Lampades

[quimerula]

... Their scent is the crisp, inviting bittersweet tang of cranberry with smoky dark lilies, heady, sensual musk, a tingle of ginger and a brush of Mediterranean spices.

Wet, it's cranberry, lilies and ginger.
A strong fruity scent, with cranberry on the top followed by the ginger.
I can smell a bit of musk in the bottom line.

Dry the fruity notes low a bit and I can smell the spices.
A very strong perfume, with a lot of throw.

[quinkel]

Lampades lay almost a year in the back of my imp box because i alway thought it was one of those strong jasmine scents... How wrong i was!!

 

I stumbled upon these reviews the other day and it made me dig up the imp. Oh boy sooo good!

Indeed it reminds me of Bordello. The imp is in my purse now and will be enjoyed these weeks. It's a late springtime scent, fresh, great to wear to work. I can smell the cranberries(I love Cranberrie juice as a drink) but the other notes are too well blended to detect. Oh and it ages good it seems considering the imp being more than one year old...

[Ceryle]

I wish I could say I smell the cranberry ... or any kind of berry for that matter.

 

In the bottle it smells vaguely of the greenhouse I did some of my studies in during college. It's not so much that it smells green as it smells of moist loam and a bit of floral which I think is the lily.

 

 

The smell doesn't change much while it is wet on the skin, but as it dries down it becomes all musk, lily, and ginger ... and not in a good way. As a plus for some, it was really strong and seemed to last forever of my skin, as even with a good scrubbing several hours later it would not go away.

 

I wanted to like it. I really did. O, cranberry, why have you betrayed me?

Edited May 20, 2005 by Ceryle

[Gin]

This is lovely. The first time I tried Lampades, I got mostly musk and a faint berry. On my second try, I got a nice, firm cranberry scent with the musk in the background.

[enderfem]

I love this. It is like Kabuki, but deeper, more complex. The ginger pops out and it is just lovely, and eventually fades to a gingery musk with a hint of the cranberr y on me. It also lasts a lot longer than most of the scents I've tried. A definite keeper.

 

ADDED July 11:

 

I really think this might be my favorite scent. It was included when someone, I forget who, sent me an imp of Kabuki for a friend, and got my Tintangel in return. If they didn't adore that, then I definitely got the better deal.

 

 

This is like a less cloying Kabuki, still has that layer of sweetness, but with something darker, and the overlaying crisp cranberry notes.

 

It also lasted longer than anything else I've worn, except my beloved Hearth.

[stardreamer]

Got this in a swap. Actually, I managed to swap for it twice, because I got impatient and arranged a second swap before I'd heard back about the first one!

 

In the bottle: Cranberries and incense. Hmmm, this reminds me of something, but I can't figure out what.

 

Fresh on: Okay, now I've placed it. This reminds me of a rock shop. A specific rock shop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that I've been to once or twice. I'll bet they burn a similar-smelling incense there.

 

Drydown: This is pulling a Snake Oil on me -- the cranberry fades faster than the incense notes (smoke and musk?), although it does seem to have decent staying power overall. R.'s reaction went straight past "Ew, yuck" and into "Eewww, what is that?"

 

Re-applying after a swim: Now I'm getting a bit of a "Yankee Candle shop" feel; the cranberry is more pronounced, but a touch artificial. That could just be a reaction with the leftover chlorine on my skin, though.

 

Overall: I like it, though less than I'd hoped to from the description. I'll keep and use this imp (when I'm not going to be in close proximity to R!), but may re-swap the second one.

[OriginalWacky]

Review Lampades

 

Bottle (Imp): Oooh, sweet. Berries? Maybe tart berries. I like it so far.

 

Just On: Ahhhh, that's sweet. This was quite a ways down my to-try list, but I'm *very* glad I got it, if this is what it smells like. It smells like crabapple jelly to me. Not sweet crabappple, but the way it smells before you add the sugar.

