Self-Portrait With Puffy Stickers

[futuregirl]

SELF-PORTRAIT WITH PUFFY STICKERS
Multimedia: puffy stickers and marker on copier paper, 2011
This is me with a crown of flowers in my hair.
Freshly-squished strawberries, wild roses, orris butter, red clover, and unmowed grass warmed by summer sunshine.

Self-Portrait With Puffy Stickers

On cold sniff, the strawberry is most evident. The other notes are in the background - I can pick out the rose, and otherwise it's a backdrop of sweet greenery.

On initial application, it's mostly strawberry. This is a strawberry dessert - not quite fresh, fruity berries, but not candyish strawberry either. It's a fancy strawberry shortcake-inspired, decadent creamy dessert. Really simple and foody, but unique and beautiful.

At the beginning of dry-down, the floral elements are much more evident. The rose is dominant, but the orris is definitely there - I don't know what orris "butter" is, but I'm imagining that I'm catching it here - creamy, white and pink florals. The rose is not overly rosey, but the florals are pink, girly, and perfumey. It's youthful and sweet but again, not like candy. Very classy.

After a few minutes the impression is very much a pretty summer day - lots of sweetness, green and pink florals. I love clover notes, and I'm catching a little of that, too. It's like the fresh greenness of Passionate Shepherd with the creamy sweetness of Velvet Unicorn. Beautiful, comforting and very, very happy.

[AnArtfuldodger]

In the bottle: Strawberry moon! OMNOMNOMNOM.

 

Wet on wrist: This is a more complex Strawberry Moon to me, sweeter, with more sunshine. Sublime.

 

On the drydown: beautiful strawberry sunshiney day. I get just the faintest of grassy florals (the clover/rose I think), but mostly it's sweet strawberries and summer air. A+++++

[Caper]

Definitely Strawberry Moon, but the roses settle in after the strawberry mellows so it has a unique twist at the end.

 

If you don't know Strawberry Moon, then you should know that it is mild and sweet, a gentle strawberry that makes you think of warm summer afternoons and fresh red berries in the sun.

 

The roses and hint of green that show up after drying are really beautiful here. I am not a rose fan usually because I get nothing but roses, but this one carria the sweetness of the berries and is really nice. I have Strawberry Moon v5 for my green strawberry scent so I won't be upgrading this one, but if you like a hint of rose that isn't too strong I would highly recommend ths.

 

ETA: I woke up about five hours after applying and this smells faintly like Pink Snowballs, with a hint more rose.

Edited April 23, 2013 by Caper

[Shirel]

The description of this one sounded so yummy and perfect that I just had to buy it, and turns out it's just as good as it sounds!

 

I haven't tried strawberry moon, raspberries turn into horrible sharp soap on me and red currents seem to amp and take over scents so I was a bit apprehensive about another kind of berry not working with my chemistry but I'm happy to say that strawberry, at least in this blend, is totally wonderful.

 

Wet on my wrist I was afraid this was going to be too sweet for me, it smelled like the berry syrup you put in water for kiddie drinks (The one normally used here is said to be based on raspberry but doesn't taste/smell anything like them)

 

But after a few minute the soft grassiness starts coming in and so does the rose... the image I get from this perfume is eating a jar of strawberry jam on a swing in the rose garden out back. It's sweet and you know you shouldn't be eating the whole jar but it tastes so good and it's such a nice day that it can't be helped.

 

In the dry down it smells of sweet strawberry jam and roses but doesn't feel cloying at all (for the record, sweet rose like Lushs "Rose Jam" make me feel nauseous, but this doesn't at all) and seems like it will have a long wear as well.

[SadariEvenstar]

Roses and strawberries, a touch on the soapy side. Sadly the orris butter is giving it a bit of a nauseating undercurrent.

[reena1]

I havent written a review in awhile so please bear with me

 

This one reminds me a bunch of two five seven with added strawberry goodness. You can def smell the grass and it reminds me of a warm spring day. The rose in this blend is more like the rose in rose red and two five seven because it is light and not so heady. This is my first bpal with the strawberry note in it and I really like it! It's sweet and slightly creamy.

 

If you love two five seven give this a try!!

Edited April 28, 2013 by ReenaLolita

[OctoberGwen]

Oh, goodness.

 

I finally found a strawberry scent that I love, and I think it's the extremely realistic berry here. It's not a candy smell, which can go plastic on me, and it's not mixed with anything sugary at all. I love it.

 

I'm getting lots of sun-warmed strawberry and an equal amount of clover and grass. It just smells like being in the strawberry patch of my childhood on a warm June day, with the scent of my mom's wild roses being carried on the breeze. I don't know what the orris butter is doing; perhaps it is lending a nice, smooth base to the whole thing to keep it from being too green.

