Torrilin

She sounds like someone who would really enjoy an Exocolo and Wanderlust themed imp pack. Bastet, Nuit, and Clio really spring out at me. Anubis might fit her too. Other muses and the Graces might suit her too, or you could flesh out the pack with some of Cairo, Athens, Delphi and Shanghai. Something I've thought of doing is making a gift pack with postcards to represent each scent, with the description on the back. Then an imp of each scent and a BPAL postcard and a note reminding the recipient that if they love one of the scents you'd be happy to buy them a bottle to "finish" the gift. Since you don't give us an idea of her scent tastes, it's hard to judge if the actual *scents* would suit her taste. But the descriptions should. Kalli

Black musk can be a lot of fun . It may sound scary (especially if you look at the reviews) but if it suits your skin, it's divine. Red musk suits a *lot* of people very well, which is why red musk scents have so many glowing reviews. I actually haven't tried it yet. White musk is very wearable for a lot of people as well. There are so many BPAL musks that it's worth playing around with 'em. Kalli

I liked fruity scents as a teen. Twenty-one and Swank on me smell *just* like me as a teen, and I can't wear them now. Kalli

Hrm... Two Monsters in Salon has champaca flower. Also oakmoss, vetiver, black musk, leather, patchouli, ginger, Japanese pittosporum, ambergris and white pepper. Japanese pittosporum is otherwise known as mock orange. Kalli

Vanilla, honey, hazelnut, red wine notes, amber, lavender, and cocoa/chocolate notes are common ingredients in stuff that goes bad on you. I'd be wary of jasmine, because it can be overpowering in the heat. Some roses and some musks go bad or disappear, others may be ok. Kalli

Haunted, Whip, and Maiden work nicely on me in terms of sillage and lasting time. March Hare is one that varies a lot depending on my skin chemistry that day, and sometimes has *lots*. Note that I've got weird skin that hangs onto scent for dear life. These are all 8 hour scents on me, but on most people they're more "normal". Kalli

Dumb question: which BPALs do you have that are going off in this heat, or which particular ones are going nastiest? See, there may be a common factor, and then you know to avoid that common factor in summer scents. Kalli

There are 3 GC blends that list chamomile: Libertine, Rome, and Ephermera. None of them list the danger ingredients, and none of them have the other good ingredients. Jasmine and lavender are probably the most common ingredients in the general catalogue. There are 34 jasmine scents listed, and 25 lavender scents. Ylang-ylang only shows up in 13 scents. Rose geranium is the least common, listed in only 2 scents, and one of those scents contains rosemary. Wilde, Sophia, Twilight, Oneiroi, and Santa Eularia des Riu all list jasmine and lavender. Suspiro and Pannychis list jasmine and ylang-ylang. Veil lists lavender and ylang-ylang. Rage is the only rose geranium scent that's clearly safe. That gives you 12 scents to ask the lab about and maybe get . Kalli

The Lion is an all time favorite of mine. It would be a good fall scent (as well as a good winter, spring and summer scent). March Hare is delicious smelling. As long as the cloves don't run away from you the way they started doing on me, it should be another good year round scent. Since it's rather pastry-ish it feels a bit more like fall. Bengal, Morocco, White Rabbit, Sudha Segera, Silk Road, Baghdad, Spellbound, Scherezade, Sybaris, and Fenris Wolf are some scents I'm planning to try that might be up your alley for fall. I don't pay much attention to weather either tho. Either it's the scent I want to wear or it's not. Kalli

If you're naturally a very watery sort of person (which seems to go with the other two categories you're interested in), the right femme fatale scent may need to build off of that. So here's a list of stuff in the GC that looks to fit in the stormy/watery/misty/icy category. I'm not going to list stuff you already have listed. Lightning Hurricane Undertow Olokun Penthus Yemaya Pool of Tears The Mock Turtle's Lessons Amsterdam Bayou Danube Dublin Neo-Tokyo Lorelei Siren Dirty Anne Bonny Black Pearl Blood Pearl Cathode Empyreal Mist Ephermera Grog Jolly Roger Leanan Sidhe Phantasm Ulalume Ultraviolet Veil FWIW, yes the LE scents, especially the *very* limited ones, can be really lovely. On the other hand, the regular catalogue includes some amazing scents that don't get anywhere near the love they deserve. Most of the screamingly popular sexy stuff is in the "oriental" or foody categories. They tend to be all about spices, vanilla, amber, honey, musk... things like that. I'd grab something like Snake Oil, Scherezade and O to see if that is up your alley. Those three are very popular for a reason *g*. Kalli

