Ooh! Before I forget, the winner of Tom’s Smell Bent sample pack is: violetnoir
The winners of the 5 Stages sample packs are: Teri, Millicent and Ann N
Tom and I will contact you directly – the Contact Us administrator is getting her ‘om’ on.
So….I’m stalling for time, erm, Guest Posting – again – ‘ til Patty gets back. Li’l Missy is busy finalizing her March’s Massive Swap deets, to be revealed on Wednesday.
As most of you know, I’m not much for note-taking, which is why you rarely get a real perfume ‘review’ out of me (okay – everybody just stop for a minute and consider how insane that review would be….). I get notes in general and in concept but don’t quite ‘get’ it to the heights that most of you do, in part because my schnozz really is wonky (ask the ENTs who look up there – they are all stunned that I can even breathe, let alone smell)…but also, I’m vaguely disconnected from the whole note-thing. And I am lazy. There are a lot of things I like to exercise my tiny mind on: crossword puzzles, learning to hitch up a team , champagne vintages…but for some reason, much as I love perfume, I don’t fall all over the notes! In fact (and don’t tell nobody ‘bout this, okay?) every once in awhile I gloss over the notes in a perfume review! Heresy! I KNOW!
But deep in the throes of The Cull, I started thinking about notes I don’t like. And it’s now Official: Amber Ooks Me Out.
What’s not to like about amber, you ask? It’s warm! It’s Biblical! It holds the DNA of velociraptors! It boosts florals and adds a touch of eroticism to skin scents! It scrubs your floors and irons your shirts! Yeah…but… It’s..it’s also The Nazgul! It’s that note, combined with the chocolate-thingy, that made me want to scrub Eau de Merveilles off with a Brillo pad. And in L’Artisan Eau d’Ambre it smells like plastic lemon peels or carny doll heads. it’s weirdly uneasy-making, like I just ate a possibly-iffy yogurt – but I won’t know for a couple minutes more…knowmean? If it’s the Nazgul, toss me a bucket and jump back! I dabbed on some Amber and Lavender last night – truly terrifying. HOW terrifying, you ask? Well, I was in a tiny den with two big dogs and a chili-bloated El O …and the A&L was still the scariest smell in the room!!
Y’all are always going on about notes – so give ovah! Which ones make you crazy/itchy/pukey/scratchy/heavy-hivey? Cumin-haters, c’mon out! I know you’re behind that bush, praying I don’t spray the new Femme in your direction….Musk, where is thy sting? (lemme tell you how I cried when Musk stomped all over those beautiful Lilies – and don’t get me started on Lemon and Musk – Satan’s Sunday Brunch )…..or maybe it’s, I dunno, Iso E-Super which, if I had any cred at all, I’d know all about – but I don’t. But it might make you crazy! Mint? Salt? Camphor? (I loooove camphor), Lilac?
So tell the ol’ Alien. C’mon…you know you want to! You’d better. Or else next time I will attempt a Perfume Review. For reals.
photo: dog-names.com some rights reserved, I’m sure.
Vanilla has been all but ruined for me by the 99.999% of fragrances in existence going overboard with it in their drydowns. Or hearts. Or topnotes. What IS it with the damn vanilla everywhere? It’s the dandelion of the fragrance world. Not a fan of lavender, either – it’s almost always either too sharp/herbal or too soft and “bubble bath-y” for me. And amber-heavy scents usually strike me as powdery and suffocating, so I steer clear. (There goes half the Oriental pantheon, dammit.)
On the flipside, I rarely have a bad thing to say about tobacco, cumin, or aldehydes, and I positively love patchouli and musk. Yes, even the “clean”/”white”/”laundry”/”bug spray” varieties of musk. No, really. Can’t get enough. I have problems.
😮
Darryl, come on the swap tomorrow. I’ll bet you will be VERY popular! For reals!
xo >-)
Totally agree, Darryl – there seem to be a lot of scents now with too much vanilla, or, maybe, too little else.
I don’t know what it is, but there is a note or accord common to Ubar and Joop! Berlin that I can’t stand – really, truly, cannot bear to smell it.
Scanning the notes on the internet, there is nothing particularly unusual about either, and nothing is listed that isn’t in other scents that I do like. I suspect that it may be a particular synthetic note to which I am hyperosmic.
I haven’t smelled either, alas…
I’m hoping neither is a ‘beloved’ of someone close to you! You know that’s always the way, right?
xo >-)
Fortunately, no one around me even knows what they are (huge sigh of relief).
Like so many I’ve come to luuurve notes I thought I hated, like frooot.
Also like many its that cheap thing – the cheap musk, the cheap woody things, the flouro cheap cat piss cassis. I smell Escentric Molecule as a nice engine oil, a smell like petrol I do like but don’t ‘read’ as perfume.
But the only thing now I find a complete deal-breaker is the ashtray note. Two of note are the Ford Tobacco one and Amouage Tribute, they just tip over too far into ashtray, whereas say CBs Burning Leaves just walks the line of sweet smoke.
I was going to suggest you try Tribute in the searing heat – but if I recall you live in Australia, a place not known for chilly temps, right? You get ashtray? I get burnt roses – in a really good way.
What is your take on Tea for Two? That was my first niche-ashtray scent. Two tries was LUV. Third try was pukealiciousness.
I also really can’t take Tribute. Good to know that CB Burning Leaves is still worth trying!
I, myself, really like amber – a lot. But as I just kinda browsed your article, two names popped out AMBER & LAVENDER and AMBRE FETICHE. As much as I like amber, Ms. Malone’s Amber & Lavender is just awful. I received a bottle as a gift and tried it several times, and it’s just the worst smelling thing ever. Really. The Guide says it’s mis-named, and should be called Patch (which I do not like – so their review makes sense to me). Didn’t love Ambre Fetiche so much either. My point? It’s probably not fair to judge my beloved amber on those to frags :)
I think the Guide is wrong.
I think it should be called >:p
But don’t tell anybody I said so… :-” (I think Whistling Guy is still broken but just in case..)
xo >-)
Fake “aquatic” notes, Calone or otherwise. Brrrr. I call them The Kraken. Ruins a lot of otherwise decent perfume and sets both my teeth and my nose on edge.
D & G Light Blue – whoever wrote the brief for that thing oughtta be court-martialed. Even if they are a civilian.
