Help Identifying Notes, What Certain Notes Smell Like

[ivyandpeony]

I'd add to the great advice here - don't get discouraged if you aren't falling in love with things instantly, don't be upset if one blend doesn't meet your expectations, and just keep in mind that this is something you're doing for fun and pleasure.

 

When I discovered BPAL I thought I only liked floral perfumes and hated patchouli and musk. Gradually I learned the differences between different floral notes, some of which I adore. Others are apparently members of a mutual hate society I didn't realize I had joined. BPAL patchouli is different from any patchouli I'd tried before - not that every blend with it was a winner, but I was delighted to realize that it was actually a beautiful scent in many incarnations. I discovered notes that I had never really thought about in perfumes, like ginger, honey, cream & milk notes, chocolate, oakmoss, and different types of woods and resins.

 

IMO, there's a big adjustment to be made just getting used to the difference between perfume oils and the alcohol-based perfumes that most of us are accustomed to before stumbling down the BPAL rabbit hole. Keep that in mind as you're trying things, too - you may be sniffing a more intense, pure version of the note that you thought you loved and finding it a bit overwhelming at first. Lots of people have experienced this with florals in particular, especially jasmine and rose (and there are quite a few different jasmines and roses that are used in the many BPAL blends that contain them).

 

It is an ongoing education, if the bug bites you. If it overwhelms you or you lose interest, don't beat yourself up - there are only about ten million other hobbies you could choose from. You don't have to buy everything today. You can swap something away and decide two weeks from now, or a year from now, that you want to track down an imp of it again. You can keep detailed notes or you can jot down "LOVED IT!" or "HATED IT!" Most of all, if you're not having fun, take a break - or come here and ask for advice.

[Teggy]

Discovering notes is like dating. It's a numbers game; you gotta kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince, etc.

 

I guess you might want to start making your selections by category: Foody, floral, woody, musky, etc. Reading reviews on the forums also help. When I first started with BPAL, I was looking for a "red sexy scent" and went through 12 imps and never found it. I kept trying to find dark scents and most turned out icky on me.

 

Eventually I discovered that I prefer foody scents and don't really care for florals and woody scents (most BPAL woods smell identical on me). I discovered that I can't stand tobacco or cinnamon on my skin. BPAL chocolates and strawberries go wonky on me, but if it's a coconut or vanilla blend, it's a winner.

 

What I'm getting at is to start broad and work your way down to notes. The great thing about the BPAL community is that you can always swap or sell to try out new scents. Within a few months, you'll be a wiz. You just gotta keep trying new things.

[juniperus]

Personally, I tried everything I could get my hands on, partial imps, sniffies with a drop of oil...the key is to actaully wear it, not just sniff it, because many scents make radical changes from bottle to skin. I forced myself to methodically review every imp so I could eventually find patterns: I noted my response to bottle, wet on the skin, dry on the skin, and about a half hour later (once it really warmed to my chemistry). I discovered a lot of things that were awesome on that were pretty meh in the bottle, and only by doing that did I discover my serious Trouble notes (because most of them won't blossom to badness until I've been wearing the oil at least 15 minutes).

 

I had an inkling of what I didn't like and what I did (knew I liked musk, but not which kinds specifically, for example), and what myrrh and frankincense and amber notes smelled like - but not what they'd do on my skin.

 

Trial and error. Take good and consistent notes. I post my reviews here, there are a lot of reviews to read that can give you an idea of ways to note your preferences and reactions. Heck, I even try blends I figure will probably not work just as an effort to learn more, and because there are a few miracle blends with Trouble notes that, for some miraculous reason, do seem to work on me nonetheless. (I don't know if I'm an oil addict or a review addict. heh) Cheap imps from lj forumites and Ebay lots (although our discussion on resellers brings up cautionary tales on Ebay and one lj'ers, alas) are what I started with while I waited for my first Lab order, and helped me formulate the contents of subsequent orders.

[Iceblink]

"Try everything you can" is indeed good advice. I've bought lots of imps that I thought sounded like they'd work, but have thrown a lot of random ones into my forum orders, too, just to see what they're like. It's been a BPAL overload for a few weeks at my house but I now have a pretty good idea of what works well on me (foody, fruity, most florals, etc.) and what doesn't (most incensey blends, vetiver, anything with "smoke" in the description). Spending a bit of money this way has helped me narrow things down a *lot* and now I can look at the LEs and know fairly well what's worth getting, which'll save me quite a lot in the future.

[Britt1975]

Also, if you list what you liked of your testers, people can often recommend scents that fall into similar "families" of notes.

 

Oh...what I like is easy. It's what I don't like that I want to stay away from. I know that I'm safe with florals, fruits and foodie scents. I also like almost anything thats described as clean, but in my first round of trial and error I've found a few things that I don't like at all, and I'd like to know what to stay away from.

 

What I've tried and haven't liked:

 

Sin

Queen

Aeval

Voodoo

The Red Queen

Blood Kiss

Imp

 

The last four are for the same reason, I just can't pick out what it is. Anyone want to take a stab at what it is that I'm not liking?

[kraken]

Oh...what I like is easy. It's what I don't like that I want to stay away from. I know that I'm safe with florals, fruits and foodie scents. I also like almost anything thats described as clean, but in my first round of trial and error I've found a few things that I don't like at all, and I'd like to know what to stay away from.

What I've tried and haven't liked:

Sin

Queen

Aeval

Voodoo

The Red Queen

Blood Kiss

Imp

The last four are for the same reason, I just can't pick out what it is. Anyone want to take a stab at what it is that I'm not liking?

