Nui Cobalt Designs: April Fool's Collection Part 2

A slightly late, but ever so fashionable follow up review to Nui Cobalt's amazing April Fool's collection. 

If you want more information about where to order these or how you can get these, or the first part of the review, click here! There's also a round up ranking, which you can find here! 

As this collection is leaving with NCD site on the 31st of July with no forseeable future of returning, make sure you get them ASAP! If you're reading this after the 31st, try your luck on the Sunday Swaps. 

With that said, let's get into these.

Codswallop

A grounding and stabilizing scent to keep you rooted in reality when people attempt to gaslight you. 

Spotted Dick: a dense and delicious brown cake adorned with raisins, sultanas, and dried blackcurrants.

Wet: The scent of dense and very rich brown cake with just a hint of warmed raisins and sultanas, yet it's just a little bit too sharp. 

Dried down: The top notes for this blend are the raisins, sultanas and dried blackcurrants, and let me tell you, Nui Cobalt knows exactly what they are doing with these fruit notes. Just like Horsefeathers and Poppycock, there's something to beautiful, and fragrant about their fruit notes that actually remind me of eating the actual fruit/dessert. For me, the raisin note is spot on, it's just like opening a pack of raisins and just shoving my nose into the box and huffing it. There's a sweetness that's just all reduced sugar in that dried grape, and I'm obsessed with it. There's also a slight peep of the brown cake just lurking behind. It definitely rounds out and softens at the edges, now gently relaxing into that soft, sweet dessert aroma. 

The longer this scent wears, the more the dense brown cake comes forward, it's not quite straight brown sugar (like Cardamom Rose Sugar from Solstice Scents), but instead coupled with the raisins and slight cake-battery richness that calls to mind, eggs, butter, milk and a dash of flour, it's an indulgent and ridiculously decadent dessert. 

Over time, the raisins do fade, but the base of this scent, the brown cake, is a delicious brown sugar cake that just leaves me a little bit hungry, and often times trying to lick my own skin. I actually love this so much after the sharp opening - it's gorgeous. 

Perfect for: If you love raisins, or the brown sugar - but in cake form, this is it. I can't wait to full size this.

 Blarney

 A bracing scent to steel your nerves and keep you calm in the face of mendacity. 

Irish Breakfast Tea: the warm, tannic comfort of proper Cuppa sweetened just enough with a touch of honey and smoothed with cream.

Wet: A milky and indistinct sweet note - with just a hint of aromatic 'herb' - it's not quite the typical bitter fragrance I associate with tea. 

Dried down: While the honey and cream are the top notes in this blend, dominating the opening with soft cream and glistening amber honey, the top notes eventually give away to an interesting scent - it's an aromatic herb that I get when applied wet. There's a very distinct dryness and tannic bitterness that comes from black tea, yet the longer it wears the more masculine, and almost slightly musky it becomes. It's very strongly herbal at times, yet it reminds me of high end cologne stands at Selfridges. While I love Nui Cobalt's honey note, which is a very light and creamy almost vanilla-esque treat, it also floats away after opening. 

Despite the many chances I've given this scent, there's just not enough honey or cream during the wear time for me, and what ends up being slightly leather-esque and almost cologne like isn't quite the piping hot cup of tea I was searching for. 

Perfect for: Anyone who likes the more theoretical aromatic fragrance of tea. 

Humbuggery

An uplifting scent to keep you impervious to deception and shielded from malice. 

Pineapple Upside Down Cake: a delicious juxtaposition of tang and sweetness, caramelized pineapple, coconut cream, toasted hazelnut crust and baked brown sugar.

Wet: In the vial, this is like, opening tinned/canned pineapple and getting that whiff of pineapple juice. Wet, this is all pineapple and coconut cream. 

Dried down: When it opens, the pineapple is just this fresh, juicy sour sweetness out the tin that's paired with a side of coconut cream. I can so vividly imagine this as a Thai dessert, with the cold sweetened coconut cream with chunks of pineapple swimming alongside some glutinous rice. Yet, over time, the caramelisation of the brown sugar slowly bubbles and glazes over the top of the pineapple, and the richness of the buttered toasted crust gives it a little bit of richness, turning this into the Pineapple Upside Down Cake it was meant to be. The brown sugar and butter notes of the crust are the perfect, minor characters to the main stars Pineapple and Coconut cream, and unfortunately there's no Hazelnut to be found. 

