Question:
Originally Posted by fredricktoo I shopped at tigerflag yesterday. I wanted them all, I ordered some samples of Indian attars and one Madini since Madini samples only come on paper strips. Oh no, fredericktoo.
The Madinis will not smell correct on paper.
Here is how I know:
I do blind tests of my fragrance samples.
I mix up the vials, don't look at the labels, and apply them to different parts of my arms.
Then I write my impressions of what they smell like--the notes and their characteristics.
Then I look to see which were which. Then I l cross-reference to the actual notes.
On the Madinis, I forgot to line up the vials in the proper order AFTER I applied them. Naturally, I was mad as hell at myself because I didn't know which was which--and I had run out of arm space.
So I put a little of each on paper to match them up. NO GO.
I mean, I could NOT tell some of them apart.
So I waited and re-applied them to my arms. Immediately I could match them up to my descriptions.
Talisman, at madini.com, offers 1 ml vials, 5 for $10. I would recommend that. They do incredible things on the skin.

Answer:
I agree, Purplebird, Madini oils *need* skin - more than an acohol based fragrance does. Even though they smell good right out of the bottle, they take on a sometimes completely different character on the skin.
Madini oils are also much more interactive with individual body chemistry than many alcohol-base fragrances are, which makes a skin test a necessity.
Speaking of Tigerflag, they're a great company. That's where I got my Madini oils from. The shipping was super fast and they included a generous sample of rus khus (traditionally distilled vetiver) as well - it's much different than normal vetiver. Free stuff = bonus points in my book, hehe.

Answer:
Arvydas: they smell different on different people, too. And strong. Yesterday a friend and I both put on Santal Blanc. It was soft on her, harsh on me. I tried alot of "regular" perfumes on that day, and the one that lasted the longest was (guess what?) the Santal Blanc. No development, just plain wood, but hours later, still going strong. Tam Dao, gone. Diptiques, gone. Madini, still there.

Answer:
Originally Posted by purplebird7 Oh no, fredericktoo.
The Madinis will not smell correct on paper.
Here is how I know:
I do blind tests of my fragrance samples.
I mix up the vials, don't look at the labels, and apply them to different parts of my arms.
Then I write my impressions of what they smell like--the notes and their characteristics.
Then I look to see which were which. Then I l cross-reference to the actual notes.
On the Madinis, I forgot to line up the vials in the proper order AFTER I applied them. Naturally, I was mad as hell at myself because I didn't know which was which--and I had run out of arm space.
So I put a little of each on paper to match them up. NO GO.
I mean, I could NOT tell some of them apart.
So I waited and re-applied them to my arms. Immediately I could match them up to my descriptions.
Talisman, at madini.com, offers 1 ml vials, 5 for $10. I would recommend that. They do incredible things on the skin.
Thankyou so much purplebird,
I think my writing was unclear. I wanted to say that I bought one bottle of Madini oil and I bought two sample vials of the Indian Attar oil that tigerflag was selling. I saw that they only gave paper strips as samples for the Madini's so I bought the bottle. But thank you for your concern.
Much appreciated.
it's on it's way and I will write here my impressions.

Answer:
Originally Posted by purplebird7 Arvydas: they smell different on different people, too. And strong. Yesterday a friend and I both put on Santal Blanc. It was soft on her, harsh on me. I tried alot of "regular" perfumes on that day, and the one that lasted the longest was (guess what?) the Santal Blanc. No development, just plain wood, but hours later, still going strong. Tam Dao, gone. Diptiques, gone. Madini, still there. Yeah, they can be very harsh depending on the person. I've played around with putting them on different people, and the variance is interesting.
I'm amazed with how long they can last. It really makes me wonder what's in them, because other "perfume oils" don't have the same longevity.