what is ruining these scents for me?

[witchling]

ok so this isn't so much a post for recommendations for scents to try, it's more of a recommendation of scents to stay away from. im still fairly new to bpal and lately im finding that quite a few scents that i am expecting to love, end up smelling way too cologne-y.

 

most recently die sunde and le lethe did this but i know some others have in the past but i cant remember offhand.i do remember the twisted oak smelled cologne-like on me (though on my bf i loved it)... its like all i can smell is a cologne-ish base, i can't pick up anything else! why is this? is that simply how these scents are meant to smell?

 

heres are the descriptions of both that went terrible on me this week. could is be orchid? or the musks??

 

Red musk and sweat-damp golden skin musk with labdanum, golden amber, nutmeg, tobacco absolute, black orchid, and hemlock accord.

Blood musk, hothouse orchid, fig leaf, frankincense, white amber, and tobacco honey.

[bheansidhe]

heres are the descriptions of both that went terrible on me this week. could is be orchid? or the musks??

 

Red musk and sweat-damp golden skin musk with labdanum, golden amber, nutmeg, tobacco absolute, black orchid, and hemlock accord.

Blood musk, hothouse orchid, fig leaf, frankincense, white amber, and tobacco honey.

 

99 times out of 100, any blends that list labdanum, teak, honey (including "honeycomb" and "beeswax"), myrrh, or ambergris as components will go incredibly foul on my skin. So it's possible you're having an individual chemistry reaction to the orchid, the musks, the "tobacco" essence, or some other note in those blends. The best thing to do is get a few imps that also have those notes and do skin tests. Do they all start to smell like cologne on you?

 

Monthly chemistry shifts, and sometimes diet, can also make blends smell different (good, bad, or just different) on your skin.

[sunlitgarden]

I find that the tobacco note does tend to have a "manly" aspect to it (although personally I enjoy it.) You and your boyfriend have different skin chemistry, so you may amp notes that he doesn't and vice versa.

[OctoberGwen]

It can take a while to figure out what works and what doesn't, so don't get discouraged quite yet. Also, bear in mind that things often smell different on your skin at different times of the month, depending on your hormone levels and so forth, so always try a particular scent a few times before you give up on it. (There's also aged vs fresh vs different batches to consider.)

 

Some components might work on you when paired with certain other components, and vice versa. It seems like every time I decide I can't wear anything with such-and-so in it, along comes a blend with that note that smells great on me!

 

Half the fun is the experimentation.

[witchling]

bheansidhe, i think i'll have to take your advice and get some imps with the notes i suspect i will hate. though that takes a lot of discipline when i could instead get some that i know i will love

 

i hadn't thought that it was the tobacco but that is a definite possibility. ill have to hunt down some tobacoo containing imps!

[witchling]

so basically you are telling me to try alllllll the smells? then keep them all and try them again later? sounds fine to me but my bank account will not agree!

 

It can take a while to figure out what works and what doesn't, so don't get discouraged quite yet. Also, bear in mind that things often smell different on your skin at different times of the month, depending on your hormone levels and so forth, so always try a particular scent a few times before you give up on it. (There's also aged vs fresh vs different batches to consider.)

 

Some components might work on you when paired with certain other components, and vice versa. It seems like every time I decide I can't wear anything with such-and-so in it, along comes a blend with that note that smells great on me!

 

Half the fun is the experimentation.

[ReallyZeb]

bheansidhe, i think i'll have to take your advice and get some imps with the notes i suspect i will hate. though that takes a lot of discipline when i could instead get some that i know i will love

 

i hadn't thought that it was the tobacco but that is a definite possibility. ill have to hunt down some tobacoo containing imps!

Maybe search a few sales threads for cheap imps so you're not paying full price for things you might hate? - also many people sell half-full imps even cheaper.

[fasn8me21]

bheansidhe, i think i'll have to take your advice and get some imps with the notes i suspect i will hate. though that takes a lot of discipline when i could instead get some that i know i will love

 

Personally, I wouldn't deliberately track down stuff I thought I wouldn't like. Try the stuff you want, and eventually the notes you suspect *will* show up in some other perfume.

[kakiphony]

I vote it's the musk. I CANNOT wear any musk with very occasional exception of red musk and then only in very select blends. Musk = grandpa cologne on me. EVERY. TIME.

[SophieCedar]

I second the red musk = culprit. Especially around my period it goes all metallic and sour. red musk is very fickle on me..can depend even on what I ate that day.

[mojomomma]

I also can have trouble with musk going cologne on me. I would though do as someone suggested test various scents. I forever thought honey went catpee on me which sucked cause I love the smell of honey. I just discovered though it is not honey, but milk scents, Dana O Shea which I love in the bottle cat pee. So I suggest playing around a bit. I also have discovered while milk is cat pee cream is not.

[witchling]

huh thats interesting... i hadn't even considered musk to be the culprit since i really love snake oil. doesnt snake oil have red musk or am i totally wrong?

