Stock Scents Galore –or how I found out my favourite indie brands may be using stock scents

I'm writing in a separate post due to the sheer number of companies that got involved. It started off with Black Violet and ended up involving way more companies than I expected.

It first began when a thread about potential repackagers appeared here.  There were accusations that some companies use stock scents, and Black Violet got mentioned. I'd normally defend Black Violet, but certain personal experiences made me hesitate.

Some time ago, I fell in love with Red Lotus from BV and bought a full size of it. Here are the notes for Red Lotus:

Screenshot taken on 22 Jan, 2015

Then I tried Lychee & Red Tea from Orange Thyme, with the following scent description:

Screenshot taken on 22 Jan, 2015

And Sakura Matsuri cuticle oil from Rainbow Honey, with the following scent description:

Screenshot taken on 22 Jan, 2015

Ok, so all 3 feature lychee + red tea + geranium, a relatively unusual combo. That doesn't mean anything, does it?

Well...Sakura Matsuri & Red Lotus smells identical. Orange Thyme's Lychee & Red Tea smells like Red Lotus, with acrid lemons added in.

I was surprised, especially since Rainbow Honey is nail polish brand and therefore, I expect them to use stock scents instead of creating their own blend of scents. Then, someone pointed me out to this stock scent from Brambleberry called Lychee Red Tea. Here's the notes:

This is a soon to be discontinued scent
Screenshot taken on 22 Jan, 2015

Despite a throwaway account (that was created purely to defend Black Violet and suspiciously, as of Jan 22, 2015, is no longer active beyond that thread) claiming that s/he owns both Red Lotus & Lychee Red Tea (what are the chances someone happens to own a stock scent in question?) and both scents are different, I highly suspect they'll both smell the same.

In the same thread, BV also got outed for using a base for her body butters. I was really disappointed about that since I pay a lot of money for international shipping, and it's very disheartening to find that someone uses a base. When I try 3 different companies, I'm hoping to try 3 different formulas instead of 1 base with 3 different labels slapped on it. I already know that most bases do not work as well as HoG's pumpkin butters on me, so I have no interest in trying out yet another base.

In response to all that, Leilani came out to say this:

She didn't stay back to respond to requests for her to list out exactly which of her items are made from bases and which are made from scratch.

Obviously, I'm still upset over the money I wasted. Why doesn't she openly state she uses a base since the beginning, instead of choosing to admit it only when she got outed?

Anyway, fine. Just because someone has the same scent notes as a stock scent doesn't mean that they use stock scents. They could just be very uncreative as perfumers, and choose to copy successful stock scents for their scents.

.....but what are the chances that 2+ different perfumers follow the strategy of copying a stock scent (not using, but actually blending stuff to copy it)? What are the chances 2+ different perfumers just happen to come up with the same exact blend of notes as a stock scent? Let's look at this:

Black Violet's Chalice

Screenshot taken on 22 Jan, 2015

Alchemic Muse's Laguna

Screenshot taken on Jan 15, 2015

Muguet is another name for Lily of the Valley, btw. Once you remove the description, you're left with: blue notes + cyclamen + lily + sandalwood. Huh. Here's Indiana Candle Supply's stock scent, Salty Sea Air:

Screenshot taken on Jan 15, 2015

That can still be a coincidence and I haven't tried all 3 scents together yet, but here are other questionable scents:

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Black Violet's Camellia 

"Freshly steeped green tea leaves cooled with crisp cucumbers."

Brambleberry's Green Tea & Cucumber:  "This fragrance smells just like freshly steeped green tea with a hint of cucumber."  

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Black Violet's Valley of the Temples 

"Resinous amber, Asian oud wood, calming cedarwood, exotic ambrette seed, fresh rosemary, dark olibanum, patchouli, black musk, orchid and jasmine petals."

Aromahaven's Oud Wood: "Exotic Asian Oud wood is balanced and blended with cedar, precious ambrette seeds, green rosemary, delicate jasmine, baby orchid, gala apple, dark olibanum, black musk, earthy patchouli. "

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Black Violet's Oakmoss Gown 

"Lightening bugs dance around her as she drapes herself in damp oakmoss, earthy vetiver, and a light vanilla infusion."

Crafters Choice Oakmoss: "Wet and earthy oakmoss with green vetiver, vanilla and nutmeg."

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Black Violet's Pamplemousse

"Quench your Parisian thirst with a pink grapefruit cocktail topped with an edible orchid. Sante!"

