Perfuming Basics

[idesign]

My question

exactly!
I was about to write the same post but you beat me too it, by a few months...
So, anyone care to help? I

really have no idea where to shop for these ingredients and I'd rather buy quality then from the $1 shop down the

road.

DrSmellThis is the expert here and maybe he'll check in and give you some tips.

I've bought

natural ingredients for my own experiments from several places. Click on my Yahoo button and send me an email and

I'll reply with some links to vendors I have experience with.

Be warned, once you step into this arena you'll

get hooked and spend lots of money. Its also a lot of fun, but frustrating at times. I'm a big fan of new

learning curves, and this one is a challenge.

You're right, quality makes a huge difference, esp with perfume

ingredients.

[gaf]

Thanks Greg,
I've found some

suppliers in my region so seeing as I'll have some time on my hands next year I'll get to reading all the posts

in this thread for some mix tips. May take a while though... 17 pages!

[idesign]

Thanks

Greg,
I've found some suppliers in my region so seeing as I'll have some time on my hands next year I'll get to

reading all the posts in this thread for some mix tips. May take a while though... 17 pages!

Its a great

thread, and it got me hooked on natural scents. Have a great time!

Curious about the suppliers in your part of

the world. Care to share them? I'm always interested in new sources, esp for the exotic stuff.

[gaf]

Its a great

thread, and it got me hooked on natural scents. Have a great time!

Curious about the suppliers in your part of

the world. Care to share them? I'm always interested in new sources, esp for the exotic

stuff.

They're just traders on the local version of (but not) ebay. Looks like most of the stuff is

imported rather then processed here. Give me a while, once I've digested the thread contents I'll seriously start

looking into purchasing local products. ( I prefer to shop local) and will get back to you with some trustworthy

suppliers. Yep, even here you need to keep an open mind with internet businesses. Sad but true.

[Chai Tea]

Why not cardamon? It could make

you smell like a turkish coffee without the coffee. I'm mildly joking, but if you go to some perfume sites there

are, probably partial, lists of the purported top, middle, bottom notes.

I was middle aged before I found a

perfume that blended with my chemistry perfectly. [Virtually all colognes make me feel ill when applied to my skin,

fair, redheaded.] My match EDT is listed as having cardamon. Or is it cardamom? Or are these the same? After a

couple of years, now it's time to shift. Of course it contained at least a dozen other scents I have written down

on a scrap of paper somewhere. . .

I got interested in pheros. I got married a year ago, so I'm not trying to

attract a mate. I'm not even looking for "an edge," as I have seen over and over, which is not that hard for

anyone to create without pheros.

I am simply interested in how pheros work, how they make me feel about myself,

and seeing if men and women simply notice anything differently than usual. It would be hard to tell even if it were

the pheros.

I'm turned off by deodorant, too much showering. There is definitely something to good hygiene

without compromising your best signature: your natural scent. Everyone has one. BTW I'm going to try the sandal

underarm treatment in place of deodorant. I do stink at the end of a teaching day.

Note: nervous sweat has a

different scent and chemical makeup than exertion or overheating sweat. So I've read. As for me, nervous sweat

grows the most bacteria the fastest; or maybe just different bacteria. Then, I often wonder if we aren't our own

worst armpit scent critics. My husband may think that his shirt after a day of work is unwearable for evening, when

I think it's just getting good!

I'm experimenting with EOW for the first time. The cheesy scent is exactly

what I'd expect from a pheromone. Let's just say, I was surprised to find that the EOW scent that many find

offensive is what MrChaiTea smells lightly like when he's been sleeping especially hot and sweating. Hairy, high

testosterone sexy bald guy.

I'm an alchemist measurer [political philosophy, not physics or chemistry, darn] in

cooking and now scent mixing.

I got a chemist's 10oz amber bottle and filled with distilled H2O. Started with

one dropper of EOW. Actually, I received the bottle on my birthday. . .50, thank you. . .and recklessly dabbed it

straight on my neck, sparingly. Covered with a good patchouli-vanilla compound EO, and Sandal on top of

that.

Badger has a body butter called vanilla cocoa. After an hour I smell like sweet, moist tobacco.

