Iambe

[donnatron]

Daughter of Pan and Echo and dear friend to Demeter. When Demeter was mourning the abduction of her daughter, Iambe was the only creature in heaven and earth that was able to lend cheer and laughter to the grieving mother. Her scent is one of comfort, beauty and joy: Sudanese amber, patchouli, rose, gardenia, gladiola and white tea.

Imp: Clean fresh floral. I can definitely smell the gardenia.

Wet: Oooh. This is really perky and pretty. The florals are the dominant note with a bit of swirling amber and dense patchouli in the background. The tea has not reared its ugly head so I am half hopeful, half fearful.

Dry: The tea rears its ugly head but has the good sense to get into place as a balancing top note. This is a sweet, light floral with some interesting base notes. As others have noted, there is a subtle melon element to it, but nothing too overpowering. It's fresh, clean and light, not fruity or foody at all.

Throw: Actually kind of heavy, especially for a predominantly floral blend.

Overall: What a fun, fresh, funky spring scent. It's not eyebrow raising, but it is unique enough to set me apart from the crowd. Edited March 25, 2008 by paperrose

[Nimthiriel]

Initial impression:

Mainly gardenia, but with a dark background – patchouli?

 

First on:

All roses and gardenia, guh.

 

Dry:

After 10 mins, it's a heavy floral. It doesn't go bleh on me, but I'm not big on the florals overall.

 

20 mins later, the amber and patchouli are coming through more, warming the scent nicely.

Finally:

A very, very pleasant scent, but I'm not much of a floral person. Passing it on.

[maribouquet]

I was sure this had jasmine in it, because it seems to hate me and has gone totally sour and icky. Who is the culprit? Gladiola? Idk, but it's off to swaps.

[savage_rose]

This is light, beautiful, and an ever-so-slightly fruity floral. The hint of tea is so refreshing...mmm. So lovely this might be worth buying a bottle of.

[Miss Lynx]

From the listed notes, I knew this could be very good or very bad, depending on proportions. Amber and patchouli with a little bit of florals sounds fine -- but my skin tends to amp florals a lot, so even with the amber and patchouli something like this could turn into Screaming Floral Death on me.

 

As it turns out, the florals are indeed pretty strong -- I can only smell the barest trace of the amber and patchouli, though there is a noticeable element of dry tartness from the tea. It's not quite in the SFD category, but it's definitely pretty damn floral.

 

I left on for a while to see if it would settle down to something more likable, but it really doesn't. The floral blast does eventually fade a bit, but it ends smelling kind of bittersweet in a not-entirely-appealling way. So, no love...

 

Grade: C

[suki]

in the imp: heady, like sweet rose incense

 

wet on skin: it's changing into rose candy. this is the gardenia interacting with my skin chemistry.

 

dry down: weird. it changed *back* to the rose incense thing. :shrug:

 

in all: a beautiful, rich rose, like dried roses in a small room where the windows don't open: heady, powerful, and not what you expect. nicely done.

 

 

 

 

[heathercaley]

Wet:

 

Mmm.. sweet juicy rose swirling with amber. A bit of dirt from the patchouli, and the clean sharp gardenia kinda keeping itself hidden behind it all.

 

 

Dry Down:

 

The rose is a very sweet rose but matches perfectly with the sharpness of the tea and gardenia.

 

 

Dry:

 

Tea and gardenia with rose softening things up a bit. I barely detect amber, but I know it's there.

 

 

LOVELY!!!

[hlinspjalda]

In the vial: Oh, I love the scent of this one: sweet but clean and not cloying at all. It has an almost fruity quality to it.

 

Wet: It warms up right away; that fruity quality recedes but does not disappear.

 

One hour: Warmer, not fruity, and much more floral now. Gardenia predominates, but gently, on a base of amber and patchouli. There's a tinge of something that smells almost like anise or fennel. I like this very much; it's not as overpowering as the musky ones.

 

Two hours: On me this reads amber, patchouli, and the floral comes third. The floral has devolved into the sweetness of gardenia (without the pungency) with some warmth underneath (maybe the rose?) and a faint touch of that fruity sweetness that I think must be the white tea. It's turned out more spicy than I'd hoped, but I like it very much.

[carrickfergus]

This is just SO superfloral girly.... you have to have a lot of estrogen to pull this one off.

[Anthemyst]

I'm not super-great at picking out individual notes, but overall this was a very warm, attic-y floral for me. I wasn't crazy about it in the imp, but once it touched my skin it got very sweet.

[Kimbernunk]

In the imp, this smells like rotten amber.

 

Wet on my skin it's almost all amber, but the patchouli smells slightly less rotten. No florals.

 

After about an hour, it's a definite strong amber base, but the patchouli and the florals come out all over the top of it. It would probably work for a summer date night.

 

Overall, about 3/5. It's nice, but not quite my thing.

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Rose and amber with the chilliness of white tea.

 

Immediately on skin: This smells of lots of bold flowers, some light tea, and earthy green notes. This is lush and strong, with the amber permeating the entire blend and giving it a nice warmth. As I sniff this, the sweet gardenia is getting a little stronger.

 

After a little while: This deepens a lot. It turns into this dark amber and floral scent with strong hints of rose and gardenia. The patchouli in this is really nice; it adds a nice rich earthiness that doesn’t smell like dirt at all, which is what patchouli usually turns to on me. Gardenia is usually fruity on my skin, but here the amber and patchouli really tone it down into a floral note that blends well with the other scents.

 

Overall Impressions: This is a very deep, rich scent. The blend is complex, but well balanced and pretty floral. But the amber and patchouli do a great job of giving this a warm richness that is quite pretty. This is definitely floral and rather feminine, but it has an attitude for sure.

