Phantasm

[Shollin]

Phantasm, from Bewitching Brews:

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.

 

First sniff: Smells like Lush's Avobath ballistic or lemon tea. Fresh, clean scent.

 

Wearing: Very nice, a clean fresh smell. A definite lemon, but softened and misty around the edges, so it smells like limoncello, not like Lysol. A spring scent. Very pretty. Seemed to fade a bit quickly. Must get a bigger bottle - it'll be amazing when it warms up a bit outside.

[jj_j]

A spring scent, indeed - at least for me. This makes me think of a bundle of tulips, interspersed with a sprig of eucalyptus, and a handful of ylang-ylang and lemon rind in the mix, too.

 

Faded quickly on me, too - but since I'm in a lotion-making phase, I think I'll make some in Phantasm so I can see if layering does the trick. Nice for spring, but BPAL creates other scents that are much more to my liking and that I'd be more likely to wear enough to repurchase.

[Pookymum]

Lovely fresh lemony smell with a flowery hint that comes through more on dry down. I'd prefer this as a room scent rather than a perfume but I do like it.

[Pandorra]

PHANTASM From Bewitching Brews:

 

Initial:

What is that? Lemon? Something smells sour to me. Its okay but I don’t care for that sour bite. It smells like cleaner of some sort. There MAY be floral underneath it all. I’m gonna have to look at the description, my curiosity is killing me.

 

During:

The sour bite has softened. But there is something underneath that smells like my Great-Grandma’s house used to smell. And that’s not a good thing for me. Maybe its my body chemistry. I can smell the freshness over this funny staleness though.

 

Final:

I apply at 8:00AM. It was gone by 10:30. The last moments of its life were soft and gentle, but for the most part I couldn’t get past that funny thick stale scent. Mothballs? Maybe I don’t like jasmine?? It may have been my body chemistry. It wasn’t horrible. And I can see that others may like this soft scent, but it's not for me.

[grrrlennyl]

PHANTASM

at first: a masculine smell. a bit spicy. i may smell some apple at the very end. weird and biting. actually, i may smell some pine or lemon.

on: ok, so is it pine or lemon? i cannot place this at all. there's a lot going on around it. yes, it was lemon.

1 hour later: this is fading fast. i think i like it, but i'm not sure.

overall: wouldn't purchase this one again. i wish citrus scents had more staying power in general, though.

[chin]

One of my BPAL top ten!

 

Soft lemon with a whiff of fresh flowers and sunny greenness. Confession - I wear this when I'm hung over! Heh. It's so fresh and clean. It's like a soft happy lemon yellow cashmere sweater. Pretty, fresh, soft, comforting.

[Fulltiltredhead]

Phantasm, I reckon! I put it on and it's gone in 15 minutes! On me it would take frequent refreshing - but worth it, because Chin's got it right - what she said.

[Ishtar]

I am with jj_j on this one: I get a very fresh lemony scent in the vial, but on my skin it is more like a green floral and I think I smell a eucalyptus note too.

It is nice, very refreshing and pretty unobtrusive (it lasted something like 5 hours on me), but in the fresh scent category I much prefer Old Shangai.

 

Edited to add: Phantasm, I am sorry. I take back everything I wrote. I tried you again last night, and you were all soft gorgeous lemoniness. You faded away a bit quickly, but I love you all the same. Come back home, I'll wear you every night when it's hot.

Edited July 19, 2004 by Ishtar

[Camilla T]

This is one of the first imps I'm trying.

Have only smelt it in the bottle and on my finger yet. It is very lemony but also some floral undertones. I like it - I think it would be nice on a hor summerday. Refreshing, zesty and "clean".

[lixolux]

i could sniff at my wrists forever...and then the phantasm dissappears! Definately a big bottle of this for me, i will carry it around and bathe in it and the bottle would probably last a week at most but its such a delicious light lemon spicy airy scent (the green tea makes it grounded, ever so slightly) that its all i want to smell like in the summertime!!!

[hypothermya]

Initial Impression

 

Out of the vial, this smells like green tea and lemon verbena. The jasmine/neroli aren't noticeable on their own, but they lend a bit of sophistication to the overall scent. Smells a great deal like Embalming Fluid and Old Shanghai. I wonder how it'll compare on my skin, though...

 

Wearing It

 

Okay, this is just gorgeous. It's got that cool, citrusy scent like Old Shanghai and Embalming Fluid do -- of course it's more like Old Shanghai, since the green tea is a bit bitter smelling, and the lemon verbena makes this a sharp, green lemon scent rather than a sweet lemon scent. Keeps it fresher smelling, in my opinion (although my skin tends to disagree with straight fruit oils, so that might be another explanation). But the thing that makes this oil truly phenomenal are those jasmine and neroli oils. It's like Venom, except that instead of berries, you've got green tea and lemon. Sophisticated, elegant, and instead of that high brow, sneaky scent that Venom evokes, this brings to mind a natural, zen-like feeling.

