Velvet Vendetta

This stuff is GOOD! Off the rip I get smoke and sweetness. The smoke is like cigarettes and gunpowder but it's fleeting. Then I get booziness, sweetness, and dried fruit along with a strong olive note. I'm not used to olive notes and didn't know what to think of it at first, but after a few goes I decided I love it. It gives this briney leathery sense to the heart and it somehow fits right in. As it dries you get more dried fruit and resins along with a cotton candy like vanilla/tobac mix. Very fun overall and surprisingly strong. Like really strong (12+ off my skin). Went from a what? to a like to a love.

I'm a Sarah Baker fan....the person, her perfumes and her cool sunglasses. I have (and LOVE) four: Peach's Revenge, Flame & Fortune (Hello, Tuberose) Charade (Hello again, Tuberose) and the (sadly) discontinued G Clef. I waited (along with everyone else in Camp Baker) with anxious trepidation for the new release. We heard (1) it'd be a VANILLA (wow) and (2) it'd be the first of three VANILLAS (wowee wow wow). She didn't even leak the name; you'll see her covering the label with her fingers in the first teaser photographs. Clever. **Velvet Vendetta** The moment it was released, I was tempted (out of loyalty) to blind-buy a bottle but....I waited. On her website, I saw I could buy a Discovery Pack with three (3) 2ml spray vials (Peach's Revenge + Flame & Fortune + Velvet Vendetta) branded THE DRAMA. (Ms. Baker, if nothing else, loves DRAMA. She's a talented writer.) I ordered one. (I was tempted to buy three but I fought the impulse.) I watched the mail every day.... then it arrived; it felt like Christmas morning. (Factually, my mail arrives after 4pm.) I opened the box and found the familiar, light grey and orange, SB-branded, matchbook-size cardboard holder with three square product cards and three perfume vials. The drama continues.... I waited 'til after dinner to spray and sniff Velvet Vendetta. I wanted to set my mental stage for the experience. I sprayed it on top of my left hand and on my left wrist....and waited. Sniff sniff....hmmmmm. Sniff sniff....hmmmm. I wished I had a 5ml or 10ml sample. I sniffed my hand throughout the evening. I was thinking I need to think about what I was thinking.... smelling.... feeling. The next morning (4AM or so)....after my shower.... while drinking my coffee...I sprayed the top of my left hand again. I got more this time. Hmmmmm. I'm happy (relieved) the *Smoke* is lighter than I anticipated.... perhaps more Gun Powder (not ignited) than *Gun Smoke*. The Black Olive note feels like a pleasant salty condiment. I don't detect *Nutmeg* (my nose searched for it). I don't get much Bourbon booziness. I do get a bit of balsamic bitterness perhaps from the Dried Fruits? I'm not getting an Old West Saloon thing which I get (in spades) from Statik Olfactive's very dusty, rose-focused Scarlett Lady. I am getting a Spaghetti Western thing (Cue Ennio Morricone's brilliant The Good, the Bad and the Ugly theme music.) What about the VANILLA? To remind you (and me)....the name of this perfume is Velvet Vendetta not Vanilla Vendetta. I'm a vanilla perfume aficionado, I'm guessing I have more than a dozen.... including my most recent purchase, Andy Tauer's spicy Vanilla Absolue. Velvet Vendetta is not Vanilla Absolue; it's not any of my Vanillas. It's not Vanilla Ice Cream or Vanilla Cake or Vanilla Syrup or Magilla Vanilla. It's not a gourmand Vanilla. It's a different take on Vanilla. It's not a VANILLA Vanilla. (Sorry.....not sorry.) It will NOT do for VANILLA what Peach's Revenge did for PEACHES. Is it a crowd-pleaser? Depends on the crowd. No question in my mind....it will find its audience. My Velvet Vendetta Verdict: This is not your (or my) mother's Vanilla. I think this is Lee Van Cleef's Vanilla. ~> That's what it is ~> Sarah Baker and (perfumer) Margaux Le Paih-Guérin's Velvet Vendetta is Lee Van Cleef's Vanilla..... and that, my friends, is a high compliment. I'm looking forward to SB's Vanilla #2 and #3. Ooooh....the drama. From the Sarah Baker website: "Velvet Vendetta ~ Soft as velvet, tough as lead."

Woah. That's all I can say - woah. When I first sprayed this on my skin, I almost scrubbed it right off. The initial scent is *so* smokey - it's pure, tobacco, ash, charcoal. Smoke, smoke, bitter smoke. It's so dry and acrid I couldn't smell anything past it. But I let it sit for a few minutes, and the sweetness started to come through. And I started warming up to it. It's still very dry, wispy, resinous, and smokey, but the vanilla gives it something warm to hold on to. It becomes more "pleasant fireplace", less "house fire". The olive makes it a little salty, a little briney, which is odd, but not unpleasant. In fact... it might be quite pleasant, actually. I'm not mad at it. I like it. I think. It's definitely weird. But very interesting. And I like interesting. (This was a blind sniff from a randomly-received sample, sprayed directly onto the skin, and boy was that a journey)

Sprayed it on my arm and it's like someone had just shot a gun in a Western movie scene. The sudden sound and smoke smell makes you turn back from your chair in the bar and it's an angry girl holding the shotgun, who surely doesn't know how cool & attractive she looks (but better not tell her, she's probably not in the mood, and is quite menacing). You wait it off and the vibe settles into something more cozy. People start chatting again. She sits at a table nearby and orders booze. Perhaps you should join her? A tempting but intimidating thought. Not my usual style but I love scents that give stories and this is a ride, definitely a keeper, good stuff!

It’s a very smoky, boozy vanilla but the vanilla isn’t the lead singer. I’d say it’s more smoky, spicy and resinous. I love the scent profile. Seems like a more masculine angel share dna to me but not really similar to Angel share other than the boozy vanilla notes. No cinnamon/apple pie vibe from this at all. This smells like an outlaw in the 1800s at a smoky saloon.