Frumious Bandersnatch

[TilHelvete]

Bandersnatch musk, redolent of spicy carnations, wild plums and chrysanthemum.

In the imp/wet: Straight up, juicy, candied plums.

Dry: I can see why people have mentioned this being craft store-like, because of the spicy fruit kind of smell it has... but this is not at all generic smelling! I think Silk Road and The Dodo are much more craft store-esque. This is just so much richer, more complex, juicier, lusher. It smells expensive, really! If it is a candle smell, I can only imagine it being a high end candle like Votivo... It has a really feminine, deep juiciness to it, and the spicy carnations are just downright sexy. Had I not known it was carnation I would have guessed there was maybe a little cassia or cinnamon in it. This is a really full, sexy, scent. It's not really an innocent smell (at least not on me). And the plum note in here is obviously excellent like it is in all of the plum blends I've tried so far from BPAL.... but it's far from the only thing I smell.

Overall: Almost definitely a big bottle. I just can't get enough of this stuff.

[crebbsgirl]

PLUM!!! With a hint of floral spice and musk to round it out. Dark and very very sweet. I can see fruity scent lovers really enjoying this, but unfortunately I do not fall into that camp.

[catattack]

Imp: Sweet and sour plums

Wet: Plums and spicy carnations

Drydown: The plums are very purple and sweet, and the carnation is very spicy. It doesn't morph on me. It stays a plum and carnation scent.

Overall: When I tried this about a year ago, I loved this one. Now, it's just okay. It's not bad, it just doesn't grab me the way it did before.

[Suu4LC]

Whoa! Very juicy and tart! Yum!!!! Tart purple fruit and musk, with a bit of carnation in the imp! Yummeh!!!

 

Omg, this is amazing! I'm always happy for more carnation blends! Delicious spicy carnations, musk, and tart purple plum! GORGEOUS! This is an awesome blend I would put into the "purple" category, and I can definitely see myself picking up a bottle one day!

[Jammies]

Fresh, this is a flirty, fruity, plummy carnation, a girl-next-door scent.

 

Aged, this is a deep, sexy carnation, an order a pizza and molest the delivery driver scent.

 

Can't lose either way.

[Leopard403]

To me, this is Alice's baby sister: Soft but heady carnations with a pop of pink bubblegum (which I guess is the plum; it is very bright and fruity).

[CynicalPink]

Imp: Something dusty and plum? To be fair, this is a rather old looking imp

 

Wet: Still musty with something kind of woody underneath

 

Drydown: I take it back. This smells great! Non-sour plum with some carnation spice. Nice and deep which I guess is the bandersnatch musk

 

Overall: Wearable and pretty as all get out! Reminds me why I love carnation so much. Bottle audition!

[kbrighton]

Starts out wonderful, all spicy carnation and what I think is cinnamon, though that's not a listed note. I enjoy Frumious Bandersnatch for an hour. But then I did something unfortunate, I read the first page of reviews where people compare this to craft store potpourri. I must be very suggestable becasue after reading that I could not completely shake off the association. I continue to enjoy the scent for another hour or so, but at some point in the dry down something becomes changes, the potpourri association returns amplified and it starts to turn my stomach. I had to wash it off.

[Diva Urd]

In the vial, this smelled generically fruity, the florals must have masked the plum a bit.

 

On me, it's... fruity chewing gum. Seriously, bubblegum all the way even after drydown for at least an hour and a half.

 

When it finally went away, I ended up with a plum surrounded by lighter floral notes, and still two hours later, I pretty much had a straight plum scent on my wrist.

 

While this wasn't bad, the gum phase lasted a bit too long for my liking, and I prefer other plum scents like Bensiabel and Kitsune-Tsuki to this one. I don't think I'll get more.

[Eemia]

This has been on my bottle wishlist for a long time, but I've never even tried an imp of it before. I just expected that I would like it. Eventually I'd like to have the entire Mad Tea Party set so I would have wanted it regardless of it smelling good (probably the only collection I'll ever want in its entirety). Lucky for me it really does smell great, very strong on the plum. In a way it reminds me of Hellion because of the musky/spicy tone. But this feels whimsical and sweet, and the name always appeals to me.