I'd email the lab and ask on that one. Not all the Lab's musk blends are identical, but O doesn't list musk as a component anyway. IIRC Enraged Bunny Musk doesn't list vanilla as a component, and if Antique Lace works on you, that makes vanilla even more unlikely as a culprit (a vanilla allergy would be *damn* weird. about on par with a genuine chocolate allergy for weird.). FWIW, I don't react to black musk, nor to moderate doses of white musk, nor to Arabian musk, but something in Black Rose hates my guts, and I'm betting it's the musk. That *would* be one of the ones that's *just* musk as the descriptor too. jj_j, that reaction sounds a lot like the way a chamomile and honey scent hits my BF. I've seen/heard of other people having reactions like that to a range of other things. I react to certain mold varieties that way. There's so many possibilities that it's hard to even be sure they're responding to your scent. And if they both know they're allergic to mold, well, it *is* possible even in an air-conditioned building to have mold caught in old air filters that gets recirculated (there are even more entertaining possibilities with mold. that's just one of manymany. I'm having mold troubles in sunny Los Angeles right now...). Kalli

That's why I specified blossom *g*. I can't recall whether I've ever sniffed an iris rhizome (have had opportunity). Very often if I'm sensitive to one fragrant component of a plant, I have issues with other fragrant components. While orange blossom doesn't particularly smell like orange peel, a certain component in orange peel can get to me if I peel a lot of oranges. To my nose it smells very much like the part of an orange blossom's scent that gives me the icepick through the nose sensation. One thing I've noticed is I'll be convinced a plant I have experience with is scentless and discover other people can detect a scent off it. If I go back and sniff these plants, they're (so far) invariably headache inducers. This pattern is strong enough that since I've had opportunity to sniff iris root, my paranoia is triggered. Since Beth often has unusual ingredients, or differentiates between subtly different ingredients by name, I'm not ruling out that "iris" is iris blossom, and "orris" is iris root until I get up the guts to test or email the lab and ask. There are a couple GC scents where I might get useful results from trying 'em... Scary tho, since iris is the worst reaction I have to a plant aside from poison ivy and hyacinth. Kalli

I have confirmed that iris blossom, lilac, most lilies, hyacinth, neroli/orange blossom, and narcissus/daffodil plants give me headaches. Not just in commercial perfumes, not just in BPAL, the actual fkn plant gets me with a nasty nasty headache. I strongly suspect that freesia, ylang-ylang, tuberose, and most varieties of jasmine get me as real plant, commercial perfume and BPAL. At least some varients of the BPAL leather note get me. Vanilla, stephanotis, lily of the valley, certain musks, an unidentified ingredient in Gaueko and probably far more stuff that I have yet to identify also cause or may cause reactions. Vanilla should be pretty trivial to clear, I hope, since vanilla beans and vanilla extract do not cause issues. I am reluctant to test orris root (which comes from the iris plant) because of the degree to which iris flowers give me a headache. My boyfriend reacts badly to real chamomile and honey, and the reaction is worse if they're combined. So yeah, just because you've always been ok with essential oils and have always had problems with commercial perfumes doesn't mean all BPAL is headache safe. I'm just skipping any BPAL where I've confirmed the real plant gives me a headache. It's just not worth it. With the list I've got it's not at all surprising I have issues with commercial perfumes... there are just too many things that are at least one note in almost every scent out there, and commercial perfumes have so damn many notes that aren't listed... Kalli

Gaueko has a tobacco note. I have no idea if it's similar to Herr Drosselmeyer or not since I don't do LEs, but the scent is amazing. Unfortunately something in it hates my guts, and I can't figure out what. Kalli

Guys are simple creatures. Most of 'em have about 3 categories for scent. OMG yum!, that's nice, and OMG ew! The problem is, they do not all think the same things are in the same categories, just like women don't all agree on scents. So if you've got one specific guy in mind well... really all you can do is ask him or observe his reactions. Mine will nuzzle happily and mutter nice things if I wear The Lion. And as you can see from the what knocks men off their feet thread, guys vary a *lot* in what does it for them. And yes, a *lot* of guys do like candy-sweet scents. Another large chunk of guys like spicy scents. But the one you're after may not be one of those. You just can't tell. Kalli

Zorya is spices of the Orient mingle with crystalline musk, midnight flowers and cereus, jasmine, primrose and vesper iris. Cereus appears to be a kind of cactus (checked Wikipedia), so it's probably cactus flower scent. So no incense here. Nuit is dazzling white musks, white rose and night-blooming jasmine with the soft moss of moonlit meadows, a waft of Egyptian incense, and a gentle breath of moonflower. We've got incense here, but that's not the similarity that jumps out at me. Both scents have jasmine and musk. You seem to like florals that fit into the "starry night" microcategory. There's a thread about those sorts of scents already. Kalli

I haven't tried this scent, but... the Lab's white tea note is a citrusy sort of scent. It feels bright and sparkling to me. I'm not a fan of drinking white tea, but the scent is ok by me. And real apple blossoms don't smell like apples. The closest thing I can think of is roses, which is *all*wrong* because they're lighter than the lightest rose I've ever smelled, and less foody and well, not rosy. It's not something you'd expect unless you've had an apple tree, and even then, it's not a strong scent. If the Lab means what they usually do by ginger, it's either the scent of dried ginger root (think holiday gingerbread) or fresh ginger juice, which is lemony with a bit of fiery heat to it. I would not expect cloying or candy-like with those notes, unless your skin chemistry is odd. I'd expect citrus galore. I haven't sniffed Phobos either, but lemon verbena and lemongrass are herby-lemony scents, and unless the white musk is a starring note, you'll end up with something rather like Embalming Fluid. It'll feel a bit different tho since it's not based around tea but around grapefruit and lemony herbs. This would likely be the "greenest" smelling of the re-released grapefruit scents. It'll still be a lot heavier on the citrus than the green tho. If I were you, I'd just get imps of 'em all and fill out with some other GC stuff that's interesting to you. Kalli

