Statistically Favorite Scent

[somacat]

My favorite notes seem to be these, however Mommy Fortuna includes two-penny magic and ploenetic which I' not sure have corollaries but

might include vetiver and incense. The incense in OLLA Eve are not delineated, and the only note I was able to discern with certainty in Chuparosa was rose, although honeysuckle might have a 2 if it's in there as well as Shanghai. I'm surprised by how little vetiver showed up, and that I didn't find more overlap. I looked at Eve, Ava, Edith Cushing, Dracul, Kumiho, Chuparosa, Goatweed Leafwing, Red-spotted Purple, Shanghai, Mommy Fortuna, Tombstone, Amsterdam, Pele, and Pumpkin 1 2014. I thought the crisp adjective might be significant so I counted that, too. I really didn't think I liked musk because red musk is so wrong on me. This is really cool.

 

Musk 4 (three white)

Sandalwood 3

Vanilla 3

Tea 3

Crisp 3

Honey 2

Rose 2

Mandarin 2

Ambrette Seed 2

Orange Blossom 2

Ginger 2

Cedar 2

[RayneofCastamere]

Taken from my entire collection, because I couldn't bear to choose, here are my top 5.

 

1. Musks-19 (That was a helluva shock)

2. Vanilla and Amber-10 (Tie)

3. Sandalwood and Rose-9 (Another Tie)

4. Clove-6 (Another I didn't see coming)

5. Frankincense-5

 

I wonder what the ultimate combo of these would be?

[sprout]

So, if anyone is tempted to take this deeper down the rabbit hole... here's a screenshot of how I track this stuff. Every new scent, once tested, gets logged under each note it contains, in the column that best describes my experience with it. I've found it really fun to put together and see patterns develop, not to mention very useful when trying to remember which notes I've had good experiences with. This first segment looks fairly ambiguous, but farther down the list, there are notes it's very clear that I like (Benzoin!) and dislike (Jasmine!).

 

 

No one's said it yet but I will, that spreadsheet is bloody genius!

[elbow]

No one's said it yet but I will, that spreadsheet is bloody genius!

Heh, thanks!

[ShleepySnorlax]

My breakdown of favourite scents:

 

Vanilla - 8

Musk - 5

Soft leather - 5

Snake oil - 4

Sage - 4

Patchouli - 4

Honey - 3

Balsam - 3

Tobacco - 3

Clove - 3

Victorian/Lavender Fougere - 3

Red/Spanish/Oakmoss - 3

Resins - 3

Woodstove/distant fire - 2

Sandalwood - 2

Vetiver - 2

Cream - 2

Allspice - 2

Nutmeg - 2

Cinnamon - 2

Orange - 2

[Nightmare]

I'm not in love with all of the bottles I have, and I also don't have a lot of imps I'd consider favorites at the moment, but there were a few commonalities. Hopefully there will be some new faves in my next order so I can update it more.

 

White Musk 4
Gardenia 2
Ginger 2

 

If I include both unspecified tea and Earl grey under one, that's also 2. There were about 25 other unique notes. Anyway, surprise, surprise. I love all three of these so much, lol.

[Assimbya]

I was playing around with looking up this question on my spreadsheet recently, so was glad to find this very old thread! I think it's an interesting way of looking at preferences and would be curious to read others' answers; I'm keeping the number of favorites I'm pulling from high to better see trends.

 

Unsurprisingly for myself, something like 85% of my favorites out of the scents I've tried so far are florals of some variety. The exceptions are a small group of fragrances which I find to each be doing something very specific and unique (ex. A Robe All Red with Dripping Gore; Seven Inches of Blood; White Rabbit). But the 12 most common particular listed notes among my favorite BPAL perfumes:

 

Rose (17) - this is a staggering number to me! Some of these are really rose-centric blends and others are ones from which I barely pick out the rose at all, but it's still a lot.

Musk (16) - keeping this one broad since musks are often labelled so idiosyncratically, but it was pretty evenly divided between white musk, skin musk, and red/crimson/blood musks (more of the latter than I expected probably because of all my vampire scents), with a couple of black musks. The scents that were right on the edge of being included in the favorites list also mostly had musk, so this number/proportion could get higher over time. No Arabian or Egyptian musk scents made their way into my favorites. 

Honey (13) - higher than I expected! It's a note quietly present in a bunch of blends, as well as those that center it.

Amber (10)

Vanilla (10) - when I started wearing BPAL I had no idea that I would like vanilla as much as I do now!

Jasmine (6)

Honeysuckle (5)

Osmanthus/Olive blossom (5)

Tea (5) - all types

Milk/cream (5)

Sandalwood (5)

 

This was a really fun exercise! It's certainly skewed by how frequently  certain notes show up in the catalog - I've tried a lot of sandalwoods which really really didn't work on me because BPAL has just so many, but it's good to remember that there several which in fact work very well.

 

A number of my very favorite floral notes don't make it onto this list because I have only a couple of favorite perfumes with those notes (lilac, orange blossom, magnolia), but I love those few very very much. It's interesting to see which flowers do make the list, though some of that is certainly about what has happened to make its way to me or what shows up in blends that tend to intrigue me. Similarly, there also are a number of others kinds of notes which I think of myself as being really into because I have a couple of favorite blends which really showcase them, but in reality I only really wear them in those perfumes.

 

It confirms that my taste skews very much to classic florals and musks, often with an amber base, but I do clearly really like some gently gourmand notes when paired with non-gourmand elements. I'd be curious to try the exercise again over time, and see if my list of favorites shifts with more familiarity and length of wear - I wonder if I'm including here a number of perfumes which are more similar to one another, and if my opinion about them will change.

Edited Tuesday at 01:32 AM by Assimbya