Darbla

Just like all of our FOs have been getting reformulated over the past few years, so have ready-made perfumes, from the cheapie body sprays at Wal-Mart all the way up to Chanel, Guerlain, and all the other hoity-toity fragrance houses. I was discussing musk 'fumes that we all used back in the day and nothing is as good now as it used to be. The cheapest Jovan and Alyssa Ashley musks used to be perfectly divine, but not now. So what do we have in FOs that comes closest? Besides just musk, what are some other really good "hippie" type scents now? Patchouli comes to mind. Incense & sandalwood type stuff. Nag champa, dragon's blood, etc., all that stuff that smells like a head shop?

I'm looking hard at Turkish Mocha from Bramble Berry, but that may be more than you want to spend for a candle scent. Their prices might be OK for B&B, but may be on the expensive side for candles (though there is a sale going on right now). I wonder if anybody carries Black Vetivyr Cafe any longer? I got that from somewhere but I think they're out of business now.

Spiders are OK by me, but silverfish are abominations that should be obliterated from the Universe. They eat books.....

So because of that, I'm trying to think of ways to upcycle or use in crafts before I just put all these bottles in the landfill. Have you guys seen any cool crafts with them or have any other ideas / uses?

How about some more Bramble Berry discussion since they have a little sale going on? (Careful though, because I saw a few FOs NOT on sale, so I don't know why they're saying "sitewide".) I looooooove the Rosehip Jasmine from the past but it's probably been reformulated at this point so might be time to try anew. And I'd like to try that Cocoa Butter Cashmere some of you were describing above. These sound amazing: Sunshine Poppies - bright notes of lily, magnolia, rose, carnation, mimosa, plum, musk, and sandalwood Night Violet - bergamot, lemon, cucumber water, violet, and jasmine; base notes of cashmere, musk, and sap Moon Child - grapefruit, bergamot, thyme, white tea, nutmeg, rose, honey, tuberose, and jasmine Galactic Skies - citrus and wood notes; starts with bergamot, lemon, lime, grapefruit, jasmine, lavender, cardamom, melon, and rose; then, base notes of musk, sandalwood, vanilla, and amber Sea Moss - bergamot, orchid, jasmine, violet, ozone, sandalwood, musk, and moss

https://www.brambleberry.com/on-sale

Hmmmmm......might work to combine some of our cake FOs with that Rose Cognac Sugar I mentioned above?

Does this look like any FO you've seen, or does it even sound good in combination? I saw that in a quote: "May and October the best-smelling months? I'll make a case for December: evergreen, frost, wood smoke, cinnamon.". - Lisa Kleypas, Love in the Afternoon

I saw a mention somewhere of using cedar, lavender and mint for repelling spiders and other bugs. While I'm sure they were meaning essential oils and herbs, would FOs in those same scents do the same thing? My storage room would sure smell good, anyway! I could put a cotton ball soaked with these on plastic can lids throughout the room. I'm trying to discourage silverfish and other such bugs. If FOs would work, what do you think of those 3 scents combined together? Or I could put each on its separate lid.

I already had started a rose-specific thread a while back, so I hope you all don't mind chiming in on some non-rose FOs and scents and what products you made up for Valentine's Day? I was looking in Lone Star's Valentine's section and noticed a few that are intriguing, but please discuss any scents from any supplier that you enjoy for this time of year. Lone Star's Valentine's scents These in particular caught my fancy, so if you happen to have them what do you think about them? Paramour (tropical notes of osmanthus, cardamom, and tobacco flower; reviews make it sound wonderful) Pink (lemon, leaf green, and melon with an herbaceous & floral heart, warm musk) Pink Chiffon (pear, peach nectar, and wild berries with mid notes of water lily, apple blossom, tiare flower, and jasmine on a base of vanilla orchid, sandalwood, coconut milk, and chiffon musk) Pure Seduction (fresh & sparkly citrus, strawberry and apple blend with jasmine and muguet florals, and musks; doesn't sound very seductive to me but whatever...) Rugged (I'm not sure who decided raspberry, chocolate, and patchouli seems "rugged", but OK) Sweet Grace (Green, citrusy, fresh top notes with floral middle notes of rose, jasmine & lily enhanced by long lasting woody, musky, earthy, amber & sweet cotton candy type bottom notes.)

I'm back on this kick, because I got a sample of Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue over the holidays and it's put me in the mood for a Mediterranean vacay. Do any of you have any new ideas to add to the discussion above? I think I want to have my house scented like this this Summer.

Virginia has lost their ever loving mind. I suggest moving to another state...

