The Worst perfume ever!

[anniewoo]

Was in HOF today and as i have no money at the moment to spend (despite their sale) decided to cheer myself up with a spray ( or two) of their posh perfumes. Big Mistake- sprayed Serge lutyens Tuberose Criminale- and it was!!!! Well the smell was criminal- like camphor, moth balls mixed with wintergreen , that awful muscle rub stuff. Jesus wept and it lasts and lasts and lasts. Can't kill it off, despite Annick Goutal Ninfeo Mio on my other wrist. You have been warned.....Though i do dare you!!!

It's true, smell can make me like or dislike places and people. It's visceral, I cannot reason with it.
I loved Perfume, the book. The descriptions of smells were very true, I thought.

Yep coffee, so true.

Rive Gauche- my primary school teacher
Giorgio Beverley Hills- my ex MIL
L'Aimant- my much beloved late grandmother.
Body Shop Mostly Musk (sadly discontinued)- my disco years
Gucci Envy- what I wore when I met DH

Perfume can tell the story of your life to you more than a photo album.

Amarige! (is it by Givency?) headache and nausea inducing. My Art teacher used to wear this while teaching us in a tiny annex, my God! I feel sick thinking about it.

Amarige can be a difficult one to like, but I really enjoyed it yesterday (worn in minuscule amounts a tiny dab: it is very strong) - I like its brightness an it left a soft afterglow that kept me sniffing my wrist all evening long.

Wore Samsara on the school run. I can see why someone would fall in love with this, but I get a very sombre funereal perfume, a sandalwood coffin seen through a fizz of granny-like aldehydes in a very dark room. I don't dislike either per se, and regularly wear a more modern, brighter take on the same theme (Miriam by Tauer Perfumes), but this is just too dark and gothic for me.

I wore Amarige for my entire twenties and then moved on to other things. Several years later I bought some at Duty Free and it made feel instantly happy. It is just such a warm warm fragrance.

I now alternate between Amarige, Prada Amber, Hugo Boss Deep Red (another warm feeling) and my DHs Czech and Speak.

I also quite like my Tom Ford Black Orchid sample.

On the strength of his thread I am wearing Amarige today - but Molecule 01, I'm coming for you.

I like amarige too, but hate ysatis.
I like samsara but people seem to think its pretty common?
I also like cinnabar by Estée Lauder...the only one of hers I do like.
Need to tell dh which perfume to get me.....
Am undecided between nahema and something a nit more light like Paul smith rose....?

Oh! :)
L'aimant!
My mum :)
Isn't it amazing how evocative some of these fragrances are for us?

Oooh YYY to Ysatis. Vile powdery old lady perfume.

I agree that scent is ridiculously evocative. 20 different fragrances can smell like 5 different loved ones/friends at different times in your life.

We were in a department store the other day and DD was running wild and making a nuisance of herself wandering round the perfume department and she suddenly yelled "Daddy!". My first thought was 'what on earth is he doing here?!' but of course, she had just opened a bottle of Paul Smith Extreme and was sniffing the contents, which do of course smell of Daddy.

I switched over to Black Orchid. Another love/hate. To me it smells of cucumber and chocolate - a slightly queasy mixture, not very compatible with my lunch. I love some chocolatey gourmands in small doses, but Black Orchid is OTT. Also wore Coco to bed last night, so have spent the past two days with very loud and obnoxious perfumes (wish I had some Opium, Giorgio, and Poison for further experiments)

Ladies, selecting what perfume to wear is a big part of the fun - fine-tuning it until you find something that is perfect. In my case, what is perfect is not one perfume but a full array of different moods and styles.

I veered away from the mainstream because I found too few perfumes that felt 'me' there. (Before that, I tried on a big chunk of what Sephora has to offer.) I don't want to smell like a bouquet of flowers, and I want to smell like a dessert only occasionally (Prada's Candy is a very realistic creme brulee; Montale do a perfume that smells exactly like Nutella). I love good classic citruses, leathery, woody, green, herby, spicy, musky and animalic scents and incense. Then I realized I like flowers too - if they are well-made (check out A la nuit by Serge Lutens if you love jasmine; Une Rose by Frederic Malle if you love rose). And I also love abstract, evocative perfumes that do not try to reproduce a smell you already know but rather offer entirely new experiences - think De Bachmakoff by The Different Company or some Hermessences. And I love many classic masculines - Antaeus is my comfort scent when it rains, Eau Sauvage is great for hot summer days, and I love Ambre Sultan in midwinter; 1725 Casanova and 1740 Marquis de Sade really brighten up dull work days.

On some days I need va-va-voom. For me, Bal a Versailles, Femme by Rochas, Shem-el-Nessim by Grossmith, Amytis by Nabucco and Coco are femme fatale perfumes.

But on most days, I love something that just feels very me - and what is me is very different on different days: Zagorsk by Comme des Garcons, Safron Troublant or Dzing by L'Artisan, 28 La Pausa by Chanel, Bergamote by The Different Company, Angeliques sous la pluie by Malle, Leather Oud or Eau Noire by Dior, Bois d'Armenie and Tonka Imperiale by Guerlain, Encre Noire by Lalique, Iris Ukioye or Ambre Narguile by Hermes...

