Weekly Free-For-All

[synecdochic]

(I might move this around in the week a few times until I work out when it works for me to post these.)

This post is a free-for-all for people to:

a) post links to perfume-related content they posted elsewhere (on or off DW)
b) talk about anything they want to talk about that isn't big enough for a full post
c) socialize and hang out without worrying about "off topic"
d) or anything else that comes to mind!

Whatcha wearing today? (Me: BPAL's "Brimstone", which I am absolutely perplexed by. I can't decide if it smells amazing or hideous on me.)

Comments

[thatyourefuse]

I have been smelling things, and blogging them, and completely forgetting to crosspost.

Rochas Femme (reformulated)

Frederic Malle Carnal Flower

Jean Desprez Bal a Versailes [!!!!!]

Penhaligon's Amaranthine

Overall, one smash hit and one that would've been really quite good if it hadn't come straight after the smash hit, which is not bad odds.

[musyc]

Oooh, today I am ... well, I'm on scent #3. XD BPAL's Croquet and Bewitched were my first attempts, and they were nice but not wow. Then I tried Dirty and OH MY GOD, I wanted to lick my own wrists. It was amazing and it's all the delicious smells and it might actually approach my feelings towards Storm Moon for fantastic yumminess delight. I put it on and was instantly happy. Like, bounce around the house singing smiling like a loon happy.

Unfortunately, it's one of those scents that BPAL went creative-writer on the description, so there's no scents listed. The forums reviews lean towards plumeria. Anyone have their own notes as to what notes are in Dirty? It's definitely something I like enough to hunt similar smells.

[synecdochic]

Sarah and I tried Dirty this week! My money is on plumeria, white musk, and orris, and I'm iffy on whether there's also pear. (I was amping the plumeria and white musk so loudly that I couldn't ID the rest.) There's at least one other thing in there (it's whatever note that goes peppery on me after about 45 minutes), but I couldn't figure it out.

The forums seem to think Shanghai and Embalming Fluid are similar!

[sathari]

BPAL's Jezebel! I'm finding it's helping me write the character whose signature scent it is for me (see icon). I talked a little about how it smells on me elsewhere. In a less synaesthetic way, I get notes of honey-but-not-sugar (definitely not a food scent) and sweet citrus--- not the acidic/sharp sort but sweet. Maybe a hint of talcum, but not much, which is good because I hate the smell of baby powder; possibly because of tactile associations, when I smell it I can taste it, like I'd gotten powder in my mouth, yuck. This scent is also pretty well-behaved on me in that it just sort of dies off, rather than doing the "where did that come from?" thing that can be kind of bad if you wear a perfume when going out-and-about in the world and it suddenly turns into something unpleasant-smelling on you. Jezebel doesn't always have the staying power I would like, but it's consistent as it fades.

Speaking of creative inspirations, anybody wanna talk TAL? AKA Twilight Alchemy Lab, BPAL's "utility scent" division, where they do oils that are meant to Get Results in a more spiritual way as opposed to being worn for smells-good purposes. (I'm being as general in my word choice as I can in the hopes of not tripping over anyone's belief system--- apologies if I failed!)

totally random things

[teaotter]

I failed my sales resistance and ordered the Nu-Be sampler set from Luckyscent. Anyone else? I'd love to compare experiences.

[byzantienne]

I am wearing Mandarine Mandarin again, because its efficacy on me apparently depends on where I am in my menstrual cycle, and sometimes I can smell like greenstick-celery-orange-ritual-fire ALL DAY (and sometimes it just goes to orange caramel.)

[thatyourefuse]

You're about the third person I've heard say something like that (although not about Mandarine Mandarin specifically). Interesting.

[musyc]

Hmmm, orris! That could be. Several of my yes-good testers have had orris in it, so I wouldn't be surprised to be reacting to that so positively. Pear, possibly? I smelled something fruit very faintly, under my TROPIC BEACH feelings. XD

[thatyourefuse]

Also, I just broke my "no new purchases" resolution because a money transfer came through earlier than expected, during a 15% coupon code sale at Surrender to Chance.

... I bought Giorgio.

and Poison

and Kouros

They're going to have to ship this in a hazmat bag.

[lunabee34]

Tell me more about this vaginal smell that you are noticing. /total newbie

*chin hands*

[lunabee34]

Yeah, I get that it's all about site aesthetics, but I do wish that some of the descriptions were less of a poem and more of an ingredients list. LOL

[lunabee34]

What's on your mind re: TAL? I've been scouring the site since my order, and I found that part of the BPAL line really interesting. Have you used anything from there?

[thatyourefuse]

I get it from reformulated Femme and from Serge Lutens El Attarine; largely the same smell, which makes me think it's a combination of immortelle + cumin + possibly some chemical base used to create fruit notes, since that's what those two have in common.

And it's -- well -- recently washed female genitals, plus some soap, and nothing else. (N.b. -- plenty of other people get completely different things from both of those, so I think it's some kind of freak skin chemistry reaction on me.) The "nothing else" is the part that rules them out for me -- Bal a Versailles has a distinct note of unwashed knickers, but that's not the only note that comes out on me, and so I really don't mind it.

