Do you supplement your perfume with matching body products?
Do you like scented baths and lotions?
Or are you always going for unscented products as to not interfere with your scent of the day?
My Answer:
Normally I’m strictly for unscented products for the reason of non-interference with my perfume, but also for the reason of being gentle on my skin which can be sensitive.
Lately though I have enjoyed the benefits of scented products that prolong the weartime of my perfume or enhance the scent in some way.
I love Yves Rocher Noix de Coco lotion and body butter, a perfect base for my tropical summer scents. The body oil of Estée Lauder Bronze Goddess is equally nice.
I long to try the Frederic Malle body butters, especially Carnal Flower, but they are a bit outside of my budget. I’d rather spend that money on perfume in the end and stick with my Neutrogena Sensitive Skin Unscented Lotion.
A trick I learned from Jordan, is spraying a perfume into the hot water when taking a bath and enjoy the scent that way.
Do you have any scented tricks? What are your preferred body products?
Olfactoria's Travels 
No. Never.
I also use Neutrogena or Vaseline Intensive Unscented when I have it.
Hugs. xxxx
That’s the safest bet – good for the skin and no frangrant interference. 🙂
I have to be careful about what I put on my skin as, like your’s, mine is sensitive, so I tend to go for whatever will best nourish it, such as Biafine cream. However, I did get in Artisan Parfumeur’s La Chasse Aux Papillons shower gel and body lotion to test and they were lovely – like wearing a light perfume all day. Everyone who tried them thought they were great and I would definitely consider buying those – they were the only body products I’ve tried where the scent lasted all day.
All day? That’s great!
Never. My skin tends towards desert dry and needs non perfumed soap and lotions. I agree that the Malle Carnal Flower body butter is divine and wish I could use it as it would be perfect in summer.
Unscented is the healtiest option anyway… 🙂
Not on my face but on my body in areas where I don’t apply perfume anyway ie I deploy a strictly zonal approach, which works for me! I have tons of scented body lotions including Roja Dove Scandal (as you know! – no plans to double up with the scent, but I could try as an experiment 😉 ), Champney’s Oriental body butter, Bayliss & Harding Mandarin and Grapefruit, a couple by Tocca and Apothia. Supplemented by a big haul of hotel toiletries – an orange blossom one from Holland being my all-time fave that I would pay good money for if I ever came across it again in the larger size.
Sounds like you are luckier in your hotels than me! The stuff I see is usually very ordinary indeed. Love orange blossom scented stuff.
Ah, I would love Roja Dove Unspoken body lotion!!!
Zonal approach – I love it! 🙂
hey B, on a recent trip to Frankfurt I discovered the Weleda body creams and love them to bits! In summer I use the citrus one and in the winter I use the sea buckthorn one. They are just gorgeous and fresh. You should give it a try…
Weleda stuff is nice! I like their shower gels!
I always used scented shower gels, I usually change the scent option with the season. Now I like my shower gel to smell of citrus.
But generally I don’t use other scented body products. I prefer my skincare to be scentless
Shower gels are a nice way to incorporate fragrance without “bothering” the skin too much.
Like you, I spray perfume into the running water of the bath. Victoria on Bois de Jasmin introduced me to this idea – the ‘cologne bath’. A great way of using up those um … impulse purchases. To the bath I will often also add an unscented oil or some such. Works beautifully!
Other than that, if I want scented lotion I mix perfume with unscented lotion. I’m not willing to pay the high prices fragrance houses often charge for lotions that often aren’t very good. I just pool the perfume and lotion together in the palm of my hand. Tips and traps: works best with fragrances that do not have delicate top notes (ie eaux de cologne style fragrances) because the friction and heat probably kills those notes. And some unscented lotions have materials in them designed to disguise scent. So you need to experiment.
After I discovered these techniques I’ve almost stopped buying scented body products, although my daughter often gives them to me as gifts (Body Shop etc), so it’s a win-won situation!
