Bittersweet

Since recently joining this site, I have a renewed enthusiasm for perfumes. Although the caveat for me is that I tend to get headaches easily from them and so I must be slow and careful with a fragrance. I cannot wear too much, too often or I may end up sickening myself and retaliate by stashing the bottle in the back of the closet and forgetting about it for ages... like a relationship, it is best to take things slow. I bought Tokyo Milk Bittersweet about 5 years ago. Initially I fell in love with the medicinal/ potion looking bottle, and the delicious and decadent chocolatiness of the juice. I greedily used way too much of it within the first week of purchase it became decidedly sickly sweet to me so I stashed it away, only to rediscover it thanks to you lovely reviewers. For me, Bittersweet starts off like a pure rich chocolate liquor that I want to lick off my arm, and slowly melts away into more of a powdery chocolate flower, I wish that more of the chocolate notes would remain, and in the end its mainly powder to me. I believe this scent wears close to the skin, which I personally prefer. I would rather not leave a recognizable trail of scent everywhere I go, but rather a cloud hugged in close to me that gives those lucky enough to be so close a sense of a secret familiarity. That they will be enticed by the memory of the secret scent they alone received. Bittersweet smells of a gift of jewels and flowers and fine chocolates slowly decaying in the tomb of a beloveds from the pages of a forgotten Edgar Allen Poe novel. Or the smell one might imagine would waft from vapid vampires languishing in a mansion, waiting to seduce and devour the next human to cross their path. As other reviewers have said, there is something decidedly dark, mysterious and gothic about Bittersweet, both in the heavy scented liquid and the black insect embossed bottle that contains it. Which is just fine with me, for to quote Lydia Deetz “I myself am strange and unusual”.

I got this in the 2010's from Sephora for like $25-40 (I'm a little foggy on the price) and used it all up about a year ago, I loved it so much, it really smelled like sweetened cocoa powder, like you were making a chocolate cake, it was addicting! It wasn't cloying either, and I remember it lasting really well on skin and clothes, because it has powder notes from the cocoa it blends into your skin but holds it's scent for a good amount of hours, it's really high quality and over time it concentrates into a gorgeous deep scent, it holds itself very well. Also the bottle is really pretty and will stand out in your collection, but the paint does start to chip off of the bottle over time. ❗keep your bottles away from sunlight❗wish someone told me this, had to learn the hard way, the sun is natural bleach lol! Sadly they discontinued this scent and for some reason people sell other scents from this collection for a reasonable price ($20-$40) but this one is impossible to find and when you do it's like $250, ridiculous, and I'm confused why the others from the collection are listed so much less, maybe this one was discontinued earlier than the rest? Hm I'm not sure, but this perfume is not worth more than $50 in my opinion. If you love it for the bottle buy one of the others from this collection. I really do love this scent and bottle, but this one is way too simple of a scent to be over $200, while the others are listed for more than half that price. I wish this house would bring it back!!! In the meantime I'm going to try Demeter's Devil's Food, because that is almost exactly what Bittersweet smelled like.

Perfection. Sophisticated, cocoa-powdered perfection. I could take a bite out of myself! I just got off work, sprayed a sample of this on, and here I sit at the mall on my break wearing Bittersweet, catching a waft of musky cocoa with every subtle move I make. It's so decadent. It's just too good. You hear that, Margot Elena? TOO GOOD. I now have the power to draw my husband (the not-so-cuddly chocolate fiend) a little closer to me... can you hear my evil, mischievous laughter? I swore up and down that I would never wear a chocolate themed fragrance because Aquolina Chocolovers killed it for me. From then on, I was keen on avoiding anything with cocoa or chocolate. Now I never want to try another cocoa fragrance because in comparison to Bittersweet, anything else might disappoint me. Imagine those packets of cocoa powder for instant hot chocolate. It does not smell like the drink itself, but just that swirling, delicate cocoa powder ready to be made into a comforting, hot drink. It's not too sweet, but sweet enough to linger. I can catch a hint of musk infused into the osmanthus. I do not get the cake batter accord that others are getting, so for me it is not too foody. That's what makes Bittersweet so wearable! It has lasted a few hours now, still going strong. This is the perfect, dark chocolate fragrance to send you into a midnight food craving, and quite likely have others crave you!

I deleted my previous review because I have completely changed my mind on this fragrance. I initially stated that although I loved the first spray of Bittersweet, the chocolate note disappeared into a drydown that I didn't care for or that just wasn't for me. Now I love this fragrance! Fresh sprays give me a very edible chocolatey scent, but the drydown is a fabulous, creamy vanilla with a hint of muskiness. On clothes, the chocolate morphs into a rich soft cashmere quality, all clean and warm and fresh. I've had people look around a (small) room and ask, "What smells so good?" and "I smell something very fresh and clean. Is that YOU?". Then I get sniffed (always interesting if you don't know someone very well), and they exclaim in delight that it IS me and that I smell so good. Longevity isn't great on skin, although it lasts forever on clothes. I kind of like that I have to respray Bittersweet though for that extra chocolate kick before the softness. Definitely a go-to for me for the fall and winter, and at less than 40 dollars a bottle (plus I got it with a coupon at Sephora for a grand total of 32 dollars), it's a bargain. I can see where the chocolate is not for everyone, but give it a whirl. You'll be surprised at how nice this is for a gentle and inviting scent.

I am not surprised that Bittersweet ended up being my favourite offering from the Tokyo Milk Dark line. This is a wonderful balance of dark and soft notes. This fragrance opens with a dark, intensive and luscious chocolate liqueur scent. It develops into the scent of a boozy, rich dark-chocolate cake. Bittersweet is a unique fragrance in the way that it conveys the decadence of dark chocolate without getting that sweet. The intense chocolate scent progressively mellows as this wears on my skin, becoming smooth and soft as it blends with the musk and osmanthus. In the drydown, the creamy, beautiful, apricot-like scent of osmanthus dominates, with just a whiff of cacao lingering in the background. I will look forward to adding this to my collection..the affordability and gorgeous bottles in this line certainly add to the appeal!