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Brown Sugar, Cream, and Earl Grey Tea

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I was personally very worried about the brown sugar note, because I’m not a gourmand person generally—but I *am* a tea fanatic, so I gave this a try. Very pleased that I did! The brown sugar is present but not overwhelming, and the classic Earl Grey bergamot/citrus comes through. The cream is hard to detect, but I suspect it is doing some work smoothing over the sharper edges. I think it could be worn year-round, and layered especially well with vanilla or lavender.  Wear length is on the shorter side, which I find it pretty typical of tea blends. The brown sugar has more staying power on dry down. 
Overall: a sweet tea blend for tea lovers, exactly what I had hoped for 🖤 

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I was also a little worried, since I too don’t favor gourmands. At first sniff, this almost has a gingerbread quality, but not quite. I definitely get the rich molasses of brown sugar, but the bergamot in the earl grey shines on through. There’s definitely a creamy roundness to this blend, but I don’t necessarily smell cream or milk. As it fades, the earl grey is more dominant, with a slight whisper of brown sugar. Overall, I think this is really well blended. It’s not **too** gourmand, for those who aren’t fans. But it’s also not too perfumey, and I think would satisfy foodie lovers too. 

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This is mostly about the Earl Grey to me, in the bottle and on my skin. It's got a tannic black tea (that has a slight hint of smokiness to it at first) and bergamot to it with a bit of cream and some light brown sugar. So if you were afraid of this being a brown sugar party, don't be. Sometimes the Lab's black tea can read as licorice-y to me, but this one does not, for those wary of that. 

 

On another note, I had a brown sugar milk tea yesterday and an Earl Grey milk tea today and I can say that this is nowhere near as creamy or as sugary as any milk tea. But if you're looking for a bold Earl Grey, you should be happy with this.

 

I think this is nice, but I hope to get more sugar and cream as this ages!

Edited by doomsday_disco

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well, i think i love this - and unlike those above, i definitely get "cream and sugar" from this. lots of cream! lots of sugar!

i would agree that the brown sugar plays almost like molasses. 

 

this smells delicious and very wearable, without being too foodie. 

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Wet on me this is straight-up barbeque sauce, which is so hilarious I can't even be upset about it. I smell like I'm ready to go on the grill. Once dry, I do get a little bit of tea and floral-leaning bergamot, but it's not at all creamy, which is a shame. It's pretty and wearable, after the BBQ stage passes. I do want to try layering it with some other creamy things to kind of round it out a little. 

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This is WILD. So I get...coconut cream tropical lotion!! I am both intrigued and repulsed!

 

Top note comes in like gangbusters with that ashy tea from Gingerbread Vetiver and Black Tea. It's not as STRONG of an ashtray effect as it was from that Yule, and it definitely works better in this context. But it's good to know that the current tea note has lots of tannins in it, which give an astringent, puckery, "ashy" vibe to a blend.

 

Once those die down, the true mood of this trio emerges. A coconut cream tropical extravaganza of suntan lotion. Seriously, if this cream isn't coconut cream, slap my ass and call me Florida. The tropical seems to be coming from a crossover of the lemony brown sugar with the bergamot of the tea, which all combine to read as...tropical fruits. I racked my brains trying to figure out why this reminded me of days at the water park, but that is exactly why. Sweet, lotiony, coconutty, sun-warmed skin, no ocean whatsoever, a little buzz like chlorine.

 

I kind of love that nostalgia. So...I might get a decant or more of this one! 

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This one needs to rest a day or two before proper testing! When I tried it right out of the mail it was very smoky and savory, much in line with LdyKnight's BBQ assessment. 

 

Two days later when freshly applied, there is still a bit of smokiness, but then a distinct Eary Grey scent emerges. I can hear Jean-Luc Picard in my head: "Earl Grey Tea. Hot" :lol:

As it dries, I get the cream and sugar over the delightfully realistic tannic base. I'm not getting much throw from this, but it is a lovely calming scent.

