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BPAL Madness!
simplyfunjhose

notes listed according to their percentage?

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I know in food, lotion, etc that is how it works....just wondering if the lab follows the same prototcol so I'd know which is the "heaviest" scent in a blend. Ya know?

Thanks!

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I don't think it's percentage so much as top notes, middle notes, and base notes. It tends to be the case that the first notes listed are the ones I smell first, and so forth. Of course, that's not always the case, so I could be way off. :P

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it does seem like the first notes listed are the ones i smell in the bottle while the other notes come out more once applied. with certain exceptions, of course. rose anywhere in a blend will jump out when i apply it. doesn't seem to stop me from vainly trying to find a rose blend that works on me...

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AHA! I knew I'd find this question!

 

I was wondering the same thing.

 

Take for example:

 

DIONYSIA:

Wild plum, pomegranate, raspberry, Siamese benzoin, plum blossom, patchouli, frankincense, and mahogany

 

 

Would this mean, that perhaps the 3 first fruits listed, would be the most prominent I would smell in the bottle?

 

Reason I ask is, because I'm hoping for a mostly fruity, yet patchouli based scent out of this.

Something a bit like Crypt Queen, but more fruity if you will.

 

And is the percentage of Wild plum note larger than say the mahogany in it? Like the first poster said, first ingredients on food labels, is what there is physically more of in the product. Wild Plum would be a TOP note? and mahogany would be the very bottom (or least detected) note?

 

Am I asking for trade secrets that I'd have to die for after being told? :P

 

Or is this question really not answerable due completely to skin chemistries and differences in scent interpretations amongst people?

Edited by Myotis

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what I found out in my searches:

 

the top notes you smell first and maybe strongest, but they burn off quickest.

The middle notes and base notes stay longest,

the base is what you smell at the very end when everything else is gone (on me thats almost always vanilla)

 

The base can also make some of the other notes last longer, hold the scent together a bit, warm it up, etc.

Edited by CaudaPavonis

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what I found out in my searches:

 

the top notes you smell first and maybe strongest, but they burn off quickest.

The middle notes and base notes stay longest,

the base is what you smell at the very end when everything else is gone (on me thats almost always vanilla)

 

The base can also make some of the other notes last longer, hold the scent together a bit, warm it up, etc.

That's true, but BPAL note listings (ie. the official lab descriptions) are not necessarily arranged in that order. Sometimes they seem to be sorted that way, but other times it seems like they are just arranged by strength (the first listed note is fairly often the strongest), and I think a lot of the time the note listing is just written to sound pretty or to fit with the scent's inspiration. And we all know that there are often unlisted notes that show up unexpectedly, or listed notes that are too faint to pick up on. That's why I don't put too much stock in the Lab descriptions when it comes to predicting what things will actually smell like - I read the reviews.

 

Some examples of note listings, since I'm thinking about this now:

 

Bluebeard seems to be arranged in top-middle-base order: Violet, lavender, white musk and vetiver.

 

But in Seraglio, there's no clear order: Sweet almond and Mysor sandalwood enveloped by a heady veil of Bulgarian Rose, neroli, nutmeg, clove and orange peel. If you were to fit those notes into the traditional perfumery note pyramid, it'd be something like this:

Top: almond, orange, neroli

Middle: rose, nutmeg, clove

Base: sandalwood

 

So in Seraglio's case I think it's all about writing a description that sounds pretty. :P

 

Plus there are many BPAL blends that consist of all top notes or all base notes, according to the rules of traditional perfumery. Lolita: Glittering heliotrope, honeysuckle, orange blossom and lemon verbena (those sound like all topnotes). Or Malediction: red patchouli and vetivert (base notes).

 

I'm just rambling about stuff I think is interesting now. But to answer the first question from way back, I wouldn't bet on the notes being arranged by percentage at all.

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No, the notes are not listed by percentage. Also, Beth does not even list all the ingredients. And the notes are not always just notes but a combination of ingredients to approximate a particular scent so a perfume where the copy lists say five "notes" there is most likely a lot more than five separate ingredients blended to create said scent.

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The other thing about this, too, is that the descriptions don't often tell you what all is in a blend - obviously "cake" and "cotton candy" and "dirt" and "tomb dust" are not those things. ^^ I couldn't even begin to guess how Beth creates some of the less traditional notes, what natural smells she puts together to make them.

I have learned, for example, to avoid blends with any sort of dirt component in any role (as much as I love the smell of the real thing) because 1) I amp it, no matter where it is; 2) dirt seems to involve patchouli, and that doesn't go over well in my household.

Tomb dust is fine, though. Go figure. Love tomb dust.

 

I have found that with some of the ones that are more descriptive, you might be able to make out the various notes as top, middle and base if you read very carefully, and some are very accurate/literal. May be differences in who writes the descriptions and how prosaic they are feeling.

Still wary of anything with jasmine listed anywhere near the beginning.... :cry2:

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