White Chocolate with Mate, Hazelnut, and Banana Cream

[amanderinorange]

Okay, to start out with I love BPAL's white chocolate note as it tends to be the one that goes least wonky on my skin and stays true to form. That said, I cannot smell much of the white chocolate at all! This is sharp green in the bottle and citrusy mate on the skin with just a hint of hazelnut and banana cream. After it dries down a bit, the mate lessens and I can start to smell a somewhat creamy chocolate, but it's not prevelant. At least fresh, this is not a very foody scent, so if you're worried about smelling like chocolate or bananas, I think you're safe here. There is also not a lot of throw, but I should mention that my skin tends to eat scents. All in all I'm curious to see how it ages and if it'll get more foody and less mate-y.

[Balame]

I wasn't going to review this because really... what else should I say when the notes are blatantly in the title? However this one wasn't what I was expecting, so here we go.

 

 

As with amander, I weirdly don't get much chocolate at all. The mate seems to dominate with an unusual green, slightly spicy scent. There's just a pale backdrop of sweetness and I don't even smell bananas. I would've loved something that smelled like a banana split or such, but it's not that. I guess I'd describe it like a bland version of chai tea?

 

Hopefully others will get more of the sweetness I was missing!

[Gwydion]

In bottle: Almost overwhelming on first sniff. I’m calling the banana cream nominal boss, but it’s doung a dance with the strong mate counter current. The white chocolate is powerful support to the banana cream while the hazelnut supports the mate. The swirling effect makes my head spin rather. Wet: So much banana cream. So much mate. The supporting notes are proportionally softer, but still noticeable. Dry: Mostly mate with a touch of white chocolate.

[cherrycherry]

I love this. I get a very 'true' white chocolate note with creamy hazlenut and sweet banana. Delish.

[Lycanthrope]

Now I smell like I'm wearing bubblegum perfume and am layered with a little whipped white chocolate mousse and a tiny hint of crunchy nuts. The mate is a sharp leafy herbal, like tea but not quite.

 

This is so weird.

[BuxomM]

wet, wow, bright citrusy green mate with nut. dry citrusy green with something sweet, the white chocolate. white chocolate is just usually a sweet note to me.

[DahliaHayashi]

I got decants from all the Box o'Chocolates Scents.
Some of them are quite morpher and make it hard for me to decide for a full bottle or not or even write a review.
This one however reminded me from bottle to drydown of Jelly Bananas. I dont really know if you have them outside germany but in germany they are really popular and I grew up on them. They are basicly Banana Flavored Jelly in a dark chocolate crust and they are really yummy.
They do have however a tart edge to them and so has this scent. I really dont know where the tart, nearly lemony scent, is comming from but it is there.
I dont smell white chocolate, i actually smell dark chocolate, but maybe my nose is playing tricks on me beause i think of jelly bananas and those are covered in dark choco.
The scent fades really fast on me and stays close to the skin. When its nearly gone (after about 1 or 2 hours) a faint smell of lemony white chocolate stays on my skin. Its very creamy and rich but I have to press my nose on my skin to detect it by then.
The scent really brings back my childhood, especially since I am far away from germany now. However I was hoping for something creamier and I dont really wanna smell like a jelly banana myself.
I will use my imp and bring back some childhood memories with it but I dont need a full bottle.

[brilliantcat]

Imp: Banana banana banana with a hint of something lemony, the mate perhaps?

 

Wet: The throw is definitely banana but up close, it's brightly lemon. Not a cleaner or Pledge type of lemon, just a bright, slightly candy-like lemon. If I try hard I can pick up some banana at my wrist.

 

Dry: I'm literally not getting anything other than lemon. How odd. Perhaps the mate is just super aggressive? While it smells nice, I have Shanghai and that's what this is reminding me of, if anything.

[zankoku_zen]

Chocolate and hints of banana.

 

Meh.

[Zaani]

Everyone seems to be getting really varied results from this, judging by the reviews! I got a wonderfully sweet, creamy scent with just enough banana to notice it, backed by citrus-y green tea and just a bit of hazelnut to take the edge off. Totally yummy, I love it

[kolibri]

Decant from malibusunny's Feb/Mar 2013 decant circle. 4th scent tested (preceded by Anactoria 2013).

 

In the imp: Whoa, sweetness. Slightly tangy, but more like a hint of tanin than citrus. Banana and chocolate jump out, in that order.

