Feu Follet

[viciousviolet]

From Bewitching Brews

 

Deceptively gentle and lethally alluring. Jasmine and rose, touched with sparkling heliotrope.

 

Again, so hard to describe! I can see why this scent is named after a will o'wisp. I love the scent of true jasmine, but have rarely found a perfume containing jasmine that I really enjoy, as they often seem too thick and syrupy for me. This is an exception. The heliotrope really makes the scent sparkle, and it is both a soft and bright floral at the same time.

[ipb]

first impression: light, floral, sparkley (like how the sidewalk sparkles just a little in the hot summer sun, not like a whole bunch of sequins)

 

wet: still sparkley.

 

dry: i can't smell it anymore, and it's only been an hour and a half.. so i'll have to give this one another whirl

[Astarte]

At first, a light airy floral fragrance which didnt smell contrived as other floral perfumes can. The jasmine scent is there but the rose and heliotrope keep it from becoming too heavey. I have found few jasmine scents I truely love, but this is a keeper.

 

As it dries down, the rose and jasmine match each other evenly with the heliotrope sparkling through as an accent note. Its a light, sexy combination which works very well.

 

Perfect for the summer.

[Ina Garten Davita]

First Impression: I don't smell jasmine or roses. Smells bright in the bottle.

 

Second Impression: Oh I don't like this. Smells very odd, almost foul on my skin.

 

Final Analysis: I have had very good luck with Beth's florals but this just smells like a swamp to my nose.

[k00kaburra]

In the bottle: Light, delicate floral where the rose and jasmine can be individually detected.

 

On me: Quite strong, but terribly wrong. I think I made the flowers wilt or rot! They no longer stand out individually; they muddle together into a sort of vague floral. The scent reminds me of those scented tampons/pads and washroom deodorizers; it's not stinky but nothing I choose to fragrance myself with.)

Edited August 27, 2004 by k00kaburra

[malanna]

I had expected this to be a strong musky smell when I sniffed it in the bottle. However, while drying, this is a really clean soap sort of scent. After two hours, it now smells like a combination between #20 Love Oil and Love Me. I may be a bit off with #20 Love Oil, since I haven't smelled it in a long time, but I think what I'm getting from that is the part of Feu Follet that smells like roses and dried tea leaves. I'm also getting the chewed bubble gum aspect of Love Me, with a bit of tang. The tang almost makes me think of cinnamon, but that's not it. It must be the heliotrope, and that makes sense, since Tarot: The Sun had heliotrope and it was a warm sort of scent. The jasmine isn't that apparent, since I'm not getting huge whiffs of "old lady scent," but as I sniff this, I am getting a slight impression of rotting rose petals. Not that it smells bad, but this scent isn't for me.

[Miggins]

First note of Feu Follet out on my skin was jasmine, which threatened to go soapy but just pulled back at the last minute. The rose backs up the jasmine to make a very pleasant floral blend, but I don’t have any strong feelings for it. Still in my “can’t decide” pile.

[grrrlennyl]

feu follet

at first: the lab included this as an extra. i smell heliotrope, with a touch of soft rose and cloying jasmine. wonderful.

on: just flowers. very nice, but i'm not sure if it's me.

1 hour later: still strong. however, it is making my nose itch a little.

5 hours later: this smells a bit like pencils shavings now, but is still mostly floral.

6.5 hours later: powdery now, but not much else. a bit sweet and floral.

overall: not impressed. i'm glad i got to try this, since it's been discontinued, but it just isn't for me.

[Ishtar]

I got an imp of Feu Follet from another lovely forumite and I am really glad I could try it.

 

Apparently my experience was a bit different from those described before, as Feu Follet went very powdery (but in a delicious way) the minute it touched my skin. It strongly reminded me of Haunted with a floral twist, which made me wonder if there was amber in this blend.

 

Later on, the powderiness took a backseat to the floral notes and I thoroughly enjoyed smelling them coming out to play, one after the other. First, the jasmine. Then, the rose. And then, the heliotrope.

 

I was basking in this floral gorgeousness when -poof! All gone! Without a warning. It had only been 30 minutes or so since I had applied it.

A shame, really, it was so nice.

Oh well, I can always reapply. I guess my only imp will soon be gone...

[etherealchild]

In the Bottle A hot wet floral.

 

Wet A syruppy floral. It's very sweet. Wet sticky hot floral. I am mostly getting jasmine right now. On me, jasmine always takes over a fragrance, and it's either really good, or really bad. In this one it is a hot honeyed sweaty feel on me. It's pretty good. This scent is fleshy and sexy. It reminds me of Maggie from Hot Cat on a Tin Roof.

