Smell the glove

[gwyn]

Bonus points for anyone who gets the subject line reference.

All the people who responded to my BPAL questions yesterday are so marvellous and generous! So many of you have offered to send me imps you don't want anymore and you know what? It really does feel like getting into a new fandom, the way people so often greet the n00bs with information and stuff. It's really cool. superplin suggested I might want to list the kinds of scents I like and don't like, and a couple other folks mentioned that I should list some of the ones I was thinking of getting, to see if they might have an unwanted imp around, and that all sounds like a great idea.

In no way do I expect people to give me freebies -- I will gladly pay for postage and the original costs of things, or if you're local, buy you a cup of coffee/tea and some pastries and hopfully in the future have some things to trade you for, as well. I don't want to circumvent or try to otherwise skive on the generally accepted norms of behavior!



There were almost too many to list here in terms of things I was interested in, but of course, a couple of limited editions really caught my eye (and I think I may order them sight unseen, just because I can pass them along if I don't like them). I was really drawn to a lot of the things in the Salon section: And There Was a Great Cry in Egypt; Bat-Woman; The Fox Woman Kuzunoha Leaving Her Child; Cupid Complaining to Venus; The Ecstasy of St. Teresa; Melancholia.... truthfully, I'd probably like almost everything, but many of the ingredients I don't know yet so I'm not sure what I would think of them! They all sound heavenly.

Other things I was considering: In Bewitching Brews, Absinthe, Chimera, Eclipse, Morgause, Phantasm, Veil, Zephyr, and Highwayman; in Mad Tea Party, Eat Me, The Lion, March Hare, Mouse's Long and Sad Tale, Queen of Hearts, The Red Queen and White Rabbit; in Sin & Salvation, Gluttony, Sloth, The Great Sword of War, Anathema, Black Dahlia, Languor, and Vice.

Honestly, I could go on forever, so maybe it is better to just list the kinds of things I like: My fave scents are frankincense, myrrh, ambers, vanilla, chocolate; there's never been a citrus or fruit smell I didn't like; and I love the heavy, deep flowers such as gardenia (my favorite smell), tuberose, jasmine, honeysuckle, freesia, lilacs, and the oriental lilies like stargazers and Casablancas. I'm crazy for the smell of bamboo, but it's hard to find. I love leather and kind of smokey smells, too. Tea and coffee beans, but weirdly, not cooked coffee; any kinds of nuts. Things I don't like: rose fragrances make me sneeze like whoa, though I adore them in my garden; same thing goes for lavender and rosemary -- they're great au naturel, but put them in a fragrance and I get all eye-watery and itchy. Though there are so many rose type scents I see in BPAL that I am unfamiliar with, so who knows, maybe they will work! And I love sandalwood, but patchoulis make my nose hurt. A lot of woodsy smells I love, and earth smells, but some woods like pine or fir not as much. There are many scents listed in their oils I don't know -- tonka, was the big one I saw. I had a hard time gleaning from the forums yet what some of the unfamiliar ones smell like.

The classic perfumes I've liked before are Opium, Poison, Shalimar, Gardenia Passion, L'eau d' Issey, and Ellen Tracey, if that helps.

Anyway, I don't know if that's enough to help, but I want to reiterate how much I appreciate everyone's generosity in helping me get started. I have some ka-chinging to do!


Thinking about all this fragrance stuff made me consider other smells I love. I was actually making myself laugh last night because some of them seem so weird; others I thought I was kind of a freak about liking, till I brought it up in my writing group, and found other people thought the same thing!

