A Novice Nose Notes Some Shit

A personal space away from influencers and PR packages for me to explain my own perfume journey. I might be helpful to yours, or I might not! I don't make the rules. Rambles and personal opinions ahead.

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[c3rvida3]

I just learned that a lot of vintage perfumes and fragrances were intentionally created to blend well with the ever-present smell of cigarettes, and in specific a lot of iconic ones that are super musky and floral and civet-heavy were intended to compliment the smell of fur coats or even "refresh" that new fur coat smell, which is one of the reasons (besides just shifting preferences and trends) that a lot of them smell really, really bad to modern noses.

I bet there's some stunning genius diva out there right now who meticulously coordinates her Victoria's Secret body mists with her vape flavors.

[lemonsweet]

perfume to smell like a puppy breath

[selfshippy-bun]

what does you're f/o smell like?

do they use perfume/cologne?

[gayelectro]

I've been thinking way too much about scents for a few couple years and it's all kind of because of this question, honestly.

Bull Armor does not wear perfume. It's formulated to work best on human skin, not metal plating, and mecha have completely different olfactory sensors than humans do. *While they can detect the presence of toxic chemicals in the air, they do not experience the sensation of smell as we know it.

That getting said, he absolutely does give off a smell. No professional Leaguer's smell is overwhelming or overpowering, as they're finely crafted to be as appealing to a human audience as possible. But it's still pretty distinct from Leaguer to Leaguer because their lifestyle and lack of awareness to it will make them all different!

All Leaguers have (literal) scent notes of:

Steel, Motor Oil, and Gasoline.

Self-explanatory, they're robots. Heavy machinery. They kind of have the smell similar to a hot running car.

Figuratively, in terms of notes in perfumery, all Leaguers also smell like:

Tonka beans and Oud.

Tonka beans smell deeply vanilla-like, a little powdery, and just the slightest but nutty. It (safely) replicates smells like WD-40 and belt dressing, which are toxic and mechanical, but if you do manage to get a whiff of them, they actually smell pretty nice. Oud is hard to describe unless you smell it yourself, it's a very specific and wonderful funk. For a long time, I just described it as "sexy robot". It's musky, earthy, spicy, and a little bit smoky in a uniquely intoxicating way. Magnetic. I can't help but think Leaguers would all have an element of oud to their scent profile.

And then on top of all that, I think Bull Armor specifically would smell like:

Fresh Cut Grass.

Because I like it and he's a football player turned soccer goalie and he's cow themed.

*Pure speculation on my part, not substantiated by anything within the canon material.

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I got a few little samples from Poesie Perfume. So far, I'm really loving them!

Now a warning off the bat: they are dabber style samples. I usually try to avoid getting dabbers, but sometimes they're the only choice you've got. I won't sample from sample sites that do dabbers, but I'll typically support small indie businesses that do dabbers. (After all, I do understand that they're much less likely to leak in transit!)

Now this brand focuses more on perfume oils rather than perfume sprays. At first in my perfume journey, I really didn't like oils that much, but I've actually grown very fond of them over time. Sprays are definitely easier and quicker to apply, but oils really shine in how they sit close to the skin. I'm not usually afraid that I'm going to choke someone out with what I wear.

Anyways, onto Poesie specifically

I bought a merry little set. Mothman, Introvert Goblin, Demeter, and Soft. And as a freebie, I got a sample of Madar too! I was sooooo pleased with this, as I actually wanted Madar anyways, but I couldn't justify buying that many.

Three days ago, I tried out Introvert Goblin.

The listed notes are: chai tea with extra cardamom, a cozy stack of old books, marshmallow, sweet pumpkin flesh enrobed in warm pumpkin spice.

And my goodness, it really is cozy. I can make out all the notes and it's just a delight. I've got a couple pumpkin flesh perfumes and this one is a wonderful middle ground of sweetness. It's very warm because of the cardamom and so it feels very nice to wear. It's comforting. I really do love this and I think despite it being a dabber, and thus more of a hassle to put on, I'm going to try and use up every last drop. It's so lovely and I bet would layer excellently with other perfumes too.

