Earlier, /u/minkishly, being the awesome person that she is, passed me 7 of her decants (6 scents since there was a double) of Blooddrop's Horses of the Carousel collection (decanted by the awesome Ajevie, as usual). I also got a full size of Moonstone, a Blooddrop exclusive scent for The Rhinestone Housewife.
First of all, huge rave for The Rhinestone Housewife. I sent her a message via her website because I noticed there's no security certificate on the site or an option to check out via Paypal. She got back to me really fast and fixed the problem (it was a website error). Not only that, she actually invoiced me separately on PayPal so I'd feel more comfortable. Everything was shipped out the next day!
The order also came with a free tub of Brazen eyeshadow!
My skin seems to eat up Blooddrop really fast. They start off at casual conversation distance and I can smell certain notes waft up as I type, but they usually go down to about faux whisper distance within a minute. By 45min-1h, I tend to have to get pretty close to the skin to catch a whiff.
I like certain blends but certain blends also give me a headache. I'm still undecided on Blooddrop, so I'll definitely try more before scents first.
The full-size perfumes do not come sealed in anyway and doesn not have a reducer.
So on to scent reviews! As always, they're done blind until I write all the way up to the TL;DR. If any notes surprise me, I write an overview.
There's an icy touch to this scent along with a delicate, sweet, almost candy-like floral. The icy scent is that stone/concrete/rock note perfumers seem to like using -the kind that smells like Baygon, a popular insect repellent in Indonesia. While insect repellent sounds off-putting, Baygon actually smells great if you don't realize it's something you shouldn't be inhaling or using as a perfume. Other perfumes that use this notes are:
For Moonstone, this Baygon note is slightly stronger than the Baygon note in Black Violet's Komorebi -well-blended with the other notes to the point where it's almost overpowered, but definitely there and not in the background.
The result is a perfume that smells like small, delicate bursts of cotton candy pink flowers, preserved in icy frost while the cold, biting winter wind blows around it. If I'm picking an ad for this perfume, I'm totally picking this picture:
Unfortunately, within about 45 min, the scent has mellowed out to just a sweet, pink floral scent with a hint of something green, and you have to get close to the skin to sniff it.
TL;DR: Small, delicate bursts of cotton candy pink flowers, preserved in icy frost while the cold, biting winter wind blows around it
Overview: I can't pick out the apple in this, or any of the individual notes actually. They're really well blended. Not sure which note's responsible for the Baygon smell, and other perfumers with this note simply describe it as "stone" or "concrete".
"It smells of a vanilla bean cupcake with vanilla frosting covered in yellow and white daisy sugar flowers and edible gold stars."
There's a tart, sour smell that may be vanilla going sour on me. The sour smell is really strong and I can smell it as I type. You have to get to faux whispering distance to catch the full blast of it, though. I really can't smell anything except for that tart, sour smell for the first 5 minutes. Luckily, it calms down and I catch whiffs of green notes and that play-doh-like "cake" note. Unfortunately, by the time it calms down, it's very faint and I have to get close to the skin to catch a whiff.
The green is more of a realistic, sort of green that smells more like crushed plant stalks that have been left out for a while and starting to brown. It clashes with the play-doh "cake" note so I'm not really a fan of this scent -it's like someone serving you cake and you bite into it only to discover overcooked spinach inside. I really hope this doesn't mean Blooddrop's gourmands don't work on me.
TL;DR: The dry-down is that metallic "cake" scent a lot of gourmands turn into.
"Its scent is of a bold, mocha cupcake with mocha frosting that is delicately drawn to appear like the horizon with tiny tree tops, roof tops, mountain tops and the ocean."
Ok, in the vial, it's a scary sour coffee smell. On my skin, there's hints of the sourness, but it's tempered down by the smell of slightly burnt coffee and a clean, office-like smell. Unfortunately, the sour smell keeps threatening to burst out. It's not a fruity sort of sourness too...it smells like rotting coffee. Maybe it's a vanilla/caramel note going crazy. The resulting scent is like the cubicle of that one person who practically lives in the office -tons of empty mugs of coffee left out on his/her table because s/he's too wrapped up to wash them, and some mugs have even started to grow stuff.