 

Lasting Power

 

If there's anything that makes me more upset than a bad scent, it's a scent this gorgeous that doesn't last. And unfortunately, this really doesn't last. After about an hour on my skin it was gone and I had to reapply it. I suspect that if I had a larger bottle on hand I wouldn't mind, since reapplying from the big bottles tends to be more effective than from the imps.

 

 

I really love this one. It might even surpass my love for Embalming Fluid (a few more test runs of both ought to make up my mind, although I could see keeping both around -- one for casual occasions, and the other for more formal occasions). There are very few jasmine scents I can put up with (one of my main reasons for putting off trying this one for so long), and this fits the bill perfectly.

Edited August 28, 2004 by hypothermya

[malanna]

Light, clean lemon that morphs into a light, clean floral. Very pleasant. It rather reminds me of Kumiho and Embalming Fluid in their tone. However, Embalming Fluid, although it seemed light, it was a bit overbearing, while Phantasm isn't. I like how this floral isn't very heavy or overbearing.

[sarahj]

Phantasm

 

In vial: Jasmine and lemon verbena. A lovely, light scent.

 

Wet: Strong jasmine, with green tea gradually making itself known.

 

Dry: Mainly jasmine, with a hint of tea and verbena. I never do smell the neroli.

 

A nice scent, but unfortunately it was gone within an hour. I probably will not be ordering a big bottle.

[omly]

Wet this is all green tea and lemonyness. The lemonyness isn't what I normally think of as lemon verbana though. If I didn't know better I would say that it was more of a lemon peel. I agree with Sholin that there is a definate limoncello quality here. The jasmine and neroli start to come out a little more after about 10 minutes making this a very green floral. Nice enough, but this isn't something I would wear often.

[Ina Garten Davita]

First Impression: Sweet and green, fresh lemon and tea.

 

Second Impression: I love the smell in the vial, but lemon scents turn deadly on my skin. It's very fresh and uplifting.

 

Final Analysis: I wish I could wear lemon scents, but I like having them around me. Phantasm is a moodlifter for sure!

[Gin]

I get the lemony component right away, with something underneath that doesn't *quite* work for me. The jasmine? (I generally don't do well with jasmine.) Luckily, whatever my nose objects to, fades rather quickly. Too bad the mystery component takes most of the lovely lemonyness with it when it fades. This scent lasted what seemed like mere minutes on my skin.

 

Edited to add:

Since that first time, I haven't smelled the jasmine in Phantasm, except for maybe the faintest fleeting whiff of it in the vial. Instead, I get soapy lemon. When I was a child, we had fancy lemon-shaped and -scented soaps. This reminds me of those. I understand the comparison to Lush's Avobath, but Phantasm is lighter than Avobath--it's got a cool quality, which I think is the tea. I like the lemon and tea combination very much. The scent still doesn't last very long, though.

Edited November 2, 2005 by Shollin

[Splendid Molerat]

With Phantasm I get a mist of green tea and lemon verbena.

 

This oil is distinctly cool when it hits the skin, and reminds me of the kind of light fog that dissipates as soon as the sun rises.

 

As it warms there's a wisp of jasmine, and the neroli makes it darker and darker as the minutes pass. Aptly named, Phantasm disappears into the earth not long after the initial stunning effect. I feel some affection for this fragrance.

[teza]

I grabbed a handful of ImpsIHaveNotTried and poked through their descriptions and reviews to see which I felt like this morning. Phantasm was DEFINATELY it.

 

I needed the pick me up badly and the soft lemon of the vial and on my skin made me smile. I got just what I needed.

 

In the vial and wet it smelled the same: sharp, lemon, with a faint note of florals behind. So on it went!

 

Now the sad part. While I still like the way it smells, during the dry down and now, an hour later, it smells the same: why, hello, green-tea+florals! Do you have any citrus there? No? Okay, not like I needed it anyway.

 

The citrus notes vanished, eaten by my skin or poofing into the air. I can get a whiff of citrus if I put my wrists up to my nose and sniiiiff but otherwise it's a soft jasmine, with faint whiffs of the tea and neroli, but mostly jasmine, jasmine, jasmine, jasmine, jasmine.

 

What lemon?