I'd say Haunted is similar to Shalimar, but not exact, nor is it intended to be. It's a strong scent, and very much a classic Oriental scent (which is pretty much Shalimar all over). Since BPAL ambers and musks are blends to mimic the scent of the real thing, they can have more complexity than you might expect from a blend with only 2 notes. Definitely try Haunted, but don't expect a Shalimar dupe . Kalli

double post oops

Huh. I've never heard of woods turning soapy. There seem to be a couple ways people get soapy responses. The most common is a scent strikes them as soapy because it's commonly used to scent soap. Lavender gets accused of soapy often for this reason. Next there's the scent doesn't get commonly used in soap, but it naturally has soap-like elements in it (this would be a common response to some kinds of sharp scents). Last, the scent changes on your skin to imitate soap. I've had this happen once with rose, and it was very odd. The air around me tasted like soap. There may be other reasons you'd get a soap impression I just haven't come across 'em . Which scents have you tried where the various woods seemed to go soapy? There's really not much you can do with the third one. You're having a valid and tough to change reaction in all 3 cases, but the third one is a killer because you can't change how your skin responds. It's *possible* but rare to change how your brain responds to something *g*. Wouldn't count on it. I guess the real question is what strikes you as a "masculine" scent? Something like a guy's aftershave where it's "fresh", "clean", "woodsy" etc, or just similar to a classic men's cologne of one sort or another? Kalli

I don't quite have the same problem. Instead, my skin makes scents greener, drier and more powdery. So *everything* gets sharper on me. Amber is pretty reliably a dry, sweet scent. I think of it as vanilla without fear, because regular vanilla can be pretty horrid on me. Carnation is good, because it's naturally got a dry spicey scent, so it naturally does what my skin wants. Oakmoss and moss are evil on me, because they go piercingly green and sharp. On someone who tends to sweeten things, they might be very well suited. White musk is highly variable. Sometimes it's a mess of powder, sometimes it's a well behaved fixative. Black musk is highly variable, but in a different way. It seems to vary a lot with the changes in my skin chemistry due to my cycle. It's not overtly masculine or feminine, but changeable depending on hormones. You're probably sweetening it. Rose is probably a not great note for you in general, but it'd be worth trying Whip and Wanda to see if there's any way to tame it. (of course, if you hate roses, don't bother) If leather works well on you in De Sade, try some of the other leather scents. There's quite a lot of them, and many are rather masculine. Lavender is another floraly note that may do well on your skin. You get a couple different scents from real lavender plants. English lavender is a green herbal floral scent if you sniff the flowers, and sort of a toned down rosemary if you sniff the leaves. French lavender is a spicy green floral if you sniff the flowers, and the leaves are much less like rosemary. I'm not sure if the lab uses both leaf and flower EOs, but this is definitely something that *might* feel masculine to you. It's used as a note in a lot of men's aftershaves and such. Most spice scents and wood scents would be worth a try with your skin chemistry. They tend to be very dry, and a lot of people find them "too sharp". If you sweeten everything, that might make 'em comfortable on you without being screamingly feminine. Dryer resins like myrrh and frankincense might also work well on you. Keep in mind it's not unusual to amp some florals. It's also not unusual to amp berries and fruit (I mostly don't, instead they run and hide from my skin). And vanilla in particular gets amped a lot. It's just most people so love it they don't care. Have you tried Penitence, any of the Somnium oils, Iago, or any of the classic spice scents (Morocco, Bengal etc)? Kalli

Hellish period this month. Like I'm not on depo almost :-/. Haunted has been smelling amazingly good to me, even when I'm in pain and cranky from it. Kalli

I'm not sure what to think then. I can't find *any* list of Dior's scents that has anything that even remotely resembles a scent named Infinity. And well, Dior doesn't tend to do a lot of trendy scents. It's a pretty conservative house that way. Have you thought of writing to Dior to see if they have a record of it? Kalli

I'm coming up with absolutely nothing in Google searches. I'm also coming up dry at Basenotes. The closest match I've found is a scent by Caron called Infini in the Basenotes review library. Do you happen to know who made your aunt's perfume, or the last year she was able to find it? Is it possible she actually was wearing the Caron scent? Kalli

After swimming, take a shower. It's better for your hair and skin to get the chlorine off anyway, and then the chlorine can't go destroying a lovely scent . Chemically, chlorine is the main component of bleach, which is really good for destroying many oil molecules. Kalli