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Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Cheap Thrills and Nostalgia: Villainess’ Jai Mahal and The Girls Love

By Linda

Recently I discovered Villainess “Whipped” – a richly emollient, veganesque body cream that I will never be without again. (Veganesque? Well, there is some bugsploitation – peace silk and some honey based fragrances.) You can find them at villainess.net if you want to try them.

Two of the three fragrances I tried are heavenly. The fragrances stay on the skin for hours.

First, there is Jai Mahal. It’s supposed to be exotic, palatial spices and luxurious vanilla. I must confess that what I get is this: Christmas ribbon candy and buttercream frosting. It is a sweet vanilla spice fragrance that is so seamlessly blended that I cannot really make out individual notes… just feel-good, lighthearted gorgeousness. It’s like a time machine back to childhood, but is elegant enough that you can wear it wherever. I wear it almost every day and it layers well
with many of my favorite scents.

The other Whipped that I particularly liked was The Girls Love Vanilla – a scent borrowed from Possets, perfumer Fabienne Christenson’s line of fragrances. The “girls” in question are bees, and this is a honey-saturated, vanilla-besotted scent capable of inspiring a diabetic coma. The foody notes are married by a robust and boozy whiff of tobacco. It reminds me of my grandfather’s cherry vanilla pipe tobacco. This lotion smells comforting enough to wear to bed, like footy-pajamas. (My partner is not impressed, so in a way, it’s very much like footy-pajamas. He doesn’t like honey.)

I so liked Villainess’ The Girls Love Vanilla Whipped lotion that I went poking around the Possets website itself looking for other tidbits: http://possets.com/

There, I found lots to tempt me. I am a spice and candy lover in my scents, and if you are, too, you will be richly rewarded by a stroll through their scents. Not all of them are sweet, but there are plenty of “toothache perfumes” to play with. The descriptions can be maddeningly brief and vague, but will rarely steer you wrong. And there, I found Gingerbread Whorehouse.

I’m a sucker for things that make me giggle. The goofy name managed to wheedle my credit card right out of my purse and into my hand, lickety-split. Everything at Possets’ beautiful site (use the search function if you get lost) is blissfully inexpensive, which was a relief.

Fortunately, this was one of those customer experiences that completely rewarded me. Not only did I get my little 6 ml. vial of perfume oil (for $10) and the sample 6-pack I had ordered: I was also sent a few other Possets scent samples. Score!

My favorite really is Gingerbread Whorehouse. It smells exactly, and Iam not kidding you, exactly like homemade gingerbread – not the house kind, the soft cake kind! I can smell the ginger, the allspice, the molasses, the butter, the cake, the vanilla… even the raisins, for heaven’s sake! This, too, is a footy-pajama of a perfume: only sexy if you have a gingerbread fetish, but so comforting, homey and warm that it can turn a rotten day wonderful.

Here are a few others I love, from the samples:

High Tea: you will smell exactly like the steam rising from a cup of Lipton’s black tea. This takes me back to spending the night at my grandmother’s house, where she would bring me a cup of tea in bed every morning (she got up early!) It is plain, gorgeous black tea – not Earl Grey, not white tea with raspberries, not rooibos, but a simple, perfect cuppa. I am buying a bottle.

Flossing: meant to evoke the stitching of a corset (or “flossing”), this one is dainty, pretty, and sweet. I can make out sweet orange, a wisp of vanilla, and a hint of spice, but this is not a foody scent – it is delicately floral and immensely ladylike.

The Scent of Angels: this one smells like soap to me, in the best and most wholesome of ways. Flowers undergirt with vanilla and musk – again, very soft, clean, and soothing. Angels fresh from the tub.

Silver Carnations: I adore carnations – not the powdery character that shows up in scents so often, but the green spiciness of the fresh cut flowers. I don’t know what the “silver” is, here, but I suspect it is a light musk. With it wafting up on the breezes as I took a spring hike, it gave a charming impression of a bouquet of carnations. Even the sappy greenness of the cut stems was there to my nose.

In the interests of total disclosure, I will also mention those I didn’t love:

Villainess’ Grundy (which I wanted to love): mulch, moss, dandelion sap, daisies, weeds, soil. More or less exactly as advertised, but it really was not as I imagined it. The first blast evoked a hectic and exhausting honey-do Saturday. Eventually it mellowed into something interesting but very Not Me.

