Miscellany of the day

[Saudalhajri]

straight up indian jasmine grandi. absolute, this year's batch. Starts with bright fruits, fresh jasmine blooms, transitions to bubblegum-like scent, indoles start to creep in, not too creamy. around the 2-3 hour mark a very yummy musky scent appears, close to mongolian musk grains

 

[Mr.P]

straight up indian jasmine grandi. absolute, this year's batch. Starts with bright fruits, fresh jasmine blooms, transitions to bubblegum-like scent, indoles start to creep in, not too creamy. around the 2-3 hour mark a very yummy musky scent appears, close to mongolian musk grains

Good stuff I imagine! That distinct reference to literal musk is something that has caught my attention as well, agree 100%

 

[Saudalhajri]

Good stuff I imagine! That distinct reference to literal musk is something that has caught my attention as well, agree 100%

It’s become my favorite Jasmine , I was team sambac before, until I tried some proper grandiflorum.
Sambac feels more “feminine” for the lack of a better word. Grandiflorum more masculine. Surprisingly long lasting too.

 

[Shiningrobes]

I’ve been circling around a blend in progress lately that’s made up of a core of Peru balsam, Atlas cedar and rose absolute with ever shifting proportions and guest stars between test batches. Trying to find “the one true ratio.” It’s spicy, floral, woody, balsamic (duh), and varying levels of sweet depending on how much of each of the two woods is in there. Sometimes it even has a fruity lilt. It’s hard to go wrong with the three main oils.

The main recurring visitor is Tulsi. Just those four right there combine almost endlessly into beautiful things. The barest grace note of tulsi with the rose can make the perfect rose. More tulsi makes a spicy, lusty rose.

Sandalwood is kind of the final link in the chain. The question has been which one. Mysore neat or mysore with animalics. I think I’ve settled on the mysore/oud-CO2 combo I made very recently split with regular Mysore. Dosed correctly this hints at incense. Now just to pick the best of the best of all the rest.

 

[anexplorer]

Ruh Gulab from Craftoud. Starts off very earthy-green, like the smell of rose leaves or rose stem and soon fills the air with the smell of citronellol as the earthiness goes away.

 

[p$yl35h]

Today I had an interesting experience with Argan oil. I use pure Argan oil from mountain rose herbs - a pretty high quality source. On application I realized it has an interesting deep leathery barny but without the funk scent to it. Reminiscent of high quality assam. It’s quickly absorbed into skin but I was wondering if any of the experts here have explored Argan oil as a fragrance note.

 

[Alamande]

Been experiencing a ‘paradox of choice’ thing with my collection lately where I end up mostly using the newest oils/attars/whatever I bought and being too lazy to give proper attention to the stuff already in the collection.

Today, though, I had a flash of inspiration and layered up a nice smear of Oudique SQ Zabad paste with two drops of last year’s Habz Nangarhar rose and two drops of the FP Sultan’s Ta’ifi. Rubbed it on the backs of my hands then through my hair. Nice combo…the rose and civet are a great match.

 

[Shiningrobes]

Osmanthus, Seville lavender, Ruh khus, a high dose of civet and sandalwood with musk and ambergris!

Osmanthus and vetiver is normally such a heady combo but the Seville lavender is so camphorous it just pulls it into a new direction. The lavender also has leather characteristics that help anchor the whole thing in the musk. There are tea like notes riding up, up, up on the civet from the two florals. You’d think this would be fruity with the dried apricot smell of the lavender and the fresh apricot of the osmanthus, but not at all. This is very pretty but also masculine in a way I never predicted. The civet! My god it’s so seductive.

AND I have enough raw materials to make more!

 

[Saudalhajri]

Trying some Madagascan vanilla absolute
Even at 10% dilution it’s powerful, dark chocolate, earthy, bittersweet, a little Smokey, and a beautiful classical creamy vanilla scent. My nose is glued to my wrist. It’s been well over 12 hours and I can still smell it even after a hot shower. Something unexpected was a slight animalic scent, I can’t tell exactly what kind of “animalic” but it’s somewhere between indole and fermented fruits, it’s very subtle but still there.

Actually this here was Indian vanilla absolute, not Madagascan. Grown and extracted in India.
It’s one of the materials that smells a ton better when diluted

 

[Shiningrobes]

My patchouli/musk/ambergris maceration is coming up to maturity and magical enough on its own, but with the tiniest dot of civet is kind of unreal. I don’t even know how to describe this. It’s like wearing a perfume that smells like clean skin and hair with Cassie flower. Pheromonal but fresh from the shower pheromones. So soft, so smooth. So supremely human smelling.

 

[Joe]

My patchouli/musk/ambergris maceration is coming up to maturity and magical enough on its own, but with the tiniest dot of civet is kind of unreal. I don’t even know how to describe this. It’s like wearing a perfume that smells like clean skin and hair with Cassie flower. Pheromonal but fresh from the shower pheromones. So soft, so smooth. So supremely human smelling.S

Sounds beautifu; have you tried making a dirty pheromones version? Call it Exteme.

 

[Shiningrobes]

Sounds beautifu; have you tried making a dirty pheromones version? Call it Exteme.

