

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Out if the bottle it is sickly sweet, like vanilla syrup mixed with butter rum. Thankfully on my skin that stomach acid dies down and some spices help to ground that sugar. This is very pleasant actually! Quite nummy. Just a wee touch of embalming fluid. It seems to fade fast and doesn't linger too long. I'm gifting this to a friend and I hope she likes it! 

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