making scents

[piranha]

so i've almost got suckered in to the BPAL craze, because how can anyone resist people who write incredibly purple prose to accompany their scents, such as:

BLOOD COUNTESS
In order to preserve her youth and loveliness, the brutal and incomparably savage countess captured, tortured and slaughtered innumerable young women and bathed in their blood as part of her beauty regimen. Ah, vanity. Corrupted black plum, smoky opium and crumbling dead roses covered by a deceptive veil of Hungarian lilac, white gardenia and wild berry.

i've never been interested in perfume, since i've felt most that i've come in contact with (in the average office environment) reeks, and makes me want to invest in nose plugs. however, i've always liked certain natural smells, and a part of my garden is by design planted with fragrant herbs and flowers. and i've really been enjoying the BPAL reviews by some people, notably misia, matociquala and elisem who have (big surprise there) a way with words. and i noticed that i, well, don't. not for scents. my vocabulary is sadly bereft of scent-related terminology. i didn't even know what "top, middle, and base notes" were, nevermind "drydown".

so i spent the last couple of days researching the making of, and the jargon of natural perfumery. and today i have little strips of filter paper laying next to me, carefully labelled with the names of essential oils, emitting lovely odours.

because, naturally, reading about other people making stuff always results in me wanting to learn how to make it myself. ergo, i am not buying BPAL samples. i'm gonna mix my own. firecat can stop laughing now!

p.s. i now know what frankincense and myrrh smell like. and patchouli is not actually disgusting if one encounters a good oil instead of a bad incense.

Comments

[snippy]

That is so consistent with my mental image of you.

[firecat]

You can make scented scarves! And scented Sculpey thingies!