Thanks for all the reassurance on Tuesay that I’m only as crazy as all of you guys, which makes me feel so much less alone and weird.
We talk about Thierry Mugler’s Angel on here in the most unflattering terms. March and I both believe it makes up own Circle of Hell, and they mark it Angel, and the unwitting new occupants that land there find out quickly that smelling Angel for longer than 3 minutes will set their nose on fire and turn their innards to sticky, sweet, patchouli-rum goo.
No matter how much I hate it, there is a part of me that is secretly fascinated with it – it’s enduring popularity, why so many others love it, why it’s not been listed on an EPA List of Banned Substances (oakmoss is on IFRA’s list, and it smells good). When I ordered the Liqueur de Parfum of Angel for TPC, I gave thanks I don’t decant very much anymore because I couldn’t do that one (oh, wait, I forgot, the angels do the decanting in fluffy clouds – you guys crack me up) and survive. But, you know, it was there now – on my desk – and I opened it, and it smells richer than the regular Angel, which may mean it does like Opium does in the pure parfum – transform from a toxic substance to a rich, warm oriental that is amazing and beautiful and so wearable.
Hey, there’s no dobber, just a spray. That can’t be good. I’ll spritz small, right? Yeah, that always happens just like that.
After I gooped up my hand with the most toxic (others may and have reviewed it as Angelly perfection, I’m just not feeling the love for any version of Angel) version of Angel yet, I was sorta horror stricken because it won’t come off until you wash in a super-hot shower for 30 minutes. For those of you that love your Angel, you’ll probably love it. It is richer, darker, less blowsy, though fruitier and boozier (Robin points out in her review that this has been a deal-breaker for some Angel lovers), but it is Angel through and through on me – completely over the top, more elegantly restrained just by some adjustments in notes, deepening some. I, of course, still hate it, but just a teensy bit less in this version. There’s more booze and sweet in it (bet you didn’t think that was possible!), and if I could eat or drink it instead, I think I’d love it.
What perfume do you hate that also fascinates you? The other one that stands out on my list is Borneo 1834, but I lean more towards fascination than hate with it. Flowerbomb is another. It’s not a perfume I should ever want to wear, but some days, I just jones for it. But one wearing cures me for six months.
L’Heure Bleue. I think it’s the heliotrope. I have yet to dare put it on skin, every time I try it on paper (I have to keep trying it, of course, can’t help myself) I literally recoil from the strip, which is absolutely fascinating.
Chinatown by Bond No. 9. That Yankee Candle/rotten chicken/dumpster accord.
Yet… And yet… It’s *interesting*!! I hate it, yet I’ve actually worn it to a wedding –of people I like!
Every so often I open it, sniff, recoil, yet apply it once again.
Chinatown ate my brain.
Oh now see I think that Yankee Candle/rotten chicken/dumpster accord is the stuff dreams are made of, but then I’ve been know to dream of pork buns and salt baked squid. Okay, so maybe not in the steamy heat of August, especially the rotten chicken part…~:>
I hate Angel too — my hate homes in on the cumin hidden dead in the center of all that sticky dreck, that makes Angel not only cloying but also slightly rancid, like some little thing died in the center of it. Did I mention I hate it?
I actually love Borneo and wear Borneo even though I’m the usually the farthest thing from a patchouli fan. It mellows and sweetens on my skin, so maybe I’m one of those people it’s made for.
My other big hate is Guerlain’s Moscou, which I seem to remember you like, Patty? The way I see it, sometimes too much is a good thing, but there’s way too much going on here: bergamot, pine, fruits, absinthe, chocolate? Were they pregnant when they composed this? Ick, ick, ick. For some reason the woman at the Guerlain counter thought I would love it and gave me a huge decant when I purchased something else, so now it’s little bottle sits in its place of honor with my other bottles. It’s a hate with fascination — there’s so many notes to like in there *on their own* — But together… 🙁
and it *does not go away* unless you launder your clothes.
Hate + fascination for me = Narciso Rodriguez For Her. There’s something compelling about it, until you get a hair too close and then it’s an icepick up your nose, into your brain.
