Zarita, the Doll Girl (2006)

[blueskiesinside]

A tiny woman stands in the center of the stage, the perfect woman in miniature, her copper hair bouncing in elegant curls. She is surrounded on all sides by a necropolis of maimed, mutilated stuffed animals, decapitated fashion dolls, and eviscerated wooden figures. It is a strangely ghastly tableau: the disemboweled toys ooze fiberfill, batting, and sawdust from their gaping wounds. In one dainty hand she clutches a shard of glass, and in the other she nimbly twirls a razor blade. Her face is twisted in a grimace of mad ferocity, and she hisses as she brandishes her makeshift weapons at you. “Play with me?” she growls.

Soft, yet sociopathic: white carnation, iris, orange blossom, and sugared cream.

In the bottle: Sweet cream with orange blossom.
Wet: The carnation adds some spice, but it's very sweet and creamy. More floral than the straight milk scents, but more of a white floral than Alice. The orange blossom and cream mix wonderfully on me.
Dry down: There's a pepperyness on me, which I think is the carnation and iris. Very creamy, sweet floral.

[Heretic]

In the bottle: Creamy orange blossom, slightly soapy

On my wrist, wet: Dry, sharp floral. I can't really distinguish individual notes

After 20 minutes: Still holding onto that soapy note, I can make out orange blossom, but no sign of the carnation.

After 40 minutes: I wanted Zarita to work on me, but it never really got past the soapy orange blossom on me. Towards the end of the final drydown, there was a hint of spicy carnation, but not enough to change the overall soapy tone of this blend. Hopefully, this is just my chemistry or something that a little aging of the bottle can take care of.

Edited January 21, 2007 by Heretic

[AliBabble]

out of the bottle, i am shocked and pleasantly surprised that this smells quite rich and foody...the cream is almost nutty and buttery, in an almost pumpkin queen way, with the orange blossom peeking out behind the cream. yum!

on my skin, more subtle notes develop...fresh flowers and stems and petals...but rather light, next to the buttery creaminess. still, - delicious. i can smell a touch of the spicy carnation, and definitely the orange blossom, again, they're a little dwarfed by the cream, or maybe just very thoroughly blended...the iris is a little lost on me, however -- i just love this. i was worried it might be too "flowery orange blossom", with not enough cream ---but in fact, zarita has the opposit sort of balance...this is cream-covered blossoms, or carnations dipped in cream. this is luscious and feminine, like a delicate flower-custard! fun!

[janelle_hell]

This smelled...scary in the bottle. Really heavy,like burnt sugar and a little bit of candied orange peel (like the stuff that goes in fruit cake). i about wanted to cry,when i opened the bottle,cos i had such high hopes for this scent.

 

But wait...after i applied it,this was Alice (one of my all-time-favorite BPAL scents) with orange blossom. Not soft,delicate orange blossom,but the way it smells on a hot summer night when the orange trees are in bloom.

 

i LOVE this

[cbiskit]

This is the one CD that I was looking forward to the most - the description just sounds so dreamy. Ended up being not at all what I expected.

 

In the bottle it smells a little tiny bit creamy - to my nose mostly bitter and I can definitely smell carnation. It almost smells spicy and reminds me a LOT of Jack for some reason..

 

On my skin, the carnation comes out a bit more, and it's not being softened too much by any of the other notes. It starts to smell soapy, almost like a familiar laundry detergent smell - can't really place what is making it smell like this. I guess that is the risk when it comes to white flowers It gets creamier as I wear it but I can't get past the sharpness and soapiness of the top notes.

 

Overall, it's a nice scent but I don't think this will become one of my regular scents.

 

Edit: Wow, it smells REAALLLY nice when layered with Katharina...loving it!

Edited January 26, 2007 by chrissy

[minnalavender]

Oh, this is a lovely surprise. I expected something much lighter and more milky/buttery. Zarita packs a punch!

 

In the bottle: I don't smell any floral or creamy notes at all. This is all buttery, Sugar Skull-type brown, caramelized sugar, one of my absolute favorite notes! It's making my mouth water. On my skin, the iris and orange blossom emerge from beneath the sugar. I've never smelled anything like it before! With wear, the sugar slowly melts away, leaving the gentle scent of the floral notes. Iris can be iffy with my wonky head, but the depth of the caramelized sugar makes it behave.

 

Sugar Skull isn't something I'd wear regularly in the spring or summer - it's the spirit of autumn to me. But the delicate floral notes in Zarita create a scent I'd wear all year 'round.

 

I'm a huge fan of Sugar Skull and I love florals, so this is a new favorite. Gorgeous! No one could ever create a scent like this except the Lab.

 

[rainbow]

Okay, I agree with the previous reviewer. This is not like anything I have ever smelled before either. When I put it on it's sweet, resinous, and powdery. It doesn't smell anything like what I was expecting, and nothing like the notes listed. But this one changes, and changes quite a bit. It starts to smell like flowers and something fruity, though it's hard for me to pin down what. I'm not sure I'm smelling the sugared cream at all.

