veronicafranco

hmm. bittersweet fruity porta potty air freshener throw, yankee candle up close.

i still like it layered with the other 2 le mats, though.

on me, this is HI!! I'M FRANK!! with a little musk and sage. the currant is there only when very wet.

it actually smells nice, but masculine, on me.

like the other 2 le mats, i like it best layered with both its fellow triplets.

i don't know what sugarcane blossom really smells like, but to me, this smells like linden. skin musk, that not-quite-lemony tang, and a soft floral that has the same kind of low-pitched (?!) sweetness as linden. the longer it wears, the more the tang fades and the floral develops. as on everyone else, this is very soft. i don't think i need a bottle, but may well use up the decant on days i don't wanna be too perfumey.

so i guess almond and fig amp on me... i'm getting no spice, a vague pretty fruitiness, and most strongly something like honey mone smells on my skin. almond and fig. kinda gritty and kinda cocoa. the lovely ralenth sent me a sniffie of this - i'd been curious about it and i'm glad i got to try it!

i agree with bagfish, upthread, that this is quite a lot like mag mell. that's a good thing - i love mag mell, but gave my imp to my sister, so thanks for the frimp, lab! on me, it's mag mell but girlier - the blissful amber/wind, aka rain, combo when it's first on seems to be the same. i think there are orchids in here, faintly, but they're not too much for me, as orchids sometimes are. and there is a bit of tropical fruit going on, but it just serves to make the blend nice and sweet, not cloying. i really like this!

 

as i mentioned in the magical frimps thread, i am a spanish professor, so i think i will definitely be wearing this during our units on peru!!

the fruit notes in this are tangy, bright, juicy, all that wonderful stuff. it's neat how the sweet pea melds into the fruit here.

i do get my beloved tonka, always a good thing.

there was one fleeting whiff of carnation early on - so far, that's been it.

sadly, the caramel-like sugar cane plus the rich cream is what really dominates on me, making this a gooey fruit pie type scent. not my thing.

i will hang onto it for a bit and see if it mellows...

 

eta: after my shower, during which i didn't deliberately wash this off, i was left with tonka and carnation. so it was lurking in there! now i am more determined to see if this improves for me with time.

standard disclaimer: i tested a lab-fresh imp. i totally plan to age it.

 

what sorta worries me is that the bit that splashed onto the outside of the imp smells like a lovely, rich incense.... as if the batch i have is already nice smelling, and what it does on my skin is the problem factor.

 

what it does on my skin: 1 - bitter, medicinal spices. 's ok. i was warned. 2 - after several hours - softly vanilla, spices are sweeter. the phase that hints that better days may be yet to come. (the drop in the hollow of my throat is definitely lasting longer in this phase, even after the half-drop on each wrist goes on to stage 3.) 3 - after a few more hours - faint, and what's left on my wrists is... the dreaded vanilla play-doh.

 

smell ya later, S.O.

ooh, thanks lab... for once again frimping me something cool that i would not likely have tried!

 

when i first put this on, it's oooooh sweet rose! almost a fruity (orange?) rose. not demonic.

almost immediately i get the sandalwood, then the patch (the smooth kind, not gritty).

 

this is definitely not a me scent... but i would love to wear something like this to be in character. it would be fab for a slightly modern style (vaguely fusiony) bellydance, if i ever get to get back to that scene. i would, however, need an extremely blingy scarlet evening gown style costume (minimalist shape, serious cleavage, slit up to there) to go with it...

this scent is... something seriously antique, upholstered in a dusty velvet so faded you can't really guess what color it once was. greenish oyster beige, a bit darker around the edges.

 

i will attribute the bitterness of this, the first hour or two it's on my skin, to the black musk. sometimes musks and i have issues.

 

once fully dry and absorbed and alchemized with my chemistry - and when it lingers on my clothes and in my hair - this is the loveliest, pure soft spiced amber. i think it's the same amber that's in snake oil, only naked. this is like... if snake oil is an elaborately seasoned indonesian noodle dish, haunted is just the high-quality homemade noodles by themselves, very slightly coated with sesame oil to keep them from sticking to each other.

