Perfume and fragrance chat

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I am such a perfume whore. I have, unfortunately, expensive tastes and can only afford re-bottles of most of it. Tom Ford, Hermes, Guerlaine you name it. I have an entire hanging mirror thing just packed full of perfume. Sometimes samples, mega samples and rebottles along with regular perfumes.

I signed up on something and every 2 or so months I get a bunch of samples from Macy's.

Tom Ford Rose Prick and Lost Cherry and Bitter Peach are so amazing.
Have you looked into clone houses? A lot are really close!
 
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Ah, my Kiwi frens in scent! I have at least 50 full bottles and hundreds of decants. I’ve had many favorites over the years. Currently, it’s hotter here than in Kuwait so I’ve returned to the old favorite Light Blue, that or Tom Ford’s Neroli Portofino. Have you ever hear of Cologne 4711? It’s about 12 bucks for like a gallon and you can totally splash it on after a shower, full cupped hands. The scent will not linger much, just leave a nice skin scent, and then you can put on your favorite cool weather frag- or not. I’ve been using that since 12. Tom Ford stole the notes for Neroli Portofino. ;).

Another nice frag for summer is Under the Lemon tree by Replica. I think it was Light Blue they were trying to rep but they missed that crisp apple juicy note that’s made it perfect for summer for years. It’s more cedar, very nice.

Another nice summer choice is Mui Miu L’eu Bleue, a very light aquatic scent that isn’t overpowering.

I usually start cooler weather with Replica’s by the Fire. That one is beautiful-you can smell the embers of the Fire, marshmallows being burnt. Yum. I like Guerlains Mon Guerlain. Very interesting mix of lavender with vanilla it’s been my go-to since it came out.

Christmas time is always Hermes Elixir des Merveleilles. Comforting cozy orange.

I have so many others.. I went through a rose period and now I don’t like rose. I went though a white flower phase and still like them but they are out of fashion and too strong for most.

My favorite men’s fragrance is Hermes Eau de Gentiane Blanc. I love it so much I bought myself a bottle. I put it on and try to convince myself it’s feminine but it’s not. Can’t get my husband in it. They no longer make it so my bottle is precious.

I have so many decants but I was sad to learn they are not always the same. I had several Santal 33 samples and kept trying it but it stunk like pickles and I had to scrub it off. Then I was gifted a bottle and it was an entirely different experience and now I love it, years after everybody was wearing it. I think spraying vs daubing makes the experience different.

For those who say your fragrance doesn’t last, it may be low performer but you also might become nose blind. Check to make sure others can smell it before redoing. But back in the day I used to tuck cotton balls with my lightweight fragrance on it in my bra.
 
@xXRosalinaFanXx definitely not, I actually absorb scent. I smoke (off and on) and unless someone sees me with a cigarette no one believes I smoke. Most perfume disappears pretty quickly on me and I have to do several sprays to even really notice it BUT Tom Ford lasts all day with one spray for me. Especially Lost Cherry.

I don't know which perfume it was but one time I got an alarming case of Photoallegeric dermatitis. I had big blisters all over my neck and chest. very embarrassing.
 
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Thank you for your help guys! I just ordered a bunch of samples. I'm planning on spending an evening or two with my gf testing them all to see what we like/don't. Most of it is small 1/2ml or 1ml samplers but I'm sure that will be enough to get an idea on what I'd like to have full bottles of. I got some more feminine fragrances too in case we find some she may like for herself.

  • Aedes de Venustas Corfu Kumquat
  • Aedes de Venustas Signature
  • Creed Aventus
  • Creed Millesime Imperial (current)
  • Creed Silver Mountain Water
  • D.S. & Durga Bowmakers
  • D.S. & Durga Cowboy Grass
  • D.S. & Durga Debaser
  • Dior Eau Sauvage
  • Diptyque Philosykos EDT
  • Hermes Eau D'Orange Verte
  • Hermes Terre D'Hermes Parfum
  • Lalique Encre Noir Pour Homme EDT
  • Le Labo Santal 33
  • Louis Vuitton Imagination
  • Maison Martin Margiela Replica By The Fireplace
  • Maison Martin Margiela Replica Whispers in the Library
  • Montale Black Aoud Intense
  • Tom Ford Lost Cherry
  • Tom Ford Neroli Portofino
  • Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille
  • Yves Saint Laurent Kouros EDT
  • Yves Saint Laurent L'Homme
  • Zoologist Bee
  • Zoologist Squid

By the way @Ninon42, The Perfumed Court went on vacation while I was in the middle of picking items so I ended up ordering from Surrender to Chance. It's insane how many options on these decant sites have.
 
