What does that character smell like?

[synecdochic]

Inspired by a few discussions we've had in comments here and there to open posts, and because rydra_wong said this morning "Also, there should totally be the perfume equivalent of fanmixes -- find the appropriate scent for all the main characters in a show ..."

So, if you've got a scent association with a particular character, or are trying to find a scent that sums up a character, let's make lists!

Comments

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I've been playing the character-scent game for years (and have accidentally sucked many a friend into BPAL by way of it), thanks to a friend who deliberately cultivated the use of such character-associated scents as a productivity-headspace tool for writing. I'm also one of those people who tends towards mildly synaesthetic responses to scent - mostly color, texture, temperature, sense of place, and some visuals - so it really wasn't much of a leap to go to character associations that fit the images/sensory impressions as well as the scents!

Here are three of my absolute favorites:

BPAL Perversion (http://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shop/ars-amatoria/perversion/)
This is forever Saiyuki's "chivalrous pervert" Sha Gojyo to me. On my skin it comes on strong, raunchy and heavy and not remotely subtle, all smoky-boozy tobacco and leather. But as it dries and wears throughout the day, the raunchiness gradually softens as the warm powdery-vanilla sweetness of the tonka base grows more prominent. Despite the Lab's description I find this ultimately a very warm, comforting security blanket of a scent - it gives me feelings and images of being wrapped up in a leather jacket fresh off the back of a favorite person, still warm from their body heat, carrying the lingering scent of their favorite smokes and their favorite dive-bar hangout and their own skin as well as the scent of the leather itself, so that just wearing it feels almost like a disembodied embrace. And for Gojyo, who tries really hard to present himself as a macho devil-may-care tough-guy ladies'-man, but has a marshmallow-soft sweet heart hidden (not very well) under his crass persona, that's just the way it should be.

BPAL Fenris Wolf (http://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shop/diabolus/fenris-wolf/)
I didn't have a character for this until years after I fell in love with it, but now I'll always associate it with the best aspects of Klaus von Wolfstadt from Hyakujitsu no Bara, and much like "Perversion" earlier this scent actually feels much less dark and sinister to me than it does in the lab's writeup. It shifts a little bit in drydown on me, with initial hints of fresh green resiny pine forests quickly settlng to warmer, dryer woods; together with the faintly sweet golden resinous warmth of amber and the animalic warmth of the musk, it gives me an overwhelming image of sunlight on warm fur. A big dog, if not perhaps a wolf, quietly watchful but peaceful and still, confdent enough in its own strength to be utterly at ease, basking in the simple pleasure of being bathed in warm sunlight on a clear cool day. I'm very much a dog person, and so like "Perversion" this is all the sort of thing that makes it feel very comforting and warm to me, like the scent equivalent of burying my fingers in the thick warm fur of a much-loved dog at my side, right where he belongs. And for Klaus, who's constantly associated with canine and lupine images, and who at his best is his master's loving and loyal guard dog, that just fits; that's what he is when he is happy and secure.

Shiseido Zen (http://www.shiseido.com/classic-zen-eau-de-cologne/0730852501201,en_US,pd.html&cgid=fragrance-zen&)
(Original 1964 "Classic" version, NOT any of the newer Zens! - http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.com/2010/01/frequent-questions-many-versions-of.html)
This is my scent for Hyakujitsu no Bara's Taki Reizen, and like "Fenris Wolf" this is one I've loved for a long time before having a character for it...a very long time, ever since I was a little girl sneaking lingering sniffs of it from the bottle that lived on my calabash auntie's bathroom counter! Many reviewers have classed this as a chypre and chypres and I usually aren't friends, but this has always been magical to me. On my skin it's primarily dry woody-incense, sandalwood and agarwood, clear and dry rather than heavy and smoky; on drydown there are eventual delicate hints of the ghost of a floral sweetness of rose and jasmine, only blooming fully with skin-warmth and time, and careful attention to discern them. It's a light and quiet scent to me, rather than a soft one - a little too austere initially in its understated elegance to be obviously alluring the way something more self-consciously sexy or sweet is, ikebana rather than an overstuffed bouquet; but that very quietness and simplicity makes it seductive in its own unconscious way. It doesn't shout to get your attention the way sillage-monster bombshell fragrances too, it just is its own self, lingering close to the skin; if you want to hear it clearly you have to be the one to come closer and listen carefully, but it's only in doing so that its full warmth and complexity and elusive sweetness can be understood. And that's very much Taki as I think Klaus sees him - austere quiet beauty that's unaware of itself, innocently seductive, enigmatic and compelling, forever drawing you back closer in search of that elusive secret sweetness.

[lunabee34]

Oh man, I wish I was familiar with these fandoms because your character/scent descriptions are so fascinating!

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Awww, thanks! Favorite characters and favorite perfumes are both things I can TL;DR about at the slightest excuse, doubly so in the rare cases like these where they collide.