Possets’ Haute Love: very successfully evokes crystallized ginger dipped in milk chocolate. Unfortunately, Possets’ chocolate scents do not flourish well on my skin and take on unbearable levels of mixed syrup and skank for a bit. Your mileage may vary – I know many people love them.

Possets’ Frou-Frou: old-fashioned floral but not in a good way – a maiden aunt’s handbag, or a box-store rose sachet. It’s a performance art piece of a scent, which is fine… but I didn’t find it
wearable.

Possets’ Id, Ego, and SuperEgo: lavender and chocolate at the heart, with different balances and embellishments. These are interesting, but may be based on too ambitious a contrast for my taste.

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11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Love the time machine aspect of seeing a Wednesday time stamp when it's still Monday for my clock! You really made these sound fork-and-spoon lovely! It's already too hot for vanilla and spice scents here, but think I'll go poke around the site and see what's available for spring! Thanks for the tip, too. With the dollar plunging faster than the necklines in a gingerbread whorehouse, these seem really reasonable.

2:19 AM EDT  
Blogger elle said...

Thanks for the post! I'd probably never have known of the existence of this line otherwise and, must say, am rather taken by the sound of Gingerbread Whorehouse. Love the name and think I may actually make a gingerbread house this winter w/ that in mind as inspiration. :-) But I also love the scent of gingerbread and need to sniff this one. High Tea sounds intriguing as well. Will have to explore their site later.

8:17 AM EDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I tried their Hearts and Roses, a rose and chocolate scent. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did.
Veronica

11:23 AM EDT  
Blogger tmp00 said...

gotta love anything called Villainess..

12:25 PM EDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I really *ahem* think I would like the one you like as well, but how do I tell someone what I am wearing, in polite company? Not that I KEEP polite company, necessarily, but just in case... :-)

3:49 PM EDT  
Blogger Solander said...

Oh I love the Grundy soap, moss, mmm... The only Whipped I've tried I unfortunately don't like the scent of at all, it's Embargo and yes, it does stick for hours, unfortunately! I like it as a moisturiser, just not the scent, and I don't think I'd like to smell like candy from top to toe either...

5:03 PM EDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love the villainess whippeds!!
I have to disagree with solander- I quite liked(almost loved) the Embargo scent..with a little less patchouli and lots more of white flowers and cloves it *would* have been love.
I tried Silver carnations from possets and liked it but it was a little too faint on my skin..I think the 'silver' is vanilla.
I've tried whipped in silver violets too and I liked it a lot- a lovely pretty fresh scent that you don't have to think too much about..

I ordered a bunch of possets samples and I wasn't thaat happy with the scents I'd ordered, though maybe i'll give them one more try. I should have ordered the girls love vanilla.I did order haute love (thats the one wih ginger and chocolate)-did not like that!!..:)..But Fabienne's CS is very good.I made a teeny order but got free samples as well.

I was hoping that the jai mahal scent was more incensy-I ordered a scrub in it-hopefully I will like it..

Phew! that was a long comment..:)

6:45 PM EDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Flossing sounds like something i should try (?)
and gingerbread whorehouse sounds like a yummy comfort scent..Thanks for your review!

6:50 PM EDT  
Blogger Ducks said...

Thanks, everyone. I wore the High Tea scent today and loved it. It's very one-dimensional, but I love that dimension. I imagine it will be a champ for layering.

Solander, would you like my (only slightly dented) jars of Grundy Whipped and Smooch? I haven't come to terms on it, and my partner's comment was: "What is that supposed to be-- hay fever in a jar?" ... so it won't be getting much play around here. If you would, send your coordinates to linda at wegotgame dot net and I'll fire 'em off to you when I get a chance.

4:37 AM EDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Linda,
I think you are the first to write about Possets in the more well-known perfume blogs, definitely the first with the 'hohoho house' :D

Just got a notice that Scent Addict is having a sale with Villainess whippeds, soaps and smooches. Shipping is free for orders above US$75. How I envy you all in the USA...

-Happy that Villainess offers free shiping worldwide for orders over US$75 and Possets does the same for orders over US$50. :)

2:29 AM EDT  
Blogger scarlet reynolds said...

I found this website while I was looking for web sites related to cheap perfume and I came across yours. Anyway, women should be wise in choosing their perfumes. They should buy perfumes that will suit them and make their men drool.

7:22 AM EDT  

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