All fragrances in this range are special editions created for the Lush forum.
(Forum Edition, 2005) – In late 2005, Lush UK held a party for members of their International Forum, and in preparation, they asked Lushies to vote for product scents that they'd most like to see turned into bottled perfumes. Among others, Lush's sweet almond Snowcake was the winner. And so, Lush UK went to work creating this perfume to be made exclusively available for purchase during their party. However, last spring, while I was being given a guided, storied tour of B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful's fragrance lines, Lush founder and perfumer Mark Constantine explained that some scents don't quite make the transition from solid to liquid form without becoming somewhat altered by the alcohol content. This was something that I had never considered before; a perfume is a perfume is a perfume, right? Not necessarily. And in Snowcake's case, this alteration is clear from the very first spritz, with alcohol coming on quite strong during its initial moments of release into the air. That would be enough alteration in itself but that Snowcake Perfume actually contains a dash more cassie absolute than is ordinarily found in Snowcake Soap (and Smitten Hand Lotion). In these products' recipes, there is a touch more vanilla ice cream scented benzoin than cassie absolute, which generally comes off as a unique blend of violet leaf and orange blossom. And though rose absolute is found in all variants of Snowcake, here, due to the increase of cassie and the ability of both to heavily rely on alcohol as a life preserver of sorts, it's given a bit more buoyancy than in Snowcake's solid or cream formats, where it is barely detectable as a general rule. This results in a floral, powdery top note, even as it continues to rest upon a core of Snowcake's traditional sweet almond. Now possessing more sophistication than simple marzipan covered cake would allow, Snowcake Perfume lacks a touch of the full-on candied sweetness commonly associated with this fragrance when solid or semi-solid. In fact, even traditionalist perfumers who commonly scoff at the modern trend of "foody" genres would likely find something to admire in Snowcake Perfume. And yet, there are those whose body chemistries, when met with an alcoholic blend of sweet and powdery, tend to concoct more of a sanitized fresh nappy scent, under which sweet sugared almond is permanently and forcibly confined. These are, of course, the unlucky few. For everyone else, they will either be pleasantly surprised by this perfume's newfound exoticism or disappointed that they got a bottled slice of cake that was iced with a sprinkling of baby powder instead of confectioner's sugar, this perhaps not being quite what they had in mind when they first blew their Lush lovin' party horns in Snowcake's fragrant favour.