Two days ago, I tried on Soft.

It's just got one note: basmati rice soliflore.

Do I know what "soliflore" means even after looking it up? Not even remotely. But holy shit, this sure does smell exactly like freshly and perfectly steamed basmati rice. It's so delicious and simple. It really does blow my mind. I didn't ever really think about the nuances in that scent before trying it on, but it's just how it's described. It is soft. It is kinda nutty. It is musky. This is another one from this house that feels like it'll layer beautifully with other things in the future.

I'm really REALLY impressed with Poesie so far! I'm excited to try more!

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I really don't know at this point if it's a "my nose" thing or a "my skin chemistry" thing, but to me sandalwood always always smells like pickle brine.

I thought it was strictly a my-skin thing, because like, obviously sandalwood is a popular note and I never have thought "wow, that jerk over there reeks like pickles", so clearly I'm not noticing it on other people in that way.

But today, my sample set order from Sorce came in.

It's their Spellbound discovery set, a sampling of their Halloween-adjacent scents. Or rather, fall-ish? I dunno exactly. Basically, four scents that are very obviously Halloween inspired, and then we've got English Major randomly in there too. English Major is a very popular scent by them and a lot of people associate it with fall, so I guess that's why it's here.

Anyways, I'm extremely excited to try most of the set. Vampire Husband, Ephemera, and Stuck on You are ones that I greatly look forward to. Meanwhile Vampire Wife and English Major I was apprehensive about. But anyways, I figured I didn't want to wait and let the perfumes settle (the way you're supposed to do after they've been through the temperature changes and extreme jostling mail system), so to scratch the itch, I should start trying the ones I don't have high hopes for. So, today was English Major.

English Major's listed notes are: library books, orris absolute, marshmallow, carrot seed, sandalwood, fallen leaves. It's described as an earthy gourmand. And lots of people say it's cozy, smells like a lofi studying video. But for me, all I see on that list is that dreaded sandalwood. I figured this would go pickles on me.

Aaaaaaaaaaand it did. I sprayed it hours ago and still all I get from it is pickle juice. Like an open jar of Vlasics.

But here's the weird thing?

My wife smelled it on me and she loved it. She said it's nice. I asked her to describe it to me and she said "it reminds me of the Texas Roadhouse rolls, with the cinnamon butter spread. Very creamy, very soft and sweet butter."

And I'm like damn. Wish I could smell that. I love that smell. Unfortunately all I actually smell is PICKLES.

So yes. This is probably a very great scent. For other people. But unfortunately I am afflicted with some sort of sandalwood curse which taints all perfumes which have it.

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UPDATE: She tried it on for me and yes, I still smell pickles. The thing is, on her, I can really only smell it when I basically get my nose basically right on top of her skin, which is obviously not how close I get to anybody in public. So yeah, I think me and sandalwood just disagree?

Though, funnily enough, I've got this sugar scrub that I love. Sweet Punkin, I think it's called? It's got just three notes, apricot, pumpkin flesh, and sandalwood. But to me, it smells like a beautiful Costco pumpkin pie! But I suppose it's not a perfume, but a scrub, and I dunno how the ingredients are made differently for it to not be noticeable to me like that.

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Today I tried Vampire Wife by Sorce from the Spellbound discovery set that I mentioned I got in my previous post.

Now, Vampire Wife has two major things going against it for me. I dislike nearly all citrus scents a lot and I sort of avoid powdery notes. This perfume has both of them and many reviews I've seen really talk about the powder-y-ness of this scent. Powder notes often just smell like either baby powder or ancient stale makeup brushes to me, and I don't like either association at all. Meanwhile, I think most citrus notes go funky as shit on my skin, with the rare exception of some brand's interpretation of lime or some brand's interpretation of pomelos.

But that being said, I don't seem to even know that a perfume still comes off as powdery if it doesn't set off those two distinct alarm bells in my mind. I've worn several perfumes that I love, and when I have a friend sniff, they say it is powdery. So my own definition of what makes something powdery is obviously skewed! So I don't completely never try a perfume just because it is said to be powdery, it simply makes me hesitate.

