Recommend the most herbal scents, please

[galleywest]

Hmmm, cranberry scents work well on me, so I think I'll try Bewitched. Thanks for the suggestion of Aeval, I'll have to give it a go. I'm interested to see how tonka and sage work together on me!

[naeelah]

Lately I'm in an herbal kind of mood, so I'm trying to work back through the herbal scents I have.

 

Temple of Dreams is definitely one of the most herbal blends I've smelled. That's an aromatherapy one, of course, but if you want something *really* herbal, it's pleasant enough to wear during the day. It's a bit unusual as a perfume, but I enjoy the herbal quality.

 

I'm wearing Bess today, and I highly recommend this if you want a fragrant, floral herbal. The notes are : rosemary, orange flower, grape spirit, five rose variants, lemon peel, and mint. . On me, it's a soft rose mint with a hint of rosemary and lemon. (I should note that I tend to amp rose, so other people may get a more herbal effect from it.)

 

Khandita is a sharp herbal musk. It's biting, slightly hot and bitter herbs with black musk. I think it's a fantastic blend, if you like black musk.

 

Sagittarius with a all soft, fuzzy dandelion and herbs. Really great if you want a comforting, fuzzy kind of blend.

[Reaver]

Incensey herbal = Eshe, A Vision of Life in Death from the Carnival.

 

It's pretty frackin delicious.

[mazikeen]

They've been mentioned, but I'll give another thumbs up to Odin, Yggdrasil, as well as Niflheim. I got all three of these at once and they coverted me to an herbal-lover.

[inurbanus]

Catherine is a great rosemary blend. I like it because it smells like an Aveda store. I also agree with those recommending Arcana.

[reina]

I LOVE Envy. It's a clean cologne-ish scent that will work equally well on both guys and girls. It's in the "exclusive spa" category in my book, like a very expensive shower gel. I think it's the lime zest and mint that give it sweetness, among other things. Again, gorgeous for summer.

I´d also suggest Scarecrow, although it is not "herbal" in the fresh green sense, but more like a field of dry plants on a summer night. It's very dry, and would be more suitable on a man than a woman, IMO. However, I think it's worth a mention.

[Xayiede]

Good day to you all!

 

I have been on a quest for both a woody scent, and also a green scent. I have also tried out quite some BPAL oils, and extensively browsed the forum, but none of it was exactly what I was looking for. Of course the scents were lovely, and I have found many scents I adore, but none that fit in these categories. I hope that you oil-fanatics with more experience could help me out on this one.

 

For the woody scent: More the woods of cedar and sandalwood than sea sprayed ships and wooden legs, or murky mossy forests (Though I guess that would be an excellent green scent.) I have looked at many of the middle eastern scents, but all of them have musks or almonds or honey. What I am looking for is very heavy on the fragrant woods, dry and warm. Something exotic and sensual, with maybe a hint of spices.

 

For the green scent: I am not looking for a pine scent! I tried Dracul, but it was too sharp and too much pine. This one is a bit difficult to explain, I don't exactly want to smell like crushed plants, more a intriguing scent that smells "green", reminds of green. Like a potion or a spell based on herbs. Many many years ago (when things still came in blue vials) I ordered an imp of Belladonna, and I loved it. Loved it! Something similar, but maybe a bit darker would be great. The only problem I had with the beautiful lady called Belladonna was that she choose to depart too soon every time she visited (faded fast). Any recommendations for green scents with more staying power? It should not be too sweet, though a hint is allowed, nor should it smell like fruits or berries. Could have some flowers. Something mossy?

 

Roses amp on my skin, so any any recommendations with rose would have to have tiny baby roses, growing in the neglected far back of the garden, please.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Edited January 29, 2013 by Xayiede

[ReallyZeb]

For greens, have you tried Heinous Hedge Maze? Or maybe Arcana?

[holborne]

Half-Elf from the RPG series is a beautiful woody scent. It's not similar to Belladonna at all, but it's lovely, in my opinion, with no rose (no floral note at all, I don't think).

 

Karme is also about as green a scent as I've ever tried from the Lab. However, it may be a bit challenging to find.

[zmulls]

I love two scents that are very "green" but not in the sense of wood and forest smells, specifically. Both are a little masculine.