That's a hard post to follow ...

I've recently bought Guerlain's Après l'Ondee after someone (can't remember who) recommended it on here. I've fallen in love - and may have found the perfume that is me - melancholy spring violets and all. So thank you to whoever it was...

Does anyone remember that amazing Perfume Bar in the Bodyshop? There were big jars of fragrance oils and glass wands to test them and you could go up and get little bottles of Japanese Musk, Annie, Mostly Musk, Vanilla, Dewberry, Strawberry.. You could mix and match and layer different ones. Total bliss. I wish they'd bring it back.

I used to layer Vanilla and White Musk and get loads of compliments.

I used to love Japanese Musk

Angel & Posion - both the same version of wickedness to me. Wretched, sickly, pungent and unavoidable (work colleagues)

I remember the Perfume Bar. Used to love it, too.

DonaAna, your posts are fascinating. I am going to print them all out and gradually work my way through all the perfumes you mention.

niminypiminy Apres les Ondees is one perfume I've always wanted to try - what does it smell like on you? is it long lasting? I'd love to find somewhere that has a sample spray but whenever I've been in London I can't find one.

hate bodyshop reminds me my teens drenched in dewberry.eugh
and lush I find caustic as a shop,I feel sneezy in it's proximity
but it's fascinating how personal and evocative perfume is

kiwigirl, I'm not very good at describing smells, so I'll do comparisons:

Apres l'Ondee smells like this, and <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?num=10&hl=en&safe=off&authuser=0&biw=1280&bih=846&tbm=isch&tbnid=fkZDZD5IlymVQM:&imgrefurl=www.kettlesyard.co.uk/exhibit" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this, and .

The intense violet-ness of it doesn't last more than a couple of hours, but it doesn't disappear either. It's as if the sun has come out on that rain-soaked garden, and the scents have warmed up into a beautiful May morning.

Fridge, if you go to Paris, go to one of the Parfums de Nicolai shops there and try Vanille Intense. It's inexpensive (also available here) but high quality stuff - dirty, boozy and incensey . I'd also go to the Guerlain boutique there and smell some of their boutique perfumes (then go to Lutens and OD on his Paris exlusives).

A friend bought Bois des Iles recently and hasn't regretted it. One of the best places in Europe to buy Chanel and Guerlain exclusives is Place Vendome Haute Parfumerie in Belgium. I've ordered a few times from them and they are much friendlier than Chanel boutique staff - and you will get a lot of marvellous bonus samples (I think I received a dozen - exquisite things). They don't have an online boutique, but if you already know what you like and e-mail them, you will not be disappointed.

Kiwi I would recommend ordering a sample of Apres l'Ondee. Guelain has limited distribution of many of the classics - Sephora and duty frees at Rome airport carry very few, whereas my neighborhood profumeria has treasures like Vol de Nuit and Chant d'Aromes.

Ordering samples and then slowly working your way through them at home is perhaps the best and most affordable way to discover perfumes: if you don't like something you are not stuck with a big bottle. Here is a place to order a great starter. Just pick a note you think you will like.

I've had a tough day and will relax with some 31 Rue de Cambon by Chanel...

DonaAna I followed the advice you gave me back in May and visited the profumeria in Trastevere in Rome. Thank you!

It was the most amazing shop.

I didn't buy anything, I toyed with Fracas and wore it out overnight with the thught that if I fell in love I'd go back and buy it. But it just didn't feel like me somehow.

My DH fell in love with a perfume there called Black Afgano by Nasamatto. He didn't buy it though as he thught it was too expensive, but has regretted it since. He said the other night he thught we should go back to Rome so that, amongst other things, he can buy the Black Afgano!!

I still love a few of the 80s big hitters. I adore Samsara, it's like a drug to me, and Coco chanel, and Amarige.

I have a shameful secret though- I also love Britney Spears Fantasy. I know. But it gets lots of compliments and I'm always embarrassed to admit what it is, but every time I spray it I think again ' yes I do like it.' no getting away from it I really do.

I love Angel on others, but on me I get an overwhelming crusty gusset smell. It doesn't smell like sex on me it smells like I've got an infection.

I do like Alien though, bt I find I tire of it after a while, it seems to stick at one note.

I plan my perfumes for events and occasions as much as I plan my outfits. The perfume must fit the setting or my mood, and certain situations require thier own scents so that the memory connection is there forever in that scent. Hence I needed a 'Rome perfume'. The scent memory connection is so strong.

Thanks for your posts on perfume DonaAna they are inspiring for us novice but keen perfume hunters.

Tom Ford Black Orchid is my all-time favourite, it smells dirty sexy. And TF White Patchouli is my favourite daytime perfume, but only for special occasions as its a bit strong, I love how sophisticated it smells. For everyday, Clinique Happy or Gucci Guilty. I've tried several new scents lately and none of them last any length of time. I'm 50ish, and I still cringe when I remember how my class gave a teacher we loved a huge bottle of Tweed (about 38 years ago) - I remember thinking how it smelt like cats pee. Samsara always gave me a migraine. Anything with vanilla smells like cheap scented candles to me, but each to their own.

Tom ford Black
Orchid makes me feel ill. I have a very sensitive nose and it actually makes me ill