We are off to Kansas to play with the prairie dogs and rattlesnakes in the wheatfields while the tornadoes, wicked witches and cowboys gallivant past.
I’ve had the request to pack up a suitcase of perfumes for my sister and Kelly to sniff, and I have. It’s so difficult to know what to take, so I just start throwing things in, hoping they will be fun.
And a question, which if you answer in comments, you’ll get an entry into a drawing for… let’s see… a set of JAR samples, yes! And some other goodies, which will be surprises. I have my sillage monster favorites, like Clive Christian No. 1, 24, Faubourg, Jil Sander No. 4, Poivre, Or et Noir — those perfumes that just leave an oustanding wake of scent as you walk by. What are your favorite sillage monsters? This is an important question because I want to put together a sample pack of sillage monsters from your recommendations. I won’t use all of them, just the most frequently mentioned. Think about it, I’ll leave this post open for a while to take entries
Also, the winner of last week’s grabbag full of samples is…. Camille! Just hit the contact us button over there and shoot me your address, and I’ll stuff this bulging bag of samples into an envelope and send them on their way.
Everyone, have a great and safe Labor Day weekend. Where did the summer go? I’m always happy to see it end now, fall truly is my favorite time of year, right up until Jan 2, and then I want spring back…
Please include me, too…..so far my current monsters are Black Oud and Mitsouko….and for a blast from the past, Chanel 19, which I wore on my wedding day many moons ago.
My skin is pretty much a fragrance eater, but there are those that I can’t go near, or won’t enter a fragrance hall for. Top of my list is Angel, always has been. Have been known to leave the room when this enters 5 metres ahead of the wearer.
Giorgio Beverley Hills and Poison take me straight back to the era of red blazers, shoulder pads and bad gold jewellery.
And one for the men, Kouros. Must be an era thing as well, but that scent is just as strong today, and takes me back. Just before I’m sick.
I guess my beloved Black Orchid starts out pretty darn strong, but it wears down to pretty soft on me pretty quick, so maybe its a tamed monster on me.
And please, enter me for the draw. Hope you had a great trip to Kansas, wicked witches not withstanding!
Hx
I’d like to try those JAR fragrances. Enter
me, please.
hmmm….I am kind of wary of “strong” fragrances. I tend toward ‘fun and light and sparkling’ If I could waft citrus scent all around as I walked by, I would, but that does not seem to be the way of it.
But, please, enter me in your drawing. Thanks, I am always ready to try something new and different.
opium, opium, opium, i can smell it on my coworkers before the walk into a room! and, i know it will make most people go ‘gack’ but I am having a late summer (cold summer where i am) fling with Teinte de Neige, which is a STRONG powdery mofo.
and please enter me in the drawing…thx
Angel for woman comes to mind, and the wake of dolce and gabana original blue for men will find me following close behind to get another deep intake of scent….ahhh.
I think nobody has mentioned Villoresi’s Teint de Neige yet. It’s a REAL monster, but I love if it envelops me when I have to walk on the cold and “neige”-covered streets in the winter…
I’d say Angel and Chinatown have pretty ample sillage. Please enter me in the drawing. Thanks!
My best Sillage Monsters are A la Nuit and Organza Indecence.I LOVE them, but I do try to apply sparingly. I’m not a fan of *barely there* fragrance, obviously.
Hope you had a fun week-end on the prairie, and please throw me into the draw. Thanks!
Joy perfume. My mother and I both wore it to a concert once. I felt so sorry for the gentleman next to us.
I’d love to be entered in the drawing.
Anna
I’m loving these comments because the sillage monsters seem to be some of my favorites, and now I have some ideas for more to try! Mine are: Carnal Flower, Tubereuse Criminelle, Carolina Herrera, Yvresse, Chinatown, Dolce & Gabanna red cap, Angel, and EL Tuberose Gardenia. Can’t wait to see what the sample pack includes after all these suggestions! Oh, and I’ve never tried any of the JAR line. If they’re sillage monsters, too, I’d love to be in the drawing! Thx.
Oh — and how could I forget Coco Mademoiselle? Has quite a waft around me!
