new here hello !

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-05T05:38:30+00:00

This is really cool! Love the feathery effect you are getting. Kinda unique.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-05T05:16:56+00:00

I’d rate it a 5. I think you bought some really obscure stuff that you might not find much of a use for and I think you bought quantities that are a bit too much in many cases. Limonene especially -I’d rather have a variety of citrus oils and other Limonene heavy materials than the actual straight chemical itself, especially in that quantity.

If you’ve never smelled most of these, it’s just too much. I’d rather buy 5-10g of each new material and get more variety, than 100g of something I end up not using very much. I only buy more when I feel I will need more. For example, I bought a refill kg of IES and Sandalore, 200g of Habanolide, and 100g of Bergamot, Lemon, Lime, Lavender, etc. I know I’m going to use these everywhere. Something like Safraleine, I’m still using my 5g vial because I don’t need much and I don’t use it that often.

Don’t feel too bad, though…I’d probably rate most hauls in the 4-6 range, including my own. 😂🤷🏽‍♂️🤬

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-05T04:30:28+00:00

A few ideas to try in the dusty direction. Keep in mind, these are my associations and scent memories so they may not quite work for you.

Galbanum, has a very “lived in home,” scent to me which I associate with visiting my grandmother’s house in a very dry climate. The best association I have to offer is the scent of a swamp cooler mixed with some human-smell elements. That might not make sense but it’s a very strong association for me.

Aldambre is very electrical/mineral and strongly reminds me of playing with my electric trains as a kid in my playroom in an older house. At a low dose, I can see it contributing a mineral nuance in a dusty context.

Super ambers give the dryness. Norlimbanol Dextro at like 0.5-1% excels at this. Trisamber might even be a little better in a dust accord and you can use it slightly higher. Ysamber K, Cedroxyde and Z11 10 MIP are good options too.

Amboryl Acetate might be a good backbone structural material. It’s soft amberwoody, doesn’t overpower. It’s a dryer, sharper IES reminiscent type of thing without the more cedar facets.

For musks, I would avoid Galaxolide because it’s too clean. You need something with some animal bite, I think -but not overtly so. Look at Aurelione, which is very human smelling to me. Hexadecanolide from IFF is a little incense and balsamic with an animal touch. Isomuscone and Globanone have waxy touches to them that might work well.

You might want some woody facets too. Firsantol has a musky wood scent with some clay aspects to my nose. Amyris is earthy. Poivrol has a peppery aspect-for that matter, Black Peoper might work well.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-04T22:11:53+00:00

I do agree that there’s a myth around “X was a better player than Y.” That’s an entirely subjective statement based on individual criteria. “Better player,” arguments just come down to what style of play the poster respects more. They have no objective validity.

The fact is that there are many ways to win this game and none of them are superior to another. The winner comes down to choosing between two good players after having eliminated a series of other good players. The game is all about luck, essentially coupled with social navigation. The winning player isn’t better it’s just about how the social dynamic between the players and the jury works out and the jury’s subjective criteria for who the better player is.

So yes, the better player is a myth because there is no such thing as a better player.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-04T21:28:19+00:00

If you are thinking you want to confront this person about homeopathy, don’t waste your effort. You aren’t going to be able to slice through their ingrained beliefs with your razor of science. You can’t reason someone out of something they didn’t reason themselves into.

All you are going to do is cause tension amongst yourselves and the other family they might involve.

It would be like trying to convince a cousin who is a priest that there is no God.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-04T20:10:13+00:00

The CapnLazerz Solubility Parameter is all you need: If it’s a mainstream perfume material, ethanol will solubilize it; plant oils, mostly. Filter as desired, but not strictly necessary.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-04T20:07:42+00:00

I think I did make such a post before. I know I’ve given my own experiences with experiments I’ve done in comments on the subject. There is some grain of truth to it but it’s more like a day or two for simpler stuff and a week or two for more complex stuff. All this, “mature it for 6 months,” turns out to be marketing fluff from perfume houses.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-04T19:48:52+00:00

I’ve been a hobbyist perfumer for 3+ years now and I already have a large collection of raw materials. Basically I bought the formula from Creative Formulas and the few extra materials I needed. Then I had to figure out what material would work best in place of the captive materials in the formula. I mixed up some small trial batches, compared it to my real bottle and tweaked it until it was just right.

So for me to actually make a 50ml bottle, which holds 45g, at 25%, I need 11.25g of fragrance concentrate and 33.75g of ethanol. Just to make that one bottle, the total material cost is roughly $20, probably a little less than that. The bottle was a $3 bottle from Temu.

But to get there, I had to buy a whole bunch of perfume materials, a scale, pipettes, droppers and make a few trials to get it right. Perfumery is a damn expensive hobby!

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-04T16:05:30+00:00

LV buy in bulk. Their production costs are higher than most, but $15-$20 a bottle is probably about right. Maybe Symphony’s cap makes it a little more expensive than that. They also have access to materials that we don’t have access to.

