I wish I had something to say about this, but Alaska is not so much with the perfume.
yeah, kinda figured that. though there must be nice spruce and juniper things smelling good outside. when they're not covered with snow.
I have a tiny (promotional sample) bottle of Nina Ricci Eau de Fleurs that I have saved for decades because I'm not a perfume wearer/purchaser but I thought it was lovely and unique and I wanted it to last so that I wouldn't ever have to buy a full-sized bottle. After reading your post I dabbed some on and it didn't smell like I remember it, not as freshly floral; now fifteen minutes later it smells more familiar but the components are not in the same balance/proportions that I remember. I have never known anyone who wore this. I got a sample bottle of Vetiver (and others) at the same time but I don't remember what I thought of it!
perfume will go bad after a certain period of time. my grandmother told me there was something totally neutral you could dilute it with and thus sometimes save it...denatured alcohol or something? I'm not even sure what that is. not rubbing alcohol. but in general if it is too old it will turn sort of sickly and poisonous smelling.
nina ricci eau de fleurs is very nice, my aunt used to wear it. I think they still make it...for discontinued perfumes people sell them online. unopened bottles are less likely to have turned on you.
Flora botanical smells pretty good.
All that fancy stuff sounds expensive. Why not just use Axe Body Spray?
I expect nothing more--or less--from a persona named spike.
Actually, I've had the same bottle of Old Spice sitting my bathroom shelf for 10 years.
I used to have some Axe Fire Body Wash that was pretty nice, though. Then one day, after applying it in the shower, I failed to completely rinse my junk. There is a reason they market it as Axe Fire.
But I see President Lincoln has told that story before.
10: Somebody said that it's from eating onions.
Anyway, there is a sign at my office asking you to not wear scents because chemicals.
Someone suggested in my office the other day that they should make aftershave that smells of recognisable things, since there are so many nice recognisable smells...
"Like what?"
"Bacon?"
"Fresh coffee!"
"Bread baking!
"New-mown grass!"
"New books!"
"Ah, but then you'd only be attractive to women who like buying books."
"Well, that's the only ones I want to be attractive to."
There is, we discovered through googling, actually a fragrance called Paperback. And one called Money, that smells of money.
The grubby hands of a thousand strangers?
15: I have a neighbor like this. Grumpy middle aged gay man who smells wonderful. It's not always the same, he seems to wear a bunch of different scents, but they all smell like interesting rooms; books and wood and plants and maybe pipe tobacco. There's probably some sense in which he's wearing too much -- I can walk into an elevator that he's not in, and smell that he was using it recently -- but it just smells great.
I'd compliment him on it, but something just seems awkward about telling a nodding acquaintance how wonderful they smell.
Dilsia wears Amarige by Givenchy. A relative of hers is a perfume consultant (as in, he helps design scents) and helped her pick out a signature scent that would (allegedly, but plausibly) express her personality and (undeniably) smell especially beautiful on her.
Because it is a somewhat uncommon fragrance, I associate it exclusively with her. Catching a whiff of it on another woman used to cause me pangs of anguished longing. More than once I took a test strip from duty free and doused it in Amarige so that I could huff the scent in secret. Because I'm pathetic that way.
I recently learned that the name "Amarige" comes from the French word "Mariage", discombobulated. Which...appropriate, I guess.
16: freshly-printed dollar bills, apparently.
Dr. Oops used to consistently wear Coco, and I still associate it with her -- I'll start unconsciously looking around for her if I catch a whiff of it, not that she's likely to be in NY unexpectedly these days.
There's probably a market for 16 out there.
I don't use cologne or aftershave because I have no idea how to calibrate the quantity to it's not overwhelming. I hate the smell of men drenched in cologne, the ones who you can smell half an hour after they've left the room. I'd kind of like to have a bottle of something nice smelling to dab on myself for special occasions, but I think that's the kind of thing you find by getting it as a present from your girlfriend, currently a vacant position in my case.