During the tail end of this scent, coconut cream and brown sugar make up the body of this scent, a rich and tasty little afternoon tea snack. 

Perfect for: Fans of coconut and pineapple together. The coconut is a creamy milky delight, and the pineapple is still the best one I've tried so far. This is a treat. 

Malarkey 

A comforting scent to ease your mind and sooth your nerves after dealing with dishonest people. 

Bread and Butter Pudding: twice-baked slices of soft white bread, salted butter, rich vanilla custard with a modest sprinkle of nutmeg and cinnamon.

Wet: A heady and indulgent sprinkle of nutmeg and cinnamon, the sharpness of vanilla extract out of the bottle. 

Dried down: Now when I tell you this is absolutely every aspect of bread and butter pudding on my skin, I genuinely am not kidding. During high school I used to obsessively make my own bread and butter pudding, because it's very easy and this is the all encompassing beautiful richness and custard deliciousness that is the all mighty Bread and Butter Pudding. I was told by a few people on the thread that they loved this, and they were not kidding. 

Before resting, this was a little too sharp on the butter and nutmeg and cinnamon, yet the more I let it rest it becomes the most soft and sweet bread scent that I fantasized about. 

This scent is all baked, warm slices of white bread, it's all that lovely wheat heavy gluten scent, drenched in cups of milk, melted butter, eggs and vanilla, baked and topped with the side of vanilla sauce and just a very sparse sprinkle of nutmeg and a touch of cinnamon. So yes, the notes for this scent are entirely accurate. 

As the intricacies of the scent fade, what I'm left with is a simple bread scent, with just a bit of butter and sugar sprinkled on top. It's still got a slight baked quality about it, and a richness in the vanilla, but still deviously delicious. 

Perfect for: Me. And also anyone who wants to smell like bread and butter pudding - the real thing, not the creative artistic rendition. 

Flummery

A truly delicious scent to help you gain perspective when people try to twist the truth. 

Highland Flummery: toasted oats and warm heather honey folded gently into whipped cream and drizzled with a shot of Drambuie.

Wet: There's such a strong scent of Drambuie and sharp alcohol - especially in the vial. When I first opened this, it smelt a little like smelling vials of liquor - very boozy.

Dried down: This is sort of like, the sharper, oat heavier sibling to Malarkey. While their scent profiles can be super similar without any comparison, when you put them side by side, Malarkey is much softer and gentler, whereas Flummery is the louder, outspoken hot headed one (probably from all the Drambuie).

While all the Drambuie in the bottle vanishes once it hits the skin, all that warm and freshly toasted oats and honey is pulled out. The oat note has very similar scent of 'wheat'- yet this one has a nuttier texture about it, and the 'toasted' note is like a gently warmed aspect that brings out all the aromatic qualities about oats - like a weetabix. Paired with a heap of honey - this reminds me much more of the Bee's Collection honey note, which is a creamy, light beige colored honey to me, this almost vanilla honey is the perfect accomplice to the nutty warmth of the oats. 

While the toasted oats were the main attraction, the longer you wear this the more the scent of honey lingers, like a sticky, golden treat you'll be savouring for hours after you've had it. 

Perfect for: Wheat note lovers - this is oat at its finest with a generous heaping of Nui Cobalt's trademark creamy honey. 

Will most likely be full sizing this one too. 

Conclusion: 

As always, on my skin the wear time for these scents were on the lighter side, the wear time for these peak around 2-3 hours but will have a wear life of about 6-7 hours. The projection for these scents are low to medium, with a medium sillage - when I'm driving and I have these applied on my wrist, I can still typically smell them when I'm moving my hands. 

Personally I'd like to see a rollerball format of these scents, because this makes reapplication much easier for me especially if I can take this out and just unscrew the bottle without fearing that I'll spill it or leak a little too much. 

I think these are perfect scents, I've rested these for quite a while and they have only gotten better with rest, and they're the best and most realistic interpretations I've been able to try for most of these desserts - especially for those desserts I absolutely love to eat. 

As I have said before, this is a must have for any gourmand lover. From this list, my personal favorites are Malarkey, Codswallop and Flummery - and I have been wearing Malarkey almost obsessively, and will need to full size this before the collection goes away! 

Disclaimer: This content was not sponsored and the products were not sent to me for review. I bought these with my own money, and did not receive any discount either. All views or opinions represented in this blog belong to me and are not affiliated with any brand.