By popular demand: tell us about your most-hated perfume, your most recent scrubber, nasty layering combinations you've discovered, perfumes you'd prefer to never smell again, or anything like.
Please, DO NOT read the comments if you're at all sensitive about your own perfume loves. Someone else is bound to hate them! If you do read, be gracious about other people's choices. This is meant to be lighthearted.
Note: image is persévérance... [rotated] by biscarotte at flickr; some rights reserved.
Victoria Secret Love Spell on anyone, and D&G Light Blue on myself. It hates me and I’m not too fond of it, either.
I am with you on DG Light Blue. I hate it, but it is everywhere.
Other “popular” frags I hate are AMARIGE!!!!! (instatnt headache), Chanel Chance, Issey Miyake Eau.
Sadly, Balenciaga Paris gives me a headache too and L’Heure Bleu suffocates me.
SL Borneo 1834 smells like goat cheese on my skin. definitely the worst of all is ELdO Secretions Magnifiques… Couldn’t scrub it off for 2 days, it smelled like the operating table at the vet…
I was fully prepared to hate 1834 – and it is fantastic on me! However, on me it smells similar to Coromandel which I already own, so haven’t gone any further
Agree with you on Chanel Chance and Eau d’Issey too. It’s strange because they both smell fine on blotters, but on people??? No thank you!
Chanel Chance smells wonderful on my MIL but it’s chemical soup on me.
For me also Light Blue DG and Chanel Chance.
Second to D&G Light Blue, uuuugh!!! Nauseating! Love Amarige on low doses.
I remember the period when every time I went to the fragrance counter someone was there ready to hit me with a spritz of Light Blue – convinced it was going to be my new love. When I declined the spray and expressed that I didnt like the scent, they were stunned like something was wrong with me. It was funny!
:). Were they tring to exorcizar something from you??? I’m kidding. I understand you: almost every woman around me like LB. Thank God few ones use it!
LOL – yes I think they were! They certainly looked at me if as if my head was doing a 360 on my neck, after I said I didnt like LB. LOL!
I’m with some fear now… uhuhu… LB will be my pocket perfume like an amulet reversed. That’ll protect me against my enemies.
I got spritzed once with light blue and didn’t like it but it’s not an official scrubber on me because it had a lasting power of about 15 minutes.
LOL. The problem is that it’s bad while it lasts. Another problem is how long it lasts and its good sillage on others, and I can say that it lasts forever and hass a good sillage. 🙁
Completely agree with you re: the Light Blue. And it’s EVERYWHERE!
Even when I smell it from far my stomach object!
The worse scrubber I ever tried was Iris Silver Mist. I had high hopes for it after reading the glowing review in PTG, but it was awful on me. It is the only perfume I have ever tested that made me feel physically ill. I have since figured out that I can take iris if it is in small doses and sweetened with some other notes, but a great big slug of it as in ISM is just no go for me.
It is (probably) in my top 10, so it is always funny to hear it’s someone else’s worst scrubber nightmare!
Oh my, still haven’t tried this!
HKM – I’m so late to the party but I love ISM. We seem to be scent twins so maybe you will like it, too. Like Robin it is probably in my top ten and has all the hallmarks of something I will probably like:
-Serge Lutens
-Maurice Roucel
-Iris
I only “discovered” iris last winter when I tried VC&A Bois d’Iris then I went crazy trying all the iris fragrances I could find.
I agree! I love ISM. But then, I’m a huge iris wearer.
I so wish I could love iris – but one me, it just kind of whines until I wash it off. I can take it as a minor note in perfume but have sadly had to avoid it as a main event.
A few years back I was visitng the Guerlain counter at SFA NYC and I had sampled the L’Instant Pour Homme, and loved that, but the SA was pushing Jicky. I let him spray it on me and I almost threw up, so I made him scrub it off my arm with some rubbing alcohol.
What is weird is that I want to try it again. Is that sick or what?
Yep, Jicky makes me a bit nauseated too.
Wanting to try again…well, yeah, it’s a little sick –but you always think “maybe my nose has changed” or “maybe I just didn’t give it a chance” or “maybe I’ll get it now” …..some things you can just say “eww” and let it go…others keep calling to you…it’s sick, but we all do it…for me it’s Shalimar.
The wanting to try it again could be because of Jicky’s reputation and pedigree. It is old, it is a classic, it is a Guerlain, therefore you feel that you ought to like it. For me it is Joy. It is a classic, it is the reference feminine floral, it is expensive–and I don’t like it. I wouldn’t call Joy a scrubber exactly, but I really get tired of it after an hour or so. I think it is just too much jasmine for me. I have tried it several times in the EdT, and never could “get” it. I finally ordered a sample of the extrait, and still didn’t like it.
I’m not a fan of Joy, either. I agree it doesn’t quite count as a scrubber, but I can’t imagine EVER wanting to smell like it, either! Eau de Pretentious Old Lady, to my nose!
I went as far a buying a bottle of Joy extrait in an attempt to learn to love it but sold it after a while. It never really grew on me, I got tonnes of jasmine from it too.
I love Jicky, though. A local department store have the extrait in spray tester bottles and love to pass by the Guerlain counter and spritz my wrists generously.
Extrait in tester bottles? I’m envious. None of the department stores I do to ever have testers of extrait. I know from experience that the extrait and the EdT or EdP don’t necessarily smell the same, but it is almost impossible to get to test an extrait except by ordering a sample. I will say that I do like the Jicky extrait much better than the EdT, although it has very poor longevity on my skin. The EdT lasts much longer (!) but grates on my nerves after a half-hour or so. Guerlain is hit-or-miss for me, having both some of my favorite and some of my least favorite ‘fumes.
Yup and not just testers of extrait but 30ml spray (!) testers of extrait. You often see them on ebay – plain square bottles without a cap, that’s what Guerlain quite commonly have out on their counters here.
Guerlain is not really my house, either. I can’t think of any that I hate but while I admire/respect many I almost never love them.
Heavens! What’s the name of this fabulous store?!
I want to know too. I’ve never seen them anywhere but Bergdorfs.
I’m afraid I’m in UK but it’s really not that uncommon here, even my local Debehams (which is a chain of mainstream department stores) has some. In fact, I don’t think I’ve even tried Vol de Nuit in any concentration other than parfum! Guerlain is pretty widely available here though, I gather it’s a different story in US.
Had no idea they were that easy to find in the UK. Lucky you.
I asked the same thing when I found one on eBay and she said that only major Guerlain counters carried them. She mentioned Las Vegas specifically.
I love Shalimar (as you all know) and also Jicky. My first expensive bottle of perfume was Jicky extrait and it is still my favourite bottle.
Re: Joy – I want to like but cannot. I’ve also been thinking that maybe the extrait will make a difference but what I’ve learned is that I really don’t like jasmine. It’s either too indolic and gives me a headache or is suffocatingly sweet like a Hindu temple on a hot, humid day. I live on “Jasmine Flower Street” in Malaysia (Jalan Bunga Melati) and it grew wild everywhere and I love it on the air, but trapping it inside a room is too much for me. Sweet Redemption smells like a jasmine joss stick on me – epic fail.
Julia – you’ve just made me want to try Sweet Redemption!
Rapple – I’m glad! I meant to say I “lived” on Jasmine street in Malaysia. I currently live on Shalimar Drive – no kidding.
Ugh, Joy. Really, reeeeeally raunchy on me.
relleric, I’m both attracted and repelled by Jicky. I do keep trying it from time to time. I wonder if it’s the civet…
When I first tried Shalimar, decades ago, I hated it. More recently, when I started in earnest to sample the classics, I tried it and found I now love it, although there is a teeny tiny undercurrent of that shocking combination that repelled me before. So maybe there’s hope for Jicky, too! 🙂
Jicky = pond water on my skin, but I do try it now and then to be sure, mostly because I love it on paper and on other people.
LoL! I’m a Jicky lover, but I also enjoy reading comments to the negative because the first time I tried it, I had trouble understanding why anyone on earth would wear such a thing, and that was just the edt. Granted I never tried the extrait and no doubt today’s product is highly sanitized. It took the right moment to get me hooked but hooked I still am. Top 10 for sure…
I scored a set of Jicky nips perfectly preserved in a copper tin from the 30’s (I think). They are little glass tubes that you break the end off – the forerunner of the sample vial – and I opened one a couple of weeks ago and it was just glorious. Definitely Jicky and not all that different from the extrait I bought a few years ago.
Oooh… a treasure trove to be sure!
Most hated perfume: It pains me to say this, but…..L’Heure Bleue. I’ve tried it dozens of times in every possible concentration/vintage, but it makes me ill like nothing else. Except for maybe Missoni, or as I call it, artificially-sweetened orange chocolate!
Most recent scrubber: Lady Million. Maybe the Sephora tester had gone off, but what I smelled was just vile.
Elizabeth, I’m totally with you, and it also pains me to say it, but I cannot stand L’HB!
Me three. I can enjoy LHB on others, but up close I find it pretty vile. I finally swapped my (gifted) bottle away.
And yeah, Missoni smells like Tootsie Rolls to me.
Missoni nauseates me, too! Just can’t do those really sweet gourmands, especially ones that pair chocolate with fruit. GAG!!! I love those Missoni colors, though.
What’s funny is that while I don’t do sweet/gourmand either… Missoni is one I *can* do. On me, it’s very light and sheer, so doesn’t turn sickly sweet at all. of course, I’ve only dabbed lightly, so who knows what a heavier application would do.
Hey scent sister! I’m glad it worked for you. I wanted to like it!
Hm, now what’s funny is that below, someone describes Merveilles (you like several of those, right?) as chocolate + orange. And I disliked all of those.
I like the original Eau and the Eau Claire. The Elixir is the only one with chocolate, as far as I know.
Agree on the Missoni… chocolate nausea.
Agree with the Lady Million.
I’m an inveterate Guerlain lover, but I also grew up *hating* licorice. So L’HB was one of the few Guerlains that I loathed. Suddenly, about two years ago, I tried my sample (again!) and loved it. I still hate licorice though….
My first was CB I Hate Perfume Revelation. It was cat pee. (But I realized later on that I pretty much dislike all fig fragrances. That one was more than that, though.) My latest: Les Nez The Unicorn Spell. I rarely meet scrubbers, but it makes them all the most memorable!
Or is it “all the more memorable”? Meh. I mean, I remember my scrubbers well since they are few.
I thought The Unicorn Spell smelled like enchilada sauce. What did it smell like to you.
Wow, enchilada sauce, huh? Almost makes me want to sniff it! Not to WEAR it, but it’s hard to imagine!
Haha! I didn’t identify anything, all I could think of was: yuk! I might try it again just because of what you say… 🙂
Yes! Revelation is cat urine! Totally agreee
Yes! Revelation is cat urine! I noticed that as well. Such a shame
Yeah! I am not the only one who didn’t like Unicorn Spell. When I tried that sample, I had to put the vial in a little tin canister. It actually made my stomach turn. I then had to throw the canister away because the smell wouldn’t leave.
I bought samples of Unicorn Spell and Iris Silver Mist at the same time a year ago. I don’t remember which one it was, but one of them smelled like salad to me.
Attended a fragrance class at Givaudan through Sephora. When we sniffed a particular scent, everyone got silent and wrinkled their noses. It was familiar but out of context. Our perfumer asked “Does it smell like cat pee?” Of course, that was it! Turns out it was pure Cassis.
Flower by Kenzo on ANYONE
Also Chloe – all of them
Les Rosines too, unfortunately, even the ones I love at first sniff, they develop quite unfortunately on my skin.
Relleric, I understand you completely – same applies for me when it comes to Hypnose from Lancome, Even, to some extent, Ma Dame by JPG which I find chemical in the extreme but attractive in some weird, twisted way.
I am with you on the Rosines! All that I have tried seem sickeningly sweet and cloying to me! Blech!
Hum, I like too much Flower and Madame is ok.
I like MaDame in a giggly sort of way but have not quite brought myself to buy it.
The most recent probable scrubber I have come across is Untitled No. 8 by Brent Leonesio. I call it a probable scrubber because I have not had the nerve to actually try wearing it. I only tried one tiny dab on a finger, and I thought it smelled like a portable toilet.
Untitled No. 8 was really bad on my skin. I got nothing but a strong fecal/hallitosis (sp?) note forever, and then toward the very long in coming end, a hint of animalistic and very dirty musk that made MKK smell like a soft white musk. 😉 It was almost as off-putting as Secretions Magnifique to me, which currently holds the record for invoking the fastest need to scrub ever.
A couple BPALs have been the same way, and I really didn’t get Angel either when I first tried it. But after trying Angel again a year or so later, I fell in love with it, especially the middle and drydown. The BPALs weren’t so lucky and I found new homes for them.