Aquatic gets NO love here, does it? I’m not a fan myself, though I do love ‘salty’ scents like Selmarine – that’s okay, right? :-s You guys won’t flog me with a piece of seaweed?
xo >-)
Hate gardenia (dead flowers), cedar (stuck in a blanket chest) and almond (play-do and shower curtains). My big hate is saved for a note I have yet to identify, but I smell it as sweat. At first I thought it was a musk, then I thought it might be jasmine, but now I’m back to thinking it’s a musk of some kind. Maybe white musk? I don’t know, but I can’t bear it. That’s why I test everything I wear – if that scent develops, forget it! It goes in the no-no pile.
A note I LOVE is broom. It doesn’t turn up much, but I’ve loved every perfume I’ve ever tried with broom in it. Dune and Ta’if are 2 major examples. LOVE them.
I wonder if that note is March’s Love Child, aka Cumin?
xo >-)
I don’t think it’s cumin, but like I said, I’m not sure of anything. I should list the notes of all the perfumes that give me this smell, and see what they have in common. The reason I was thinking it was musk was because of my friend who always wore Bonne Bell Skin Musk and always smelled sweaty (to me, anyway. Gaaaargh). But now I know there are all kinds of musk, so I should narrow it down more.
I feel like I’m starting from scratch, and not really sure what notes I like or don’t like. I was sure I hated rose and my very first fumie FB is going to be Citizen Queen. I could bathe in the stuff.
I was also sure I hated Chanel #5, but after wearing it for a day, I’m prepared to give it a chance and see what I really think. I did find that I hate Miss Dior Cherie. But I couldn’t qualify part is so distasteful. I recoiled from Bulgari Black bottle, but that only makes me want to wear it and see what I think.
I’ve ordered another batch of samples, love you TPC! And I’m preparing to try the ones on perfume 101. Its fun to not have any preconceived ideas of what I will love or not love and just try everything. I’m pretty opinionated in all other areas of my life! ;P
sounds like you are having a GREAT time! Ignore Miss DC in favor of Miss Dior (vintage, if you can get it – TPC has some usually – also Diorella and Diorama (March thinks they drydown the same but I dunno…..:-?
and keep on enjoying the sniffage!
xo >-)
Tuberose (see: Fracas)
Woods
Laundry musks
what on earth is a Laundry Musk?
you are not the first to mention it but it’s the first time my flippy little mind actually registered the phrase.
is that like Clean Musk?
xo >-)
btw – y’all really need to worship Fracas. You do.
Because I Said So.
xo >-)
Yup, as I understand it they are the category of musk that constitutes those CLEAN! FRESH! scents that laundry detergents hit you over the head with (Elena at Perfume Shrine has a good essay on the different musks).
Re: Fracas – LOL. You never know, my nose is surprising me all the time over what it’s attracted to. On me, Bandit dries down to a tuberose midnote which I really like. Can Fracas be far behind?
I can’t think of a note that I just hate across the board (I always find exceptions) but I’m pretty sensitive to/picky about aldehydes, oud, and woody ambers (not straight-up amber though; I usually love amber).
I really can’t argue the aldehydes, even though I love them, because they make my boys sneeze HARD and draft horse sneezes are …well…b-(
that’s a pretty short list and open to exceptions so I predict you will have Long Happy Sniffage in your future!
xo >-)
Hi Musie!
I guess I don’t think of it as my aversion to notes so much as certain perfumes I tried and hated? Cause I’m discovering all the time that what I thought I didn’t like I dig and what I think is great -on me at least – ain’t happening!
I love yes my sweet -your dreaded amber!
But like others on here I hate synthetic crap.
Don’t like B&BW type smells, ashtray, some incense, heavy-duty ‘Turkish Delight’ type shizz.
I can deal with smidges of smoke, and butt. I mean cumin! ;)
My tolerance for patch’ is growing all the time.
And yet I still loathe (please don’t hate on a scent sistah) Mitsy, Shali and Avignon! SHUDDER/SQUIRM/CUSS like a sailor!
My beloved URC goes straight to a amber bomb on my skin and I luuuuuuuurve it, Gaaawd I wanna swim in it!
GAGA for Attrape and Alahine too.
And yes sometimes I’ll admit they make me wanna urp a lil’ bit!
But the really sick thing is……….I like that! HA.
Means it’s working it’s magic* girl (*devil worship???!)
Love~Twisted T
I have discussed your illness with Her Majesty Mitsouko and We Are in Agreement: you will be Spared because She is Feeling Magnanimous! ^:)^ ;))
You and I just might be Evil Guerlain Scent Twins, TJ. I loathe AC. Lunch bringer-upper. Love Mits, as you know.
TOTALLY with you on BBW. Probably not too bad on some stuff – but I can’t go into the actual shop! It’s just too painful, like a chem lab or something.
xo >-)
Violet and myrhe. Ugh.
Also aldehydes.
aw c’mon. A li’l Aldehyde Love…=((
no?
[-(
xo >-)
Well, I don’t like the smell of cheap ingredients, like those in detergents, etc, whatever note they’re trying to convey. Anything that comes across as “cheap imitation to cut costs” in a luxury product like perfume offends me.
I love most of the notes that so many of y’all have protested here– aldehydes, lavender, tuberose, gardenia, incense, amber– if they’re well composed, bring ’em on! But I hate cumin and can barely stand the smell of the actual spice as I dip a measuring spoon in the jar (yet cooking changes the smell for me, and adds an attactive flavor to a dish). No ashtray-accord scents, please, and NO anise because it reminds me of licorice, a taste that literally sickens me. No fruity-tooty scents– really, no gourmands either, because I just don’t like food smells to linger long past the meal. Don’t like the smell of hawthorn, juniper or box plants in nature, and will probably never like their notable presence in perfumes.
Oh, and probably no patchouli either. I recently had my first sniff of Coromandel, which must be the most elegant patch ever– that silken Chanel DNA was expressed in every pore– but when the patchouli hit my nose, I just said “oh, no.” It’s so beautifully made, and yet I still couldn’t bear to wear it.
This sounds like the rant of someone who doesn’t like anything, but I assure you that’s not true. Check my scent cupboards if you don’t believe me!