 

At any rate, this is absolutely beautiful and I'm quite sure I need a whole bottle of it.

[turtlecookie]

I love strawberries! I want to try every strawberry scent that ever... was?

 

Anyway, wet, this is juicy, sweet, and realistic strawberry! I loved it! As it dried, the rose came out and took over! Oh noes!! If I sniffed my wrist too close, I'd start to feel a little sick. From an army's distance, though, it seemed nice enough. I wanted to love this so hard, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

[Leopard403]

I certainly understand the comparison to Strawberry Moon, as at first sniff SM and Self-Portrait with Puffy Stickers are identical. But after a few minutes, the differences are notable... though unfortunately I don't know that I have words to describe them in my vocabulary!

 

On me, SM has some notes that are green and some that are slightly dry, very reminiscent of a strawberry patch but also very simple, as in nothing more than a strawberry patch.

 

In contrast, SPwPS is slightly creamier and a tad sweeter, and it is clear that there are other things in there besides strawberries. I tend to amp rose and there is nothing there that says HI THERE'S ROSE HERE, but it is clear that there's something grounding the fruit and grass notes.

 

All in all, a delightful scent, and I think it has enough nuance to put a bottle on the same shelf as my SM.

 

 

EDIT ON A NEW DAY: Okay, wow. I'm sitting at my desk at work and just applied SPwPS ... and right now it is all French-milled soap with rose undertones and screaming white florals. I swear there should be lily and stephanotis in there.

Edited May 13, 2013 by Leopard403

[Little Bird]

On me at first, this is a sweet, slightly powdery strawberry candy smell with hints of grass and a perfumey rose. The rose gets stronger and turns a little soapy on me in the drydown. Within an hour, it has faded a lot and leaves behind a smudge of perfumey rose soap with a powdery sweetness.

White Chocolate & Strawberry is the only strawberry scent that I've really loved from the lab, and this one isn't a keeper for me either.

[stellamaris]

This is the same Strawberry from Strawberry Moon, but this scent is somehow more round and deep. Nothing but sweet tart fruity love over here.

[JazzieCazzie]

One of the two strawberry scents I ordered out of six decant circle selections ... while I know I don't usually "do" red fruit well, I remember liking one of the Strawberry Moon blends and am hoping to duplicate the magic!

 

IN THE IMP: Uh oh. Strawberry and rose combusting into something very syrupy and bad-medicinal (as opposed to what I consider "good medicinal," the resiny old-time pharmacy smell).

 

Dabbed on wrist and in crook of arm (knowing I'm going to be showering in a little bit, I am forging ahead to give it every chance to win me over).

 

WET: Not good on me. My body is turning this into cough medicine zero-to-60.

 

DRYDOWN: Happily, and somewhat surprisingly since it so often amps on me, the rose subsides after a little while and I am left with what others are finding, a wild strawberry scent combined with outdoorsy goodness. However, there remains a cloying sweetness which I am THINKING may be the orris? This definitely gained points in the drydown but not enough for me to keep it.

 

OVERALL: For those who don't have the same weird body chemistry that turns roses into old lady powder and orris into sickly-sweet something-or-other, I think this could be a great scent. I love the combination of the fruit and the outdoorsiness. Which according to the red line isn't a word but dammit it is for me.

 

On a scale of 1-5, a 1 in the imp, a 1 when wet, and a 3 overall after drydown.

[Aveya]

The overall feel for this blend is very warm, sweet, and natural. The description fits perfectly. I feel like I can even smell strawberry seeds on a freshly squished strawberry in the hot summer sun.

 

Today was, interestingly, the first day above 80 in my state since "spring" hit. We had an ice storm just weeks ago, so when spring comes we know how to LOVE it. This scent fits absolutely perfectly. I can feel the adoration Beth has for her daughter in this blend. It smells like youthful sweet innocence, with a touch of wisdom far beyond what you'd expect from something so sweet. It could melt your heart

 

Beautiful.

 

This is a scent I advise to not pick apart, and take in the entire wholeness of it. Jam-sweetness on top of crushed rose petals, all under the warm heat of a happy summer sun. With a touch of static fizz that only hair ever smells like.

 

This may not be a bottle buy for me, but it will definitely be something I go to on happy summer picnic days this summer

[poisondove]

Straight out of the post -->

 

Bottle: jammy Strawberry Moon 05 + hint of 09's grass

 

Wet: Super uber ripe strawberry spilled into the grass.

 

Dry : Quickly the grass envelops the scent and roses and floral notes abound. I do get the creaminess but the strawberry just starts to wane (sad ).

 

Final: Light strawberry hint over rosiness/sunshine.

