I like the idea of Tokyo Milk. Modest sized bottles with modest sized prices, interesting scent concepts (I really want to smell Poe's Tobacco), and while I like to pretend that I'm above packaging, this packaging is adorable - I especially love the little pictures on the "back wall" of the bottles. (See?)
So when I saw a few Tokyo Milk scents in a place where I don't expect to be able to buy perfume, I lost control and bought Song in D Minor. This was before my Curation Resolution, so I'm not declaring any guilt. But it was not a planned purchase, and therefore it has limited utility in my collection. I wore it today for the first time.
So what's it like? It's another white flower bomb. (Maybe I should make that a post tag?) A somewhat synthetic-feeling white flower bomb, but the synthetic aspect is fine in this one, as if it's part of the plan. To me, it's part of a toy-store vibe, because one of the major notes reminds me of my old Sweet Pea Liddle Kiddle Kologne doll - it's not a dead ringer, but it's enough to make me happily nostalgic.
If I were to list the notes, they'd be gardenia, sweet pea, orange flower, new toy plastic, and new toy fabric. Officially, they're white orchid, orange flower, gardenia, and amber. Either way, I like this a lot more than I expected to. It starts out very high-pitched and sneezy, with the creamy gardenia trying, but failing, to bring it down from "shrill", and the sweet pea floating above it all.
That battle continues as the scent develops, with the creaminess slowly gaining ground, making a softer, denser base for the sweet pea. Eventually, it settles into a creamy, grainy final base that reminds me of both Un Lys and yesterday's Number One - I'm starting to think of this as "flower bomb base".
I like it, but at a "good for the price" level. It doesn't fill the open white flower slot in my collection - that's still pending a decision between Un Lys and Number One.
Review Roundup: Can't find any! (Aha! Tea, Sympathy, and Perfume.)
Link Roundup: Articles on Tokyo Milk and its products, though not necessarily this specific scent, at Blogdorf Goodman and Now Smell This and Audit Diva and another in A Rose beyond the Thames and Domestic Sluttery and Fragrance Bouquet.
And a link on The Vintage Perfume Vault about Liddle Kiddles.
(Edited to add to the Roundups.)
Photo: By jjvaca. Wikimedia Commons.
Well, TM is all brand new to me-- thanks for the head's up.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you all the way that the bottles are fetching. I like the brand name too. ("Tokyo Milk"?? Random!) How-ever-- the notion of a synthetic white flower bomb? (I call it "big white flower syndrome, BTW...) Count me out. ("Sweet Pea Liddle Kiddle what-what"??)
TM is also not on my radar / in my shops.
ReplyDeleteThe name conjures up a zen-like musky, ricey skin scent like Annam by Tan Giudicelli, but clearly not in this case!
LCN, Liddle Kiddles were tiny dolls, maybe two inches high and about an inch wide. There were several themes, but the Liddle Kiddle Kologne Dolls came in a plastic case shaped like a perfume bottle, and were scented. Here's a photo, but since it's for sale, I don't know how long it'll be there:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rubylane.com/shops/cobayley/iteml/100-1620#pic1
Yeah, I had my doubts about the white flowers, but I had bigger doubts about the other three available, - something candylike, something fruity, and while I like the notes list of Dead Sexy, the reality didn't quite work for me.
I want to sniff Poe's Tobacco - "tobacco, tea, red apple, woodsy notes, and amber". Depending on whether the apple is or isn't too fruity, that looks like it has potential. But so far, I haven't found that one on sale in an actual shop.
flittersniffer, that was also what I was expecting, but it's much brighter and bouncier than that. In fact, I just realized what the decoration on the whole line makes me think of - it makes me think of pretty old-fashioned party favors for little girls' parties. Hand-painted wood and paper things that fall apart in half an hour, but are magical until they do?
ReplyDeleteOk. I just checked out the link to the Liddle Piddle, whatever dolls. Oh, my god. They look like they're cryogenically frozen heads-- when I finally scrolled down far enough to see the itty-widdle body and that FREAKISH head...I'm just very disturbed, right now. More so to imagine what they might smell like...
ReplyDeleteI just recently discovered this range as well. I bought a bottle of Cherry Bomb. It's girlish and garish in the opening, but quickly turns into an ambery, vetivery cherry cake. Good for the price and so much better than those usual celebuscents. Flitter, I'll send you some to try. Can't see this going down in hot weather, mind you, so I'll have to send it asap!
ReplyDeleteHeh. Yeah, LCN, when I typed "two inches high and about an inch wide", I did pause to think, wow, those are weird proportions. But I met the freakish little dolls in childhood, so I love them.
ReplyDeleteOddly, that Rose doll in the picture looks exactly like the one that I thought was Sweet Pea. And the Sweet Pea ones I've Googled now and then don't. And the Sweet Pea smelled _exactly_ like a real sweet pea, a quality level that one wouldn't expect from a plastic doll. I wonder if at some point a toddler me doused a Rose doll in someone's high-quality sweet-pea perfume?
Oh, that's interesting about Cherry Bomb. I think that may be one of the ones that I rejected based on the name. ("Fruity. Feh.") I won't next time.
ReplyDeleteI bought this based on your "white flower bomb" and sweet pea comment, and I absolutely hate it. All I smell is the same deep, amber, soapy, licorice scent that reminds me of A MILLION OTHER PERFUMES that I hate. What is that horrible scent? How can I find something FLORAL, sweet pea, and lightly fragrant, that doesn't have this same smell?????
ReplyDeleteOh, that's freaky, wholelifegardening, and I'm so sad that you didn't like it.
ReplyDeleteIf it's not smelling at all floral to you, I wonder if you might be unable to smell some common "floral" aromachemical? I know that that there are a few notes that I simply can't smell, so that fragrances that depend on them either smell wrong or don't smell at all.
If they weren't impossibly expensive, I'd suggest that you pursue the few natural perfumes out there, but they do tend to be impossibly expensive. Out of curiosity, can you recall the other florals that didn't smell floral to you?
YOU HAD ME AT SWEET PEA LIDDLE KIDDLE! Who knew there was another one. Were we separated at birth? LOVE your blog! Happy newcomer.!!!
ReplyDeleteHey, Mrs. Winterbottom! Welcome! And thank you very much. :)
ReplyDelete