What breaks my heart is when I have an unpleasant encounter with an otherwise lovely fragrance due to being ill. I’ve tested some perfumes and was baffled as to why they smelled so terrible only to come down with a case of the flu (or morning sickness lol) shortly after and have associations between the nausea and that particular fragrance. Sometimes if I try, I can ease into trying the frag in question when I’m well and can appreciate all its facets with clear senses and a stronger constitution, but most times just a hint of it in passing sets my stomach rolling even now.
I was travelling with a decant of Portrait of a Lady, which I loved and got terrible food poisoning. Puking my soul out and smelling PoaL all over. It’s been a few months and I’m still afraid to revisit it 🙂
Pure poo! I wonder if it really smells good to some people or it’s just a joke.
I like No. 8 more as an artwork than anything – it is very visceral, for sure. I keep thinking I will layer it under something flowery to amp the skank.
Luckily, I’ve not encountered that many outright scrubbers. There are plenty of perfumes that I don’t particularly like and wouldn’t wear but only a handful which made want to peel off my own skin just to get away from the smell. Here are my worst 3, apologies in advance to anyone who likes them 😮
AG Un Matin d’Orage. I found this one truly unbearable. LT summed it up nicely in his review – “Whoever composed this “Stormy Morning” must be, at the very least, hyposmic to a tremendous woody-amber note (Karanal? Ambrocenide?) that makes this fresh-green fragrance as comfortable as having your dental plaque blasted away by ultrasound.” Couldn’t agree more!
Amouage Ubar. I love Amouage, I even think I could like Ubar since the actual smell is not the problem, it’s the sheer BRIGHTNESS. I applied two tiny dabs onto a t-shirt half way down my torso and had to change half an hour later. It felt like someone was stabbing my brain with a harp implement inserted through my nose.
Hermes Merveilles. Don’t remember if it was the eau or the elixir but this was another one what was seriously, nauseatingly over-powering. I’m amazed that so many people describe it as light since for me it was almost as bad as Matin d’Orage.
Oh, I love the first two! I find MdO goes away so quickly that I can’t imagine having to scrub it off. LOL
As is usually the way with these things, the more you hate something, the harder it’ll cling to you. In my case, the ghost of the wretched thing haunted me for the rest of the day no matter how much I scrubbed.
I know that most people seem to smell it as light, dewy, pretty and all sorts of other lovely things but that’s not how my nose/brain perceives it.
With regard to Ubar: I love Ubar, but I have to be very, very careful in my application. It is very potent, and a little goes a long way. I have perfume eating skin, and tend to apply generously, but not with this one! I have a mini bottle, which has a very tiny opening that dispenses very small drops, and two tiny drops are plenty. I once made the mistake of applying 4 or 5 drops, and I thought I would choke on my own sillage. It is misleading, too, because it takes a few minutes to bloom, so I didn’t realize I had overdone it until about 15 minutes later. If you want to give Ubar another chance, try applying even less than before.
I tried it twice, glutton for punishment that I am. But even two tiny dabs applied a good couple of feet away from my nose were too much. Robin says the old formula was less bright, I might have liked that one better.
The new Ubar is SO SO SO much stronger than the old. The old was better, IMHO.
I’m quite curious about the old version but I doubt I’ll ever get hold of any now.
Abyss—drop me a note at Daisyloo82 AT gmail dot com and I’ll get a sample of the vintage Ubar to you. It is a lot easier to wear than the new incarnation. (which can be a spike to the brain with the slightest over application!)
Ooh, are you sure? I’m in UK so I totally understand if that’s too much trouble.
It’s no trouble -honest. 🙂
Of course I know you are in the UK.
Aw, that’s incredibly kind, thank you!
Ubar wasn’t exactly a scrubber for me, but I truly disliked it. I wonder if the Hermes you disliked was the Elixir. That one is a sweet gourmand, and a scrubber for me, too. However I love the original Eau and I really like the Eau Claire.
I’ll admit that I’ve been too scared to pick up any of the Merveilles variations since then. One day I might sniff them again (carefully and on paper) but for now I’m just avoiding the whole line up.
Dare dare double dare. :->
Lol, I can just imagine the picture – “WHY did I do this to myself? Oh, yeah, someone on the internet double dog dared me” 😀
It wasn’t just someone. It was ME! 😉
So I’m sat here trying to remember if my local dept store carries it….I think I already mentioned being a glutton for punishment 😀
Honestly, we like a lot of the same fragrances. I think the Elixir version is the one you tried. The Eau is light citrus and salt – gorgeous! I did take a while to appreciate it, though. A unique fragrance.
I’ve tried both the Elixir and Eau version of Merveilles and while not scrubbers they were heavy organgey chocolatey concoctions that I didnt enjoy. The Eau Claire was more to my liking, it is very light and doesnt seem to be related to the Elixir or Eau.
Huh. I’m wearing Eau de Merveilles right now and get warm beachy skin, warm summer ocean breeze and driftwood- not a chocolate orange in sight. Skin chemistry and scent perception is an amazing thing! 🙂
It is! No chocolate in any of them except the Elixir, I’m pretty sure!
I am also wearing this one today. Love it.
But when I tried it for the first time a few years ago, it was a nauseating scrubber on me!
Heavy concoction sounds about right, it was really jarring. I never went as far as spraying it on skin but it hung around in the air for ever and my ex hated it too.
I’d be willing to be that you tried the Elixir. I hate that one, too.
(willing to BET, I mean)
I’m so glad someone feels similarly about MdO. I was baffled because of all the light/dewy/fresh/aquatic associations with it, and all I got was unbearably screechy metallic wood musk? ugh.
Yay, another MdO hater, we seem to be in a tiny club here 😀
To me, Ubar is both loud and unpleasant. There’s a note to which I must be hyperosmic. Same note is in Joop! Berlin, which I bought on a trip to Berlin after a quick sniff in the Duty Free and hated it so much when I got home the I couldn’t even be in the same room with the bottle.
Many people love it. It must smell entirely different to them.
SL Gris Clair. It smelled exactly like a used ashtray on my skin.
Sad! I love Gris Clair! Although I admit that this summer it has smelled more like those grape gumballs I used to be able to get for 10 cents at the grocery store! I’ll be happy to wear it when the weather cools again, though!
Though I hate ashtray and love Gris Clair, I can see that interpretation being possible!
I thought that when I read her comment, too! I think it has an upscale/old school barbershop element to it. I like that.
Apparently there’s a phenomenon where Gris Clair turns to the scent of rancid fat on some people’s skin. I am one of those lucky people. Sounds like your problem with it was different. I loved it on paper tho.
(Commentors on Sephora say Womanity smells like an ashtray. It does, but I never would have noticed it if I hadn’t have been on Sephora.)
Gris Clair depressed the heck out of me. One sniff, and I felt like Eeyore.
Ha! It IS sort of a melancholy fragrance. If I believed in those. 🙂
Let’s see, start with apology: sorry everybody! It’s been so praised. The Guide says to see my doctor if I don’t like it, but I think I am otherwise normal.
Chanel Sycomore. Daubed on from a sample one evening before a party. Stale lemon candy. Hated it all night. Felt self conscious about icky sweet sourness. Then foolishly chucked the sample in the trash. I know you can’t always tell from a little daub. Should have tried again. Oh well.
I’m with you on this one….don’t care for Sycamore at all….turns all heavy sweet and…..HEAVY….drives me nuts after a short time and scrub. 🙁
Sycamore sweet? Wow, that’s so different from my experience.
OJ Tolu is sickenly sweet on me but beautiful on my friend
I was also underwhelmed by Sycomore and that’s what Chanel sent me instead of the Cuir de Russie I ordered for my birthday last year. They were kind of jerks about it and refused to exchange it so I kept it for splits and my daughter fell in love with it. It really is perfect on her so I gave her the bottle.
Songes is a scrubber on me. It smells strangely method-y and overwhelmingly sweet. Fun topic I like see what others don’t like.
Er method=menthol dang auto spell correct.
I thought you were comparing it to Method cleaning products – lol
Songes is like menthol Cracker Jack to me! 😉
Funny description! I don’t like it, either.
I like your comment. It’s so funny
But I LOVE Songes!
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure: I love Songes and it loves me back. 😉
I did’nt like AG Songs the first time I wore it, I had to wash it off after a few minutes, it was just too much for me, after about a year I gave it another shot and I ended up loving it.
I can’t do Songes. I can’t do most AGs. Love Le Chevrefeuille, though!
Same here. I haven’t found one AG that I really like yet.
My last scrubber, several years ago, was Emporio Armani Diamonds for Men. When I was at Von Maur, I thought “it’s from Armani, so it can’t be half bad”.
But I was in for a nasty surprise. I hated it myself, but my mom (who was with me at the time) really hated it. All we could smell was sickly sweet powder. I had to rush from Michaels back to Von Maur just to scrub it off.
So in the category of bad layering. . .I accidentally put Gris Clair on too soon after having applied Bang. Horrible combination! It became bad, sweaty body odor or stinky gym feet!
Oh, I can see that being a mistake!
I couldnt agree more with thecrushedviolet. You nailed it-Love Spell & Light Blue are just the absolute worst to me and people NEVER CEASE to try to push Light Blue on you. They just love it.
Ha! I’m just glad Love Spell seemed to hit its peak. I don’t smell it nearly as much as I used to.
Oh gosh… I think there have been a few. 😀 Sure someone will remind me of several I’m forgetting, but:
1. Mitsouko. Yuck yuck and yuck.
2. Straight to…Heaven? Like a bad hangover when you’ve passed out and woken up to all the stale bar smells. Gross.
3. Champagne de Bois and Tabac Aurea both have something nauseating in the base. Sad, bc I could see they’d be great if you didn’t get that note.
4. 31RC, which is surprising, since I usually get on so well w/Chanel. It’s not *quite* a scrubber, but there’s something icky about it.
5. Memoire Liquide: Gateaux, Perle Lustre, Vanille Florentine – all huge, plastic, and sickly sweet.
Yay, validation that Mitsouko isn’t fabulous to all! I don’t like it, either! I keep thinking I’ll “grow into it.” Not yet. . .
Guerlain just isn’t my house.
I appreciate Mitsouko , but cannot wear it. Surprisingly, Jicky smells great on me…
Champagne de Bois also makes me feel literally sick, although right from the outset. YET I still got compliments on it..
Doesn’t agree with me, either.
I really liked CdB at first wearing, but the stuff sticks like glue! I got some on a sweater that, even after washing, STILL smells like CdB. I like the fragrance, but suffered scent overload. That’s what did it in for me.
It’s almost like hearing a song on the radio that you like, but then they overplay it and you never ever want to hear it again. As soon as it comes on the radio, you want to change channels.
Agree about Tabac Aurea! I can’t wear anything with a tobacco note without gagging. Love Champagne de Bois though.
The tobacco note just reads as ashtray to my nose.
I have a lot of “I wanted to love…” fragrances in my collection and Tabac Aurea is at the top of the list. It smells dry cleaning chemicals on my skin. Bad. I can also detect a little of that in Winter Woods. I still love most of Laurie’s compositions with my very favourite being Femme Jolie. I receive many compliments when I wear it (which isn’t often enough) and two people have ordered bottles of it after sniffing it on me.
I was all set to love Champagne de Bois. Shut my eyes, inhaled and smelled… baloney!
Chanel doesn’t like me, but I’ve found with 31RC, if I spray it on my clothes it will work for me. It goes on a lot of my scarves in cold weather!
Elizabeth Arden Red Door and Joop! Homme are the only two real scrubbers in my belt so far. I didn’t know what was in them, only that they needed to get off my skin immediately.
Actually, there was a third, and it pains me to admit it: Tauer’s L’air du Desert Marocain. At first dab it was nice, a little odd, but deep and strangely soothing. Then, it grew. And grew. And grew. And the incense turned sour, like YSL Kouros does to me on an off day. And the musk started screaming. And it kept. GROWING. I finally broke down and showered it off – all four measly dabs of it, mind you – as an alternative to crawling out of my own skin. It didn’t wash off. It doesn’t, ever. The only cure for L’Air is time. I had SUCH high hopes when I ordered the sample, but something in that mix just does not agree with me. I kept the sample around just in case the stars align and my skin stops hating it, or I become immune to brick walls of incense in perfumes (still haven’t made nice with Avignon).
I think that’s a common experience w/the Tauers, actually. They either really work, or really don’t. LADDM got much too big on me, too, but I really like Reverie au Jardin.
Yes, this confirms it: we’re evil scent twins. Mitsouko is the only Guerlain I can tolerate, I adore CdB and Tabac Aurea, LADDM is a Top Three for me and I can’t abide Reverie. Can you imagine the two of us going sniffing together? Hilarious! 🙂
“Oh my gosh, this is horrible! Here, smell….”
