Kumiho

[outofrhyme]

Nine-tailed fox demon of Korean lore who transforms into the visage of an irresistible beauty in order to seduce men and lead them to their doom. A sharp, biting blend of crisp white tea and ginger.

 

In the bottle:

Lots of sweet, tasty ginger, with a fresh clear note - probably the white tea. Actually, definitely the white tea.

 

Wet:

Citrusy tea and ginger. The white tea is now dominant, and sharp/biting is apt.

Dry down:

Oh, thank heavens the ginger is coming back and this is sweetening up. The white tea was really starting to become a problem. I can definitely still smell both the white tea and the ginger, but the white tea is now very pleasant. It's much sweeter now.

 

Final thoughts:

I need to investigate more ginger, because this is right up there with Sudha Segara as one of my new favorite scents. It's hauntingly familiar - I have definitely smelled this before, or something very similar... I actually might be thinking of the white tea note in Iambe, which I like much better in the context of ginger than I did in the context of bright florals. It also helps that am becoming incredibly impressed with the Lab's ginger note.

 

ETA lab description

Edited December 12, 2006 by outofrhyme

[monsteralice]

I'm in love with this scent! If only it lasted...

 

Wet: Strong ginger, with an edge of lemon.

 

Dry: Lemon tea.

 

Finish: Lemon tea. Then it fades <sobs>.

 

Duration: Faded very fast in a room with electric forced-air heat. It might last longer in muggier circumstances.

 

I love the scent, but I won't be getting a bottle because the duration is so short. I'll use up my imp and be happy doing so.

[dronzeka]

Like so many others, I LOVE this scent, and wish it lasted a little longer. It's a beautiful lemon-y iced tea spiked with ginger - sweet, light, refreshing, making me think of sweet tea on a hot day, when the glass is dripping with condensation and the ice melts in it almost instantly. It's a very light, clear, clean scent. It's BEAUTIFUL. But despite having slathered it on, it's fading relatively quickly. I may have to try it in a spray to see if it lasts longer that way, because it's just gorgeous.

[indicolite]

This is so fresh and nice. I rarely use that imprecise word, but it is the word I am getting; Kumiho is nice. There is a sharp ginger, but it works perfectly with the tea.

 

I hope it stays; else I can put it in a locket.

[euterpe414]

At first this starts out all lemon tea on me, with a barest hint of ginger. As it dries, the ginger comes out a bit more, balancing itself equally with the lemony tea. I wish I had discovered this one last summer, as it would have been absolutely perfect for hot summers in southern California. I am not usually a "light" or citrus scent person but I will add this to my small list of refreshing scents that I love, and will buy a bottle at some point for the coming summer.

 

I have not had a problem with lasting power on this one, thankfully. tea usually likes to stick to my skin

[maijasu]

This is a fresh, invigorating tea scent with ginger, exactly as it's described. It would be the perfect scent for summer, although I'm enjoying it in January too. Lasting power is shorter than average, but I still think I'll get a bottle eventually.

[Gale]

I got this as a frimp from the Lab--thanks!

 

It is just as others have described it--fresh, citrusy tea and ginger.

 

One peculiar thing about Kumiho that I never noticed with any fragrance before is how happy I feel whenever I smell it. I will be getting a bottle of this one (probablyin the Spring).

[filigree_shadow]

Mostly a clear, slightly tart citrusy tea scent. A little bit of ginger adds zing.

 

A lovely scent -- crisp and delicate, and not overly feminine. Refreshing and light.

[Meg]

In the bottle: Tea! Citrus! Yummy bite!

 

Wet: Delicious white tea and ginger, very fruity somehow.

 

Drydown: Ooh, spicy! I get tea with spices, which is certainly the ginger. It's a bit of a thin scent, I visualise it as absolutely transparent, and it has quite a bit of acidity and bitterness. It does tend to go slightly plasticky at times.

 

Overall: It's a great tea blend, on the cheeky side - easy to associate with a playful fox demon. It does pack a bit of a bite, but it's not too strong either, and it's specially very fresh and pleasant. I think that despite it's plasticky moments, I'll wear it in the summer, yum! Also, on me it has surprising staying power, yay!

[lady d]

this makes me think of a beautiful woman with a sharp smile, floating and delicate like tea-leaves in water, each of her tails flickering from beneath her long skirts in a pack of wicked shadows. "what is real?" she makes you ask without asking ("follow me," she says without speaking.) she's half a dream, and she glows with the orange-red light of the last leaf in the fall -- the one that will never touch the ground.

 

and then she disappears. like so many others, i can't seem to catch a kumiho for long -- but i think i love her.

[lightgatherer]

Ginger tea? This smells more like grapefruit tea on me. Eventually, the grapefruit starts smelling more like lemon. The scent is weak, and I never get any ginger. It's not a bad scent, just not one I really like.

[hjourdenjackson]

I ordered an imp of this on someone's recommendations... I forget whose... But I currently LOVE them. Whomever you are that recommended this to me, I LOVE YOU!!!

 

OK, that shameless whatever that was aside...

 

This is so sharp and crisp and clean and utterly delicious. I have a hard time knowing what I'm smelling, but of the imps I ordered and the frimps they sent me, this is a new favorite, definitely out of the bunch, if not a new top 5! And I've got no problem with staying, nor am I getting grapefruit off of this.

