...Recently, I've noticed that fragrances are lasting a lot longer on me than they used to. With most fragrances, I used to be able to spray them on and apply something new the next day with at most a quick rinse to get rid of any residue of yesterday's scent. But now I'm having scents last quite strongly into the next day and I need to take a shower to rinse them off, sometimes even that isn't enough. It's the middle of summer here, and the weather has just got a lot warmer (I keep my house air conditioned, but the ambient air temperature is a few degrees warmer than it would be in spring). I thought that heat made fragrances evaporate faster, so they smell stronger, but don't last as long. Am I wrong about this? I'm trying to figure out if the improved longevity of my fragrances is due to something environmental, or if my skin chemistry has changed without me knowing! 

...@Bodomic I got my zoologist samples today and tested them all on paper. Sadly I was disappointed by Penguin, not because it's a badly crafted scent - quite the opposite - but because of the associations it brings to mind for me. It smells EXACTLY like a dentist's office! Cool and sterile, antiseptically minty, with the slight powdery sweetness of latex gloves. I know that I've sat in doctor's waiting rooms that smell like this. There's a rather nice suede note that starts to come out, but it doesn't change the sterile medical impression at all for me, if anything it adds to it...doctor's leather bag...I think that it lacks an aquatic/sea note to ground the things you're smelling in a natural environment. However, I've seen some reviews where people say it definitely has an aquatic note, so maybe that's something that comes out on skin. I won't write it off immediately.I also got a sample of Snowy Owl and the two definitely have something in common, but Snowy Owl smells more earthy, floral and natural rather than antiseptic to me.

...I've only been collecting for a few months, and I already feel slightly overwhelmed; I can only imagine how much worse it must get. I started out blind buying and following the opinions of fragrance reviewers, but luckily I realised pretty fast, before it became a problem, that wasn't sustainable. So now, to keep things manageable for myself, I've come up with a system for how I explore new fragrances. Even though I haven't been collecting for as long as you, I share this with the hope it might help you too.Firstly, while I find it interesting to read about new fragrances as they pop up, and sometimes one of these will lead me to purchase a sample (for example, I bought the new Penguin sample today), I do not try to "keep up" with new releases. I also don't listen to what the majority of the fragrance community says, as I've found that some of my biggest failures have been perfumes that everyone loved and hyped up. I still read and watch reviews, but I don't place a lot of value on other people's judgements of quality or pleasantness; I mainly do it to get different interpretations of the scent. I prefer to pick things based on notes that I know I like, and then I read/watch the reviews AFTER I've tested it myself, and compare my interpretation to that of other fragrance lovers...always an interesting experience, as I often have vastly different scent associations to the majority of people.Right now, I'm focusing on having representative fragrances of certain notes or styles in my collection. If I find a fragrance I really, really love, I don't feel the need to try any other fragrances that are similar. For example, I've already found my perfect rose, so I don't need to try any more roses (unless they have something really unique and different going on). I have a list of notes that I want to find my "perfect version" of - tobacco, gardenia, narcissus, leather - so I actively search for and read reviews of perfumes in those genres, and shortlist any that I think may be worth sampling. I also like to buy sample sets from specific houses that I find interesting; right now that's Zoologist, which is actually why I bought the Penguin sample, not because it's new but because it's a Zoologist fragrance and I thought the notes looked like something I would enjoy.Last but not least, I have a list of rules for myself about when and why I should buy a full bottle of something, or even order new samples. This is partly to keep within a budget, and partly so that I don't end up with an overwhelmingly huge collection of mediocre fragrances that I never wear. My rules include selling on or giving away bottles/samples I don't like, and making sure that I've tested everything in my collection at least once before acquiring anything new.On another note, I wonder if things are not smelling as good to you anymore because you have a bit of olfactory fatigue? I recall someone else on here needed to periodically take a break from smelling fragrances in order to appreciate the scents properly. Even if that's not the case, a short break could be what you need to get that sense of excitement and discovery back.

