A repeat of a poll we did in 2011 and 2014: tell us about your most-hated perfume, your most recent scrubber, nasty layering combinations you've discovered, perfumes you'd prefer to never smell again, or anything like.
Please, DO NOT read the comments if you're at all sensitive about your own perfume loves. Someone else is bound to hate them! If you do read, be gracious about other people's choices. This is meant to be lighthearted.
Note: image is This must be art (explored) [cropped] by Umberto Salvagnin at flickr; some rights reserved.
I do remember that poll!
My latest scrubber is a perfume I tried 2 weeks ago.
The culprit was Amouage Figment Man. I just had to wash it off as it smelled like an old water from a flower vase on me. Yuck.
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Today it is really humid. Glad I had my hair cut today, will less hair it’s somehow easier to bear. Wearing Bombay Bling from NVC for this weather.
Vase water smell is the worst.
I know. It felt quite suffocating.
Agree!
+1 on this
Hah, I just added a sample of that to an order – I look forward to drenching myself in old vase water. :^)
Let us know what you thought about it 😉
I find that Amouage Honour woman has a vase water big in the middle:-((. It put me off buying what was otherwise a beautiful floral. What is it that makes that gakky smell?
????????
One of the perfume I hate the most is Marc Jacobs Decadence. I also hate everything that has oud in it. Nothing smells worse to me than oud, it’s masculine in a bad way, horribly unrefined.
I may be in your camp: I haven’t found an oud-dominant perfume I like. I’m still open to trying them though–if I don’t have to pay for a sample.
Same! I feel like a weirdo because it’s been so popular in recent years and maybe I just don’t “get” it, but it’s such a blunt, oppressive scent that it just kills whatever it’s in for me.
Oh good one, quite the powerhouse of stench!
I was thinking about getting a bottle of Decadence, for its trashy aesthetic, but the perfume itself is so deliriously head-spinningly nauseating after a while!
And just the other day, I was thinking soon it will be cool enough to wear my beloved Decadence, lol!
????
Had hopes for that one–cute bottle–but did not like it. It’s been too long ago to remember why. Now I may have to retest just to remember.
It was more than just a scrubber: Serge Lutens Miel de Bois. I have PTSD just thinking about it. The funny thing is, I’ve since learned that I like honey in perfume, when it’s used in small amounts. Dare I give this one another try? It’s been years….No, I don’t think I could handle it.
In recent years I haven’t encountered a truly traumatic scrubber: just perfumes that are boring or get on my nerves after a few hours or are heavy on the laundry musk. Usually I can wait until I take a regular shower–as opposed to a Silkwood shower–to wash them off.
SOTD is LAP Nuit de Tubereuse. Happy Saturday everyone!
You probably could give it another try because from what I hear, it’s been reformulated — at the very least, it is probably less traumatic now!
+1 here. Miel de Bois was a pure cat pee on me
On me it was dirty baby nappy. :-0
I sprayed Miel de Bois quite lavishly before a flight (like a fool) – I absolutely adored it, but when my partner picked me up at the airport, a look of horror dawned on his face immediately and he asked: “What smells like… like drifter urine?”
I think Silkwood shower is the funniest thing I’ve heard all day! 🙂
Silkwood shower made me laugh also ????
Recently I tried something that smelled like hairspray. Unfortunately I can’t remember what it was. It was either a decant of something or a sample. Probably my worst scrubbers are Cheap & Chic, which also smells like hairspray, and Tea Rose, which makes me nauseous.
Ugh Tea Rose!
Zoologist Bat!!! Aughhhhh, it made me almost throw up. SO bad.
Also (and please don’t lynch me)…Shalimar! Yuck yuck yuck.
I witnessed the event, and she’s not exaggerating about her reaction to Bat. 🙂 (which I really like, myself)
I love Shalimar for an hour or so, but whenever I wear it, it smells great at first, and then in a couple of hours, I start to wonder where the nauseating smell of feces is coming from, and I realize that it’s my perfume and that I’ll be trapped with this nauseating horror until I can reach a shower and a change of clothes. I don’t like smelling like sh*t, and smelling like sh*t mixed with perfume is even worse. Gorgeous bottle, though 🙂
I keep on sniffing Shalimar, but nope & nope
I like Bat a lot, but Beaver made me feel ill.
Hi Koyel! I am with you on Shalimar-can’t stand it. Once I was chatting with a girl who drenched herself in Shalimar. After 5 minutes sitting next to her I had to make an excuse and leave, I was literally sick to my stomach.
Lol! I love Shalimar myself, but my superdry skin eats both the fecal and the baby powder aspects of it, so it’s just like a smoky bergamot custard on me (and not particularly strong, at that). When I hear others describe it as a mix between baby powder and poop, I’m fascinated and really want to smell it ON someone where it smells like that! Of course, I don’t want to put someone through actually WEARING that, so… 🙂
Bat was…very weird on me. I didn’t find it to be a scrubber, but really didn’t care to wear it again either! I love some oddball perfumes, but that is not one of them.
That is EXACTLY what it smells like to me.
More Shalimar for me! ????
Ditto to both.
This post is just delightful. I’ve been enjoying everyone’s comments. I’m also glad to see so many fellow Shalimar haters out there.
I wanted to add to my scrub list Aftelier Bergamoss, which smells like a dirty diaper in a dank, rotting forest.
Cracking up over this description! Bergamoss is way, way polite on me — I was expecting something danker — and it only lasts about fifteen minutes.
Bergamoss was terrible on me. Couldn’t swap it fast enough. For Shalimar (even my beloved Ode a la Vanille…Mexique), I just have to get through the first hour or so and then the baby diaper part is over and the smoky vanilla takes over and I’m set.
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I am with you on the subject of Shalimar. It gets so much love, it is revered and adored, and it just smells SO BAD on me.
Bat just smelled like damp dirt in a cave to me at first and then a little fruit.
I agree with you on Shalimar! Last time I smelled it (on paper, not skin) I almost laughed out loud, like, this is the perfume that everyone swoons over?? It smelled like plush vanilla, citrus, and leather, all atop a steaming pile of animal poo. I have to give it props though, because it is quite a fascinating scent, even if it’s not my cup of tea.
Another Shalimar hater here. The last time I tried it, I sniffed a lovely, true-to-life lavender note for about 30 seconds. Then I was drowning in overly sweetened vanilla ice cream that had spilled on a NJ boardwalk in the height of summer heat & humidity. Next, an overflowing Porta-Potty showed up… and I ended up scrubbing my arm up to the elbow with soap and water in a public restroom. Mr. Jalapeno had commented on the whole debacle, saying “That really doesn’t smell good.”
To top it all off… Shalimar is the signature scent of one of my in-laws. She, luckily, does NOT get Porta-Potty.
I think my worst experience was with Profumum Acqua di Sale. I put the sample in a plastic bag and could still smell it. I had to take it out to the garbage bin outside. I don’t think I have ever thrown away a sample since – I pass them on to others if I don’t like, but this one had to go. Patch and oud also sometimes make me ill, but not to that extent!
