volpe

Clean, fresh, happy, healthy snatch, and honey. Beautiful, delicious. Totally unwearable. It's not a perfume, it's a sex toy. Makes me howl at the moon.

At first it was sort of horrifying. In the imp it smells rose and sandalwood. On my skin, it turned instantly to baby powder. Fortunately, a few minutes later that has morphed back to rose and sandalwood, but not the sweet rose of the bottle, but a dry, incensey scent. Not my bag, as it's quite feminine, but I know somebody who will probably love it.

Spearmint. Not sweet or candy-like at all, but sharp, sparkling and astringent. The lavender and lime make it smell grassy -- the mint has crept into the lawn and been mowed. But it's not the hot summery mown grass smell, it's cold. In the bottle and first on it's searingly cool. This is very pleasant, but it doesn't even last an hour. It doesn't really change much, just fades and gets gently soapy as the lavender comes out. For a little while it was as if Yardley's had made mint-lavender soap, but at the end I just smell as if I've used Yardley lavender soap. I do use Yardley lavender soap and don't have much call for an oil that smells the same. It might be interesting to see if the effect of Wilde on Envy on Yardley lavender soap is different from the effect of Wilde on Yardley lavender soap. Probably I'll just use up the imp for quick cool-down effect this summer. Some of the short-lived BPALs go through so many little changes on me that their brief lives are fabulously entertaining, but this one doesn't do much and the oils I buy are usually those with staying power.

In the bottle it strongly reminds me of, of all things, Gran's Christmas pudding. It doesn't actually smell like one, but the balance of sweet and spice is such that it's all I can think of. On, it's fascinating. Beeswax, wood, a hint of smoke, pleasant spice. Like many BPALs, it seems like it releases notes in waves, but so far this is not happening in a predictable makes-chemical-sense sort of pattern. It's not that some molecules of the oil are evaporating into scent at different points in the dry-down, it's that it's messing with my head. Sometimes I get a strong puff of black pepper, but mostly I don't smell that. More often it's a dry, dusty, papery grey scent that both absorbs and amps the smoke, like I've got an old book that was partially burnt long ago and has been sitting in an attic since. Sometimes there is a distant medicinal undertone, like formalin, soft enough not to be unpleasant. It is an old biology lab cabinet sort of smell. I like it.

What are your favourite florals that are masculine and don't gender-bend (much)? Which are sexy? Dignified? Clean?

I love No. 93 Engine and wear it often, but get mostly beeswax and hot metal. Not a flowery one on me. Galvanic Goggles is also one I like. Of the ones I have, it seems second choice for the purpose. It is pleasant, clean, but its floralness isn't one that makes me think 'floral' when I smell it. Retesting Whitechapel right now. Alas, it sounds so wonderful as a description, but on me it just smells of, well. A lemon detergent that smells really good for a lemon detergent, but is still just lemon detergent.

Thank you, everyone. Fun things to try. I have some of these scents and they don't all come across as floral to me. I am surprised nobody has mentioned 'Wilde' which is the one that came to mind as a masculine floral. I should perhaps clarify that, aside from just liking old-fashioned men's scents, I want to attempt to manipulate people into finding me more socially approachable, using this little bit of science: http://www.livescience.com/14635-impression-smell-thoughts-behavior-flowers.html

Thanks! I do want a clean one, but I meant more that I wanted to know which people would class as clean/sexy/dignified/smokey/gritty etc. I am hoping for a perfect clean old-fashioned masculine floral, light, pleasant, and professional-appropriate. But I want to try naughtier ones, too.

I like it. Lots. In the imp it smells like I've preserved a soil sample in denaturated alcohol. On my skin it smells dry, clean, bitter, and dark brown. Smokey and leathery, but a bitter leather that's not like the birch-tar based 'leather' note. A hint of organic animal sweet. I don't get any of the wet or rot, and it doesn't seem to last very long or throw much. We'll see, I just put it on. It does, in fact, smell like a devil's claw, right after you've taken the amazing and vicious thing off your horse's ankle and are standing there staring at it. It's got a little blood on it.

Isoamyl acetate. Smells like banana. It is alarm pheromone. But you cannot make bees attack somebody by spraying them with it, even if this does occassionally appear as a creative method of murder in thriller novels. This is because if you are near the hive, it makes the bees attack you, but if you are far away, it makes the bees flee. Probably it is not a good idea to wear a banana-scent, though, because you might happen to go near a colony without knowing it, and the distance required before it means 'run!' rather than, 'fight!' varies from species to species. Or sub-species -- the trouble with africanized 'killer' bees is that they respond to it with fury at a much greater distance from the hive. It is lemongrass oil that will attract bees. It smells like Nasonov pheromone. You can attract a swarm to an empty hive by putting lemongrass oil in it. Bees use it to orient and to recognize their home. If you've got it on you, bees may believe that many other bees have been walking on you and may try to find the nectar-source that those other bees were after.