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

shoeprincess- Iris Poudre is very distinctive. Now that I've worn it for a day (borrowed a sample from a v v kind friend), I could recognise it a mile away. The iris is strong in that dry, non sweet way, and the "poudre" bit, isn't really powdery, more of a muffed softening. I probably disliked it because I am a Green Note fan, but for some reason it made me think of enemies, or baddies. If I shared an office with someone who wore this, I would really start to hate it. It's so weird the reactions perfumes bring out in you! I had to wash it off.

It's quality, and very long lasting, but it made me feel annoyed and on edge! (random, can't explain). I needed a sniff of something green and fresh afterwards. It made me feel like there was cotton wool over my face.

Yikes, that sounds quite potent YouOldSlag- a vicious fragrance. I may give that a wide berth. Funnily, Chanel Allure does that to me! I have enough on my next StC order, so Mr Malle - no Iris Poudre for me!

I got my No. 19 EdT today. It's clearly the new version (but I suspect the tester was old stuff) and it is not as different from the Edp than I thought. Oh, well, I need the old EdT.

Rosielea Shoe already gave you some suggestions, I'd add Diptyque's Virgilio and Eau de Taroccco to the mix. The best herby perfumes I know are masculines.

Not a huge fan of Iris Poudre - I love cool irises, it's too warm and musty.

Need to go to Chanel and check out the new one.

Ok, it sounds like 1932 is not available yet, at least not in Italy. It sounds like Chanel's answer to Grand Bal at Dior.

I got a couple of samples of No. 5

It was lovely and sunny today, so I went floral for a change.

Pivoine Flora by L'Occitane - lovely rosy peony.

Good tip about TK Maxx, shoeprincess. Thanks.

rosielea, one perfume I like that's very herbal and green is Eau de Campagne by Sisley. If you have a House of Fraser anywhere near you, they stock it. It smells very much like a greenhouse full of tomato plants, if that appeals at all.

I wore Pentachord Verdant to the allotment today where it helped me forget that the allotment is mainly mud at the moment.

This new Gucci perfume seems to be their new Niche fragrance. It sounds lovely and is unisex.

I also love green scents - way back, all I wore was the original Vent Vert - but I can't get on at all with Pentachord Vert. Or, indeed, with many Tauer scents. To me - and to a nearby friend - PV smells of burnt rubber plus dirty dog (to put it politely). I ordered a sample and had to rush to scrub it off - so did she.

There is no right or wrong about this, but it's amazing how we all perceive scents so differently.

This is showing my age, but so many other less green scents that I also used to love have been discontinued or changed beyond recognition. For example, Nina Ricci Farouche and ditto Capricci.

Am taking refuge today in Caron 'Nocturnes'. Sweet, gentle, floral, very nice and totally undemanding. But - alas - lacking all the edge of Ricci scents above.

I find Pentachord Verdant quite difficult, too, flora. There's something at the beginning of it that I find quite jarring and odd, don't know what it is. But it is an amazing perfume as it gets further in - there's something that reminds me very strongly of clifftop walks with sea on one side and forest on the other when I was a child on windy wet summer holidays, and I sort of love that, even though I hated the actual walks at the time and you would probably have to pay me serious money to undertake a cold wet windy clifftop walk as an adult.

I just had another spray. I think it's the mint that feels weird. But there's something appealing about it, too. It's a bit like walks in southern France where there's mint underfoot and it gets all mixed up with the grass and the pine.

Haber mint in perfumes is often difficult - at least for me.

Eau de Campagne is great and Terre is its little brother.

Flora most ballsy greens have been discontinued /cheapened (the best galbanum comes from Iran.

Eau du Sud and Eau d'Hadrien also worth testing for herb lovers!

Swathed in No. 19 - comfort scent.

Eau du Sud and Hadrien have gone on the list. They both sound lovely.

I do find mint difficult in perfumes, although I love the smell in nature and in isolation. Somehow it doesn't feel very perfumey. I have a mint room spray from somewhere or other that I adore, though.

No 19 is lovely. I like it a lot and also love No 19 Poudré.

