Apple Butter Rum

[Numanoid]

Spiced rum with cinnamon, apple butter, nutmeg, and thick vanilla cream.

Had to get this one... apple is almost always a win note for me!

In the bottle... smells of a pleasantly sweet apple and vanilla cream. It smells buttery, but not butter as in on popcorn or toast!

On skin, oh this is so good!! It is a still, creamy vanilla apple! The rum comes out a bit... not getting any spice from this as of yet.

As it dries, it stays close to my skin, but it keeps the vanilla/apple scent. Like a lightly baked apple that was dipped in heavy cream. This is very good!! If you are afraid of the cinnnamon and/or nutmeg, don't be. That are way in the background...this smells so good and I am hoping it will get better with age. If not, it is still a wonderful winner!!


Edit to add: Been about 45 minutes and this is still going strong and yummy. The nutmeg comes out at last, but it is still a background player!

[auaurita]

I got this one on an impulse; probably shouldn't browse BPAL while hungry, as a general policy, but I regret nothing. In the bottle I thought it was almost overwhelmingly sweet and buttery, sort of halfway between butterscotch and buttered popcorn jellybean. The bottle smell made me pretty nervous.

 

On me: oh, there's the apple! And it's a nice, sweet and candyish green apple, not my ancient cough syrup nemesis from The Hesperides. It actually makes me think of those caramel apple lollipops (am I still hungry while writing this review, maybe?). I love those lollipops, and I love this apple scent too. It turns very cream-vanilla apple in short order and is entirely wonderful. I don't get any spice, a slight surprise since I often amp cinnamon, but this is still amazing without it. It didn't morph much for me and the apple note was the main one throughout.

[lady_pandora]

Am I ever gonna learn I can't wear pure gourmands? Magic 8 ball says...signs point to no.

 

When I open the bottle, it smells like opening a jar of apple butter...mmm!

 

The first few minutes on my skin, it smells like eating butterscotch chips straight out of the bag when I'm supposed to be making cookies with them...mmmmmmmmmm!

 

Then it goes all appley for a little while, nice!

 

And then all of that disappears and my skin basically turns it into a dupe of Hot Buttered Rum from the Yules. It vacillates between smelling pretty good, and smelling somewhat burnt, which is what the buttery note always does on me. Probably destined to either be swapped or to become a room scent. It's not bad on my skin per se, but if only it could be as good on my skin as it is by itself!

[Soupy Twist]

Buttery rum in the bottle. Goes on as too much dry cinnamon on cream. Dries as the dregs in the bottom of a glass of apple cider. A wee bit sickly sweet. Very heavy spice, although the apple comes out eventually. As Lady_Pandora notes, this is substantially similar to Yule 2016's Hot Buttered Whiskey (which went to Rum Cake on me).

Apparently the Lab's "spice + rum" combination doesn't work on me; Spiced Rum Buttercream Coffee was the same "rum and spice dregs." But Elegba, which is "sweet sugared rum," is one of my favorites because it's got the brûlée thing going on.

 

Skin chemistry is so weird!

[doomsday_disco]

In the decant: This reminds me of butter rum candies, with some apple and some light spices in the background.

 

Wet: The apple butter note is the strongest note on my skin, and I agree that it does seem to be a green apple note. The spiced rum note is the second most prominent note. The spices are stronger on my skin than they were in the decant, and the vanilla cream note is also present. The spiced rum note seems to be increasing in strength the longer this sits on my skin.

 

Dry: Mostly spiced rum and vanilla cream with a very light apple note.

 

Verdict: I was hoping for more apple butter and vanilla, but the spiced rum note ends up taking over for a while on my skin (which is what I feared). But if you're looking for a lot of butter rum, you won't be disappointed!

[theredshoes]

In the bottle: Whoo! Knocked out with a strong butterscotch buttery rum scent. I was a little nervous about this one because I amp cinnamon and maybe nutmeg, but I absolutely loved Spiced Rum Buttercream Coffee, so I was hoping for another neat spiced rum blend.

 

Wet: On me the apple note starts coming out right away, and yeah, it's more of a pale green note than a deep red one. Not a lot of spice or rum. The vanilla cream makes this apple very light and sweet.

 

Drydown: The spice notes start coming out and I get some of my spiced rum, although it does smell a little burnt, which I guess is the butter note. I thought this would be a lot more rich and heavy, it seems more like light apple-butter plus spiced rum.

 

Dry: Not much throw, but okay staying power, and it keeps kind of shifting from sweet vanilla cream/apple close up to the more diffuse spiced rum note further out. A bit too sweet and light for me, I was expecting more of a cider note.