 

An hour or two later: Mmmm, this is sweet and lovely. Not sugary sweet. More like berry sweet. Or crabapples, that's the only thing I can think to compare it to. It's really yummy.

 

Around 6 hours: It's faded down, and not quite as sweet, but I get a hint of powdery, so I wonder what is making that. I still like it, and I wouldn't have bought it soon, but I am considering it now. Of course the lunacy blends are going to break me first... but this is very nice.

 

12 hours: There is the barest hint of sweetness left now.

 

Overall: This is moving right up my list. Hasn't hit the top ten yet, but it's very nice. I can't think of anything else but crabapples when I wear it, which makes me think of Grandma, and I like that part of it.

 

After reading other reviews: It must the the floral part that gives me the hint of powder. Maybe not top ten, but in the top twenty at least.

[QueenFae]

This one goes on very fruity, the cranberry I guess. It's a complex scent, and each time I sniff it I notice something new. On the drydown, it still smells fruity, but its darkened up, the smoky flowers and the ginger have started to show themselves. I like the scent but I think it's a bit cough syrupy on my skin.

[quikslvr]

Lots of smoke at first, which is a turnoff for me. Then deep smoke and bitter spices. Sweet cranberry comes to the top next. Then it goes to a beautifully balanced soft and aquatic light musk/ginger. Fades fast, but is pretty.

[Witch's Dagger]

Lampades

 

I got this in a swap with HappyLoveJoy. Thanks!

 

Preconceived notions: Cranberry fire

 

In the vial: sweet and tart with a hint of spice

 

On me:

Cranberries. Sweet cranberries - like cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving. It’s becoming smoky, intense, biting, with a green under the surface of the sweetness.

 

In 30 minutes:

It’s very faint. Just faint cranberry juice.

 

In 45 minutes:

It’s faded to the point that it smells like cranberry jello water.

 

Overall:

Too sweet, too weak. I’ll be swapping this one. Too bad the initial scent with the incense and the biting greenness didn’t last.

[Krista]

Gorgeous! I love this one. It starts out very sweet, like pink popscicles. Dry it's much more beautiful, though still very sweet. I really have a hard time describing this one, but I do love it a lot. I am so glad I have an imp on the way.

[Abbie]

In the bottle: And technically all over my hand, because I spilled it. Le sigh. This is the third in my first set of imps that is a "fruity" fragrance, and once again it is too sweet for me. This isn't the grape soda flavor of Lady Macbeth, and there's a definite cranberry tang, but still...

 

First on: It's not too bad on, with a sort of bitter medicinal sent seeping through. The cranberry still is excessively sugary.

 

Dry: This fades FAST. I can still smell something on my skin three hours later, but only when I get my nose right up to my wrist and take a BIG snort, and it's barely recognizable as the original fragrance. It's almost a light floral... which makes me think the perfume totally faded and I am getting my soap now.

[nineveh]

On me, I can smell the cranberries and red musk. The lillies never show up, which is good because they almost always go soapy on me. I'm not getting much of the spices, which is disappointing. Still, this is a dark, smoky, and seductive scent. I'm not familiar with the Lampades in mythology, but based on the short info in the description, I'd say that this blend captures them well.

[urraca]

This was much nicer than I expected. It has some notes that disagree with me --- musk and spice, so I feared the worst, but these never turned up.

 

It began as a tart berry backed with some kind of pine scent --- I would guess a balsam since it smelled just like the balsam sachets my grandmother used to make. There was also a slight non unpleasant odour of turpentine. I was floored to see no pine scents listed among the notes when I went back to check. The balsam faded and I was left with a fruity scent, not too sweet, which is a good thing (for me). When that faded I was left with amber --- also something not in the listed notes. Lilies? Ginger? Never found them either.

 

I will enjoy my imp very much.

[pensive]

Imp: Ugh. I can't even put this on. It smells heavy and bad.

 

It's cranberry. I can't even put this on.

 

Verdict: Definitely for swapping. I have really bad gagging sort of associations with cranberries and have since I was younger (right, no cranberry juice, no cranberry glop at Thanksgiving).

