Monster Bait: Underbed

[edenssixthday]

Cassia-caked cocoa coconut over angel food cake.

Monster Bait: Underbed - When first sniffed in the vial, I found this scent bitter and unpleasant and set it aside, figuring I'd probably end up selling it. However, I can't resist testing new BPAL, so I decided to give it a test run, and I'm in love! It does have a bitter note running through it (I can't for the life of me figure out which notes are turning it somewhat bitter on my skin), but the top notes are sweet and full of yum yum yumminess! I can definitely detect some dark cocoa in the blend along with coconut. After the oil has dried down on my skin, something spicy bursts forth, and dominates the blend for about 20 minutes, at which point the spiciness mellows out and achieves a really nice balance with the other notes. Unfortunately, this turns somewhat plasticky on my skin, but I really like it and I think it will smell simply divine in an oil burner. It has kick-ass throw, so be careful when applying this that you don't slather it on!

[theseagrows]

i had to look up cassia, i don't think i'd ever tried a scent with this note. i am really ambivalent when it comes to foody scents, and cakey is usually even worse, but i was drawn to this monster bait. it reminds me of a cheese danish with cinnamon-maple-y stuff and some berries...maybe? it smells SO familiar, but i can't quite put my finger on it.

 

i am undecided as to whether or not i should keep it. i do like it, but i don't know if i love it. i'll have to try it a few more times.

[cybra111]

Monster Bait: Underbed

 

In bottle: chocolate cake

 

On me: At first, dust. Which is appropriate for something under the bed. Then it smells like vegetable oil. Again, this is a cake ingredient. But not very good scents for the body! However, after about 1/2 hour it mellows into a smoky sweetness. Even longer and more deliciousness emerges. Something boozy comes thru and tops off the scent. I wish it was a bit stronger though.

 

I was determined to love all the Monster Baits! This one is my second to try. And my second favorite to Underpants. Next comes Closet.

[Gin]

Monster Bait : Underbed

Cocoa? Coconut? Really? Now that I know it's there, I think I can smell them, but MB:U mostly makes me think of spiced, booze-soaked cake. This is absolutely wonderful--a very wearable foody scent.

[maijasu]

I get boozy cake from this as well. It's yummy smelling, but I definitely have to be in the right mood for it, and I don't like it quite as well as Midway, the epitome of foody goodness for me. Still, I do believe it's a keeper.

[BrightRedScream]

In the bottle: Woah...chocolate cake! I think they put coconut rum in this cake! Because there is totally a boozey note in it! I had my fan on when I was reviewing this, and while the bottle was open - wafts of chocolate were pouring out...omg...YUMMEH!

 

Wet on the skin: More chocolate cake...it seriously smells like I got a handful of chocolate cake and smeared it on my skin.

 

Dry down: Oh yuck...this smells horrible on me after dry down..it's like synthetic, and has some wierd spice behind it. I don't like it at all.

 

This is my least favorite of the Monster Baits by far!

 

Glad my sister bought it and not me

[luna65]

Thanks to nursekins for the bottle.

 

Bottle: In its' liquid form, it is easier for me to detect every note of Underbed: the chocolate, the spice, the cakey vanilla, the sweet nuttiness of the coconut. Very rich and warm.

 

Skin: The cassia really takes over once on skin and ends up making the cocoa more dusty than foody.

Note to self: do not use in crook of arm, aye carumba!

 

Drydown: Eventually the angel food accord emerges, and the cocoa melds with the cassia to smell something like Mexican hot chocolate. The coconut turns into more of a toasted note than the specific scent. But this is delicious, I bet the monster under my bed would take the bait!

Edited July 12, 2006 by luna65

[portalkat]

Mmmmmm, yummy, although I'm not finding it a particularly foody scent. It just smells yummy to me. The combination of the cassia and the powdery cocoa give it an earthy smell and the vanilla in the cake is very soft and smooth and comes across on my skin a bit like vanilla orchid blossom. Once in awhile I catch a whiff of the coconut and I feel as if I'm in a wonderful garden amid all of these aromatic plants. I found this very deep and mellow and very comforting.

 

It has quite a throw and I can smell it rising from the small area on my arm.

 

I don't know how well it works with catching monsters, but it caught me good.

[Melantha]

I really didn't expect to like this much; I thought I'd like Closet much more.

 

It turned out exactly the opposite. This is a foody scent that doesn't scream "foody"; it's light, and complex, and I really enjoy it. Guess I'll be keeping my bottle!

[tidesong]

In the Bottle: Mmm, Mexican chocolate cake! In a bottle!

 

On Application: Whoa, it smells like German chocolate cake on my skin!

 

On Drydown: Yep, German chocolate cake.

 

Comments: I love German chocolate cake, and this smells good, but not something I want to smell like.

 

Verdict: Swap.

[lunareclipse]

In the bottle: Cassia, sweet but pungent.

 

Wet: The cassia loses its dominance immediately, ceding to a yummy coconut/cocoa accord, with a faint booziness.

