Fruitcake

[odalisque]

Lagniappe from the Lab.

 

I'm not a fan of sweet foody scents -- not candles, not bath/body products, not perfume -- so no surprise that I disliked it. Out of the imp, super sweet and strong. Dabbed it on my daughter's wrist and the drydown was less sweet and more rich, the vanilla notes warming up.

 

It smells exactly like fruitcake, I'll give it that. One tiny dab from the end of the wand and everywhere she goes the house smells like we've unwrapped a holiday package.

[Honeygirl]

Bottle: Fruity booze

 

Wet: Fruit, vanilla, cake and booze, YUM! I would have never bought a bottle of this, but it's so good!

 

Drydown: Dries down to a very foody, very cakey dessert item. It is slightly candle-y, but I like it!

3.5 outta 5

[snapeophilex]

In the imp: The essence of a warm, cozy holiday kitchen in a vial. A buttery, creamy batter awaits an infusion of booze-soaked, jeweled fruits and almonds. Ahhhhh...holiday heaven.

 

Wet: lots o' booze and almondy smell couched in a veil of brown sugar.

 

Dry: I just can't seem to wear foody/sugary scents--all morph into the time I left a pan of caramel unattended on the stove. My chemisty breaks my heart--how I wanted to love this and Chanukkiyah.

[heathercaley]

What a lovely lil baby surprise mixed in the millions of imps and frimps from the lab!! The imp artwork is sooo cute and unique!!

 

In the bottle: Sugar Cherries and nuts with a cake batter melding around in it.

 

On me: Mmmm.. it's fruit. And cake. Sweet candied fruits and nuts and cake.

 

Verdict. Its probably one of the only foodies I would wear..

[Emerrific]

Me, my friend, my boyfriend, and his roommate made one or two or three (the three was me ) holiday orders each. So we were awash with Fruitcake imps! They just kept arriving as random gifts in our mailboxes until we had absolutely no clue what we were going to do with them all.... JUST LIKE ACTUAL FRUITCAKE! (omg!)

 

Anyway, the realism did not stop there. On opening an imp there is a mouthwatering smell of sweet boozy almondy fruity cake! Yum-O!

 

Wet on the skin there is more sweet boozy almondy fruity cake! Now I can specifically smell cherries!!! It is probably my imagination, but I can also smell buttery brown sugar! Even more yumness.

 

Dry it is still sweet boozy almondy fruity cake. But now it is more cakey on me (how do they make a perfume that smells like CAKE? I swear those labbies are magicians!) with the cherry and vanilla more pronounced and the booze and almonds in the background.

 

Basically...yummy. I am wearing it now, and I need to find myself some cake to eat. Yum. Yum. Yum.

[persephanise]

Ugh, no.

 

There is something in the Lab's foody scents that does not agree with me. Even in the imp it smells like sweet evil. I get burnt sugar from this just like I do Eat Me and Gluttony and all the other sugary scents I've tried

 

It's a shame, too--I really anted to like this. But I just get burnt sugar and popcorn butter.

[Iceblink]

I thought positive thoughts before I ripped my package from the lab open this morning and once it was open I could see the colorful Fruitcake imp label even through the bubble wrap. YAY! This was worth pining away for too...boozy almond when wet, then it dries down to a spicy cake (sort of a mashup of Gingerbread Poppet and Eat Me?) and then, after about 30 minutes, I got LOTS of fruit from it mixing in with the cake. It's similar to that candied/fruit compote thing in some versions of Sugar Skull, and it is DIVINE. I'm so glad I got to sample this, and I'm going to wear the hell out of it and enjoy it and fight the urge to hoard it!

[Lethran]

In bottle: sweet cake, a hint of booze (rum maybe?), and sweet candied fruit. Spices, maybe cinnamon, but something else familiar I'm not putting my finger on. surprisingly sweet and delicate. Wet: Almost pure alcohol, with a hint of the other stuff underneath. Dry: Swings back to cake and candied fruit.

[yeahbutnobut]

Fruitcake

 

In the imp: holy crap this smells like my family Christmas cake. Marzipan, booze, and dark fruity cake.

Wet on skin: now I smell more of the fruit, less of the almonds, more of the booze too!