You actually sound like someone who has a very carefully edited list of things you like – and that’s a GOOD thing. I have had so many Coromandel-type experiences, it’s heartbreaking. Take Malles Lys Med. I fell like an elephant for that on first spritz. I fell SO hard I was almost ready to give up all my simoleans for a bottle – and here is why Samples Are Good. Took it back home (sample). All in love, I spritzed again. 30 minutes into it I was all ‘whuuuuck? – who invited MUSK?’. And that was that. I keep the samp, just to revisit it now and again – just in case Musk decided to leave the party and forgot to tell me.
Alas, no.
xo >-)
Add me to the chorus: I’d love to read your reviews, too.
The more I smell the less I seem to know. Over the past few years, I’ve found perfumes to love with every note I once thought I didn’t like (cumin, animalic musks, heavy white florals, I could go on). I think what I end of liking has more to do with balance and composition than any note per se. However, I would like to discuss with Professor Perfume what particular white musk chemical it is that gives me an instant headache in the perfume aisle of Sephora or most department stores.
That’s the beauty of True Perfumista-ism, grasshoppa! You are keeping your Beginner’s Mind, which is a beautiful thing. I am always getting my psychic lunch et – just when I think I ‘know’ what I love and what I hate something comes along to flip it on its ear…and I am bemusedly delighted!
xo >-)
How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways…
Naaah, not really. There are notes I avoid if present in too noticeable a concentration, but only one that really makes me run screaming out of the room. And that evil nasty is (drum roll here) ORANGE! Now neroli (orange blossom) is lovely and never a problem, but anything meant to smell like the fruit reads to me like super strong bathroom cleanser and makes me sickish.
In fact, I’m not too big on fruits in perfume in general – peach, pineapple, strawberry, raspberry really don’t do much for me. I can stand them in small amounts, but if they are a dominant note….I just move along, nuttin’ to see here.
But just to show that I’m really a complex person – lol – I DO like a pear note, a blackberry (cassis) note, a lime note, LOVE a lemon note, and adore a rhubarb note. I know. Go figure.
I’m ‘meh’ on vanilla, unless it’s on the non-sweet end of the spectrum. And chocolate belongs in my mouth, not on my wrists and decolletage.
Now amber?? LURVE it. Bring it on. To go along with the canine theme….if amber were lying on the ground and I were a dog, I’d roll in it! In advance of the swap….if an amber scent is the ‘red-headed step child’ in your collection, it can find a happy home with me. Just sayin’.
I agree with orange blossom, terrible on my skin!
oops missread you!
I’m not kidding, A – I would like to read an actual review from you… take, at random, five bottles/decants from your collection and give us 2-3 sentences on each one?
I’m still loving your description of L’Aimant in bitter cold weather: like shattered glass, wasn’t it?
I agree!!!
well, heck! thanks. 🙂 (I really am blushing)
maybe I will do another couple of scents, down the line when I can actually smell something (drywall and sawdust = serious pain in the sinii)
xoxo >-)
Ooooh, there’s so many I hate, I can’t decide which I loathe more: is it the cheap chocolate, or the fruit mocktail accord? Raspy aldehydes, or pungent freesia? Cheapo sandalwood, or equally trashy cheapo vanilla? Or how about ‘clean’ musks (which I believe is an oxymoron), or everything fresh or aquatic?
On the other hand my tolerance for butt-funk and skank is legedndary; my SO has become rather desensitized to it so that I can wear out L’Air du Rien and Marquis de Sade with very little complaint.
BTW, my favorite perfume color is the negative black of plush silk velvet. You know, the black that’s so deep you almost lose yourself in contemplation of it.
yep. I know – and love – that color. IMO it’s even more intoxicating in that deepest of midnight blue.
I love skank but lately have wanted to tone it down just a notch. Wonder if that’s menopause, rearing its vicious little head?
xo >-)
Hi Musette!
Great post!
I have recently come around to jasmine and now absolutely love it and am contemplating getting a FB of SL A la nuit but am still trying to sample all things jasmine (bruno acampora jasmine oil
sample in my future) until I make a final decision on FB…
Tuberose as a show stealer is the note that is a usual dealbreaker for me.. I sniffed NDT by L’Artisan 2 or 3 times, after all the lovely reviews… Almost everyone loves this one! I tried! But it’s clear! Can’t!
I wanted to like tuberose especially when I learned in book from Mandy Aftel how it can work so well with other notes and magnify them and create a sublime effect… I am happy that I can appreciate it when WELL blended because I know it has figured in perfumes that I love…
No melon-aquatics or fruity florals…Yech!
Oh and can’t do cumin either! I had tried Eau de Cologne noire a few years back… Spritz on paper: divine! Immortelle, hay, honeyed note? So sprayed a sizeable amount on arm/sleeve to enjoy on my bus ride home…The opening, on skin, amazing! and then it hit! on the bus! What’s that smell? OMG! Gotta get offa that bus! And then, horrors of horrors! I realize it’s coming from MY arm!!! That was my very first experience with a scrubber! And boy did it take a long time to come off!!!
Live and learn!
Hi Florentina, I’m sitting right beside you on that cumin bus! We can ship our share of the cumin over to Ms. March :-\”
Me, too, on the cumin, though I don’t necessarily hate it – it’s just that it dominates everything else in every scent I’ve tried that has it, and ends up being all I smell! May as well just rub cumin on my wrists!
Try Kilian Love and Tears – GORGEOUS jasmine!
Hi Karin, a big yes on that Love and Tears! I tried it once and thought “nope,” but I was distracted that day. On a second, more thoughtful sampling, I was significantly more impressed.
Oh and happy, happy birthday to you today, Karin!! And how wonderful that you got a beautiful scent to celebrate with!!
Thank you, Ann!!!
Violet. No doubt.
I have tried to like it but I can’t. I usually love floral notes and I adore powdery fragrances… with the exception of powdery violets or sweet violets.
I have to live with it. No problem. There are hundreds of perfumes without violet :)
you must love No22 then?
it is a Powder BOMB!!
xo >-)
I have not tried No22, but I love Lorenzo Villoresi Teint de Neige, L’Erbolario Iris and things like that ;)
OMG!
Teint de Neige! Quick! Hide the womenfolk!
well, baby – if you like TdN (aka Satan’s Powderpuff) you would probably LOVE 22. Big ol’ thang. I love 22 but have to take it in small doses. TdN is Too Much for moi!
xo >-)
Great article.
I wish perfumers would leave “raspberry” out of everything. It always evokes vomit to me. It’s that one note that ruins Balmain’s Ivoire (& White Linin – although that may be the aldehyde overdose).
