Honey

Wow, Dragon's Claw sounds like a really interesting sandalwood scent! Dragon's blood is normally not something that smells good on me, but the scent intrigues me anyway.

Diwali sounds like the perfect scent! Is on my wishlist now, thank you!

Chintamani-Dhupa - why did I not know of this scent?

Seriously.. awesome suggestions! I had feared the usual Bastet, Bengal & Morocco which all, alas, do not work on me.

I haven't found a similar topic through the forum search, so I'm opening a new thread.

In case I missed something - please be kind and just let me know!

I'm currently playing Assassin's Creed (the first part in which you play Altaïr), and I am intrigued to find a scent that would remind me of the main character or, basically, the notion of the game: Damascus, Jerusalem, assassins.. you get the idea.

I'm a huge fan of Queen of Sheba, but I am looking for a scent that has a bit more sandalwood and some resins or herbs in it.

I am not good with scents that are too masculine, so more feminine suggestions would be appreciated!

Some notes that I think could fit: sandalwood, Arabian/Egyptian musk, bone musk, incense, frankincense, myrrh, leather (but it has to be behaved), and even coffee, tea or cocoa. Oh, and lots of spices! Clove, cardamom, cinnamon. And peppermint and/or other herbs! I know this is a crazy mix, but not all of these notes would have to be in a single blend, of course.

Personally, I am very cautious when it comes to leather, amber, and musk scents. But if they are just a grounding base for other lighter components, then this could be great anyway.

I tried Rogue, but the smokey amber note that must have been used to recreate soft leather just smelled like cable fire on me (my bf asked me, in all seriousness, if some cables were smoldering somewhere).

I think it is Ok to wait for her reply for a while but start a new swap in case she is MIA. Count me in as well. And if you need any kind of help, I will be there too. :-)

Yeah, sorry, Aphrodite.. I did not mean to run you over with my ideas either. Just tried to help flesh this out a little. I am totally OK with anything you guys come up with!

Well, OK, my idea would be this: people have to answer some questions about themselves (certain preferences, likes, opinions, etc.) and then get matched to one of an assorted set of personas that have been created by the swap leader(s) for the Mystery Swap, possibly following Clue as inspiration. That way, the personas are created by the circle host(s) but are not distributed at random. People can influence what sort of personality/character they will be matched up with.

After that, we'd have an initial post in the swap thread to set the scene for our "party." Only after that, the swap leader(s) send out partners (swappers and swappees). But instead of receiving the questions and replies of their person, a swapper only gets a little story about their persona. To find out what to send them, they have to follow the thread. So, every persona would have to post as their imaginary person, of course, and give hints about themselves. That means that you know that your swap partner is The Bearded Lady (and you somewhat know that she has some furry companions and loves to snack on candy), but you don't know what user is the Bearded Lady. Or, you could know what user you have to send something to (could make more sense since you can sometimes figure out a user by their address) but you have to follow the thread to find out what persona they post as. That way, interaction is enforced so everyone posts as often as possible so a swapper can read up on their "victim."

I like the idea of one person being a murderer and not knowing it. In addition to the posts of their party guests who reveal infos about themselves (in description or in conversations), we could have game master/leader injections that could leave some clues and raise new suspicions. But I am not sure what to make of the murderer.. I mean.. is it just for the fun of finding out, or does that person get/send something extra? Or, even better.. the reason for us to find the murderer (or for the murderer to find out for themselves) is that: the murderer has to send something to the vicitim(s) of the murder, namely the circle host(s). So it is essential for the murderer to remember their crimes (they, of course, have t suffer from amnesia!) so they can contact the host(s) for their address. If they are correct, then everyone gets sent something. This way, the host(s) can play along but can focus on their part as storyteller, and the circle is "over" once everyone has figured out what their person wants and who the murderer is.

These are just ideas being tossed around here, but maybe they can inspire something.

I would also be open to an ATC swap, btw. I haven't done anything artistic in years, but it sounds like so much fun!

I guess from my side that jewelry swap won't happen! I would want this to be perfect and well-planned.. and I'm afraid that I cannot live up to my own expectations.