Great idea, Annemarie, thank you!
I’m going to try mixing perfume with my Neutrogena tonight.
I have lots of scented body products. Too many really. I love them but I don’t use them nearly enough. I’m always in a hurry and really should take the time to pamper myself more. I did buy one bottle of unscented lotion to try mixing with perfume once in a while. I always keep a really fragrant handcream on my desk at work because I need to get a whiff of something good in that stale office air. Of course some of the smokers in the office seem to be using it up because they use it to cover the fact that they smell like ashtrays when they come in from having their cigarettes.
Go ahead and indulge and pamper yourself Poodle! 🙂
I only use unscented body lotions due to sensitive, very dry skin. I sometimes use the Orofluido hairoil wich have a very pleasant scent, great in winter!
This question reminds me that I have a bottle of Santa Maria Novella Vanilla body lotion that I bought in Florence, I really should try to use it before it gets old…
Yum! SMN body lotions look so nice and I’m sure Vanilla smells great! Use it up, Eva!!! 🙂
As for me, it’s either scented lotion or perfume. I am not experienced enouph to be able to know what will smell nice together. Accually i have some wonderful hair product that smell awsome to me -so today it will be only that as it is sweltering outside. Stay cool my friends!
Great smelling shampoo can be wonderful! I hope you stay cool in the heat!
Tha conditioner i use is wonderful smelling but you cannot buy it anymore. Luckily i have 3 bottles.
Good for you!
I usually always stay away from scented lotions; however, Johnson’s Melt Away Stress Calming Lotion smells AMAZING. If this was a perfume I would wear this all day every day forever.
Melt Away Stress Calming lotion sounds perfect! I need to go looking for this!
Inexpensive and heavenly!
OOOoh good to know i was thinking about trying that-now i will for sure!
Yes, but I’m very particular. Most scented lotions from perfume companies are stronger, imho, especially considering you’re slathering them all over your body, than the perfume is. Also, most are harsh and give me hives/rashes.
I do use scented shower gel eveyday (Lady Primrose Tryst, Royal Extract or Celadon, Clean Girls Mist You Madly (vanillic floral) or Johnson’s baby wash). I was also impressed with Diptyque’s body products. They were very gentle and gave a nice base for my SOTD (I had Philosykos), though they are very expensive to use everyday. I also use lotion and powder everyday under my SOTD, but only Lady Primrose, L’Occitane or Johnson’s baby lotion because they are gentle and not too much to fight my perfume.
The Diptyque body products also look very elegant, good to know you think they are good.
I use scented soap/body wash because it gets washed away. As for lotion, I use sesame oil after bathing – it has no scent and my perfume sticks to it well. I have recently discovered body powder, which I adore. I bought some lily of the valley powder, and hope to buy some Chanel No.5 powder – complete with fancy puff! Powder had been lovely in the heat!
Sesame oil is a great moisturizer.
I hope you find No5 powder, nothing is more elegant!
Most days I use unscented cream, but I own and love Carnal Flower body butter. A blogging friend also sent me Kai body lotion, which is quite nice, and samples of a couple other lotions, of which my favorite is Ormonde Jayne Ormonde Woman. It’s gently scented but just lovely!
Oh yes, thanks for reminding me, the OJ body products are great. I used to have Tolu bath oil and body lotion – fantastic in winter!
I’m glad you have Carnal Flower body butter.
No, not really!Mostly because I love using coconut oil or almond oil for moisturizing my body skin. They are completely natural, safe , inexpensive and do a great job. But I do have a Miller Harris Noix des Tubereuse body lotion which I use sometimes and an Agent Provocateur luminous body powder which I use once in a blue moon.I tend to go the perfectly natural way when it comes to
body products because is a large skin surface and the idea of absorbing all sorts of chemicals through it doesn’t appeal
It’s good to go the natural route, especially when there are such great natural moisturizers available (shea butter is also great for very dry spots).
