Latest Posts by owaifsis - Page 2
Some Perfumery Vocabulary
Absolute - An extraction from a concrete using alcohol. The essential oil of scented flowers and other aromatic plant parts in its purest and most concentrated form. It is extremely expensive. A few important oils used in an absolute form are: geranium, lavender, lily, and rose.
Accord - A combination of a number of different scents which blend together to produce a new fragrance.
Agrestic - "Of the countryside"; odours of heather, forest depths, and the meadow.
Aldehydes - Aromatic chemicals isolated for the first time in the 19th century, but that also occur naturally. Certain aldehydes provide an increased diffusiveness, sparkle, and lift to perfumes, most famously in Chanel No. 5.
Almondy - Bittersweet, soft, and nutty scent.
Amber - An accord in perfumery that is supposed to recall the qualities of ambergris. It is often constructed with labdanum, Tolu balsam, or Peru balsam. Often an accord in Oriental perfumes.
Ambergris - A highly prized perfume ingredient consisting of the oxidized excretion from a sperm whale. It is rarely used in its natural form in perfumery because of its rarity, exorbitant cost, and concerns about sourcing ambergris from live whales rather than from shore-found ambergris. It’s said to have an earthy, sweet, tobacco, and pleasantly animalic scent. It primarily works to bring out other notes in perfumery rather than to impart a particular scent on its own.
Ambrein - The primary scented molecule in ambergris, isolated and used in perfumery. It’s warm, sweet, vanillic, and ambery, with facets of spice and tobacco.
Animalic - Describes fragrances with animal ingredients in natural or synthetic form, including civet, castoreum, musk, or ambergris. The voluptuous, erotic, and sometimes disturbing quality of animalic perfumes can register in an olfactory way, as something “dirty” or animal-smelling, or as a feeling, a mood, or a quality. Sometimes, it can be both.
Aromatic - Having a strong or distinctive smell.
B—E
Balance - A combination of different fragrance notes so adjusted in proportion to one another that none of the individual notes is more prominent than any of the others.
Balsamic - The resin from the bark of trees and shrubs (Peru, Tolu, styrax) that have a rich vanilla scent. Balsamic is a term used to describe perfumes with the soft, ambery aspects these resins impart.
Benzoin - A sweet, balsamic resin used in incense and as a base note in perfume for its vanillic scent and fixative properties. Also known as styrax because it comes from the bark of the styrax tree.
Bergamot - The essential oil from the peel of the nonedible Citrus aurantium fruit that looks like a small orange. Its sweetish, mellow lemony scent is a crucial top note in perfumery.
Calone - A synthetic “marine” note that is supposed to evoke the freshness of the ocean. It has a slight watermelon facet.
Camphoraceous - Describes a fresh, clean, medical fragrance.
Caramel - Sweet, rich, creamy, buttery scent.
Cardamom - An intensely aromatic, sweet spice from the ginger family, in the form of a pod filled with seeds.
Carnation - A smoky, sweet, and clove-like scent, the latter facet due to Eugenol, the primary component of clove.
Cassis - (or black currant bud) A sharp, fruity, almost cat-urine-like scented perfume note.
Cistus - (or Labdanum) A resin from the rockrose bush, traditionally gathered from goats’ beards as they fed on the plant. Labdanum is said to be the note closest to the scent of ambergris. Creamy, soft, vanillic.
Citrus - Fresh, light fragrance characteristic of citrus fruits, but also imitated synthetically.
Civet - In classical perfumery, the cream harvested from the anal gland of the mongoose-like civet animal, often described as cat like. Fecal-smelling when undiluted, civet “rounds” out other notes when used judiciously. Famous as an overdosed note in Guerlain’s Jicky (1889), it is considered one of the first abstract modern scents. Civet is primarily in synthetic form now.
Clove - An aromatic spice similar to cinnamon, but less sweet. Its primary component is Eugenol.
Coniferous - The fragrance note of pine, spruce, juniper and similar such trees, often used in men's fragrances.
Diffusive - A perfume whose fragrance quickly becomes apparent in the air surrounding the wearer.
Dry - The aromatic effect of perfume ingredients such as woods and mosses in contrast to sweet and warm fragrances.
Earthy - The subtle fragrance impression of earth or earth-mould which is found in certain essential oils such as vetiver and patchouli.
Equine - Notes of hay and leather.
F—M
Floral - The general fragrance of flowers.
Fruity - Citrus, berries, tropical, and other non-citrus fruit scents.
Fungal - Molds, yeast, and mushroom scents.
Green - General fragrance of grasses and green plant parts.
Harmony - A pleasing combination of fragrance notes.
Hayfield notes - Usually based on coumarin, which have an odour of new-mown hay.
Heavy - Denotes a fragrance in which the least volatile ingredients, such as mossy or animalic ones, are dominant, giving a very strong effect. Such fragrances are mostly used in chypre and oriental-type perfumes.
Herbaceous - The characteristic general fragrance of herbs and herbal medicines. Sage, rosemary and lavender are examples.
Honey - Used as an ingredient in early Arab perfumes and appears in later European ones (e.g., Honey Water). In modern perfumery a substance providing the sweet aromatic effect of honey and known as Honey (or Miel) is manufactured synthetically.
Indolic - The disquieting, ripe, animalic, and almost excremental facet of scents.
Leather - A perfume accord and category of perfume constructed from various notes, including birch tar, styrax, castoreum, and a variety of synthetic notes.
Light - Delicate, clean, and fresh-laundry scent.
Marine - Iodized scent.
Mellow - Soothing and calming scent.
Metallic - A fragrance reminiscent of metal, providing a clean, cool effect. Metallic notes are used in perfumes to assist in promoting an effect, not as main fragrances.
