Sugar Skull

[lorajc]

Vibrant with the joy and sweetness of life in death! A blend of five sugars, lightly dusted with candied fruits.

I can't really add much to this that hasn't already been stated. Sugar Skull smells like warm brown sugar with a maple tinge. It dries down to a slightly burnt sugar smell. It is lovely and sweet, but I never got the fruit smell. I wish this had a bit more fruitiness to it.

[vampygirl77]

I feel so lucky to have gotten my greedy little hands on this!

 

At first application, I smelled: sugar, spice (cinnamon), and a light fruit smell. But that was later replaced by maple-y caramel-y blended sweetness. I do smell a faint fruit, but not enough to jump out at someone.

 

It is SO LOVELY. Last night when I tested it I kept making DH sniff my arm (he is picky about what he likes on me). YUM.

 

to violetblue for helping me get this!

[Belladonnastrap]

RAWR. Sugar Skull <3

 

First sniff

Brown Sugar drenched in maple syrup with powdered sugar on top. Seriously. No waxing poetic just pure sugar.

 

Wet

I smell like candy~ Seriously this smells like deep brown sugar, the scent you get when you are cooking something really sweet and everything is in its raw form.

 

Drydown

Not so much sweet now as it is spicy, that would be the skull bit I imagine. Still very sweet but a warm mellow sweetness that invites you to come in, take a rest so it can later ravish you.

 

Aftermath

SOOOO glad I have two bottles of this. It's amazing and very sweet...great if you love foody scents like me!

[Northernminx]

::gnaws on wrist:: mmmmmm ohh my I love this.

 

Sugar sweet, brown sugar seems predominant. Some people have mentioned maple and while I can see where that might come from, it's not quite MAPLE enough to be the maple syrup I get over at the orchard. It started off straigh spun sugar, then almost a tough of lemon or peach, something bright and sharp though that faded quickly. Definitly more brown sugar. This is very very sweet but not cloying, and there's a little smokiness under the sweetness as this mellows, saving it from what Gluttony did on me with so much butter and sugar that I felt like the calories were seeping into my skin.

Gorgeous. People are stopping by my desk to ask what it is. Purr.

[darkling]

On me, this scent is pure brown sugar.

 

It is exceptionally sweet and rather strong even though I did not slather a lot on.

 

The most amazing thing about Sugar Skull is that it lasts all day. After about 12 hours of wear, I could still smell the faint scent of brown sugar in the air and a strong scent on my wrists.

[Penance]

This scent is pure nostaglia for me in the best possible way.

 

First sniff:

 

Wow! Rich, sweet and sinfully, tooth-rottingly delicious smelling. It smells exactly like the rum glaze my mom used to make for rum rolls when I was little...it was basically brown sugar, butter and rum extract. It had the most delicious, rot-your-teeth smell to it and it tasted even better. I was worried about the fruit in this one, but I don't smell any at all.

 

Wet on skin:

 

Carmelized brown sugar...I'm addicted to the smell of brown sugar so this is a very good thing. I don't normally go for foody or overly sweet scents, but for some reason this one's pushing all my buttons in just the right way.

 

Dry down:

 

Back to the rum glaze again! Hurrah! This smells so good to me, my teeth are almost aching just from the pure sugary heaven of it! I'm definitely glad I got two bottles of this one.

 

The bottom line:

 

Bottled childhood happiness. This brings back so many good memories (and makes me hungry for rum rolls, I might add). I love it! Kudos to Beth and the Lab for the happy memories!

[silverangel]

WOW! Screamingly hot brown sugar, beth really didn't lie about this one. It's SO sugary sweet that my teeth practically ache just sniffing it. And it's really strong too, just a drop of this stuff wafts down three city blocks! Okay, not literally, but you get the point. I think this is just a WEE bit too sweet for me. I kind of knew it would be, but had to order it just in case, sadly, I was right. It's like sugar overload just on the scent...okay, someone give me something salty to eat to make up for it!

[TheDarkMother]

In the Bottle: WOAH! Brown sugar and Sugar and sugar and sugar! Yeah, Sugar Skull is very aptly named. Death by Sugar could be another good name. Diabetic Coma could be another one. To tell you the truth, I was rather frightened of this one, which is why I saved this to the last of the limited editions to try.

 

On Me: Have you ever noticed that the ones that you are scared about the most are the ones that you fall the most in love with? This was afully strong on me at first, but then it turned into a gorgeous sweet allspice scent that was a tad masculine. After a little while after that, it turned into a faint maple syrup that I can still smell on me 10 hours later! There's something else here that I'm finding rather hard to place, but for the most part it's still rather sugary.