OMG, someone kindly sent me a decant of some marine fragrance in a freebiemeet. It had leaked a little, and the entire package reeked of stale, rotting marsh. Sooo gross. I wish I could remember what it was called. I meant to pass it on, but it might’ve smelled so bad that I threw it out. Either way, I can’t find it.
This is what happened with Serge Noire – the only sample I have carried directly outside to the trash bin. The most horrendous BO smell possible.
This just made me belly laugh! I kept trying Serge Noire thinking I just do not get it. It was made completely wearable by doctoring with really good cedar essential oil, rendered safe!
Exactly what I did with my first-ever sample of Angel 🙂
House of Matriarch Trillium. How could a delicate white flower smell LIKE THAT? A sample was included in an order I placed from them, and the entire box REEKED and then the whole room REEKED and then I threw the box in the recycle bin and the whole garage REEKED and I had to put the packaging OUTSIDE. And the sample hadn’t even leaked, y’all. Thermonuclear strength, I’m telling you.
Hahaha – that’s how I felt about the Acqua di Sale – it’s only a little seawater, what’s the problem?
And you sent it on to me and it was totally fine to my nose! Tsk tsk….
LOLOL, that is hilarious. The tiny, delicate flower that ate Peoria.
I just looked it up. What a cute little flower!
😀 😀 😀
That is so funny! It’s my favorite from HoM – and only lasts a couple hours on me if I’m lucky! You must have a supernose. 😉
Acqua di Parma Gelsomino Nobile. It was sour and scratchy. I didn’t like it on me at all.
Two weeks ago, I first tried Chanel Allure Homme Sport. It seemed OK first (though unexciting) – a well-made masculine fresh cologne. Not my thing, but nothing really horrible. Then… it just made me sick. I had to wash it off, I could not bear it. Maybe it’s the intensity – it’s so persistent, so overwhelming, murderously sharp and mercilessly fresh. I tend to like fresh fragrances, but in this scent freshness goes horribly wrong for me. I briefly re-tested it later with the same results.
It was very brave of you to retest!
Thank you! 🙂 The second time was five minutes before taking a shower. 😀
Agree, I really don’t like that one!
The last scrubber was Pacifica Tibetan Mountain Temple, which i had sampled in a store before getting in the car with my guy. I didn’t mind the scent, but it made him sick so I pulled out the baby wipes and scrubbed.
It was a warm evening, I think it may have faired better in the winter.
The one before that was one of the newer Atelier Colognes, Jasmine Angelique. Hated it, had to get it off me asap. It did not play nicely on my skin at all.
Jasmine Angelique did not work on my skin at all either!! Ugh, I don’t remember exactly what it was (Cigarette smoke? Sharp green? Probably both), but I don’t think I’d want to ever try it again.
Oh, I have to scrub things off for my guy all the time 🙁 even things that he likes after I’ve worn them for a few hours, like Galop. Once I wore three sprays of Aromatics Elixir and he refused to come within 3 feet of me for the rest of the afternoon until we found a bathroom.
I love AE! First time tried it on my skin in the mall and the top notes were horrible-concentrated cat piss, but I was patient enough to wait for the dry down, which was heaven.
Later I received a decant of AE in a swap, and the juice was gorgeous from start to finish. I suspect I tested it from the very old tester and the top notes gone off.
I hated Jasmin Angelique too and had to scrub it off. Funny, normally Atelier Colognes are not that terribly long lasting, but JA was very hard to kill.
Of all time? The worst, most repulsive thing I have EVER smelled is Eau d’Hermes. I remember running through the mall searching for a bathroom to get the smell away from me. Recently, it would have to be Ambre Eternal. I love it on other people, and on me it turns into burning plastic.
Haha, so funny, i love Eau d’Hermes. I also love the image of running for a restroom – I’ve been there (but for different reasons, lol)
Sorry you had to experience that, though! These encounters can be traumatizing.
LOL my worst mistake was testing Eau d’Hermes on one arm and Papillion Salome on the other… whoo boy!
haha, I was just about to write the same thing – it was a long time ago, but it’s made its mark in my scent memory, oh boy. never again 😀 somebody once described the smell as the smell of ‘Robert Mitchum’s jockstrap’ oh well… :d
A few months ago at Nordstrom I asked for a sample of JM myrrh & tonka. I should have known better, but I sprayed my arm.
I couldn’t get out of the mall fast enough, couldn’t get home and out of my clothes fast enough, couldn’t get right of my headache for the rest of the day.
It’s always comforting to know other people in malls are experiencing the same thing, xendawg.
My last scrubber was Dame Perfume’s soliflore Osmanthus. It didn’t smell bad, but it smelled exactly like peach iced tea. It was so realistic that I had to wash it off because It made me desperately crave peach iced tea and there was no way I could get any, so I was horribly distracted.
SOTD is Tabacco Toscano by Santa Maria Novella. Mmm. This is the opposite of a scrubber!
Agree! I avoid berry and peachy scents because they make me want to lick my arm then raid the fridge.
Wanting peach iced tea when you can’t possibly find any is a nightmare!
I have his Osmanthus and it is strong!! But I love it ????
I’ve never scrubbed off anything in a hurry but I sure did not enjoy Secretions Magnifique. That’s probably the closest I’ve come but I do remember a tester of No 5 eau de parfum that smelled like a urinal cake of my skin. That wasn’t a fun shopping trip.
I’m in Ostara today. Just got a big bottle off Ebay and thinking I might need another.
When I tried Sécrétions, I had known it was horrible, so I took the sample and the test strip in the bathroom and sprayed on the strip over the toilet. LOL
However despite my precaution I missed, and some of that thing went onto my fingers…
It’s definitely a scent for the brave. I’d probably try it again though, honestly.
Ha ha ha!!! If you have to spray the sample over the toilet, you know it’s probably not going to be love!
There have been some funny stories told over the years about Secretions Magnifique. Lol!
It’s pretty terrible. It’s like being abducted by aliens.
I never had enough courage to try it. 🙂 Even the name of perfume sounds gross.
I feel like everyone should try it once. It’s a rite of passage, like getting in a car accident or getting a cavity filled.
Oh, your rites of passage ???????????? mine are more like Chanel No. 5, first kiss….
You smell great! Ostara is beautiful, in my top 5 for spring.
Thanks! It’s glorious.
Ostara is the smell of pure happiness.
It really is. My coworker loved it!
Secretions Magnifique is the King of scrubbers for me. I do not even count it as my number one scrubber anymore because it goes beyond that. I had the worst and most terryfing experience at work once, when I accidentally sprayed on it and well, the rest you can figure it out…..
It definitely provokes a fight-or-flight instinct when you first sniff it.
I only smelled it for the first time after you shared that story and now I understand your pain (and everyone else who was around you that day). Truly nauseating!
Peach & other strong fruit notes make me really queasy, not surprising since I dont like to eat them either. So PdHistoires 1969, Cocoa Sandalwood and most of Vero Kerns unfortunately made me grab the soap. Funnily enough I cant smell the melon in Apres la Mousson which I love but run a mile if theres a melon in the kitchen ????.
