The search for "Clean" scents - general discussion

[styro]

I've found that white musk tends to go sweetly spicy on me, as long as it's not paired with fruit. It's not usually too sweet on me, but Devil's Night is gorgeously light and slightly spicy on me. It's an LE, though, so...

 

Nero, by the by, is gorgeous on me, too. Very fresh-smelling to me, with its pine and rosemary, and spicy in that my nose registers, "Oh, there's something interesting going on here!"

 

I hadn't considered Nero at all--thanks, I'll go have a look at it!

 

I had this friend in the "light/fresh/outdoorsy" category in my head and was all set to steer her towards things like Yggdrasil, Vinland, Neo-Tokyo, or The Dormouse...but now that I'm looking for scents that are reviewed as both "clean" and "spicy," I seem to be pulling up a few woodsy scents but also some things that are all over the map, category-wise: Dracul, Ulalume, Omen, Verdandi, White Rabbit, Silk Road, R'Lyeh, High John the Conqueror...

 

Is a puzzlement! ;-)

[styro]

Has your friend tried any of the tea/herbal blends? Some of the green herbal blends have characteristics that make them smell both clean and spicy to me. Maybe something like The Dormouse, The Apothecary, Mantis, or Kumiho...

 

I did have quite a few of the tea scents on her shortlist; now I'm just at a bit of a loss as to which would be considered most "spicy"--I would think perhaps White Rabbit, except that I don't know whether the pepper note would be too strong for her (she can have bad reactions to certain powerful scents like eucalyptus). She's only just started out with BPAL, so we're still in the data-gathering stages when it comes to finding out what works for her and what doesn't.

 

I hadn't considered Mantis, but she does like both citrus and patchouli, and is getting interested in musk, so that's a useful suggestion--thanks!

[Electra]

Morocco would be a good choice for clean spices. Also Whippoorwill, if you can get your hands on any (it was LE).

[judas_kiss]

I second the Morocco, for sure. Nero is quite masculine, if you ask me. But, it is clean and has an almost "creamy" note that is just out of this world...*dreamy sigh*. Dracul, as well, definintely fits into the "clean, but spicey" and I would recommend it for a woman over Nero anytime. The orange blossom keeps it light enough, without adding too much feminity. It's gorgeous and I will, from time to time, steal some from BS. It's my "ballbustah" scent.

[styro]

Morocco would be a good choice for clean spices. Also Whippoorwill, if you can get your hands on any (it was LE).

 

My friend did get a chance to try another pal's Morocco at a recent BPAL get-together and it was good on her skin, so she may be more open to the Oriental family of scents than I thought.

 

I've come across mentions of Whippoorwhill before (possibly in the "I Love Hamadryad--What Next?" thread) and it sounded really intriguing. Despite my resolve to stick to GC scents at the moment, I may indeed keeping an eye out for it in the sale threads now--thanks!

[loveandprozak]

I actually find "clean and spicy" an excellent description of the oil "Black Phoenix".

[elphaba]

I just tried Silk Road for the first time and would definitely put it in the "clean and spicy" category. It's spicy with herbs backing it up instead of a smokey incense or musk.

[joseybird]

I wholeheartedly agree with Silk Road!

[Xiabelle]

I third Silk Road. It's the first thing I thought of. It's definitely clear, clean spice. Quite lovely.

[joseybird]

Also Abstinthe

[styro]

Judas Kiss--

 

Dracul, as well, definintely fits into the "clean, but spicey" and I would recommend it for a woman over Nero anytime. The orange blossom keeps it light enough, without adding too much feminity. It's gorgeous and I will, from time to time, steal some from BS. It's my "ballbustah" scent.

 

Apparently, my friend's SO is also becoming rather interested in all these new scents she's brought home, so anything that might potentially be good for both of them would be a plus--thanks! And Dracul does sound like one of the must-try scents: if I don't order it for her, I might order it for myself so that she can still try it.

 

*

 

Elphaba, Joseybird, and Xiabelle--

 

I third Silk Road. It's the first thing I thought of. It's definitely clear, clean spice. Quite lovely.

