I love apples & pumpkins so I took a huge gamble and ordered a bunch of Arcana's Apples Crave & Pumpkins Crave perfumes from Ajevie's decants.
I definitely worried about hating their pumpkin and apple notes, and then getting stuck with a 15 scents I hated. Luckily, Arcana is amazing! You can purchase them from The Rhinestone Housewife, which I've done before, so I feel comfortable recommending this distributor. They're having a sale right now, so with the coupon code YULE2014 you'll get 20% off all orders between $10.01-50.00, 30% off all orders $50.01-100.00 and a 40% off all orders above $100.01.
Besides The Rhinestone Housewife, you can also purchase it from the Arcana eBay account, where the scents are currently on sale.
Seriously, Jeanine is amazing. I sent a question on July 7 about the shopping cart. There was an error when I visited and the security certificates weren't showing up. I got a reply within the same day, and Jeanine was fine taking the time to manually sending me a PayPal invoice so I can feel more comfortable about my payment. I paid on July 8 and my package got shipped the very same day. How amazing is that?
She also included a free tub of Brazen eyeshadow too!
I ended up making 2nd order from Jeanine, obviously, and again, I needed help. The shopping cart kept insisting my address for my credit card is incorrect (it's not) so I couldn't buy what I wanted. I had to ask Jeanine to invoice me manually again. Oh, even better. I stupidly gave her the wrong PayPal email, so she had to re-invoice me. Jeanine has the patience of a saint and fixed the invoice for me. Did I mention she replied to all my emails within minutes? On Thanksgiving. I felt so bad.
My rave isn't finished yet though. So one of the perfumes I wanted had an accident and she wouldn't be able to get a new bottle until the supplier sends a bottle to her. She offered to do 2 shippings for me, free of charge. Obviously, I couldn't take advantage of that offer and told her I'm fine with waiting so she can send everything in one shipping, but it's incredible of her to offer.
Seriously, shop at The Rhinestone Housewife. The customer service is unbelievably great.
Ok, so I'm extremely impressed with Arcana. I was expecting the same note over and over again with slight variations but nooo. You get different versions of pumpkin and apple -baked, dried, freshly cut, puréed, candied, etc. It's extremely creative and your nose definitely won't get bored. I spend a few days testing out only the Apples Crave scents, and I never had to struggle to differentiate the scents –which sometimes happens when you're testing too many scents with the same notes.
The scent's throw is at ranges from casual conversation to faux whispering distance, and stays this way for about 2h. It then slowly fades to intimate whispering distance for about another 2h or so, though by now the scent is pretty unrecognizable from the original scent. You'll get traces of the scent on your skin for a long time after that, with some scents still leaving traces 10+h later! I'm definitely impressed by the sillage and longevity.
Anyway, here are the reviews for 8 Apple Craves Scents, as well as Souleater since I'm splitting my reviews into 2 reviews of 9 scents each. As usual, they're done blind until the TL;DR's written. If anything in the notes surprise me, I write an overview.
"Fuji apple, tropical Tiare blossm, tuberose, bergamot, orange flower, and vintage patchouli."
This is like an Asian bottled apple tea - sweet, light, cool, very fragrant, with a hint of florals. Unlike the American versions of apple tea, this isn't an artificial sort of apple scent, and definitely smells like perfume. As much as I love Asian apple teas, I often find a few that are hard to drink because they smell so much like a perfume. They taste delicious once I get over my knee-jerk "must. not. drink." reaction, though.
TL;DR: Asian bottled apple tea.
Overview: Oh wow, you cannot smell the patchouli at all. This is awesome!
"Frilly Underpinnings(Pink, white, and black pepper lace delicately through sweet cream, bourbon vanilla, caramel amber, white musk, two sugars, and spice) blend with sweet, crisp pippins."
I think I may have gotten the wrong scent for this. Ok, you know those preserved mangoes with chilli? Like these:
This scent is similar to how that smells like – sweet & sour & spicy all at once. I'm trying to sniff out the apples in this, but it ends up smelling more like tamarinds instead. The scent actually makes me feel hungry, for some odd reason. I hate spicy pickled mangoes, smelling it never fails to make me feel hungry. Maybe because that sweet & spicy pickled smell is so similar to the scents of the free appetizers they serve you in Chinese restaurants.
