smellsgood | Thursday Free-For-All

My big win this week: I bought a bottle of BPAL's "Time's Infliction of Eternity" off eBay unsniffed because I knew the notes would be super on me ("dragon's blood sedum and black tea") and oh my god.

My review on the BPAL forums.

One of my absolute favourite combos is Etat Libre d'Orange's Rien, over which No4711 (the original eau de cologne): it has historically really hit the spot when I felt like I really really needed to be wearing battered armour as scent - you know, the kind of thing that might as well be a leather jacket made out of echidnas.

It smells exactly the same, but a few weeks ago I introduced my girlfriend to the combo. She fell instantly in love; I got her the relevant scents for her birthday. And now it smells happy and soppy to me. *facepalm*

I've started to look at some BPAL scents and was wondering: would food allergies play into oil allergies? Specifically I'm looking at fig and apricot. I know the general answer is "every person is different". Just looking for thoughts.

I put on some honey lip balm the other day and realised that wow, I've got to get some honey perfume. So Miel de Bois is going to the top of my 'to sniff' list.

Your review makes it sound amazing! I can't wait until I have practiced smelling enough that I can make educated guesses about what things will work for me. :)

That is an adorable story. LOL

I don't know if allergies to orally ingested substances translate into topical allergies. I hope someone has an answer for you!

I love honey. Love it. On my next BPAL purchase, my daughter has requested an imp of Elf which has a honey note.

On my next BPAL order, I want to get one of the Dragons Blood scents to see if I like that note or not. Which one is your favorite, comm?

(Also, what even is that? Is it a real thing or some made up gothical name for the site? LOL)

What else is there besides BPAL that isn't connected to a couture house or a cosmetics line or Bath and Body Work-ish? I'm not sure what to call a perfume house like BPAL--arty or indie or IDK--but what else is there along those lines? Cyprinella introduced me to Kerosene (which looks really cool; I can't wait to sample the vial of Black Vines they sent me). Any other places I should be looking?

That really does sound amazing!

I've seen several people mention Arcana, who have sample vials available. Loads of their scents look delicious.

And I was link-hopping

rydra_wong's posts today and followed over to Delightful Rot on etsy. IDEK, but I have got to somehow get my hands on her Slytherin oil. Besides the name (which, c'mon, it's me, go go Slytherin), the description sounds amazing. A cauldron bubbling over with tart apple, spicy caraway and a heady cloud of dark incense smoke. APPLE AND INCENSE HELLO HELLO!

If you ever visit renaissance faires or the like, there's usually at least one perfumist somewhere in the shops. My local faire has had three different ones over the years and always with lots of lovely things to smell.

Okay, I give up: has anyone tried Miller Harris L'Air de Rien? And if you have, is it possible for you to explain to me what the fuck is going on on my wrists right now? (I've read all the reviews I can find. Some of them are accurate. I just... don't understand it.)

i thought it might be a made-up thing too.

Dragon's blood is a bright red resin that is obtained from different species of a number of distinct plant genera: Croton, Dracaena, Daemonorops, Calamus rotang and Pterocarpus. The red resin has been in continuous use since ancient times as varnish, medicine, incense, and dye.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon%27s_blood

there's a list of links at scentbase.com of different places (some appear to be out of business) & some offer samples for $4 or $5.

https://scentbase.com/

It's a real plant-derived resin, and perfume oils with a large amount of dragon's blood in the mix can be rather startlingly colorful. ;)

I somehow don't have very many dragon's-blood scents in my stash, despite being very fond of resinous/incense fragrances. Serpent's Kiss is probably my favorite so far - dragon's blood, vetiver, and spice, very bittersweet and earthy on my skin. (Sadly, this is one of the GC scents that was discontinued earlier in the year.)

Are you looking strictly for perfume oil blenders, or are you also interested in niche perfume houses in the more conventional alcohol-based style?

http://www.nstperfume.com/perfume-houses-a-to-b/ is a pretty extensive list of conventional perfumers, both mainstream and mass-market lines and niche perfumers.

Scentbase's list that's already been linked includes both some nichey conventional perfumers like Ava Luxe and CB I Hate Perfume and indy perfume-oil blenders like BPAL. In the latter category, a few lines that I've tried myself or heard good things about from friends are Possets, Arcana, Villainess, Alkemia, and Black Baccara (although that last house just closed up shop this month.) Poke around the fragrance category on Etsy and you'll find a lot more small indies.

In some people food allergies can cause skin reactions just from touching the food (http://www.dermnetnz.org/reactions/food-allergy.html), so I'd imagine there is a definite risk that scent ingredients derived from that same plant could cause a reaction.