Fracas – I keep trying it to see if my nose will grow into it. For now, it’s just too, too much for me.
Blvgari Black – I can’t get past the burning rubber smell. It never moves past it to the lovely drydown that other get, but I keep trying.
Guerlain Spiriteuse Double Vanille – I only take it out and sniff it in it’s little vial. In there, it’s lovely. On me – a horror show.
Bulgari Black is like that for me too. I really want to like it, and there’s a lot about it that I do, but on me it’s sooo powdery. I feel like I’m missing out on the other notes that make it a classic.
The bottle makes me wish it was for me too.
This might be off-topic, as I don’t think this smell turns up in any perfumes, but every spring I hope I will like the smell of mountain ash trees in bloom, and every spring they make me recoil…
Disteza, I get diapers from CdR too! I thought I was the only crazy one because no one else ever mentions it. I don’t get poopiness too much, but I get that soft, powdery, plasticky diaper smell. That being said, I still kinda like it…
Gucci Rush is for me what it sounds like Borneo is for you… Rush fascinates me and I even love to wear it, but there’s a little something in there that makes my stomach slightly lurch and my head faintly ache. Weird that I would like to wear it, right? Ah, the inifinite mysteries of scent. 😉
I’ve got 2: Rose Poivree and Chanel’s Cuir de Russie. I keep trying to embrace the civet in my first-run sample of RP, but it keeps turning to sweaty man-crack. Somewhere deep in said crack is a lush, gorgeous rose, but the crack-stink won’t die down enough for me to appreciate it.
CdR should by all rights be beautiful on me, but it’s not. Something in the parfum is just not right to my nose–what should be animalic leather smells like poopy diapers. That doesn’t stop me from trying it out, though.
For me it would have to be L’Heure Bleue. I keep spraying it and hoping I will “get it” but it is just a big mess on me. I think I must be missing something.
Actually, I…uh…well…I love Angel Liqueur! I was shocked that I tried it, and loved it, bu there. I said it!
I love it!
😡
Hugs!
The traffic reporters call it “gapers delay”…which bugs me, because I’m pretty sure those folks are gawking, not gaping…but I digress…
In my box of Treasures, is one repulsion. I’ve named it before. The prismatic red and silver heart. I slow down…I look…sometimes I stop. Pick it up. And, once or twice a year…spritz. <> Sometimes I even leave it on, thinking…maybe this time…maybe in the drydown… nope. <> Nope, No. Blergh.
Kingdom.
Sweetie,
I hope you know that if you go before me to that Great Bergdorf in the Sky I AM GOING TO HAVE YOU EMBALMED IN KINGDOM.
just sayin’
xo >-)
OMG MAKE SURE I AM DEAD STOP WILL THEY HAVE A WIFI IN MY TOMB STOP YOU HAVE NOW ACTIVATED A FEAR OF BEING BURIED ALIVE I NEVER HAD BEFORE STOP
No, seriously, STOP. That was sheer terror masked in a telegram. @-) 😉
Don’t worry, I’ll drive a stake through your heart for ya, just to make sure.
Phew! Thanks for having my back. I mean, I guess, “heart.” ;))
I am 100 percent with Shelley on Kingdom. It rates a huge yuck — it’s B.O. city!! (My apologies to those who like it.) Got a sample when it first came out and took it in to the office to share with my perfume-lovin’ co-workers — BIG mistake! Seven of us tried it on and the seven of us nearly caused a stampede trying to get to the ladies room to wash it off! I’m no fan of Angel but Kingdom’s clearly the champ, in my book.
100% Love fascinates and repels me. Chocoroseberrychouli, eek. I cannot imagine actually wearing it, although I really dug spraying it on my scarf and compulsively sniffing. Sniff, yes. Wear, Nuh-UH.
(It’s stalking me, isn’t it?)
Yep, and soon you’ll be making out, then first base, then babies.
I meant second base I think. I had an Americanism FAIL.
Depends, Lee, on whether you’re the type who will round the bases without stopping. Which, of course, can happen. And babies can happen even if you stop at third base, as was so often mentioned in Health/Sex Ed/Human Relations/Just Say No/Say Yes Only When Ready/whatever they’re calling it these days.