Yikes! Sillage monsters! I have to be careful with these b/c my DH really complains when he smells my perfume. So my SMs are Carnal Flower (sprayed, not dabbed), CdG Zagorsk (in the best possible way), Rose Poivree, Black Aoud (big SM on me), any of the Clinique Happys, Chant d’Aromes and any of the Escada LEs (the sillage lasts longer than the fragrance, it seems, at least on me).
I’m crossing all my fingers hoping to win JAR samples!
I would *LOVE* to try the JARs but fear falling for yet another pricey unobtainable beauty (Le Labo Aldehyde 44, I’m looking at you)–please put me in the drawing.
Sillage monsters on me include the dreaded Angel, Datura Noir (and that’s from dabbing, not spraying), L’Heure Bleue, the late great Chaos, Coco in any concentration. I’m surprised no one’s mentioned Chaos–one spray on me is enough to KO anyone in range for the first hour, and after that it still has an immense power. I cherish it, but rarely wear it except on weekends, it’s drawn such ire from (clearly philistine) coworkers in the past. Maybe Monday should be Chaotic, come to think of it…
Fracas, Mitsouko, Chergui, Carnal Flower, Arabie, all the Montale oudhs, all the Creeds…. wait, you’re gonna need a sack for that.
Amoureuse, Debut, Bois de paradis, Chamade, Datura Noir, Alpona, Songes, Mitsouko. iris Poudre and as someone else mentioned, Apres L’ondee. I can put that last one on in the privacy of my own bedroom and my DH can sniff it from 2 flights down, ” Are you putting on that athlete’s foot perfume again?” Well, yes.
Wow — according to the lists above, which include many of my favorites, I must be wafting some serious scent–I had no idea. But perhaps its all about the amount applied.
Don’t think I saw Amoureuse (Parfums DelRae) mentioned yet. It surely qualifies a nuclear white flower. One drop per county…
And put me in the draw please :d
From another sillage-killing skin: Gris Clair lasts, alas, forever and ever on me and on my clothes. And throws the vanilla everywhere. Yes, vanilla. I put on CB I am a Dandelion yesterday, ‘cuz I was in just that kind of mood, and my GC-impregnated sweater just gobbled it right up. :-(. Anything with vanilla in it turns to HUGE vanilla and wafts everywhere. Worst recent offender was Clive Christian no. 1 (which you’ve already got on your list …)
Non-vanilla big sillage on me (seconding/thirding others) — Chergui (although I never put on much, but it lingers and throws anyway), L’Air du Desert Morocain (although this one I like finding on my clothes weeks later, unlike GC), Fracas (and it’s not a good thing, alas), Opium (even worse — I adore Opium, but only on other people).
Dzing! also seems to throw a fair amount on me. In a good way.
Oh, and please enter me in the drawing. The JARs … time I went there …
one of my greatest sillage monsters is iris poudre, another is addict, yet another is dzing!, and of course, there’s broadway nite. then there’s lullaby (perfume of life), escentric molecule 01, and carolina herrera. angel is obvious, but its pivoine sister is a wimp on me, yet its newer eau du star (supposedly lighter) incarnation has great sillage. and there are also several perfume oils that have considerable sillage – kai, kiehl’s vanilla, and a whole host of indian/arabic musk oils.
My skin is another fragrance eater upper, but there have been some sillage monsters: Tabac Blond, Poivre, French Can Can, Parfum Sacre, Mitsouko, Opium, Bal a Versailles (wore that one to work one day — what was I thinking???) and, oddly enough, Tea for Two! Odd because most of the L’Artisan’s tend to fade immediately to nonexistence on me except that wonderful Tea for Two. Please include me in the drawing — I so want the JARs. All of them. Now. 😉
This is my first post although I have been reading this blog for over a year. I have good and bad sillage monsters. The good are Lipstick Rose, Musc Ravageur, Stella (McCartney), Lolita Lempicka, the original Eau de Torrente and Cartier’s So Pretty. They all smell lovely on me and last almost all day. The bad are most of the Chanels (except No. 19), Datura Noir and pretty much anything with patchouli or lots of aldehydes. Some of them actually make me gag like Bill the Cat — not at all attractive and more than a little scary. You can leave me off the drawing list as most of the scents I see repeated provoke me to just such a physical reaction.
My list consists of Montale Black Aoud(most beautiful sillage), Bond’s West Broadway and as mentioned numerous times above, Chinatown. I also received a decant of Laura Tonatto’s Amir and OMG, the entire room smelled like it and I never even opened the vial:)…must have been a small leak somewhere.
