Monster Bait: biggerCritters

[dronzeka]

A deceptively sweet scent; just like the Critters themselves, the perfume is fluffy, poofy, soft, snuggly, and googly! Five vanillas with Moroccan jasmine, white gardenia, and pink grapefruit.

I just am not at all sure what to make of this... in the bottle, I smell grapefruit, which I usually like, but this is really tart. And there's something behind it... on, wet and initially, it smells rather nasty. I think some of it is the jasmine, which is usually fine on me but not always my favorite smell. It's kind of harsh initially, with a smell almost like something is burning???

If I wait long enough, it dries down into a light, sweet vanilla that makes me think a little of Antique Lace. I like it quite a lot at this point, but am not sure it's worth keeping the bottle just for this, because it takes a while to get here. Plus it's somewhat faint, and since it reminds me of Antique Lace, and I LOVE Antique Lace from the get-go, this may have to be swapped.

I'm so disappointed, though, because the notes all sounded wonderful!

[Victory]

Yes, I agree with those who likened this to Sugar Cookie. In the bottle, it smells like Sugar Cookie (when dry, not when Sugar Cookie is wet, that butterscotch scent). I'm not sure how I like this, though. I think that a couple of the vanillas aren't settling well. The vanillas duke it out viciously and it's not a good scent. I think maybe the gardenia is egging them on. The jasmine keeps trying to peek out but gets put back down by the warring vanillas. I don't smell any grapefruit at all. When the oil is in its final stages (several hours after application), it reminds me of Antique Lace and it's lovely, but until it gets there it's not pleasant. I think I will put the bottle away for a few weeks or months and see if one of the vanillas can beat the others back into some sort of order so they can harmonize.

[tarotgirl99]

I smelled the original version of this and couldn't wait to buy it when it became available. In fact, I bought two bottles.

 

I agree with Nikkoblue--the two smell very different. The second has a definite buttercreamy scent that the first did not. I don't love it nearly as much as I did the first one.

 

But I do like it enough to keep both bottles, I guess. On me, this has great throw and lasts forever and the buttercream wears off after an hour or so until all I smell is jasmine vanilla scrumptiousness.

[QueenFae]

Oh this is just glorious!!! A very creamy, smooth, strong vanilla base smeared over with the loveliest jasmine note. This reminds me a bit of my beloved Mata Hari. It is a very foody twist on a floral blend, and it just works perfectly. I can't decide whether I'd classify it as a vanilla blend, or a floral; it's pretty much an equal amount of both.

 

This has quite a bit of throw and staying power, in fact I've been wearing this to work every day since I got the bottle. This is just beautiful, I love it!! I hope it's here to stay!!!

[RaTheCat]

In the bottle: Sweet citrus, to my nose more orange than grapefruit

 

Wet: Citrus, cake and sharp floral

 

Dry: All about the jasmine and gardenia. A little later, some of the vanilla comes out and the florals calm down.

 

Bottom line: I won’t reach for this one every day, but it is a keeper. Funny, when I first put it on, I thought it would be a good winter scent. After it dried, I decided it should be in my summer rotation.

[minnalavender]

Skin chemistry is an interesting thing.

 

In the bottle, MB:BC smells like a delicious orange creamsicle melting atop a buttery slice of yellow cake. Wet on my skin, the dreaded gardenia and jasmine immediately begin to do their Evil Southern Belle "HEY YA'LL!!!!" routine. (Those two notes... it's sort of like being ganged up on by Delta Burke and Paula Dean.) I'm of half a mind to get out the rubbing alcohol. FORTUNATELY, this stage is extremely short-lived.

 

UNFORTUNATELY, the scent itself is nearly as short-lived as that phase. The flowers mellow down and I get a nice cakey vanilla for about 15 minutes, then it's gone. Poof! If I press my nose to my arm I can still detect a trace of vanilla, but the lovely grapefruit note never even makes a token appearance.

 

Fuckities. But them's the breaks!

[charmingdetails]

Oooh, this is so nice! Fluffy and snuggly indeed! When I first open the bottle, I get an overwhelming buttery scent, and then my second sniff reveals the grapefruit. That's kind of how it goes when I apply the oil, too-- it's a buttery vanilla on me at first, and then turns a little tart as it dries. Eventually, it turns into a lovely powdery vanilla floral sweetness with just a slight hint of grapefruit. The jasmine and gardenia seem to come forward at this stage too. Those are two of my favorite notes, so I'm pleased! This strikes me as an all-occasion scent. Love it! I bet it'll age nicely, too!

[girl_android]

I received my rather highly anticipated bottle of Monster Bait: biggerCritter today - it does kind of feel like I'm ordering packages so I turn up to work to collect them, lately! This is the normal label MB:bC, not the one that went with the last nest-full of fluffy critters.