ROTFL!
Boo and I have been Evil Scent Twins for quite a while, so you and I may be scent twins. I recently received a bottle of Reverie au Jardin and it had leaked just a bit. The small amount that I got on my fingers, and then on my kitchen counter from where I set the bottle down, made me so physically sick I was miserable! That’s the first time that has ever happened with perfume.
I disagree about Red Door, but agree about Joop! Homme, although it’s someway like Fleur du Male, wich I like very much.
I do also have to laugh at the thought of “four measly dabs”. On me, that would be too much of almost anything, let alone a Tauer.
I agree with you and can’t stand the smell of that Tauer on my skin. A definite scrubber. Reminds me of some of the worst head shop smells from back in the 60’s.
I had the same uh-oh-this-bugger-is-getting-bigger-and-bigger with Nasomatto’s Black Afgano. I liked it so much on the blotter that I put a tiny squirt on my wrist and was happy for all of ten minutes, then it just grew and grew and hurt my nose. Needless to say I strode home, arm outstretched, to scrub it away. It’s ghost haunted me for days.
Paco Rabanne. and I’ve never worn it. Used to smell it on people all the time. i’ve changed subway cars to avoid the scent. There are a lot of scrubbers for me with my unique Ph. My skin turns green after wearing gold…imagine what it does to fragrance! thank goodness for samples!
Oh God…SHALOMAR. If I wear that when I’m 80, send this message to my children: TAKE IT AWAY! JUST TAKE IT ALL AWAY! THROW IT IN THE GARBAGE! PLEASE!
LOL!!! I didn’t like Shalamar at first, but I admit that I really like it now– vintage far more so than the current formulation, though. (And I’m not 80! 🙂 )
The first time I tried Shalimar was from a bottle in a Sephora, ie, one that had likely sat under bright hot lights for weeks. It was all completely burnt rubber and plastic. It was hideous. Now I like it, but only partly because my taste in perfumes has changed. That bottle was done for.
Those hot lights must be responsible for many a tester going off. At one of my local department stores, sometimes the testers are literally warm to touch when you pick them up. Ack.
Goodness – where’s Daisy? Love to hear her remark about that “bad breath” note again…
I’ll have to admit that I do like the Ode de la Vanille very much. Also like Eau Legere, but need to combine with something to tone down the sweet lemon frosting.
Everyone loves Sel de Vetiver, but I think it smells like wet wool. Hate L’Eau d’Issey and Clinique Happy and several much-loved Ellena scents, like Kelly Caleche: too “fresh.” They smell chemical to me.
As long as I’m bashing Ellena, I think Balenciaga Rumba is probably the ultimate scrubber for me. Grody fruity bathroom.
I do love Rose Poivree and First, so he’s not all bad!
I don’t love SdV either. Not a scrubber, mind you, but don’t love it.
HA! I think I sent you that Rumba sample, didn’t I?
You did! I tried it twice and then gave up. Not a hit, but you’ve sent me many other gems. 🙂
this is shameful, but:
L’Heure Bleue
Apres L’Ondee
less shameful:
Honore des Pres Vamp a NY (smells like bacon grease with a touch of tuberose, it’s awful)
Guerlain L’Instant
Serge Lutens Rahat Loukhoum (sickening sweet candle)
CdG Daphne
Chanel Sycomore
Oh, I love Vamp, but agree with you about Rahat Loukhoum and Daphne. The latter two overwhelm me with sweetness.
I adore Daphne, but can totally see why it would be a scrubber on some!
I was very disappointed with my first sampling of Vamp — got MAJOR bubblegum out of it.
Daphne is awful on me too! It smells just like some off-brand dry shampoo I picked up at a drugstore.
I think it is so funny how many of us feel like an apology or other caveat is necessary to explain our “lack of taste!” I am nearly to my 1 year anniversary since official head-over-heals perfumista-hood, and I laugh at myself the way I waffle between feeling so ignorant and feeling superior (depending on who I’m talking to!). Scent, scent-memories, and personal tastes are so mysterious, but we (including me) feel so drawn towards fitting in, agreeing with the herd-mind, and supporting each other’s preferences.
I have even noticed how this translates to the perfume salespersons. No other product I buy do the SAs seem to take it personally if I don’t like their recommendations! Perfume is so personal, compared to cars, jewelry, or bakery goods!
Good point! It’s like choosing an art piece or a music CD. I would never buy perfume for another person without specific knowledge of his or her taste.
Connecting this thought to the later conversation about “scents I love that others hate,” I think the analogy to visual arts and music is helpful. I feel like good art requires an emotional response–it doesn’t have to be all positive or all negative or whatever, but some sort of reaction is needed for me to respect art as “Art.” From this point of view, maybe it isn’t surprising that one person’s love is another person’s loathing.
Honestly, Orange Star was astonishingly awful on me. Montale Mukhallat too was a horrible almondish toilet bowel cleaner smell, similar to what nearly every one of the BPALs I have tried smelled like.
I was thinking of Orange Star, too. Not good on my skin at all!
Yes, me too. OS was dreadful on me.
Orange Star was not a scrubber for me, but almost. It reminded me of a popular line of orange-scented cleaning products. That’s a bit like saying that a piece by Gustave Mahler reminds you of an advertising jingle, but there we have it.
Montale Mukhallat yessss! God Awful cherry almond toxic treacle, and I LOVE Montale . . .but . . . geeez it’s awful!
OMG! I completely blanked Montale Mukhallat! That is the only fragrance that actually made me vomit because, on me, it smelled just like an electric heating pad my mother once made me use when I had a childhood ear infection – horrible!!!
I think Nahema is probably my biggest scrubber. The peach note is so shrill and artificial on me, and the rose turns sour…just yuck. Other least-faves include L’Air de Rien, SMN Garofano, Bluebell and Diorissimo.
Nahema was a definite no-go for me, too, as are most rose+fruit combos.
And it’s the only rose that really works for me! I think *because* of the peach note.
I really like Nahema in tiny, tiny doses. I have a miniscule 1ml sample of it that’s lasted me about five years because a single drop does me. Any more than that, and it blooms into something overwhelming and horrifying. Funny how amplification really matters.
Oooh, me too re: Nahema. On me, it smelled like mushy pink tomato from the salad bar. I loved the drydown, though, and would have preferred that to all the rest.
What a funny – and damning – description! 🙂
Penhaligon’s Bluebell smells like vinegar on me – absolute scrubber!
oh, and I forgot Diorissimo and basically anything with prominent lily of the valley. All LotV smell like bathroom spray to me.
Yep, prominent LotV fragrances are on my “no” list, too.
I agree with you on Diorissimo.
Yeah, LoTV is like an icepick to the brain. Instant headache.
LOL — I meant to say “no mention of Diorissimo, please” in the rules and I forgot!
Ha ha!
We should do a score at the end of the discussions… 🙂
Haha! I know its one of your favs – sorry.
Haha! XD
oh, and Dzing definitely goes on my scrubber list. just terrible.
All I get from Dzing is the smell of burning car tires – scrubber.
I think Dzing! should be called Dzung! because it smells like manure to me.
Oh, you made me laugh. Dzung! I love it, though. It is odd, but after its initial blast, it smells like leather and soft musk on me. I will think of your comment, and grin next time I pull Dzing! out to wear 🙂
Uh oh. Shouldn’t have laughed above. Dzing is one of may absolute favorites… I can certainly understand that it isn’t loved by everyone. I guess. 😉
I’ve definitely met a few perfumes that made me recoil in horror:
Serge Lutens Chypre Rouge – an overwhelming potpurri blend of awfulness
L’Aritsan Parfumeur Bois Farine – I know this one gets so much love, but I couldn’t abide the peanut notes. I smelled like a greasy Mr. Peanuts baggie you used to get when you fly.
Knize Ten – wondering if I got a wonky sample? I smelled like BO.
Tauer Une Rose Chypree – another popular one, but this doesn’t work on me. At all.
The BO/bad sample debate is how I responded to Yohji Homme, which Luca Turin called “one of the best men’s fragrances ever!.” In fact, I was so sure that I had a bad sample, I sent a cranky email to the ebay seller who sold it to me. I have since wondered if I just really can’t stand a dominantly cedary note. In any case, I won’t be spraying it again any time soon!
I have seen other mentions here of cedar smelling like BO to some people, so that could be it. Have you ever smelled Feminite du Bois? That is one of the most cedary perfumes I have ever smelled. I love the smell of cedar, so I love FdB, but if you dislike cedar, you would probably hate it.
No, and I think I’ve avoided it in part because of the cedar. I often look past my preferences in favor of “educating my nose,” but I’ve been dragging my feet on cedar-dominant scents.
Cedar = 100% BO to me….awful stuff! Feminite de Bois is horrible BO and a hamster cage….not a clean one, either…..
Ah, that’s why you don’t get on with FdB… all that cedar. Couldn’t figure that out.
Cedar = BO to some people? The mind reels! What other perfumes are ceder-intensive? Making a mental note to get to the bottom of this BO smell…..
Others that I have noted are cedar and don’t agree with me include:
Guerlain Habit Rouge
Halston Z-14
Jo Malone Fresh Mint Leaf (light, but still soured on me)
Parfums Delrae Eau Illuminee
Penhaligon Hammam Bouquet (dry down, especially)
Among others. . .
The only one I’ve tried on the list is the Delrae, and I must say that nearly all of her perfumes are scrubbers on me (all except the lovely Bois de Paradis…..I have yet to sniff Panache and Coup de Foudre). I wonder why that is. There must be some note that she’s prone to using that just doesn’t agree with me.
I haven’t tried the others you mention….yet. Bracing myself for a BO deluge.
BdP is the only one that works for me, too. I haven’t completely given up on the others yet, but my first impression wasn’t all that good.
Marjorie, wich aspect you don’t like in Habit Rouge?
It’s funny, when SL Chypre Rouge came out, I loved my sample so much I bought a bottle. But SPRAYED, it became a total scrubber and I ended up selling it.
The horror! Must remember to find a spray version of every sample I’m considering for a full bottle.
Or just buy little splash bottles to decant into!
Chypre Rouge smells like salty celery on me.
Une Rose Chypree is the only Tauer I can wear. I don’t get along with any of the others, so far.
Finally the poll I’ve waited for for years! Not necessarily in any order:
1. Poison
2. Poeme
3. With Love…Hilary Duff
4. White Diamonds
5. Eternity
6. Michael Kors
7. Beautiful
Do we detect a thread here? There’s more but with full perfumistadom comes the ability to appreciate, not hate, perfumes that one originally did not like.
Once upon a time I loved Poeme- I’ll have to see what I think now. Thanks for the reminder!
I wore Poeme the other night – it was lovely in a rather ladylike way – I felt kind of like I do when I wear Organza – just feminine and pretty. Which is SO unlike me! lol
Oh god, White Diamonds. My mother wore that and it convinced me for years growing up that I hated all perfume. Thankfully I didn’t stay in that stage. 😀
Also, I’m glad to see someone else share my dislike of With Love. That scent made me feel sick my stomach. I’m not sure exactly what it was either except that Armani Code had it too.
Ugh! Armani Code! And I swear, every time I buy something at Nordies I get a sample of Armani Code and Hanae Mori–both of which are totally insipid, as far as I’m concerned! Seriously, I’d guess I have 6-8 samples of each!
Armani Code for men causes me some repulse.
The thread may be tuberose, which is my scent nemesis too!
Tuberose is it for me too. I read reviews talking about the beauty of Carnal Flower and other tuberose fragrances, and on me it’s a foghorn blast of bleu cheese that makes me feel nauseous and headachy. Nuit de Tuberose isn’t a foghorn; instead, it’s drippy & mildewy,
Still, I retry my samples periodically, hoping for a breakthrough.
No tuberose for me! Carnal Flower is better, but unwearable.
The true scrubbers are ( I realize some might kill me) Fracas, SL Tuberose Criminelle and , of course, Amarige.
Nuit de Tubereuse definitely has a mildew stage on me too. Eventually it comes out of the mildew, but man do I suffer for the first twenty minutes.
White Diamonds is a total scrubber on me.
Loves me some Hilary Duff – what a pleasant surprise that was!
Due to time constraints, I didn’t get to finish my list. Here are the rest:
8. Oscar de la Renta
9. original Chloe
10. Ruffles
11. Fracas
12. Carnal Flower
13. Obsession
Perhaps a thought for a different poll would be “What fragrances do you dislike but appreciate as classics?”
i love heady florals and sharp greens thats why i thought that FRACAS is defiatly me oh boy what a scrubber that was on me immediately reminded me with all those pestesides we used when we were young at my grandpa farm immediately gave it away it was my first lsson on bying unsniffed!
I don’t have great luck buying unsniffed either!