Elements Bath & Body's Sea Island Grapefruit: "The sweetest, crispest and cleanest sun-ripened grapefruit you'll ever smell. Softened with a hint of white orchids, truly a treasure of a fragrance."

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So that's already 6 questionable fragrances. This is not counting her many single note fragrances.

In the best case scenario, she's not a repackager, but just really uncreative with her blends, choosing to copy stock scents instead. But in that case, why should I buy from her when I can buy the stock scents for a fraction of the price and mix them with a carrier oil myself?

Or why not buy a mainstream perfume instead? Here's the cost break down:

Indie Perfumes:

• $12-20+ for a 5ml bottle = $2.40-$4+ /ml

Mainstream Perfumes:

• $50-100+ for a 50ml bottle (this is the average 1.7 oz bottles, not larger bottles) = $1-2+ /ml

To put that into perspective, if your mainstream perfumers charge Black Violet's prices ($15-18 for 10ml), that means your bottle of perfume is going to cost $75-90. 

For that price, mainstream perfume offers you nice packaging and the chance to sniff the scent and try it out in store. Why should I go indie if the owner can't offer something more creative than mainstream scents?

I still think Black Violet has some original scents, but at this point, I find that getting an original scent will be a gamble. I still have a lot of Black Violet products I still have to review, and I will review them. I just don't think I'll buy more from them. 

Review : Black Violet's Autumn & Halloween Scents + several other scents

UPDATE Dec 8, 2014: I unfortunately cannot recommend this company anymore. It has come to my attention that Black Violet uses stock bases for their body lotion and several scents may be stock scents.  Leilani has come forward to state that she does not use any stock scents, but I still have my suspicions since Red Lotus smells exactly like Orange Thyme's Lychee & Red Tea, as well as Rainbow Honey's Sakura Matsuri cuticle balm. As a nail polish company, I expect Rainbow Honey to scent their balms with stock scents. Here is a list of her questionable scents. 

I finally got my Black Violet order! I unfortunately didn't take pictures before I started messing things up/decanting, but her packaging is always awesome. I also got certain scents as decants (/u/minkishly and I decant everything we get for each other, check out her awesome blog here), so they're not great for photographing.

My previous Black Violet review is here.


This review is for her Fall & Halloween scents (Apparition, Komorebi, Bavarian Apfel Cider), 3 soon to be discontinued scents (Sea Goddess, Momotaro, Snow White Tea) & the Bavarian Apfel Cider whipped soap.

Customer Service Rave

Leilani is AWESOME as usual. 

So, another indie seller messed up and sent my subscription package to the wrong address, which was my forwarding address. So now my forwarding address is live and everything I order has to arrive within 21 days or the service gets very expensive. Unfortunately, most Halloween releases, including Black Violet's, wouldn't launch until only about 2-4 days before my forwarding address expires. Leilani actually rushed everything out early for me (so technically, I could've gotten an early preview :P) and I got everything in time! I love her!

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Perfume Oil General Review

I always recommend Black Violet scents for people first venturing into indies. They smell really great and are often straightforward with nothing overly complex/"weird" in them. A lot of the scents are scents you typically find in high-end mainstream perfumes, so they're easy to like.

Sillage-wise, while you can usually smell certain notes wafting up as you type if you put them on your wrist, you'll need to get to about faux whisper distance to get the full scents. They stay at this strength for 1 1/2-2h, before they fade to an intimate whisper distance for a further 4-5h. You can smell lingering traces on your skin for around 10-12h though.

These perfumes definitely last! So here are the scent reviews:

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Apparition

"Unisex, dark, cool fragrance which opens up with a slight camphorous note with a peculiar, sharp & clean musk."

I'm torn on this scent. This scent reminds me of my childhood trips to Bali -my parents would often rent a villa with my aunt & uncle and this scent reminds me of those villas. While I feel nostalgic, I'm not sure if I want to wear this out. On one hand, there's the smell that smells like the slate walls in a Balinese villa. At the same time, there's the smell of Baygon, a popular Indonesian insecticide, which is why it smells so much like those Balinese villas I used to stay in. The maids had to spray the entire villa with Baygon since Indonesian mosquitoes are vicious.

This is the closest design I can find to those old villas I used to stay in. I realize I can't find a single villa that's designed similar to the old villas I used to stay in. The old villas tend to be dimly lit and had a lot of orange bricks, black slate and stones. The modern villas are now an architectural fusion of Balinese-Mediteranean-American styles, with a lot of wood, open spaces, bright lights and clean, white walls. Sure, I prefer the modern villas design-wise, but it's kinda sad something so iconic in your childhood no longer exists.
Image courtesy of .designbali.com

Don't get me wrong, Baygon can smell great. As a kid, I used to love sniffing it until my mom caught me and freaked out. It smells like a slightly bitter, cool, powdery scent. I know tourists who love the scent. Unfortunately, I can't shake off the feeling that I'm sniffing insecticide, and get uncomfortable.