 

There's a sort of a powdery-spicy-floral smell when it drys down. The juicy plum fades but what's left behind reminds me of purple musk. Not like I know what purple musk would be like but thats how I see it in my head. Seems almost like an aged hard candy, minus the sugar. It doesn't feel overwhelming when I wear it but it is very strong and wears forever.

 

I wouldn't say this is even close to being a favorite but I do think it's a great plum scent and fun to wear from time to time.

 

 

 

 

[tajana]

Plummy plummy plums, sweet and soft, not too tart, almost like pink bubblegum at times. The carnation is pleasantly punchy and prominent, adding a nice touch of spiciness that goes really well with the mums and plum. The atypical florals are a great compliment to the fruit, and keep this perfume smelling interesting. It eventually dries down to a spiced (yay, carnation), fruity yet not juicy sweetness, with the chrysanthemums holding on as a discernible note. The musk is a subtle base and doesn't really stand out to me, but then, most musks are subtle and meld with my natural skin smell. This is nice, it's really fun, and it has good lasting power. It feels like a great scent for late summer through early autumn in particular. I don't need a bottle, but the imp's a keeper.

[claudia6913]

In the imp is spicy slightly floral sweetness.

 

Wet on my skin is spice, almost like red hots, and my skin is tingling a little where I applied the oil. Still no plum, which is kind of sad since I really like BPAL's plum.

 

As it's drying the florals come out some. I understand now the love of carnation. Not that I didn't before, I love carnations as they remind me of buying them for friend's and the "boyfriend of the month" in high school for Valentine's Day or Sweetest Day. But this is staying sort of true to the spiced carnation smell. I would really love if the plum came into play. Will see if it shows later in the dry down.

 

The "bandersnatch" musk is starting to come to the fore now. There is no sweetness from the plums that I can detect. It's all spicy carnations with an undercurrent of musk.

 

Despite my wish for more plum in this blend, I still really like it. You would think that the spice and the musk would make it a rather heavy scent, but it doesn't. Not really. It "feels" heavy, but more so in a weight sense than in the scent actually being heavy. If that makes any sense. It feels like you're carrying a giant bunch of carnations while eating red hots and wearing musk. I also get a visual of some potpourri, the spicy kind.

 

Bit further in the dry down I start getting hints of the plum and mums. Very nice it's all blending together extremely well.

 

I'm not sure this warrants a bottle, but I wouldn't mind having an imp or two laying around.

 

OH NO!! About an hour or so later I'm having sneezing fits! Dang it! I like the scent, but don't want to be sneezing my head off whenever I wear it....

Edited September 5, 2009 by claudia6913

[theasylph]

I don't really get the fruitiness on my skin from this blend. I get a musky spicy christmas candle or cinnamon potpourri as some have said. I can't get past that scent association. Too bad.

[NoinHime]

I love it!

 

This is such a playful, fun scent. I get an immediate hit of spice, but the spice is neither too strong or overshadowing of the other notes. I get a fruity note that is made mild and not too sweet by the chrysanthemum.

 

Lovely and another bottle to add to my Mad Tea Party Collection.

[laslibres]

Pretty much what it says it is on the tin. (except chrysanthemum...I'm not sure what that smells like, so I don't know if I smell it or not.) Plums and carnations, lightly spiced with cinnamon. The plum was more prominent in the imp, but it takes a backseat when it's on my skin. Altogether it makes a sort of...reddish-pink-smelling scent? I don't know why, but that's the color it is to me. Spicy plums, with flowers. It's a really delicious combination! Smells like a holiday dessert.

[brownbear]

This one is very much like the description on me. It starts out as mostly the spicy floral and then the plums come in underneath. It is nice, but I don't think I will wear it as much as everything else I have.

[angelicruin]

I'm getting spicy cinnamon, plums and carnations on my skin. A very lovely scent on me.

[CiaoBonefish]

Carnations, plums, musk. Wow. This is really pretty. But not pretty in the light girly kind of way. In the imp it is already promising.