 

Which is a shame since it does sound pretty on other people

[seimaisin]

I'm going to try my first review here ... I'm not terribly good at picking out individual notes, so mostly, just personal impressions ...

 

In the bottle: Rather medicinal - it smells like a rich cough syrup, not unpleasant; the kind you'd take on sick days as a kid, before you curled up in front of the window and watched the rain.

 

Initial impression: Very sweet. It's sort of an old lady scent, but again, not in the bad way. It somehow reminds me of an elegant antique shop, of somewhere I'd shop with my grandmother. Fruity, with a musty undertone.

 

Drydown: The must cleared, leaving mostly a sweet, fruity scent. I haven't really smelled spices at all, unless that's what made me think of must and antiques. The cranberry seems to be the dominant scent on my skin.

 

Overall: A pleasant scent, but no more than that. I prefer stronger, more perfume-y scents, so this probably won't be one I wear on a regular basis. I might keep it, though, for the times I want to smell elegant without overpowering anyone.

Edited July 4, 2005 by seimaisin

[Lycanthrope]

In the Bottle or Imp:

Definitely brings to mind the holiday season for me. I smell a dark, tart red berry, but I wouldn't have immediately thought cranberry. It's mixed with a green sprig of pine or holly.

Wet, on Skin:

Similar to in the bottle, but on me the berry recedes into the background and it's mostly holly, with some floral sweetness starting to peek through. Close up, it's more green, but from a bit of a distance, I detect more of the fruit. It still feels like a holiday scent.

Drying Down:

The pine transforms into something a bit more powdery/woody on me, like sandalwood, while the fruit note sweetens but pulls back, so it's not horrendously amped. There's this very subtle smoky incense vibe thrumming underneath the lighter notes.

Over Time:

I smell cedar! The brighter notes have sort of melded into a unique plant aroma and play and dance behind the base wood, which may be cedar, but keeps playing tricks on me.

Final Verdict?

What a unique experience! Keeping the imp.

[k00kaburra]

Last I checked, this was still the sole perfume with cranberry in it. That makes me dance with anticipation of Lampades.

In bottle: I love the cranberries - so tangy and sweet! I'm not liking the heavy musk or the spices, though. Very very mixed feelings so far.

On me: Oh, had Beth only made available a cranberry single note, I would have been all over it like cheese on a pizza. Even this fragrance, with my various hesitations, is quite lovely and I am delighted to try it. It is a bit spicy, but over the dusty collection of musk and spices is the delightful cranberry.

[rellyjean]

First impression: the imp is a lot darker than I was expecting. Huh.

 

In the bottle: Mmmm. Spicy and warm. Not quite picking out the cranberries, though.

 

On me: This is weird to try to explain, but - once on, the scent just kind of - didn't go anywhere.

 

It didn't disappear. I could smell it. But it smelled like a generic backdrop of "I'm Wearing Perfume." I couldn't pick out scents or tone. I couldn't find anything in it. It smelled nice, but kind of a background nice and not really anything to it.

 

The really odd thing is that hubby came over and said, Oooh, what IS that? And when I explained to him the problems I was having, he looked at me like I was crazy. He could smell the cranberries, and the spices, and all kinds of notes.

 

The one thing I can think of - !!TMI warning!! - is that I happened to try Lampades on what was a heavy flow day. So my body chemistry was a bit wonky, and possibly my sense of scent was a bit off as well.

 

I'm going to wait until a better time of month and try this again. Come on, cranberries, don't fail me next time.

[olympia301]

 

I tried Sin recently, and Lampades reminds me of that blend a whole lot, except that Lampades is much more fruity and Sin is more dark musky. There is a heavy incense component to Lampades not present in Sin. I will bet that if you like Sin you will love Lampades, especially in the summer with its great plummy (cranberry) portions. Lampades is a very dark oil in the bottle and lasts an awfully long time on your skin. I bet it would go an eternity in a scent locket. A great sensuous blend and I say it really is appropriate for any time of the year.