TL; DR: Slate walls in a 90s Balinese villa.

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Bavarian Apfel Cider 

"Your stein froths over with golden apple cider alongside a slice of red currant torte, topped with slivers of almonds."

This smells like a cool, apple perfume with baked raisins in it. There's a bit of an actual apple juice scent underneath the cool, apple perfume scent, which I found impressive. After about 10 minutes, the cool scent somehow mellowed out and the baked raisins blended in. The scent becomes a warm, spiced apple cider scent that makes you feel warm and snuggly. As the scent dries down, the spices are the first to go, so the smell it leaves lingering on your skin

The scent's pretty straightforward and is exactly what you'd expect it to smell like from the name. If you're looking for a straightforward, not overly complex spiced apple scent, this is it.

Sillage-wise, I noticed this has a lower throw than what I'm used to from Black Violet. You have to get close to intimate whispering distance to get a whiff of it.

TL; DR: Apple cider.

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Komorebi

"Showers of light between the colorful trees, glowing to the warm forest floor. Absinthe, rosewood, amber musk, carnation, fallen leaves."

This makes me feel nostalgic and I'm not sure why. It smells like warm summer nights, slowly turning into fall. The floral in this is warm, mellow floral -it reminds me of the scent of flowers that have been baking under the hot sun the whole day, carried by the night breeze.

I was torn between this and another photo by the same photographer (Koveh Tavakkol), but I think this picture captures best how the scent's warm and cool at the same time.
Image by Koveh Tavakkol, who's a freaking amazing landscape photographer. You HAVE to check out his work.

There's also a scent that reminds me of fallen leaves in Autumn (romanticized of course...actual fallen leaves on the ground smells like dirt & mush). As the scent wears on, the florals fade and the cool, autumn breeze smell takes over. It really smells like summer turning into fall.

TL; DR: Flowers on warm, summer nights melting into autumn.

Overview: On my second sniff, I realized why this makes me smell nostalgic. Deep within this scent is that Baygon note that Apparition has. It's very well blended into the scent that I didn't notice it at first. It's faint enough that I don't easily identify it & freak out about sniffing insecticide, but visible enough to trigger my nostalgia since I constantly smelled Baygon as a child. 

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Momotaro

"Floating down a stream was a ripe little peachling. When opened to eat, the couple was surprised to discover a little boy sweetly named Momotaro- which translates to peach and eldest son."

This is a straightforward peach scent. It's a light, fresh sort of peach scent that has the barest tinge of greenness to it. The scent reminds me of peach spritzers! As the scent wears on, it starts smelling a lot like a Victoria Secrets' body spray that used to be popular. I don't remember the name now, but it used to be so popular I smelled it everywhere.

TL; DR: Peach spritzer and a potential Victoria Secrets' dupe.

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Snow White Tea

"Chilled white tea kissed by juicy, red apples."

Oh dear gods this is awesome. Have you seen that Memoirs of a Geisha movie poster featuring the gorgeous Zhang Ziyi?

Image found on Wikipedia

This is a scent I imagine her wearing. This is a cool, slightly tangy white tea scent that's so clean and exquisite. It makes you think of beautiful, refined women in white kimonos with long, silky hair cascading down their backs.

I'll be honest, I was trying to find a picture of an Asian lady in white since this is the image I get from this perfume, but for some reason, I can't seem to find a single picture of an Asian model elegantly dressed in white who doesn't look depressed. Plenty of white kimono pics out there, but the models are either incredibly fetishized (creepy), semi-nude or look like they've been force fed Prozac to get them to look girlishly chirpy.So imagine this woman, but with a happier expression because she smells fantastic.

 It's as if the photographers see white and immediately go, "Ok, look like someone just died."
Photography by Woo Changhoon

Anyway, just sniffing this makes me feel more refined and elegant, and I'm one sniff away from attempting to glide around the office and insisting we have afternoon tea sessions.


TL; DR: Clean, slightly tangy white tea scent for elegant, refined women.

Overview: The apple isn't that strong on me, and just sits in the background giving the scent a slight tanginess that stops it from smelling like a plain tea scent/roomspray. I decanted a bit for a friend who hates apples (before I knew there were apples in it) and she's so in love with it, she immediately ordered a full size before it's discontinued. So if you're not a fan of apples, I'd still give this a go.