 

Van Van is very green, but it does contain vetiver (which is a death note for many women). Van Van is one of the Conjure Bag oils, based on traditional voodoo. One is supposed to use Van Van for purification. I like to wear it the next morning when I've had a particularly debauched evening.

 

Troll is very heady, and has scents in it you wouldn't expect to like. The burnt spices and "troll musk" and general greenery -- it has a hothouse kind of feel. I wear Troll a lot during Spring and Summer -- it just doesn't smell right in the Fall and Winter when nothing is blooming.

[Blood onmy hands]

I'd definitely recommend Magus for a woody scent:

*Magus (Bewitching Brews) - "An ancient blend, swollen with arcane power: galangal, high john essence, frankincense, cedar, and sandalwood."

And maybe Lear:

*Lear (Illyria) - "White cedarwood, blue sage and bay leaf."

 

For some unusual green type scents, you might look into these:

*51 (Wanderlust) - "Luminescent, glowing, and otherworldly: green mandarin, neroli, honeydew, white amber, guava, freesia, white and green musks hovering over desert scrub, smashed wood, and the dry, biting scent of night air over the Groom Lake salt flats."

*The Apothecary (Illyria) - "Tea leaf with three mosses, green grass, a medley of herbal notes, and a drop of ginger and fig."

*Bayou (Wanderlust) - "A lazy, warm deep green scent with a thick aquatic undertone: Spanish moss, evergreen and cypress with watery blue-green notes and an eddy of hothouse flowers and swamp blooms."

*Jazz Funeral (Ars Moriendi) - "Bittersweet bay rum, bourbon, and a host of funeral flowers with a touch of graveyard dirt, magnolia and Spanish Moss."

*Nostrum Remedium (Pharmacopoeia) - "Black tea leaf, invigorating wasabi, and honey."

*Ochosi (Excolo) - "His ofrenda is the soft shea he shares with Obatala, forest herbs, and sprucewood arrow shafts."

*Envy (Sin & Salvation) - "Green herbs slithering through mint, lime and lavender."

*Rocking-Horse-Fly (Mad Tea Party) - "Shellacked wood, sap, sawdust, and privet."

*Ya-Te-Vo (Rappaccini's Garden) - "Barbed, sanguinary greenery, fleshy and sharp."

[ladyjc]

I love Alecto for my cedary/woody scent.

Alecto (Excolo- The Kindly Ones): Unceasing In Anger. Olive leaf, raspberry leaf, vetiver and cedarwood.

[Xayiede]

Thank you, so many reactions!

I had a quick read on the forum on all the scents. Of course Heinous Hedge Maze was the one that sounded amazing. I don't live in the states, but a friend is visiting, so I prefer to order just one set from the lab. Bayou sounds good, though maybe a bit too aquatic for me. I tried Jolly Rogers and I disliked that one strongly on my skin. Maybe worth a try though?

 

Anyone else have more suggestions?

The wood scent I am looking for is more deep/dark/woodsy, and not so much incense. I have a very strong picture in my head what it is supposed to smell like but it is hard to describe. When I was a child I found a piece of strange wood in the forest and it smelled divine. Warm, of some fragrant woody smell, dry, with some thing that made it smell like there were spices without actually smelling like a certain spice. A spicy fragrant bark smell? I kept it for years, smelling it. I never found the source of the tree, nor have I ever found a piece of wood like it.

Alecto sounds good, I think I will give it a try.

 

More, more!

[arsinoe9]

Hi Some of my favorite woody scents:

 

An Altar to Cold, Rigid Dreadful Death

Anne Bonny

Antikythera Mechanism

Aureus

Carceri d'Invenzione

Cathedral

Heavenly Love & Earthly Love

Heretic

Kathmandu

Lucifer

Magus

Oak Moon

The Pit & The Pendulum (mostly cedar to me)

Sri Lanka

 

My first thought for the green scent was Belladonna...

 

Mandrake

Strangler Fig

Yggdrasil

Edited January 31, 2013 by arsinoe9

[Floria]

Maybe Aureus for the woody blend, or possibly Umbra (patchouli, cedarwood, vetiver, cinnamon) if you can do vetiver and want something more earthy. The Apothecary (tea leaf with three mosses, green grass, a medley of herbal notes, and a drop of ginger and fig) might work for a green scent if you don't amp the fig.

