Alternative Facts

[Frills]

The truth hurts — so why tell it? Muffle the blow with Alternative Facts.
For example:

FACT: Following White House advisor Kellyanne Conway’s January 22 appearance on “Meet The Press,” sales of George Orwell’s 1984 skyrocketed, making it the fifth-best selling book on Amazon.com.

ALTERNATIVE FACT: In under a week, President Trump’s administration has already managed to improve literacy, reflecting the public’s renewed interest in privatized education, as well as its rejection of the mainstream media in favor of more “traditional” forms of information-gathering.
See how easy that is? With the help of Alternative Facts, even the most unpalatable among us can preside over a gallery of glittering, candy-coated delusions — one in which reality itself conforms to our beliefs, sincerely-held or otherwise.

If you truly want to obfuscate what you really smell like, this is the scent for you! Sugar-crusted vanilla, a firecracker-blast of cherry and sour lemon, a hint of scuttling spiders, encroaching fog, and trumpets of bombast, bluff, and bluster.

Like its companion scent, Fake News, proceeds from Alternative Facts will benefit the ACLU.

 

Trivia: I composed the scent concept and description for Alternative Facts while in line to view the Constitution at the National Archive. It was a fascinating experience: the line to view the documents in the Rotunda was filled with MAGA hats /and/ Pussy hats, and it really dawned on me in that moment that we're all looking at the same sacred American artifacts, but reading, interpreting, and responding to them in entirely - often diametrically opposed - ways. What I saw when I bore witness to the Bill of Rights isn't the same as what the guy next to me in the Trump scarf saw. The whole experience filled me with this strange frisson; it's hard to put into words. It was like witnessing a pantomime of the vast, vast differences in worldview in this country come to life.

This one lives up to its name. It's sweet and lovely and then suddenly high-pitched and sharp in a way that sneaks up on you when you aren't paying attention. Sort of like listening to the Head Cheeto talk about his version of reality.

I love this scent for what it is but it's so sharp I'm not sure I'll wear it very often. Maybe if it mellows once it's not fresh out of the box.

[ShannonElisabethJones]

In the bottle, it's whoaaaaaaaaa sweet! Like vanilla and cough syrup. Such a contrast to Fake News. When I first applied it, it was almost entirely soft vanilla and something dusty....fog?

 

Now it's almost completely disappeared. When I go in for a close sniff, I get vanilla and candy, but I have to get in pretty close.

 

I like it...I might try it later on and apply more. It's a pretty quiet scent on me.

[catnap70]

In the bottle, this was a lot of cherry, which I hoped for. Unfortunately, for me, that initial cherry that I love disappeared and I am left with the scuttling spiders and fog. I don't get the vanilla at all. My nose isn't trained enough to pick out the notes but it has a muskiness that lingers. Low throw but long lasting. I can still smell it today after trying it yesterday. Both of my children commented that they liked it on me but I don't prefer it. "Alternative Facts" seems a fitting name.

[HerbGirl]

At first I smell just a hint of leather with light cherry vanilla and the lightest brush of the memory of lemon...

This dries down to a gorgeous vanilla/cherry/lemoncream blend but it is sooooo light on me. I really have to huff my wrist to smell it but it is so worth it because of how beautiful it smells. I will hope age makes it oomph!

[Dannie528]

Wow, its interesting how body chemistry plays a role in a fragrance. For me the "fog" note is very dominant. When I first applied this I recognized the note, but had trouble placing it. Finally, I realized it is reminiscent of a haunted walk/house. They often have fog machines which give off a distinctive smell. So, yes, definitely a "fog" note. There is also a sweetness to Alternative Facts which is probably the vanilla, cherry and lemon trying to peak through. Mostly though it is a fragrant damp fog smell. Its very pretty, but on me its starting to go dryer sheet. Most aquatic notes do that on me. My skin amps them and turns them to dryer sheets. Fingers crossed that this doesn't go there, because I kinda like the quirkiness of that fog note in a perfume. To be fair, this only arrived in the mail a few days ago, so I'll have to revisit it in a couple of weeks to see if that makes a difference.

 

As for potency. I put a few drops in a little lotion and applied to my hands. A few minutes later my fiancé asked me if I'd lit a candle. He usually can't smell anything, so there's that. I'm only getting wafts of it here and there, but he noticed it immediately.

[VioletChaos]

In The Bottle: This is equal parts cherry candy and fluffy vanilla cream.

