Hard Luck Lollipop

[Jenjin]

This year’s Transanta fundraiser scent is a wish for enjoyment that transcends hard conditions:
a cotton candy-flavored lollipop blessed with a pinch of grit and petrichor.

Edited December 24, 2023 by Jenjin

[bulletslc]

I'm first!? Wow! I had to order this given the cause. I'm all about supporting my Trans friends and their peers.

That said, this is an interesting scent. Smells very sweet, almost sickeningly so in the bottle.  Once on it immediately starts to morph into a sweet incense with complex depth. A little wild and gritty. Reminds me of a headshop incense but better. 

Nice! Will enjoy having a bottle of this. 

[elissamay]

This smells so realistically like the old-school lollipop on the label. That hard-candy-ness is not something I can describe all that well, but you know it when you smell it. It's very sweet, but it's almost as if you turned a lollipop into hard candy incense. Not smoky, but the "grit and petrichor" for me are coming through like a darkness to the candy.

 

An absolute win for the cause alone, but I think this has some really fun layering potential, too!

[doomsday_disco]

This is a very sweet lollipop, made dirty with incense and some petrichor. I get more incense with it during the first few hours of wear, and I do believe it is a classic nag champa-esque incense. After about 2.5 hours, it becomes less about the candy and incense and more about the petrichor, which in this case smells like the Lab's rain note (and there's no aquatic salt here) mixed with a little bit of candy. At this point, it is very faint and stays close to the skin, though. I am not getting a dirt note from the petrichor.

 

I'm going to have to retest this in a few weeks and see how I feel about it. I'm kind of sad that it became really faint by the time the petrichor played more of a role on me. But I do enjoy it more than last year's Pink and Blue Candy Canes.

Edited December 29, 2023 by doomsday_disco

[dancingchair]

At first, I just get lots of lollipop. The lollipop is cotton candy flavored, but blue cotton candy maybe. I'm not sure I can exactly pick out the petrichor, but this does smell wet. There is a note in here that smells kind of mossy that appears sometimes in the first hour. It's got that bitter, green musky smell. Maybe that's actually the petrichor? I don't really get much grit here either, but there's a wisp of sweet incense after an hour or so of wear.

 

It kind of reminds me of Shore of the Lollipop Sea but not as tooth-achingly sweet. I like the end result with the lollipop-tinged incense quite a bit.

[Llanval]

A perfect match for the lollipop on the label, smells exactly like that candy. But for me, I got no grit, no rain, and nothing green, maaaybe a little touch of something airy and spring-like for 30 min, but the sugary lollipop won pretty much immediately.  A simple, sweet experience that is mostly lollipop, but far away from blue cotton candy, which is what I showed up for.  With no rain, no dirt and no strong cotton candy, this is a pass for me.

 

If you're looking for a good, sugar sweet lollipop, this will fit you just fine.

[monocainsheresy]

Smells just like a blue cotton candy flavored Dum Dum lollipop! The petrichor shows up as a very faint wetness, but that's it. Reminds me of a mall somehow, but not in a bad way.

 

I really wanted the candy-incense other people are getting, but alas. Maybe aging will bring it out.

[Little Bird]

Hard Luck Lollipop smells like an orange cream lollipop with a hint of fizzy orange soda on my skin for the first half hour.  It reminds me of those trees of fancy flavored, swirled lollipops that pop up randomly at the check out lane in stores.  After a while, though, this smells just like cotton candy, very sugary and floofy yet still with that hard candy quality, and it still has a hint of fizzy orange soda.  I don't smell any of the grit, petrichor, or incense; just delicious, candied elements.
It's a light scent on me that only lasts about 3 hours with low throw, but it's a pleasant, fun, sugary hard candy.  I like it enough that I think I'll turn it into a spray, which always helps the fragrance have better throw.

[Cali]

Oooo, from the bottle this reminds me a lot of Sky city (before), because of the ozone/crisp air-and-grit quality of this.

There's a gorgeous pink and blue lollipop here, more "realistic", not as minty and fluffy purply as the one from last year (or, maybe not as "christmassy" is the word i'm looking for here)?

The ozone takes a step backwards on drydown, and the grit starts blending more into the mix, while the actual lollipop gets a bit stronger. It's a bit cotton candy ish and goes slightly more purple and fruity (but absolutely still a realistic candy scent). Aaaannd that's where that candy incense for me comes out too! 

This is surprisingly pretty and fun. Not a great throw on me (oh how I wish) but it's delightful!

[skyturtles]

First impression is a fizzy energy drink, cotton-candy flavored (not a bad thing!) Dries down to let some of the grit and petrichor out. Does not have a far throw, sad face. This was pretty much what I was wanting - sweet, tongue out.