 

This is my favorite of the Halloween LE's! This is totally gorgeous!

[xoe]

Not much to add to the reviews here.

 

Brown sugar in the bottle. Brown sugar on my skin. Cooked brown sugar. Warm and sweet. My teeth ache, and my brain sort of freezes when I sniff my wrists. Unbelievably good.

[ismene]

Help! I'm drowning in a bottle of maple syrup!

 

It's quite syrupy for the first hour or two, but after that I can smell just a bit of brown sugar. Mostly, though, just the maple sickly sweetness and it is simply too much for me. I've scrubbed my arms, taken a shower, changed clothing, and I can still smell it somewhat. After this many hours I'm beginning to feel ill from just how sweet it is.

[quinkel]

Hard to review this one, the emoticons express the feeling better, it warm melting brown sugar, it's not overpowering but pleasant strong and lasting. gonna be my new cuddle up scent to comfort me when all is cold and gray. The darkness underneath comes to me after an hour, somehow it's familiar, could it be coffee? pepper? It goes back and forth, morphing from sweet to dark and back again.

 

I see myself wearing this on "sinterklaasevening" (Dutch Santa Claus, 5 december)

Great scent and great job Beth!

[Summerpixy]

Sugar Skull

 

It's very, very sweet and sugary, with a touch of cinnamon in there. It's almost overwhelming.

 

It reminds me of when I was a kid and my favorite candies were the Smarties, those little chunks of sugar and the smell of cinnamon was in the air from all the Red-Hots being passed around the little group with their stash of candy. It really takes me back.

 

Luckily as it warms on my skin the cinnamon note is taking over, leaving the ultra-swet sugar behind.

 

The initial sweetness may force me to sell it, sometimes these things can make me naueous (I'm a super-taster and it's making me feel like I've been eating a stomach full of sugar cubes), but we'll see. I really really wanted to love this one too!

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

Some of you know I've been insane to try this, and Fairywingmaker just sent me a decant. :rubs hands with glee: Here goes:

 

Hot diggity damn! I, of all people, got the fruits--a bright flash of those candied-fruit slices you get at the holidays sometimes, usually oranges. And then pure brown sugar. I'm astounded that it smells *brown*, not just sugary. And there is cinnamon in there--this smells like the tin of sugar-mixed-with-cinnamon Brian put together for baking. Oh, I am making little "mm, mmmm!" noises It certainly is strong! I asked Brian to come smell me and he said, "I can smell you from here!" It's just like when you're baking cookies and the scent fills the whole house. I like this better than Gluttony or Vice or the other "dessert" scents. I'm getting images of the pure liquid sugar-glaze they pour on doughnuts at Krispy Kreme.

 

In other words:

[ChupaChup]

I finally got my Sugar Skull Wow, I think the reviews for this are the most consistent I have ever seen, seems like everyone is getting the same notes from this (whether they like them or not ). Wet, I get maple syrup and in the first few minutes of drydown, I also get a flash of the sugared fruits. Then it's all hot brown sugar, just like Beth said And it's STRONG, a little goes a long way. Also hard to wash off Another Beth masterpiece

[inkstone]

In the bottle

I could smell this even before I opened the bottle. I had it sitting on the desk next to me & while I was PMing Lora to let her know I received it, I was getting dizzy from the sugar fumes. Pure sugary, syrupy goodness.

 

Wet

Definitely a huge blast of brown sugar but there's also a surge of warm caramelized peaches & a spice that I want to say is nutmeg.

 

Drydown

The initial drydown was a burnt sugar smell, after the brown sugar has reduced down and is on the verge of being in the pot for too long. But as time passes, it mellows & I smell all types of sugary goodness. Underneath it though, I smell the fruit. It lightens the smell a little from being completely sugar.

 

Final thoughts

I'd applied this very lightly because I'd read reviews and was afraid of drenching myself. I'm glad I did, because if I hadn't been careful, I suspected I'd have made myself dizzy much like I did when the bottle was sitting right next to me. Still... Yum!

[Mrs. K]

Ew! Icky! Yuck!

 

I could not even apply it to my skin. It smells *exactly* like a bottle of brown sugar & spice fragrance oil that I have sitting on the shelf. I made just tons of brown sugar scrub last year and kinda OD'ed on the scent.

 

Sugar Skull really is lovely for what it is (maple-y, brown sugar with clove) but brings me terrible flashbacks.

 

Edited to add: My decanted imp from Fairywingmaker (Thank You for sharing!) has been swapped.

Edited December 1, 2004 by Mrs. K

[Astarte]

Hmmn perhaps my sense of smell hasnt quite come back but this at the moment seems predominently cinamony with some sugar on top. I keep getting a sharp anise smell then the sweetness hits me, its an odd combination and normally I love sugary scents, I wonder whats going on here with my nose.

