The Ifrit

[ComDiva]

Desert sand, red musk, blackened ginger, dragon's blood resin, black pepper, cinnamon, and tobacco.

I bought this one blind thanks to the notes and an affinity to most things Neil Gaiman... Unfortunately it ended up too fruity (cherry cough syrup!) on both my daughter and me. Some very lovely and fleeting notes on both of us (white rose in particular), but not a keeper on our skin.

-ComDiva

[Dark Alice]

this is by far the strangest BPAL I have ever tried. The ifrit smells cool, with whisps of red musk and the slight spice of blackened ginger and pepper. I love it!!!! It's so clean and unobtrusive! Finally a bpal with Ginger that I can handle!!! Yes!

[crebbsgirl]

This one was nice, but my skin ate it right up! There was virtually nothing left after the two hour mark. Before it left me, there was a musky undertone, with black pepper, ginger and tobacco acting as prominent notes. I couldn't really smell the cinnamon at all. I suspect the desert sand was lending a dryness to this blend, and may be the reason my skin ate it. It was nice while it lasted!

[Pika]

Lovely, spicy musk in the imp. I couldn't really smell the dragon's blood too strongly (good), and the sweet tobacco note I enjoy was floating around in there too. Unfortunately, it turned to powder on my wrists. Not even the usual cherry cough syrup that dragon's blood can sometimes do, but just a faint cinnamony powder. Too bad.

[Merrill]

Sniffing after applying: "Hey, this is pretty subtl-WOAH!" Three seconds after sniffing, it's like a stuck my nose in a bottle of cinnamon: I can feel in up in my sinuses. There's other spice besides the cinnamon, but the kick is hot the way cinnamon is.

 

Dry: Still subtle, with the delayed spicy kick. I love this so much.

 

Two hours or so later: This has calmed down a lot. It's not as spicy, and a little sweeter (I guess it's the dragon's blood).

 

Overall. Love. Complete and utter love. Ifrit is brighter and less dry than Mr. Jacquel, my other spicy love. Definitely bottle worthy. I'm having a hard time detaching my nose from my wrist.

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

love red musk and tobacco but everything else in this blend terrified me. so i've been dreading trying it, and with good reason.

i opened the imp, sniffed it, and couldn't even bring myself to do a skin test.

[ephemera]

In the bottle this is spicy and wild and a little harsh, but once I put it on my skin it morphed within seconds to some sort of gummy, plastic-y scent. After about 20 minutes (my skin burns scents fast) the ginger and pepper were more evident, but the unpleasant smell was still foremost. I'm not sure what note was doing it - I suspect the red musk is to blame, but I'm not sure on that one. I'd need to see what other blends had the red musk in it that I've tried.

 

This scent is clearly not for me.

[khazakant]

Oh, man, I remember running into the Ifrit section of American Gods as a young gay kid and reading it over and over and over and ... anyway. Heh. My point is, I was sorta emotionally invested in this scent and was scared to hell and back it would let me down. Wrong, alhamdulillah. This is everything I wanted. This scent has so much damn personality. It's the smell of a man who's exotic, wild, and intense, who's been pulling you in since the minute your eyes met. A man who understands the meaning of the word possession. And who just led you out into the desert for a quickie.

 

In the bottle it smelled like ... honestly, it smelled kinda like my grandma's Chanel No. 5 to me for some ungodly reason. The sweeter notes and the dragon's blood seemed much more pronounced in the bottle, and I was afraid it was going to be too artificial and perfume-y for me to like. But when I put it on, it dried out a bit and the more natural elements, the dusky spices and the smell of the sand, came out on my skin. Melded perfectly with my natural scent. Makes you feel less like you've just slathered on perfume oil and more like a force of nature. I'm trying to figure out a way to say "it's intense, in a low-key way" that doesn't sound stupid, but it's a stoic, distant kind of scent, alluring rather than overbearing, quietly powerful.

 

To sum it up: damn, this is liquid sex.