 

I'm still deciding how I feel about this one. Most of the time I have absolutely no idea what I'm smelling. I'm liking the post-powdery, slightly fruity phase.

 

Overall, Zarita is a big mystery. It's a very creative and original blend.

[Little Bird]

I loved the idea of this blend's crazed little doll-girl. I was also excited because of the 'sugared cream' part... and I've been having better luck with the lab's carnation and orange blossom notes lately.

 

In the bottle this is almost sickeningly sweet, with a bit of the soured cream edge that reminds me of Haloa (Haloa is haunting me lately in blends, lol). Thankfully, the comparison to Haloa vanishes once this hits my skin.

 

On my skin, the foodie part of this takes on an interesting complexity... it reminds me a bit of creme brulee with a burnt, caramelized sugar edge, yet there's still something very creamy, a soft sugar. I catch a hint of sweet orange blossom underneath and cream and caramelized sugar.

 

Unfortunately, within 5 minutes, this is dominated by iris. Zarita winds up being a very simple and blunt scent on my skin. Conceptually, this is wonderful. Like the doll girl, you first see her and are blinded by the perfection, imagining her to be so sweet and childlike... then the true form comes out and it's all sharp edges and straighforward animosity. As a perfume though, I can't wear this. It's like a singlenote of a sharp and unpleasantly perfumey floral. The foodie part fades away for me within minutes and I'm left with this strong blast of floral that lasted 3 hours before I scrubbed it off.

 

I wish this had been strong cream with hints of spicy carnation and sweet orange blossom... alas, it is a sharp and perfumey iris on my skin. I'll keep my trading card, but the bottle will be finding a new home.

[alicia_stardust]

I was incredibly curious to try Zarita, so I ordered a bottle and it got here before the decant set I planned to sniff.

 

In the bottle I smell a sweet, creamy, almost caramel-like scent. The orange might be there but it's overpowered by the creaminess.

 

On my skin the orange blossom comes to the forefront and it threatens to become too sharp of a scent, but then the florals kick in and it softens itself up into a creamy floral with oranges. In a very small way, this reminds me of the newly formulated 13; not necessarily because they smell the same but because they feel the same. I hope that makes sense.

 

After a while the florals sharpen a bit, but overall it doesn't morph very much (on my skin chemistry, at least).

 

This is one of those blends that hits its concept dead on. In that, it's perfect. But for my personal tastes this one falls right in that middle area where I'm not sure that an imp is enough but I'm also not sure I want to keep the whole bottle. I'm going to wait a few days, retest, then decide what to do.

[LittleGreyKitten]

This has no business curling my toes like it does. I mean, full on floral? I didn't even know why I got it, except that I liked the "sugared cream" in the description- but generally the orange blossom, iris and carnation should make me run screaming, creamy or no creamy. But! This is AMAZING on me. It is so deliciously feminine and sweet and creamy I can't even describe it. Somehow the notes meld into this divine aroma that isn't even what I think of as floral, yet it must be. Well, I can pick out a hint of carnation, but it's just this wonderful spicy creamy thing really. I've gotten tons of compliments on this blend. It throws hard and far, but since it smells so good, all I've had is people walking within maybe 10 feet of me saying "What IS that wonderful smell?" Which isn't a bad thing. I need more!

 

5 out of 5, and then some.

Edited January 29, 2007 by LittleGreyKitten

[blueroses]

In the bottle: milky Sugar Skull, like ice cream with burnt sugar on top

 

On: Zarita really does smell like Sugar Skull, but with milky cream. Luckily, the cream is wearable for me, a hater of very foodie scents. The spicy carnation is very prominent, and there's a sharper note of iris lurking in the background. I do not get much orange blossom.

 

Later: Zarita retains the sugary cream and carnation, but the iris fades a bit and there's a hint of a soapy smell - the orange blossom?

 

This is a very pretty scent and reminds me of both Sugar Skull and Alice, two of my favorites. I do prefer, however, those two scents on their own to Zarita. It's not one of my favorites, but I think it will appeal to both Sugar Skull lovers and fans of florals.

[ergo_emm]

This blend, at least to me, is one of those that doesn't morph at all- bottle through hours of wear is the same very sugary smell others have described, with just a hint of florals in the background. It doesn't have much throw, but is quite strong up close. I love this!

[theseagrows]

the cream note in this scent is the only one that frightened me, but the rest sounded amazing. when first applied, i get a creme bruleeish smell, like caramely-burnt cream. once it subsides a bit, the carnation and orange blossom come out , and it reminds me of a perfumey orange tea with cream. the iris adds a strange metallic zing to the background that i actually quite like.

 

at first i didn't like this, but the longer i wear it the more it grows on me.

[ajcj213499]

I was so excited about Zarita, but she turned out to be a mess on my skin.

 

Wet, Zarita smelled wonderful, like creamy sugar. Once it dried down though a weird vegetable sort of note came out that reminded me a lot of celery. The weird thing is that Zarita has the same celery smell that I got from one of my Chaos Theories this year. It must just be my nose/skin chemistry doing strange things again.

 

I really loved the wet stage though.