[feline.by.design]

It's odd, I never noticed that there was jasmine in this one, but since jasmine's a scent that works wonderful-like with me anyway, I probably just took it in with the rest of Phantasm's goodness.

 

Like malanna and hypothermya, I too noticed the similarity between Phantasm and Embalming Fluid. EF seemed more lemony to me, and though Phantasm's verbena was prominent, there was still a bit of something else that kept it a bit more complex and grounded. I'm a big fan of Embalming Fluid, so I really took well to Phantasm's gentle, sweet scent. I also have to see what exactly the similarities and differences are between Phantasm and Embalming Fluid to see which of the two I would be keen on getting a bigger bottle of. With the comparison to (Old) Shanghai, I was more fond of Phantasm initially, though I admit I haven't worn my imp of Shanghai in quite some time. Although I did like it, I don't think I was initially as impressed with it as I am with Phantasm.

 

Other things... yes, citrus lasts sadly too short, but this one was darling while it lasted. Not too sweet, but a very happy scent. I'm looking forward to the spring and summer, which is when I'll be buying a 5ml of this, or EF, or both. For now, the imp will be a good pick-me-up when the January and February blahs come on. Yay for the Lab, yay for me!

 

-doreen

[AnaisSatin]

Phantasm goes down beautifully on me, a dark and foreboding kind of scent. Although I understand it's supposed to be a floral scent, it's not OBVIOUSLY floral and was surprisingly "conservative-smelling" from the bitterness of the green tea. I smell the citrus only for awhile, though, but it reaches a peak and drops off. Phantasm is the kind of scent I'd wear on a cold autumn night or when it's snowy up here. Warms your heart.

 

Love it!

[Scylla]

Before I read the Lab's description for this, I sniffed it and thought, "Wait a minute! That smells a lot like Embalming Fluid!" Indeed, it does. And I noticed that it has some similar notes. But it actually smells more like across between Embalming Fluid and Old Shanghai.

 

Embalming Fluid is one of my summer favorites, but I sold it in September because I couldn't see myself wearing it until next summer and didn't want it to go to waste, so to speak! My plan was to re-order a fresh bottle in the spring. But now....now I think I will be ordering Phantasm instead!

[Penance]

Origin:

 

Ladniappe from the Lab!

 

First sniff:

 

This reminds me a lot of Embalming Fluid only slightly less citrusy. I definitely smell the green tea and lemon verbena in this, but I don't get much, if any, florals from this right out of the imp. I can tell right now that this isn't going to be my kind of scent, but I'll give it a shot anyway, for the sake of reviewing.

 

Wet on skin:

 

No real change from in the imp; it's still lemon and green tea only the lemon has picked up quite strongly now. Now it smells damn near identical to Embalming Fluid (which I also don't like, by the way). I get maybe the faintest hint of jasmine from this now that it's on me, too. It's very clean smelling and reminds me of spring...and it ironically compliments the citrus green shirt I wore today almost to the letter.

 

Dry down:

 

Green tea, strong lemon and a faint background of jasmine. This is definitely not me (at all), but it's certainly not unpleasant, either. I just prefer a much heavier, darker scent to Phantasm's springtime freshness.

 

The bottom line:

 

Not for me by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely a nice clean, fresh scent that would probably be beautiful on someone else.

[TheDarkMother]

Uhoh...lemon verbena. *le sigh* Well, it has tea in it, and that could be stronger. Couldn't it?

 

In the Bottle: Very strong lemons. This isn't boding well.

 

On Me: Yup, just as I suspected. Lemon Jolly Ranchers/Pledge. Ew. I hate it when the complexety of a great sounding oil is totally taken over by one's body chemistry. It totally sucks.

 

But wait...that faded awfully fast. I'm still left with quite an overwhelming lemon scent, but there is a hint of tea in there and perhaps some neroli. Its good to know that it has a little more complexity than I had orginally thought, but its still too faint behind the sea of lemon for me to like. I'll swap this one.

[Northernminx]

Aw crap Lemon verbana...

It's like a big huge warning sign that has yet to stop me from trying every scent anyway, but it's still neon orange and ugly and flashing "Minx, lemon and you don't get along."

 

Well I tried again.

 

Maybe just maybe...

 

Nope there's that lovely pledge smell that my chemistry makes out of anything resembling citrus. Like Darkmother I hate it when a gorgeous complex scent gets wonkied by my chemistry. Sigh. Off to swaps with the phantasm.

[leapylees]

In the bottle: Jasmine and lemon. Like Lush Flying Fox mixed with Lush Avobath.

 

On: the lemon disappears and it smells of Jasmine. On my skin it smells like Lush Flying Fox shower gel. Yummy.