King Cake

[VioletChaos]

A sweet brioche cake with a hint of almond, glazed with cream cheese frosting and gleaming with purple, green, and gold sugar.

I GOT ONE OF THE LITTLE KING BABIES!!! Thanks, Lab!

On to the scent!

 

In The Bottle: Oh, my heart. This is like opening a bottle of New Orleans (the actual place, not the perfume ) It's a sweet, sweet sugary sweet confection and I *love* it. It's like beignets load with powdered sugar and roasting pralines and walking through the Quarter. *Swooooon*

Wet On Skin: As it warms, it only gets better. The cream cheese frosting is coming into its own now, making me very much want to lick my own hand (don't do it! resist the urge!!!). Sugar notes can sometimes amp on me (Sugar Skull, I'm looking at you!) but this scent, despite three kinds of sugar, is staying well-behaved.

 

Dry Down: As the scent settles in, it actually becomes more quiet and warm. The almond comes out a little and the brioche itself finally shows up, making the scent warm, sweet and foody, but less cake-y than originally anticipated. This is a joyous scent of celebration of the present moment with an eye toward a warm and satisfying spring.

 

Just wonderful!

[Failmingo]

I also got a strong "walking through the Quarter" tremble from smelling this in the bottle -- it could also have been a sugar rush.

 

A good cake scent almost has a texture to it, and this one has that squishy, spongey quality you associate with a really moist cake, packed right in the bottle. I think it's of the almond as well as a yeasty component that's probably turning this into "brioche" on the nose.

 

That headiness fades on my skin a bit, mainly just leaving behind a pleasant sugar glaze with a hint of that cream cheese tang. "Quiet and warm," as the previous reviewer observed

 

I find this very calming, and after sitting with it for a few minutes I think my body is actually tricked into thinking I ate something -- I felt ravenously hungry when it first went on, and now I'm oddly contented.

[doomsday_disco]

I, too, received a King Cake trinket! Thank you so much, Labbies!

 

In the bottle: I could smell this one from the outside of the bottle. I'm getting a lot of the almond and cream cheese glaze in the bottle, as well as the sugars adorning the cake. I have never had King Cake or visited New Orleans, but this reminds me of a delicious pastry ring or kringle. It smells delicious!

 

Wet: The cream cheese glaze, sugar, and almond notes reign, with the soft brioche cake in the background. Ugh, it smells amazing! I am in a cloud of sugary glaze, and I want this cake in my life!

 

Dry: The sugary, cream cheese glaze is the most prominent note, and it really is a glaze, and not thick frosting. I am also getting a lot more of the brioche cake during this phase of the scent, which I agree is adding a sweet, toasty warmth to the scent (but it doesn't smell like toast)! It's actually rather waffle-like.

 

Verdict: If you think you have enough cake scents and you don't need another one, you are mistaken. King Cake is amazing, and it's different from any of the other cake scents I've tried from the Lab before. I may end up needing another bottle.

*edited to add* King Cake is one of the longest lasting perfume oils that I own. When I go to shower the next morning, I am thrown into a cloud of King Cake. This one has some serious staying power.

Edited February 28, 2018 by dementia_divine

[deleahrium]

I am a pastry chef, and I made king cakes this past Mardi Gras. This is exactly the scent of what came out of my oven. I'm kind of shocked and disturbed. But mostly happy I blind-bought two bottles. I may have to pick up a third. If you are a foodie, you will need this scent.

 

My boyfriend said "you smell like breakfast." Trust me, that's a compliment.

[kscha2017]

I have never had King Cake. I must find some next year. It had better taste as good as this smells because else I will be disappointed. This smells like the best cake ever created in the history of cake. Almond, sugar, butter, and cream cheese. Like I rolled around on a real cake (the best cake ever created in the history of cake). I won't be able to wear this unless there is cake/cookies/torte of some kind within reach because it's making me hungry. Realer than real. Amazing. [Edit: I am not much of a foodie scent lover, but this is so good, I ordered a second bottle]

Edited March 13, 2018 by kscha2017

[Jenjin]

This is going to be super popular, but I absolutely cannot wear this!
It's WAY over the edge foody floppy waffle with dollops of butter and syrup nope.
Completely butterscotch and thick cream with a great big splotch of nutty caramel sugar.
It's also super strong like a yankee candle and makes me a little bit queasy.
I've already sent along my bottle and baby to a new home that is noshing on it right now in a sugar cloud stupor.

