As requested by a number of readers in response to last Friday's poll (love at second (or third...) sniff), today we're looking at fragrances you loved on the first try, but that didn't hold your affections on the second (or third...) try.
I had a very time coming up with an answer, I think because it's such a common experience that I hardly stop to take note. So many things smell wonderful on paper when you're in a store; later, trying them again at home, you realize they aren't really all that and a bag of chips. But sometimes I get fooled even when the first try is at home and on skin. A recent case that comes to mind is Chanel Beige. At first sniff, I thought I might need a bottle. On the second sniff, I didn't love it quite so much. On the third sniff, I didn't really love it at all.
Then there are the many fragrances that I've fallen out of love with slowly, over a period of many years, as my tastes have changed. I could list those just by looking at the back of my perfume cabinet, but that would no doubt be a depressing endeavor so I think I'll just leave it be.
Yours?
Note: image via Images de Parfums.
OJ Ta'if (…sob…)
The most striking case in my experience is Ambre narguilé. It was love at first sniff. I managed to get a few (generous) samples and wore it on a regular basis for about six months, about 20 times (ok I keep a daily diary of what I wear, a “visual diary”, so if I'm still alive in 2059 I'll know what I was wearing today). Then my desire to wear it was gone. I still like it very much when I sniff it, but it never crosses my mind to wear it. Don't know how to explain that, but that's it…
And it took me awhile to fall in love with Ta'if in the first place!
Do you suppose you wore it too much? And hey, I'd like a daily diary of what I wore. I should start one.
Don't think I wore it too much… I wonder if some perfumes can be (for some people) too “apollonian”, if that makes sense?
Calvin Klein Euphoria. It was a rude awakening about a year ago. I had procured a sample and happily wore it for about a week when while hard at work in the office I became overwhelmingly sick of the scent. I had the sudden urge to scrub and barely made it through the rest of the day with a headache and bit of queasiness.
Not sure what happened so suddenly for me, but it was as if I was acutely aware of how artificial the pomegranate note was. No great loss really.
Ralph Lauren's Style. I loved it for months, and wore it frequently. It had excellent staying power and the drydown was crisp and clean. The last few times, I've tried it, it's all roses and sharpness on me. Fortunately, I bought it at Ross for $24 dollars. So not a huge loss there.
The other is Cucumber de bai by Fresh, (now discontinued). The reason I fell in love with it (non-invasive office scent) is now the same reason I dislike it. But I was so in-love I bought the initial bottle plus I purchased an extra because it was being discontinued. And the juice is not cheap either.
Makes sense to me. Not sure I'd have applied it to AN, but that's a matter of personal taste, right?
That really does sound sudden! I wonder if your sense of smell was unusually heightened that day for some reason.
This is a hard one, although I never get too excited from a test strip anyway.
Most striking example of something I just bought (well, a half bottle anyway): L'Air du Desert Marocain. Can you believe it! I mean, I still admire it very much, and like it enough that I know I'll wear it sometimes, but my first sniff of it was FIREWORKS compared to when I had given it a few wearings. Somehow it's almost too strong and cloying on me, even though I love incense (Timbuktu is my HG, I love the CdG series, etc.). I think I'll come back around since it's such a great scent — maybe it's just not “working” for me the last few weeks, which happens all the time anyway. It's just a case that I'm very aware of recently, and about which I'm sad. 🙁 I did get a friend hooked on it, though!
Otherwise, nothing that I've really grown to *loathe* that I can think of.
Hi,
I had a similar experience when I bought L'air du désert marocain last spring. I still think it's a great scent and wear from time to time during the year, but the only moment in which I really love it is in the summer heat, when on my skin it seems to breathe, while right now (a really cold winter in northern Italy) it's wonderful to sniff it on others, but on myself I find it too heavy
Calvin Klein Escape for men
I fell in love with the unusual melon notes….
Little did i know that it would become a trend. An I hate smelling like everybody else.
Gieffeffe was love at first sniff, but I can't help but wonder if it doesn't smell just a tad too “old granny” like.
…. and i almost forgot Messe de Minuit.
Loved it at first, loved the name too..
But it is too dark. The weight of 2000 years of religion is present in that smell. I find that there is something a bit gloomy in that bottle.
(OK, I bought it in my younger years when all black was “de rigeur”, footwear was army boots, and my hair was dyed a dark bluish-black…. back then, gloomy was just what I wanted)
Love that doesn't last. Yes, Robin, the back of my collection is crowded with abandoned bottles. It's such a pity, but there you go. The numbers are in the dozens — the light fruity-florals were the first to be ignored a couple of years ago once I'd had my first whiff of niche incense, resins, woods and greens, and then it was the heavy mainstream orientals. (I think that Chanel Allure Sensuelle was the last one to bit the bullet.)
