Iambe

[Kaerusatori]

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.

See, gardenia and I have this thing. It's nauseated me ever since I OD'd on Sacred Ho in the infancy of my BPAL addiction, and it usually amps waaay up and tends to ruin a bunch of blends for me (Veil, for example).

But in Iambe, the gardenia is soft and light and actually quite nice. It started out with a few seconds of something funky-smelling, then bloomed into a greenish floral, mostly rose and gardenia. I don't get very much amber or patchouli, but I think that's my skin amping the florals.

Overall, I like it, and I suspect that even non-BPAL-loving people with more traditional perfume tastes would like it, too. Edited February 2, 2006 by Shollin

[ABrokenAngel]

In the Bottle: It smells like candy. Watermelon bubblicious to be exact.

 

Wet: Who knew watermelon bubblicious could smell so divine? It smells like a young girl chewing gum and basking in the summer sun.

 

Drydown: Oh the tea has tamed this so well. Good old tea. I love you tea. This is divine.

[AlaskaSnows]

Well personally I smell cucumber in here. A light happy cucumber, mixed with a rich pink floral and something spicy... maybe the patchouli mixing with the floral in a way that says spice to me... this is very nice! the cool water note alleviates the heady spicy floral. I will wear this again, very happily. Great throw.

[loves_requiem]

amber again. sigh. turned everything to powder. a pretty, light floral powder kinda like some kind of Teen Spirit Deodorant I used as a kid...but not for me.

[strawberry_star]

Rose sprang it's nasty little petals on me and dominated the entire perfume. It wouldn't go away! Ugh. It's the roses. Rose = no. So sadly I didn't like this.

[voodoobaby]

Iambe is mainly florals and tea on me. These are big, white flowers that remind me of summer. But then I think that that association might be that it kind of smells like an Avon perfume I smelled over the summer. I think the amber in the background mixing with the dominant notes might be what's giving me the impression of an old lady trying to smell young. This one is just a wee bit perfumey and floral for my tastes.

[mirutai]

Auuugh! I was so taken with the list of notes - amber, tea, wisteria, rose, YUM - that I overlooked the presence of my nemesis, gardenia.

 

In the imp, Iambe is a slightly sharp generic floral. On me, there's a nice grounding base of amber, with patchouli punching it up a bit, and then a light hint of rose and white florals... all covered with the delightful scent of stagnant, rotting pond water. Thank you, gardenia.

 

At least I didn't fall in love with the scent in the imp (like I did with Lady of Shalott), so not too much heartbreak over this one. Off to swaps!

[seamor]

How strange - I'm getting fruits instead of flowers!

 

Wet: Melon - watermelon and cantaloupe.

 

10 minutes: I don't usually like melon scents, but this is lovely.

 

Dry: Oooohhh.... there's amber under the melon (or is the melon turning to peach now?) Yummy! Golden ambery, melony, peachy, a little spicy, just wonderful!

 

Later: I thought this had gone away rather quickly, but I just realized that I still have the amber note about three hours later.

 

The early stages of this would make a wonderful summer scent. I love it. It's too bad the florals and fruits don't seem to last on me.

 

I waited a couple of months before trying this one again today. This time, I am definitely getting an ambery, flowery, spiced peach! Where the heck is that coming from? This scent is not at all what I expected from the description, but it's completely luscious. The amber lasted about four hours, and the peach almost as long. This will definitely do.

Edited July 28, 2006 by celtimor

[aine]

Freaky. I could have sworn this had melon in it. In the imp and wet Iambe is an overwhelming melon scent to me. I checked the notes several times - no melon. Thank God for the reviews, my sanity is still intact (though barely!) and I am not the only one who got melon.

 

Fifteen minutes after I applied Iambe it is conforming to its description and I am getting amberfloraltea.

 

Thirty minutes after application it is gone.

 

Where is the patchouli? I love patchouli, but it didn't even stop by to say hello. Maybe the melon scared it off.

[Naamah_Darling]

I've had this one forever, and it's bugging me, so I'll review it. I could use a little comfort, beauty, and joy myself.

