So Sweet Like Candy, But Not Really

I was expecting something so so different from Prada Candy . I mean just look at it, look at the box, look at how it's marketed, look at the bottle, which looks like a distant cousin of something from Marc Jacobs' Daisy line. I guess Prada is trying to get a younger demographic by marketing this scent as such. However, this scent isn't what it looks like. It's not your typical sugary-sweet fruity floral. No pink pepper! What it does have that is sweet is caramel, and it opens with a big burst of it. But quickly, it tames down, due to an abundance of benzoin. You are never drowned int he sweetness, and perfumer Daniela Andrier treats it like one of her "Infusion" series scents - it is tempered, it is dried down to a sophisticated sweetness, and it is very subtle, and it is beautiful. I remember I was at the duty-free shop at London Heathrow when I tested this, and my heart went a-flutter. I told myself, I had to have this, and immediately grabbed a bottle (It didn't hurt that the price point was almost guilt-free over there at Duty-Free) The middle notes, to me, have almost none of the sweetness, dissolving to a more dry brown sugar with hints of vanilla, and enveloped with musk. This one blends with any of the Prada scents, they could call it "Infusion de Caramel" and it wouldn't be out of place with the rest of the line. I do hate the bottle, though, I hate that half-cylindrical top thing that turns around when you press down. More often than not, the first spray tends to get lopsided. But I read that this is a success, though, and that's almost always never happens to something I like. This is one of my top favorites from 2011. scent-wise.