Candy Phoenix

[Celestyna]

A dusky, yet effervescent mix of pomegranate and black currant candies, with a dusting of sugared pear and white apple.

In the bottle it was a nice sweet hard candy berry.

On me... yikes. Within the first 10 minutes my body had managed to turn the currant into something resembling sweet sulpher.
It took an hour for that to die down and for it to be a lighter berry.

[mommy2gabe]

I love Candy Phoenix. It does smell somewhat similar to Sticky Pillowcase but it is a brighter scent due to the Pomegranate.

[vegasblueblood]

I smell a lot of resemblance to Sticky Pillowcase in this one. I really like Sticky Pillowcase but Candy Phoenix is just much less overwhelmingly sweet and candy-ish than Sticky Pillowcase. The pomegranate note really calms it down and keeps it from being too sweet and it's pleasantly tart. I find Sticky Pillowcase to be much dustier than this one. I really love any sugared fruit notes in BPAL blends. It lasts a long time, a good 6 hours on me. I like it.

[Leopard403]

 

Three words: Lush's Rock Star.

 

Fantabulous! I need more!

[Jenn9775]

I didn't think I would like this at first, intially it is a bit tart and strong on me. However on the dry down it is awesome-It is sweet but not too sweet. I need to get a bottle of this.

[binaryfaerie]

In the bottle, Candy Phoenix smells bright and juicy and sweet, yet tart at the same time. However, on my skin it loses the nice fruitiness and morphs into something chemical-y and sickly sweet. I wish it had retained the tartness; after a few hours it's just too sweet for me!

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Powdery, sugary grape candies with a bit of dusty dirt.

 

Immediately on skin: This smells like powdery sugar fruit candies with a very dusty, dirty feel. I get a bit of pomegranate, but I also smell the odd urine-like scent I usually get from blackberries, though black currant usually doesn’t do that.

 

After a little while: The dirtiness of this goes away and what I’m left with is just a powdery sugary purple fruity scent. It’s a nose-tickling type of scent.

 

Overall Impressions: This is candy all right! I don’t really get the apple or pear, but other than that, the description is exactly perfect for what this scent turns to on me. It’s powdery, sugary purple fruits.

[Blood onmy hands]

In the bottle, this smells like it's in the same family as Sticky Pillowcase and Treat #1, but better. It's an almost-musky, spun sugar smell with lots of candied fruitiness. It definitely smells like red fruit candies to me in the bottle.

 

My boy normally hates candy type scents, but he gave this one a 9 out of 10. He actually said that it smelled very clean and blue to him, when I wore it around him. I kind of get that. It smells like clean musk and blue raspberry candy to me at first. I'm really happy that this isn't cloying or sickly sweet on me. It has a bit of a sharpness to it that's keeping the blend in check rather than being off putting.

 

I normally hate pomegranate, but I can't pick out the pomegranate here at all. In the drydown, I can pick out a bit of bpal's lovely currant, but the whole thing really melds together in a lovely, unique blend. It doesn't just smell like I smushed candy on my skin, it has a really appealing perfuminess about it, like a candied skin musk.

 

I might need another bottle of Candy Phoenix I really like how it works with my skin chemistry.

[djsiberia]

wet/in imp: purple berries. very purple smelling.

 

dry: purple, bubbly, apple, and maybe the pear is making it a little herbal and sour? it does remind me of cotton candy though.

 

i also thought maybe it would have more sugar in it - sorta like sugar moon took crack and the pomegranate & black currant got way amped up. however i think i'll pass on this.

[Dymphna]

Okay, I've been longing for a perfume version--a BPAL perfume version--of Lush Rock Star soap for sooooooo long. I've come close a couple of times (Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo is more of a cousin than an identical twin, and the berry in Hunter Moon 2007 smells somewhat similar, but it's too heavy on the musk to really smell like Rock Star), but now I've found it. On me, Candy Phoenix is just about identical to Rock Star. Super-sweet, slightly powdery, just a tiny bit creamy, and exceedingly pink berry candy. YAY!

[Schmoozy]

I find Candy phoenix to be slightly sweeter Lady Una, and I can see the comparisions to LUSH's Rock Star. This is definitely a bubbly pomengranate and black currant candy scent. It is fun and playful and girly. I was hoping more of the sugared pear and white apple would come through, but they just sit quietly in the background letting the other two scents bop around.

[ivyandpeony]

Why did I think I had reviewed this one, then spend a few minutes wondering if the forum had flushed my review down the toilet along the way? Duh, I realized I never posted it here, but was so moved by the scent of Candy Phoenix that I had posted in the Lush similarities thread over in Recs. So to make it easier on myself, I'm just quoting that here, but I wanted to give a thumbs-up to what Little Bird said about her SO's response. I often don't like candy scents but this one's special, so it could prove an exception for others who are averse to sweet scents. Nothing caramel-ly, maple-y, brown sugary or buttery, which are things that can take a candy scent into the mountains of Mordor for me!

 

Of all the sweet BPALs I've tried, Candy Phoenix is the most similar to the Candy Fluff - Rock Star - Melting Marshmallow Moments - Think Pink family of scents. (I know some people find these four Lush scents to be vastly different, but to me they are very similar despite some wee differences.)

 

Wet and in the first hour or so, the black currant in Candy Phoenix makes it a very black currant-y scent, but as it dries down the black currant fades into a more generally fruity-sweet note, losing the tartness and tangy edge, and this is where I start getting the Candy Fluff whiffs. If you positively despise black currant, you may not want to take a chance on it, and of course we never know what our chemistry is going to do when we hand it a new combination of BPAL notes

 

But even this old grinch, who doesn't like sweet scents very much (I draw the line at Snow Fairy and won't let her in my shower, I couldn't stand to wear either of the Beaver Moons) has always loved Candy Fluff, MMM and Think Pink and I'm doing cartwheels for Candy Phoenix!

