Akuma

[Penance]

Devilish temptation, as sweet as sin: blood orange, neroli, and raspberry.

Origin:

Lagniappe from the Lab.

First sniff:

Odd, this smells nothing like what I imagined it would. I expected something sweet and fruity, but Akuma is almost harsh smelling. It's unmistakeably the neroli that's doing it (neroli and my nose don't get along) but it still surprises me because I expected this to smell more like juicy orange and raspberry. I don't think Akuma is going to like me.

Wet on skin:

Neroli, neroli and more neroli! I only get the tiniest hint of raspberry and none of my beloved blood orange form this. It's mainly just...neroli. This is the same note that ruined Vixen for me; something about it just grates on my sense of smell. As much as I hate to say it, I can't seem to wear neroli scents without having to hold my breath. Something about it just really disagrees with my nose and it appears Akuma is going to be its latest victim.

Dry down:

Now that Akuma has dried, the blood orange is coming out nicely and fighting for dominance with the neroli. I also smell a bit of raspberry in the background now. This is definitely an improvement over the way Akuma smelled before, but I don't think it can save this scent for me. I just can't see myself wearing something that I have to wait for half an hour to smell good to me. Neroli is just one of those notes that I can't tolerate for some reason.

The bottom line:

Neroli is quickly becoming a no-no for me and Akuma is its latest victim. As much as I love blood orange, even it can't save Akuma from its neroli component. This is going up for swap.

Afterthoughts:

How odd...it appears I'm the only one who didn't get fruitiness out of Akuma. Maybe my nose is busted.

[Unseelie]

In the vial: that ‘cologne’ dry-scent, aaaah, that must be neroli, since i tag this type of marker in several blends containing it.

 

Wet: Lemonheads!

 

Swiped on: Ah, not lemony, more orangy, and oh so sweet. It smells like i’m wearing a Jamba-Juice!

 

Drying: Incredibly sweet, incredibly fuity, most definite raspberry orange sweetness. Cologne scent never made it onto skin. Slightly waxy? Definitely Jamba-Juice.

I'm giving this to someone i know whose skin eats fruits, this one might stick around for her!

Sweeeet sweet sweet sweet.. sweet.. Wow, my favorite Jamba-Juice is the raspberry with lime. The craving is So Great ATM.. must not lick wrist.. i can't wear this one, too sweet & fruity, but if it were on ice i'd drink it. no question.

[danuv]

In the vial and wet on the skin, Akuma starts off very bitter. I imagine that's the neroli? There's a fruitiness to it but just as a background to the bitter. As it dries the berry comes out. On me it turns all berry. Any orange fades out along with the bitterness. One really neat thing about Akuma is that it really sticks on me. It starts off with a good throw which eventually settles down but the berry scent stays on the skin. I put some on around 9pm last night and 12 hours later it is still there. Akuma reminds me a lot of Swank. I get the same 'Sweet Tart' like feeling from it. Lovely but I don't think I'll need a full bottle.

[UltraViolet]

Akuma

Wet

Now I have to say that Akuma could be the #1 scent I've smelled to date.

It's notes are blood orange, neroli, and rasberry.

10 minutes

It reminds me of the Lush soap “Angel's Delight”. It's sweet but not too sweet I don't think, and the rasberry mingles with the sweet juicy blood orange nicely.

This is divine.

It starts out with the neroli very strongly, it almost smells like bergamot.

As it dries, out comes this friuty lushiousness from underneath

I am using up my imp and have bought a 10ml.

[thespring]

I got the notes all at once and eventually it was more orange but still all three notes stayed till the end.

 

Anyway, initially I do find it a bit too artificial plasticy smelling. Probably because its very sweet. But its nice, summery and young.

 

Perhaps a little too sweet for me though.

[inkstone]

A friend of mine (who I enabled haha) kindly sent me an imp to try.

 

In the imp: Devilish fruitiness.

 

Wet: Raspberries and neroli. This reminds me of Maenad somewhat. It's not quite the same, but there's a similar vibe.

 

Drydown: I still smell the raspberries and neroli, but I can also pick out the blood orange now.

 

Final thoughts: This is a very summery smell and it's light and fruity. I really like it, but I'll have to try it a few more times. I especially want to compare it to Maenad since they remind me of each other.

[luxuria]

This soo smells like Vice without the chocolate in the imp.

 

On the skin, this smells like bright, fruity candy, but still wicked. It's way sweet but with some bite. My skin brings out lots of rasberry and neroli, and sometimes orange peeks out.

