Perfume newbie looking for some help

[lunabee34]

Several people in my DW circle are really into perfume, and I've been reading and enjoying their posts for a while now. One of them mentioned this community had started, and I figured this was a good place to ask some questions.

I have been to the BPAL website, and I have to admit that I find the descriptions of the perfumes kinda intimidating and confusing. I'm not sure where to start.

I also have the added issue that my husband reacts poorly to some scents. He can't abide anything heavily floral which has limited my perfume choices over the years.

I was wondering if I could get some BPAL recommendations from those of you who are more familiar with the perfumes there based on my scent likes/dislikes that I've listed below the cut. :)



Likes

All citrus
Herbal scents like rosemary, basil, parsley, clary sage
Grass
Green plants
Lavender
Fresh Cannibas Santal (Top Notes: bergamot, Brazilian orange, black plum; Middle Notes: patchouli, cannabis accord, rose: Bottom Notes: chocolate, vetiver, vanilla musk)
Church incense

Beyond that, I'm not really sure what I like. :)

No-Gos

Anything overly sweet
Anything floral, particularly tea rose, gardenia and honeysuckle


I would appreciate any recommendations y'all can give me.

Comments

[musyc]

(part of the reason I'm following the comm. is to try to get more of a feel for scents by seeing how other people talk about them!)

This is very similar to what I'm doing. I've been reading the various perfume posts going around DW these past few weeks, and I'm just ... well, boggled. Boggled by how some people can describe a scent - fascination-boggled, I have to say, because some of those descriptions make my writing brain weep with envy - and equally boggled by how people can pick out SO MANY NOTES. I keep telling myself that it's a learning process just like I learned to do logic puzzles or do CSS or any other variety of things. There will eventually come a moment where I say OH THAT'S WHAT THAT DOES. XD

[umadoshi]

I wish there were a way to just go somewhere and sniff the individual, unalloyed notes--I know BPAL offers single notes, but I don't want to own any, just...sniff. And see if I can retain them and get a starting point.

(I suppose it's possible such places exist, but I don't know of any near me. I don't think we have local perfumers or anything.)

[lunabee34]

Synecdochic mentions doing that in this thread and I was trying to think of places I could go to do that.

Aveda carries singular notes, but they're mostly stuff I already know how it smells.

The woman who does my facial has started selling DoTerra which has tons of singular notes, and I bet she'd let me smell any of the ones she has.

Outside of that, I wonder if acupuncturists or health food stores might have that kind of thing?

[umadoshi]

Ooh, good thoughts on places to look. I think we do have an Aveda. Maybe I'll even make it downtown in the foreseeable future (other than for work...).

Inquiring minds want to know what you wound up ordering! ^_^

[lunabee34]

Waaaaaaay to much. LOL

I got imps of

Embalming Fluid
Arcana
The Apothecary
Cathedral
Anubis
Villain
Druid
Envy
Antony
Nanshe
Ranger
Incantation

[umadoshi]

Sounds like an excellent beginning! I don't think I have any of those, so I'll be interested to see what you think once they arrive! *^^*

[lunabee34]

Heeeeee. I feel the same way. I have no idea what many of the ingredients are supposed to smell like.

I am not able to pick out a lot of notes when I drink wine either but I know what I like and what I don't and can pretty reliably judge quality.

So even if I don't develop much of a nose, I hope I'll have a similarly good experience with this. :)