 

[Ajila]

In the bottle – It’s more of an impression I get than any particular note, but it’s dry and hot

 

Wet on me – I didn’t expect this but it smells of soap; a soft, sweetish sort of soap, but soap none-the-less

 

Dry on me – Fortunately the soap dissipates to leave a dry, sun bleached musk

 

Overall – Once I had overcome the soap the blend was pleasant enough, but I wasn’t overwhelmed.

 

[Monster]

This was frimped to me by a lovley forumite...I am so thankful because I LOVE this scent and wouldn't have tried it on my own since dragons blood is listed. Thankfully, the dragons blood in the blend is very tame and doesn't give me a headache at all.

 

On my skin this has an almost juicy red quality to it. It's warm, sexy, and mildly sweet. The cinnamon and ginger play well together giving the red musk a spicy backdrop without completley overpowering this blend at all. Beth has a magical way of including cinnamon to her scents in way that DON'T make them smell like room spray or potpourri which always impresses me.

 

As this dries the red sweetness comes out to play even more...possibly the tobacco or even *gasp* the dragons blood? I'm not even sure what I'm smelling anymore, everything seems to be so well-balanced. I feel like I'm straining too hard to make out the details of a mirage lifting off warm desert sands at sunset when the sky is firey red....but that's the point, I can't see the details and when I try too hard it loses it's magic (if that makes any sense ). This is just that, a warm, elusive mirage evaporating off the desert. Just one, warm moment. I love this stuff and I will be purchasing a bottle for my collection!

[donnatron]

Bottle: Sand and dragon's blood. Beachy!

 

Wet: Does anyone else remember Fun Fruits? They were a sort of gummy fruit candy snack thing back in the late eighties/early nineties. I assume they were healthy because my mom let me have them and I never got junk food. Anyway. This smells like Fun Fruits. And a touch of tobacco. So very late eighties indeed.

 

Dry: Considering the ingredient mix I expected this to be totally over-the-top sex kitten on me. Instead it's a clean, bright, slightly spicy dragon's blood with the faintest hint of red musk in the background. Very light and unobrusive. A touch of weird borderline plasticity from the sand but even that kind of makes sense in here. Definitely a nostalgic sort of scent for me.

 

Throw: Mild.

 

Overall: I'm kind of psyched to have a red musk/dragon's blood combo I can wear to the office. Maybe not my holy grail of BPALs but definitely one I can get behind for sheer attractiveness. Very unique and interesting without being overbearing or simply weird. A wonderful balance of sweet (dragon's blood, musk) spicy (ginger) and savory (sand, tobacco) notes.

[angelicruin]

Sniffing the imp, it's spices and pepper.

 

Wet on the skin, I'm getting sand, spices, and something vaguely sweet, which I think might be the tobacco.

 

I'm really not getting the dragon's blood, though, that too may be sweetening the blend a bit.

 

This dries to a very alluring sexy scent. I intend to pick up a bottle of this on a future order.

[Magpie]

In imp: This almost freezes my nose. Strong and perfumey, spicey and dry.

 

On: Warm and dry, nutmeggy and spicy. This isn't the spicy-breathed breeze of an exotic market but the warm scent of sun-baked sand. Really lovely without being too harsh on the nose, just comforting and kind of sad. It's also quite soapy as it dries, something I hope will disappear in time.

 

The soapy smell does disappear, leaving a delicious burning spicey smell, soft and subtle but still distinctive. It isn't strong, so I'm not sure about throw or staying power, but it makes me feel exotic and confident. I don't get much dragon's blood with this one, which is interesting because in my experience dragon's blood has stuck out in blends (in a good way), but I can definitely get ginger and cloves with a hint of cinnamon.

[sirensea]

My favorite chapter in American Gods was the one featuring the Ifrit's story. It was beautiful, painful and poignant, and I was excited to test this oil just the way I was excited to test Crowley, my first of the Gaiman-inspired line.

 

It's very warm, red and musky. Maybe a bit too perfumey at first, but the dry-down creates something spicy and pleasing to the senses. The smell of it reminds me of a lover's soft touch, familiar, sensual and passionate all at once.

