Faustus

[dicyfer]

An infusion of incalculable power and irresistible temptation. Truly an exercise in megalomania and self-gratification: frankincense and cinnamon, darkened by violet.

I really don't understand my own reaction to this... maybe I'm actually getting the intended effect! The moment I put this on I immediately thought of how, if a guy was wearing this I'd take him on the spot. o_o There's nothing about it I can pin as really "sexy" or whatever... I just don't even. >.<

Other than that vivid desire, this doesn't smell like anything special to me. I'm (obviously) not getting the negative smell a lot of others seem to be getting. I love violet and I've never tried frankincense before, and this works on me. I don't get any cinnamon though.

[Honey]

Sadly, I cannot apply this because of the violet in it (and I only found out after 2 scents or so that I react badly to it).

 

 

It smells very much like violets to me. Very strong scent even without my having opened the imp yet!

I also get some sour pickle / gherkin note. Odd. Cinnamon and frankincense are detectable. But no scent for me.

[Gwydion]

In bottle: Frankincense dominant with an unusually dark and warm violet. I can barely get the cinnamon. This is lovely and darkly comforting in the bottle, but I’m not skin testing a my skin does terrible things to violet and frankincense.

[absalem]

I received this as a frimp from the lab, and I'm so happy that I gave it a chance. The first couple times I tried Faustus my impression was that the frankincense made it waaay too masculine for me. Maybe letting it sit for a month has cooled it off or something, because when I put it on today it was magnificent. The frankincense and cinnamon combine with the dark violet to make it a rich, spicy floral. Absolutely beautiful, and I'm glad I tried it again before foisting it off on a guy friend.

 

Wear length is somewhat long, which is nice. As for wet to dry, the only difference was that the violet backed off a teensy bit - which was fine, since the frankincense stopped being so sharp as well. Just enough to make it a comfortable scent that makes me happy to turn my head and catch a whiff.

[Eliyetres]

Francincense, its far too masculine for me. I would have loves the cinnamon but it just turns to dirt, in a bad way.

Did I mention I hate violet?

Edited January 4, 2012 by Eliyetres

[joyfulgirl]

in the imp: spicy frankincense with a tiny twinge of something sweet.

 

wet: ow ow ow! i apparently am having a reaction to the cinnamon...it burns, it burns! this is the first time i've had an immediate reaction to a bpal oil. thankfully it appears to be subsiding quickly. i am getting a definite sense of the cinnamon, as well as a nice rich frankincense.

 

dry: well the cinnamon has (thankfully) stopped devouring my skin. i'll occasionally get a whiff of very resiny, smoky frankincense, but it's died down to mostly violet. i was hoping the frankincense would win out, as i'm not a floral type of gal...this actually turned out to be an ok scent on me, it's just not my style.

[Gold Dust Kitten]

I'm down to try anything with frankincense. I have a love-hate relationship with cinnamon (love the way it smells, but I hate it in perfume because I amp it). Violet makes everything smell like typical French-milled soap.

 

Faustus was a frimp with purchase, and I decided to give it a skin test because it smelled a little like Frankincense & Clove hair gloss. For the first time, the frank didn't smell like dill or celery. The cinnamon is not turning into OMGREDHOTS. Violet keeps fighting its ugly way up to make this smell like soap, but the frank beats it down.

 

I don't know if I'll ever really wear this but I'm going to keep it in the imp box to see how it smells in a year. If the cinnamon is so light now, it should be pretty much gone by then. I'm also hoping for the death of the soapy violet.

[Missy_killer]

In the imp: Sharp laundry detergent and faint floral. Something in here reminds me of the smell of a garage..? It's very familiar but not something I can pinpoint.

 

On me: Still sharp detergent, but warmer and more floral.

 

One hour later: Hello violet! Now it's violet-smelling laundry detergent. Less sharp, but still nothing I like. My mother is a big fan of violets but even she didn't like this one.

[Psypomp]

This smells almost exactly like Sybaris to me. It's all violet, with none of the subtle dark undertones it promised.

[hexnut]

A frimp with my Dragon Moon 2012. All I knew beforehand was the title and that it had violet.

In Vitro Sharp sweet floral or spice, can't identify.

Wet The same but stronger, with a bit of throw. The initial sharpness dimished quickly.

Drying From my notecard: "nothin' but base". It was unmemorable and soon wore off.

Violet worked well for me in Ultraviolet and I refuse to believe ill of cinnamon, so I'm blaming the frankincense. Nevertheless there was a promising complexity to it, so I'll put this imp away to age.