 

On drydown it starts reminding me of Trix cereal, then fades to nothing.

 

Overall this is a candy-like but not innocent scent. Nice, but not really my thing.

[atomic*orange]

OOB: Voluptuous, ripe berries and neroli. I picture a sexy woman with a raspy voice.

 

Wet on skin: Kinda digging this, despite an aversion to neroli. The berry really softens the scratchy edges of the neroli and the neroli gives the berry depth and an interesting twist. No blood orange to be found.

 

Drydown: Bubblegum? Something pink and vaguely Bazooka Joe. It's morphing into strawberry jam and amoxicillin and I'm having a flashback to childhood. The aforementioned sexy woman with the raspy voice is now Lolita, a gooey lollipop stuck in her hair. Only lasted about an hour on me.

 

Conclusion: Has convinced me to try blends w/neroli that I would otherwise have avoided. But this one's just not for me.

Edited March 19, 2005 by atomic*orange

[Rosaleen Dhu]

hmmm....

 

Sniff from the imp - Hello Sweet! Almost cloying.

 

On my wrists, at first it's just sweet...bright and sweet. As others have noted, very candy like. As it drys, though, it starts to get a bit darker. Maybe a little...powdery? Reminds me of crushed red pez.

 

Over the past two hours I keep sniffing...I really can't tell if I like this or not. It is making me hungry, though!

 

I love testing freebies! Though I doubt I'll get a large bottle, this would make a nice scrub.... I prefer more incensey things, but if you like fruit, this is a good one!

[anmorata]

Akuma:

Wet: Raspberry and... what is that?

Drydown: Slightly raspberry, slightly blood orange. If the neroli is in here, it's hiding.

Longterm wear: The general consensus is that I smell like Pez.

[requieminblack]

First sniff from the bottle-Fruity oranges.

 

After 15 minutes-Orange is definitely the dominate note here. It is a florally orange smell, which I guess would be the neroli. There is something else in this that is very bitter/musty. I want to say there is a faint whiff of vetiver in this. It is not listed as being in it but I swear I smell it. I am not smelling any raspberry which is a bummer. I was looking forward to smelling it.

 

After an hour- Ok, I take that back. The raspberry DID come out in this but not until about an hour later. Then it went all raspberry! Unfortunately this now smells like the bathroom sanitizer they use in public restrooms to me.

[shelldoo]

in the vial i smelled resins...which i wasn't expecting at all

 

wet: ahhh ok there is the fruitiness it is almsot all sweet raspberry w, a hint of blood orange

 

as it dries the neroli, orange and raspberry meld into a fruity montage. it is sweet and summery innocent smelling, i actually think my middle dd w/ adore this one.

[gingersnapp]

This is fruity fruity fruit. It does have that tinge of fakeness to it though. It's not necessarily the plastic note that everyone seems to mention when a scent goes bad. It's just... fake.

 

It reminds me of something I would have worn as a little girl, back in a time before makeup was allowed.

 

It's a very youthful scent.

[Shollin]

First sniff: It’s tart, it’s juicy, it’s loud, it’s RED – Akuma is BERRY, hear it roar!

 

Wearing: Tart juicy red berries bouncing hyperactively off my skin. There’s not a hint of sugar to sweeten them, and no trace of an earthier scent to hold them back – this is just a fruitbasket orgy.

[Spastik_Kitty]

In the bottle: Neroli with a slightly bitter sweet whisper in the background

 

First on: Neroli and berries. Very wet.

 

After a bit: The neroli fades to the background and all I smell is sticky berries that have a slight tartness to them. It reminds me of eating Skittles.

 

More time passed: If you love Skittles, this is the scent for you, sweet, juicy with a bit or tartness to it. Because that's all it's smelling like (which is a good thing if I say so).

[lady_pandora]

Free imp from the lab.

 

This is almost viciously sharp in the vial, but once I put it on, it settled down to a mixture of orange and floral. I was hoping the raspberry would come out to play--I love raspberry, but instead the floral vanished, leaving only:

 

Orange orange orange orange orange.

 

I smelled like SweetTarts. I don't dislike citrus, but it's not really "me". This is way too orange for me, and alas, I never detected the raspberry.

 

 

ETA: I like Akuma much better now that it's ludicrously hot! A few days ago, it got up to 90 and I found myself thinking, "Gee, I'd love to be wearing Akuma right now." So I did, and enjoyed it muchly. It is still 90% orange on me, but when it's hot, I don't mind all the citrus, as it reminds me of dreamsicles and orange sherbet and other refreshing fruity things. After about 8 hours, it turns into something that smells a lot like a very faint Persephone. It's probably the raspberry coming out--I've been told that Persephone smells like raspberries on me.

