Finally finished sniffing the rest of my stash and writing up the reviews! Here's the previous VM State Fair 2014 review. Here's the link to Violette Market's State Fair 2014.
So one thing to remember is that some bottles do not come with a roller ball. I got used to the roller balls the penny candies had, that I absentmindedly tipped over my Smoking Plum Taffy Pull perfume and lost it. T.T
But this is the amazing thing...
So it poured all over my cardigan and skirt, and since I'm at work, I can't strip my clothes off. As much as working in finance makes me feel like I'm whoring myself out sometimes, I'm not planning to make it literal. I ended up spending about 11h marinated in the perfume oil.
Guess how long the perfume oil lasted on my skin? Over 17h. It could be longer, but I needed my morning shower.
Despite the awesome longevity, I don't recommend this method of perfuming yourself though. As I mentioned before, VM's perfume oils are VERY strong sillage-wise. I spent the entire day nauseated and apologizing to everyone because of how strong the smell got. I met up with my boyfriend and his friend straight after work, and they commented on how I smelled like someone sprayed air freshener into their faces. (I'm sorry! ._.)
If you want to know how long the perfume oil will last on your clothes, I decided to not wash my cardigan until the smell disappears. Well, it's been over 2 weeks since that incident and I kinda need my cardigan back, so I gave up and washed it. That's how long it'll last. Oh, and I tried putting it on for about 2-3 min and the smell is still pretty strong...and ended up all over my arms. No perfume testing for that day.
So on to scent reviews. My overall impression is that VM is a great perfume brand, just not good at creating gourmands. Their gourmands end up smelling like great high end floral/wood blends that would normally be amazing blends, but not when you're expecting a gourmand scent.
I'm switching it up a bit and writing a TL;DR to summarize the scent review, and only writing and overview if needed. Reviews are done blind until I'm done with the review and the TL;DR.
"Sweet popped corn covered in a thick layer of dark caramel with subtle hints of vanilla, pecan clusters, white sugar cane, and machinery smoke."
First, I got salted buttered popcorn, which was slightly confusing since I was expecting something sweeter. It's very heavy on the butter side, so that's something worth noting if you hate that oily smell. I personally love it since I'm a huge pig. Eventually, I smell a sourness coming out. I know caramel notes turn sour on me sometimes, only this isn't the usual curdled milk sourness -it's a tart, fruity sort of sourness. So a good sort of sourness. After about 10 minutes, this smells like sugared plums with buttered popcorn, which sounds like a weird but delicious snack I really need right now. I like it, but it's definitely not what I was expecting, so I can see some people being disappointed with this.
TL;DR: Sugared plums and buttered popcorn.
Overview: I'm surprised I don't smell any smoke though, since a lot of VM's smoke notes get amped up on me. I'm also not sure what created the sour fruit sort of tartness, was it the sugar cane or vanilla going sour?
"Sweet Ceylon cinnamon-sugared donuts with hints of Bourbon vanilla, vanilla cream, and powdered sugar."
Another perfume that has a great initial smell that I wish would stay. It starts of as the most delicious cinnamon sugared donuts smell. It smells so realistic, you'll want to eat yourself. Then, after 10 minutes, it becomes a creamy, cinnamon sandalwood smell. This is one of the best sandalwood smells I've ever encountered, and I swear you can smell even smell the woody dryness of the sandalwood...but it's not exactly what I was expecting even though I'm in love with this scent.
TL;DR: Cinnamon cream on a freshly cut wood.
This is such an awesome green apple scent. It smells like a more fragrant granny smith apple. It actually smells like the skin of the apple. It takes about 5-10 min before the sugary cotton candy smell emerges. And it smells like actual spun sugar with even that slightly burnt smell to it. The cotton candy gets stronger until it's fighting the apple, and by around the 20 minute mark, this smells like an overly sweet green apple soap. There's also a bit of a chemical smell I can't place. Kinda like that sharpness that pierces your nose when you have room spray sprayed too close to you. It eventually dries down to smell like sugary cotton candy.
TL;DR: Attack of green apple chemicals.
This one shifts a lot on me. It smells medicinal in the bottle, which worried me at first, but once I put it on, it smells like floral, fruity gummy chocolate. The fruity gummy smell started getting cloying and nauseating, and the chocolate eventually gets drowned out. Suddenly, it becomes a high end musky mango smell. Then it morphs again and well, it smells like a brand new ostrich Birkin, suede, a very subtle sweetness that's almost musky, and the slightest whisper of chocolate in the background, which keeps threatening to disappear. This all happened in 15 minutes. The smell stayed constant like this afterwards.
