Perfuming Basics

[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?

[jvkohl]

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.

A cross-disciplinary approach in the "hard" sciences requires expertise across

disciplines. The language of genetics and immunology is different than the language of neuroscience. Different

languages make it more difficult to tell a cohesive story. Social scientists tell comparatively short stories with

few details of cause and effect. "Results require further study" is a common caveat. A neuroscientific approach is

more likely to establish some facts, including those that are based on what geneticists and immunologists think are

biological facts about the more obvious interrelationships extending to hormones and

behavior.

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.

The Alternative Medicine crowd

members must somehow learn that cutting edge research may not answer the questions they're asking. Otherwise they

wouldn't be looking for alternatives. Once you start looking at alternatives, you leave your peer group, and your

former peers continue to be part of a peer group that excludes you. We simply can't have peers with alternatives

that their peers haven't heard of; can we? Perhaps this is why alternatives among peers are typically unheard

of.

James V. Kohl

[Chai Tea]

Initial by Boucheron.

I

just ordered a ridiculous amount of what is called Incense Oil in Sandal [sandalwood I assume] and compound

Patchouli-Vanilla. One vendor went out of stock after I ordered.

I found a second vendor, ordered even more.

. .for the 2012 apocalypse you know, I don't want to run out of smell-good stuff. . .and the first vendor emailed

me to let me know they'd restocked. So I'm ordering more. Soon I'll have a whole basement of sandalwood incense

oil. It'll be right next to the canned peas.

I also ordered 1 vial of a patchouli-sandalwood compound, but

it just isn't the same as the patchouli-vanilla over the sandal, with a little EOW all around. I want to eat

myself.

This is strange to me. Not the eating myself, but that these oils appeal to me so much.



Like I said, no scents complement my chemistry [probably too many Snickers bars]. And although I've always

liked a little sniff of patchouli, everything just became too strong on my skin. Overtook me. Siege stuff.

Waterboarding without the water.

Until I happened to buy these two vials, the Sandal and the P-V compound at

a local display. I got back in the car and say what I always say: "This is going to smell terrible in 5 minutes,

I'm going to have to stop at the closest fast food bathroom to wash my wrist raw before I gag, it'll be in this

shirt all day, and I wasted my money."

Know what? Didn't happen this time. Incense Oil, I started

thinking. How the heck could this be so different?

Of course they say, "Blends with all body chemistry

types. . ." and the little insert also says in bad English something like, "this product takes advantage of the new

science of copulins," which I read as "now that you've read the word 'copulin' in our insert, this product is

associated with it."

So, what's Incense Oil? Just a name? Or an extraction? Or heroin by mistake.

[Rbt]

Errr... I'm more concerned about

this 2012 apocalypse you mention. Haven't heard about that one. Will affect my own inventory and retirement

plans.

[jvkohl]

Of course

they say, "Blends with all body chemistry types. . ." and the little insert also says in bad English something like,

"this product takes advantage of the new science of copulins," which I read as "now that you've read the word

'copulin' in our insert, this product is associated with it."

I'll try to integrate some research

into your focus on sandlewood, which I suspect smells good to you because of its association with the body chemistry

of others.

Li, W., Moallem, I., Paller, K. A., & Gottfried, J. A. (2007). Subliminal smells can guide social

preferences. Psychol Sci., 18(12), 1044-1049.
...social preferences are subject to influences from odors that

escape awareness, whereas the availability of conscious odor information may disrupt such

effects.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...ubmed_RVDocSum

As most Forum readers know, I'm not much help with making sense of the

research findings here. But you happened to hit on sandlewood, which is considered to be much like a good mixture of

masculine (i.e., androgenic) pheromones--only the sandlewood is associated with odor. So, if you take the findings

from the article cited, you could posit that your conscious association with the sandlewood odor might have--in the

past--disrupted the unconscious affect associated with pheromones from someone else (e.g., not your own pheromones).

For some reason, the unconscious affect of the sandlewood-pheromone connection may now be positively manifest.



Nonetheless, it might take years of psychoanalysis--or a few blood tests (hopefully with your established

baseline values) to determine what's changed. Even so, you might need a few brain scans under different odor

conditions to pinpoint where in your brain the response originated. Might be better to just enjoy your

stockpile.

James V. Kohl
The Scent of Eros

[Chai Tea]

Couldn't they just give me some

demerol and hold a feline over my head for 90 seconds while I hold my breath?

Findings: what can I say. .

.Here's a neat finding: "87% of people in this sample survey strongly agree that sex is pleasant; sampling error

+/- 12 points. . ." And people get grants and promotions to say stuff like that. I find that hilarious. Than

again, I have trouble matching my socks, so I can't exactly point the finger at anyone and call them out of

touch.

Thanks, jvkhol, for the distinction that makes a truly interesting difference in how I think about the

ol' olfactory factory. No kidding. The conscious and unconscious neural wiring [I only get the abstract stuff]

will keep me fascinated for months. I'll go to the article. Then I'll probably torture my students with

questions like the history of acceptable national standards of personal scent awareness. Then they'll probably ask

me to sponsor a student organization. . .

But if you could crib me on the details, I'd like that.