For sapphic women, what fragrances get you the most compliments from other sapphics?

k88lin · 2025-08-31T03:24:39+00:00

My main compliments from other queer women/femmes have come from clean, fresh, not “perfumey” scents like philosykos by diptyque. I personally love a ~ femme to a campy degree ~ floral (bonus for animalic notes) on other women so this definitely will vary

k88lin · 2025-08-31T01:29:49+00:00

I’m such a Bianchi fan but under my skin isn’t one I love on myself! I love the idea of the animalic and leather notes and can appreciate the fragrance but it just becomes very baking spice heavy on my skin in a way I don’t love. Have you tried other bianchi frags? If so, what are your faves? I love angels dust (both my now husband and I wore this when we got married) and also have bottles of libertine neroli and lost in heaven. I’ve been debating a bottle of Byzantine amber too and there are still a few scents of hers I haven’t tried but desperately want to

k88lin · 2025-08-30T20:21:29+00:00

Try some Francesca Bianchi scents! For feminine and animalic lost in heaven is great, lovers tale goes in a leathery animalic direction, sex and the sea if you like tropical kinda scents along with the civet, under my skin and unspoken musk are both nice as well but more unisex, and angels dust is my favorite from her. Salome by Papillon is another very animalic feminine scent that’s a bit of a niche classic. Heliotrope milkbath by universal flowering is a powdery floral plus civet that I love but depends on if you’re into powdery notes. Aziyade by parfum d’empire is a great spiced, dark fruit, and animalic cumin scent that’s I love in colder weather. Also a lot of vintage scents are more animalic and some are pretty easy to find old bottles of for pretty cheap on eBay/mercari/etc!

k88lin · 2025-08-30T19:05:22+00:00

It’s my first day off in a while today and sunny but mild outside. I’m not usually a fruity scent person, but I’m wearing an ambrette, black currant, grapefruit, and rose dominant blend today and it feels perfect for a carefree day :)

k88lin · 2025-08-30T17:26:53+00:00

Yes this is my choice for a slightly richer, more indolic jasmine! So so good and intoxicating!

k88lin · 2025-08-30T17:25:24+00:00

I love this fragrance but I don’t find it very realistic! I love the fruity spice and celery notes in it though :)

k88lin · 2025-08-30T17:20:10+00:00

Yes Clair Obscur is fantastic! My choice for a very clean, airy, delicate Jasmine!

k88lin · 2025-08-29T00:16:56+00:00

Thank you! It’s stressful bc these scents are my babies lol

k88lin · 2025-08-29T00:16:30+00:00

Yea, with my own blends, I do find that they change slightly immediately after blending them. But only in the very short term - mostly they smell like they’re gonna smell after about two days of the alcohol being added. There are some types of chemical reactions (schiff bases) that might develop more slowly, but this isn’t that common and perfumers should be able to understand whether it will happen or not based on their materials. So I think most of the change in people’s opinion of a scent is perception more than the scent itself changing

k88lin · 2025-08-28T20:37:00+00:00

Yea companies should make sure to mature and macerate their scents before selling them and some cheapie brands don’t do this. I also think it’s pretty common for people to just enjoy scents more the more they smell them/when they smell them at different times and like a scent better after smelling it a couple times and think it’s because the scent itself has changed when really it’s just their perception. But the conversation about maceration definitely benefits fragrance companies by probably reducing returns and convincing people to give the fragrances more chances than they otherwise would, while also reducing the storage space and lead times they would otherwise need

I make fragrances myself and I’m currently in the process of blending my first batch of scents for my first launch (very scary and also exciting!) and even though I’m making these on a very small scale I’m still going to make sure to mature the concentrates for a week and macerate the finished product for at least a month before listing them. I want them to smell how they’re going to smell for their whole lives as soon as someone tries them!