Anywho, Vampire Wife has notes of: blood orange, star anise, wedding cake, peru balsam, tonka bean absolute, heliotrope, oakmoss, and powdered skin. And it just blossomed on my skin in a way I did not expect at all.

I tend to associate citruses in perfume with body odor and sweat. Most of the time, that's how it comes off on me. But this perfume actually smells like a beautiful spiced orange cake! It's not anything like a real orange, it's very much cake first. And I think the "powder" just makes it feel like a very airy and light cake.

Does this feel like a Halloween scent? Not really, not to me. I find nothing vampiric in nature about this perfume. But god damn! It's a simply marvelous spiced orange cake perfume for sure!

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I really don't know at this point if it's a "my nose" thing or a "my skin chemistry" thing, but to me sandalwood always always smells like pickle brine.

I thought it was strictly a my-skin thing, because like, obviously sandalwood is a popular note and I never have thought "wow, that jerk over there reeks like pickles", so clearly I'm not noticing it on other people in that way.

But today, my sample set order from Sorce came in.

It's their Spellbound discovery set, a sampling of their Halloween-adjacent scents. Or rather, fall-ish? I dunno exactly. Basically, four scents that are very obviously Halloween inspired, and then we've got English Major randomly in there too. English Major is a very popular scent by them and a lot of people associate it with fall, so I guess that's why it's here.

Anyways, I'm extremely excited to try most of the set. Vampire Husband, Ephemera, and Stuck on You are ones that I greatly look forward to. Meanwhile Vampire Wife and English Major I was apprehensive about. But anyways, I figured I didn't want to wait and let the perfumes settle (the way you're supposed to do after they've been through the temperature changes and extreme jostling mail system), so to scratch the itch, I should start trying the ones I don't have high hopes for. So, today was English Major.

English Major's listed notes are: library books, orris absolute, marshmallow, carrot seed, sandalwood, fallen leaves. It's described as an earthy gourmand. And lots of people say it's cozy, smells like a lofi studying video. But for me, all I see on that list is that dreaded sandalwood. I figured this would go pickles on me.

Aaaaaaaaaaand it did. I sprayed it hours ago and still all I get from it is pickle juice. Like an open jar of Vlasics.

But here's the weird thing?

My wife smelled it on me and she loved it. She said it's nice. I asked her to describe it to me and she said "it reminds me of the Texas Roadhouse rolls, with the cinnamon butter spread. Very creamy, very soft and sweet butter."

And I'm like damn. Wish I could smell that. I love that smell. Unfortunately all I actually smell is PICKLES.

So yes. This is probably a very great scent. For other people. But unfortunately I am afflicted with some sort of sandalwood curse which taints all perfumes which have it.

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Okay, so I've been wanting to talk about these perfumes I got samples of months ago that I love. The issue I've been having is that one of the ones I really really love and wanted to talk about won an award recently.

And it's like, clearly that's not actually a problem! I think it's wonderful that it won! It's one of my favorite new samples and I would love love love to have a full bottle of it one day.

But no, the issue at hand is that I've felt like I need to mention that the perfume won an award and... Every time I try to work it into the post that I'm writing about other samples from the house, it completely fucks up the flow? And it just feels derailing and like I'm getting off track. I can't fit it in well. It just gets so messy.

So I'm just gonna make this post instead! Congrats to d.grayi for winning fragrance house of the year! And extra congrats on his scent Honey Bunny for winning fragrance of the year! I don't think there could've been a single better choice, as this house and this specific scent are truly magical.

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Always remember that some people will just say anything and to take every idea with a grain of salt. I've seen people call "fig" and "strawberry" fantasy accords and it's like... Babe, it can't be a fantasy accord if it's a real thing that is known for having a distinctive smell. Amber is a fantasy accord because amber is in reality a scentless stone, but in perfumery, amber is usually a blend of what people imagine that should smell like; generally some mix of benzoin and labdanum with a dash of honey or vanilla. But figs are a real fruit that you can smell? Strawberries are a real fruit that you can actually smell! Just bite one! Or cut one open! Sniff it, I swear there's smell in there!!!