I am fortunate to not have sensitive or dry skin, so I don’t have to be too careful about what I use. I enjoy scented shave soaps, creams, and aftershaves as well as fragrances. I do try to use complimentary scents together, but most of these scents fade away soon enough that they don’t clash.
You can go all out then! 🙂
Body butter is my favorite product. I’ve used only three of them and love all three: Shalimar, Nu, and MOR’s Neroli Clementine. Neroli Clementine has body wash, hand cream, etc. that goes with the body butter, but no cologne or perfume. I wish that it did, and have been looking for a fragrance to complement it.
Neroli Clementine sounds yummy!
I don’t as a general rule of thumb or on a daily basis but am partial to a few products.
Unsurprisingly I use a lot of the Mugler things, specifically the shower gels. Cologne is my absolute favourite of all shower gels but I have used Angel, Alien and Womanity regularly in the past. I also have some Alien Essence Absolue Body Butter which is divine!
At the moment we’re using Sartorial shower gel from Penhaligon’s – it’s very lovely.
Oh, the Alien body butter sounds divine!!!
It is phenomenal!
I’m like you and generally I don’t like to mix a scented body product with my perfumes. One exception is the Nuxe Huile, but that scent doesn’t last very long. I also get frustrated when I’m testing a new perfume and the scent of my hairspray or shampoo gets mingled in the notes! It’s like an annoying fly that won’t leave me alone. 🙂
So true! I wish there was unscented hairspray (would probably be awful though, it’ll smell of plastic) so nothing can interfere with how I want to smell. 🙂
I prefer nonscented products in general, but I do like scented shower gels ( I don’t think they come unscented anyway) .Lately I’ve been using Olive Body Wash from The BodyShop. All my lotions are unscented and the one I currently use is Vaseline Intesive Rescue ( Repairing) Lotion which is great for my dry skin.
The Body Shop has some nice shower gels, I like Olive a lot.
Like you, I usually use only unscented body creams/lotions, usually from small businesses because they tend to use better ingredients..I think I’ve said this either here or on other blogs but my favorite body cream/lotions are from this one woman owned company called cocoapink (.net)- I love their coco-mango butter and the goatmilk honey body lotion. I do love some of the scented body creams from this other small company called Villainess (villainess.net)- I have her Embargo cream which is basically clove, tuberose and patchouli and layers wonderfully with Un Lys.
I have been craving scented creams lately – they seem so luxurious- I did try Victoria’s trick of spraying perfume into alba body lotion- that worked really well with my sample of Micallef Mon Parfum but not with some other scents. Carnal flower body butter is lovely-I had a sample that I used more like solid perfume than cream- it was so richly scented. I am lemming some Lyric cream though that is definitely not on the cards now since I just bought a bottle of the perfume..haha..[*is greeeedy*]
I do LOVE scented cold processed soaps; my favorite soapers are Olive and Oud on etsy (lovely natural scents- loving her Perfect Morning soap and Ernest Hemingway soap), Aunt Nancy’s soap on etsy (she has a fleurs d’ oranger soap that is quite lovely) and Chagrinvalley soaps (i like their soaps more for the exceptional skin loving ingredients rather than scents as they use the essential oils more for the benefits than scent)
I could go on..lol..but these are some of what I love and use.
Oh also- I remember looking at both Dawn’s body products and Laurie’s (DSH and SSS)- I think the ingredients were quite nice and of course there are a lot of beautiful scents to choose from. I’ve tried Laurie’s body cream in Velvet rose which was very nice. I must look into those again.
Me too! A body cream in Sienna Musc or Champagne de Bois…. hmmmm!
Oh, lovely thanks so much for sharing all these names, Lavanya. I’ll be sure to take a look.
