Sugar Skull

[scarletgenesis]

Vibrant with the joy and sweetness of life in death! A blend of five sugars, lightly dusted with candied fruits.

2008 version.

Sugar, brown sugar, and incense....except....

It's reminding me of something I can't quite place. It smells like something sugary sweet that I haven't had since I was about ten. I just can't recall what! Maybe, possibly something like Pop rocks...or Pixie sticks? Something I haven't had in a very very long while.

Throw is moderate, and it lasts pretty well on me.

I had the same reaction to this...smells like some sort of sweet from childhood. Then it hit me....Grape Bubble Yum! It is sugary sweet grape bubble gum (But specifically the Bubble Yum brand). I can remember that it was so sweet I could almost taste the individual granules of sugar!

This certainly evokes a major memory, and that's one of the reasons I love bpal so much! I think that this would be a good scent to wear when I'm feeling really kid-like and playful.

[angelicruin]

This is all sugar!

 

As it dries, it smells oddly like pancake syrup on my skin. Maybe there's some brown sugar in the notes? Anyway, I still love it and it lasts...applied it over 122 hours ago and it's still going strong.

[jencallisto]

Note: This review is for Sugar Skull '06, acquired from the lovely lorajc.

 

In the imp: Sweet, maybe slightly caramelized, maybe a little alcoholic.

Fresh on the skin: Uh, wow. Thick, heady, crystalline sugar, but so fine that it's almost powder. Also mysteriously perfumey.

5 minutes later: Huh. I am at a loss as to how to describe this, besides "sweet." Because it's more than sweet, really. I get little hints of alcohol (or something else giving it that perfumely feel?) and caramel, but it's extremely light caramel. More like white sugar crystals just as their being toasted the lightest clear brown. I think I get a little of the maple syrup others have mentioned, but it's like it's extra fancy extra light grade AAA or something, just barely there.

10 minutes later: It's also got a bit of a powdery feel to it, overall.

15 minutes later: You know, I like this. It's warm and sweet, but not over the top sugary, and more complex than I'd feared. It's like white sugar, lightly toasted, then ground to powder, colored in pretty pastels and maybe given just a bit of other flavoring for depth, and formed to nifty shapes, skull or otherwise.

1 hour later: This is... nice. I wouldn't say I love it, but I do like it. Sweet and vaguely artificial, but not in a bad way.

3 hours later: Still going strong. This is going to sound wrong, but it smells a little stale to me, like sugar that was formed into a shape and baked, and then set out on someone's counter for forever and ever. This is a good thing, actually. Like it has history.

5 hours later: Pastel powdered sugar.

6 hours later: This is really thinning out. It wouldn't surprise me if it were effectively gone soon.

7 hours later: Totally and completely gone.

 

Verdict: Nice, and I'll probably wear it occasionally, but I don't think I need more.

 

One phrase: flavored pastel sugar.

[Argentwolf]

As much as I like sweet, foody scents, the just-straight-up sugar note doesn't do too well with me. It has an overly-sweet, plasticky edge to it that is not fun.

 

There *is* a warmer, almost boozy undernote to it, but it's overpowered by the plastic fruitiness. Not for me!

[zomathesadist]

This is for the 2008 version...

 

wet in bottle: SWEET. shriekingly so, with a slight perfuminess in the back.

 

wet on skin: caramelized sugar, almost burnt but not quite. it's still really sweet, but not in a bad way. I can just tell there's no way I'll wear this in the summer!

 

drying: now it starts to smell more like baked goods, and becomes comforting. The fruitiness is there but only as a means of keeping the sweetness under control. Not sure about throw, not sure about wearlength, but I have a feeling it's impressive.

 

Rating (out of 10): 7.5

[aviva]

i have no idea what version i have, but this is leaps and bounds my favorite scent so far. i love it's combination of sugars, maple, caramel, brown sugar, and the spices that lay underneath. i can't help but smell myself for hours when wearing it. love, love love it.

[innocent]

2008

 

I don't usually buy 5mls without getting a decant first. I didn't think I'd like Sugar Skull, since the sugar in Faith and Hope went weird and chemical-ly on me. I bought a 5ml of Sugar Skull unsniffed. Why? To celebrate the adoption of my new dog, Sugar Skull the deaf-defying pitbull of destiny (she's a little white & black pit mix who was born deaf).

