Original post title huh?!

As I’m sure you are all aware, Illamasqua are launching a new fragrance called “Freak” on Thursday the 20th October, but you can Pre-rder it on the Illamasqua Site from tomorrow…

I was very lucky and very surprised to receive a small sample sized bottle of the perfume in the post the other day, and I have to say, I like it a lot. As with a lot of Illamasqua products though, it’s not a stretch of the imagination to say that this will be a scent that people will either love or hate. As Julian Kynaston (Founder and Joint MD of Illamasqua) says…

“For me, Freak is all of the dangerously sexy parts of Kubricks film “Eyes Wide Shut” captured in a bottle. There’s no middle ground with Freak. The name, the packaging and the fragrance will polarise opinion to simply love or hate.”

 Obviously, as scent is affected by your own skin chemistry, it will smell different on everyone... It also worth mentioning that Illamasqua are marketing this as a unisex fragrance, so (although I hardly think it needs saying), don't expect a light and girly scent!

I have to say, I’m in love with the quirky design of the bottle…

Having said that though, I can see that those with an insect phobia might be “freaked” out (Yeah, I went there) by it. If you follow my twitter though, you’ll know that Ren and Coco, my kitties have started to bring me “trophies” of spiders, usually still alive – I don’t get freaked out by insects, and I actually always try to rescue them and release them in the garden while they still have enough legs to scuttle away. So that little snail just strikes me as cute…

The imagery behind the new perfume is also stunning as we’ve come to expect from Illamasqua…

So what about the scent itself? Well, I’ll go into the “proper details” in a second, but I though it might be helpful to some (ie those who don’t necessarily have a perfumiers finely tuned nose) to know what my impressions are…

This is not a light scent – its no floral or “green” based type of smell, and definitely veers more towards the heavier darker sexier side of perfumes. It has almost musky “leathery” touches to it, but it’s all stopped from getting too heavy by a great blend of citrussy notes (I think this comes from Black Davanna), which wears really well for a citrus note – I usually find on my skin they are the first to fade, but this lasted really well. This is definitely a scent I’d wear for night-times, and I think it’s really rather sexy!

Ok, now the “official” explaination…

Top Notes - Black Davana, Opium Flower and Belladonna bewitch the senses into uncontrollable lust and passion.

Heart Notes - Poison Hemlock, Datura and Queen of the Night blossom, caress and kiss.

Base Notes - Aromas of Frankincense, Oud and Myrrh, addictively mesmerises and captures the senses.

The fragrance will retail at £59 for 75mls, and to celebrate it’s launch, Illamasqua are also launching three limited edition products – Hemlock, a pale opalescent green nail varnish; Queen of the Night pigment, a blackened plum shade, and a sheer lipgloss in Datura, which is a neutral mauve.

I find perfume/scent reviews quite difficult, as I’m no expert in the fragrance field. I know what I like (anything fresh and citrussy), and what I dislike (anything too musky and heavy), so here goes.

I mentioned in my recent review of the new Bronze Goddess collection from Estee Lauder, that I regretted not picking up last years bronze goddess fragrange, which as I recall had a fresh yet coconutty vibe to it which made me feel like I was on a beach somwhere sipping a pina colada… Of course that dream would soon be destroyed when I opened my eyes and realised I was still somewhere between Liverpool and Manchester, but hey ho, a girl can dream…

It was with some trepidation then that I took my first sniff of this, which was recently sent for review. Could this live up to the lovely scent of last year?




The bottle has a different design to last years version, and looks like its been sprayed by the sea and then rolled in some magical glittery sand… very pretty. In the photo below, the bottle is having a bit of a lounge and a sunbathe on a crisp clean white towel… It has a better life than me!

Scent wise, this has a warmer citrussy feel to it than last years version – it has an orange and bergamot scent about it which is a bit different to the usual lemon-y citrus top notes I’m usually attracted to, but non-the-less I like it. It manages to feel both fresh and warm at the same time, which is very different. This does have a coconut scent to it, but it’s a lot more subtle than last years.

As the citrussy top notes fade this starts to smell more creamy and warm (that’ll be the amber heart notes). I’d describe the fragrance as summery and warm, but still fresh enough to fulfill my fresh and citrussy requirements.

£37 for 100mls. The new Bronze Goddess is in House of Fraser now, and launches nationwide on the 26th April.

Disclaimer – This was sent to me for review purposes. I am neither affiliated with Estee Lauder not paid for my reviews. As this is a perfume I’ve merely described the scent as well as I can with my untrained nose. Go and have a sniff. See what you think!