This is definitely a funkier scent, and while I personally like it, I won't recommend it to everyone.
TL;DR: Spicy pickled fruits.
Overview: Huh. I did get the right scents. I'm guessing it's all the peppers going sour on me.
"Dry apple cider with French hay absolute, a touch of heartwood, and a hint of rain."
"Green apple hard candy with sugared peaches."
Omg. The peach is amazing. It smells like the first bite into a juicy, sweet, ripe peach. I smell the apples in it and it's more of a cut apple sort of scent. This smells like sliced red apples drizzled in peach juice. This was the first scent I tried from the apples collection and my first thought was, "Crap. I'm going to be broke if all of Arcana's apple notes are just this good."
After about 20 min, the peach bit starts smelling a tad soapy (a fancy soap, though), but the scent is still delicious. It becomes a more wearable scent that's delicious yet clean.
TL;DR: Clean slices of red apples drizzled in peach juice.
"Citron-laced cider with dragonsblood resin, warm myrrh, and smoky frankincense."
Ok, I can't really identify the apples in this, but there's a roomspray type of fruity-vanilla scent. I like the wood resin part in this, since it's light wood resin that's not searing, so it smells more like a brand new wood-panelled room rather than a wood factory. The roomspray part of this kept getting stronger and stronger until by 20min, it's dominant. It's a searing citrus-vanilla roomspray (I'm assuming there's apples in it too) in a brand new woody room. 40 min into the scent, the wood resin has blended into the scent to make the roomspray part even more searing. My nose hurts.
TL;DR: Citrus-vanilla room roomspray sprayed right into your nose.
Ok, the tea they picked somehow smells very herbal and smoky. For the first 5-8 min, it kinda smells like one of those bitter, icy axe brand oils that my dad (and a lot of old Chinese dads/grandpas) seem to like. I smell hints of apples, but that herbal, bitter icy smell is the most dominant.
The icy bit finally calms down after 5-8 min and it does smell like real apple tea. The loose leaf kind that's made of bitter, acrid, black tea.
I have to say I'm very impressed with Arcana for this scent.
TL;DR: Real black apple tea.
"Wild apples and green apples with delicate vanilla, sensual musk, and white amber."
At first, I'm just getting a plain apple scent –well, it's unfair to call it plain since Arcana's apple scents smell exactly like a freshly cut red apple –but then a musky sort of vanilla starts coming out. I also somehow get sandalwood in this, and I'm extremely confused about it. As time wears on, the muskiness mixed into the scent makes the apples smell more like the apple filling in a baked apple pie.
The resulting scent is still a relatively light scent, but it's a heavier, more velvety type of apple scent. I definitely find it a very unique combination since most apple scents tend to be on being fresh and light.
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I definitely worried about hating their pumpkin and apple notes, and then getting stuck with a 15 scents I hated. Luckily, Arcana is amazing! You can purchase them from The Rhinestone Housewife, which I've done before, so I feel comfortable recommending this distributor. They're having a sale right now, so with the coupon code YULE2014 you'll get 20% off all orders between $10.01-50.00, 30% off all orders $50.01-100.00 and a 40% off all orders above $100.01.
Besides The Rhinestone Housewife, you can also purchase it from the Arcana eBay account, where the scents are currently on sale.
________________________
Rhinestone Housewife Customer Service Rave
Seriously, Jeanine is amazing. I sent a question on July 7 about the shopping cart. There was an error when I visited and the security certificates weren't showing up. I got a reply within the same day, and Jeanine was fine taking the time to manually sending me a PayPal invoice so I can feel more comfortable about my payment. I paid on July 8 and my package got shipped the very same day. How amazing is that?
She also included a free tub of Brazen eyeshadow too!
I ended up making 2nd order from Jeanine, obviously, and again, I needed help. The shopping cart kept insisting my address for my credit card is incorrect (it's not) so I couldn't buy what I wanted. I had to ask Jeanine to invoice me manually again. Oh, even better. I stupidly gave her the wrong PayPal email, so she had to re-invoice me. Jeanine has the patience of a saint and fixed the invoice for me. Did I mention she replied to all my emails within minutes? On Thanksgiving. I felt so bad.
