Manly notes?

These scents are all very different. It would be very, very easy to pick them out in a blindfold test.

I noticed that there are no woody notes. I think that cedar and sandalwood are manly and smell great too.

I also think of mandarin/tangerine as a manly note

You can get an idea of some of these by finding (and smelling) the product with the same name:

tobacco - Go to a cigar store and stand inside the humidor, smell a cigar, a fresh pack of cigarettes and some unflavored pipe tobacco. All are a bit different, but you will get the basic idea.

leather - Go and smell every leather product you can find. Especially brown and tan leather and eapecially expensive products. The smell of "leather" is mostly the chemicals used to tan leather, and you can imagine that cheaper products use cheaper chemicals which smell, well, cheaper. Smell an $800 leather jacket as a good starting place. Again, every product will be different, but if you smell enough you will spot the commonality among them all.

cardamom - buy a small jar of cardmom at your local grocery store. Smell it and then use it (a little bit) in your next curry.

nutmeg - buy this right next to the cardamom. You can use this in your curry as well, but use even less than the cardamom. Save some for the christmas egg nog.

vetiver - hummmm.... Nothing smells quite like vetver, which is a grass whose roots are especially fragrant. In perfumery, vetiver acts as a fixative which explains why it is typically listed as a basenote even though it is often noticable as a top note as well. Smell a few fragrances with "vetiver" in the name - the almost, kinda, sorta grassy smell is vetiver. My top rec would be Vetiver Extraordinaire.

tonka - dry vanilla. There really isn't more to say than think "vanilla minus all sweetness". The fact that tonka and vanilla are often present together make then difficult to separate.

If these have anything is common to make them "manly" it is perhaps their dry character. None of them is sweet, although many of them mix well with sweetness and manage to retain a masculine quality. Of course, sweetness is not the only way something can smell feminine and sweetness is not a garantee to smell feminine, but as I said - I think dryness is what these "manly" notes all have in common.

I agree that dryness is the main characteristic. Getting oil or one-note fragrances is also another way to learn the difference. I don't think you would confuse them once you've smelled them individually. Pretty much you're training your nose so you can put a name to each note.

How about Labdanum,Styrax,Olibanum? I'd suggest go smell antaeus,manly!

I also find Bergamot a rather manly citrus - maybe because it is used as a top note in so many men's colognes. Also I have TBS Bergamot Cologne (unisex) which I wore the other day with a tiny drop of TBS patchouli perfume oil. Later that day I kept wondering what the wonderful gentlmen's cologne I could smell only to find it was coming from me!! LOL I am quite happy to wear traditional 'men's' colognes so am not phased though I do think this mix will be best in summer.

Many consider Bergamot a 'soapy' scent especially when combined with sandalwood but that is because that scent combo has been favoured in many high end men's grooming products and not because the scent itself is soap like. Bergamot is a small inedible lemon / grapefruit from the Middle East.

HTH ;D

Use very little nutmeg in your dishes btw as it is toxic in the long run.

It has Miristicina.

No, they are all pretty different, really.

Don't know if this is what you are looking for; this site has descriptions of essential oils which may help you: Â*http://www.thegoodscentscompany.com/essentlx.html Â*

Birch Hill Happenings offers small, inexpensive vials of essential oils - a good place to start if you want to become familiar with individual notes. Â*http://birchhillhappenings.com/product.htm

Many of the notes you list are included in Guerlain Vetiver (which is my frequent SotD):


In an accord or composition, an individual note can't be considered 'manly'. You'll find the same notes shared in many 'feminine' and 'masculine' fragrances. Leather? Cuir Beluga, Guerlain, 2005. Check the Basenotes Directory for scent pyramids.

Would you consider this to be a 'feminine' or 'masculine' based on the individual notes??

That sounds wonderfully rich spicy and feminine to me like Jicky, Bandit or Bois des Iles but even if it was masculine it is probably something I would wear anyway! ;D

What is it?

That sounds wonderfully rich spicy and feminine to me like Jicky, Bandit or Bois des Iles but even if it was masculine it is probably something I would wear anyway! ;D

What is it?[/quote]


I'd guess a masculine.

That sounds wonderfully rich spicy and feminine to me like Jicky, Bandit or Bois des Iles but even if it was masculine it is probably something I would wear anyway! Â*;D

What is it?[/quote]

Is it Egoiste? ;D

Better yet, go buy some! Chanel's Antaeus has been my GSOAT for awhile now.

It's got some myrtle and clary sage along with the "leather" accord. Pretty incredible!

A lot of leather scents are fortified by labdanum (also called rockrose or cistus), which is very similar in odor to ambergris, and a base for almost all amber perfumes. It ends to mellow and round out the harsher smell of some leathers.

Styrax and olibanum are resins. They are often basenotes in Oriental perfumes, in combination with spicy or vanilla notes. Olibanum is the perfumer's name for oil of frankincense, the stuff they burn in church.

Other masculine balsams are Tolu and Peru balsams. These get into the heavier men's colognes in the base as well.

These are all pretty rich and strong smells, hence the association with masculinity, I think.

Keep exploring. It's a fascinating field of intrerest.

That sounds wonderfully rich spicy and feminine to me like Jicky, Bandit or Bois des Iles but even if it was masculine it is probably something I would wear anyway! Â*;D

What is it?[/quote]

I think it might be Old Spice.

That sounds wonderfully rich spicy and feminine to me like Jicky, Bandit or Bois des Iles but even if it was masculine it is probably something I would wear anyway! ;D

What is it?[/quote]

I think it might be Old Spice.[/quote]

Tabac!

JaimeB, you are correct, sir! Â*You can claim your prize at MUA, PoL or OsMoz. Try all three! Tell them Veronica scent you. (Scent you!)

Old Spice - world's most popular oriental and winner of the Basenotes Awards 2006: Best Mass-Market Men's Fragrance.

The first scent pyramid I saw was for Old Spice and I was taken aback that such a "masculine" "man's cologne" would include flowers in its composition. Had I not been familiar with the Old Spice pyramid and someone asked me, I would have thought 'feminine' because of the cinnamon, carnation, geranium, jasmine, heliotrope, vanilla, musk, frankincense, benzoin, tonka and ambergris.