Indulge eau de parfum - perfume discontinued by Cake Beauty - review by Adriana Ravenlust

I bought this perfume as a gift for myself last year. I usually don't wear perfumes. Instead, I opt for body sprays that have a lower density of alcohol and other headache-inducing ingredients. For me, perfume tends to be too strong, but how could I resist this gorgeous bottle? Especially when I loved other Cake products so much?

Truthfully, it took a bit for me to get used to this. I wore it once, twice or three times last winter, and then I pushed it back into my bathroom closet until a few weeks ago. It's not that I don't like the smell, because I do, but I think my body doesn't always like perfumes. At given times this perfume has made me sneeze, get headaches or experience heartburn. The last one is especially strange to people who don't get heartburn at the drop of the hat, but I've gotten heartburn from water before, so it's far less strange coming from me. I experienced all the side effects quite a bit the first few times I tried Ingulge--especially the headache. For some reason, though, I don't experience those issues some ten months later, and it's become a product that I use once or twice a week.

So, let's go back a step. The bottle is an adorable frosted glass with "Indulge" in a swirly, pink front. It's very feminine. The box it comes in is also a bright pink, but mine is long gone. The pump bottle is available in 50 ml, so it's decent size. Because a single pump lasts all day, I can't imagine I'll run out of this any time soon. I do sometimes spray later in the day just to refresh the scent, but it's not necessary. My very first spray was still lingering some eight hours later, which definitely impressed me. I had gone to sleep and awoke to the scent still lingering on my wrists. I sometimes apply two spritzes (bosom and wrists) in the morning, but it depends how I'm feeling. The smell sticks with me, and it was a striking comparison to the body sprays that I usually use.

I'm not perfume aficionado, so I don't experience perfumes in terms of notes. When I spray Indulge, the main scent is that of vanilla, but it's not as artificial as most vanilla products. It's also a tad powdery, but not so much as to smell like your grandmother. Those are what Cake describes at the "base notes", and Google defines base notes as those that make the appearance after the top and mid notes have evaporated. However, my experience is that the base notes are about the only ones that I can detect. It doesn't affect my enjoyment of Indulge, and others might better detect the top notes, but I'm not going to lie and say that this is a complex fragrance. It's really not.

If you're curious, the top notes, which are the lightest and the first to fade, are supposed to be citrus, fruit, sugar cane and star anise. I have no idea what star anise smells like, but I don't really detect anything citrus-like or fruity. The mid notes, which should make an appearance after the top notes disappear and blend with the base notes, are jasmine, rose, lily of the valley and water lily. My nose doesn't personally detect much in the way of florals, but that's okay: I don't like floral smells generally.

Cake does describe this as perfect for both day and night, and I'd have to agree. I'm not the type of person who wears fragrances differently depending upon the seasons or time of day. However, I might be enjoying Indulge more because it's just cooled down and the vanilla is so warm that it makes me feel warm.

I also got some schoolin' via Google. Apparently, calling this perfume isn't correct, because perfume has more perfume oils than eau de parfum. However, I can't imagine how I'd deal with a scent that's any stronger than Indulge. Cake would really have to call it "Drown." Right now, the scent is strong enough to certainly be called indulgent and sweet enough that not everyone will like this eau de parfum; however, after some warming up, I do love it.

I still like this perfume, but I save it for special occasions. The fragrance is long lasting, but it sometimes gives me heartburn. This isn't a flaw of the product, though. It's just my sensitive body.