Ingredients List: Bergamot FCF

I love all things bitter, sour, and tart. I love chiniotto, kumquats, wild oranges, lemons, and  Earl Grey tea. I thought pure bergamot and I were going to be best friends and run into the sunset together. Bergamot EO has a little whiff of citronella to me. Also, aftershave and dudes. But I believe. I need to try out some heavier notes. Bergamot, we need to learn to love each other.

Update- It’s getting better. Also- no reaction or irritation at all to 50% blend.

Blending notes: Medium, stronger in mix. Citronella candles. Fresh, sharp, citrus.

Photo by Leslie Seaton, Wiki commons

Ingredient List: Cinnamon Leaf

Update: I had a strong dermal reaction to a dab of 10% dilution (no reaction to 2%). May use under 1%, may not use at all.

I chose cinnamon leaf over bark because someone told me it’s easier on the skin. I suspect that advice was a little alarmist, as I am certainly not dabbing pure oils on.  While I do not regret the decision, this is not cozy, winter treat cinnamon. This is cinnamon that smells like trees smell, sharp and bright. I need to find some good notes to round it out, but I think it will work out well.

Blending Notes: Medium strength, smelled stronger in mix. Bright and almost green with cinnamon oil. This scent grows and grows and grows. At three days, it’s still getting bigger in a blend.

Cinnamon Foliage by A. Zell from Wiki Commons

Ingredients List: Ylang Ylang

Oh Ylang Ylang, you’re so fancy.

Ylang Ylang is so sultry and yet so sweet. Like a shirt that’s a tad too sheer or lacy black tights. I think my association with Ylang Ylang goes back fifteen years to reading somewhere that it was the sexiest scent. I bought some essential oil and wore it for the effect. I’m sure it worked, because I’ve never stopped believing.

More recently, I bought some Lush 2 in1 shampoo while traveling in Italy. It was a combination of chamomile and ylang ylang scents so luscious I open the little tin every now and then just to sniff it.

Blending notes: Strong- harder to smell off skin so beware when mixing. Very sweet and heady, long-lasting. Low mellow dry down. Rich.

Ingredients list: Rose Geranium

I was excited to pick up rose geranium because I thought I’d get to smell a Brand New Thing, which I love. To my great surprise, rose geranium was very familiar. After the initial sharp green, I was suddenly in Vancouver’s little India with small shop full of floral waters, sweets, and the pungent smell of my old new friend geranium rose.

Who knew?

After diluting and trying a drop on my skin, I could find the tea rose and old English garden crispness. By my association is still strong enough that I am picturing saris, tin lunch boxes, and honey-soaked sweets when I get a whiff.

Notes: Overall, this is an extremely strong and enduring scent. It overpowered Ylang Ylang and Cinnamon leaf with ease. It smells very clean after a few hours, like fresh sheets hung in a garden. It’s a very specific rose (what I would have called rosewater), not damask or wild. I might dilute this to mix so I can add it very very slowly.