A gf once bought me a bottle of Acqua Di Gio bc she smelled it on someone else. I never really had worn and cologne, but I tried it. I got lots of compliments from women on it, but the gf kept saying that it was different from the smell that she drove her to buy the cologne.
After a couple of months, we were at my brother's house and she realized that my brother smelled like the smell that drove her to buy it.
When he showed us the bottle, we realized that she had bought me the women's version.
Regardless, women loved it.
22: I could ask my neighbor what he's wearing and tell you. More men should be walking around smelling like that.
I'm not sure how I'd take it if a girlfriend asked me to smell like my brother.
Better than if she asked you to smell like her dog.
Oh so many! I am a sucker for old French perfume. I recommend Joy, a classic. I love lheure blue by guerlain and après londee as well. I also have fracas but it is a huge scent. I also really like madame rochas for everyday and tbac blonde. Caleche by Hermes has an interesting dry down and is great for work. I also love almost everything annick goutal makes but those perfumes don't last at all. Hypnotic poison by Dior is a classic. I also like scents like fire island by bond no. 9 and Christopher Brosius' in the library-- these make you smell like the beach and a super sexy library, respectively. If I had to recommend just one to try, though, try lheure blue by guerlain. It's a lovely warm, powdery fragrance. I also recommend reading the book on perfume by Luca Turin--the reviews are great!
40% of teenage girls, of course, have made that request.
Oh man. Cologne and perfume can smell nice for a minute or two, but then they're kinda gross. Fragrance-free, please, brothers and sisters.
24: I might try seeing how many men I can approach and tell them they smell fantastic and what are they wearing before I get punched in the face.
I usually smell like farts and stale beer.
I have never worn proper perfume because I'm cheap and intimidated (though someone here will always say "sexy library!" and I'll be entirely tempted but still cheap) but have fragrance oils (oh, I guess she does actually call them perfume!) that I buy from a slightly cheesy local artisan. Right now I mostly wear Hatshepsut but there have been others I've liked. They do change over time and as someone has mentioned before, she's known in circles of people who care for making a perfume she adds to over the year so it changes as it ages and is adapted or whatever, but I've never tried that one.
30, A number between 0 and 10.
No two people smell exactly the same wearing the same cologne or whatever, because the scent as experienced comes from the interaction of the bottled stuff and your own body oils. On most people it's close enough for jazz, but there are always a few outliers, which is why some people "can't wear" some scents.
I have never tried tabac blond, I should try it. reading reviews it's half things I love (like leather and tobacco and vetiver and iris, but half I hate--has patchouli (almost always a kill for me) and is described as powdery. I can't deal with l'heure bleu because powdery is horrible on me. there are classic perfumes I would love to love but velleities...
I do like having a signature perfume but tend to go through phases when I wear only one, and then another, etc.
29: yay!
I knew French painters smelled bad, but I didn't know they made them in a factory.
33: Yeah, I like perfume on other people, but everything I've ever tried smells like soap on me.
My MIL loves Diorella, but, while Dior claims to still make it, it is nowhere to be found, including enlightened topless Europe. And it's insanely expensive to order online (over $100, which MIL says isn't outrageous for the size bottle being sold, but sheesh).
Did I already mention the endless fountain of 4711 at their original location in Cologne? If I lived there, I'd just stop in every morning and splash some on (the fountain is right by the doors).
I've long been fragrance-free with my soap & shampoo, but I've come to like a little 4711. Doesn't linger long enough to bother anybody, I don't think (at least not the amount I use).
I never knew the Teen Spirit back story. (Not actually a perfume.)
Back in the day the worst was getting ambushed with prior bad relationship perfume while you were out and about on your quotidian chores. Evoke this!, Olfactory Emotional Industrial Complex.
I have no idea what my HS GF used for perfume - it was light and subtle, possibly some sort of body wash or whatever, not perfume proper - but one time in college I caught a whiff of it on a passing acquaintance, and I trailed her into the dorm like a dog following a butcher. I'm fairly certain I managed this without being creepy*.