[Coldfire]

Imp: Tea and rose

Wet on Me: rose, tea and the gladiola now

heavy almost sticky in scent

Drying Down: Gardenia is pushing its way to

the front now. With the rose following in its wake

Dry: thick and heady deep gardenia and

rose with barest hints now of the tea and the gladiola.

Very heavy fragrance. Too heavy for me. This needs rehoming

[Iceblink]

Florals, amber and above all TEA! More and more tea the longer I wear it. Patchouli's not showing up on me but at least the gardenia hasn't amped to a horrible degree. Mostly it just smells like a cup of sweet tea.

[crazyredhead17]

Imp: Sweet and pretty and oh I hope this works on me.

 

Wet: Fresh and green.

 

Maybe 1 minute on: Sinus headache from florals of DOOM!

 

arg.

 

But then the headache fades (er, okay) and when I sniff my hand it's a very very sweet floral.

 

A few minutes on, and it's sweet and.. not floral? I think the amber is coming out (I'm not entirely sure what amber smells like, but it usually "feels" fuzzy and this doesn't scentfeel fuzzy.. but it's not patchouli so I'm drawing blanks).

 

It's settling into an amber-y tea scent. Pretty, but not something I'd reach for. At least I don't have to wash this one off though.

[EdenIris]

Oh, I definitely get comfort, beauty, and joy from this one, but it took a few hours to get there.

 

In imp: Fruity.

 

Wet: Heady floral. While applying I smelled something...rotten, like compost, but it disappeared immediately.

 

Drydown: Mostly floral, not getting any amber or patchouli. Rose and gardenia get along with me, so I blame the gladiola for the cloying, hothouse floral.

 

After a few hours, it develops into something very nice. I used to have a patchouli candle that was too strong when burned, but I liked to catch a whiff of the cold wax as I walked by. Iambe reminds me of that: a gentle, well-behaved patchouli.

 

I think I may put this one in the Land of Forgotten Imps for awhile to see if a little age might deepen the patchouli and amber and hush up that yappy gladiola. If so, this could be a nice addition to the bottle collection, a patchouli that's wearable for daytime.

[Indigo78]

My imp is peach-colored, almost reddish. I normally don't comment on the color, but this one's pretty striking. I got it from the Lab some time ago, so could that be an aging effect? Not sure.

 

In the imp and on the skin: kiwi (or pear?) and flowers, and potent. The gardenia is prominent for the first ten minutes or so, then whatever tiny amount of patchouli is there waves hello. At this stage it gets a melon-y aspect to it, like ripe fruits nestled in wet soil. It somehow morphs back to sweet during the drydown, and the tea pops out. While the initial stages were almost too much, it turns straight up beautiful when dry. Icy sugared pear tea.

 

Something in here whispers Titania, maybe the pear. But while Titania was almost commercial, this has a softer, more crafted scent to it. Glad it’s a GC, this will be really sexy in the spring.

Edited December 22, 2008 by Indig0

[Ajila]

In the bottle – High, heavy gardenia

 

Wet on me – Lush green and slightly harsh florals

 

Dry on me – As it dries the patchouli comes through, giving it a warm spicy base

 

Overall – I like the dry down more than I expected, but even that’s overly patchouli for me

 

[rayvn1]

Lovely and rich floral with a depth from the darker notes that makes it very pleasant. A little too on the floral side for me though. Pretty!

[CynicalPink]

I have a feeling that patchouli is going to make or break this scent

 

Imp: Warm and crisp at the same time. Feels "golden"

 

Wet: Ooo! This is really nice. It's pretty but with a warm, earthy edge that doesn't involve a dirt note

 

Drydown: Golden and warm! This is what I was hoping I'd get out of the Lion. Rose taking a backseat to the amber and gardenia. The crispness must be the white tea. None of patchouli's scent ruining qualities are showing up.

 

Overall: I love it! Right to the bottle auditions. I can see getting a lot of wear out of this in the spring and fall.

[TheOneTheyCallLuna]

Gardenia and rose freshly plucked from the ground. That's what I'm getting here, predominantly. As it dries down the amber warms up, and out comes a splash of tea. Flowery, fresh, girly, and very suitable for Spring!

[magikalbrownies]

very floral but not rose to me- -- hmm maybe my skin ate it!

 

tons of amber. smells more like tea when it dries.

 

love this stuff - definately a winner.

 

 

[Zeljana]

Wet, this smells like a mixture of melon and mimosa (none of which are listed, of course), and it's NOT a good thing. A little bit later, gardenia comes out to play. Rose comes out 5 minutes later.

There something incredibly sad about Iambe, and also very very heavy. It makes me wear it in spring, just before rain. It is fruity, but ambers makes it cosy at the same time. I don't get patchouli at all.

[MissMercurial]

Wet: Resiny, pale and sweet floral. No specific notes I can catch, just a vague "flowery-ness" to it.

Wearing: Same as before, florals more prominent. Had to wash off soon after applying because my nose was just too damn itchy, and it was the only cause I could think of. True enough, my nose stopped itching about five or ten minutes after scrubbing my wrists clean.

I think I might be allergic to amber, oh noes

[Lamia]

Damn you amber!

 

This was tried without checking the ingredient list beforeheand.

 

Wet, this smelled like skin musk, that is to say, like someone's grotty body, with some ... food? It started to smell like someone had been in the kitchen for much too long, hadn't showered all day, and was baking heaps of lovely warm yummies.

 

The warm food went away, and it smelled a bit chocolate-ish, while still smelling of body. Now it's a soft floral with a sourness underneath.

 

Fie on you, amber, fie so much! Trade bag.