Are there any perfumes you absolutely hate?

[Darklane]

Just that really.
Reason for asking, I ordered blind ( stupid I know) a Liz Earle perfume. Even wanting to try them, no chance of testing at the moment, so picked one that loads of reviews said was gorgeous, favourite perfume, ever, signature scent, always getting stopped & asked what it was etc. The description sounded ok. It came & I hate it, it actually makes me feel sick when I smell it, couldn’t wait to scrub it off. It’s so persistent though!

Ghost , the first one that came out and the black ghost in a crescent shape,used to love them both but couldn't stand the smell when I was pregnant, made me gag. Still cant stand them.

Hugo red
Agent provocateur pale pink one

Obsession. It smells like fly spray to me, but maybe I have strange taste as i saw a review of one of my favourites that said it smelt like a wet dog.

Joop for men (the purple one), I can recognise it instantly it makes me gag.

Chanel No5, it smells like old lady on me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Je Reviens by Worth and Tweed by Lentheric, both vile.

@Blueberrycreampie

Je Reviens by Worth and Tweed by Lentheric, both vile.

Don't like L'air du Temps either.

Fahrenheit. It was a men's fragrance back in my youth that made me feel physically sick. I don't know if it's still around, but at the time, I couldn't date a man that wore it for fear of throwing up before the end of it!

Like @TramaDollface for me it is Tresor. Instant headache. In the 1990s it was everywhere.

I can't stand Angel or Alien but Clarins Eau Dynamisante is absolutely vile smelling.

@goldielockdown2

I love some of the heavy ones mentioned here so I'm glad they work for me but I was very disappointed by Shalimar. Since it's a great classic I was hoping I would smell 'grown up' and sophisticated but it smells like old bedding mixed in with curry powder and a bit of cat wee on me :(

Weirdly Shalimar is one of the few scents that work on me... in mild doses however as it can be a bit overpowering.

Most perfumes that smell gorgeous on other people make me smell like cheap washing powder. Or pine car air freshener 🤢

Chanel no5 smells like Catpiss and Fahrenheit (for men) smells like fly spray

Issey Miyake. Smells like cat piss in a freshly cut garden. Weird

My housemate wore Angel and it stank. Vile.

@TweeterandtheMonkeyman, I love anything vanilla so it's definitely not that. It's something underneath the scent, not a specific basenote I don't think but...something.

I do adore other really Marmite perfumes like Miss Dior and Caleche though so it's not about them being too powerful. Weird.

Oh no, I love Alien and Angel
I used to bathe in Angel in my 20s and now one sniff transports me back to excitedly getting ready for big nights out in my hot pants and knee high boots

I loathe, loathe Samsara. Once a new staff member came in doused in it. We were enclosed in a small room and within half an hour, my heart started racing and I had to run to the toilet to vomit. I had to send her home.

Youth Dew . I worked with a woman who bathed in it .

Posted too soon... she was a smoker and I think she thought it disguised the other disgusting smell on her body!

@SpeckledyHen my Mum wore that and poison. Both awful.

Was your mum a smoker ? Perhaps I worked with her lol 😂

@SpeckledyHen she was in her early 30's but that was about 35 years ago

I don’t like Angel — or the men’s version, A*Men, which smells like Angel with added burnt tyre rubber — although I love Alien.

The one I truly can’t bear is La Vie est Belle. Total yuck.

Most of the celeb ones, but especially Britney Spears, smell horrible to me. Too sweet and synthetic. Although oddly the Kim Kardashian one smells very nice.

On men’s ones, I can’t stand Sauvage. It’s so shouty and try-hard and something in it gets up my nose in the way bleach does. Also loathe Paco Rabanne Invictus. For a fragrance that uses a muscled-up naked rugby player as its model it is just so wet and fruity and drippy. It makes me think of men who cry after sex and then get stalkerish.

I think your perfume taste changes with age. I loved Charlie, Loulou, Exclamation, Tribe, Body Shop Dewberry...and for men Cool Water, Jazz etc when I was a teen. Now they give me an instant headache (the ones that are still with us).

An older woman walked past me in the street the other day, filling my nasal passage with a blast of Chloe Narcisse and behind my eye exploded!

Is her name Elizabeth by any chance ? ...

Opium my mum used to wear it in the 80s
Headache and nausea!!!

Alien and Sunflowers

Lots but I don't know what many of them are as I never feel I can ask in case the wearer thinks I like it. One of the few benefits of social distancing is not being stuck in close confines with people drenched in strong perfume. I like a gentle waft of many of them as someone passes but not a constant cloud.

A few I know I hate:
Poison, Obsession, Georgio Beverly Hills (used to share a room in the 80s and would see my roommate use them so I knew what they were)
Rive Gauche - my mum used to wear it for special occasions, gives me a headache.
CKOne - I used to really like it but then someone at work started drenching themselves in it and now it makes me feel sick.