Hello fellow lovers of all things chocolate and sweet
First off i think i should share that usually i am unable to wear the gourmand fragrances for too long, but not for the reasons you may think. It's not that i don't like the smell of them which strongly resemble the foods they are trying to mimic greatly in fragrances such as
Vicious Cacao which i will use as a reference because it is one of the most realistic, diabetics nightmare you could come across and i don't say that as a negative comment but more as a nod to just how well it captures the real smell of an actual chocolatey dessert and makes it seem so real that you forget you are wearing a fragrance and as much as i like the smell, but here is my problem with them. It leaves me craving fattening sweet food that while being on a diet is definitely not a good thing for me lol.
Another issue i have is i can never find an occasion for me personally to wear gourmands. Date nights could be one so that the person you are dating wishes to eat you up like a delicious treat However i am not dating at the moment. I am actually dieting before i go back in to the dating scene. So here i think you can understand my dilemma. How can i get to the dating scene to be in a setting to wear the tasy smelling gourmand if i can't get past the dieting stage allowing me to do so due to giving in to temptation because of smelling like the foods i am trying my ever so best to avoid for the diet to be successful, right?
When trying other gourmands such as
Vicious Cacao , the entire time i had it on all i could think of was all the leftover food from my Dad's birthday party which we had bought not only enough birthday cake for 20+ people but on top of that , we also bought enough toasty Belgian waffles, salted caramel ice cream, sweet chocolate and toffee sauce to drizzle all over the little chocolate pieces used to sprinkle on top, and nobody ate any of them because they were full from the BBQ food they had ate already. To me wearing something like
Vicious Cacao with a 20+ person supply of food that you smell of all day is a dangerous situation .My success of making it past the dieting stage on to the dating scene was in serious jeopardy if i continued to wear
Vicious Cacao or anything like it with all that food in the house. I truly wanted to though, on that you can believe me .
So, in a world with a large chocolate river, of the likes that we see in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory flowing with numerous dark chocolate and usually caramel/toffee based gourmand fragrances it was refreshing to find Insulo, a lighter chocolate gourmand with some floral notes making it a lot lighter IMO.
I love white chocolate so it is surprising to me that Insulo is the first gourmand that i feel safe to wear. I am not saying that the chocolate is not noticable, it really is but the other notes are blended nicely so that it's not the only thing you are experiencing while wearing this. I think the problem i have with other fragrances like
Vicious Cacao is that you kind of forget that you are wearing a fragrance and instead feel like someone is sitting right next to you eating some tasty desserts all day long and you are not allowed to eat any of it !!! What i like in Insulo though is that you are reminded that this is actually a perfume you are wearing and not the smell of food only. Maybe for many gourmand lovers, what they want is to forget they are wearing a fragrance and purely have the smell of the food on them and that alone, me personally i like having the florals to remind me that i am wearing a fragrance and stops me from completely craving the food it is mimicking.
I also feel that even with vanilla being one of the notes which would have you believe this is a thick and heavy fragrance, surprisingly though this is actually a lot lighter than most gourmand fragrances i have tried , meaning you can wear it in more situations without it becoming sickly sweet and won't have you feeling like your body is covered in syrup, all sticky and sweaty like when in warmer seasons making it more versatile. I am surprised that there are only a small percentage of people who while rating in the category pie chart have gave this a tick for summer time wearing. It could be due to locations that where the people who did give it a summer wearing rating live in a country like mine where while summer can get hot, the rest of the year it is a lot colder than say places like the Mediterranean while i am in the UK but even here in summer we can get over 25 degrees C and while today being a milder summer day i can easily wear this.
It comes across as perfectly unisex to me and I feel that anyone of any age can wear it.
Being a lighter gourmand I think this would be a good starter fragrance for those who wish to try out the sweet gourmands before delving into the truly heavy dessert based fragrances made by houses such as Mason Tahité.
Even while being a lighter fragrance the projection is good here. I am able to smell it perfectly since i sprayed it and have been writing this review.
So in summary: A lighter, more versatile gourmand that while staying true to its gourmand category the floral notes remind you this is actually a fragrance but will still please those who wish to retain the smell of a light chocolate fragrance. Can be worn in summer in the cooler summer days or evenings. It is unisex and can be worn by people of all ages. Would be a good starter fragrance for those wishing to test out fragrances of a sweet dessert like gourmand nature before diving into the heavier gourmands created by the likes of Mason Tahité.
Scent 8/10
Projection: 8/10
I will rate longevity as the day goes on. I will be going for a long walk with my dog so this will also give a good test on this being wearable on summer days.
EDIT: So after 3 hours which includes a walk with the dog in the rain i can easily still smell this about a foot and a half from my wrist when i bring it up to me to smell. The floral side has gone and i am getting more of a nice musky chocolate smell which has become more of a darker chocolate than when i first sprayed. It is warm and humid here where i am and i still feel this can easily work in the heat no problem.
Top Notes 
Vanilla
Heart Notes 
Jasmine
Base Notes 
Musk
JoaoMartins
Ronniwe
Ninamariah
Pinkchiffon
Mymariamm
Bodomic
Ergreifend
Chnokfir
Cocinera
Jolanda12