Sigh. I hate to — I refuse to — add up the numbers. Fortunately, I have lots of younger nieces and friends to donate my no-longer-loved bottles to, as yes, they adore them. And the ones that I can't give away have become room sprays! Quite a pretty penny per spritz, but since I've paid for them anyway, I think of them as FREE!!!! How's that for the power of positive thinking??
You and I have batted this around a bit. I think a huge part of the pleasure for me in the first place is the *newness.* It is the fresh unfamiliarity of the scent that is what I desire. And too often, that turns out to be the main part of the appeal. By the time I've worked through a decant and buy a bottle, I never want to wear it again anyway. 🙂
I'd received two deluxe sized samples of Hermes Kelly Caleche. The first few days I tested it, I loved it. I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread, and something very different and “modern” than most of the frags I like. I called my favorite SA to purchase, but (thankfully) she wasn't at work….literally the next day I tried it again and totally did not like it. Couldn't even imagine what I'd seen in it. I've tried it a number of times since, and think that it just isn't good on my skin. Phew. I have not idea what happened, but I'm glad I didn't end up with full bottle.
I purchased a bell jar of Bois De Violette while in Paris this summer.It smelled wonderful like violets and cedar candy.To my horror when I wear it I get a faint fecal like smell.My daughter said it just smells sweet to her.I've ordered violet lotion from Beauty Habit to see if this covers up the stinky part.I want to get my moneys worth out of this!
PS I think you should take all the money you saved not buying a bottle of Beige and spend it on that Diorissimo.
Okay, here's one. Passage d'Enfer. Where'd the magic go? 🙁
So many sad stories of purchased bottles getting dusty. Much is the same in this house. I've got left-overs of Fresh's Sugar which I am sick, sick, sick of. I've also got YSL In Love Again which I somehow liked ages ago, but now won't ever touch the bottle. I've been trying to swap it away for ages but nobody seems to want it.
As a brand-new months-old perfumista I am TERRIFIED of spending all my money on things I'll never wear so I am grateful for this thread! And so relieved I only bought teensy bottles of Passage d'Enfer and Kelly Caleche. I am wild about both but you have put the fear in me. Thank heaven for the Perfumed Court: I am counting the $$$ I am spending there as SAVING me money in the long run.
Sous Le Vent – I actually thought I had found my HGS last spring. Now it is strident, astringent and gritty.
Euphoria – how did I think that this tweeny sex bomb number was suitable attire for someone who turns 50 this year?
Jo Malone Vintage Gardenia – did those SAs perform a sneaky lobotomy while I was off sniffing Nectarine Blossom & Honey?
Jo Malone Nectarine Blossom & Honey – can you have two lobotomies in quick succession? if not, I think I may have had pioneering surgery.
Jasper Conran Mistress – what once was a vaguely age-appropriate smouldering oriental now smells like cheap multi-surface cleaner.
I am too embarrassed to post any more, but you can bet there ARE more…
Second that comment!! God Bless the ladies at The Perfumed Court. I was recently struck by a passion for Montales Fougere Marine and needed a 100 ml. bottle reeeel bad. Couldn't find it and got a large decant from TPC for a fraction and realized that it was probably more than enough for now (still lovin' that one). I'm still, however, trying to convince my husband that they save me money (men are so silly!) As for my lovin' not so much picks. . . Guerlain L'Instant which I promptly bought 100 ml EDP and was promptly bored to tears, pretty bottle though. And, sob, fickle Mitsouko, which first time I tried was everything I had read and then some. Changeable, challenging, historic, imperious, you get the picture. Every time since then, it has skipped all the fascinating notes and skipped right to the boring (in my opinion) Guerlain base. Thank God this time I didn't buy it. Having smelled what it can be though, it's like losing a great love not to be able to recapture.
Jolly good for you, I say. I am almost a year into this passion, and I dearly wish I could undo some of my impulsive splurges.
I have learned – belatedly – to live with a sample before an FB purchase for this very reason. I liked CK's Sheer Obsession very much the first time I sample it – the second time…meh. Years ago, I bought a full bottle of Flowerbomb, which I wouldn't touch now if you paid me. Thank heavens for decants and samples!
Weird, same here! I would sample the hell out of it, even wear it out of Nordstrom, but then I finally bought a bottle and I am NOT impressed anymore.
Tom Ford Black Orchid also struck me as lovely in the store and not so much in my cabinet.