Thank you for your help guys! I just ordered a bunch of samples. I'm planning on spending an evening or two with my gf testing them all to see what we like/don't. Most of it is small 1/2ml or 1ml samplers but I'm sure that will be enough to get an idea on what I'd like to have full bottles of. I got some more feminine fragrances too in case we find some she may like for herself.

  • Aedes de Venustas Corfu Kumquat
  • Aedes de Venustas Signature
  • Creed Aventus
  • Creed Millesime Imperial (current)
  • Creed Silver Mountain Water
  • D.S. & Durga Bowmakers
  • D.S. & Durga Cowboy Grass
  • D.S. & Durga Debaser
  • Dior Eau Sauvage
  • Diptyque Philosykos EDT
  • Hermes Eau D'Orange Verte
  • Hermes Terre D'Hermes Parfum
  • Lalique Encre Noir Pour Homme EDT
  • Le Labo Santal 33
  • Louis Vuitton Imagination
  • Maison Martin Margiela Replica By The Fireplace
  • Maison Martin Margiela Replica Whispers in the Library
  • Montale Black Aoud Intense
  • Tom Ford Lost Cherry
  • Tom Ford Neroli Portofino
  • Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille
  • Yves Saint Laurent Kouros EDT
  • Yves Saint Laurent L'Homme
  • Zoologist Bee
  • Zoologist Squid

By the way @Ninon42, The Perfumed Court went on vacation while I was in the middle of picking items so I ended up ordering from Surrender to Chance. It's insane how many options on these decant sites have.
You picked a great selection and StC are a very reputable decanter! My usual process for new frags is try a <1 mL sample at least 3x on skin (unless it's a total scrubber), then get a 5-10 mL decant and only then if I still like it AND know I will wear it enough to justify the cost do I buy an actual full bottle. ScentSplit is also pretty good, LuckyScent has a good selection but is expensive and takes forever to ship from LA, I really like Indigo Perfumery because they include a random sample in every order and have interesting niche brands. For the Euros, Aus Liebe zum Duft is an excellent source of samples and I recommend them highly. I ordered a sample set from them which got massively delayed in the post and they replaced it, no questions asked, when I simply emailed them and asked them to inquire about its status.

Let us know what scents work for you after testing!
 
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This is my favorite scent in the world. A friend of mine has a 3ml bottle and lets me use some from time to time. It has an insane sillage, I can tell when she’s wearing it just by walking into the same room. Had a dab on my wrists underneath a jacket once and could smell it on the cuffs for weeks. I go crazy for this stuff. Notes are sandalwood, vanilla, and “unisex fragrance.”

The big issue: you can only get it in India. No international shipping. Friend got hers as a gift from a relative abroad years ago and protects it with her life. I’m desperate. One of my supervisors at work is from India and I’m just short of falling to my knees at his feet and coughing up absurd amounts of money to have his wife back home send me a bottle.
There is a possibility you may be able to get this in an Indian/Middle Eastern/South Asian speciality perfume store. I’ve seen them in NYC and I’m sure they exist elsewhere, too. (Same with gold: Indian/Middle Eastern/South Asian gold is always high karat and significantly less expensive than the typical 14k used in jewelry here in the U.S.)

I have a decent collection of around 30 full-size bottles and loads of smaller bottles that I mix. I do try to break out of my favorite Spicy Wood family, but I’m very picky about florals and I don’t like citrus. I’ve been to Bond No 9 on Bond Street in NYC and fell in love with NoMad, but the bottle is way too big and expensive at over $400, so that one continues to be my holy grail. My OG was Chanel Mademoiselle, but then other women would wear it without touching it up and I felt like I was always surrounded by the smell of stale Chanel, so I stopped wearing it and moved to Hanai Mori’s Butterfly, which is still one of my favorite summer scents. I have five Jo Malones, a Tocca, my mom’s Chanel No 5, a Tom Ford, and a lot of perfumes from newer brands like Phlur. I am still meaning to pick up a bottle of Poison at some point, but it’s another Spicy Wood and I already have so many. I like to group mine by season and time of day, so that’s how I think of them; I save the vetiver for spring and summer, for instance.