I like your line of thought, though. Mals, you’re gonna end up at a party with 100% Love and disappear out the door with it without anyone ever knowing. Unless you tell.
Or there’s a baby.
HOME RUN!! It’s a dinger, a tater, a moonshot, a round-tripper…
No babies. Steps Have Been Taken (mostly because we didn’t plan Taz, baby #3). So you’ll never know if I round the bases with 100% Luuuuuuuuv, will you? /:)
A veritable grand slam.
100% stalked me only in my imagination. After two years of being fascinated with the *idea* of it, I finally sampled it. It smells barfy to me.
Miel de Bois, which I’ve already blogged on. I spent a year (?) resniffing it because I found it so horrifying I couldn’t imagine anyone wearing it. But there was something in there …. that got its hooks into me. And now, of course, I’ve bought a bottle and wear it. :d Sparingly. BTW a friend got a single drop of MdB in her cupholder in her car and said her car smelled very nice for a week.
The one I resniff but really loathe is Tubereuse Criminelle, I can’t abide that camphor bit. But who knows, maybe I’ll have a conversion on that one as well.
Am t’other way totally. MdB – I feel ill (funnily enough, I sniffed a jar of chichi honey at the B&B I was staying at this morning – work, not pleasure, though the B&B is a delight, but I digress – and it was all the things about MdB I dislike – something woody rancid sweet…); TC – gimme that camphor full on baby.
Yeah, baby, on the camphor!
I swear that my baby CyF has camphor in it. Maybe just a tad…underneath the mint.
xo >-)
I sniffed MdB for the first time 2 days ago (yesterday? I forget) and it was…..nice.
What Lee said, in SPADES.
Imma put on some Miel de Bois right now – never done so before but I got me a sample. Call it morbid fascination and wish me luck!
Report back!
xo >-)
Yah, not impressed. Same happened as with Santal Blanc & Chypre Rouge: I like them in theory, but not on me as they quickly become cloying & brain-frying.
I ended up layering it with MKK. :d
:-
nope. Question Mark Guy is broken, even if you type in the code.
Sorry QMG! Hope you get well soon.
xo >-)
He’s gone to Tijuana for some wild living. All that ger-thunking had worn his puzzler out. So now he’s downing margaritas and frequenting shady bars, where chicas de la noche are trying to remove his frown, one worry line at a time.
I never really got all the Hate for Angel simply because I didn’t know that was what I was smelling – I just never paid it that much attention. But a few days ago I was in Saks, talking to a lovely woman, and I realized I kept backing up from her – she smelled like she’d possibly just thrown up and either forgot to use mouthwash or she’d gotten some on her shoes.
Turns out she was wearing Angel.
‘so THAT’S what all the fuss is about’. Pukealicious
My hater/fascinators (too many to list but here are a few)
Dior Dolce Vita
Ava Luxe Madame X (love Film Noir, thought I would love this. I was wrong – but I keep trying)
P d’E Cuir Ottoman. Occasionally, in extreme heat, I get a whiff of love but then the Cheap Leather Shoes come out and stomp all over my head.
Balenciaga Rumba. I keep jumping into that vat of Alaga. WHY?:((
xo >-)
I hear you on the Angel. Gah. The fair, complete with sweaty rednecks and cotton candy and little kids losing their corn dogs and funnel cakes after too many rides on the dragon coaster…
Love Dolce Vita, though. And Rumba… but now I want to know what Alaga is.
it’s a Southern syrup, used on pancakes – combo cane and corn syrup. Icky,sticky schweeeet.
xo >-)
I keep jumping in right after you because of the beeswax promise. Then it turns into the beehive that you can’t get off your head. It makes me sick, and yet… and yet…
Oh, gosh, there are a lot of perfumes I hate, but I don’t own them. The one I sniffed recently that–I wouldn’t say I hated it, just that I would never wear it–I found fascinating was MH L’Air de Rien.Interesting combination of dirt and burning dust.
2nd on that! I’d wear it when alone, but not when not (meaning out in public). I thought I’d used mine up but found a sample yesterday….hmmm.
