Illamasqua, a London-based cosmetics brand founded in 2008, has adopted the phrase “Make-up for your alter ego” as its slogan; as the Illamasqua website explains, “Illamasqua is for the bolder person hiding inside all of us. It is an act and an attitude. A symbol of tolerance. A celebration of idiosyncrasies.” Illamasqua’s cosmetics are boldly colored and densely formulated, almost like theatrical makeup for everyday use, and they have humorously subversive names. I was originally curious about the line because it drew on visual-cultural influences like 1920s Berlin, not to mention the fact that one of its art directors is David Vanian, former lead singer of The Damned.

Now, three years later, we are presented with Freak, Illamasqua’s first fragrance. It is “a concoction of dangerously unconventional flowers brought together to celebrate the night,” with a composition of black davana, opium flower, belladonna, poison hemlock, datura, queen of the night blossom, frankincense, oud, and myrrh. (The description on the Illamsaqua website also mentions a “burnt orange bloom base.”) I originally read this list of notes with great interest and then I enjoyed watching the Freak video (even if the voiceover reminded me somewhat of the Princess Andromeda’s recitation of the suitors’ riddle in the original Clash of the Titans).

So, how does Freak smell? Disclosure: I have never smelled an actual opium flower (poppy) or queen of the night (night-blooming cereus), I’ve only read that davana has a fruity, rum-like scent, and I’m familiar with hemlock primarily from Ormonde Jayne Ormonde Woman, so I can’t assess the accuracy of these notes in Freak. On me, this composition opens with a chilly bite…

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