Illamasqua Freak Eau de Parfum Review

Getting my freak on today courtesy Illamasqua Freak Eau de Parfum ($90).

As Illamasqua is known for their bold take on makeup, I expected no less from their fragrance. Honestly, if anything at all, Freak Eau de Parfume sounded positively enchanting and dare I say scary thanks to notes like Frankincense and Myrrh (a little gold and we can relive the birth of Christ).

I expected dark, dank, and overpowering but what I got was a terribly interesting experience to say the least.

Illamasqua obviously took great care and attention when creating Freak. This isn’t some quick, flash in the pan fragrance they decided to create.

Freak is a unisex fragrance with exotic completely unconventional flower notes. It’ll smell differently on everyone but the master notes will remain the same.

Housed in a tilted, black glass art deco bottle it features a delicate silver snail crawling up the side. It’s a charming bottle and has elements that appeal to my inner gothy good nature.

The scent scared me to say the least but I was terribly surprised upon trying it. It’s most definitely a floral blend but a soft, delicate, very feminine one. I’m not sure what I expected, something incense-y with a ton of overpowering notes. But it’s actually very gentle and has a lot less bite than one would expect from something that contains such rich, exotic notes.

It contains an orange bloom base which supposedly enhances the wearer’s own natural fragrance. I tried it with my sister in store and again with several friends. Each person that used it with me had a different fragrance experience.

It contains Queen of the Night Blossom which is a rare flower that blooms for a single night each year. Having never smelled Queen of Night before I’m slowly understood the complexity of the note. This is the dominate note that showcases the entire fragrance. It’s floral with a slight sweetness that’s both warm and cool. The scent can only be described as sultry and very provocative.

At first sniff Frankincense and Myrrh are something my nose picks up right away. This is disappointing as I dislike both notes. If you wait a few moments and allow the fragrance to slowly dry down other notes start to come forth that overpower both the Frankincense and Myrrh. Belladonna, Black Davana, and Datura play gently on the dry down.

The fragrance is very unique, complex, and quite interesting to say the least. Being a collector of a variety of unusual fragrances I must say this is a prize in my stash. It even rivals some of my favorite Annick Goutal fragrances.

Overall, with a name like Freak I was expecting something dark but what I got was a mysteriously exotic fragrance that’s very unique and innovative. Obviously a lot of time and love went into the make up of this fragrance and it shows. I felt like the wear time was a little short for me but the scent has a enough linger during the wear that people will lean in close and ask, “What are you wearing?”

And after all isn’t that what we want from our fragrance? Something that wows and evokes curiosity yes?

Love this.

Muse Approved for purchase.

The wear time was short but it doesn’t sway me from absolutely loving this unique scent.

Available now at Sephora and Sephora.com

Tried it?

Do share your thoughts!