Illamasqua Freak smells like..

I got a tiny sample of Illamasqua's Freak when I made my first ever Illamasqua order from their sale.  It is probably the most complex perfume that I have ever introduced my nose to.

I can identify the smell immediately, although I'll leave that until the end of the post.  Can you imagine a three liner post from me?  It will never happen!

On a side note, I start this year with the sad realisation that I am once again abusing a member of the punctuation mark family.  A few years ago, it was the comma.  I've moved onto harder stuff now and it is exclamation marks that I'm mainlining (the line being my fingers and not veins).  This is more than evident in the majority of my tweets.  I don't know why it is, I'm just a highly exciteable person! (See, that was totally by accident).

Anyway, I got this vial and I really like the smell.  It is like nothing else on the market at the moment and that is pretty much in keeping with what Illamasqua do.

The official notes are..

I on the other hand know exactly what it smells like.  Old Indian grandmas at the Gurdwara.  If you think I'm joking, smell this and then go smelling an old bibi at the Gurdwara.  The funny thing is, it smells nothing like a bibi (the Punjabi word for grandma) when she's at home.  I don't know why that is.

In that way, it's a really comforting smell because it reminds me of both of my grandmothers.  I don't think I could carry off this scent as I feel it's a bit too mature for me but my grandmother is loving it.  That alone makes me laugh a bit, I bet she is in no way Illamasqua's target audience yet she cannot get enough of the perfume.

Illamasqua describe it as being a concoction of dangerously exotic unconventional flowers.. I told my grandma this and she remarked that it sounded just like her.  I had to laugh as she explained how she was dangerous (when she lived in India, she had a stand-off with a monkey who kept ripping the tyres on my uncle's bike..on more than one ocassion..)  And as for the exotic part, she's brown, how much more exotic can you get?

It also made me laugh a bit that Illamasqua market themselves as quite an edgy brand yet this gives me that feeling you get when you put on a pair of freshly ironed (still warm) trousers or when you wrap yourself in a blanket that's just come out of the tumble drier. 

The full sized bottle looks something like this..

I applaud Illamasqua for being able to make a perfume bottle that not only stands out but also isn't difficult to display on your dressing table.  I've seen some very "original" designs recently and although they look nice, they're not really very practical and the last thing you want is for your lovely bottle of perfume to slip out of your hands and smash into a million pieces.

The full sized bottle retails for £59.00, available from their website.

Marc Jacobs Daisy

I remember a time when I used to have about five perfumes on the go at once.  I know exactly why I changed from having five to having one.  I bought a disgusting perfume from Boots during the sales that smelled of sick and cheap perfume..

I'm slowly getting back to the person I was *sob sob* and am currently using three perfumes alternately.

Marc Jacobs' Daisy is one of them and it is a departure from my usual citrus based perfume choices but I find that I'm kind of over the perfumes that I used to love before.  I want a bit of sophistication damn it!

This baby definitely has dressing table appeal (even for those of us without a dressing table) which is something that I think perfumes should have. Decent perfumes aren't cheap so the least they can do besides smelling good is look good.  The daisies are made of rubber and aren't so stiff that you can't bend them.

The official line from Marc Jacobs regarding the scents/notes that make up this fragrance are:

• Top: Wild strawberry, violet leaves, ruby red grapefruit

• Heart/middle: Violet, jasmine, gardenia

• Base: Vanilla, musks, white woods

The fact that the base notes are vanilla and musk just show me how much of a change it is.  I used to shun perfumes that had the slightest hint of vanilla or musk but the base notes of this perfume are what I love most about it.  You know the smell you get the day after from an item you've perfumed the day before? That is what I love about this.

The difficulty now, however, is finding something that is a perfect stepping stone between a citrus scent and one that reminds me of mothballs.  I just don't feel sophisticated enough to pull off certain scents.

In the meantime, if you want to pick this up, you can do from Escentual.com where the 50ml costs £45.00 and the 100ml costs £56.00.

Armani Code and a ramble about my perfume history

Back in the day, it was all about having the perfume that was en vogue, personal taste didn't even come into it.  This explains how I ended up with a bottle of CK1 that had turned green because I was too scared of wasting it.  Leaving it on my desk in direct sunlight was a must though, so that people who came around were fully aware that I had the perfume du jour.

If you had a whiff of me betwee 1998 and 2000, Tommy Girl would be what assaulted your olfactory senses.  It was my GCSE perfume.  The smell is too sweet for me now but it always brings back good memories, especially seeing my friend break her leg trying to impress the guy who is now her husband.