Edited May 21, 2005 by lady_pandora

[Celogrl]

This is a "make me happy" kind of scent. I don't usually like fruity fragrances, but I might actually purchase a larger bottle of this. I ordered an imp, and I like it more than I expected. I like it wet, and dry- it fades gradually to a powdery fruitiness. Very pretty.

[pekeana]

It seems that I am getting randomly better about picking scents that I'll love. I have a 5ml of Akuma on order (blindly ordered it, thinking that it might rock my socks), and the Lab graciously gifted me with an imp in my latest order. And, indeed, Akuma rocks my socks.

 

In the vial, it's neroli, neroli, neroli, but with a touch of berry sweetness waaaaaaay down at the very bottom of the scent, and the two react in a way that comes off as metallic at the base. It kind of scared me, but knowing that I had a 5ml on order and I needed to at least try it, I slapped some on the back of my hand.

 

On my skin, it screamed neroli for about 15 minutes, then the raspberry took over. It's warm, fresh, sweet raspberry with a hint of orange peel and a touch of mellowed floral. Love it, love it, love it. Beth's berries for the most part seem to love me, and Akuma is no exception -- once I get past the "hi, I am neroli, smell me bitch!" phase, that is.

[surf-tormented]

It's unique. It smells like burning but sweet...then it gets that rank honey scent I don't like so much. Wet, it is very good though.

[helarctos]

The neroli must be what kills Akuma for me. It begins with the same chalky powderish scent that Katharina has on me, an almost cheesy tang. That fades, becoming the substrate to a pungent raspberry-orange melange. Without the neroli, Akuma would smell like a magnificent pomander.

[tempete]

Like other reviews, I get a very bitter, sharp scent at first. As Akuma dries down, the mandarin underlying the scent becomes stronger and pushes the initial bitterness aside. The final drydown is a mix of mandarin and raspberry. I'm not a fruity scent type of gal, so I passed this imp onto someone else.

[Cat]

This is a cross between Carnal and Vice for me. But without the Yankee Candle synthetic smell of Carnal, and without the weird chocolate note of Vice.

 

What also hit me was how it would make a great fruity more playful substitute for Succubus. I love Succubus with all my heart, and this is quite simply the same but with fruit.

 

Its strange, sometimes I sniff I get all fruit, juicy and ripe. Then I get the the very distinctive scent of neroli. Sometimes I get a whiff of Vice (which I do NOT like).

 

Wet on my skin it is more neroli, with some juicy ripe fruit underneath. Then as it dries a little the fruit comes to the surface. I can't tell what the fruit is, because sometimes it smells like raspberry, then sometimes it smells of orange. Every now and again I get a hint of the neroli lurking underneath, and I agree with the posters above who say it makes this scent 'dark'. I like that. Neroli often gives an almost sharp-yet-smoky note to things that I have learned to love over time.

 

It is worth noting that the 3 scents do stay distinct in this blend, and do not merge to create one indescribable scent. I can smell neroli, I can smell orange, and I can smell raspberry.

 

This is a cheery scent, regardless of the 'darkness' in there. I just wish I didn't keep getting the odd whiff of Vice. I really don't like Vice.

 

I will have to wear this again, and not when I am just sat at home all day like today, to see if I like it enough to get it again. There are others I like more, but this is nice.

[rainbow]

In the bottle and wet on skin- orange and raspberry. VERY orange and raspberry. I love the fruitiness of this.

 

Wearing- it's still orange and raspberry, but there's a deeper note underneath, and it smells musky. I was a bit disappointed by the dark undertone, becasue certain musk notes and I don't really seem to get on. This would be one of those notes. It's a shame because I love the raspberry and orange combo.

[Little Bird]

This is a very boring and fake/synthetic smell to me. It is very sweet and fruity, but something about it bothered me. Then it hit me, this smells exactly like Bath & Body Works' sun-ripened raspberry fragrance. That same sickly sweet candied raspberry that always made me gag. Nothing like a real tart raspberry smell.

 

My sister loved this and agreed that it smelled like her favorite B&BW lotion.

[tsarina]

In the bottle it smells like the green closed bud of a flower. The neroli is the first thing, the sharp flower smell that mixes with the orange. Orange and something almost like tulips is the next stage, as the neroli settles down. Then the raspberries come out. It's a lovely fruity mix that feels warm and sunny in my mind.

Edited May 29, 2005 by tsarina