6 Sixteen 92 Reviews: Pour Some Sugar On Me + Time After Time + Lolita + Blood and Honey + Wicked + Cherry Cola Float Sea Salt Hair Mist

My first time reviewing uh... not perfume! A bath product! Woo! I don't wear any makeup, and my nails are bare, but I am pretty vain about my hair. It's funny - I didn't used to be, when my hair was long. But I got myself an undercut that felt "right" and I suddenly became obsessed with making my hair flip over or stick up at various angles. Is it just me embracing my inner cockatiel? Finally feeling comfortable in my own skin? Way too much time watching Queer Eye nodding along to their exhortations to up one's self care game? You decide, reader.

The perfumes covered in this review are:

• Pour Some Sugar On Me [ shop link ]
• Time After Time [ shop link]
• Lolita [ shop link ]
• Blood & Honey [ shop link]
• Wicked [ shop link ]
• Cherry Cola Float Sea Salt Hair Mist [ shop link ]

Methods

For the perfumes:

All perfumes in this review were allowed to rest for several days after arrival. The perfumes were kept in the dark in a plastic box. I did crack them open to sniff them directly after arrival, and with a couple to do an initial test. The reviews are not based off of these initial impressions - though if a rest did change the smell I’ll note that.

I’m doing a half-hour skin test with each perfume. They are always applied to skin that has either been washed or hasn’t had perfume on it that day. Sometimes I will run one scent on one wrist/hand/arm and the other on the other wrist/hand/arm. When I wash my hands for review purposes I wash with a scented soap (it’s all I have available - shea butter Dove soap or almond Doc Bronner’s). Before doing test periods I often wear or play with other scents in my collection (that I wash off), so theoretically there could be cross-contamination.

Each sample was gently swirled before application. Each review is written without looking at the notes (in that moment… I obviously looked at them when I bought). At the end of the review I will list what the notes listed in the shop are and comment on how I think they interacted

For the sea salt hair mist:

I've applied it several times - generally to wet hair. I discuss the particulars of my applications down in the review. I often will layer it with another scent in my collection. Since it's been worn several times it's had ample time to rest inbetween arrival and the later applications.

Bottle Review

You can see my review of S92's 2ml wands [here ]

In regards to the 4oz hair mist bottle: It's a pretty standard spray bottle. It didn't leak en route and sprays well. The label is durable, stylish, and easy to read. My only complaint is while the black bottle looks really cool it makes it hard for me to gauge the interior fill level and figure out how fast I'm going through it.

A reminder: Each nose is different and each skin’s chemistry is different. Your mileage may vary.

Pour Some Sugar On Me

In the bottle: At a distance when I crack open the bottle it’s all pinky fruity (think stone-fruits or apple or pear) sugar. Closer to the bottle there’s a hit of indolic florals in there that take over… and also what smells more like citrus than stone-fruits or apple/pear.

Wet on my skin: Pretty sure there’s some apple in this. Kind of a ‘clean’ scent to it without it going over-the-top baby wipe. It’s quickly taken over by a more gourmand, sugary smell. The fruit smells like an apple or a pear with citrus edges. So, fruity floral with some gourmand nuances. Very rounded and cute - nostalgic. The indolic edges in the white florals burn off (or are covered up) quickly. Does this have a lipstick accord in it? I think I might recall it having that. Has some of that innate ‘s92’ dryness to it.

Drydown: Pretty sure there’s peach in this - but it seems almost like a floral peach. The scent has died back quite a bit. I’m getting fruits at this stage - the aforementioned peach and I think maybe apple. Little bit of a citrus, and a round, sweet gourmand note. Maybe a touch of lipstick.

After 30 mins: Very similar to the drydown. The throw on this wasn’t bad throughout. A touch feminine. The white floral - I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a tuberose (I might, just possibly, also be getting a touch of white musk).

Official Notes: White peach, raspberry syrup, citrus flower, sweet mango, cotton candy, pink lipstick

So, the white peach is the peach. I think the mango is what I was interpreting as apple. The cotton candy is the sugared/gourmand part. With the raspberry syrup… I think that was the tartness I was reading as citrus. The citrus blossom might have added to that some - but it’s 100% the white floral I was getting. The pink lipstick is the particular lipstick accord being used in this.

Verdict: Not really my thing. It is a fruity floral - so I had to try it - but I wish there were more sugared fruit and more of a tart OOMF to it. I liked it the best as it transitioned from wet to dry. Swap.

Time After Time

In the bottle: Sweet, ambery, musky florals. Little bit of an aquatic twist to it at the edges. I recall there being a ‘new roller skates’ accord in this - and I think I’m getting leather and a touch of something metallic. Also I might be getting whipped cream? Was whipped cream a note in this?

