Why do scents turn to baby powder on me?!

[Sheila]

I *adore* powdery scents. Your skin may be different, but my favorites are:

Unseelie (sadly discontinued)

Alice

Oberon

O

Jezebel

Zephyr

Snake Oil (at certain times of the month, it's a lovely, sexy, deep power on me. Yay!)

[ayelienne]

Jezebel and Masabakes were all HI WE'RE POWDER on me.

 

Bastet is a lovely, lovely amber that didn't go powder on me at all.

[locuraelegantia]

so if i was after a baby powder type scent what oil would i go for? no bpal's seem to turn powdery on me so it would have to be one that is a powdery scent anyway.

 

 

Enraged Bunny Musk? I haven't tried it, but it's supposed to be powdery.

[Julilla Regina]

Yes, I too have what I call "The Amber Curse". There is no cure for me, I'm afraid, except avoiding everything that has amber in it. Sometimes I'll get a bit of a surprise on something that doesn't list amber as an ingredient, yet seems to have some anyway. For me, amber in any scent turns *entirely* to baby powder, so that no other note is discernible. I feel your pain. I would second the recommendations for Kali though, it's complex and sexy as hell.

[ayelienne]

so if i was after a baby powder type scent what oil would i go for? no bpal's seem to turn powdery on me so it would have to be one that is a powdery scent anyway.

Enraged Bunny Musk? I haven't tried it, but it's supposed to be powdery.

 

FWIW, I don't think that Enraged Bunny Musk is particularly powdery at all.

[Nemesister]

so it seems that the powder smell does depend on a person's skin? ....hmmmmm i was actually asking as a friend likes baby powder scents and i thought i'd get her some powdery bpal as a cheering up gift. i might have to take a gamble!

[septima_pica]

Yeah, it seems that whether a scent is powdery is entirely a question of body chemistry. Even the Enraged Bunny, which was specifically made to be powdery, in some people failed to do so. I had Black Opal and Morocco go to powder, which maybe one other person did.

 

So whatever you try and get for your friend, you'll probably have to just reckon by probability based on the proportion of "powdery" reviews on the forum...good luck with that.

[Nemesister]

well i don't know so much now...i was wearing snake oil at work and it's a popular one everyone at work says how fab i smell all the time. so when someone said "you smell gorgeous" i was ready to do my usual "yes i know" when she added "you smell just like baby powder"

 

so there you go...i obviously cannot smell powdery smells and my colleagues do

[sihaya09]

I find The Lion, aged about two months or so, is one of the most glorious Amber scents I've ever sniffed. New, it can be a little bubblegummy, but as it ages, it just gets glorious.

[Little Bird]

so there you go...i obviously cannot smell powdery smells and my colleagues do

 

Was it just the one person that thought it smelled of baby powder or all of your coworkers...? Maybe it was just the impression of the one girl.

 

BPAL's amber notes almost always either smell like baby power or dust on me. Booo.

[Nemesister]

ok ,so it was just one person that said that. but for all i know, all my colleagues could be saying "you smell lovely" but be thinking 'just like baby powder'!

 

i still smell spicy vanilla. is there any amber in it or notes that are often powdery?

Edited May 6, 2006 by Nemesister

[aedes]

I thought I had the amber curse for a long time when I started wearing BPAL. Brisingamen and Coyote were the first in a long line of powdery scents, and amber looked to be the common note, so I swore off a large swath of scents with amber in them, thinking they'd all turn out that way.

 

But I was very pleasantly surprised one day with a frimp of The Lion, and that's apparently all amber! It smelled fanTASTIC on me. I think I'm going to wear it today, actually. And it seems like from there on out amber has been smelling really good on me. I don't think I've had a baby powder episode since then.

 

So I don't know if it's a matter with the kind of amber or if it's a personal body chemistry phase, but I'd say don't count them out. One day you may be very pleasantly surprised. And it's in so many different blends that, if you say "no amber" it'll really limit your wishlist, from my experience.

[voix]

both brisingamen and o turned into baby powder on me. and it's so sad considering the fact that i love totally love how they smell when they were in the imp and when they were on my wrist for the first 2 seconds. are there any ways to make tem stop smelling like baby powder on me? like age it or something.

[impchild]

ok i am thinking about ordering a set of imps and i am not quite sure what to order. i have tried a few scents after buying/swaping scents on the longhair community.

 

i like:

hunger

la patite mort

hellcat

 

i have tried and not liked:

Aureus

Belladonna

BLISS

Dragon's heart

O

Veil

The raven

Twilight

 

as you can tell i am not doing we picking scents to try. with most of them i ended up smelling like a dryer sheet or a baby's bottom... not what i am going for

 

i like vanilla, sandlewood and spicy scents. i am not overly fond of florals (i don't hate them just not my favorite)

 

hrmmmm not much more that i can think of...

so i will just to your superior knowledge and for some insight.

 

impchild

[Wench457]

Just off the top of my head, I'd recommend Dorian (lurvely vanilla-tea) Bengal (spiced honey) and possibly Antique Lace, which although it does have some floral notes to it, is more like a dried potpourri of flowers that has been drenched in vanilla on me. YMMV, of course.