 

In the bottle, I get the scary buttery vanilla note, along with something that makes me think pink grapefruit, and ... that's about it for the moment. It appears that the jasmine and gardenia have gone into hiding for the moment.

 

Wet on skin, the other vanillas attempt to beat up the scary buttery vanilla into submission, the pink grapefruit cowers away, and I get the first hit of gardenia.

 

Once dry, the scary buttery vanilla has pretty much scampered off, and it did *not* turn into burnt plastic! Hooray! My skin though, has decided that it would very much like to amp the gardenia, to the point where I can barely detect the jasmine.

 

A long time later (say ... 10 hours), the gardenia has pretty much settled down, and I'm left with a lovely vanilla scent sticking close to the skin.

 

From reading the above reviews, it does appear that there's a little bit of difference between the first batch of MB:bC and the lot with the normal label - I kind of wish this bottle were more like the bottles people are getting with their critters.

 

I'm not going to give up hope yet - I'm going to sit this bottle in a cool dark place for a little while and see what I get. Here's hoping the buttery thing, and the gardenia behaves with what's left.

[alliekat13]

In the bottle it is buttery vanilla, just like the vanilla in Tokyo Stomp, with citrussy florals. On my skin this turns into Euphrosyne on me, only not as powdery. There is a tad more vanilla in it than Euphrosyne though, and the jasmine is subdued and nice, it doesn't do the diapery thing on me. The gardenia is creamy and tropical smelling, and it goes with the vanillas perfectly. All the vanillas kind of blend into one, and the grapefruit adds a sharp citrussy twang to the sweetness of the vanilla. It lasts pretty long and has nice throw that's not too overwhelming, and this will be even more wonderful when it ages. I'm kinda dissapointed that I got the plain label, but appearances aren't everything I guess! This is a really beautiful scent, but I'm not sure if I'll be ordering another bottle because it is so similar to Euphrosyne.

[blu°]

This is very strong on the gardenia on me. Much more than I'd like it to be. Maybe I amp the gardenia, don't know. It's a much stronger gardenia than the one in Euphrosyne on my skin, when what I had been hoping for was that this might be lighter gardenia than Euphrosyne and more vanilla. So, I'm a bit disappointed, but not so much, since I was aware that the notes in this blend are not among my favourites. I guess I was hoping for a miracle.

 

Well, I'm happy to have had a chance to test-wear biggerCritters. It's a nice enough blend, I just don't feel ok wearing gardenia.

 

The vanilla in here is soft, a tad powdery vanilla, not the deep golden vanilla of, say, Snake Oil, and the like. It's much drier, and brighter, and more fluffy.

 

Edited because I found where Puddin announces that the regular biggerCritters would have a regular label. Mine still seems to have a typo. It says biggerCritter, not biggerCritters.

Edited May 24, 2007 by blu°

[siddal]

In the bottle this reminds me of the powdery vanilla sweetness of MB Panties and Mouse's Long and Sad Tale, but with florals and citrus. Wet, it's still pretty much this mixture, although I can quickly start to smell the florals more strongly, and the combo of everything reminds me a bit of banana, oddly enough...sort of like circus peanuts.

During the drydown stage, my dreaded enemies gardenia and jasmine dance around like little hussies. This lasts for about 15-20 min. and then I'm left with soft powdery vanilla goodness tinged with citrus and just a hint of the florals.

Hurrah Critters!

[mooncityminx]

I just got my bottle in the mail today while I was walking out the door to get a haircut so I didn't put any on initially, I just twisted off the lid and sniffed. We did not have a good first impression of eachother. BiggerCritters said, "Hello, I'm Jasmine and I just came from the pachyderm house." And I said, "Pleased to meet you Jasmine, won't you wait in my purse for a while and then I'll introduce you to my swaps pile."

 

But the story doesn't end there, because I know that oils smell different on skin than they do in the bottle. Thank goodness.

 

On first application there is a butter note. Like Gluttony, but before it gets to that evil stage that Gluttony does other vanillas take over. Why hello vanilla-from-Antique Lace! What a nice surprise! Then the Jasmine amps big time. Whoa. Then it settles down and the gardenia comes out to become sugared vanilla cookies with a sprinkling of dryer sheets. In a good way. It's so light and clean for such a vanilla sweetness! This is what I had hoped Antique Lace would be like. To me it ends up very sugared. I am noticing a similarity to Pink Moon because they are both light and sugary with florals.

 

I love biggerCritters!

 

ETA: In my scent Locket biggerCritters is a lot like Midway plus grapefruit. It's very orange creasicle. Amazing!

Edited May 24, 2007 by Tempest

[TheIceMaiden]

Bigger Critters starts out grapefruit with jasmine and just a smidge of gardenia. The vanilla joins in and the florals disappear. The vanilla gets warmer and fuzzier but the grapefruit stays and keeps it in check. This is really nice and not overly foody to me. Sadly though, it vanished pretty quickly from my skin....so I guess I'll have to keep reapplying it!