 

Wet On Skin: the cherry starts to calm down almost immediately, and now it's vanilla-scented fog. (Ozone and aqua-fear folks, worry not! The fog aspect isn't related to those notes in the least!)

 

Dry Down: This is...weird. It's vanilla and something sharp that I can't quite name, but that seems sort of men's cologne-y, and then there's that sweet fog note. It's truly bizarre. I keep huffing myself, caught between thinking I really like its quirks and thinking that I have to trade this bottle away immediately. For now, I think I'll keep it and see what happens

[seadragon]

Sweet with a hint of tobacco wet - the lemon reads more like orange to me. Dry it reminded me a lot of Cheshire Moon 08 with a hint of Pallas Athene, which are two favorites of mine.

[roseus]

I was interested in this, but scared away by the cherry. Luckily I got it in a swap!

 

I get hardly any cherry. I only really smelled it in the second test, for a fleeting moment which is fine by me. Basically this is a foggy lemon sugar on me. The fog is nice, it's not super aquatic or chilly or anything. Just this pretty, blurry note. I wish I could describe it better than that! Underneath is a pale, sugared lemon. It's overall very soft and obscured, which is not what I was expecting from the description. I like it, but I'm not sure I love it.

Edited March 9, 2017 by roseus

[zankoku_zen]

Cherry, lemon scented fog, sugar, and a dash of vanilla. This one is sweet, but foggy. In some ways, it reminds me to a louder, brasher, Midnight on the Midways. If the clouds tasted like sugary toxic chemicals. Good throw, medium wear length.

[Soupy Twist]

Cherry and mustiness in the bottle and on application. The sour lemon starts to creep in briefly, and then it turns to Jolly Rancher. This curdles as it dries into something sickeningly sweet, maybe with a flicker of patchouli.

[LizziesLuck]

Honestly, nothing about these scent notes would have made me purchase this - while I adore vanilla, lemon and cherry are rarely my friends. But I had to support the cause so here I am! Plus, you never know what will surprise you.

 

 

Wet: CHERRY!!! A mix between cherry candy and cough syrup. Not a fan. The vanilla sugar does come out fairly quickly though, making these veer much closer to cherry candy than cough syrup, which is obviously much more pleasant. As it dries, the cherry gets fainter and the vanilla stronger, and that makes me wonder if I may actually be able to wear this. I don't get any lemon at all at this stage.

 

 

Dry: You know, not nearly as bad as I expected, with these notes and my skin. The cherry disappears, the lemon never really shows up, and I am left with a mildly clean, fairly powdery vanilla scent. Very wearable, and undeniably pleasant, though it doesn't really wow me. I don't dislike it at all, and am happy to have been able to support a cause and end up with a perfume I don't hate. I bet this will be better with age, and is worth having if you like vanilla and/or fruity scents.

[heatherlyn]

I get something similar to Bitches Love Unicorns, bright fizzy candy citrus - Alternative Facts has more of a vanilla feel to it though. However, both of these scents have an undertone that puts me off, not for me.

[degaussingcrown]

This is mostly a mix of cherry and the sugar-crusted vanilla on me. I didn't smell any of the lemon and if it was there, I think the cherry masked it. It was very pretty for the first hour or so, but it started turning into a plastic cherry smell? If Alternative Facts stayed true from the beginning to end, I would buy an endless supply.

[Little Bird]

I get no vanilla or sugar from my bottle. It's all cherry cough syrup all the time, with a slightly dry smelling soapiness in the drydown that I'm guessing is the fog note. Fades really quickly and doesn't have much throw.

[renfair]

I don't know if I would've sought this out, because I'm really turned off by cherry, unless a friend had highly recommended it. So fortunately around that time I'd learned about decant circles, so I was able to get a decant of it to try it out without needing to blind buy a bottle.

First Sniff Impression: Fruity in a strange way that's half cotton candy, half cough syup

Wet in Vial: Sour and fruity sweet. It's like my first impression, big clouds of puffy cherry-lemon candy floss.

Drying Down on Skin: Applied this isn't nearly as fruity as the vial-sniff would lead me to believe. It has an almost foggy, smoky, aquaticness. It dawned on me that it reminds me of the way fog machines on stage smell, that kind of warm, smoky, cherry candy smell.

Dry on Skin: This is still fruity dry, but it's not so sticky sweet anymore. The sourness works well as a perfume, and I'm crap on picking out notes but I feel like there's something amber or the tiniest bit powdery but not in a bad way. It helps to muffle the sweetness a bit.