Ten non-perfumey smells I love, and five I don't:
1. Kitty toes (they smell like Fritos!)
2. Snow
3. Loamy, rich dirt
4. Emma's fur -- she's such a clean-smelling kitty!
5. Root beer -- how great is it that bearded irises smell like root beer, so you can have a whole garden that smells that way?
6. New electronics right out of the box
7. Chrome (seriously -- someone told me recently about some time she spent with a real perfumier and they told her how they get the scent of actual chrome. I so need to find a fragrance that uses that)
8. Book stores
9. Leather
10. Just sawn or sanded wood

1. Cigarette and cigar smoke. Nothing is more heinous that being stuck behind a car getting a faceful of that for miles.
2. Burning rubber
3. The dead, lifeless dirt in the crawlspace under my house, especially when it's damp
4. Scented cat litter. Gah!
5. The laundry and cleaning aisles of grocery stores

What are yours?

Comments

"It wasn't a glove, believe me."

[rattlecatcher.livejournal.com]

Ah, Spinal Tap...

Actually, gardenias and their ilk are the scents that send me running. Gardenia, jasmine, ylang ylang - basically the perfumer's stock ingredients - bring tears to my eyes and a headache so bad that I don't know if the tears are from a chemical burn or just me crying over the pain. And lavender and rosemary - while best natural - are often pretty decent to my nose when they're in soaps or perfumes.

But on the plus side: it sounds like I could use you for regifting the next time someone gives me Chanel. No, doesn't happen often. But I like to think ahead. ;)

Meanwhile, I'm with you on scented cat litter. Or anything that is scented to cover up some other smell. It so rarely works.

My cat's head smells good, too. Can't tell you about his toes.

Rain on dry ground - it's a smell that makes me quiver. It makes me think that maybe, just maybe, the next rain will drench us. I'll pass out, trying to keep smelling that smell.

Cornnuts and popcorn are two scents I loathe when I'm not eating the items. As I rarely eat them, this can be a problem.

Re: "It wasn't a glove, believe me."

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Everyone I know hates the smell of Cornnuts -- my German teacher in high school I even remember catching me eating some and making a nasty comment in German about it. But I love it! There's something about roasty nutty smells... no idea but I both love the smell and the taste.

[andymcnope.livejournal.com]

Ten non-perfumey smells I love, and five I don't:
1. Kitty toes (they smell like Fritos!)

And they taste great with bean dip as well!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Bwah!!!!

Bring on the sour cream! Nyom nyom nyom...

[feochadn.livejournal.com]

Spinal Tap!

Glad you've found a way into BPAL.

Like your list *g*. Here's mine:
Likes --
1. Rain on pavement
2. Coffee brewing (especially early morning)
3. Pine wood fire (fireplace or campfire)
4. Cordite
5. Roland's fur (goes without saying)
6. Sage (the outdoor, prairie kind)
7. Horses
8. Vinegar
9. Fresh hay
10. Newspaper inks

and the five:
Dislikes --
1. chocolate (anything baking, or in candy stores)
2. Garlic
3. cigar smoke (I can stand cigarette, somewhat)
4. licorice or anise
5. cooking eggs

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I made my first order last night! I'll have to share some of them with you, I think they sound pretty good. If I had made a list of 15, I would have included printing presses and cordite too. Though I also would have had anise as a like -- I will have to give you ample warning if I ever make the family cookie recipe at my own house.

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

1. Cigarette and cigar smoke. Nothing is more heinous that being stuck behind a car getting a faceful of that for miles.

Wordy Mc Word.

I can be around ciggarette smoke somewhat, but cigars? I smell one of those for more than a few minutes and I start getting physically ill.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

For the life of me, I cannot figure out the attraction to cigars. I especially don't get the whole spit-soaked end thing, chewing on that all day or whatever. Gag.

[merricatk.livejournal.com]

Likes:

1) Money (no, really, paper money smells wonderful)
2) Bandaids
3) Cedar
4) Bergamot
5) Rain
6) Tar shampoo
7) Freshly cut grass
8) I'm not sure it is I'm smelling, but when you drive down a country road at night, there's something in the air that's just heaven. I've never been able to narrow it down.
9) Blood

Dislikes:

1) Roses
2) Cigars, cigarettes. (OTOH, I like the smell of a pipe)
3) And for some reason, I'm having trouble tolerating the smell of lilacs, which is sad becasue my house is surrounded by lilac bushes & I used to love their smell. I don't know what that's about.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I like paper money smell too! And Band-Aids and rain. I wonder if the lilacs reaction is wrapped up in the loss of Pat? Smells are the most powerful of the sense memories, after all, so maybe there's a history that's hard for you to handle? (Sorry for playing amateur psychologist...)