[gayelectro]

In regards to my previous reblog, just sampled a perfume that's supposed to smell like Korean street food at work today. Instantly regretted trying something so bold on a work day, as it was far more realistic and direct than I thought it would be. At least I was literally isolated from all humanity for 12 hours, so thankfully no one noticed that I smelled perfectly of beer, soy sauce, and smoked meat. All day. It's a perfect replication of those things, but maybe not a suitable perfume for me.

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Sharing the information on the perfume here, in case you wanna smell like this. It really is perfect at what it is aiming for.

Pocha Bar by KST Scent.

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Note to self: maybe don't try on a new perfume immediately before you have to eat, getting a face full of a new scent that smells nothing like your food when you lift the spoon up to your face is kind of weird and unpleasant to the brain.

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I was never all that interested in fragrances so idk if it was the fact that I just wanted to try sth new and some mini perfume were on sale + I had my whole paycheck with me or if it was your blog's influence or both but I got myself some perfumed water while on shopping day.

Wish I could describe them properly but all I can say is that one smells like. Wood. Cozy wood? And the other is like. Fresh but not cold if that makes sense?

Idk I'm just happy I'm trying new things and thought I'd share ;w;

OH MY GOODNESS! I'M SO TOUCHED!!! ;w; 💞

I can't believe that I'm actually making anyone interested in perfumes 'n' fragrances, you know? But that's exactly what I wanna set out to do, especially because I used to believe fragrance wasn't for me. I'm so proud of you for trying something new! And I hope you found something you enjoy! And if you're not in love with them, that's okay too, because you can learn what scents you don't like and can avoid! It's all a very personal journey!

And hey, you are describing them properly! It's all just about describing your take and experience with it! "Cozy wood" is ABSOLUTELY a mood. And "fresh but not cold" paints quite a picture too! I honestly think the best descriptions are often the ones we make right off of the dome.

I'm a writer at heart and so sometimes I can get excessively wordy or fantastical when I'm describing fragrance, but I often think that the best descriptions come from people who just say exactly what they smell. When I get too caught up in "I don't know why I don't love this, but I don't, what's the words for what's wrong with it?" And my wife pipes in and says "It smells like Play-Doh" or my coworker says "It's kinda like wet dog", it blows my mind. Sometimes, it's as simple as that, and that's honestly beautiful!

It also takes practice to learn new smells, especially since most things are a hodgepodge of things that we've never smelled before. I've never smelled a wisteria or a bergamot in person, but I know I like wisterias in perfume and I hate bergamot! (Would it be bergamots? Bergamonts? Who knows.) So the more you try, the more you learn!

[sztefa001]

Thabk ;w;

Guess I just feel inexperienced because what someone can call sth "wine-red hue with a subtle magenta tint and hints of an orange pattern underneath" I describe as "well. there's red there somewhere I think" lol

Also I found them on the Ritaulas... website and this is how they're described:

No idea what nashi pear or neroli is and I had no idea that musk can be divided into colors :0 Thought that only comes in white and stinks of dirty money

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That's totally okay! I come from a similar-ish background. I was very sensitive to fragrances when I was younger (incenses and perfumes would make my eyes water, my nose run, give me headaches, the works), my dad is even more sensitive to them than I was, and my mom's a hoarder so our house always had some kind of fucked up stink that we had to cope with and ignore. I think I've really only been into perfume for maybe a year! So much of it is just sniffing around and testing things out! And of course, sometimes a little help figuring out what the hell anything is, because there's a lot of words that mean something but aren't often explained!

So for example, here in this scent profile, we've got "aromatic"! In perfume, that often means "spices, herbs, and grassy stuff"! Notes like rosemary, sage, basil, cumin, most kinds of grass, these are all aromatic! But of course, this depends on what's around it for the overall Vibe. Like, lavender is considered a classic aromatic note. But it can also be floral (stuff that smells like flowers) or gourmand (stuff that smells like food). Aromatic often gets labeled as ""masculine"" perfumery, but I don't really believe in gendering scents, yet at the same time a lot of Mass Market Men's Cologne(TM) hinges on these profiles.

