What perfume note or style are you currently tired of?
OK, so this question isn’t asking if there is something within the industry you’re sick of sniffing. I’d like to know if there is a note/genre that you have burnt yourself out on or never really liked in the first place.
My answer: amber. I went through a crazed amber stage; it was all I wore. Then one day, I was so sick of it. I had burnt myself out (like if someone that thought eating cake everyday for a week was a good idea). Like I would wear them and not only be tired of them, but they almost made me feel ill. They just felt really “wrong” and like wearing a fur coat in 90° weather. I’m just now wearing ambers again after YEARS of not.
I also like citrus but after a long summer, I’m soooo ready to put up all my eau de colognes and start wearing heavier stuff…like amber.
What notes are you tired of wearing? Have you ever burnt yourself out on a perfume genre or note?
I have been sick with a cold from hell and it’s finals. Hence, the lack of posting on EauMG. I still can’t smell anything and I’m a snotty mess, so I thought it would be a good time to introduce my “Open Thread”. This is a feature I’ve been wanting to post to facilitate discussion. One of my favorite things about blogging is actually talking to fellow Fumeheads (we’re an odd little niche, aren’t we?). I thought it would be nice to have a thread for perfume-related topics.
*Carole Lombard in “Nothing Sacred” from alisonkerr.wordpress.com.
There are certain perfumes, such as Burberry Brit, that I love at first smell. However, once it’s on my skin and settled, the smell beccomes quite nauseating – literally makes me a little sick to my stomach. I have had the same response to most of the Juicy Couture fragrances, Burberry Brit (yep), Mugler Alien, and Lancome La Vie Est Belle. There are others but I can’t think of them. I think it’s the amber, jasmine and/or too much heady tuberose.
With these, was there ever a time you could wear them? I have a bottle of the original Juicy Couture (don’t judge me). I remember loving it. It is a “neon tuberose”, but I’d wear it and actually like it. These days, it makes me a little queasy. I find this so weird. I’m not blaming the perfume, I’m blaming me 😉 I just wonder what changed with me.
I wish we had a word in the perfume community or a phrase to sum up what it is like to wear a fragrance that’s “too heavy” when we aren’t in the mood for it. It really does make me feel uncomfortable like wearing winter layers outside in the dead of summer. It really is uncomfortable but the same thing in smaller doses or in January, can be great. Perfumes are weird.
I could never wear them. Smells/scents, in general, don’t bother me. But, those those fragrances do not jive with my nose. Tuberose is slightly different. I love the flowers and will even put out a small pot during the holidays. They are a polarizing though – you either love them or you really hate them. In fragrances, they have a slight wang that is really off-putting to me.
A trend I would to disappear is caramel and salted caramel in food. I like caramels but I don’t need to smell like them.
The ones I could never wear are like Chanel Coco Mademoiselle. That perfume hates my skin.
People really can be put off by white florals. I really love them but there was a time when I didn’t.
My last Sephora sniff trip was just caramel. It showed up in EVERYTHING.
Gourmands, which is a real drag because I’ve got an incredible collection of large sized Guerlain samples (from a wonderful SA) that make my head hurt right now. And I know not all of them are gourmands, but they are rich. I made up a cream with Cuir Beluga and I keep doing quick sniffs of it to see how it affects me, but no luck so far.
And as much as it hurts to even write this, I put on some Jo Mallone Velvet Rose and Oud – a fragrance near and dear to me, and I just was able to tolerate it sort of waiting for a headache. Hoping it was a fluke given my dark rose collection…….
Hope you feel better soon! I just got over a cold (not that I blamed the person who came to yoga class totally coughing 4 days before I started feeling crummy).
I have to be in the mood with gourmands. When I want them, they are perfect. Otherwise, they gross me out.
NOOOO! I’d keep it around and try again later. Hopefully it was some sort of fluke and not some weird shift. If I had that happen to me, most of my collection would have to go. Dark roses are sort of my thing.
Ugh, that sucks. This cold has really kicked my butt. This is so gross but someone sneezed on me on the subway, like right in my face (I wanted to die). Then BEHOLD plague-cold from hell a few days later!
Yeah, I’d never get rid of any of my roses – maybe it was the barometric pressure…..
And ewwww!!!!!!! So so gross!!!!! Poor you!!
I hope it’s only a temp thing!
It was so gross. I froze up. Like I truly just froze.
