The Thymes Green Tea

[chomiji]

So one of my favorite smells ever is Green Tea by The Thymes, which is not really a perfume house: they do body products like lotions and bath gel as well as home fragrance products. But they have colognes of many of their body scents.

As is so often the case with a small manufacturer, things get discontinued, and so it was with their Green Tea. But for once, my dreams came true: they have re-issued it!

I've been trying to figure out what its notes are so that perhaps I can find something else similar in case they yank it again (and yes, I bought some more products the minute it was re-issued ... still ... ). Their site is not much help. It says "Brisk green tea. Deep Moroccan rose. Sweet spiced honey. Mysterious soft woods."

I can certainly smell the rose. But I have no idea what the spices are, or the woods. Some other scents I have liked (Calyx Prescriptives, Acqua di Gio) have cedar and sandalwood, and they also have amber: is that considered a wood note? And is honey considered a middle note, or what? It doesn't seem to have any fruit at all, and that's odd, because I like fruit scents.

I have tried other "green tea" scents (Bvlgari The Vert, fo example), and I don't like them as much. They seem somehow "rounder" and "paler" - I don't really have synesthesia, but somehow the scent elements that I mean strike me as pale and smooth and rounded, like spheres of ivory. Vanilla? I don't know!

Anyway, so I'm just hoping for some ideas about what notes The Thymes might mean in their description, from people who are more experienced with this vocabulary than I am.

Comments

[rydra_wong]

Aha:

http://www.basenotes.net/ID26126699.html

Someone at basenotes suggests that a key element is green fig, and someone else mentions bergamot (a fresh citrus-y note).

So it could be worth trying other fig scents -- Diptyque's Philosykos is a popular one -- to see if they appeal to you too.

If you're looking for something that's less "round" and "pale" than most green tea scents, it could also be worth trying some of the scents that have black tea or maté notes -- they're generally darker and more "spiky".

[chomiji]

Thank you! I know I like bergamot in things. Unfortunately, Fragrantica doesn't even "green fig" as a note ... oooh, it sounds like I should try some of that Philosykos, although I have no idea where to find it (do businesses online other than BPAL send out little testers? .

I'm tugged between two ideas for perfumes: either warm, gently spicy things or fresh, citrus-y things. And then there's always the problem of what will give me a headache or other issues. This Green Tea is on the warmer end.

[rydra_wong]

Unfortunately, Fragrantica doesn't even "green fig" as a note ...

Try just "fig" (that will get some things that have a dried-fig note, but also things with the fresh/green fig note you're looking for -- hopefully you can get an idea from the descriptions which is which). They also have "fig leaf" and "fig tree" on their drop-down menu.

do businesses online other than BPAL send out little testers?

Generally, mainstream perfume companies won't do so directly, but you can buy little sample vials from decant websites like Surrender To Chance.

[dejla]

Oh, thank you so much for the link!!

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Most of the niche perfume-oil houses like BPAL (Possets, ZOMGSmells!, Arcana, Villainess, Alkemia, etc.) will sell imp-size sample vials, and some of the niche conventional perfumers like CB I Hate Perfume sell sample sizes too. Lucky Scent sells sample sizes of most of the niche perfume lines they stock (dunno if they're decants or official sizes), and The Perfumed Court is an *amazing* source for decants of everything from imports to discontinued/vintage fragrances; they also have some pretty amazing themed samplers if you want to get testers to explore a particular style or note: http://theperfumedcourt.com/Categories/Samplers--Sample-Packs.aspx

For manufacturer's samples or miniatures from the more conventional department-store lines, Fragrance.net sometimes has them in stock, and they can frequently be found on eBay too.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I couldn't detect anything particularly figgy or citrusy when I borrowed chomiji's rollerball for a test drive today (although my skin chemistry has a poor track record of interaction with citrusy notes, so take that with a grain of salt). I didn't really notice anything woody or rose-like either, which is odd as my skin tends to amp the hell out of those; other than the predominant green tea itself I got mostly a rather indolic, not-too-sweet honeyish note and a nice bright green spark of what smelled very much like cardamom.

[lunabee34]

I wish I could help, but I am a newbie myself in so many senses of the word--not just to the vocabulary but to experiencing very many perfumes period. I wish you luck though. Everyone here is so helpful I imagine you'll get some interesting ideas to try out, and rydra_wong has already started you off. :)

[chomiji]

:-)

* nod nod *

[lunabee34]

I just tested BPAL's Embalming Fluid which smells very much like green tea to me.

It's supposed to be green tea, white musk, lemon, and aloe. It smells divine IMHO.

:)

[chomiji]

Huh, I was sure I'd done Embalming Fluid in my brief flurry of BPAL sniffing a couple of years ago (OK, almost 4 years ago), but it looks like I didn't. Maybe I need to order a fresh batch of imps.

.

[lunabee34]

I haven't tried a whole bunch of BPAL at this point, but Embalming Fluid is probably my very favorite so far. :)

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

From what I've seen amber is usually classed as a resin/incense note (like myrrh, oppoponax, benzoin, etc.) rather than a wood note (like cedar, sandalwood, agar...) - http://www.fragrantica.com/news/What-is-amber-anyway--1704.html; it's commonly used as a base note.