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layering the unavoidable: shower gels and soaps

post #1 of 6
2/24/07 at 11:05am
Thread Starter 
I have read here that many people layer fragrances, though several people vehemently oppose it. To my knowledge, though, most people use soaps and shower gels that have some type of fragrance, whether it's Dial, Dove, Tom's of Maine, or some fancy brand. There are some fragrance lines that offer edt's along with a corresponding aftershave, shower gel, etc., the proverbial "gift set," but many edt's stand alone. The question is do you find your soap or shower gel supporting or clashing with your edt? Are there particular soaps or shower gels that go along with edt's that you wear? Perhaps ones that seem to work well with a variety of fragrances? Do you prefer unscented soaps? A lot of basenoters have big fragrance collections, and I'm sure they don't have a different soap for each fragrance. Thanks.
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post #2 of 6
2/24/07 at 12:18pm
There's plenty of good choices out there.

Right now, I'm using a L'Occitane lavender-scented shea butter soap that i got as a gift. It's not very heavily perfumed, so once you rinse, the scent is basically gone.

For drugstore/supermarket soap choices, Dove (original or sensitive skin), Dial (original scent gold or white bar), and Ivory (all three varieties) seem to work well from my experience. All of them don't leave much in the way of scent on your skin, especially Ivory.

IIRC, original Ivory has the lowest amount of scent of any bath soap that isn't 100% fragrance-free. The Ivory Aloe and Lavender varieties aren't that heavily scented, either (and yes, they float, too).
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post #3 of 6
2/24/07 at 12:26pm
Great question, tinfoiled! First - Welcome to Basenotes! I love the name by the way...

I am a great believer in layering and agree that the use of complex scented bath and body products does count as layering. Unless, I suppose, you are fastidious enough to use only unscented shampoo, soap, lotion, shower gel and deodorant, etc. The irony is that many products listed as unscented still possess a definite and noticable scent.

Anyway, I am a true sensualist and love to use bath and body products that compliment and enhance my scent of the day. I have a large collection of shower gels and body lotions that I use to compliment and enhance certain aspects of my chosen scent du jour.

I have, however, begun to appreciate the benefits of such things as unscented body butter / lotions as it frees me to experiment more creatively with my actual scent combos rather than being restricted due to the limitations of my body lotion.

There is room for both ways to co-exist happily, I believe.

Edited to add that my choice of unscented it The Body Shop's 'scent-me' range (showergel, massage / bath oil, body butter, body lotion etc). Great value for money.

:toppie:
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post #4 of 6
2/24/07 at 1:36pm
Interesting question!

Some of my scented shower gels are strong enough to stand alone (Kingdom comes to mind), but some of my edts really struggle with even the lightest shower gel. For these, I use Simple unscented shower gel, which is the closest to unscented I've found (as MoonDeva says, unscented isn't always unscented).
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post #5 of 6
2/24/07 at 2:25pm
I use Eternity All-Over Shower Gel. It is lightly scented enough to be used with other fragrances and not compete. I also us the Obsession Gel when I use that fragrance. It is perfumed heavily and helps in the layering process.
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post #6 of 6
2/24/07 at 5:39pm
I use Ivory bar soap in the summer, and Soft Soap Nutra-Oil body wash in the winter because of my EXTREMELY dry skin. Neither tend to clash with my frags at all.
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