HOWEVER...there's no guarantee that a perfume listing notes like fig and apricot actually has any fig or apricot-derived substances in it. There are a lot of synthetic aroma chemicals commonly used in perfumery to give sweet fruity scents; and whether the perfumer is working with synthetics, natural oils, or a mixture of the two, a lot of the specific notes are actually produced by accords - blends of multiple ingredients that combine to give the impression of some particular scent. So there's a very distinct chance that the scents listed with fig and apricot notes don't actually contain any ingredients made from those fruits.

To be on the safe side, I'd suggest sending an inquiry to BPAL asking about the notes that are potentially allergen concerns for you. I'm pretty sure I remember hearing of people doing this in the past and getting helpful answers when dealing with allergy issues.

And, to add to what others have already said about dragon's blood, I will add that it is a very nice incense as well as perfume. I have some in the incense-resins collection :)

I have a few reviews of the various Ars Draconis scents in my journal (my 'scratch and sniff' tag is all my BPAL reviews) but which ones I'd suggest depends on what other notes you like.

* If you like fruity or sweet scents, Ladon is apple blossom + dragon's blood, and the dragon's blood takes a backseat to the apples and the white musk (which, caveat, many American noses read as 'laundry detergent' or 'Bounty dryer sheet', mine included, and this is a very Bounty-dryer-sheet white musk). Or, Dragon's Tears is a very salty-aquatic blend that came out smelling very white-floral on me, like jasmine blooming next to the ocean.

* If you like more deep musky animalic type scents, Dragon's Heart is red and black musk, currant, and fig + dragon's blood. I was very confused by this scent (as my review states), since it was a morpher on me, but confused in a good way, if that makes sense. Or, Dragon's Musk is a bunch of different musks + dragon's blood, and that one was very "eh, nice I guess?" when I put it on and then it dried down into a flawless warmed-skin and resinous sweetness.

* If you like woody scents, Dragon's Claw is sandalwood + dragon's blood, and on me it was very hot and metallic in addition to the wood.

* If you like leather, Dragon's Hide is leather, smoke + dragon's blood. I think this might be my favorite of all the Ars Draconis scents: earthy, sexy leather and smoke with the dragon's blood in its more floral incarnation. (Dragon's blood has two hats it can wear: floral/fruity and dark/resinous. A good dragon's blood resin scent has elements of both, but sometimes one takes more of a front seat.) When I smelled it, I decided that was what Charlie Weasley from the Harry Potter books must smell like :)

Another good place to look is the BPAL forums. There's a collection of discussing other perfume houses.

I don't know! But I want to know what *you* think is going on. :) I love reading your reviews.

Both those sites look awesome.

OMG Delightful Rot's GOT set. House Stark sounds freaking fantastic.

Thank you!!

Oh that's pretty cool. :) I will share with the kiddo; she'll think it's cool too.

Oh noes. I have discovered that vetiver makes me joyous, so that sounds like it would have been a perfect fit for me. :) I'll find another that works though.

Oh cool! Thank you. :)

I know things smell different on people than they do in the bottle--- so what are everyone's general thoughts about scents that don't smell good in the bottle, i.e. when you get a sample that doesn't smell too interesting in the bottle, do you go ahead and skin-test it to see what it does on you, or do you write it off and move on? And do you have a different policy for samples you've selected versus surprise "freebies"? (I'm thinking specifically of BPAL's frimps).

For myself, I lean toward not skin-testing if something doesn't make a good "first impression"--- I'll try to do a review post later, but out of my most recent BPAL order, only three imps out of twelve made it onto my skin (and I'm only buying a full size of one). So especially if anyone has any thoughts about how to go about deciding whether to skin-test something that doesn't "grab" you in the bottle, I'm interested!

Edited 2014-04-26 05:17 (UTC)

I love your reviews; I'm trying to write up my own reviews of my latest order and realizing just how... unpracticed, I think is the best word... I am at describing scents. I have opinions but turning them into meaningful descriptions is something else--- so I'm reading your reviews as a guide!

Also that last paragraph, about sniffing your own wrist? So my current state of being with Himerus. *sniffs again*

I find that the smell in the bottle and the smell on skin can be so very different that the bottle's not giving a scent a fair shake. I mean, what'm I losing by skin testing on a day when I'm sitting around the computer? I might need to go wash my wrist.

I don't test things that have notes I know I have significant trouble with (I'm sensitive to chamomile, and I'd hate to, say, fall in love with something that had it, and then have to deal with the allergy issues.) And I generally won't test something that smells truly miserable in the bottle.

But most other stuff? I'll test it. Eventually. I usually go much more by the notes and 'do I maybe want to smell like this thing' and there are some things I do weed out at that point. But otherwise it goes in the bin of things to test sometime. (Which could be months, I admit, and then I'll do a day of trying half a dozen at a time (three on each arm) and seeing whihc I want to try more thoroughly.

