Kimbernunk

The imp smelled like carnations and vanilla, with a strong sage note. Once on my skin I got a massive waft of vanilla, but that settled down quickly, which is surprising because I usually amp vanilla strongly. The initial drydown was largely cedar with something soft and sweet behind it, which seemed to be the vanilla peeking out. After about an hour, the vanilla disappeared altogether and I'm left with something that smells strongly of leather with a hint of cedar - the mental image it pulls up is one of heavily worn ballet shoes - the soft leather ones rather than the canvas ones. It's nice and fairly masculine. Very strong throw on me - mostly leather unless I sniff right up against my wrists. And quite lovely when I get used to it.

... This perfume embodies her gentler, benign aspect as the capricious Goddess of Dance: muguet and Hawaiian white ginger enveloped by warm, damp tropical blooms. Looking at the ingredient list, I can see why this reminds me of Lady of Shallott. This has a definite ginger tinge to begin with, and then bursts into a floral for a while. After about an hour I get something that’s softly aquatic with a strong, calming muguet overtone. It’s really lovely, quite perfume-y without actually smelling like something I could go buy at Sephora. Definite bottle must.

This started out interesting and fruity and heavy on the plumeria. Then my skin ate the fruits and the plumeria and now I smell like powder, pepper, lots of rose, and something sort of woody. Sadly not me, but I think it’s just a skin chemistry issue. If it had stayed in the initial phase I’d be swooning. I shall have to try putting this on my hair or in a locket.

Had a nice herbal smell to it, with something faintly astringent. Unfortunately, it started itching like mad, so I had to take it off.

OMG smells like lime hard candy at first. Then my skin plays with it and I really notice all the lemongrass and lemon verbena – it doesn’t smell like straight LEMON to me at all, but lemon with an herby undertone. If this goes well, it will be awesome. If it goes not so well, it will be Lemon Pledge. Later: This went WELL. Very well. My skin tends to sweeten things quite a bit, and what I got after an hour was a nice lemon verbena scent that (after an hour, mind you) wasn’t overpowering, but just gorgeous. Perfect for winter blues, methinks, and very energizing. This is going on my bottle list…

Interesting. Started out like a bunch of fruits but it’s mellowed quickly. This seems to be calming down to some sort of pale amber with something else added to make it a bit more perfume-y. It’s very close to the skin and hard to smell without getting right up to it. It mellows out a bit to be a soft, dusty, fruity amber, with a light throw but very pleasant scent. 7/10 or so. Nice.

In Imp: Smells nice, a bit smoky, and very sweet from the mimosa and pomegranate. Wet: Smells a lot like Tintage for just a moment, only with this definite sweetness to it. Initial Drydown: After about a minute, I took a whiff. My lungs almost closed up. It’s definitely lots of what smells like a smoky, heady, resiny floral (probably the dragon’s blood resin) with more sweetness from the fruits. There’s a hint of patchouli I think as well. It’s starting to itch now too – definitely allergic to something in here but I have no idea what. Overall: Had to wash off because it’s literally about to cause an asthma attack. I’ve never reacted to anything like this!

I smell like rose scented soap. And maybe a bit of carnation. It smells horribly wonky on me, so I'm sending this one off to the swaps pile.

In Imp: Blackberry and raspberry yummies Wet: This smells like I’m walking through a berry patch. Lots of berry scent, but also something wet and leafy. Initial Drydown: This goes through a tea phase for about 45 minutes where it smells quite bright and very strongly of tea and raspberries (I keep thinking more red raspberry than blackberry smell) Dry: After 3 hours, this smells like a really nice blackberry jam. It’s not quite entirely a foody scent, but definitely strongly berry. This will be perfect for late summer. My cat likes this as well – she keeps diving at my wrists, sniffing and then trying to lick them. Throw: Strong on me Overall: 5/5 Definite winner. I must have a bottle of this!

