thefragranceshop.com

[**DONOTDELETE**]

You should really check this site out if your looking for a good designer cologne. I know some1 mentioned it here b4, but i don\'t know if any1 actually tried there products. I ordered 3 of them and the fragrances are amazing! They smell very similar the real thing, but i think even better! And they are all 100% pure perfume oils. This means they have no alcohol or fillers, and last up to 12 hours w/o reapplication. I really suggest you go there and order a sample of your current cologne. You\'ll be amazed. They should aloso be good for mixing.

Again, I came across thefragranceshop.com, by a post in the Love-scent Forum. I\'m not taking credit for it, just telling you the quality of their products.

[ccbythesea]

sean,

I know I posted a while back about TheFragranceShop.com. Maybe it was my post you were referring to. Anyway, I sure am glad someone (you) discovered them and tried their products. They really ARE amazing.

I\'ve always enjoyed wearing fragrances but I have NEVER gotten the kinds of compliments I\'ve been getting since I started using their perfume oils and custom-scented body lotions.

And, as you mentioned, their perfume oils have awesome staying power. I think this would be a real great help especially to guys trying to cover heavy androstenone pheros. I know a big problem with that is having to deal with the BO smell when the cover fragrance wears off.

Wilde Oscar mentioned a fragrance called \"Pikaki Lei\" and he was so enthusiastic about it that I ordered Pikaki perfume oil from The Fragrance Shop. Oscar, if you\'re reading this......wow! what a beautiful fragrance it is and thank you for bringing it to my attention. It IS a feminine scent but I think toning it down by diluting it with some carrier oil would make it a perfect scent for a guy to try.

I would rate love-scent.com and thefragranceshop.com as my 2 best website finds of the year images/icons/laugh.gif

CC

[ccbythesea]

sean,

I know I posted a while back about TheFragranceShop.com. Maybe it was my post you were referring to. Anyway, I sure am glad someone (you) discovered them and tried their products. They really ARE amazing.

I\'ve always enjoyed wearing fragrances but I have NEVER gotten the kinds of compliments I\'ve been getting since I started using their perfume oils and custom-scented body lotions.

And, as you mentioned, their perfume oils have awesome staying power. I think this would be a real great help especially to guys trying to cover heavy androstenone pheros. I know a big problem with that is having to deal with the BO smell when the cover fragrance wears off.

Wilde Oscar mentioned a fragrance called \"Pikaki Lei\" and he was so enthusiastic about it that I ordered Pikaki perfume oil from The Fragrance Shop. Oscar, if you\'re reading this......wow! what a beautiful fragrance it is and thank you for bringing it to my attention. It IS a feminine scent but I think toning it down by diluting it with some carrier oil would make it a perfect scent for a guy to try.

I would rate love-scent.com and thefragranceshop.com as my 2 best website finds of the year images/icons/laugh.gif

CC

[oscar]

CC,

I\'m so glad you liked the Pikaki. I think it\'s even nicer than Gardenia, which I thought was my favorite floral scent.

I did come up with a way of toning it down just a bit, masculinizing it, or perhaps more accurately, de-feminizing it, if you will.

I was back at Fresh Fields, the place where I\'d gotten the \"Pikaki Lei\" oil, and was sampling other oils by Kuumba, its manufacturer. They also make a \"White Ginger\" oil, which I put on the back of my hand near where I had put some Pikaki, and Eureka! The scents blend beautifully, making it difficult to tell where one leaves off and the other begins, without losing the fragrance of the Pikaki at all, but rather, mellowing it slightly.

I haven\'t bought the White Ginger yet, as I wanted to wear the combo a while to be sure the scents remained balanced. They did. So soon I\'ll be mixing up a batch of
\"Oscar de la Wilde\'s \'Pikaki avec Ginger pour l\'homme\'\".
The same blend should also work well \"pour la femme\".

I didn\'t exactly do an extensive search, but I couldn\'t find Pikaki on thefragranceshop.com site. Where is it?

Oscar images/icons/laugh.gif

[ccbythesea]

Oscar,

Your Pikaki-Ginger mix sounds like a winner. I\'m glad you found a way to incorporate the pikaki into a wearable fragrance for men.....I\'d love that scent on ANYONE.

At TheFragranceShop.com you can find the Pikaki listed under the sub-menu of Domestic (underneath \"pure oils\").

Those Kuumba oils sound really interesting. I have no idea if anyone sells them in my area but I was able to find a place that sells them online. I may give them a try sometime.

CC

[oscar]

CC,

I couldn\'t find the Kuumba oils online. If you could give me that site, I\'d very much appreciate it.