[Leopard403]

I got a King Cake baby. He’s a teeny green thug who is vaguely terrifying; I love it!

 

The scent, though, is a mixed bag of tricks. It started out as something sophisticated, like a croquembouche with caramel drizzle, but after an hour of wear it’s more like soggy French Toast with lots of “real” maple syrup. That latter smell is a little too on the nose for me, but I’ll be interested to see how this ages.

[Little Bird]

I find King Cake to be really cloying and unpleasant. It is one of those very simple foodie scents that make me think of walking into a Yankee Candle store. I was drawn in by the promise of cream cheese frosting, but I'm not smelling that at all. I was worried about the almond, but I don't smell any almond either. This smells like maple syrup, butter and brown sugar. It's too sweet and has a waxy edge to it in the drydown that makes it seem even more like a candle scent.

 

Smells like maple syrup, butter and brown sugar, but waxy and artificial. I love gourmand scents, but this one is just unwearable for me.

[patina]

At first sniff from the bottle I got nothing but waffles.

 

After I put in on, however, I was reminded of hard, sugary glaze with the cream filling that comes in king cakes.

 

I like it but I'm a little on the fence because it is Very sweet and fairly simple

 

Edit: On further wear I also get a soft yeastiness.

Edited March 15, 2018 by patina

[astarinel]

I agree: waffles.

 

On and wet, it's very much brown sugar + waffles + maple syrup. I love frosting scents, so I was hoping for some of that here, but this is mostly just breakfast. The sugar has that crunchy/crystalline aspect to it, and it smells delicious, but it's very straightforwardly breakfast.

 

Pretty strong throw, good lasting power.

[pigeonheart]

Thank you so much Amoss! In the bottle, this stuff smells like brioche. It’s an eggy pastry confection with a sprinkling of cinnamon and a dollop of cream. So good you almost want to eat it.

 

Wet: Upon first application and for thirty minutes after, I was really concerned that the almond was going to hide everything else. All I could small was sweet almond and a vanilla scent that reminded me of cheap candles. Bravely I persisted.

Dry: There’s the eggy pastry that I was hoping for. The almond gradually backed off and there’s a lovely combination of moist cake, cinnamon, light almond, and cream cheese frosting. What started as cloying and overwhelmingly sweet has morphed into a warm, dessert-scented cloud. There is a faint almost plastic-like scent beneath it all but it isn’t strong enough to bother me. A lot of people keep saying breakfast and I think it’s due to the egg/bready components. It isn’t dark enough for maple syrup, but it whispers honey and powdered sugar.

Drying: It is much, much more subdued and well-balanced than on first application. Every now and then I will do something around the house and catch a waft of egg pastry, cream, and spice. After more time, the almond-sugar-cream smells are back and it's a little much. Too sweet to be an everyday scent but I’m excited to see how it ages.

Edited March 16, 2018 by pigeonheart

[goblingrin]

In the imp, I got hit immediately with cream cheese glaze, overpoweringly sweet in the best way. It's got a good throw and quite the staying power and a little goes a long way on me; usually it's the opposite, so I might have overdone it, and now I'm sitting in a delicious cloud of cake, with almond and cream cheese frosting. It calmed a bit with time, but I still get good wafts of it. I also get a bit of the maple syrup, although it's lighter than a real maple syrup.

[lady_pandora]

I got a little purple baby!

 

The scent of actual king cake is really fresh in my mind, since I had it pretty recently, including a half-hour stint in a warm car where the heat just kept amplifying the AMAZING scent until it took all my self-control not to grab it from the back seat and OM NOM NOM the whole thing right on the spot.

 

King Cake, the perfume, starts out butterscotchy on me, then turns to a buttery, almondy, maybe a little syrupy scent. It reminds me a lot of Hot Buttered Rum. I don't get the impression of a baked cake at this point--it's definitely making me think "liquid"--and my skin is not cooperating very well, because I don't get any of the icing or any cinnamon or filling that the cake might have. It's just super super sweet, liquid, and a little bland. It's actually cooperating better than cake scents usually do on me, but I think I'm still just not cut out to be a cake-scent wearer. Womp womp.

 

After sleeping on it overnight, I do get more of a bready note in the morning.

 

I wonder how this would do as a room scent, since I think the problem is my skin more than anything else.