Melon isn’t actually listed among the notes in Mousson, and I only detected cantaloupe after I read Robin’s review, and then I could see it. Not ripe cantaloupe, though. How do you feel about FM Le Parfum de Therese, which has a ripe melon dimension?
Havent had a chance to try it yet. Will try it on my next visit home.
I didn’t get melon in Après le Mousson (that was Muguet Porcelaine) but it did smell like dirty vase water on me.
I love AlM but it definitely says MELON to me. I actually “inherited” a bottle and now that it’s gone, I miss it.
You won’t like Gucci Rush, then. Rush is all about the peach!!!
What a fun poll!
My sister and I worked in the same fabric store at the mall when we were in high school. On breaks, we’d mosey over to Foleys (anchor store, like a Macy’s) and sample perfumes. The SA spritzed us both with Obsession. We sniffed our wrists and all eyes got big. It was wonderful on sis, but nauseating on me. Bloomed quickly into something truly nasty. The SA actually said to me, “don’t ever, ever, wear this again.”
Needless to say, I have not worn it since. My sister and I still giggle over that experience. 🙂
In BLV II from a swap with the generous Jalapeno. Have a good weekend, all!
I love your story, Nancyleandros! It’s so interesting and funny the way some perfumes just go horribly awry on certain people.
Oh, I have fond memories of Foley’s! Those were the good ole days! Lol!
I love this story!
I smelled Obsession on a woman a few monthes ago and absolutely loved it. I wish it was still popular.
If the original was released now, it would be a superlative niche perfume. I wear it in the winter months and it smells fabulous.
Yep
Hilarious story about the Obsession! I remember a similar story with a friend who wore it wonderfully back in the day. She insisted that I try it… not so wonderful on me.
Honestly, can’t think of anything I have had to scrub off recently. Probably my last scrubber was 2?? years ago…AFtelier Cuir Gardenia which smelled like rotting flowers.
Today I had a visit from my parents and we went to the farmers market and Italian bakery in a quaint little town by a Metro North train station. I wore A La Folie and my dad loved it so much I gave him my bottle 🙂
I got my Cuir Gardenia sample the other day. Didn’t work so well with me.
I thought it might be my wonky nose/wonky skin but then others have commented that the Afteliers don’t work for them either.
The Nicolai?? Go Dad!
I know , right? He rarely comments on something smelling good on me so when he said he liked it I had to give it to him…I hope it is unisex! Not that it matters..he used to wear Attar of Roses too! He is 80 years old and can darn well wear whatever fragrance he likes as far as I am concerned 🙂
My most recent scrubber was Cartier l’Envol. I should try it again to figure out what exactly it was, but I don’t dare.
I didn’t care for l’Envol at all either. I was really looking forward to it too.
Same here! And it isn’t honey, since SL miel de bois is a good one, right?
I loved Miel de Bois too. I honestly don’t remember why I didn’t like it but it was such a let down.
I didn’t care for Envol, either, unlike so many.
That was a scrubber for me, too. I kept getting wafts of sawdust and dried dog poop ????
That sounds perfectly awful, but at least the dog poop was dried? 🙂 Fwiw, Envol smells like gingerale and violet candy on me…
Ha! Not that I’m doing comparisons of dog poop or anything???? Your version sounds like much more fun.
I never got so far to actually put any on me, but I still giggle at the memory of sniffing the Jo Malone Tea series with a perfume pal. Thinking they’d be light little non-offensive things, my eyes bugged out smelling the dip sticks. Are these turned? Each one more nauseating than the last. Went to another store to check if the first batch was actually spoiled but they were the same! A third friend showed up and human nature being what it is, we made her smell them (Smell this! So gross!!) but to her they were light little non-offensive things. ????
Noses are strange.
Hahaha yep, each one so bad it seemed like a crazy Emperor has no nose installation. 😉
I have luckily only once sampled a perfume, which I had to go home immediately to remove: Byredo’s M/Mink. The metallic notes reminded me of blood to such a degree that I felt nauseous. Definitely one of the more “interesting” perfumes I have tried.
I agree! Utterly foul on me too!
Ironically I love this one! It is admittedly very odd.
Yikes ????
There’s a lot of scrubbing in this home what with The Nose around on the days I work from home. Just yesterday I had to scrub off Juniper Sling (admittedly I did spray on quite a bit), and last weekend Rose Flash sent me to the sink again.
Personally I’ve not been driven to scrub off anything as of late.
Haven’t decided on scent just yet today. Brutally humid outside so may go with a citrus, perhaps L`Eau à la Folie.
House twins if you go with L’Eau…I am in A la Folie 🙂
Guess what I’m wearing today???? I’ve been wearing it a lot on hot days too????
That would be Juniper Sling, not rose flash????
Perfect summer scent!
My biggest scrubber is Lancome Poeme, which I tried several years ago. The memory is still traumatically present. It smelled like an industrial accident.
And two I like very much on others but which undergo some weird chemical reaction on my skin: Angel and Shalimar. After a few minutes Angel smells of chemicals and nothing else; Shalimar is so ragingly medicinal it makes me choke. The mysteries of skin chemistry!
Agree on all accounts. Angel smells like rotting melons on me and Shalimar smells like petrol.
(Puts on deep gruff voice)
Do you like games NST?
A gigantic, radioactive genetically modified cucumberzilla (cumberzilla?) with an unhealthy dose of inbound budget airline lavatory “freshened” with thrift shop Glade.
Any guesses?
Er… DKNY Be Delicious?
I really, really hate Be Delicious. Another scrubber on me. All I got was a rancid, acid, armpit odor so disgusting and everlasting. No matter how many times I washed my arm. It did not want to go away.
You are absolutely spot on Glannys! That name really needs taking to court…
Yay, I won! 😀 “Cucumberzilla” and “radiocative” were great hints, of course, but I also remembered that you had previously expressed your disgust for this perfume. I (unfortunately) often forget the names of NST commenters, but you have a very distinctive style. 🙂
L’Eau d’Issey?
I like this game. Calvin Klein Escape?
One of the Poisons.
That would be an apt description for it!
Haha!
Most recent scrubbers were samples that I swapped for that were all rancid. It was awful, as I had sprayed each one on my arm in a different spot, and they all smelled like different versions of rotting vile chemicals. Beyond that, I really don’t like L’artisan Bucoliques de Provence.
Agree with the L’Artisan BdP… ordered a sample from Luckyscent and when I dabbed it on I was like “Bleccccch! Get it off me!”
For the most part I will not let anything with calone or cumin touch me and often have to leave department stores that forever have the scent of sweet fruitchoulis hanging in the air.
Tauer Lonesome Rider. I love leather and iris so I tried this one. No. The citrus in it was disgusting. The citrus mixed with some woody notes smelled just like some kind of cheap floor cleaner. It was horrible on me. I carried on for two hours and finally couldn’t stand it and scrubbed it. (And it was still there!)
