Resin doesn’t smell nice. Even if I do enjoy the smell of new resin, because it means there’s a new doll in the house. I know there are doll perfumes out there, but wouldn’t trust anything applied directly.
But since my dolls are in a closet for light and dust protection, there are easier ways to make them smell a little nicer. I use to hang moth balls in the closet, because some of the doll cardigans and wool wigs attract them. They smell of lavender, and the dolls or rather the doll’s clothes smell of it, too.
I am not particularly fond of the moth ball smell, so I thought why not try something else? My mom used to store her soap in the wardrobe, and all her clothes had that very specific scent. When she passed away, I inherited an antique cabinet- and her soap. A more than fifty years old bar of soap, and it still smells lovely.
I learned that “soap in the wardrobe” thing from her. And since I love scented bars of soap, this post will be about soap, scent and other not exactly doll related things. It’s hard to find soap with a long lasting scent over here, since all the regular soaps you use to find in the drugstore are bio-this, hyper sensitive natural-that, and even if they do smell nice, it usually doesn’t last. Neither on the skin nor in the box.
The fifty year old soap is a bar of Roger Gallet Mignardise, and this scent has been one of my favorites for years, along with Fleur De Figuier and Bois D’Orange. It’s quite expensive, and although it’s perfect to put in the wardrobe, I wouldn’t want to use it for washing my hands. Even though it doesn’t make your skin dry like some of the bio-olive oil soaps I tried.
Two other brands I love to use even for washing my hands are Borotalco (Italian soap with a unique scent of lemon and baby powder) and Jabon Maja Clàsica (Spanish soap). I fail to describe the scent of the Maja soap, it’s warm, spicy and exotic. Borotalco adds a lovely fresh scent to your towels in the drawer. Both are tolerably affordable for daily use. I love to have nice smelling hands.
Italian and French soap making has a long tradition, and some brands and scents have been around for decades. Italian Nesti Dante soap or Saponificio Artigianale Fiorentino soaps for example. You can get those as single bars as well as gift packs. If you enjoy fruity or flowery scents, those might be worth trying. These are lovely wardrobe scents as well.
I like to use soap bags in the shower, and since I had 2 yards of a wide lace I couldn’t make use of for anything else, I used it to make lots of soap bags. You put the soap in and use it while it’s in the bag, just in case you’ve never seen something like it. They are quite popular over here, you have a much better grip on the bar, the soap dries quickly and the bag adds sort of a peeling effect.
And last but not least, I made wood squares for the doll cabinet and my wardrobe. These are sawn off a squared timber, and I left them rough. The rough surface makes it easier to saturate the wood with fragrance oil. I use carnation and cinnamon most often (and my dolls smell lovely of this mix now), and lavender for the wool drawer. For some reasons I get a headache from using aroma lamps or incense sticks indoors, and these wood pieces are my choice for a more subtle scent.
And now I am curious: Do you like good old soap bars? If you have that one scented soap you wouldn’t want to miss, what would it be? Do you place something with scent near your dolls to make them smell nicer? Let me know in the comments 🙂