In one of the Strike novels by J.K. Rowling, there is a very autistic discussion of perfume that I enjoyed. Robin, the female protagonist, hates Flowerbomb because the woman her husband cheats on her with wears it and she smells it in her marital bed after he fucks her in it. Robin buys herself an obscure French tuberose perfume and, after the first time she wears it, Strike perks up a bit and notices she smells really good. Villanelle from Killing Eve also collects perfumes and got her name off her favorite perfume. I don’t know of any other pop culture examples of fragrance autism; I feel like there should be more, but fragrance doesn’t get as much attention amongst fashionistas as shoes and handbags.
 
Quoting my post from the dead thread in General Discussion:
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It's been my fragrance for years, inexpensive at 35€ per bottle, pleasant and subtle smell. In the past i used "Xeryus Rouge" by Givenchy and "Fahrenheit" by Dior but the last time i tested them out at the store they weren't as pleasant to me as they used to be. The price is also more than i like to spend on luxuries nowadays. "Night Flyer" by Versace is another one i used for years but that one seems to be "out of print", maybe i am misremembering the name, can't find anything on Google.
Also, people who bathe in cologne need to be shot, if i can smell you from two blocks away you used too much.

Girlfriend likes the Number 5 and Coco but i think they're both too heavy. I hate the original Opium with a passion, shit's almost oppressive. I bought her Gucci Gardenia, it's very pleasant.

That's a really nice one i thought about buying before.
It's actually Gucci Flora - Gorgeous Gardenia that i bought for my GF. Can recommend.
jeremy fragrance should fucking kill himself.
I only saw a couple of clips of him on other peoples phones but i think dude is hilarious, his persona can get grating though. Definitely is doing too much coke.
 
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I love gourmand scents, especially vanilla.
Hypnotic Poison by Dior is my favorite fragrance of all time.
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I also like Viktor & Rolf Bonbon, I don’t usually gravitate towards floral scents but Flowerbomb smells nice too.
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Hypnotic Poison is great-- I love wearing it on Fall and Winter nights when I'm out at a restaurant. Might sound weird, but I think it's a perfume that compliments the other food smells in a restaurant, haha.

I actually have liked all of the Dior Poisons I've tried. Pure Poison is SUCH a great white floral. It's a floral scent that I specifically love to wear in the winter for some reason. Even though it smells like flowers, it invokes snow and ice to my nose.

The OG Poison is 80's glam in a bottle. I used up my bottle years ago, but I LOVED wearing it for Spooky Season. Very witchy and gothic scent, in my opinion.
 
Hypnotic Poison is great-- I love wearing it on Fall and Winter nights when I'm out at a restaurant. Might sound weird, but I think it's a perfume that compliments the other food smells in a restaurant, haha.

I actually have liked all of the Dior Poisons I've tried. Pure Poison is SUCH a great white floral. It's a floral scent that I specifically love to wear in the winter for some reason. Even though it smells like flowers, it invokes snow and ice to my nose.

The OG Poison is 80's glam in a bottle. I used up my bottle years ago, but I LOVED wearing it for Spooky Season. Very witchy and gothic scent, in my opinion.
I tried the esprit of Poison and that one smelled like a urinal cake, imo. Very cloying, but maybe other formulations are less so.

Is it the almond note in Hypnotic Poison that grabs you? I remember it having a noticeable almond note.
 
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I am a scent junkie for perfumes so when I came across this thread, I got pretty happy over it. Everyone has some pretty nice fragrance on here so I'm going to share my latest haul of smell goods.