 

Wow! It looks like Silk Road is going from pencil to ink on the order list--thanks! (Ordering Silk Road for this friend will give another spice-loving friend of mine a chance to sample it too, so that should actually work out quite well.)

Edited December 15, 2005 by styro

[styro]

LoveandProzak and Joseybird--

 

Neither Black Phoenix nor Absinthe had occurred to me (I had Black Phoenix classified under "sweet and fruity" in my head). I'll have another look at the reviews--thanks!

[Little Bird]

I would think perhaps White Rabbit, except that I don't know whether the pepper note would be too strong for her (she can have bad reactions to certain powerful scents like eucalyptus).

 

I never really got any of the pepper in White Rabbit. It was more of a clean linen and used teabag sort of scent on me, with a light honeyed drydown. A lot of the reviews say that they didn't note any pepper either. It's a really soft/comforting scent to me... one that I actually bought a 5 ml of yesterday .

[styro]

I never really got any of the pepper in White Rabbit. It was more of a clean linen and used teabag sort of scent on me, with a light honeyed drydown. A lot of the reviews say that they didn't note any pepper either. It's a really soft/comforting scent to me... one that I actually bought a 5 ml of yesterday .

 

Thanks! On more consideration, I think my friend would lean more towards one of the woodsier tea scents, but I appreciate the tip about WR for my own notes. :-)

[hangingfire]

Shanghai? It's a very fresh, citrus-tea scent. Not exactly spicy, but really clean and summery (at least on me).

[GypsyRoseRed]

How about The Ghost? That's very clean with a slightly spicy undertone.

[styro]

GypsyRoseRed--

 

How about The Ghost? That's very clean with a slightly spicy undertone.

 

Thanks! I hadn't considered that one--will check it out.

 

It's very intriguing, finding out the intersection points on everyone's personal "clean"/"spicy" Venn diagrams.

 

*

 

HangingFire--

 

Thanks! Shanghai's on the long version of her wishlist, and I think it would be great on her; I get the sense that for this next round of imps, though, she'd really like something that would pick up on whatever is working for her in Hamadryad...so, it's one of those weird situations in which I think what I'm looking for is "the same, yet different."

[Thaleia]

Vechernyaya, the Evening Star, was very clean/spicy on me. If you want something more spicy than that, Ravenous is lovely.

[coulrophobe]

I'll second Morocco and Silk Road, though they're already on the list, I see - and I do have to agree with Vechernyaya. Something with patchouli isn't an intuitive reaction to "clean" - but the musks definitely give it a clean-yet-spicy/earthy feel to me.

 

Another possibility is Zephyr - not traditionally spicy, but as others have said, what an individual's chemistry can do with white musk can be spice-like. Zephyr's one of my favorite white musk blends - light and airy as the name suggests, but with a creamy musky base.

[Miss Lynx]

I'll second Morocco (or third it, or whatever we're up to), and add Sudha Segara, though the latter did tend to disappear awfully fast on me. Not as fast as Silk Road, though - I couldn't even tell you what Silk Road smells like, because it was gone in under two minutes.

 

Another you might want to try is Nephilim - it's a really odd and interesting combination of notes, and probably wouldn't work on everyone, but has a definite spicy component (cardamom, I think) and isn't too sweet.

[styro]

Thanks, everyone, for your advice! Given the parameters my friend gave me for this round of choices, I think I'm going to go with Silk Road and Dracul--so that she gets the chance to try one "warm" spicy-woody scent and one "cool" one. I really appreciate all the other suggestions as well, though, and I'm going to be updating my recs for my friend's ongoing wishlist accordingly (as well as keeping an eye out to see whether I can pick some of these up in swaps).

 

Rabid Hauteur and Coulrophobe--

 

Thanks for the Vechernyaya rec in particular: I had been thinking of that one as too "perfumey" but after another look at the reviews, I definitely see the potential there.

