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.

Deep Midnight A Study in Brown Review

Brand: Deep Midnight
Availability: General Catalog
Notes: A scented story of aromatic copal, nutty tonka bean, oak wood smoke, and toasted sugar

First impression out of bottle: Smoky wood and sugar

Freshly applied: You can taste the crunchy brown sugar crystals, which are sweetening up the gorgeous resinous wood notes. There's also strong smoke here. It smells like a very sweet and smoky version of Solstice Scents' Attic. It has that same resiny astringency that I love, but overlaid with a toasted sugar topping.

Like this, but with sugar

Drydown: This gets less sugary as it dries, and more nutty. The tonka is a great note here that's sort of surprising. It's not sweet but it's a bit earthy in a non-woodsy way. This starts to smell more like slightly sweet toasted nuts, resin, wood, and a hint of clingy woodsmoke.

Smoky toasted nuts

After several hours: Same as above. This gets to be faint after a few hours, but is a scent that clings nonetheless. 

Longevity: High, but the sillage fades later
Sillage: Very high at first, moderate amount of time with high sillage, then toward the 8 hour mark, this fades to a whispery light scent

Would an [X] lover love this? I think any fan of woodsy perfumes would love this. It has the characteristic astringency and wood notes that someone who loves cedar, pine, redwood, teak, oud, or mahogany would like. The smoke is just enough to make you think of a forest, not like an actual fire. The sweetness never crosses over into being too girly, I can see this on a man or a woman.

Would an [X] hater love this? I think even people who are frightened of woodsy scents or find them too assertive would love this. It's playful, a little lilting and charming, not super straightforward or bold. It's got strong, assertive notes, but it's a little sweet and fuzzy around the edges. I think this is a beginner-friendly scent, especially for a man who isn't accustomed to wearing perfumes.

Where am I? t makes me think of your hot lumberjack boyfriend who comes in from the cold with his flannel shirt stinking of wood and smoke. Then he eats a plate of cookies, and you wear the flannel the next day and it's a beautiful mix of earthy natural notes and sweet gourmand.

Where would I wear this? Work, home, weekdays. It's not quite sexy/sultry enough for nighttime. I like very girly scents, so maybe that's why it reads more daytime to me. It's sexy in a subtle, masculine way, but not ostentatious, so definitely work-appropriate. This has a cold-weather feel, but would be good to wear in the last hot days of September as well.