Now neroli is a little white flower that comes from an orange tree! This is another one that I've never smelled the real thing, but it comes up in perfumes a lot! This is because it can kind of be pulled any which direction. It can be aromatic, it can be citrus-y, it can be floral, it can be sweet and honey-like, it can even come off as kinda spicy to some people. Most of the time, to my nose, it reminds me of sunscreen tbh. But I'm biased, I don't like citrus notes on my skin! Most people seem to really enjoy this flower and note.

As for nashi pear, this is another name for the Asian pear! It's got a more Distinct smell than say a typical pear from the United States. It's like if a pear and an apple had a baby and it was Louder than it's parents. In my opinion, this is the best pear scent! But once again, smells always come down to opinions!

And as for musks... Well! As far as I can tell, musk colors are mostly just a marketing term! I still won't claim to be any sort of expert, but I've seen black musk, dark musk, red musk, blue musk, and white musk all thrown out there and the colors really don't seem to mean shit. Musks are seemingly almost always vibes based anyways, since they're not actually derived from animals anymore, but instead a perfumer mixing stuff together until they hit something they like. So every musk is going to smell different from perfumer to perfumer to begin with, and then the color is usually just arbitrary to match the colors or feelings of other notes in the perfume. I like musks! But they're very hard to describe, you kinda just gotta smell it and know that each brand or maker is gonna have their own unique flare to it.

[bridgescents]

I was never all that interested in fragrances so idk if it was the fact that I just wanted to try sth new and some mini perfume were on sale + I had my whole paycheck with me or if it was your blog's influence or both but I got myself some perfumed water while on shopping day.

Wish I could describe them properly but all I can say is that one smells like. Wood. Cozy wood? And the other is like. Fresh but not cold if that makes sense?

Idk I'm just happy I'm trying new things and thought I'd share ;w;

OH MY GOODNESS! I'M SO TOUCHED!!! ;w; 💞

I can't believe that I'm actually making anyone interested in perfumes 'n' fragrances, you know? But that's exactly what I wanna set out to do, especially because I used to believe fragrance wasn't for me. I'm so proud of you for trying something new! And I hope you found something you enjoy! And if you're not in love with them, that's okay too, because you can learn what scents you don't like and can avoid! It's all a very personal journey!

And hey, you are describing them properly! It's all just about describing your take and experience with it! "Cozy wood" is ABSOLUTELY a mood. And "fresh but not cold" paints quite a picture too! I honestly think the best descriptions are often the ones we make right off of the dome.

I'm a writer at heart and so sometimes I can get excessively wordy or fantastical when I'm describing fragrance, but I often think that the best descriptions come from people who just say exactly what they smell. When I get too caught up in "I don't know why I don't love this, but I don't, what's the words for what's wrong with it?" And my wife pipes in and says "It smells like Play-Doh" or my coworker says "It's kinda like wet dog", it blows my mind. Sometimes, it's as simple as that, and that's honestly beautiful!

It also takes practice to learn new smells, especially since most things are a hodgepodge of things that we've never smelled before. I've never smelled a wisteria or a bergamot in person, but I know I like wisterias in perfume and I hate bergamot! (Would it be bergamots? Bergamonts? Who knows.) So the more you try, the more you learn!

[bridgescents]

Finally, I can write up some more follow up thoughts about Baruti perfumes.

The last post I made about this brand, I mentioned how excited and open-minded I was to trying my last three samples. And since then, these three have been my absolute favorites that I keep coming back to and wearing over and over again. This post will be about two of them specifically, Onder de Linde and Tinderer. Let's start with ODL.

Onder de Linde is supposed to be a linen blossom perfume. I like this blurb straight from the perfumer's website about this scent, because everybody who talks about this perfume also talks about the illusive nature of the linden blossom.

"The stars of the fragrance are lilac and linden blossom. What makes these notes interesting is that there are no natural extracts of these flowers available, like you would have with rose or jasmine, for example. Instead, I had to reconstruct them using aroma molecules, which, if you ask me, is the true magic of making perfumes: creating a realistic scent of something that cannot be extracted from nature."

