Salt Caramel

This perfumery house is frickin' awesome! All their fragrances are high quality, sophisticated creations, which I believe are on equal par and share the same English style as Jo Malone. However, "Salt Caramel" Is Just Raving Gusto-Olfacto Perfection!!! For lovers of sweet-salty tastes, nutty-buttery flavours, or just lovers of ever-so-slightly burnt toffee – you really can't look past this one. I understand it may not be everyone's preferred taste, but for the niche it's aiming for it hits the nail on the head! So, description... Intense caramel and salt flavours – neither outweighs the other; they sort of bounce off each other in a balanced harmony – it is sweet but not sickly. Combined, it is delicious... There are other notes that are not shouting out in the foreground like the caramel and salt, but are still noticeable. These include: burnt toffee, nuts, creamy butter, vanilla, tonka bean and sandalwood. The middle notes turn the scent from delicious into scrumptious! The burnt toffee seems to permeate everything and it's really hard to detect what part of the pyramid it belongs to – but it adds an EDGE to the sweet caramel/salt combo. The nuts have a sort of back-of-the-throat deliciousness that goes well with the caramel and reminds of praline, but there’s also something else – brazil nuts? chestnuts? peanuts? The butter is tasty, creamy... and wispy soft. Like suede. The vanilla may not actually be there (since I have difficulty identifying vanilla when similar scents are present), but I've included it in the list anyway. In the base, the tonka bean smells strong, creamy and warming and is predictably put with its old friend sandalwood, which is thick and dark. But to me these notes felt quite harsh, as they intensified over time, becoming quite piercing, heady and slightly medicinal. Warning: this is not a seductive, Arabian Nights oriental base. However, that being said, the base never dominates the composition, as the caramel and salt form the main olfactory treat that keeps prominence through the drydown. Lastly, I want to mention that as a rule, I don’t buy gourmand fragrances. I can't stand smelling like food - it's too frustrating, and I don't want to feel like a walking dessert (it's distracting to others). However, I HAVE made an exception here, because this fragrance crossed the boundary of food satisfaction and entered the pure pleasure zone. Half the time I don't even think of it being gourmand, because I'm in heaven! For those who dig the flavours I mentioned, you really can't go past this scent. Even people who aren't hugely into these should give it a go... High quality and artistry can break boundaries, as it did for me. This is an X3 excellent gourmand.

Oh my world, where do I start with this fragrance? Imagine the most lovely, expensive salty caramel macaroon. It's been hand made and hand picked just for you, the prettiest most perfect little bite of heaven. Now imagine you're picking it up from it's gorgeous pastel box, it makes your mouth water as your taste buds are already expecting the gorgeous taste explosion to come. You put it in your mouth, it makes your vocal cords go a nearly carnal "mmmmmm". You close your eyes to savour this piece since you know there will only be about two bites left. The salt, the caramel and the vanillic sugar melts on your tongue, you savour the buttery, nutty flavour with a silly, happy smile on your face. Sunshine and angels and flippin butterflies in stomach to ensue. This is Salt Caramel, the perfume. When you spray it on, you get a buttery, salty, toffee popcorn note which is a bit circusy strange but yet, yet it makes you swoon already... awaiting things to come. This beauty envelops you minutes after in the most delicious creamy caramel aroma which, lo and behold, isn't sweet. It's succulent, creamy, soft and oh, oh, oh so tasty. It literally makes your mouth water. If you're on a diet, DO NOT under any circumstances use it. The scent makes you long and think of all the beautiful things in life. At the same time it is the most foody-erotical smell I've ever encountered. Wow. just Wow. Perfect 10 for gourmand lovers. I'm flabbergasted at it's perfection and affordability. The lasting power is a few hours, I will respray during the day for that toffee popcorn, childhood circus smell though. Delighted with this purchase, love at first sniff and goes straight to my top 3.

Rather lovely. A nice, non-synthetic, quiet butterscotch, caramel, and slightly salty popcorn scent which is light-hearted and fun but not sickening or juvenile and surprisingly warm and pretty. This actually dries down to something surprisingly sensible and approachable - I still smell the caramel popcorn, but my rather traditional-perfume florals-only mother loves this on the dry-down and keeps threatening to steal it from me. It's also one of the few perfumes that I own that my sister always compliments - although we both agree that it wouldn't play well in her very corporate work environment because it's far from a strict, serious, polished scent - it's more like a fluffy hug. As a fun aside, I work in an academic library and this is the one scent that my students seem to love - I've never had a bad comment, but the comments I have had have ranged from the very complimentary to the good-natured but slightly weird, such as comparisons to coffee shops (?), cinema popcorn, toffee, fudge, biscuits, and once when I layered it with a vanilla body lotion I got enthusiastically sniffed and asked if I was wearing the infamous Prada Candy. I now have to remind myself that if I wear it to work, I run the risk of being sniffed, conversations about confectionery, and hungry students! Which, in its way, is in itself a glowing endorsement of this rather nice fragrance...

I ordered the full size 100ml Salt Caramel fragrance, which costs £55. Having read the descriptions of every perfume available, this particular gourmand scent really appealed to me. (Needless to say I am a fan of Thierry Mugler’s Angel, as well as anything containing vanilla!). Shay and Blue describe Salt Caramel as “irresistible”, “tempting” and “indulgent”, and have very helpfully broken down each note for each of their scents. Salt Caramel is composed thus: Top Note – Liquid Caramel On The Nose, Expertly Offset With Tangy Sea Salt. Heart Note – The Smoothness Of Tonka Bean Adding A Touch of Elegance. Base Note – Refined Bourbon Vanilla For Depth In The Base With Sandalwood A Woodsy Counterpoint To The Sweetness. In addition: Made With Real Flowers, Fruit And Spices, and contains Around Two Pounds Of Woods and Vanilla. Wow. I sprayed twice onto my wrist, and the scent lasted on the skin all day. It never appeared to fade. I sprayed it a few times all over (including clothes), and went to work. Comments from colleagues included “You smell nice”, “Ooh, yummy”, and “Is someone eating coconuts?”. I found this scent really gorgeous and yes, rather addictive – I kept sniffing where I had sprayed (sounds rather primal!). The scent faded just a bit over the day, which is not bad, and becomes an incentive to also buying the more travel-friendly 30ml size.

It's the most gorgeous perfume I've ever had. First spray it's full of sea salt, it almost makes me cough, it's sharp and scratchy like the real salt itself. After 5 minutes the sharpness fades away and it becomes the most warm, creamy, unashamedly buttery, full and round caramel fragrance you could imagine. The salt note stays noticeable, but it's just helping the caramel to be balanced. I can see the resemblance with the popcorn, it's extremely buttery and fatty. I love it so much! It sounds like a childish gourmand, but it's not: it's a totally grown up and nicely composed fragrance for every age. I know a lot of people will say this is not a real perfume, it's just caramel with salt, and they are right. But at the same time I cannot dream a perfume more perfect like this. Longevity is insane. After having 2 showers, I can still smell it. When I spray it on my arm, and fades away after 5-6 hours I just have to water it a little bit and the scent returns. LOVE! It's not cheap, but worth every cents.