Tauer is great but his scents really run the gamut on my skin! Orange Star I used to love, but now it’s starting to make me nauseous. But the worst of all was (I believe?) Carillon Pour Ange which was straight blue cheese on me! Yuck
I had to scrub Orange Star too. Which was too bad, because it looked perfect on paper and I normally like Tauers.
I get porta-potty from about half the Tauers I try, the other half I love! So I keep trying them 🙂
I’m with you, yukiej! I recently won a sample of L’Eau, and that one turned out to be good for me – not what I was expecting, but some days I really crave it. It’s worth a try if you haven’t already!
That is good to know! I have only smelled it on paper, but should give it a try on skin. Thanks for the recommendation 🙂
I did not love L’Eau but I wouldn’t fault someone who did. I agreed with Robin: too clean.
I get a lot of foody barbecue smoke for the first 20 minutes, then it’s okay. Carillon pour un Ange and Vetiver Dance were awful on me.
I kind of liked Lonesome Rider until someone pointed out that it smelled like a plastic shower curtain. Now I can barely wear it.
I don’t love most Tauers, though I’m infatuated with his Gardenia. However Vetiver Dance was really awful on me. Not enough to scrub it but I did toss my sample.
Those word pics can definitely ruin perfumes for me. I have a great one for Galop, but don’t want to upset folks????
That’s nice of you.
I agree, word pics have ruined a few for me.
I haven’t endured a gawd-awful scrubber in years – really ever since I learned the hard way to avoid melon and marine notes. But y’all need to read Marjorie Rose’s scrubber poem from way back when we first did this poll. It’s still a delight! https://freebox.it.com/2011/09/10/lazy-weekend-poll-scrubbers/#comments%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Direct link:
https://freebox.it.com/2011/09/10/lazy-weekend-poll-scrubbers/#comment-241576%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
That was brilliant, wasn’t it?
Gold!
I’m pretty new to the fragrance world, so I haven’t had too many terrible or traumatic experiences aside from one: Sulmona by Coquillete Paris. Straightforward, heavy cherry cough syrup note. Disgusting. It was a really bad experience because somehow it ended up in my hair and it wouldn’t wash out (I’m normally cautious about getting perfume in my hair unless I know I like it and want it to stick around forever). Ugh.
I did retry it once when I had the flu this past February and found the cough syrup scent oddly comforting, but that perfume is a no-go for me.
I can’t even eat red cherries because of the cough drop association, so cherries in perfume are not my fave.
Here is my list of the most hated perfumes of all time:
1. Poison
2. Poeme
3. Eternity
4. Organza
5. Amarige
6. Ange ou Demon
7. Michael Kors
8. Fragile
9. Beautiful
10. Obsession
Certainly there are other perfumes in each of these lines which I love but one can sense a pattern here: I hate big white florals!
Big White Floral Hater Twins! ????
I love BWF’s but I hate Poême and Amarige with a vengeance.
Ditto!
Nice to have support here. Thanks! I forgot White Diamonds! Then there’s the current category of praline/candy that I cannot stand either.
Amariage is dismal.
LOL! I am counting in my head how many full bottles of those I had in my perfume wearing lifetime 🙂
Love it????
I love white florals, but at least half of your list is also a strong dislike for me.
So loving a certain genre/note does not mean you love everything in it. 🙂
And I yet have to discover a Givenchy that works for me. But after trying a few and felt the insides of my nose burning away, I am now quite afraid of this brand haha.
Happy Saturday All!
I recently have been using a lot of my samples this summer so I could get a break from my normal scents. About 2 weeks ago, I went into one of my sample bins and pulled out a scent that just didn’t agree with me. It was “Scent Intense” by Costume National. The last time I experienced a scrubber like that, it was probably about 3 years ago. It was “Skin On Skin” by L’Artisan . Both of these fragrances have a note that comes off as strong urine on my skin. I don’t know what that note is, but it just isn’t for me.
I often wash things off if they don’t sit right with me or I’m tired of them, even things I like sometimes. The worst though was Voleur de Roses – still don’t know if that was a dodgy bottle (sealed from TK Maxx) or if that’s what it’s meant to smell like.
VdR is a fragrance I respect but don’t need to ever smell again 🙂
Hate Angel with a passion! Unfortunately I smell it a lot in the wild.
But there was one time I gave a ride to a 50 y.o. lady from Middle East. She smelled so good and I had to ask her what she was wearing. I expected some niche-shmishe uber expensive arabic attar. Her answer? ANGEL!
P.S. SOTD- glorious Chanel 19 edt. 🙂
You smell glorious!
Great story! Shalimar is still a scrubber for me, but several times I have admired it on others 🙂
I am not an Angel lover either. I do not hate it, but I avoid it continuously. I have some just in case one day I wake up craving for it 😀
I can’t wear Angel because it bores me up close but I love it on others.
My most recent scrubber was Ex Nihilo Citizen X. I don’t remember exactly why I hated it so much, but it didn’t smell anything like the notes. In retrospect, the paradoxical description – “frozen amber that glows with bracing intensity” – should have been a warning.
Sounds sinister.
During the ’70s, a tenant of ours wore L’Air du Temps. Unfortunately, she would also get hammered and, in the process, would lose control of her car (yes, DUI) and her bladder, evident by the dents on her car and the pong in the stairwell. Those two scents are inextricably linked for me. Also during this gorgeous era–and this is not necessarily a scrubber–my cousin wore Halston and she smelled marvellous; on me, it smelled like bananas.
Worst scrubber in my perfumista career: Teint de Neige by Lorenzo Villoresi. I didn’t just dislike it but it even made me gag. It’s strange because I tend to like powdery fragrances.
I’ve just thought of another one: Aromatics in White and Womanity.
Oh, the Womanity…..I liked the salty fig thing it had going on but on my skin, the fishy notes hit the same time as the sugar avalanche. I was with my daughter and she and the SA were both fanning their noses lol.
The opposite! I love Womanity.
I’m a bit late for this, but I was checking out whether anyone mentioned Teint de neige, and voilà, here it is. I fully agree with you, my worst scrubber ever.
Haven’t really had to scrub anything as I’m a very cautious tester. However, the bad news is that I just bought a new bottle of perfume, and I LIKE that perfume very much, sadly it doesn’t like me. This is the third time I’ve worn it, and each time I get a pounding headache. Initially, I thought it was a coinkydink, but today I’ve admitted to myself that it must be the perfume????
That’s too bad ???? What perfume is it?
It’s a bottle of Berdoues Vanira Moorea. I bought it during the Twisted Lily 20% off sale and they were nice enough to hold it for me for a week and half while I traveled. So, no huge financial loss, but I do like it. I will try it a couple more times and if the headache recurs, I’ll have to re-home it.
Oh no!!! that is too bad 🙁 Maybe try it in cooler weather?
Oh no 🙁 I hope the headache is unrelated!
FM Dans Tes Bras. Immediately smelled like I had sprayed tomcat p!$$ on myself. I couldn’t get to the bathroom quick enough ????
This was a scrubber for me, too.
