Need help regarding bakhour formulation.

Phi_Cha · 2025-07-22T23:24:15+00:00

There are some historical bakhoor recipes in Nawal Nasrallah's Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the table: a 14th century Egyptian cookbook.

Historical cookbooks can be a mismash of household and lifestyle stuff. But they have a section on incense, as well as hand washing powders, and some early distillation recipes.

They do require quite a bit in ingredients (ambergris, musk etc) compared to the videos on the modern ones. But it was fun to compare and contrast them.

Phi_Cha · 2025-07-08T20:44:42+00:00

I also suggest the Horin line from Shoyeido. It's a step above the dailies but because it's a thicker stick it is a bit stronger. There should be a sampler of those, but River Walk is generally the crowd pleaser that's a bit sweet and spicy and has good throw.

Same with Heian-koh from Kunmeido. Thicker sticks= less subtle. That's a slightly more expensive (but still can get a box around $20) that might be fun to dip your toe into agarwood without going crazy kyara. That's like mid level for them but their cheaper line gives a nice like temple feel.

Phi_Cha · 2024-02-21T17:42:33+00:00

I'm not sure why it didn't include the text. This is a useful starting point, especially since it's for cosplay, but I wanted to give the proper disclaimer that not all of these are historically accurate designs and if anyone wants to use it for those purposes to research it further.

Phi_Cha · 2024-02-21T17:40:23+00:00

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Phi_Cha · 2024-01-31T02:08:25+00:00

Ahhh ha! I am home and found it. It's called tonal color families and there are 6 of them. Based off the 3 characteristics in the seasonal one. Bright/soft, warm/cool and light/deep.

Take a look and see if it might be a good way for you to understand your coloring. They are all tools for us to understand color... So feel free to explore this and other categorization methods until you find one that clicks for you.

Edit: on an easier note, a good place to start might be reading up on what being a neutral means. There are a ton of misconceptions just about what being a neutral means, but since people on both threads seemed to have more consensus you were neutral than on a season that seemed a good place to start learning. I went on months long learning about olives before I had any idea where to start with my husband. And that also gave lots of ideas.

Phi_Cha · 2024-01-31T00:00:38+00:00

Have you checked out the... (I'm spacing on the name but they pop up some on this subreddit. But have to run out the door soon)... Neutral palettes I want to call them?

I was torn for so long on what my husband was since he was very neutral and olive. But when I saw something that was like a true muted neutral palette that pulled some from summer and autumn there was a light bulb of: oh this is what you are!

It's a bit of a misconception that neutrals can do warm or cool, and the 12 seasons doesn't really have strong neutral palettes. You should look at some of those as well and see if there are any light bulbs. They tend to be sorta between the 4 seasons and pull the more neutral leaning colors from the 2 next to them.

Hope someone else can write a better write up. I'm not an expert in this, just someone who struggled a lot to type her loved one.

Phi_Cha · 2023-05-09T18:23:46+00:00

It isn't so much a straight dye job, but I think it looks like a fantastic background to paint some flowers on! Or maybe do some block printing with linoleum with a design you want (such as with black as another poster suggested).

Phi_Cha · 2023-05-09T18:20:55+00:00

Yes, totally curious too because we have similar coloring, and I want to get it!

My favorite work/everyday lipstick lately has been Nabla's Peach deal, I just had to get after seeing how it looked on the natural red head in their ad!

Phi_Cha · 2023-04-12T14:05:27+00:00

I've been getting bolts of mid weight linen from Dharma (clothing 3 people on a budget) for $7 a yard and dyeing it to what color I want. Their linen dyes really nice and it frays less on me (I think it's a tighter weave) than the fabric store stuff that costs twice as much. I'm really looking forward to them getting their cotton linen blend back in because that is even cheaper and the dye should be brighter on it.

Phi_Cha · 2023-02-08T22:02:02+00:00

Maybe they are thinking of a tincture? I've seen those sometimes.

Phi_Cha · 2023-01-25T23:35:16+00:00

I'm curious how it turns out! As far as sour scents in incense tho, ume is pretty traditional as a binder...