My rave isn't finished yet though. So one of the perfumes I wanted had an accident and she wouldn't be able to get a new bottle until the supplier sends a bottle to her. She offered to do 2 shippings for me, free of charge. Obviously, I couldn't take advantage of that offer and told her I'm fine with waiting so she can send everything in one shipping, but it's incredible of her to offer.
Seriously, shop at The Rhinestone Housewife. The customer service is unbelievably great.
________________________
Perfume Oils General Review
Ok, so I'm extremely impressed with Arcana. I was expecting the same note over and over again with slight variations but nooo. You get different versions of pumpkin and apple -baked, dried, freshly cut, puréed, candied, etc. It's extremely creative and your nose definitely won't get bored. I spend a few days testing out only the Apples Crave scents, and I never had to struggle to differentiate the scents –which sometimes happens when you're testing too many scents with the same notes.
The scent's throw is at ranges from casual conversation to faux whispering distance, and stays this way for about 2h. It then slowly fades to intimate whispering distance for about another 2h or so, though by now the scent is pretty unrecognizable from the original scent. You'll get traces of the scent on your skin for a long time after that, with some scents still leaving traces 10+h later! I'm definitely impressed by the sillage and longevity.
Anyway, here are the reviews for 8 Apple Craves Scents, as well as Souleater since I'm splitting my reviews into 2 reviews of 9 scents each. As usual, they're done blind until the TL;DR's written. If anything in the notes surprise me, I write an overview.
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Apples Crave...
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Cake
"Fresh, crisp red apples blended with our yellow cake layering note."
The apple here starts off as an apple candy sort of apple, but it's not the headache inducing type of artificial scent. After about 10 min, it becomes more of an apple soap sort of apple.
I was worried the yellow cake portion will smell like those play-doh-ish artificial cake scents but nope. Somehow, the two typically artificial scents combined to become the most delicious gourmand apple scent. It smells like a wearable apple perfume, with something underneath that's triggers your lust for food, even though you can't identify what you're hungry for.
TL;DR: Apples & food lust.
Overview: The cake bit is available for layering? OMG I NEED IT.
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...Flora
"Fuji apple, tropical Tiare blossm, tuberose, bergamot, orange flower, and vintage patchouli."Cake
TL;DR: Apples & food lust.
Overview: The cake bit is available for layering? OMG I NEED IT.
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...Flora
This is like an Asian bottled apple tea - sweet, light, cool, very fragrant, with a hint of florals. Unlike the American versions of apple tea, this isn't an artificial sort of apple scent, and definitely smells like perfume. As much as I love Asian apple teas, I often find a few that are hard to drink because they smell so much like a perfume. They taste delicious once I get over my knee-jerk "must. not. drink." reaction, though.
TL;DR: Asian bottled apple tea.
Overview: Oh wow, you cannot smell the patchouli at all. This is awesome!
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...Frills
"Frilly Underpinnings(Pink, white, and black pepper lace delicately through sweet cream, bourbon vanilla, caramel amber, white musk, two sugars, and spice) blend with sweet, crisp pippins."
I think I may have gotten the wrong scent for this. Ok, you know those preserved mangoes with chilli? Like these:
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| It tastes funky. Image courtesy of thaifoodshop.co.uk |
This scent is similar to how that smells like – sweet & sour & spicy all at once. I'm trying to sniff out the apples in this, but it ends up smelling more like tamarinds instead. The scent actually makes me feel hungry, for some odd reason. I hate spicy pickled mangoes, smelling it never fails to make me feel hungry. Maybe because that sweet & spicy pickled smell is so similar to the scents of the free appetizers they serve you in Chinese restaurants.
This is definitely a funkier scent, and while I personally like it, I won't recommend it to everyone.
TL;DR: Spicy pickled fruits.
Overview: Huh. I did get the right scents. I'm guessing it's all the peppers going sour on me.
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...Orchards
"Dry apple cider with French hay absolute, a touch of heartwood, and a hint of rain."
Gotta give it to Arcana, they keep coming up with different interpretations of apples. This smells like dried apples. The ones that are still chewy, not the crisps.
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| Add a sprinkle of cinnamon and you'll get this scent. Image courtesy of nuts.com |
It's dry, acrid, is dusted with cinnamon and has that dried fruits sort of dried out smell.