UPDATE 11 August 2013: I got frimped this again and tested it blind, again. This time I got a sharp and slightly soapy old-fashioned perfume that evoked an impression of dark brown. I wasn't thrilled with it so of course it lasted over two hours on my wrist. Frankincense is still not my friend.

[sisi33]

In the Bottle: Violets. Lots and lots of violets. Frankincense slightly darkens them, but it's no a big player by any means.

Wet: Violets and frank. Seems to, sadly, be a one-dimensional scent on me.

Drydown: Medium throw. Violet have taken completely over frank, and are attempting to rule the world from my arm. And that's it- no magical transformation that I've gotten form other BPAls in the past. So disappointing.

 

2/5

[KakashiMorph]

This imp was graciously gifted to me, so I am unsure of it's age. I do know that it is aged though.

 

In the bottle: Sweet and sinful and sweet. Dark violet and cinnamon mostly.

On my skin: I can smell the spicy, sweet cinnamon and some frankincense in the background. The dark violet makes it sweet, but not sickeningly sweet. It is exactly what it needs. Have I ever mentioned how much I love cinnamon? Yum. A few minutes later I get soft, warm and comforting spicy cinnamon with a hint of dark frankincense that weighs it down just enough and have lost the violet. I love it at this stage.

Drydown: Smokey cinnamon.

[JazzieCazzie]

Based on the notes, I keep thinking I MUST have tried this at some point in the past but I never reviewed it and have no recollection of it. So while perusing a fellow forumite's sale list, which had a few other items I wanted, I purchased an imp of this as well as I continue through my box of smellies, revisiting, reviewing and figuring out exactly what I'll be able to list in the not-too-distant-future for a swaparama so I can stop spending money (well, except on those days when the Lab comes out with new amaaaaaaaaazing goodies).

 

This was interesting. I have no idea how long it had been capped and covered, because ...

 

IN THE IMP: My first whiff knocked me off my feet (well, had I been on my feet). It smelled, I kid you not, like hard liquor. Scotch, maybe? Like the smell of my dad's old liquor cabinet. Obviously nothing remotely like any of the three notes listed. It's not that that's a BAD scent per se (is it awful to say that, in fact, it's kind of an evocative memory of my childhood and not necessarily an unpleasant one? Please don't judge). ... That said, I recapped it because I hadn't been planning on "test driving" it at that moment anyway, and put it aside to review today.

 

And when I re-opened it this morning it was completely different ... perhaps that aeration changed it? Anyway, the second sniff in the imp was indeed predominantly frankincense and nothing but (I <3 frankincense).

 

Dabbed on my wrist and in the crook of my arm.

 

WET: Frankincense wafts up from both applications and shortly thereafter a VERY light cinnamon joins it. I love all cinnamons, the light ones, the burning welty red ones, whatever. Beth is a cinnamon genius. Neil Young wrote the song for her. Whatever. It always seems to do just what it needs to based on the blend and to me in this case it just rounder out the frankincense enough to keep it light and lovely.

 

DRYDOWN: This is where the violet came into play, as it tends to do (I rarely get a wet violet note, since it's notably powdery). I love the violet powder scent anyway (one of my favorite goodies is the box of violet dusting powder that you can buy in the apothecary shop in old town Williamsburg, Va) ... so for me, this just finished off the lovely wave of how this scent morphed, and it completed the triad without overwhelming it.

 

OVERALL: This is an absolutely lovely scent. It's not masculine on me at all. It's dried down into something very very faint and yet comfortingly there. Basically it's a subtle threesome of resin-spice-floral. What's not to like? Yes, please. Keeper for sure.

 

On a scale of 1-5, a 4.75.

[LateOne]

Got this as a frimp. After reading the description, I figured it might work well on me.

 

In bottle: Musky violet, almost powdery.

Wet: Powdery violet, with a bit of incense. More flowery than anything.

Drydown: The incense starts to show, but not enough to subdue the violet. It's almost soapy.

Dry: Incense dominates after about an hour, and the violet compliments it well. Softer and much better.

 

It's masculine enough to work on a guy like me after an hour when the incense kicks in - any time before that, it's all flowers and not my style. It might just be my skin, though. Great scent nonetheless.

[vthesiren]

I'm not getting "masculine" from this at all!

 

When first applied: cinnamon. Cinnamon cinnamon cinnamon. Did I mention cinnamon? But since this was my first cinnamon blend, I was pleased that my skin didn't burn or turn red. Yay!

 

After a while, the violets come peeking through and threaten to turn it into soap. Now? It's back to CINNAMON EVERYWHERE (and some incense). I keep getting wafts of it even when my hand is nowhere near my face.