Oooh, yes, DISlike. It’s supposed to be like lying in the arms of a lover isn’t it? For me it’s like lying in the arms of someone you’ve just realized is totally wrong for you!
Ha! I am very familiar with that smell. Lol!
lol
Aw, my favorite Malle. I’m sorry you didn’t like it.
Now I’m really looking forward to trying my sample! Cat pee is the absolute worst????
Scrubber for me too!
Worst experiences have been with SL Serge Noire and Miel de Bois, Norma Kamali Incense and JAR Jardenia. All of them were stomach-curners.
I wrote about Miel de Bois too!!’ I haven’t smelled Serge Noire. Maybe should steer clear.
I can’t recommend it – pure massive BO.
I ordered a sampler of I think 5 scents from Olympic Orchids and
Blackbird and Kingston Ferry were the only ones that didn’t send me to the washroom immediately.
SOTD: SL Gris Clair, my rainy day scent.
SL Gris Clair was a scrubber for me when I first tried it a few years ago. The lavender smelled metallic and like saliva. However I didn’t hate it when I smelled it again a few weeks ago. Actually I found it okay. Interesting how our tastes change!
My first SL love!
I sampled around five OOs and the only one I didn’t scrub, and liked, was Golden Cattleya.
Oh, that was the first one to go into the garbage for me.
Ha!
Ha, OOs can do that. Mardi Gras is vomitous, but then Olympic Rainforest and Woodcut are quite nice.
Yes, Mardi Graas was one of them as well.
Blackbird is one of the few OOs that I can’t wear. Smells fine on other people but truly foul on my skin.
One of my worst scrubbers ever was an OO, Kyphi. Ohmygoshitwasawful. I felt like I was having a panic attack . No idea why.
OH lord BLACKBIRD! like the worst household cleaner on me. Usually my skin makes things sweeter, but this was crazy foul.
eau de merveilles elixir
I really wanted to like this, and at first burst there were a couple of absolutely lovely scents…then…
I smelled something awful – I looked at the list of ingredients and assumed it was the ambergris.
I imagined I was trapped in a whale intestine wedged in by a piece of ambergris, someone approach, I thought they were going to save me, but they just poured perfume on my head.
It was suffocating – off to the sink!
I would like to try this one again though.
Lol. I know what you mean: sometimes the scrubbers cast a spell.
So true
Ooooh…I had a similar experience with L’Ambre de Marvilles. I’ve trued it twice snd both times it made me feel ill. I think it is the combination of sweet and amber because I like the original Eau de Marvilles, the new blue one (the name of which escapes me) and the herbal amber of Ambre Sultan.
This is good to know, I have never tried the original – I will add that to my list
Elixir des Merveilles is the one scent from that group I have to stay about 10 feet away from. Here’s my favorite review:
http://australianperfumejunkies.com/2016/12/05/elixir-des-merveilles-hermes-review/
One of the best bits of perfume writing ever:
“There are two sides to Elixir des Merveilles – the syrupy orange peels dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt on one side, and on the other, a massively butch clutch of resins and moss. It’s basically a super-gourmand grafted onto a super hairy-balled aftershave.”
😛
I’ve loved all from this group so far, but now I’m scared to try this one ????
Ha! Great read! ????
It’s good to know I am not alone here – I tried the elixir, not understanding that it was one of the many iterations – I still need to try the original
Hilarious!
Ooooh! Here’s one that I doubt will get another mention here: L’Artisan Mûre st Musc Extrême. Aside from making me nauseous, I must be overly sensitive to the musk because it’s a filth-bomb nightmare to my nose… and not in a good or “sexy” way.
Funny thing is that my husband doesn’t perceive it that way at all. It’s been interesting to see all the things that he and I perceive 100% differently. And boy are there a lot!
That one smells like garbage to me, or like the fridge needs to be cleaned.
That’s me and Musc Ravageur. Rotting fruit.
I tested the original Mure et Musc once and could barely smell it – maybe a hint of berries was all I got. My husband, however, told me repeatedly that I smelled great. I gave the rest of my mini to him and he wore it all in about a month.
Too funny!
I also find it very difficult to smell. Their mimosa one, too.
Wow, I always found that one to be so inoffensive!
My worst experience ever was sampling Perris Montecarlo Ambre Gris. It gave me a terrifying headache, nausea, dizziness and anxiety. I only had one spray and it ruined the whole day. However, I gave it a second try weeks later just to comfirm that it had to be sent miles away from me.
Hello, all. My one eternal scrubber is Amarige, which I loathe with the burning passion of ten supernovas. When I rule the world, my tenth act of mercy to relieve the suffering of humanity will be to have every drop rounded up and sent off to live in the nearest black hole, whence there will be no return. Apart from that one (though mind you, it’s such a biggie that it makes up for many), I don’t seem to have scrubbers in my life. A year or so ago, No. 19 took against me, and I’m very wary of it now, but it’s not a scrubber. A few months back, on the very same day that Angela reviewed J’Ai Ose really positively, I experienced it as a scrubber, but because of her praise, I’ve been cautiously re-trying it, and am now finding it really quite pleasant, especially outside. So, for me, just the ghastly Big A, which I yearn to scrub off other people as well.
BTW, this afternoon we’re meeting Eric again and (wait for this!) Titus. In his photos, Titus is exquisite: he is an Oriental Golden Lynx (classic pattern), and seems quite arrogantly aware of his beauty. He certainly poses like a pro. We hope he might have the alpha-personality that Dakkie seems to need. Eric is adorable, but he’s bit soft and daft, rather too much a younger, red-pointed version of Dakkie. A propos of nothing at all, Eric has huuuuge feet. If he grows into them, he’ll end up half my height and will snack idly on a leg of lamb to stave off hunger pangs until dinner…I already love him. I hope Titus (my name; his pedigree name is MUCH sillier) is as lovable.
I love that you are planning ahead!
Go Titus and Eric!
I live with a normal-sized cat with HUGE paws, which I always find hilarious to look at. May you soon know that joy. 😉
A kind person gifted me with Perles de Lalique. I looked it up before I tried it on, and read on Fragrantica that people liked it to Dior Midnight Poison, which I like. So I tried it on and it was an utter horror. A huge peppery cloud that went straight up to my brain and stabbed it with shards of ice. Sort of. Awful.
I really enjoy PdL????
Fun read! Makes me wonder how people around me are perceiving things I love.
Recent scrubbers:
1) Robert Piguet L’Insomnuit-a screechy, oversweet chemical nightmare. Insomnia indeed!
2)L’Envol as I commented above
3)Amouage Myths Woman-started out green and promising, but the drydown smelled like bitter, old vase water
My SOTD is Jasmin et Cigarette, which I love. I’m getting more tobacco today than I usually get, possibly the humidity?
It does get you wondering…are there days I’m swanning around feeling like I smell like the heavens, while someone is wondering what smells like a Bangkok public bathroom?
I was just thinking the same thing, but you said it better than I ever could.