Me too. Even sniffing I sometimes make mistakes: Dior Homme, XS Black, Swiss Army, Desire,… I used to buy based on top notes and I think that was my ruin!
I really dislike Fracas, too. Gaah!
Fracas was such a disappointment. Not only did it smell like hairspray on me, but it smelled like the cheap, horrible aquanet kind.
Without a doubt, the worst thing I’ve ever tried is Dans Tes Bras. It immediately turned to tomcat pee on me, I just could not get it off quickly enough. I don’t know what it is that smells so bad, as the notes sounded nice, so I gave it a try. Thankfully it was only a sample, so no money lost on that one. Judging by the comments on here, most other people aren’t affected the same way by it. Coming in a close second is Angel, another instant reaction.
I love Dans Tes Bras, but I can see that it wouldn’t be for everyone. It’s definitely weird and synthetic-smelling. I’m with you on Angel, though!
DtB smelled like wet latex paint and maybe a trace of orange blossom on me.It’s one pricey one I won’t be bothering with.
Completely agree on Dans tes Bras – chemical and sour. And Angel – immediate headache and nausea!
Yep. If that’s how angels smell I would rather an eternity in the third circle of hell!
How can I forget about Angle! It gives me instant headache and it’s EVERYWHERE!
So funny seeing what other people consider to be scrubbers!
Two that I can’t scrub off fast enough were – I hope you’re sitting down, because these are beloved perfumers I’m talking about here – Serge Lutens Borneo and Jo Malone French Lime Blossom. Looking at the notes, Borneo is everything I love; on skin, it makes me want to saw my arm off. And the Jo Malone was instant recoil.
But my all-time scrubber was Issey Miyake L’eau d’Issey. It was overwhelmingly what Patty at Perfume Posse refers to as “Tampax Fresh Accord.” Hated it, so of course, it lasted forever.
I feel that way about many of the Jo Malone citrus scents. (Lime Basil Mandarin — ack)
A friend of mine’s husband wears that sometimes – she calls it “the Liz repellant”.
Secretions Magnifiques from Etat libre d’Orange made me gag as well.
I’ve seen Katie Puckrik’s you-tube video wherein she samples Secretions Magnifique. That’s as close as I ever want to get to it!
That video is hilarious!
I can’t believe we went halfway down the page without this one being mentioned. 😀
I hated Yohji Homme, but I loathe licorice so that’s to be expected. Anyone hear about that new idea of swallowable perfume capsules that you excrete through your pores? Imagine if it was like Britney Spears Midnight Fantasy! [aghast face] You’d just have to sweat it out! Wonder how long it lasts…
Oh, and Dakkar Noir. BLERRRRRGH.
Oh, and Drakkar Noir. BLERRRRRGH.
I hate long list): D&G Light Blue for her, D&G Pour Homme, D&G for Her (redcap),
Kouros,
Drakkar Noir,
Azzaro Pour Homme,
Eternity Pour Homme,
Kenzo Jungle Pour Homme,
Versace Fraîche,
CK One (but I like its “followers”),
Antaeus,
Allure Pour Homme,
Boss Bottled,
Animale Animale Man,
Burberry Weekend,
Dunhill Desire for Him,
Boss Orange for men,
Cool Water for men,
DKNY Men,
Very Irresistible Summer for men,
Opium for her (uuuugh),
Tommy Men,
Moschino I Love Love (it’s similar to Light Blue),
Montblanc Presence,
Laguna for men (Salvador Dalì)…
I feel even lighter now…
OOps, I posted it on the wrong place…
Scent through my pores? Isn’t that what garlic is for? : D
Pinkfizzy, you DON’T want to try 1000 Flowers Reglisse Noir, then…
Dior Addict. I spent about an hour in the mall restroom, trying to get it off my arm.
It’s strong stuff, too.
Happy Saturday! This is fun, though you do need to have a thick skin LOL! Here’s my list:
-Tom Ford Black Orchid = It was like a leech, even after scrubbing it clung to my skin and refused to let go. I would have praised the longevity had I liked it. Given this I still have a fascination with TF Noir de Noir, which is not exactly the same as TF
BO but is in the same family.
Chanel No 5 = For me it registers as Arrid Extra Dry deodorant. A few years ago a friend and I were out shopping. She veered off to another section of the store while I frequented the fragrance counter. I want to love this classic, so I spitzed some No 5 on and went to look for my friend. Two seconds after I walked up to her she inquired with displeasure “What did you just do?” I coud only chuckle as I knew it didnt smell good on me. I enjoy the Eau Premiere version, but the orginal doesnt do it for me.
-Chanel Sycomore = All my nose picked up was old cigs in an ashtray 🙁
-SL Santal Blanc = I recently tested this from a sample. It wasnt a scrubber, but I didnt get it and didnt like it at all.
There may be others, but these are top of mind.
I don’t like deodorant smell either, but for me Nº5 doesn’t smell like this.
No. 5 is a scrubber for me, as are several other aldehydic florals (No. 22, White Linen, Iris Poudre, Fleurissimo). I keep thinking that I’ll learn to appreciate them, but it hasn’t happened. 🙁
My evil scent twin!
Hee hee. More aldehydes for you, I guess, GG! 😉
Send them my way! I don’t like every one of them, of course, but I do love the genre.
Black Orchid is another one for me. I continue to try my decant, thinking one day I’ll go “Aha! So I DO love it!” Nothing so far…
Byredo M/ink was horrendous on me–it actually made me physically ill. I know that it was supposed to be very novel, smelling like ink and all, but I’ve never really liked the smell of ink to begin with. The worst part was that I couldn’t get it off my skin for almost two days. I tried really hard to like it, but I just couldn’t bear it.
That’s always the way when you hate something: it lasts forever.
So true!!
I’m loving all the posts so far, it’s always really fascinating for me to read people’s descriptions of things that they don’t like.
We should have a follow up Things Other People Hate That I Love thread. Sycomore would be one of mine 😀
I have an odd relationship w/Sycomore. I like it, but I find it so very dense and chewy that I can only wear a tiny drop in the coldest weather. Otherwise, it’s a no go.
That’s how I feel about OJ Tolu. Wonderful when it’s freezing but way too much at any other time.
Sycomore I can happily wear year round except maybe if it’s absolutely baking which is rarely a problem in the North of England.
I could see that w/Tolu…and a number of other OJs.
Abyss – I agree a Things People Hate that I Love thread is a good one. I love Bond No 9 Nuits de Noho and see that it is a scrubber for someone else. LOL!!! It’s fascinating to read what others dislike and cathartic to say what you dislike!
Agree, things other people hate that I love thread!!!
I love Aromatics Elixir and so many hate it…perhaps it’s because it smells like their mom? ( which I am old enough to be )
Le Parfum de Therese is a major scrubber on me. The worst! (Apologies to those who love it.) Also Bond No. 9 Nuits de Noho — ick. Couldn’t get it off fast enough.
Jill, I haven’t learned to truly love any of the Bonds yet. Chinatown and West Side were definite scrubbers for me.
Ooooh, I do love Chinatown (and thanks for the reminder as it’s one of my favorite fall scents!), but West Side got into sickeningly sweet territory for me the longer I wore it. Lots of ’em just don’t work for me either.
I hated West Side too, and Broadway Nite. My Nordstrom just got the line recently, so I finally have access to try others, but admit that I’m just not that interested.
Yeah, I couldn’t get into Le Parfum de Therese, either. Don’t see the appeal, but I love Une Fleur de Cassie, which a lot of people can’t stand.
Yep, I scrubbed LPdT too. Smelled like seafood casserole.
Oh, funny!!!
Oh good, it’s not just me! So many people loved it, but to me it was just spicy melon, like a canteloupe covered in L’Eau D’Issey Parfum in a Yankee Candle store. (I’m sorry to its’ fans, I usually adore everything Frederic Malle)
I hate long list): D&G Light Blue for her, D&G Pour Homme, D&G for Her (redcap),
Kouros,
Drakkar Noir,
Azzaro Pour Homme,
Eternity Pour Homme,
Kenzo Jungle Pour Homme,
Versace Fraîche,
CK One (but I like its “followers”),
Antaeus,
Allure Pour Homme,
Boss Bottled,
Animale Animale Man,
Burberry Weekend,
Dunhill Desire for Him,
Boss Orange for men,
Cool Water for men,
DKNY Men,
Very Irresistible Summer for men,
Opium for her (uuuugh),
Tommy Men,
Moschino I Love Love (it’s similar to Light Blue),
Montblanc Presence,
Laguna for men (Salvador Dalì)…
I feel even lighter now…
Have not tried most of these – but I don’t like CK One, either.
I think you would never like to do this… 😉
Right – and thanks to you, Moore, I now know to avoid! 🙂
What fun! There is so much variation here, as there should be. My main scrubber category is Stuff That’s Too Sweet. Honestly, most fruity florals and things with chocolate are huge fails for me. A few examples: Montale Sweet Oriental Dream, Missoni, Lutens Rahat Loukhoum, Micallef Mon Parfum, Angel, Lutens Louve. And – snobbish as this sounds – there are lots and lots of department store fragrances that I’ll never try because I know they fall into this category. Life is too short.
Oh god, Louve! I’d forgotten how repulsive that one is. I sampled it because somebody had mentioned that it was a dead ringer for the scent of that amazing almond Vidal Sassoon shampoo they made in the ’80s (anyone else remember that?). But no. It isn’t. It’s the smell of almonds being tortured to death by cotton candy. Shockingly bad.
Oh, I adored the smell of that shampoo!
Loved the VS shampoo… now I’ll have to retest Louve w/that in mind. Fortunately I didn’t get anything awful from it; it just wasn’t something I’d wear.
I loved that shampoo, too!
I was coming to the bottom of the thread to post about hating Louve… Death by Cough Syrup.
Just say no to wearing cherries.
Another lover of the VS shampoo here! I tested some Louve because it was a freebie, then put it away immediately. I had no interest in waiting for any improve- I meant, development…
With you all the way: life is too short…
Louve is one of the only samples I’ve ever straight up thrown in the trash. It was early in my perfume career — now I’d include it in a swap or something. But ugh, truly awful stuff, and I love the smell of almonds. Don’t mind sweet perfumes either.
My worst scrubber so far: Breath of God. Horrible, must be the breath of God as He’s about to punish me for some terrible sin I’ve commited…I agree about the Tauer Perfumes either working for you or not- I love Une Rose Chypre, L’Air Desert Marocain and have gotten compliments from strangers when wearing Orange Star, but Une Rose Vermeille was a scrubber for me as well as Reverie. By the way, love Mitsouko-first perfume I bought at age 20 or so!
LOL at “about to punish me for some terrible sin I’ve commited” — too funny!
Breath of God is very very weird, but I can’t stop sniffing it when I wear it. Had to get some.
Thierry Mulger- Angel.
I second the dislike of Angel. On others I can tolerate it but on me not so much.
I loathed Angel, but loved its “male” alter ego, A*Men. Amazing what replacing cassis with coffee will do.
Olenska, great point, I love A*Men!
I used to wear Angel, (lightly I hope!) but when I fell pregnant with my oldest daughter it became a vile bag of head shop chocolate that had been left in a plastic bag in the heat – it practically smothered me. I thought it was just a pregnancy thing but it’s never smelled good again. In fact after my youngest was born it smelled even worse. I finally rehomed it!
Funny. Angel is not a kind of fragrance that we should use when pregnant.
Ha! I tried “Angel” on the day it came out. I was in the elevator at I.Magnin’s with my mother, and kept thinking, “Who stinks in this elevator? Seriously! They stink!” Then it hit me. Yeah, it was me. I couldn’t get “Angel” off my skin fast enough. I *still* hate it, and can smell it on someone else from a mile away. *shudder*
Thierry Mugler -Angel. Read about it in the Luca Turin book and duly went to have a try. Oh Lord! Why did I put it on my skin?
The good thing is that it gave me confidence to think that we are all at liberty to have our own opinions. With all that experience behind you, it’s all still a matter of personal taste.
Parfum Nicolai also has a fair few scrubbers which are recommended in the book.
Love the term scrubbers (in British English is means a loose woman!)
Wow! Calling a woman a “scrubber” feels very rude! Like after you touch her you have to bathe! Eww! (not offended that you shared, mind you, just kinda grossed out by the usage!)
I never knew that! Too funny.
I agree, the world of perfume has helped me to really understand that we all have our own opinions, experiences and personal taste. In addition, to bolstering confidence to develop my own perfume voice.
How true!
Angel, agreed. Also Womanity.
Tresor! White Linen! Beautiful!
TM and EL are not my thing
This poll is reminding me that Angel is a total scrubber for me too!
It’s the cumin in Angel that’s the icing on my hate cake.