[Little Bird]

You should definitely try Dorian & Snake Oil... two of the most popular vanilla blends. You also might want to take a look at:

 

*Velvet (sandalwood, cocoa, vanilla, and myrrh... although your issue with Bliss makes me hesitate to recommend a chocolatey scent, the sandalwood-vanilla-myrrh might work for you).

*Eclipse (almond, vanilla, frankincense, heliotrope, and cinnamon... a spicy, nutty vanilla).

*Dragon's Milk (the only dragon's blood scent that really works on my skin... a sweet, honeyed vanilla with spicy-red tones).

*Eat Me (white cake, vanilla, and currants).

*Drink Me (cherry, pineapple, custard, and toffee... just because it has some of the same dark foodiness that I got from Hellcat, though this one does have some obvious fruity notes).

*Tweedledee (if you liked the orange blossom in Hunger, Tweedledee if one of my favorite orange blossom scents).

*Mouse's Long & Sad Tale ("vanilla, two ambers, sweet pea and white sandalwood" ... I love this one... I hate powdery scents, and this one does go a bit powdery, but it's a very pretty sort of sweet vanilla and sandalwood powder).

 

If you're worried about things going powdery (I assumed that's what you meant by baby's bottom, lol), it helps to know what notes might often go powdery on you... BPAL's violet, amber, and sandalwood notes have a tendency to smell like baby powder on me.

[minilux]

Off the top of my head, I would recommend trying:

 

Dorian

Sin

Vixen

Queen of Sheba

Sudha Segara

Chimera

[Torrilin]

The most common powder culprits seem to be amber, musk, rose and lily. From your list, it looks like you might be a violet and amber powderer tho. Which ones out of the ones you didn't like went dryer sheet and which ones went powdery?

 

(I'm probably utterly useless to you, since I'm happiest in spicy amber scents, but I ask good stupid questions )

 

Kalli

[ayelienne]

I'd second the Sin recommendation, also a couple other ones you might want to try are Blood Kiss, Voodoo and Hollywood Babylon.

[styro]

i like vanilla, sandlewood and spicy scents. i am not overly fond of florals (i don't hate them just not my favorite)

 

I have some issues with ambers going powdery on me as well. Tamora (Amber, heliotrope, golden sandalwood, peach blossom and vanilla bean) is one of the ones that didn't--it has some of your favourite notes, and comes across as more gourmand than floral.

 

I think you would also enjoy Morocco (Arabian spices wind through a blend of warm musk, carnation, red sandalwood and cassia). And definitely Snake Oil as well. ;-)

[smallvoice]

In addition, I'd suggest Scherezade, Hell's Belle, Malediction, Silk Road, Hamadryad, The Crossroads and maybe the Lampades (which I've never tried).

[septima_pica]

The few things that always turn to powder or nasty funk on me are amber, violets, red musk, and black musk. Myrrh, however, is on me what most people seem to claim for amber. If it turns out this is your situation too, I'd particularly suggest you try Sri Lanka, Dorian, Laudanum, and Perversion.

[impchild]

The most common powder culprits seem to be amber, musk, rose and lily. From your list, it looks like you might be a violet and amber powderer tho. Which ones out of the ones you didn't like went dryer sheet and which ones went powdery?

 

(I'm probably utterly useless to you, since I'm happiest in spicy amber scents, but I ask good stupid questions )

 

Kalli

 

good stupid questions are welcome... i don't know enough to just say what is helpful.

 

well without trying them on again ( oh god, please no) veil turned dryer sheet like. i remember most of them were more powdery.

[Torrilin]

Hrm. Veil's got violet, orris, white sandalwood, lavender, gardenia, lilac and ylang-ylang. So you probably read complex florals as dryer sheets. This makes sense, most dryer sheets *are* complex florals.

 

Aureus - This one has no listed notes, but there's a lot of speculation it has amber in it.

Belladonna - no listed notes, haven't sniffed, no idea what might be going on here

BLISS - chocolate notes can go vilely wrong on some people, in a bunch of different ways.

Dragon's heart - easy guess is this has musk and you powder at least some musks

O - amber is probably the powder culprit here

The raven - If you dare to try this on again, I'm going to bet this did a powdery dryer sheet on you. Violet, orris, neroli, dark musk and sandalwood, so it's *very* similar to Veil.

Twilight - lavender, honeysuckle and jasmine. Nothing that ordinarily goes all to powder, so I suspect this also went dryer sheet.

 

So looking over the patterns, you're probably a pretty standard BPAL customer . At least some musks go all to powder. Amber usually goes to powder. You're not fond of complex florals (tho carnation and rose might suit your taste). You adore vanilla based scents, especially if they remind you of food. Honey is also your friend.

 

Kalli

[czuba]

Most have already mentioned many of my recommendations. Here's a few that I didn't see.

 

White Rabbit

Regan (this is more of a floral vanilla, you may or may not like it)

MonsterBait: Closet

 

I had a similar problem with 'O', but haven't tried the others on your list "like nots."

 

Good Luck.