I Want Candy!

It has come to my attention that I have been remiss in posting about my thoughts on scents for a lovely Fall day. It seems I’m perpetually behind on these things, but in this case I have a pretty good defense. It’s hard to think of fabulous fall scents when you are stuck in a place where Fall never comes. The leaves don’t turn. The temperature is in the mid-90s. Everyone is still wearing shorts. Witherist thou Fall scent post?, you ask. Whitherist my Fall weather?, I reply.

Don’t worry. In approximately five days I will be back in my beloved Pacific Northwest where the cold winds blow, the rain is ever present, and the leaves definitely undergo a fall time transformation. I’m sure the cool weather will inspire me. Until then, you’ll have to wait out my time in the endless summer purgatory with me.

Les Nereides Douceur de Vanille

I love vanillas, bit vanillas have a risk, at times, of having an initial scent that hits your nose with an all too familiar note. You lean in looking for heaven and come back up with a nose full of Play-doh. In my mind this play-doh is always that neon red-orange color I associate with fallout shelter warnings, but hey, chose your own color to suit. While reviews on Luckyscent warned of a “baby powder” possibility, which I can see a little off, I definitely got play-doh instead.

With Les Nereides Douceur de Vanille, it’s the play-doh note on application. According to LuckyScent, Douceur de Vanille’s notes are “bourbon vanilla, almond, cocoa, white rose, star aniseed” and it is described as

The softest, milkiest vanilla we've ever found. This evokes the pure, delicate sweetness of the icy crystals on top of homemade ice cream. Incomparable bourbon vanilla is caressed with almond and cocoa and freshened with white rose. Opening with a burst of innocence and powder, Douceur de Vanille mellows into a gentle, creamy skin scent that seems more like a delectable aura than a perfume – as if you just happen to have naturally delicious skin. The perfect warm weather vanilla. Heavenly.

I don’t know where the “softest and sweetest” is coming from on this one. It’s so play-doh-y on me that, even fifteen minutes in, it feels like it will melt my eyes. It is so cloying. A lot of the Luckyscent reviews also mentioned this being a “light” scent. I took two swipes out of a 1ml wand sample and OHHOLYMARYMOTHEROFGOD, light was NOT a word I’d associate here.

This is a borderline scrubber for me, something that I say very rarely. An hour in and I still feel it rising off skin like some ghost of vanilla past come back to life to haunt me for all those times I said that I couldn’t get enough vanilla. I think it’s the aniseed and rose coming through super strong so that it’s equal parts those two and vanilla, and it just one hot salty sugary mess. I love vanillas. Hell, I love big vanillas, cheap vanillas, one note vanillas, all kinds of vanillas. But this one is just way too much vanilla for me. And that, my friends, is saying something. It you’re looking for your vanilla and salt, stingy scent, trust me when I saw that going with Annick Goutal Vanille is probably a better bet.

Montale Vanille Absolu

On the other hand, literally, we have Montale Vanille Absolu. Luckyscent describes Vanille Absolu as

Smooth and sweet, silky and enveloping, Vanille Absolu is everything you could ever desire in an upscale vanilla: swirly folds of boozy vanilla are set off and enhanced by soft woods and a touch of cinnamon and clove. It’s more like the pure distilled essence of a true vanilla bean pod than the wafer cookie vanillas that have flooded the market in the last few years, but make no mistake: this beauty flaunts its sweet depths with wild abandon and really doesn’t care who’s looking. A refined vanilla without being snooty, we can think of several perfumes that trumpet “vanilla” in their name then try to bury the note under a pile of florals or other notes in an effort to be “classy.” Montale got it right – there’s a reason so many of us love the smell of vanilla, and Vanille Absolu is it. It’s one of the best pure, elegant vanillas on the market. Period.

The notes: vanilla, cinnamon, clove, woods.

There is nothing play-doh-y about this one. Instead it comes on hot and heavy and cotton candy heaven. If you like candyfloss scents, this is going to rock your socks. The clove comes through initially in a weird musky almost fake way, but after about an hour the whole mixture clams down into a really lovely candied vanilla and spice mix. It’s like smearing yourself in coating made of melted caramels, condensed sweetened milk, cinnamon and cloves. Of if someone who smoked lovely clove ciagarettes and wore really strongly vanilla flavored lip gloss gave you a kiss deep enough to knock you on your ass. Either way, a lovely experience, but a little goes a long way. Personally the longer I had it on the more I loved it, but don’t say you haven’t been warned!

Definitely not for the foodie/candy floss faint of heart, but if you are already into these scents, you might like this. It’s more candy than some of the other foodie vanillas I love, like Memoire Liquide Creme de Vanille #204 or Il Profumo Vanille Bourbon, but more complex and interesting than Comptoir Sud Pacifique Vanille Abricot, another candy floss that I love. Where as Comptoir Sud Pacifique Vanille Abricot is a sweet fruity youthful nights on the boardwalk kind of scent, Montale Vanille Absolu is like an adult cotton candy...perhaps one that goes with waking up in the sand, under the boardwalk the morning after.

Also, can I just take a moment to lament the packaging on both of these? Those angels on the label of the Les Nereides label make me feel vomitous. Was Les Nereides intending to market for six year old girls? And Montale -- why take all that lovely scent and put it into something that looks like an aluminun water bottle bike fanatics use? What's wrong with a nice clean looking glass bottle? Oh happy medium, where have you gone...

Les Nereides Douceur de Vanille, clearly loved by others far more than me, is currently on backorder at Luckyscent, is available in 100ml for $65. Montale Vanille Absolu is available in 50ml for $95 and 100ml for $135. The 100ml of Vanille Absolu is on backorder until November, though, so it might be worth looking around if you want to buy either sooner.

"Candy on the beach, there's nothing better!
But I like candy when it's wrapped in a sweater.
Some day soon I'll make you mine,
Then I'll have candy all the time..."
- "I Want Candy," Bow Wow Wow

I couldn’t find any reviews of Les Nereides Douceur de Vanille, though I feel the user reviews on Luckyscent cover a lot of ground. For reviews of Montale Vanille Absolu, try….
~ A review from Robin at Now Smell This!
~ A review from 1000 Scents.

Images from Luckyscent, TravelMuse, and EmmaGem.