Truly fascinating and makes this perfume feel all the more special to me! But here's the thing... I don't know if I've ever smelled a linden blossom to begin with! So I certainly can't tell you if it's an accurate recreation of the scent. But I also don't think I would think lilac either, if it wasn't specifically listed. It is a sweet, delicate floral. A teensy tiny bit powdery, but it doesn't offend me as some powdery florals do. It's just very... Spring-y! It feels like spring. Dewy fresh flowers on trees. It's just such a delight to smell. Actively brings a smile to my face.

Then we've got Tinderer. This is supposed to smell like a calm spring field right before a thunderstorm. And to me, it really nails that. It's such a great grass perfume and I just love the smell of grass.

I'm not gonna bother sharing the infographic from Fragrantica showing the notes, because it's simply inaccurate to how the perfumer lists it on their own website. Instead, they list: "Cut Grass, Twigs, Wet soil, Violets, White musk, Ambergris, Heliotrope, Moss". And that's exactly what it comes off as. It's grass! And a hint of nice dirt! And it's got a nice little muskiness to it.

Here's my only problem.

I think you basically need to spray them together. Or at least I do!

They're both great perfumes on their own, yes. But once I tried them together? I could never separate them again. They need each other. It's a beautiful flowering spring tree in a field. If I spray one without the other, I find myself longing to join them together again. They feel incomplete on their own now. And it's a shame, because these two aren't offered in travel sizes yet! I do love how they smell together, oh so much, but I don't know if I can really justify buying two full size bottles that need each other like that, you know?

At the very least, I think I'm really going to enjoy these samples this spring and summer. I like smelling like this quite a bit. And hey, I'm emptying the samples very slowly, given that they're going away at the same pace!

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I don't know why I keep revisiting samples that I don't like. I think I don't fully trust myself sometimes, is the thing. I will try some samples on my skin over and over, and still hate them every time or find the exact same shortcomings, and then a month later I will question if I really knew what I was smelling.

You really do just gotta learn to trust your nose! Sometimes, you're not gonna like stuff! Even popular and well-loved stuff! And that's okay.

[wandringaesthetic]

Realizing the change in American food culture in my life time is largely due to the fact that nearly a third of adults smoked cigarettes at the year of my birth and that number has dropped to about 10% is something that is deeply obvious in retrospect but I also needed someone else to point out to me. Like, the nightmarish 50s cookbooks existed because nearly half of everyone regularly consumed an appetite suppressant that made you unable to taste or smell for shit. I remember some comedian saying that it was easy to be skinny in the 80s because everything tasted like shit. Or course it did. 40% of your restaurant clientele could't fucking taste it which greatly decreased the potential profitability of any eating establishment that was actually trying, thus affecting the standards even of people who COULD taste. Even if you didn't smoke, odds were someone in your household did and everything tasted like ash. It all makes sense now.

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Hope this isn't derailing, but this applies to perfumery as well in a big way.

If you look for vintage perfumes (mostly looking at 1950s through early 1990s perfumes mind you), or look at modern reformulations of those vintage perfumes, a lot of them are just disgusting to most people in a various amount of ways. There's way too many different scents all going on at once, they're sooooo fucking strong, they're cloyingly sweet— it's just absolute insanity.

But the thing is, it's cigarettes. The perfumes were made by smokers, for smokers, hoping to cover up the smell of smoke, all whole having a dulled sense of smell. It's all connected. There's plenty of documentation of perfumers smoking as they're creating their formulations! In the room with the ingredients? Smoking! Sniffing test strips to see how the formulation holds up? Smoking! Surely, their noses are shot, and the same was expected to be true of their clientele.

You don't generally run into "vieja cuchi" florals by accident as easily anymore. Like yeah, of course there's still stanky perfumes out there, there always will be simply because people have different tastes and smell is subjective. But nowadays most perfumes have comparatively fewer notes than their older kin and don't try so damn hard to be smellable from Mars.