 

In the bottle, it's juicy and wet, a pinkish-gold smell like wet flowers. It's very clean, with a dash of something high and soft that is almost like cucumber or melon. The tea, perhaps. It's quite floral, so I'm uncertain of this one. As a disclaimer, I must state that florals hate me, I know that, but I'm not capable of leaving an imp untested.

 

On, the trio of flowers come right out. I'm just not getting the earthy bloom of patchouli, nor the warm light of amber. Instead, what I'm getting as they blend is an atrocious ammonia smell like acrid human urine (not that super-sharp cat pee, or burning-rubber dog pee, but sour human pee). If I don't sniff it too close, it's not bad, but it's still very floral.

 

It's a good smell, sort of floral and pleasant, as long as I don't go cuddling up to it. Then it smells like pee. I wanted to like it but obviously something in it profoundly hates my chemistry. As it settles, it becomes a powdery floral – no surprise, but sad, considering this had other ingredients that I had hoped would bottom it out.

[fictiontragedy]

In the bottle to me it smells Fruity and a bit like cat litter I can't even bring myself to try it on. Why does everyone else smell wonderful smells and I get cat litter?

[emzebel]

I liked this in the imp, but on my skin something turns sort of bitter - I think it is just the wrong combination of flowers, which is too bad, because I had hopes for amber, patchouli and tea...ah well.

[yeahbutnobut]

Iambe

 

In the imp: a sharp-ish, fresh, fruity floral scent. I think I get gardenia. Hopefully not the evil type.

Wet on skin: the gardenia goes sharp, as usual, but it's not as bad as usual…

Dry on skin: not bad! This gardenia does go sharp and dry on my skin but not evil and acrid-the overall tart scent is probably a combination of it and tea. But underneath it is a lovely rose-patchouli blend, reminiscent of the rose-patch from Nemesis, with a lovely amber sweetness. There's something almost fruity about this scent, for some reason, almost like pomegranate! I know it's not listed as a note but I'm getting a pomegranate vibe from this-that sweet, red, and also tart scent.

After a while: the rose and amber merge nicely with the patchouli to form a deep, rich and earthy rose with a touch of sweetness, reminiscent of the rose in Queen of Clubs and Nemesis. The tartness of gardenia tea is still there but has toned down, and a scent almost like citrus has appeared.

The 'pomegranate' scent returns at the end, and the scent develops an almost musky/earthy undertone. It's that fruit-floral-earthy-musk drydown I love so much that I've found in other BPALs, only with the tang of tea on top adding an interesting edge to it all.

Verdict: this was a pleasant surprise, this is a very pretty, light, and joyful scent with a surprisingly fruity aspect to it. it's both tart and sharp but with a lovely sweetness to it, it's juicy and fresh and here's the surprising part-it turned to pomegranate on me! Yep, that's right-pomegranate with a hint of citrus (that's the tea). But deeper sniffs bring out the rose and amber with a light cover of gardenia and tea on top. This is another scent where the gardenia reacts not too badly on me-it does sharpen on my skin but that just adds to the tart fruit side of the fruit. The drydown is that lovely earthy fruity-pomegranate scent with an almost musky feel to it, and it reminds me of a mix of Thaleia and Queen of Clubs' drydowns. I like this a lot-not enough for a bottle but the imp is a keeper, and I think it will be a nice early autumn scent.

Emoticon rating:

[PilotKitten]

Rose, amber and white tea = wonderful blend!!!

 

This Sudanese Amber really sticks out to me and I love it! No baby powder at all! < swoons >

 

So feminine and ladylike... I know it's not a medieval scent per se, but this shall be my new SCA scent until I find a historical blend that I love as much.

[tinyvulture]

this has what i call a “general floral” scent – because i’m not exactly sure what the notes are. the rose is easiest for me to pick out. and it’s kind of sweet (fruity, like melon), and the amber makes it really soft and light. that’s about it – i can’t smell any patchouli at all, sadly.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: strong. fruity, floral, and bright.

on: lots of smooth, creamy flowers and amber. nice and light.

1 hour later: earthy and sweet, with some lovely flowers and some fresh tea.