 

While it didn't work for me (I can't wear 'red' scents, something I was aware of when I decided to buy the decant) I still love it and plan on keeping my bottle even as I debate on swapping or selling my imp.

 

A beautiful take on a beautiful story.

[Seismogenic]

I have had excellent luck with every desert-themed BPAL I have tried to date, so that was reason enough for me to be intrigued by The Ifrit. The fact that it comes from American Gods just makes it that much better. Of course, the cost of the Gaiman oils was the main reason I hadn't picked up a decant to test yet, but then Rhowan sent me some in a trade - thank you!

 

In the imp: Ginger, cinnamon, and tobacco stand out, but there's other reddish spiciness behind it.

 

Wet on skin: Now I'm getting the dragon's blood, and less of the cinnamon. Still picking up on ginger and tobacco, though, and maybe pepper. The backdrop is actually rather soft, and I'm suspecting that'll mature into the sand note.

 

Drydown: Freshly dry, this is soft and dusty red, likely a combination of sand and musk, though I don't really have any experience with red musk specifically. The blast of dragon's blood that I got when this was wet has calmed back down; I assume it has blended with many of the other notes into an amorphous warm spiciness out of which I can't distinguish anything specific anymore. At one hour in, the sand note has really announced itself, and is the most prominent thing over a backdrop of dusky reddish spices and musk. The whole scent is still surprisingly soft, though not in a fading sort of way.

 

Five hours later: Sweet sand and musk. The spices have pretty much departed in full, but what they left behind is still quite present and nice. There's still an overall reddish impression to the scent.

 

End of the day: Still a bit of soft musk and sand.

 

Overall: Another definite win with me and desert scents! This too is gorgeous! It's definitely a much redder desert than the one represented by Coyote or Velvet Bandito or Ozymandias, and the redness is manifested in the color of the sand, the color of the sky, and the feel of the atmosphere here. It is, I admit, gentler than I expected given the character and his connection to fire, but that doesn't make me like it any less. This is one that's going to be tempting me with bottle-ness, I just know it.

[hkhm]

imp: dry, dusty musk. sexy.

 

wet: there's that yummy sweetness from the dragon's blood with the sexy smoothness of the red musk. i get a nice shot of tobacco above the spices. i think this one may be bottle-worthy.

 

dry: sweet and dry, dusty and spicy. this is so well blended that i can really only pick out the musk above everything else. i love this blend.

Edited November 3, 2009 by hkhm

[Venneh]

In the decant, this smells dry and spicy, almost like Sunbird, or at least a close cousin. On my skin, this is first and foremost spicy, not quite sure just what it is yet. We'll see how this goes. I think what I wind up with is the red musk and a bit of spice, I'm not really sure. Overall, it's just kind of meh on me.

Edited December 27, 2009 by Venneh

[Rook3000]

Khazakant just sold me on a bottle of Ifrit. I have been trying to decide if I wanted to take the plunge to buy a bottle unsniffed. Thanks, everybody for the reviews! I will be sure to post my thoughts once it arrives.

[rayvn1]

With the ginger, musk, and spices I wondered if this would turn out like War which was an utter train wreck on me. This works ever so much better! This is creamy and sweet with a lovely, rich red musk. i compared it to Infernal Lover and this is a bit synthetic smelling in comparison, but it is very nice indeed!

[JazzieCazzie]

Have an imp of this with a homemade tag and not sure if I got this as part of a decant circle or kindly added in by someone via swap/sale. Either way, it ended up in my imp/frimp pile and I only just rediscovered it while doing an "I'm out of work so may as well use this time to do a major housecleaning."

 

The "out of work" part also has me on a pretty strict "no buy" kick however, when I found this and Dragon's Moon (similarly imped/labeled) I had to buy both in 5 MLs (DM, happily, through a BPAL-er who had it for sale and this through BPAL directly).

 

Someone on an earlier page used the word "comforting" about Ifrit and that is absolutely the overriding word for me. The thing is, that's a very subjective adjective.

