Can you really tell what's in a scent?

[JCarr]

What bothers me more than being able to pick out various nuances within a soap/cream/aftershave with my own olfactory senses...is when a producer lists five or more scent profiles in the product description to relay to the prospective buyer what the product smells like. How the heck do I know what that conglomeration of scents will smell like?! I'm always appreciative when a producer after listing the scents within a product puts something like...this is a floral with a touch of oriental spiciness. At least that I might be able to get an idea of.

 

[Ad Astra]

I wonder why?

Can answer: about one in a zillion has allergic reaction, so it's banned by the nanny state. Which caused many x many cologne reformulations and angry wearers.

Far better to have put a simple warning: "may cause mild allergic reaction, " but that's just my opinion. I don't live in Bruge.


AA

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

Can answer: about one in a zillion has allergic reaction, so it's banned by the nanny state. Which caused many x many cologne reformulations and angry wearers.

Far better to have put a simple warning: "may cause mild allergic reaction, " but that's just my opinion. I don't live in Bruge.


AA

Common sense isn’t very common these days.

 

[Ad Astra]

Common sense isn’t very common these days.

Actual stupidity is considered fashionable!

My revenge: got a bottle of pure oakmoss essential oil and started adding it to aftershave blends.... YAHH! Take THAT, EU!


AA

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

Actual stupidity is considered fashionable!

My revenge: got a bottle of pure oakmoss essential oil and started adding it to aftershave blends.... YAHH! Take THAT, EU!


AA

Had a coworker once who’s BO was so bad you could smell him when he walked into the building. Several of us complained, it was even triggering my migraines. He just started bathing in Axe. I think that might have been worse. Fortunately for us, not him, he got fired. It took a week for the Axe smell to dissipate.

 

[Ad Astra]

Had a coworker once who’s BO was so bad you could smell him when he walked into the building. Several of us complained, it was even triggering my migraines. He just started bathing in Axe. I think that might have been worse. Fortunately for us, not him, he got fired. It took a week for the Axe smell to dissipate.

So, they "gave him the Axe," so to speak....

AA

 

[RayClem]

Had a coworker once who’s BO was so bad you could smell him when he walked into the building. Several of us complained, it was even triggering my migraines. He just started bathing in Axe. I think that might have been worse. Fortunately for us, not him, he got fired. It took a week for the Axe smell to dissipate.

Sometimes the cure can be as bad as the disease.

 

[FarmerTan]

So, they "gave him the Axe," so to speak....

AA

Close, my friend. It's more likely that he "got Axed!"

 

[FarmerTan]

Actual stupidity is considered fashionable!

My revenge: got a bottle of pure oakmoss essential oil and started adding it to aftershave blends.... YAHH! Take THAT, EU!


AA

I will look into this...

 

[Ad Astra]

I will look into this...

Ebay worked.


AA

 

[Ad Astra]

Close, my friend. It's more likely that he "got Axed!"

Was going to say, "that stinks," but I didn't know the guy...

AA

 

[BigJ]

Great discussion!

There is tremendous genetic variation in taste and smell with some folks rated as ‘super tasters’ (much of the sense of taste is actually in the sense of smell), most are ‘average’ and the rest are ’non-tasters.’ (You can apparently count taste buds to classify folks.)

Then, there is how much time and effort one spends learning to develop their senses!

 

[Noodles]

I don’t have a discerning sniffer. In fact, a lot of times, I feel like I’m “scent blind” to lavender which is in so many products. The thing that annoys me is, while I’m not good at scent notes, I do have a pretty strong good/bad reaction. Products that should be good based on the description turn out to be off-putting. Example: I love the smell of MEF, but really dislike Haslinger Schafmilch even though you would think it’s quite similar.

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

Great discussion!

There is tremendous genetic variation in taste and smell with some folks rated as ‘super tasters’ (much of the sense of taste is actually in the sense of smell), most are ‘average’ and the rest are ’non-tasters.’ (You can apparently count taste buds to classify folks.)

Then, there is how much time and effort one spends learning to develop their senses!

I’ve noticed that Mitchell’s has a bit of a sweet taste to it.

 

[Scaramouche]

Well,,there are people who are paid well as "noses" in the perfume industry. As someone pointed out, discerning fragrances is a learned art, requiring time and experience. Not the artsy-fartsy "I detect a hint of Greco-Gallic lemon spurge," but the ability to distinguish between various floral scents for example (does a rose smell different than a lilac?). This comes with experience, meaning if you haven't smelled something before, you have no idea what it smells or should smell like - scent memory. And it's not something you learn by description with no points of reference - try explaining the color blue to someone congenitally blind. The descriptions from some soap makers (or reviewers) are indeed comical sometimes - here's one of mine re-The Veg:

I think I may be halfway between, in limbo; a bridge to both worlds. I seldom use it, since it's difficult to remove from it's radioactive containment vessel, but when I do I don't die, and small children do not run screaming. On the other hand , heavenly choirs do not welcome me, and I only see across the river to the Promised Land of fragrance bliss, but cannot cross. A lilting breeze of lilac wafts over, punctuated by the oh-so faint hint of lions urinating in Eden....

The best way to get comfortable with fragrances is to smell them - some sniffers are more acute than others. Most can tell the difference between Arko (to me it smells like Ivory soap, which is not really a fragrance but a scent-memory reference point), and say, B&M's Hallows. When you get to the point of distinguishing between the Citronella of the Arko and the earthy, mossy, cinnamon-y, ground base of Hallows you're on the road...

 

[Ad Astra]

Brother Dave, here's the EO, I had to look...

@FarmerTan


AA

 

[old_school]

As pointed out by several folks you can only describe something from your frame of reference. Oud wholesale is $500/tola (3/8 oz-T.) Pretty sure this country boy hasn't smell the real deal ever. So reading a description is meaningless, trying to describe it worse. LpL Oud/Santal, WK King of Oud, SV Tundra Artica are all suppose to be Oud-y. They have nothing in common to my smeller. But I can say this David Lindley does a mean Oud.

 

[Scaramouche]

I’ve noticed that Mitchell’s has a bit of a sweet taste to it.

"Though my personal preference was for Lux, I found that Palmolive had a nice, piquant after-dinner flavor - heavy, but with a touch of mellow smoothness. Lifebuoy, on the other hand..."

 

[Bumpymacaroon]

I have no idea about scent, if I like it that’ll do for me. I now know that citrus and marine scents are favoured but then I also love tabac.

if it works for you go with it, try it. Looking at a scent profile is not the same as honking it up your hooter

 

[Burundian Hawk]

Everybody seems to write...
"I can't distinguish scents. I don't think anyone can pick out all of these supposed top notes or bottom notes or caramel or carnation or Arabian rose. The stuff just either smells good or it doesn't."

Then later...
"Arko? Man that stuff smells like an old stinky urinal cake in the public convenience down the Port Authority Bus Depot."

It is different! Arko is like (bad) wine. It has a clear aftertaste. High notes: savon de Marseille. Low notes: lemon urinal puck, citronella. You start smelling the high notes and you think: "Well, it is not that bad, it smells like clean laundry!". But as you inhale more, you think "wait, there is more!"