Now I don't recall what the consensus was here when I asked, a few years ago, about what to me seemed a new trend of young women wearing lovely perfume that I could smell passing them on a sidewalk. Actually, I think the consensus was that shitty-smelling perfumes really were popular in the '80s, then the '90s was a largely scent-free backlash era, and now there are nice perfumes again. That sound right?
*at the time I had a wide reputation as a "safe" guy, because I had this long distance GF to whom I was totally devoted, but I liked hanging out on the girls' wing (dorm was coed by wing). Friendly and harmless.
I like that there is one picture of Katie Couric on that page.
Friendly and harmless.
The neighbors said afterward.
I've got a knee-jerk attraction left over from college for guys smelling of fresh cigarette smoke. (Not stale smoke.)
42: I like that the search text is "jimmy cash."
44: Marlboro Reds for me.
yeah, super-watery, nowheresville scents like ckone (actually good, neutral between men and women, smells of iris, but faint, just dies instantly) fragrances were big in the 90s. I like 4711 a lot also, actually.
15: I tend to think of money as smelling like drugs. not because of bogus statistics about them, but just because the moment at which you insert a tightly rolled bill right into your nasal cavity it is likely followed by something pleasantly novacaine or bitter but deeply desired.
42.1 Oops... but still worked. "Smart" search removing the need to know anything other than vague pointers. Works for me.
Search algorithms are the digital equivalents of smell.
36: Nice, sir. You are no longer dead to me.
I believe you claimed not to find p.g. wodehouse funny a few days ago, hm? you were only mostly dead to me.
Make no mistake, your poor taste still sickens me (and, I assume, alameida [monocle bump]).
I put this in the wrong thread.
I love Guerlain perfumes, except for Shalimar, which is gross. Samsara is my staple.
I used to like Lys Bleu, but it was discontinued. It smelled like church incense, so just as well. These days I like simple fruit or floral scents like linden or black currant or like that, but don't wear them much.
If I met a woman who smelled like black currants I would propose on the spot. I love black currants.
51, 52: I've been claiming that for longer than a few days.
18: I have Amarige and wear it sometimes in the summer. My Dad got it for me at Duty Free. Also nice is Organza.
So we have Alameida wanting to smell like her Dad and me wearing a perfume bought by her Dad which is the fragrance of a late president's beloved.
44: Ooh, cigarette smoke. It was never attractive, exactly, but in college almost no one I knew smoked, and this one housemate regularly came home from a theater group reeking of it. I would have to restrain myself from leaning on him and smelling his sweater -- the cigarette smoke set off all sorts of warm and safe and homey associations. Sadly, the guy was otherwise kind of awful.
60: Poor guy! He must have been so confused!
57: I just brought it up recently. It's such a bizarre flaw in on of our otherwise almost perfect commenters.
Also, successfully out of the hospital. They did what was probably an unnecessary ct scan, but my kidney is okay. If the other ER had just watched me a while longer before they kicked me out to make sure that my original nausea was under control before kicking me out with a new prescription, I probably could have avoided this trip.
And I did need the fluids, anti-emetic and IV antibiotic.
I got an unopened bottle of Balenciaga Quadrille - long discontinued, apparently - at the thrift store somewhere over ten years ago. (Which I then opened.) It smells ridiculously good and has not turned yet, but I don't actually wear it because wearing perfume is frowned upon in my social circles. I just smell it occasionally and admire the attractive, understated design of the typeface and bottle. My mother always used to wear Miss Dior when going out on the town, but they reformulated it into something big and pink-smelling and contemporary and gross.
I have not considered contemporary perfumes in quite a while - I think it was back in the early 2000s that I often ended up cutting across the perfume department at Dayton's, back when there was a Dayton's, and all the perfumes just seemed so pink and food-smelling and sweet and tacky that I decided that the world of fragrance had passed me by. (Also, I really, really do not like perfumes that smell identifiably like any kind of food, especially not sweets.)