TL;DR: Old mugs of coffee at various stages of age.
Overview: I still don't know what was creating that rotting smell. Usually it's vanilla or caramel that goes this way.
"Its scent is a pink vanilla cupcake with raspberry jam filling and raspberry meringue frosting softly ascending upwards."
I smell raspberries in this. It mostly smells like the artificial raspberries that I normally like, but there's something off. I can't really describe it. I think a note may be going crazy on me, but I can figure out which one it is. There's that plastic-like smell that raspberry scented toys seem to have, but there's another off smell I really can't describe. It makes me feel nauseous too.
TL;DR: Weird, artificial raspberries.
Overview: Maybe it's the cupcake mixed with the vanilla? I think Blooddrop's gourmands hate me.
"Its scent is a dense, thick chocolate cupcake with a chocolate pudding center and dark chocolate glazed top."
This smells like a creamy chocolate truffle. Unfortunately the cheaper kind of mass produced "chocolate truffles" that tends to piss off chocolatiers and make your teeth ache. My skin tends to amp up sweet scents and holy crap this is sweet on me. I feel nauseous.
TL;DR: Very, very, very sweet chocolate truffle.
"Its scent is that of a fried dough, churro-like cupcake made with a vanilla and cinnamon sugar spiced batter. It has a crisp outer texture with a light fluffy interior and is dusting with powdered sugar and gold dust."
At first I get a vaguely sweet, deep fried goodies smell, but the cinnamon grew stronger and stronger until it smells a bit like those Red Hots candy. There's a bit of a dry, almost peppery smell in the background but it's mostly Red Hots. I urge people with cinnamon allergies to be very careful with this scent. I'm normally not allergic to cinnamon, but I can feel the spot I put this on feel warm.
I should have wiped it off because 5 minutes after I wrote that sentence, this was my arm:
Yeah..best be careful with this scent. This has never happened to me before with cinnamon, so I'm hoping it's just this one off case and I'm not developing a cinnamon allergy.
There's something else cloying in this that I can't figure out since the Red Hots is so strong. I had to wash this off fast, so I don't know if I could identify the cloying smell once the Red Hots scent is gone.
TL;DR: Very strong Red Hots with a very dry, almost peppery scent and something cloying in the background.
Overview: To test out if I've developed a cinnamon allergy, I put on Possets' Gelato: Vaniglia the entire day. Nope, no rashes or anything. I also use Cocoa Pink's conditioner with the Cake on Monday scent, which also contains cinnamon, and I'm still ok after using that too. So I guess I'm still not allergic to cinnamon in reasonable doses and it's just this scent containing far too much of the cinnamon. For anyone who developed an adverse reaction to anything with cinnamon at all, it's best to stay away from this.
"Its scent is that of a chocolate and coconut cupcake with chocolate cream cheese filling and chocolate frosting decorated with red and purple sugar rose petals."
Oh I like this. It's chocolate but more like a buttery, melted chocolate that's not so sweet. There's a floral in this, but it's too blended into the scent for me to identify what it is exactly. It ends up smelling like chocolate being melted in the kitchen of a traditional chocolatier. There's the smell of a clean room and melted chocolate with flower petals sprinkled on top. I love this one and this is actually one of my favourite chocolate scents ever - actual creamy, smooth chocolate. It doesn't end up going sandalwood on me or smelling like chocolate powder, it's actual chocolate. I'm a huge fan.
TL;DR: Flowers sprinkled on buttery, melted chocolate in a clean room.
First of all, huge rave for The Rhinestone Housewife. I sent her a message via her website because I noticed there's no security certificate on the site or an option to check out via Paypal. She got back to me really fast and fixed the problem (it was a website error). Not only that, she actually invoiced me separately on PayPal so I'd feel more comfortable. Everything was shipped out the next day!
The order also came with a free tub of Brazen eyeshadow!