The icing on my hate cake. I cannot tell you how much I love this phrase. Thank you for it.
I don’t get on with any of the Lauder fragrances, either. On me, White Linen smells more like Mildewed Laundry (and I LIKE aldehydes).
The first time I smelled Womanity I thought: “Dirty socks smell”. Then I became habituated to it. It’s strange and interesting.
For me, it’s Apres l’Ondee. It’s not that I object to the smell so much, but it makes me feel unbearably sad. Usually, perfume cheers me up immensely: it has the most wonderful ability to brighten my mood even when I’m feeling pretty rotten.
But not Apres l’Ondee. Something about those anise-violet-iris notes just makes me want to burst into tears. It’s weird as hell. Has anyone else had a similar experience with a perfume?
So interesting! I have a similar reaction to Angeliques Sous La Pluie. I actually love it, but something about it makes me quite sad and I find it’s hard to wear for that reason.
I feel the same way.
There used to be a number of perfumes that I disliked because they smelled sad to me. They weren’t scrubbers; I just didn’t want to wear a perfume that smelled sad. I think Sinan was one of them. Also, I felt that way about Lolita Lempicka when it first came out, but tried it the other day and liked it, oddly enough.
Maybe that’s the same sensation I feel when I smell Opium for her.
Interesting, but I feel exactly the same about Apres L’Ondee. Sad, very sad.
I have that similar effect when I wear L’Heure Blue; I get a bitter taste in my mouth and the air around me weakens my bones feels of saddness and comfort at the same time..love the smell of it always have and always will… usually wear it when I’m alone listening to a soft sad violin.
I try to stay away from perfumes that I know contain notes that I dislike, but sometimes coming across them cannot be helped.
My very short list of scrubbers: the original Chloe, Penhaligon’s Bluebell and Night-scented Stock, TF Black Orchid. And that’s it! I’m pretty sure there must lots more out there, but…
Funny…Bluebell is so light, but it has some element that strikes me as “screechy” — I don’t like to smell it either.
thank god someone else agrees that tom ford black orchid is dreadful. it smells like dead rotting animal- sorry to be blunt. a friend came to visit for a weekend wearing it. very hard to survive and i love my friend!
That would be hard to have to survive a weekend of being around someone you care about wearing a perfume you hate. I cant imagine smelling Black Orchid all weekend. I couldnt take it for 5 mins.
Black Orchid was awful on me, too.
Real stinkers on me are
– Missoni
– Love in White
-Merveilles
I don’t think my nose will ever grow onto these.
OMG! Love in White smelled like bug spray on me. This thread is bringing back so many unpleasant memories!
Oops– into!
My rock-bottom is occupied by the one ‘n’ only Drakkar Noir. Normally the term “scrubber” applies only to perfumes one wants to scrub off oneself, but this one has put me perilously close to approaching total strangers with soap, washcloth and (if necessary) steel wool.
🙂
olenska, I can see where that could be a problem. 🙂
Oh yeah. I feel the same way about Light Blue.
Okay here goes:
Despite years if trying I simply can’t do No.5, it’s cat pee all the way on me. Also, Diorrsisimo, Dioressence , Miss Dior – I fact the only Diors I haven’t scrubbed are Dune and Addict (but only v sparingly ).
And, much as I adore Guerlain, I cannot abide Mitsouko. There I have said it. Whew, while I am at it, I scrubbed Après L’Ondee too.
Also Olene and Fracas- holy awfulness.
Apologies to those who love the above. You can blast my beloved Shalimar now if you need to! 🙂
Shalimar took a beating already, LOL…
I have a very small sample (1ML) of Vero Profumo Rubj EDP that is triple (quadruble?) bagged and stored in a box in the guest room closet under a pile of blankets. I don’t think I even had the nerve to spray it from the bottle. I don’t know what’s in there, but just the thought of having “more” of that anywhere near me gives me the skeevies. This one gets lots of love here and it makes me sad that I can’t even get close to put it on skin.
Most tuberose scents (Carnal Flower, I’m talking to you) also make me go a scrubbing. (The Mona di Orio Tuberose is really great! Love that one!)
Agent Provocateur was a blind purchase that I rehomed fairly recently. Wanted to love but went scrubbing every time. I know the new owner loves it, so I’m happy!
I did that with the first sample of Angel that ever came in the mail. Eventually found it could not be quarantined, and threw it away.
I store my Rubj sample in a plastic bag and a wooden box, for the same reasons. A lot of people love it, though.
Like me! Send me your unloved Rubj samples! I adore it!
It travels like a sledgehammer through tissue paper, though, I do admit. One cannot even apply it at work. Not even a fingertip dab. People come in from the next room – fortunately, at my workplace, to find out what smells so good, but still.
Oh, please, I must add my extreme dislike for Light Blue to the others! Hate it. (And own it, because it was a gift. It’s not allowed to rest in my perfume cabinet with the others–in case I die I don’t want anyone to think I actually liked it.) Additional hate for Jo Malone Lime Basil & Mandarin– smells like BO. But the most horrid scrubber I ever scrubbed was SMN “Frangipani.” That one ruined my whole week. It smelled of nursing home to me– like beef soup and urine.
Hahahahaha! Jaded Nose, I have some books like that. Seriously, it’s my fear that I’ll die unexpectedly and someone will find those books (they’re romance novels written by a lady I knew).
Wow – that is one I never want to smell. Just recently visiting my Grandma in her nursing home and I thought it smelled of gravy and urine – very close!
Does anyone remember Dior-Dune? What a nightmare.
Other impossible creations:
Moschino Cheap and Chic
YSL Saharienne and Opium
Womanity
Acqua di Gioia
Dior J’adore
Maitre parfumeur et gantier-Fleurs de comores
Bond no.9 Scent of peace (and others)
F. Malle- Une rose
There is one I love but it makes me soo sick: Lumiere noire pour homme by Kurkdjian
oh, I forgot about Gioia! Not a fan…
A couple of my old favorites in there. LOL 🙂
Jeux de Peau (gritty brown sugar so intense I can feel it between my teeth), Un Matin D’orage (screechy, astringent), Champagne de Bois (overbearing and sickly sweet), Havana Vanille (OH GOD I AM BEING SUFFOCATED BY VANILLA AND PLASTIC), Andrea Craft (pinesol served straight up), The Unicorn Spell (rotting green beans).
Ha, I’d totally forgotten about The Unicorn Spell, but now I remember the rotting green beans! Glad I wasn’t the only one who smelled that.
Just conversations about J de P have made me queasy. Someone finally sent me a sample and it was everything I thought it would be – in other words, really awful. Not a fan of butter in perfume.
Parfumerie Generale Cuir d’Iris.
“Cuir” indeed. With flesh still attached and decomposing. Something sweet layered over the top that’s supposed to keep you from noticing all that death. Ugh. Really awful.
Olive, that sounds like something out of a horror movie. Remind me not to try it. 🙂
Tribute Attar from Amouage killed me in a sec…
Tribute was pure ashtray to me. Yuk!
Same here–smoldering ash tray.
YES – nothing but something burnt and smoke (and not pleasant smelling smoke, such as that CBIH Burning Leaves scent). Had to scrub IMMEDIATELY!
Lmao! Trubite was pretty ashtray-ish…..and I still thought it was absolutely wonderful 😀 The really smoky note wore off fairly quickly on my skin and the rest was just this incredible leather and rose combo that made me swoon. I’m drooling just thinking about it.
Hmm…I’ve still got the sample. I might dare to try it again someday!
Just noticed that you dislike Bandit too which is easily one of my Top 10 favourites so we might have some slight evil scent twins thing here. Like you, though, I can’t bear Ubar and love me some Diorella so you never know.
Worst offender: Cuir Mauresque.
Comeback kid: Le Labo Another 13. Scrubber, and then seven hours later at night, I’m thinking what is that awful detergent smell? Another 13 gets its second wind. Another 13 stays in fabrics for days. Apparently it was limited? So I have kept my sample. Joke’s on me.
Why is this called Rose if it smells like B.O.?: Le Labo Rose 31
Gotta think of my most recent …
How about everything at most Estee Lauder counters? They don’t renew their testers after they’ve gone bad. Anyone have this problem? Doesn’t count as atrue scrubbers of course because it’s not the fragrance, it’s the tester.
Missoni testers are usually spoiled unless they’ve been out for under a year. IFF has a longevity issue IMO.
You’d think SAs would notice when testers go bad, but they nearly never do.
😉
The worst for me was Amarige harvest. It didn’t smell too bad on the card…but then I tried it on and drove home…I thought I would have to stop the car it was making me feel so ill. Also Sunflowers and Kim Kardashian…instant loathing.
I loved Sunflowers once upon a time! Can’t even remember now what it smelled like.
I made a mistake of testing Hanae Mori on skin – I think I remember it smelled like furniture polish on me, the recollection is hazy since I scrubbed with soap, washing up liquid, soap powder, nail varnish remover, deoderant, and finally alcohol pads, and something still lingered on. Ack!
Another scrubber was ELDO Jasmin et Cigarette, which started off beautifully, then after 20 minutes the cigarettes were there, but in a damp-ashtray-with-100-stubs-in-it kinda way. Blech!
Agree on JeC – liked it on a strip at a distance, but on skin the ashtray took over and the jasmin smelled increasingly harsh.
I am starting to think they’ve done something to jasmine in perfumes and are not ‘fessing up.
The jasmine in perfumes I have been wearing forever seems to be getting harsher to my nose.
Three that made me sick come to mind. Prada”s Infusion D’Iris was such a disappointment because it had such good reviews. But, I just couldn’t wait to scrub it off. Un Jardin Sur Le Nil, same response, but worse. And my mother’s Eau du Soir is absolutely terrible. I couldn’t stand to be in the same room with her when she wore it. I liked her better in My Sin.
My preferences are the oposite to yours. I like TOO much all you’ve mentioned, girl!
Ah, do you live in SC? I have some bottles for you. (-:
I live out of US, sorry. But thank you very much!!! Wich aspects you don’t like on each one?
Add another vote each for Angel and Womanity. I should probably just write the Thierry Muglers off, but the Alien scent strips aren’t bad. I may try it someday.
Belle d’Opium made me sick to my stomach. I guess that really should be at the top of the list.
JM White Jasmine and Mint was so sharp and screechy, almost sour – like nails on a chalkboard.
And finally (so sadly), Chamade. I keep trying, telling myself that I just don’t get it or that my nose isn’t developed enough. It isn’t working and someday I need to accept it.
Also sad is that this isn’t really a list of scrubbers – I can’t bring myself to scrub anything because I keep thinking it will get better as it develops, so I just punish myself until it fades. What a bizarre time to choose optimism!
Womanity, I didnt like the bottle or the juice.
I wish they had made an unissex or male frag with that bottle. :(. Maybe you’d like it better.
Alien EDP is good when applied far from skin, when it develops faster. Top notes can be too strong, cloying and headaching. Womanity is strange, but I like its strangeness; it’s easily that king of “Love or Hate” frag.
Has Belle D’Opium smell something in common to Opium? That bottle is really beautiful, but the name Opium doens’t sound exciting to me.
The girls at Guerlain in Paris tried go get me to like Chamade. I thought that it is was a bad White Linen copy, and tried not to hurt their feelings. One very nice thing about that shop was that you could buy body cream in Shalimar, which I used to steal from my cousins and still love.
Sadly all scents with dominant tuberose are scrubbers on me – including Joy, Fracas, and other scents everyone else loves. And Illuminum’s White Gardenia Petals, which by all counts I should have loved, smells like Right Guard or some other masculine deodorant on me. Skin chemistry is a mysterious and wonderful thing….
WGP was a scrubber for me too. And I usually love gardenias. I guess I couldn’t detect any here at all.
Adding Fracas to my scrubber list. Joy is still in the “might grow into” section
I share your unlove of tuberose. I really WANT to like it….
I had trouble w/it for a really long time, and still have trouble w/some tubey dominant scents… but I’ve found some that do work.
I <3 Mona di Orio Tuberose 🙂
Forgot to mention some on my list above:
Emporio Armani White He;
L’Eau D’Issey Intense (male);
Fahrenheit 32;
Lacoste Pour Homme.
I have so many scrubbers:
Shalimar, any formulation or concentration
Amouage Ubar
TDC Jasmin de Nuit
FM Une Fleur de Cassis
Chant d’Aromes
SIP Black Rosette
Secretion Magnifique
Angel
Womanity
Miss Dior
Diorella
Bandit
There are more, I just can’t think of them now.
I love this poll, I’m not offended at all. It’s funny!
I totally agree on several of these, like Ubar and Bandit, but love others such as Diorella and Shalimar. Fortunately, I haven’t tried SM and don’t plan to!
