Part 3- Fully fledged perfumistas- share your fragrances

[shoeprincess2]

Part 2 is nearly full!

Wafting in on a cloud of Sel Marin.....

Limping in, coughing! Thanks for the new thread Shoe!
Linking back to the old thread as it is choc-full of info and experiences.

Calone smells aquatic, salty, watermelon-like. Sniff Cool Water by Davidoff and you'll know. Civet (or actually synthetic civet nowadays) smells skanky. It's used a lot in classic French perfumery (Jicky for example) but many modern perfumes have been sanitized.

If you want to learn more about raw materials, Essence and Alchemy by Mandy Aftel is a great introduction to natural raw materials. However, the overwhelming majority of molecules used now are completely synthetic. We speak of roses although we should speak of rose ketones and betadamascenone. Perfume Shrine had a great blog post about that deja senti / why everything smells the same now (=because nearly everyone uses the same cheap and plentiful aromachemicals).

Just bought copies of opium, dune and amarige from the perfume parlour and they smell gorgeous! Thanks to whoever recommended it.

My new favourite (well, affordable favourite anyhow) is Shiseido Zen. I got it while I was abroad and absolutely love it. A tiny squirt of it lasts all day.
Dona I am gobsmacked by your knowledge. Do you work with perfumes?

Thanks for linking in the old thread Dona- didn't want to lose all that info!!

Hope you feel better soon, DonaAna.

I've just had a tiny squirt of CiocoRosissimo and I'm really not sure at all! The chocolate is overpowering. Hmmm. Will see how it settles down.

Nah, I'm just an amateur - literally, I love perfume

Anyone can learn a lot about perfume just by sniffing a lot. Most people have very good noses - describing what we smell is the tricky part. Perfumers train that skill by repeatedly smelling raw materials, perfume accords or reference perfumes. Need an easy accord? Patchouli - rose: it's very common both in niche and mainstream. Another classic simple accord - labdanum - vanilla: amber. Some slightly more complex accords are the chypre accord and the fougere accord. Once you get some of these basics down, roughly classifying and naming perfumes is much easier. You could say fruity-floral is a basic accord too, but usually a fuity-floral has several fruit notes and several floral notes.

I find side-by-side smelling a very useful way to smell, especially among perfumes that are quite similar.

My personal ability to distinguish notes is average or below average. That's not my thing really - I'm after the moods and feelings and images that perfumes can evoke. I love quirky perfumes that dare to be different.

Flowerbomb is my current favourite, but I also love L'occitane cherry blossom (only EDT though) and Pear and Freesia by Jo Malone.

I was wondering what JM pear and freesia was like jolle, as I have a big bottle of Pomegranate Noir which I am not fond of, and their website recommends layering it with P&F to freshen and soften it. Is it sweet? Don't really want to splash out though unless I would love the combination so might just ebay the PN (too medicinal clove for me). Also I would be more likely to prefer the P&F on it's own.

Anyone know the prices for the Chanel Exclusifs ?

£190 for the big bottle, around £120 for the small, Isabelle.

I have worn pomegranate noir with the pear and freesia and they are very nice together. The PN is quite strong, but the P&F is very sweet and light. Love it!

200ml is only £70 more expensive? might as well buy the 200ml really.

Love, love Flowerbomb. It smells warm? I like warm perfumes, Paul Smith's are along those lines but a fair bit cheaper, Flowerbomb is quite expensive for a mainstream if you ask me. I don't know how true it is but I once heard Viktor and Rolf don't do big ad campaigns precisely so they don't become mainstream - to keep them a bit exclusive?

That might be absolute balls btw.

Isabelle, if you are passing through Gatwick they do the Exclusifs in the Duty Free shop at a marginally cheaper price.

Thanks everyone! Pear and Freesia sounds promising... may try it next time I'm spraying in the shops. Not a Jo malone fan really.

Good tip about Gatwick!

Don't think their theory worked then for Viktor and Rolf as I smell Flowerbomb everywhere along with Jimmy Choo and Juicy Couture.

Wearing Sisley Soir du Lune today, last bit of my sample, it is chypre, quite sweet though but does have a mossy note to it, it has quite a strong honey note in the dry down which is all that is left now after 17 hours. Quite tenacious at first, very long lasting. I think it smells expensive and classy and not too sexy a perfume, something you could wear to the office.

