Repulsive perfumes

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I like natural fragrances, like the scent of lavender, some essential oils etc. But for some reason artificial scents like in washing powder and perfumes make me want to gag. They really unsettle me. What's that all about?

YABU - I smell gorgeous when I put three cups of fabric softener in the machine, and adorn myself with a bath of duty-free spoils.

YANBU - People overdo fragrances, they are tacky and make me want to gag too.

Anything containing Oud.
I can smell it for hours afterwards. 🤢🤢🤢

Hello, niece 😂 Sorry. (Not really.)

I don’t know anyone in real life who detests laundry detergent smells so viscerally but mumsnet is chock full of them.

My DM used to wear Aromatics Elixir. Why on earth would anyone pay to smell like that?

I used to love Jo Malone Pomegranate Noir, but it (and coffee) was a trigger for morning sickness when I got pregnant with DS. Even now I have to walk past the shop quick and still get a bit boaky.

But my biggest treat is Farmacia Santa Maria Novella fragrance. I have never met one I didn’t like, current fav is L’Iris. I slather it on and pretend I’m a Medici! 😁

My primary school age son isn't on MN but I took a tshirt I got for him from Vinted on holiday with us before I had a chance to wash it myself... he was really repelled by the smell of another person's detergent!

I use the most neutral smelling laundry stuff I can - it still smells but I quite like it. But any Vinted/ebay/charity shop clothes always smell really strongly to me of overpowering unpleasant laundry detergent scents!

We never used fabric softener because of cost and also because there were skin issues in the house so the less used the better but I like any of the non tropical smelling ones and always wish we could use them

Gucci rush.

I used to love it as a teen but my colleague has started wearing it and it's overpoweringly repulsive. I think it transports me very quickly back to an age of awkward teen-dom too, so has quite a visceral effect on me!

Oh yeah and whatever the fabric conditioner is that seems to seep into the clothes I buy on vinted. It maybe smelt nice once, but it hums and isn't easily washed out!

Oh it saddens me that Poison makes so many people gag. I used to love it! That and Opium, and Chanel Coco. They all remind me of my mother kissing me good night when she was going out of an evening in the 80s. Good dose of cigarette smoke in there for good measure.

I hate most detergent / fabric softener smells, but air freshener smells are the absolute worst.

And I have a dear friend whose house I can’t bear to be in because it stinks of a mixture of weed, wet dog, and about a thousand scented candles of varying fragrances. It makes my head hurt, and I can’t eat or drink anything she offers me because all my senses are so mangled and shocked.

She also has this weird idea that the best way to combat her son’s BO is to douse him in patchouli oil, with the result that he has a reputation for being the smelly kid at school ☹️

I've loved Paloma Picasso since the 80s, you have to spray very very sparingly though.

I've been wearing Knowing by Estee Lauder recently, it's brilliant and complex. I did have the OG Poison but I just don't get on with any Dior.

I've only just started to respect Chanel no 5, I'm suddenly old 🤣

Agreed, it's, completely mumsnet to be so insulted by others perfumes....

I use comfort pure heaven scent which is really nice and gentle. Not a massively strong scent but enough I notice if I haven’t used it

I wear perfume every day, have a huge collection. Love wax melts and candles and reed diffusers (hate air fresheners though especially the ones that randomly spray!)
out and about I never smell perfume. Body odour, bad breath, musty clothes, weed but never perfume

once on a staff member in hospital and that’s it, I asked what it was and we had a nice perfume chat at 1am as I couldn’t sleep!

So true
the drama
I love all sorts of OTT perfumes
I accept other people’s choices
nothing offends me

such strong reactions

I bloody love perfume including baccarat and even fracas

Gosh, @VoltaireMittyDream, I was your mother's olfactory twin!

I still smell of Coco and fag smoke: I know Mumsnet hates me. Adding insult to injury, I've recently started using laundry scent boosters and am in the habit of chucking large quantities of essential oils into my vaporiser thing.

I really like the new generation of Arabian-inspired fragrances, redolent of spice markets and 1970s hippy dreams. Perhaps fortunately, the good ones are prohibitively expensive so I can only buy 5ml samples.

Randomly spraying air fresheners startle the shit out of me! I think they activate some primeval reflex to avoid venom-spraying predators or something.

This.

With the ability to smell a scented tampon from three streets away, the rampant emetophobia, the horror of any social interaction that took place without an invitation at least a month in advance and the obligatory child with ND that prohibits them from attending any public space that doesn't feature an encyclopedia they can read it honestly amazes me that most of MN leave their bedrooms at all.

I like perfume, have quite a few and am not that sensitive to smells, but I bought myself a bottle of Santal 33 after asking my friend what she was wearing because it smelt amazing on her. It was so foul on me it made me nauseous.

I had to scrub it off and soak the top I was wearing before washing to get it out. The closest thing I can think of would be if you left some celery in a plastic bag to go rotten and then opened the bag a few weeks later 🤮

My late OH used to use a natural cannula scent which mixed with his natural scent to make the most wonderful complex smell that I can only describe as "home".

I tried it out once and I smelled like cake batter.

But patchouli smells like BO? I absolutely hate it, it makes me heave.

I used to love Prada, but since they introduced the variants it's difficult to find the original, which was delicious. Shay & Blue for me now - all the fruity ones. They're light and don't seem to asphyxiate others.

Coty Monsoon perfume in the blue bottle. Originally called Wild Lagoon.
Magnificent!

I love perfume. I have heaps, lots of 90s for nostalgia. If I’m out, I only really feel a bit sick if I encounter Red Door.

I worked with someone who seemed to wear A LOT of Angel and wasn’t a fan, but I was given a vintage bottle and it smells lovely when I wear it. I only wear it at home after reading lots of these threads.

I’m getting sensitive to scents as I get older so I only use one spray of any perfume on my navel or I hate myself!

My everyday perfume is Vyrao(?) Witchy Woo, I think it is probably marmite and I’ve never encountered it on anyone else.

I don’t use laundry softener because it makes fabric feel strange. I don’t want my clean washing to be fragranced.

I really like the heavy scents like Angel, Dior Pure Poison (Purple white), Hypnotic Poison (red) and Midnight Poison (Navy bottle) Dior addict is a real favourite of mine. Watery fresh scents do not suit me at all, I'm currently wearing YSL Manifesto and it's beautiful. I did try on the original JPG the other day, I used to have bottle about 20 odd years ago, I didn't like it at all, I don't know if it's changed or I've changed but it really didn't smell good to me.

Yes you are right, thinking back to 1992 she did refer to it as Marks. Her name wasn't Barbara though.

There was a thread in here raving about a baby powder scented roll on oil. Only about £4. I bought one.
Good god it’s awful. The sweetest and rankest oily reek.
But then I still like Old Spice.