Ok, I'll play. I have fragrances on both sides of the coin, like most of us. An example in two scents is Tom Ford Black Orchid and Black Orchid Voile d'Fleur. I had samples of both, kind of liked both, then over time the VdF won my heart and I bought a bottle. After a few wearings I fell out of love; too much gardenia. I dug out my sample of Black Orchid and finished it – yep, I definitely like this more. So I swapped for a bottle (having swapped away the VdF) and currently am really enjoying it….but for how long? Perfume love can be very fickle. And yes, I've been looking at swaplists for a decant of VdF (insert eye rolling emoticon here, lol)
Ah! I LOVE Tom Ford VDF – hope I'm not in for a rude awakening soon. Sorry to hear that! I should try Black Orchid again. That was a scent I didn't care for much at one point…
I've had a similar experience but in a slightly different way with L'Artisan Dzongkha. I absolutely loved it when I first tried it. In fact, this was the fragrance that got me hooked on perfumes. But then one day it made me queasy and a bit nauseous. I put it away and thought maybe I was coming down with a cold, but everytime I've tried it since, I've had the same reaction. So intellecutally I still love it but my body tells me otherwise.
Yes – thank god for TPC – I've saved tons of $$ on frags that I thouht I had to have, but then after testing just weren't right. Besides, all those samples that aren't full bottle worthy become part of your fragrance education, so it's not wasted money. Stick to a rule – don't buy it until you drain it!
Also, sometimes it's just as well to buy a large decant of something really expensive or hard to get. Spend some time with a calculator and cost out the per ml price – sometimes, especially with pure parfum – there is a breaking point where a decant is the same or slightly cheaper than a full bottle of the parfum. Get over being a bottle lover and it will save you a lot of pain and agony, if you can. Only one frag has ever seduced me with the bottle – Chamade – otherwise, I try to just stick with focusing on the juice. It helps to have spending parameters for sure!
Does anyone else have perfume association syndrome? I was in love with Hanai Mori which I had purchased a week before my first date with someone. I wore it and loved it through our entire relationship (nearly two years). After a bad breakup, we ran into each other, I gave him a polite hug and he sniffed me and said “You smell like you.” I could never wear HM after that. It's like he killed it! It never smelled the same again to me. I had to give away my whole supply.
l'Air is a bit fickle. I adore it and wear it but I can see how there would be times it would be too much – that happens to me more with Maroc pour Elle (but I still love it). I think they have to be applied pretty sparingly and in the right temperature and when you're really in the mood – lol. I meant to wear l'Air yesterday and picked up Maroc by accident – wasn't quite what I wanted but I “suffered” through – lol. Neither one are what I would categorize as “everyday” wear.
I also almost got suckered into White Patchouli, but tried to be strong. Some frags are real shape shifters!
I also have a rule (now) about not buying frags when I'm on vacation – the whole weather/climate thing. An impulse purchase of Shiseido “Energize” (or whatever it was called in the pink bottle) on a business trip changed my desire to buy like that forever. After hours in a stuffy conference center it smelled heavenly. After I got home, it was just not right for me with too much lily of the valley or something. I never wore it since.
I have mentioned this before but I fell out of love with Mugler Cologne because I was in a weird state of not wanting to smell too manly or some stupid thing and got rid of an almost-full bottle. Of course I fell back in love with it when I came to my senses and am kicking myself. Hard. Now I like smelling a bit “manly” now and again. I just tried Histoire des Parfums 1740 (Marquis de Sade) last night and kinda fell in love with myself. ;-p
Otherwise the only ones are real oldies that I just outgrew. I have been fortunate so far that my FB acquisitions have been limited and not too impulsive.
Oh Jesus, another reason to avoid having a boyfriend! The list gets longer…
This is a sad game. I may have the same roving eye as March. Which just strengthens my resolve to not buy any more bottles and just do decants/splits/swaps. I can't say that I have come to hate any of my loves- I still find them beautiful and amusing from time to time. But the intoxicating ardour I feel for a time seems to wear down way before I have finished a bottle (I am looking at you Andy Warhol Silver Factory…)
I have a full bottle of Armani Mania, the original version with black cap, standing around that I keep trying to wear with irregular intervals, only to remember just why it is that I never do. It should be right up my alley, but the way it dries down on me reminds me of a perfumed deodorant I used in my teens, that period when you have a lot of hormone-related sweating going on, you know? And so I just think it smells of sweat and deodorant fragrance. Not sweat as in cumin, just cloying.
I haven't tried it in a couple of years, though, so I suppose it's due for another attempt…
“The reason I fell in love with it is now the same reason I dislike it” really does mirror personal relationships, LOL…
There is something very dense about Desert Marocain…I have to be in the right mood, and I would say the same of Timbuktu — on the wrong day, it's a disaster.
Platinum, what a shame about your Escape. I don't think I mind smelling like everybody else, but then, I rarely do so what do I know. Maybe it would make me crazy.
It is good to have nieces that love perfume! I wish I had some.
Kevin is of the “use it as room spray” persuasion. I'm too cheap. I think I'll let them go bad instead, LOL…
I was about to say I don't think there is any Diorissimo extrait to be had in the US at the moment, but lo & behold, it is back at Saks. Next decent coupon code, and I'm there!
Ann & Charondelait, happily, I've liked my KC even more since I bought it. Keeping fingers crossed!