Have a wonderful Labour Day weekend:0)
I don’t think I saw this one: L’Ame Soeur by Divine. I keep checking to see if the sample is leaky because I catch whiffs of it from bed sometimes! Even worn from the sample I was all leaping aldehydes and floral triumvarate all day!
Oh – to nominate an incense, the Norma Kamali has a monster sillage
Good sillage monsters: Jicky EDP, Shalimar & Shalimar Light, Obsession, Ralph, Alfred Sung, SL Santal de Mysore
Evil sillage monsters: Eternity, Giorgio Red
Please sign me up for the Jar draw and have a great holiday.
Yeah, Aromatics Elixir wins hands down as the biggest sillage monster. 😮 Then maybe Mitsouko, A la Nuit, that hermes essence that you hate, ha, ha, Coco, Coromandel, Bois de Paradis, the original Azuree and Lady Vengeance.
I can’t wait for Fall either, babe. In the meantime, you have fun with your family and stay safe.
Hugs and love!
My skin just eats up scent, so there’s not too many that have large sillage for me. I was wearing Ava-luxe Red Carnation yesterday though, and people would walk into the room/elevator I was in and ask what smelled good/cinnamony. That, and I feel like I need to spray to get sillage, and as of right now, my perfume collection is largely dab-on samples.
Fascinating to read this — I’m one whose skin eats many of these, Opium, for example. But Aromatics Elixir is a sillage monster, for sure. This summer DH and No. 1 Son both screamed “Get it off! It’s too strong” to an innocent dab of Talco Delicato and again to The Unicorn Spell — two of my faves that seem light and fresh to me. Go figure. Always up for a drawing. Have fun with those prairie dogs.
Put me in. My favorite sillage monsters are: Sicily (a wake of sunny soapy aldehydes), L de Lolita Lempicka (really puts a wonderful cloudy haze around me), and Narciso Rodriguez (that wonderfully puzzling scent of musk).
Fracas, Agent Provocateur, Clive Christian X, EL Private Collection, EL Tuberose Gardenia, Le Maroc Pour Elle, Le Parfum de Thérèse — just to name a few faves. Please enter me in the drawing.
Have a great weekend!
My skin is also a scent eater, but some of the frags I have tried which I would call sillage monsters are: Angel (if a perfume could be a stalker….), Creed Vanisia, Jil Sander No. 4, L’Heure Bleu, FM Une Rose and Tabac Blond. I would love to be included in the drawing! THank you!
Like Lee, I am a bit sillage phobic- makes me meel I am importuning. I find that Clair de Musc has a pretty sly sillage: little puffs of powdery white musk in your wake. Ambre Sultan has sillage that knock down walls if you put on more than a dab. The original Agent Provacateur is a pretty big fragrance as well. Too bad I cannot bear it.
Practically anything from the 80’s could gas someone to death, even some of the mens stuff. I wore Eau Sauvage Extreme once in an elevator and I thought I was going to gas myself!
::delurking:: I am sad that I can’t play this game. I have the most perfume eating skin ever, to the point where I once wore Fracas to work as an experiment to see if I finally smelled like anything and received no comments. (I work with a really close knit group of girls, and can always count on them to make fun of my shoes or makeup, and are aware of my perfume eating skin dilema 🙂 ) I even asked a coworker if she could finally smell my perfume, and nothing. Oh well…*I* can always smell and enjoy me, so I guess that’s the point.
Profumum Olibanum and Tauers L’Ar and Le Maroc are huge, mega sillage monsters!
Apparently the comments aren’t working properly today.
Tigs, did we lose one of your comments? I checked in the icky spam filter and can’t see it…:-?
Doh. See where I sprayed it on myself below (#31). You think I’d of figured out these comments by now.
I forgot to mention that when I said “on me” I meant in my hair. I did not actually spray it on my skin, but the cloud from strip spraying lasted in my hair for some time. It smelled like a very smoky fish sausage wrapped in a vinyl bun. Magnified eighty times. On paper, it smells muskier and like the sausage has caught fire.
Hey, Patty!