[zankoku_zen]

Brown sugar, brioche, sugary almond glaze. This is foodie/gourmand to the max. I have a buttery brioche base with a ton of sugar, and a ton of almond glaze. UNF. I sort of want a baked goods now. Big throw and wear length.

 

Unfortunately for me, I can't love this because I'd just go around eating donuts all day long. Mmmmm.

[tinyvulture]

Think rich, creamy, sugary, almond pralines. Reminiscent of other BPAL praline blends like Pralines and Powdered Sugar and Gluttony. The nuttiness of King Cake is what sets it apart. I love the roasted almond aspect of this blend. I'm not really getting any brioche, butter or cream cheese notes. Just sweet, crunchy pralines! So strong and long-lasting.

[ramblingrambler]

I am a foodie/gourmand lover, and this is foodie/gourmand to the nth degree. Wet, it’s like slathering yourself in King Cake from head to toe... with massive throw, this scent fills a room and makes stomachs either growl or ache, depending on whether they can handle the sweet factor. Personally, I find the wet stage much too overwhelming and am torn between keeping the bottle or rejoining to someone who loves a good sugary-sweet scent. Drydown is glorious—memories of a dessert you downed during lunch, but of not the heavy, weighted down feeling after consuming far too much of it —but I’m not sure if I can deal with the huge, interminable wear of extreme sweetness until it gets to that point. I’ll give it a few more go-rounds and update!

[Fiam]

This one is AWESOME! The description does not include rum, but wet in the bottle it made me think of Hot Buttered Rum & Anne Beany, As it wears the cream cheese frosting comes out.

20 minutes later it goes into butterscotch.

 

I'd say the Lab is improving their gourmands.

[violetvorpal]

King Cake is a super yummy scent and it has gotten me compliments. It smells the same on my skin as it does in the bottle. I get honey glazed almond cake. Almond is the most dominant note to me. If you like Bastet, you'll love King Cake. The almond note is very similar between the two. After a few hours of wear, the honey note gets amped on my skin and it balances the almond note.

 

Strong throw, good wear length.

[Aveya]

Source: Decant from a swap

Preconception: I'm hesitant with cakes. I LOVE the scent in bottles/vials but once it hits my skin it goes too caramel-y or bready? Something offsetting about it. but I keep trying

 

Vial: One vial sniff of this and I was in pure heaven. I've never hard a King Cake but oh. my. god. I'm going to now. So sweet. Beautifully complex. This little vial sniff I could do all flippin' day long.

Skin: AAANNNND there's the caramel bread every cake does on me. It's softer than other cake blends I've tried, not so obviously off - there's an almond smoothness to it. But the sweetness seems to have tempered off fast.

Drydown: I'm surprised because the Almond sweetness in the bottle actually came BACK after some time on my skin. Usually once it's gone it's gone. I'm fascinated. It's still combating the caramel-breadyness, but it's much much much improved over other cake blends I've had before. The sweetness is also holding on a bit more as well. Impressive! The longer it sits, the more the bread-caramel vanishes and the almond cream cheese beauty returns.

 

Verdict; if the vial-sniff was the same on my skin I'd own five bottles.

[torikitty]

This is amazing! I love the way it smells in the bottle. It smells so cakey and lovely on when it's wet, and the beginning of drydown. After an hour, it calms down a bit, but still smells amazing. I wish I had some king cake right now! 2 hours in, the cakeyness fades, and that artificial vanilla that doesn't work with some skin types creeps in. It's not overwhelming, but the plasticy smells is in the background. I rather let someone else enjoy this.

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Maple syrup and cake. VERY strong on the syrup.

 

Dry: There's something in here that's turned to plastic on the dry-down. I'm thinking it's the "cream cheese" note. It's overpowering the cake and syrup I got from earlier, unfortunately.

[frizzlechicken]

OMG. Not much else to say other than it's incredible. It's literally a King Cake in a bottle. It smells just like that on application, and fades as the hour pass, leaving a lovely pancake-y scent behind. Love love love. This is a new favorite.

[monocainsheresy]

I've been dying to try this, and I was lucky enough to get a frimp from Little Bird - and it is everything I hoped it would be.

 

Cream cheese frosting, gooey almond, fluffy cake, covered in sugar and spice. Oddly reminiscent of Jack - it has that same craft-store-in-autumn vibe, when they get all the foody candles in stock. I need to get my grimy little hands on a bottle of this ASAP