If anyone was dying to try Sucreabeille, I have recently shilled out 40 bucks to try their samples (which is too fucking much in my honest opinion for penny sized samples but it's fancy perfume I guess). I have 5 samples along with a freebie;

Glittertrash [Watermelon Blow-Pops, baby powder, fistfulls of sticky white cake, last night's champagne and coconut cream.]: Personally, I can only smell the baby powder, cake and coconut cream with a faint smell of the watermelon. I put this one on this morning and it got stronger being on my skin. It's still overpowered by the baby powder smell a little but I recommend it if you enjoy watermelon and baby powder smells that aren't saturated too much with other smells.

Memento Mori [Incense, graveyard dirt and suede. Resins of dragon's blood and benzoin. Indian sandalwood and elemi essential oil. Amber, Egyptian musk and smoke, and our blood accord.]:
This smell is a hit or miss for some. It's very musky and has a strange mix to its smell. The best I can compare this to is petrichor (The scent of fresh, warm rain after a long period of dry weather).

Attempted Murder [A misty forest thick with oakmoss and the scent of bonfires. Cypress, suede, and osmanthus.]:
It's about the same as Memento Mori but with less musky smell and more of a green smell. Compare it to a community greenhouse during warm rain with the smell.

Goth as Fuck [totally unapologetic haunted cathedral. Rich, dark resins, thick incense, beeswax candles, frankincense and myrrh. Cool stone floors and cloves, red musk and sassafras. Clary sage and wormwood. Guaiac wood and patchouli, and a whisper of black jasmine.]:
This one is my personal favorite despite the name. I wanted a smell that wasn't extremely floral or musky but still wanted a good in between blend that complimented itself without sucking. This one has won that vote of being the best smell I've has in the sample. If you are interested in a good combo of smells, I highly recommend this one. It's a more feminine smell, however.

Call your dad, You are in a cult [Flannel, Sedona trees, bergamot tea, snickerdoodle cookies]:
This one was interesting. It had a Christmas smell to it with the cookies but had a comforting smell of the flannel. It wasn't bad but it does smell like it will turn into a zucchini bread smell.

Water [Sweetgrass growing along the banks of a crystal clear river with a hint of wintergreen in the air.]:
Quite literally smells like being at the pool during the summer time and enjoying the warm sun while you sit on the poolside.
Although it does have a good sentiment, Its not my favorite out of all. This one was my least favorite of the samples.

TDLR;
Sucreabeille is expensive for its products that have a hit or miss type of fragrance. If you have the money to shill out for the samples, Its the best you can do without spending the 240$ on big bottles of a small you wouldn't like. Still very expensive and probably not worth spending unless you really want to or have the money. All in all, Nice smells. Sorry for the long post.
 
I tried the esprit of Poison and that one smelled like a urinal cake, imo. Very cloying, but maybe other formulations are less so.

Is it the almond note in Hypnotic Poison that grabs you? I remember it having a noticeable almond note.

I haven't tried the Poison Esprit de Parfum. According to Fragrantica, it smells more like the original formulation of Dior Poison but on steroids?

I've only tried the more modern formulation, which has a strong tuberose note in it.

And yeah, I really like that creamy almond note in Hypnotic Poison. Some people who don't like Hypnotic Poison say that it comes off smelling like Play-Doh though, lol.
 
I haven't tried the Poison Esprit de Parfum. According to Fragrantica, it smells more like the original formulation of Dior Poison but on steroids?

I've only tried the more modern formulation, which has a strong tuberose note in it.

And yeah, I really like that creamy almond note in Hypnotic Poison. Some people who don't like Hypnotic Poison say that it comes off smelling like Play-Doh though, lol.
Anyone who doesn't like Poison on Fragrantica gets downvoted to the point where their comment disappears. I stopped paying attention to their opinions because of that, tbh.

Yeah I've heard that complaint about Play-Doh with Hypnotic. I can't remember if I liked it or was neutral on it, but I liked Pure Poison. Nowadays I mostly buy indies and niches, though.

If anyone was dying to try Sucreabeille, I have recently shilled out 40 bucks to try their samples (which is too fucking much in my honest opinion for penny sized samples but it's fancy perfume I guess). I have 5 samples along with a freebie;
Suc is absolutely overpriced for the quality. They've had possible sanitation issues in the past, iirc; like letting the cat near the perfume ingredients and the notes the owner takes, so you could be getting cat hair in your perfumes.

