A review of Carol's Daughter, Pearls

My initial impression of this scent was neutral. Mainly because it smelled too mature and "old." It smelled very floral vanilla, with mostly undetectable citrus, even though it does supposedly contain bergamot. It smelled very powdery flowery, and reminded me of what I'd find at the drugstore. But as the hours wore on, the vanilla and musky amber like smells began to show through, while still retaining the pleasant warm floral scent, in a unique way. I was delighted.

Smelling this was very comforting, especially later on, as the scent really began to mix with my body chemistry. It reminded me of summer evenings safely rocking in a mother's arms, right after drinking a warm honey vanilla cinnamon chai, underneath a magnolia tree, next to a warm bowl of basmati rice sprinkled with saffron. Although I don't believe there's any saffron in this perfume, it does have anise I believe, which is also a warm spice. I absolutely love this scent, it's very warm and inviting, and very lovey-dovey, but I really don't like the fact it has bergamot in it.

Especially with summer blossoming now, and more ladies venturing out for long periods in the sun... I feel it's important to divulge more on this fragrant note, bergamot:

Bergamot is a fresh scent cultivated originally from a hybrid of lemon and bitter orange. Its oil is often used as a top citrusy note in many expensive European designer scents, but most bergamot oils make your skin photosensitive, meaning when you're in sunlight, your skin cells can experience phototoxicity and cellular damage. SOME bergamot oils are manufactured to be safe, but oftentimes you need to check with the manufacturer about this. Basically, in order for bergamot oil to be safe to use on the skin, it should have been properly vacuum distilled so that it no longer contains terpen or bergapten. The resulting oil would then be safe (not photo toxic) to use on the skin.

I believe sandalwood essential oils cause skin light-sensitivity, too. There is a whole list of these light-sensitizing (photo-sensitizing) oils, which I plan to share in another post. So be careful to just use these ones as evening wear, or at least with a good sunscreen during the daytime.

On another note, I'm interested to know what other people think about her line's Ecstasy Shea Souffle; has anyone tried it?