The worst however is that fake woods/musk chemical overdose. The substance that scratches the back of the throat & smells like cleaning fluid?
Do creators really not notice this stuff is awful? Cinema and EA’s Mediterranian have a good dose but the worst offender I’ve run across was Sung Beyond Paradise, which was drenched with it. My only perfume purchase I’ve actually tossed right in the garbage.
Astrid,
go fish it out and swap it with us on Wednesday! I’ll bet there is somebody out here who LOVES it!
White Linen is Aldehyde City – it’s a bit much even for me, >-) of the Aldehyde! It is beautifully-done, just….BIG!
xo >-)
Leather. Don’t like the smell in perfume nor do I like it on jackets, purses, shoes, saddles. I know I know, so shoot me.
Will go out of my way to avoid tobacco and/or smoke. Over the years I’ve spent lots of money at the dry cleaners trying to remove those scents from clothing so certainly NOT going to spend money putting them back on!
=))
I’m thinking…..:-?…maybe you might not like leather?
xo >-)
Another violet-hater here. Absolutely loathe it. Not a big fan of lavender, either, it usually reads as “mildew” to me. Also, chocolate. Very, very infrequently can I stand a chocolate note in a fragrance. I am disdainful of those sugary vanilla notes, but that’s as much snobbery on my part than anything else. Chocolate, though – yecch. OTOH, I lurrrrrrrrve me some amber, some big honkin’ tubey (or just about any other white flower), a smoky-ass incense or leather, that weird mentholated thing that Tubey Crim does, rubbery stuff… I’m pretty ecumenical. Just NO VIOLET.
see above – might explain why you don’t like violet. Chocolate – I’m with you! Love it, love to smell cooking chocolate. Really hate to smell chocolate in fragrance.
xo >-)
Oh, sweet Lord, chocolate… I forgot that one. Urgh.
Tuberose. Gets me almost every time, to the point that if it’s in the list of notes, I almost never bother to even sniff. It’s an instinctive, pull-back, eeeuuuwww! gonna get a headache thing for me. And while I’d love to love violets and they don’t have an immediate impact on me, after a short while I find them…annoying. As if there’s something I can’t quite put my finger on that’s not quite right somehow. But it’s making me uneasy. Odd reaction to a lovely flower, I know, but there it is.
No, actually it’s not – not if you go by what Diane Ackerman says about violets in her book A Natural History of the Senses. it’s too long to quote here (and I’m always afraid I’m doing it wrong anyway) but here’s the link: http://www.american-buddha.com/lit.naturalhistsenses.smell.htm
I always get a faintly vomitous/fecal note in violet a few minutes into it – then that note is gone and the flower re-emerges. Penhaligon’s Violet is extremely annoying, for the reasons you describe.
xo >-)
I thought I hated tuberose until I tried 2 things:
Vamp a NY– Total Love – uses real tuberose absolute
Tuberose attar co-distilled with vetiver- weirder than majmua
Tuberose absolute is like yummy buttery toast, the perfume version, not the culinary version. I don’t know why so many white florals call themselves tuberose when they wouldn’t know a tuberose if it poked their eye out! So that’s my Daily Grump.
Oh, I’m not crazy about basil in perfumes, because it always smells like sweet pickles to me. Go figure.
so JM’s Lime Basil and Mandarin is out of the question? That’s a sinus-searing one for me, fo’ sho!!
xo >-)
Tuberose absolute is a real (gorgeous) weirdie, isn’t it? I have some on hand – notes of butter, camphor, a quick flash of raw meat, something minty, and beautiful creamy flowers.
But then, I dig tuberose in most perfume applications.
Lavender is Instant Trip to Headache City for me.
Jasmine grandiflorum can be Total Ho Panties, though I get on fine with J sambac.
One of those balsams – I don’t know whether it’s tolu or peru, or possibly both – makes me feel nauseated. Opium, Tabu, Youth Dew… somebody go get me an emesis basin. (I was totally shocked at how much I liked Vamp a NY. I think maybe tuberose, for me, covers a multitude of sins?)
Whatever-it-is that the Estee Lauder scents have in common makes me nauseous too. Funny, that one I can’t even *smell,* and it shows up at different parts of the fragrance development. With Beyond Paradise and Knowing, it took about two hours. With Cinnabar and White Linen, it’s immediate. Whatever this thing is, it’s also in SSS Vintage Rose, which I was prepared to love but cannot take. The longest I’ve lasted with that one is 12 minutes, through six separate skin tests.
Patchouli blows up huge on me – a quantity that is pleasant to most other people just hijacks my nose. Seriously, I think I pick it up at parts-per-million levels. THe odd thing about it is that I really, really like the aged stuff that smells grassy and herbal, but a Little Dab’ll Do Me.
“Tropical fruit” notes are just nasty. Red berries are iffy, too.
I love aldehydes. Love violet, rose, white florals, woods, and as Louise says, natural-smelling ambers like I get in Alahine (ooh, Alahine!) and 31 RC and Attrape-Coeur. I don’t even mind aquatics, though I get on better with the waterlily/floral version than with the melon/”ocean” version. I like fruit notes if they’re tart or jammy. Am on the fence with cumin and dirty musk.
there IS something in nearly all the ELs, isn’t there….:-? I have some vintage Cinnabar that is gorg but Opium? Ho nooooes! I got some of that on ONE finger on my way to the Malle Candle thingy and I had to wash my hands 3 times and use 3 different toners. You know it’s a rough one when Clinique No 4 can’t make a dent in it!
xo >-)
Total Ho Panties- what a fab description! :d
It’s pretty X-rated, yeah…
Hi Musette! Hi Mals, I’m with you on the lavender. For something supposed to be so calming and relaxing, it sends me to Headache City, too. Along with heavy-duty rose — I think I got too many snootfuls of an old roomie’s YSL Paris or something, but it puts me on the run nearly every time it’s the main note. But blended nicely and/or cooked it can be lovely, as in By Kilian’s Liaisons Dangereuses.