Showering and lotioning/oiling up is so fun – I can’t deny myself the pleasure of using great fragranced products! I try to select based on my intended SOTD, but honestly I have never had a problem with clashing scents… probably because the natural fragrance in the lotions and oils doesn’t last that long. The Weleda and Dr. Hauschka lines are my favorites. I have so many body care items that my bathroom cabinet looks like a store shelf!
I’d love to visit your bathroom! 🙂
Hi Birgit, this is my first time commenting on your blog but I have been a follower for a while 🙂 To moisturize my body I always use unscented pure jojoba oil, almond oil or coconut oil as I have incredibly sensitive skin. I do however enjoy a scented shower/bath cream from time to time (when my dove soap gets tiresome) my favourites are Aveda Calming cleanser, Burts Bees ginger and citrus shower gel.
Hello Jailea, Welcome! Glad you decided to comment.
Aveda makes lovely scented products, thanks for reminding me.
Natural oils are a pleasure to use!
I don’t mind scented body washes so long as the scent is light and fades while I am pondering which fragrance to wear that day. I also have sensitive skin so I tend to buy the organic lines, which are also more subtly scented. The one that I have been using faithfully for the past year (and I know you will love this) is Everyone Soap Coconut + Lemon body wash. It’s awesome!
As I prefer oils to lotions for moisturizing, my staples are Caudalie’s Huile Divine for the body and Olio Lusso for the face!
Huile Divine is lovely (thanks to your sample, I know!) and so is Olio Lusso, although it is way to fragrant for me to ever try putting it on my face, I’m afraid what would happen (nothing good in all probability), but I looove it used almost as a perfume. 🙂
It is strong enough to use as perfume! Have you tried the face oil from Sunday Riley? It has broccoli oil or broccoli seed oil in it and smells just like broccoli alfredo sauce to me. To the salesperson at Sephora, it smelled like salad dressing. Felt nice, but that was really not something I wanted on my face 😦
Ugh, that does not sound enticing…
It wasn’t. And the scent lasted for so long 😦
The worst ones always do!
Most of my body products are unscented – not to clash with the perfume I’ll be wearing. But I have three body lotions that go with the same perfume – AG Petite Cherie, Chanel Coco and Antonia’s Flowers Tiempe Passate. For all kinds of reasons I almost never use even those 😉
The only really scented product I was using on its own – SSS’s Fig Trea Shea cream. I was using it as my hand cream before going to bed as a sleep scent.
I understand you so well, I never seem to get around to using a matching body product and perfume either.
I have to say that I learnt the bath trick from Victoria of Bois de Jasmine. At the time I thought it was over the top but as the heat takes you straight to the Drydown it has its time and place. Scented steam.
Thanks anyway, Jordan! 🙂
Sorry for being late to the party.
I use Keihls body moisturiser as normally I prefer unscented products that do not interfere with my perfume.
I did however splash out on carnal flower and iris poudre body butters which are beautiful, for a subtle burst of carnal flower I wear the body butter by itself, it is perfumed enough to last all day, for evening both the perfume and butter make for a fatal combination.
Iris poudre is also beautiful worn alone but the best bit is I can use it under my vast array of Iris based perfumes.
Oh the Malle body butters!!! Iris Poudre must be fantastic! Maybe one day I’ll indulge…
My skin is sometimes sensitive, so I’ve stopped using scented body lotions and creams for quite a while. I use dermatology approved unscented body lotions. Another reason is that I don’t like a lotion to compete with my fragrance that I am using, unless I purchase the scented body lotion of the fragrance I use – which is rather expensive. I’m thinking of making my own scented body lotions, or rather to use the spray and rub method, by using an unscented lotion and spritz some perfume and rub it into my skin 🙂
Making your own scented lotion is a good idea, especially for people like us with (slightly) more than one perfume in the cupboard. 🙂
Have you tried doing it? I think I have 50 or more *hides face in shame*
No shame necessary here, I should think you are definitely not alone with these numbers. 🙂
And yes, I’ve mixed perfume with unscented lotion often and mostly it works fine.