Three for me. First AG Mandragore, which I initially tried on a blazing hot summers day and it smelt like ginger and hay and lemony sunshine and seemed just right… but on second try smelt just a little of cat wee. Second was CdG Carnation which was all creamy goodness the first few times I wore it then all of a sudden this unpleasant metallic note kept pushing through to the front making it unwearable. The last one is EL Private Collection TuberoseGardenia which was love at first sniff, so I bought a bottle but now when I wear it I feel crowded and claustrophobic…
PS I'm a perfume newbie (this is the first time I've posted a comment) and have been reading this blog religiously for the past year. It is such an amazing resource thankyou!!
Yep, had that happen to me as well. I gave up a fragrance I absolutely adored (Colors of Benneton).
Amen to that — I also loved Euphoria for all of 15 seconds. Now I just want to get rid of my bottle. Yick.
Letting them go bad is what I think of as pure extravagance!, Robin! I'm far too cheap to do that. I'm going to USE THEM UP, dammit, even if the whole apartment reeks of Miss Dior Cherie!!!!
😀
Ack! That's so true!
Good luck with your lotion! And if your lotion turns out to be wonderful, do tell me what it is — I'd love to have a nice violet lotion.
Lovethescents, it seems like whenever you're sick of something, so is everybody else — I've had very little luck swapping whole bottles.
Hey, I'm still puzzled over my bottle of Vintage Gardenia too! That stuff is way sweeter than I thought it was.
so what do we do with bottles???? I hate that I have it, even though it is hidden, I still know it's there…
A couple of decades ago, when I was not a perfumista, I bought Eternity for my dear mother because the top notes were fresh. Well! The drydown was unbearable and we must've got rid of it somehow. It is on my list of the top ten fragrances I hate.
Like some love affairs of the human sort, I'd wager!
Hi, my name is Aparatchik and I'm a serial perfume lover. I fall in love with something at least once a month. But …. I don't seem to fall out of love with what came before. With one exception – Diorella. Loved it as a teenager, wore it for many years. Now I have my Diorella Memorial Bottle that sits on the countertop untouched. Please tell me it's a case of reformulation, and that if I had a bottle of the original stuff I bought in 1974, I'd still be a loyal, true, steadfast kinda girl.
You can send that lovely right over here!
It's true, but it's because I think I will do something better with them. Like find them nice homes. Then I never do 🙂
Perfect perfumista math, March! (Hmmm…I think there's a post in there…)
Regina, it's hard. I bought too much too fast in the beginning and wish I'd been slower. But then, I was really dying to own some of those perfumes, and quite a few are still favorites. Always buying small bottles when you can is worthy advice though!
I love to smell Mitsouko parfum every so often…luckily, that means a vial lasts me a year. When it's gone, I replace it.
Can you work some magic and get Barneys to put the 3x10ml Dans tes Bras back on their website for me? 🙁
My biggest break-up was Chanel Allure. It was the start of thinking that I just couldn't commit to one fragrance long term.
Try selling on e*vil*bay…. but if it would make you sick to let it go for a song, make sure to set a reasonable minimum (or “reserve”) price. You never know what someone might be looking for over there.
That's another excellent rule that I try to stick to but sometimes break. Shame about the FB — at least it's a pretty bottle!
I've also been told (verbatim) “You smell like you.” (it was Tommy Men).
Too bad that that completely turned you off the fragrance, though.
Well like yourself Robin, I fall slowly out of love…or just get bored with really. My quickest about face in recent memory has been for PdE Aziyade and Yuzu Fou and AT Vetiver Dance…both lines of which I have and LOVE several of their other offerings.
I love when I swap away a sample or decant then want it back…done it a million times over!
Nevermind. Just tracked it down via phone at Barney's in Beverly Hills. Sigh.
I'm most dismayed about Iris Nobile. When I first got it, it seemed lovely, sheer, feminine…now it just overpowers me. I will definitely use up my bottle…eventually, but it won't be a re-purchase 🙁
I wonder if TF will do another flanker for BO? I wish they'd do a darker one…
How odd! That happened to me w/ Hiris but turned out my bottle had gone bad.
Holly, I think that's very common. But you may find that many years later, it won't bother you anymore — that's happened to me too.
Hooray for Joe! 🙂
Recently it was Heeley Cardinal — I fell in love with a sample, bought a decant, and suddenly it started smelling sweaty and giving me a headache. Maybe it's the difference between dabbing and spraying? Ah well, at least it's not a full bottle gathering dust on my dresser!
Diorissimo and La Chasse aux Papillons Extreme also no longer smell good on me (they also seem to belong to a life I led long, long ago, but that's another story). I'm not sure what changed: my nose, my skin, my self? Diorissimo started smelling so nasty that a few years ago I, um, chucked a bottle of the parfum in the trash rather than pack it for a move (sorry, Robin — kill me now).
