Phantasm

[stellamaris]

This delicate, spectral perfume gives rise to an eerie distortion of of the senses. It bestows an ephemeral, ghostly, and truly haunting quality to your presence. Green tea, lemon verbena, jasmine and neroli.

Phantasm. How do I love thee? Let me enumerate the ways...

First, let me start off by saying, what are friends for if not to give umpteen opportunities to say "I told you so!". I am that kind of friend. Knowing how much I love jasmine, and lemon (when a review says "Blergh! Lemon Pledge! That scent usually goes right to the top of the wish list ) So, my Best BPAL pal has been telling me "Phantasm! Get some! You need it!" like, forever. But as usual I just ignored her. In my last order I got a frimp of Phantasm.

Phantasm, where have you been all my life, with me sniffing the bottles of Lemon Up shampoo, and shaking my fist at Lemon Scented Sticky Bats because it turns to meh on me????

First, this is the only lemongrass thing I have ever smelled that does not smell like a Thai soup. It's delicious and lemony, perfectly deepened and supported by the jasmine. And it lasts all day! Even when my nose is blocked up by Spring Madness!

I am going to wear this all summer. It's going in my next order and I am going to bring it home and call it George.

I wonder how long it will take her to find this review...

[Ajila]

In the bottle - A bright spiky lemon verbena

 

Wet on me - Still mostly lemon verbena but the jasmine begins to make itself known

 

Dry on me - The jasmine amps up and takes over

 

Overall - I'm not a jasmine fan so this doesn't really work for me

[aquazoo]

Starts with a dry lemon, like a Sweet Tart. Floral coming up behind, with green overtones. It is a very pretty lemon.

[mymymai]

• ITI: I get an interesting combination of jasmine, neroli, and lemon verbena. Jasmine usually overpowers many of it's accompanying notes, at least to my nose, so this harmonious blend is fascinating as I would describe the notes as well blended, delicate, and slightly ephemeral with the faint green tea note that remains hidden, but that brings something special to this blend.

Wet: The lemon verbena is more assertive on my skin, but I actually quite like it with the jasmine and neroli. The green tea still stays in the background, but does add to the complexity of the scent.

Dry: Oddly enough, the most lasting note is green tea, followed by lemon verbena. Even though it's lost the other two notes, I'm a fan of the scent!

[Magycmyste]

In the imp: Sharp lemon smell - not quite lemon pledge, but close. I do get the faintest hint of the jasmine.

 

Wet on skin: Same as before, though higher on the jasmine. IT gives it a slight sugar/lemon drop effect.

 

Dried down: Lemon and green tea on my skin, and a hint of jasmine in the air

 

Throw: Very, very light jasmine.

 

Verdict: *** This is really pretty, actually, but it's just not me, and it's not a scent I think I would ever reach for. Especially over Shanghai, if I want a green tea sort of scent. Into the swap pile!

[lady_pandora]

Phantasm is the battle of two amps: lemon and jasmine. I often have trouble with "tea" scents because I'll amp the lemon too much, and also have trouble with almost anything containing jasmine because the jasmine won't share the stage. But this was a frimp from the lab, and if there's anything I've learned in BPAL, it's to try anything once, because you never know.

 

Wet, Phantasm is a huge sharp burst of lemon. I've seen softer lemon (or lemon-esque) notes lately: the lemonade scent I got from Delirium, or the soda scent I got from Gnome. This is sharp, sharp, sharp, cleaning-product-y, Lemon Pledge kind of lemon. I can smell a little jasmine lurking in the background too.

 

Drying, the two notes share the stage for a while. When sniffing, I get the lemon first in each sniff and then the jasmine rolling in behind; if it were food, jasmine would be the aftertaste. The throw is more jasmine than lemon though.

 

And then by the half-hour point, jasmine is victorious. It's not quite single-note, because it smells tarter than jasmine usually does, so I can tell there's still a little lemon hanging around. It continues to be mostly jasmine the rest of the night.

 

This isn't me; I don't like the initial lemon burst, and I have other jasmines that work better. However, I can see how it evokes the concept of Phantasm. The first sniff of it is such a bright, sharp shock to the nose that it's reminiscent of the "green flash" (think PotC), only yellow rather than green.

Edited December 1, 2014 by lady_pandora

[Veronica]

Clean lemon with a hint of floral. Similar to Embalming Fluid, and in the same family as Mag Mell and Namaste.

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: Zingy! Interestingly, this is definitely lemon verbena, rather than lemon itself - softer, rounder, and more herbal-feeling. There are also some very soft florals, but they're very much in the background.

 

Wet: Starts out with the same lovely bright lemon verbena, but all too soon, it turns to soap! WTF? I have a sneaking suspicion that jasmine is the culprit here, since I noticed it at the same time as the soap started to develop, but jasmine usually behaves on me. *grumble*

 

Dry: Yup, it's soap, soap, and more soap. There's at least some fresh/floral overtones for the first few hours, but they smell very synthetic, like the soap is called "Forest Breeze" or "English Wildflowers" or something. But even those don't last long - after a few hours, it's pure soap. Bleh.

[Cali]

This directly reminded me of Nyarlahotep with a hint of the deep ones. It's like a steamy cup of leamon tea.

Unfortunately it goes soapy on me on drydown, too bad.

[d0gbones]

Starts off as strong lemon verbena, but the jasmine comes out as it warms up. Thankfully, it's never more than a vague hint. The green tea stops it from being citrus fruity overload and as others mentioned, it's very much like Lush Avobath. Totally not my perfume thing, but nice all the same.