And cumin — whoo-whee! I wanted so to love SL Fleurs d’Oranger but that sweaty note just did me in (bows to March who wore it for her scent challenge). Just couldn’t bear the thought of walking down the street and have folks parting like the Red Sea to avoid me. P.S. Thanks for letting us vent …
A little lavender goes a long way in a fragrance, imo. The Amber&Lavender was just incredibly…awful, like they were stuffed in a dirty sock and trying to duke their way out!
xo >-)
Hey Mals – wondering if it’s opoponax that’s the culprit in those offensive Opium-type scents that you and I both loathe? Would love to identify that note…you say it’s a balsam (I was thinking amber, as we’ve discussed before)? Interesting! I’ll have to investigate…and I need to get my hands on some of that Alahine!
Isn’t opoponax another name for myrrh? Huh. I thought I liked that… I keep saying I’m going to go hunt up some more essential oils, maybe this is a good time to investigate the resins and see what kills me. I know it ain’t the spices bothering me in Opium.
Hey, send me an email and I’ll see if I can get you some Alahine. I’m supposed to be sending some to someone else and have gotten behind due to NaNoWriMo (grrr, 2000 words behind where I should be) – I can just as easy fill up a vial for you too!
I can handle ELs (although I have yet to smell Youth Dew!); it’s Lancôme that has the oddness for me. Not necessarily bad, just….odd.
Sigh – lily of the valley, musks, violet, ozone/watery, melon. All those are a definite no on me although I like lily of the valley on others. But violet can make me gag so no Jolie Madame – I just don’t get all the love for that one. But amber – oooh baby sign me up! Love it in any version. Same with aldehydes and oak moss.
so no Diorissimo for you? :((
xo >-)
and no JMadame?
:(( :((
if you like oakmoss (who doesn’t) you might want to try Liz Zorn’s Green Oakmoss (not shilling for Liz here – and NO affiliation – it’s just a really pretty and interesting take on oakmoss). It layers with some other stuff very interestingly – I layered it with contemporary Mitsouko edp and it cut that screeechy note quite nicely.
xo >-)
The first Prada is another one – AWFUL!
Hi Musette! So happy to have you guest posting! Patti, if you’re out there – hope you’re having a fantastic time in India. Can’t wait to hear all about it.
As to notes, I always thought AMBER was the note that violently turned me off to Obsession, Coco, Youth Dew, Chantilly, Cinnabar, Opium, Shalimar, and the like. That “note” also appears in Fifi Chachnil and Belle en Rykiel. It’s a sweet, powdery, nauseating smell. BUT then I tried Attrape Coeur, and it was LUST!!! I was totally perplexed when I read that that delicious scent of flowers and vanilla and spice has a primary note of something called Ambre 83. Huh? Amber??? No way!!! And seriously, AC has become my HG scent, so this is not a fling. So, is it amber that I loathe or is it something else???
hi, doll! Hope you’re having decent weather up there…
somebody Other Than Me will have to answer your questions re Ambre 83. :-b ( this emoticon is now Professor Perfume)
what I’m thinking is amber might work just fine if it’s in a formula that works for you – lots of perfumes I love have amber in them and some of them might have it as a primary note. I just don’t seem to be able to wear it if it is THE primary note.
xo >-)
What’s strange is that I just read something that said the Prada (see my followup below) has Ambre 83. Really? Wondering if I’m with you on the amber as primary note thing. And Mals says, there are different “ambers” out there. Some of them are truly awful. :-)
Weather’s cloudy and cold today, but it’s my b-day, so I’m happy!!!!! Plus, my DH just gifted me with Kilian’s Love and Tears, which I so casually hinted at to him weeks ago. LOVE!!!!
HAPPY Birthday! Hope it is joyful and fragrant!
Thanks, Tammy!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!
WAIT.
here is a @};- and a :(|)
because here on the Posse, we are all about the Birthday :(|)
xo >-)
Thank you, A! OK, what’s that monkey head????
I’m so jealous of your emoticons, BTW!
Hi, K! I think there are several different aromachems that fit under the “amber” descriptor – one of them is the utterly delicious one used in AC and 31 RC and Alahine, and one is powdery/vanilla-y, a la Bvlgari Black, and one is sugary-caramelly sweet like in Yves Rocher’s Rose Absolue. Also, there’s (at least) one “amber” material that reads as shaving cream to me, and I never know when I’m going to get sandbagged by it.
Hi Mals! Ooooh! I love 31RC, too!! This means I will probably like Alahine!? Must try it! I also like Rose Absolue…but don’t care for Bulgari Black (though not sure it’s an “amber” that turns me off?). I do love Dzing!, though, which is often compared with BG (though I don’t see much of a link myself).
I was all prepared to fall head over heels for Rose Barbare… and what does it smell like to me? Shaving cream. Grrrr.
Well DUH, Mals – Rose Barbare translates to Barber of Rose!
=))
:d
(uh, I’m not as witty as I think I am…am I? /:)
xo >-)
I don’t find note lists particularly helpful. The one note I try to avoid is the “bug spray” note but I don’t know whether that is a musk or a synthetic wood note. It is the reason I can’t wear NR in EDP but I have smelled it in other things.
Wood notes can ruin a fragrance. I don’t know what is in Lyric Woman because the WOOD note drowns everything else out.
I am on the fence on patchouli. While I like it in some fragrances, “modern chyre” does not work for me. It’s not a scrubber, it is just boring.
The thing that makes me want to run screaming is the fruit and vanilla scents found in body products. I can pretty much deal with anything anyone else wears as perfume, but those super sweet hand creams and especially scented hand sanitizer drive me nuts. Oh, and melon anything does not work for me.
How do you feel about Pierre Cardin? (the men’s one). For 30 years that has been the epitome of Raid-accord for me.
xo >-)
My very first fragrance ever was Pierre Cardin, given to me by my sister for Christmas, back in the ’70s. I hated it back then, too.
I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if you could fumigate a house with that stuff!
xo >-)
ps. check your email – you are =((. I hope it smells like horse pee on me, I really do!
Gonna have to say tuberose and lily – the scent of being trapped in a funeral home with refrigeration issues.
Gardenia is borderline – real thing, yum but most frags blech!
Also, really really struggle with aldehydes- what sort of fumey am I ???
Ah well, I will just sit here and revel in my Shalimar-scented self!
lots of fumeys have ald-issues. Ain’t no thang. Just send em on over here to the >-)
I am NOT going to the FHwRefrigeration issues….okay, I will – this is awful but back in the extremely hot summer months we attended the wake of a very large man (public official here in this area) – it was 90F at 4pm and there was an hourlong line to get into the FH. That part was okay. But the line then snaked through the FH….and the AC was minimal….and the place was PACKED….and….
let’s just say I’ve never been so glad to have brought a fan, soaked in Imperiale…
xo >-)
Oh. My. God. :-0 You have experienced a version of my hell. You must have felt like a GENIUS with your Imperiale- soaked fan! I also bet lots of people were trying to lean into your fragrant breeze!