Oooh, I’m on my second bottle of l’Air de Rien and just love it! I’ve never understood why people find it in any way unsuitable – isn’t it funny?
Re the Angel liqueur thingy, the whole idea of it makes me feel ill. I think it might be OK poured over some good vanilla pod ice-cream…
I don’t think I have a love/hate relationship with any perfumes. I love them or I hate them, very black and white.
I am with you on the LADR — total lurve — but I *do* get why it’s off-putting for some. Major Eau de Underpants going on with that one.
I actually wore AdR to work a couple of weeks ago (I MIGHT have been in a “mood” that day….), but nobody made any negative comments (or positive ones for that matter…). I love it. I’ve been fascinated from the first time I sniffed it…. Bal A Versailles has been my cheaper alternative, though. :-$
Tabu – and it’s dowager cousin, Youth Dew. I should like them in theory, and I keep trying, but so far, only headaches have ensued.
My ‘outright hate’ perfume (apart from Angel) is Flower by Kenzo. I get Mycota foot powder from it. I don’t see why anyone wants to smell like they’re treating a fungal infection…
I find I like Youth Dew much better as an aura, rather than up close to my skin. In general, I prefer scents that are close to my skin, but with YD, I know I smell good but can’t get up close to check.
You know what’s delicious? Youth Dew lotion (or “Satinée” or whatever they call it). I have a hard time with the actual fragrance, but as a lotion, it really does that “aura” up right.
I think that the problem with Youth Dew (which I love) and Angel (which I loathe) are the same problem – OVERAPPLICATION! I’ve come to the conclusion that I might have liked Angel or at least been able to tolerate it if it hadn’t been for this woman who I worked with bathing in it and choking me on the elevator on a regular basis and causing killer migraines. It got to where I’d climb 10 flights of stairs rather than get on the elevator with her – but sometimes, I’d get on first and I’d be trapped. In fact, Angel and my coworker were directly responsible for my 5 year hiatus from wearing scent of any type – I actually thought that I’d developed a sensitivity and couldn’t wear perfume anymore because she made me so ill on a regular basis. One of my colleagues currently wears Angel on occasion and I have to avoid her on those days.
My grandma wore Youth Dew and wasn’t an overapplier, so I always loved it. Even so, I went to the EL counter last year during the first day of GWP to pick up an order and there were at least 20 old ladies there who had overapplied Youth Dew and I thought that I was going to die. So I can see why someone would not like it.
Oh, I can imagine what that EL counter looked like and I *LOVE* the image.
I think there’s just something that’s softened in the lotion form. I’ll need to pull out my sample vial again, but even a drop of the vintage on my skin was a little harsh. The lotion has a lovely waft though. I was enjoying little dabs of the bottle I gave my grandmother for Xmas.
I wear the Angel body creme, lightly-and I still contend that I smell good :d/
I also love Borneo. Lee? Lee? are you around? 😉
Fascinated repulsion…Opium, now. It was pure love so many years ago, and maybe it’s the reformulation, but I feel compelled to sniff it, and just as compelled to run away, double-quick 😮
Just driven 200 miles and heard my name called.
Here I am.
Borneo, oh Borneo
You give me the horneo.
I don’t mean to sound corneo,
But you can’t be overworneo.
^:)^
your tastes and mine diverge a lot
but adoration I still got
I wouldn’t touch Borneo with a stick
But your poematin’ does the trick!
xo >-)
O Borneo, Borneo!
Wherefore art thou Borneo?
Leelee and Loulou are calling your name
And for you to deny them
Would be such a…pity
:d
There once were mad scribblers from the Posse
Who expressed Thoughts in prosody so Artsy
Then along came a lass
Who instead of some sass
Offered but distance for those in frags so saucy.
:-b
=p~
Ah, Zeezee has struck a chord there for me. I also find myself at perfume counters, bracing myself to give something yet another try, even though I have hated it the last ten times I’ve tried it.
And Shalimar is one of the ones I keep trying to love, but failing. I even bought a bottle and ended up putting it up for swap, until my 78 year old Mother spied it and swiped it! Neither I nor my best friend are woman enough to wear it, but my Ma splashes it on with glee and carries it off with aplomb.
