(review) fragrance oils from Exotic Fragrances

Have you ever wished your expensive designer perfumes would last longer on your skin?

Ever been curious about of making your own fragrances? Ever dabbled in aromatherapy?

 
I've been learning about fragrance oils recently. Apparently you can add a few drops of a fragrance oil into a carrier oil* and create your very own perfume oil! How cool is that? Just dab a little on your skin and it will last longer than alcohol-based perfumes on the market. Essential oils are stronger & more expensive than fragrance oils; essential oils are 100% natural but fragrance oils are often manmade.
 
*Carrier oil: good choices are coconut oil and grapeseed oil because they absorb well into the skin without much of their own scent. Other oils can be used (olive, avocado, almond, jojoba, etc) but be warned their scents can affect the overall fragrance of your perfume.

I ordered a few "inspired by designer perfume" fragrance oils from ExoticFragrances.com and here are my thoughts:
-website does not have good fragrance descriptions and some of the abbreviations used for designer dupes are confusing (but you can call for clarification, they're friendly)
-fragrance oils tend to only capture a few of a perfume's most prominent notes so don't expect perfect dupes
-I think this website makes great fruity and floral dupe scents but their heavier, darker scents are... too intense. Dilute with carrier oil or you will get headaches.

-bottles were filled full, thank you! And the spout lids are easy to use, love them!

CLINIQUE/PRESCRIPTIVES Calyx: green leaves, guava, grapefruit, papaya, passionfruit, mango, lily-of-the-valley

Review: heavy on the green notes, slight guava, slight lily-of-valley
COACH Poppy
Review: ❤ !!
COCO CHANEL Coco Mademoiselle: patchouli, orange, rose, bergamot, orange blossom, jasmine, vanilla
Review: this smells comparable to the current watered-down Coco eau de toilette, but lasts longer ha! Not perfect but a good purchase.
DOLCE&GABBANA One Rose: rose, lychee, peony, grapefruit, vanilla, black currant, lily-of-the-valley, orange
Review: very faint rose and grapefruit, nice for summer
DOLCE&GABBANA The One: lychee, vanilla, peach, amber, plum, lily
Review: lychee, plum, vanilla; nice but the original is so much better!
ESCADA Island Kiss: mango, passionfruit, raspberry, white peach, red berries, passion flower, magnolia, orange, hibiscus
Review: I can definitely smell white peach and passion fruit
ESCADA Moon Sparkle: strawberry, raspberry, black currant, red apple, citrus, sweet pea, freesia
Review: smells wonderful!! just like essence of candy ❤ very soft strawberry scent
ESCADA Pacific Paradise: sugarcane, banana, coconut, lime, apple, lemon, sunflower
Review: fruity and good, but does not smell enough like banana so I'm sad

GUCCI Bamboo: lily, bergamot, orange blossom, ylang-ylang, sandalwood, vanilla, amber
Review: lily, pretty but unexciting- stronger than the original but no amber or vanilla
RIHANNA Nude: guava, vanilla orchid, sandalwood, pear, orange
Review: not enough guava, too orange- this is ok but I wouldn't know it's supposed to be Nude if it wasn't labeled. This smells better if I layer it with the Sudanese Coconut scent I also purchased lolwhatever.
THIERRY MUGLER Angel Rose: patchouli, rose, chocolate, caramel
Review: rose and patchouli, maybe slight chocolate, pretty if you like Angel
TOM FORD Velvet Orchid: orchid, rum, honey, vanilla, myrrh, suede, jasmine, sandalwood
Review: I like it okay, but I think since this is an oil it makes the rum-note extra heavy. So dilute with extra carrier oil! lol when I dabbed some straight out of the bottle people commented I smelled like old lady. And it took 3 days of scrubbing to get the scent off my skin lol it's potent!
TOM FORD Jasmin Rouge: jasmine, ylang-ylang, neroli, cinnamon, woods, vanilla, amber, ginger, pepper, bergamot, cardamom, leather
Review: beautiful but strong! jasmine, cinnamon- dilute the hell out of this oil or you'll get a headache
TOM FORD Noir: vanilla, kulfi, amber, sandalwood, mastic, ginger, rose, orange
Review: this isn't too strong, it's really pretty like the original- but kulfi is kind of a weird note so do not blind buy this, smell the original first!
TOM FORD White Patchouli: patchouli, white flowers, coriander, peony, bergamot, ambrette, incense, woods, rose, jasmine
Review: this is a lot of patchouli- but good patchouli not stank weed
VICTORIA'S SECRET Bombshell: passionfruit, grapefruit, peony, pineapple, tangerine, vanilla orchid, strawberry
Review: I love this more than the thing! this smells so much better- and when I sweat in the summer while wearing this, I can smell the oil intensify hiding my B.O., it's just beautiful ❤
VICTORIA'S SECRET Poolside Breeze: water, hyacinth
Review: I haven't smelt the original but this dupe is lackluster.
VIKTOR&ROLF Bonbon: caramel, peach, amber, orange, orange blossom, sandalwood
Review: caramel and orange, not sweet, slight floral. I wish this had more of a peach scent

Sudanese Coconut
Review: almost a toasted coconut, okay but not sweet or creamy
Exotic Cactus Flower
Review: I don't know, this just smells weird to me, like cactus juice and Splenda?
Neroli (Orange Blossom) 10% with Jojoba, ready to use
Review: this didn't smell like I expected, it smells like orange peel and slight blossom. I need to dilute it more to take away some sharpness. Almost like a cleaning product scent.
DIOR Poison
Review: I love Dior Poison, I have a collection of empty bottles I've worn it so much lol but... No No NO! this smells harsh- I diluted the Hell out of this oil but it is still super intense on the incense! and not obvious with any other of Poison's beautiful notes. This is the only oil I strongly do not recommend.