If I have to pick a picture that describes this perfume, it'll be this:
It's powdery, smooth, suede & leather-like, luxurious and yet slightly childish and flouncy to the point where it's just short of being gaudy.
TL;DR: Musky candy, suede boots, and a brand new ostrich Birkin.
"Dark rum, cannon smoke, coconut flower, worn leather, Trade Wind spices, the salty spray of the Caribbean and cotton candy from the fair grounds mingling with pirate laughter and stories of plundering this side of the Midwest."
This starts as a sharply sweet floral, with a blue scent mingled in. Now this is the surprising part...I actually smell sea salt in it. There's that salty smell of the ocean. I may not like this scent, but I'm still impressed since I rarely smell an actual "sea salt" note. Unfortunately, the sea salt doesn't last long and disappears after about 5-10 min. Now there's a spiciness to it that can either smell like peppercorns, fresh chilli or wood resin. It smells like a chest full of perfumed sheets, sprayed by the sea and a lot of peppercorns and chilli. It's old women's perfumed sheets though, since the smell is a bit of a musky, sharply sweet floral. The sandalwood gets stronger as time goes on, fortunately, and after about an hour, it's the most dominant smell after the sweet chilli and musk. If you've smelled Haus of Gloi's Picaroon, this smells like that, but with fresh chilli and a sweet, heavy muskiness that's a bit old woman-ish.
My boyfriend sniffed this and hated the initial smell. He says I smell like "a bunch of scents in a soap shop mixed up and the combination smells bad". Once it gets to the more sandalwood bit, he goes, "Christmas market and sour fruit" (he calls Picaroon "Christmas market" too).
TL;DR: A wooden treasure chest washed ashore, containing sheets from an old gypsy lady and tons of chilli.
The person opening that treasure chest would be so bloody disappointed.
"An array of colorful taffy swirling through the taffy pull in the sweet flavor of: Smoky Lapsang Souchong black tea, sweet Mount Wuyi black plum, raw vanilla pods, and a hint of cedar and redwood with hints of Bourbon vanilla, vanilla cream, pink sugar cane, lemon blossom, orange cream, raspberry truffle, blueberry, and caramel."
It's mostly a burning smell that made me cough for the first 5 minutes. There's a sweetness trying to come out, but it's stuck. I can't identify anything under all the sweetness thanks to the burning smell. It's definitely a sour kind of sweetness, but the smoked smell is way too strong. Not a fan. The sweetness gets stronger and stronger until it's an overwhelming combination of sugar and smoke. I get a headache from it, so this isn't for me.
TL;DR: Don't call the fire department! Nothing's on fire, I swear.
"Dark and rich gingerbread, sweet cinnamon leaf, nutmeg, maple sugar, Madagascar clove, jewel-toned candies, vanilla frosting, chimney smoke, newly fallen snow, and the sinister darkness of the nearby black forest."
(not part of the State Fair 2014 collection)
It smells like smoke for a long time, and whatever smell is under the smoke was drowned out. I finally identified a mint tea smell and something bread-ish only after 20-40 minutes. By about an hour, the smoke calmed down enough for me to smell the scent properly. It smells like an unsweetened cinammon/nutmeg/general fall spices bread that is slightly leaning towards a doughy artificial smell, with a mint tea, in a room that just survived a fire. It's like the Gingerbread Man got set on fire while he's just trying to enjoy a cup of mint tea.
As time goes on (ie. around 1 1/2h), the artificial smell and the smoke dies out though. Now it's a delicious, baked gingerbread with a creamy milkiness mixed with mint tea. I love it
TL;DR: Getting comforted with vanilla gingerbread, mint tea and spiced milk after your house burns down.
I feel kinda bad adding this here since there's only 5 of these in the world. This smells amazing! It smells like a high end white floral perfume that's always advertised by an elegant lady in white.
There's a bit of a dirty waxy smell to it too, which I personally love since it makes the scent less boring and more intriguing. One thing I like about the solid perfumes is that the throw calms down a LOT. It's now the "normal" throw for a lot of perfume brands - within whispering distance for about 1-2h.
TL;DR: High end white floral perfume with dirty wax.
So one thing to remember is that some bottles do not come with a roller ball. I got used to the roller balls the penny candies had, that I absentmindedly tipped over my Smoking Plum Taffy Pull perfume and lost it. T.T
But this is the amazing thing...
So it poured all over my cardigan and skirt, and since I'm at work, I can't strip my clothes off. As much as working in finance makes me feel like I'm whoring myself out sometimes, I'm not planning to make it literal. I ended up spending about 11h marinated in the perfume oil.