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Perfume Oil General Review
My skin seems to eat up Blooddrop really fast. They start off at casual conversation distance and I can smell certain notes waft up as I type, but they usually go down to about faux whisper distance within a minute. By 45min-1h, I tend to have to get pretty close to the skin to catch a whiff.
I like certain blends but certain blends also give me a headache. I'm still undecided on Blooddrop, so I'll definitely try more before scents first.
The full-size perfumes do not come sealed in anyway and doesn not have a reducer.
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So on to scent reviews! As always, they're done blind until I write all the way up to the TL;DR. If any notes surprise me, I write an overview.
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Scent Reviews
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Moonstone
"A cool, lunar, dreamy, luminous blend for this goddess stone; white tea, apple meat, moonflower, blue agave, wintergreen, jasmine, and white ginger."There's an icy touch to this scent along with a delicate, sweet, almost candy-like floral. The icy scent is that stone/concrete/rock note perfumers seem to like using -the kind that smells like Baygon, a popular insect repellent in Indonesia. While insect repellent sounds off-putting, Baygon actually smells great if you don't realize it's something you shouldn't be inhaling or using as a perfume. Other perfumes that use this notes are:
- Alkemia's Prairie 66 (very dominant and almost the entire scent's just that note)
- Black Violet's Apparition (balances with other aspects of that scent)
- Black Violet's Komorebi (faint and in the background)
For Moonstone, this Baygon note is slightly stronger than the Baygon note in Black Violet's Komorebi -well-blended with the other notes to the point where it's almost overpowered, but definitely there and not in the background.
The result is a perfume that smells like small, delicate bursts of cotton candy pink flowers, preserved in icy frost while the cold, biting winter wind blows around it. If I'm picking an ad for this perfume, I'm totally picking this picture:
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| The video ad will have tons of CGI flowers blowing everywhere, obviously. Gorgeous photography by Alena Root, check out her stuff here! |
TL;DR: Small, delicate bursts of cotton candy pink flowers, preserved in icy frost while the cold, biting winter wind blows around it
Overview: I can't pick out the apple in this, or any of the individual notes actually. They're really well blended. Not sure which note's responsible for the Baygon smell, and other perfumers with this note simply describe it as "stone" or "concrete".
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Horses of the Carousel Collection
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The Aurus Horse
"It smells of a vanilla bean cupcake with vanilla frosting covered in yellow and white daisy sugar flowers and edible gold stars."
There's a tart, sour smell that may be vanilla going sour on me. The sour smell is really strong and I can smell it as I type. You have to get to faux whispering distance to catch the full blast of it, though. I really can't smell anything except for that tart, sour smell for the first 5 minutes. Luckily, it calms down and I catch whiffs of green notes and that play-doh-like "cake" note. Unfortunately, by the time it calms down, it's very faint and I have to get close to the skin to catch a whiff.
The green is more of a realistic, sort of green that smells more like crushed plant stalks that have been left out for a while and starting to brown. It clashes with the play-doh "cake" note so I'm not really a fan of this scent -it's like someone serving you cake and you bite into it only to discover overcooked spinach inside. I really hope this doesn't mean Blooddrop's gourmands don't work on me.
TL;DR: The dry-down is that metallic "cake" scent a lot of gourmands turn into.
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The Giant Horse
"Its scent is of a bold, mocha cupcake with mocha frosting that is delicately drawn to appear like the horizon with tiny tree tops, roof tops, mountain tops and the ocean."
Ok, in the vial, it's a scary sour coffee smell. On my skin, there's hints of the sourness, but it's tempered down by the smell of slightly burnt coffee and a clean, office-like smell. Unfortunately, the sour smell keeps threatening to burst out. It's not a fruity sort of sourness too...it smells like rotting coffee. Maybe it's a vanilla/caramel note going crazy. The resulting scent is like the cubicle of that one person who practically lives in the office -tons of empty mugs of coffee left out on his/her table because s/he's too wrapped up to wash them, and some mugs have even started to grow stuff.
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| Whatever you do..don't look inside.. Image courtesy of confessionsofacouncilworker.blogspot.com |
TL;DR: Old mugs of coffee at various stages of age.
