The Madness to My Method -- Part Three

3. What you won't see here and what you will.

I simply cannot wear any blend that includes a cream accord. Everything I've ever tried with one has simply gone awful on me, either plasticy and fake, or rancid and sour. Likewise, you'll rarely, if ever, see anything reviewed here that includes rose among the notes. Maybe 1 in 99 blends with rose work on me, the rest end up smelling like soap. It kind of breaks my heart because not only do a lot of lovely sounding blends include rose, but I also like the smell of roses.

Because of the rose thing, I tend to have to stay away from most florals. Jasmine's another tricky note, I can usually handle it if it's not the dominant note in the blend.

Mostly, my tastes are pretty broad. My favorite perfume family is the Oriental; I like things from pretty much every sub-category in the family. I also like some of the Woody family and some of the Fresh family, particularly the citrus group. I tend to stay away from things described as "clean/linen" because they usually smell like overly scented dryer sheets to me.

The Gormound category is tricky for me. I stay away from the excessively foody scents; I'd rather not smell like cake, cookies or frosting, plus all too often, there's that cream accord in there. I usually do like what I call the "drinky" scents (BPAL's Swank, which smells like a pomegranate martini, is a good example here). I don't want to smell like a liquor cabinet, but a touch of rum or a hint of the juniper in gin really works for me. I also like some fruity scents, although usually I like them to feel kind of grown up and not smell like strawberry lip gloss or Spiritual Sky Raspberry Oil.

I also like several of the traditionally masculine scents, particularly cyphres and fougéres.

Due to the fact that most of the indie e-tailers throw in freebies, I'll occasionally review things that fall outside my already broad tastes.