[Casablanca]

Wand: Lemony tea and a biting jasmine. I normally like jasmine. But this one smells a little harsh.

Wet: A high-pitched jasmine shoves to the front, shrieking "Eeeeee!" and freaking out, even though it's just a cool cup of lemony tea trailing behind. I don't pick out neroli or anything else at this stage.

Dry: I actually get a little of the neroli now, on the back end of a sniff, once I let the still-freaking jasmine run past. And maybe there's a little vanilla? The blend as a whole lapses to a faint jasmine within an hour.

[Soupy Twist]

I got this imp ages ago before I understood what the Lab's various notes did on my skin, so while this originally had promise, I now realize what was waiting for me.

 

Jasmine stamen with a wee bit of lemon in the bottle. Goes on as green tea, which gives me some hope, but the stamen note rolls back in. The lemon puts on a brief show, and then my skin eats it. Scrubber.

[roseus]

The lemon verbena smelled way too sharp in the vial for me. On the green tea and jasmine help to soften it up, and the blend is almost refreshing. But I just really do not like lemon verbena unfortunately.

[Anita]

So, when I first sniffed this, I thought uh oh, that jasmine is super strong. But I got brave and dabbed it on anyway.

 

The Jasmine gets a slap and is told to behave by the lemon verbena. It's actually quite lovely. I don't know if I am getting any neroli because I do smell something else, but the green tea is a no show, which I can live with. it's a bright sunshiny floral, that I don't mind at all.

 

Although I 'm not usually one for lemon scents, this one does beautiful things- at least on my skin. I will probably frimp this to my daughter though, she loves lemon perfumes.

 

Edited to add: This one doesn't last very long on my skin at all.

Edited May 26, 2017 by Anita

[achildoftime]

Mmmm. It's like a lemony jasmine tea. It's a bright citrus that doesn't smell like I just cut some lemons. It's more like there's a twist in my drink. It doesn't really morph or change at all. It doesn't last as long as I was hoping maxing out at about 3 hours, but for me it's worth it. It's so pretty!

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Whoa! That's a lot of lemon. The jasmine is not horrible! Wow. I actually kind of don't hate this, but man is it intense! I think I would like it more as a tea than a perfume...

 

 

Dry: I don't like it. It smells like a lemon cough drop. BUT I don't hate and it considering it is made up of 4 (I won't say "death notes", how about almost never works notes?) I call that a win.

[doomsday_disco]

In the imp: I get all of the notes in the order they're listed, but the lemon verbena is the strongest of them all.

 

Wet: Lemon verbena, green tea, and jasmine, accompanied by some bitter neroli, which, at the moment, resides in the background.

 

Dry: This ends up being a lemon verbena, green tea, and jasmine scent on me. The neroli remains in the background, and the jasmine isn't the heady type that overtakes everything because the lemon verbena is pretty strong and seems to be keeping it in check.

 

Verdict: This one is okay, but it's too strong on the lemon verbena for me. I prefer Shanghai and Embalming Fluid as far as green tea and citrus scents go (especially Shanghai, which also has green tea and lemon verbena in it, but features a lovely honeysuckle as opposed to jasmine and neroli).

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Right off the bat, this is reminding me of Embalming Fluid.

 

Embalming Fluid notes - white musk, green tea, aloe and lemon.

Phantasm notes - Green tea, lemon verbena, jasmine and neroli.

 

(That's a scent I love, so keep that bias in mind.) However, the lemon that's coming through is almost astringent-like, when it's not in EF. Just a hint of tea in the background.

 

Dry: Astringent, powdery, lemon tea.

 

Jasmine doesn't often work on my skin, and neroli has about a 50/50 chance of working. I'll stick with Embalming Fluid!

[DryFrogPills]

Tested from a rather aged imp.

 

In the imp: Green tea and lemon verbena

 

Worn: Something about this combination of notes goes musty in a way that I don't expect it to. This stage lasts for a few minutes, and my gut wants to blame the mix of green tea and neroli, mostly because jasmine doesn't usually go weird on me.

 

Before too long, it relaxes into just being a faintly floral green tea scent. Not too interesting to me, but if you're into green tea scents, this might work!

[bambi]

This perfume oil morphed rapidly on me. In the bottle and upon initial application, it smelled of lemon pine-sol, then quickly lost its astringent edge and started to smell like lemon-drops. The lemon drops stage was fascinating. It was sharp, but sweet. And herbal edge started to creep in, which rapidly changed to an herbal floral. Quickly thereafter it changed to a floral soap scent. Finally, true to its name, it disappeared completely from my skin. I disliked the beginning and end stages of this, but rather liked the lemon-drops and herby lemon scent of the middle stages.

[MolyH]

I personally think this smells like a sweet, juicy lemon drop on a fresh summer day. It's very faint, mind you, can't really catch a sniff of it unless I directly press my wrist against my nose. My husband, on the other hand, just thinks it smells like soap. 🤣 I'd enjoy this a lot more if it had a bit more throw to it.

[ShadowEtienne]

This is truly deeply beautiful and very much in line with what I love... i think I've found one of my perfect jasmines, and of course it's no longer available.

 

The green tea is the scent that carries everything else, wafting lightly from the skin (it doesn't have huge throw). Jasmine and orange blossoms (neroli) are freshly blooming right outside the open window. Lemon verbena grows in the window box of that open window, and a few leaves have been recently crushed.

 

It's a fresh airy tea scent, filled with growing floral and herbal scents. I would be immediately buying a full bottle if it still existed.

Edited September 18, 2023 by ShadowEtienne