I’m thrilled to have won the last grab bag–thanks much!!:d
My skin eats fragrance, but those which stick around and leave at least a little wake on me include: Apres l’Ondee (I know, aren’t I lucky??), Boucheron Trouble, Cuir Beluga, Tauer’s Marocain, Tabac Blond, Le Labo Rose 31, and SL Cedre.
Serious sillage that I don’t wear but enjoy on others: KM Loukhoum, Prada, Aromatics Elixir, and Opium.
Hope you have a wonderful time in Kansas, but bring your red shoes–we want you back. 🙂
I’m sure a lot of these have already been mentioned, but I’m going to jump in without reading other comments just yet, and list these from my personal experience: Fracas, Black Cashmere, YSL Nu, Opium, Bandit, Habitina, and of course, Mitsouko (the cat *still* has an occasional twitch)….man, I love them all!
The only one I can think of that hasn’t already been mentioned is Shalimar. And I’m only basing that on the trail of sneezes that sometimes follows me when I’m wearing it:d
Would love to be entered in the drawing!
One sillage monster that hasn’t been mentioned yet (I don’t think) is Yvresse. I love it, truly I do,
but it’s one of those spray-into-the-air-and-walk-through scents for me. Oh and all of the Parfums DelRae are pretty powerful on me, although I like them.
No need to add me to the drawing.
Cheers!
Good morning:
I get the most bang for my buck from Guerlain Cuir Beluga and L’Heure Bleu, Donna Karan Black Cashmere, YSL Opium, and EL Youth Dew.
Please enter me in the drawing. Happy holiday weekend to all!
I thought of one more: NR for Her.
Hi, Marsi.
I thought I was the only one who gets lots o’ sillage from Cuir Beluga–nice to see someone else does. 🙂
One of my girlfriends always commented on how good I smelled wearing it. Now she has a bottle too, and I am always commenting on how good SHE smells wearing it! So yeah, Cuir Beluga is a stinker — but in a good way!
Chergui and Chanel Platinum Egoiste have incredible sillage!!! I would love to try to JAR’s as well, he makes AMAZING jewelry!
BLACK AOUD! Wonderful sillage. Also Patchouli Leaves and White Aoud from the Montales, Bois des Iles from Chanel, and Iris Poudre.Would love to try the JARs!
SL Fleurs d’ Orangier and SL Un Lys envelop me in a cloud of flowers–nice, but too often a bit “MUCH” for me after awhile.
Surprisingly, Etat Libre d’Orange Putain des Palaces (I ordered a sample just because the name was so obnoxious) has gotten me more compliments than anything else I have ever worn. I like it, to be sure, but it seems that my DH (and daughter and sister-in-law and total strangers) really love it on me. I actually sprang for a bottle since my (very perfume indifferent) husband likes it so much. It must also have some good sillage for everyone to notice it like they do, but, unlike some of the SLs, it doesn’t choke ME with it’s sillage–just smells faintly sweet and leathery.
Anyway, I’d love to be entered in the JAR drawing. I’ve been avoiding samples of those because I just don’t want to fall in love with something so pricey!
On further consideration, I think you should throw Kenzo Jungle Elephant in there as your “WTF?!?!?” scent./:)
As a subtle person, I tend not to have too much sillage… ha!
However, being serious, sillage on a man is interpreted very differently to sillage on a woman (either to mean, ‘Hey chicas – I walk like I’ve been horse-riding cos I’m hung like a donkey’, when normally it’s the reverse, or ‘I’m confused about my identity’ – ain’t we all, sugar?).
my biggest sillage scent on me has to be Dior Homme. Confuses people because they can’t pin down the source and can’t pin down the gender…
… but then, that’s more diffusion than sillage, I guess.
Lee, are you wearing D.Homme today? ‘Cause there’s a lovely aroma floating in the window here…
I agree about the sillage on Dior Homme, Lee. In fact, I commented on it this morning to one of my “students” — the very cute head of a film production / web agency — who was wearing it. And who was clad in Dior Homme jeans. He let me smell his neck. Sigh.
It’s great stuff, isn’t it? I need to track down a new bottle – I’m almost through 100mls in a year – which is amazing for me (Matt filches this one a lot cos it makes all the women in his office go ga-ga over him – like they don’t anyway…).
And no, I’m not Louise. Bois d’Armenie with a tiny spritz of Un Bois Vanille on left paw…
I meant: No, I’m not, Louise. I’m not actually attempting to deny you’re me or vice versa…:-“
Ommmm, we’rrrrre onnnnne…..hon!