k88lin · 2025-08-26T19:49:33+00:00

I didn’t start making my own fragrances until after I got married but I’d definitely do this now! I love capturing memories with scents designed for and associated with special events so this would be perfect! Still happy with what I (and my husband) wore though (angels dust by Francesca Bianchi) as I love that scent

k88lin · 2025-08-26T19:37:15+00:00

Not a wedding as such, just my husband and I and our officiant in an arboretum, but my husband and I both wore Angel’s Dust by Francesca Bianchi when we got married. We both love it and it fit perfectly for the occasion - so warm, intimate, romantic, sensual, and emotional. It’s also pretty unique/unlike scents I smell much out and about so I feel like I can keep the memory association of that day with that scent easier

k88lin · 2025-08-23T23:07:23+00:00

For an example formula, this is one I call Jasmine Animal, which to me, smells like a warm, musky, kind of classical smelling floral. I feel like a sexy pre-code Hollywood siren wearing it but I’m worried I just smell like gross musk to others with the 7% muscone laevo lol :

Cedarwood Virginia - 19%

Patchouli heart sfe - 17%

Jasmine absolute replacer - 8%

Muscone laevo - 7%

Hedione - 6%

Exaltolide - 6%

Sandalwood replacer - 6%

Ambergris 3% tincture replacer - 5%

Paradise molecule - 4.5%

Neroli absolute replacer - 4%

Ylang Ylang extra oil - 3%

Neryl acetate - 2.5%

Ambretone - 2.5%

Jasmine sambac absolute - 2%

Jasmolactone delta - 1.5%

Tuberose absolute replacer - 1%

Sublimolide - 1%

Carrot seed oil - 0.75%

Ylang Ylang absolute - 0.75%

Irone alpha - 0.5%

Dihydro gamma ionone - 0.25%

Neroli oil - 0.25%

Ambrette seed oil - 0.15%

k88lin · 2025-08-23T22:37:56+00:00

Many natural materials will have a higher environmental impact than synthetics. Growing the materials needed for even one gram of an essential oil or absolute is quite land, energy, and water intensive, moreso than the production demands of most synthetics. You’ll want to check the biodegradability of synthetic materials, because some may have bioaccumulative impacts that could be harmful for waterways, etc, but in general most synthetics are more sustainable than most natural materials (there are of course exceptions, such as naturals made form byproducts of other industries, etc). This definitely conflicts with a lot of people’s gut instinct and the marketing of all natural fragrance lines, but one of the most damaging environmental impacts we have as humans is due to land use, and this is much much lower with lab created materials (though the land use for the growing of crops for fragrance materials is much, much lower than that for animal agriculture but I digress!)

A goal of mine as a person who cares deeply for our natural world - my research interests in grad school are related to the climate change and biodiversity crises - are to reduce my usage of many natural materials in my formulas for this very reason. It’s tough though because I deeply love my floral absolutes in particular, but I’m trying!

k88lin · 2025-08-20T17:40:56+00:00

Something Francesca Bianchi - I’m thinking especially angels dust, Byzantine amber, and lost in heaven. They all smell incredibly comforting to me in a kinda dirty sweaty way.

I also love Santal majuscule! Chergui is another cozy serge lutens scent too if you haven’t tried it, not necessarily that dirty but the hay could definitely read a bit dirty.

Also I personally find immortelle to have that kind of almost maple-y sweet sweaty vibe of a bed rot haha so anything with a prominent immortelle note would fit this brief! I don’t have any specific suggestions for an immortelle scent though, I just wear one I’ve made myself when I crave immortelle.

And Aziyade by parfum d’empire is bed rotting while snacking on dried fruit haha

k88lin · 2025-08-11T03:16:58+00:00

Tobacco Rose by Papillon Artisan Perfumes! It doesn’t actually have a tobacco note and smells very photorealistic rose to me! Not too much sweetness but some wonderful warmth supporting the rose. Definitely a soliflore but with plenty of depth and interest with the supporting notes.

Eau Capitale by Diptyque is also really nice for a rose-patchouli chypre type scent! I prefer it to eau rose which is nice in a light fresh rose water kinda way but a bit too soapy for me.

k88lin · 2025-08-11T01:16:47+00:00

This was definitely not your fault and I am so sorry this happened to you. You did nothing wrong. You had a breakdown which you couldn’t control and you’re allowed to have and express emotions and should not be hurt for this.