[pacifick]

A pinker version of Sticky Pillowcase to me, with a little sweeter drydown. I like it a lot.

[starwild]

This scent is pure, unadulterated Blue Raspberry Warheads on me. Sweet, blue, lightly tart, and dusted with powdery sugar residue. It's light and fresh and playful, and while I'm not a foodie and don't particularly want to smell like blue raspberry, I'm tempted to get a bottle.

 

Edit 1-15-09: Temptation won out and I bought a bottle.

Edited January 16, 2009 by starwild

[Cheri]

I wore Candy Phoenix on New Year's Eve, and after getting ready to leave, I was in the kitchen and my husband came in and said "come here so I can smell you". He said I smelled good enough to eat, and I had to agree that it really does smell like yummy candy. The late drydown is like pink cotton candy and I really love it. Guess I should get another bottle before it's gone.

[Lyrical]

In vial: sweeet frooooty blackcurranty yumminess!

 

Wet on skin: I get blackcurrant, apple, pear and something tropical-fruity that must be the pomegranate. And it is dusky. Was that a hint of musk? I thought it would be sugary, but instead it's quite sharp.

 

Dry on skin: sharp blackcurrant and apple boiled sweets, with a dusting of powdered sugar. Definitely candy! It stays sweet and true for a long time, with medium throw. Lovely!

[Iceblink]

Candy Phoenix started out as a tasty candied pear on my skin and then went into an odd soapy stage that had me somewhat worried--pear soap?? Nooo!! But that didn't last, and the drydown is wonderfully heavy on the black currant with some pomegranate sweetening things up even more. It's a very fruity hard candy scent; none of the fruits here smell fresh and ripe but rather very sugary. Very pretty and sweet and it's got great throw, too. Yummmmmm.

[zankoku_zen]

Candy! This one smells like a watermelon sugar rush to me. Think of those rock candies on a stick! It's pink, sugary and utterly cavity inducing.

 

Yum.

[caitilarkin]

In the imp: Sweet Tarts! I thought this would be entirely sweet but it has a delicious candy tartness as well.

 

Wet on skin: Crystallized pear, pomegranate and currant dusted with powdered sugar (still with the lovely tartness).

 

Dry on skin: Stays delicious for several hours--no soapiness or sharpness at all during the drydown.

 

I didn't think I'd like this one, but I love it!

[tarotgirl99]

I got a decant of this more out of curiosity than the thought that it would actually work for me.

 

In bottle: Cough syrup

 

Wet: cherry candy

 

Dry: fruity sweet flirtiness that lasts all day and then eases toward the end to just a soft, feminine, almost floral fruitiness.

 

I especially love the drydown but I found myself needing a bottle. It will be a great summer scent.

[jade_starlight]

Berry-flavored Jolly Rancher. That's pretty much all I'm getting.

[gnl]

Bottle: Pomegranate candy! Do they make pomegranate candy? Because that would be awesome.

 

Wet: On, it's a little bit more grape than pomegranate, and a little more fizzy than sugar. Little bit of apple in there, too!

 

Dry: The sugar and pomegranate are back, mixed with the fizzy grape/apple. The sugar isn't sickly sweet, thanks to the tartness of the pomegranate.

 

Verdict: It's so peppy and bright! Not something I'd normally think of as "me" but the pomegranate is enough to stop it from being too HI PINK!~ I think it'd be good for days I'm feeling particularly girly. Definitely getting a bottle!

 

5/5

[marared]

Decant!

 

I was well aware ahead of time that this wasn't going to work on my skin - sugar notes never do - but I love pomegranate, so I wanted to give it a sniff. I'd never be able to pick it out specifically as pomegranate or currant, let alone the pear, but it is definitely super-sugary red/purple candy in the imp. On my skin, it doesn't turn sour as sugar often does, but it definitely smells a bit stale. It doesn't have a lot of throw, but it's very strong regardless; it's overwhelming every other test on my arm within six inches.

[pinkgyrl]

I just adore this blend! It's fizzy, sugary, bubbly - it reminds me of almost an icy pomegranate and other sweet sugary fruits seem to be lurking in the background - the people that have likened this one to Lush's Rock Star scent are dead on - this is what I expected Sticky Pillowcase to smell like - and while I still like that blend, I just can't see myself reaching for it as often now that I have this bottle! I must purchase more bottles!

[jencallisto]

In the imp: Sour Patch Kids mixed with Smarties. Nice!

Fresh on the skin: A strong almost-grape scent, maybe a tiny bit boozy. I think that must be the black currant candy. It's not as insanely sweet as I'd feared, nor as simple. Indeed, it's almost too sour/tart for me -- but it's not. I like this.

10 minutes later: This is really nice. It leans toward being a candle scent rather than a personal scent, but I do like how it has warmed on my skin. It's become this beautiful matte purple color, light and heady and thick all at once.

30 minutes later: This smells really good. I'm not sure I'd want to wear it that often, and yet, it's tempting.

1 hour later: This is very stable, and very delicious! It's possible a bit of powdered sugar is coming out a bit more, but overall, it's quite consistent.

2 hours later: Still yummy!

3 hours later: This really is nice, probably one of the best candy-related scents I've tried.

4 hours later: This is already faded quite a bit, but it's still pretty.

5 hours later: Yum yum yum. I like this more and more as it goes on. It kind of smells like really delicious bubble-yum.

6 hours later: Fading.

7 hours later: But still there, soft and sweet and pretty!

12 hours later: Faint, faint sweetness on my wrist.

 

Verdict: I like it! I'm not sure I love it, but I definitely like it. A lot.

 

One phrase: purple candy.