 

[note from the review police: reviewer veronicafranco has been sacked for excessive simile mixing.]

frimp, thanks lab!

 

this says perfume even in the imp, and is pretty much WHOOO old lady lily perfume on me, from start to finish. i should say, if you like lily scents you'll find this very pretty - that's my personal bias.

though agape would probably be the most fitting scent for the kind of valentine's day i'll be spending, i don't have that one yet...

i am doing a 2-parter. katrina van tassel today (i am my own roses and candy), eustephanos tomorrow (just in case!!).

true story:

6:45. pitch dark outside and the air and floor in my bathroom are really cold. i am grudgingly washing my face. gotta be on the road for work in an hour.

in walks my 4-year-old daughter with a really bewildered and just-woke-up face.

"what are you doing?"

"getting ready for work. i do this every monday and wednesday, you just don't usually see me."

"but it's the middle of the night."

out of the mouths of babes comes my bpal choice for the day.

 

oooh, this smells like penitence only much more so. as it dries, it just gets sweeter, richer, more complex. a little more evergreen, which i never would have thought i'd like, but i do. it is almost velvety when fully dry. on my skin, it's not exactly church incense, but it is just as beautiful. i have no idea if it's work appropriate or wacky hippie or what. i've worn it again a couple of workdays since, anyway. pretty sure it will get tucked away when spring comes, but for now, i am loving it.

leather-scent-dreading me decided to try this frimp tonight.

huh. right out of the imp, this is the prettiest, sweetest rose. i don't detect any leather until it starts to dry. even after 15ish minutes, the leather is not as aggressive as the name might make one think... at least on me, it kind of stays in the background, lends some depth and softness to the sharp rose scent.

could it be miss rose is not the submissive here? who knew.

wet, this smells like almond extract. i was prepared not to like the almond scent when wet, because i don't in other blends, either, so i avoid it for a moment as it dries...

 

on me, this smells uncannily like a middle eastern pastry. not as sweet as i would have expected. it even has that rosewater type scent a lot of ME/north african desserts have.

 

i certainly hope this won't be taken the wrong way, but i feel that on someone genetically closer to the actual queen of sheba, this could be spectacular. when i work out/dance with friends of african descent (or who just plain are from africa), i can't help noticing many ladies have a richer, sweeter natural skin scent than mine, one that would utterly rock this blend. on my lily white @$$, it's more for the wow, that smells eerily accurate file.

in the imp, this reminds me of silk road.

on, it quickly turns into a prettier cinnamon than silk road has....

pepper and tea and tobacco come out to play.

 

on me, as usual, the spice fades fast and i'm left with the only tobacco scent that hasn't sucked on me... sweetish tea and tobacco.

if i ever learn how to get spices to stay longer on my skin, i will definitely get more use out of this one. for people with normal non-spice-eating epidermal layers, this would be quite a fun blend!

gah. i am one of those people for whom most everyone else's ZOMG scents are either meh or bad.

i was soooo excited to get my resurrected snake charmer bottle! but atm all i can smell is a faint sweetness (coconut, vanilla, maybe the barest hint of the plum) and the musk, which smells like dark gray smoke and all but takes over the blend.

amber (my single favorite note)? fruit? labdanum? benzoin? you all normally smell so divine on me! where are you?!

 

right now, i am stubbornly going to keep it and see if a) it's a time of month thing that would improve in a few days, and/or b ) if drying for a long time / aging for longer than that will make this into the thing of great joy and beauty that everyone else seems to get.

for now, i'll go back to sniffing the rather spectacular eustephanos on my other wrist.

 

eta: yeah, ok, it's growing on me. a few weeks later, i do get the plum, coconut, vanilla, benzoin at times, occasionally the amber. i will age it and see. oddly, though i don't love it, i still just get the urge to wear it sometimes. also... i have this song stuck in my head quite a lot:

 

 

edit 2.0 - this is still growing on me. sometimes when the plum and coconut (who'd'a thunk i would like a coconut scent?) are really blooming, the amber is out to play, and i'm having a day that i feel like i can pull off the sexeh spiceh thing, i really actually have gotten fond of it. other times i regret that i can't wash it off more fully and put on something lighter, but we know how that goes.