In Imp: OMG Flowers. Like that. Wet: Floral, but with bits of sandalwood and lavender which make this scent rather green. Initial Drydown: Floral sandalwood. This is really nice. I keep hoping the ylang ylang peeks out more though. Dry: Powdery Floral, with something that smells almost buttery. Not so great on me. Throw: Really strong. Overall: Not my thing because of the powdery smell. I'd like it more if it continued smelling like it does for the first five minutes before it goes into powder butter phase.

In Imp: Mostly ozone and a touch of aquatic. Wet: Smells like dryer sheets that have been doused in lemon pledge. Gah. Dry: Over the course of half an hour this goes from smelling like various cleaning supplies to smelling like ozone with a tang of lemon. So it eventually ends up quite nice, and has proven to me that ozone does not always equal instant headache. Throw: Light. Overall: Interesting, but won’t be an every day thing.

In Imp: Plumeria and pear. Wet: Almost immediately turns into screaming roses. STRONG screaming roses. Initial Drydown: Rose. Possibly even tuberose. It’s almost enough to give me a headache, so I’m hoping the headache stops at some point! Dry: After about 45 minutes, the rose calms *way* down and I end up smelling nicely like wet plumeria. This is nice enough to make me think it’s worth waiting through the 45 minutes of screaming roses. Throw: Very light once the screaming roses quiet down. But quite lovely. Overall: Will keep the imp. Not sure about a bottle right now.

In Imp: Mostly rose. Lots and lots of rose. Wet: Again, rose. Initial Drydown: Suddenly, I start smelling something really tart and bright, which I’m assuming is the white tea. No carnations at all though. Dry: Finally, a hint of carnation. This ends up nicely bright and balanced; floral without being really obnoxiously so. Throw: Nice, but not huge. I do get whiffs of it ever now and again. Overall: Definite possibility for my wedding day. Which is why I got it.

This may sound weird, and this rec may have something to do with my wonky skin chemistry. Anyway, when I tried Siren, after about half an hour I smelled like a ginger-apricot scone, and then continued to smell like that for about 8 hours. So that might be worth a try!

In Imp: lots of berries and iris Wet: Definitely berries, but with something else that smells rather woody. A green wood, not a dry wood. It’s almost astringent. Initial Drydown: Lots of berries. Smells good. Dry: After a couple of hours all the berries are gone and I’m left with something sort of plasticky. I get the impression that my skin eats berries because it doesn’t seem to want to let me smell them. This reminds me a lot of Glasgow, actually, but with an added something that disagrees horribly with my skin. Throw – strong on me, actually – I’ve been getting lots of whiffs of it for hours now. Overall – emphatically not my thing. I think it’s something with the skin chemistry. 1/5

In Imp: Sweet, freshly cut orange. Wet: Cloves come out to play, and there’s a sharp tang from the neroli and bergamot that is really nice. Initial drydown: Still getting the bitter orange scents, but they’re sweetened by the clove a bit and there’s a hint of the mimosa. It’s an oddly cheery scent for the name. Dry: The drier this gets, the more I notice the mimosa. I’m losing the wonderful orange scent and it’s only been about 15 minutes! After a while though, the orange seems to be returning a bit to balance things out. This is really lovely. Color: shades of orange Throw: medium Overall: I may need a bottle as a mood lifter – the bright smack of orange is just too good and does bring me up wonderfully. I’m all smiles right now!

SO glad I took a chance on a bottle. It just sounded refreshing and awesome, and that's what it is on me. In bottle: Like a very bright herby field with fruit. Somehow very refreshing. Wet: Lots of bitter lime scents that sort of waft through what I think is sage. The mint makes it feel cool on my skin. Initial Drydown: I’m starting to smell more freshly cut grass and the tea. Bright, bitter, but not unpleasantly so. It just has a slight bite to it. Dry: Sage, grass, tea, cucumber and papaya. Absolutely lovely, fresh, and green. Color: Sunny green. Throw: Not very strong, but I didn’t slather it too much either. Overall: Fantastic. I’m glad I took a chance on this one! 9/10

In the bottle, this was really fruity. When I put it on it spent about twenty minutes shifting between grape and pear before dropping the fruit out altogether and becoming a sort of creamy floral. After about 6 hours, I can still smell it ever so slightly - it's a soft floral on a foggy night. My skin tends to amp sugar quite a bit, and I think that's all that's left of the fruit now - it's just made the perfume softer. Not bad, but I may pass this one on.