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Sea Goddess

"Tropical waters, trade winds & ti leaves braided with orange blossoms. As Madame Pele dug a deep fire pit, her sister Namaka the Sea Goddess flooded the glowing embers with salt water to show her displeasure with all the destruction. The battle raged on as ocean and fire met. The Sea Goddess climbed to her windy lookout only to discover Madame Pele form thru the smoky clouds. Her steamy spirit disappeared into the crater with trade winds of island flowers as offerings."

I like this blue note! There was a hint of citrus in the first few minutes which blended into the scent. At first, it smells like a very luxurious spa, but then a masculine, almost bitter sort of scent enters. The scent becomes a unisex, blue scent that isn't too sweet & doesn't smell like room spray.

TL; DR: Unisex blue scent that doesn't smell like room spray.

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Bavarian Apfel Cider Whipped Soap

Oh wow,  I love this whipped soap formula! The texture is like thick whipped cream:

Thick & fluffy!

There's some crumbly bits in it but they're very soft and melt fast under water. And oh gods, they feel so amazing against your skin. I love good whipped soaps...it's like washing your hands with fluffy clouds.

Gaze upon the fluffy awesomeness.

And they're not drying! They leave the slightest, barest hint of dryness right after washing, but your skin feels fine almost right after. It's the same level of dryness as Haus of Gloi's bubbling scrubs -very, very slight and waayyy less than a lot of other soaps, whether indie or mainstream.

The scent's pretty true to the perfume oil -a straightforward spiced apple cider. While you're washing with it, the scent strength is about casual conversation distance, but it definitely lingers on your skin! My skin smells so awesome afterwards. I have this obsessive need to immediately moisturize after washing though, so I'm not sure how long the scent will linger on your skin.

UPDATE Nov 17, 2014: I tried the whipped soap again and after close to 2 months, the texture changed a bit. It's definitely thicker than before, and there's more of the crumbly bits, that according to Leilani, is shea butter. 

Review: Black Violet

UPDATE: I unfortunately cannot recommend this company anymore. It has come to my attention that Black Violet uses stock bases for their body lotion and several scents may be stock scents.  Leilani has come forward to state that she does not use any stock scents, but I still have my suspicions since Red Lotus smells exactly like Orange Thyme's Lychee & Red Tea, as well as Rainbow Honey's Sakura Matsuri cuticle balm. As a nail polish company, I expect Rainbow Honey to scent their balms with stock scents. Here is a list of her questionable scents. 

I've seen Black Violet before and have been drawn to them because, well, their site is gorgeous! So when Leilani posted on Reddit with a discount code, I obviously had to buy from her. I have to say, I'm blown away. First, check out how my stuff arrived:

Pretty packaging!

I thought it was a clutch! I was so confused since I was pretty sure I never ordered a handbag despite my many late night shopping sprees. I can't have gotten that sleep deprived. Then I saw it was from Black Violet and realized that it was just her wrapping. Wow.

Here's what I got:

• Red Lotus mini perfume oil
• Pattiserie mini perfume oil 
• Sugar Clouds perfume oil sample (free)
• Yuzu Cookie perfume balm
• Lilikoi Creme Soap
• Affogato Hydra Conditioner
• Sample size of Steel Petals Body Butter (free)

Leilani truly has an eye for design and she knows how to pay attention to the smallest details to create a really beautiful experience. Opening her package is like opening a Christmas gift, and gives you the same amount of excitement.

Customer Service

Leilani is amazing and replies to messages almost immediately. I actually got a bit worried once when she replied to my message until past midnight her time! As soon as we settled all the messiness with international shipping, she sent me my order within a day so the TAT is awesome.

Now I'm used to waiting for long international delivery, so I learnt never to keep checking the mail tracking since you'll just get worried when there's no news on your order. She was the one who constantly updated me on the delivery. I'm so impressed by her customer service and she's genuinely warm and sweet. She's awesome!

I still have to finish my current bath products, so I've only tried out the perfumes for now. As usual, reviews are done blind, and I only check the description before writing my overall impression.

Perfume Oil General Review

The sillage is amazing. I can smell it wafting all over my cubicle as I type. The sillage for Red Lotus is definitely the strongest out of the scents I tried. Longevity-wise, you can smell them wafting around for about 1 1/2h and last about 6 hours on your skin. I definitely like the quality!