63: Yes, glad - says the semi-lurker - you are out of the hospital and very sorry for the two ER visits...I would not have interjected my anecdote if I had previewed. Nausea defeated, I hope.
I love the idea of having a "signature scent" (though I loathe the phrase) because it seems like it would be so delightful to be associated in (for example) my child's memory forevermore with the scent, but I'm fickle. So I too do the runs of wearing one thing all the time for a while, then switching to something else. Lately I've been wearing an indie perfume that smells mostly of palo santo.
My husband also smells vaguely like my dad. Old Spice. I love it but also feel conflicted. Especially since male scent is one of the most attractive things to me. I kiss my husband's neck just as an excuse to sniff him.
I wear my grandmother's perfume (White Musk from The Body Shop) every once in a while so I can later pick up a piece of clothing and get a whiff if her. She's been dead 20 years now and that smell can still take me back.
I have also been known to visit the men's cologne section at a department store just so I can smell memories. I don't remember who wore what but wow, nothing takes me back the same way. (Prime 90's so CKOne and Polo Sport and Blue something).
I wear J'adore which makes me feel like an adult.
In conclusion, I guess scent is a really powerful sense for me. My dad and his sister have lost their sense of smell occasionally so I'm prepared for that but it'll be so hard.
Also BG, glad to here you're feeling better.
Prime 90's so CKOne and Polo Sport and Blue something).
Cool Water too!
Alameida in re Vevetier have you tried Jicky (extrait>edp>edt) but also it sort of has the opposite problem where it's meh-to-good when you first put it on and then like, transcendentally filthy after 8 hours. I dunno I am working my way through all the old Guerlains because I work near fancy department stores and need something to do with my lunch breaks. I'm only up to Après l'ondée so my suggestion comes with that limitation.
I guess the big takeaway from this thread is: try to smell like your love interest's parent of your gender?
I like the idea of wearing a scented thing, but I never have, and share the concern above about not wanting to overdose.
The Slate podcast Working has an interview with a perfume-maker. Pretty interesting and the reason I am at all familiar with the word vevetier (not enough to spell it).
Overdosing is a problem because you get used to a scent over time so you dose yourself in more and more so you get the same smell level. You just need to pick your level and then don't increase. I think one spray in the air and then walk through is enough for work. Two for fancy occasions. More oily perfume, dab at wrists and behind ears (one dab distributed four places). No one complains or even comments on my smell so I don't know if I'm doing it right or wrong.
Interesting. Scents have never triggered memories for me, sights and sounds do. On the other hand, my daughter, who spent much time with me on the motorcycle, associates in a good way a combination of smoke, leather, and sweat as "me". On the veldt....
The person named after a river in hell whom I mentioned yesterday was very fond of the smell of coffee and also the smell of me (laydeez) (to the point of saying, in apparent seriousness, that she wanted to pour coffee (cold!) on me), so I got a very small vial of this stuff, which smells ok but not that great on me, as it turns out.
I'm afraid I have no solution for alamedia's vetiver issue.
I have been told that Mont Blanc Legend is totes amazeballs, though.
Where is oudemia on this thread???
There is, we discovered through googling, actually a fragrance called Paperback
There's more than one book-themed scent.
So I sometimes a fair amount of essential oils in the bath (I like the feeling of having both the smell and the feeling of absorbing the oil through the skin simultaneously)*. Generally I'll use tea tree, eucalyptus, lavender relatively freely and a few drops of whatever else according to my mood (chamomile if my skin has been feeling irritated, ravensara if I feel like I'm getting sick, etc. . )
I also have a small bottle of (high-quality) vetiver oil, which I will use sparingly. Vetiver was described to me as being good for, "exhaustive states" which is something that I've been feeling a fair amount lately, but I don't use it very often because it's a bit difficult to work with. First of all, it's barely liquid. If you put a drop in bath water it doesn't spread out in the water or vaporize, instead it will sink to the bottom and you will see this dark orange drop of oil sitting in the water. If you swirl it around lightly it won't break up, it will just be a orange dot moving around the tub. You have to work to get it to break up. Secondly, the scent is strong and persistent. Even after washing with soap the smell will linger for a couple of hours (and the smell will stay, faintly, in whatever clothes I put on after getting out of the bath).