Might be fun to layer with lavender, or a touch of lemon or orange. 

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I was worried about the brown sugar because brown sugar is usually too sweet for me, but this is a well balanced menage.  The tea is one of those smoky, dry leaf black tea notes that's very dark and slightly bitter, so the warm, brown sugar componant really helps to soften its edges, and I get hints of lemon and a dollop of smooth, chilled cream.  The drydown reminds me of setting dead, crunchy fall leaves on fire, a little spicy and a lot dry and smoky with a caramelized, sappy sweetness.  It's definitely more dry tea leaf than a prepared cup of tea and it's smoky and astringent enough that I'm content with my decant and don't need a full bottle.

Edited by Little Bird

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I'm disappointed that I can't find my decant of this, but I can more or less review by memory.

 

This was brown sugar-dominant on me, a molasses-toned sugar smoothed over by a gentle cream. The Earl Grey was less potent on my skin, but added some dark dryness and a little airy complexity.

 

I quite enjoyed this. Misplacing the decant feels like less of a blow, because I'm planning for a bottle.

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Traded for a bottle of Brown Sugar, Cream, & Earl Grey Tea, and still felt it was a gamble…. Turns out, it was a well-played gamble!

 

Opens quite smokey, disconcertingly so. Fairly swiftly, it shifts into this clean tea note, lovingly embraced by brown sugar and an echoing cream.

The overall effect is brown-toned, yet feels like I just stepped out of the shower. At the same time, it feels like a classy scent that my alter ego living in New York, and frequenting fashionable bars and restaurants nightly would rock. 
It also works as me now, wandering through the backyard jungle garden, cleaning the kitchen, reading and daydreaming next to the window…

 

 :heart:

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This smells like a freshly brewed pot of expensive earl grey tea with a teaspoon of brown sugar and perhaps a little cream somewhere to the side. This really could be a duo on me between the earl grey and brown sugar. Cream is one of my favorite notes but I get very little here. 

 

This is quite a clean, fresh scent on me. I can smell the bergamot from the earl grey. The brown sugar does not take over and complements the tea really well. It adds a sweetness and grounds the scent. Overall, I really like it because I do like tea notes. It is light wearing and stays close to the skin.

 

ETA: After sitting for a couple of weeks this has settled beautifully and I get more cream. The three notes are blended beautifully and I find myself reaching to wear this alot. It's perfect as an everyday scent 😍 

Edited by becca_s

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In the imp this wasn't as brown sugar syrupy as I anticipated! Very mellow. The cream and bergamot in the earl grey really give it a lift. On my skin the tea is most prominent with a brown sugar complimenting it. The cream is very gentle. A gorgeous tea scent! 

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 Not as sweet as I expected. The strong tea is the prominent note. Just a touch of brown sugar and a dollop of smooth cream. It’s foodie, but elegant. A keeper.

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Something in this goes off on my skin, which might be the bergamot in the tea or the brown sugar (brown sugar often goes weird on my skin). It's a sour note, but not like sour milk. Wet, this sour note is pretty much all I smell. As the mélange dries, I get more of the cream and tea but it's still sour.

 

I spent some time aging this decant to see if it would be less sour, but it's still about the same. Chalking this one up to skin chemistry.

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I'm circling back to this one a year later to say it's settled down into basically an Earl Gray SN. It smells exactly like sticking my nose into a jar of loose-leaf earl gray. It's impressively realistic, better than my earlier BBQ experience, but not ultimately very interesting.

Edited by LdyKnight

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Got this recently as a blind buy from someone in the Bpal Sales Madness Facebook group. I wanted to love it so much, but I'm starting to realize that Earl Grey blends just don't work for me 😭

In the bottle it smelled delicious and very brown sugar-y which is also how it smelled when I first applied it. Sadly only an hour or so later it was just incredibly perfume-y and overwhelming. Basically it was a fail like Dad! Let me do your makeup and Fuzzy Peach Sweater and a Mug of London Fog.

 

Medium to low throw and short wear time

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