 

I love my dog, and guess what? My Sugar Skull perfume arrived this weekend and I love it too.

 

As I was testing it a friend walked into the room, sniffed, and said, "It smells like Christmas." And you know what. it does? On me Sugar Skull is all brown sugar with hints of maple, fruit, and rum. It smells like a kitchen while yummy Christmas baking is going on. It hints of food, but is not cloying the way many foodie smells are on me (maybe because it doesn't have any butter or cake?). I really like it. It also stayed in my hair forever, so whenever I woke up last night I got this wave of delicious brown sugar scent.

 

While I'd never perfume the pup's collar (since she's deaf she relies on her nose even more than your average dog - she doesn't even like hanging at the coffee shop because the ambient coffee smell confuses her) I'm going to wear this perfume to the ground and then go looking for more. It's become one of my top five scents (amazing, given the way I feel about foodie perfumes).

 

So nice to have a tale of "Skin Chemistry that Went Right" for a change!

 

PS - The boy likes to nuzzle me when I have this on. Extra score!

[windywoo]

At first sniff, I loved this one. Very sugary, mostly brown sugar, and a teeny bit of fruityness to it. Still smells sweet and sugary after i slather, but then a few minutes into the dry down, something goes funky. Everything goes boozy and something comes out that almost smells like plastic or wax? Cant put my finger on what it is, but i wanted to love this so much. My skin just rejected it and it makes me so sad! well, maybe i can put it in a locket....

[isis33]

Sugar Skull 2008

 

I tried this one as soon as I got it- and didn't like it. I couldn't pinpoint what it was, exactly, but behind the sugar was a smell that I just didn't care for at all. But knowing that aging can change things and also knowing that perhaps my hormones didn't like it that particular day, I decided to wait a little before the next try. And did you know, in December it smells very nice indeed! The fruit is not very pronounced for me, though certainly there. I feel it balance the sugar very well. I also got a VERY positive reaction from the boyfriend. This one I'll definitely keep!

[rayvn1]

This one smells of burnt sugar and rum-soaked plums. Kind of weird, but nice. Good for the holidays, but probably not a keeper

[obsidienne]

Wet and early on, this smells like various types of sugar, at least one of them burnt or cooked. The fruits seem to be the heart of the perfume, however, and develop most strongly on my skin. They create a sickly-sweet and slightly fruit punch-esque smell. Which isn't me so much. Drrr.

[mommy2gabe]

Wet this smelled great but it dried down to a very spicy scent that just isn't me.

[nellieburger]

VERY sweet, but light – not overwhelming at all! REALLY LIKE!

[MisterShrapnel]

2008 version.

Very very sweet, as one might be able to infer! This has more of the brown sugar, molasses, and caramelizing/burnt sugar variety than the white. Apparently it's rich/almost-smoke-y enough for people to tell me I smell like incense. Again.

The dried fruit isn't hard to miss and it adds color to something otherwise simple, but I'm not so crazy about it (just personal associations as I dislike dried fruit; it's very realistic for me). This is also slightly "perfume-y."

Next to Sticky Pillowcase, I prefer this one for the deeper richness and the warmth, but even so I don't wear it. Maybe it would work layered with something else?

Overall it's a playful one, just not something that agrees with my preferences.

[galahad]

In The Bottle

Brown sugar

 

On Application

Brown sugar with a peppery kick

 

Dry Down

I was really not keen to put this on. In fact, I have had this one for months and have been avoiding it because it smelt too caramely. So I bit the bullet and tried it and.....I love it! It is not cloying at all on my skin. It is sweetish, rich and really peppery with a slight smokiness and surprisingly light.

 

Rating (0-5)

4

 

[TheOneTheyCallLuna]

Sugar Skull is divinely delicious. It smells of carmelized brown sugar with a hint of some unidentified hot spice...enough to keep a spice-junkie like me coming back for more. This ain't Demeter's sugar cookie, yo! This is Sugar Skull. Recognize!

 

This blend has depth and originality and is now on my permanent top five!

 

 

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

this is the '08 version.

sniffed from the bottle: reminds me of TP'd tree a bit - clean, fresh and woodsy. but with a whole lot of cane sugar sweetness added in.

on skin: doesn't change much, still has the clean/woodsy scent that seems to be getting warmer, but the cane sugar is beginning to smell more like molasses.

this is MUCH more like what i had expected Sticky Pillowcase to smell like.