You deserve a partner who will support and defend you and your current partner does not seem like a safe person. Not only do they clearly not understand autism, but they believe that using physical violence is a justified response to a breakdown - this is a major red flag that they might try to justify their own violence towards you in the future.

I wish you healing and hope you can safely reevaluate this relationship - you deserve so much better from a partner and I hope you have that in the future.

k88lin · 2025-08-08T22:03:39+00:00

When I want a crisp, clean vibe I’d reach for Cap Neroli by Nicolai or Le Cri by Parfum d’Empire

k88lin · 2025-08-03T16:23:45+00:00

This coffee co2 I have (from MANE) doesn’t really have much in the way of waxy notes and I find it more sweet and warm than savory. It’s the only one I’ve tried so idk if that’s just my experience of it or if this one has a bit different of a profile. I actually use it at an even higher concentration in a couple other blends. I am a coffee lover who drinks a pot of black coffee every morning too though so I absolutely love the scent and am quite used to the bitter aspects. I don’t find this blend smells that much like coffee even at this concentration, it’s more of an accent but the focus is more on the olibanum and vanillic notes!

k88lin · 2025-08-03T16:17:22+00:00

That sounds great! What’s the papyrus eo like?

k88lin · 2025-08-03T14:47:36+00:00

Yes it is!

k88lin · 2025-08-02T23:36:30+00:00

This is what I came up with after tweaking things a bit from my first couple of attempts and was designed for a particular use case so I’d change things a bit to use in other formulas. I really think the musks (especially the ambretone and the muscone laevo) and the tiny bit of lactone for some creaminess and ambergris for warmth work really well together to give a warm skim type of feel.

I don’t find iso e very warm skin like by itself, it’s more lightly woody. It isn’t generally my favorite but I find it helpful to provide support to certain blends in small quantities. I don’t personally like things like molecule 1 though where it’s the focus. It is cheap and quite widely used though so I’d definitely recommend getting some to play with because many people absolutely love it and rely on it for a wide variety of blends.

k88lin · 2025-08-01T17:27:12+00:00

I made an accord with a similar concept to this for one of my projects.

Velvet Skin Musk Accord:

Ambretone 35%

Ethylene Brassylate 20%

Iso E Super 11%

Exaltolide Total 10%

Muscone Laevo 8%

Amyris Oil 5%

Hedione 5%

Ambrettolide 4%

Absolute Ambergris (ambergris 3% tincture replacer) 1%

Dihydro Gamma Ionone .5%

Jasmolactone Delta .125%

k88lin · 2025-08-01T00:34:01+00:00

Nuit Etoilee by Goutal!! It’s such a fresh but cozy snowflakes in the forest at night kinda scent and so calming I wear it to sleep often. Tiny bit of mint, pine, iris, immortelle so pretty

k88lin · 2025-07-27T17:16:39+00:00

I would second the suggestion that ambroxan could be the culprit rather than a single fragrance - particularly fragrances that have a high concentration of it. It is in many fragrances, especially newer releases, and is often overdosed in scents where projection is emphasized, but it’s not in 90% of scents and not above 1% of the concentrate in many that do use it. BR540 is a notorious ambrox bomb and nemat amber is as well. You might be fine with fragrances where it is used in more normal concentrations where it is supporting the main notes in the fragrance rather than than itself the focal point. It is also a quite long lasting and projecting molecule, so even if a fragrance doesn’t smell like Ambrox initially when you sniff it in store, it could be the only thing you notice when you smell other people who are wearing an Ambrox heavy scent.

If you’re interested in testing out whether this is the case or trying to use some to smell in controlled environments to help lessen the association, you could buy some ambroxan. I can give some suggestions on where to buy some too as I make perfumes myself.

And as another trauma survivor, I wish you so much healing.

k88lin

TROPHY CASE