Interesting.

No real EOW field testing, but a nanosecond after MrChaiTea walked in the door he said, "you smell

good." He's never said that specifically before. Same night a woman said I looked beautiful. She actually said

beautiful. Me. That really cracks me up.

Okay, I have my serious face on now. I added a second dropper to the

10oz H2O, then a 3rd, then a 4th. Three days after receiving it, I now understand what I've read about the scent

turning smooth and cashmerey. [If there can be truthiness, there can be cashmerey.] I love the way I smell in EOW.

It has turned from cheesy to more complex with fruitiness at the first moment, as some have said before. Then it

settles and smoothes beautifully and I can't smell it on myself exactly, but something is different. I may try

diluting more instead of adding, for comparison.

I don't consider it genuinely tested yet. I'm waiting til I

go back to teaching and see how 19 year old male college students react to it. I'm not interested in the special

attention of 19 year old male college students except as just that. But if I expect to teach them, I have to get

their attention first.

I've browsed the threads and I notice that many posters expect pheros to do many things

that they cannot be expected to do. If a man wants to get laid, go read The Game, bed lots of women and learn to

dislike sex.

If you want to learn how to make more people fall in love with you personally, socially,

collegially, I suggest Robert Greene's Art of Seduction, keeping it to yourself, studying it, making your own

version of it, and get a big dose of confidence. Confidence is very sexy. That does not mean "women like jerks,"

as some say.

Without splitting this post let me finish with saying this about my experiences with EOs, and with

the academic, publish and perish anyway system:

I've been testing EOs for years. Not as intensely as some of

you. My rule of thumb is: find 1 or 2 EOs that you recognize the natural scent of. This will be impossible with

most scents. I'm from central Texas, which is Texas cedarwood and juniper scrub country. So, cedarwood EO is my

standard. If you want juniper, go stick your nose in a bottle of gin. If I test it and it smells like the real

thing, I trust the brand, generally. Patchouli and sandalwood are also good standards to test on the go at a

display because the fakes are so easy to catch.

Speaking of gin. Drinking alcohol is going to change the way you

smell. 'Nuff said.

I wouldn't order without a sample sniff first.

I'm a political theorist who has become

intensely interested in fringe quantum mechanics. Of course I know nothing about physics as a discipline. But I

talk to any physicist I can corner for a coffee, and find that questions of vibration and quanta go immediately to

the questions of my area, metaphysics, sex, community, order, harmony, and others. Mostly sex.

If what I am

seeing on the web is accurate, a few pretty interesting physicists with good heads are leaving academia in spirit

and in fact because peer review and the older authoritative legitimizing practices are failing the new age. Not the

old New Age. A genuine shift of some kind. It looks like there is a strand of this on this board. If I'm

following you.

I find the rejection of multi-dimensional worlds, or alternative healing, or new theories of

olfactory science to be stifling. We're supposed to be the people who can disagree without defensive siege

warfare.

Gratefully, I'm finding new groups and professional associations forming to get open-minded people

together. I admit I stop at selling hats and book bags at otherwise interesting online sites.

What else can I

say?

[belgareth]

What can I say? You sound

interesting and I hope to see more from you. Welcome.

[idesign]

Phenomenal post Chai, and

welcome! It'll take a week or two for a proper response though, you covered a lot of ground.

Its intersting

that the "hard" sciences have not learned the cross-disciplinary approach that social sciences have engaged to their

advantage. Admittedly, the social sciences have gone to some extremes, but the chemists, biologists and physicists

have a lot to learn from each other considering the obvious interrelationships.

From what I've read the

Alternative Medicine crowd are an exception. However, on the cutting edge of research the stone wall seems as

impenetrable as an ego steeped in peer approval. I suppose it just feels better to be applauded than to be

challenged.

I think there are many EO scents which will be personal and memory-effective to people. DrSmellThis

has written here about it, and I think it has to with analog wiring to certain natural scents, as well as lifetime

exposure. I can't explain it, but many scents strike chords which seem strange but familiar.

Looking forward to

reading more of your posts,
Greg

PS What was the scent that you found that matched your chemistry? What are

you replacing it with?