What are your favorite smells?

**chas** · 03-28-2012, 03:17 PM

I've always liked the smell of Faberge's Addiction 'Spice Fire' which has a warm spicy aroma. Maybe cocoa ?
Some people like comforting smells - vanilla, mellow spices, cocoa ..
Strangely chocolate smells good in a chocolate bar but not in perfumes. Coffee smells best when it is in a coffee shop with decades of coffees being prepared - almost has a savoury smell.
Perhaps DST you could a small selection of perfumes - e.g. one spicy, one cool, etc.
The best perfumes make the opposite sex want to get closer.

**CristinaTulis** · 03-30-2012, 04:18 AM

Hey everyone,

Many many thanks to sharing your information, I am highly appreciated, I could not agree more. The smell of freshly cut grass and the smell of hay stored in a barn are senses that release stress and somehow allow you to focus on the simpler things in life. Maybe it brings us back to the simpler days of our childhood.

Nice to meet you
CristinaTulis

**idesign** · 03-31-2012, 04:19 AM

Hey Doc, glad to hear that you're back in the Lab and we might get something new! Your ideas sound great.

For scents I've always liked smells that remind me of the past. I guess its the comfort factor. I spent a fair amount of time in tobacco barns as a kid and that's a heavenly scent, a horse barn is nice too, and of course coffee. For spices I really like pepper. In China the spice shops are full of a variety of hot peppers that send a sharp but warm scent into the air. Just plain old black pepper smells nice freshly ground. I had a fragrance once that was peppery but don't remember the name. If I recall didn't Pheros have a dose of pepper? I seem to remember a faint sharpness somewhere around the top-to-middle. Old Spice is a bit peppery, but isn't the main scent floral? Carnation?

Jasmine and Gardenia are favorite floral scents, though Gardenia can get a bit heavy and sweet after too much.

Too many commercial scents to name but I've always loved the James Bond aura of the original Chanel Cologne for Men. Classic.

**Rbt** · 04-02-2012, 03:11 PM

I'm wondering if you should not also ask about fragrances we DON'T find appealing.

I for one never liked 451.

**belgareth** · 04-02-2012, 03:37 PM

Hey RBT! Good idea.

The inside of a bar would be a bad one. Rotted fruit would be another.

**DrSmellThis** · 04-09-2012, 11:32 AM

Ding ding ding! We have a winner! Idesign has nailed the theme of Old Spice, which is carnation. Very astute of you!

Interesting that a carnation scent is considered spicy, no? Also interesting about Old Spice is that it's classified as an "Oriental" (is that even politically correct to say that?). Also, I think you have to go to India to get the original Shulton Old Spice these days, or at least via the interwebs. P&G changed the formula.

Have to agree the inside of a bar isn't the greatest. But it would not be entirely unheard of to find a rotted fruit note in a French perfume. Like anything else, it's all concentration and context. As you all know, a lot of nasty scents can be quite nice in perfumes, in a context. Sometimes, the worse it is, the better it is. Real world example: Idesign's horse barn!

Chocolate scents are common, and fall under the heading of gourmand (food-like) scents, like coconut. They are common, but a bit controversial.

Yes, Pheros had an excessively complex spice note, and pepper was a part of it. Pepper is nice in that it occupys a certain range where it can stay out of certain things' way. It's different than other spices. Cardamom is unique that way too. Man I can talk about natural perfuming all day; it's so fun and interesting; so am honestly very thankful you gals and guys entertain such thoughts.

Not sure if I can do as well as I did before (not so much in terms of skill, but in terms of access to ingredients to play with freely), but I at least want to have something practical or useful for folks, so that it doesn't have to be brilliant to be OK. Funding will be more difficult this time (Who has lots of personal savings these days? Or maybe I should just speak for myself.), so that lots of care will have to go into planning and efficiency, etc. That's ultimately good for you, right? It would be different If I worked for a cosmetics company or something where you'd have a funded lab and could just show up to work -- but then you'd have to forget about trying to keep it more natural, which would drain some of the passion out of it. I just can't pretend to be all that excited about "perfume chemistry" perfuming, while a lot of those folks really believe in it, and have simply accepted those changes 100%. Man, being an idealist sucks.). At some point, I'll introduce the grand idea, when a bit more steam has gathered. I've been under the weather lately, but still have been working on R&D pretty steadily, and continuing the education in it, which feels good.