TL;DR: Cinnamon dusted dried apples.
Overview: I guess the hay was the one giving that dried plant sort of smell. Unexpected but awesome combo!
TL;DR: Cinnamon dusted dried apples.
Overview: I guess the hay was the one giving that dried plant sort of smell. Unexpected but awesome combo!
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...Peaches
"Green apple hard candy with sugared peaches."Omg. The peach is amazing. It smells like the first bite into a juicy, sweet, ripe peach. I smell the apples in it and it's more of a cut apple sort of scent. This smells like sliced red apples drizzled in peach juice. This was the first scent I tried from the apples collection and my first thought was, "Crap. I'm going to be broke if all of Arcana's apple notes are just this good."
After about 20 min, the peach bit starts smelling a tad soapy (a fancy soap, though), but the scent is still delicious. It becomes a more wearable scent that's delicious yet clean.
TL;DR: Clean slices of red apples drizzled in peach juice.
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...Resins
"Citron-laced cider with dragonsblood resin, warm myrrh, and smoky frankincense."Ok, I can't really identify the apples in this, but there's a roomspray type of fruity-vanilla scent. I like the wood resin part in this, since it's light wood resin that's not searing, so it smells more like a brand new wood-panelled room rather than a wood factory. The roomspray part of this kept getting stronger and stronger until by 20min, it's dominant. It's a searing citrus-vanilla roomspray (I'm assuming there's apples in it too) in a brand new woody room. 40 min into the scent, the wood resin has blended into the scent to make the roomspray part even more searing. My nose hurts.
TL;DR: Citrus-vanilla room roomspray sprayed right into your nose.
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...Tea
"Smoky black tea leaf, golden musk, cardamom, and baked winesaps."Ok, the tea they picked somehow smells very herbal and smoky. For the first 5-8 min, it kinda smells like one of those bitter, icy axe brand oils that my dad (and a lot of old Chinese dads/grandpas) seem to like. I smell hints of apples, but that herbal, bitter icy smell is the most dominant.
The icy bit finally calms down after 5-8 min and it does smell like real apple tea. The loose leaf kind that's made of bitter, acrid, black tea.
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| You know it'll be sour. Image courtesy of The Tea Company, you can buy this here! |
I have to say I'm very impressed with Arcana for this scent.
TL;DR: Real black apple tea.
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...Vanilla
"Wild apples and green apples with delicate vanilla, sensual musk, and white amber."At first, I'm just getting a plain apple scent –well, it's unfair to call it plain since Arcana's apple scents smell exactly like a freshly cut red apple –but then a musky sort of vanilla starts coming out. I also somehow get sandalwood in this, and I'm extremely confused about it. As time wears on, the muskiness mixed into the scent makes the apples smell more like the apple filling in a baked apple pie.
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| Hungryyyy.... Image courtesy of allrecipes.com, and you can find the recipe here! |
The resulting scent is still a relatively light scent, but it's a heavier, more velvety type of apple scent. I definitely find it a very unique combination since most apple scents tend to be on being fresh and light.
TL;DR: Musky vanilla on baked apple pie filling.
Overview: Since amber is often made of a vanilla & sandalwood mix, that may be where the sandalwood scent is coming from.
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Soul Eater
"Rich tobacco, delicious caramel, fir needle, black spruce, peru balsam, and sandalwood."
It's a very dry and old dried fleshy fruit sort of scent. I think there may be wood resins in this because it's just so dry. There's also a bit of a candied scent to this. It's like someone dried to make some long forgotten dried fruit edible again, by candying it.
TL;DR: Candied, extremely old, dried fruit.
Overview: Caramel notes sometimes turn into sugared plums on me, and I guess this is one of those cases. Kinda weird since there's still a sour smell when I did a cold sniff. Maybe it's coming from the tobacco. The cold sniff has more balsam in it, and has a sour, almost fruity smell to it. It smells like a drier and more sour version of HoG's Peach Mama.
It's a very dry and old dried fleshy fruit sort of scent. I think there may be wood resins in this because it's just so dry. There's also a bit of a candied scent to this. It's like someone dried to make some long forgotten dried fruit edible again, by candying it.
Although these products are often more expensive, in the long run they will save you money and leave you smelling Fabulous. Parfum pas cher
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