Scent-ual

[omorka]

Got in another batch of essential and perfume oils:


Essentials:

Bitter Orange - orange peel with a bit more depth. Hoping this will have slightly better staying power on me than sweet orange does.

Black Spruce - nice, woodsy, less in-your-face foresty than fir or pine, more so than cedar.

Cedarwood - a refill.

Citronella - we all know what this smells like, right? Herby-lemon-musty. Got it less for perfumery than to try and do an anti-mosquito spray blend.

Grapefruit - plain grapefruit peel oil, high and sparkling.

Sage - herby with some woodiness; got this for magickal purposes more than perfumery, but now that I'm sniffing at it I'm thinking there might be a few perfume blends it might work well in.

Spearmint - yup, smells like fresh spearmint, all right. Definitely a top note.

Ylang-ylang - a refill. Not the top grade, but for my proposes that's not necessary.


Perfume Oils:

Almond - Smells something like cherry, which is not surprising. Has a slight chemical afterscent that I hope will fade on dilution.

Black Cherry - Kool-Aid. Heavy, very candy-smelling, but recognizably cherry.

China Rain - A blended "aquatic" scent, which you have to get artificially. Pleasant, but lacks the "ozone" note that I was hoping for.

Cranberry - A generic berry scent, as far as I can tell; lacks the bite and red-bitter of actual cranberry. A disappointment; glad I got the small bottle.

Cucumber - Smells like a non-sweet melon, which is close enough; has a bit of the ozone note, oddly enough.

Raspberry - Smells like raspberry syrup - like the actual fruit, but sweeter. Not bad.

Strawberry - After the cranberry and black cherry, I was expecting bubble gum; instead, it's about as true as the raspberry is, too sweet but still fairly realistic.

Sweet Pea - reasonably true to the flower, although it has a "generic perfume" over-note.



All in all, a pretty good batch. Sometime in the next couple of weeks I'm going to mix up some sampler batches. Anyone have any requests? I know I promised lady_valkyrie a leather-and-rose scent; anyone else?

Comments

[pinesandmaples]

I'd like some recommendations instead of a request for a mix.

I love musky scents on men, but they feel too masculine on me. (And I don't need any help in that department.) Is there another type of scent that mixes with musky scents that still works? IE, does citrus work with it or floral or fruits or...well, what? Or am I crazy for thinking that something can make musk more feminine?

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

What about vanilla?

There are various sorts of musks, "white" tends to do well with fruit and flowers, what BPAL calls "skin musk" goes well with spices. Black musk tends to be more heavy and masculine to my nose. Red can go either way.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Light musk (or white musk) is generally considered more "feminine" in perfumery than dark musk, which is what's in most men's musky perfumes. Things that tend to work well with dark musk are woody, herbal, or incense notes, and these generally come off as pretty masculine; when dark musk is used in women's perfumes, it's usually paired with hefty florals that can hold their own with it - rose, jasmine, ylang-ylang, gardenia, those sorts of florals. That can be very feminine, but also somewhat overwhelming. Light musk, on the other hand, works well with an array of things - sandalwood, most spices, vanilla, amber, lighter florals. I wouldn't pair it with citrus or fruit scents unless there was also a strong wood or spice component.

The blend I'm wearing now is light musk, sandalwood, violet, neroli, and lily of the valley, and it works well on me without seeming masculine; the overall effect is floral with some darker notes. One of my other favorites is vanilla, amber, sandalwood, dragon's-blood, light musk, and clove. Pretty much everything with dark musk, especially a combination of musk and a floral note, that I've done ends up smelling like soap on me; it just doesn't like my skin much. (The best I have is dark musk, rose, myrrh, and ylang-ylang.) But I know some other women are quite fond of dark musk/rose with other ingredients added.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested in seeing if the bitter orange has more staying power on me than the BPAL citrus scents do. Maybe a mix with cranberry and cinnamon?

BTW, I have imp-size vials and pipettes coming in, so if you'd like decants of some of my BPAL single-notes, now I'll be able to do that.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Had another thought. If that grapefruit-peel oil has staying power, I might ask for a drop to be added to a couple of my BPAL imps like Embalming Fluid -- it's supposed to be grapefruit & tea, but the grapefruit disappears almost immediately.