Afternoon Delight

About a year ago I got a free sample of this, and at first I loved it, but then got put off by a single weird note that I can't describe in any way other than probably just synthetic. There was something taking me out of the fantasy, like being frustratingly in and out of sleep. But I still couldn't stop thinking about her, and now I picked up a 30ml. I'm happy to say I absolutely love it. There is still that weird slightly off-putting note, but it's nowhere near as noticeable. Now I can fully enjoy this frag for what I needed it to be. A warm, thick, sweet yet not sickly custard. Vanilla with a slight lactonic touch, and far more textured than just vanilla. It's a very linear scent, it doesn't really grow or change after the first 15 minutes, but I can't emphasize how much I love that pretty realistic yet wear friendly custard smell. I've really been craving gourmands recently, despite no previous interest, and I blame it on this Margiela. But do bare in mind, you need to apply a decent bit of this to get it to last...

This grew on me after a few wears; at first it was just okay, but having played around with it a bit I could definitely see this as a cozy warm pick-me-up for gloomy fall/winter days. It brings back some scent memories for me of my grandparents' house. Its longevity disappoints for the price, it's basic on its own and doesn't really live up to the madeline note. Layered with some boozy cocoa fragrance it's perfect, even if still not a true "madeline" scent. "I'm Home" by Lush is what I have on hand and that works just fine for me, and I find that combo gives a more true baked confectionary scent compared to just Afternoon Delight all by itself, which is like, raw cookie dough, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar. Lots and lots of powdered sugar. I think I probably would buy a 1 oz. bottle of this for winter, to wear around the house, but not a full-size bottle.

I can see why some people wouldn’t like this upon first smell, when I first spray this it smells like sour milk or old heavy cream but the dry down is absolutely beautiful and it becomes a sweet, warm, skin-like delicious fragrance. You just have to let it sit for a little while before heading out. I’d consider it a safe blind buy only if you give it some time to settle. It’s not a very cloying sweet gourmande, more like a French bakery than the pastry itself. It’s intimate but not silent and it has decent performance. Nothing too strong, definitely office safe. Spray and wait before judging!

I love this scent. It smells like a vanilla pastry that isn’t overly sweet it’s just really doughy. It doesn’t smell like super gourmand bakery sweet, it smells like warm sweet dough bread aka a Madeline so I think the name is perfect. In a lot of gourmands there’s like a syrupy or frosting smell but there’s none of that in this one; it’s just a sweet bread. Perfect amount of sweetness to me! I feel like a woman in her 30s would wear this but it’s a versatile fragrance for any age. It’s feminine leaning.

Sampled. Well, at least it doesn’t turn into spoiled milk on my skin, though it definetly smells like there’s a strong milk note in there, specifically warm milk. Doesn’t smell like a madeleine, just like some sort of floury-fluffy vanilla dough with warm milk being poured on it (I second that it’s more of a “kitchen scent” than a gourmand) but it’s quite nice and I’d really consider it if it wasn’t so expensive and poor performing. A pleasant surprise since this fragrance gets a lot of bad press.