[merricatk.livejournal.com]

Hey, I wouldn't be surprised if that doesn't have something to do with it, for a couple of reasons. I always used to take a vacation in April, just to hang around the house, & of course that's when the lilacs were starting. And then we'd go to MediaWest over Memorial Day weekend, only because it's in Michigan, the lilacs would quite often just be blooming there, so there's that--both associations that are very much connected to Pat.

[alexfandra.livejournal.com]

Like:
Puppies
Dog fur in general, and even wet dog fur
Chocolate
Cinnamon
Vanilla
Ditto on the root beer, the only soda I will ever drink
Fresh baked bread
The air just before or just after a rain shower
Garlic
The sea

Dislike:
Cigarettes, with a passion bordering on psychosis
Cat urine
Leftover mac and cheese that's way past the time it should have been thrown away
Perfume (sorry...I'm horribly allergic to most anything that smells nice, including most fragrant flowers and most perfumes/colognes). Most people seem to have enough sense to use just a little, and that seems to be fine. What I hate is when I walk into an elevator or a restroom and get hit full in the face with gagging overload of the stuff.)

You must be using them right, as I've never sneezed around you!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

You know, there's a lot of things about perfume that might be triggering your responses and it's part of what happens when people overdo scents. One of the worst culprits is the alcohol used in most fragrances so that it will spray -- it amps up the worst of the notes and it also means people are using too much, because sprays don't really control. I think one of the reasons mine never bothers you is because I prefer real perfume, where you can dab it. That's one of the reasons I'm attracted to BPAL's perfume oils -- you don't have to douse yourself.

perfume should be something you only smell when you're close to someone -- if you can smell it five feet away, they're doing it wrong. And it should be something pleasant that wafts, not something that comes at you like a smell freight train.

[merricatk.livejournal.com]

I don't have problems with perfume, but the men around here & their cologne! It just hits you as they walk by, and I have to bite my tongue not to say, "NOBODY COULD POSSIBLY SMELL THAT BAD! REALLY!!"

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I guess most men can't smell musk, which is used in a lot of perfumes, and so they tend to OD on stuff. Apparently they are also less olfactorily endowed than women, so they don't get that they stink like whoa when they pour on the cologne or aftershave. The worst ones are the Calvin Klein scents for me - they are way too intense and men use them far too generously. Pew!

[alexfandra.livejournal.com]

We had a faculty member in my old office space who used to douse the cheap stuff on in the single-seater restroom, which brought tears to my eyes if I went in after her. I am *so* glad I'm now in a different wing from her.

Do you go to the perfume place downtown run by a woman named Nasreen? She's supposed to know just by looking at you what scent will work best.

Have fun with BPAL!

[moonpupy.livejournal.com]

Turning it up to 11.

Good Smells:

Good dirt - the kind things love to grow in.
Fresh blood
Musk
Ground cumin
Horses - I could snort horses, lol.
Rain
Snow
Fresh cut or split wood
Sun-dried clothing. It takes me forever to bring laundry in during the summer.

Bad Smells:

Cigarette and Cigar Smoke - I always want to ask cigar smokers why they love sucking on turds.
Most all smoke, actually. There's too many plastics and contaminants in "wild fires" nowadays.
My cats' butts - No, I do not want to smell them, tyvm.
Most any floral perfume.
The laundry, cleaning and gardening aisles. You'd think they could make 'unscented' items actually unscented.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Horsies!!! Yes, yes, yes, especially silky velvety noses. Horsies are a glorious smell indeed. And yeah, sun-dried clothing. Mmmmmm...