Overview: I still don't know what was creating that rotting smell. Usually it's vanilla or caramel that goes this way.
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The Lyrical Horse
"Its scent is a pink vanilla cupcake with raspberry jam filling and raspberry meringue frosting softly ascending upwards."
I smell raspberries in this. It mostly smells like the artificial raspberries that I normally like, but there's something off. I can't really describe it. I think a note may be going crazy on me, but I can figure out which one it is. There's that plastic-like smell that raspberry scented toys seem to have, but there's another off smell I really can't describe. It makes me feel nauseous too.
TL;DR: Weird, artificial raspberries.
Overview: Maybe it's the cupcake mixed with the vanilla? I think Blooddrop's gourmands hate me.
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The Mountain Horse
"Its scent is a dense, thick chocolate cupcake with a chocolate pudding center and dark chocolate glazed top."
This smells like a creamy chocolate truffle. Unfortunately the cheaper kind of mass produced "chocolate truffles" that tends to piss off chocolatiers and make your teeth ache. My skin tends to amp up sweet scents and holy crap this is sweet on me. I feel nauseous.
TL;DR: Very, very, very sweet chocolate truffle.
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The Twisted Horse
"Its scent is that of a fried dough, churro-like cupcake made with a vanilla and cinnamon sugar spiced batter. It has a crisp outer texture with a light fluffy interior and is dusting with powdered sugar and gold dust."
At first I get a vaguely sweet, deep fried goodies smell, but the cinnamon grew stronger and stronger until it smells a bit like those Red Hots candy. There's a bit of a dry, almost peppery smell in the background but it's mostly Red Hots. I urge people with cinnamon allergies to be very careful with this scent. I'm normally not allergic to cinnamon, but I can feel the spot I put this on feel warm.
I should have wiped it off because 5 minutes after I wrote that sentence, this was my arm:
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| It itches and still feels like it's burning T.T |
There's something else cloying in this that I can't figure out since the Red Hots is so strong. I had to wash this off fast, so I don't know if I could identify the cloying smell once the Red Hots scent is gone.
TL;DR: Very strong Red Hots with a very dry, almost peppery scent and something cloying in the background.
Overview: To test out if I've developed a cinnamon allergy, I put on Possets' Gelato: Vaniglia the entire day. Nope, no rashes or anything. I also use Cocoa Pink's conditioner with the Cake on Monday scent, which also contains cinnamon, and I'm still ok after using that too. So I guess I'm still not allergic to cinnamon in reasonable doses and it's just this scent containing far too much of the cinnamon. For anyone who developed an adverse reaction to anything with cinnamon at all, it's best to stay away from this.
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The Velvet Horse
"Its scent is that of a chocolate and coconut cupcake with chocolate cream cheese filling and chocolate frosting decorated with red and purple sugar rose petals."
Oh I like this. It's chocolate but more like a buttery, melted chocolate that's not so sweet. There's a floral in this, but it's too blended into the scent for me to identify what it is exactly. It ends up smelling like chocolate being melted in the kitchen of a traditional chocolatier. There's the smell of a clean room and melted chocolate with flower petals sprinkled on top. I love this one and this is actually one of my favourite chocolate scents ever - actual creamy, smooth chocolate. It doesn't end up going sandalwood on me or smelling like chocolate powder, it's actual chocolate. I'm a huge fan.
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| I want to swim in this...not in reality though. Someone actually nearly drowned in a vat of chocolate in the Hershey factory once. Image courtesy of chocolatieroverijse.be |
TL;DR: Flowers sprinkled on buttery, melted chocolate in a clean room.
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While a bunch of scents didn't work out on me, these are scents that didn't work out on /u/minkishly as well, so there's a chance they're the weirder scents. I'm definitely giving Blooddrop another try. The only thing I'm sure about is that their vanillas just don't work on me, so if you have a similar skin chemistry, steer clear.
So have the best fragrance but with a bit of care Market trends around the globe clearly show an increased interest in the perfume and fragrance market. sParfum Laura Biagiotti
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