A lot of the sweet/gourmand-y type perfumes are things I can only handle in small doses, particularly if they’re supposed to smell like baked good. I have some gourmand types (Pink Sugar for example) but the reason I can handle it is a) all the black licorice, b) I only wear it once it gets cold. I don’t think I could handle it at all in the dead of summer.
I’m kind of tired overall of the light fluffy synthetic musk sweet perfumes. It’s not that they’re bad, it’s just like beige in a bottle. Bor-ring!
I’m the same with gourmands. When I’m in the mood, they are perfect. If I wear them when I’m not in the mood, they really work my nerves.
Yeah, I know what you’re talking. Throw some dry woods in there and it could be any generic launch from the past 5 years.
Guerlain’s “Aqua Allegoria Limon”.
Warmed paint-thinner poured on top of a pile of lime leaves then dragged through an 80’s barfull of Polo-sprayed musky teen males.
Gifted to me. Started using it as foot spray but now can’t stand the smell of my shoes.
Maybe it can repell deers?
I wasn’t prepared for this and now my monitor has coffee on it! lol
I haven’t tried that one but it sounds like if didn’t work as a shoe deodorizer that maybe there’s some wonderful benefit like it keeps mosquitoes and ticks away! Let’s only hope that’s the case and that there is a purpose for this stuff.
Fruitchouly- I can’t do Fruitchouly but you can’t run or hide – it’s the true inevitable Chanel in Germany. Every girl, her mother, her sister, her BFF, and her whatever, sports high doses of Coco Mademoiselle and/or its (way too many) clones. The Horror!
Yes, I’m so over that genre. However, there are a few of them that I have and like (and of course, I’m drawing a blank right now, I must have not worn them in a very long time!)
I don’t know if I told you but during my brief time in Frankfurt this summer, EVERYONE smelled like CM. Luckily, it’s one of those that smells better from a distance than it is on me!
Like the others I cant wear amber too often and anything gourmand only in small doses when its cold out. I struggle with a note that I am not sure if its really that but its come up several times which seems sweet and cloying on me. Could be iso e super or something similar.
The thing too is that it seems like gourmands and ambers are really popular so brands keep launching them…and it seems like the perfumers have to keep using olfactory tricks to amp up those sweet notes so that they’ll stand out in the stores. It’s a trend that I’d be happy to see go on a break.
There’s some note in men’s perfumes, a deeply generic, heavy, loud, fake ambery smell, that turns me right off. I don’t smell it in perfumes marketed to women. This maybe isn’t germane to the topic because I never liked it, but it’s definitely time for the trend to fade. I don’t know what the note is. It’s so strong that when you pass by the men’s fragrance counter in a department store it’s all you can smell. I tested Dior Sauvage the other day and it’s in there. So depressing. I’ve loved every flaker of Eau Sauvage until this one. Anyone know what the note/accord is? I’ll take dry woods over it any day.
I know EXACTLY what you are talking about but don’t know what it is exactly (it’s def an amber aromachemical). It is loud, sweet/musky and and sort of feels like it’s attacking my sinuses. I associate it with so many “modern” men’s fragrances, that it’s what I’d call “masculine” because it’s so many designer men’s fragrances. And I don’t like it at all.
I’ve found myself more and more attracted to florals lately (especially carnation, lily, and rose), which doesn’t fit my self image at all. I still love spicy fragrances, but am definitely over amber, gourmands, woody fragrances (so many are spiky on me), and patchouli (most of it is acrid on me). I’m really over fruit in fragrances. I used to love peachy fragrances, like Chinatown and Peau de Peche. There was something so fun about being able to smell like a peach. Now I can’t take them at all. Gave away my Pea de Peche and keep sniffing Chinatown in the hopes I’ll change my mind (it is a great fragrance, in its way). I still really love a lot of vintage fragrances; those are often so well blended they’re not focused on a particular note and they’re not overly sweet.
This sort of transformation happened to me years ago. I never thought I was a “floral” person. I was always into my orientals, woods, gourmands. Then I just started craving pretty florals. I’m still in that “phase” and tend to lean towards flowers. I remember in “Perfumes: The Guide”, I think it was Tania that said something about this sort of transformation…and yeah, I went from craving “weird” to now just wanting “beautiful”. It’s just so weird because 6-7 years ago I never thought I’d wear the stuff I wear now.
Speaking of, I had a brief peach phase this summer. I didn’t get as sophisticated as Chinatown or Peau de Peche. I wore cheap Demeter and even a Bath and Body Works thing. It is fun to smell like peach fuzz. But, right now I’m not feeling it. I’d rather smell like stewed plums right now.