What a fun thread! A couple of these that seem to be scrubbers for a lot of folks are ones that I happily wear on a regular basis! (Like Jasmin Angelique, which I apply with a very light touch 🙂 )
I think my last scrubber that I can remember was Narciso Rodriguez For Her, which had a horrible licorice odor on my skin. Luckily, I try to make a point of only trying scents that I’m iffy about when I’m within an hour or so of taking a shower anyway.
I tried NR For Her the other day and really liked the first hour or so, but it devolved into something dark that I couldn’t quite identify but you got it right. It was licorice + musk on me.
Some of my lowest scoring samples with the notes I made at the time:
22-Aug-16 Fragonard “Beau Gosse” – Cleaning fluid for serial murderers.
17Oct16 Divine “Divine” – Oh Lord, violent white floral attack!
28Feb17 Ys-Uzac “Dragon Tattoo” – Icky smell of pineapple sprayed over days-old sweat.
05Apr17 Penhaligon’s “Artemisia” – Like the mouthwash the dentist gives you after polishing.
24May17 Frederic Malle “The Night” – Manure stink, then sweaty feet, and *finally* a good quality rose-oud.
I didn’t love this morning’s Olympic Orchids “Salamanca” either.
Forgot to post yesterday for the end of Hemingweek. I thought I had chosen Molinard “Habanita” for his Cuban connections but it turned out to be “Habanita L’Esprit” which is maybe the photocopy of a cardboard cutout of Hemingway. Changed then to Amouage “Myths Man” – going for ‘the man and the myth’ angle. It was okay, but not great.
SOTD was John Varvatos “Artisan” which I disliked last time I wore but worked well today. SOTE is the end of my decant of Amouage “Interlude Man”, probably my favourite perfume so I have re-ordered a fresh decant. I got a birthday voucher from Ausliebezumduft (FIF) so a FB of Parfumerie Generale “Indochine” is on its way to me, along with a bunch of samples and decants from various sites. So much for waiting until August, eh? :^)
The Night is a trip, isn’t it? Like shoving your way through a throng of overheated goats for at least three miles, and then you emerge into the open and someone hands you a little box and you open it and sniff, and yes, well, there’s a nice rose-oud.
Haha, enticing.
La Vie est Belle, I just can’t stand it. Also Knowing, which gives me a headache. The worst thing is that I find them both practically impossible to scrub off.
Oh yes – La Vie est Belle is evil and must be destroyed. I consider it a weapon of mass destruction.
I don’t like Knowing either. I love 80’s chypres and Estee Lauder so I’m not sure what happened.
My MIL always drenches herself in La Vie est Belle when we go out with her, no matter the season or temperature. From disliking it, I went to really hate it. It is suffocating. The worst is that I gifted it to her for the holidays after she tried it in Macy’s and liked it.I never thought she was going to wear it in massive amounts (sigh! cries!) 🙁
No good deed goes unpunished… 😀
For sure 😀
On the bright side she must be emptying the bottle at a fair speed 🙂
This year I managed to find an authentic original bottle of Knowing. I have deep old school love for Knowing, but kind forgot about its nuclear silage! It is definitely an 80’s powerhouse ???? Still adore it! ????
I’m with you
Knowing is one EL I really love
Love this poll! Right now, I’ve been decanting a lot and the smell that will not die is Lush Dirty. It smells like hungover frat boy trying to cover up last night’s cheap beer with gum and toothpaste. DOESN’T WORK, BOYS. Ugh.
Also seconding Shalimar (like VTG versions tho) and can I say…. I just do. not. get. Chamade. at all, in any vintage. It’s just so screechy. (All this said, I probably pretty much like any other Guerlain ever made, lol)
Lush Dirty is the signature scent of all the young party queers where I live. It’s getting itself a pretty bad reputation.
Saying this, of course, as someone who was a young party queer myself until fairly recently.
????
My last two scrubbers were both free samples from Sephora – Amazing Grace and something from Clean. Both overwhelmed me with the laundry musk and I had to free myself. I will add that I recently received another Clean sample – Sueded Oud – and I sorta like it.
Wearing CDG Citrico right now, but it will fade in time for something else this evening, maybe Passage d’Enfer.
I got a decant of CdG Sequoia that I was super excited about… but ended up being a scrubber. OF COURSE that was the one decant in the package that chose to leak all over everything.
Worst scrubber of my life was Imaginary Authors Bull’s Blood. Of course it was also the most tenacious, errr, scent I’ve ever encountered. It got into the top I was wearing, and from there into the washing machine, where it stayed for several wash cycles. It has been a year or so now, and I think it’s finally purged from everything. (I hope I didn’t just jinx myself.)
+1 here. It was horrible!!
Haha, agreed 100%! The rest of Josh’s perfumes are generally fantastic, so we can forgive him for that.
Also, while I think Bull’s Blood is atrocious, I kind of have to respect IA for making something so, um, daring in these days of L’eau d’L’eau Sheer d’ L’Eau Light
Terre d’Hermes Parfum smelled like vetiver + smoky chewy bacon to me, which i found totally gross. I love the EDT though.
Chanel No 5 was a scrubber too- the intense aldehydes burst reminds me of foul public bathrooms for some reason. Nauseating. I love, and got a small bottle of, the l’eau version though.
Totally off topic, but in the course of searching for something else, I found this fascinating 2005 article on perfume in Japan by Chandler Burr:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/magazine/display-it-dont-spray-it.html
Very interesting article. Japan must be a good place to shop for vintage unopened boxes of perfume.
Yes and they are dirt cheap…
Yes, Neil Chapman, who lives in Japan, sometimes writes about vintage perfume shopping on the Black Narcissus blog. He said recently that it’s starting to dry up, though.
yes, that is who I was thinking of too 🙂
Cartier La Panthere. Phew.
It somehow manages to be hissy, sulfer-y, chemical fruity and like old, green vase water. I had to put a ton on to smell the gardenia which is very nice, but it was like using a machete to whack my way to the good part. Phew.
Interestingly Baiser Vole has a tiny whiff of that same smell and it’s by the same perfumer. It’s a lovely lily but I don’t wear it often due to that.
Ewww. Panthere is gross on me, too. Super sharp and stabby/scratchy in texture.
I generally do not get scrubbers but I have run into a couple during my perfume obsession
diptyque Oud Palao. Gosh that was horrible. At first I thought it was because I was getting sick, but no I the second re-try it was same. Pretty much unflashed back up toilet.
SL Miel de Bois. I had to take it to the garage (the bottle leaked a little) and garage stunk for a long time. Hubs spent a long time looking for a while that the cat got in and peed on the floor. I did not have a heart to tell him.
Imaginary authors Bull’s blood? Why would someone do this to me?
Atelier Oud Sapphire – made me so sick to my stomach!!!
Seconding Oud Palao, I couldn’t stand it (but like Miel de Bois 🙂
Thirding Oud Palao. I kept trying it because scent twin Lucas loves it. Nope nope nope – each try smelled worse than the previous try. Basically, it smelled like vomit.
I’m sad that y’all don’t like Oud Palao. I love it!
Me too I like it! I also find it quite similar to Dior Oud Ispahan.