Dry on skin: there's a very sharp note, probably a fruity booze, I'm guessing sherry or brandy, that is very strident in here and threatens to take over. It reminds me of that odd fruity sharpness in Chanukkiyah that I wasn't keen on, but I can tolerate it better here. Underneath that is the smell of moist, fruity, rich and incredibly alcoholic Christmas cake, just like the one my mum makes. I smell the cake itself. The cherries. The raisins. The candied citrus. The brandy-and lots of brandy. A touch of port. And a marzipan topping which smells like crumbly almonds…exactly like home made marzipan that I am so familiar with. I'm not crazy about the strange bitter fruit note on top of it all, but the scent overall is pure festive fruitcake.

After a while: that bitter note disappears altogether and now the scent is even more delicious! it now smells like moist, mushy cake filled with fruit. There's also a hint of plum pudding here but it's mainly Christmas cake. There's still lots of booze here, and I also smell more cherries and raisins too, as well as hints of spice and brown sugar. I want to bite my wrist off. It gets richer and more sugary over time, and it has tons of throw!

The drydown is reminiscent of Vice without chocolate, a delicious mushy cherry cake scent with marzipan and spice. I think I get a hint of icing now, a light sugary scent.

Verdict: in my family, Christmas isn’t complete without the Christmas cake. Made with fruit soaked in various boozes for months, this cake is incredibly moist, incredibly heavy, incredibly rich, and incredibly alcoholic-you don’t drive after eating even a morsel of this stuff! It is covered in marzipan made from almonds that have been freshly blanched and ground, and icing. It is also really yummy. So I was very pleased that my BPAL Yuletide was made complete when an imp of this appeared in my order. And yes, it does remind me of the family fruitcake. From an almond intro suggesting a marzipan topping, to a scent of glace cherries, raisins, candied citrus, all covered with cake and dark sugary notes and liberal splashes of brandy and port. This then softens up into a gorgeous spicy cake with cherries, icing sugar and marzipan, not as intensely alcoholic, more like fruity gingerbread, but still lovely. Like the real thing, this is very rich and sweet and boozy and I don’t think I need more than one imp of this, but I will cherish my imp for sentimental reasons, and because it smells delicious!

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? Of course!

[MeiLin]

I cannot review fruitcake as I cannot get it away from my young daughters (10 and 6). They immediately confiscated both it and the Miskatonic University imp (oh, dear). But the whiff I got was ambrosial, and it actually makes a good scent for young girls if you have any in the house and don't want them wearing, oh, I don't know, a perfume with a name like Whip or Vixen.

[dawndie]

In imp: sugary cake batter

 

On skin: boozy rum, then fruity spicey cake

 

Half-hour later: spicey spiked cake sweetened with fruit juice

 

In conclusion: I love the boozy blends, but not straight-up cake foodiness so much. The jeweled fruit juice and touch of spice hanging around was nice. This is more like a mulled spiked cider than fruitcake to me. What a nice holiday surprise!

[erraticprophet]

Initial Impression: Maraschino cherries

 

On Wet: cherries, rum, cake, spice

 

On Dry: more cake-y, spicy, little fruit, no booze

 

Final Impression: I wish Eat Me had been like this!

 

Rating (on a scale from 1-5): 4

[dirtytrip]

This is the only fruitcake I've ever liked!!! More than anything else, this is PINEAPPLE. Beyond that, it is cakey, buttery and sweetly cherry. Very nice, and I'm happy to have received a sample! This is one of those "eat-your-wrist" scents, few and far between for me.

[Blood onmy hands]

I was grateful to get a frimp of this in a swap package, but it sadly doesn't work on me. I get a strong almond note from this at first, and it's a boozy, super-sweet maraschino cherry sort of almond. In the drydown, Fruitcake becomes spicier. I have a hard time wearing spice scents because they sometimes make me think of cloying candle fragrances, and the spice here is like sharp cinnamon and hyper buttery sweetness. This reminds me of an incredibly cloying, foodie candle. The spicy cake, boozy sweet fruit, and nutty something are just way too sweet. I couldn't pull this off in perfume form, but I would love it in an oil burner. I probably won't search out more of this, but it'll be lovely as a room scent while it lasts.

[DARKBEAUTY28]

I just received an imp in this scent with my last order. I think it smells very rich, thick, and like caramel. It is very sweet and absolutely delicious. One of the 'knaw (sp?) my arm off sort of scents"!

[taramarie]

I received a frimp of this with my Old Moon order yesterday. Thank you, Lab!