I've got a bottle of L'Air du Desert Marocain on its way to me now — please cross your fingers that it doesn't transmogrify into something evil!
Same story for me on Vintage Gardenia! I was so excited about it at first, and I thought the spices and woods balanced the sweet white floral nicely. But then, they just didn't!
Same story for me on Vintage Gardenia! I was so excited about it at first, and I thought the spices and woods balanced the sweet white floral nicely. But then, they just didn't!
Count me among the folks who were wowed by L'Air du Desert Marocain at first, but found it overbearing later. Fortunately, I only had purchased a sample. I'm learning that I really love many of the lighter and medium weight incense fragrances (Kohdo Wood Day, Dzonghka, Timbuktu, Kyoto). L'Air is just too big for me, I guess!
I'm embarrassed to admit how often it happens. Maybe I buy too soon. I love a perfume, and then after a few wears, I like it, then I can admire it, and finally, I really can't imagine why I liked it. It's like having ADD of the nose. The first one I fell out of love with, Clunk, like that, was Ralph Lauren Safari. The most recent one was not simply a change of heart, it was my interpretation of the fragrance composition which changed completely. Same bottle. JCE's Mousson. Loved it, got no melon for a week. Raved about it. Quit wearing it for a week. Next time, sha-ZAM–melon. BIG melon. Melon pushing me over and sitting on me, overripe. I can't stand it. I rarely buy more than 15ml anymore. I'd rather buy decants and samples than own the embarrassingly large, almost-full bottle collection. Sigh.
Ah, PAS–yep, absolutely. Just got a bottle of Roma to relive my carefree youth (which sounds better than 'colorful past') and when I put it on, not only did it suck the air from my lungs with overwhelming horrid sweetness, but the boyfriend that I had tried to forget appeared to me in an apparition as my head reeled. Yikes! He was the same age as back then. No more!
Wow, what a great idea! I should have used D&G Light Blue, as it is I gave it too my niece at Christmas, who adores it.
I loved it for about three days before I felt like an apple rotting in a field someplace. Just a bit too much of an apple note for me. Apple in a room spray sounds good.
Happy smelling things,
Becca
Diesel Fuel for Life for Men (pour Homme?). Loved it at first sniff, but after a few minutes, some element–heliotrope, possibly?–emerged that made me feel almost nauseated. A pity, really.
It's pretty heady cloying just like AG's Jasmine is too–to me I mean. I was surprised.
Angel Innocent. I thought I loved the citrus, but now I just can't stand it.
P. de Nicolai Vetyver …. first sniff, okay. Second and third sniffs- cough syrup…. Fourth and Fifth sniffs—- gasoline !
Donna Karan´s Be Delicious – fruity………then candy jar smell !
I agree with giveitomespicey on Angel Innocent… it becomes offensive after awhile
And it does smell so strong for so many hours, you need not only soap but citrus to remove the scent ! Perhaps, even paint thinner.
I've got one! Also feel fickle about it so it's on my swaplist…I wore it once on Valentine's day and it is seared into my brain. Too much for me.
I loved …apres la Mousson so much on the first few sniffs that I plunked down the $$$ for the 3.5 oz on the same day I encountered it. It really, REALLY smelled like a tropical garden after the rain and just brought back really strong scent-memories of growing up in tropical Asia. But then after about a week, all I could smell was a cool, greenish melon. 🙁 Not that I dislike it but I don't know what happened to my perception that I can no longer smell that watery, earthy vegetal scent!
(This blog is great! Finally joining in the conversation.)
Probably not the place, but I just have to share with someone who understands…
Love Infusion d'Iris! and made myself a hard time this Christmas NOT to buy that gorgeous huge gift box for 300 USD.
sometimes patience pays. literally. I was walking past a perfume store yesterday, and they had this “sales, 50% on everything” sign in the window… you guessed it: I got that huge box at half the price! 400ml perfume, 2 soaps, body lotion, small splash bottle, big scented candle! what a bargain is that!
I almost wept with joy when the number 300 on the cash register dropped down to 150.
I had the same exact reaction to Mousson. It's a nice melon, but… where did the monsoon go???
Oh – too many… the worst are the affections that disappear after purchase…why did I buy it?
But I would love to mention that sometimes affections return: after my relatively recent dive in niche brands and witty perfumes I completely dismissed my pre-perfumista-shelf (and self).
Well, I just rediscovered I still like wearing some of those fragrances! I don't care anymore if Coco mademoiselle does not deserve a line of praise in blogs or whatever. I like it! My conclusion: a love that seems not to last sometimes just comes back! 😉
My recent case of a fragrance that i loved at first use and then the love was gone is black by kenneth cole. I loved the fresh, minty, green and slighlty incense of it, but now it looks so basic to me. Rochas lui is another one that i found gourgeous and now i can only use rarely, because i know if i force using it i'm not gonna be able to use it again.