 

also, i have been taken enough with this that i finally ordered an imp of snake oil. remarkable that some people don't find the two scents related/similar. they sure are for me. so far... heh... i like the charmer better than the (lab-fresh) snake. but we know how that often goes, too....

am i really first in line to review this one? i don't even know how to do the magic boxy lab description thingy.... somebody fix it
[does not normally get stage fright]

in the bottle, which has the beautiful photo too!, this is lovely bright rose and pomegranate.
the moment i put it on, i get the sharp edge of the frankincense.
how to explain? rose + frankincense on me = more rose than rose (in a good way). rose + red fruit (like in les bijoux) also = more rose than rose. so rose + frankincense + pomegranate + rosewood = definitely not for those who don't like rose!
as it continues to dry, the amber is sort of spreading out around the edges, warming the scent.
i don't get any myrrh thus far.

this is extremely womanly and classy. timeless. grandma would have worn it... well, both my grandmas were serious hotties back in the day! would be perfect on a bride or with an elegant evening gown... but i'm pretty sure i will be wearing it quite a bit more than just for special occasions.

what seamonkey said, so i've got on O

;^}

ooh, diggin' this frimp! thanx lab.

 

on me, this is a slightly darker, unspicy hermia (when it's dried and mellowed on my skin); it also turns out to be what i'd imagined florence would smell like (but florence on me turns weird and grittty). i get a little whiff of apple when i first apply it. other than that, berries and pomegranate and delicious amber. sophisticated yet young at the same time. yummeh! owing to the similarity to my beloved hermia, i'm not sure i need a bottle, but it's very nice, and if the pepper in hermia is a deal-breaker for anyone, this is definitely one to try instead.

ooh.

first impression - uh oh, manleh?

second - not too much so, hi rockrose...

and - oh, so that's benzoin. gotcha. mm.

 

while drying, this makes me think of a pale schwarzer mond. cannot explain very well, but it does.

dry - others have mentioned scents that smell high end/rich to them... for me, this is one of those. it's pearl-colored cashmere.

hmm, because i am the kind of girl who lives in a neighborhood with actual millionaires, but likes 6 dollar jeans from the clearance rack at target - not yet sure it's my style. it could definitely grow on me, though.

 

adding a few days later... yes, growing-on-me appears to have commenced... i put some on the nape of my neck before bed last night (which i like to do with soft ambery scents) and i'm still catching nice wafts of it this morning. today i am pretty sure it's the same amber from mag mell.... which is one of my loves, so there you go.

counting with babyhead!

1 - lavender

2 - carnation ahhhh

3 - rose otto

4 - baby powder

(1234 happen one at a time, within the first few minutes. neat.)

5 - together, they are weirdly sharp for a while

6 - way later, i like it. baby shampoo/babyhead for sure.

 

i'll have to see whether i can live with the initial lavenderyness. something about this makes me want to use it in the bath, which says a lot about how evocative it is... as i almost always shower.

my daughter and i (as tink and "enchanted" chick giselle, respectively, joined by an unscented but sweet pink toddlerangelfairy) jointly slathered on a frimp of poisoned apple i had lying around. too bad it's not strong enough to waft on me. it's really pretty.

on me this is sweetish, muskish, sandalwoodish, but kind of yellow and meh. i thought lucifer would smell snappier.

ohhhhhh. i am one of those who often don't feel rose suits me, but strangely craved this one... it's nice to be right! to start out with, this is such a light delicate rose scent. i get the honey fairly quickly (one of my fave notes), the cream only later as it dries (and it's a nice, true cream, no sourness). somehow, when fully dry it doesn't really say "rose" to me - just an elegant, girly sweetness. it begs to be mixed with unscented lotion so it can just softly emanate from my skin. i like this one!

are your circles of friends cool enough to get phoenix / crypt queen costumes? that's awesome.