Gwen Stefani Harajuku Lovers Sunshine Cuties

...miles of smiles for fumed-up little tykes.

Truth be told, it was hard to make myself get down to business and actually try out the Harajuku Lovers Sunshine Cuties collection on my skin. I was too busy staging a stripped-down rendition of the great George Cukor film, The Women, with the dolls. G was playing the role of Norma Shearer's long-suffering wife, Baby was Joan Crawford's fabulous maneater, and Love was Rosalind Russell's gossipy busybody. The dolls were giving it their damnedest, bless 'em, but they were missing out on certain key nuances. The biggest problem was that Baby kept “improvising” by shouting out “Super Kawaii!”, which was completely out of character for her part. I finally gave up, ripped their little doll bodies off of the individual perfume pedestals, and commenced to spritzing. It turns out the Sunshine Cuties are slightly better (and in a couple cases, a lot better) perfumes than they are actors. The SC set are completely different scents to the original Harajuku Lovers, and overall, they're more interesting and diverse. Here are the quick stats, in order from my least to most favorite: Love: clashy fruity-floral that smells like musk and nail polish. Baby: peachy floral that dries down to jasmine soap. G: lime and coconut with a smidge of sandalwood and vanilla. Music: woody white florals and creamy musk with a bit of apple and pear. Lil' Angel: dry, not too sweet vanilla with a hint of lemon/orange. I think this one is great -- it reminds me of By Kilian Love. A Sunshine Cuties gift will guarantee miles of smiles for any kawaii-krazy tween -- and for anyone who collects kitschy toys and gew gaws. And since they smell (mostly) pretty nice -- and excellent in the case of Lil' Angel, you won't have a “waiting to exhale” moment around the fumed-up little tykes.

Sunshine Cuties are available from Amazon.com, starting at $30 for 10ml

See my review of the original Harajuku Lovers series here.