1oz diamond cut atomizer (you have to cut the sprayer tube length to fit the bottle yourself)
1/2oz ball roll-on (these are cute like little nail polish bottles, I like the flip-top cap)
1/3oz swirl glass metal roll-on (these are the BEST!! I prefer these bottles, oil rolls on so easily!)

JOJOBA OIL as Hair Moisturizer, Detangler, and for Protein Overload

Directions: In a spray bottle I mixed 25% (or less!) Jojoba Oil with 75% water.

Shake bottle & spray lightly and evenly throughout hair (damp hair works best imo). Now my hair is super easy to comb :-)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

My hair needs moisture, it's overloaded with protein = when I get out of the shower it's super hard to brush, kind of gummy, tangly- I can't comb it without being super gentle because it feels like my hair is sticky to the comb (does this make sense to anyone?) I can't even run my fingers through my hair easily until my hair is completely dry. But after it's dry it's great WTF?!

How did I put too much protein in my hair? = I was doing an egg protein treatment on my hair and lost track of time- left it on way TOO long. My hair felt terrible and I went into deep conditioning mode. I tried to balance out my super dry hair with a few "extra moisturizing hair masks" my friend recommended... EXCEPT I didn't read the ingredients list :-( ALWAYS READ THE INGREDIENTS LIST!! The moisturizing masks contained protein and I threw my hair into 'protein overload' crisis mode. Ingredients to avoid: Keratin, wheat & silk proteins, egg, coconut oil (not protein but acts like one), aloe, avocado
Note: jojoba oil is actually a liquid wax, not a nut oil so it doesn't have high protein like other nut oils.

So what's a girl to do? MOISTURIZE, right? HAHAHA, yeah. Let's just cut the crap right now and I'll tell you my secret weapon: JOJOBA OIL! Apparently Jojoba Oil moisturizes hair amazingly because it closely resembles the sebum produced by your scalp. And a little goes a long way (so don't overdo it or your hair will look greasy as Hell). Jojoba Oil moisturizes, strengthens, and helps repair damaged hair :-) YAY!! Unfortunately re-balancing my hair will take time so I have to avoid all my favorite (protein-containing) hair products until then :-(

UPDATE: after 5 months of moisturizing my hair (jojoba oil, banana masks, shea butter based products), my hair felt good enough to lightly bleach- and it stripped some of the protein out, which was nice. I also now only wash my hair every-other day which seems to help. I can happily comb my hair without needing Jojoba Oil detangler now. My hair is not scary "protein sensitive" anymore, YaY!
  <<valuable lesson learned>>
It is so hard to avoid products that have protein! Every purple shampoo I look at has protein in it so I have to limit how often I use it. And almost every 'natural' hair product I see at health food stores has coconut oil *sigh* so I've been using some sensitive, moisturizing oatmeal dog shampoo I found & Pantene 3 minute conditioner, trying a few other things :-( Crazy how something as simple as forgetting egg can ruin my life lol wtf! I'm taking lots of biotin hoping my hair will grow out and be normal again soon.

Coconut Oil as Makeup Remover

I use coconut oil to remove my eye makeup before washing my face every night.

The coconut oil never stings my eyes and it leaves my skin soft. 

Best of all: it removes all types of eyeliners, even the water-proof ones!

Do NOT use "Lou Ana" coconut oil that you can find in the baking aisle at Walmart!

That coconut oil is ok for your feet but not for your face. I've tried it and it broke me out BAD. I warned you.

Go to your local Asian or Indian food supermarket and get pure coconut oil. The only ingredient on the label = "coconut oil."

Unrefined (virgin) is best because it still has all the great nutrients for your skin (but refined is still fine to use on your hair).

I just dab a q-tip in some coconut oil and then gently swipe across my eyelid to remove my eyeliner & mascara.

A few long-lasting/water-proof eyeliners I like to use are Milani "Infinite" and Mac "LiquidLast"-

normally these take a lot of painful scrubbing to get off with normal makeup remover :-(

but since they're oil based = coconut oil works like a charm! EASY!

 

Other decent options for removing waterproof eyeliner & mascaras are- well basically anything "oil" haha :-) Baby oil (mineral oil) does the job but leaves my skin greasy. In emergencies I run to the kitchen and grab olive oil. Or if you're a hippie you might have apricot oil, grapeseed oil, jojoba oil, avocado oil, or almond oil in your cupboard to try out... But I still prefer coconut oil!