arcana amorini

With their chubby knees and wings, these tiny creatures are like particularly naughty cherubs. A playful mix of cherry candy, three vanillas, pink musk, guava, sugar, and a warm rush of cinnamon hearts.

Amorini was part of Arcana's Valentine's Day release. When I did my first sniff impressions post, I said it smelled like cherry lollipops. In the bottle it really does - cherry candy and a bit of pink musk. I'd say it's vaguely cough syrupy, but it smells just as much like cherry popsicles or cherry hard candy as it does cough syrup, so it's just got that intense, sweet, artificial cherry thing going on.

On skin it smells distinctly more like real cherries, and there's a rush of warmth from the cinnamon. My skin has a tendency to amp cinnamon, but it's not with this, which I'm really happy about. Too much cinnamon and this would smell like Red Hots or Warheads - but it doesn't. I get a bit of the more cleanly fruity guava and the musk is still present, but there's decidedly less vanilla than I expected from the description. It's sweet, don't get me wrong, but with the inclusion of three vanillas I kind of expected it to smell like cherry cheesecake or cherry vanilla ice cream (which I LOVE SO MUCH). It doesn't.

As it dries the cinnamon gets a little stronger, but it never takes over. It provides more of an impression of heat than actual spice. The vanilla also comes out a bit more, lending a creamy sweetness. And after a few hours, the pink musk is quite a bit more noticeable. But after all is said and done I'm sticking with my original assessment: cherry lollipops.

Photo by anaulin on Flickr

Would I buy it again? Yes. It's not a complex scent journey or anything, but it's interesting in that I don't have anything like it in my collection. It's candy sweet, so if you don't like that sort of thing I'd stay far away from this one, but I like it a lot. It's a very fitting scent for a Valentine's release - it's almost a literal interpretation of the holiday, all glossy red candy and cut paper hearts.

Available from: Wherever Arcana oils are sold - The Rhinestone Housewife and The Soap Box Co among other places, or you can order direct from Julia using the contact info at Arcana Soaps. Eros was part of Arcana's Valentine's release, and is still available as of this posting.