I skintest everything; I've seen too many scents (especially perfume oils like BPAL) that smell very different on skin than they do in the bottle to want to do otherwise. Something that makes a bad impression in the bottle or lists notes that I know tend not to work will generally go to the very end of the line, but I'll still eventually test them once simply for curiosity's sake. Even if the scent lives down to my low expectations, I find it interesting just to see how it changes with skin contact and warmth and drydown; but there have been quite a few cases where something that was fairly unprepossessing in the bottle turned out to be much more interesting and pleasant on skin.

Good points!

I've tried both approaches (three-to-an-arm, washing off) and my own personal problem with those approaches is that on the one hand scents tend to "cling" to my skin (I've used peroxide, alcohol, dish soap, and permutations and combinations thereof, and I still smell at least partly like whatever-it-was) and on the other putting multiple scents to an arm changes all of them, so a scent I like when it's a couple of inches away from another scent on me may not smell so good on its own.

TL;DR, it seems like scents are a bigger "time investment" for me than for some, thanks probably to skin-chemistry REASONS.

I think I am interested in it all at this point until I discover otherwise. LOL

Thank you so much for the link and the recs. :)

Oh sweet. Thank you. :)

I'm testing it all because at this point I don't know enough about why I don't like what I don't like if that makes any sense. I might change my mind when I have a clearer idea of what I do and don't like.

This is so very, very helpful. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer so thoroughly. Dragon's Claw and Dragon's Hide sound more like what I'm leaning towards at this point. I would definitely like to smell like I've been cuddled up with Charlie Weasley. LOL

huh. i found a TV trope page for BPAL;

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Website/BlackPhoenixAlchemyLab

my apologies if looking at that leads to wasted time looking at other links on TV tropes.

*tries save roll against TV Tropes*

*clicks anyway*

XD

Edited (Late edit, but couldn't leave it. Role is not the same as roll.) 2014-04-29 03:00 (UTC)

Belatedly: I skin-test everything eventually, even the stuff I don't think is going to work, unless the predominant notes of the scent are ones I know I will never, ever, ever wear. (For instance, I skintested Omen, which is heavy on the patchouli, despite generally hating patchouli -- and sure enough, it didn't work well on me! but I can tell that maybe in another few months of aging it might be nice -- but I got a decant of Pumpkin Hard Candy as a frimp with an ebay purchase, and I hate pumpkin scents, so I didn't bother.)

This occasionally leads to surprises! This morning I opened the bottle of La Vita Nuova that I also got off eBay, and my immediate reaction was "ugh this smells like fruity shampoo and not in the good way". But on me it bloomed into a very lovely gentle soft herbal underpinned by rose, with just a tiny hint of fruit, and it was very refreshing and springlike without being cloying or too femme for my tastes.

My general rule is: Plan on skin-testing everything. For the stuff I really hate in the imp, I apply sparingly to just one wrist and don't dab it that wrist on the other, so it minimizes the amount I'll have to scrub. Then I do my very best to sit with the scent for at least five minutes before deciding "nope", unless it's so revolting that I'm physically recoiling from it. After five minutes, I'm allowed to scrub it off if I know the first wave of the scent is so awful on me that there's no chance it can be redeemed if it morphs past that.

Mind you, my skin chemistry makes most bpal scents morph like whoa. But starting from the assumption that I'll be skin-testing everything has led me to discover a few I otherwise wouldn't have. We got a frimp of Paris with our last order, for instance, and I never would have picked it on my own, and I was super-dubious about it in the imp. Then I put it on, and it was lovely.

No problem with the somewhat-belatedness (as witness my own delay in responding)!

Yeah, the general consensus seems to be to skin-test everything! I'll admit I'm still on the fence about my own habits in that area, though--- not only does my skin cling to scents, as I mentioned above, but I got forcibly reminded this week of another reason why I'm cautious about trying scents--- I have apparently managed to be allergic to something in not one but (at least) two different things I tried within the last week, so I'm "benched" from testing until I heal up, ugh! So anything I test really needs to be worth the risk of an allergic reaction. Sigh.

Ugh, allergies.

(You can generally remove a stubborn scent with rubbing alcohol, or oil and then rubbing alcohol. Just for the record!)

Ugh, indeed!

Thanks for the suggestion! I've used alcohol, and peroxide, and soap-and-water, and combinations thereof, until I'm honestly worried I'll scrub the skin raw, but if a scent wants to linger on me, it's going to. :( Ugh again!

Thursday Free-For-All

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Favorite BPAL Dragons Blood Scent

Beyond BPAL

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Re: Beyond BPAL

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Re: Beyond BPAL

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