[aphrodite]

Good day to you all!

 

 

 

For the woody scent:

For the green scent:

 

Woody: The Antikythera Mechanism

Green: Strangler Fig

[Wren12]

Woody: Tombstone, this one is amazing cedar. So good. VILF also has nice woody notes, although it's much more complicated than Tombstone.

 

Green: Thorns, which is greenery and blood (sounds odd, ends amazing.) Heinous Hedge Maze (mentioned before). Ranger (super sexy walk in the woods with leather, I think this one fits the 'deep dark woods, less incense' part to a tee, although it's less dark and more sun dappled.) A Blade of Grass (ok, this one is basically just the chlorophyll scent of fresh cut grass, but very interesting, also kinda like squishing a green leaf in your hand and smelling it.)

 

There are so many choices!!

[KissleMeNow]

I know a lot of forumites don't like an herby, "medicinal" kind of scent, but that's what I'm in the mood for, so, recs? The three I have already are Tabella, The Face of All the World is Changed I Think, and Victorian Garden.

[OctoberGwen]

Not medicinal, but very herbal: The Doom of Beauty, from last year's Lupercalia. It's beautiful, and one of my favorite BPALs.

 

Bess, from the GC, is in the same vein but has more rose, too.

Edited February 12, 2013 by OctoberGwen

[fufu_berry]

I like scents like this too! I found Laudanum to be very medicinal and spicy (Nutmeg, sassafras, black poppy and myrrh), and No 93 Engine (Balm of Gilead, benzoin, frankincense, balsam of peru, beeswax, saffron, galbanum, calamus, hyssop, mastic, lemon balm, and white sage) has a medicinal/herb smell to me as well. Lear (White cedarwood, blue sage and bay leaf) doesn't smell very medicinal to me, but it is very herbal.

Edited February 12, 2013 by fufu_berry

[Ashmedai]

That scent family is one of my favorites. What I like best from the GC are Apothecary, Absinthe, Magus, Elf, Water of Notre Dame, Nostrum Remedium, Leanan Sidhe, Yggdrasil and Quietude. Favorite LEs are Silver Phoenix, Season of Ghosts, Dream, Sleep, The Cold Hour of Dawn, Silver Phoenix and Bat of Health. Also great are Silence and Garden Path With Chickens from the (discontinued) Salon, maybe Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Those Condemned to Death (I amp the herbal notes in that one, though).

[Honey]

Ohh, great thread for me!

 

Scents that I find "herbal" are Ave Maria Gratia Plena (Rosewood with Sicilian lemon peel, red Mysore sandalwood, pale musks, sweet mountain sage and a dusting of lily, night-blooming jasmine and orris.), because I totally amp the sage and lemon, and, my favorite, Strings in the Earth and Air (White sage, white musk, honey myrtle, galbanum, lilac, and everlasting flower.), because - again! - it has a very sweet note of sage in a great combination with white/pale musk (geesh, run-on sentence much?).

(Anyone know of any similar scents? I have an unhealthy craving for sage it seems..)

 

I am actually looking for a scent with thyme, rosemary, sage, lemon, lavender and all the fragrant yet not-too-sweet herbs and spices. I find balms and resins a tad bit too perfumey and incense-like sometimes, so a pure herbal blend would be good for me to try I think.

The Apothecary is high on my wishlist (and I guess it is a scent that would be recommended, right?).

[Blood onmy hands]

Most of the Rappaccini's Garden scents have an herbal/medicinal aspect to me. Ya-Te-Vo especially had a medicinal feel (menthol-y). And I agree that bpal's sage note often smells very medicinal and herbal.

[Monday]

Arcana -Frankincense, rosemary, lavender, neroli, and lemon verbena, is agreeably herbal. Or Santa Eulària Des Riu -Piquant citrus tempered by jasmine, soft Mediterranean herbs, lavender and orange blossom.

[Skygal]

I find Allison Gross to be very herbal! In fact, she reminds me of the ORIGINAL Herbal Essence shampoo (in the 70s, when there was only one!)