Minty - A fragrance reminiscent of mint, e.g., peppermint or spearmint. Such fragances are usually used to provide a special, fresh effect in a top note.
Mossy - The general odour of oils obtained from mosses and lichens.
Musk - Produced by the musk deer and excreted by the male during mating season. Musk deer were killed almost to extinction for their valuable musk glands, which were dried, and whose musk “seeds” were removed and steeped in alcohol to create tinctures for perfume. The scent of real musk is warm, with depth and a dark animalic aroma. Many synthetics now can mimic musk scent, but one of the most superior musk synthetics, nitro-musks, which were in Chanel No. 5 and countless other vintages, has been banned due to toxicity concerns. Musk can also be substituted with plant ingredients including ambrette seed and angelica.
Musty - Damp, earthy, or stale odor.
N—W
Narcotic - Exceptionally strong and heavy fragrances obtained from some flowers (e.g. jasmine and tuberose) and animalic ingredients, which need to be used with careful discretion in a perfume.
Ozonic - A perfume accord that attempts to create the smell of fresh air after a thunderstorm.
Peppery - Odour of pepper.
Powdery - Soft and clean scent.
Rich - Fragrances that have numerous layers, notes, and accords in all stages (top, mid, base), creating a multifaceted feel.
Rounded - The overall smoothness and fullness of a fragrance.
Sharp - A strong scent.
Smoky - The slight smell of smoke created in a perfume by certain oils such as Birch Tar Oil. It is used in men's fragrances to provide a leathery effect.
Spicy - Describes in general the distinctive fragrance of essential oils which have been obtained from spices.
Sweet - A sweet and rather sugar-like fragrance such as vanilla.
Tobacco - Fragrances resembling cured tobaccos, which are particularly popular in masculine toiletries.
Wintergreen - Has a very powerful and fresh, medicinal odour.
Woody - Fragrances reminiscent of wood. These fragrances are provided by wood oils, such as cedar, by essential oils from other plants having a wood-like aroma, such as patchouli, and by synthetics.
Sources: Perfume: The Art and Craft of Fragrance by Karen Gilbert ⚜ The Perfume Handbook by Nigel Groom ⚜ Scent & Subversion by Barbara Herman ⚜ Scent: A Natural History of Fragrance by Elise Vernon Pearlstine ⚜ Introduction to Perfumery by Tony Curtis & David G. Williams ⚜ The Big Book of Perfume
More: Word Lists ⚜ References ⚜ Describing Scent ⚜ Fragrance Notes & Levels
addicted to turning my reblogs off so i can say whatever and know that it can just disappear when i want it forever
Satellite image of Oasis performing at Knebworth to a crowd of 250,000 over one weekend. 1996.
My little one, how are you doing? I love you. The sky is starry now, with a warm wind blowing. The roses, fossilized by now, are still standing on my table.
Vladimir Nabokov, Letters to Véra
Black Orchid
WWW.SH8NA.TUMBLR.COM
Can i get a ramones fan girl perfume post? 🙏🙏
absolutely i luvvvvv the ramones
oasis girl is next, the coolest of them all
educated the expensive way
vibrant, captivating, fresh faced; I imagine the blur fan girl as the epitome of cool britannia with a reluctant hint of americana. She is artsy but not too alternative, a bohemian air in a uniquely London way. She rides the bus and whistles her favourite tune aloud. All her shoes are splattered with paint. She cuts her own choppy hair and her beautifully boyish face draws everyone in. She is never caught without coloured sunglasses over her striking eyes or that fred perry polo. She’s been to more blur gigs than she can count and is sure Damon recognises her. She is forever young. 1990s incarnate.
The blur girl smells like your larger than life first love, a hit of freshness in the smoky London air, youthful charm and good looks and a lust for life.
notes: mint, bergamot, grapefruit, lavender, granny smith apple, cranberry, rose, cotton flower, cactus, amber
pattie boyd summer🌞🫧🌅🌸🪴🐈⬛🍰🍏🌊🧘♀️💛
gif by beatleswings
Belladonna of Sadness 哀しみのベラドンナ (1973) dir. Eiichi Yamamoto
An Italian shrine for Our Lady of Lourdes.
So ur okay with the fact the Gallaghers are awful people?
i wish they were worse
Oasis and blur fangirl fragrances PLEASE 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 the beatles and the rolling stones would be soooo cool too
literally finishing making the blur moodboard and doing the writing as we speak
as Mrs Liam Gallagher and number one Oasis baby of course they’re right up next and the beatles and stones are also on my list
Fangirl Fragrances
My series exploring what i imagine fangirls of certain bands to smell like and what perfume they wear
Pulp Girls
Blur Girls
“Too sugary too angry too perverse – the sick sweet rotting of the human heart.”
— Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss (via soracities)
sometimes all a young woman needs is rock n roll by two sexy, big browed brothers who kiss
cocker’s short for sucker… sucker of…
sensual, smoky, glossy jet black hair; I imagine the pulp fan girl as sleazy as many of their songs. She dances throwing her limbs and tossing her long hair around. She cherishes her morning walk through the dirtier parts of town with her tangled headphones and beat up walkman. Her chiselled face and full lips cry 90s androgyny. She adores a 70s suit or a little skirt, something a tad eccentric. Guaranteed her favourite pulp song is as obscure as possible and raunchy too. The best girl you’ll never have. Magnetic.
The pulp girl smells like the lingering tobacco on a smokers leather jacket, something alluring and natural underneath with a hint of the bright red lipstick she can often be found wearing.
notes: lipstick, incense, leather, smoke, orris root, sandalwood, fur
kendrick lamar is proof that being a hater will get you far in life! never stop holding grudges! never back down!!
Anaïs Nin, from diary entry featured in A Journal of Love; The Unexpurgated Diary of Anais Nin