I really like Oud Palao (bought it at first sniff), but it is STRONG and persistent, so I can see it being a nightmare if it’s not one’s bag! I have to really want to smell it all day if I put it on. 🙂
I love Oud Palao, but I rarely wear it because I worry I will overwhelm people, even with two tiny spritzes. I like Oud Saphire as well – I read a bunch of reviews that claimed it didn’t smell like oud, but on me it smells exactly like . . . oud.
It’s been a while since I’ve encountered anything really horrible. Clementine California comes to mind as the most recent. Ick. I also really hated something in the base of the Hermes Rubarb one 🙁 Actually, lots of seemingly inoffensive Hermes fragrances give me the horrors.
I managed to take myself from maybe slightly headachy to blinding migraine with a Must de Cartier craving a few weeks ago. I suppose that counts. It’s gonna be a few years before I want to smell that one again.
I love the opening of Clementine California but found it rather cloying after an hour or so.
Petit Matin is the most recent scrubber I remember. I can usually wear a dab or two and it’s fine. But the last few times it was harsh and screechy. Maybe my sample is going off.
Fun discussion topic! I feel like we are baring our souls, or perhaps I see it that way because I try to say nothing if I can’t say something nice.
It’s true, it’s like a confessional here today 🙂
I think it’s also good to be reminded every so often that something you find utterly delicious is basically cat pee to someone else.
Lots of fun reading these stories. My scrubber was a Lush scent – I think Lust? There was a gorilla on the packaging Idon’t remember but I tossed it. It was a jasmine and I try but jasmine does not work. There’s also a brand of attar that just need a toothpick drop, and it’s so complicated I just want to smell good.
I have yet to find a Lush perfume that doesn’t smell awful, even though I love their body products!
They don’t mess around, but I can really appreciate how bold they are for a mainstream store. Lust is definitely love it or hate it. they have some nice UK exclusives, but nothing I crave. They have this one discontinued scent called 25:43 that smelled just like creamy key lime pie that was pretty fantastic! Also, they had a great shower gel called Grass that’s sadly discontinued.
This is a fun poll!
🙂
Womanity, at first it was not bad. So I sprayed it on my skin. After half an hour: who vomited here? Oh wait, its the perfume???!!!
Mon Guerlain, on my skin it does not work at all…immediately amplifies those sweet basenotes, hardly any lavender, no flowers. I smelt like I fell into a vat of vanilla ice cream, awful sticky sweetness.
After 45 minutes i ran into a store to wash it of.
JHAG…cant remember the name right now, tossed the sample away. Lady vengeance? It was just vile, sharp and not balanced at all. Gave me a rude headache and kept me from sampling anything else from that brand.
And have you ever wanted to scrub the perfume off from someone else?
This spring we sat in a lovely pizza restaurant, countryside italy. Ideal setting. But a woman at the table next to me was wearing this horrible gourmand, strength was nucleair. I suspected la vie est belle or something like that.
It almost ruined my appetite. Gladly she left before the pizza arrived. But the scent lingered on when she was gone. The horror. (oh, and it was outside on a terrace)
*nuclear – not nucleair..(thats the dutch word)
Yep, I want to scrub all those cloying caramel sweet stuff like La Vie Est Belle, Petite Robe Noire and tons of others out there!
I never understood the now-enduring popularity of Petite Robe Noire because it smelled just like cherry cough syrup on me, a scrubber!
Please, scrub my MIL before we go out with her again. 😀 Lovely, beautiful woman whom I deeply love, but La Vie est Belle in huge amounts……
My DH wanted very much to scrub Giselle off of me, because, weirdly, he hates vanilla, and that is one big ol’ vanilla bomb. Ditto Hanae Mori’s Butterfly. My young students loved it, DH ran and screamed!
I’m with you on sometimes wanting to wash perfume off of other people!
ALL THE TIME. More often in restaurants in France, where tables in restaurants tend to be closer together, than in the US.
Montale’s Oudmazing. It smelt like a Costa del Sol hotel room commandeered by ageing débutantes, and regret.
LOL 😀
This is fun! I have a couple to add. The first being Ostara. I was so excited to try it, convinced I would smell like a floral princess, nope, I smelled like an earthworm coming up from the rain. Second, is Olympia, just happened to be walking past the counter, and sprayed, oh no! What have I done?! Dead fish, or alive fish, either way I stunk. I gave Ostara another try, Olympia makes me sick just looking at the bottle now.
That’s interesting, a friend of mine tried Heeley Sel Marin and said it smelled like rotting, dead fish on him. I wonder if there’s a particular note that smells like dead fish to some people.
Sel Marin can smell like fish on me, too, but more like live fish…is that better? 😉 I think it might be because the smell of ocean itself reads a bit “fishy” to those of us who grew up in landlocked states. That’s just my guess from personal experience. I now have enough ocean living experience that my nose doesn’t immediately think “fish” when I smell marine-type scents, but it really used to.
Maybe it’s just like cilantro, our genes determine if we smell something yummy or putrid??
I bet you’re right.
I also remember Luca Turin writing about an aromachemical that appeared at first to be the holy grail, a long-lasting true citrus scent. It all came to nought when further testing revealed that it smelled really horrible to 10% of the population.
I’ve found that anything salty is not for me.
Ostara smelt of a very dead aquarium on me, too. I had a sample vial that had been heated up something fierce in the mail truck. Some of BD’s other perfumes are very fragile and heat/age sensitive, too. Could this be what doomed Ostara? I think there was a discussion of this issue on Basenotes a while back….
Ditto on Ostara…I smelled pond/old vase water.
Once a year or so, I pop by the Clinique counter to make sure that Aromatics Elixir still hates me. It does. I would still like to try the cherry one, though.
I also eventually have to wash off most of the Le Labos I’ve tried. Sometimes I love the top notes, and there are some I can’t really smell very well at all, but mostly the base just grows and grows and grows until I can’t take it anymore. I can’t even stand to sniff the outside of the sample vial of a couple of them.
I find most of them pretty boring, but I like the Patchouli 24 (name?) well enough. Really though, I just find that whole brand entirely pretentious, and its crazy how expensive and sought-after they are for what they are.
SOTD- Osmanthus Interdite….I like it 🙂
I hate even saying this, because I love the perfume house overall and the owner seems like such a nice person…but the Dame EDT soliflores and the mixes, all of them, are just terrible on me (I’ve tried about 8 of them). Lovely enough in the sample, seem like they should be totally pleasant and inoffensive…but are perverted into the worst smells ever by my skin. I demonstrated some for my husband, and he was shocked by the evil transformation. And yet, the Dame artist collection EDPs? Glorious on me. LOVE them. So great. Saw there’s a new one out and wouldn’t be scared to buy it unsniffed. So I have no idea what’s up between my skin and the non-artist Dames!
Also, Mitsouko. I love real-deal chypres, even like most fruity chypres, like Mitsy on others…but it just turns my tummy when I spray it in me. I retry it every year, though, just to check. 🙂
Mitsy is either Heaven or Hell for people. There is no middle ground.
