Coordinating Perfume with Body Care Products

[lunabee34]

I have made my first BPAL purchase! Thank you to everyone who gave me excellent suggestions.

As I wait for my imps to arrive, it suddenly occurs to me that I have been satisfying most of my smell pretty needs with soap, bath gel, and lotion. When I start testing out imps, best case scenario is that my body care products complement the new perfumes. Worst case scenario, I start smelling like the Yankee candle end of the mall.

So what do y'all do?

1. Do you "match" your body care products to your perfume? Or coordinate them to complement in some way? If so, what have you found that works for you?

2. Do you go the unscented, most neutral route so that only your perfume shines through? If so, what have you found that works for you?

3. To what extreme to you take it if you don't like other scents interfering with your perfume? Unscented laundry detergent? Etc?

Comments

[lunabee34]

My absolute favorite neutral bar soap has to be Ava Anderson bar soap. It's organic and is so soft on the skin; there is a teensy weensy hint of a fragrance of cleanness maybe, but almost nothing. I have even used it on my hair before and it doesn't strip my hair.

[white_aster]

I honestly don't try to coordinate at all because my soaps/shampoo scents don't really last long enough to interfere with anything. Maybe this is because I shower at night and everything has a nice long time to sublimate off me? The only thing I use during the day other than perfume is relatively unscented lotion (just because I've found that kinds that focus on the scent often aren't very good lotions in general...and often this is the case with soaps and shampoos, too, now that I think about it....)

If I do have something particularly smelly, though, I'd try to coordinate soap with scent (I am notorious for having multiple soaps...soaps was my first smelly addiction. >_>)

[lunabee34]

That makes sense. I take showers every morning, so the scent seems stronger to me.

Thanks for weighing in !

[pebblerocker]

I wondered this! If I use perfume subtly, will it come across stronger than my coconut-scented shampoo? Do I need to find unscented things? Or are perfume-orientated people generally more likely to be the bucket-it-on type, like that one woman at work, so that the perfume knocks everyone over from metres away and any remaining soap scent doesn't stand a chance...

[lunabee34]

Oh man. I do not like the scent-overload of someone drowning in perfume, and I definitely do not want to be that person if all my different smelling stuff creates a huge wall of smell. LOL

[rydra_wong]

I haven't found that soap or shampoo scents stay on skin/hair enough to be a problem. Though I tend to use "natural" products scented with essential oils -- it's possible that some more mainstream products have more lingering scents? Or it may simply be the limits of my particular sense of smell.

I do use unscented body/hand lotion if I'm planning to wear perfume, so it doesn't clash.

Alternatively, I've made my own body lotion by dumping a sample vial of perfume into a bottle of unscented body lotion (the Neal's Yard unscented base is a good one for this); with a very powerful/long-lasting perfume (e.g. Bal a Versailles), this can be a nice way of getting a low-key/non-overwhelming scent all by itself.

Using a matching body lotion can also reportedly be a way of extending how long a scent lasts on your skin (especially as moisturized skin seems to hang onto scent better).

But people have also had fun using "mis-matched" body lotions and perfumes as a way of playing with layering, coming up with different combinations.

[cyprinella]

Alternatively, I've made my own body lotion Ah ha! I wondered if that was doable.

[rydra_wong]

Yes! A ready-made body lotion will already have an emulsifier etc.; you have to shake/stir it a lot to get it fully mixed, but (with a smallish amount of alcohol-based perfume, at least) then it doesn't seem to separate.

So it's just a question of tinkering with the amout of perfume until you get the scent strength you want.

[kaberett]

This also works with E45! (My current batch is bergamot-bay-black pepper.)


ETA -- of my various shower gel-y things (I tend to shower in the morning) I find that the Original Source mint+teatree and the Lush jasmine nonsense last longest (the Lush in particular is noticeable for much of the day).

[lunabee34]

Good to know!

I have never used any Lush products but they look amazing.

[lunabee34]

This is fantastic; thank you. Exactly what I was looking for.

I know that some of the products I use are pretty strongly scented and long-lasting so I'll take that into account when I start testing out the perfumes I bought. :)

[kaberett]

1. Yep, I coordinate them. Original Source honey+something tends to be the most "neutral" thing I own on me (I have a ridiculous range of shower gel I feel a bit awkward about, but it's because it makes it more likely I'll actually ever wash, so), so I'll use that if I'm wanting to put something delicate over the top. But e.g. I'll use my ridiculous Lush jasmine-scented thing and then happily layer smoke+leather perfumes over the top, coz I love the effect. (This is actually how I started trusting myself to try layering perfumes proper and see what happened, and I have some combinations I love now.)