Oh, yes! Folks used to make fun of my fan-carryin’ ways. No more..[-(
the sadness of the occasion aside, just imagine a packed FH. Packed with folks who have been standing on line, in 90degree heat, for an hour +!
^:)^ Imperiale-soaked fan!
xo >-)
Can’t stand tuberose. Like you, Weegee. Fracas is a killer but I keep a sample to sniff every 6 mos. for reference. But that does not extend to all white flower fragrances. And Fracas is definitely a dark, dark pink.
Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille nearly killed me too, but I’m not sure which note.
all of ’em! =))
(that stuff TFTV scared me !!)
xo >-)
Hmmm…in high school chem class (do they still try to teach that now?) we made esters once. The smell of one was like 1000 packs of Juicy Fruit gum. To this day I can’t stand the “fake tropical fruit” note in so many mass-market fragrances. Add overly sweet fake-y violet. Ozonic anything. Too much IBQ. And that pineapple-like allyl amyl glycolate — it was in Georgio and I’ve smelled it in a few other things, like the topnotes of “Sublime” (where, thankfully, it goes away soon). Band-aid aoud, like in some of the Montales. Some, not all, lily notes.
😮
that ‘note’ just came roaring back to me – but not via highschool. I used to walk my dog in a park that was very near a flavorings plant. Ester Day = b-( and you could smell it for blocks!
xo >-)
We made a banana ester in my freshman college chem lab, and it changed my life… I had never known such evil days.
Whoa, look at all these comments! You struck a noive…
watery + ozonic = 8-x
amber often is b-(
But cumin? Cumin is all about >:d< and @};-
I’m going to go to the high school gym, pick up a couple of boys’ socks and mail them off to you! =))
xo >-)
While you are there, grab the gloves from the soccer team’s goalkeeper and include them with the socks. Worst. Smell. Ever.
Nope, the scent of multiple pairs of teenage boys’ shoes, I nominate that.
lol, Anita — I keep getting this oniony undernote to my testing. And finally I realized (wait for it!) it’s because ….. my hands smell like the four onions I chopped for the stew.
March: I’m telling you those keeper gloves are way worse than shoes. I have 2 boys (both grown) and while the shoes (and socks) smelled, those gloves were horrible. Happened to meet a pro keeper and asked him how to deal with it-“buy a new pair” was his advice!
=))
I have SO done that! I actually did it with Jube25 and Listerine, last night. Took me forever to figure out what that :-ss was…
xo >-)
* Anything with much mentioned “watery” or “ozone” accords, including Apres L’Ondee, En Passant, most of the Hermessence Series, Aqua Universalis
* Anything with alot of aldehydes: No. 5, 22, Caleche, First, etc.
* Most violets (JM is an exception) and roses
No aldehydes? well, you just send ’em right on over here, Missy!
xo >-)
Musette and I can fight over your aldehydes!
I’m really picky about aldehydes. Love them in White Linen, like them in First, hate them in Nos. 5 and 22. Generally, the sweeter the fragrance, the more nauseating the aldehydes, but there are always exceptions. Broadway Nite is sweet and aldehydic and I think it’s fun. Rumba is sweet and aldehydic and makes me want to puke.
Rumba…..:-?
oh, yeah….. b-(
No22 can be a bit much…..okay, a LOT much (but it’s fun in a maribou kinda way)….but No5? Say it ain’t so! No 5….^:)^
xo >-)
I know, I know … I’ve *never* liked No. 5. Aldehydes are very touchy for me and can easily get too sweet and too heavy.
I must admit I’ve never smelled No. 5 in parfum, though — could change my mind.
it is gorgeous.
xo >-)
Wait… there are aldehydes in Rumba?
And you found them in all that curried fruit compote??
There definitely are (I’m a little hyperosmic to aldehydes). Can you believe Rumba was done by Ellena?!
I’ll betcha there’s a photo of him in a mullet, too!
xo >-)
I can’t stand leather. It makes me sick. Horrendous.
Last week i sprayed on Kelly Caleche and boy did I regret it. Of course, I couldn’t wash it off afterwards and was stuck with that super sweet leather thing the whole day.
While I would love to get even a hint of leather from it – and I get none. NONE! I say!
:((
xo >-)
I’m with you on the Kelly Caleche. Couldn’t wash it off and it was still there the next day. Blech.
Clarification: I’m with Frenchie…
There are ambers, and then there are good ambers. Ambra Grisea-I mourn its loss. Ambra Aurea, Ambre Sultan, Madini Ambar Gris. Alahine. The “natural” ones. It is the synthetic crap that makes me sick-that achy amber stuff in most commercial ambers.
Notes that don’t work-most white flowers, with notable exceptions-including Jasmin de Nuit, Datura Noir, Amaranthing, Carnal Flower.
Aqautics, like most of y’all. But I love Vanille Galante, so sue me.
Just when I say “can’t stand it” for a specific note-some great parfumeur spins it in a most delicious way, just to show me I know nothing ; )
yeah, but your nose is so developed that I can’t even approach the hem of your, erm, (wait. that’s a weird metaphor. never mind. you know what I mean ;))
I notice that your choice of BWF to Love include a lot of spice – is that what cuts the ‘flower’ for you? How do you feel about Fracas?
xo >-)
Are ya saying I have a big nose??? Right on that one.
Yup, I’m a spice girl…at heart a true Orientaliste. So my flowers are pretty much all mixed with spice.
You sooo get me : )
I soooo love you!
xo >-)
So far, only tuberose and lavender are big no nos,and jasmine if it’s on its own and very indolic.I keep on trying some scents with those notes to see if my nose can appreciate them, but it’s just not happening.
Don’t sweat it. One day they might work for you. Then again, maybe not! Lots of other notes in the air! ;;)
xo >-)
My hates include:
1. Tobacco. The sweet smell of cancer.
2. Aoud. I just don’t get why this is so popular right now.
3. Sugar. Floral-sweet is good, cookie-sweet is not.
4. Incense. Even in small concentrations, its just too much.
I love tobacco scents – sweeter, rather than ashier – but I get why others might not.