 

Nice. I admit they are fresh out of the post and I am trying three different scents in one go.

So warrants another try in a bit but probably the winner in the first round (esp. since Love is a la powder on my other hand)

[Eemia]

I've been wearing this everyday for almost a week. It's cool, summery strawberry roses with a sweet grassiness. Not too green, I don't get a freshly mowed lawn scent at all. It's just a nice wavering backdrop to the beautiful strawberry, which is bright and natural. I like syrupy strawberry notes but I prefer the freshly washed and chopped version in here. I go back and forth with my love of rose and this makes me swing right to the front of the rose fan-girl line. I picture the roses being those dewy, pale yellow ones that aren't overly floral or spicy.

 

This stays strawberry fantastic throughout the wear length and the dry down reminds me of some fruity scratch and sniff stickers I had when I was really little. It's so good in a scent locket too. I think I've been over dosing myself with this but it's not knocking anyone over so I'm going to keep doing it.

[zankoku_zen]

This is the same juicy fruity strawberry note as from Strawberry Moon 2012 - which has been my most favorite BPAL strawberry blend. Ever. Sadly that ended up with just too much candy sweetness for me to wear.

 

THIS, on the other hand, has enough green notes to deter it from turning into a strawberry candy morass.

 

It might involve slightly more testing to see if this ends up being too sweet.... but the possibilities are tantalizing!

[ScabbyLucy]

: drools: This smells like the backyard of my childhood home. Grass and weeds, wild roses that grew up into the fence and rocks, small sour strawberries that didn't really taste right, but smelled perfect. DEFINITELY bottle worthy.

[Quillifer]

The notes in the list for this appealed to me immediately and I plumped for a bottle unsniffed. Before it reach me, a friend received a decant of it, which I tried. It seemed OK but really not amazing and I waited...

 

In the bottle this is a bit odd. a sort of plasticy version of strawberry; perhaps this actually comes from the clover.

 

Wet, it's just heaven. Warm grass, strawberry juice, the sweetness of rose and the herbalness of clover perfectly counter-pointed.

 

Dry-down - it mellows right out but it essentially more of the same. I found it short-lived at first but I've got more familiar with it now and can smell it for longer.

 

Total heaven

Edited May 25, 2013 by Quillifer

[milo]

Fresh, ripe strawberries at first. They almost seem too ripe, there's almost an alcohol quality to this blend. I'm getting a touch of greenery too. This is quite lovely, girlish, fresh, though it does remind me a bit of strawberry lip gloss. This may be too young for me, but it's still fun to try. It reminds me of a more intense Strawberry Moon 09, and that one went slightly soapy on me. I kind of like this one...

[Ondine]

Weirdly, it just smells like Strawberry Moon 2009 to me--no real difference. I love SM'09, so if you missed that one, this might be a good option. But I don't need another bottle given how close they are on me.

[yewberry]

There's a whole lotta childhood here. Grassy fields with clover, rolling around with one of those scented Strawberry Shortcake dolls. Very odd and oddly evocative.

[thekittenkat]

In the decant: Those little wild strawberries that hide in the unmowed grass and aren't very sweet.

 

Wet: A touch sweeter now, but fruity-sweet, not sugary-sweet.

 

The dry-down: Not much of a morpher. If you prefer your strawberries to be fresh and not dipped in sugar, this is the perfume oil for you. Close in feeling to Strawberry Moon '09, a sometime fav of mine.

[bellumed]

Surprisingly true strawberry! It’s so hard to get that one right, usually it ends up smelling like that lipgloss you used in 7th grade. The florals and greenery provide a nice background. Amazingly, I think the orris butter is actually overwhelming the normally dominant rose, because I smell something floral but not rosey. I feel pretty neutral about this one, but god knows strawberry scents that work are rare, so I’ll be holding onto my decant.

[Watercolors]

I've tried this a few times, so these are my overall impressions.

 

In the bottle: Strawberries and clover. I haven't tried a BPAL scent with strawberry, before, and it's surprisingly realistic.

Wet: Clover and grass jump to the forefront, but there's something unfamiliar that must be the orris butter. The strawberry is much less prominent.

On the drydown: Everything kind of balances out. The strawberry never gets as strong as it was in the bottle, but the clover and especially the grass back off a bit.

 

The rose never showed up on my skin, and I can't say I'm disappointed, since roses so rarely work on me. I wish the strawberry had been more noticeable on me, since I like the note in the bottle so much. Overall, I really like this one for fresh, breezy days from late Spring to the end of Summer, when the air is warm but not humid nor oppressively hot.

[mistressfizz]

This scent is eating homemade strawberry ice cream out of a fresh waffle cone, while sitting in a patch of spring grass dotted with weeds and wildflowers.

Yup.