Part 3- Fully fledged perfumistas- share your fragrances

[shoeprincess2]

Part 2 is nearly full!

[williaminajetfighter]

I love le labo perfumes. Quite partial to Ambrette.

[DonaAna]

I need some Giorgio in my life
When I was a teen, a friend wore the yellow classic Giorgio and another Red by Giorgio. In the same room

A slow, sun-drenched day with Acqua e Zucchero. Don't wear this if you are on a diet. This is a refined mix of all the most delicious bakery smells - a lazy brunch in a bottle. I think the top note is synthetic strawberries or a mix that in Italy is called 'frutti di bosco' - add lots of almond croissant and lashings of pastry cream and you'll get the idea. And did I mention that I'm about to go out to the cafe/pasticceria next door to retrieve a tiramisu cake I ordered an hour ago?

Some of us are born gourmand-lovers. One of my most experienced perfumista friends is a gourmand lover and he wears screechy synthetics and sickly ethylmaltols with a panache. His top tip? Try A*Men at least once before you die

[niminypiminy]

I was lured by the discussion of Tauer scents a couple of pages back to order some samples (well, it was my birthday. I liked Rose Chypree, Souvenir d'un Jardin hasn't lasted out the morning on me, though it was nice while it was there. But the winner so far by a very long mile, is Maroc pour Elle, which was love at first sniff. Looking back to things I've liked recently - notably Samsara and Shem el Nessim, I guess transparent, subtle scents just aren't my thing . I'm surprising myself by how much I like woody notes as well.

I still have Rose Vermeille, Carillon pour une Ange and L'Air du Desert Marocain to go - exciting

[CointreauVersial]

Ooh, niminy, L'Air du Desert is one of my favourite new discoveries - I wore it yesterday in fact. I tried Une Rose Vermeille, but found it too sweet and jammy, so I'd be interested to know how Une Rose Chypree differs.

Today I tried something absolutely gorgeous - Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Herba Fresca. Green, fresh, minty, an absolute winner for the summer, I am definitely going back for more.

[YouOldSlag]

Can anyone explain why Feminite de Bois smells like um..knickers?

[coffeeinbed]

Not sure.
Apparently the new version is muskier.
Or the cumin in the old one - it can be perceived as a sweaty note.
Which one do you have?

[auldspinster]

I've got the Serge Lutens one and I don't detect knickers, Boudoir on the other hand...

[IsabelleRinging]

Just back from my little whizz around the Manchester shops.

My first stop was Selfridges. i intended to sniff a few of the exclusifs here. I ended up having a lovely consultation with their 'expert'. She was a lovely chinese lady who brought out a little case with bottles of absolute fragrance oils and she picked out the ones I liked best and matched them to the fragrances. Turns out I liked most things but especially amber, vanilla, vetiver, and sandalwood. I began to doubt her expertise a little when she told me vanilla was the root of the orchid (surely it is the seed pod?). Anyway, the upshot was she gave me samples of Coromandel, no22, Cuir du Russie, and Gardenia.

I then had lots of sniffs, here is what I sniffed

Robert Piguet- Thought I was going to love these> I really liked them all in the initial spray and the top notes were lovely, but when they dried they all smelled very similar to me and dare I say quite 'old ladyish'.
Fracas- more complex than I thought it would be, not a simple teuberose fragrance.
Baghari- quite liked this and the man in Harvey nicks found me a sample.
Visa- The opening smelled just like angel to me, but dried down a bit richer and not quite as modern smelling.
Futur- very potent, not for me.
Petit Fracas- too fruity sweet, more modern than the rest.

Amouage Jubilation- really like this and want to try it on skin next time.

Tobacco Vanille- another I would like to try on skin, very sweet but with a smokey edge

Then I went to Kendalls and tried the Annick Goutals. Got some samples too.
Songes- lovely heady floral, seemed overpowering with gardenia/tuberose at first but dried sweeter.
Un Matin d'orage-green floral, watery and cucumbery, not liking initially.
Nuit Etoilee-This was surprisingly nice-quite a fresh opening which seems to dry into sweetish woody fragrance.
Also got samples of Fleur d'oranger and Ambre sultan and sniffed Un Bois De vanille which I think I love!!!!!

Also had a sniff of Creed Love in White- quite a strange one to my nose, linear and quite cold.

Last off this morning was Space NK where I sniffed a few Toccas- all quite watery and floral, didn't really find one that grabbed me- Bridgette seemed the nicest but i think my nose wasn't working very well as I seem to be starting with a head cold today.

Will try my samples out this week when my nose clears and report back.

Just a last though. DH and I both tried out Coromandel last night. On me it was a warm ambery, woody vannila mix with a slight rooty/earthyness to it. It was totally different on him! All he got was pure rooty/earthy/vetiver smell. Does this one have vetiver? The Chanel consultant let me smell pure vetiver and i really smell it in this but it isn't listed, I wonder if it is something else which I am confusing with vetiver? I love this one so far anyway, much nicer on me than DH.

[williaminajetfighter]

Cointreau. Herbs fresca is brilliant. Great summer fragrance and never tire of it. More complex than people give it credit. Guerlain has some lovely fragrances. Very good quality compared to others within department store...