Sugar Clouds

"Playful and sweet~ sugar crystals, dreams of candy floss, vanilla and musk. (Valentine's Day stock fragrance request)"

Initially, this was the perfect sugar cookies scent. Only the sugar got stronger and sweeter until it's a super sweet and sharp sugary vanilla scent. The sweetness toned down after about 30 min, but the scent stayed at a sugary, musky vanila.

Overall impression: This scent smells pretty plain to me, and I wonder if it's because it's a stock scent.

Red Lotus

UPDATE Dec 8, 2014: I've recently sniffed this same exact scent in 2 other products –Rainbow Honey's cuticle balm in Sakura Matsuri & Orange Thyme's Lychee & Red Tea. I'm now a bit suspicious about whether or not this is a stock scent.

"With vermillion red beauty & hairlike spines, rambutans are unforgettable fruits from Southeast Asia which bring a tart aroma. Exotic lychee radiates a sweet note thru red rooibos tea. Red Lotus is complete with floating lilies and wild geranium. (limited edition)"

This is amazing! It's like floral lychee (sorry, this is how I was taught to spell it where I grew up, and I'm sticking to it). There's a fresh, watery coolness to this scent that keeps this scent from going too sweet with the lychee or too heavy with the florals. I'm trying to place the florals but it's buried by the strong, lychee smell. This sounds weird, but it smells like one of those flowers with very thick petals that has a slight green-ness to their scent. There's definitely tea in this. This smell makes me think of a very pretty, lychee tea mocktail, that'll be decorated by flower petals. This scent is amazing as a perfume!

Post description review: Woww....the description is spot on. I guess I get lychee and rambutan mixed up, whoops! I'm so getting this in full size.

Pattiserie

"Petit fours of eclairs covered in powdered sugar filled with vanilla custard, lemon meringue tarts in a buttery short dough shell brimming with lemon curd, a swirl of baked meringue & finished in a light dusting of confectioners sugar."

This smells like creamy shortcake crossed with lemon cakes initially, but the lemon got stronger to the point where it's just lemon cakes. Towards the end, the lemon mellowed down and I'm left with a cake smell that smells delicious enough, but still a tad artificial. I think this may be awesome in body butter form though, so I plan on grabbing some body butters in this scent.

Post description review: The scent is more creamy and milky than buttery. The description makes this sound like it's going to be insanely sweet, but it's not. Even on my skin that loves amping up sweet smells! This is a great scent, but I just wish the smell doesn't morph into a slightly artificial cake scent at the end. To be fair, it's not a cloying, play-doh type of artificial and still smells delicious, so I'm still impressed.

Yuzu Cookies Solid Perfume

"For hundreds of years, yuzu has been placed in Japanese baths, releasing a grapefruit and mandarin orange-like aroma. The citrus fruit is found in many exquisite dishes & drinks. Enjoy it paired with butter cookies!"

The freshness of yuzu mixed with the creamy, buttery scent of cookies produce a heavenly smell of...cheesecake. It's really weird. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, really, since cookies usually smell heavy and buttery, while yuzu smells fresh, light and tart. Guess cheesecake's what you get. The yuzu disappears faster than the cookies smell, abd you'll be left with the lingering scent of absolutely divine cake. This is more of a beautifully decorated, heavily frosted white cake displayed in a cake shop rather than a freshly baked cake smell. It's delicious for sure and I'm definitely interested in getting more of this!  

As for how the perfume balm is, this has a great throw for a solid perfume! You can smell it from an intimate whisper away, which is the throw I've gotten from some perfume oils, so I'm impressed. 

Longevity-wise, the smell wafts for slightly under an hour and you can smell it for up to 3h. Not too bad for a solid perfume. 

This has an oily, melty texture that's similar to Notoriously Morbid's lip balms. It takes a while for your skin to absorb the oil if you just let it sit there, so you end up with a scary oil patch like this for a while:

It sits like that for a long time so you just have to rub it in

It doesn't bother me much though, since I love everything else about this.

By the way, I just did something really stupid. I'll start by putting this picture here:

You can guess what happened...

Yes. I accidentally mixed it up with my Coffin Kissers lip balm. In case you're wondering, it tastes and feels exactly like lip balm. No bitterness or weird texture or anything. Pretty sure it's not lip-safe, but I really couldn't tell the difference between the two balms if it weren't for the different scents. I didn't even realize my mistake for the first few seconds before the scent registered, and when it finally did, I looked down and realized the balm I was holding was yellow instead of white. After that, it was a frantic rush to the bathroom to rinse it off my lips. I'm carrying these two items separately from now on.