I DID buy the White Ginger, but not before doing a little experimenting with the samples at the store. I used the back of the hand of a young lady I was with, and applied 1 drop each of the Pikaki and the Ginger. We both agreed that the Ginger destroyed the sweet smell of the Pikaki at this ratio. So I put 1 drop of Ginger on the back of my own hand, and encircled it with 4 drops of Pikaki. Swirling them all together, I realized that I\'d gotten lucky again! This was it. Four drops of Pikaki to one drop of Ginger will be my starting point.
From there I\'ll add 40 drops of Ethanol and 5 drops of distilled water to get a mix in the Cologne/Eau de Toilette range, before spiking it with pheros. I\'d like to keep it on the subtle side.
I\'ll try NPA first, as that\'s my favorite, but if that negatively affects the scent, I\'ll go with AFA as it\'s less intrusive fragrance-wise.

Oscar images/icons/laugh.gif

[ccbythesea]

Oscar,

Here\'s the link to the site that sells the Kuumba oils:
http://www.thirdworldtrading.com/index.html (\"http://www.thirdworldtrading.com/index.html\")

Just click \"Fragrances\" on the menu. They list 18 Kuumba fragrances as being available but they don\'t tell you much about the product.

Pikaki is a very strong scent and I haven\'t worn it in the outside world yet. I too am going to mix it into a cologne strength to mix with NPA/w. In it\'s oil-only form I\'m finding it difficult to apply enough without applying too much. I love the scent but I need to subtle it before I can wear it.

Let me know how your mix turns out. It sounds like a good unisex scent you\'ve come up with....hope it works well with the pheros.

CC

[oscar]

sean,

Haven\'t heard back from you on your mixing thread. How are you coming along with the perfume oils? Have you decided to dilute them, or are you mixing them straight? Scoring some Everclear shouldn\'t be too hard, and distilled water\'s easy.

CC,

The sample rack for Kuumba oils at my shop is only 2/3 the size of the one on that site. They only have 12 of the 18 scents. They\'re quite customer service driven though, so I\'ll mention that they should carry the full line, and see what happens.

Thanks for the link!

Oscar images/icons/smile.gif

[oscar]

sean and CC,

I did check out www.thefragranceshop.com (\"http://www.thefragranceshop.com\") more thoroughly and was impressed by their selection. I was far more impressed by their prices.

Take a look at www.hodgepodgegifts.com (\"http://www.hodgepodgegifts.com\") . They have an extensive line of fragrance oils at much more reasonable prices. For the same $3.50 that gets you a 20 drop sample from TFS, you can get a full ounce from HPG!

I usually subscribe to the theory, \"Always buy the best, you won\'t regret it\", but when I can find something second best for one-tenth the price of \"the best\", the temptation to chuck that theory is nearly irresistable.

Having tried NEITHER merchants\' products, I\'m not in a position to make comparisons, but since a lot of what I\'m doing is experimental, I believe that going with the less expensive oils is in my best interest.

Granted, HPG doesn\'t have the line of designer perfume oils that TFS has, so that makes TFS a great resource.

What I\'m going to do is order about a half-dozen samples from thefragranceshop, and order the same fragrances from hodgepodgegifts, and compare. Who knows, I may just find that \"You get what you pay for\" is the applicable addage here.
I\'ll get back to you with the results.

Oscar images/icons/smile.gif

[**DONOTDELETE**]

sounds like a plan to me images/icons/cool.gif

im planning on ordering some domestic oils from TFS in the near future, also some more designer cologne samples.

So far everything i have ordered from TFS has been great! The only problem i had is the sample bottles are crap. They tend to leak if laid on their sides, and ive already had one of the caps break off entirely. And this is not from rough handling, just sitting on my desk.

[ccbythesea]

Oscar,

I\'ll be real interested to know how the comparison shakes out. I\'m all for saving a few bucks too if it\'s not at the expense of quality.

There\'s no way I\'d completely abandon TFS but if your experiment works out that the oils are close to equal than I would certainly try some stuff from HP. All I can tell you from my experience with TFS is that a litlle of their oils go a looooooong way.

Good luck you little ol\' mad scientist images/icons/wink.gif

CC

[ccbythesea]

sean,

I\'m surprised you had a problem with the sample vials from TFS. I have about a half dozen that I keep in a plastic baggie in my purse. No breakage, no spillage and I\'ve been carrying them around for about a month now.

You might want to contact them about it. Maybe they got a bad batch of vials and/or they would be willing to replace what you lost.

Just a thought.......
CC

[**DONOTDELETE**]

WHat about using some of these perfumes and fragrences to cover the kit mixes everyone is trying, find a scent that really works for you and add your own personal mixes to it, give us feedback to see if they work. AKA mycroft how are you guys ging with the kits anyway. ???

[**DONOTDELETE**]

There\'s a beauty store called Aveda in a mall near me. It has wonderful high-quality essential oils and oil based perfumes as well as the standard alcohol-based stuff. It\'s on the pricey side, but everything in the store smells WONDERFUL!

Laney