Guess how long the perfume oil lasted on my skin? Over 17h. It could be longer, but I needed my morning shower.
Despite the awesome longevity, I don't recommend this method of perfuming yourself though. As I mentioned before, VM's perfume oils are VERY strong sillage-wise. I spent the entire day nauseated and apologizing to everyone because of how strong the smell got. I met up with my boyfriend and his friend straight after work, and they commented on how I smelled like someone sprayed air freshener into their faces. (I'm sorry! ._.)
If you want to know how long the perfume oil will last on your clothes, I decided to not wash my cardigan until the smell disappears. Well, it's been over 2 weeks since that incident and I kinda need my cardigan back, so I gave up and washed it. That's how long it'll last. Oh, and I tried putting it on for about 2-3 min and the smell is still pretty strong...and ended up all over my arms. No perfume testing for that day.
So on to scent reviews. My overall impression is that VM is a great perfume brand, just not good at creating gourmands. Their gourmands end up smelling like great high end floral/wood blends that would normally be amazing blends, but not when you're expecting a gourmand scent.
I'm switching it up a bit and writing a TL;DR to summarize the scent review, and only writing and overview if needed. Reviews are done blind until I'm done with the review and the TL;DR.
Caramel Sugar Kettle Corn
"Sweet popped corn covered in a thick layer of dark caramel with subtle hints of vanilla, pecan clusters, white sugar cane, and machinery smoke."
First, I got salted buttered popcorn, which was slightly confusing since I was expecting something sweeter. It's very heavy on the butter side, so that's something worth noting if you hate that oily smell. I personally love it since I'm a huge pig. Eventually, I smell a sourness coming out. I know caramel notes turn sour on me sometimes, only this isn't the usual curdled milk sourness -it's a tart, fruity sort of sourness. So a good sort of sourness. After about 10 minutes, this smells like sugared plums with buttered popcorn, which sounds like a weird but delicious snack I really need right now. I like it, but it's definitely not what I was expecting, so I can see some people being disappointed with this.
TL;DR: Sugared plums and buttered popcorn.
Overview: I'm surprised I don't smell any smoke though, since a lot of VM's smoke notes get amped up on me. I'm also not sure what created the sour fruit sort of tartness, was it the sugar cane or vanilla going sour?
Ceylon Cinnamon Sugared Donuts
"Sweet Ceylon cinnamon-sugared donuts with hints of Bourbon vanilla, vanilla cream, and powdered sugar."
Another perfume that has a great initial smell that I wish would stay. It starts of as the most delicious cinnamon sugared donuts smell. It smells so realistic, you'll want to eat yourself. Then, after 10 minutes, it becomes a creamy, cinnamon sandalwood smell. This is one of the best sandalwood smells I've ever encountered, and I swear you can smell even smell the woody dryness of the sandalwood...but it's not exactly what I was expecting even though I'm in love with this scent.
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| You can smell the spicy wood resin in this, I swear. Photo by Russell Berg |
TL;DR: Cinnamon cream on a freshly cut wood.
Granny Smith Cotton Candy
"Clouds of pale green cotton candy infused with tart Granny Smith apple accord, white sugar cane, floral musk, and vanilla cream."
This is such an awesome green apple scent. It smells like a more fragrant granny smith apple. It actually smells like the skin of the apple. It takes about 5-10 min before the sugary cotton candy smell emerges. And it smells like actual spun sugar with even that slightly burnt smell to it. The cotton candy gets stronger until it's fighting the apple, and by around the 20 minute mark, this smells like an overly sweet green apple soap. There's also a bit of a chemical smell I can't place. Kinda like that sharpness that pierces your nose when you have room spray sprayed too close to you. It eventually dries down to smell like sugary cotton candy.
TL;DR: Attack of green apple chemicals.
Mexico City
Notes of chocolate, cardamom, cinnamon and sweet cakes (since this scent has been discontinued, I relied on this article for the notes)This one shifts a lot on me. It smells medicinal in the bottle, which worried me at first, but once I put it on, it smells like floral, fruity gummy chocolate. The fruity gummy smell started getting cloying and nauseating, and the chocolate eventually gets drowned out. Suddenly, it becomes a high end musky mango smell. Then it morphs again and well, it smells like a brand new ostrich Birkin, suede, a very subtle sweetness that's almost musky, and the slightest whisper of chocolate in the background, which keeps threatening to disappear. This all happened in 15 minutes. The smell stayed constant like this afterwards.