 

i LOVE this.

[hespera4523]

I really love this. To me, it smells like the maple syrup and brown sugar that melts together with butter on the top of a hot bowl of oatmeal. A little bit of spirited fruit underneath, like cherries soaked in brandy. But mostly just rich and yummy brown sugar. Mmmm. A keeper.

[zankoku_zen]

Version 2008.

 

I definitely smell the maple syrup and brown sugar types the most. In the very very back I smell white florals and a trace of white sugar.

 

Very sugary sweet. Perhaps too much for me.

[violetgrimm4]

 

I got a bottle off this off a lady on the lush forum I'm not sure how old it Is is its in a cobalt blue bottle with a lady on the from I think its old?

 

Either way he is my first ever review!

 

In the bottle it smells like rum and raisn ice cream yum like a very good dark rum

 

On my skin wet it smells like dates with a bit of rum and a sprinkle of brown sugar.

 

Now its dry it smells like perfumed sugar it has a good throw too I also get a woft of dry fruits that sticky sweet smell you get when opening a bag of raisns or prunes?

 

I think this one is pretty tasty It not what I expected I expected the powdered sugar smell you get with bloody mary but this is far more sophisticated.

 

[asciident]

Wet: Plastic sugar. I'm scared.

 

First on: Still plastic.

 

Dry: Plastic plastic plastic! Bah!

[kjirstiben]

Going on, this is a rich brown sugar scent, and it remains so during its drydown. Unfortunately, it goes sour after a while, but this seems to be a transitional stage, because it pulls back out of the sour territory and goes back to being a brown sugar scent, now with a whiff of fruit somewhere. Over time, it turns into a subtle brown sugar scent with a hint of… perhaps pineapple… along with it.

 

Recaplet: Brown sugar, with eventually a touch of fruit.

My rating: 2 of 5 (Meh.)

Color impression: The pale brown of brown sugar.

[catatonic1242]

Sugar Skull '07:

 

In the bottle: Light simple syrup, almost like corn syrup, with something sweet but unidentifiable underneath.

 

On, wet: Okay, this is weird, but I'm getting sour red wine out of this.

 

On, dry: This smells exactly like sangria on me.

[sprocket21]

Sugar Skull has a special meaning for me because the person that got me into BPAL LOVES it. It and Samhain are also some of the first scents that I think of around Halloween time.

 

I have decants of both 2007 and 2008, so I'll review them simultaneously. What do they call this in wine tasting? Oh, right: Vertical testing!

 

2007:

I've tested 2007 several times but have yet to write a review because I find it hard to describe. To call it a burnt sugar smell wouldn't do it justice. There's brown sugar for sure, and a bit of fruity sweetness, and a slight caramelly burnt edge to it all.

 

2008:

This version is definitely similar to 2007, but I find it a bit sweeter and maybe a bit fruitier with much less of that burnt edge. It seems to be a bit simpler of a blend, even though I know the listed notes are the same for both.

 

They're both delicious scents, though I think I prefer 2007. I wouldn't wear either one, but they so evoke the atmosphere of Halloween that I may make them into wax tarts.

[WidgetAlley]

Sugar Skull 2006

 

Bottle: Whoooooa momma! Carmelized brown sugar, brown sugar dust, rum raisins, booze-soaked fruits, crumbly sand cake and a hint of spice. Damn, I'm getting cavities already! Smells like the best dessert in the whole wide world, and it's hella strong.

 

Wet: At first blush it's all straight-out-of-the-box brown sugar, pleasant and crumbly, then it gets a hint of molasses and cake (sort of like Queen Alice, actually!) The booze comes through more after a minute, and there's a phase where it smells exactly like rum-soaked raisins. Then it morphs into strong sweet brown sugar caramel. I'm not getting even the faintest hint of floral from this and only a tiny bit of fruit. Crazy strong and insane throw, too!

 

Dry: After a while a smoked aspect develops, and it's rum-soaked raisins and melting brown sugar with a hint of campfire again. This is lovely, very warm and comforting and yummy, but not really something I'd ever wear-- too much sweet and not enough spice or complexity. On to someone who can give it a more loving home!