Indulge eau de parfum - perfume by Cake Beauty - review by Owl Identified

Indulge is the first (and so far only) eau de parfum from Cake Beauty - and they've been rather modest in its promotion considering its fledgling status. Most of Cake's products are advertised in bubbly, cloying descriptive terms. Indulge, on the other hand, is rather understated in its copy: Wrap yourself in a new level of scent-sational sweetness & sophistication and leave others longing for more. Indulgence is good. This seems to be a calculated effort to move from cutesy confections to a more sophisticated, grown up perfume. And, perhaps, they hope the quality of their product will speak for itself. So what should you expect from this perfume? Well, according to the Cake Beauty website, Indulge boasts a rather stacked and complicated list of fragrance notes. Here is the list, from top to bottom.

Top: citrus sparkle, fresh and juicy orchard fruits, caramel syrup, island sugar cane and star anise
Heart: heart of rich florals of jasmine, rose, lily of the valley and water lily
Base: warm vanilla met with sweet powdery notes

For those playing along at home, perfumes are described with fragrance notes. Similarly to the way in which flavor notes are described in foods, fragrance notes detail the order in which a perfume's scents occur to your olfactories. Top notes describe the first scents that hit you upon application. These notes occur immediately, and evaporate just as quickly. These are inexpensive oils, but important for capturing the attention of a buyer. They typically do not last longer than ten to thirty minutes after a spritz. The middle notes or the "heart" of the scent develops just as the top fades. This is called the "heart" because it is considered the "body" of the fragrance. The heart determines the taxonomy of the fragrance. There are seven major families in the prevailing French taxonomy - which I subscribe to - and they are as follows: citrus, floral, fougere, chypre, woody, amber and leather. Because Indulge uses floral scents for its heart, it would be considered a floral. The base notes are the most expensive, and are also have the heaviest molecular structure. They are the last to evaporate, and will be the last scents you smell on your skin before the perfume entirely evaporates. Base notes act as an "anchor" that help sustain lighter oils that might evaporate more rapidly without the base. Cake Beauty uses vanilla - a very common base note - for Indulge. Base notes should hover below the heart, never dominating, but rather a steady, reliable companion.

So, does Cake Beauty succeed in finding complimentary fragrance notes that fade in and out of one another, ebbing and flowing like classical movements? Well, not exactly, but for $50? They do a pretty good job in making an overall pleasant sensory experience.

The initial scent hits you like a ton of bricks, which seems to be a recurring theme for Cake products. My Cake Mousse was also brutal at first, but mellowed into a bearable and even enjoyable scent. Most of the top notes are entirely absent for me. This is in part because they are so overwhelming. I detect absolutely nothing of citrus, however, nor of any kind of fruit or anise. The anise appealed to me in particular, so I did miss that. However, the syrupy, sugary scents were there in spades. Think the kinds of drinks that you pay $8 for at certain coffee shops - the ones that taste nothing like coffee and everything like candy. Thankfully, after about 5-10 minutes, that mess fades.

What follows is quite strong, which can be expected of an eau de parfum. However, it is significantly weaker than many others. Some Googling tells me that an eau de parfum is typically comprised of 8 – 15% perfume oil. I would say this particular perfume is on the lower end of that range. It's probably still much too strong if you're very sensitive to scents and prone to scent-induced migraines. Asthmatics should also steer clear. However, I generally consider myself fairly sensitive to smells, and this doesn't bother me once the top notes fade. I wouldn't recommend more than a single spritz, though, unless you plan on being outdoors or want to offend those in your immediate proximity all day.