 

Miss Lynx--

 

Thanks for your suggestions, especially re: Nephilim--I hadn't even considered that one (I think I was wary of the vetiver)...but my friend will get the chance to sniff another pal's Nemesis at our next get-together, and if she responds well to that, I'll suggest Nephilim to her as a possibility.

 

And I appreciate the warning about Silk Road. Out of the four people in our sniffing group, I think this particular friend has the least "scent-eating" skin--so here's hoping it doesn't disappear on her! *crosses fingers*

Edited December 20, 2005 by styro

[Dymphna]

Hi, all!

 

Well, it was inevitable. As soon as I had the chance, I started working on enabling my best friend. It used to be that I'd try to hide my latest "new favorite perfume" from her because she would invariably fall in love with it and wear it all the time, thus ruining it for me. But with BPAL there's such variety that this probably (hopefully!) won't happen.

 

So, what I need are recommendations for scents that are either very clean or soft and sandalwoody. Her current favorite scents are Philosophy Pure Grace, something called Breathe (which smells fantastic on her!), and the sandalwood roller oil from the Gap. She also likes herbal notes, I think because they have that "fresh" scent.

 

I know Dirty is supposed to smell very clean, like clean laundry. I haven't tried it yet, though. I have tried Jolly Roger, which smelled fresh and blue to me, and The Apothecary, which smelled fresh and green. Anything else?

 

Oh, and I love Pure Grace, too--it's the only non-BPAL scent that I've used lately, albeit only occasionally--so I'll be happy to hear if there's anything that smells like that.

 

I really want to enable her, and her birthday is coming up so it's the perfect excuse to throw some imps at her. Thanks for any help you can give me!

[Malista]

These are all favorite warm weather scents, for me. I think they’re all very clean smelling, although some of them don’t last very long with my chemistry. They’re all general catalog scents, and impable.

 

Kumiho – white tea and ginger, crisp and clean with a little bite from the ginger

Shanghai – green tea, honeysuckle and verbena, light on the honeysuckle

Embalming Fluid – another green tea scent that smells very clean to me

Sea of Glass – aquatic, very pretty and calm

The Unicorn – floral, but not heavy, and very fresh and light

White Rabbit – tea, milk, and linen with a dash of pepper. People seem to either adore it or hate it. I love it.

The Dormouse – more tea, and peony, which may or may not be too floral for her. I find it very light and refreshing.

 

And yes, Dirty would be a good one for her to try, as well.

 

As for woody scents -- I don't have any recommendations, not because I don't like woody scents, but because I haven't tried any woody BPAL that has the same effect as pure sandalwood, and I don't know if she would like floral, fruit, spice or resin notes mixed in with the wood. Cathedral, maybe?

 

I have no idea what Pure Grace smells like, so can't suggest any BPAL analogs.

[olympia301]

For woody, try:

Aglaea-aprocot and myrtle

Hesperides-apple and wood

Velvet-cocoa, myrrh, and sandalwood.

 

Clean scents:

Dirty-of course

Dorian-very modern outdoorsy and squeeky clean to me

Baneberry-berries and cleanliness to me

Sea of Glass-grapefruit makes this a pleasantly astringent scent and it lasts.

[Dymphna]

Ooh, lots of ideas! Thank you both! I'm writing down all of these. I've already got Kumiho, White Rabbit, and Velvet. I had Dorian, but I swapped it away because it was too sweet on me, which was such a disappointment. I'll have to get another imp of that. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some of these before her birthday at the end of the month and put them into one of those pretty little organza bags as part of her gift. She always comes up with such great ideas for me--my "birthday bag" last month was full of goodies--and I want to make sure I give her fun things, too, because she deserves them. Thanks again for your help, ladies!

 

Oh, and Malista, Pure Grace sometimes smells to me like clean laundry rinsed with lavender water, and sometimes like a sort of freshly-showered scent. It's one of those scents that makes you smell like you smell like soap and water rather than perfume.

 

Based on these recommendations and other reviews I've seen, I'm dying to try Dirty, Embalming Fluid, and Sea of Glass (mmm, I love oceany scents) for myself!

Edited April 8, 2006 by Dymphna