I bought Jimmy Choo at duty free but I'm really not sure I like it.

I really want to because I bought a big bottle, not even particularly impulsively either. Tried it in duty free on the way out, liked it the entire holiday and bought it on the return. It's just sitting there now. It's another sweet one though.

I'm obviously going to have to just admit I don't, if I did the bottle wouldn't still be full a year and a half later. If I hadn't slopped a load of pillar box hairdye all over the packaging I could have given it as a present .

Testing Orange Star today. LOVELY. This opens with a really zingy amazing fresh bright orange/citrus smell, almost sherbety. It has started to get a bit more flowery now but the citrus is still really prominent - very impressed with this as I adore citrussy anything and usually that fades really fast. It's absolutely gorgeous.

Yes, it is Haberdashery. It reminded me of orange cordial or something. Really glad I picked it as a sample. I am racking up a fair list of Tauers that I would like to own as a fb, though realistically, decants are probably the way forward.

It sort of reminded me of squash, too (in a good way). But cordial sounds much nicer!

Inspired by you haberdashery, I have put on some Orange Star too! I kept getting wafts in the post office and thinking"something smells nice". Oh yes, it's me .

So, Mona di Orio scents- anyone wear, or tried the vanille? I have put the oud one on my sampler list, but have heard good things about the vanille too. I don't like overly sweet fragrances, so if it is very sweet, I might give it a miss...

For me, Jimmy Choo was a real disappointment. It starts out well-orchestrated, promising a big, symphonic perfume, and is then gone in 15 minutes (what was left over was a squeaky, irritating bubble bath basenote). Perfumes like that keep pushing me to the niche side - they are engineered to facilitate impulse purchases at a duty free.

I have sampled a few Mona di Orios but not the vanilla. Cuir is slightly scary, Rose d'Hollande too ladylike and powdery; the amber is everything that I dislike in perfume (I have difficulties with the heavy-handed italianate style - Teint de Neige and other Villoresis; Profumi del Forte; the Acqua di Parma line - many other people wear them well, on me they are just leaden and oppressive).

Too sick to really wear perfume. But giving Antaeus a try - a bear hug of a perfume.

I kept getting wafts in the post office and thinking"something smells nice". Oh yes, it's me

Ha!

I love the classic Acqua di Parma cologne which is lovely to spritz liberally on a hot day, but everything else that I have tried from that range has really underwhelmed me. I was particularly horrified by the almond one as I normally adore almondy and nutty smells but thought this smelt like a very sweet almond liqueur.

Hello! I am obsessed with Noir de Noir by Tom Ford. Trying to decide whether to buy. I really connect with the Tom Ford Privé line. I currently wear Violet Blonde by Tom Ford (not a Privé). In the past I have loved and worn - Chanel Cristalle (a divider), Infusion d'Iris. I find that I actually hate most perfumes so finding the Tom Ford Privé ones, of which I like many, was a real boon. Sorry to talk of love and hate but it's pretty much like that for me with perfumes. Had zero success at my visit to Les Senteurs, sadly.

I'm now looking for a new fresh white flower sort of perfume for summer, can anyone recommend one? I'm not too fond of citrus. Was thinking of ordering a sample of Tauer Carillion Pour un Ange as the description sounds nice, has anyone else tried it and what others should I sample?

I am wearing Amy Childs today (thought I would give it a chance) and it is a blatent copy of Calvin Clein Euphoria which I used to like a few years ago.

Is scent and sensibilty any good for samples? They seem to be more generously sized ones according to their website.

Isabelle- I cannot recommend scent and sensibility high enough. Little 2ml spritz bottles for testers, and Ronny often puts in an extra sample in for you. I have ordered quite a lot of samples from there and it is excellent service! Not sure about white flower summer fragrances. Maybe order a sample of Pentachord White by Tauer and see what you think?

Carillon pour un Ange is lovely, Isabelle. It is intensely flowery with a similar slightly spicy, leathery drydown to lots of the other Tauers.

Scent and Sensibility is fab. I recommend it highly, too. V quick service and as shoe says, FREEBIES!