My stab:

Sin

(amber, sandalwood, black patchouli and cinnamon)

Queen

(described in reviews as pepper, chocolate/vanilla/honey, patchouli, earthy/herbal)

Aeval

(sage, sweet pea, bold pale musk and warm tonka)

Voodoo

(blend of myrrh, patchouli, vetiver, lime, vanilla, pine, almond and clove)

The Red Queen

(Deep mahogany and rich, velvety woods lacquered with sweet, black-red cherries and currant)

Blood Kiss

(vetiver, soporific poppy and blood red wine, and a skin-light pulse of feral musk)

Imp

(white peach, amber, golden musk and patchouli)

It seems that maybe spicy notes like amber, clove, musk, and patchouli don’t work with your chemistry. Tonka is a spice that’s likened to almond and clove. Woods all have very different notes and some of them, like sandalwood, can be called 'spicy'.

 

You might give The Lion (a golden, spiced amber, proud, regal and ferocious) a try. If that goes bad on you, then it’s definitely the amber. I'm not a musk and patchouli person, but maybe someone else has some scent recommendations to test out those scents.

 

Hope that helps a bit.

[agentcat]

I'm fairly new to BPAL so I'm still trying out a lot of new scents but there is a note that my nose just does not get along with in a number of the scents I want so desperately to love. I'm hoping someone might be able to help pinpoint what it might be.

 

It is in many of the foody or sweet scents I've tried. I LOVE Midway and Dorian but there's something horrible in Gluttony, Jack, Sugar Cookie and a couple of others -

 

I'll add the rest of the names when I go home an re-sniff my collection!

 

Could it be a milky note, or a butter note or something?

 

What do you think?

Any recommendations of what else I might be able to try to isolate that note? Anyone have similar experiences?

 

Thanks!

[Dinerdulcinea]

Does it go all metal/grit/plastic on you?

 

Some of the buttery scents do that on me...some of the cream ones do too. MIGHT be that...

[kakiphony]

The butter in Jack, Sugar Cookie and Gluttony turns into microwave popcorn fake butter smell on me. The only milk/butter notes that DON'T do this on my skin are the almond milk in Organ Grinder and the cream in Dana O'Shee. Otherwise, I avoid anything with butter, cream, milk etc.

 

The milk in the Mad Tea Party scents doesn't go buttered popcorn on me, it curdles. But it's still baaaaaaad.

[klavierbarrette]

vanilla also has a bad effect on some people. some vanilla scents turn powder on me

[minilux]

It's probably a buttery note. I've never tried Sugar Cookie, but Gluttony and Jack make me gag just thinking about them. You may want to steer cleer of Grog, too.

[juniperus]

Is there a strange celery-like scent? I have had that problem with most of the buttery note containing blends I've tried, alas.

[agentcat]

The butter in Jack, Sugar Cookie and Gluttony turns into microwave popcorn fake butter smell on me.

 

Yes! This is exactly it! I thought I was crazy because I don't know anybody else who has the same reaction I do to the smell of microwave buttered popcorn.

 

Yikes, what a shame. I really wish these ones would work on me.

 

Can anyone recommend any other foody scents that don't have this effect!

 

or know if I might be lucky with Gingerbread Poppet. I have all my appendages crossed that this one will be re-released in the next Yule update and that it will work for me!

 

Many thanks, you guys are awesome.

[styro]

Can anyone recommend any other foody scents that don't have this effect!

 

Try Eat Me--it's a perfume-y foody scent rather than a buttery one. (Just don't confuse it with Drink Me, which I believe also contains your problem note.)

[minilux]

I'm not big on foody scents, but I'd like to recommend Sudha Segara which is really beautiful, sweet and a bit spicy without being foody.

[kakiphony]

The butter in Jack, Sugar Cookie and Gluttony turns into microwave popcorn fake butter smell on me.

 

Yes! This is exactly it! I thought I was crazy because I don't know anybody else who has the same reaction I do to the smell of microwave buttered popcorn.

 

Yikes, what a shame. I really wish these ones would work on me.

 

Can anyone recommend any other foody scents that don't have this effect!

 

or know if I might be lucky with Gingerbread Poppet. I have all my appendages crossed that this one will be re-released in the next Yule update and that it will work for me!

 

Many thanks, you guys are awesome.

 

Here's the ones that give the fake butter smell:

Jack

Gluttony

Sugar Cookie

Hearth (although it was a little more like Kettle Corn w/ pine-sol!)

Hellcat

ALL of last year's Pumpkin Patch oils

White Rabbit

 

And the foody/sweet & rich scents that didn't give me that smell:

Dana O'Shee

Queen of Sheba

Organ Grinder

Red Lantern

O

Perversion

[valentina]

I've found that if there's a sweet/milky/foody element to a scent, there also needs to be something to cut the sweetness -- such as the lemon in Dorian or the ginger in Sudha Segara. Maybe in Midway, it's the salt that gives the edge and the contrast? (I've never tried it, so that's just a guess.) Scents like Hellcat or Cockaigne are OK on me at first, but then they get cloying and overwhelming and vaguely nauseate me, so I know of what you speak!

[luna65]

Yes, sometimes the dairy-based accords can go sour on me (like with Mitzvah or Hellcat), other times it's fine (Drink Me, Pumpkin Patch II), so it's really hard for me to say, at least, that a note will always go bad. It all depends on the percentages, I think.

[whitemyrrh]

The butter in Jack, Sugar Cookie and Gluttony turns into microwave popcorn fake butter smell on me.

 

Could that be what I was interpreting as "chicken broth" in Hellcat?

 

That's what I got the first time I tried my new imp. I haven't (exactly) got it in subsquent tries, but what a weird thing. Generally, I hadn't had problems with the dairy notes--but thinking about it, maybe I just haven't tried anything with that kind of butter in it yet....

Edited October 15, 2006 by whitemyrrh