Gingered Chocolate Soufflé

[TriGirlJ]

On me, this starts off really chocolately. Once it dries down, it settles down into something gingery and spicy mixed with the chocolate. I guess chocolate gingerbread (duh!).

It fades more quickly than I'd like, but it is worth reapplying. It's a yummy holiday scent.

[Numanoid]

In the bottle: VERY yummy ginger-y chocolate! Very sweet and festive!

 

On Skin: I get something ginger-y/orange-y out of this immediately. Not getting a lot of chocolate out of this on my wrist.

 

Drydown: Stays the same...medium throw, but very holiday to me. This is yummy, but doesn't seem to last long on me either. Will see if this gets better.

[VioletChaos]

In The Bottle: I get a liquidy, boozy chocolate liqueur. Definitely chocolate, but grown up. Not foodie.

 

Wet On Skin: This is interesting. What I assume is the ginger is NOT behaving in a ginger-y capacity at all but instead is combining with the chocolate as orange. It reminds me strongly of those orange-chocolates you can get during the holiday season, actually.

 

Dry Down: Now it's like chocolate-orange pez fancy mixed drink. Huh?

 

In All: This is NOT what I expected in the least. I'm going to hold on to the bottle for now, to see if anything shifts with some aging. Also, sometimes chocolate-orange is what's called for. But with my skin, this is NOT a ginger chocolate soufflé. Nope.

[myth]

I didn't expect to like this because chocolate, especially milk chocolate (which is what I was assuming a soufflé chocolate would be), does not work on me. Boomslang and Lump of Coal are pretty much my only exceptions to this.

 

But when I applied this, I barely smelled the chocolate. Instead I immediately realized that it smelled exactly like a slightly chocolately version of Mother Ginger. There is some orange (as there was in MG), but mostly it has that distinct, buttercream-ginger feel that Mother Ginger has. As a note ginger is usually either dry/spicy like the powder you'd use in cooking, or it is fiery and planty like the fresh root. This ginger is unique in that it is very vanillic, to the point that the image it evokes in my mind is buttercream frosting. This was exactly the reason why I liked (and have a bottle of) Mother Ginger, and it is why I'm liking this one now.

 

I was afraid the chocolate might amp and turn to first to wet dog and then eventually cardboard, which is what chocolate does on my skin. Instead this one quietly disappeared, leaving only this delicious, rich, vanillic ginger scent. A surprise keeper!

[LizziesLuck]

Fresh out of the mail

 

 

Wet: Candied ginger, slightly effervescent, with hints of chocolate. I love ginger, so mmmmm. Something a bit citrusy, something a bit creamy. This scent is almost ineffable on me, but really interesting and YUMMY. I don't know about soufflé, but it smells like an amazing gingery, chocolately dessert. The throw different than nose to skin, there's more citrus in the throw, and it's particularly lovely. I want to eat my arm.

 

 

Dry: As it dries, more and more of the ginger comes out. This is a different ginger note than any I've smelled from the Lab before. This reminds me of something, and I can't put my finger on it, but it's amazing and I love it. I don't actually get a lot of chocolate in this, which I am fine with, I have tons of chocolate scents. The ginger in this with the hints of orange are amazing. A really sophisticated gourmand scent. The final dry down is this amazing ginger candy scent. I'm in love.

[zankoku_zen]

Boozy, fudgey chocolate dries down to a spicy ginger overlay on the dark chocolate. Good throw, good wear length. Definitely a foodie and chocolate blend.

 

Too foodie for me.

[somacat]

Dark chocolate liquor transforms into chocolate lip close and then morphs into a ginger essential oil and orange spa dya with dark chocolate truffles. This is somehow just like eating dark chocolate truffles while soaking in a sexy bath!

[vanilla323]

This scent was a light gingered citrusy chocolate on me. The citrus was lemony/orangey but not sweet. It was a powdered chocolate like gelt but not as sweet either. It was a dry chocolate scent I guess. It had very little throw and didn't last at all on me. One of the fastest fading chocolates I've tried. I didn't keep my lovely bottle but glad I got to try it.

[violetblue]

Just now sampled my bottle and wow. I normally despise chocolate in perfumes (but wanted to support the cause and loved the name), but wow, this is great, deep but sweet chocolate with to me, the lab's champagne note. Dries down to a sweet but dusty chocolate with the fizzy edge. LOVE.

[Soupy Twist]

A lot of "wet" chocolate and ginger notes. The chocolate fades surprisingly quickly, leaving a steady ginger. But after half an hour or so, it becomes the lovely fizzy note from 21! Fizzy ginger! I did not know this could be a thing but I love it.

[Little Bird]

I don't get chocolate at all from my bottle of this. It's all candied ginger - bright, spicy, sweet and slightly lemony smelling. After an hour, it smells much the same, except I'm also getting a fizziness that's like a glass of sparkling gingerale next to a bowl of sugar crusted ginger candies. It's good, but I do wish that it had some chocolate in it, and I prefer Shub-Niggurath for a sweeter, warmer, cookie-fied take on ginger.

Edited August 22, 2016 by Little Bird

[CitrusFiend]

When the oil is wet, it's ginger and chocolate, true to the description. It's delicious! But dry, it turns floral and perfumey. Still identifiably chocolate, but not as authentic as the wet stage. The ginger note in this is super strong, I store my bottles in a box in a drawer and whenever I open the drawer a huge waft of !!GINGER!! hits me in the face.

[torischroeder9]

Received as a tester decant. Amount of oil may affect ability to fully review. 

 

In the decant: Interestingly, when I sniff into the decant vial, I get mainly chocolate. When I sniff the wand of the decant cap, however, I can easily detect the ginger note as well. 

 

On my skin: 

 

Wet, the chocolate comes to the top first, though the ginger note is close behind it. As it dries, something odd happens. I get the slightly lemony note I sometimes get from ginger or gingerbread -- but without the rest of the ginger(bread) scent profile. So it's now chocolate and sour lemon. I'm cringing a little as I sniff my wrist. 

 

After about half an hour the unpleasant sour smell (almost like spoiled yogurt) starts to recede, and the ginger becomes more apparent. With it comes a slightly perfumey aura. Oh, and -- hey! Once that happens, this is a perfectly pleasant ginger (not gingerbread) scent on me. 

 

I'm guessing that something about the way the chocolate note and the ginger note interact in this blend and on my skin is what led to the spoiled dairy smell -- and that when the chocolate (often a short-lived note on me) receded, my skin declared ginger the scent war winner. 

 

I realize that with a tester, the decision isn't real for me, but if I'd had a larger amount of this scent, I probably would not have kept it. I have chocolate scents I like better for chocolate and ginger scents that aren't so persnickety. Better to send it to skin that doesn't get an unpleasant phase from it. 

[doomsday_disco]

This goes on with a blast of fizzy ginger, backed by the chocolate (which is a darker chocolate; not milk chocolate). But it quickly becomes a ginger party on me with just a little chocolate in the background. It reminds me of the same fizzy ginger from Spurious Cooter Bees; I get zero souffle from this, but that could be because the ginger is so loud on me.

 

I'm really glad I got to try this, but I know I'd reach for other ginger scents in my collection over this one, and I'm not sure this particular ginger note goes with chocolate. 😅