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

Likes:
1. Jasmine (no, really?)
2. Lime; other citruses to a lesser degree (see above…)
3. Wood smoke
4. A coniferous forest, especially with warm sunshine
5. The smell bacteria releases when wet, commonly thought to be "rain on pavement"
6. Dad's deodorant
7. Warm bread
8. Old books
9. Leather
10. Fruit pies or cobblers

1. All pet smells; the way they make a house smell, their food, their breath, litter, and obviously urine and feces. I wouldn't know about fur or toes because I don't dare get my face that close.
2. Cigarettes and cigars, but not pipes
3. Exhaust
4. Marine air, that mix of rotting seaweed and salt
5. Hospitals and other similar environments (cabs, old folks' homes), where you know all the furniture padding needed to be changed five years ago
6. Similarly, car air fresheners in combination with the smelly car

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Pet smells -- I fear all this time you haven't been telling me something!

Fine, get all techie about the rain on pavement thing. ;-)

Are you busy for work today? I was going to call you.

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

Pet smells -- I fear all this time you haven't been telling me something!

Never fear. For one thing, your house is a miracle house. For another, I know I hate these smells because I equate them with having an attack; there's no other reason to hate the food smell, so it's rather irrational, and no point in bitching at people about the way their cat food smells. As for the poop, everyone hates cat poop smell, so I hardly think I'm alone there. *G*

Are you busy for work today? I was going to call you.

Good timing. I'm not today, but I have a meeting tomorrow. (At the MS campus. OoOoOo!)

[zandra-x.livejournal.com]

Like:

coffee
lemon
ginger
cut grass
gin
bacon frying (though I don't care to eat it)
lavender
men

Dislike:

The soap aisle in the supermarket
roofing tar
cigarettes
plastic
orange blossoms and tuber roses

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Gin! I think it's the junipery quality or something. Can't quite put my finger on it, but I like it too.

[rainkatt.livejournal.com]

Your likes sound a lot like mine--Opium, ambers, frankincense...

My list--likes:

coffee--beans, brewed, or freshly ground
the pipe tobacco that used to live in a humidor on my father's desk
Max's fur
horses
limes
red wine
chocolate
freshly baked bread
curry
lilacs

Dislikes:
freshly cut grass--instant headache
a lit pipe
cigars
coconut
dog, especially wet

This list could be huge--I had no idea until I started thinking about it...

The weird thing about BPAL is that it's hard to know what will work, and what will last. I don't have any imps to share right now--but if Miss M doesn't like the White Rabbit, I'll get it to you. And maybe a couple of others. I just tried six, and only loved one of the lot. Miss M has first refusal, and after that, we'll probably divide up what's left for trading purposes, and I'll let you know what I've got left at that point.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

The weirdest thing about pipe tobacco is that most people like it even when they hate other forms of it in ciggies and cigars. I don't know why. I love tobacco in fragrances, though -- I got some samples at Barney's a year or so ago that I went through really fast, because they had the most wonderful combos of scents, and both included different types of tobacco. I'm definitely looking for that in the BPAL fragrances.

I'm looking forward to the order I made -- there's so much to try, and it will keep me busy for a long time!

Just wanted to say...

[keiko-kirin.livejournal.com]

This morning on the way to work I passed a huge Frito-Lay truck, and all I could think was Kitty toes! :-)

Re: Just wanted to say...

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Heeee!!!!

I did get your message - -and yeah, you made a lot of good points. I was thinking about posting my concerns, just to kvetch mostly. (Like Ciaran Hinds's character said in Munich: If I can't kvetch, I can't do my job.) I tried to upload a file just to see how awful it would look, but it crashed every time. So I don't know. It just doesn't seem worth it, but maybe it would drive traffic... I just can't see that happening, though. The kinds of people who watch streaming media would never be bothered to DL something better, I think.