Butch yet not manly scents?

[Miss Lynx]

I just thought I should add Iago to the list. I know it's supposed to be a men's scent, but on me it smells more like a butch woman. I sniffed it on my wrist, and immediately thought "leather dyke"!

[pickman's model]

I second Tezcatlipoca. Mmm...

[Caltha]

I have a problem: My skin always seems to amp up the sweetness, so the unisex or even masculine scents are "feminized" on me. When they're not sweet they're very sharp and acrid and often sort of rottening instead (a problem I have with some woody/green and smoky/fiery scents). Does anybody else have the same problem and could you recommend some scents that stay masculine/unisex on your female skin?

For me, Dorian and Dublin work but they're very sweet. Whitechapel is more girlie than men's cologne. Nosferatu is actually not sweet but it's more of a natural earth scent than masculine perfume. Dracul works fairly well as a sort of warm/spicy/citrusy unisex scent. Burial is pretty unisex too. Severin completely lacks sweetness, which makes it masculine, but it's also extremely faint and clean, not very sexy. De Sade is masculine I guess, pure leather, but a little boring because of that. Tombstone has a dry, dusty, masculine cowboy note but is completely drenched in strong, sweet vanilla. Fenris Wolf was not my thing, too close to the detested Dragon's blood, and might as well be feminine. Absinthe turned to faint pickles. Tintagel was christmasy sweet red candy berries with evergreens.

It seems that if the masculine scent contains any flower, berry/fruit (except citrus) or foodie/sweet note that one will overpower the rest and make it all feminine on my skin.

What may work on my skin, what may actually stay masculine/unisex (preferably without turning into boring generic men's cologne or extremely acrid)? Black Forest, The Black Tower, Vicomte de Valmont, Casanova, Villain, Dee, Old Scratch, Voodoo, Nero, Golden Priapus, Loup Garou, Antony, Lear, Baron Samedi, Odin...?

[Torrilin]

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

[minilux]

I've got the same sweetness amping problem you have and if you really amp the vanilla like I do, Golden Priapus may turn out to be too sweet. I would recommend Dee and Old Scratch and maybe Baron Samedi from your list. Villain is very similar to Whitechapel on me, so you may not like it any better. I absolutely love Usher, but I would put it in the same category with my other love, Severin. I would also suggest Saint-Germain and, if you can handle a touch of rose, Thanatos is very nice.

[Caltha]

Thanks for your tips! I'm definitely tempted buy Dee, Old Scratch and perhaps Usher too (I do like Severin, it's just so understated).

Unfortionately, resins are very evil on me, especially myrrh, frankincense, patchouli, incense and civet and I definitely didn't like Penitence. Musks and amber seem to work much better on my skin.

I also sadly seem to have a problem with woods such as sandalwood, rosewood and cedar and with vetiver. I really want to love the green/woody scents but they rarely seem to work on my skin... Can woods possibly turn soapy or is it something else in the scent?

Aquatics/ozone, which "masculine" scents often are, dont work either, they turn very artificial, and I don't much fancy "fresh" stuff like eucalyptus and mint (but I love citrus).

I like spicy scents but they are seldom masculine to me, they are more often sweet and warm as classical oriental ladies perfume

I guess it's not quite true I sweeten everything, it's rather that I sweeten fruits and flowers very much so that they overpower a scent completely, while some other notes such as resins, woods and herbs may turn very bitter and acrid and sometimes rottening instead.

Actually, it's a wonder I have so many scents I like... Which is, perhaps, because I don't mind sweetness most of the time, I'd just like some more masculine scents as well for variation...

And oh, I forgot to mention, I do love Hellfire, pipe tobacco seems to work very well with me, as well as leather, that's a cosy, comfy, masculine/unisex scent I recommend.

[Torrilin]

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

[Torrilin]

double post oops

Edited April 9, 2006 by Torrilin

[themerrybaker]

Two not on your list are DeSade (Let's go for a Walk with the Happy Leash) and Othello (Enraged Jealous Man Musk). Neither of these were sweet, or aftershavey but they are not very girly either.

[Caltha]

Thanks for the tip on Othello. I have tried DeSade and it's alright but I find pure leather a little dull... Perhaps for layering with some scent I find too faint and fresh and cologne-y though? Like an extra boost to Severin... I would try that if I didn't give my DeSade imp away...

A lot of florals definitely turn soapy on my skin, it's like a chemical reaction, they go all sharp and I almost taste the soap in my throat. It might happen to some other notes as well but I'm not sure which... I hope it's not woods because I want to like woods! I'm trying to keep track of what notes work and what notes don't so hopefully I'll find out...

[cranberry]

Casanova may work on you. when I tried it, it started off more traditional mens cologne but then as it dried it turned into this most amazing scent....I really liked it. It has a similar vibe IMO to Dee, Old Scratch, etc.

 

Have you tried Smut or Enranged Orangutang Musk? In EOM, I find the florals/woods to be fairly light and dominated by the musk and amber...I know that they're both LE but you could probably find some on the swap boards.