Zarita, The Doll Girl (2016)

[nolifeking]

A tiny woman stands in the center of the stage, the perfect woman in miniature, her copper hair bouncing in elegant curls. She is surrounded on all sides by a necropolis of maimed, mutilated stuffed animals, decapitated fashion dolls, and eviscerated wooden figures. It is a strangely ghastly tableau: the disemboweled toys ooze fiberfill, batting, and sawdust from their gaping wounds. In one dainty hand she clutches a shard of glass, and in the other she nimbly twirls a razor blade. Her face is twisted in a grimace of mad ferocity, and she hisses as she brandishes her makeshift weapons at you. “Play with me?” she growls.

Soft, yet sociopathic: white carnation, iris, orange blossom, poisonous pale white berries, and sugared cream.

In the bottle: creamy sugared orange. Yum!

 

Wet: a nice creme brulée scent with a touch of spice from the carnation. Miam!

 

Dry: caramelized brown sugar! The orange blossom are soft, but a tad soapy on me for a couple of minute. Fiou! The carnation is still quite lively on me ( don't mind, I like carnation)

 

1h-2h : Well well! Zarita does have a psycho side! The iris aggressivly rise from its slumber and merge itself with the orange blossom and carnation.There is also a faint berry scent in the background, giving the creamy orange/ iris/ brown sugar mashup a bitter edge. I like it!

 

6h later, our doll is all innocent like, a cream dessert type with light sugar on top

Edited May 2, 2016 by nolifeking

[Haltija]

This new formulation isn't as nice on me as the original and the berries are the culprit mixed with everything else. Something is just off and it verges into smelling like a high end powdery shampoo *sad face*

 

I am chalking this up to a bad skin chemistry day and I will definitely try again in a week or so and update.

[LizziesLuck]

Orange Blossom and Iris are bad-news-bears on me, but I love carnation and sugary cream, and am intrigued by white berries, so here I go.

 

 

Wet: OMFG CREAMSICLE. Why does it smell like a creamsicle? Why do I care? It's glorious. Oranges and cream. None of the bitterness that usually goes along with orange blossom on me (so far) none of the usual iris-turns-to-violet-and-ruins-the-party business. Oh wait, I spoke to soon. Wet cardboard. *sigh* damn skin. It was amazing for a whole 30 seconds, till I ruined it. Maybe it will recover? Carnation hasn't even shown up yet.

 

 

Dry: It flip flops back and forth between wet cardboard, and burning sugar. Comparison of Celebrated Beauties did this on me the first time I tested it, so I think the cream is actually the culprit here! But I tested that again and it was awesome, so I am going to hold out hope, and test this again another day.

 

FYI though, in the imp it smells like a creamsicle with light floral notes, so this is totally an issue with my skin chemistry.

[zankoku_zen]

Orange creme brulee and a touch of carnation and berries. I didn't expect this to be so foodie. It's like burnt sugar crusted creme brulee with enough orange and citrus notes to prevent it from being a sugary vanilla pudding. Definitely a cream dessert type with sugar on top. Good throw and wear length.

 

The original Zarita was a sharp floral, with less sugared cream on me. This one is almost the complete opposite, with the sugared cream being the most heavy component.

 

All you foodie lovers, get in with Zarita. She won't disappoint you.

 

I swear to god, I really do smell like creme brulee.

[Kay Torres]

It smells like that time I had to eat tons of oatmeal and take fenugreek when I was breastfeeding to increase my milk supply. I constantly smelled like the brown sugar that I put on top of the oatmeal, milk, and the fenugreek that made even my sweat smell like maple syrup. That's Zarita. I'll pass, just because it brings back stressful memories. But if smelling like a bowl of sugary, maple cream oatmeal is your thing, then it's good.

Edited July 27, 2016 by SunsetKay

[Jenjin]

Decant from FB group. I have not tried the previous version.

 

IN THE IMP:

Buttery, Sweet syrup, caramelized sugar

WET:

Absolutely NOT what I was expecting. Where's the sugary carnation? This is all buttered grains.

DRY:

Bread. Yeasty overall but with an icky sweetness I don't like.

NOTES:

This didn't work on me. I'm not fond of sweet buttery oat smelling scents. I didn't find ANY carnation, iris, orange blossom or berry notes at all. It was all yeast floating in flat cream. Sad.

 

Edited May 26, 2016 by Jenjin

[Little Bird]

With the previous version of Zarita, I loved the opening (that smelled like creme brulee and orange blossoms) and hated the sharp, perfumey, white floral iris drydown. This new version of Zarita smells like the foodie opening stage of the old Zarita, minus the sharp iris drydown. I love it and it is so amazing.

 

I'm getting lots of sugared cream and spicy carnation from this version, with a hint of creamy orange blossom, and it is fantastic. The carnation smells spicy and sugary, reminding me of Queen Alice's dry, apple cider spiced carnation. The orange blossom is creamy, sweet, and hangs out in the background. The sugared cream is the main player and it smells so delicious. It makes me think of creme brulee and bowls of vanilla-y whipped cream and white sugar with a slice of moist spice cake in the drydown. I was worried about the iris and white berries, but I don't smell either of them here.

 

This version is a heavenly gourmand with no sharp florals at all. Beautiful on my skin

[sasqa9]

Orange cream pastry.

 

Zarita is a yummy buttered orange cream pastry dessert, not too sweet. There's a light vanilla note that reminds me of Lyonesse, but this is foodier. It falls into the same category of scents as Eat Me, but it's pastry instead of cake. There's a touch of spicy carnation, a bit like the carnation-y cream in Alice (and thankfully doesn't turn to play-doh vinyl like Alice does on my skin).

 

The orange fades and a creamy buttered sweetness remains. The wear length is decent, a few hours. No iris or berries that I can detect. Really nice.

Edited March 27, 2017 by sasqa9

[Lucchesa]

I have to respectfully disagree with the reviewers who find cake or pastry in Zarita because the Lab pastry note is a disaster on my skin (Eat Me, Halfling, Feeding the Dead, etc.) and this is a delight. So if anyone else has that issue, you need not fear it here. Instead, it's something like an orange blossom pudding. I think the berries are a slightly sharp note that keep it from getting too sweetly foodie and gives it a more grownup quality.

 

I'm not getting much carnation, and I'm not sure I would recognize iris if it hit me over the head with a hammer. This is mainly a sweet creamy citrus that, unlike most citrus blends, does not disappear on my skin within an hour. It is going strong after two hours and I wouldn't be surprised if I can still smell it on my wrist tomorrow morning. I'd love to try the original, for comparison's sake, but this is a win for me.

[bellumed]

[wrong place, removed]

Edited October 20, 2020 by bellumed
posted review for original run Zarita on wrong thread

[roseus]

In the imp this is a light sugared orange blossom and cream confection, with sinister tartness underneath. On my skin it's very similar, with a flutter of carnation keeping the sweetness in check. Gorgeous. 

[doomsday_disco]

Zarita starts off strongest on the orange blossom on me, with touches of cream and berry to soften the orange blossom's edges. It remains that way for a while, until the iris becomes the dominant note. The cream isn't strong enough to tame the high-pitched iris, though, so it ends up being more floral than flormand on me in the end. I am less familiar with white carnation than the pink and red varieties, but there was nothing in this that screamed carnation at me.

 

As a flormand fan, I wish the cream had been stronger on me!