Thread: Fragrance vs. Body Spray

Originally Posted by Str8Shooter

SWMBO and I are fairly serious with our collection. This is actually not up to date but taken last year...
No body spray in this house.

Dear lord sir, I knew you had a collection of fragrances but that sure surpassed my expectations! lol

Originally Posted by dadsavage

Hah! Yes I imagine it wouldn't be impressed about being kept in the medicine cupboard either. Civet in this context though is short-hand for civet oil which is a secretion from the anal scent glands of said mammal. Although genuine civet only exist in the context of vintage scents as animalics like this have largely been replaced by synthetics. I believe the export of civet oil is in fact illegal now. The scent is civet, in its pure form, has definite fecal facets. It reminds some of urine, or acrid body-odor. In my experience the synthetics are more shrill, acrid and urineous while the genuine oil is (I can't believe I'm about to use this term) more fecal-floral.

This sound horrible, but when well blended civet can be amazing. The vintage Givenchy Gentleman is quite civet-heavy and is one of my all-time favorite masculine scents. A decent modern copy is Bond no.9's H.O.T Always (though I prefer the Givenchy reformulation; it's not as natural but the blend is smoother) and another great scent of a similar sort is Giorgio of Beverly Hills' Giorgio For Men which I believe has recently been discontinued but can be grabbed for very cheap.

How on earth did someone discover that an animals bum oil would smell good as part of a scent.

Originally Posted by edhewitt

How on earth did someone discover that an animals bum oil would smell good as part of a scent.

Do you really want to know Ed?

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

Do you really want to know Ed?

Bob

In all honesty, no

How on earth did someone discover that an animals bum oil would smell good as part of a scent.

The same could probably be said for things like deer musk, castoreum (beaver secretions) ambergris (sperm whale bile) and so on. The truth, regarding the smells, is fairly simple. They smell good to someone, or did at one time. However gross its origins Ambergris is still pleasant smelling. Even today many people feel the same way about various musks and secretions: so much so that deer musk is worth more lb for lb than gold. People in general may not feel the same way about heavy musks and animal secretions now in their pure form but in their heyday there were environmental factors which acclimatized people to these scents.

One need only look at some of the things people choose to eat and drink; in some cases paying through the nose for the privilege. In contrast bum oil sniffing seems almost pedestrian.

Civet coffee, anyone?

It's really interesting how the science of scents goes together. It is an art all it's own. Really looking forward to going to Rome in March. SWMBO and I will be going to visit a few "nose's" and perfumistas. Once you find good attar's, EDP, EDT Or Aoud there really is no reason why you would want to use a body spray.
Unless gimmicky ads and smelling like a 13 yr old works for you. Hell, you can go to Walgreens and get descent EDT for cheap.

Originally Posted by dadsavage

Civet coffee, anyone?

Right up there with Elephant and Bat dung coffee. I thought dumpster diving was bad.

Bob

It's really interesting how the science of scents goes together. It is an art all it's own

The irony here is despite the reputations fragrance have for being expensive they are one of the most accessible forms of art for the general population. Setting reformulations aside, unlike so many other forms of art once the original artist has created the work as a quantifiable formula it can be re-created en mass, and not merely as a tawdry copy or facsimile. Rather like literature and poetry.