3 hours later: still very pretty. lovely white flowers and rose.

overall: this is definitely a lovely floral. not too sweet, but not too generically floral.

[Nekomata]

Wet the gardenia is very sharp and almost disgusting. :/ Thankfully it fades to a more tolerable level when it dries. Then the amber and a sweet juicy scent come out. Overall Iambe is sweet and floral and pretty heavy. Seems like Iambe might be a nice scent for fall, but I don't think it's going to work well in the summer heat.

[karengypsy]

In the vial: fruity, floral, amber

 

On me: I admit that when I agreed to swap for this scent, I was not sure at all if I'd like it...but OMG, this is now a favorite of mine!

 

I know that there's patchouli in this blend, but all I can smell are the amber, rose, and gardenia. This blend is absolutely heavenly on me, and the flowers give the amber a delightful sweetness that I can't recalling having smelled before in a BPAL amber blend.

 

Verdict: I need a 5ml of this! It is perfect for the summertime!

 

Rating: 5/5

[purrbox]

holy crap!!!! watermelon bubble gum and cat pee.

 

 

'nuff said.

Edited June 29, 2006 by purrbox

[SultryWolf]

In imp: fruit and moist earth; reminds me of cool afternoons under the giant grapefruit tree when I was a child.

On: Marvelous florals with amber undercurrents, rich and gentle at the same time. The balance of notes is nearly perfect.

 

Slightly risque comment follows; highlight to read:

 

I put this on just before a romantic encounter with my husband, and asked him if it was all right, or if he'd prefer me to wash it off. He replied, "Mmm. It's giving me an erection."

I'll be getting a bottle of this one

[Tess]

This was a frimp which I'm happy to try out, but oye. Patchouli is usually just too strong for me. (Even in Depraved it was too much on me.) We'll see...

 

In the vial - This just smells... dirty. Not happy Graveyard Dirt, but unwashed. Uh-oh.

 

Wet - Dear gods. Patchouli and tea together on my skin is just gross. The florals do NOT help, either.

 

Drying - I smell like poo, I'm sorry to say. The florals make it smell like those strong, fake flower roomsprays over the very icky smell of unwashed bodies. This is just absolutely wrong on me.

 

Dry (15 minutes) - Arg, I just can't take any more of this. It hasn't changed a bit, other than to pick up an odd rotten banana feel.

 

Overall - So not for me, probably due to my skin chemistry. Too much amped floral while my skin did amazingly bad things with the patchouli and tea.

[Taniwha]

I feel like my nose is flaking out on me here - all I get is gardenia. I think I need some schooling. I have several amber scents on order - I'm hoping more subleties will become apparent as I try more notes. I'm surprised that I don't smell the patchouli - it's almost as if it's subliminal, adding some depth to the flowers, anchoring them, but I can't *actually* smell it.

 

It's lovely, even if I'm not getting the full scope of the blend.

[juniperus]

Bottle: sweet florals. glads, gardenia, and tea..

Wet: almost fruity sweet. how odd.

Dry: the gardenia is large and in charge. holy crap - another floral note I amp? gah!

Later: I had really looked forward to trying this one, with the rose and amber and patchouli...damn damn damn

[edenssixthday]

Iambe was a frimp with my very first Lab order. I opened the vial and found the scent unpleasant, so I set it aside to try at another date. When I finally got around to trying it a month or so later, I was instantly displeased by the way I smelled. The patchouli in the scent overpowered everything else, with the exception the white tea. The dry tea scent combined with the patchouli made for a dank and unpleasant scent on my skin. I don’t remember what I did with this vial of Iambe, but it’s no longer in my life and I’m pleased about it.

[birdiefu]

Bottle- It smells so very sharp and strong (eye-watering), hard to place what exactly it is, but reminds me of cheap alcohol-based generic flower perfumes.

 

Wet- I'm tempted to wash off already as the sharpness is headache-inducing and that 'generic' flower smell is very strong. I think I get more rose than anything.

 

Dry- Amber and Patchouli show up to try to tame the flowers, but the overall smell is still quite biting even as it fades. This one is not for me.