IMO you'd be better off with a brand like Sorcereille (probably spelled that wrong), Damask Haus, or Astrid for those kinds of things. I like Nocturne Alchemy's vanillas, but it takes a while to figure out what everything smells like.

If you're specifically looking for perfume sprayers and not oils, you could try something from Fantome.
 
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Anyone who doesn't like Poison on Fragrantica gets downvoted to the point where their comment disappears. I stopped paying attention to their opinions because of that, tbh.

Yeah I've heard that complaint about Play-Doh with Hypnotic.


Suc is absolutely overpriced for the quality. Nocturne Alchemy has better blended stuff and it's about 12 dollars for a 2ml sample.

Poison is definitely not for everyone. I get it. Even though I enjoyed the bottle that I had, I wore it for specific occasions and I'm not in a rush to buy it again. It's one of those things that I'm glad I "experienced" once, but I'm into trying out new stuff plus new favorites happen all of the time.
 
Not a fragrance, but it's related. Has anyone else tried crystal/Thai deodorant? It uses Potasium alum salt instead of out and out aluminum. It kills the bacteria that causes BO so you'll just smell like yourself. Fuck Cobes' pheromone deodorant, this is the real sex stick. Jokes aside, it rules. The only downside for the ladies is that if you use a manual razor it will sting too much (salt based) so you have to skin-shave with a oneblade. For guys it's perfect. Won't fuck up your applied scent with Old Spice undertones. Oh, and it's best applied fresh out of the shower since it's (again) salt, so you need something to get it onto your skin with. I haven't been through a full stick yet but it's literally a salt rock so I assume it lasts longer than regular deodorant.
Word of caution, if you wear aluminum deodorant every day you'll smell like shit for about a week while your pores release all the bacteria in there. Afterwords tho? Pure eau de human.

To keep it fully on topic I use Montblanc Legend Spirit & Dunhill Icon Racing for a daytime and Tom Ford Ombre Leather for an event/date night. The Montblanc clears the Dunhill any day of the week but I like to mix it up, and the Tom Ford smells glorious in general but it's too small of a bottle and too sexed up for a daily. Any other recs that may beat those for a guy?
 
Not a fragrance, but it's related. Has anyone else tried crystal/Thai deodorant? It uses Potasium alum salt instead of out and out aluminum. It kills the bacteria that causes BO so you'll just smell like yourself. Fuck Cobes' pheromone deodorant, this is the real sex stick. Jokes aside, it rules. The only downside for the ladies is that if you use a manual razor it will sting too much (salt based) so you have to skin-shave with a oneblade. For guys it's perfect. Won't fuck up your applied scent with Old Spice undertones. Oh, and it's best applied fresh out of the shower since it's (again) salt, so you need something to get it onto your skin with. I haven't been through a full stick yet but it's literally a salt rock so I assume it lasts longer than regular deodorant.
Word of caution, if you wear aluminum deodorant every day you'll smell like shit for about a week while your pores release all the bacteria in there. Afterwords tho? Pure eau de human.

To keep it fully on topic I use Montblanc Legend Spirit & Dunhill Icon Racing for a daytime and Tom Ford Ombre Leather for an event/date night. The Montblanc clears the Dunhill any day of the week but I like to mix it up, and the Tom Ford smells glorious in general but it's too small of a bottle and too sexed up for a daily. Any other recs that may beat those for a guy?
I use the spray version of Thai crystal. I feel like it's too easy to screw up with the roll-on; if you get stinky midway through the day, you can't use the roll-on because the stink will transfer to the stone and you will NEVER get it off. I never really had any "detox" reaction to it, even when I first started using it. I'm skeptical that's really a thing, to be honest. Even with shampoo bars, going to them from bottle shampoo never gave me such an issue; it was usually only the scam shit like trying to pass off bar soap as a shampoo bar that would do it. Shampoo is supposed to have a different pH from bodywash, so that's why they're not typically used interchangeably.

Some of the alum salts work better than others, ime. There's one brand that doesn't do diddly shit, but Thai crystal works like a dream for me.

I like Montblanc Starwalker. :3 I haven't tried it in a while, though. Now I wanna.
 
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