I started giving free jewelry to people with swaps and sales, and this has already reduced the amount of booty I had in my drawer.

What's the/an ATC swap?

Murder Mystery.. that sounds exciting!

The only issue this could cause is this: how do I create a persona for myself that speaks for my likes in perfume? For instance, if I were to create a black cat person or a thief, maybe I'd get musk, licorice and leather scents.. non of which work on me. So how would we go about interpreting things in the same way?

I'll give this secret swap some more thought.. I really like the idea!

Spooky 2005 smells a bit.. off.

I like the coconutty note to it, but the rum just makes it smell.. moldy in a way.

I love minty scents. But I am not sure why I am not super excited about GTV.

It is a rich, lovely Snake Oil with, well, tea and mint. First time I tested it I was just meh about it, second time now.. it seems more rounded and awesome.

It's mostly SO with a fresh hint. I think I need to get a bottle of this anyway should it come back with the carnival!

Oh, darn, why did I have to test this?

I love the Lab's cream note, and, apparently, it loves me right back! Like Love's Philospohy, this is awesome on me, and I get wafts of greatness every few seconds. Must get when resurrected!

This is just.. awesome rich cocoa (not the waxy chocolate note I sometimes get from Lab blends) and the sweetest cream. It always has this "fresh linen" quality on me. Heavenly!

This is sweet citrus candy. But not just lemon and lime. No, I also get.. kiwi, watermelon.. and maybe even strawberry. It has a creamy drydown, but it's still sweet candy all the way. Fun for something I want to snack on, but nothing I want to smell like.

This is minty baked goods. The dreaded cake note from the Lab and.. sweet mint. Smells horrible on me. Pass!

Hmm. I get the same chemical vanilla note that I get from Antique Lace or SS's Cenobite. There may be a hint of saffron. But it's very.. blend and meh on me. It becomes more vanillic, but there is no rum or sandalwood or anything. Oh well.

This is really.. like guava candy. Very sweet and frizzy.

A cute scent by itself, but.. not really anything I'd want to wear as a perfume. Maybe as a uplifting shampoo.

This is really.. burned plastic! Yuck! I so want to like this, but.. it is just very chemical and I can hardly stick my nose anywhere close to my wrist.

Hmmm..

This is like the.. more boring, kiddie version of Halloween: LV. Like H:LV, CS is the only "cake" blend I can actually wear without it turning.. weird on me. But! It's very.. sweet and generic. While H:LV has this oomph due to the wine and spice and extra spunk, CS is just.. sweet bakery goods. I don't know. I am not so excited about this. The good thing about this scent, though, is that it has a long staying power.. even the next morning, I get vanilla frosting from the spot where I tested it. It is not a bad scent per se, just not as great as I had hoped it would be!

I feel honored to be able to test this. Thank you, generous forumite - you know who you are!

I wish I didn't like AL as much as I do!

Initially, it smells similar to Solstice Scent's Cenobite on me: a bit chemical and very much vanilla, yet a bit more musky (yet soft musk). The chemical bite fades after a while, but it gives the blend this feeling of.. laundry detergent, in a good way.

So, I get the musky vanilla linen with a soft breath of dusky flowers. It's a great baby powder scent: soft vanilla, tamed flowers, clean linen.

I really like this. If it weren't as rare as it is, I'd definitely try to get myself a bottle of this! I believe this is a great skin scent for everyday wear!

OK, from this spreadsheet - which is awesome by itself, seriously! - I am all over the place and exactly at: Boomslang, Dorian, Hollywood Babylon, Shub Niggurath, Snake Oil.

The scents that this sheet suggests to me, solely based on my love of Boomslang, are: Bewitched (nope), Cathedral (doesn't sound like something I'd enjoy), Jailbait (bubblegum?), Tezcatlipoca (have an imp somewhere to test), The Bow & Crown of Conquest (leather scares me, but it sounds yummy somehow), TKO (not for me), Velvet (also not for me - weird chocolate). I guess it's not all bad: some didn't work for me, some might not work for me, but at least I got 1-2 suggestions out of that.