Wet on my skin: Really getting the new roller skates now! It actually kinda smells like a roller skating rink. Leather, metal, and maybe a touch of plastic or lubricant. There’s definitely a creamy smell that could be read as shaving cream or whipped cream (some sort of gourmand in there too with it). Something in here smells like amber - kind of reminds me of the amber in Alkemia’s Ghost Fire. Similar to Alkemia’s Ghost Fire there’s also something that smells part of the way between a cucumber-water-aquatic and a smoked scent.

Drydown: Some of the swampy smell died back, but otherwise very stable to how it was wet.

After 30 mins: Amber, white leather and musk-that-smells-kinda-like-shaving-cream. A little ozonic and maybe the tiniest echo of a floral in there. It’s not a bad smell - just not very complex once a lot of the stuff has burned off.

Official Notes: Watermelon lipgloss, peony blossom, new roller skates, vanilla malt, sugar musk

I think the Watermelon lipgloss is what smelled aquatic to me (and eventually smelled smokey). Peony was the part of the floral that wasn’t aquatic. The new roller skates are the leather/metal/etc smell. The vanilla malt and sugar musk are what I think was pinging me as well, musky and amber-ish (I also hold open the possibility that the amber was in something else). This is a really musk/amber/malted vanilla/white leather forward scent.

Verdict: Swap. It was very similar to Alkemia's Ghost Fire in the wet stages and the initial drydown. If you’re someone who’s into that sort of scent - or want a vanilla-sugar musk based scent with some leather nuances you won’t go wrong with this one.

Lolita

In the bottle: Citrus and pink fruit (possibly pink berries - or maraschino cherries), sugar, edge of florals. I think the florals I’m getting are pink and/or white. Like, something that reminds me of delicate roses or a sweeter neroli maybe?

Wet on my skin: Pink! Like, reminds me of a pink floral print sundress. I’m getting something gourmand in here I think. Kinda cake-y. And something bubblegummy, perhaps? There’s an undercurrent of that fruit and a touch of floral (Rose). I might be imagining a white musk or it might be there is some in there in some sort of accord. This is fainter to my nose right now than it was in the bottle. This reminds me somewhat of Hexennacht’s Rose quartz, but a little more refined.

Drydown: Crushed rose petals (smelling more pink than red) - almost syrupy - citrus, musk, kind of a gourmand vibe that reminds me of vanilla pudding. Still sweet and a little bubblegummy but some of the complexity of the wet scent has been lost - for example whatever non-rose floral, and whatever non-citrus fruit I was getting aren’t there any more on me. It’s kinda moving towards reminding me of Sucreabeille’s Blood Rose but mostly because that rose is dominating.

After 30 mins: Rose, citrus, maybe a touch of bubblegum and musk.

Official Notes: Crisp apple skins, tart peach candies, rose absolute, sugared violet

Okay, so, I think the note I was reading as vanilla pudding is their apple note. For some reason S92’s apple note smells gourmand to me but loses a lot of identifiable fruitiness early on because I had a kind of similar reaction to Nerium Oleander from them (there I described the smell as ‘toasted flour’ I believe). The pink fruit/citrus I think is the tart peach candies accord. It definitely doesn’t smell like a tart peach - it smells like peach with some sort of citric acid.

I’m pretty sure the sugared violet is what I was reading as bubblegummy/musky which makes some sense - some violets are very deep and I often feel like they border on chocolaty. This is a deeper one but is in such a concentration and sweetened so it smells more kind of a… mid-violet without going strongly purple if that makes sense.

And the rose is the rose. I’m not surprised it is an absolute based on the fact that it smelled exactly like crushed rose petals. It dominated on me.

Verdict: Swap. My skin ate this apart from the rose absolute - also it made the skin it was on kind of itchy after half an hour. I do think it's worth checking out for rose fans who want a bright, fruity rose scent and who also have different skin chemistry than mine.

Blood & Honey

In the bottle: In full disclosure I recall this scent contains dragon’s blood, honey, and honeysuckle. It’s kinda unavoidable to recall the notes when they’re in the name, lol. But what I’m smelling is: Light, fragrant, honeysuckle - not a hundred percent true to the honeysuckles I am used to but closer than the one in Enfant Terrible. I don’t know if it’s a separately sourced note or just a different concentration - but this scent seems significantly less indolic in terms of the floral. In addition to the floral I’m getting hint of something like mandarin orange, a honey note (that smells like clover-flower honey), and an undercurrent of spicy dragon’s blood.

Wet on my skin: More of that kind of mandarin note - I think it might be part of the honey accord? Like an orange honey blend? Light, creamy, sliiightly indolic honeysuckle. The dragon’s blood is here but it’s subtle and taming the kind of dry, indolic character of the floral with its innate sweetness. I get more of the dragon’s blood at arm’s length than I do up close

Drydown/After an hour: I’m combining these sections for a couple of reasons. The first is my alarm didn’t set (I thought it had) and I just sat here and wore this for an hour feeling like ‘hm, seems like it’s been a while’. The second is this one is one of the more stable scents from s92 I’ve worn. If anything I’m amping it. The third reason is that I was closing tabs and I had one open to s92’s master list (was checking the notes for Lolita earlier) and saw the notes for this.