Re: totally random things

[lunabee34]

I'm trying to google and can't quite come up with what you've ordered. :) What sort of scents are in the set?

Re: totally random things

[lunabee34]

Or possibly I am an idiot. I think I found it now. LOL

They're all element names, yes?

[synecdochic]

Orris is one of those notes that appears in SO MANY THINGS and can be really nice or really Bounty-dryer-sheet, depending. (I did get a bit of Bounty dryer sheet from Dirty, but not in a totally bad way? So!)

[lunabee34]

That's so interesting.

I don't think I've ever smelled immortelle.

I tend to not like the smell of but love the taste of cumin and I can see where the leap to lady parts from that smell might happen.

As I'm reading all these posts, I don't know that I've ever worn a perfume that actually has animal musk in it. Probably not. IDK if I'd like it or not.

[musyc]

HAH, yes. I thoroughly agree I mean, the fantastical and poetical descriptors are lots of fun, so give them for entertainment value, but pleasepleeeeeeeeeeeease tell me what notes are in something so I know what to look for (or what to avoid!) next round.

[minim_calibre]

Double hazmat bagged. That's some SERIOUS sillage in that order. (APPLY THEM WITH A TOOTHPICK. I AM NOT KIDDING.)

[musyc]

Hahahaha, yes! I do get that clean laundry feeling. XD Sometimes it's overpowering but it didn't happen in Dirty, for which I am much pleased. It's facedown in fresh linens, not dryer sheets stuffed up the nose. XD

[thatyourefuse]

I have loved other things with a cumin note, so I think it's some kind of interaction -- and yeah, I think immortelle is practically unheard of outside the classical perfume and skincare world. I can't really tell you what it's supposed to smell like.

A looooot of commercial perfumes have some kind of musk note, although it's usually a very scrubbed-clean one (everyone's animalic notes are synthetic these days, so it's possible to calibrate), but there is such, SUCH a range. CBMUSK by CB I Hate Perfume is sort of the outer edge of pure musk bombs, if you wanted to try something really wild.

[thatyourefuse]

Oh, so noted. I very very VERY rarely use more than one dab of the sample wand, especially with something I've never tried before -- I had an interesting experience once with some sprayed Fracas and a car with all the windows up, which kind of confirmed me in this habit -- but I think I'm going to have to be extra careful with this lot.

(I also bought Lutens Boxeuses and Aftelier Sepia, but those should be well enough behaved.)

(I am not going to be a troll and track down the perfume my mother's boss wore in the 80s that she really couldn't stand. I'm not! Even if I bet I could -- it sounds like it might've been Opium.)

[minim_calibre]

I'm wearing Dune (parfum) layered with Jicky (vintage parfum), though it's less overtly sexual smelling on me today than it was yesterday, which I expect means I under Jickyed it. I can't get over how well these two completely different things manage to merge. Or that there's a version of Dune that can be layered at all, for that matter: in EDT form, Dune overpowers everything, but the extrait stays far closer to the skin.

Anyhow, the warm/salt/something of Dune accents the animalic aspects of Jicky (which, by itself, tend to get lost on my skin), and the bergamot sharpness of Jicky adds an edge to the softness of Dune, and everything's good, nothing hurts.

I have all these random vials I need to try, and I'm fixating on this particular mix instead.

[lunabee34]

Since I found this comm I've been thinking about the perfumes I've worn over the years.

The first I can remember wearing was Exclamation! Oh, hello 1988. Internet tells me that this perfume has apricot notes and peach and other stuff, but I don't remember a lick of that. What I do remember is that it smelled so divine on all my friends but turned into this icky icky BO smell on me. So sad, baby Lorraine.

In high school I started wearing Tresor by Lancome, and though I don't wear it now, every time I smell it, I am almost viscerally thrown back in time to my teens. I started my first sexual relationship at that time, and that smell is connected with all that as well for me.

In college, I started wearing Clinique Happy. My then boyfriend now husband wore it too. And we had the body wash and the lotion and just smelled like yummo lemons and grapefruit all day (which okay, apparently there's no lemon according to the note description; but I have always smelled lemons).

In grad school, Josh bought me some Kate Spade Beauty. It was such a sweet gift as he'd seen me randomly sniff it and say that I liked it while in a store, but ultimately not a perfume that worked for either of it. It's just too sweet and floral. I will probably be offering this to a good home on a give-away post at some point. It's lovely but not for us.

Then I pretty much stopped wearing perfume and started doing Bath and Body Works shower gel + lotion + body spray, most notably in White Citrus, which Josh also uses sometimes; Aveda's Stress Fix Line (lavender + clary sage); and Fresh Lemon shower gel which is sour lemony and glorious.

So that's my perfume history. I would love to hear about anyone else's history in perfumes. :)

[lunabee34]

I have been randomly reading perfume posts by the members of this comm, and I'm pretty sure I read a review of Jicky by you and/or some other members. It sounds fascinating. I suspect I would not like it, but who know? It sounds very different from any perfume I've ever smelled.