Victoria's Secret Sampler Reviews: Fearless

My friend SmelloKitty and I had a very fragrant holiday season! For Xmas, I got her a sampler of perfumes at Victoria's Secret. We're reviewing them together and posting our thoughts here. There are ten scents altogether, so look forward to reviews of all of them!

The first scent we tried on was Fearless. It smells really different on each of us, but we both agreed that it lives up to its name! It's bold, fresh and fruity. SmelloKitty picked up on the woods first, while I smelled flowers (Fearless is iris, orris root, and black currant). On her, it stayed nice and fresh; on me, it started to smell like cologne or men's deodorant. After about fifteen minutes, it dried down, and turned into something completely different! The black currant came through and the scent became almost candy-like. It's fruity and a little bit spicy, rich and mature but not stodgy. It smells modern, but not cheap. It's a lady-like scent with a slight masculine edge from the woods, the kind of perfume that's perfect for a modern woman who won't back down and faces life ... fearlessly. 

Welcome to my smell blog!

I am a person (not really a bear, sorry) who loves smells. I’ve been obsessively reading candle blogs lately, and I thought it would be fun to start my own! My little mascot is the Smell Bear, he’s cast-iron and I found him at the GoodWill for like $1.50. My plan for this blog is to sporadically post reviews of stuff I buy (or sample) that smells good: candles, lotions, perfume, etc. I shop at Bath & Body Works a lot, but I also buy stuff other places sometimes. For example, the Smell Bear is holding a Stella Mare votive in Amber that I guess I will review right now!

So I found these little candles at Fred Meyer’s, where they were on sale buy one get one free. I think they were $3 each, and I picked up 4 of them: Amber, Sandalwood, Vanilla Cinnamon and Lemongrass.

The Amber one is a beautiful gold color, and has a pure, warm amber scent that is so nice. I can’t find a picture of it anywhere, and I already burned it, so here’s a link to the Lemongrass candles on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Stella-Mare-Votive-Candle-Lemongrass/dp/B00B03WX88/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1416779270&sr=8-2&keywords=stella+mare+votive+candles
I had never heard of Stella Mare, and they don’t even have a finished website! I think they are local to Portland, which makes me feel good about buying them (even though I haven’t bought any more yet). They are soy candles, and they come in pillars, jars in multiple sizes, and diffusers. So that’s nice. The smell of this amber candle was fantastic! I’m only familiar with amber as a base note, but it is just a warm, rich smell that’s hard to describe. This candle has surprisingly good throw for a votive, and it burned for a while. I burned it in concert with a Cranberry Pear Bellini candle from Bath & Body Works to warm it up a little, and I also burned it with the Sandalwood votive for a relaxing blend. So if you see Stella Mare candles in Fred Meyer’s or Ulta, give them a try. I’ll be reviewing the Sandalwood votive later, and when I burn the other two, I’ll review them too. Smell you later!