I cannot fricking BELIEVE nobody’s mentioned Mitsouko.
😮
Mitsouko is, like, the King (Queen?) Kong of sillage.
Also agree with Fracas and Opium. I’d also vote for including Poison… while it seems like something everyone would have smelled elsewhere, I notice the interesting trend of carrying some/all of the flankers and not the original (Nordie, Sephora, even my Macy’s). OTOH do you want a new generation wearing Poison? Probably not (and I LIKE Poison.)
But you want different notes in your pkg, yes? So an Oriental (Mitsouko!), a White Flower bomb (Fracas!), a chypre (Soir de Lune? Aromatics Elixir?), a leather (Lonestar?), an Incense (stumped, none of mine throw that much sillage).
Please don’t put Angel in the package. Everyone on the planet except in the most remote spots (the out-islands of Malaysia? The Solomons? Bhutan?) has smelled it enough already.b-)
May I join in ?
And be added, too ?
Yippee !
Sillage monsters… Black Aoud, Poison, Giorgio,Opium, Eternity, the Merveilles,Maharanhi,Tocca [original],Rubj…
[So little time , so many more…!]
Well… Opium, Ambre Sultan, Black March.
Have a nice weekend !;)
Sillage Monsters, eh? Well the answer would have been different if we left it at that, but since we’re talking *favorites*…well, they have to be Opium and Private Collection. JAR samples? How did that happen?! Enter me in the drawing too please! 😡
Hmmmm…my skin also seems to eat, rather than broadcast, perfume. So far, my big sillage monsters are SL Fleur d’oranger, and A La Nuit, and Musc Ravaguer. Please put me in the drawing, and have fun in Kansas!
I agree with the others on Opium and Chinatown, they are both monsters on me. I tried Samsara for the first time this week, and what a mistake that was! I wore it to work, where it was very hot, mind you, and my coworkers avoided me all day. Even after several breaks to the restroom to attempt removal, it would not go away! I think will try again once the weather cools off… On a brighter(and better smelling note), I’ve recently met a monster to love as well. Thanks to Lee’s generous gift of some Mona di Orio samples, I have been seduced by Nuit Noire. It lasts a long time on my skin, and it smells wonderful!
Sushi Imperiale is a new sillage beast for me, as are most vanilla-based scents. Kamali incense is enormous in all ways,may cause strangers to run; agree with Poivre (love it); Femme; and recently, apparently, Vie de Chateau. Datura Noir throws pretty far off me, too.
Have fun this weekend! All of you, too!
Oh, please enter me in the drawing!
Because of my scent eating skin I’m always interested in reading about big sillage fragrances.
Judith, I’m with you re: Opium (a long-time comfort frag for me)- but only wish I could get big sillage from the Tabac Blond decant.
From reading here, must try Lonestar Memories.
The original Youth Dew has sillage in spades: it elbows everybody out of the way, opens doors to let you pass and closes them behind you. Sort of like having at least four burly bodyguards-cum-personal assistants.
Aromatics Elixir (which I adore with a passion, both on myself and others) is also very potent Рlast winter an elderly lady perfumed an entire caf̩ with just a few drops of it on her scarf (the caf̩ has never smelled that good since)
Guépard by Guépard surrounds and covers me with a bell jar of scent (rather like rhubarb being forced?) if I’m not very careful in applying, and so do Czech & Speake Dark Rose (when are they bringing that back *whine*?) and Etro Via Verri.
And I second – or was that third – Tabac Blond.
And naturally, I’d love to be entered in the drawing!
My No 1 sillage monster must be Chinatown. One spray is almost too much. It seems to linger in the air long after I’ve past through a room (according to DH). Please enter me in the drawing. Would love to sniff some JARs 😡
Hi …first time comments:
I’ve been following this delightful blog for about half a year…now silently enjoying the expertise and attitude and learning a lot from you all…based on my explorations sillage gets extended play from: Lonestar Memories and other Andy Tauers (LOVE THEM!), Caron’s Parfum Sacre, and Montale’s Balck Oude. Nobody does it better…longer ..so far…I crave this in a perfume…would love to try the JARS…which seem tres exclusif and completely out of mortal reach!