Conclusion: This was really so much "fog machine" it was crazy. It had that almost mechanical cherry smoke smell. It was very interesting, if you think about it like a metaphor. Sweet smoke to hide all the lies. I don't know how often I'd actually wear this, but I'd like to keep the decant.

[doomsday_disco]

In the decant: I can smell the fog, the sugar-crusted vanilla, and the cherry and lemon notes. I’m not getting anything sinister from the decant.

 

Wet: The fog note unravels on my skin, with a bit of cherry, lemon, and vanilla behind it. The fog in this does not remind me of Fog Machine Juice whatsoever, which makes me happy, as my skin chemistry did not get along with that one. It smells like a light vanilla fog from a fog machine doing its best to obscure everything else in the room, but it’s simply not able to hide everything. The cherry and lemon in the background smell candy-like to me.

 

Dry: This took a sharp turn on me. I’m still getting a lot of fog with a light vanilla, and I don’t know if it is the sour lemon combining with another note or something else entirely, like a hint of men’s cologne? It’s not as sweet as it was before.

 

After a few hours, it’s a really light vanilla-tinged fog with a hint of lemon.

 

Verdict: Alternative Facts is an interesting scent journey that perfectly matches its description! I think it’s nice. I preferred the wet stage of the scent, and if it had remained that way, I would have considered a bottle. But the dry stage is a little too sharp on me. I’m super glad that I got to try it, though! (Thanks for the tester, VetchVesper!)

[Mister Azure]

Facts and information are mutable and fluid. 

 

Wet: I get a hefty dose of sugared fruit pie with a hint of vanilla. More emphasis is on lemon for me, which makes me think of a lemon square at a bakery. It’s rather enjoyable and makes me want a sweet treat. I do not pick up scudding spiders, fog, or what I am to assume fireworks powder. 

 

The throw is short at this stage but still worth enjoying. 

 

Dry: Ok, this has started to smell more like the icing frosted hand fruit pies with a crusted casing that comes from a convenient store or gas station. An artificial comfort of sorts. 

 

The longer it wears the more to devolves into the scent of a candle that wants to smell like an inviting baked good or confectioners delight. Very artificial and trying to convince me of something that it is not.

 

Something unexpected happens a couple hours into wearing this. I feel, of all things, a bit of fogginess in the center of my forehead/brain. Like something is trying obscure my perceptions just enough to disorient me. After a few moments it fades and then I get whiffs of dust and old baked goods. This also goes kind of powdery on me. I will attribute this the dusty aspect (scudding arachnids?).

 

There is something else in this that has an umph factor. I want to say it’s the very subtle scent of small fireworks not yet ignited. I could be wrong on this. Again, perceptions are skewed with this one. 

 

The throw is medium which at a distance is… not terrible. Familiar even though disorienting. 

 

Final thoughts: this scent has a lot of phases and depths for me. It’s bobs and weaves and takes turns I do not expect or think possible. It has qualities of a more perfume-like scent to it in addition to it being powdery after a little while.

 

This is such an interesting scent that I like it and dislike this at the same time. It is just there if that makes sense. 

 

To mellow out from this one, I did have to wash it off and apply some Wulric, The Wolfman. Needed something more comforting and soothing. 

 

This is a very interesting scent. Conflictingly complex.

[VetchVesper]

This one reminds me a bit of Sugar Skull at first, if you replaced the fruity sugar with fruity marshmallow.  It's gentle, creamy sweetness mixed with indefinable "fruit" smell.  It becomes  more complex after it's been on for a while though, and I get sort of a ....woodiness and muskiness underneath?  It's a hard smell to put my finger on.  I think I get a hint of ozoney "fog."  There's a lot of stuff going on, but I'm not sure what it is or whether I like it, but over the top of all of it is a soft sugary sweetness that sure seems like it SHOULD smell appealing.  ....  I think Alternative Facts fits the concept well.  

Edited February 5, 2019 by VetchVesper

[Lucchesa]

Alternative Facts is a sweet, happy scent with a creepy edge. On me it is mostly a sugared vanilla cherry with some gently tart lemon. But I also get morphy wafts of something chilling, so cherry vanilla meets a vaporous darker note that comes and goes.  I like cherry, and this is a very fitting scent experience.

[fairybites]

Super sweet, immediately get the cherry and lemon notes when first applied. The fruits resemble hard candies to me. The more it dries, the more the fog and vanilla notes come out. Within a couple hours, it's mostly vanilla fog with some cherry in the background.

 

Wear time is on the low side, however. It's a pretty neat scent and I'm hoping the lemon note will stay around longer with some aging.