telophase | BPAL review: Vice

Vice

BPAl description: From the Sin & Salvation collection. Voluptuous and indulgent! A deep chocolate scent, with black cherry and orange blossom.

I got it because it sounded interesting, no other reason. I like citrus scents, but so far nothing citrus has stayed citrus on me.

In vial: Chocolate underneath the scent, with the orange touches making it smell like those chocolate oranges you can buy. Something very familiar on top, can't quite place what it is (well, obviously the black cherry, but it reminds me of soemthign else).

Wet: Still chocolate orange, although not so orange now. A sort of half-incense, half-floral smell to it. Again, smells like a New Age shop. Or Renfaire. Now very much incense-y. In a good way, not that overpowering headache-inducing incense smell.

Dry: Mostly light chocolate, faintly fruity scent, although not identifiable as orange. But some form of candy. 30 minutes later: still candy. But not bad.

Notes: Cat spent more time sniffing this than any other so far. Subtle scent on me, not overpowering. I'm wondering aobut the advisability of wearing it to work: I might end up trailed by hungry librarians, positive that I was hiding candy.

ETA: Totally no staying power. 3 hours later and there's no trace left.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

IME so far (i'm still very new at the perfume creation thing) there are only a couple of citrus scents that stay past the first phase in a perfume's development -- litsea cubeba, a really good neroli (expensive), and eucalyptus citriodora (way too strong to use in perfume unless you want to smell of bug spray). citrus in general is really volatile -- much to my regret, since it's my favourite scent group.

Huh. Interesting. Well, Vice as a whole is a subtle scent on me, too - it's almost completely gone on one wrist and is faint on the other.

The Body Shop has a satsuma body lotion that sticks on me for hours. I don't know a thing about the chemistry of it, though, so I don't know how the lotion affects it as opposed to perfume oils or how gawdawful artificial it is. :)

satsuma, eh? now i have to go and try that one out (and read the label to see whether i can divine what they are doing).

oh look, i don't have to. it's online. (http://www.thebodyshop.com/bodyshop/browse/product_detail.jsp?productId=prod160230&tabname=ingredients#detailtabs) i love the web.

yeah, they definitely are using synthetics in addition to essential mandarin, satsuma, and sweet orange oils. it does get my goat how all those "natural"-looking skincare products are chock full of stuff that's many steps removed from anything somebody without a chemistry degree would recognise. oh well, these guys are nowhere near the worst.

they're also using highly concentrated components (citral, for example, an aldehyde, is 15 times as strong as the same volume of lemon oil). and i see citronellol there, which is a main component of eucalyptus citriodora oil, and that lasts quite a bit longer than the others. also geraniol (which smells like a soft, dry rose) seems in my experiments to extend citrus scents; they go really well together, and the rose doesn't pop out on top. wow, they really pumped a lot of citrussy components into that lotion: the 3 oils, and citral, limonene, citronellol. not to mention the mysterious "fragrance" -- i just love it when that sits on a label without further explanation. i think the phenoxyethanol is also a fixative. could be that that helps it last.

i am sure you really wanted to know all of that. *little snicker*. i am such a geek when i get into something. sorry!

No worries, it's all interesting. :)

Citranellol, huh? Makes me feel that at least I won't be bothered by mosquitos. XD

BPAL review: Vice

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