Prairie dogs are cuter than gophers. Then again, almost anything is cuter than a gopher. We have gophers.
Okay, you know my skin eats perfume, so I read other people’s suggestions and wonder, “Really?” Just a few days ago I discovered a sillage monster when my husband could smell the fragrance at the doorway while I was inside a room at the end of a long hallway. That fragrance was Hermes Parfum de Merveilles. It’s amazing. My other sillage monsters are L’Heure Bleue and L’Artisan La Haie Fleurie. I’m not sure most people can handle the white flower bang of the latter; I confess it’s sometimes difficult for me.
I loooove Or et Noir with a passion, but I haven’t detected remarkable sillage coming from it. Maybe I need to apply more. :d
Please enter me in the JAR draw. 😡
My husband was at the FRONT doorway. I was far away–that was the gist of it.
You don’t say!?!!! None of the Merveilles even looks at me in the catalogue when it comes to deciding on destinations for an extended stay (they obviously all travel to your skin and install themselves there): on me, they are a mildly scented, hardly discernable, fast passing breeze (but then on me, MKK was a shy litte mouse)…
It’s odd for me, Maria, with my eat-um skin that at times I’ll smell little on me, but other will remark (usually)”nice perfume”, etc. One that does that to my surprise is Bois Farine. Don’t know if my nose is worn out from mashing against my wrist, or if others are aware of a new odor (smell?) around them.
Well, gophers are cuter than … 😕
possums
armadillos
Gila monsters
that’s it, I’m tapped out.
I love me an armadillah…:x
Your site is required reading for me on a daily basis, and this is my first post. My skin tends to eat scents, so very few are sillage monsters on me. However, Ambre Sultan layered with AG Rose Absolue comes pretty close to sillage monster status for me. I suppose Ambre Sultan would qualify when worn by itself, as would Douce Amere. And please enter me in the drawing for the JARs 🙂
Arabie, for certain. All the classics such as Poison, Fracas, Opium, Angel. Kingdom was quite potent on me. And Creed Cuir de Russie is such a monster on me, both in terms of power and hideousness, that it is the only perfume that has actually caused me to *run* in a futile attempt to get away. (Oh and JARs. They’re sillage monsters. And I want them. Please :d )
I ran from Creed CdR!!!!! But it followed me!!! I tried to leave my arm in Neiman Marcus but it wouldn’t come off. 8-x
Y’are a wimp,matey. What a yummy, mellow leather, it is…on me…
It corrupted all my scent strips. Every time I tried to smell something else I had sprayed that day and I took the strips out of a plastic baggie it was like: GACK! Everyone moved away from me on the crowded underground. Thank G-d I had not sprayed it on my arm.
Ohhh drawing! :d
Trick question for me. I can’t wear anything too strong, very easy for perfume to overpower me so I don’t wear many big silage scents. But … SL Cedre is one. I work in a small console room. I wore Cedre there once. I was able to walk out, come back 15 min later & smell that I’d been there. Dunno how my coworkers dealt with that, may have to not wear it there again, lol! Have a great trip!
You mentioned 2 of my faves–24 F. and Poivre. Others with super-sillage: Norma Kamali Incense (all-time winner), Opium, Tabac Blond, Habanita. have a great Labor Day!
My favorite gremlins: Lui (Mazzolari), Miel de Bois, Lonestar Memories, Anat Fritz.
Have fun in Kansas and give my love to the prairie dogs.
Fracas, Bond No. 9 Nuits de Noho… Chinatown too. I didn’t put the Poivre in that category till I wore it to help out at elementary school and poor little boy I was sitting next to kept wrinkling his nose then finally said “What is THAT? It’s too strong.”
OOOH put me in for the drawing! I promise to think of some good silliage monsters…. Loving the site!
Fracas, Un Lys, A La Nuit, Arabie – them are serious sillage guys, them not to be sprayed, only dabbed! Them JAR samples sound really good, please enter me. Everybody have a good Labor Day Weekend!
I’m surprised to see you mention Un Lys…maybe it’s because I have only ever dabbed it on? It’s always stayed close to my skin. Damn it all, I’ll have to get a spray bottle because every time I wear it I wish it had more sillage.
One that I always find gives me plenty of sillage (at least until far into the drydown) is Chanel’s Coco.
And woot for a drawing, please enter me, Patty. And have a good weekend!