Funnily enough I have finally had a ‘growing up’ moment with fragrance and it’s all down to my sudden acceptance of oakmoss. This has left me now able to wear the one perfume I desperately wanted to be able to love, but just couldn’t: Mitsouko. I’m still not crazy about the peaches, but I do now own a little bottle and I wear it sometimes.
I love Borneo. Am I strange?
But it’s OK, because I’m totally with you on Angel. It’s repulsive. And you know what? Even though I get tempted occasionally in department stores to have just one little spritz to check out if I really do hate it, I only have to remember the time spent in the public toilet trying desperately to scrub it off to put that tester down and walk away. :d
Mine are mostly scents which enjoy cult status on the blogs and boards, but which I can’t stomach. I keep trying them every once in a while, hoping I “get them now”. Féminité du Bois, OJ Woman and L’Heure Bleue are the big three, probably.
“oooh, zeezee! ju gonna get it now!” 😮 Watch out for the Perfumista Ninjas!
akshuly, I’m with you on all of those 3 (two loathe, one ‘meh’). I thought I was in total LOVE with FdB but something happened, very early on, that just ooked me right out – I think it’s the sweat note in there. What is pretty in Femme is just :-& for me in FdB.
And L’HB parfum? I can actually feel my brain dissolving.
OJW is just – hey! where did Question Mark Guy go to? Well, OJW is ‘that’.:-
z, let’s go hide out for awhile, ’til the fuss dies down.
xo >-)
Heh. One of the places we become Scent Twins from Alternate Dimensions…for that which I love in the FdB becomes Big Trouble in Femme.
Ha, Musette! So I’m not actually afflicted with a totally inadequate nose (cue Danny Kaye performing his Palpably Inadequate Blues), it’s teh peer pressure!
What a fun topic! Oddly, I was noticing this reaction the other day when I was trying Serendipity3 Serendipitous. It had what I’ve subconsciously refered to as the “puke note.” What is that note?
I love Borneo. It has always broken my heart, for some reason.
My Hate/Fascination list is longer than I thought it should be…in order of intensity:
Norma Kamali Incense (smells evil, like sexy vampires)
Laura Tonatto Re
Flowerbomb (puke note)
Angel (still love/hate to smell it on someone else and always ask how long they’ve been wearing it)
Etro Messe de Minuit (adore the dirty, musty notes, but smells alarmingly similar to AXE body spray for men. My son calls them D-Bag perfumes)
Lutens MKK (love it, but secretly afraid I smell like dirty diapers to the masses)
D-Bag perfumes? Ha! Most people get dank old churches or crypt notes from MdM.
Good Lord, why have I not smelled Messe de Minuit yet? This makes no sense. It also doesn’t make sense that “old church” or “crypt” is a selling point to me.
if you’re on this blog, it makes Perfect Sense 😉
xo >-)
Dang, what’s with this crypt-ic nonsense 8-x ?
MdM is a lovely, rosey vanillic incense on me. And if you beg to differ, well then….x(
Funny, I have despised Angel for years. And then I got kinda fascinated, then on a whim, I swapped for a mini that has no sprayer (I do think the bottle’s pretty.) I now sort of like it because I can dab on just one drop. One drop smells really good on me. It’s the spraying of it that’s so room-clearing. Some things are just meant to be dabbed on, sparingly.
Hmmm. Maybe that’s why I don’t hate Angel? Don’t adore it either but find it wearable maybe every other blue moon. Or so.
Yeah, Angel strikes me as one of those “absence makes the heart grow fonder” fumes ;))
This is a fun and funny batch of topics yesterday and today. To me it’s like getting something vile on your fingers (stop snickering, kiddos), yet for some insane reason you keep sniffing them. And you all KNOW you do it, so don’t deny! 😮
I kind of like the Angel Liqueur: got samples for my mom for xmas and one for myself (those sample vials come with dauber thingies). I wouldn’t buy a bottle (prefer Alien Liqueur), but it’s a good deep winter scent. Still haven’t smelled the original. And I lurve Borneo. Jared, boy, it’s sad if you can’t smell it or become anosmic or fatigued or whatever. Odd.