 

Drydown: smells cakier - vanilla coming up, I think. The other notes are still there and balancing well, although the two dominant notes seem to be the cinnamon and coconut. Every so often, I get a whiff of Red Hots (my favorite candy as a kid, so not a bad thing at all!). Overall, it smells like baked goods.

 

On the other hand, when I asked Beloved what he thought, he said it smelled a bit like suntan lotion - specifically, Coppertone SPF 8. He is unclear as to whether this is a positive or negative. There's apparently an decent throw on it, too, as he's sniffing me from a foot or two away!

[abejita]

In the bottle, I get a dry, bitter, dark cocoa with a hint of cassia. On my skin, however, it starts to unfold into something really wonderful. I have always had a love for bittersweet scents and flavors, so this has totally grown on me. It's a dry scent. I don't want to say it's powdery, it's more like... crumbly? I definitely get the impression of a dry (though not old or anything negative) little dark chocolate cake that someone took a shaker of powdered cassia to. There is coconut, but it's very faint. I happen to love coconut, but I think even the haters might be able to overlook it here. It's like someone added a teaspoon of coconut liqueur to the cake batter. My final impression is that the bottom of the cake was very lightly burnt. And I mean that in a good way. It adds to the overall scent.

 

9/10. I'm very glad I got a bottle of all three Monster Baits. They are three of my consistent favorites.

[crazyredhead17]

In the bottle, it is a spicy chocolatey scent.

 

Wet on me, it's pretty much all cassia, with a wee hint of distant chocolate, and something almost boozy. Unfortunately for me, cassia in large quantities makes me nauseated. Especially if my hands were anywhere near my face.

 

After reading some of the other reviews here, I decided to let it sit for awhile to see if the cassia died down. It was in my face making me nausious for 4 hours or so, and apparently set off the allergies of just about all my coworkers.

 

It also did something strange (and rather unpleasant) whenever I walked into the back of the floral case. As I work in the cashier/floral department of a garden store, there are some days where I spend more time in the case pulling flowers and greens and whatnot, so something that goes funky in the cold is not so good.

 

At that four hour point, the cassia faded and I was left with a yummy chocolate and coconut cake with a wee bit of spice (cassia in small quantities is good, too much=baaaad). But when I factor in the four hours of cassia hell and the funky cold air smells, I'd rather just wear Beaver Moon or 13 or even Blood Kiss.

 

ETA: This smells divine on my younger sister. Oh, the wonders of skin chemistry.

Edited July 8, 2006 by crazyredhead17

[abberlaine]

For the first couple of hours, the cassia dominates. Had I not been told to keep a nostril out for the other notes, it's the only thing that I'd be smelling.

 

After a while, it smells like snickerdoodles -- yes! -- prepared with quality ingredients, nearly burnt, and left out to sit in the display window all morning long. I think it'd smell pleasant in an oil burner in the kitchen.

 

On the extreme drydown, Underbed smells vaguely of vanilla sugar (the angel cake?). It's nice, but is it nice enough to keep around?

[PilotKitten]

Well, I’m not sure what cassia smells like but this is a very dry bittersweet scent. I’m getting faint whiffs of coconut milk and a dark spicy cake. Up here in the region I live in in Italy, they have this regional cake dessert that they make and it reminds me so much of that. It’s a boozy, sweet, nutty, very dry cake. Looks a bit like cinnamon rolls but tastes absolutely nothing like it. Underbed smells so incredibly like that and the comparisons are a bit eerie.

 

*note – 15 minutes later and I have an itchy red spot on my forearm where I applied this. No more and no less bigger than the swatch of oil I applied… which is weird, usually when I have an adverse reaction to an oil it kinda spreads out a bit like hives…. It’s not a huge problem or really irritating… it’s just an itchy nuisance like a mosquito bite… not at all burning, fiery acid droplets of doom like Faustus was for me.

[bifemmefatale]

First note out of the bottle is caramelized sugar, then *whomp!* out comes a big whiff of cassia (cinnamon) covered by a dry cocoa powder. Not getting much more than hints of the coconut wafting around the edges. On drydown, the coconut becomes slightly more evident, but everything about this blend smells dry--dry cassia, dry cocoa powder, just a pinch of dry coconut flakes, and at the tail end, a hint of faint vanilla sugar.

 

I really like this one, but I wish Beth had used the milk chocolate from Bliss in this instead. I'm wishing this scent were creamier. It'd be truly decadent then. Not sure whether I'm going to keep this bottle or sell it. I already have a bottle of Gingerbread Poppet, which is more satisfying to my nose.

[Bagfish]

This smells like the caramel from Gluttony and Jack with a twist of cassia/cinammon. On my skin this is NOT a good thing as the caramel smells like burnt butter, it has a unpleasant bitter, nutty edge. It lingers for ages as well, I can't get it off even by scrubbing

 

Doesn't look like I will be catching any monsters under my bed with this.....

[Teggy]

Note to self: Add cassia to the lists of notes I don't like. /checkmark

 

Underbed arrived yesterday and I had the same initital reaction I had with Underpants which was, "Ugh! Why did I buy this?" Fortunately, I had learned from Underpants to let it sit for a while before I judge.