I had originally thought this might get a little dirty with the amount of ambergris. I’m sure if I were to dump a bunch of civet in there it easily could. The funny thing is the patchouli maceration alone is not like I described. It’s dense and dark and ancient. I’m just starting to get a handle on civet and it blows me away how the tiniest amount can give huge lift and projection. I recently sampled a different head spinningly amazing patchouli (like the caviar, crème de La crème of patch) that reminds me of civet in the first flush so that’s what gave me the idea to do co-swipe this. I’m almost tempted to add some civet to this maceration but I don’t want to mess with it. It’s a fairly large bottle and it could easily age many years before I got to the bottom of it. I’d love to just let this keep aging as I wear it. I am thinking about getting more of this current patchouli though since I won’t find another like it and I can always divide it and play around. I’ve never knowingly smelled castoreum but I’m imagining it would be a perfect match with the right patchouli. (If you can’t tell I really love patchouli).

 

[roflwaffle]

I’ve never knowingly smelled castoreum but I’m imagining it would be a perfect match with the right patchouli

Yes, castoreum and patch go well together for sure. Tho it's not a great solvent for it, so I believe adding benzyl benzoate in small amount or benzyl alcohol, or extracting into eth, then into the patch and evap off the ethanol yield a better resultt

What was the source of the amazing patch btw?

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Yes, castoreum and patch go well together for sure. Tho it's not a great solvent for it, so I believe adding benzyl benzoate in small amount or benzyl alcohol, or extracting into eth, then into the patch and evap off the ethanol yield a better resultt

What was the source of the amazing patch btw?

That second option wont work, if you remove the alcohol, all the polar stuff will crash out.
What would work is extract in ethanol and after maturing, filtrate and remove the alcohol. Then dissolve the residu in benzyl benzoate and blend that with the patch.
Or infuse a bit of jojoba (or similar) with the castoreum, filtrate and add the jojoba to the patch.
Both ways, extract/infuse 2 wks on stirrer and let it mature for 3 months minimum before the next step. The maturation wont happen in the patch as it doesn't allow for much free motion of molecules.
Ethanol will result in broader spectrum than jojoba though.


Edited for typos and an err😁

 

[Shiningrobes]

Yes, castoreum and patch go well together for sure. Tho it's not a great solvent for it, so I believe adding benzyl benzoate in small amount or benzyl alcohol, or extracting into eth, then into the patch and evap off the ethanol yield a better resultt

I would probably just buy a tincture an

That second option wont work, if you remove the alcohol, all the polar stuff will crash out.
What would work is extract in ethanol and after maturing, filtrate and remove the alcohol. Then dissolve the residu in benzyl benzoate and blend that with the patch.
Or infuse a bit of jojoba (or similar) with the castoreum, filtrate and add the jojoba to the patch.
Both ways, extract/infuse 2 wks on stirrer and let it mature for 3 months minimum before the next step. The maturation wont happen in the patch as it doesn't allow for much free motion of molecules.
Ethanol will result in broader spectrum than jojoba though.


Edited for typos and an err😁

I think Dan from Apothecary’s Garden has a prepared concoction that can go into oil. Since I just barely got a mortar and pestle I would probably go that route. I don’t even have a .001 scale.

 

[MaxFromHolland]

I would probably just buy a tincture an

I think Dan from Apothecary’s Garden has a prepared concoction that can go into oil. Since I just barely got a mortar and pestle I would probably go that route. I don’t even have a .001 scale.

That sounds practical🫡

 

[roflwaffle]

I would probably just buy a tincture an

I'll just say that in the US anyway, you can get a full sac for wildly cheap, i think apothecary garden marks up like 300%+. But you'd have to tincture for a few months. i just scraped the pods, and scissor cut up, no mortaring for tincture and it was fine/as expected. have like 2 lifetime supplies for like $30 or something.

And... what's that patch?

That second option wont work, if you remove the alcohol, all the polar stuff will crash out.

You're right that it crashes out, but that's why filters exist 😉. Works just fine. Not really that much crashed out, so wasnt too big of a deal. I generally try to avoid jojoba, but BB should be fine. I generally try to avoid drying to a concrete if i can help it, so maybe adding the ethanol to BB and evaping is the best play of all. Though. I have no real evidence that there's greater loss when going to concrete then redissolving, just feels like better evap management to keep in solution, but that may be my own internalized lies 😀

 

[MaxFromHolland]

I'll just say that in the US anyway, you can get a full sac for wildly cheap, i think apothecary garden marks up like 300%+. But you'd have to tincture for a few months. i just scraped the pods, and scissor cut up, no mortaring for tincture and it was fine/as expected. have like 2 lifetime supplies for like $30 or something.

And... what's that patch?


You're right that it crashes out, but that's why filters exist 😉. Works just fine. Not really that much crashed out, so wasnt too big of a deal. I generally try to avoid jojoba, but BB should be fine. I generally try to avoid drying to a concrete if i can help it, so maybe adding the ethanol to BB and evaping is the best play of all. Though. I have no real evidence that there's greater loss when going to concrete then redissolving, just feels like better evap management to keep in solution, but that may be my own internalized lies 😀

I agree that adding bb to the ethanol and then evap feels more elegant, letting the molecules migrate from a to b.
Think it depends on the equipment at hand which is easier.
I figured with the crashed-out part you lose part of the notes and better avoid that.

 

[Joe]

it blows me away how the tiniest amount can give huge lift and projection.

Hey too, my friend. It is such a powerful and supportive material. I use it frequently so should you. At subliminal levels, it’s quite appealing. At obvious levels, it’s too pissy.

 

[mobyus]

Homemade - Hojari Frankincense juice

Drinking it for the health benefits. I just seep the Hojari in water for a few hours then drink. Tastes slightly citrusy and bitter. Kind of like tree sap and wood but only fleetingly. I feel good in the gut for hours.