So to describe what it smells like: resinous parts are amped. There’s still a touch of the orange (and actually less now than when it just dried so I guess there’s a little bit of morphing) and the florals have stayed sweetly on the edge and slowly gotten less indolic. Basically the perfume starts orange/honey/floral forward and moved resin forward as it stayed on my skin while still maintaining sweetness from the honey and complexity from the orange and the floral.

Official Notes: Blood orange, wildflower honey, pale amber, honeysuckle

So, the blood orange is the scent I was pegging as mandarin orange. The honey is separate from the orange note - though the blend quite well in my opinion- but it’s there too. The honeysuckle is there as I recall - it’s mostly adding complexity to the body of the scent.

I could have sworn this was supposed to have dragon’s blood in it. It’ doesn’t. I freakin 100% misremembered. But it does have an amber with that kind of slightly-spicy-resinous-kinda-smells-like-doctor-pepper thing going on. Like, I feel like I’m wearing I Can’t Believe It’s Not Dragon’s Blood. I was actually all set to comment how much it reminded me of BPAL’s Dragon’s Blood in their Ars Draconis line.

Verdict: I like this one. I’ll probably eventually pick up a sea salt hair spray of it because I think it would be good for layering and would work better as a spray-on scent than an oil. I’ll also probably keep my perfume oil sample of it.

Wicked

In the bottle: I like to alert people when my blind sniffs are not so blind - and here I recall notes of patchouli, vanilla, and almond buttercream being listed. Which… I think might be the entire scent? Well, let’s see what I get: On a first whiff there’s an alcoholic smell that overwhelms and then gradually calms down to a sweet, bitter, very dark, patchouli swirled with a glassy alcoholic tang.

Wet on my skin: Alcoholic, indolic, bitter plastic and patchouli. This smells almost like latex gloves that have been dipped in rubbing alcohol. Some edges of nuttiness that might indicate a tonka was once involved in this.

Drydown: This has actually been a really hard scent for me to wear. Like, it’s better than it was wet but that one note that’s gone somewhere between a latex-at-the-dentist’s-office and burning-plastic is really hard on me. I’m getting a fuzzy, warm vanilla, a really woodsy dark patchouli, and then that wretched death note.

After 30 mins: That death note has gone fainter still - now there’s some sweetness coming out that I think might be the buttercream note I remember. Patchouli is very earthy now - almost more like dirt that wood.

Official Notes: Three vanillas, aged patchouli, almond buttercream

Welp, remembered all the notes. Either one of the vanillas or the almond is going bad on me. There is a certain ‘ultra bitter almond’ quality to that alcoholic note at first - but it burns WAY back very quickly. The burnt-plastic/latex smell lingered some at least the entire time - I think it’s one of the vanillas.

The patchouli used here is a little more bitter/resinous and less silky than the aged patchoulis I’m used to - but I could certainly buy it being an older one.

Verdict: Hard, hard pass. I dunno if it was the almond or a vanilla that went so bad but something in this actively went bad on me… Maybe this will work for someone with a different skin chemistry.

Sea Salt Hair Spray - Cherry Cola Float

Product Scent: In the bottle this smells just like a cherry cola soda with swirls of extra vanilla. The carbonation scent note in here is amazing - any anyone who wants to know what my ideal sparkling/fizzy note smells like should take a whiff of this.Once it goes on to my hair it takes on a kind of ‘spiced’ quality that reminds me of Dr. Pepper and reminds my husband of a baked good like ginger bread - it retains that fabulous carbonation note. Over the next few hours with the scent the carbonation slowly fades. The smell lasted overnight with the final version of it smelling like warm Dr. Pepper minus the carbonation note.

With this scent keep in mind it is fairly strong - any perfume selection that you’ll wear with this is one where you’ll need to keep layering in mind. I find that this scent layers well with dark and warm scents - my personal favorite to layer with it is Sucreabeille’s That’s What She Said.

Product Performance: S92’s Sea Salt Hair spray has a loose hold and mostly softens the hair when applied in small amounts. When applied more generously it works more like sea salt hair sprays I am used to. Giving hair a gentle hold with a very, very mild ‘crunch’ to it.

I apply this product generally to towel-dried hair that is still damp. I have very short hair, worn in an undercut where it is longer on the top than it is on the sides and back. For how I wear my hair I apply it fairly generously and use my hands to scrunch my hair to enhance the waves to give myself a kind of ‘bed head’ look. Then I allow it to air dry. If the hold is not firm enough to make my hair respect my part, or if my cow lick is going crazy, I will usually use some hair wax or hair clay to get the hair laying the way I like.

For longer hair this product would, in small amounts, help prevent frizz and flyaways while softening the hair. In more generous amounts it would help hold and define ‘beachy’ waves.