As for things that repulse and fascinate me: first, see yesterday’s “Gagnifiques” thread. But more realistically: MKK. It’s not a total horror — now and then I get that beautiful beeswax candle thing TS writes about — but I also almost always get whiffs throughout that remind me of someone with a foot fungus infection. Still, I keep pulling it out: Fascination.
Another Serge once did that to me: my eyes bugged out in horror and I coughed the first time I sniffed it. Now I’m very much in love with… Serge Noire.
Well I can smell it, I just have to jam my nose to my hand. I need sillage. Sillage, I say! Maybe I’ll still buy a bottle anyway and pour it on. And I love MKK. Love it. Serge Noir, yes, disturbing but fascinating. I wouldn’t mind a bottle of that falling from the sky into my collection.
Y’all know that I mostly don’t like Serge – all the ones everybody yarks on about have me running for the 79% alc. But the two I actually LIKE are
MKK and Miel de Bois.
😕
xo >-)
Okay, I just suggested we were Scent Twins from Alternate Dimensions below. Over “cumin,” I guess. But this? This is pure, unadulterated evil. Evil, I tell you. Evil Scent Twin….
(Reaches for the Chergui, or the Chene…something to take away the though of MKK on her skin…)
Eventually you will come over to the dark side, my pretty! Bwaahahaaaa! 8-x
Anita: I love Miel de Bois and recently bought a bottle. I can’t see why people would run from that.
MKK is another story…b-(
Now, I would argue the exact opposite. MdB makes me want to :-& while MKK makes me =p~ and <:-p
100% with Carter on this one.
Jared, I am really curious about this. Have you tried asking someone else if they can smell it around you when you cannot? Maybe your skin just eats it, but maybe it’s a fatigue thing and you will overspray in your (perfectly understandable) quest for sillage, wiping out noses for miles around LOL!
Hate AND fascination is a tough one…there are those bottles of things I have that I don’t like, yet I don’t get rid of them so I can keep them on hand for reference purposes. (However, if anyone wants this decant of Nuit Noir, be my guest- it’s yours for free.) The one that comes to mind is Caron’s Yatagan…thankfully cheap and a blind buy due to all the rave reviews it gets, but good Lord. I put it on, thinking, yes, this time it will be ok. My sense of smell has adjusted, and it’s working. An hour later I’m busily scrubbing. It’s those fragrances with such distinctive voices that have something forceful to say…sometimes you hate them but they are what they are, and for that they can perhaps be admired. Others…no redeeming qualities.
PS, Borneo is a total mystery to me. I can’t smell it on myself. I love it, I want to love it, I want it wafting up at me all day, but shortly after spraying it on, buh-bye. I wouldn’t have expected this from a powerhouse like Borneo. Don’t you wish you had my problem?
Jared, if I even have my bottle *opened* in my room, people who come by hours later can still smell it. Wild that you can’t.
I have THIS EXACT SAME love/loathe relationship with Angel. I hate it. I cannot understand why people love it or why there would be efforts to make pseudo knock-offs of it by other companies. Every time I try something that’s like it, I think, “My god! Wasn’t one of these unholy scents enough!?!” I used to think it was just my newb nose, but after two years of sniffing I give up. I don’t like it and I never will and I have no idea what the appeal is.
The just plain HATE list is pretty long, but hate + fascination is something else. Montale Chocolate Greedy does it for me. I can’t wear it, I can’t stand smelling it for more than a few minutes, but every so often I have to try it again, just to make sure…I love chocolate in perfume, but something about the dusty cocoa in this one just sets my teeth on edge. Yet, it IS chocolate after all, so maybe just one more leetle sneef, yes….:d
Then there is LouLou by Cacharel – I always wanted to love it, but it’s just so HUGE, and pretty much unwearable for anyone except maybe Mae West, but I still sneak a tester whiff when I have a chance. I still can’t decide if it belongs with the greats or if it’s an Amarige-like monster that needs to be walled up in the Chernobyl vault.