 

Wet: Oh MAN this is good. Besides the expected sweet/foodie qualities, that mate is springing out, turning the whole deal from merely a walk through a homey kitchen where a sweet something has been baked into something more luxurious, like a very fancy dinner party that ends with a gourmet dessert. I'm getting the white chocolate as a heavily vanilla note, and it spins nicely with the banana, which is, in fact, creamy like a pie filling. Good throw.

 

Dry: I smell like the world's best cheese pastry and toasted banana cream pie had a three-way with a nutella-infused cup of mate. The mate part has receeded quite a bit, so the scent is all warm roundness, now, with the hazelnut dominant in the bass notes. The throw has backed off, but I bet on a warmer day (it's cold out, and I'm a little chilly), it would be stronger. I'm not a slatherer, so I think next time I wear it, I'll take the imp with me and reapply when it fades. Some scents don't reapply well (on me, anyway), but I'm certain this one will.

 

Later: Oh HAI, white chocolate! Now I'm definitely getting a strong chocolate note above the others. But the scent overall has lost its throw and you have to get right up against the skin to get a whiff.

 

 

Overall: I gotta get a bottle of this. Considering making a massage oil with it. And I want to try it in a difuser.

Edited March 20, 2013 by kolibri

[Little Bird]

I was excited for this scent, because I love the banana cream pie scent of Splatter Comedy, but this is a huge letdown for me. I smell banana in the bottle and for about five seconds on my skin (a powdery, fakey banana candy smell), but then it quickly morphs into tons of mate with a hint of chocolate. It's a tart, intensely sour lemon smell on me. Kind of reminiscent of tea, but dry and sour. With a very light undertone of chocolate scented markers...

 

This is really strong and was lasting well on my skin, but I scrubbed it off after the first hour. Too sour/sharp and lemony for me. I don't often like lemon scents, unless they're sweet/foodie, but this one is especially unpleasant and sharp.

[thekittenkat]

In the decant: Banana cream & white chocolate.

 

Wet: The sharpness of the hazelnut starts to come through.

 

The dry-down: I like the Lab's white chocolate note, so decided to try this. But, eek, there is the mate, which I don't like, because it stomps all over the other notes. Had this stayed at the cold sniff, it would have been lovely. However, it's an evil morpher. Disappointing.

 

Much later: A bit more like the cold sniff. The SO likes it, so I'll keep my decant. Btw, the oil is yellow, like bananas.

Edited March 29, 2013 by thekittenkat

[milo]

Strong banana liqueur at first with a touch of chocolate. Liqueur burns off quickly and leaves a milk chocolate behind, though I wouldn't say it's a good quality chocolate, rather fake hot chocolate powder. Not for me.

[titania]

This is one of the few chocolate perfumes that actually smells like chocolate on me and doesn't go wrong. The creamy white chocolate ended up not even smelling so much like white chocolate as just chocolate, and the hazelnut added to that and rounded it out a bit. The banana was really nice and subtle in the cream, and there was almost a hint of custard cream there. The mate brightened it up nicely. I got something like a lemongrass mate, which the chocolate made creamier and yummier. Yay, a chocolate perfume for me!

[Ajila]

In the bottle - Banana and the greenness of the mate

 

Wet on me - Soft creamy white chocolate overlain by very acidic sharp citrus

 

Dry on me - Occasionally custard burst through but mostly a slightly sour unripe banana

 

Overall - Didn't grab me

[vanilla323]

On me this is starts off with strong delicious white chocolate and maybe a little tea. I’m assuming that’s the mate. I love drinking mate so it was fun to see a scent include it. The banana is very faint in this one. Maybe because it’s creamy. The hazelnut is faint but adds an overall light nutty topping. Medium throw decent staying power. 

[LavenderCoffee]

Tested from a decant. Looking back at the earlier reviews, seems like the mate was a bit more potent 10 years ago. Today it is seamlessly blended. White chocolate and banana cream could have gone super duper sweet, but the hazelnut and mate add a perfect amount of earthy grounding. Sometimes hazelnut has gone a bit weird on me but this one is behaving quite nicely.

It is more of a banana tinted white chocolate scent than an outright banana scent, and I am enjoying it that way.

[splendidissima]

Bottle from the Lab Etsy!

 

In order of strength: white chocolate, sweet banana candy (not really creamy, more like that artificial banana candy scent, which I actually like!), and a hint of something green/herbal/citrus. I don't get hazelnut, unless that's just blended into the chocolate.

 

I like it - the mate makes it more complex than a simple banana + white chocolate. It is definitely sweet and foody, but I tend to like those scents, though it might work better in cooler weather!