What interests me is that in discussions like this, the perfumes that get the greatest coverage are those old scoundrels: Poison, Opium, Obsession, Red Door, Amarige, Giorgio, and, from an earlier era, Youth Dew. Paloma Picasso and YSL’s Paris are others from that 1980s-ish era that people often hate. And then there are the big Lauders: White Linen, Azuree, and others.
Some of these have been mentioned today, but not as often as I would have expected. Maybe the NST readership is getting younger?
My scrubber? Flower by Kenzo. Cold bacon on aluminium frying pan.
Sorry, badly written first sentence: “What interests me is that in discussions like this, the perfumes that USUALLY get the greatest coverage are those old scoundrels … “
Hm, well see… those are so bad from afar, who lets them get to the point of scrubbing? 😀
Well, I was going to go post about Opium and Youth Dew…
Has Opium been reformulated? I used to love it in back in the day and now it doesn’t smell the same on me. Not a scrubber, just not something I want to wear!
Ah Youth Dew!! Thought I would like it since I like orientals, tried it on as I was leaving the mall and thought I was going to vomit in the car. COULD NOT GET IT OFF even after showering and was making myself ill!!
Ugh! There is nothing youthful about Youth Dew. Smells vile to me. I keep trying it thinking I must be missing something but it is always a scrubber. Yet it’s been around for years so someone must be buying it.
I had a very similar situation — my poor mother got the worst of it though… We were in the mall and I was killing time waiting for her so thought to myself excitedly: “I will finally try Youth Dew!” I dabbed tiny, tiny bit on my wrist and immediately wanted to get it off. Nothing worked. Its persistence was really incredibly. So cloying that I couldn’t appreciate any of its notes. So then my mum had to endure a car ride with me – she insisted on rolling down the windows!
Yes, I think Opium may have been re-formulated somewhat. I remember it being spoken of a little while ago. It might have been done around about the time that they altered the packaging, and that also may have co-incided with the release of Belle d’Opium. Not sure. But it seems like they might have taken the opportunity to freshen up the whole thing.
Uuugh. Opium = funeral wreath!!
Hah! Sometime ago a friend of mine told me: “If a woman wants to repel or part with a man it’s simple: she may just use Opium…”
Most recent scrubber: Chanel No. 19 Poudre dull and annoyingly horrible at the same time, a feat in itself.
Always scrubbers: Youth Dew, Beautiful, Angel, Amarige, Poison, Fracas, Chanel 18 (who wants to smell like herbal sourdough?) Dune, Yvresse, La Dolce Vita, Rive Gauche, Casmir, oh yes, from the list above Shalimar, Samsara, anything by Caron, and anything my husband’s previous lovers may have worn . . .!!
Ah yes! I almost forgot about No. 18. I really get the “herbal sourdough” comparison – for me it smelled like dill. A definite scrubber.
Most recent scrubber: Moschino Funny. Got a couple samples on eBay because of Luca’s recommendation…this is when I made the Goop waterless handcleaner discovery. I was that desperate. Shopping for Goop the other day at Lowes – they didn’t carry it, but the guy there said he used WD 40 to clean the gunk off his hands. Wonder if it would work as well for scent…
SOTD: Patchouli Patch. I think I like it better when it’s cold out
Well, since WD40 is oily, and most fragrance ingredients are oil soluble, it probably would work. Of course, you would then likely end up smelling like WD40, but that might be preferable to a bad perfume. 🙂
LOL – Patchouli Patch is a scrubber for me. Cannot abide.
Ok, so I’ve noticed that this topic has folk using especially descriptive language today! AND it inspired me to wax a little poetic. So, I cut and pasted some of my favorite descriptions (with a little creative license) into a sort of poem, and I thought I’d share!!!
******SCRUBBERS*******
It pains me to say it
It is shameful, but
Instant loathing
Those old scoundrels,
I scrubbed with soap, washing up liquid, soap powder
Nail varnish remover, deodorant,
Alcohol pads
And something lingered on. . .
Nursing home—like beef soup and urine
Gritty brown sugar I can feel between my teeth
Rotting green beans
Enchilada sauce and cat pee
(but I realized later that I dislike all fig fragrances)
It smelled like the operating table at the vet,
Grape gumballs and used ash tray.
Stale lemon candy
Menthol Cracker Jack
Goat cheese.
Like someone stabbing my brain with a sharp implement inserted through my nose
Rancid fat
Almond toilet bowl cleaner
Wet wool
Mushy pink tomatoes from the salad bar
Something sweet to keep you from noticing all that death
The ghost haunted me for the rest of the day, no matter how much I scrubbed.
An alternative to crawling out of my own skin.
It didn’t wash off. It doesn’t, ever. The only cure is time.
It pains me to say it
(what a bizarre time for optimism!)
I liked her better in My Sin.
Oh my gosh, this is horrible! Here, smell. . .
–Marjorie Rose 🙂
Genius !
🙂
🙂
Fabulous! You have made my morning. I now embark upon the grocery shopping with a light heart. I am not even going to WHISPER the name of the fragrance I am wearing. It is on someone’s list today.
So is my SOTD – and many of my other favorites!
Happy to make your day!
Oh how funny! Thanks, MJ!!!
I meant MR, not MJ!
Not a worry! I think MJ is a not-unheard-of nickname for Marjorie! Glad you like the poem!
GREAT!!!
Thanks!
This needs to be a permanent post in the “Resources” section!
Yes, please. I’d print it out, but the printer would copy all our comments and I’d have used enough paper to account for an entire tree. What fun this has been today.
Oh yes, I hate YSL’s Paris, also Nu and Bandit.
Oh, poor Nu. I love Nu!
Robin has my permission if she needs it! 🙂
***Applause***
😀
Sarcasm!! I love and hate it at the same time…
I’m happy to hear it, I think! 🙂
just had to google to see if there was actually a perfume called Sarcasm. What would the notes be if there were?
For sure some acid or caustic notes (citrus) and maybe some “black” ones…
I reckon it would be pretty similar to Eau du Soir…
Marjorie, it is amazing !!!
thank you
you will be the poet laureate of NST : )
Love this!! Thanks for sharing it!
And the end really captures that strange delight we sometimes have in absolutely hating something!
Wish I had the talent for poetry like yours!
Thanks for sharing.
OMG, loves it! This needs a permanent link.
LOL — excellent!!
That’s a keeper for sure! Great editing job!
I can’t take Habanita, does anyone feel the same?
Absolutely! I got sucked into the unsniffed buy based on leather? tobacco? naughtiness? and got amber baby powder. Curses!
All of these are either hideous or strongly unpleasant on me:
-Angel
-Womanity
-Encens et Bubblegum (get goosebumps remembering the horror)
-Secretions Magnifique (of course)
-Guerlain Vetiver
-Magie Noir
-Hillary Duff With Love
-Pink Sugar
-Byredo M/Ink
-Rive Gauche
-aromatics elixir (lovely on others)
-Lux
-Field notes from Paris
-Beautiful
-Pleasures
-White Linen
-Borneo
-Koubla Khan
-Carillon pour un ange (and I so love the name)
-Boss Orange for Women
-First (the original)
-Diorissimo (or whichever has all the LoV)
Pink Sugar is some nasty.
I love Diorissimo, though. It reminds me of spring.
I wanted to love Field Notes, I really did. But it rather than smokey Left Bank cafe, it was all old-fashioned barbershop on me.
There are many on my list that I wanted, and expect myself, to like. Magie Noir was one. But, no matter how I delighted in the name and concept, the rising nausea caused by the bitterness was hard to ignore! Maybe I want to be a witch – but cant help being a vanilla-baby…
As a relative newbie, and really naive, I tried some Dzing! and Dzonka and about died. I thought, oh my GOD, who would possibly want to smell like diseased, “soiled”dirt. I thought of flies, cholera, cow manure with hoof and mouth. I was non-plussed. Same with Tea for Two which smells like chewed Cohenhagen spat from a drunken bull rider. Oh, and Bvlgari Black. I thought, TIRES? Really? I thought I was just being unsophisticated in my taste; now I’ve just learned to accept what I like and what I don’t and it’s all personal and all OK.
This was fabulously fun to read, by the way. A good way to work on not taking things personally. I found at least 5 of my favorites that were skewered. Meh. As my mom said, “You lemon is always someone else’s peach.”
Except that I love lemon and cannot abide peach. 😀
HA! Well, I suppose one could say “Your peach is always someone else’s lemon.” Not a real peach fan myself, anyway…
Point proven!
I like your mother’s aphorism.
Me, too. That’s a good one to remember.
… and I like the smell of tires… 🙂
Tea for Two and Bulgari Black are two of my favorites, but I can’t wear them around my husband because he can’t abide them!!
I recently spritzed some Magie Noir at the perfume counter and was horrified at how vile and unrecognizable it was. I didn’t scrub as soon as I got home because at dry-down it brought me back to my old friend from 15 years ago. And I also remembered why I got rid of it. Although there’s still something i love in there, it’s too oppressive and makes me want to barf.
Jeux de peaux is evil caramel corn at a fair I stayed at WAY too long.
Really don’t care for JdP – you’re right, there’s something rancid or off about it.
JdP DOES smell like buttered toast – but not the way buttered toast smells when you are hungry and walking past. It smells like buttered toast right after you have binged on six slices already and now feel slightly ill!
Vraie Blonde smells like yeast on me, but I also cannot stand angel, dolce vita, coco mademoiselle, lipstick rose, gabotine, clinique happy and elixir, D&G feminine along with their signature scent Dolce e Gabbana, L’eau cheap and chic, and L’eau d’Issey. I am sure there are more, but all of the previous fragrances have managed to make me afraid!
Lancome Poeme and sadly SL Datura Noir- both make me headachy and nauseous. I think it may me the datura orchid that i find offensive. And i agree with the first few comments Light Blue phew!
SL Datura Noir – definitely stinky. Used dish soap to get rid of it.
Yeah, Lancome Poeme and Clinique Happy are real scrubbers.
D & G Light Blue for me – there are worse ones to be sure, but it’s EVERYWHERE. I find it both “hissy and pissy” and I can’t stand it!
I haven’t had very many scrubbers, but my most recent was Peau de Peche. I bought into a split and it was unsniffed. The peach was lovely, but the musk was not and went on forever. I keep saying I won’t buy any more splits without sampling first, but splits fill up so fast, there’s no time to order a sample and who knows when it will happen again. And I just bought into another split unsniffed. Fingers crossed!
There are plenty of perfumes I really can’t stand – Eternity and Obsession are the 2 most commons ones I smell out and about. And even though I once had a bottle of Chloe Narcisse, I now find it unbearable and someone in my office has just started wearing it.
I also had a bottle of L’Eau d’Issey back in the day, and now it makes me ill.
I am about to commit perfume heresy.
Chanel No. 5 makes me smell like I’ve been on a bourbon bender for a day or three. I can’t bear the stuff.
Marise, it has never worked for me either! And I have tried!
Sniffed No. 5 in Sephora and thought it smelled like the cakes of stuff they put in urinals…
Used to babysit for a woman who wore No.5 whenever they went out and it smelled great on her–on me–not so good!!
Lanvin Arpege Pour Homme – purchased for a friend and I tried it on because I’d had such success with Bvlgari Pour Homme working on my skin.
Verdict? Instant cat piss. EW. So gross.
But on the friend it was bought for, it worked really nicely. Just my skin chemistry turned it rancid on me.
Rochas Poupee – Horrid! My only failure in my buying unsniffed experiments. Reviews were interesting – it sounded quirky and fun but it was also like cat piss and floor cleaner on me. Made me queasy and I kept it on for way too long hoping that it would change or grow on me. Now I have a bottle I dont use. If anyone in Australia likes it I will happily post the box free of charge. Just get in touch with me on my blog Kitty’s Drawings (google it).
Also…Angel is vile. I’ve never worn it but an old workmate used to overdo it. She also bought the cheap nasty knock-off version for ‘top ups’ during the day…*gag* ugh!
I find Dior Addict extremely strong and it really projects – I know a lot of people hate it but for me it’s got an indescribable allure. I dont own it but I want to. Its intensely awesome.
For me Arpège works well…
That’s a new one on me: buying a knock-off as a ‘top up’ to the real thing. I think Angela did a post some time ago about knock-offs and I think if you can find one you like and can wear well, that’s great. But surely you either go one way or the other, not both!
I recently tried Creed White Flowers, which was screechy and detergent-like. Also, I don’t get the hype over White Gardenia Petals because all I get is the white musk, which also reminds me of a cleaning product. I love the new Saab Le Parfum, but it gives me a migraine. I’ve been trying to figure out which of the ingredient would do that because I’m not usually allergic to fragrance.
I tried Magie Noir once, more than 20 years ago. Cat pee. I had to scrub it off right there in the department store.
