L'Ima

The latest release from the boutique Perfumology, is L’Ima, a perfectly-timed offering for the heat of summer, inspired by Nir Guy’s grandmother’s garden and named “for mother,” yet another wonderful tribute to family and growing up. Like the three previous creations—Blyss, Grange, and Clutch—L’Ima is composed by perfumer Justin Frederico. To me, L’Ima is a wonderfully dry-but-not-terribly-tart, fresh composition that smells of mixed citruses and something along the lines of mixed petitigrains, predominantly, but it gets to the heart of the citrus—not just the fruit, but the leaves and their layers. It really does smell of a garden but without being too green or too fruity. Tomato leaf factors in strongly as well in this sense. There are also floral touches—rose, lily, orris, geranium—that add diversity, depth, and whiffs of sharpness that complement the fruity/vegetable dominance. And it all lands on a soft bed of copaiba balsam, amber, cashmere, sandalwood, and white musk. Looking from the notes alone, the formula seems excellent, and I’d praise Nir’s vision and Justin’s skill for achieving yet another great creation that offers us something different from the line, a true summer fresh citrus but rather bold perfume. It offers a bright, enjoyable journey through citrus, primarily via a lime petitgrain type of dominance, but overall with a careful blend that feels well-crafted and thought out. On my skin, it performs very well: its initial projection is boastful and its density is obvious, and with heat, it seems to come out even more. And at $95 for 50ml at full parfum strength (30% concentration), like the other perfumes from Perfumology, L’Ima comes at a very reasonable price. I’d recommend heading to Perfumology to give this a sniff or ordering a sample from the website. It’s a summer option that I’m so delighted to have in my collection and which I regard as a high value. 8 out of 10

This is so absolutely beautiful in its light floral and green vibe. It’s just a pretty little dance of fragrance on the skin, always fresh but never dull or too young. It’s just lovely. It also pleases me to buy from such a fantastic small business (their boutique is a tiny store in Philly, but they’re usually busy, and they will still take as much time as you need to find you the perfect scent), so when full bottles of this come back, I’m definitely picking L’Ima up. One of my favorite indie fragrances I’ve found so far.

L’ima by Perfumology is garden pop! Citrus mint opening, delicious bitter green tomato leaf zested up with some verbena. The crisp scent of the lily slowly pulls through with a little spice from the germanium. Some cardamom, a hint of ambrette that all simmers down to a soft woody musk. Incredibly unique, they have captured the essence of a vegetable garden and made it wearable – even chic!

An excellent fresh fragrance that is meant to evoke a garden on a hot day. Very clean with prominent white musk notes in addition to the green, floral, and citrus elements. This reminds me heavily of many of my favorite citrus/green/floral/musky MFK fragrances that they do so well, like Petit Matin and Aqua Celestia. Above average longevity and sillage.

Just bought this fragrance, it was between this and bohemian lime. I just love the salty fresh minty lime to it. Just reminds me of being at the beach with a cool breeze.

L'Ima is the last perfume I'm testing from my discovery set, and I really like this one, too. It is the freshest and lightest of the bunch, but it still has a unique scent and presence. It's herbal and green without being grassy, and the florals and fruits are also strongly present so that it doesn't read as just a green perfume. Instead of directly smelling mint, it feels like all the notes are surrounded by a minty rush, so that the most prominent note is mint, but it's more like a feeling than a smell. You can feel its coolness in your nostrils, a sweet spearmint that you taste in the back of your throat. Similar to the humid feeling that Sudu Te gives. L'Ima also has the fizziness that I smelled in Grange, the sweet fizzy citrus plus a definite smoky pomelo scent. Sometimes pomelo and grapefruit come off a little smoky to me, and that is definitely in here. The lily is sweet like the florals in Blyss - I have to relate L'Ima to their other creations because it pulls facets from all of their other perfumes but is still its own individual thing. Sometimes I get the tomato leaf distinctly, but mostly it's in the background, providing that slight tart herbal scent. It's hard to describe this perfume, it smells like a really fresh garden - a garden with some herbs, some flowers, not like a greenhouse situation, but a soft pretty rainy spring garden. I would really recommend picking up samples from Perfumology. Each perfume is totally unique, doesn't smell like anything else and they have this interesting way of making you smell things without really smelling them - you experience them. I'm just trying to figure out which one of them I want to purchase, because I really like them all...

This fragrance is so very fresh and vegetal--but not in a 'vegetable' way, more of a general garden stroll, with pepperment serving to add a bit of brightness and vigor to the blend. The scent is well thought out and balanced, and I have much enjoyed the experience of wearing it this summer. I can also highly recommend Perfumology, I have purchased online numerous times and their customer service is outstanding.

This does little for me. Fades much too fast. It also has a muddiness in the dry down that I don’t like. I blame tomato leaf. It does have a nice fresh opening but so do many scents. The winners from this line in my opinion are Grange and Clutch. Both fantastic wearable fragrances. Try those instead.

heavy intense citrus (pomelo and lemon), baby vomit, mint, green in the base with maybe some vetiver

If you read the description of the fragrance on here or there website that’s exactly what you will get. You can almost close your eyes and picture the garden in your head. What a ride, and what a smell. Differently worth it. Fresh green but still unique. Job well done

Clean soapy open and mid but dries into a floral beauty bomb my favorite out of all the frags I own this is a casual banger though

Smells just like Nivea lotion.