If dolls could fart marshmallows, they’d smell like this.
A loud pbthpbthpbth of sweet plastic esthers–almost an artificial banana–then greasy coconut oil that dries down to diaper powder and decomposing Barbies left in the sun.
Weirdly sticky (and very synthetic for a LUSH scent) and lasts forever.
Who’da thunk Aqua’s bizarre hit could be turned this haunting and pretty?!
Byredo’s Bibliothèque is that time you snuck a jelly filled donut into the library: a lovely hit of plummy jam on top of papery leather, with musky violet almond dust.
Only a short story, but sweet and satisfying.
This Reina del Cid song is also sweet and satisfying.
Remember when you were a kid and you’d rip open the packet of Koolaid and huff that first little wisp of fruit powder?
Only me?
Alllrighty then.
There’s a weird wet/dry to this one, like slippery elm and peachfuzz. Three hours later it turns creamy floral–bright in the winter and soft in the summer–but at the end of the day it dries into a fantastic vanilla tree bark.
And the bottle makes for great curtain rod finials.
This was my first lesson in flankers. I’d mistakenly bought it thinking it was a back-up bottle for my LL Midnight Sun.
LL Stardust Midnight is sharper and sweeter, closer to the original Lolita.
It opens with bright hot anise and settles down to licorice candy and sugared violets, then lingers on skin and clothes and sheets with an effervescent vanilla.
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A darker Lolita:
This is a baby-sitting diaper change at a ridiculously rich family’s house.
A splash of lemon scented bleach that combusts to a cloud of talcum powder and finishes with high end floral musk potty-spray.
An enormous powder grenade, yet there was an ugly chemical plastic underneath. I’m a Lolita Lempicka fanatic and I was so disappointed I didn’t even keep it for the bottle.
I’m not so sure about this song either, but it gets stuck in my head a lot.
This little powder solide came yesterday and I’m obsessed.
There’s something narcotic about it, in a sweet steamy fog way.
The dust goes on soft as silk, with creamy jasmine spices that rise from the skin as they warm. Then woody vanilla tracers float for several hours through a cloud of some the loveliest musk I’ve ever sniffed.
I can’t stop brushing it on.
The eau de parfum has a lot more green notes at the top–bergamot and cypress that I don’t miss at all–and here the freesia is more support for the nutmeg than a heart note.
But the musk is what makes this so special–delicate and clean, yet slightly opaque, like sugar frosting puffed into vapor, and impossible to stop tasting.
(I’m going to go through this stuff quick.)
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We watched The Graduate last night, so this will be in my head all week.
Lush’s Kerbside Violet is that totally kissable stranger on the subway platform who eats those weird purple mints from the newspaper kiosk.
There’s a blast of burning coal and then bruised wildflowers and finally ashy sweetness.
Makes me nostalgic for the city.
Any city, really.
This one by Bat For Lashes (also English) has a dreamy edgy vibe, too.
kira a. gold 