Nobody needs to be knowledgeable to join this thread. An open and curious mind and the willingness to talk about perfume is all that is needed!
Ah, the eighties and early nineties.
My earliest loves: CK Obsession and Eternity, Amarige by Givenchy, Amazone by Hermes (I still wear this occasionally) - but I also sampled others and remember rather liking Chanel No. 19 and disliking No. 5 and Patou's Joy. Angel scared me.
I tuned out when watery perfumes became popular and wore RL Romance, Burberry Woman and Stella McCartney. During my pregnancies, my sense of smell became hypersensitive and I had to give up perfumes (and visiting the fish section on supermarkets). Then I slowly became interested in perfumes again, first via frequent exposure to duty frees, an then alarmed because many big classics I remembered had disappeared from department stores.
L'Artisan samples are not always the easiest to find. I got lucky, I have a sample of nearly everything from their range (courtesy of a German perfumista eBayer). You can also purchase them here (5? per sample, shipping to UK 11 ? via UPS so you will not have to deal with postal restrictions). Or try to find a place that sells them so that you can sample in-store. They have just ended their twice-a-year sale, they used to have a feminine sample set with tricky glass pearl bottles but not sure they still have it.
Re: good neroli-jasmine perfumes, trying to find exact replacements for something discontinued/reformulated is often very frustrating. I would encourage you to explore anything with "white flowers" in them. If you like them with a sweet, soft base, try finding "white flower ambers". But just trying on a lot of perfumes that feature orange blossom, neroli or jasmine can be a good start. Two sweet citrus perfumes I like are Bergamote by The Different Company and Neroli Portofino by Tom Ford. Cheap orange blossom can often be brash and loud, literally toilet bowl cleaner/air freshener scents, so I do not know the low end all that well. Narcisse Noir by Caron is to me my ultimate comfort orange blossom (expensive as a bottle but a sample is 5 GBP at Les Senteurs). I am not a white flower expert, but aren't Elie Saab and Cavalli EdP potential mainstream alternatives. Can someone name some great niche orange blossoms and nerolis? (The difference between them is clear although people often use them interchangeably: OB smells lush, narcotic and feminine, neroli is more straight-backed and masculine.)
Anyone new to niche, good pathways in are imo L'Artisan, Diptyque, Lutens, Annick Goutal, Chanel Les Exclusifs, Hermes Hermessences, Dior La collection privee and Tauers. You don't need to smell all of them, but all of them are different enough from what is sold elsewhere so that you may (or may not) get hooked.