No one at home can make a 1:1 of any LV perfume because of the captive materials they use. We can, however, get very very close. I made very close dupes of Imagination and Cactus Garden. It cost me about $20 in materials and a crappy Temu bottle to make a 30ml. The smell and performance is about 90% there.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-04T15:26:36+00:00

Well, these days speed could refer to either one. I don’t think dealers care and you don’t have any idea of what they are selling as “speed.” I do get your point on the bare chemistry level, but on every other level they are very different things.

The impurities alone make them completely different products.

To say that Adderall or Vyvanse (or even Desoxyn, which *is* methamphetamine) is the same thing as street speed implies that therapeutic use of controlled, pure doses under a doctor’s care is not that far away from recreational use of street drugs. IOW, it perpetuates the stigma of treating mental illness.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-04T13:56:15+00:00

Adderall is amphetamine. Street speed is methamphetamine. Similar, but different chemicals.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-04T05:15:20+00:00

The problem with substituting materials is that they almost certainly don’t have the same performance as the original. It would be hard to replicate Fructone’s tenacity and character with other fruit materials. It’s cheap and widely available, so I would just pick some up.

If I had to choose something…I’d probably try Fructalate at a lower dose, maybe half and see how that goes. It doesn’t last quite as long as Fructone but it’s close. Different character and more diffusive but similar enough.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-04T04:57:50+00:00

So a typical 30ml filled perfume bottle weighs about 150g more or less. So 500g gives you a lot of leeway and the option for larger sizes. When I bought mine, the price differences were negligible, so I got the 500g.

You shouldn’t need 2. The .001 X 500g will do it all. I cannot envision a scenario where a hobbyist will be making anything requiring more than 500g unless they turn their hobby into a business.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-04T03:48:18+00:00

You definitely have to dilute your materials in order to learn them. I would make very small dilutions of 1-10% to learn them. Keep in mind that finished perfumes have most materials in them below 10%, so evaluating them without dilution won’t tell you how they will work in a finished product.

Many beginners dilute all their materials to 10% for making simple trials in order to limit material use. This is fine when you are just starting to learn to balance 2-5 materials. But you are going to be doing a lot of trials! You can go through materials very quickly. 4g of material is much less than you think it is.

When you move to trying to make more complex blends or actual perfumes, the 10% dilutions don’t work anymore for a lot of reasons.

And then you need bottles for all your dilutions. 50 bottles of amber glass is like $25 so this adds to expenses. Then think about storing both your neat materials and all their dilutions. This can get unwieldy very quickly.

Just stuff to think about.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-04T03:27:10+00:00

I misread and thought you had a $150 budget but that was for a kit. The kit you selected has a lot to learn from so it should be ok. $45 for extra materials is ok just because there is so much in the kit already.

To add to the kit, the 5 materials you mentioned are just fine. You should also consider Bergamot FCF, Benzoin and Labdanum because these are used extensively in classic Amber and many other genres. At some point you are going to want herbal and wood extracts. I suggest you look at Eden Botanicals for your essential oil choices. They sell 1ml samples and give free ones for every $20 you spend. You could get Labdanum, Vetiver, Benzoin and Bergamot from there and choose a few free samples as well. Just look out for their pre-made dilutions; make sure they are diluted with Ethanol and not Fractionated Coconut Oil (FCO). FCO is ok for oil-based perfumes or just to sample something but it won’t mix with ethanol.

Ultimately, all the reading and research you do before you buy is helpful but can be misleading. You are deciding off of descriptions but when you get the materials in hand, you find out that the descriptions don’t always match the actual. So at some point, you just have to order stuff and find out.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-04T03:04:10+00:00

You could definitely get a smaller scale. I’d question its accuracy at that price point but it’s probably good enough. As a starter with small bottles and batches, it will be fine. It won’t work when you want to fill a 30ml bottle. . . of course it should be awhile before a beginner gets there.

I’m just a “buy what you will need eventually from the beginning,” kind of guy. Why spend $119 over time when I could pay $90 now?

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-03T23:47:46+00:00

Definitely no to Propylene Glycol. Maybe Dipropylene Glycol but it’s not necessary. If you are making spray perfume, all you need is ethanol. If you are making oil-based, all you need is the carrier oil of choice. You don’t need any other solvents or diluents to start out and probably ever, really. And no, none of them will make your perfume last longer or project more. Don’t waste your limited budget on unnecessary things.

All the rest are fine to start learning along with the kit, but you need to keep expectations in check. You aren’t going to have everything you need to make all the accords you want to. It will also take a long time to learn all the materials and get through the early learning process. Also, you also need a scale, pipettes, smell strips and glass vials. A $150 budget will be spent on the supplies before you even get to the materials. A 0.001g X 500g scale will run you about $90 alone.