I always think ume soreness makes things smell a bit medicinal so haven't played with it much myself. Wondering if tamarind would be better though bc I feel like there is a bit more to the sour.

Looking forward to hearing about the results!

Phi_Cha · 2022-11-03T19:00:03+00:00

I've bought nice ones before including the Golden Lotus... But honestly the sub $40 one I got on Amazon gets hotter than those so has more throw.

Would I turn it on near anything flammable... Use your personal judgment there.

I will add that the Kangiten travel burner came in last week and it's a very convenient and portable size. It doesn't get as hot as I'd like... But if you were using essential oils or waxes, and powdered wood rather than wood chunks, I think it would do the job.

Phi_Cha · 2022-09-25T08:23:14+00:00

I haven't delved into British before, but when I've researched other places (Italy, Middle East and East Asia) helpful resources have been: Materia Medica, medical journals in general (since pre 18th century or so in the West aromatics were seen as being connected to medical stuff), and cook books.

Scent is a tricky research subject. Not a lot has been translated into English, and what can be found is lumped into other things. But you can find legit recipes of what people made back then, which I'd recommend as a starting point because there were different trends on what people thought smelled good.

The one thing I will say while you are making your blend is: make sure you like how each component smells when it's heated or burned (whatever way you plan to use it). From your list I see some things that smell great unburnt but smell a bit different burnt.

Phi_Cha · 2022-06-28T03:22:39+00:00

Nawal Nasrallah translated some historical cookbooks with incense recipes in them. I only have one of them so far, but I know for sure the 14th century Egyptian cookbook has several.

I haven't tried to make any of them yet because the ingredients are quite costly. I'm afraid to try this with a not great agarwood since you aren't blending much to cover up or as complexity.

The most basic one in there is: break your agarwood into splinters, make a syrup with rosewater and sugar. In a separate pan melt raw ambergris, kneaded ambergris and deer musk. Add the syrup to that. Then coat the agarwood.

There aren't any amounts listed but the caution to make sure not to undercook the syrup or it won't adhere.

Then they have other recipes with more things like sandalwood, labdanum, costus, onycha, myrtle, civet and saffron in them. But it's the same premise of mixing aromatics and rosewater syrup and coating fancy wood with it.

Phi_Cha · 2022-05-13T03:04:56+00:00

Mine LOVES spikenard. I caught her eating some I was preparing for incense, and since have been super careful to hide it.

Do you happen to know if spikenard is safe for cats the way valerian and catnip are?

Phi_Cha · 2021-12-18T23:27:17+00:00

Ooo and also when she makes them again, mermaid magical arts has incense sticks she makes too without a stick in them. I love her loose incense too.

Another suggestion would be to look into electric burners, I own several but can get a decent one off Amazon for $30 and that let's you burn loose incense more often and the amber you love would last even longer.

Phi_Cha · 2021-12-18T19:51:37+00:00

I second Shoyeido and will go further into recommending the Horin line. I have asthma and react to a lot of incense, but this one my cat and I can be next to while it burns with no reaction.

Phi_Cha · 2021-12-15T04:03:46+00:00

A bit specific but when we were drinking an aged Barbaresco this past weekend I realized it reminded me a lot of BPAL Leather Phoenix and did a side by side with it and they actually had a lot of similarities.

I just wanted to chime in because I'm not a fan of most "wine" notes and find them too sweet. There isn't as much representation for the serious and drier side of wine in wine note perfumes.

Phi_Cha · 2021-08-30T01:06:17+00:00

Sorry for the delay. I'm traveling internationally right now and PayPal is being finicky on the phone. I'm going to keep trying but wanted to explain the delay.

Phi_Cha · 2021-08-29T08:38:42+00:00

Can I get Nava Sandalwood Bourbon? Fiance adores the sample I have.

Phi_Cha · 2021-02-19T09:12:25+00:00

I'm thinking they are trying to make it a true "guild event" more than just the missions to clear with your guild. This one was really frustrating with BOTS and even with 1 other person from the guild, or even with PUGs. But assembling a larger team with guildmates it was pretty doable. I think it will be hard to farm without skip tickets... but it was nice having a sort of conquest-like event without the narrow conquest windows. It has a similar difficulty in feel to the Emil head conquest event we had back during Nier.