I try to give one year to the fragrances that i'm not liking at this moment, because I'm always changing my mind. One of this cases was Mania, that one for women with a gray bottle. I'd have regreted if i've swapped my bottle, because the vanilla spice incense of it is comfort and elegant.
“weight of 2000 years of religion”? definitely yes!
but gloomy? for me, MdM smells exactly like Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, i.e. a medieval church all lit up with expensive candles. It's totally amazing how they got not only the incense, but also the candles right. I find there's some kind of golden glow, just like candlelight about it. Even my Mum, who usually despises my incense scents – too churchy – likes this one.
Ooh, I have to chime in on L'Air, especially after that one Christmas thread on here that promised to double Andy's sales! I worked my way through the first half of the sample in about half a second, loving every bit of it – and quite determined to get a bottle of my own. Then I started sampling other things, and didn't wear L'Air for a few weeks. When I came back to it, the top seemed somehow too bracingly herbal to really appreciate. I still love the heart and drydown, but those first 15-20 minutes… Yowzers.
AND I found Ava Luxe Kama, which has an oddly similar vibe even though the ingredients are wildly different. It's a bit sweeter and easier to get along with, I find.
We'll see where the love affair goes, I guess.
Terre de Bois. At first when I purchased a generous, 25 ml proffesional decant, I thought it would be a nice addition to Feuilles de Tabac. On the very first day I wore it, I loved it. It was like a more citrusy and more woody scent than other ones from Miller Harris (in the wood range from the website). But then it started to annoy me that it never settled into something smooth like Feuilles de Tabac, like it had all that citrus/bergamot in the opening plus so much wood mixed with that bergamot that it smelled like a man's cologne. There was not a touch of sweetness in it – on my skin, because on other women it still smells good! so I swapped my decant away, since it's still a nice scent, and I am back to Feuilles de Tabac(I have a sweet tooth so maybe that's were the problem is, FdT has more sweetness to it).
Yes this is confession time – my love to meh is Guerlain SDV – a pretty expensive mistake. My excuse is that it was early days in my vanilla epiphany. I'm a Guerlain ho and thought that as vanilla is such a hallmark of the house its own vanilla scent would be the dog's bits and at first I loved it. Then it started to bother me, something not quite right, and it smellt too sweet against Le Labo Vanille. Then came the Tanca review and that was it.
Serge Lutens Douce Amere and Datura Noir. Douce Amere stayed very sharp, dry, and tooth-strippingly bitter on me. I didn't get any of the delicious creamy stuff others raved about. Datura Noir I loved at first and then found far too heady and cloying to wear.
Another expensive mistake was Hermes Vetiver Tonka. I thought it was a great fragrance, but it was simply too masculine on me. I was unattached at the time and wanted a boyfriend to spray it on. 🙂 In the end I swapped it away.
I avoided Mitsouko for three or four years because of heartbreak associations. Then I thought 'is he really worth forsaking Mitsouko?' The answer to that is NO.
Absolutely agree that cannot forgo the Mitsouko due to former beau. However, having said that, I did quit using Ysatis years ago after a breakup and also Venezia for the same reason. Just couldn’t stomach the scents after that.
In the past few years I have purchased fragrances I used to wear in my “younger” years: Ombre Rose, Obsession, L’Heure Bleu, Roma, Miss Dior and they just don’t smell the same.
I am just getting back into wearing fragrance again after working in fragrance-free (not even scented deoderant!) office for years. After many many years, I still love Shalimar but find it too heavy for daytime and love Sung’s Paradise. Am also enjoying Mitsouko and Femme.
Am enjoying NST immensely, reminders of past fragrances is a kick. I have always found scent reminds me of people and places. Sung Homme will ALWAYS make me smile remembering an old love……
Ugh, and I almost forgot Kenzo Jungle l'Elephant. Loved it at first, then one day it gave me a sickening migraine. I've since avoided cinnamon notes in perfume like the plague…
Apresd'Ondee (sob). The heliotrope has begun to gag me for some reason. It could be association, as I was wearing this fragrance the night I came down with stomach flu a couple of months ago. I put the remaining sample up for swap; I just can't stand it any more.
Although I find it difficult to believe now, I..umm, wore Acqua di Gio pour Homme before it arrived in the States – it appeared in Canada many months before it was launched in here. I thought it was so novel, so original – and I suppose for the time it was – before every men's fragrances had a 'marine' accord. Of course, it wasn't long before every frat boy in America adopted 'my' scent (as if Armani made it JUSTfor me, right? lol!) and I started smelling it everywhere. Literally. These days, one whiff of it is enough to make me throw up in my mouth a little.
At least the Mugler is not prohibitively expensive since it can be found at discount! Hope you'll find a cheap bottle somewhere.