Edited July 9, 2005 by olympia301

[Brianne]

REJOICE!! REJOICE!! A blend with lily in it that not only can I WEAR, but I LOVE!

 

*clears throat*

On with the review -

 

In the bottle:

Fruity. General berry like, not so much cranberry like.

 

On me:

I was certain - *certain* I tell you - that I would not like this after I put it on my skin. At first, it was exactly what it was in the vial. Fruity, fruity fruity - juicy berries, and yet somehow it smells like grape juice. I'm so not a fruity type of gal, so I thought this was going to be easy for me to dismiss.

"Not so quick though!" Lampades said to me. In about 5 minutes that juicy fruity smell had really mellowed out! Suddenly it wasn't an overwhelming berry scent. I could still smell cranberry, but now it was light, musky, spicey - even slightly woodsy. This is such a complex scent that I can't pick out notes aside from the cranberry, but I can say that the smokey/spicey quality of this is sexy as hell.

 

Final note:

Clearly, I love it. But what's better - is that this is the first scent in a while that my fiance has actually commented on with more than a "yeah that's nice". In fact, I didn't even have him smell this one, and he caught a whiff of me and exclaimed "Wow I like that!". So bottle of this for me, that's for sure!

[slave1]

In Bottle: Berry incense

 

On Skin: The cranberry is strongest but not as tart as I’d imagined. The musk really gives it a smokey incense feel. The spices give it depth but seem a little heavy to me. I’m not smelling the lillies or ginger yet, if they’re there they’re very light. I love cranberry, but I can see where other peiple have reviewed this as smelling like a Glade plug-In or Room Incense, it doesn’t seem like a body scent, I would use it as a room spray.

[HoneyHoneyNY]

I got this in a swap, and I had been looking forward to trying it very much. It has some of my favorite things in it. Cranberry, musk, and ginger are all in here.

 

In the imp it smells strongly fruity, like candy almost. Like cherry sweetarts.

 

On my skin, I initially smell the fruit strongly almost like a potpourri smell, but then as it sinks into my skin, I start catching whiffs of the musk, and a slight spiciness that must be the ginger. It's not as tangy as I thought a cranberry scent would be, but it's still very nice. I'm liking it so far, but I'm going to let it dry down and see what happens.

 

Edited to Add: Now that it's had some time to dry, almost all of the cranberry has dissapeared, except for a trace of fruitiness. On me, this is now a sweet sexy musk scent with a bit of gingeriness to give it a spicy kick. Yum! This is a keeper. I'll have to try it another time to decide if I want to buy a big bottle, but that's only because I'm trying not to go crazy with the bottle buying, and so am exercising restraint.

Edited August 15, 2005 by HoneyHoneyNY

[maewitch]

I was expecting something much more tart. I actually tried this on once before, but had so many different scents on that all I could pick up was the cranberry, and I wasn't too thrilled.

 

Given it's proper space and time to develop, this very good. I can smell the juiciness and the redness of the cranberry, but it is so well supported and rounded out by the musk and the lily and the spices. It is sweet and soft and warm, almost like hot mulled cranberry "cider" on a chilly evening.

 

I honestly was not expecting anything this subtle and comforting from a blend with both tart fruit and spices. A wonderful surprise, and makes it to my "possible" bottle list for autumn and late-summer-evening scents.

 

EDIT: Wearing this a few more times, I have to say I prefer the drydown to the opening stages. It's the lily, I think, as it adds a certain "greeness" to the blend that smells off to me in some way.

Edited December 4, 2005 by maewitch

[lissamc]

Wet: Oooh...neat. The cranberry drifts in and out of this warm red-brown haze.

 

1 hour: Loving this one. It has melded together, and I can't pick out any individual notes. A warm sweet incensy haze.

 

3 hours: Fading, but I can still catch it wafting. I get berry incense in the air, but a creamy spice on my wrist.

 

Verdict: Very nice. I'll try it again a couple of times to decide whether or not to order a bottle of this one.