Deep Midnight King Cake Review

Brand: Deep Midnight
Availability: General Catalog
Notes: Yeasty bread dough, cinnamon sugar, vanilla, a touch of cream cheese frosting and a dab of strawberry filling

First impression out of bottle: Perfect yeasted doughnut, a kiss of cream cheese, and some jammy strawberry.

Freshly applied: The cinnamon sugar (which really comes across here as cinnamon-sugar NOT cinnamon + sugar) and strawberry jam are a perfect complement to the doughnut smell. This doughnut is not unpleasantly oily, yeasty, or salty like the note I got from Cocoa Pink's Jelly Doughnut. It's perfectly golden and a tiny bit savory. The cream cheese really helps lighten it up. Usually I dislike cream cheese as a note, but this doesn't go sour or too strong. It's a sweet cream cheese scent.

Perfect cinnamon sugar cake donut

Drydown: Soft, slightly tart creamy cake. A hybrid doughnut-cake hybrid with a very light strawberry cream cheese note. Definitely distinct from Arcana Yellow Cake, as it's more pillowy and airy.

Add some strawberry cream cheese to your cinnamon sugar donut

After several hours: The same as the drydown, but much fainter.

Longevity: Not fantastic. I can still smell it faintly after a long time, but whisper-throw doesn't count for me. I wish it lasted longer at a more potent level, because it's so gorgeous.
Sillage: Low-medium. I have to slather to get good throw out of this, and even then it's a medium-strength one.

Would an [X] lover love this? Yes, gourmand/cake lovers NEED this. It's delicate, interesting, and something different compared to the standard yellow cake scents. I will say I am picky about throw (I like intense, strong scents) so even though this one disappoints in that sense, I still needed it.

Would an [X] hater love this? Perhaps. I don't really think this has a lot to offer to a gourmand hater though. It's a true, pure food smell, very well-executed and NOT too sugary. If your issue with gourmands is sensitivity to sweetness, then give this a shot. If you just don't like smelling like dessert, this won't change your mind.

Where am I? An upscale doughnut shop, sampling a variety of flavors and enjoying the smells drifting from the ovens.

Where would I wear this? I would wear this to work, at home (although it might prompt me to snack), and on the weekend. It's a daytime scent, a little young, definitely feminine. Not quite bold enough for a night out. It's not a power scent, it's a gentle and enjoyable one.