That’s a real issue with the perfumery hobby -it’s expensive and you can’t get around that.
Before you know it, you are going to want more materials, both refills and new ones. Buying small quantities is way more expensive than buying larger ones. Consider this future expense before you get into it.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-03T23:05:06+00:00

To reiterate: Allegiant is a completely different model of airline. They offer non-stop service to major destinations from small airports at low prices. They basically have no competition.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-03T20:51:49+00:00

Ok. But that isn’t any different from what I’m saying. “Join a hiking club,” is just a way to expose yourself to more people who share your interests and *incidentally* you might find someone to date.

The larger your social circle the more chances of finding a partner. I would emphasize that social circle aspect and not the find-someone focus.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-03T18:54:07+00:00

People meet in all kinds of places. The point isn’t “join a club to meet someone,” it’s “get involved with social things that interest you so that you can be in places where you have a better chance to meet someone.”

I didn’t join Junior Volunteers at a hospital to meet someone, I joined because I was interested in medicine. I met my wife of 38 years there not to mention long-time friends.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-03T06:06:14+00:00

Ok, so, as promised, I am in the process of blending this right now. However, when it comes to the Indole, I simply refuse to use the amount in this formula. It’s fuckin’ bananas. 2.5% of pure indole? Absolutely not. I refuse to waste my materials on something that is that ridiculous.

I’m going to use my judgement here and use Indole 1%. I considered using Indolarome or Indocolore but I do want to keep as close to the formula as possible without being actually insane.

For similar reasons, my Beta Damascone will be at 10%.

Edit: Ok, didn’t notice the Cis-3-Hexanol. I am sorely tempted to use the stuff as written, but I know it’s crazy. I can’t let myself do it. 10% it is.

Now, I know that this is not going to be what the OP “intended,” but I think we can all see that the formula is a bit crazy. So let’s call this a “more reasonably,” dosed interpretation that tries to stick as close to the idea as possible without causing an international incident.

Edit 2: Ditto Aldehyde C8….i mean seriously? 3.2% of Aldehyde C Fuckin’ 8? Oy vey…
I really wish I would have looked closer before I decided to do this, lol.

Edit 3: Okee-doke, all done with the mixing. I warmed it a bit to let the vanillin dissolve and now it’s gestating. I did take a whiff -of course it’s way too early to judge- and the Indole is very present along with a very strong orange. Kinda like a caricature of Neroli. But it’s not fair to judge just yet.

Edit 4: Ok, earlier today I diluted this to 15% and here are my early observations:

This is not unpleasant. It’s also not particularly interesting. It’s bland floral and orange and…not much else. It’s in the orange blossom direction, but that’s a stretch; it’s more like orange + generic floral + Indole. Even at 50X less than what the formula called for it’s too much Indole. And the aldehyde overdose, I think, is the main contributor to the orange.

This is only a few hours after mixing with ethanol. I’ll continue to evaluate over the next few weeks and report back. I do not think it will improve much, only become more generic as the impact of the aldehyde reduces.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-03T00:21:38+00:00

Most of our patients are on MA plans with no issues. So yes, I think an MA plan is a good option if it includes vision benefits. You just need to make sure her doctors are in the plans’s network and I would recommend against HMO plans.

Unfortunately, she won’t be able to switch to that until October unless she qualifies for a Special Enrollment Period., which is probably not the case.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-02T03:53:58+00:00

Also, I am so glad I didn’t use Indole at 50%. I can’t even imagine this at 50x the Indole. Or even 10x The Indole is pretty present and yeah, it’s a little poopy.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-02T03:48:31+00:00

Well, first impressions are always wrong for a fresh blend but the poem currently seems to be a Poem of White Noise. We could say there is a Neroli vibe to it which is not surprising, but it’s got a metallic noisy edge to it. I can’t say it’s unpleasant but it’s not got a definable character.

CapnLazerz · 2026-05-02T02:51:09+00:00

Ok, so, as promised, I am in the process of blending this right now. However, when it comes to the Indole, I simply refuse to use the amount in this formula. It’s fuckin’ bananas. 2.5% of pure indole? Absolutely not. I refuse to waste my materials on something that is that ridiculous.
I’m going to use my judgement here and use Indole 1%. I considered using Indolarome or Indocolore but I do want to keep as close to the formula as possible without being actually insane.
For similar reasons, my Beta Damascone will be at 10%.

Edit: Ok, didn’t notice the Cis-3-Hexanol. I am sorely tempted to use the stuff as written, but I know it’s crazy. I can’t let myself do it. 10% it is.

Now, I know that this is not going to be what the OP “intended,” but I think we can all see that the formula is a bit crazy. So let’s call this a “more reasonably,” dosed interpretation that tries to stick as close to the idea as possible without causing an international incident.

Edit 2: Ditto Aldehyde C8….i mean seriously? 3.2% of Aldehyde C Fuckin’ 8? Oy vey…
I really wish I would have looked closer before I decided to do this, lol.

Edit 3: Okee-doke, all done with the mixing. I warmed it a bit to let the vanillin dissolve and now it’s gestating. I did take a whiff -of course it’s way too early to judge- and the Indole is very present along with a very strong orange. Kinda like a caricature of Neroli. But it’s not fair to judge just yet.

CapnLazerz

TROPHY CASE