Help Me Choose A Scent For A Character

[SashaTheStrange]

Hey all,

 

I've been trying to figure out the kind of scent a character in a paranormal story (think vampires and werewolves) I'm writing (really still in the thinking stage, less the writing one) would wear. I have gone and tried nearly every perfume and cologne I could think of, high end and deparment ones alike, and I just haven't found the right one.

 

She's definiely a night person - she finds the day too harsh and bright.

She loves nature - flowers, plants, and animals in particular

She has some measure of psychic power

I still haven't decided whether she's going to be a redhead or brunette, if that matters

She has some close friends who are her family, and she looks after them as such

She's a warrior poet - skilled in both classical (painting and music) arts and various marial arts and weaponry

She adores various literature and is never without a book of poetry or some epic story

She is also a lover of modern technolgy - embracing both what is current and what can and should be

She's very powerful, but humble about it

She's very pragmatic, perhaps born of the fact that she's extremely old and has seen eons on this earth

Although she has seen so much in her life (led armies, ruled as a queen and goddess, saw civilizations rise and fall), she never ceases to find joy and wonderment in the world and people around her

She loves traveling and exploring different cultures

She's very beautiful and quitely seductive with piercing eyes - not the flashy glamour of a peacock - She has the beauty of a quiet predetor, moving with grace and strength, confident and sure of herself.

 

 

Help!

[Balame]

Well, there's Nyx (Greek Goddess of Night): Night-blooming jasmine, warmed by myrrh, lifted by the promise of rose.

 

Some other night-related blends - some of these are LEs:

 

Blacker Than the Raven Wings of Midnight - Black tea leaf fougere with black sandalwood, opalescent vanilla, osmanthus, 18-year aged Indonesian patchouli, and the suggestion of ancient incense smoke.

Darkness - Blackest opium and narcissus deepened by myrrh.

Hecate - Deep, buttery almond layered over myrrh and dark musk.

Intrigue - Black palm, with cocoa, fig and shadowy wooded notes.

Night's Pavilion - White musk, osmanthus, Nile lily and frankincense.

Oblivion - Dark musk, wood spice, labdanum, patchouli, dark African woods, and saffron.

The Final Darkness - Black amber and shimmering moonflower blackened by opoponax, khus attar, smoked oudh, and myrrh and all swallowed by the fathomless depths of a lightless ocean.

The Night-Raven - Indigo musk, wild plum, rose geranium, benzoin, night-blooming jasmine, and patchouli.

The Phoenix at Midnight - Indigo musk, black iris, orris root, rosewood, night-blooming jasmine, and honeysuckle.

 

And I know this sucks since it's DCed, but if you can find someone selling it, Queen Mab is a warrior and the goddess of magic and poets (similar to your character). The notes are: Black orchid, sandalwood, night-blooming jasmine, osmanthus, Somalian rose, and Chinese musk.

 

Another harder to find blend is Our Lady of Pain (Sumatran patchouli, blood musk, white lavender, opium tar, and black orchid). I think it would suit her perfectly. It's deep and dark, but also sultry and warm. Understated but powerful. The patch and blood musk make it feel a bit feral, like a force of nature, underneath all the elegance.

[SashaTheStrange]

Balame,

 

I LOVE the sound of Blacker Than The Raven Wings of Midnight, Darkness, Oblivion, Queen Mab, and Our Lady of Pain.

 

Thank you so much for your reply!

 

Sidenote: I really shouldn't post when I'm tired. LOL, I'm looking at all the spelling and grammatical errors I made last night and cringing.

 

Well, there's Nyx (Greek Goddess of Night): Night-blooming jasmine, warmed by myrrh, lifted by the promise of rose.

 

Some other night-related blends - some of these are LEs:

 

Blacker Than the Raven Wings of Midnight - Black tea leaf fougere with black sandalwood, opalescent vanilla, osmanthus, 18-year aged Indonesian patchouli, and the suggestion of ancient incense smoke.

Darkness - Blackest opium and narcissus deepened by myrrh.

Hecate - Deep, buttery almond layered over myrrh and dark musk.

Intrigue - Black palm, with cocoa, fig and shadowy wooded notes.

Night's Pavilion - White musk, osmanthus, Nile lily and frankincense.

Oblivion - Dark musk, wood spice, labdanum, patchouli, dark African woods, and saffron.

The Final Darkness - Black amber and shimmering moonflower blackened by opoponax, khus attar, smoked oudh, and myrrh and all swallowed by the fathomless depths of a lightless ocean.

The Night-Raven - Indigo musk, wild plum, rose geranium, benzoin, night-blooming jasmine, and patchouli.

The Phoenix at Midnight - Indigo musk, black iris, orris root, rosewood, night-blooming jasmine, and honeysuckle.

 

And I know this sucks since it's DCed, but if you can find someone selling it, Queen Mab is a warrior and the goddess of magic and poets (similar to your character). The notes are: Black orchid, sandalwood, night-blooming jasmine, osmanthus, Somalian rose, and Chinese musk.

 

Another harder to find blend is Our Lady of Pain (Sumatran patchouli, blood musk, white lavender, opium tar, and black orchid). I think it would suit her perfectly. It's deep and dark, but also sultry and warm. Understated but powerful. The patch and blood musk make it feel a bit feral, like a force of nature, underneath all the elegance.

[Cactus]

I don't really see Oblivion as a "night scent" at all, despite it's name. It's always struck me as being very warm, even hot or solar in nature. The scent of wood and skin and spices in the noon sun. But YMMV.

 

The scents that I see as fitting your character the most are:

Blacker Than the Raven Wings of Midnight - Black tea leaf fougere with black sandalwood, opalescent vanilla, osmanthus, 18-year aged Indonesian patchouli, and the suggestion of ancient incense smoke.

Dragon's Eye - A piercing, radiant perfume: dragon’s blood resin, lily of the valley, lilac and galbanum. (Galbanum is sharp and almost metallic, and combined with dragon's blood it strikes me as blood-and-metal and reminds me of being proficient with weapons. Lily of the valley and lilac are "white florals" and so smell similar to night blooming flowers.)

51 - 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. (Smells like night blooming flowers and wild plants with something otherworldly and powerful hovering over it. Possibly the white musk + the air over the salt flats?)

 

Other scents that might work:

Crossroads - A chill twilit garden of blooms over dry earth and mosses, heavily laden with incense and offertory herbs.

Quintessence of Dust - Beeswax and smoke, yellowed paper and well-worn leather books, droplets of spilled ink, faded incense, blood-tinged salty tears, and the metal of the knife.

 

Hope you find something that works for you and your character!

[leira]

It may be a bit hard to get, but you should try Eve from the Only Lovers Left Alive collection!

 

Eve is eternal: in three-thousand years, she has likely traveled the length and breadth of the world, immersed in innumerable cultures throughout the ages, observing the ebb and flow of humanity and the imperishability of nature itself. Despite her age, she is the character that seems most rooted, always experiencing each moment with open eyes, always fully present.

Her scent is one that travels through the eons: the Irish moss, yarrow, and hawthorn of the Iron Age Britons, ancient Rome’s omphacium and honey, myrrh and calamus from Egypt, the frankincense and damask roses of the Florentine Renaissance, white sandalwood from the Far East, Moroccan saffron and rose water, and a swirl of incense from the souks.