Sugar :-&
I think Aouds might be popular because of a mix of cultural and olfactory awakenings here. I’ll skip the cultural ones and move into the olfact – done well, aouds are incredibly complex and interesting….and they are very ‘different’ from what comes across the average mainstream perfume counter here. But I also think they are very taste-specific. I like a lot of them but a whole other lot of them bring up my lunch!:-& or do the headache- b-( thing.
Same with incense.
xo >-)
I HATE(put in order)
NOTES
1.sandalwood (to me smells like vomit)
2.vanilla, special bourbon(Allure by Polge)-cookies-chocolate
3.musk(I have NEVER wore WHITE MUSK by The Body Shop-never, not even in my teens)and everything powdery
3.tuberose( FRAGILE,YSL was my parfume in my -not so happy marriage later-wedding)
4.levanda-gardenia-tiare.
PERFUMES:
J’ ADORE-J’ADORE-J’ADORE by C.Dior(I hope he doesn’t mind)
Compared to the beauty of Dior vintages, I’m not so sure Monsieur C wouldn’t agree with you – sometimes I wonder if that spinning sound I hear isn’t the shades of the likes of Monsieurs Dior and Coty…:-?
xo >-)
I HATE AMBER TOO! I think I could deal with everything except amber. And maybe cotton candy. Bleck.
can you imagine an amber/cotton candy accord?
😮
xo >-)
Makes me want to hide under my covers.
Those synthetic water/ozone accords give me MASSIVE headaches. I think the compound is calone? Can anyone confirm that? At any rate, when the dreaded “melony aquatics” were all the rage, I was in hell. I’m not fond of “fruity florals” but at least I can smell them without grabbing the Excedrin.
But I lurves me some amber…. :)
oh, Maaaarch?
Can you help Pamster out here?
Pamster, March LOVES melon/aquatics! LOVES THEM! =))
xo >-)
Barf. Emotionelle? Matin d’Orage? :-ss
is that the Goutal Matin? I love that stuff – I get NO melon or aquatic in there – at least I don’t think I do…I’mo go check and will report anon.
xo >-)
I can’t wear cumin. I want to love it in perfume because I love it in food. But so far, no go. Maybe someday in the right formula….
Well, when you are ready Mistress March will lead you into the Land o’ Sweat and Honey! I’m on the fence with cumin, myself. The current Femme, which is a tub o’ cuminy love, requires near military precision in posture, clothing and hair in order not to feel like I just slid out of bed after a 12hr playdate with The Rock!
😕
xo>-)
whut. you say that playdate with the Rock thing like there’s a downside. 😉
The Rock is a big hunka man fershur.
Gawd, I sure hope not (ba-DUMP bump. here all day, folks)
;))
(uh, that reply was to the ‘downside’, NOT the hunka man. I luhs me some hunka! :d
xo >-)
PS my only complaint about new Femme is I wish the cumin lasted longer, and there was more of it.
Thinking of trying Eau d’Hermes on top… :d
you are drunk.
Go to bed.
xo >-)
I am not! It’s morning over here! Although I did just make my bottle-o-wine stew.
In good news … the cumin is back in my FdO!! Yay! Must be anosmia.
It is not always clear to me what makes me really loathe a ‘fume. I know the ones I rrrrreaaally love (ginger, leather, pepper, hyacinth, incense, aoud, pepper, hay, coffee) but can’t always put a finger on what makes me want to scrub/retch/flay myself. Certain notes are definite non-starters: lily-of-the-valley (dishwashing liquid), gardenia (rotting lettuce), musk (skank in a bad way), tuberose (instant headache).
There have been a few fragrances that i considered letting the DOD know about, they were so nearly lethal: Breath of God, Dammuso, Juicy Couture’s first frag. They are nothing alike in notes but all had made me feel like I just gone on a tilt-a-whirl with a migraine, after eating curry. NOT good.
BOG is getting Some 8-x on here today. I think I have a sample of this somewhere – gonna check it out! But I think I will do it on an empty stomach!!!
You don’t love the tuber @};- aiiiyy!
xo >-)
BOG I still have not smelled. It was one of the frags raved about in The Guide and I think there’s been a collective head-scratching along the lines of Beyond Paradise, among the perfumistas.
March,
Smell it. And if they’ll let you, spray it on a couple of friends and see how it differs.
I didn’t get the glowing review in the Guide, either, until I sprayed it on my game and unsuspecting friend and it was gorgeous. On her, it was flowers and incense smoke. On me, ashtray of despair.
Mariekel,
Your list of “likes” sounds good to me, too. What are your favorites fragrances with these notes?
Your description of how you feel after sniffing a scent you don’t like is so apt I am starting to feel a little sick myself. ;)
As for me, heady white flowers are a big no. Songes sent me right to bed with a sick headache. I know many love these, and I keep trying to find one I can wear, but so far, no go.
Ann C
fwiw, I’m still trying to get with Sognes myself (Songes – sorry). that’s a whole lotta-lotta! And I LOVE a BWF!
xo >-)
On the leather front: Tabac Blond extrait (I don’t care how much TS rails against it) and Cuir Ottoman. Andy Tauer Orris — my late lamented favourite — has always smelled both leathery and incense-y to me. For aouds I love Montale White and Golden aoud; ginger awards go to to vintage Shanghai by Lentheric and SL 5 O’Clock Gingembre; pepper, the phenomonal Poivre 23 by Le Labo and Hermessence Poivre Samarcande; hyacinth – Chamade (my all-time fave), Jacomo Silences and Nicolai Temps d’une Fete; and for hay, Mastenbroek Eau de Polder is spot-on.
What about you?
Except for the oudhs….I think you and I could happily sit side by side!
xo >-)
ps. if you love leather you really should try to get a little samp of Tarantella – there is a leather note that sneaks in and whamo-O! it’s LEATHA! good stuff.
xo >-)
=)) DOD!
While the Geneva Conventions don’t mention torture by perfume specifically, I think it might be the olfactory equivalent of waterboarding to spray someone down with “xxxxx” [you decide which one(s)] on skin, hair and clothing!! Oh, OK, I’ll mention one: Youth Dew from head to toe! OK, another: Flowerbomb. Boy howdy, if an enthusiastic SA did that to me in Macy’s you can bet I’d give serious thought to pressing charges of both assault & mental anguish.