If I have to pick a picture that describes this perfume, it'll be this:
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| Another one of my favourite photographers, Petrova Julian |
TL;DR: Musky candy, suede boots, and a brand new ostrich Birkin.
Pirate's Cove
"Dark rum, cannon smoke, coconut flower, worn leather, Trade Wind spices, the salty spray of the Caribbean and cotton candy from the fair grounds mingling with pirate laughter and stories of plundering this side of the Midwest."
This starts as a sharply sweet floral, with a blue scent mingled in. Now this is the surprising part...I actually smell sea salt in it. There's that salty smell of the ocean. I may not like this scent, but I'm still impressed since I rarely smell an actual "sea salt" note. Unfortunately, the sea salt doesn't last long and disappears after about 5-10 min. Now there's a spiciness to it that can either smell like peppercorns, fresh chilli or wood resin. It smells like a chest full of perfumed sheets, sprayed by the sea and a lot of peppercorns and chilli. It's old women's perfumed sheets though, since the smell is a bit of a musky, sharply sweet floral. The sandalwood gets stronger as time goes on, fortunately, and after about an hour, it's the most dominant smell after the sweet chilli and musk. If you've smelled Haus of Gloi's Picaroon, this smells like that, but with fresh chilli and a sweet, heavy muskiness that's a bit old woman-ish.
My boyfriend sniffed this and hated the initial smell. He says I smell like "a bunch of scents in a soap shop mixed up and the combination smells bad". Once it gets to the more sandalwood bit, he goes, "Christmas market and sour fruit" (he calls Picaroon "Christmas market" too).
TL;DR: A wooden treasure chest washed ashore, containing sheets from an old gypsy lady and tons of chilli.
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| It's called "Parrots of the Caribbean" by Matt West. This is too good to not use... |
The person opening that treasure chest would be so bloody disappointed.
Smoking Plum Taffy Pull
"An array of colorful taffy swirling through the taffy pull in the sweet flavor of: Smoky Lapsang Souchong black tea, sweet Mount Wuyi black plum, raw vanilla pods, and a hint of cedar and redwood with hints of Bourbon vanilla, vanilla cream, pink sugar cane, lemon blossom, orange cream, raspberry truffle, blueberry, and caramel."
It's mostly a burning smell that made me cough for the first 5 minutes. There's a sweetness trying to come out, but it's stuck. I can't identify anything under all the sweetness thanks to the burning smell. It's definitely a sour kind of sweetness, but the smoked smell is way too strong. Not a fan. The sweetness gets stronger and stronger until it's an overwhelming combination of sugar and smoke. I get a headache from it, so this isn't for me.
TL;DR: Don't call the fire department! Nothing's on fire, I swear.
The Gingerbread House
"Dark and rich gingerbread, sweet cinnamon leaf, nutmeg, maple sugar, Madagascar clove, jewel-toned candies, vanilla frosting, chimney smoke, newly fallen snow, and the sinister darkness of the nearby black forest."
(not part of the State Fair 2014 collection)
It smells like smoke for a long time, and whatever smell is under the smoke was drowned out. I finally identified a mint tea smell and something bread-ish only after 20-40 minutes. By about an hour, the smoke calmed down enough for me to smell the scent properly. It smells like an unsweetened cinammon/nutmeg/general fall spices bread that is slightly leaning towards a doughy artificial smell, with a mint tea, in a room that just survived a fire. It's like the Gingerbread Man got set on fire while he's just trying to enjoy a cup of mint tea.
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| We don't like mint tea drinkers here.. Image courtesy of lawrenalba.blogspot |
As time goes on (ie. around 1 1/2h), the artificial smell and the smoke dies out though. Now it's a delicious, baked gingerbread with a creamy milkiness mixed with mint tea. I love it
TL;DR: Getting comforted with vanilla gingerbread, mint tea and spiced milk after your house burns down.
French Lime Blossom botanical perfume solid
I feel kinda bad adding this here since there's only 5 of these in the world. This smells amazing! It smells like a high end white floral perfume that's always advertised by an elegant lady in white.
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| "French Lime Blossom Botanical Perfume Solid...by Violette Market"...you gotta read that in a British accent Awesome pic by another awesome photographer: Margarita Kareva |
There's a bit of a dirty waxy smell to it too, which I personally love since it makes the scent less boring and more intriguing. One thing I like about the solid perfumes is that the throw calms down a LOT. It's now the "normal" throw for a lot of perfume brands - within whispering distance for about 1-2h.
TL;DR: High end white floral perfume with dirty wax.
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