So it's hard for me to go from that experience of vetiver to thinking of it as a perfume scent.
* Speaking of scent memories, there was a period in which peppermint was one of the oils that I would use -- it was interesting to have the feeling of being in a hot bath and feeling cold at the same time -- and at some point my brother started using the same source of peppermint oil in his peppermint ice cream. It was odd to taste it and have the sense memory of what the oil felt like on my skin.
82-4: IMX saving someone's scent by storing used clothing in plastic bags is a common griefie thing. I had it suggested by several people and I read about it in several books. I didn't.
Jo Malone has a rather pleasing coffee and vetiver scent ("Black Vetyver Café"). It is on the amber-woody side of things, though, so not recommended for those who dislike that. I find that, on me at least, it also has a distinct--pleasant!--note of paper.
Hell, I've just read BG's saga which must have started when I was asleep last night. What a fucking nightmare! Glad you're better. Look after your kidneys: my uncle had all kinds of bad times with his when he was old because he wouldn't drink enough; killed him eventually, when he was about 86.
Chanel's Egoïste Platinum
Have only read the OP, and must report that I love the scent of this on my husband. (Don't love it on general; I think you have to have a certain natural smell/skin type/whatever to rock most Chanel scents.)
I picked up the latest Hugo Boss perfume (which features Paltrow in the ads.....hmm) and really like it for everyday wear but suspect it's quite pedestrian for unfogged tastes.
BG, glad you're feeling better!
I have one high school friend who wore an unusual scent (especially for an American high schooler) - Anais Anais - and I cannot smell it without looking around for her. Same goes with plain old Oil of Olay + Jovon Musk for my mom.
85: It actually started Friday with a visit to a nurse practitioner at my PCP's clinic and and ED visit on Saturday. I had to go to a different ED to get anti nausea meds, fluids and antibiotic number 2. I seem to be tolerating #3 well. It's very old school-- nitrofurantoin.
I mostly smell like cat pheremones and dog spit these days.
When I was in high school, I did a home stay in France, and the girl in my host family liked Kenzo a lot. For a while one of their scents was my favorite. Judging from the pictures on the website, I think it was Le Monde est Beau.
No, that can't be right, because this was in 1989.
89: Me too. And my cats think I've been cheating on them. They're right.
"Black Vetyver Café"
Compounded using antient majycks.
I never got in the habit of wearing cologne; my wife appreciates a swipe of old spice across my wrists, but hates the taste.
She doesn't use much perfume either, but she does enjoy scented bar soaps and scented conditioners. Several are very good to smell-the conditioner drives one of our cats crazy, (When he rides her shoulder he often rubs his head against her, but when she uses strong conditioner, he'll bite at her wet hair.)
OT: Have the Orthodox rabbis started slacking or something? There's a guy with the hat and the dangling things under a t-shirt reading "I hope someday your life is as awesome as you pretend it is on Facebook."
I'm glad you're better BG! and on reflection, I should probably note that smelling like you just rolled a fat jay and cooked two loaves of delicious homemade bread is actually pretty awesome also. but yeah, I would like my husband to smell like my dad, but smelling like my brother would be ok too, and why is he so not-bearded, one wonders? he has one chest hair. it's named martin or something, I can't think of it right now. ISSUES THO.
53: gentle monocle bump which does not endanger the monocle.
I often wear Joy, which I associate with my mother (who also likes L'Heure Bleue, although I don't think she wears it much). My preferred scent is Sublime, also by Jean Patou; it's so closely grouped that my nephew at five years old called me out as smelling like Grandma's house.