In the imp: cherry and anise - not my cup of tea per se, but nice. Wet on skin: OMG staranise! It's like getting smaked in the face with a bag of black licorice candies. Dry: After about an hour, the anise scent disappeared - my skin flirted ever-so-briefly with the cherry blossom before eating it, and I ended up with a soft, very light sandalwood scent which lingered for about 4 more hours. On me this was very strong for the first 45 minutes or so and then faded to something with very little throw but a pleasant scent close to the skin. Overall, 3/5 - I don't think I'll want a bottle, but I'll likely keep the imp.

Got this as a frimp in my recent Yule order. It's really lovely in the imp - nice and lavender with a hint of lotus and something else. It's calming and charmant. Unfortunately, my skin eats lavender. And whatever that something else is (cinnamon, perhaps, or nutmeg). And then my skin, to be spiteful, decided this time to turn the lotus into cheap bubblegum, which makes me sad. I could see this being beautiful on someone else. I may try it in a scent locket, actually, or on my hair, before I give up on it, because it does smell lovely in the imp!

Cool, ozony, with what seems to be just a hint of mint as there's something that really makes my nose feel cool when I sniff it - rather like mint in ice cream makes it taste almost colder. However, mint isn't a predominant note at all. It's definitely more aquatic but without being watery, and clean without smelling like laundry soap. It's spectacular - exactly what I was hoping for.

Morpher, morpher, morpher. At first, it was all khus and smoke. Then the smoke quieted a bit, and there was a hint of amber, which then immediately dissipated into absolute dead-on dry leaf. Now it's calming down into something nicely herbal, with a touch of smoke and a hint of something spicy sweet. Overall, it was way strong to begin with but it's worth waiting through the loud phases to get farther into the drydown - then it's fantastic!! Love.

I haven't been able to try this. I got an imp in my recent imp pack order for the fiance to try, and after some bugging he finally decided to humor me. He's since hidden the imp and won't let me near it to try for myself. It's glorious on him. He smells woodsy and warm - after a little while I can definitely smell the sage, which is just lovely - and the musk gives it this really sensual edge that makes me want to gobble him up. I'm buying him a 5ml so that maybe someday I'll be allowed to try a bit on myself. If I ever can, I'll edit this to add my impressions on myself. Definite WIN.

In bottle: Something figgy along with something sort of root-like. Meh. Wet: Really dirty and almost astringent. I completely lost the fig for a moment! Initial Drydown: The fig starts showing up again, along with that astringent note that I’m not huge on. It's sort of green, but not quite, and it's very harsh. Dry after 2 hours: The fig is much more pronounced. The astringency is gone, which is nice, but the fig isn’t great on me. I'm not a huge fig fan anyway, so this doesn't surprise me too much. Throw: Definitely noticeable for a few hours. Overall: May try and get the fiancé to wear it,, as he's a huge fig fan. It's not great for me.

In bottle: Smells exactly like rosemary. Exactly. Wet: Really strong piney scent, with bits of eucalyptus peaking through. Initial Drydown: The orange starts to kick in, and the eucalyptus disappears. Dry: It’s way sweeter than I was expecting – mostly I think I smell sweet orange zest mixed in with some pine needles. It’s interesting. It’s more like pine resin than actual pine, when I think about it. That might be why it seems so sweet on me. Throw: fairly strong, but they always seem strong on a first test. Overall: meh. I’ll see if the boy likes it – I did get it for him…