[cuervosueno]

I wasn't going to get this at first, but the reviews convinced me to try it. I do love vanilla, so that seemed obvious, but I wasn't sure what to make of the florals and the pink grapefruit. Still I was very tempted by the idea of a creamy citrus scent, and I'm not afraid of jasmine, so I went for it.

 

I can't decide if I'll keep it or not. It might be worth saving for awhile to see what happens with it. It is pretty much all floral on me--jasmine and gardenia I don't mind that, but the thing is, I like my jasmine storng (yeah, the stuff a lot of other people shy away from) and this is a bit subdued. When it first goes on, and in the bottle, I get a nice blast of the creamy citrus (creamsicle) scent, but it fades pretty quick and then goes into its floral routine.

 

And more to the point, one of the vanillas (or more) is not playing well with me. I agree that one of the vanillas is like the one in Tokyo Stomp, and cruel trick, that vanilla hates me! (And I'm a serious vanilla lover, so this makes me sad!)

 

Just like in Tokyo Stomp, everything starts out ok, but then the creepy plastic note makes its appearance. Luckily in Bigger Critter it is covered by the florals, but I'm just not feeling excited by this one way or the other so far. If I want a creamy floral, I like Zarita the Doll Girl better.

 

That said, sometimes scents surprise me, so i think I'll let it sit awhile before making any final decisions.

[jade_starlight]

Wet, this is mostly grapefruit and jasmine, with just a hint of the vanilla lingering in the background. As it dries, the grapefruit starts to fade and the jasmine gets out its stompy boots and starts kicking butt and taking names. Then, once the jasmine is finished running amok, the whole things just sort of fades away into obscurity. Sadly, this one is definitely not for me. Off to the swaps.

[euterpe414]

This blend is definitely a rule-breaker! Jasmine and I usually don't do well but here we are getting along fabulously! With this blend I smell citrus vanilla and gardenia in the bottle- not really much jasmine. On my skin I definitely can detect all the notes (and for some reason I don't get a buttery vanilla note- maybe my nose is broken?)- they blend into this lovely soft fluffy scent. Jasmine actually smells nice and doesn't go musty- I am so surprised! This reminds me faintly of Midnight on the Midway, but minus the incense part. I really love this one and I am going to have to hoard it, as it doesn't last the longest on my skin (but I certainly don't mind reapplying!)

 

[zenvodunista]

I love vanilla, I love jasmine, I like gardenia, and I love grapefruit, so I was happy to get a bottle of BC.

 

Interestingly enough, I get a really green jasmine scent out of this. In the bottle and in the sillage, there's plenty of vanilla, but against my skin - and when it's wet - I get a crushed-stems note that's really strong. Like I've been pruning the jasmine, and the smell of the cut stems and twigs is mixing with a lighter smell of jasmine.

 

It's really not what I was expecting! But I think that the greeness of it will allow me to wear this all summer without overwhelming my office mates or putting me to sleep. There's something awfully "warm weather" and happy about this. Vanilla often goes to "comforting" to me, but the florals and grapefruit combining to this bright green sap scent, backed up by soft jasmine, keeps the vanilla from going all cuddly/sleepy on me. I'm looking forward to this one for the summer.

 

N.

[darkitysnark]

 

Huh. I think I might have tried two different biggerCritters in the last two days? Help me out folks, here's the scenario:

 

Trial 1

moontess () recommended biggerCritters as a possible alternative to The Unheavenly City as I was concerned that my choice of this blend for my MIL would be somewhat tempered by how she received a blend with such a name and such label art (she's a very conservative, deeply Lutheran woman to whom I gave a bottle of gardenia single note a few years ago prior to a house fire in which the perfume was lost. Cry for the loss as well as my run-on sentences.)

 

The bottle had what I consider more of a "regular" Lab label, no special art, just text.

 

On me the blend flashed sweetened gardenia and immediately went to a warm, creamy vanilla frosting place. On moontess the blend stayed a candied gardenia. At this point I was convinced this was the (non-scary-making) MIL blend to beat.

 

Trial 2

Today I went to the BPAL vending table at Convergence and discussed my strategy with my companions (as one is wont to do prior to a major spending spree...) who recommended I give the tester a try. The tester bottle at the table had a cute four-color drawing of oogly eyed monsters. On all four of us the predominant floral note was jasmine.

 

I have no beef with jasmine anymore, but jasmine is still the ol factory bully for me. Once something goes jasminey, it's nigh impossible for any other note to get any leeway.

 

Eventually, I got a very light foodie-frosting base underneath the jasmine, which was nice... but still jasmine.

 

Of all the jasmine blends of Beth's I've tried, this one is probably one of the most balanced. Having said that, it's still jasmine.