2. Nope! But I would tend to go for unperfumed hypoallergenic things in the first instance - v easy to get hold of in the UK e.g. from Boots.

3. I don't, particularly! I have unscented laundry detergents anyway because I just... really don't like scented laundry detergents, but otherwise I really like playing with how perfumes interact.

[lunabee34]

That sounds like a lot of fun!

I think my shampoo and conditioner are neutral enough to not matter. It's mostly the lotions I use that would interact, and it'll be fun to see if any of them end up blending well.

Thanks for the advice.

[sathari]

Ooh! This is a topic near and dear to my heart, for all it took me a while to respond!

The short answer is: I personally definitely go for unscented everything-not-perfume, and this includes not using dryer sheets at all because finding unscented ones is more work than I like.

Longer answer is that I actually don't like most scents-tacked-onto-others things (like dryer sheets or soap or lotion); not only is there that problem of "smelling like the Yankee candle end of the mall" (perfect description, btw!) even without a perfume added into the mix, but if my sinuses are acting up, the last thing I want is scent, especially the way that "add-on" scents smell to me. (Not to mention that I've gotten rather more worried about setting off other people's allergies in recent years, so now almost the only time I wear perfume is when I'm at home, because I do like to wear enough of it that I can smell it on me or there's no point!) There is this common note under a lot of the add-on scents in lotions or soaps and other washing products whether for bodies or clothing, that really bothers my nose and even when I'm not sick smells very unpleasant to me.

So, even when it's not about the perfume, I love unscented products!

The one product that I would recommend most broadly in the unscented-stuff line is First Aid Beauty's Ultra Repair Cream. They seem to have gone out of their way to be safe for sensitive skin and otherwise gentle and healing; I have yet to dislike any of their products that I've tried, actually, including their body wash.

[lunabee34]

This is really helpful!

I don't have the same issues with scented lotions as you do, but I definitely don't want to wear too many scents. And my husband has lots of issues with scented products, so we're always looking for good unscented products for him.

I probably will start out completely neutral so that only the perfume shine through and then experiment with layering some of the bath gels and lotions I already have.

[sathari]

Oh, I'm so glad it's helpful! (I can get a little ranty on the subject of ZOMG-why-does-everything-have-a-scent-to-it, so I'm glad this was helpful as opposed to annoyingly rantful!)

It's funny you should mention your husband looking for scentless stuff--- because I was going to talk about The Art of Shaving's unscented line and how much I love it, except that it drifted into a rant about how much I hate their "for women" line. (The last time I looked, the stuff they have that they market as being "specifically for women" was basically "we are putting rose-smelling-something in stuff that is otherwise the same as what we market to men and then putting it in a pink jar and then charging you more for it". As you may have guessed, I am... not amused by this, what with the whole "not wanting my other products to have scent in the first place" thing. Especially since I don't like the color pink either!) But their unscented stuff is really wonderful! (Except that you can make the same pre-shave oil by mixing equal parts castor oil and olive oil, for much cheaper, lol.)

Have fun experimenting! Neutral sounds like definitely a good way to go for finding out what scents you like for themselves, though of course with the layering different things may turn out awesome.

[lunabee34]

We've got an infant right now too and our older daughter has super sensitive skin, so we've definitely gone the Dreft + unscented dryer sheet route + totally natural and organic lotions and washes and aveeno eczema lotion kinda stuff for the new baby.

My husband uses Cetaphil and Aquaphor and those kinds of lotions.

I have always been interested in the art of shaving stuff but have only seen it online and never in person to smell, etc. So that's good to know.

[sathari]

Glad to help! As I said, their unscented stuff does ping me as "unscented", i.e. nothing in there that bothers me, and I think it was designed for that purpose, but it's always good to be careful, especially if there's any chance of your kiddos getting it on them as well. (Which, seeing as kids and cats are equally talented at getting into everything ever...! ;) )

And also, you've returned the favor, because Dreft sounds awesome for me as well in the sensitive-skin-and-nose line! Thanks!

[lunabee34]

Oh goodie! I'm glad I could rec something you might use. I would rec the liquid Dreft over the powder version. Also it is expensive. :(