Indolic fragrances

[joellcox]

I just wondered what you all think of, or have experience with, indolic jasmine-type scents. I bought a bottle of Nurture Soap's "Death & Decay" (the description and name were too tempting to pass up) and what I get is a very very floral, sickly sweet, slightly nauseating scent. I took a little sniffy of it to work and asked others' opinions. Several really liked it and picked up the floral notes, especially rose, and a couple others made a weird face and remarked that it smelled like flowers, but there was something sinister in there, lurking in the depths. OK, I took some poetic license there, but that was the gist of it.

It was strong OOB, so I went light on it. I'm wondering how it's going to play out during cure.

 

[dixiedragon]

For me, all of scents that are too heavy, too dark, too rich OOB are lovely in soap. They sort of "open up" and are rich, complex and interesting vs overwhelming.

 

[cmzaha]

I have never tried but a couple of Nurture fo's and really did not like either, so really have been leary of trying anymore. But I do like strong, dark scents, and fully believe in testing out fo's before I make up my mind. Some OOB smell delicious and do work in soap, some smell awful and are delicious after curing. Heavy florals can be softened with musky fo's

 

[makemineirish]

I am not sure if this is helpful, but have a few thoughts:

Floral is a scent category that is highly polarizing. Most people have a strong reaction to them (positive or negative). I personally hate the majority of them and my association is that of elderly women. (I use the term elderly to distinguish between a crone-like figure akin to my middle-school English instructor...from someone who is aged but well maintained (think Jane Fonda). However, there are a large number of people (such as my younger sister-in-law) that love heady florals and wear them well. My point being, that I would expect very mixed reactions regarding ANY floral.

The majority of Nurture's fragrance oils are dupes of discontinued LUSH scents. I am not necessarily a fan of much of the LUSH line, but admit that my "signature" scent is a discontinued concoction of theirs. I first stumbled onto Nurture as a vendor because it is the ONLY company to carry that fragrance. I have to say that the dupe seems spot on. I have been thrilled to locate a replication and the quality of customer service offered there. Now that Mad Oils is eliminating sizes smaller than 25lb from their regular lineup and Nurture is adding them to theirs, they are likely to become my go-to vendor. (I am one of those that tacked the micas onto my fragrance order rather than the other way around.) My point is that while I do not care for many of the LUSH scents, Nurture's duplications of them are excellent.

The fact that these are replications of scents originally released by fragrance houses allows you to utilize some other tools. Basenotes and Fragrantica are websites that review fragrances. I prefer the latter and find a few tools to be particularly useful. First, they have a graphic that shows the notes as listed in the perfume and one that shows the notes arranged by predominance based on user reviews (like an ingredients label). There is also a poll result graphic detailing whether users liked/disliked the scent, considered it to be more day/night, and what season it was most appropriate for. There are even detailed notes from people who are inclined to be far more picky and selective than someone utilizing the scent in a wash-off product. (I may not want to smell like a mint, but love it if my soap does.)

I posted something similar in a response regarding misleading and/or insufficient marketing descriptions a while back. I am adding it here so that you can see the graphics without me having to hunt them down again: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showpost.php?p=609279&postcount=22

Here is a link to the actual Fragrantica page on Death & Decay perfume:
http://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Lush/Death-and-Decay-26630.html

I am sorry for the overly verbose response. I was in too much of a hurry to pare it down to something more succinct. I hope my rambling makes sense.

 

[joellcox]

Thanks for the comments. The soap is out of the mold and curing now. It's still an overpowering sickly floral scent to my nose, but I can also see that some people could like it. In that way maybe it's like patchouli...either love it or hate it. BTW, this thread in no way is a criticism of Nuture Soap. Their customer service is fantastic and shipping is very quick. Their Avobath type FO is wonderful, glad I bought a big bottle of that.

 

[Fisher]

Indolic Jasmine notes are my "thing" - in fact it's how I got my start in perfume r&d with the
Gorgeous heady indolic Jasmine perfume "Alfred Sung". How is that soap smelling? I'm definitely going to try that Fo.

 

[joellcox]

It sticks. It is still very strong.