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[synecdochic]

Welcome to smellsgood! Please read the community rules in the profile.

I have a good idea for the tagging scheme that I will start to implement as we get posts in the comm, so for now the ability to create tags is set to admins-only. I also want to do a post about common vocabulary items and the like for people who are newer to the perfume world.

My background also comes entirely from the essential oils and perfume oils end of things: I worked in an apothecary for a few years during the summers when I was a teenager and young adult, and got to both smell a lot of things and play around with how various oils blended. Then I ignored scent for a long time, with the exception of a few BPAL oils I got from other people, and thanks to rydra_wong's curation of perfume discussions on DW, have recently gotten back into things with a vengeance -- mostly BPAL again. So, I'm nearly entirely ignorant of the mainstream perfume world, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about those perfumes here! Pretty much everything goes.

To start off some discussion: what are you wearing today? I am wearing BPAL's "413 US 15 / Miller vs California", usually shorthanded as "obscenity caselaw" (as in, "you smell like obscenity caselaw today!" or "The cat smells like obscenity caselaw, did she rub up against you?"): "Leather, cognac, fig, ripe berry, and cream, stuffed into a plain brown paper bag." It's a limited-edition scent from 2009, and I am heartbroken that I'll never be able to get another freshly-made bottle. About a month or so ago, one of the ingredients turned a touch sour-vinegar due to age (I think it's the 'cream' note) -- fortunately, the sourness in the bottle dissipates once it's on my skin, and the overall effect is still very nice on me, but it's no longer as long-lasting on my skin (which eats oils and scents like whoa) and the "chords" of the perfume have morphed so that the notes shake out differently as they wear. Not in a bad way, but I miss the old version already.

How about you?

Comments

[ivorygates]

http://www.nstperfume.com/2014/03/26/hermes-bel-ami-vetiver-fragrance-review/

[kaberett]

I tried to buy some Miller vs California off the forums a few months ago and it got lost in the post - alas alack etc :-(

Currently I'm wearing some things I've been testing, but if I hadn't those then today feels like an Endymion day...

[dejla]

http://www.philosophy.com/fragrance/pure-grace-eau-de-parfum,en_US,pd.html

I have a roller of it I keep in my bag in case I zip out the door without scent. There's always an undercurrent of soap and water to it which makes me feel cleaner, even when I've just catwashed and run.

[musyc]

A very dear friend sent me alllllllll of her "doesn't work" BPAL scents. Arrived today; tested one before I'd even unpacked the others. XD

I was very proud of myself! My process with BPAL is to test and pick at scents before reading the catalog descriptions. I don't identify individual smells well, partially due to being a smoker, but this time I didn't have to struggle! I got the eucalyptus and mint straight off and the violet a few minutes later. Ultraviolet - One of the few imps I've been able to identify most of the notes without help! *dances*

[jenett]

Of course, this made me decide what I was going to put on.

Which today is apparently Blooddrop's Uffington Horse , which the description gives thusly: " The Uffington horse smells of wild, fresh herbs such as lavender, wild chamomile, small violets, mullein, sage, wild roses cozied up to a bed of soft, pale chalk."

I get a lot of violet from it. (Violet notes really like me!) I am one of those people whose skin does very well with many florals, but I don't actually want to smell like flowers all the time, so I really like the more herby-flower notes (the lavender and mullein and sage) and the chalky note in this. Though I admit I bought it mostly because of the name.

(I also have a bottle of Gem Twist out of that line, for historical reasons, and maybe I'll do a post about that this weekend here.)

[snippy]

I am wearing Comme des Garcons original eau de parfum, which has been my favorite fragrance for years now.

[thatyourefuse]

Chanel Gardénia; sadly, while I really liked this at the sample table, on me it's going a bit Generic White Floral. I have some layering ideas I want to try at some point, though.

[rydra_wong]

Phi: Une Rose de Kandahar.

I was thinking this was gorgeous but not "me", but now after a few more wears, I may be re-considering. There's something in it that goes very deep and oud-like on me, and Andy Tauer does some of my favourite roses: dark, complicated, and not "floral".

[cyprinella]

Trying out L'Occitane Eau des Baux and being disappointed. Ah well.

[white_aster]

Moving reminded me of how many perfumes I've got that I haven't worn in ages, so I am wearing some Arsenic and Old Lace from Darkswan Indulgences...this bottle is so old that the perfumer doesn't even exist anymore, but the perfume's fine! Very dry clovey/apricoty scent.

[sathari]

Currently wearing BPAL's Dee, which was just what I needed tonight--- my quasi-synaesthetic descriptions of what it's doing on me include things like "warm darkness" along with more scent-standard descriptors like "spice, leather, and woodsmoke". (I've been wearing Hell's Belle and Jezebel a lot lately, but both of those were too much in the sweet-and-flowery on me right now.)

[recessional]

BPAL The Apothecary. I still quite like it, but I need to start classing these and labelling the boxes or whatever - this is a thinking-perfume, an intellectual-pursuits perfume, not a normal-day perfume, and it's been agitating me all day. It smells nice! Just, agitating.

[pebblerocker]

Clary sage and neroli essential oils, in a shea butter base: my first attempt at blending oils together, and pretty successful. I think I can now tolerate some mainstream perfumes sometimes, but essential oils are safer to start with and I plan to try out BPAL and similar to see what I can get away with.

[dejla]

Really? That's amazing!

I know I like orientals, and by asking a perfume store saleswoman about perfumes with chypre in them, I found Femme by Rochas.

And just found out with a tester than on me Chanel no. 5 smells good and lasts forever.