Drat, the AWSF wasn't a bargain — hope you'll fall back in love!
LOL — then we need another poll for those you love, fall out of love, fall back in love…
Must chime in on the Kelly Caleche – heavenly the first few times, then one morning and said to self, “what smells so . . . .bad?!” And it was me. KC “turned” on me and now all I can smell is something skanky. Anybody want a 15 ml bottle?
Olfacta – that is truly sad about Apres L'Ondee….but you may want to box it and store it for a while before you decide you can never wear it again or get rid of it. I actually have troubles wearing this one, even though I think it is very beautiful. It must be something with the weather and skin chemistry. Sometimes it smells like heaven and other times like marshmallow bubblegum. You will eventually get over the reaction you have to wearing it when you were sick. You may also try a trick of only applying it lightly at your wrists – well away from your face, mouth and nose – and gently get back into enjoying the fragrance. I have one or two frags that do well “at a distance” down on my wrists, etc.
Must add a tangential tidbit, that depending on what time of the month it is, there are fragrances that I otherwise adore that for those couple of days I simply cannot tolerate. PdN Odalisque is one, Gucci Envy another – no rhyme or reason except something happens to my own body chemistry for a few days and they suddenly smell quite horrible!
Also laughing at “ADD of the nose!”
Patchouli Leaves is one of the few patchoulis I like too. Maybe because it's more woody than most?
HI & welcome!
And cat wee, LOL! I've done the opposite — I like Mandragore more than I used to. But do know what you mean about PCTG. I love it but have to wear it very sparingly or it overwhelms.
That's another poll idea — top 10 fragrances you hate 🙂
Maybe you should look for some vintage Diorella on ebay? Or don't they still sell the extrait at Roja Dove in London? I can't remember, but if they do, would guess it will be closer to the original.
Have to agree…MdeM is a wonderful but that religious overtone makes me shudder with my schoolgirl flashbacks. But my personal antifavorite was Chopard Madness. I got a mini for about $5 in a discount store and it was great — at first. Then the distinct smell of cough syrup emerged in the drydown. My husband asked if I'd spilled medicine on my clothes! Haven't been able to even look at it since.
Oooh, let us know! Diorissimo is my current must-buy obsession! And I promise to love it forever (I think)!
I'm still hoping to fall in love with Yuzu Fou — love yuzu, but that is a “difficult” scent (for me, anyway). Keep taking it out of the purgatory basket, then putting it back in.
LOL — yeah, get in line!
OH MY — congrats! How are the other products — the soaps, candle, etc? I'd love to have a soap especially.
Oh, I did that with Bond No Nine Saks. I liked it very much, enough to pony up the $125, brought it home, wore it once and realized that it smelled exactly like Aussie Sprunch Spray. I traded it for a bottle of Fracas at makeupalley.
It blew itself out in the melon patch. Leaving us with melon. Have I mentioned the melon that suddenly bloomed?
A darker Black Orchid would be heavenly!
I really thought I was the only one who kept a perfume diary. I use it to keep from wearing the same scent too often.
It's funny that this question was asked today. I bought the DKNY Delicious Night which I loved in the store. When I actually wore it, I was not so in love with it. I wore it today just to get some use out of it. I'm still not in love with it.
LOVED Tom Ford Black Orchid Voile de Fleur for two days in freezing weather. The mercury went up and the love went away.
Have to pick cold days to spritz this one. I will always love OJ Osmanthus whatever the weather and saving for a bottle.
What a shame! Was that the EdT or EdP?
Doesn't hurt to try decanting it and using it in a splash bottle — I do that with a number of scents.
*weeps for lost Diorissimo*
See, you should never have started with the mini — you jinxed yourself!
And it is precisely because so many of us suffer from ADD that we need everything to come in 15 ml! Hope Mousson will miraculously work for you again someday.
My love at first sniff was TommyGirl. Of course I was a sophomore in highschool and it suited me down to my flip-flops, board shorts and beachy waves. I wore it for years – I always came back to it for special moments. I wore it through my first failures, my first successes, my first love. But in the aftermath of that relationship I it turned sour (literally!) and I haven't found a real replacement yet. Now I wear many different fragrances so the thought of that “signature scent” seems outdated. On a different note, someone recommended it's better to get over bottle-lust. I've found I can be happy with buying the mini-bottles which often are just as cute, and have plenty of juice to last. I started with the little L de Lolita Lempicka bottle and I like the roll-ons, too. Now if I could just convince Guerlain to come out with mini's I'd be in heaven.
Another lobotomy victim! It is clearly now the standard MO of Jo Malone SAs on both sides of the Atlantic.
The EDT
I don't think this'll suprise anyone but Angel by Thierry Mugler. I wore this for years but I probably overdose myself by using the soap, the body oil, the body powder…etc.. I end up giving my entire away!
Heliotrope often has that same effect on me…
Me three.
