What’s the worse fragrance you have ever tried ?

hotmetal

Forum GOD!
Cien X-Bolt. It's "Boss Bottled" a la Lidl apparently. For a fiver what can you expect? I bought some just to try and instantly relegated it to splashing on before training rather than any kind of socialising. Nearly all gone. It's just too cloying and artificial, but not even in a nice way like Alvarez Gómez AdC which is like lemon meringue pie. X-Bolt is chemical citrus in the same vein as Arko, a hint of those yellow urinal cubes .
 

Smiffy

Forum GOD!
Tabac, Opened a tester and nearly choked.

Each to their own, my ex wife used to smell divine with her favourite, Guerlain Mitsouko, current wife hates the smell and Mitsouko smells shockingly bad on her.

On the subject of smells did you see that one of these influencers made a sell out of Marks and Spencer Laundry detergent. This new line cost £5 for 1.5 litres and the influencer said that it smells just like her regular perfume, Le Labo which costs £150 for 30ml. She had taken to having a dab of detergent behind her ears instead of perfume.

It is not altogether surprising, M and S brought in a perfumier to get the smell right with is basically sandalwood with bergamot or rose.
 

R181

Grumpy old man
The problem with fragrances is that the same scent can smell horribly bad on one individual and just wonderful on another. Everyone has different body chemistry which I suspect is the reason for this. You really can't go by what another person's opinion is on a particular scent. That makes finding a new scent difficult without trying a tester of it first. Buying blind will be sure to give you a nasty surprise sooner or later.

Bob
 

slapo

It's... alive!
The problem with fragrances is that the same scent can smell horribly bad on one individual and just wonderful on another. Everyone has different body chemistry which I suspect is the reason for this. You really can't go by what another person's opinion is on a particular scent. That makes finding a new scent difficult without trying a tester of it first. Buying blind will be sure to give you a nasty surprise sooner or later.
Quite so.

What happens to me most of the time is that the smell either mutates oddly or a part of it effectively vanishes. So I've never really used perfumes much, other than the odd sample. I also prefer not to emanate much of a smell most of the time anyway.

I do find that some aftershaves (and some colognes) last quite well when sprayed on a shirt, which is what I occasionally do now.

Now that I made my own last year, I've learned two things:
- If left it in the bottle for a while, it seems to mature somewhat and is more stable on my skin.
- If they use essential oils, their quality and scent strength can vary pretty wildly. Some are decent even when they're less expensive, but I found that e.g. patchouli is generally a miss when it's an inexpensive essential oil.
 
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Estariol

Forum GOD!
I agree with all the posts above and i'd like to add that body chemistry has a lot to do with scent longevity as well. I'll give an example:
On the serbian shave forum, the Lustray Spice after shave splash's longevity was described by different people, in these manners: up to half an hour, 2-3 hours, 3 to 4 hours, and to include my case, 6 to 8 hours. On the other hand, some other aftershave splashes lasted less on me than on others, and there also was a consensus about longevity of Denim aftershaves, everyone says they last as long as some eau de toilettes.
Another example: the Malizia Uomo Vetyver (green) deodorant lasts a whole day on me, but the blue and red (don't know their designated names), last maybe an hour or two, and they even tend to let armpit odour through... So i guess there is something to the inrgedients as well.
 
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slapo

It's... alive!
I think one of the worst scents in an aftershave I smelled was Ariana & Evans Asan Plum. Revoltingly sweet, so much so I poured it down the toilet. The soap is better smell-wise, not nearly as sweet.
 

Blackmass

Forum GOD!
I’ve had a couple “scrubbers” in my time (:giggle:) but nothing too extreme. I had a sample of Frederic Malle Musc Ravaguer which smelt like stale sweat on me. I’ve read it can react like this on some people.

I also find Tabac bloody awful too.
 

Chris

Forum DOG!
Staff member
If you'll forgive the minor detour - anything I can taste from two metres away. A hint of it on someone who's close by is nice, but this morning I could smell a woman's perfume from three metres away in the car park, she must have bathed in it. :sick:
 

slapo

It's... alive!
If you'll forgive the minor detour - anything I can taste from two metres away. A hint of it on someone who's close by is nice, but this morning I could smell a woman's perfume from three metres away in the car park, she must have bathed in it. :sick:
Same here, although it's mostly blokes that have been like that, lately.
 
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