 

what a complex, confusing world i've entered by falling for bpal!

 

I vote it's the musk. I CANNOT wear any musk with very occasional exception of red musk and then only in very select blends. Musk = grandpa cologne on me. EVERY. TIME.

[bheansidhe]

bheansidhe, i think i'll have to take your advice and get some imps with the notes i suspect i will hate. though that takes a lot of discipline when i could instead get some that i know i will love

 

i hadn't thought that it was the tobacco but that is a definite possibility. ill have to hunt down some tobacoo containing imps!

 

Oh no! I don't mean to waste money on imps you might hate. While it would probably be a fun experiment to find a really tobacco-y or orchid-y blend for $1 or $2 on the forum, and see if it does the same cologne thing on you, you can always resell it or swap it away. But I guarantee that the longer you try BPALs, the more you'll run across the notes you suspect aren't working. Just keep trying blends that sound appealing and join us in SPREADSHEET MADNESS. Keeping notes on how each blend tests out will give you an idea of what scents probably aren't your friend.

 

Or you can join a circular swap (those these can be slow, and you're testing imps that are pretty aged by the time they come to you). Or you can find people who offer quarter-imp decants of the recent LEs; I picked up an inexpensive tester set of the recent Weenies (and I'm glad I did, because only one of the ones I thought I'd love worked on me).

[kakiphony]

huh thats interesting... i hadn't even considered musk to be the culprit since i really love snake oil. doesnt snake oil have red musk or am i totally wrong?

 

what a complex, confusing world i've entered by falling for bpal!

 

I vote it's the musk. I CANNOT wear any musk with very occasional exception of red musk and then only in very select blends. Musk = grandpa cologne on me. EVERY. TIME.

 

Snake Oil and Vixen (as well as the Snake Pit scents and Spanked) are my Red Musk exceptions. I can wear them and NOT have old man cologne. Everything else though does it for me. I've decided it's something about the combination of that particular red musk with that particular patchouli (which loves me) and spices. Although, I prefer many of the Snake Pits (and spanked and Vixen) to Snake Oil. SO actually goes a bit powdery on me. (And lately, so does Vixen.)

[samarablackcat]

I vote it's the orchid. Orchid goes wonky and "perfumey" on me. Honey is not my friend either; it's either too cloying or smells post-coitus on me

 

Snake oil is mostly Siberian musk, I think.

 

Twisted Oak doesn't list any musk; maybe it's the oak (or teak in the other blends)? Maybe the moss; moss and oakmoss are pretty traditional scents in commercial perfume/cologne. Maybe that's what gives you the cologne vibe. Moss is also an ingredient in chypre ( read here) which would give you the cologney scent recognition.

 

Hehe, a thousand users, a thousand different chemistries! Good luck with your search!

[witchling]

well, the way i see it, its worth buying some cheap imps to help figure out which scents wont work on me. because in the long run, figuring out what works and what doesnt will save money. i guess im just finding out that my skin chemistry is on the uncooperative side. i have already succumbed to spreadsheet madness but i haven't listed the specific notes in each blend on it. i think i'll do that so i can be more obsessive and look for patterns

 

bheansidhe, i think i'll have to take your advice and get some imps with the notes i suspect i will hate. though that takes a lot of discipline when i could instead get some that i know i will love

 

i hadn't thought that it was the tobacco but that is a definite possibility. ill have to hunt down some tobacoo containing imps!

 

Oh no! I don't mean to waste money on imps you might hate. While it would probably be a fun experiment to find a really tobacco-y or orchid-y blend for $1 or $2 on the forum, and see if it does the same cologne thing on you, you can always resell it or swap it away. But I guarantee that the longer you try BPALs, the more you'll run across the notes you suspect aren't working. Just keep trying blends that sound appealing and join us in SPREADSHEET MADNESS. Keeping notes on how each blend tests out will give you an idea of what scents probably aren't your friend.

 

Or you can join a circular swap (those these can be slow, and you're testing imps that are pretty aged by the time they come to you). Or you can find people who offer quarter-imp decants of the recent LEs; I picked up an inexpensive tester set of the recent Weenies (and I'm glad I did, because only one of the ones I thought I'd love worked on me).

[witchling]

snake oil goes a little powdery on me too, but i still love it. i'll have to try vixen! and snake pits too, i've been eyeing them but not so easy to get...

 

 

Snake Oil and Vixen (as well as the Snake Pit scents and Spanked) are my Red Musk exceptions. I can wear them and NOT have old man cologne. Everything else though does it for me. I've decided it's something about the combination of that particular red musk with that particular patchouli (which loves me) and spices. Although, I prefer many of the Snake Pits (and spanked and Vixen) to Snake Oil. SO actually goes a bit powdery on me. (And lately, so does Vixen.)

[witchling]

thanks! you're right about a thousand different chemistries! it's really interesting to read about everyone's different reactions and preferences!