To be quite honest, this one is making me a little randy.

 

Drydown Awwwww. It's fading to just a fleshy unnamed floral. Still nice. Just faint and very close to my skin. I sprayed a little Rose from L'Occitane to add some sweetness. It is blending well.

 

Two Hours Later Now all I can smell is the rose damnit.

 

Verdict It was fabulous wet, and then faded away. I wish it had more staying power. Still nice though.

[Penance]

Origin:

 

I got this as part of my prize for winning etherealchild's Blue Moon contest.

 

First sniff:

 

This isn't as floral as I expected somehow. It's not a bouquet of roses, is what I mean...or what I think I mean, anyhow. I smell a little bit of all of the notes in this, but somehow it doesn't smell like a floral floral to me if that makes any sense at all. It's almost a spicy/musky vaguely traditional floral scent. I'm guessing it must be the jasmine throwing me off. I like this a lot more than I thought I would based on the description alone.

 

Wet on skin:

 

Yep, that's definitely jasmine I'm smelling. I know what it reminds me of now: the jasmine tea my RA in college was always drinking and the way her room smelled. she was Indian and her room always smelled like a little slice of India to me. The rose is also fairly prominent here now, but it's not bothering me the way most rose scents do. It's not quite me, but it's not making my nose itch, which is good.

 

Dry down:

 

Mainly powdery rose now. I can't really tolerate powdery rose scents for some reason, so unfortunately, this one's not quite up my alley, but I'm glad I got to try it all the same.

 

The bottom line:

 

I'll be passing this one on in the spirit that it was given to me. Hopefully someone else can give it the love I can't.

[TheDarkMother]

In the Bottle: Very light and a little chilly. Smells good so far.

 

On Me: Very pungent at first, its hard to tell that this came from the bottle I was just smelling. I smell more jasmine in this than anythign else, with a background of heliotrope. I really don't smell the rose at all, and the jasmine is very sharp.

 

And then, it just fades away uber fast. I don't even think that was a full 10 minutes.

 

No, I think that this one is going to go into the swaps so that I can pass it along like it was passed on to me. I'm sure that out there somewhere there is someone that will adore this.

[joseybird]

*sniffed from imp and residue*

 

I'm not a big heliotope fan, and jasmine only works occasionally for me (like in Phantasm). Rose I like, but only in *certain blends.* So naturally, this isn't a fave of mine. It's a very heavy floral, and you gotta really love jasmine, and heavy jasmine at that. Strangely though, it's rather "wispy" smelling around the edges--shouldn't be surprising I guess

[shelldoo]

this is almost all jasmine on me, in the vial i could detect helitrope but on it and rose must have ran off for a trist cause this is all jamine, strong, harsh, give me a headache jasmine....i just can't get along well w/ jasmine *sigh*

[Gin]

So pretty. The jasmine, rose, and heliotrope combine to make a lovely light floral blend. Sadly, it doesn't last nearly long enough on my skin.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Very soft, pale floral.

 

Wearing: Still a very soft, pale floral. It’s nice enough – the jasmine doesn’t fight its way screaming to the surface and drown everything else out, as it is wont to do on my skin – but it’s just not me.

[Fefferbella]

This is another scent I would have never tried on my own. Florals do odd things on my skin, especially rose notes.

However this is really pretty. Dewey wet roses, sparkling jasmine and a hint of heliotrope.

 

This scent was very faint after only 30 minutes or so, but still a nice pretty floral.

[PurringPulsar]

Feu Follet

 

(This is the original version.)

In the imp: this is darker than I expected…a dark jasmine with a cherry like heliotrope note. It also smells like there could be a sweet resin note here too.

Wet on skin: wow…the floral notes in here warm up and become fuller and richer. The heliotrope here smells quite almond like.

Dry: ooh, this is lovely. A deep rich rose note with jasmine and an almost foody heliotrope note. It’s a darker and more mature in scent than I was expecting, but that’s no bad thing…this smells sophisticated and grown up, and a tad mysterious, and it gets headier as time passes. The rose-jasmine combo reminds me of Wicked, but the heliotrope adds another dimension to the scent, sweet, almost cherry-dessert like, and truly lovely.

After a while: rose has a habit of getting stronger on my skin over time. This is a good thing. Now it is very, very heady and very, very floral. That’s no bad thing, because I love floral smells-this one is lovely. It’s also quite intense-too much would overwhelm, and it has lots of throw. But I love the scent…it’s a really deep, full flowery smell.

