Budding perfumistas walk this way- Part 2 of the Worst Perfumes ever

[shoeprincess2]

As the first thread is nearly full, I've set up Part 2

X posted with Kiwi.
Iris Silver Mist - I would not wear it either.

Swap would be a lovely idea cointreau

I could also send lipstick rose, rose vermeil and grey vetiver if you would like....?

Very excited to receive a package from stc this morning

Five o'clock au gingembre
Fracas
Tom ford white patchouli
Chanel gardenia
Chanel jersey
& guerlain chamade

I tried five o'clock au gingembre and loving the spicy hit with it! Had lemon curd on toast for lunch (nothing in, lol) and the wiff if perfume smelt good with the curd too, lol! Not smelt the others yet. Next one lucky dip tomorrow

....also the 4 Dueto samples....

At least I'm narrowing down my search....tuberose/gardenia and green florals are my thing - I think.....

shoeprincess, I LOVE Gucci Envy. It's hard to get now. It's out there, but only online as the damned fools discontinued it just to annoy me.

thatsnice sounds like an exciting envelope! you're on a real white flower kick!

cardoon- try Estee Lauder Tuberose and Gardenia Private Collection. Also, if you like Tuberose, you might like Madonna Truth or Dare-created around memories of her late mother who always wore Tuberose.

oh yes, I do like the EL one and keep meaning to try madonna

My DH mourns the day they discontinued Gucci Envy for men. He swears women would throw themselves at his feet when he wore it. I bought it for him one Xmas as a wild guess and he got addicted. I don't understand why some fragrances are carried on forever, and yet others that seem to have a huge fan base are discontinued.

Gucci Envy was one of my favourites, too.

I've been semi-lurking on this thread - have only made a couple of posts. De-lurking to shout out that the ELDO sample pack is back in stock at Escentual, and that I have bought a whole bottle of Jasmine et Cigarette for me, for Christmas. I confess that I also bought dh a bottle of Coromandel, not only because I could help myself to it, but partly.

I also enjoyed educating the young man in Jo Malone, who is now off to Google Andy Tauer and buy some samples. I am way old enough to be his mum and actually felt quite cool.

Well done Fineline - I particularly enjoy the Andy Tauer bit
Escentual ELdO pack here.

And Nice you've some lovely samples - enjoy!

Still perfume free

A great article here!

Cardoon - I've PM'd you.

Itsafineline - those ELdO samples sound very interesting, but also a bit scary...

Thanks, everyone, for really helpful suggestions. I shall have fun trying them!

Anyone looking for light greens to try, also sample Bel Respiro by Chanel.

ELdOs are a bit too scary for me I have the pack but none of them is FBW to me. That said, many of them are quite good perfumes. They just don't feel right on me.

I guess I'm a classic conservative at heart - it occurs to me that so many perfumes that are nearly 100 years old feel great on me (say, Tabac blond, L'Heure bleue, the Grossmiths) - they smell substantial but also quirky and subversive. I have much more problems with the mid-period - say 1950s-1960s, classic aldehydic florals tend to feel restrictive and corset-like on me. My other great love is 1970-1980s style masculines (Yatagan, Azzaro pour homme, Paco Rabanne, Eau des Iles). I find them both liberating and soothing - I just love what they smell like.

My sinuses are clearing up, and as a treat, I'm wearing vintage Jules by Dior today. This has all of my favorite things in it - some leather, some galbanum, some clary sage, some birch tar, and that hairy-chested tart and brawny 1970s vibe I love - but everything miraculously elegant and restrained...

Re: iris, it is generally an unknown flower to people who don't love perfumes. The raw materials (even the synthetics) are quite expensive, so you tend not to get good mass-market iris perfumes. To me, iris does not even smell very floral. I has a pure, paper / laundered clean sheet type vibe, but can also smell carroty. It's very versatile and can be blended in really many ways.

If you are just falling in love with perfume, sampling different iris perfumes is like a scenic tour - you can have it in icy cold form (28 La Pausa, my summer go-to), fragile and papery (Le Labo Iris), full-on velvety grande dame mode (Iris Poudre by Malle), melancholy and evocative (Iris Silver Mist by SL), green air-conditioned watercolor (Iris Ukioye by Hermes), supersweet jammy-rosy (Chanel No. 18), luxurious and leathery (Cuir de Russie by Chanel), classic makeup smells cleverly marketed as a masculine (Dior Homme) and snowy, modern-minimalist and abstract (Pentachord White by Tauer). All of the perfumes I list smell completely different - feel free to add to the list.

I forgot - I asked the Chanel ladies to load me up with samples after my £105 investment. Sadly, they only had jersey, but they gave me two, so if anyone has a swap, I'd happily send it. Possibly after Xmas, as I need a break from being at the post office. I was shopping with a male friend genuinely thought Chanel No5 was a new fragrance for men. The Chanel lady was very patient with him, and also said that he wasn't the first.......

I've heard quite a few daring men wear Chanel No. 5. People love it on them and cannot figure out what it is. IMO, old 5 is much more butch than the velvety and ladylike Dior Homme that is currently worn by everyone...

Chanel are often quite stingy with samples. I've sometimes gotten really royal treatment (once, champagne at the boutique), but if someone wants a lot of Chanel & other high end samples, the best bet is to order the bottle from Place Vendome Haute Parfumerie in Belgium. The freebies are royal and may be more interesting than the bottle originally ordered (I got a full set of Ch Exclusifs that way).

Of course they think its for men.
It's got bloody Brad Pitt being all ridiculous profound all over the media.
My pet hate this Christmas - perfume ads!
Never seen so much nonsense in my life.

Perfume adverts are always a load of self-indulgent, surreal, pretentious drivel aren't they? It's the law.

It always makes me laugh when I read the marketing blurb hoping to hear what the stuff actually smells like, and I get a load of old blarney about how the woman who wears this will be 'adventurous, young, whimsical, insouciant, mysterious, bold' and how she'll be catching a dream on a wisp of summer wind, and wrapping around her little finger then dancing like an angel with a bit of the devil in her, or some similar cheesy, nonsensical old bollocks.

Yeah, but what does it smell like?

I didn't get the Brad Pitt thing at first but then I went to a crowded perfume store. Those ads really stand out. They are all wrong (greasy hair and all) and pique your curiosity - a reminder that Ch 5 exists. That said, I miss Rene Gruau ads for Dior. (Some here - scroll down.) Notice how quaint Jules looks...

One of the reasons why I like modern niche is that I'm not subsidizing an already over-paid movie star or celebrity.

But it's all in the marketing nowadays, Fellatio, certainly for the big brands.

I worked on fragrance launches when I was at Procter & Gamble and the first thing to be developed was the concept, then the packaging and visuals. The actual juice was then designed to fit the concept, and the fragrance development wasn't done in house at all.

And you really don't want to know the cost price of a bottle of EDT as compared to the price in store.....

I'm guessing the niche perfume houses go about things rather differently, though.

Those Jules adverts..I had a bath towel with it, must have been gift with purchase or something.
And I still have one old Jules bottle - not even opened. Good suff that is, though.