But then I’ve always thought giving prisoners of war a Brazilian waxing would be a MUCH more effective form of torture than some kinds I’ve read about. And yet some folks submit voluntarily… ;)b-(>:p
the dreaded phrase “turn over, please” 😮
xo >-)
I am sure I’m not alone in wishing you WOULD do a review, Musettte!
I’d love to know what colors come up for you in any given perfume, too.
Me, I’m embarrassed to admit how many notes I just don’t like. I listed them in the novel I wrote a few posts ago; I don’t like musk, citrus, fresh, watery, fruit, patch, cumin, saffron, honey, tuberose, gardenia or leather.
I love Orientals, so obviously most of the notes are fine in concert, but not as dominant notes.
🙂
you are such a sweetie but I swear, I would get my Cred-card pulled so fast…..
Your list is extensive, to be sure, but the fact that you are okay with them in concert makes sense – I think most of us can handle, even reviled notes in the right concert. I hate musk and citrus together – but must underpinning something else can work quite well!
What’s YOUR favorite perfume’s color?
xo >-)
My skin likes amber and it delights my nose but tuberose and gardenia can make me run from a room.
Well, sometimes we know why we like/don’t like what we do/don’t and sometimes we just feel how we feel without being able to articulate any particular reason. And I think that’s just fine! After all, when I’m eating a delicious piece of layer cake I don’t need to know if the leavening agent was baking powder or baking soda!!
I own a bottle of Fracas as “reference”, by which I mean “to remind me just how evil and threatening mere ‘white’ notes can be” and I open my bottle to sniff a couple of times a year. Gaaaahhh! I recoil and find I cannot wear pink for weeks. Pepto pink is Fracas pink to me and I swear the nausea connection can’t be mere coincidence.
So, I can’t take Fracas but I really & truly like Secretions Magnifique. Yup. Both on me and to me (on others) it honestly smells fresh and lovely, like seaside marsh grasses, sand and ozonic salty ocean breezes. How noses differ! Fragrance is so damn intimate, so personal. I’m blissing out here just reaching for the words. Nirmala on my wool sweater and Mugler’s Eau de Star on my hair and neckline. Sea and salt.
OMG! =)) 😮
this is one of those times where I would just LOVE to be you (and your nose) whilst still keeping my own psyche, you know what I mean? (otherwise, what’s the point – I wouldn’t remember what I smelled when I was you/me smelling it…..did that make sense?)
But I would love to do that. You HATE Fracas. But you love SM!
See, that’s what makes perfume – and perfume-lovers – so fascinating! You and I are Evil Scent Twins!
fwiw, though, Fracas is not Pepto pink – it’s a deeper, hot pink. Elsa called it something that is definitely NOT PC today!
xo >-)
Violet. :(( It saddens me to know end. I want a violet fragrance–a sweet, nostalgic one. Daddy Lutens gave me a violet I can wear, but I’d like to love one of those English-hanky ones.
Pretty-please, Santa Claus.
You and Daniela need to get together!
xo >-)
btw – I had one of those hanky violets (some toilet water from someplace)…schweeeeeet! :-&
are you still iced-in?
Oh how I hate a VIOLET note! L’Artisan’s Verte Violette made me gag on the first sniff. The note in general makes me dry heave. There’s just something so nauseatingly cloying about it… yuck! :-&
😮
so I’m guessing Jolie Madame is out of the question?
Violets and Rainwater?
(I’ll stop now…;-))
xo >-)
For me my “I-will-get-nauseated-and-probably-puke-scent-note”(PSN for short?) is WINTERGREEN!!!! AAAAGGGGHHHH!!
This comes from a nasty bout with the flu when I was a child .I was dosed with Pepto Bismol (pink-don’t like this particular shade of pink anymore either).Needless to say the Pepto never stayed down well durring my illness and I really can’t stand it to this day .(now in my thirtys)
Now that’s one I haven’t heard before! I can imagine an overdose of the Pepto might trigger that :-& but I have to defend po’ old wintergreen, if only because of those little pink (PINK! – sorry) candies I used to love as a kid (Canada Mints, though I don’t remember them being called that). I used to eat those by the bagful!
Have you smelled any fragrances with wintergreen notes?
xo >-)
Wintergreen… ah :”> It’s the dominant note in the topical analgesic cream Ben Gay and 8-}:p I’ve always found that smell totally arousing! I’ll tell y’all something though, better not get any of it on the parts that are aroused, oh no! [-o<
Yeah, I can’t handle the Pepto either. Haven’t run across any fragrances that smell like that, though. (crosses fingers)
I don’t know from notes, either, really, but there is something in the Lush/Gorilla perfumes Smell of Weather Turning and Breath of God that is just awful to me. From press materials, I can’t see that they share any notes in common but there is a thick, smoky smell…and not a pleasant bonfire type thing. It’s the smell of all your earthly possesions being consumed as the house burns down. It’s that bad. If anyone knows what that stuff is, please enlighten me because I want to well and truly avoid it forever.
that’s a toughie – at least for me. here are the notes
smoky scents, sandalwood, amber, neroli and patchouli with rose, lemon oil, floral notes and jasmine
but I dunno what ‘smoky scents’ means…:-?
but your description is scary! Which means I MUST SMELL IT!
xo >-)
I’m with you on amber. Everyone pretty much seems to love Ambre Sultan, except me. It’s the only fragrance that has made me physically ill. I have pretty much stopped even trying anything that is amber dominant.
Love those dogs!
My Rottweilers want to be those dogs!
you come sit by me and the dogs in our amber-free environment!
xo >-)
Count me in too- Ambre Sultan is plain yuk to me! YUK!!! Hahahahahahahahaha. Occasionally (rarely) an amber scent is ok but mostly I can’t hack it.
Gardenia. It smells like decay on my skin–not delightful indolic decay. ‘Walking Dead’ decay. Moldy compost heap decay.
I actually like rose, but it always smells like pot purri on me. Seriously, I smell like a little old lady shop (the kind that sells figurines, tea cups and calenders with sayings on them) whenever I try rose.
Fruit and I loathe one another, but since it’s mutual, I figure no harm, no foul.
oooh! on the Walking Dead! that’s grim.
fruit is funny, innit? I can do some just fabbo. Others (like fig, like grapefruit)…..8-x
xo >-)