 

I think I'd like this if it were a soap, but I'm not sure how I feel about wearing it -- the CINNAMON makes it a tad too foody for my tastes. To Google!

[ringmaster-red]

In the bottle: dusty and incense-y. A little sickly.

 

Wet: Immediately, frankincense and violets are the headrunners. I don’t smell cinnamon at all. Darkly incense-y, dusty, and floral. A little smoky. I get the mental image of a man sitting by the fireside alone in his study, smoking a cigar. Lots of throw.

 

Dry: Consistently dusty and smoky. It’s not terrible, but it’s really not me.

[sunlitgarden]

Got this as a Lab frimp in a recent order.

 

In the imp it's mostly warm spicy incense, but also with a "watery floral" note, perhaps the violet. Kind of an odd mix of scent types, but it works.

 

On my skin, I really like the cinnamon-incense, which smells "dusty" as well as warm. But the violet note is adding a slightly soapy quality to it. I'm not generally a fan of violet, though my skin chemistry has seemed more forgiving of it recently (it used to be TERRIBLE, like some kind of burned rubber, now it's just kinda soapy). Overall, this is a scent that I think would be nice for a room, like a bathroom, but it's a little too.. potpourri-ish? to wear as a perfume. I like it, though.

[brilliantcat]

In imp, it smells like a very gentlemanly Victorian cologne. I get mostly the violet with hints of cinnamon and frankincense. On me, it's more frankincense and cinnamon with hints of violet. It still has a definite masculine feel to me. After warming a bit, the masculine feel is completely gone and it's gone a bit sweeter and spicier. Sadly I don't think this is working with me. It's turned out to be primarily frankincense and cinnamon which isn't horrible by any means, but the violet isn't working for me. Usually I like violet as a floral note but not here :\

[inhumation]

Faustus is mostly frankincense when wet, with slight tinge of cinnamon. It then dries down to a very nauseating smell, which I think is violet. I don't think violet works on me at all.

[Hazy]

Going to try out my reviewing skills for the first time with a well-known scent containing only notes I've tried elsewhere. Here goes nothing!

 

In the imp: I do get a weird whiff of hard liquor, but on second sniff I get strong frankincense and a little bit of cinnamon.

 

Wet: Cinnamon is gone, violets haven't arrived yet. As it begins to dry, the violet slowly comes out, and it starts smells oddly like those jelly shoes that were popular in the early 90s did after sitting out in the sun for a while. I actually like this, it evokes fond memories, and I'd probably buy a bottle if this particular scent lingered.

 

Dry: The longer I wear it, the more prominent the violet grows, and the soapier it gets. Eventually I'm left with almost the same smell I get when wearing Ultraviolet: dusty old soap.

 

Shame, since I love violet in non-BPAL perfumes and was excited about trying a more masculine scent. I've tried Faustus several times at different times of month and just can't like it.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Hazy

[Veronica]

Mostly frankincense, herbal green and spiced over a light base of soapy violet.

[stubbornfire]

Someone frimped me this, and it's like could you have done me more of a solid? I think not, cause this is tops. Sniffed it in the imp and decided it was a keeper, but checked the notes as I layered it on my hands and now I see why! Hello frankincense; how are you dearest? Playing gorgeously with cinnamon, clearly! I wasn't certain what to expect from violet - never had blend with it in before! But gosh it sure loves the other two in here!

 

It's spicy! And a bit incense-y, but there's something lightening it up - tone wise, if that makes sense. The violets are prettying it up bur not making it airy light in a smell sense - it's still deep and dark and oh I bet a lady ruler would wear this. Someone like Cersei would wear this! Gosh I love it. /adds to will need to purchase eventually list!!

Edited May 27, 2015 by stubbornfire

[d0gbones]

In the imp: Lavender? Sharp and herbal

Wet: Not at all like it did in the imp. Floral blend.

Dry: I only bought this for the name but wow. It's wonderfully layered, I get church incense and beeswax for some reason, frankincense and a touch of violet, but strangely, no cinnamon.

[LexieBlom]

Faustus imp

 

Wet/Bottle - Frankincense with a whisper of violet. Warm, dark and floral.

 

Wet/Skin (5 minutes) - A little spicy with the cinnamon, but still as dark and floral as the imp.

 

Dry/Skin (30 minutes) - Warm, floral, spicy and just lovely. It's a soft floral rather than sharp, and there isn't any chemical/alcohol smell like I usually get from florals.

 

I think I'll be keeping this imp.

[Rachel L. Fox]

I love this scent! It makes me feel diabolical , and like I'm up to no good. It's strong and wafting and sinister and is fast becoming a favorite. If you're looking for a dark, "evil" scent, this is the one.