[YouOldSlag]

coffee- I've got the Shiseido one. Worth Courtesan also smells like knickers on me. So much so, I had to wash it off. It was pure sex but not in a good way.

[IsabelleRinging]

Sorry for the long rant.

[DonaAna]

Isabelle, what a lovely day and fantastic treats!

I'm very sad to say this but I do not feel at home in S&B any more. There have been too many snarky and hostile threads lately. I'm seriously considering moving over to Basenotes (Female Fragrance Forum). They have a stricter moderation policy. Not sure how others here feel. And I completely understand if you want to continue posting here - the thread is wonderful, worth keeping alive. Feel free to pm me. And am very it has come to this.

[coffeeinbed]

Boudoir has viburnum, now that's knickers.
Not sure about Courtesan.
I'll say the cumin.

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Oh no! Dona Ana, don't go! The thread will fizzle and become snarky without your expertise.

[CointreauVersial]

Oh DonaAna, you won't get snarky and hostile on this thread! Don't leave us!

I do see what you mean, though (the breton top thread today got a bit snippy).

[CointreauVersial]

And Isabelle, what a brilliant day!

[YouOldSlag]

DonaAna-please just leave the threads that upset you, don't leave MN. Your advice and musings have been invaluable and these perfume threads have been so friendly and warm.

There are always shit stirrers who seem to get a kick out of throwing a stink bomb into a friendly atmosphere. I too have had clashes with a certain poster who does that and it feels quite aggressive at times. I even left Mumsnet a few years ago as I was absolutely trounced in a thread and it hurt more than I care to admit. I was really shocked at how cruel and rude people can be.

However I came back with a new name and was much stronger, walking away when things got heated and feeling encouraged when people said "I agree with Slag". Its been a lifeline since I learned how to dodge the vipers.
Don't give up on us. Your input has taught me more than you realise!

[gatheringlilac]

Hello, I'm de-lurking prompted by DonaAna's post. Don't let the snarkers win.

I was savaged in "Chat" a while ago. I posted asking for information and unfortunately had the misfortune to receive a great deal of abuse from posters I can only assume were drunk. Or getting rid of frustrations by posting venomously on the internet.

I received a lot of p.m.s answering my query and apologising for the overt behaviour on my thread. It was very strange. Clearly, a lot of mn-ers were too frightened to post openly.

I cannot convey to you how innocuous my enquiry was without giving my RL issue away!! But it was dullsville.

I now stay mainly in "Style and Beauty", reading this thread, actually.

Has the snarkiness now infected S and B?

I've loved reading the contributions on this thread. I'm an Iris lover - in pretty much all its incarnations - myself, with occasionally sorties into tuberose and chypres. But I love reading everyone's descriptions of their encounters with perfumes. This thread is a very happy, interesting place to be!

Anyway, D.A., what a pain you've experienced a bad case of nettle rash. If this dose of T.C.P. isn't enough to make things better, I'll just take the chance of saying how nice it's been to "read/meet" you on here.

And all the rest of you.

[niminypiminy]

Agree so much with these posts - this thread is lovely, and long may it stay that way.

Anyway I am trying my sample of Rose Vermeille today. It's very odd, close to it's rosy, but every so often, and from from a few inches away from my wrist, I get whiffs of jam -- which, oddly, I'm really liking. When I lived in north London, on a street lined with Greek and Turkish shops, I used to be most addicted to rose-petal jam - clear, with rose petals in, and incredibly fragrant. I've never come across it since. it reminds me a bit of that.

[Fuzzybirds]

Hello, another lurker here!
I had to post to agree with the others- this thread is amazing and DonaAna has inspired me to try so many beautiful fragrances I had never even heard of before. I've spent the last five or so years only wearing Coco Mademoiselle on special occasions... today however I am wafting around in L'artisan's Nuit de Tubereuse Please don't go DonaAna.

Isabelle, I also had a wonderful smelling day on Saturday in London on a rare day out to the big smoke my wallet is somewhat lighter now, but I smell gorgeous!

[Haberdashery]

Please don't go, DonaAna. Any message board can get difficult at times but if you stick to the nice threads, there's no need to be upset by idiots. We would all really really miss you.

[CointreauVersial]

Ooh, gatheringlilac, until recently I wouldn't have recognised iris if it punched me on the nose, but today I'm trying Le Labo Iris 39, and it's gorgeous. Cool and warm at the same time, if that makes any sense, and not at all cloying. What's your fave iris?

Niminy - yes, rose petal jam. But too sugary for me.

[coffeeinbed]

Cointreau, glad to see you like Iris 39. I love it.

I tried their Ambrette yesterday - funny, could not smell a thing.
I remember wearing Ce sour ou Jamais, which has rose and Ambrette.
But the Labo - nothing, I may as well have sprayed water on.
Bizarre.

[coffeeinbed]

soir
Sorry, typing on phone.

[MrsSchadenfreude]

I tried Jicky yesterday, which I liked, although it did have that sweaty knickers whiff to it. Today I tried Eau des Merveilles, which I thought was very dull, and had a quick squirt of Bronze Goddess which doesn't do it for me either.

Will no-one try Ivoire and love it with me? How about you, CV, we seem to have similar taste in perfume?