...This article reads a little bit like it was written by AI to me. No sources are cited. I wouldn't believe it at this point

...FragSlackerI find that a lot of the resins used for incense have differing hints of camphor or (some use the term camphorous). Camphor is basically the terpene profile of the resin and the different terpenes have complex aromas that hint at different things in nature like mint, lemon, pine needles for example. Some of the same descriptions of terpene profiles are regularly used in cannabis horticulture. Some examples in my collection that stand out for me with Cistus Labdanum are Tauer  Lonestar Memories, where I kind of feel it combines with the clary sage to give it a distinct camphorous profile; Reve D’Ossian from Oriza Legrand has labdanum mixed with some other resins like Benzoin and Opopanax, which is a myrrh, and It presents as a sweeter and less earthy camphor profile to me.I grew up catholic and went to a Jesuit secondary school, and I am fairly certain that in America a lot of the churches have myrrh in their incense because of the affinity to the gifts from the wise men. However, myrrh is not from a single plant, but a class of plants. Maybe check out some Opoponax or Benzoin, which has a sweeter terpene profile or some of the different myrrhs. Thank you! I'm familiar with benzoin and it's not that (benzoin is too sweet and vanillic), but I did wonder about myrrh. It seems the most likely candidate. I don't know how accurate this is, but while researching this I also read on the internet that cistus essential oil is sometimes added to incense, especially frankincense. I remember seeing the priests scoop raw resin granules into the censer though, so it was probably a pure resin. 

...This note is in Ambre sultan Eau de Parfum, unsurprisingly, since it actually does focus on cistus according to the marketing.

...I grew up going to church, and periodically we would have "special services" where incense was burned. I don't know what type of resin was used, but I remember the smell very distinctly. I don't know how to describe it, though. Very warm, dark, woody and slightly aromatic (a bit like sage)? No words can really capture the complexity and beauty of this smell. I have smelled it in perfumery twice so far: it's the primary scent in Vétiver oriental, and I've also accidentally recreated it by combining mimosa, tiare flower, patchouli and agarwood in one of my own perfume creations.Today while running some errands, I passed a stretch of pavement where I smelled this exact scent. I thought nothing of it the first time I passed, but the second time, I was looking around and notice a hedge made of plants that looked familiar. I got out my plant identification app and just as I suspected, they were Cistus species. They were not flowering, I was only smelling the leaves.I'm aware that labdanum comes from the Cistus plant, but I've smelled labdanum absolute and it's very different to this mystery resin I'm trying to identify: much sweeter, smoother and less complex. Labdanum is a smell I associated with the "amber" accord whereas my mystery resin is not.I'm wondering if anyone knows the smell I'm talking about and can identify what resin might have been burned as incense at my church. I know it's not frankincense because I have L'orpheline and it doesn't smell like that and I've also had various cone incenses that use frankincense and it doesn't smell like that either. Nor does it smells like dragon's blood incense.Also, I've always wondered why some perfumes say they contain "labdanum" and some say they contain "cistus". What is the difference? Are these using different parts of the plant that smell different?P.S. see attached photo of lovely smelling plant

...If I get a sample of this (set of zoologist samples is on my wishlist) I'll come back to your question and let you know what I think. Fragrance note detective work is fun. 

...Unfortunately I don't have many people in my life who are into fragrances (or perhaps it's fortunate, otherwise I'd be spending a lot more buying gifts...) but I'm thinking of giving a friend my bottle of Encre Noire Sport, or at least splitting the bottle with him. I blind bought it because it was at a big discount, thinking well at least if I don't like it, I know someone who will. I probably need to give it a little more time but on the test strip I find it too strong and I have a sample of Vétiver oriental that I like a lot more. I don't feel that I need more than one vetiver-dominant fragrance and if I had to choose I would rather have a full bottle or larger decant of the Serge Lutens.

...Thank you. I think that should be possible.

...How do people discover layering combinations that work? Is there some method that can be applied to figuring out what fragrances will go well together?  Have you ever discovered great combinations by accident (e. g. spraying on a new perfume when there's still traces of a previous one on your skin)? This has just happened to me with 2 of my Serge Lutens that I wear a lot (that I certainly wouldn't have thought to combine) and I'm currently testing the combo on paper to see how it smells when I combine them on purpose, before going all in... The projection is insane, my whole room smells like the fanciest floral soap. It's almost too much but smells great. I'll report back with the names of the fragrances if this is a success! 

...Btw @Mitchcraft it seems like the video bug only happens with the first post in a thread, so maybe in the future you could embed videos separately in a reply to work around this issue? 

