Unusual or love/hate perfume suggestions

[PatriciaBateman]

I'm just really starting to get into perfumes (serious sample collection habit forming), and would be grateful for some suggestions from the more experienced than me that'll be just about everyone.

I like perfumes that provoke a strong reaction and/or smell very unique. My oldest favourite has always been Poison, and now I'm finding Alien very interesting (at first hated it, now starting to love it).

Anyway, I'm looking for more ideas to start a cohtroversial olfactory relationship with. Any suggestions much appreciated, the more extreme/unusual the better!

Boudoir is my current fave, it's seriously sexy!

Definitely try samples from 4160 Tuesdays. Totally changed my whole perception re: perfume. Some really striking, strange scents. Die in The Snow is my new favourite and nothing like anything I have ever worn before - a sort of cool, aldehyde-ey chypre. Bloody amazing.

DOE in the Snow! duh

Givenchy Ange ou Démon. I love it to pieces, strong and bewitching

I suspect this is probably very unclassy but I tried on Bon Bon today - a) can still smell it and b) it's lovely if you love sweet, heavyish perfumes like Poison.

Haha, "Die in the Snow" sounds like quite the dramatic perfume indeed.

Am adding every single suggestion to my rather long wishlist and plan on working my way through them all for as lusciously long as it takes. I've seen 4160 Tuesdays mentioned a few times now so am really looking foward to sampling them.

SwedishEdith I can definitely do unclassy!

I bought a 1460Tuesdays taster set off the back of this thread - in the Cities scents. Will report back!

Tonight's sample: Thierry Mugler Womanity

I really like this actually, maybe even as an every day, not too in-your-face, but still quite individual scent?Light, fresh, soapy, slightly fruity and sweet like mango, slightly nauseating if too strong. Overall very pleasant, clean, and fresh smelling.

I only sprayed one spray though, and it does seem quite strong, so will have to wait and see if that wears off or if this is a monster laster. Gets the thumbs up from DH (who yesterday walked in wrinkling his nose at Jungle L'elephant).

Definitely unique, I keep smelling it! Never smelled anything like it, but quite lovely and subtle really. Womanity is a good name I think!

Had a rough few days, argument with DH and didn't feel much like sampling anything, but luckily hopefully all back on the mend now, so:

Tonight's sample: Tom Ford - Black Orchid

Really wanted to like this, damn. Maybe it's just the sour mood but this smells to me like old, rotting flowers. Like flowers someone bought me a couple weeks ago, and I should have thrown out 3 days ago but couldn't be bothered, and am now emptying out the old pond-scum, rotting water and tossing them away.

Just, bleugh. Strong... stinky... flowers.

Quite willing to believe it's just me/my skin, but would never buy this!

Tonight: I opened D'zing to give it a try but smelled the bottle and just couldn't do it. So weird! I think I'll leave that one for an evening alone.

So instead I tried Shiseido Zen. Absolutely love it. Smells dark, sexy, mysterious to me. Like opening a secret mahogany cuboard with an antique key to find something magical and ancient wrapped in black silk (yes my imagination can run away with me!)

Sort of spicy and peppery like some of the more masculine-ish fragrances upthread (to me), but this one is definitely feminine, maybe a little witchy dangerous somehow (in the childhood fantasy sense), but enchanting.

Love it! Another one for the keeper list.

I cannot believe Giorgio Beverly Hills is still around! That famously stinky one whereby if you walked into a room that had a magazine with it in a fragrance strip you knew about it!!! Ditto Revlon Moondrops - cat's piss. Beauty base not only goes overboards for Sleb scents but also cat's piss from days of yore. I spent much of my youth trying to avoid being sprayed by 'Spritzer' women spraying Moondrops or Quelques whatever it was that was disgustingly sweet.

Right, talk me out of this. I gave myself a squirt of one of the new Mac scents, the purple one (can't remember what it's called)
I so want it, it's rubber. Just lovely rubber. It's still on my coat and it makes my mouth water. No samples or decants anywhere. No way I can justify it, but om blinking g.

What a great thread! One to come back to as I've never been very adventurous with perfume or spent much on it. My favourite present was Jo Malone pomegranate noir though, heaven! Have two friends who wear molecule 01. Smells gorgeous but totally different on both of them

Just tried D'zing - really, really hate it on a visceral level. Just makes me want to get away from it for some reason.

Smells kind of... rubbery maybe? And to me there's something like black pepper (which I hate). Makes me feel kind of red and itchy just smelling it (maybe I actually physically don't tolerate one of the ingredients?)

Double-whammy bad luck for me - DH loves it . So he is now in possession of my sample and will have to stay away from me when wearing it!

Off to have a look at fragrantica reviews, because this is one of the weirdest things I've ever smelled in terms of the emotional/physical reaction I have to it.

Wow, that sounds like one for me to try. I love both pepper and rubber as notes.

Can I ask a stupid question? I am completely up for unusual fragrances and I have a fairly extensive collection of non mainstream stuff but the very challenging notes - how do you wear them in public? I just imagine people turning their nose up as they catch a waft of dirty knickers or something!?

My kenzo jungle has got me puzzled
My friend said I smelled like a Yankee candle and unfortunately I know she meant.

I

Ooooo love this thread. My kind of perfume people! I'm a perfume parlour addict and have all the tom ford ones. I also have (real!) Serge Lutens, Boudoir, Ellie Saab and Agent Provocateur. I love the smell of cigarette smoke, alcohol, leather, wood, diesel, rubber, sweat, sex! I like weird, dirty, filthy perfumes. Love someones comment about wanting to shag herself!!

Anyone been to that fabulous perfume shop in Lytham? It's got all these perfumes in there and I could spent thousands in there!

My ears perked up then? Lytham you say? What's it called so I can give them all my money?!

www.fascination-perfumery.co.uk/acatalog/online_store.html