 

In my case ... when I was growing up, we had a closet in the hallway of our apartment which we called "the linen closet." Along with sheets and towels, it also held all of our medical and first aid supplies, soaps, etc. I could not, to this day, tell you what the single outstanding "note" was (any more than I could tell you what the "Lush store" smell is), but it was the most comforting scent and the one most evocative of my long-ago childhood, back when everything seemed safe and good.

 

When I uncapped the Ifrit and took a sniff, I was back in the linen closet.

 

Now, I doubt that any of our first aid supplies contained Dragon's Blood or ginger or musk, but somehow the combination is identical. I really wish this scent could be acquired as well in some sort of candles, incense, room spray, etc.

 

Nevertheless, I just wanted to express my thanks to Beth and company for giving me this gift of sensory olfactory memory that is so special.

[Diva Urd]

In the vial: I definitely get sand and a wisp of smoke from this. Of the listed notes, I can only identify sand and ginger.

 

On: Sand, florals and a hint of smoky spice. For once, the cinnamon behaves! Ohh, and there's a drop of Dragon's Blood! I would have never pegged this for a scent I would like, but so far, this is really nice!

 

Later: Lovely sand (probably amber). Not quite sure yet whether I'd like a bottle right now, but this one is definitely a candidate once I work through my current bottle wish list a bit more.

[Teaotter]

In the bottle: red musk, ginger, and something that smells fiery to me but I can't quite place the scent.

 

Wet: This is incredibly well blended. I don't get the blast of red musk I was expecting. Instead, it's this soft but somehow seething scent of musky-sweet-spiciness. Not a lot of throw.

 

Drydown: Stays pretty similar.

 

Dry: A hot musky smell, with some spice to it, but mostly this sense of heat, like sun coming off hot sand. I can't really pick out the individual notes. This is a soft skin scent, but it lingers for several hours.

 

I expected something completely different, reading the notes. Red musk and dragon's blood usually amp on me, but this time, they're blending nicely. The Lab's sand note is one that I can't smell -- scents with it disappear entirely to my nose (though not necessarily to the people around me!) so I was expecting this one to go away, as well. But though it's soft, it is definitely present.

[Hazy]

Ifrit was my first ever bottle and my first big disappointment. It's a good scent, but not the fierce, masculine scent I was hoping for. Red musk always smells more feminine and perfumey on me than I'd like, and many of the other notes (dragon's blood, cinnamon, tobacco) tend too gentle on my skin to make up for it. Ifrit also ends up softer than I prefer, and turns powdery after a while. I still do get a very strong sense of warmth, enough that I like to wear Ifrit in cold weather even though it isn't my favorite.

 

To others who feel the same way: try layering Ifrit with something ambery. I have a bottle of Amber from Demeter and find that it helps calm down the musk and make the scent last longer. I'm also fairly sure that amber is what makes me love Le Lèthè in spite of the musk, so it's worth a shot.

 

(I bought Ifrit a year ago and find that while all the above has held true, I can now pick out the ginger easily and I get a slightly milky smell on drydown. I'm not sure if this is due to aging, changes in skin chemistry, or more experience with BPAL, though.)

[Marla Moreau]

Omg - smoky candles! Smoky candles! Smoky candles! I LOVE this. Something about the combo makes it smell like candles that have just been put out. It's spicy from the black pepper and warm from the dragon's blood... it does actually smell very sandy in the bottle. Not getting any tobacco or ginger, but that's okay...

 

Fire! Smoky Candles! Love! Writing down all the notes since they all seem to work incredibly well on me.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Cologne. No soap! No....huh?I don't know. This is odd. I wanted to try it, cuz red musk spices, tobacco. I smell none of those. It smells like a sweet, sort of clean, men's cologne. Like old school cologne. Not at all what I had hoped for or expected.

 

 

 

Dry: This dries down to incense on me. Smells more like nag champa than the Lab's usual dragon's blood note. Not at all what I was expecting! Red musk and tobacco never showed up to this party. It's interesting, and somewhat pleasant, but not something I would ever wear. Still glad to have tried it!