Trying Faubourg 24, quite like it, but don't think it's love, too many floral top notes and not sweet enough in the base for me. Also tried Diorling in the local department store after reading about it's lovely leatheryness, but OMG Toilet Cleaner to me!!!!

Tried the Chanel 19 as well in both EDT and EDP, preferred the edp as the the edt just disappeared on the tester card within a few minutes, but they smelled very similar.

Isabelle it seems the new formulations of No 19 are very similar. I happened to find an old tester that is different.
If you don't like the floral top notes, go for orientals and ambers.

Still spending time with No 19 EdT. Do not love this as much as I love the vintage version, but still very pleasant,

Speaking of mint, I could detect a hint of it in L'Eau D'Hiver. I'm afraid I didn't like it.

I'm wearing Chanel No. 5 EDP from one of the samples I received yesterday.

This perfume is for me like a cubist painting. I can admire it, I feel it was once upon a time very avant-garde, and still feels more modern and cerebral than most of what passes for 'art' these days. But I don't really love it. The smell, once new, gleaming and exciting, is an olfactory cliche, almost threadbare now. Too many women have worn it and too many soaps have emulated it. It's rather like something that you inherit from an elderly relative - you really have no need or use for it, but cannot give it away either. So in the closet it remains.

SOTD: Tonka Imperiale by Guerlain.
If Ambre Sultan is the sultan, this beauty is Scheherazade.
Similar contrast of a cool herby note and rich sweetness.
Too heavy and cloying in warm weather, absolute perfection on a cold, wet day.

I adore Tonka Imperiale - can't get my nose off my arm when I've tried it. Shame its so pricey though. I must get a sample next time I do an order.

Kiwi this is one of my favorite gourmands. I split a bottle with a friend (both of us are wearing it today ). If you can do a US-based decant, some available here. It's very long-lasting, so a little goes a long way.

Another gourmand I love on lazy Sundays is Acqua e Zucchero by Profumum Roma. It smells like brioches in a very good cafe. Breakfast in bed, basically. Not compatible with a savory lunch or anything work-related

I'm having a trip down memory lane; wandering through Debenhams I spotted a tester of YSL In Love Again, my old fave from way back. But in a bottle I'd not seen before. I haven't seen it for years and thought it had been discontinued; I just looked it up and it was indeed relaunched as part of La Collection YSL in 2011.

But strangely it smelled exactly as I remember so if it has been reformulated the change is too subtle for me. It's still a lovely soft grapefruity floral, better for summer, but very pretty.

Has anyone tried Kenzo Jungle L'elephant, keep reading about how underrated it is but haven't seen it anywhere?? Also Annick Goutal Songes?? Sounds nice for summer, must sample.

Wearing White patchouli today, I didn't choose it as it was a gift. I quite like it, it is a strange combination of big white flowers and quite a masculine base of wood and incense and seems to have the ability to be warm and cool at the same, not really had anything like it before. It's only a shame that the dry down is really disappointing as the flowers disappear quite quickly and just leaves a cedery muskyness.behind.

Isabelle- I have a sample of Songes. Beautiful scent and excellent longevity on the skin. A definite one for the summer. Got it off ebay. Reminds me very much of Acqua Allegoria Lys Soleia, if you can get hold of that and have a sniff.

Ooooh, Tonka Imperiale. Have heard of it, but didn't know it was a gourmand. Will look it up on Basenotes now...

I am visiting Manchester in two weeks time and have a list of perfumes to try in the department stores there, the Annick Goutal one is on the list. Apparently Selfridges or Harvey Nichols stock the Chanel Exclusifs range so will be heading straight there, and the Serge Leutens counter also.

Isabelle- let me know which store stocks the Les Exclusifs, as I might be having a trip into Manchester in a few months. If you get the chance to go into Kendals, the beauty hall is worth a visit, as they are quite generous with their samples.

Oh no, L'Elephant has the tenacity of a bad thrush infection and is about as subtle.
Honestly, unless you have a burning desire to smell like cloves for weeks just stay away.