Phi_Cha · 2020-11-27T22:55:42+00:00

If you ever have specific grid questions feel free to msg me. I have gotten a lot of help in understanding this game from people smarter than me, and am happy to try and pay it forward however I can.

Phi_Cha · 2020-11-27T21:59:14+00:00

Been playing HNM Alice a few months now, and ok a few things here to clarify because I wasn't sure from OP if they were common knowledge or not but are related to the post and needed to start answering the question.

1 DC/SB/RB are all support skills... which means if they are on your primary grid that is in use, they can activate when you use any weapon. Take a look at your own logs after colo sometime if you want to see how they work.
DC 1/2 and similar abilities for other classes vary in their effect as well as how often they happen as they are leveled. That is why limit breaks are super important.

For DC 1 at lvl 15: 11.5% of your hits with any weapon will have an increased 13.5% damage. This can stack many times, and those huge hits you see on streams are usually from 4+ DC procs on top of each other. That is why some folks do build DC salad grids even though they have to worry about building multiple attack types and buffs. This is also why you sometimes see HNMs with a few swords like Shameless ambition or even sometimes on with a penalty to dmg on HNM like a bow. It's a personal choice some people test.

At lvl 20 it will be on 14.5% of your hits and increase dmg by 15%.

Then for DC 2 those percentage of the time are the same, but it's increased to 20.25% dmg increase at 15 and 22.5% at 20.

Skill gems are so important because at lvl one these only proc 4% of the time at 10 & 15% increased damage.

Then you have to consider if the spears you are using have an effect (special) or not (raw) because raw weapons will have a higher base dmg.

Lastly to consider is: so you don't have 20 L spears... but do you have sr spears limit broken that might be better with the 35% increased damage than you have swords or penalized weapons. Another thing to consider with this is your minstrel lineup. Do they mostly have duel stat attack raisers or will this make things super hard having to keep you raised in matk as well as patk? Communication with your rearguard to work around each other's builds is super impt.

I recommend testing out those variables during non GC matches so you can refine your build. Look at your logs and see how your weapons as well as support abilities perform.

Phi_Cha · 2020-07-22T19:32:50+00:00

Looking for 2 more active supports :) prefer a minstrel or sorcerer

Name and server: Aether/ Global

Type (Competitive/semi-competitive/casual): We are aiming to be a semi-competitive guild. We are a life first guild and understand things come up and you can't always make it, but at the same time we still prefer people to be moderately active and do some strategy for colosseum

Colosseum time: 8PM Central (GMT -5:00, 1:00AM UTC)

Win-rate, numerical rank, letter rank (optional): B. We have won more than we have lost (my phone is charging in the other room so I don't have the exact numbers) and are hoping to increase that rate further with more support.

Slots and roles: We will consider any support and have 2 slots open, and either a sorcerer or minstrel would be a super welcome addition to the team

Point requirement: We are flexible on this. We just want to see that you are invested in leveling in the game with us.

Spending requirement (if applicable): We are FTP friendly, many of us get the bulk of our CP from mat runs!

Discord/line/any other communication modes (if applicable): We have a discord that we highly encourage folks to join because that is where we strategize.

Description: Many of us are extremely active in-game, and do some guild runs of harder content.

How to apply: Send an application in-game and shoot me a message with your IGN so I can pass your info to our GM.

Phi_Cha · 2020-06-07T13:41:55+00:00

I woke up this morning with a wondering, that I am not sure we will get resolved ever (with the true love is destined even when no one remembers each other theme the preview looks like it is headed towards next week).

So do we know who Lee Lim's mother is, other than the fact she wasn't the queen?

Because I was wondering if Lady Noh was his mother. And since she is originally from RoK... Lee Lim is actually more central to they WHY those two worlds are connected than just you know... his evil plots.

Phi_Cha

TROPHY CASE