I've been wearing Tokyomilk Bulletproof.
I refuse to believe that is an actual thing.
I used to wear Jo Malone's Orange Blossom. I still have it, but I'm mixing it up these days.
my wife appreciates a swipe of old spice across my wrists, but hates the taste.
Implied: "my wife routinely chews on my wrists".
My cat used to do that, gently, when she wanted fed. I think it was a kind of reminder that my blood supply was right there, easily accessible, and she was getting to the point of seeing it as a backup if Whiskas was not available.
Sorry to have missed the party on this post, was stuck in a conference room for like 14 hours yesterday, ugh. Love the smellies!!!
Alameida, try Ormande Jayne Man on your man, heavenly. Guerlain vetiver is the the the vetiver, but if you can find vetiver pour elle it is extremely lovely although fades fast. Lolita Lempicka for men is also really nice and much tamer than the original for women.
I wouldn't wear Shalimar myself, but at a huge party we had about a year ago (last year's Christmas party, I think maybe?) a heavily tattooed Hawaiian surfer friend wearing a fantastic backless dress who'd just returned from teaching belly dancing in the South of France passed a knot of classically chic Parisian ladies I was chatting with, trailing a cloud of Shalimar from the duty free and all the Parisians said in unison "oooooo Shalimar!" and their eyes widened in pleasure - it was a wonderful moment. But I will say that it is a bit of a struggle preparing vegan Christmas party food - once butter is off the cards honestly what's left? Still happy to cater to the vegan surfer contingent amongst the friends!!!
I mentioned this recently I think in another context, but one of my favorite moments of radio is the fabulous mutual incomprehension between Catherine Deneuve and the Fresh Air lady re: perfume, the interviewer is so completely flummoxed at the idea anyone would wear perfume for his/her own personal pleasure, on a day when you don't anticipate seeing another human being.
I wear so many different perfumes, l'air du desert morocain today, although I find Tauers perfumes often too ambery for me, not fond of amber.
Those who don't like patchouli normally should check out Borneo 18-something-or-other by Lutens for a fantastic interpretation of cold cold cold patchouli.
Heading into winter, I'll leave behind dzing, fleur de cassie, osmande yunan and philosykos from heavy rotation and pick up old formula jolie madame, knize ten, noir epices, cuir de russie, ormande jayne woman (so wonderfully dark dark green). I adore some of the scents from the sillily named "i hate perfume" guy in Brooklyn, black march and Russian caravan in particular. The only reason I ever long for colder weather here in SF is that I'd love to wear la fille en aiguilles except that I only have that urge when it is very cold outside, like below freezing.
I'm too fickle to stick to anything for long, besides every day the weather, mood, clothing etc are different why would makeup and scent be the same? That's just passing up on the fun. I regularly get compliments on my scent but that may just be who I hang out with, and also the compliment usually follows the complimenter leaning in for a kiss so I don't seem to be dosing so as to stagger those at 6 feet.
my wife uses way too much perfume now. It is pretty bad.
Surely a "Honey Bunny, I think you overdid the perfume today" is not out of line?
There are clearly far more varieties of perfume in heaven and eath than were dreamt of in my philosophy.
107: Right, one of the keys to holding up a diner is to not let them smell you coming.
Concur with 107, if you can't manage that without serious distress tho the perfume is not the greatest of your marital problems.
106: I think the pseud is offering a clue -- he knows she needs a lot of perfume so she doesn't have to smell what he's releasing.
My cat used to do that, gently, when she wanted fed.
My mom's cat will lick off her deoderant while she's sleeping. Next to the couch where she naps, she keeps a t-shirt that she can slip on, if she's wearing a tank top, just so that the cat won't wake her up by licking her underarm.
Why does she put deodorant on the cat?
So my mom can lick it off. Do keep up, Moby dear.
It's lovely to take out a scarf, blouse, dress, jacket, etc. you haven't worn in a while and smell the faint remnants of your perfume, mmmmm.