I first saw A Beautiful Life's perfumes on the Urban
Outfitters website, and was entranced by the unicorn clad bottle that claimed
to smell of the 90s. I looked their own website up and found out they actually
had a lot of perfumes, all of which sounded very interesting and unusual. As I
do love trying new perfumes (one of my favourite things to do, sad I know!), I
had to try their perfume sampler set.
This little pack of samples contains three scents which you
choose yourself, then they add two random ones - giving you five per set. I bought two sample sets, choosing I Heart Unicorns, NO, Fawn, Variation No. 6, Black Rose and Pop, and ABL
included: Sucre Blanc, Mermaid Kiss, Vrai Vert and Crush’d. They were very good
with their random picks, and didn't duplicate any I had chosen myself (which
was a nice caring touch!) - meaning that I almost got their whole range in
sample form! Each set of five scents came beautifully wrapped, and the tiny
sample bottles each had their own adorable packaging.
Over the last week I tried out each in turn, taking note of
my thoughts as the scents changed. This is how they worked on my own skin, so
they might be slightly different on you, but hopefully you’ll find it useful! Here’s
what I thought:
At first smell I got intense sugary sweet cinnamon, like
Christmas cookies. It was warm, sweet and spicy, and when wet was borderline
sickly. As it settled, it became a little more subtle, and became a sweet spice
smell. Very much like Christmas candles – I’m pretty sure there’s a Yankee
candle very similar to this! Verdict: sweet spice.
I Heart Unicorns EDP
– lemon, peppermint, pomegranate, nag
champa, frankincense
This is a sugary citrus smell. At first I got a clean fresh
lemon smell with an undertone of peppermint. Then it settled into a sweet
citrus, exactly like lemon sherbet! It was sweet, warm and almost sour. Verdict:
sweet citrus.
Variation No. 6 EDP
– pear, fig, honeysuckle, osmanthus,
lilac, sandalwood
To me this was a crisp and fruity floral. I got notes of
crisp pear, sweet fruity fig and sweet floral. To me it smelled like an
ornamental garden with orchard fruit trees and flowers. It was borderline ‘rich
old lady’ on me, as it smells quite refined, rich and grown up. It settled into
a lovely grown up pear and floral – sweet and rich. Verdict: sweet floral.
Mermaid Kiss EDP
– Jamaican lime, pineapple, French cypress,
pink lotus, bamboo lily, bay rum
The pineapple and lime in this perfume instantly hits you!
It’s fresh and fruity, with a slight undertone of rum – a little heat in the
background. The sharp lime and sweet pineapple combined to form a smell just like
a starburst flavour! I found it very similar to I heart unicorns, but with lime
instead of lemon. Verdict: sweet citrus.
Vrai Vert EDP – cucumber, narcissus, bergamot, coriander, lavender
This opens with a strong smell of green melon, exactly like
melon flavour sweets. It settles into an almost spicy blend of herbs and
florals – fresh crisp green notes with warm spicy florals. This sounds odd but
is surprisingly nice. It reminds me of a more subtle, and ‘green’ version of
Lush’s Karma – that kind of spicy musk, but less intense. Verdict: green
floral.
NO EDP – overripe fruits, wildflowers, pink
peppercorns, patchouli
A very odd blend, and very intense. It instantly smells very
musky, with heavy notes of incense. On me, it was a borderline mouldy smell to
be totally honest (likely from the mix of patchouli and overripe fruits). Then
some sweeter notes come through, the pink peppercorn (think Molton Brown) and
some almost honey or vanilla sweetness from the fruits and wildflowers. It’s a
very strong smell, and if you like Lush’s Karma there’s a good chance you’ll
like this – as its Karma’s floral older sister. It settles into a subtle
patchouli smell that is really nice. (If you buy the full sized EDP on their
site they donate $10 to organisations that protect and assist victims of rape
and sexual abuse – a fantastic cause!) Verdict: floral patchouli.
Crush’d EDP – blood orange, vanilla, tonka bean, ylang
ylang, sandalwood
Instantly I got a hit of bright orange, which was lovely and
refreshing. It turns into a sweet fizzy orange smell, just like orangeade or
sherbet. Then some sweeter notes come through, and it settles into something
akin to a vanilla orangeade float, ending into a lovely sweet tonka bean smell.
Verdict: sweet citrus.
Fawn EDP – dandelion, lemongrass, marshmallow
At first this is a lovely and fresh herbal floral. It had a
strong sweet pollen-like smell, like daisies, floral but also green. It had
warm and sweet notes, and a slight tang and almost a nuttiness – very unusual.
It turned into a white floral that reminded me of the Body Shop Moringa scent,
and settled into a sweet rich white floral. Verdict: sweet floral.
Black Rose EDP – Bulgarian rose, leather, amber, musk
This is a classic warm rich rose. It had an almost powdery
note, like ‘old lady’ rose, at first. Then it turned into a clean almost soapy
rose, and settled into a pleasant, sweet almost vanilla-esque rose. I didn’t
get any of the other notes – which made me a little sad as I was looking
forward to that – just different variations of rose. More ‘grown up’ than I was
expecting. Perfect if you like rose scents. Verdict: true rose.
PoP EDP – cherry blossom, white peach, ginger, clary
sage.
From this perfume I got an instant hit of marzipan. This
turned into a marzipan with a nuttiness, which for some reason reminded me of a
pet shop. It turned into an incense smell, still with a nuttiness, then a warm
woody floral – with vague notes of cherry blossom and ginger. As time went on,
more fruity notes appeared, like peaches. It settled into peach, cherry blossom
and ginger, all wrapped in incense. Verdict: spicy fruit.
The A Beautiful LifePerfume Sampler is $12 each, and their shipping to the UK for my two items
was $23. Taken altogether ($42 for both sample sets and shipping), this made a
reasonable total for ten perfume samples from the US. This equates to £29,
theoretically £2.90 each inc shipping, and I never could have tried these products
otherwise, so I don’t mind paying a little extra. In interest of full
disclosure (and a totally honest review): the shipping took about six weeks,
which was a bit long too be honest, and their customer service was non-existent
(I sent a few emails and facebook messages asking for a shipping date estimate,
as I was moving house and panicking, but got no response) but the actual
products are lovely and care was obviously taken with product selection and
packaging. So, if you are willing to wait, definitely try the sample sets! Or
if there’s a particular one you like the sound of, some online UK retailers
carry a select few of the full sized bottles for around £40.
Purchase the A Beautiful Life products directly from their US site, or
at UK retailers such as Urban Outfitters and ASOS.
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