 

So... has anyone else experienced this? I am going through hormonal shifts this weekend so I'd understand if the difference only happened on me, but based on how bC was on moontess I just have to wonder...

[filigree_shadow]

I tried this at the Convergence booth with darkitysnark, and it went all pungent jasmine on me. On her it smelled good! On everyone else who tried it on, it smelled good! On me? Not so much.

 

ETA: At a meet n' sniff over the weekend I sniffed one of the bottles with the white label, and it smelled like it had a LOT more vanilla in it than the one I tried. Hmmmm.... I'm going to see if I can track down the white-label bottle.

Edited June 6, 2007 by filigree_shadow

[ladybird]

I present to you...

 

The Short Sad Life of BiggerCritters on Ladybird

 

In imp: It smells like Gluttony? Huh? Maybe it's the vanilla?

 

Wet: VANILLA! Vanillavanillavanillavanilla. And the same syrupy cream that made Gluttony go all wrong. Oh, I'm afraid of this one.

 

After 15 minutes: one last gasp of VANILLA! And then a flash of baby powder, and it's gone.

 

Fortunately, I have a good friend who wanted to try this one. She's going to get her wish

Edited June 1, 2007 by ladybird

[copyshopclerk]

In the decant: A foody, cake-like vanilla with a bit of a twang

 

On: Powdery grapefruit with a springlike floral. There's jasmine, yes, but it's how jasmine *should* smell, not the motor oil weirdness it usually is on my skin. Unfortunately as the vanilla comes out as it dries, it smells a bit plastic on me.

 

Dry: 5 vanillas in this, hm? Well there is at least one vanilla that does not work on my skin. I don't know which specific vanilla it is, but it's in here and makes this unwearable, almost plastic on me. The jasmine is okay (not great, but not bad), but it's the plasticky vanilla seals this as a "no" Too bad, it was pretty (and I can see why people say it's fuzzy) in the bottle!

[naeelah]

Oooh, this is wooonderful! I will have to update later to describe the life of the scent, but I wanted to jot down my first impressions.

 

This is another wonderfully realized concept! I would definitely describe this as floofy with a bit of an unexpected twist, just like the critters.

 

The blend if vanillas is very rich and sweet, foody but not at all cloying. (i.e. waaaay better than your standard mall "vanilla" scented things.) It calms down a little on the dry down, allowing the gardenia to show itself. The grapefruit is fairly bright at first, but it's already receding to the background, which makes me go "booo" a little, because I LOVE the contrast of the tart grapefruit and sweet, fluffy vanillas. The gardenia is really an excellent complement and makes it a much richer blend.

 

I haven't been wearing it long, but it is already soaking into my skin quite quickly. Booo. Throw is light. I will try it again later in the month, as it's at the time where my skin eats bpal, but so far it's looking like this one will have disappointing staying power. I will also have to try layering it with another bright grapefruit blend, because I'm losing that note first; this is disappointing, because the grapefuit note is what attracted me to this.

 

I don't usually wear vanilla blends, but I love this one so much that I will have to get more, even in spite of the apparently short life. If you're a vanilla fan, definitely check this one out, because this is easily the best blend of vanillas I've ever smelled.

[wikkidraven]

a definite morpher here...so excited by the grapefruit, vanillas, and the wafts of gentle jasmine that kicked off this blend. it was sweet, fluffy, and gorgeous.

 

ah, skin chemistry.

 

now it's all jasmine and i can't smell anything else!

[modernsaints]

I opened the bottle for this (regular label, no critters on it) and smelled it and went "OH DEAR". Because apparently one of those five vanillas was the same hyper-buttery one from Tokyo Stomp, which, er, did not agree with me.

 

Wet, & for the first twenty minutes of drydown, this is sickly-buttery-sweet, to the point where I felt nauseous. After that... well, the first test led to a sort of very sugared, yet sort of dusty floral. I thought it was the gardenia; my mother called it 'dusty rose', but either way, it was debatable. I kind of, maybe, possibly liked it. Maybe.

 

The second test, today, was just too sickly, and not even in a sweet way, if that makes sense - heavy and cloying and altogether too much. I also never got a single hint of grapefruit off this, and can't see myself ever wearing it. We really need a 'woe' emoticon

[alicia_stardust]

In the bottle: Sweetened vanillas.

 

On my skin: Incredible! I get this cloud of vanilla surrounding me with a soft and bright note of grapefruit, and a subdued jasmine. The grapefruit and jasmine don't fight with the vanilla; rather, they blend. It's just lovely. It's comforting and cute and soft and fun.

 

Drydown: This scent stays true on my skin for about 2 hours, then it softly fades off. After about 4 hours I am left with remnants of jasmine and only the slightest hint of vanillas.

 

Amazing scent. I only wish I had more of it.