 

I vote it's the orchid. Orchid goes wonky and "perfumey" on me. Honey is not my friend either; it's either too cloying or smells post-coitus on me

 

Snake oil is mostly Siberian musk, I think.

 

Twisted Oak doesn't list any musk; maybe it's the oak (or teak in the other blends)? Maybe the moss; moss and oakmoss are pretty traditional scents in commercial perfume/cologne. Maybe that's what gives you the cologne vibe. Moss is also an ingredient in chypre ( read here) which would give you the cologney scent recognition.

 

Hehe, a thousand users, a thousand different chemistries! Good luck with your search!

[emzebel]

I think what you're going to find is that depending on chemistry, it could be almost anything in these. Personally, I wear red musk like it's going out of style, but orchid and resins are really iffy on me. Given the number of nexi here, it really could be almost anything.

 

I will tell you, it has taken me years of thinking I love mossy blends (because I think of them as "green") to realize that actually, no, oakmoss as a note has killed a multitude of blends that I thought I would love because rather than smelling green and herbal, they actually smell dank and rotting on my skin.

 

So, keep getting things that you think you'll love and keep thinking about what works and what doesn't. Getting GC Imp packs and taking advantage of when people offer good deals on lots of Imps or decants on the forum is a great way to amass testers of things that you're iffy on too. And welcome!

[eanewsom]

well, the way i see it, its worth buying some cheap imps to help figure out which scents wont work on me. because in the long run, figuring out what works and what doesnt will save money. i guess im just finding out that my skin chemistry is on the uncooperative side. i have already succumbed to spreadsheet madness but i haven't listed the specific notes in each blend on it. i think i'll do that so i can be more obsessive and look for patterns

 

Definitely look for ick-notes, but don't rely *too* much on them. For me, the problem with coming up with a list of notes to avoid is that for every one of my evil-doom-stench notes, there's a bpal containing it that I love, so it really does depend on how things are blended, like kakiphony's red musk examples. It could be that musk is fine for you, and tobacco is fine for you, but musk and tobacco together isn't.

[Monday]

Yep it's the musk. Red musk especially just smells masculine to me.

[fairestrocza]

My first thought would be to look at the common notes in the blends that don't work (tobacco? orchid?). But also keep in mind that different variants of note types may react in different ways on your skin. For example, I *adore* red musk, but skin musk generally turns into stale b.o. on me. Blood musk is hit or miss.

The more you experiment, the better you will get at picking out scents. When there are unfamiliar notes in blends (or familiar notes that I'm just not experienced enough to pick out of a blend), I like to use the search function to find a list of blends that contain the given note. That has helped me identify several death notes and several favorites. (Of course, that approach will work better once you have some testing under your belt).

Good luck!

[MuskWitch]

Well, I found BPAL AFTER menopause, so I don't have to deal with the hormonal changes (Ladies, love your estrogen while you have it! SERIOUSLY). I have found that orchid does strange things on my skin, things I don't like. Red musk doesn't go cologne-y, it just downright goes sicky sweet. I love it at first, and then have to wash it off within about 5 minutes.

 

I think the best advice is to scour the "For Sale" area of the Forum and look for inexpensive imps. There are a TON of them. Or, you can go through the BPAL website, one section at a time, find what you want to try and do a search in the Sale section for imps of those scents. If the imps don't work on you, keep them as "frimps" for when you do swaps or sales.

 

I've been in BPAL for just over a year, and I have learned SO much about what works on me and what doesn't. Some of them are surprising. An oil can smell not so good in the bottle, and turn into something lovely on your skin. It can smell heavenly in the bottle, and turn into dusty dirty metallic yuck on you (some of the really sweet foody scents do that on me).

 

Hope this helps!

[Mellifluous]

I've noticed myself, that sweet tobacco, or tobacco with honey.. or anything else richly sweet = cologne-y. And also gets amplified if there are other 'classic' cologne/aftershave notes (like rum, nutmeg, clove, citrus, frankincense, sage, patchouli, oakmoss, balsam, amber, etc).

 

That said, blends that are mainly sweet (but not by honey) with a touch of tobacco work amazingly on me. Red Lantern, Pinched with 4 aces, and Perversion, for example.

Hope thats helped some.

[witchling]

thank you for posting that search link!!! i've been trying to figure out how to do that with no success!

 

My first thought would be to look at the common notes in the blends that don't work (tobacco? orchid?). But also keep in mind that different variants of note types may react in different ways on your skin. For example, I *adore* red musk, but skin musk generally turns into stale b.o. on me. Blood musk is hit or miss.

The more you experiment, the better you will get at picking out scents. When there are unfamiliar notes in blends (or familiar notes that I'm just not experienced enough to pick out of a blend), I like to use the search function to find a list of blends that contain the given note. That has helped me identify several death notes and several favorites. (Of course, that approach will work better once you have some testing under your belt).

Good luck!