Scentzilla!

Escential Oils and Lotions’ Dragon’s Blood is one of those smells I intimately associate with scentscape of Portland. It’s one of the more common fragrances to notice on people here. I personally haven’t been without a small bottle of it for nearly 14 years.

The fragrance is marked by warm earthy amber and patchouli. I also detect a balsalmic orangey smell tucked into it. These elements are all anchored by a sweet, slightly sticky woody note and sandalwood, giving a strong impression of unlit incense. The perfume oil is incredibly potent, and a light hand is advised.

I find Dragon’s Blood to be one of the sexiest fragrances on men, if not THE sexiest. It works on women (this one, anyhow) as well, but I must confess that I do prefer discovering it on men instead.

The body care products that can be made to match are also enjoyable. The bubble bath gel doesn’t create as many bubbles as I’d like, but it scents the bath nicely. I think it actually makes a much better shower gel, so I tend to employ it for both uses. The massage oil is very, very nice, but like the perfume oil, it is quite potent, and I’d recommend requesting they add a lighter concentration of the perfume oil than comes standard. I use the massage oil made from almond oil. Almond oil doesn’t absorb as readily into the skin as a dry body oil, and warms with body temperature quickly. It is perfect for a slow gently massage.

Picture from Disney’s cartoon, Sleeping Beauty.

Escential Lotions & Oils is a fun shop to visit, and I admittedly possess some local bias with regards to them. The great appeal of Escential’s perfume oils for me, besides being made by my hometown perfumers, is their affordability and excellent staying power.

With their take on “fig,” they’ve captured the smell of fig preserves (like the kind you’d spread on toast.) If you’ve never eaten fig preserves, the smell is approximate to a cross between homemade white grape juice concentrate and a late harvest Riesling. The green fig is appropriately sweet and tangy, but I perceive a real creaminess here, too.

Just as you might imagine, this is not a terribly complex perfume, but I enjoy layering it with other perfume oils, including Escential’s Nag Champa. A mix to which I sometimes add a smidge of Helmut Lang’s parfum or Escential’s Vanilla Amber Musk. It is a little too easy to go nuts with layering though, since these oils tend to be quite potent. Something I learned the hard way when one day I nearly suffocated everyone that came near me and my inadvisable perfume overdose. Ooops. I unfortunately turn into a crazy cat lady sometimes with my perfume layering - one more can’t hurt, can it? And then before you know it, the whole thing becomes a crowded stinky mess. This is why I need to leave the art and science of perfumery to the professionals.

So, uh, Escential’s Fig: For me, it’s probably the easiest to wear out of the three figs from today, due to it’s clean simplicity. It’s not remarkable like the Mathias, or cozy like the Bendel, but still… nice.

To visit Escential’s online site, click here, or to be carried directly to their Fig, click here.