Gasoline, ouch! But I'll agree w/ Be Delicious 🙂
Hi & welcome, and was about to tell you to see Quinncreative's comment above, but see you found it. I guess I'm unlucky (or not?) in that all I ever got from Mousson was melon.
Oh, good for you — wear what you like, who cares what anybody else thinks? I would be wearing all my pre-perfumista scents if they hadn't reformulated them all, LOL…
Oh drat! Can you still take it back?
Yes, that happens to me sometimes. Hormones.
LOL — I take it you own it now?
Wow, skanky? That really is odd — I think of it as so “dainty”.
Aw, one of my favorites! Hope it doesn't turn on me…
I was fascinated by the name of Andy Tauer´s perfume
Le Maroc Pour Elle. After smelling it, Jesus, who would want a woman smelling like gasoline, paint thinner, cough medicine and jet fuel all in one ???????? Avoid AT ALL COST !!! Waste of money. This perfume is HORRIFYINGLY OFFENSIVE !!!
I agree with the Armani Mania. I cant wear it for a long time. I keep going back and forth too.. LOL
oh PLEASE can you do that HATRED poll because I have lots to contribute. My husband told me : “Throw them.´´ arghhhh
I think all their products are great, and each somehow subtly lays the focus on another note (well, perhaps thats just me): the shower gel on incense, the body lotion on iris root, the candle very lightly on almond. the soap lathers nicely but doesn't smell that strong, but your clothes will smell really nice of you place one in your drawer. If you're for stronger and more lasting frangrance, I recommend the shower gel. I'm especially fond of the body lotion, texture is perfect and the scent really lasting. The candle looks gorgeous and comes with a totally posh little silver plate to put it onto. Only negative point: Haven't been able to pour the fragrance from that small splash bottle without making a huge mess.
I want a darker Black Orchid too. I want a perfume that is not too loud.
Kelly Caleche bores after some time, but not skanky on me.
Hormones I noticed play a crucial role. When I´m sick, I hate all the perfumes I am wearing that time, especially figs and melons – they get tooo sour, while on better days, they smell like summer.!
A year seemed so generous to me — but I guess you could say I give more than a year, since I don't seem to do anything about old bottles I don't really like!
Sadly, most of the MH line does not agree with me…
Oh dear, that was a costly mistake! I rather liked it, but it was too much $$ for me. Did LT/TS give it a terrible review? I'll have to go peek…
Oh dear, not Vetiver Tonka — still after all this time one of my favorites, & have to keep it hidden from my husband so he won't use it up!
LOL: on its way via UPS. H and I are splitting it (and I'll be looking for a third also… interested? HA!).
I also like Parfum dÍris. There is something in the way that perfume is made that makes Iris not so offensive as in other perfumes, yet it shines out. Its a summer perfume for me. For you ?? 🙂
I hate Kenzo´s Jungle.. totally unwearable for me.
I dont like Miller Harris too. Terre de Bois makes me smell I stepped on something offensive.
Olfacta, ah, that's too bad!
LOL — I feel about the same about Aramis New West, which I ADORED. Now can barely stand a marine accord.
LOL — that's sad but funny! Glad you were able to swap it.
Yes, please do convince Guerlain!
Do you still keep a bottle of Tommy Girl?
Wow – I don't get ANY of that! lol – I think it smells like walking into a middle-eastern gift shop. It was one that I fell for slowly but now that I have a bottle, I do wear and love it. Funny how we would have such completely different reactions.
You probably won't see this comment – wish I had seen yours earlier, but I know EXACTLY what you mean. The same thing happens when I wear any orange flower scent. Gorgeous for a while, and then it just turns… skanky. And not good skanky, like Rose Poivree or something. Just the kind where you keep smelling a weird scent and you check your clothes for cat pee and then you realize it's your own neck and wrists.
Kelly Caleche does that for me.
Thanks so much!!
Why do you need to pour from the small bottle? Do you mean to decant, or just to use it?
HA is right. But if you get a trio of the Vetiver…
Yes, people react to fragrances differently… LOL Here in Europe, I asked perfume stores and they say Andy Tauer doesnt sell well, except the Vetiver thing. And yes, no one wants to buy that Maroc thing. Lots of medieval, rococco, baroque, and renaissance cathedrals and no one wants to smell like them.
Perhaps I did get something wrong about the splash thing? I use the small bottle do dab some perfume behnd my ears – so old-fashioned! – but also to use it splash-style, like pouring some into my hands and then applying on skin. That's when I get the mess. Have been asking myself repeatedly whether it was meant to be used that way. Probably not. But then, what would you need 400ml for if not to use generously? It doesn't get too strong, either, just nicely scenting your skin.
Ah, I never “splash” perfume that way — I think of that as what you did with cheap citrus things like Jean Nate! But since you didn't pay much for the bottle, why not?