Fragrance Reviews by SadieShade

It doesn't surprise me that this is discontinued. Pretty much, this fragrance smelled like cheap gin mixed with country-time lemonade. I wore it at the beach in high school; none of the lifeguards wanted to make out with me.

I bought this unsniffed in the EdP concentration after reading about it. The concept is very "me." I must admit that I love the idea of smelling like a whip-cracking, ball-busting pirate queen. The man who sold me the bottle looked at me funny when I asked for it and said, "Are you sure? This one is pretty strong. And it's older than you are!" This pretty much sealed the deal. I'm a perverse kind of girl.

I ripped the packaging off in an alley on the way to meet my bartender friend at her job, where she was working a noon shift. Sprayed it on my wrists and rubbed my wrists behind my ears. Walked towards the bar, sniffing. After a few steps, though, I realized that I didn't have to sniff my wrist to smell the perfume... it WAS strong! And kinda... old-ladyish. God, I hate it when the people in charge are right about things. I smelled so strongly of strong old lady perfume that I started feeling a bit self-conscious, which is unlike me. I suppose this is what is referred to as the "green monster" opening. I got the green stuff, but mostly it was old-lady flowers mixed with some acrid baby powder.

When I got to the bar, I made my friend smell me. "Ripe old lady," is what she said. "Shut up, I like it," I pouted, hating her. I ordered a beer and kept sniffing my wrist. I noticed that the initial potency of the perfume was calming down a little bit, getting less sharp and more powdery. "#&$% this perfume," I said, settling into my beer and my friend's conversation.

By the time I'd finished my third beer, I was in love with my arm. "Smell it again," I commanded my friend, but she refused. Her loss. Bandit had mellowed into an intimate, indescribable softness that smelled both like the back of a boyfriend's neck and a soft, old leather thriftstore handbag. I got a little tobacco, a little patchouli, but mostly it was this beautiful waft of something close, treasured, and sleepy.

The pirate-queen perfume made me feel kind of... maternal, actually.

Oh, well. I AM a perverse kind of girl. My only problem with Bandit now is finding a place to wear it. The last time I put it on, I went gambling in AC in my fake leopard-fur coat, and it was perfect. But how often does that happen? I suppose there are worse fates than to plot one's life around occasions to wear Bandit.