 

I'll try again later when I'm better I think.

[Theravada]

Pancakes and incense!!

 

I'm too busy giggling to decide if I like this one or not. I'll have to give it another try because right now all I can think of is IHHOP.....International Hippie House of Pancakes!

[Tesseljoan]

Sugar Skull to me is brown sugar and syrup in the bottle. On my skin, the burnt smell is coming out more and more. I like it, but I have to go easy on applying.

 

BTW, my boyfriend, whose nose is usually about as accurate as a rhinoceros grabbing a hair, really nailed it this time when he said: you smell a bit like burnt sugar and the smokiness of Scottish whisky. I sniffed my arm and thought:"OMG! He's right!" I finally have a whisky scent!

[ViolentKitten]

In the bottle, Sugar Skull is the darkest of dark brown sugar, cinnamon, a hint of caramel and a definite splash of one of my favourite liqueurs, Drambuie (Scotch malt whisky – nods to Tesseljoan above – which is sweetened with heather honey and herbs)

 

On my skin…Whoa. This is strong stuff! My mind is consumed with thoughts of brown sugar caramelising on the stove with a few spoonfuls of Drambuie. This is so warm too. Two hours later...it’s much softer brown sugar with a hint of spice. I didn’t get any hint of the fruit, but it's still very delicious!

[Morrighana]

Everyone else has pretty much described this scent to a T...so, I'll just say that, in my experience, there are a few scents out there that I find myself absolutely craving sometimes, and Sugar Skull happens to be one of them. I find myself reaching for its little cobalt bottle more and more lately, whenever I am jonesing for something sweet, and damn, does it ever satisfy!

[antimony]

I'm with everyone else... brown sugar and roasted marshmallows. I'm getting a smell that's more molasses than maple syrup.

 

It toltally makes me want to chew on my wrists.

[shriekingviolet]

Initial Impression:

Oh orgasm in a bottle. Yummy burnt, brown sugar with creamy caramel. I want to roll in this.

 

After Wearing It:

On this had none of the creaminess I smelled in the bottle which was a little disappointing. I love the smell of caramel, so I was really excited about this when I sniffed it in the bottle. But fir a while, this just smelled hot and dry. Could smell that burnt brown sugar everyone else smelled, plus plenty of spice. Reminded me a bit of cinnamon toast without the butter. It's odd, it smelled like sugar without actually being too sweet. Just hot, spicy, with a vaguely grainy texture.

 

After thre hours though, the heat and the spice tone themselves down and Sugar Skull smells much smoother and sweeter. Plus every now and then I caught the insinuation of fruity notes that lurked in the bottom of this fragrance. For very short periods every hour or so after hour 3, I'd smelled a very clear, round juicy fruit note piercing through the spicy-sweet atmosphere of Sugar Skull. It smelled something like peaches or apricots in that it had a fuzzy-sweet-syrupy tone to it. But better than either of those as I'm usually not such a fan of apricots or peaches. But then it'd fade back as if I had imagined it, only to reappear sometime later. It added a very mysterious and beautiful element to Sugar Skull.

 

Final Thoughts:

I really liked this one! Definitely like it in the bottle and in the ending phases than I do when I first put it on, but it's still wonderful. It's just such a buoyant yet warm and sexy scent.

[Mrs.Black]

I don't usually post reviews but with Sugar Skull I had to make an exception. I ordered FOUR bottles (best decision I've ever made, BPAL wise) and I'm still hoarding it. This stuff is so good that I don't wear it in the course of normal life, that would be a waste. The only way that I will wear Sugar Skull is if I have a good stretch of time at my disposal to keep my nose stuck to my wrist and meditate on the scent, like when going to sleep.

 

People have described it very well already: it's hot brown sugar, not quite caramelised yet but getting there. There is a good pinch of cinammon, I think, and I totally get the candied fruits in all their glazed glory.

 

Sugar Skull is currently engaged in a mortal duel with Chimera for my Number One BPAL. It's difficult to say who will win -- I think I like the scent of Chimera just a tiny bit more, but Sugar Skull is much stronger and more persistant...

[malanna]

Sugar Skull is maple syrup sans pancakes. I had expected more of a buttery, edible scent. Yes, this is sugary and all that, but it’s more…pointed, I guess is the word. The scent stays pretty consistent and this is very strong. And very long-lasting—the longest lasting BPAL scent I’ve encountered (more than a day!). This is a great scent that’s true to its name, but it’s not foody enough for me. I think Sugar Skull would be great for killing those sugar cravings, though.