Now, for Dorian (which is very different from Boomslang) I got: Alice (sadly, no roses for me), Black Opal (was OK on me, but I fear I cannot test this again now that it's DC), Bordello (nope), Cheshire Cat (want to try this!), Dee (not sure if I tried this), Eat Me (no!!), How Doth the Little Crocodile (also no!), Lady Una (no), Liz (have to try), Pele (was good on me), and again The Bow & Crown of Conquest. Another one that was suggested to me at least twice was Crowley. But both are leather scents, and Crowly has so many death notes in it like.. patchouli and red musk and leather and wood and.. ack!

I'm not so sure if this chart works for me at all. I should be in love with one scent based on my love of XY, and I should hate that very same scent based on my love of AB. It's very confusing.

According to this chart, I am completely weird and unpredictable.

The only correlation I could find is my love for Snake Oil and Shub Niggurath.

That could very well be! Alas, "sugar" is not always listed as a note, even if it is part of a blend.

I would love to read through a list of that kind!

I often wonder what scents I should try that might seem unappealing at first glance (but would be really great on me in reality).

Gosh, that sounds like work!

I like your suggestion very much, wishingwell! What I had had in mind was: all jewelry together that you would ship out to your swap partner would have to have a certain monetary value.. say, you have to send at least 3 pieces, and the overall amount of monetary value (an estimate, of course) would have to be at least $25.. or something. That way, you could send 5 pieces of nice costume jewelry or 1-2 really nice homemade items.. or maybe one really fancy silver/gold piece. I know that doesn't sound ideal, but that was just one thought I had when trying to figure out how one could do something like this.

Of course, people would have to agree that this is not about getting back what you are giving away to others. But with jewelry, it seems more.. divergent than with perfumes. While those may have higher or lower value due to popularity, the material value is not that.. you know, it's not as harsh as between, say, plastic bangles and a golden necklace.

The specific matching sounds fantastic, though! I wonder, however, if I am the right person to pull this off.. this seems like a lot of responsibility on one's shoulders. I'd have to think about it all a while longer (and maybe wait for people to recover from their spring cleaning swap). But in case anyone feels like doing this before I have made up my mind - feel free to come up with a great swapping plan! Meanwhile, I will think about the specific questions and requirements.

Just wantzed to add my bit about a Giant Vulva substitute: I have an aged (cobalt) bottle of Xiuhtecuhtli, and it smells very, very similar to my GV.

Xiu seems more.. orange, though. Spicy orange blossom. But the rest - the sugary, slightly musky floral quality - all GV on me. Xiu will be my go-to scent in case I happen to finish my 2 GV bottles.

A little different than GV but from the same scent family: Blossoms in Springtime.

I wonder if this could be an issue.. that some people have plastic jewelry, others have great homemade stuff, or may even have special silver or gold pieces they'd want to re-home. Would there be a way to have people not be disappointed by that kind of a swap?

I'm not sure yet how one would do this actually.

I am not sure.. Boomslang has cocoa, and that worked for me. But many Thirteens have cocoa, and they didn't smell just as nice.

The milk chocolate in the latest Valentine's scent with the macadamia and coconut was great on me, too. So it cannot be milk per se.

White chocolate hasn't really worked for me (as far as I can recall it).

But I think that, in general, I should stick with cocoa notes and stay away from the chocolate notes. Sometimes cocoa may be iffy on me, but that could be due to other components that do not work with my skin chemistry.

OK, I'm wondering if I'm the only one having this problem..

To me, there are two distinct chocolate notes that the Lab uses (to me, I want to stress this): one that is heavenly, dark and rich - and one that is waxy and smells like a scratch-n-sniff postcard.

Good chocolate: Boomslang, Milk Chocolate with Macadamia Nut, Coconut, Button Mushrooms, and Marshmallow

Bad chocolate: Bliss, Velvet, any Thirteen I have encountered so far

What could the issue be? Is it me, or are there two kinds of chocolate that are used in the Lab's blends?

I can never be sure if a chocolate scent will work for me. Most of them are horrible on me, but I cannot ignore them completely in case they are really awesome! (The kind of awesome I hope Candy Butcher will be..)