Torrilin

Stupid question: what *does* Black Cashmere smell like to you when you wear it? It's hard to tell why what you tried is wrong until we know what "right" smells like Kalli

The problem is my allergies, and honestly the sweet is not the main allure for me... it's the burnt smell. Fire! Burn! Most of the "fiery" commercial stuff I've tried doesn't actually smell burnt, it's spicy. Usually headachey too :-/. I react to iris, neroli, lilac, narcissus, at least some lilies (tho calla lily plants are safe), hyacinth, probably ylang-ylang, freesia... or if it's a commercial fragrance, it's going to try give me the headache of doom. For a lot of these, it's not a natural vs artificial issue either, the actual plant will get me. Haven't found an orange tree in bloom yet this year, and I don't know what ylang-ylang looks like, or freesia so I'm not sure the plant gets me on those. It's pretty common for me to try a commercial fragrance that's supposed to be single note of lavender and I end up with a headache because they added other things. So far with BPAL, if the notes are listed and I get a headache, it's because I didn't pay attention to a known guilty party. Djinn sounds interesting, so it's probably worth a try. Ditto Perversion. Worst case, I get a headache and email the lab to try to figure out why. Kalli, who is not at all a pyromaniac. really.

FWIW, "amber" in a perfume description means "hi, we're substituting a blend of oils for ambergris, because it's illegal to use ambergris". So if you see ambergris in a description, expect yet another "amber" scent. It won't be real ambergris, since that is an animal derived product and the lab doesn't use animal derived products. Very often Beth's descriptions consistently use a particular term because she wants to distinguish between two (or more) oils that are slightly different in character. We don't know for sure that that's the case with amber, but it's possible. Kalli

I trekked up to the Black Broom today (they're out of pretty much everything *sigh*) and tried Baku and Villain. Villain hates me. The citrus musk is sadly a headache inducer. It also very quickly goes to *only* the citrus musk, with a ton of throw. *sigh* There may have been other components involved in the guilt, but all in all it was just not a good scene. This is really sad, since I loved the scent wet. Baku was much nicer. It was a strong, sharp lavender at first, then faded to a soft, soothing lavender. If they'd had a bottle, it would have come home with me, no questions. Kalli

In the bottle, this is a sharp clear pure lavender to me. This is good, I *love* lavender. In fact, just sniffing the bottle relaxed me after a good hour or more of fighting with the LA mass transit system. I smeared a good sized dab on my elbow around 1.30 pm, and it's now about 6 pm. As far as I can tell, the scent is gone. While it lasted it was a soft, soothing skin scent. I'll have to test it more, but as a soothe the anxious Kalli scent, I think this is *it*. It hits me with a lavender hammer and sticks around for 3-4 hours giving me tiny wafts of "calm down kiddo". (no, it didn't make me sleepy.) EDIT (Jul 13, 2006) I should've just bought a 10mL of this. It's still the Lavender Hammer of Calm, but a fresh batch has more anise to go with the lavender. It's slatherable, soothing, and considering how much I dislike the taste of anise, it's surprising how much I like the scent. The creature seems to not mind this, so I'll try it a few more times and come to a decision. Kalli

That does narrow it down a lot . I'll have to order some imps and see if any of these work to calm me down when stressed. I'm not real worried about getting knocked out by lavender... I use it in my lotion and soap already to keep me calmer. Shampoo is Aveda's sap moss, which doesn't give me trouble either. Otherwise it's unscented in a vain attempt to dodge allergies. I'm not sure if lotus or jasmine are guilty parties in allergy attacks previously. I'm ok with taking the risk of a headache tho since ibuprofen will fix *g*. And if they are guilty parties, I will know and can remember for the future. Kalli

I have a couple motives here soooo... First of all, I get stressed out very easily, and lavender soothes me and calms me down. I've found that L'Occitane and Savon de-luxe make lavender scents that are very similar and very good at soothing me. I definitely want an oil that I can use when I need extra help feeling calm, safe, in control and secure. Second, I tend to get rampaging headaches from most perfumes. Lavender is one of the few notes that doesn't give me headaches. Citrus notes don't stick around well, and they're usually safe as well. Herbs like rosemary, sage and thyme also tend to be pretty safe. Vanilla is typically the cause of rampant headaches, and it doesn't smell good with my skin. Either it turns to candy or it turns to flowers, but it never meshes with my own smell. Rose is a scent I love, but very often it doesn't love me back. It'll turn to powder, give me a headache, or go sickly sweet. Or all three at once. Commercial fragrances that work on me are invariably discontinued - Garden Botanika "Mood" and Bath and Body Works Seaspray are pretty much the only two that have ever really worked, and both got discontinued in a flash. Mood was a citrusy fruity blend that didn't go too sweet on me. Seaspray was pretty much a straight up dose of herbs. Elizabeth Arden and L'Occitane's Green Tea scents are relatively safe, tho the Arden one can get me in quantity. L'Occitane's Verbena is also relatively safe. Really tho, the only one of these that soothes me is Seaspray. Third, my partner has similar reactions to fragrances. Instead of headaches, he sneezes. Massively. Lavender is one of the few notes that I know is safe for him (and it happens to hit some very nice buttons for him too *eg*). Vanilla works as well, but is out unless I find one that doesn't hate me . Since the lab has so many lavender blends, I'm looking for a way to narrow things down. I don't mind if the scent is more than just lavender, as long as it doesn't hit an allergy button for me or my partner. I'm also perfectly willing to risk sneezes or headaches in the hunt, since there are remedies for both of those available. So, are there any lavender fiends out there who can help me narrow it down past "order imps of all the lavender blends and try 'em"? Kalli