...Love this! I'm going to have to think on it... Luckily getting a lot of samples in the mail soon so will have more to choose from! 

...ScentNebulaThis is sooo cool! As a pianist myself I now want to try composing a fragrance inspired piece, though I think I'll have to wait until my sample collection comes in the mail as everything I have atm is too linear to be really inspiring musically.Sounds awesome! I also remember reading somewhere that you create your own fragrances so how amazing that would be to create an own perfume and a piano piece for it... Please share the result with us if you end up creating something, that would be wonderful! I don't know if you remember me from the F-site but anyway welcome to Parfumo @ScentNebula and nice to see you here! 🙋If you think you remember me from F-site I think you must be mistaken because I had a different username over there! But it is true I am hoping to start creating my own frags (I don't have the supplies yet) and I really love the idea of creating my own fragrance + music to go with it!

...I would like to add some body mists from an Australian brand to the database. However, this brand happens to have the same name as a completely different French perfume brand. In this situation, what should be done?I am fairly certain I've read that the brand is either owned by or exclusively makes products for a parent company, but haven't been able to find any sources for this. Not sure what to do.

...This is sooo cool! As a pianist myself I now want to try composing a fragrance inspired piece, though I think I'll have to wait until my sample collection comes in the mail as everything I have atm is too linear to be really inspiring musically. 

...At the moment, my collection is quite small, so I wear all of my frags on a regular basis and it would be inconvenient to have to take them in and out of the boxes all the time - plus I like having the bottles on display. I hadn't considered the effect keeping them boxed might have on longevity, and now I'm wondering if I'm wrong to do so! I keep all the boxes though, in case I ever need to sell or transport them.

...EmbombI should take a class, I bet they happen in the city sometimes 🤔I've been experimenting on and off over the years with making my own blends with perfumer's alcohol from vetiver aromatics and aromachemicals and naturals from the perfumer's supply house here in the states. It's tons of fun for me and I've even created some things I enjoy wearing sometimes. My issue is that I have no methodology skills for it so I just throw together one-off scents and can't recreate anything so if I wanted to start a brand, I'd have to really focus on getting that part down. Besides the market is so saturated with new brands launching seemingly every day, there's no way I can compete with that to break even 😂 Keeping my day job for now.A very simple technique we were taught in the class I attended is to try different ratios of ingredients (e. g. 3 drops of this, 5 drops of that) in separate sample containers (adding only 1 new ingredient at a time), and when you find a ratio you like, move on using that. By the end you have a formula of exactly the number of drops of each ingredient. Then you just do some arithmetic to scale up the quantity for the amount of fragrance you want to make. We were only working with one each of top+middle+base notes plus an extra ingredient of your choice, though, so I'm sure it gets a lot more tricky once your dealing with more complex accords. Even with just those 4 ingredients, they interacted in unexpected ways and created an entirely new scent on my skin. 

...OmnipotatoI started getting into perfume-making during the pandemic. First started with simply mixing essential oils into perfumer's alcohol, and learned very quickly that simply mixing the correct essential oils in the correct proportions was not all that perfumery was. After that, I started mixing in small amounts of aromachemicals such as Iso-E, hedione, vanillin into my compositions. I thought then that each "note" in the note pyramid was a separate "accord." Now I'm realizing that a lot of fragrances just have 2-3 accords, and the "notes" are very subjective, sometimes only a single aromachemical or natural at a very low percentage can represent a "note."My biggest advice to someone just starting out is to look at as many formulas as you can. The same way that an aspiring author reads many novels by the masters, or a music composer learns how to compose by following along their favorite tunes with sheet music, perfumers learn by analyzing and recreating formulas. Labtorium offers very close interpretations of a lot of different fragrances, and they have some available for free. GoodScents also has many demo formulas, but those are mostly accords, not full compositions. Also utilizing communities like the Basenotes DIY forum.Thank you so much, that's great advice

...RellisHey, Vetyver is one of my favorite fragnance notes. I had Vetyver Guerlain and i enjoyed it. It is very close to realistic smell of vetyver. But you have to give it time to understand the fragnance. Try Vetyver Oriental a different facet of vetyver still dusty green but with a chocolate touch. Sorry i don't know how to put the image of the fragnances.. To link a fragrance you type # then start typing the name of the fragrance and tap on the thing that pops up :) I assume you mean Vétiver oriental