[brownbear]

At first it smells a lot like lemon. Then the ginger comes in. Overall it is very light and crispy. I really like it. It's zesty. The roommate boy likes it.

ETA: It disappeared really really fast.

Edited March 13, 2007 by brownbear

[goddessrobyn]

being in the 7th page of reviews, I don't have much original to add - it's very light, crisp, and beautiful... lemony ginger... I don't get much tea except in the bottle. As others have said, it fades very quickly. I tried it in my scent locket and it didnt seem to help it's staying power

 

This was part of a switch witch gift and my witch picked the perfect scent for me (I'd never tried it and she sent a 5mL... ) I'm glad I have a lot of it becasue I've been slathering it on every day since it arrived!!!

 

Beth, if you can create something similar with more ginger bite and more staying power you will officially have taken over my checking account

Edited March 17, 2007 by goddessrobyn

[The_Merf]

This is all tea on me. I can't detect any ginger at all, and only the slightest bit of citrus. It is a really overpowering scent for about ten minutes, and then it vanishes on my skin.

[cranberry]

This scent starts off all tea but then morphs to a lemony tea with a bit of spicy fire. It is light, clean, refreshing.

 

It reminds me other white tea products out there. I like white tea so I do like this scent, but it’s just too similar to the mainstream tea scents. I think I prefer to get my tea fix from other tea blends such as Holiday Moon, Dragon Moon, Dorian, etc.

[captainoats]

In the imp: Clean and cool, a little bit bitter.

On, wet: Ack! A little bit like lemon pine-sol, but cooler and cleaner? Hmm.

Drying: Less pine-sol-y, but still citrusy in the same way as pine-sol. It's starting to smell more like a very pale tea, though.

Dry: As it fades, it gets a bit like a white floral, but not enough to keep it from smelling like very cold, clean lemon pine-sol. And it fades fast.

Verdict: As much as I love lemon, this is just the wrong lemon (and it's not even supposed to have lemon in it!). Too cool for me. To the swap pile it goes. I'd give it a 1.5/5.

[xleighx]

It's all sharp but watery and slightly, slightly lemony and yummy. I can't make a coherent review for this because it's difficult to pick up on my skin and just blurs into the first sentence.

[Katinka]

Kumiho, where have you been all my life? This is the crisp, non-floral summer scent I've been long hoping to find. It's very reminiscent of The Dormouse (more so than Sudha Segara) to my nose, just a little more sophisticated. It only lasted about 4+ hours on my skin, but I won't mind dumping it on.

[LadyCrow]

Wet: Green, green, green! Bright, cool, clear green.

 

On skin: First, lemon. When that fades, the tea comes out, and everything pretty much remains the same for as long as this lasts -- unfortunately not that long; this is ephemeral, appropriately enough. I don't get ginger out of this, although I didn't really slather as much as I could have.

 

It's really hot out today. I was headed out the door to my writers' group, and threw on Kumiho, looking for something cool and summery that wouldn't be obnoxious enough to bother the other people sitting around the table. Kumiho was that nice little wave of freshness for me. I don't think I lured anyone to their doom, but tomorrow is another day.

[ouch!]

Kumiho

 

This was not an imp I ordered it was a frimp! And it's very pleasant.

 

It's quite a plain simple scent to me and it doesn't have hardly any throw at all.

 

When it's wet, it's very ginger/lemony, it;s nice and fresh and I've been wearing it in this lucky bit of sunshine we've been havin in Smoggy London! It only morphs ever so slightly on dry down (which happens fast) which I presume is the Tea. Still very nice though.

 

There's not much really to say, it's simple and pleasant, and a nice oil to use if you need a bit of a refresh!

[Jenesis]

I'm afraid that, for me, "sharp and biting" was very accurate. It was sharp, searing and biting to the point where I had to go and wash it off, and the fumes wafting from the Imp reminded me of little more than the bleach my Mum uses to clear the drains under the sink.

 

Sorry Lab

[lunareclipse]

In the vial, Kumiho smells crisp and clean with the faintest hint of spice and sweetness... like an upscale, environmentally-friendly, aromatheraputic housecleaning product. That's the wet smell on my skin, too.

 

About a minute and a half after it hits my skin, though, it opens up into an amazing, delicate, sweet almost-floral with lots of tea and citrus. The gingery heat that I'd expected isn't there - or if it is, it's the cool, tangy green ginger from Thai & Viet cuisine rather than the hot, potent ginger from Chinese or Indian food.

 

This is a perfect scent for hot, sweaty summer days - sweet yet crisp and clean. It's the olfactory equivalent of a tall frosty drink, and I feel cooler (and less schvitzy) just for having it on.

[zankoku_zen]

Another empty sniffie.

 

In the imp: Ginger

 

On Skin: Ginger and tea

 

On Drydown: Lemony sort of asian floral

 

Verdict: Hum... I don't quite think this is for me. But it was nice to try it out!

[500ml]

I love the combination of white tea with the slightest note of ginger. It's such a beautiful scent, so feminine and delicate. At first I do get a bit of lemon, but that fades away and I'm left with quite sweet tea. Very refreshing and perfect for the summer.