Anyway, back to Armani Code.

The official word from Armani regarding the scent is that the heart notes are Orange Blossom, the top notes are Jasmine and Orange and the base notes are Vanilla and Honey.

You can definitely smell the orange-ness.  You know when someone peels an orange on the Tube and you instantly smell orange? It's not like that..it's more of a refined orange smell.  I definitely smell a little bit of jasmine and the more you sniff, the more you are able to smell vanilla.  To me, honey smells like stale piss so thankfully, I can't smell any of that!

This is also a pretty good dupe for Dior Addict.  I did some blind testing with my cousin and she couldn't tell the difference at all!

I'm notorious for having smells vanish on my body, I don't know what it is but my body just rejects scented perfumes (er...like you can buy unscented perfume you dunce!)  This, however, lasts from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m.

My only point of annoyance is the lid.  I'd like to just be able to plonk it on and be done with it but you have to make sure you get it on at the correct angle so that you can click it down and make it secure.

You can buy it from all the usual suspects, here's the link (non affiliate) to Boots.  I've just seen on there that they also have a limited edition addition to the Armani "olfactive wardrobe" which is a Summer version of this.  That bottle reminds me more of Winter than Summer though..  I'm not sure if the smell is the same as this but that one is on offer at the moment.

A man's perspective on Hugo Boss Orange Man

As many of you know, I live with a man.  A man whose virtues I shant extol here as he is fully aware of them.  He has been the test subject for my first ever fragrance post, the subject of which being Hugo Boss Orange Man.

These are his thoughts (typed by me):
The smell you get from a sniff compared to that you get from spraying it is totally different.  It took a few minutes after spraying for the true smell to come out.  It's not an overpowering scent, I'd say it was a background smell, you only notice it's missing when you don't wear it.  I'm convinced it smells like a mixture of perfume-y apples and coriander, not sweet apples though..the other ones.  And regardless of what anyone else says, I'm sure I smell a tiny bit of vanilla.  It's not your typical "boy" smelling scent so if you want to buy something a bit different, this would be a good bet.

The bottle is very similar to the women's version.
 
Would he buy it? Yes, but make sure you spray it so that you get the proper scent, it smells totally different from sniff to spray.

These are my thoughts: 
I gave him a "are you dizzy, blud?" look when he said it smelt of coriander and apples because who would ever think to put that smell into a perfume?  Imagine the egg on my face when I checked online and saw the official smell was described as having top notes of crisp apple and coriander...and something to do with vanilla.

Talking of descriptions, this also made me laugh "Boss Orange Man, a vibrant scent of free-spirited optimism.  The Boss Orange man is truly liberated. A mellow soul with a passionate and spontaneous spirit, his fragrance complements his easy-going charm and his natural feel-good aura.  A fragrance with a remarkable character and a relaxed feel, just like the Boss Orange Man himself."  He is a mellow soul though, nothing ever seems to faze him whereas I used to lose my shit at the drop of a hat.

If you're wanting to buy a perfume for a typical Indian boy (you all know the type), this won't fit the bill BUT.. both my brothers have all the standard Indian boy smells (Issey Miyake, 212 etc..) and they didn't mind this one.

You can pick this up from Escentual.com, prices range from £25.00 to £45.00.

Perfume help!

I bought a set of five perfumes in the Boots post Xmas sale and it was only when I got them home that I realised they were screw top bottles. I've used one screw top bottle during the week and it took me about 15 minutes to carefully put it on.

Thus, I have a problem.  When I rush to get ready for work in the morning, I can't use the perfume in the same manner because it will literally splash all over the shop because naturally I'd be in a hurry.

This is where you ladies come in, when you get a perfume which is screw top only, what do you put it into? What I mean by screw top is that there is no pump out of which you can spray the perfume.

I've been looking around the usual suspects to find a pump action (har har) container I can put my perfume into but have so far found nothing.  I used to have an atomiser but it's very tricky to use and if you leave your perfumer in there for longer than a week, it vanishes..as I found out when I put my sample of Gucci Rush in there...which reminds me, I had about 10 nice sized samples of Calvin Klein perfume which I have lost.  This is what happens when you move around so much that you can't remember the last place you left things.

Anyway, what do you guys suggest I do? Just dab it on like aftershave? If you've ever found one of those spray bottles, please tell me where from so I can get some like it.

I'll leave you with a shot of the aforementioned perfumes: