Today's poll is by request. So, I'm sure you many of you get up in the morning and stare blankly at your fragrance collection, trying to decide what to wear. Today's poll is about those times when you made the wrong choice, in other words, those times when you selected exactly the wrong perfume for the occasion. Tell us about it!
If you've really never done such a thing, feel free to comment about any sort of perfume mistake or disaster.
Our host today is Mitty, who posts here as mjr17. If you haven't met, please let me introduce you:
And if anyone else is interested in getting on the list to host a poll, see here. And no, you don’t have to answer all the comments!
Note: top image is Mom's perfume bottles [cropped] by annieo76 at flickr; some rights reserved.
Hi!
Midnight Poison for a job interview: “too invasive” 😀
Midnight Poison tends to be that way. I’ll say for me it’s usually the perfume I regret wearing the very most despite loving it at certain times.
Uh oh, perfume lover – did your interviewer tell you it was “too invasive”?
Hi!
She asked me what perfume I was wearing and she looked sick!
Klytaemnestra, I agree with you. I love it but I almost always regret wearing it. 😀
Oh no!
Safran Troublant when I was going to a movie….since it was a film fest, I thought it was appropriately artsy….others around me found it sickly sweet!
That’s so funny! I wore it to a movie last summer when it was almost 110 here, and it was strangely perfect. I think most of it evaporated on contact, so that may have helped. And I just dabbed some on from a sample vial.
I wore Safran Troublant to a local Mediterranean restaurant one night. The owner, a friend, greeted me with a hug and gave me a funny look. I smelled just like the food, which kept me mildly unsettled all evening.
I think it’s a tricky scent. It smells mild but isn’t.
Kenzo Jungle L’Elephant for teaching. I though it would suit the subject of the class, Kipling`s illustrators, but several students said that i smelled like chai, haha… So much for respectability, anyway.
Anyway, since i like bold choices and gourmands that aren’t obvious, i was thinking about buying nez a nez “Atelier d’ artiste” or bond no 9 “New Harleem”. What do you guys recommend? Since i’m brazillian, it will be an unsniffed buy, so i would love to hear some advice on the subject!
i just sampled Atelier D’Artiste. The only one from Nez A Nez ive tried so far. I wasnt that thrilled with it, and i didnt find it to be gourmand. I found it to be more of a tobacco scent, and the tobacco was too sharp for me. I like my tobacco smooth and mellow.
Well, I feel like I should warn you that New Haarlem smells a LOT like coffee. I love the smell of coffee, but when I wore this one, I found the scent kind of off-putting. It was as if I had spilled a bitter, kind of old pot of coffee on myself. Your mileage may vary, of course. Just my two cents. 🙂
I agree. I was very excited when I read the list of notes, as I am a fan of tobacco/smokey/coffee scents. But this smelled rather musty, and the coffee was too sharp. All in all, a very disappointing scent. I shall stick to Chergui, Fumerie Turque, Tabac Blond etc etc
I agree. NH is GREAT but definitely all about the coffee. I imagine I will have to get some when I run out my miniscule decant of A*Men Pure Coffee.
I think I like both NH and Pure Coffee, but would never reach to wear them often, so samples will last forever. I’ve also been wanting to try Jo Malone Black Vetyver Cafe for a long time.
Shoot, Joe, wish I’d known that… I passed my sample on, I think. I didn’t find the coffee note to last very long, and what was left was weak and too sweet.
As i just said, i’m not afraid of the coffee note, since it’s pretty much my favourite smell in the world- the drydown worries me though.
You know, come to think of it, I often choose a fragrance for teaching and then realize later it wasn’t quite right. It’s usually after I’m certain some of my students looked at me like I’m a big freak!
Maybe we’re just really self conscious about it, right? ( at least i hope so!)
That’s a good point. I teach about the avant-garde, so I always like to take risks and wear edgy fragrances to my classes. But somehow the normativity of the institutional setting kills it (almost) every time!
Smelling like chai sounds really nice AND respectable, if you ask me!
haha thanks joe, there’s something artistic and intelectual about it, right?
To me, New Haarlem smells like coffee and cheap, bad men’s cologne. But I know it has a lot of fans!
I’m not worried about the coffee note, since i’m really a coffee freak and i’m not afraid of some photorealism, but the drydown in the other hand… I`m not sure about it. It`s really masculine? Sugestions?
i think Bond’s So New York is supposed to have an espresso note and it sounds more feminine and overall “pretty”. I`m only afraid of the “Angel” vibe that i`m getting from the notes.
I recommend trying So New York — the espresso note is very nice, rather subtle but definitely there, and it’s not as “foody” as it might sound. I really like it!
The coffee note in New Haarlem lasts until the drydown. You might like it if you love coffee. To me it doesn’t smell masculine
I thought the Nez a Nez was horrible. Actually, my notes say “nauseating” and nothing more, and I passed it on to Joe.
Giggling here thinking about how “nauseating” translates into “pass it onto Joe”! 🙂
Rochas Femme, last August at work. Let’s just say that it really blooms in the heat and humidity, and not in a good way. People looked at me funny all day. And, as with all perfumes you want to scrub, nothing I had at work would take it off.
This must be the reformulated edp? I’ve never tried the edt but I do know that the edp has BIG sillage and that sillage lasts all-day. I haven’t worn it in years (having also worn it to work promptly after buying it – although no one complained). It’s hard to find the right occassion for this scent.
Yes, it was the reformulated edp. I adore Femme, both vintage and otherwise, but learned my lesson: winter only.
That’s funny! That was also when I wore it to work – in the summer, which was when I purchased it.
Happy weekend, everyone!
The whole issue of committing “perfume mistakes” is tricky. In theory, I want to be able to wake up every morning and wear whatever strikes my mood, my fancy, my curiosity; and yet, I know I can’t completely ignore the context of my upcoming day. For me, striking that balance between desire for a particular fragrance and life’s other little factors is the ultimate goal. But I like to be authentic to myself and that means not yielding control of my perfume-wearing to others all the time!!
Still, I know I’ve made at least one very-wrong perfume decision (ever notice how CDG Avignon can take on that Gothic crypt smell??) – and probably many more that I didn’t realize. And I’ve had a few perfume-disasters such as a life-defining “spill” at the age of 6 or 7 involving Strawberry Shortcake perfume and my brand new Mahogany dresser (and here I wonder why my Mom loathes all-things-fragrance!?), and a self-inflicted gassing with an extremely foul, spoiled partial bottle of Cristalle EDT that I decided to pour down my bathroom sink (this just a couple of months ago.)
What about you?
I’ll be gone this afternoon (theatre tickets – yay!) but I’ll back this evening to read all your comments!
Oh definitely feeling you on the Avignon. I simply adore it. However, it smells like a crypt sometimes. I even described it as such when I reviewed it myself several months ago.
My mistake with Avignon was actually wearing it on my birthday this year. It was very early February in DC and bitterly cold. I went out to deposit my paycheck at the bank ATM next door and looked down & saw this poor little sparrow that must have frozen to death in the cold. And suddenly the wafting smell of Avignon became extremely cloying and overpowering and I spent the rest of the day feeling really nauseous and likening the perfume to the stench of death and decay. This all happened on my lunch break which ultimately ended with me not eating much of my lunch and then not wanting to eat anything later that day. Even decadent cake can seem vile when you’re smelling death. Terrible perfume decision that day.
Midnight Poison has become the bane of my existence at times such as wearing it to the ballet — I made the unfortunate mistake of allowing my fiance’ to choose my perfume that night and he loves MP for whatever reason. Well, the ballet was Romeo & Juliet so in some forms I suppose Poison was appropriate and by the end of the ballet it was killing me, as well. I’ve never wanted to get out of a perfume so much in my life.
Oh wow, klytaemnestra, that’s a horrible story! And the fact that it was your birthday just makes it worse. Personally, I would never be able to wear Avignon again!
What a poignant story! Poor little bird. Poor you! And on your birthday, too.
I’m curious to know what your Cristalle smelled like. I have a vintage mini that has a big hit of banana pepper juice. They drydown is excellent but….
That’s very similar to what my Cristalle smelled like. The opening citrus notes were completely ruined/absent and it went straight to the rotten banana. The drydown was only slightly better…maybe more vanillic. But when it went down my sink it was all rotten banana. Just awful. But it didn’t ruin Cristalle for me, thank goodness! (probably because the spoiled juice didn’t resemble the fragrance at all.)
I recently spilled a sample of Lancome’s Tresor accidentally all over my arm — I wasn’t sure how to apply from the little sample bottle, so I figured I’d tip it over and a few drops would slowly drip out? Hi, I’m new at this.
I then attempted to wash the stuff off, then went to get coffee before catching a whiff of myself and deciding to get the drink to go. Thankfully it was an outdoor cafe, but I decided it was still better to leave, out of courtesy to the other customers.
Or maybe that was the right time, and the wrong perfume? 😀
I did learn, however, that just because a perfume is a couple decades old, doesn’t mean it’s a ‘well-made classic.’
I’d just add that a perfume you dislike can be a “disaster” no matter when you’re wearing it — and if you’re sampling something for the first time, that’s the chance you take. If you adored Tresor, you might have though that you had your own delicious atmosphere.
So true. I always test new perfumes at night in the privacy of my own home a couple of times before test driving them in public.
Hi mjr17!
For example…Wrong perfume decision: Scarlett . I like it a lot but it is too girly on me. I am 50 and I have a “mature look”, so I have decided to wear it only at home because I still like it! 😀
I hope I have undestood now! have a nice afternoon
Wear what you love, perfumelover 😉 even if only in your own home! Hope you are having a great day!
Hi Mit !! welcome as guest host–you’re going to do great!
I’m wondering what fragrance you’ve chosen today as your “hosting fragrance” ??
Ok—this was only a disaster in that I thought I was going to die before I got home….. last summer: air conditioning full blast at home…think the CEO turned it colder when I wasn’t looking….I just grabbed a bottle and went a little (ok, a LOT) overboard spritzing myself…with 31 Rue Cambon (one of my all-time favorites) ….then I left to go grocery shopping…..despite the freezing cold inside my house—OUTSIDE it turned out to be hot like the surface of the sun! So here I am ,already in too much 31RC, in the hot sun and for some reason it began to GROW and GROW and GROW….I thought “it’ll be okay–the Kroger’s is always cold”—well it was too late! I was already an uber-sillage-factory….and then to make matters worse the store was WARM ….AND they were cooking things in the deli department …so now my head is swimming with a combination of tsunami force 31RC flowing up from the cleavage and hot blasts of spicy/bbq rotisserie chickens bludgeoning me from the deli…I was becoming nauseated…..heaven help me: I have no idea what I was throwing into my cart! I just had to get to check out and get home as fast as possible! I ran in the door, screeching that someone else was going to have to take care of the groceries (what ever it was I ended up buying??? ) as I made a dash for my shower and different clothes…I didn’t wear 31 Rue Cambon for about a month after that. I’m relieved that it wasn’t ruined forever by the bad experience…and now I’m much more conservative in my application.
March calls that “growing” note, the Topsy note! Cambon grew like that on me too as did Osmanthe Yunnan. And both times, I’m pretty sure it was the same aroma chemical. Yuck!
Oh Rapple, our EST continues! Those are two of my favorites that you just “yucked” 😉
I actually thought they were both beautiful when I first put them on, but *that* note kept growing until it drowned everything else out – including all of the air trying to enter my lungs!
Oh that sounds awful. No perfume asphyxiation please!
Your story reminds me of the time that I over-applied Sycomore – through no fault of my own, of course; those LE bottles are just impossible to control – and I could taste it for the rest of the day. And probably others could as well LOL! Luckily for me, it didn’t taste that bad!
Hi D! Thanks for the welcome 🙂
Today I decided to wear Eau Premiere, not so much for hosting as for the fact that I needed something inoffensive for the theatre. It’s wonderful! Maybe tonight I’ll venture into some more challenging territory 😉
Your story scares me because I love 31RC so much! I’ve now made a note not to wear it in the dead of summer (especially down here in the Dirty South) no matter how cold it is inside! 🙂 At least you didn’t have to give up 31RC forever!
31RC is still one of my favorites….other than the massive over application (and the heat too I guess) I don’t know why it turned into such a monster that day! It was so weird that I wonder if I had perhaps eaten something that was altering my skin chemistry until it was all out of my system….but I don’t recall if I ate something mega-spicy or what.
Hey Mitty, I’m in the Dirty South too. I’m going to be watching your comments this summer. Maybe you’ll give me some clues about what to wear that won’t make me nauseous when the low temp is 80 degrees!
Hi Suzy! Sure thing – let’s keep each other informed! Right off the top of my head, I know I will be wearing the heck out of JCE fragrances, especially the Hermès Jardins and the new Voyage. And I will definitely be resurrecting my favorite combo from last summer: Hampton Sun Privet Bloom layered with Terre d’Hermès.
Oh thanks, M. I’ve got WAY more samples than I did last summer including the JCEs you mentioned. Sounds like a perfect place to start. I don’t know about privet, though. Real life flowering privet makes me sneeze!
Suzy – hmmm, I’m guessing the synthetic aspect of the fragrance won’t irritate your allergy, but you never know. Drop me an e-mail at moonfleets at gmail dot com and I will send you a sample of Privet Bloom to try. 🙂
Ha! I just tried 31 RC for the first time today and although it is fantastic I could see that could happen.
So what do you think of 31RC, Tama? 😉 It’s a personal fave so I always like to hear about people’s experiences!
Oh, I loved it! I tried Atelier Orange Sanguine (nice, not me), Byredo Tulipe (nom nom nom) and 31RC, so I was smelling pretty interesting. But I kept sniffing both the Tulipe ad 31RC all the rest of the day. I am going to be hard-pressed to choose an Exclusif – they are pretty good across the board.
Oh I know! First I was sure that Sycomore was one and only true love from the LE line, which led to my first bottle; then I was struck by 31RC’s arrow and now my second bottle. And as luck would have it, a lovely dear enabler on this board (ahem!) just recently made, yes *made*, me fall in love with Bel Respiro. But I’ve got sizeable decant that will hopefully last me until next Spring ;).
Great story Daisy! This had me laughing out loud!
I’ll tell you what—I’ve never moved so fast thru a grocery store before! I think I had that cart on two wheels going around corners! It’s a darn good thing it wasn’t senior citizen day or something. I was a little “wild-eyed” by the time I through the check out. I need a tee-shirt that says ” I survived perfume overload in 90 degree heat!….and all I have to show for it is this t-shirt…” Perfumistas would understand!
D, I wish I could have seen you that day! Between the Tauer URC with your daughter in the car and the grocery store debacle, you definitely need some reality TV show cameras following you around!
my life is a little like that…..some days would be funny to watch but I’d be a laughing stock…I try to at least “seem” like an intelligent adult in public…as long as you don’t look too closely , then you’d see that we’re more like a cross between the 3 Stooges and the Marx brothers! 😉
Hi Mitty!
Usually my great mistakes come from testing a fragrance, and discovering too late it was a WRONG decision to do it before going back to work, or just before getting in the car with my husband.
Nahèma, for ex., made both me and my husband instantly sick, and though it was freezing cold outside, we were forced to drive with all the windows rolled down. But tests don’t count, do they? 😉
LOL —nah, bad tests only count if they actually make you gag. Your experience reminds me of the time my daughter and I both doused ourselves with Andy Tauer Une Rose Chypree and then got in the car to go somewhere—-all windows DOWN !!! We often will wear the same fragrance and have done the same thing with Byredo Pulp….again all windows DOWN (thus proving that we never learn a thing!) 😉
I fear that being forced to drive with car windows down is written in some perfumista – Kung Fu learning stages!!! I suppose I haven’t reached the next level yet… when your fingers intuitively know if and how much to spray!
Both of you? At the same time????? In the same car?????? In PULP????????????
AAAAUUUUUUURRRRRRGGGGGG!!!!!!
easy there Rapple, we were hundreds of miles from you , so you were mostly safe….. 😉
“….mostly safe.” Unless of course the jet stream brought it down on top of my head! lol!
well, truly the sillage was somewhat extreme!
RE: driving w/ the windows rolled down– my husband and I had to do that after I sampled Angel.
Hey Zazie! You know I never test new fragrances right before going out, but I do think “going out” tends to lead to over-applying on my part. My partner has definitely been subjected to my heavy-hand in the car! But then again, he often gasses me out with Bel Ami (which I love); that one can really “bloom” and “consume” if over-applied.
Diorissimo edt just An hour ago, I thought it would play well with today’s Madrid spring weather. I just spritzed once around my neck but I’m finding it a bit too much..
By the way, my bottle is the reformulated diorissimo and the colour has turned much darker sincer I bought it a month ago. Has someone had the same experience?? Would it affect yo the smell??
That new Diorissimo is not to my taste (I’ve never tried the vintage), so I could see it definitely making me ill.
The color might not make a difference, but that seems quite new. If you’ve been keeping it in a dark cabinet and you still have the receipt, you might try returning it? It does seem like certain coloring agents are funny.
I’ve got a bottle of vintage EdT and the topnotes are totally off. Strong varnish, but it is better after it airs out for a while. Somebody here told me that many hard-core Diorissimo fans prefer it that way, so who knows? Drop me a line – I’m happy to send you some.
I’ve been wearing the newest form of Diorissimo recently, and I’m definitely part of the quiet-voiced minority that still loves it to bits. It’s slightly different than it was, of course, but my god, it’s still delicately breathtaking. If your bottle has been hanging out in the gorgeous Madrid sunlight, it may have oxidised a bit–or possibly the seal isn’t quite as tight as it ought to be. My bottle, bought last October, is still a pale straw colour, but it does live in a light-free cupboard.
My experience of the Diorissimo reformulation is that although it doesn’t have some of the slight earthiness it used to, it’s still deeply pleasurable to wear. By contrast, I’ve tried VC&A’s much-lauded new Muguet Blanc several times, and while it’s perfectly fine, it’s got a really strict, almost prudishly clean smell that I find quite depressing. It’s an incredibly nice scent at first spray, but it becomes increasingly censorious and judgemental as it dries down, all scrubbed tiles and grim efficiency. Diorissimo, even in its newest form, still has gorgeously warm, open-armed gentleness to it.
But perhaps it’s just not your thing–and that’s fine! If it makes you feel cranky, bah! Banish it! De gustibus non est disputandum.
I have a new bottle myself and I like it. My only experience with the vintage is the varnish edition – I’ve never smelled what it is “supposed” to smell like. My biggest complaint is that I liked the old-style bottle better. I’m shallow that way. 🙂
I’m thinking I should “banish” things more often…
like baseball cleats in the house I JUST MOPPED. Gah.
that’s a Cosmic Law, you know it is. Mop a floor=here come muddy shoes…….steam clean the carpet=it’s like begging the dog to vomit……wash your car=torrential rain, or my personal favorite: birds who eat mulberries (yes, my car is WHITE).
Exactly, or as in my case, just wash the three dogs (dashunds) and then they find something dead in the back yard to roll in.
Oiy! been there, washed that! Dogs really stop doing that–it’s just so disgusting! Of course my cats wouldn’t dream of getting icky dead things on their fur…..they just leave the carcasses neatly on the back step….as a gift…..I’m rather surprised that we have any voles left in this entire county.
I often apply fragrance when I’m out using little vials. One time I was wearing Coco – a scent I hadn’t had much experience with – and applied some whilst at a concert in a dark hall. It was so strong people started looking round, ignoring the band playing! Eek!
Coco is a powerfuly one. I just went to a concert the other night and a friend was wearing it. Even though she was standing 10 feet away from me and had applied hours earlier, I could still smell her every time the fans blew my way. Good thing I like Coco!
Hahaha, I wore Poison(Vintage, therefore mind-blowingly potent) one time, and it was probably the first or second time I had, and I decided it was a good idea to do three sprays. I went to go play in the orchestra pit for our spring musical. People said, “it smells like Venice Beach”, “If someone is burning incense in here PLEASE STOP!” Needless to say I was embarrassed but laughing.
“It smells like Venice Beach!” Hilarious!
Oh my goodness that is too funny! I know people usually say LOL but I actually laughed out loud. Burning incense! Tears are coming out of my eyes.
Three sprays of vintage Poison… holy moly. My jaw just hit the floor. (I recently retested Poison, from a new tester sample – ONE drop, and my kids were avoiding me for, seriously, hours. “Go away, Mom, I can smell you from over here!”)
DelRae Emotionnelle – I knew it was supposed to be pleasant and melon-y, so I wore my sample to work. Bad move. I was in the bathroom furiously scrubbing myself and came back to my desk with red wrists and a red decolletage. Maybe it’s nice in very small quantities, or on a different day, but I’d only dabbed it and have steered clear since. For me it was like being beat upside the head with an overripe cantaloupe.
Fortunately I love Eau Illuminee and Debut so there are other DelRaes to enjoy from my sample set!
OH! I know what you mean! A GI-NORMOUS cantaloupe! I have a couple samples of Emotionelle—and they’ll last me F.O.R.E.V.E.R. a dab is BIG so I can’t imagine if I sprayed it on SKIN. It’s pretty though…in very miniscule amounts. But true–Debut is a gorgeous LotV and I love Bois de Paradis—have you tried that?
Yaaay glowing chartreuse bunny! Thank you, Mitty, for hosting.
It wasn’t the perfume but the application technique: frustrated by the tiny opening of a Balenciaga Paris mini, I started shaking it on a la Charles Bronson in https://freebox.it.com/2010/02/04/mandom/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Thankfully, Paris is one of the least embarrassing choices for a massive sillage trail 😉
LOL —now there’s an image!!!! (did you have the urge to whip out a six-shooter and blast a few ne’er do wells??)
LOL! Faced with Paris’s disarming force-field of aldehydes, white musks and violets, the ne’er do wells slunk off to their own cubicles!
proving that ne’er do wells at least have survival instinct!
I do hate those TEENSY openings on minis… and often there’s no way to equalize the pressure inside, so you really do have to SHAKE the bottle. I shook my Paris mini into a little atomizer and then spritzed. Great fragrance, and not TOO overpowering. 😀
Thanks for the welcome nozknoz! My gravatar is Alba, the GFP bunny: http://www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.html#gfpbunnyanchor
You know, I almost never wear my mini-perfumes for fear of a terrible mishap. They are so frustrating to deal with. In fact, I bet they are designed that way on purpose to tempt you into buying the full bottle!
Oh, thanks for the link, Mitty! I had a feeling the fluorescent bunny was more than an illustration, but I never imagined it was both real and an entire project. I’ve saved that page to read and think about.
I’m a bit relieved to find I’m not the only one who finds those sample bottles frustrating. 🙂
I’m sure I’ve had multiple times where I’ve picked the wrong one for the wrong occasion but I can’t remember the details ):
But the thing for me is about timing. It’s a horrible, horrible idea if I decide to apply perfume right before going out the door and getting in a car with everybody else. I always have to remember to put it on at least 15 minutes in advance before leaving.
I totally agree about the importance of timing, Tati! Recently I tried Caleche Soie de Parfum (reformulation). I hated it for the first hour and decided that everyone around me would too. After an hour, it was very nice. This is definitely a plan-to-wear-in-advance fragrance!
My most recent mishap was when I was testing Ubar for the first time. I typically apply fragrance with a liberal hand… and I should have known better with those potent Amouages… but I sprayed twice on each arm and once on the cleave. Turns out five sprays is at least one spray too many! Total Ubar overload, and unfortunately Ubar turned out to be NOT my favorite Amouage (unlike my pets Dia and Lyric). That scent should come with a warning- “spray carefully: overapplication may send your body into toxic nausea shutdown.” *shudder*
You sound like my fragrance twin. I love Lyric and Dia (and Jubilation) but I can’t bear Ubar even when lightly dabbed. I think 5 sprays would have finished me off. It’s so BRIGHT!
Was it “old” or new Ubar? I love them both, but I prefer the older one, which lacks that bright opening. Strong stuff in either version, and one of my all-time favorites, but not for the faint of heart!
I ruined Bond Chinatown for myself – put it on on what I thought was going to be a mild, late winter NYC day. I took a long walk and by the end of it I thought I was going to suffocate. I gave the almost-brand new bottle away the next week! I couldn’t bear to smell it again without feeling nauseous.
Oh, man! Where was I when you gave that away?? 😉
haha same!
If I can wear Chinatown while eating a smoked oyster sample at Costco and in the hot sun-baked car afterward I can wear it anywhere!
Oh dear god…my stomach is turning!
I mailed the bottle to my best friend without telling her and she was hyperventilating when she called me to tell me she got it! I love Chinatown, but it could never be the same. 🙁
It probably helps that I can only dab some on from my little sample vial and that I apply sparingly by nature, a couple of sprays could be deadly!
I’m getting sick with you, Girlmonster. That oyster-hot sun-Chinatown combo… oh my.
I thought Chinatown seemed nice, then I dabbed a little more on once and realized it was not for me at all. Oh well.
yeah I’m not a big smoked oyster fan, but at least it was cool in Costco lol I ate about 6 other samples after that one, the worst being whatever horrible bread they put the almond butter on. I think it was made of sawdust.
I’ve made far too many tragic errors in perfumeland to chronicle here, the biggest and most long-standing being the years I wore waaaaay too much. It’s pretty much in the last five years that I learned that three spritzes is the most, and one will usually suffice. Other mistakes: wearing Opium in the summer, believing that perfume should be re-applied several times throughout the day (that was high school, so that’s sort of forgivable, right??), and the horrific day in which I decided to spray Coco Mademoiselle over the Chance that I had put on 8 hours earlier. I feel sorry for anyone who crossed my path that day.
I made a similar mistake in spraying Shalimar over Chanel No. 5 last week.
That was a disaster.
😮
When I was a teen, there were always magazine articles advising how to wear perfume by applying it to six or eight different spots on the body. That might have been necessary at some point in history, but I shudder to think how many people I gassed by doing that with 80s scents! :-O
Hi Mitty! The day I tested L’Air du Désert Marocain, I ended up in a small room for a long meeting. MISTAKE! There were no comments, but I’m sure I was noticed. I had overapplied, not realizing what a powerful fragrance it is. It spoiled the fragrance for me, too, as I was mildly nauseated all day.
I did something similar with an Ava Luxe incense and and all-day meeting. 🙂 Hey, it happens!
L’air is my first-bottle-I’d-save-if-my-house-was-burning-down fragrance, but it’s definitely a one spray perfume.
I am with you on the “grab-the Tauer- and- run” and I love me some Andy, but one day testing out Vetiver Dance nearly did me in. I don’t know if it was too much scent, or if vetiver just doesn’t like me, but I was scrubbing away trying to contain the damage.
What a shame! It’s one of my favs, but I have to admit that I don’t wear it as often as I would like. It sort of demands a day set aside for quiet contemplation and its own outfit 🙂
Its own outfit! I like that. 🙂
I like the sort of scent that demands its own outfit.
L’Air du Desert is really bad like that — I’ve never really overapplied, but it’s still one fragrance of which I can really only wear half a spritz in order to avoid making myself sick. And you all know I’m normally a 5-10 spritz guy!
I’m chuckling at your office thing (“nothing was said”), but that really is sad.
same with me the other day with Homage Attar. tiny training room. one of my colleagues had a horrible headache he never had before. for hours I thought it was all my fault, but later turned out it started in the gym where he hurt a muscle or nerve in his neck, and lasted for days… but i felt oh so guilty…
I’m very drawn to Homage Attar, but it’s the one scent of which a 1 ml decant might actually be enough for 20 years or so, I think. 🙂
The first time I wore L’Air to work I over did it-like 4 spritzes! I adored it, but I got looks! At least my boss loved it.
I’ve had a couple of over-spraying accidents in the past too. Applying a few generous spritzes of Ambre Narguile and going from Hermes straight into rush hour tube was a mistake, I’m certain everyone in the carriage breathed a sigh of relief (or just breathed) when I got off.
And I’m sure that people behind me in the supermarket queue exchanged glances the time when I got a little excited with Rive Gauche.
The most common (and frustrating) ones for me are those times when you can’t make up your mind what to wear, pick something, instantly realise that you are in the mood for something else and spend the day wishing you’d worn a different scent. Hate it when that happens.
Yes, Abyss, I agree with your final paragraph. As my collection grows it can take longer to decide what to wear to work. Last week was the first time I made a mistake. Even as I was spraying on the Philosykos I was thinking “this is all wrong”. I didn’t need a comfort scent but rather something ennervating. I grabbed a sample of Ninfeo Mio for my purse as I ran out the door, which ended up being a good move.
and this, my friends, is why we all need a zillion 5ml or 10ml atomizers of EVERYTHING —so you can grab several to take with you in the morning ! Most of the time–I want to switch scents in the middle of the day anyhow. 🙂
Here, here!
So true, and since I’m not a morning person anyway, I do better to apply scent at lunch.
Your last paragraph strikes a chord with me– it applies to the clothing wardrobe as much as to the perfume wardrobe.
If you’re going to overspritz something, Ambre Narguile is a good one!
Meeting a couple for drinks and lavishly spritzing Azuree years ago. It was winter, but the bar became unbearably hot, my fumes wafting into the face of the woman seated next to me, trying to pretend I didn’t reek. It was literally so atomic I couldn’t even track our conversation; all I could think about was how I smelled. To make matters worse she told me she hates perfume. Period. Is there anything worse than being confined in any place with an overdose of perfume?
Ouch! Azuree can be a harsh companion.
Wearing Lanvin My Sin the day after I had a bit of food poisoning was a bad and highly nauseating idea. Too much civet for me that day!
…and getting in the hot car after testing Halle in the store with a spritz of True Religion on a card next to me. *puke*
Wearing any scent after suffering from food poisoning (not to mention undergoing chemotherapy) is a BIG mistake. Give yourself a few scentless days (or months, in the case of chemo) to regain your normal state of health before you return to the perfume cabinet. You don’t want to associate any fragrance with nausea.
Oh no … it is awful to start associating a perfume with being sick! That’s happened for me with a couple.
I over applied some Paloma one day (I was working in the medical office doing mainly billing and coding) well that day I was told to go and assist the operating room..my old job in which no perfume is allowed,.. the operating room already smells horrible and along with Paloma it was a disaster. I still would wear Paloma but in tiny dabs..and not to work.
whew! I think that would ruin Paloma for quite a while!
Hmmm, I think I’m responsible for this poll. And I came up with the idea because I recently put on some Rochas Femme (new formulation), which a friend gave me, and then my husband said, “Let’s go to the gym this afternoon.” Could I say, “Sorry, not today, I’m wearing the wrong perfume for that.”? So I went. And I think you can imagine the results….
All too well! 😉
Hello, all! First comment here.
I wore Body Shop Vanilla Oil to work and heard comments all day about people smelling marshmallows and baking cakes. One guy insisted that I was drinking one of those International Coffees because he smelled it. I explained it was me, I was wearing vanilla oil. Not one person believed me, LOL.
Can’t a 35 year old male smell like cake ? I continued to wear VO
every so often, I THINK they finally caught on. Maybe.
hi Bear, nice to meet you. a bear with cake scent is always approved 🙂
Hi Ami, Thanks for the welcome!
Yum, I bet you smelled grrrrreat! 😉
What’s wrong with a 35-year-old guy smelling like cake, I ask? Actually, people started sniffing around asking if anyone else smelled cookies the day I wore Spiritueuse Double Vanille to an event a couple summers ago.
LOL — I would have kept walking past your desk just to smell the cake! By the end of the day, you’d probably be feeling very nervous….about 4 pm SNACKING is pretty much my main priority and you’d have been in physical danger!!
I will back any man up on his right to smell like cake.
Absolutely.
Hi! Welcome, Bear! I’m cracking up just thinking about all your office mates smelling baked goods and International Coffees!
I was just thinking that they were probably all rushing down to the cafeteria craving baked goods and not knowing quite why….
Nothing wrong with smelling like cake — ever!!
Wow! I love vanilla smell on guys! (I wish more guys would wear that)
Yay, Mitty!
In my opinion, almost EVERY time is the RIGHT time for perfume of every variety. It’s a matter of degree. The difference between a drop and a spritz can be an office full of gagging colleagues. 😀
However, I am lucky to live in a place where the daytime high is between 65º-75º almost all year round. Above 80º or 85º, MANY things can go terribly, terribly wrong, and even one drop can be deadly. (cf. Cynthia, meet Halle.)
One of my only recent mistakes was spraying on WAY too much Atelier Trefle Pur when I first got my decant, thinking it was a “cologne.” It was more powerful than I thought and verged on being a disaster that almost made me ill. But it’s a great fragrance.
Hey there, Joe! You know your Atelier Trefle story surprises me because I always think I can’t put too much of that one on. Unless I already did without realizing it! 😉
I’m still traumatized by that – poor Halle. Lesson learned from that experience? Almost everything is the wrong scent when you go straight from spritzing to a hot car on a 105 degree day.
I have some weird mental block about Trefle – I keep thinking Trefle = truffle and it’s going to smell like mushrooms – lol
Santa Maria Novella Nostalgia in a small car, filled with five people, on a hot midsummer’s day. It was not pretty.
A tiny bit might have worked. Couldn’t you have passed it off as “new car smell”? HA.
so are you saying that they were spilling every state secret they could think of by the time you reached your destination?
Little-used interrogation method. It can be our secret!
that’s right! —-“start talkin’ or I’ll apply another spritz!”
Haha, Haunani! You’re cracking me up here 🙂
Oh my gosh – do you think they were using Secretions Magnifique at Guantanamo? Surely that would be against the Geneva Convention!
I think it’s okay as long as they don’t mention a perfume by name….
Ha!
Perfume boo-boos? Thy name is legion. My most recent was my first experience with Ninfeo Mio. On a whim, I dabbed it from a sample bottle, as I ran out the door for work. It had so much love here that it felt safe. Unfortunately on me, the boxwood and lavender dominate, with no fig. A coworker asked me, “Do you smell cat pee?”
No more untried impulse samples at work!
I had precisely the same response to Ninfeo Mio. Lovely, gorgeous, sprightly green at first. I scampered off to work, and then the dreaded boxwood hit. I nearly hit the sound barrier in the effort to get away from myself.
Oh, I am relieved to know I am not the only one who can’t wear Ninfeo Mio. Cat pee would have been a treat: it went to stinking gingko fruit rotting on the sidewalk on me…
I really didn’t love Ninfeo Mio, either. The opening was too much like Atelier Trefle for me, and drydown wasn’t as nice in my opinion. Don’t remember getting much boxwood/cat pee, though!
Yeah, I’m glad to have company in the Ninfeo cat-pee club! Amazing how a scent that starts off so lovely can turn so very, very nasty… Definitely a cautionary tale against impulse purchases.
Oh no!
I was on jury duty an entire week and got my fragrance wrong each day. The worst were Egoiste and No 19. I felt very conspicuous.
Too bad your mistakes didn’t just get you dismissed!
Good one, Tama. What to wear when you really don’t want to get out of jury duty. . . suggestions, everyone?
Oops– I mean “when you really want to get out of jury duty”! Not when you don’t want to!
Well, from what I have heard but not tried, Secretions Magnifique would do it. Or maybe Musc Kublai Kahn.
Oh that’s too bad! Those two are such wonderful fragrances.
LOL, these all sound too familiar – I am the Queen of over-application anyway. Over the years I have learned restraint in public, but that was not the case in my younger days. Try Jean Patou Sublime sprayed in cologne quantity, in summer. Oh yeah. I love it, and it’s a great perfume, but it’s for winter only, and NOT for dousing in at the office!
I still over-apply my favorites, but mostly when I am home alone. Mostly. 😀
YES. I have my list of non-office perfumes, but that just means I over apply them on the weekend. Hello, Bandit! Nice to see you too, Dzongkha! My poor apartment mate.
Sometimes I fantasize about wearing some skank (like Jubilation 25) to work just to see if anyone notices. But I never have because I’m always too chicken.
One morning, I remember spraying Jubilation 25 in the office when a colleague told me to go away because my perfume was strong. Later that afternoon, when every note has settled in the right places, the same person told me I smelled marvelous! But he did remind me never to wear **that thing** which I used earlier that morning and I was like… “duh?”
Very funny! He obviously didn’t know what hit him. 🙂
Uh-oh, I wear Dzongkha to work and never worry about how much I put on.
H: I think Dzongkha’s fine.
And M… a touch of Jubilation 25 is nothing but classy! Seriously!
I’m inclined to agree, Joe. It’s that “little touch” part that is hard to achieve!
: D same here
Yesterday the SO and I went to the charming L’Occitane in Malibu after lunch and 1 bottle of retsina, sprayed on “Neroli” (not neroli) and “Vetiver” (not vetiver) and had to keep rolling the windows down on the ride home…
Thankfully, other scents in their line are quite good, but these 2 were a mistake!
Now I’m curious to go to L’O and spray a dab of Neroli for the hell of it. Not to mention I love Retsina.
Hmmm, Retsina with the SO & perfume sniffing after? Aside from the perfume mistakes, it sounds like a lovely day!
oh no! drinking and perfume shopping are a frightening mix! My lemmings acquire astounding mind-control abilities after a couple of drinks! I’d probably wake up on the floor surrounded by cellophane wrappers, perfume boxes, crumpled receipts and reeking of an untold number of perfumes. The SHAME! **shuddering**
Hahahahaha – but surrendering to lemmings while intoxicated is so utterly thrilling!! 😉
you make it sound so dirty! 😉
I tested Black Tourmaline one Sunday morning when going to church, I thought incense is churchy right. Well that stuff was too skanky for church. Oh slightly of topic, I going to Charleston SC next weekend any recomendations of places not to miss: music venues, restaurants, perfume shops etc.? CB I hate perfume website lists a shop there, Worthwhile, as carrying some of his perfumes but I wonder what the selection is like?
McCrady’s was our favorite Charleston restaurant. It’s hard to go wrong there, though. Love that city!! Have fun.
Oh McCrady’s is fantastic! Was there for a wedding reception and the food was terrific. Enjoy Charleston!
do the outdoor market…some touristy, but also some nice local artisans and crafters.
I love to watch the Charleston baskets being woven. Such an art!
I learned the hard way not to spray Andy Tauer’s Le Maroc pour elle in any type of weather and have passed my bottle on to someone who I hope it will agree with. It grew and grew and grew until I felt a stifling 6 foot aura surrounded me which laid waste to everything it touched. Also Ninfeo Mio – cat pee on me – even the dog looked at me askance, thank goodness I sampled that one first!!!!
Haha! You know you’re in trouble if your pets start looking at you funny or sniff you and run away (which is what my kitties have done on a few occasions)!
This was actually someone else wearing the wrong perfume at the wrong time. I had a bottle of Montana (the original), a big stonking eighties scent. It had a great, double-helix-shaped bottle, so even though I didn’t wear it much I kept it on my bathroom vanity. The mother of a friend of ours was visiting our home, and apparently decided she would sneak a sample when she was in our bathroom (I mean, why bother sneaking it? I don’t know why she just didn’t just ask me, I’d have given her half the bottle). Well, there was no “sneaking “a sample of that perfume; she must have given herself three or four good sprays, because she came downstairs in a practically visible cloud of Montana, and a horribly embarassed expression. No plausible deniability there. She couldn’t sit still and talk after that. I didn’t know what to do; if I’d said “Strong, huh? Would you like some?” she might have died of embarassment. So there we all sat in Montana, until she could find an excuse to go.
I’m practically rolling on the floor with that one. “There we all sat in Montana.” — priceless! Poor thing … there had to be a way to defuse the situation so she wouldn’t have been so mortified. It might have been a good time to talk about your perfume collection. thanks for the laugh.
OMG, this is so funny! I have to confess that I’m a bathroom cabinet snooper, and have on more than one occasion tried to stealthily try out beauty products. The two worst occasions that come to mind–that finally ended my life of crime–were the time I tried on a friend’s perfume while housesitting, and she could still smell it in her house when she came home… and… oh, and this is really bad… I tried on a friend’s Venom lipgloss and turned the whole bottle pink when my red lipstick got on the brush and mingled with the clear gloss. She never said anything. I never said anything. This was also while housesitting, now that I think about it. No wonder no one ever asks me to housesit anymore.
Well, the lip gloss is one thing (that’s when you run out to buy a replacement… like when you accidentally kill the hamster).
But perfume… housesitters are entitled to at least a spritz, I think. Unless it was well hidden in her scanties drawer, in which case, yeah, someone might get a miffed look on her face upon returning home. Woopsie. 😉
haha, I totally agree. I’ve always “tested” the perfumes I find during house-sitting, etc. But I never go looking in drawers-drawers… 🙂
ohh bathroom cabinets, fav secret gardens. i never try but love to check what others use
HAHAHAHAA! ah, you’re killing me! “sitting in Montana” !!!!!!!
I guess I might have said “oh you tried the Montana! I’m so glad ; I put that out so people could try it if they wanted….what do you think? I really like the dry down….” etc etc. I actively drag people into the midst of my enthusiasm and hope that it mitigates some of the embarrassment. Of course that’s easy as pie to say when it’s not happening right now… or maybe they walk away thinking I’m an outrageous bizarro….it’s a tough call.
You know, that might have worked. I wish I’d had the presence of mind to have smoothed it over like that.
I hope that I would too—you never know because it’s always easy to think of strategies “later” or when it’s happening to someone else. It’s like when we watch Jeopardy! from the comfort of home and answer the questions like crazy—and think “yeah, I’d clean up on this game show!” but if I was really on the show I’d probably stand there with a glazed look on my face, drooling, or forget to phrase my answer as a question….
LMAO, Bergere!
Montana is sort of neon anyway, isn’t it? AND persistent. (I rather like it, myself.) Poor thing, I’m sure she was embarrassed to death.
I had gotten a nearly free bottle of Obsession and gave myself a couple of squirts before going to a seminar. Two women got up and moved to different seats while I was saying, “Sorry…sorry…” I knew just why they were moving away from me. That stuff is potent!
Ouch! Did they scurry away or did they try to make it look like they needed to sit closer to the front so they could see better?
Obsession’s probably one of my Most Hated Ever (along with Opium, Youth Dew, and Poison), so I’d have been running too.
It’s one reason I probably underapply now.
Anything with tuberose at work is a mistake for me as the shop owner never fails to criticize it. Weirdly, she loves the original Poison which is pretty tuberose heavy as I recall. One time I was wearing a scarf which I wore the previous week with Fracas and she backed away holding her nose. I thought that reaction was a little over the top, but I think it is probably a mistake to wear Fracas for anything other than a romantic event.
I also had the horrible experience of somebody getting sick and almost passing out at work then blaming it on the Epic Woman I was wearing. I know that Epic isn’t an everyday work scent, but I was teaching an evening class and I applied it that morning so I thought it would be okay. Turns out she also had diabetic testing equipment on her and her sugar was totally out of whack (and she had the acetone breath of ketosis) but nevertheless, I’ve been afraid to wear Epic for any occasion for the last couple of months.
Oh, I’m so sorry Epic gave that person such a response. Surely by evening it had died down to it’s soft comfort scent stage? I love that fragrance.
Here’s a thought: Amouage should have a regular cap, and optional sprayer in all packaging. I love Lyric, Ubar, and Epic, but prefer all of them in the dabbed, not sprayed state. Many fragrances would benefit from that concept. We perfumistas likely have the equipment to decant into a smaller vial to do just that. The rest of the ‘fume hating world likely would never think of that solution.
It’ll be my Bondesque ‘fume motto. I’d like Amouage Epic Woman, dabbed, not sprayed. Be well.
Ahhh tuberose. How dearly I would love to be able to stand more than one drop of thee…
That’s terrible about Epic Woman. That scent can be too hot to handle though. I wore that out for my birthday dinner at a Sushi restaurant and it totally overpowered all the food. What was I thinking?
Ohh. What a good topic. I have a very good example sickening perfumes and I’m proud to say I’m not the wearer. It’s a friend of mine who wears alien. Not that would be a bad thing, BUT she does that in August. My delicate nose almost bleeds.
Alien and August don’t go together very well!
Ta’if. Before entering a Russian Orthodox church in Moscow for a special mass to celebrate Saints Piotr and Fevronia. I wore a girlish skirt over my jeans, as it is customary for women to look ‘feminine’ at church – trousers are usually frowned upon. I wore a very chaste and pretty head scarf to cover my hair. However, the Ta’if was considered by my friend to be a step too far (I thought it matched the feminine vibe, but really it gave-off more of a harlot vibe!!) I really, really wish I had had a bottle of Zagorsk or Avignon, Incense Extreme, or Messe de Minuit……….God, I need an incense in my perfume collection! I shall wait for this coming winter and think about Avignon or Timbuktu……..
Blimunda, I would have thought Ta’if was fine, too. But yes, get yourself a wonderful incense fragrance!
Messe de Minuit is such a cold fragrance—incense suitable for summer I think —pure cold dark church at night….one with an ancient cemetery on the side with gothic crosses covered with lichen, listing a little from time and exposure…I wouldn’t linger needlessly…….what was that???! :-O
A new incense frag that I’d recommend is Sonoma Scent Studio’s Incense Pure. I had it on yesterday. It is beautiful and *very* reasonable too.
This is such a fun poll! What comes to mind for me is the day in probably 2006 when I had just bought a bottle of L de Lempicka, and I really loved it at the time, and I sprayed it profusely, then walked outside and realized it was *much* warmer out than I’d thought it would be — close to 90. And the stuff was just emanating from me and I felt like I was drowning in it — my body heat just amped it up big time. I did get a couple of nice comments that I smelled great, but I felt like I was totally invading everyone’s space with L de Lempicka on a very hot day. That is definitely a cold weather scent for me!
Yes, L is a cooler weather fragrance for me, too. That’s what is so tricky about summer/late spring, right? You never really know if something is too much until it’s too late!
Cor blimey, I think back to my days of wearing the likes of Tabu, Ysatis, Bal a Versailles, Must de Cartier, L’Heure Bleue, even Fidji, to work as an Art teacher, whilst always reserving my beloved Mitsouko for special occasions at night! And no-one turned a hair! The other ladies were wearing Poison, Paris, and Shalimar! Now I’m a collector, I only have to smell these to be instantly transported back to those wonderful mornings, at the ‘sign-on’ book, (and I still remember each wonderful woman and her frag!) as we were all armoured for the day at the chalk-face in our monster ‘fumes! And the kids loved them, you would often have a couple hang around after the bell to ask what it was and where you could get it…how times have changed! I’ve woken up from my long sleep to a fume phobic world….and yes, you still get the bad breath and body odour from these fume-phobes. All the while living in smog and a myriad of non-smelling chemical additives and drugs…
As I got older, I tended to wear more cologne-y things like O de Lancome, and I loved that Clarins Dynamisante but always, every day, put on my home-made brew of sweet almond oil with patchouli and a mix of other essential oils! This coincided with my increasing despair with all the pink fruity shampoo things I kept smelling on my trips to the city or the local pharmacy, post Angel, which despite my adoration, I had to concede to the next generation.
My only mistakes now tend to be when I’ve chosen fume of the day and done body, whilst reserving arms and hands for sampling, and then forget to wash off arms and hands before going out!
I love you perfume choices! Many of my own favorites there. And it seems to me that in those days, many of those classics melded much better with skin that a lot of today’s scents do.
Yes Rap…I wonder if its because the more animalic bases (not that I would condone the destruction of animals for perfume) (and many were synthetic bases anyway)… have been replaced by extremely cheap, all-pervasive, fake, ‘clean’ sorts of notes that just seem to retain that false, non-mutable, almost fluorescent sort of smell that screams ‘chemical’. There’s a flower version, a wood, and a fruit, that seems to be in everything cheap from detergent to those ghastly plug-in things to supposedly ‘fine’ fragrance…
Amen, Sistah!
I want to take art lessons from you.
I put on a bit more Ambre Narguile than usual one time when my husband and I were going out. It was a cold winter night and I thought it would be perfect and cozy. However, we were out for a special dinner at a really nice restaurant – and the restaurant was well-heated. Not only was I a bit too toasty, but I smelled apple pie strongly through the whole meal. By the end, I felt slightly nauseated and couldn’t eat my dessert. My own fault!!
Oh I can sympathize. There’s that saying, “You’ll spoil your dinner,” but I’m definitely more worried about spoiling my dessert!
Agree! Life’s uncertain; eat dessert first!
Thanks for hosting, Mitty!
I wore CdG 2 on a day that I thought it would be perfect – a little museum trip with my Mom, spring day. I wore a light sweater and wound up having to stand outside in the sun waiting for her. I got kinda sweaty and the perfume made me a little queasy. Took me a while to wear it again but as long as it’s cool out I’m fine.
I know I made massive mistakes in the 80’s – mostly I remember everyone else completely overapplying Ciara. Even I knew better with that one.
Hey Tama – you’re welcome! All these stories about warm weather perfume mishaps are making me think that less will always always be more in Spring and Summer, which is somewhat disappointing, I must admit. (I love spritzing myself up totally and completely!)
Well, I think you’d be safe in 4711. 🙂
Agree! And you’d get to reapply all day long, too.
Another job interview disaster here: I really like Baume du Doge and had always thought of it as a very subtle scent, but I applied way too generously when I was hurrying to the interview, and ugh, was it ever oppressive. And I didn’t get the job, although I don’t *think* it was the bad scent karma!
Aw, I’m sorry you didn’t get the job, but I agree it’s best not to dwell on the perfume-karma! No need for you to become a paranoid perfumista!
Most of my disasters have come from sampling, but that’s not really the question here.
The one thing that comes to mind is when I decided to experiment with my beloved Chamade to see how it would work in cooler weather. After all, it has that great incense-y base. Unfortunately, I put a turtleneck on too quickly after appiying so it was all over my clothes. The green top notes that usually burn off fairly quickly on skin in the heat, NEVER went away since they were in my turtleneck and I thought the hyacinth would kill me. Oh, and it was Thanksgiving Day.
Oh my! Thanks for the warning. I’m still getting to know Chamade, and as the weather is turning cold here now, I’ll be careful.
I totally agree about the sampling, Rapple. And sometimes, when I’ve had too many scrubbers in a row I begin to fear my sample pile and won’t sample for weeks at a time. I’ll never forget when I tried the Versace Bright Crystal sample that came in Sephora order – UGH I really felt nauseated and it would.not.come.off!
LOL! FEAR the sample pile! I know *exactly* what you mean. I’ve gotten so leery that many of them I won’t even touch to skin after sniffing the vial. And it doesn’t help that my skin holds onto scent forevah!
There’s been a few times that’s happened to me. Once, I wore SL’s MKK to the office, forgetting I had a huge meeting with the heads of HR/Administration. I had sprayed instead of dabbed, and the office was very warm. It seemed like the scent bloomed endlessly and got stronger as the meeting went on. And I get plenty of skank out of that fragrance, it was a red hot mess!
The second time was going to a breakfast meeting, and I had just purchased EL’s PCTG, I hadn’t yet realized to use a light hand. It cleared all tables within a 10 ft radius of where we were seated.
I’d sit right next to you Smokey!!!
You reminded me of another SL spray vs. dab disaster — Gris Clair. Divine dabbed, but hoo boy, is that a monster when spritzed…
Isn’t it funny how some scents just “bloom”? In MKK’s case, it grew fangs and claws. Not good! I like most SL scents, but think on me they are much better dabbed than sprayed.
My cats go running when I whip out anything SL!
This is a delightful topic and it is such a relief to know that others have had these awful experiences! I’m still learning my way around the perfume world and having fun (mostly) trying things. The two deadliest perfumes in my modest collection Azuree and Aromatics Elixir. If I am not extremely careful (as in spraying forward and stepping into the mist), I can count on making myself sick. I also bought some Paloma (a new formulation) and just haven’t come to terms with it yet; is this one that is an acquired taste? So far, I find it sickening, but have found that I love other chypres. (Or is it not one?) Also, I purchased a sample vial of Mitsouko from an on-line discount shop and there was a very clearly defined “Play Dough” accord. Please advise me – is it just my inexperienced nose or did I get a bad or incorrect sample or am I just missing something?
Hi there, Dassie! Well, I can’t answer your question about Mitsouko because I’m still teaching my nose about that one (still don’t get it yet), but I’ve had that awful play-dough accord rear its ugly head in another fragrance: Bois 1920 Vetiver Ambrato. (I never played with play dough as a kid because I could not stand the smell!). Interestingly, no play-dough note emerges from Vetiver Ambrato when my partner wears it, so I’m thinking it has something to do with my chemistry.
Your mention of Aromatics Elixir reminded me that Clinique Wrappings is very easy to over-apply even in the winter!
Thanks for your interesting note about Vetiver Ambrato. I’m a bit curious and may have to track some down and see if it too takes me back to kindergarten. And thanks for hosting today – it’s great!
Dassie, I had a similar reaction to Miitsouko – everyone raves about it, and I like the first few seconds. And then… a host of conflicting notes, none of them good, is all I get. Sigh.
Paloma is a chypre, yep. And although there are certain floral chypres I really love, Paloma is definitely on my “Never wear” list…
I’ll second that to the Azuree and the Aromatics. Fortunately when I bought it I’d read a lot of online reviews of AE so I apprehended the dangers of over applying. Like you, I walk into ONE light spray, and I always wait half an hour or so before going out. I’m pretty careful about where I wear it. There is a lot of hate out there for AE.
Azuree can be pretty raspy sometimes. I usually wear it when I’m alone!
Play Doh accord in Mitsouko sounds like the reformulated juice. I’m a Mitsy lover, but I’ve realized that oakmoss literally melds with my skin. Of course I’m talking about vintage versions. But I would advise not to worry about “getting it”. You either like it or you don’t.
I still don’t think I’ve been forgiven for the time I wore patchouli oil during a six-hour car ride.
Oh geez! Was I in that car? LOL In college, all the hippies in my coop chose patchouli oil over bathing and so let’s just say it took a long while for me to accept any patchouli notes in perfume! 🙂
Well my mishap was with Tom Ford Black Orchid. I had a 30 Year JHS reunion. The event was after work. I spritzed in the morning, but was sure I would need to refresh before I went to the event, so I took a lil Mini bottle I had…splash no spray. So the work day ended and I went to put some on my neck and the whole damn bottle spilled out! I had to go home and take a shower before the reunion. No, I did not reapply because I still reeked after the shower. Yes, I was late and Yes, people told me I smelled amazing. 🙂
Hooray for happy (smelling) endings!
Besides the Halle horror (which was sampling and doesn’t really count – plus, I went straight home and only nauseated myself. Well, and Daisy since I passed my sample off to her), the biggest one was probably Une Rose Chyrpe – definitely needs to be dabbed and not sprayed. Even two light sprays is way, way too much – same thing with Debut, definitely a dabber. I couldn’t wear either one for months after overspraying.
Oh, and speaking of sampling errors – Very Hollywood {{shudder}}. I went to spray it on a notecard at work so I wouldn’t get it on me (because despite the loathsome reviews, I had to smell it, right?) and accidentally spritzed my hand. Ugh… and of course, it wouldn’t come off. I commiserated with Daisy over that one, too – only she made me promise to throw it away to avoid the possibility of ever getting on myself again (well, and to keep me from sending it to her).
Une Rose Chypree is a hard one for me too. I wonder if dabbing would be better than spraying. And I usually throw away scrubbers so I don’t make the same mistake twice!
Uhh no…. you should send your scrubbers to me!
Oh, but of course! (Don’t worry I’ve not thrown any samples away recently…) But next time I feel the urge to toss I promise to send it your way first!
LOL —I tried to disguise my fear of receiving said sample with concern for your welfare …. apparently you were not fooled!
I fear retribution after sending you SDV…..but then you paid me back by sending Little Italy….but then I paid you back by sending ….well, it’s just a vicious circle really.
I don’t think that I can count SDV against you – a. I asked for it and b. you actually like it. I sent you Halle knowing full well what a horror it was on me – of course, you like sweet gourmands, so you *could* have liked it. I don’t think that I knew that Little Italy was going to smell like hot cat pee and asphalt when I sent it though. I did know what a horror show Saks for Her was when I sent that … and, guess what? I found the vial of Very Hollywood that I was going to send you in the first place – I had begged two of them out of the SA and I only threw away *mine*. Bwahahahaha.
Oh that tears it! I am going to dig thru my samples and find the syrupiest, sweetest, most gourmandy thing and send it to you….WITHOUT a warning label….that’ll show ya. Ha!
I give up! I’ll throw the VH away!
YIKES! Daisy don’t you EVER give Cynthia my address. Her samples sound positively evil! 😉
note to self: give Rapple’s address to Cynthia….
It sounds to me like *somebody* is begging for a sample of Very Hollywood…. or maybe some Little Italy.
oh absolutely! heheheheheh 😉
Little Italy is a delicious orange lollipop. Thanks for prompting me to spray a little on my right forearm. [[sticks out tongue]] 😛
careful Jersey! I’ve got some stinky samples that I could “accidentally” send to you too…..
NOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo 😛
Satellite Paparadscha (spelling?) jsut a few days ago. Jiminy Cricket, was that a mistake. The day had started out cool and as it warmed up, I smelled more and more like a curry gone bad. By the time I had to pick up my son from school I had to quickly drive back to my house, scrub it off, and change my shirt before I could go pick him up. It was absolutely awful (another example of a fragrance I can no longer wear, but it’s been awhile since I’ve even tried it. Big mistake to reintroduce on a warm day).
I’ve never tried SP, but “curry gone bad” is never a good thing! 😉
ooooo- I love Padparadscha! Soft woods….light, doesn’t last very long…..opposite reactions! no curry for this girl.
Hmmmm, well now that you put it that way… 😉
I have occasionally made the mistake of sampling something at work and finding it to be skanky (Joy, Quelques Fleurs Royale, Citizen Queen). Embarrassing when most of your coworkers are the opposite gender…
After a winter of looking forward to getting my Apres l’ondee out again, I put it on recently and spent the day unaccountably depressed. I think that one needs the right weather – it was sunny that day, and Al’O just seemed wrong.
ITA about A L’O, mals. It needs its own perfect kind of day to be just right.
Oooh…last summer I went to spray on my beloved Histoires de Parfum 1873 (Colette) whose bottle looks exactly the same as my also beloved but definitely not right for a Dallas summer day bottle of HdeP 1876 (Mata Hari). My DH actually gagged…. and it’s not easy to wash off, either. The 1876 is a wonderful incense-y scent, but this was defintely the wrong time for it!
Haha, I’ve had a few perfume mistakes like that! My perfume cabinet is so dark that it’s easy to reach and spray before looking. 🙂
I have a suggestion to avoid spraying too much: I like to apply perfume to more than one place on my body(arms, cleavage, hair, etc.), but some fragrances are too strong for multiple sprays, especially in summer. What I do is spray it onto a cotton ball, then use the cotton ball to wipe the perfume onto wherever I want it. That way, you distribute the fragrance around more widely without using way too much.
As for a mistake, how about this: I bought the Vermont Country Store’s reformulation of Abano (I have never smelled the original, so I do not know what it was like) and wore it to work without testing it. All day long, I could hardly keep my eyes open. I have found that this effect is consistent with me, so although I cannot wear it as a regular daytime scent, it makes a great sleeping aid, and with no “hangover” the next day as I get with the antihistamine products in the drugstore. In fact, it is so good, I bought four more bottles when it went on clearance. I suspect it may have some orange blossom in it, as I have found previously that that particular essential oil will put me right to sleep.
But do you find that *too* much goes on the cotton ball? I must try that with Opium and see how I go. Lord knows, this side of the grave I can’t see myself using up even the 30 ml bottle I have.
New thought for a poll: what’s the perfume you want to be buried with so that you can take it with you to the next life?
Hmmm, interesting poll idea – though a bit morbid, eh? 😉
A great idea for a poll! (Robin, please take note). And that next life will be in a better place, with no ingredients restricted.
Hi, 50 Roses – Thanks for the tip about dabbing on with a cotton ball; I’m spending the day working alone (mostly) and will try this technique. Why do I sensible thoughts like this never occur to me? Well, that’s for a different blog. Love your “handle” too; perhaps you are a fellow rose gardener?
Yes, I have about 50 roses in my garden, more or less. Every once in a while I lose one or two, and every year I get a few new ones. Contrary to their delicate reputation, they are actually tough as nails, at least as long as you avoid the fussy Hybrid Teas (I call them diva roses).
As for the cotton ball, it allows me to use only 1 or 2 sprays yet still spread it over a large area. Spraying directly would use 4 or 5 sprays, which is often too much. And yes, the strongest scents always have the most prolific spray mechanisms!. I also like to take the cotton ball after I have wiped on the fragrance and put it in my clothing somewhere. The remaining fragrance will be released during the day, but more slowly than if it were directly on the skin. You can also use a cotton swab to apply extrait, in order to keep you skin oils from possibly contaminating the bottle.
All great ideas – THANKS!
I agree: I’ve even found a cotton swab a good method for applying something very strong like Montale Black or Red Aoud
Thanks for the cottonball tip! I find that the fragrances that are best dabbed always come in spray bottles– with extra-powerful spray mechanisms to boot.
I don’t know how many people here are going to hate me for this but I wear Angel to school. Every day.
I keep reading that it’s supposed to be some big sweet, monster, but on me, it just smells powdery and sweet, with a teeeeeensy bit of roasted marshmallows. Sounds creepy, now that I think of it, but it smells like babies, I think! I’ve had others walk into the room and shut down my lungs with their super-offensive scent, only to find out that they were also wearing Angel, so I don’t know what to think.
If it ever smelled like that on me, I’d probably never go near it again, but it smells so comforting and soft, that it keeps me from getting too stressed at school 🙂
I only dare to spray one tiny little spritz on my left wrist though, so maybe that’s the difference? Who knows!
I think you’ve hit the nail right on the head. For some reason –maybe they become anosmic to it?—so many Angel wearers seem to bathe in the stuff! And some perfumes (Angel being one) really need to be applied very lightly. I’ve seen women pick up a tester at the store and just do a full torso spray down—my eyes get big like saucers and I begin to scan for escape routes…..
Yaiks. I do the same! Spray the thing all over my upper torso.
That’s why I am having trouble with all the little sample vials, I always feel like I have not put on enough perfume as everything is just dabbed.
That definitely has to be the difference – I’m subjected to not one, but three, lovely coworkers who don’t know the meaning of restraint when it comes to Angel. Worse than that, it gets beastly hot for most of the year here and they end up smelling like an unholy mess. Besides the overwhelming sweetness and patchouli smell, Angel (when overapplied and exposed to heat) has an undercurrent of vomit to my nose and I have to practically run away from them – which is a shame, because they’re all lovely people except for the Angel.
My experience with Angel on myself and others is identical to yours, bittersweet. My trick is to spray it ahead of me and then walk through it. Once.
That’s a great idea, Suzy. I think I’ll try that the next time I want a little Angel fix. I doubt I will ever finish my little sample!
That’s a great idea, Suzy. I think I’ll try that the next time I want a little Angel fix. I doubt I will ever finish my sample!
I was a budding perfumista 1.5 years ago and was at a conference. At lunch I spritzed myself (generously) with White Oud by Montale. Well it was warm in the room and “yowza!”. That fragrance lights up a 50 foot diameter around you. I suddenly felts eyes in my direction. I didn’t dare take my jacket off!
Conferences are such a challenge, so I can definitely sympathize! Too many interactions with strangers; too much pretension about greatness, professionalism, etc. etc.
My solution is always to wear something tried and true that has been “test-run” with all my regular colleagues; at least then I know that the few people that would find my 31RC (or whatever I happen to be wearing that day) offensive are the ones with the *problem*!
Demeter’s Fig Leaf on the day a beloved pet died. It had been a comfort scent, and wasn’t too challenging or unusual, so it seemed appropriate – and losing a Demeter isn’t too much of a loss – but I can’t smell any leafy fig scents without thinking about it now.
How sad, Melanie!
I’m sorry about your pet.
One of your cats died recently. But somehow I enjoy wearing the scents she liked on me. Though there’s always some sadness too.
An awful experience was being complimented on a perfume by a pervert. I’m not using that word lightly, and it put me right off the scent.
That’s a bummer.
Our pets just grab onto our hearts, don’t they?
I can really see using a comfort scent in a situation like that and then not being able to use it again.
That is a very sad story, Melanie. So sorry for the loss of your pet. I think your story speaks to the power of fragrance to inscribe memories – the sad as well as the happy ones. Are there any fragrances you associate with happy, healthy moments with your pet?
*hugs*
Late to the party- I’ve been away in the Blue Mountains for the weekend with the girls. Today I thought I’d wear Balenciaga Paris only to to be completely drowned out by one of our group wearing Aromatics Elixir. So definitely the wrong perfume on me as I would have needed Opium or Poison or similar to compete!
Oh dear! Balenciaga Paris seems quite lovely for a mountain trip. But AE? Maybe in dead of winter!
If ever my fragrance was overwhelming, everyone was kind enough not to tell me 🙂
I remember however some cases involving fragrance worn by others with nauseating results.
Like when we expected the Managing Director of one of our affiliates and I walked in the door that Friday morning, sniffed the air, coughed and asked the receptionsts “I thought the rat poison man was supposed to do that during the week-end” and they said “Ahem, that’s Madam X, her plane landed early”. The woman poured an entire bottle of Aromatics Elixir on herself! I never liked the fragrance, and in that concentration it was filled to be called a chemical weapon.
LMAO, Nile Goddess! AE is getting a lot of play on this thread today. But “rat poison” takes the cake!
I wore Hermes Caleche to a restaurant on the beach! Oh what a disaster!!!! Why did I do that?! I still keep asking myself!!!
Haha. You know, I keep wondering: when is Hermès Caleche appropriate? I like it very much but so often it seems like too much. Do you wear it often? What are the best occasions, in your opinion?
OK, here’s a fragrance disaster of a different sort. Yesterday, I had to go to a big mall down in Sacramento to pick up a gift. I really hate the enclosed kind of malls, because of the noise and crowds. Now I have a new reason to hate them. Maybe my nose is just more sensitive to smells now, or I have become a flaming fragrance snob (or more likely, both), but the entire mall seemed to reek of cheap cologne. If they are not piping it in, it’s a combination of the Macy’s counter, the kiosks, and the Bath & Body type places. It took me a while to recover after I got back to the car and treated myself to a reapplication of my SotD.
Probably all the other mall patrons were wearing the cheap stuff, too. Eek! The worst thing about those enclosed malls is the noise, though, imo at least. I’ve quit shopping at them, since even a slow Tuesday morning is nerve-shredding.
I agree that the noise is the worst thing. It’s exhausting!
I know I have to hold my breath every time I walk past Abercrombie and Fitch – do they have a fan or something that blasts cheap man-cologne towards passersby? It’s almost as bad as coming across a sudden blast of Axe while walking through the halls at school (I’m a high school teacher).
I think A&F do have a fragrance-pumping fan!
Ah – that might explain my experience! I think there might be an Abercrombie & Fitch at that end of the mall.
Some public restrooms now have automatic air spray dispensers that automatically pump it out at intervals. Suffocating! What a diabolical device! I just hate the idea of scent being turned into Muzak. >>:-((((
Good grief! Hope they don’t spray where someone might actually be standing!!
I was wearing Guerlain Samsara one day when going out with my boyfriend, he told me I smelled like a whore, I was like “what the…??!”. Samsara is something my mum wears all the time, and we never get any such complaints before…yeah, was pretty shocked.
well, my first thought was “did he mean that in a bad way or a good way?” ok, ok….probably a bad way…..but first: he could learn a bit of diplomacy! Second: (once we’ve got the duct tape securely over his mouth) his nose needs a little education. 😉
No kidding! I’ll help educate him! Samsara (especially vintage) is one of my favorites.
Vintage Samsara is amazing!
My thought was “omg i wouldn’t have an idea of what a whore would smell like”. I’m sure it was quite a shock for CK One and Acqua di Gio wearer to smell Samsara on an 18 year old girl, when every other 18 year olds wears candylike fruity floral or JLo or whatnot. Or it could be the hot tropical weather.
Yes, he could’ve chosen better phrase. He’s used to it now, and I’ve successfully made him wear Versace The Dreamer.
Which would actually have been a great rejoinder! How WOULD he know what a whore smelled like?
Are you still going out with this dude???!!! How does he know what a whore smells like?!
I think it has to do with this image that only lewd women, (not necessarily prostitute) would wear strong daring fragrance.
Yep I’m still with him, it was 3 years ago. He’s waaaaaaay more open-minded about it now =)
MJR – Just want to say that you did a fantastic job of hosting this weekend. Thanks! It was a lot of fun. 😀
Aw, thanks Rapple! 🙂
I actually like hypnotic poison and bvlgari’s jasmin noir better in the warm weather, it seems counterintuitive but i have weird vampirelike circulation that seems to flatten those musky scents in the winter.
Dior’s Addict. It is so thick and heavy and suffocating and even applying the smallest amount will not help. One spray is too much. Every time I put it on I am very aware of it. At first it is interesting but very quickly becomes super annoying. There is something addictive about it somehow. Maybe thats why I purchased 2 bottles, and every time I am simply puzzled why. Maybe because I like the bottle.
It could be the queen of the night flower. I have never ever smelled this plant, only as an essential oil. And same reaction-alluring to start of with but very quickly I found it sickening and boring.