I bought two unscented, cheap candles at Dollar Tree yesterday, so literally $1 each, because I want the glasses they're in for some other purposes and didn't care about the candles at all. So I have been power-burning them for 20 hours now to get rid of the wax, no trimming done during that time, and there is literally no detectable soot on the glasses at all. I'm surprised, as I would've figured these cheap things would have crappy wax and be mushrooming and smoking up all over the place. I've repeatedly checked them during that time because if I saw the first hint of soot I was going to blow out and trim to save the trouble of having to use more elbow grease later to clean them. And I know I could just melt the wax to get the glasses, but I figured while they were in candle form I might as well get some candle-lit ambiance out of them. So is it our FOs that are the true causes of soot, and not our waxes and wicks?

Yes, it's mentioned earlier in this post.

Same.

On that idea, there is a rose hips and jasmine at Bramble Berry that is beautiful. I ended up deciding that CS Golden Rose was great on it's own for this, because like you said it had enough of a hint of citrus to it that it fits what I was going for.

I have used the fish bowls for smaller votive candles. I put sand and seashells in the bottom and a votive in the middle of that. Maybe I can find one large enough for these containers. On the water idea, people float candles in water. Is there just not enough wax to water ratio in those to really cause any problems?

I like the cake stand idea! OK, that was pretty wicked:

For example, during the Autumn time of the year I have metal pumpkins that I set my container candles down inside of. And I have a huge orange bucket with cut-outs on the sides forming a picture that is great with candles in it. Or some people add a hurricane glass over candles. I'm looking for ideas like that to set glass container candles down in, to make an arrangement for a gift. What have you found in vases, bowls, or such-like that you liked for placing candles inside? Even better if this is kind of Christian / religious themed, as it's for a friend who is of that persuasion. Speaking of hurricane glass, have you noticed those significantly holding in heat and not letting it disperse as safely? The pumpkins and bucket I have are much larger and rather airy, and I've never felt they were getting hot inside at all. Edit: I just had a possibly cool idea: a bowl of water. Put a glass container candle in the middle, fill around it with water, can even dye it if you want, float some flowers or something in the water while the candle is burning. You couldn't have an arrangement be any safer! Hmmmmmmm..........

I'm investigating all your ideas above, and in the meantime went spelunking into the depths of my current stash and found something: I had samples of CS Golden Rose and Honeysuckle Jasmine. I stuck a Q-tip in each, then wrapped them in a small square of wax paper, and have been walking around with that in my pocket and taking sniffs. This smells GOOD; very springtime in the garden. I think I'm really wanting to go stronger on the rose than 50/50 with this; maybe I need to do another rose Q-tip and stick it with the first two. That would = 2 parts rose / 1 part honeysuckle jasmine. I think the honeysuckle jasmine is giving it a real clean laundry / fabric softener vibe, and I want more of the rose side. Thank you for the idea! @sarahmarah Bramble Berry was one of the first suppliers I bought from years ago, so I have a bit of a nostalgic spot for them. They have some amazing sounding FOs now, so it's about time I revisited them. https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-by-product/ingredients/fragrance-oils

@Candybee I think I'm going to try your CS Red Rose and Honeysuckle Jasmine blend, and maybe Red Rose will be the straight-up rose I'm looking for since we still can't get Rose Bouquet from Peak. Sounds like @Shari has a good blend down pat too. @soshiegirl is the CS Rose you mentioned the same as Red Rose that Candybee mentioned? @Sarah S did you ever try Flaming's dupe of Rose Jam and that Black Rose & Spice from WSP? I still love it.

Your link is ginger pomelo. Not honeysuckle rose.

I am still pining away for that list I posted above, and I probably missed some good sale along the way. But their small sizes are just a little too spendy for me to order all I want so I just keep not ordering anything. They supposedly have another sale coming up around January 6 so we'll see if it's as disappointing as last year's end-of-year sale.

Who has that? Sounds promising.

For those prices I hope the quality is there. But their terminology and names are a bunch of hooey. This "orange blossom + fig" doesn't have fig listed in the notes at all: https://woodenwick.com/product/orange-blossom-bouquet/ What is a "gilded rose"? Gilded with what? https://woodenwick.com/product/winter-garland/ And they've changed some names, and that usually happens because they got in trouble with an infringement or to increase the marketing wow. "Gilded Rose + Spruce" was called "Winter Garland" but I guess that just wasn't pretentious enough. No IFRA / safety info. When you look at an FO a low-priced ($4.95, $3.95, e.g.) something shows up first, which I assume is a sample, but it won't let you add to your cart and it doesn't show up in the drop down list when you look at available options. So something about their site isn't working right. Some stuff sounds intriguing, and since I just make a few things for myself and gifts I'd never spend a whole lot there anyway. But my Spidey-sense is tingling about them.