The new Dame perfumery monsoon. It’s supposed to smell like creosote bushes in the Sonoran desert after the right which is a scent I grew up smelling. It’s a really poor approximation of that smell, its actually really repulsive, I had to scrub it.
Too bad – I live in the Sonoran and I would love a creosote perfume.
That’s so sad! I got excited about the iris/orris in it, even if water lily is all sorts of bad on me.
My most recent sampling misadventures were Creed Aventus for Her (acrid green miasma) and Malin&Goetz Petitgrain (obnoxious sweet shaving cream). Both stubbornly resisted removal.
I wanted to try the M&G Petitgrain, but it looks like you’ve just saved me some money 😉
LOL I live thd M&G Pertigraun in the oil. I have the roll on of it in my desk drawer at work for an instant afternoon pick-me-up ; )
Whoah I cannot type this morning! More coffee!
SOTM was Czech & Speake “No. 88”.
Top: bergamot;
Mid: geranium, rose, black locust, frangipani and cassia;
Base: vetiver and sandalwood.
Wears as a dark citrus, but sadly diminished from the version I wore in the nineties.
SOTE is Gucci “Guilty Absolute”.
Top: leather;
Mid: patchouli and nootka cypress;
Base: woody notes and vetiver.
So, this is a leather I can live with, because it reads like fuel oil on my skin. In a similar way to HdP “Petroleum”. This, oddly enough, is a good thing. :^)
The Gucci sounds amazing, I love the smell of fuel oil ????
It’s good stuff. They’ve done themselves no favours by launching it under the Guilty name.
I really like Guilty absolute!
When i let my husband smell it on my skin blindly (i like to get spontaneous reaction from him) he was very positive about it and expected some fancy pancy niche / exclusive line. Good job Gucci…but your semi erotic advertising is still stupid… 🙂
I wore Gucci Absolut yesterday, i really like it. It’s kinda bad ass, imo.
I have had so much fun reading everyone else’s scrubbers. I am still in slow motion from the pneumonia, but getting much better. Hoping to go back to work tomorrow. It took awhile to get my own list together. I have had many scrubbers, but couldn’t recall enough of them and got my memory jogged by reading everyone else’s. Here goes:
Carillon Pour un Ange
Atelier Rose Anonyme
Aftelier Bergamoss
Angel
Cuir d’Ange
Epice Marine
Ambre Narguile
Jour d’Hermes (all of them)
Elie Saab (all of them)
SSS Cocoa Sandalwood
Womanity
Angel (but like muse)
Jasmin Angelique (stale cigarettes)
Too scared to try: Aromatics Elixir and Secretions Magnifique.
Believe me, AE is an nothing in front of the evil Secretions Magnifique 😀
Hope you really start feeling better!
Man, me and you are scent-scrubber twins! Although I like Jasmin Angelique…
Cuir d’Ange is mystifying to me because you’d think this would be one of the best Hermes, and it seems to get a lot of perfumista love, but I think it’s just kind blah and weird
I start my new job tomorrow and am feeling anxious, excited and scared all at once.
I have sample the newish TF Verts this weekend and I have enjoyed sniffing all these variations on a theme…a very 70s vibe with all the green. Here are my brief thoughts on each ranked in descending order of interest.
1. Vert d’Encens – pine and chocolate; very good and the most interesting; probably would be even better in cold weather.
2. Vert de Fleur – also quite good…smells like EL Private Collection kind of which some mother gave to my older sister a million years ago when she babysat for them.
3. Vert Boheme – very nice too…reminds me a bit of Cristalle or old skool RL Lauren if memory serves.
4. Vert des Bois – not a whole lot of bois to me here…the least memorable…have to revisit again.
Good luck on the new start, those moments are always rather nerve wracking. Just wear something nice and inoffensive.
Best of luck with your new job!
Good luck tomorrow! The Vd’E was my favorite out of the three.
Woo hoo! Good luck!
Best of luck!
Good luck! I liked Vert d’Encens best.
Good luck!
My most recent scrubber was Juliette Has A Gun Mmmm…
I should have known, but I got it as a free sample in an order so I tried it anyway. It was so cloyingly, sugary sweet. It smelled like it should have some kind of bright red artificial coloring, like Kool Aid or a Jolly Rancher. Even its name is irritating! Like, what if you’re wearing it, and then somebody asks you what you’re wearing? How do you respond without sounding like a total weirdo?
/end rant
I don’t remember if I actually scrubbed Mmmm… but I would like to co-sign your post.
A friend of mine, who normally has impeccable taste, bought Mmmm. I thought it was a berry infused chemical mess. Bleck… I was so surprised.
Is something that you are afraid to try based on what you have smelled from the perfume vial considered a scrubber? If so, then, I have to sadly admit that Tauer’s L’Eau is one. It smells like a 55-gallon vat of industrial cleaning fluid to me (or industrial-strength detergent), with a big hit of technical grade limonene. Made me nauseous and gave me a headache to boot. It totally bums me out, because I LOVE the Tauer incenses. 🙁
Sometimes I test things on my skin without sniffing first, often against my better judgment. Especially those samples that come with my Ulta orders. ???? The most recent offender was Paco Rabanne Olympea. That one was too much even for this La Vie est Belle loving gal????
Yeah, i usually spray first, question my judgment later too. I never learn.
This is a great topic – loved reading the comments.
My recent scrubbers: Amouage Lyric, Sunshine, Bracken Woman, Lilac Love; Hermes Galop. All impossible to remove, even with Dawn. Longstanding scrubber: Chanel No. 5, Joy (vintage).
The Amouages were a surprise, because I love Ubar, Fate and Opus 1.
It seems rose does not agree with me, nor does iris. And aldehydes appear to be an issue. I feel like a perfumista lite or something worse.
I endured an evening with Galop, even though it was straight-up b.o. on me. Should’ve scrubbed!
I got wispy plastic doll bodies with rose powder. Maybe that’s b.o.? What do you use to scrub?
Most of mine have been mentioned–Carillon, the Tea series, Angel…
Woody ambers that smell like fancy rubbing alcohol, and also that dirty vase water note (Duchafour scents for l’artisan smell terrible on me…)
But the worst worst might be the time I spritzed on Mona d’Orio Vanille at a store, and for 3 days and countless scrubbing, couldn’t get the piercing smell from my wrist.
Oh, and the Histoires in the blue bottle I just smelled and must add to the list–both the powerful woody amber and the vase water, together!
Okay, before anyone throws a scrubber bottle at me, my scrubber du jour is the *REFORMULATED* iteration of Diorissimo. It’s from one of those mini botlle sets that you pick up out of boredom at the airport.
Just too evocative of shopping mall hand soap for me.
I have an editorial deadline due tomorrow so will likely be up until 3 in the morning. So in search of something bright and a bit sharp to keep me awake for another 9 hours, my SOTD is Tommy Girl. My collection is very limited…
Formerly,
TheDistractedPhD
Sounds like you need some of Bear’s triple strength coffee!
Gasp! It sounds like I do!
The most intense brew I’ve experienced so far is an expresso in an Americano.