Arcana: Two Finger Ballet, Chocolate Cake, Honey Craves Ice Cream Parlors and Pumpkin Crave Treats

Arcana is one of the biggest names from the indie scent world, and for good reason. They were one of the first indie brands I ever purchased (back in 2014), but with a particularly unsuccessful blind buy from an inexperienced me, I felt uninspired to try more from the brand. After all these years and much more experience with indies, I can say with confidence, Arcana truly makes amazing, high quality and extremely long lasting blends, and ones that age amazingly (even from my 2014 order!). These scents were bought partially from Ashes' Decants (which is no longer operating), and direct from the Arcana Wildcraft store ( with international shipping which used to be a flat rate of $8). 

However, I'll admit have a slightly lower hit rate with Arcana than I'd like - although I hear lots of raves about some popular blends, it isn't the best with my skin chemistry and overall, I didn't really find anything I loved, although I stay optimistic. I enlisted the help of my reluctant participant (RP) again for this review, and I have to admit, I preferred the scents on him a little more on him than on my own skin. The wear on these scents were around 5-6 hours on me, but RP's skin soaked these up in about 2 hours. We both experienced medium throw. 

Two Finger Ballet - French vanilla creme, white amber, sugared vanilla beans, caramel and a small dab of opium

This is one of Arcana's most beloved classics, and it's not hard to see why. There is a lot of appeal to this scent, its a clear, cool vanilla scent, with almond extract sprinkled on top of white amber, and it's effortlessly chic. This is the type of gourmand for people who don't like gourmands - the type of vanilla gourmand found in a department store. 

I find that French vanilla tends to be a little sharper compared to other vanillas, and definitely makes this blend a little louder. As I tend to gravitate towards foodie gourmands, while there are days where I find this a fun scent, this has never been a scent I love enough to full size (despite having been tempted, and of course, the name is also amazing). On my skin, the amber and opium is very loud, and only a touch of the French vanilla creme and sugar. it can only be described as a strangely intoxicating vanilla. I get a similar 'amber' like quality from all of Arcana's vanillas, so I wonder if it's in their accord - and I definitely enjoy this but not as much as I'd like. On RP's skin, this is far more richer and a little more caramel golden, but retains the same 'intoxicating vanilla', or 'golden sugar' type of vibe. To be honest, I personally can never really figure out if I like this scent or not, sometimes I love it, other times I'm completely turned off by it - but regardless, I can appreciate the simplicity of this blend. 

Chocolate Cake: The scent of a delicate, cocoa-dusted chocolate cake. Rather than a fudgy chocolate note, this is light and cake-like.

The opening of this scent is lovely and gorgeous, it's a very light and fluffy type of chocolate cake (not quite the decadent type). I don't dislike this scent at all - cocoa scents usually use a lot of cocoa absolute which tends to be more dusty and powdery, but this definitely has vanilla and chocolate sponge cake vibe, unlike Arcana's Hot Cocoa which is more of a luxurious rich hot chocolate with marshmallows. On my skin this dries down strangely amber like on me, and reminds me an awful lot of TFB, despite the light chocolate sponge upon application. I far prefer the opening, as it dries down very unchocolate like, and for me, goes ever so slightly plasticy, but does mellow out into a soft light chocolate cake at the very end of its wear.  On RP this scent is a little stronger with the chocolate and cake, but the opening for him was what he described as "honey coated biscuits" - which I definitely noticed. I wasn't completely in love with this scent, especially when I compare this to the vastly superior Hot Cocoa. 

Honey Craves Ice Cream Parlors: Sweet, cold scoops of pleasure. Pistachio ice cream, honey ice cream, Madagascar vanilla gelato, and a chilled porcelain bowl.

Although I really wanted to love this (I mean, how cute is the name??), especially with the promise of pistachio ice cream (which I absolutely love), this was not it. Most honey accords vary greatly (even more so than vanillas), and can often be very hit or miss (NAVA's honey is garish on me), and this was an unfortunate miss for me. Arcana's honey note for me is borderline medicinal, with a strong citrusy kick to it. The result of this scent is disappointing, combined with the amber qualities from the vanilla and the dominant citrus vanilla, it reminds me a lot of Lemsip, and while it does mellow out on the skin, it's still strangely zesty. RP described this as a "healthy throat lozenge". I would probably describe this as scent as a lemon curd and honey scone paired with an amaretto shot. I don't enjoy this one at all, unfortunately. 

Pumpkins Crave Treats: Rum-laced caramel, cane sugar, pumpkin custard, and delicate, vanilla-infused marshmallows.

This is a traditional Autumn scent, with the candied pumpkins, a touch of spice and a handful of sugar. However, similarly to the previous scents I tried, there's a real touch of amber in this scent, to the point where it skews the more gourmandy aspects of this blend to the same issue I have with TFB, into more of a mainstream scent. On my skin, the same sharper ambery elements pop out a little more, although I still enjoy the overall bready, sugary delight with the caramel. It's definitely a warm scent, but it's definitely not a pumpkin scent I find myself reaching for often. Both me and RP had similar performance with this scent, although his was slightly more rich, but he thought it smelt a lot like chocolate oranges. Again, I'm just not sure I love this scent as much as I wanted to. 

Disclaimer: I was not sponsored for this review or an affiliate with the brand, and all opinions are my own, and do not reflect any brand's opinions or interests. All products mentioned in this post were purchased, and not sent for purposes of reviewing.