 

On my skin the musk and carnation bloom giving the plum a deeper, spicier feel to it. Almost as if I'm smelling some kind of plum pastry without it being overly foody. I find carnation to be a floral that isn't really too floral, but in this blend I think it's what keeps the plum from being a foody plum.

 

After a while the scent REALLY just blends into itself seemlessly. I can't tell where the plum begins and the carnation ends and the musk creeps in. Very Very pretty.

 

I'm hesitant to say this is my favorite plum blend because it isn't fruity enough. The plum is more that of a plum pastry if that makes any sense. Sweet and sticky with a twinkling of spices on top and carnations laying all around. Just lovely!

[MCS4096]

I'd forgotten the note list when I tried this earlier today. Unfortunately (because carnations are my top love note) I didn't think "carnations" I thought "cinnamon mixed berry candle" it was really spicy, pretty boring, and faded super fast too bad..

[lunchboxmonkey]

This starts out on me with mostly spicy carnations, and then as it dries a gorgeous plum undercurrent shows up. It ends up as a slightly spicy, sweet floral, with the plum in the background, mostly giving the scent its yummy, juicy quality. I like this a lot and am debating on a bottle

[ami226]

On the skin: Oooh! Spicy with a sweetness that must be plum. Sadly the plum reminds me slightly of children's chewable medicine (grape flavor?) with a spiciness. Very interesting. I was hoping for a little less plum since it normally turns a bit wrong on me and sadly this scent is no exception. Ah, well. I will just keep going to Hod for my carnations!

[voorishsign]

I always wanted to try this, but not enough to buy a new imp. Thankfully, I was just frimped it, so all the better The word 'bandersnatch' will always call forth, in my mind, images of the lupine enemies of the same name in Final Fantasy VII. I like musk, spice and plums, but I do worry this might be too floral to work.

 

In the imp - plums and chrysanthemums, a very magenta sort of scent, and very fruity.

 

On wet - Fruity indeed! Much different from what I expected. Fruity and flowery, bright and red. So far, not really my kind of thing.

 

Drydown - overwhelming cinnamon. Where did that come from? No, certainly nothing for me. I was so certain it would at least work partially but no such luck.

[Venneh]

In the imp, I'm getting plums and spicy florals. Hrm, this could be really good if it works right. Spicy florals first and foremost on my skin, and the plum seems to have absolutely disappeared. Gonna give it a shot to try and show through, but if it doesn't, gonna pass this on.

[FeatherQwill]

Wet: I got cloves, for some reason - must be the spicy carnations, which I've never smelled. Very nice!

 

+20min: Mellows to a very pleasant floral.

 

 

Overall: I'm not generally a floral-scent person, but this is one of those lovely BPAL exceptions. I quite like both stages.

[Ashenrook]

Second to last of the frimps I was given at the last Brick and Mortar sale. One that I managed to somehow drop and have the remnants spill on a bag of mine. ...Oh well? >.>

 

 

In the Bottle

Plums and spices. I am not a huge fan of fruity scents, but... Hnnn. I am not certain about this, but I shall press on!

 

On Skin: Wet

Oh dear... Okay, while this did not turn into a disaster like Jezebel did on me, I kinda wasn't expecting this. It's like I just went into Bath and Body Works, found the motherlode of all their Christmas scents, and fell into a vat of it.

 

That's really it. I fell face first into Christmas. While this probably wouldn't be a bad thing in the winter, feeling that way in August is a little unsettling.

 

Plums, more plums, and whoa hello spices. I can pick out a LITTLE bit of carnation wedged in the back, though. The musk is, surprisingly, MIA.

 

On Skin: Dry

Still much the same, but I am amping the spices more than plum. Still no musk. Weird, considering that musk is terribly apparent on me, usually.

 

Afternotes

Still the same, but the throw is about "medium", but the staying power on me is rather paltry. Four to five hours, at best.

 

 

Verdict

On an American scholastic grading scale of A to F, A being best, I would give this a C.

 

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. But the seasonal displacement it gave me made it really difficult for me to actually judge it accordingly... Perhaps if I tried this again (with a new imp, heh...) in the winter I might change my mind?