My mother wore LouLou, and I actually had a partial bottle of it when she passed away. It definitely is big out of the bottle. Screamingly so. But I recall it drying down into something more manageable. I’ve always liked it, but I can see how folks might hate it…
I love Angel but I don’t wear it. I love it in the abstract. Heh.
The one that has me in a quandry is that damn Dans Tes Bras. Why cain’t I quit you? #-o
Hmmm. I really like In Your Bra. Where is that damned decant?
Carter: I love Dans Tes Bras, but I can see it causing a quandary.
Think of it as the Space Odyssey version of Apres l’Ondee.
Eggsactly! I really pick up the Ondee references, and for that reason alone I am inclined to love it, but DTB does a Jekyll-and-Hyde act on me that complicates the relationship and makes me sore afraid each time I take the plunge; I’m never quite sure *who* is going to show up and have his way with me o:-)>:):x=((:)):((
I commend you on your excellent deployment of emoticons.<:-p
Woohoo! Wearing it right now! One of my dear favorites.
Santal blanc I found too sweet at first – a bit like Cedre which is dreadful on me. Then today I woke up and it was going to be a long autumn day at work and I was thinking of which perfume to wear and…I remembered someone(?March) saying they layered it with Philosykos. And it was good! and comforting. Don’t think I’d wear it every day, but it was right for today.
Bandit I love and am waiting for my ebay bottle to wing it’s way to my hemisphere right now.
I also found Ormond Jayne Woman compulsively odd at first. Now I have an offer to buy me a FB for my birthday – anyone have thoughts between the parfum and eau de parfum??
I don’t find much difference between the two. The scent is the same and both have good lasting power, at least on my skin.
Bandit’s mine…yes I know, don’t pass go into perfumista-hood! Its so – bitter – or something; I’ve got quite a large sample and will spray it, thinking that one day I’ll get it, heck, I’m starting to get oud, and already liked Cabochard from my previous life, but so far, nup.
And as for Angel, well I think its Art with a capital A; but I’m too old for it now, sob! I remember meeting it while I was pushing my toddler thru’ Myer in Sydney, and thinking, ah gee, the generation has rolled over, this is for the young ones.
But you bet I’ll be spraying the Liqueur when I get the chance!
(Slinks off)
I’m the Bandit Queen and the thought of spraying the stuff makes ME shudder! I’ve never actually seen it with a sprayer, so this must be a decant? And I would never attempt it, not even with a very large net. :*
😮
xo >-)
I’m so glad that I’m not the only one with compulsions to sniff fragrances that I can’t wear. I really detest Angel, but the second I had the opportunity to get a small decant of the Liqueur de Parfum, well I just had to have it. And no surprise. I hated it too.
ELdO Charogne is another one that I can’t wear, find pretty off-putting, but keep sniffing. There’s something in there that draws me.
And perhaps my weirdest habit. I wore Ciara when I was a teenager. I have powerful scent memories attached to it and indeed, it was a powerhouse scent. Spicy, sweet, incensey, over-the-top. Not a “fine” fragrance, but oddly compelling.
Either it has been reformulated or I don’t remember it correctly, because the current version is awful. But every once in a while, I just have to sniff it to find the skeleton of the scent that I remember. I guess I’ll have to hunt down a vintage bottle, just for a sniff. 😮
M: My mom wore Ciara quite a lot in the late 70s and I don’t think I’ve smelled it in at least two decades. I’ve been very curious though. If you hunt down that vintage bottle… lemme know. I’d very much love to sample it for nostalgia’s sake.
Shalimar used to be the perfume I that both repelled and fascinated me. Whatever that central accord is that makes it unmistakably Shalimar did me in. But I got beyond that this year and simply love it now.
I guess, in general, patchouli, birch tar, and oudh are both repellant and attractive, depending on the setting. Etro Palais Jamais is one that I wear because the balance is right, but I almost don’t like it.
I think I had a similar reaction to Caron’s Or et Noir parfum. Something struck me about it. I don’t know what. I would sniff, be slightly reviled, and then be compelled to continue to sniff it. What’s up with that?