Darbla

All of us can say there's 20 or so we like for each holiday, but are there one or three that are your very favorites? For me, it's Witches Brew and orange clove for Halloween, Peak's Amish Harvest for Thanksgiving, and I don't have one really for Christmas though I may narrow down to just a couple soon. Of course I'm scenting up my surroundings with a lot more than just those, but I always grab those first when this time comes around.

I'm so jealous! Glad you had a good time. Like a good little FOHO, I can't wait to hear more from you about what you got.

I would never have tried "chocolate orchid" but your praise might do me in. Their cinnamon red hots is really good. To me it's not as much candy-sweet as I thought it would be, but it's also not a straight up cinnamon. I think I'd still like a different cinnamon and maybe something like a cinnamon broom that seems like it would have some woody notes. But I mixed NG's cinnamon red hots with another suppliers Applejack & Peel and gave it to a friend, and she absolutely loves it (I do too). I've bought multiple bottles of their Cracklin' Birch too. It's almost a fresh-outdoorsy-perfumey-cleaner scent. That's not to say it's bad; it's just not really a natural outdoors scent. In fact several of theirs has seemed "perfumey" to me, but not in a bad "overly chemical" way. Fountain of Youth was like that, but I still loved it.

I have a kids' perfume in a cherry vanilla scent and I'm absolutely loving it. Is there a supplier with a good one? Or a good cherry slushie type? If I get a good slushie / candy type scent I could try adding some vanilla to it.

I'm accumulating quite a few, and before throwing them in the plastic recycling bin I thought I'd try to make some other use out of them. Storage for small items is kind of obvious but I just don't have tons of small item lying around. It's these sort of bottles in pretty green or amber (they're plastic, not glass):

Wasn't there a gunpowder FO at Save On Scents? I never ordered it though.

Table cloths, painting drop cloths, tarps, and contractor garbage bags flattened out (can be cut open at the seams to cover more space) are all things I've used lately for this kind of thing.

I'm probably going to cave in and get the real version of that, but are there any FOs you can think of like it? I don't own anything like that already, but I'm willing to entertain myself with looking up FOs similar to it and hope during that time my craving for it actually goes away. It's Cocoa Woods from NEST Fragrances. This the exact description: bittersweet cocoa with sequoia wood, white sandalwood, and hints of tiare blossom and Thai ginger

I think a lot of people out there don't realize how corrosive FOs really are. They'll ruin counter tops and remove the finish off furniture and floors. I knew they dissolve plastic and rubber because I had some in some dropper bottles at one time. The bottles were glass but you can guess what happened to the droppers. I won't allow them anywhere near my pet birds (birds have a more sensitive respiratory system than other animals). When I see some of these people just throwing any ol' wick and wax and FO together in random containers so they can make a buck or add attention-getting content to their blogs, I just cringe at how careless they obviously are.

Related question: is there any FO described as vanilla, spices, and musk? I can play at creating something, but thought I'd ask if such already exists and what you all might think about it.

You can use it immediately after blending.

Can we talk about cinnamon again? Get some more suggestions discussed? I'm using the same cinnamon that @*Dee* mentioned but I literally have zero experience with any other cinnamon so I'm not sure what's better out there. It's pretty dang good, and not as candy-sweet as I at first thought it would be, but are there others even better? I, obviously, did not have the fun night with cinnamon that Dee did, so I'm still OK having it around. And Fireball is probably my favorite thing in the world to mix with apple cider this time of year.

I'm not making to sell, so it really doesn't matter if my blends are precise. I just eyeballed it and poured my empty 1 oz bottle half with Applejack and then finished the other half out with cinnamon.

Well, he didn't seem thrilled with Amish Harvest and Northwoods Balsam. I'm going to see if I have some of the scents you all mentioned, or maybe plain cinnamon. If I did feel enough in the stockpile, maybe there's a bottle I forgot about.

I'm taking some FO to a guy friend at work to use in a wax warmer, and when I asked him what he liked he said "I don't know, just anything." Which as you can imagine was not a lot of help. How this came about is I blended applejack FO with some cinnamon red hots FO to make Applejack & Cinnamon, took it to the office this week, and have been testing it. I made that specifically for a girl friend there, but I had to test it out first. She and this guy I'm talking about came sniffing around in my office for what smelled so good, so the jig was up then: I was happy she went nuts over it since it was actually for her anyway, so I went ahead and gave it to her. Then I felt like slime for giving her something right in front of him, because I like him just as much as I like her, so now I'm taking him something, because I can't stand the thought that he might feel left out. But I don't want to give him the exact same scent I created for her. So, what would you guys suggest for him? What Fall-themed FOs and scents have the men in your lives went nuts over, or male customers have raved about? What about something that would actually combine well in the air with that Applejack & Cinnamon FO, since they're probably both going to be using them within a few feet of each other (my office is sandwiched between theirs)?

I thought I read on here recently that that changed and just isn't all that good anymore? Maybe whatever they changed has led to the price increase too?

Where is that Earth Musk, forest floor scent, woman? Get a move on! 🥰

Is there a spicy, Autumn kind of smelling vanilla that is skin-safe? Or suggestions on what I can blend to make a good one for perfume?

Am I seriously the ONLY person on this forum who got these??? I want somebody to talk about them with! I'm cycling through them trying to pick what I'm going to put in perfume or body spray next. Essence of Nightshade just might become my favorite sleepytime scent.....

@Candybee I think I remember you saying a while back that you got the reconstructive conditioner. How does it compare to the hydrating cleansing one that you've used?

@Candybee or anyone else: there's a picture on their page about this base that shows a model spraying it on her face, but there is nothing in the write-up about using it on your face. It does say "all over" so I'm wondering if that's their way of saying it's OK on facial skin, but it would be nice if I could hear from someone who has actually used it like that. I've been spritzing my face with rose water a couple times a day but I wouldn't mind going to this, if it's safe for that.

EBC has a little bit of a sale going now. Have any of you dabbled in their FOs and can comment on them? Or anything else from there, really. Candybee turned me onto that Hydrating Cleansing Conditioner by so sweetly sending me a jar to try, and I think I'm going to finally get a jug of it.

I've been experimenting since posing that question: water + FO resulted in a Play Dough type note to the scent after just a couple of days, but wax + FO did not. The wax + FO is still reasonably good after almost a week, though it is of course weak now and I've added a few more drops to the wax. I used the same FO in both.

I'm not blending together into one product, but layering two different ones. Good for not spoiling either one, and always having flexibility in the ratios.

On a related note, have you ever played with using vanilla extract from the kitchen in some of your creations? Since that's what women used to use straight up for perfume. I'm sure it wouldn't work in a candle but I'm thinking it might contribute something to perfumes or body sprays.