Friday free-for-all

[synecdochic]

Looks like I missed last week's already. Oops :D

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!

Comments

[kaberett]

Today I am wearing a slightly ridiculous combination of things - a BPAL chaos theories (vanilla series; vanilla and... pear?) over which BPAL Katharina (white musk and apricot). I appear to want to wear Things That Smell Like Spring And Sunshine and not really... being sure what those might be...

[teaotter]

Yeah, sometimes I'm not exactly sure what I want to smell like until I try a couple of things... and even then sometimes all I know is "not like this!" lol

[lunabee34]

that sounds really yummy to me. I really like vanilla tempered with something else so it doesn't smell too much like dessert.

[umadoshi]

Hooray! ^_^ I have three things I wanted to ask for input on, none of which have seemed big enough to necessarily warrant posts. Any thoughts on any of these would be great!

1) I know about ScentBase and have an account there now, but before I go through uploading my whole stash, are there other similar sites out there that a) more of you might be using and/or b) allow you to search your collection by note? I like the idea of having it all in one place online, but I do already have a spreadsheet, so ScentBase doesn't seem to add much functionality for me that my spreadsheet doesn't.

2) For those of you who have cats, how do they react to your scents? So far I've only tried a couple near our kittens, and one made them try to lick me and one made them sneeze and back away (I don't remember which ones those were, though). I certainly don't want them licking the stuff, and can fend them off, but I also don't want to discourage them from hanging out on/near me. Do you guys find cats tend to simply get used to your smell changing, or stay interested/put off by different scents, or simply show no interest...? (Cat stories of all sorts are especially welcome, because CAT STORIES.)

(In case it's relevant, all of my stash is BPAL, and I don't see that changing.)

3) If you use scent lockets, what's your technique for using scents in them? What I've been doing is putting perfume on scraps of cottonball and then trying to keep track of which is which in labeled tiny plastic bags, but it's unwieldy and impossible to find anything quickly (and that's with only maybe twenty or so scents having had that treatment). Do you reuse the fabric/cotton/whatever you put in the locket, and/or wash them in between, or...I don't even really know what to ask. Any info is awesome--I love my clocket, but hardly ever wear it.

[synecdochic]

Three of our four ignore the smells changing, and the fourth (the Enthusiastic Kitten) will weigh in on individual scents by coming over to sit in my lap and purr when she likes what I'm wearing that day. None of them try to lick, thankfully!

[musyc]

I have two cats and they don't really seem to notice my scents. I try not to pet them when I've just applied one, so that it's not super-strong to them, but otherwise, they don't appear to have any opinion on smells beyond "smells like my human". If BPAL did an oil that smelled exactly like field mouse or blue jay, might be a different story. XD

[cyprinella]

Don't have a cat but my dog's reactions are generally in two camps: My god what is on you flee flee and Hm that is interesting I'm gonna sniff a lot and then snort and walk away.

[lunabee34]

Our kitties pay zero attention to our perfume experiments, but they are super old. They don't pay a lot of attention to anything. LOL

[sathari]

Ooh, I was going to make a post about scent lockets this week, but you beat me to it--- that is awesome!!!!

When I first went the scent-locket route, I did indeed try the tiny-labeled-bags route, and it was just as faily for me as for you. Right now I just have a locket with a cotton square of Bow and Crown of Conquest (which irritates my skin, hence going the locket route)--- and BOY HOWDY does it last and last and last on the cotton square! (By which I mean that I put it on on Tuesday and it's just starting to fade today!) I am torn on whether I'm going to try to "re-scent" the current square or use a new one. Also, I find that the lockets don't have as much throw, which is actually kind of awesome for wearing "out and about" as it's less likely to bother other people's sensitivities.

[cyprinella]

I'm trying to decide what the heck is going on with this one perfume. First month I would try it, it was lovely and wonderful and I was going to buy a bottle. Then, I lost the vial for a week or so, found it, put it on again and it's like completely different. Instead of yummy incense and spice, it's like sweet pleather. I'm not sure if it's hormones or possibly because I started taking allergy meds, although my money's on allergy meds because I'm in about the same spot of my cycle as the first time I tried it. It's making me not want to try anything until after allergy season is over because who knows what things are going to smell like for me.

[teaotter]

Is it possible that the vial was exposed to heat while you lost it? Heat can break down some of the chemical compounds.

[lunabee34]

I wonder if teaotter is right about the heat.

That would be super disappointing. :(

[lunabee34]

My daughter is going to spend spring break with her grandparents and she made me promise not to test any perfumes without her. *cries*

:)

[musyc]

Oh no! That's cruel punishment.

[umadoshi]

I think you get bonus awesome!mom! points for your noble patience and restraint. Yes.

[teaotter]

Oh, dear. But think of what you have to look forward to when she gets back!

[musyc]

My mother told me today that she liked the vanilla perfume I tried on a few days ago.

I haven't tried on anything with a vanilla note in over a week. I cannot even begin to guess which oil she meant!

[umadoshi]

Oh, dear. That's not so helpful. But I guess it's at least good that her take on it was positive, rather than "please never wear [scent I can't usefully describe] again"!

[synecdochic]

Anything with sandalwood? Sometimes people 'read' sandalwood as vanilla.

[lunabee34]

You didn't try Bread and Butterfly did you? I don't think there's vanilla in it, but my mom swore it smell like a vanilla candle when we tried it tonight.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Were any of them heavy on amber or tonka? Those also tend to read as vanilla-ish to some people.

[teaotter]

I am having absolutely no luck with longevity of traditional perfumes. I can wear BPAL just fine, but when I venture outside the "perfume oil" territory, scents vanish on me incredibly quickly. Like 30 minutes quickly, though some last as long as 90 minutes before disappearing.

This is making me sad, because I've really liked several of the ones I've tried... while they hang around, at least.

[musyc]

I don't know if this would work for you, but I find that I manage to squeak some extra longevity out of perfumes when I scent my hair with them. Either spraying the underside when my head's flipped over, or by spraying my brush and combing it through.

[synecdochic]

Things you don't think about: I need to start remembering to wash my wrists before going to bed. The insides of my wrist braces smell like the box I keep our imps in by now :P

[teaotter]

Hee! Several of my sweater cuffs smell similarly.

... actually, I really LIKE that. Mmmmmmmm.

[kore]

This is such a great comm! I just wanted to say I love it.