[CapricornSister]

Out of the bottle this reminds me of Sugar Skull, as others have said. I had Sugar Skull twice and swapped it both times, so this isn't looking good. I was patient though, and waited for the drydown. It is quite yummy after 15-20 minutes- a mellow, creamy floral. I just don't know if I can suffer through the initial stages . I will hold on to this for awhile though...

Edited February 1, 2007 by CapricornSister

[noumenon]

Man, this rocks. It's Alice after she's put cream and sugar in her tea.

 

The carnation and orange are always there, gently flavoring the sweet cream base.

 

I put it on 7 hours ago and I can still smell it on my arms and in my hair and it's still got some throw.

 

Masterful. I'll need another bottle before this goes away!

[GypsyRoseRed]

Hmm. I have to agree with the previous reviews. There's a faint whiff of something reminiscent of Sugar Skull in Zarita, but it's overtaken by shades of Alice.. Since I'm not a fan of Alice, I wasn't surprised that this didn't work for me either. It's a pretty, slightly creamy orange blossom scent, but as per usual, it turned soapy on my skin. Oh, well.

[edenssixthday]

Zarita, The Doll Girl - This opens up strongly with the sugared cream note. It's very sweet and creamy. The orange blossom lends a soft, powdery floral aspect to the blend. Unfortunately, the iris clashes with the other notes. It smells really bitter and sweet and definitely doesn't work on me.

[olympia301]

 

This one reminds me of Blood Moon. Go ahead and laugh, but it just does. I would never have guessed that it contained any of the ingredients listed (white carnation, iris, orange blossom, and sugared cream). It's more of the cassia side of things to me and I bet that is because of the transformation that scent notes go through if you blend them correctly. The carnation's clove scent is muted by something else and bent into a cassia thing. I can detect the orange blossom in the background and maybe the iris but sugared cream is subsumed into some other set of rooty dark scents.

 

Zarita is an original and I really have to say that the end product is fascinating in that it proves a good perfumer can take a set of well recognized ingredients and turn them into something entirely different than the sum of its parts.

[kmasden]

Oh Zarita! This could have been wonderful for me, but alas, my chemistry mucked it up.

 

I love, love, love the creaminess of this one, so smooth, not creamy like food cream where you feel it is candyish..but literally cream that is just milky and slightly sweet. The orange (and I usually hate orange) is not a citrus, but definately more of a floral orange. I think this blend is lovely, so lovely, if you can think of white, slightly fruity blossoms floating in thick cream - actually as i say that, i get visions of an actual making of an essence, you know...when the flowers are very delicate they lay them in a solid fat or butter so that they can capture the essence of the flower....

 

The only problem is that I'm one of those that is getting the bit of a soap connotation with it...there are many notes that morph ridiculously on my skin, i'm not sure what it is here....but alas, at least i am able to see how i would have loved it! Anyway, i definately think for many, this is going to work and it's going to be wonderful as the cream tempers the sugar and it's even a bit on the tropical/warm summer day side...

[QueenFae]

Hmmm, the doll girl is not loving my body chemistry. This smells like a very soapy carnation on me. It's a bright, wake - up type blend. It smells very odd to me, almost like celery and generic bathroom hand soap. I'm thinking that my skin hates carnation I never knew that!!

 

Oh poo, no go with my skin. I'm sure she's lovely on others

[euterpe414]

Zarita quite strongly resembles Sugar Skull on my skin as well. (this is good since I love, love love Sugar Skull) However, the fruity part of SS is more berry-ish, whereas with Zarita I get a brown sugary orange/floral. I'm not getting much of a cream note in here, which is a little sad since I was looking forward to it. This blend seems to last quite a while (i.e. 3 or so hours) on my skin with a medium amount of throw.

 

All in all Zarita is a sweet, charming blend. Perfect for a psycho doll girl, or for days when I feel girly I am definitely holding on to this one!

[siddal]

This scent is very complex on me. In the bottle, I can really smell the florals, as well as something that seems spicy or heady. Maybe that's just the carnation really coming through. The sweetness is there, but it doesn't really come out on my until the drydown. I was hoping the cream, would predominate at that point, but it's still quite floral. I like it, though. Really interesting and unique!

[Mianjo]

In the vial: Sugary, slightly spicy oranges.

 

Wet on my skin: This reminds me of something. Something orange-flavored and sweet...Creamsicles! But...high-end Creamsicles, if that makes any sense. I think the spice I'm getting is coming from the carnation. Hmm. The iris must be the floral-something-or-other I smell.

 

Dry: Interesting. I still get that creamy orangeness, but not as strongly. The iris has died back, thankfully. It's an interesting scent, but I don't know that it will be one of my favorites. Something vaguely reminds me of nail polish remover, but not in a bad way. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but me. I'll have to try it again in a few days and see what happens. I want the orange blossom to be a bit more in the front. I liked it better wet, I think.

[savage_rose]

I have no idea how this is possible, but this smells like burnt gingerbread cookies on me. With a hint of orange blossom. As a scent, it's kind of growing on me, but this is very strange.