Rose + Lavender mistake! How can I save this?

Lavender eo is some potent stuff. I would try adding "sweets " to it first to see if you could take the edge off. By sweets I mean stuff like the amber or vanilla , tolu balsam ....etc. You may also try to smooth things out with the sandalwood. Lavender is tenacious.

A great vanilla oil that you should have access to is Spiritual Sky Vanilla. It is very similar to your beloved 90's version of TBS Vanilla. It works well used straight on my skin (no adverse reaction) but is extremely potent as it is primarily a fragrance oil for burning. Again I apply over oil or dilute (1-2ml in 5ml bottle) for a safe oil with a similar potency to the earlier TBS oils.

The Yves Rocher Vanille Bourbon is also a very affordable vanilla and one which I think would work very well in your blend since it is sweet, true vanilla but not cloying, with a slight smokey balsamic quality that I think will work very well with the lavender (as it does in Guerlain Jicky and Caron Pour Un Homme). I shall throw in a decant in your parcel.

I am a little worried that you may be working at too great a level of potency with your scent. I mean - adding a load of vanilla oil or EDT to your batch to fix it can easily result in a mess and you having to throw the whole lot out. Which would be such a waste, as it sounds rather intriguing a mix at the moment...

You could try decant a wee vial and adding a few drops of pure vanilla extract (remember proportions), letting it sit for a while (fortnight minimum) and then seeing if that has worked. If it hasn't no biggy because you won't have wasted the whole batch. Sorry, if I sound patronising / condescending, i just don't want you to end up losing all of your great oil by making one small mistake. Like you say - you may have the makings of a great little Jicky -like on your hands!

I can see how lavender and rose mightn't dance very nicely in the flask; the comments regarding potency issues also made a lot of sense.

I don't know if you've already reworked your fragrance, or if you have any of the original mix left, but if you do, consider adding black pepper or a miniscule quantity of tea tree oil.

The reasoning (this doesn't take unforseeable chemical interactions, btw):
It is certainly possible to come across the blending of lavender and rose scents in an unbottled setting (e.g. a garden), and there's no reason it shouldn't smell lovely, and very fresh. But fragrances tend to get very concentrated and focussed in the bottle, and background notes that contribute to the original/desired effect may be absent.

The thing to do would be to find a note or accord that interact very attractively with both. Pepper is lovely with rose, and interestingly harmonious with lavender, so adding a bit of this EO could pull the fragrance together. When highly diluted, tea tree oil smells like fresh rain, another note which could provide a backdrop for lavender and rose to join more gently.

This type approach may be found in fragrances such as CdG's "Harissa" which marries angelica and orange; it could be a disaster (and is, if your personal chemistry doesn't bring out the notes in their effective balance ), but notes of clove and other spices bring together what would otherwise be discordant.

If the fragrance is already very strong, adding anything sweet may move it over the event horizon of "migraine city", so I'd try only a portion of your current blend if you want to try this.

I love reading your suggestions! You're so knowledgeable and have great advice on fragrance combos!

Thank you, I just love perfumes and cannot resist mixing them for new and wonderful combinations!

I hope to see you taking part in the next Great Layering Challenge thread to be launched tomorrow! Another opportunity for more mischief and mayhem...

I'd first like to know what is your goal with this scent in particular you want to create, i mean, in what category would you place it and what do you want to change it to?
If i can say something, i'd say first dilute the "base" a tenfold or so, then you can play up with some bergamot, the ylang and the white musk (i know you didn't list bergamot as one of your choices but it will help i think), the clove is very tricky so i'd leave it out for a while, or use it on another batch, and then use just a bit of the amber. If you can get rosemary oil, try to use a bit of it for some pretty nice, soft,dewy and green touch.

I'm a total newbie to all of this, but moondeva took all the words right out of my mouth and added wisdom I can only hope to aquire in the future. I immediately thought you may simply have a potency proplem. As has been suggested, oils that smell harsh or overpowering in perfume strength often smell better, or even downright luscious in edt or lighter dilutions.

It might be adviseable to dilute all of the notes you intent to add, as well as the orininal mix. This may help with controlling proportions. Then, once you find a formula that works well you can try it in perfume strength and see how it compares to the edt. Furthermore, once you make the perfume, you can dilute it back to edt strength and see how it compares to the original edt formula.

I've been addicted to the smell of Allspice lately. I recently found out that it is indeed a singular spice and not a mix of Cinnamon, Clove and Black Pepper as was commonly believed. If you can find it in perfume oil, it may make a good addition to the formula. I've heard Jamaican Allspice is the best.

Good Luck!,
EB

Baby food jars are easy to resterilize and make handy little containers, complete with lids. The smallest are the little meat jars. If you don't know anyone with a baby, a daycare might save them for you to pick up. It seems they would make nice little cooking pots for a year's maturation of fragrance.