Verdict: this is such a gorgeous, heady scent. It’s a lot headier and more intense and dark than I expected-it’s a full on hit of flowers! But then again, I love floral scents so I love this. Three of my favourite florals in one scent. The result is a very mature and grown up fragrance, akin to Wicked, but with light and almost dessert like heliotrope in the place of the myrrh. It’s quite potent so only a little bit is needed. Shame it’s discontinued because I would have liked to get more of this.

 

edited to add:

 

Feu Follet 06

In the bottle, this smells like almost pure jasmine, like my jasmine absolute, but with sharp rose added.

On skin this is very sharp, but with a rich depth to it. It's sharper than the original version I have, maybe this is a characteristic of fresh jasmine. The rose is deep and red and velvety, the jasmine sharp and jagged (for now), I can't smell the heliotrope. Eventually the jasmine calms down to let that velvety rose through a bit more. I get the feeling this oil needs a little aging.

Edited December 11, 2006 by yeahbutnobut

[Little Bird]

I normally hate florals, with jasmine being my worst enemy, so I was surprised that I really like Feu Follet. The overall impression that I get from this is that it is a very hot floral. It actually oozes a sense of warmth.

 

First on, this is all heliotrope. It smells very sweet, slightly powdery, and honeyed. Then the rose starts to come out and it is a lovely, spicy rose underneath the heliotrope. I was pleased that I couldn't smell any jasmine for the first half hour. When the jasmine actually starts to make its presence known, it's not a bad thing though. It's not overpowering and is dusted with a powdery sweetness. I'm actually not getting a headache - yay!

 

After an hour, this gets increasingly powdery. Sort of like baby powder, but sweeter. I was disliking this stage, but the baby powder fades fast and this actually smells like a sweet floral incense. It had all disappeared within 3 hours. Lovely while it lasted though. It was a floral with jasmine in it that didn't give me a headache... that's like a small miracle in itself

[SeaMonkey]

oh poo, I'm sad this is discontinued. In the imp, it smells like the jasmine vine in my backyard after the rain. I also detect a little of #20 Love Oil??

 

On my skin, its all jasmine and heliotrope. Its a very dark green, like being entangled in damp vines.

 

Thankfully, the rose stays hidden. It comes out just to sweeten it a little

[coulrophobe]

In the imp: a bit floral, but with something sharper, like the dreaded almond.

 

On: it is initially almondy on me, but I know that if I sit tight for about 5 minutes, the sharpness will dissapate. Once it does, this blend smells ambery to me. After 10 minutes or so there's a bit of rose, but not too much - it's still mostly warm and powdery amber.

 

I'm not very good at picking out heliotrope, so maybe that's the warm note I'm smelling - I know it's in a lot of the warm, golden-y scents.

 

As it dries down, the rose gets a bit more obnoxious, but that's just my skin chemistry loving roses more than I do.

 

I never smell any jasmine... which is OK.

[sthenno]

I can't pick out the jasmine or the rose, so I guess I mostly smell the heliotrope? Regardless, this smells very much like a Chinese ointment called 10,000 Flowers Oil which is used for cuts and scrapes. It's not an unpleasant smell and it dries down to something a bit more floral, but it's not something I want to wear as perfume

[olympia301]

 

A lovely "bright" jasmine and rose, as others have noted, and it has its charms. However, this one carries a scent which I interpret as being "old fashioned BPAL". Beth has come so very far, become much the Master Perfumer, and dared and succeeded far beyond Feu Follet. One of the consequences is that the older blends smell, well, as if they were markers in the road that Beth has traveled but not the glorious essences she produces now. A good scent, and one which gives you a good look at the way things were at BPAL back in the late 2003 time.

 

The icon is a picture of a flying saucer. Since Feu Follet means "Will O The Wisp", what is more fleeting than a flying saucer? The font is Space Pontiff.

[edenssixthday]

Feu Follet - I can barely smell the jasmine in this blend, which has me jumping for joy! It’s predominantly a rose and heliotrope blend, and it’s really pretty! I don’t understand why it was discontinued as it’s a lovely floral. The jasmine gives it a slightly heady quality, but otherwise, it just smells fresh and floral like a summer garden. The throw is light, but the staying power is pretty moderate.

[Summerpixy]

This is a simple blend, only three notes are mentioned, like an earlier poster said it is early BPAL, and yet I can't seem to get over the cloying grace of the mixture, the heliotrope especially seals the balance between jasmine and roses. Unfortunately it seems to be becoming musk driven as it ages.