Burberry Weekend men’s scrubber for me .Starts out Cool Waterish(apple fougere) THEN after ten minutes it smells like you were in the airplane lavatory (doing number one) while wearing CW when the plane you are in experiences TURBULENCE .Ugh!
Weekend for men and Light Blue for woman should be extinguished!!! Fruity notes are so dangerous while making a fragrance…
sigh….this poll is going to be eleventy-zillion comments long before I even get a chance to read!
EdLO Secretions Gagnifique
SL Miel de Bois
Jicky
Shalibarf
Feminite de Bois
I’ll be back to say horrid things about them later 😉
LOL – I think we get your drift from some of the names!
…not subtle? 😉
but funny
LOL, have yet to try Jicky, but the rest are on my list, as well!
Hahahaha Joliefleurs, allow me to provide you with a preview:
Jicky = BAD BREATH ……I decanted 200ml of it one time…thought I was going to DIE….it got all over my fingers and would. not. wash. off.
Many thanks ; I just updated my spreadsheet sniff list with this warning, lest I forget in the future. 😉
So I guess Jicky shares the same characteric with its progeny – Shalimar? Funny that I love Jicky but can do without Shalimar.
a:)
Same here (as you know). 🙂
LOL!!!!
I’m so disappointed that my muse visited *BEFORE* I could include “Shalibarf” and “Secretions Gagnifique”!!!!!!
Insert them anywhere appropriate in the lines above!! : DDDDD
More scrubbers:
*I recently came across a large bottle of Balmain Ivoire for an extremely cheap price. Pheeeewwww! Strong white floral mixed with BO – not pretty! This is the trouble with buying things unsniffed from Winners.
*Tom Ford White Patchouli smelled just like wood glue to me.
I slowly began to appreciate TM Angel over the years – I can recall the first time I tested it I was utterly disgusted, and I felt self-conscious that those around me were cowering from my stench. By the time the Garden of Stars series came out I had learned to enjoy Angel – but the Peony Angel (or whatever it was called) was a whole new level of stinkitude.
*I once got a sample of DKNY Delicious Fresh Blossom free with a Sephora order. Instaheadache.
Gah! EVERY DKNY is an instant headache! An SA tried to give me some samples of that “delicious” line (and its spawn) —I practically shouted ” NO! ..er…I mean, no thank you….” she looked a little taken aback…
They actually smell good on my sister…but I can’t wear them. I got a mini of one w/100 Sephora pts though, and gave it to my wee one. She loves it of course. 😀
Yep, Black Orchid, modern Diorissimo, and perfumes with a particular, high-pitched whiny note to them: Mystere (which I would love if not for THAT note), Revlon Maroc, Azuree, and others I forget right now. Some people don’t seem to be repelled or are anosmic to it? I don’t know.
I usually don’t scrub, but whatever that chemical is makes me hold my arm far away. Occasionally I forget, bring my arm up and BAM! Nose assault.
Oh, gosh, the list is long!
Angel
Opium/Obsession/Youth Dew (they’re related in my mind)
Guerlain Insolence – seriously, had to scrub off and THROW THE SAMPLE AWAY. And take the trash out of the house, too.
Tubereuse Criminelle – I love me some tuberose, and once TC got there, it was great. I just couldn’t get over the rotting raw chicken in the topnotes.
SSS Vintage Rose
SL Louve
L’A La Chasse aux Papillons – and often other linden blossom scents do this to me – toilet cleaner.
Missoni
Joy
Chloe Narcisse (though I wore the original for a decade. YES, I dabbed, NO, I wasn’t the one asphyxiating you with it.)
Interesting! I couldn’t do Vintage Rose, either, though I *adore* Rose Musc and Velvet Rose.
Secretions Magnifiques
Angel
L Arte d Gucci
Most of SSS, ( though I recognize the quality of her scents!) due to that really sweet, strong musk
Guerlain in general doesn’t work for me, either.
And probably the worst for me, Kenzo Jungle L’Elephant.
Good God.
I am not even sure what about it makes me sick, but it did, literally.
I like a lot of SSS scents, but I think I am largely anosmic to the musks she uses. Egyptian Musk was almost scentless to my nose.
That is interesting, I seem to be the reverse of you. I also have a problem with many of the SSS scents, and Egyptian Musk was a scrubber on me. So maybe it is the SSS musk that is the issue. A pity, but that bit of knowledge is useful.
Champagne de Bois, as well as some of her newer scents like Incense Pure, don’t have musk.
Tauer Orange Star smells like Bayer children’s aspirin on me. The only other scrubber I remember is Iris Nobile. I made the mistake of spraying it on one wrist. I had to roll down the window of the taxi and stick my hand outside to keep from vomiting.
I used to love Bayer Children’s Aspirin!!
Me too!
Bandit was the worst … I sometimes re-sniff it when I’m in this one shop here that carries it, because I figure maybe my nose has become more sophisticated and will be able to appreciate it. Nope, still the nastiest thing ever.
A close second is A la Nuit. I love sitting by the jasmine at my local park on humid evenings, but A la Nuit was like that, multiplied by a million. Just overkill.
So am I the only one who HATES Chanel Chance??? Is there sth wrong with me?
There’s something on it that disturbes me although I don’t hate it. It’s just not my cup of tea…
Thanks!
It is interesting how Chanel has come off fairly lightly in today’s poll. Relatively few people seem to find scrubbers at the house of Chanel.
But yes, Chance & flankers would likely be scrubbers for me. I have never got past a vague spritz on to a blotter with any of them. And as I’ve usually disposed of the blotter before I’ve left the store, I can’t really remember what they smell like.
Coco Mademoiselle is completely unwearable for me, while not exactly being a scrubber.
I hate it because it so closely resembles but fails to be as good as Coco Mademoiselle.
I love Serge but MKK and Iris silver mist made me run to the shower with lemon juice.
LOL does the lemon juice work?
LOL it really does!
I get carsick whiffing Shalimar, raffinee, Oscar De La Renta and Vanderbilt. something in them smells the same to me, and I HATE it….viscerally. Jicky too, and most of the Estee Lauders smell chemically and vile. Those are not scrubbers however, only Avoiders. Except Youth Dew. get out the comet for that one.
Scrubbers are a special kind of bad because first they were deemed skin-worthy, but then something went terribly wrong. Bad frags (as an example, Midnight Poison for me) never become scrubbers because they don’t make it past the test strip. So scrubbers either betray the trust you had in them to spray them first on your skin unsniffed, or betray the promise they made by either smelling good on paper or by having yummy top notes.
A good point! It’s like the perfume-equivalent of a “frenemy.”
Excellent analysis! The scrubber is indeed a betrayal of trust and a waste of valuable arm real estate 🙂
Lucky me…I don’t get to scrub…I always sniff the lid first and if something smells eeeew to me….I simply don’t test it on the skin! Also my brain doesn’t hold to much negative stuff…so I forget the ones I would want to scrub! 🙂
The trap is when it smells good on paper or in the lid, and then does something All Wrong on skin.
I’ve been having fun with this thread, because I like so many of the popular scrubbers.
If anyone has an unloved bottle of Light Blue around send it my way – I do quite nicely in it. Love Angel (although mostly wear flankers), love Womanity, Poison, etc.
However, I have had a rough time with Francis Kurkdjian and his own house. One of his in the sample set smelled like dog urine on me and I can’t remember what it was so I am scared of all of them. Then I got some of the fabled, adored, Absolue Pour le Soir…. guuuuuck!!!! There is wearable skank, and then there is just outright nastiness, rotting, repellent.
I have a hard time with Shalibarf even though I keep trying. I WANT to like it. Mitsouko is lovely and So Not Me. Love l’Heure Bleue and Apres l’Ondee, though.
Can’t do Fracas. Keep trying. I have perfumes, like Shalimar, that I compare to bleu cheese – I keep trying to like it, but just can’t.
Tama, you’ll collect lots of LBs for sure!!… and the others you mentioned!
Hey Tama,
We could almost be scent twins! Fracas and I made peace this summer, but it took several attempts. She’s so high maintenance…I still don’t have the courage to take her out in public!
I gave away a bottle of Light Blue, but only becasue an evil ex-boss of mine wore it and it reminds me of her.
A lot of my faves are on some of the scrubbers lists here, but we’re an eclectic bunch, and it’s been fun reading what makes us all tick.
I have noticed that there’s not been a single negative comment about any of the Ormonde Jaynes (she says, snuggling into Tolu on one wrist and Orris Noir on the other, trying to decide next Birthday’s scent-present).
Orris Noir or Tolu? Hard choice! Do you already have OJ Woman; it’s my favorite so far!
I think I slightly prefer the spiciness of Orris Noir over Tolu, but I can imagine Tolu being just so comforting as the weather cools! I guess you can’t really go wrong, either way. Maybe she’ll have one of her 10 mL bottles of one as a free gift at the time you order the other? Best of both worlds! (That’s what I’m hoping for, anyway!)
I’m torn between Tolu, Woman, Orris Noir and Champaca. I’d love 10mls of each, that would be perfection 🙂
You’ve just inspired me to go try my sample of Champaca again. Sure love the Discovery Set! Wouldn’t it be lovely to have a larger version? We could select half the scents but get twice as much juice. . .a girl can dream. 🙂
Nice to see someone part of perfumanity who likes LB. 😀
I have a scrubber but one for a reason other than hate–in fact I love it–SPEZIE DE MEDICI. I sprayed it on my arm generoulsly in a nice Houston area place (Kuhl-Linscomb if you know it) and within a minute my entire arm was broken out in a bright red rash! I was just paralyzed watching it spread and the staff more or less rushed me back into their bathroom to help wash it off. Whatever is in there, I’m severely allergic to it. Too bad!
As far as other scrubbers, I can’t stand SL Ambre Sultan. It just smells like a humongous squirt of some ultra-potent bug spray/ Pine Sol concoction. Yech.
The one other true scrubber I can think of is Montale’s Chypre Vanille–Ew! nasty! A lof ot the other Montales are borderline in the too sweet territory, like Aoud Lime, but this one, it’s just got something nasty in it and the clash of the two aspects of the fragrance hits me like fingernails on a blackboard–makes me just cringe. Rushing for the Dawn detergent!
Allergic reactions are something quite different from ordinary scrubbers. According to the list of notes I found on Fragrantica, it includes cinnamon, clove, cardamom, ginger, and red pepper. Any one of those could be responsible, but I would tend to suspect the cinnamon, as cinnamon oil is a well-known contact allergen. I had a similar reaction many years ago to EL Cinnabar. Everywhere I put it my skin turned bright red. It didn’t blister or hurt, but I was afraid to try it again.
* Anything with a calone/marine note – makes me think some perfume creators have a completely different sense of the sea, which to me does smell wonderful! – but not in a so-called marine note!
* Clinique Happy and it’s flankers
* Opium – absolute horror, makes me want to run away crying; makes me depressed
* Tresor – my nose twitches and I feel a gag in my throat coming up
* Some of the Bond No.9’s – what were they thinking?
Is it possible to not tolerate a whole line? I have tried about 8 Smell Bent samples and there seems to be something in them that I just can’t tolerate.I hate all Clinique scents also. I’ve heard of Guerlainade but is this common with other lines?
This post has given me many things I need to sniff. I’ve never heard of Encens et Bubblegum ! Need to try L’A La Chase aux Papillons !!
With you wholehertedly on the Smell Bent, and I thought I was the only one who didn’t ‘get it’. 🙂
I think a number of perfume houses tend to have signatures among their perfumes. Chanel perfumes, for example, are supposed to share a common thread that makes them smell like Chanels. I believe it has something to do with iris. I find that nearly all of the Ormonde Jayne scents share a similar base, and several of the comments in this poll mentions similarities among the SSS scents. It seems to me to be most likely to happen when all the perfumes are the creations of a single perfumer (as with OJ and SSS). It makes sense that if the perfumer is fond of notes or accords which you do not like, you may indeed be averse to the entire line.
If all Chanels have a common iris note, then what in the name of all that is holy happened with Allure. I’m sitting here fighting the urge to throw my laptop to the floor in a frantic last ditch effort to scrub this vile concoction from my body before it kills me. Hope you all appreciate my valient efforts to stay the course so that my fellow perfumistas may be warned . . . . stay far far away . . . . . ack . . . . . crash . . . . .
I smell a similar musk in the base of the Smell Bents I’ve tried – and sometimes I like it, and sometimes it’s just Not Good on me. I have the same issue with Estee Lauder base: nauseating. Srsly, I thought Knowing was gorgeous for two hours, and then I narrowly escaped throwing up. There’s just *something* in there that hates me.
Definitely!