 

I'm very glad I did. I love cinnamon scents in my food, not on my skin. Once that faded, it smelled very similar to the coffee cake I'd occasionally get at the local coffee shop. So after an hour of wear, my nose becomes attracted to my wrist and I can barely stop smelling myself.

 

Hooray! Another winner!

[gypsybaby1]

Mayan Chocolate... that's the first thing I thought of when I opened the bottle and took a healthy, heady inhale. Then my mouth watered and I had to put the bottle away before I wound up slugging it down.

 

Cassia and rich fudgey dark chocolate combined with what I guess are figs make an absolutely wonderful brew. I say "I guess" because when I made chocolate stuffed figs at Christmas, this is very reminiscent of it. 5 hours later and I'm still catching whiffs of it.

 

With any luck, this will be offered again next April Fool's... One can always hope!

[nerdcraft]

in the bottle:

Oh wow. Smells like walking into the best bakery you could possibly imagine. Just all sorts of pastries and cakes. It smells a lot like an ice cream parlor, actually...that scent of waffle cones baking.

wet:

Oh crap. Plastic. The second it hits my skin it turns into plastic. Please please please go away! Okay, a bit of the cassia spiciness is coming out...some dry cocoa. It's not chocolate-y at all, but like dry powdered cocoa.

dry:

Well, it takes several minutes of plastic and slight burning of my skin, but this eventually dries to a dry, spicy, very toasted blend. That's the word I keep thinking of - toasted. Crispy, toasted pastries and coconut.

 

So a few minutes after I put this on, I was distractedly scratching at my arm, and then looked down, and holy mackerel! Where I applied the oil on my skin is a big angry red welt, covered in little bumps! Uh...no. This made me so sad, because I was really hoping to love this blend. I love the way it smells in the bottle, and would be thrilled if it stayed true on my skin (and I wasn't allergic to cassia) but, alas, it's not to be.

[dawna]

In the bottle: Smells like the most scrumptious cinnamon chocolate cake you ever smelled. I seriously could just sit sniffing from the bottle for hours

 

wet on skin: holy Cinnabon batman. This morphed from chocolate cake with cinnamon into the only thing I can describe. A Cinnabon cinnamon bun. So lovely, so spicy and sweet. I cannot stop sniffing myself.

 

drydown: It really doesn't mellow or morph at all on me for hours. It has staying power on me and I really love this one. It is one of my happy scents that I reach for when I need a little pick-me-up. It does make me crave a cinnabon though lol

 

This is one of my ultimate favorites from the lab.

[deleahrium]

I'm terrible at notes, so... this is dry and warm. It's sweet but not sick. It's a spicy coconut bread, baking in the oven. This is foody, but not in the same way as the other foody smells; it's dark and sexy. MB: Closet has that vanilla icing, yellow cake, sweet cookie feel to it. This is like if you took that same sweet cake and turned it BLACK. This is the darkest sugary sweetness I have found yet, and I love it.

 

I don't think three bottles is going to be enough.

[Voleuse]

Oooooh. This is very dry, like powdered cocoa and cinnamon crumbs, shaken in a glass jar. (I'm beginning to better differentiate between cinnamon and cassia, though I can't articulate it well.) I don't get very much of the angel food cake, but there is a lighter sweetness behind it that keeps me from sneezing. It's spicy and chocolately and a little smoky, but it doesn't screamy FOODY at me. I definitely want a bottle.

[fairy]

I actually might like this one better than the beloved underpants. This is AMAZING but you have to love the food smells to fully enjoy this. Pure chocolate goodness with a hint of spice. Like a warm cup of coca sprinkled with cinnamon on a cold winter day. mmmmm

[jewelbug]

Imp: Buttery coconut cinnamon. A tiny bit of dusty cocoa--almost brownie-ish.

Wet: Mmmm, this is lip licking good. Dry cinnamon/cocoa with a milky pure cake scent. Its not very coconut-y, but considering our past (it often goes plastic on my skin chem), that's maybe a good thing….the cassia is kind of goldschlagger-ish.

 

Drying: The cassia note grows dryer and stronger. Under the cassia, the coconut/cake has gone very starchy. Sorta like uncooked pancake batter. Its smells good. Like belgian waffles sprinkled with cream and heavily dusted with cinnamon. The cocoa is less, so that I get whispy wafts of cocoa every now and again.

Dry, 30 min: Uhoh…skin reaction--my first bpal skin reaction ever! Don’t I feel special….regardless, the smell is decadent. Strong dry cinnamon/cassia, whisps of cocoa, and a doughy grainy smell--like I can smell the flours that were used in the cake.. If I had to pick a bpal this most reminds me of, it would be blood moon, thought they are quite different.

Dry, 1 hr: Dammit! Here comes the playdoh-y plastic scent. Coconut beats me again…Dusky beautiful cassia peverted with a synthetic plastic smell. If I wait 10ish hours, the coconut smell goes back to normal, but I can't wait that long…

Overall: While I loved this smell (minus the plastic stage), its not something I think I'd wear often (though I wish I could eat it!). The added negative of having an allergic skin reaction means that underbed is not for me. I'll have to stick with underPANTS!