 

Wet on my skin, Fruitcake is pastry (the same pastry note in Knave of Hearts) and sugared fruit. Dry, a bit of booze shows up as well. So yes, Fruitcake does live up to its name. I hope it's one of the Yule scents next year because I really, really want a bottle of this.

[ravenfeathers]

omg, fruitcake frimp!!

 

in the bottle*cough* whoa *cough cough* boozy. *cough*

wet on skin oh! mmmmm!!!! sweet, syrupy, luscious! dried cherries and spice and cake! *drools all over self*

dry on skin it fades a bit, which is a shame, but is just lovely. i want a bottle! *does not whine*

[ImperatrixMundi]

This reminds me of the Pumpkins, just because it smells so buttery.

 

Almonds, fruit, spices and buttery, sugary baked cake.

 

I love the smell but really can not bear wearing it and smelling so sweet. But I might still keep it to sniff.

 

They really should do Fruitcake candles, it would be lovely. And they could get rich

[TheIceMaiden]

Oh wow - this is one delicious Fruitcake!! Its candied cherries, almonds, candied oranges, rum and/or brandy, and a little spice. I'm not getting much of a cake note, just all those yummy things a fruitcake is filled with.

 

Fruitcake was such a lovely post-holiday gift from the Lab. I would be so happy if this came back in bottle form for the 2008 Yules.

[Alchemy21599]

I luvs fruitcake IRL, so I was delighted to receive a frimp of Fruitcake from the Lab!

 

In the vial: almonds, candied cherries and pineapple, a hint of buttery brown sugary batter, and a splash o' brandy.

 

Wet: Oh noes! Lots of cherries...

 

Dry: Thank goodness the scary cherries went away. Once dry this smells exactly like a freshly baked fruitcake!

 

Maybe this will appear for Yule 2008?

[The_Merf]

At first this smells exactly like rum fruit cake--it really is an uncanny reproduction. It is certainly a foody scent, and there's a nutty/bready note that emerges as it dries down that is very foody without being buttery. This nutty/bready/slightly almondy note replaces the boozier note, and it is very strong in the second stag of the scent. In the final stage of drydown it actually smells like this cinnamon bread pudding that my friend had in a New Orleans restaurant once! This is one of the more complex foody scents that I've tried and I'm very thankful to the Lab for the generous frimp!

[twelfthofnever]

Got this as a freebie.

 

On me: Mmm, like marzipan, with a slightly hazelnut kick to it? *Almost* too sweet, like a maraschino cherry.

 

Sugary and lovely, but I'm not sure how safe I'd be, smelling like a cake around hungry university students. I'll give it a try though. :]

[LadyCrow]

Oh, please make this an official release? See, I can't wear Geek because of the tobacco, so I'm thrilled to have found another scent that so perfectly describes its wearer in this case.

 

In the imp: Damn. Pretty much 100% what it's supposed to smell like -- a buttery, almost yeasty cake; a hint of booze; candied fruits; something (else) nutty.

 

Wet: The candied cherry really leaps to the top of the fairly strong throw, with the spices and butter lying close to my skin.

 

Drydown: Insert "rum" joke from famous pirate movie here. Since the cinnamon is particularly strong, I'm forced to agree with a previous reviewer who found something Yankee-Candle-esque about the later stages of this -- not in a particularly bad way, just not anything like the almost gritty foodiness of the initial stages.

 

If I had more than a testable sniffie of this, I'd be tempted to use it as a room or locket scent, rather than a skin scent. As it is, it's nice enough, but nothing to mortgage my soul for on eBay.

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Cake.. and fruit!

 

Dry: Cake.. and fruit! This smells so good. Do I detect cherries? Hm... I really hope that the lab will have big bottles of this to sell at some point! If you're a foody lover like I am, you NEED to find an imp of this! I'm no good at describing how good this really smells.. just believe that it's worth the hype!

 

Thanks for the frimp, labbies!

 

 

On a scale of 1-5, I'd give this a 4.5.

Big bottle? PLEASE?

[lamenteuse]

yay! frimp from my old moon order!

 

 

in the bottle: Boooooze! It smells like something I'd take shots of, not something I'd wear

 

wet: Kind of sweet. Cherries? Actually, a little too sweet for me

 

dry: wonderful! cherries, almond, and then cake, and ...something sugary. there's also this faint hint of spice, which i wish was a little more there. really nice throw.

 

verdict: 4 out of 5 I'm not much of a sweet scent kind of gal, but this is rather cute and nice.