Many don’t work for me:
Serge Lutens ( don’t like the stewed fruit base most have)
SSS ( musk in the base)
Guerlain (Vanilla/anise base)
Smell Bent ( musk in the base)
Lancome ( have never been able to figure out what the note is that I don’t like, but all their scents seem to have it)
Chanel (except for 19, Coco and Coromandel, which don’t seem to have the aldehydes that I think are the reason I don’t generally like Chanel frgarances )
ELdO and Agent Provacateur have something very harsh in their base that I don’t care for, but I do like one or two from ELdO and I Emotionelle from AP.
1) Habanita (WORST OF ALL!)
2) Traversee Du Bosphore (this made me puke!)
3) Light Blue (wood polisher)
well here is my list,
The unicorn Spell smelled unpleasant
Havana Vanille (sorry I need to give it some time)
Anything Escada
Pink Sugar
I have learned to like–or tolerate, not love Secretions Magnifique at first I had to wash it off and it did not wash off a year later neh. I respect and keep my sample in a special place.
I’ve had a few scrubbers during my maybe 15 years as perfume obsessed. But in almost every case, I’ve tried the scent years later and then found it ok, or lovely. For me, the scrubber thing seems to be mostly about context – I dislike somebody who wears it, or it reminds me of a time or place I rather forget. Then, years on, that memory doesn’t have the same weight and I can see that Aromatics elixir or Lancome Miracle is pretty ok.
I don’t like Infusion de Iris at all, but the only scent I really, really dislike is M/Mink from Byredo. It’s the vilest thing I ever smelled. It’s like blood on ice and asphalt.
Slightly off-post, but the one thing I’m glad I didn’t scrub (mainly because I spritzed in a high-end department store and had nothing to scrub with) was …. Jicky.
20 minutes of ‘recoil-gag-sniff-recoil-gag-sniff’ settled into ‘OMG that is divine!’
If I could get past that first 20 minutes I would wear it more often, but the thought of riding out that poopy daiper wave is something I’m not brave enough to do more than once or twice in a lifetime!
I agree about Jicky. Also 31 Rue Cambon, it had the same effect for me: “Oh god I hate this get it off me DO NOT WANT.” Twenty minutes later: “OH WAIT YES I DO WANT. WANT VERY MUCH.”
Hypnotic Poison is the worst, the absolute worst ever. I’m scrubbing and scrubbing and thinking, “You have to go away NOW,” and Hypnotic Poison is saying, “Oh, I DON’T THINK SO, pal!”
It’s probably well-made, but that huge clump os sambac jasmine and bitter almond is just death on me. And I like lots of things that other people find unwearable, like Miel de Bois.
Almost too scared to admit it but I HATE SL fleur d’oranger on me! Its a mad cumin monster, but smells so beautiful on my best friend.
Also run from Light Blue, that generic calone note, and Chloe – which seems to be worn by every second woman in Sydney at present
I also hated ISM at first, but grew to love it.
That SL has been reformulated–I think–and is much, much smoother now.
Most recently it was Lavanila’s new Vanilla Blackberry… it smelled like a blackberry scented wood cleaning polish. It is the worst perfume I’ve smelled in 10 years. And of course it wouldn’t wash off, it left me grimacing all day!
The biggest all-time scrubber for me is Aromatics Elixer. I had smelled it on others and thought it was wonderful. I’d stopped them on the street to ask what they were wearing. Well, when I tried it, it literally made me so sick I had to vomit. Of course, I couldn’t scrub it off! I think it lasted for days. Months later, I smelled it on the sleeve of a jacket I must have had on when I tested it, and was sick all over again! I still like it on other people, though.
Last week, I got to test Elie Saab. I liked it for the first half hour or so, although I knew it wasn’t right for me. Then it morphed into a horrid plastic smell. The same thing happened to a friend who tried it. She loved it so much in the shop, she wanted to buy it. I told her to wait a couple of hours before buying. She’s glad she listened to me.
As much as I love many of the Montales, I have a sample here that I’ve tried three times (trying to give it a fair chance) and NEVER again! It’s Montale Pure Gold. Ugh! It makes me feel sick.
I’ve mentioned it before, but I HATE FM Une Rose! It smells like a men’s lavatory on my skin — a strong urine note.
Aromatics Elixir was a scrubber for me, literally washed it off. I kept trying it because the notes were right up my alley. Finally, last month, it smelled good & I’m wearing it right now. The first tester I sprayed from was aImost empty & I was wondering if the testers on the store counters could be “turned” by exposure to that harsh fluorescent lighting – they are in that lighting the whole time the store is open, day after day. Any ideas?
Yeah Elixir needs a long time to becomes a good fragrance. After 2 or 3 hours it turns into a wonderful scent!!
Bvlgari’s Omnia Crystalline was a big scrubber. I liked it in the store and actually bought the small spray of it. By the time I got home I was not sure that was a wise decision. I had tried other things that day too so I figured it was the combo of scents that wasn’t working. Tried the Bvlgari the next day and again it started off okay but then it brought me back to when I worked at an animal shelter and had to clean the cat room. Male un-neutered cat pee. Strong, pungent and the scent would not go away. Returned Omnia Crystalling to Sephora rather quickly. That was a first for me. On my skin though it was awful.
Not a fan of Aromatics Elixir either.
I remember liking and owning a bottle of EL Beautiful back in the day but I got a small spray in a coffret not too long ago and it’s now a scrubber for me. Either it has changed or my body chemistry has or my nose has but it is shockingly unpleasant.
For me it is YSL Paris. It arrived as an unexpected extra in a swap. My spouse pleaded with me not to open it, since we were already horrified by the smell seeping through the plastic vial. He held the door open for me as I carefully carried it to the compactor chute outside, then returned to scrub my hands while he opened all the windows. I just don’t understand YSL Paris.
I have tried to like Fracas, as I adore tuberose, but it just doesn’t work. I always feel a little ill when wearing it. So I’m giving it away.
And Poison.,,,,that is probably a good name for it in regards to me…it sends me over the edge.
I appreciate these compositions however as there is quite a lot to them…but holy smokes they sure don’t sit well on me. 🙂
We ought to collate this data to come up with the top 10 sinners!
Euphoria for men! Why did I even try it?
Really? For me it’s inoffensive…
*Collection Extraordinaire Muguet Blanc Van Cleef was a complete scrubber — only old Dioressimo works as a LotV;
*AP’s Passage d’Enfer was one of those pine scented car fresheners;
* I have yet to try a Tauer perfume I would ever want to even try again;
*Annick Goutal makes me sneeze.
Spleen vented — that’s better…
My best friend wears Annick Goutal Petite Cherie. It makes me sneeze every time! I can’t stand any Tauer enough to even try more than once. Thank goodness I now know I am not the crazy one.
My worst offenders are from uncle Serge, which pains me because he has so many fragrances that I love. However, MKK smells like the crotch of a mechanic’s coveralls after an August day in the garage, and Miel de Bois is death by cat pee on me. Come to think of it, I’ve never met a scent with a honey note in it that I have actually liked.
I second L’Air de Rien as being vile. Les Nez Manoumalia could choke a horse. And as much as I liked the idea of Black March, it was far too literal for me to appreciate. I don’t want to smell like a puddle of snowmelt.
Angel, Angel, Angel. I am afraid to try it again it was so awful. The strange thing is I like the notes.
Maybe you need to habituate to it, like me. You should use it on low doses.
Joy is a fragrance I love on everyone but I have to scrub it off, it’s a red hot mess and it gives me a terrible headache and nausea. I keep trying in different forms (edt/edp) but none seem to work.
Now Secretions Magnifique and M/Mink are both lovely woods and oud, so while it’s a scrubber for just about everyone else I know, they both are great for me.
Joy smells terrible on me too.
Agree with you on Joy! Can’t stand Joy, especially the new version!
For me-
Dyptique ‘s L’Ombre dans L’eau and Parfums MDCI Invasion Barbare- dastardly stuff !
Montale Pacthouli Leaves – OMG – kill me !
Sorry, I know it has a lot of lovers, but the biggest scrubbers for me are Angel and Womanity by TM. I wanted to like the Elie Saab, but it gives me a migraine, also Candy by Prada. And Ma Dame by JPG smells like cat urine on my skin.
CABOTINE. It took a while to kick in, but when it did, I thought I was dying.
Also couldn’t get rid of Estee Lauder Tuberose Gardenia fast enough, which was weird — I like tuberose scents and I happily wear a lot of other Lauders.
It’s FUN to read other people’s comments on their scrubbers.
To me, everything with a dominant Lily of the Valley, Tabaco or Inscence is definitly scrubber!
It’s pretty funny to see so many of my favorites on people’s scrubber lists…
As for me, I cannot abide the SL orange and lemon blossom scents, although those are notes I adore elsewhere. I have some trouble with SL in general. I can’t handle Estee Lauder scents, either, especially White Linen.
I’m lining up with those who dislike Womanity. I will avoid the whole shop aisle where the stuff is sold so as to ensure non contamination. Horrid synthetic sweetness. Unfortunately the only Tauer which works for me is the one which was discontinued – Orris – and I have only a drop left in a sample. But the WORST offender by far – Serge Noire. Kevin wrote such a funny review of that every word of which I heartily endorse.
As mentioned above, Tauer’s Reverie au Jardin made me sick – luckily it was only on my fingertips, although it took me weeks to get the smell out of my counter top. It was a very strong, sickly sweet, decay smell. Ether maybe?
Also had to scrub Byredo’s Pulp – fruit salad vomit.
I also hate Sunflowers, but have never allowed it on my skin. That nose singeing bitterness though shows up in other scents from time to time (although usually not as strong). Miss Kitty labeled it the Dreaded Sunflower Note, DSN for short.
I really can’t stand most of the modern musk bases, but that’s more in the category of things I won’t wear as opposed to hated scrubbers.
Agent Provocateur instantly made my nose completely clog up. Washing it off in the sink didn’t help–I had to take a shower and it still lingered for a bit afterwards.
Montale Velvet Flowers smelled soooooo horrible on me and again, it took numerous attempts at scrubbing before I could get rid of it.
I’m with you on Missoni – all I can smell on me is a fragranced dirty diaper….
My most recent scrubber is Estee Lauder Knowing. From the notes I thought I would love it. So I gave it a spray in Nordstrom. I could not wash it off, even using Boraxo powdered handsoap.
D&G Light Blue and Tresor smell vile to me on any/everyone. On my skin, many aldehydes quickly turn to eau de cheap hairspray, including Chanel #5 and Arpege.
Cuba by C&S. Holy cow I didn’t know you could bottle old man mouth. Unnghghg.
Pleasures by Estee Lauder is my all time scrubber. It is deeply unpleasant, sharp and eyewatering, on skin and paper. My nose can’t understand why it is on the shelves for public consumption. To maintain balance I do love Youth Dew and Amber Ylang Ylang.
I loathe Black Orchid and her sister Voile De Fleur. No balance possible here as they have scared me off the whole TF line.
My worst unsniffed purchase was La Maroc pour Elle by Andy Tauer. Lovely on paper, turned into 40 sweaty hippies in a headshop on me. Balance maintained by Une Rose Chypree which I love.
Fracas is a scary poisonous pink cloud. I hate the top notes of Bandit but the middle and drydown are gorgeous powdery leather
I don’t get Mitsouko at all. In fact I couldn’t believe how awful it smelled when I sampled the extrait and let it develop for a couple of hours. The Guerlain SA was refreshingly honest and said that she couldn’t bear it either. I later bought, and still love, her recommendation for me, Apres L’Ondee.
.OOOH I do feel better after venting! .
Sorry if I have been rude about your fave.
oooh i had been lusting…do u hear me??? lusting after Narciso Rodriguez Essence Eau de Musc. After i finally got it…OMG. I couldn’t get it off fast enough….gave it to my daughter and can u believe it smells just like i wanted it to…..???? Waaaaaaah : {
that is so sad! I had the same problem with The Smell of Weather Turning. Loved it on everyone else; it was horrible on me! It’s just not fair.
Also, I cannot stand Clinique “Happy” in any of its iterations. Or “Fracas.” And the first time I ever came across a scrubber was with my mother and “Poison,” which she just LOATHED. I came home from Paris with a bottle of “Poison” for my mother, and I still remember her face, as she tried to look enthusiastic. We still laugh about it.
One Christmas several years ago, my husband gave me a bottle of Chanel’s Allure Sensuelle. Initially, I was thrilled, I had tried it on in the store and loved it. However, after my first wearing, I realized it just SAT on my skin, never evolved, smelled cheaper and cheaper minute by minute, and became increasingly overwhelming. I tried it a few more times in smaller doses and then relegated it to a bathroom air freshener. I love Chanel cosmetics, but I don’t think it’s my house perfume-wise. Give me Uncle Serge, Hermes, Bond St. No. 9 Chinatown, Guerlain…