Alchemy Report

I thought I might get in the habit of a weekly update on the perfumes I've been playing with. Some of them will eventually appear in my Etsy shop when it opens; others will be just for me and some will be banished to the Fail Bin. So! Here's what's been happening this week.

Win: A perfume oil inspired by my current D&D character class - Duskblade. It's such an evocative word, I couldn't resist. Duskblade is a vanilla and black musk base, with notes of leather, black pepper, plum and violet mixed in. I'm testing it this evening and it is a definite win for me. The black pepper and plum hits first, then tapers down to the violet. I was worried the violet would be overwhelming (it's a pretty big, noisy floral), but I think the leather and vanilla are weighing it down a bit so it's not in-my-face flowery. I can't really pick up the black musk but I can tell there's "something" else in there. The plum and black pepper keep peeking back through, too. I really love this ^_^

Fail: I picked up a whiskey fragrance oil last week and needed to make a blend inspired by Ethan Banning. I mixed the whiskey with leather, sandalwood, and apricot and...it just stank of whiskey. I was hoping it'd be mostly spicy-smooth from the sandalwood with hints of fruit and booze, but no. It's just booze. It smelt quite nice, but it wasn't at all what I was aiming for and certainly nothing I'd ever wear, so it got scrapped. I'm still determined to make the blend work though; I need to learn that less is more with alcoholic scents. I have the same problem with sweet rum - I think I'm putting in just enough and it ends up overwhelming everything else.

Just for me: I also got a white chocolate fragrance oil and thought I'd try that with some white florals and a bit of lemon. I was hoping for something a bit delicate and mysterious, but as with the whiskey, the white chocolate overwhelmed all the other notes. It smells amazing, but again it's not really something I'd wear as a perfume. It's too delicious to scrap though, so I'm going to use it as a bath oil or in an oil burner.

I will probably be looking for guinea pigs for Duskblade in the near future, so if you like the sound of it, stay tuned!