 

Verdict: It is close to those caramel apple lollipops, but with sweet vanilla cream, not caramel. (Which is odd because the butterscotch note was SO strong in the bottle.) The buttery spiced rum note is good but it's too background for me. I guess the apple note drowned nearly everything else out -- I do like the apple blends (and have a lot of them!), I just wanted more of the spiced rum.

 

For some reason this doesn't feel like a fall scent to me -- maybe more like a Yule? But I don't know why.

[zankoku_zen]

Cinnamon, nutmeg, apple booze and a hint of vanilla cream. This smells like a rummy apple cider with a dollop of vanilla cream to hide the fact that you're drinking as you're being dragged through a cold evening to some Haunted Hay ride that you really didn't want to be in because goddamn there's a line, and you're waiting 90 minutes in the cold. Medium throw and wear length.

 

Also, you're not bitter. Never.

[milo]

Cheap hangover rum and spice. I should know better.

[WinterSong]

This smells so promising in the bottle! I was so excited to try this one. On me, however, it ends up smelling like Hot Buttered Whiskey. My skin is fickle when it comes to rum/whiskey scents and this pretty much proves it for me. What a shame! I might store it away and come back to it in a few months...

[cherrycherry]

Apple notes are 99% of the time an absolute win on me and as rum is my favourite tipple, I had to insta-buy this one. Glad I did. It's very creamy and boozy but the apple cuts through that with just the right amount of juicy sweetness. Gorgeous.

[mishi-bear]

This one really did not work out for me. Apple never lasts on my skin and here it was no different, it was gone within 5 minutes. What I was left with was cinnamon and something that smelled very weird, waxy, and synthetic. Almost like chapstick. Really no idea where that came from.

 

That lasted a while and honestly I got annoyed with it and just wiped it off. Really not for me.

[RobberBaroness]

I'm impressed this smells so like its name, but maybe it's a little too literal. The smell is warm and nice, but I don't know that this is something I want to wear. Maybe put into baths in small amounts would be nice. I don't think BPAL's apple note is the best for me, which is a shame, as something a bit fruitier might have relieved the heavy rum.

[Little Bird]

Similar to Spiced Rum Buttercream on me (very dry, spicy, lots of sharp cinnamon), but with a hint of sweet apple. I was hoping for more of the vanilla and butter notes, but this is mostly spices on my skin.

[starfish327]

I get nothing of the apple or even the rum.

 

It's straight up pastry, maybe oatmeal cookies. Something very close to skin is going plasticy. At least this cookie is baked, unlike my issues with gingerbread notes reading as raw on my skin.

 

It's actually very comforting though I will try layering it with an apple dominate blend.

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Amped up pie filling(everything but the crust), with a touch of rum! This is warm, buttery, spicy, and delicious.

 

Dry: Something has turned that delicious pie filling stage into plastic. :| Basically it's a hint of pie filling now, heavy spices, and plastic.

 

Can I blame the vanilla cream? ... Because I blame the vanilla cream. Curse you!

[vanilla323]

This sadly had such low throw and staying power I could barely smell it. What I could get was light Apple Butter and vanilla. It was yummy but so light. I didn’t detect any rum oddly.

[Teamama]

2019 version: 

This may be a full bottle for me. It's less foodie than Lambs-Wool, but in that family of sweet booze + apple-that-is-not-sharp. I didn't notice the cream.  Kind of like if you shook apple butter & bay rum together, without the bay leaf. Low throw, charming. I want to try it on Teapapa.

[astarinel]

Butterscotch-dipped apples. Very thick, rich, and sweet, with just a touch of spice. The butterscotch is much stronger than the apple, and overall the scent is pretty delicious and extremely gourmand.

[forspecial_plate]

2019 decant - this is so strong it's unwearable for me.  I like Lambswool so I thought this might work but something is just abrasive - one of the spices maybe?  I've tried it several times and today I tried dabbing the absolute tiniest amount from the wand, and I am about to go wash it off because it's STROOONG, making me sneeze and giving me a headache.  Not for me at all. 

 

Edit, tried again today, I don't understand what is happening with this scent.  It smells nice for a couple minutes then goes off the rails.  Something in it feels almost like bleach fumes going way up in my nose, or some kind of industrial strength disinfectant, not really soapy but almost like a nuclear strength white musk?  I don't get it.  Never had such a reaction that I can remember, with any of these notes.

Edited September 8, 2021 by forspecial_plate