Raspberry Punch with Cake Crumbs

[doomsday_disco]

Raspberry punch with elderberry liqueur, lemon juice, a splash of gin, and a smattering of Victoria sponge crumbs.

[VioletChaos]

In The Bottle: Delicate sponge cake and a surprisingly delicate raspberry to match. (Surprising, because frequently raspberry notes can be *very* aggressive right out of the gate.)

Wet On Skin: The cake creeps forward a bit, just as the raspberry recedes slightly but is also joined by the elderberry and lemon notes to make a still-delicate but tantalizing fruit melange to counterpoint the baked-goods quality of the cake note.

Drydown: The exact combination pf cake and fruit I was hoping for all along!

In All: VERY low throw, for starters. By all means, apply lightly for initial testing, but don't be surprised if you need to slather. On the other hand, as I've been emphasizing this whole review, this scent is a delicate one, by which I mean both that it's a great daytime scent as it sticks  so close to the skin but also delicate in that a person who might be on the fence regarding more "foodie" or "gourmand" scents can likely proceed with more confidence because this is so fine. The accompanying Gorey illustration for this scent is an absolutely spot-on advert for what's inside the bottle, and I'm a fan immediately ❤️ 

I would compare this to the reserved cousin of scents like Crumpet Rebellion or Cupcake Spatter Analysis. It shares their trait of a particular kind of gentle-crumb bakery fare that's quite different from the recent Yule Lavender Kitchen heavy bready offerings, for instance. But again, this scent is less bold than those cousins.

[Little Bird]

Starts off as a fizzy alcoholic drink with the gin, tart raspberry, and a splash of lemon all muddled together in soda water.  It's refreshing and lovely, and I enjoy the bold raspberry note.  As it dries down, the gin and fizz disappear and the raspberry gets much stronger.  I recently made a white chocolate cheesecake with fresh raspberry sauce for the top, and the drydown of this smells just like cooking down raspberries and adding a little sugar for sweetness and a bit of barely noticeable lemon zest.  The cake comes through in the drydown but it isn't super strong, and it's delicately sweet rather than a heavy buttercream birthday cake to me.   There's a smooth creaminess and powdered sugary scent after a while as well, which adds to the dessert feel, mixed with warm cake and tart raspberry sauce.  The overall fragrance is a unique, elegant feeling gourmand.  I was worried that this would be sticky, childish punch and cloying cake, but it isn't that at all.  Requires full bottling for sure.