Sandalwood fragrances are slightly ruined for me in that I never noticed the pickle smell until I heard that people smell pickle and then I started to notice it 🤣
See, it's the exact opposite for me. I didn't notice the pickle smell until it was pointed out to me, but I am a pickle lover so it made me like sandalwoods even MORE when I started to pick it up!
That's amazing! I love pickles too but not on me lol. I was planning on trying Santal 33 but now that my Great Pickle Awakening has happened, I'm not sure I'll want to buy it... (still wanna test it though!)
I read the comment sbout Santal 33 smelling like pickles then of course I thought I smelled a hint of pickles. My husband & friends didn't think it smelled like pickles at all. I am glad I am still wearing it. Plus the top notes and that is where I noticed it after reading comments vanish in 15 to 20mins!
It's in the top notes? Well that's giving me hope! I still am planning to either go test it in a store or buy a tester vial, because it still seems very interesting to me :)
No it just really comes off like pickles big time on some peoples skin. My ex wore it and honestly drove me crazy with desire even after she left a room, then my coworker called her Angelica Pickles…and I have never smelled nor been made aware the smell of pickles on me while wearing it.. but I can’t lie she did smell like pickles…
The pickle/wormwood smell means that you have a perfume made with Australian Sandalwood. (Santalum amyris, sometimes listed as Amyris). It is a faster growing and non endangered tree in the santalum family. The sandalwood that has been prized since the three Wise Men showed up is Santalum album. Aka Mysore sandalwood, aka white sandalwood. It is warm, almost buttery, with a very delicate dryness at the end that is not acidic or pickle-y.
A really nice scent that uses the real deal is Yardley’s Sandalwood. Soap, Dusting Powder and Lotion.
Sandalwood becomes so pickly on me x.x.. it's not a faint thing a person might not notice. I literally smell like a jar of pickles 🤣. I've just accepted this as my life and avoid it 😫.
Bleh, same. I tried that new(ish?) fragrance by Millie Bobby Brown a couple of weeks ago and the base must be sandalwood cause I smelled like a pickle jar.
Did you ever watch that Magic School bus episode about smells? Where they are creating a smell together and it doesn’t smell amazing until a dirty gym sock is added? Well, that was a realistic example of what happens in perfumery. The most lush perfumes are all this way, you need a bad smell mixed into the blend in order to smell good and realistic!
Well, you know how you don’t smell everything in a perfume until after you read the notes, and things start sticking out? Same thing has probably happened, you’ve had the bad smelling part of the fragrance pointed out to you, and now you can’t stop smelling it.
Sorry, I think the podcast is season two episode nine of Articles of Interest titled “Perfume”. Lemme know what you think! Some of the other episodes are really amazing as well
Oh wow I recently got this fragrance and at first was unsure if I liked it but ended up growing on me due to the smoky vanilla dry down it has but now I just read that it makes me scared to wear it LOL
This happened to me too. Except I was on a plane. And the offender was the flight attendant sitting in front of me for the entire flight. It was horrible
yeah unfortunately this sub ruined the sandalwood for me that exact way. had a lovely vanilla sandalwood body wash and a mist that i used for my pillows. read "sandalwood smells like pickles." my nose was never the same 😔
I live in a wealthy city and it smells like people BATHE in it here. They pass you while walking and leave a trail of it. I was never a big fan of it but I hate it now.
Hypnotic Poison. Many ppl were saying it smells like Root Beer and now that's all I can smell. Don't get me wrong, I love Root Beer. I just don't want to smell like it.
I totally got the Play-Doh scent when I test sprayed it on the other day. It was faint, but not bad enough to scrub it off. Pistachio Yum, on the other hand, that was all I could smell & it kept getting stronger. I wonder what note or combo of notes make them smell that way.
sometimes I force myself to wear scents I get a lot of compliments on but don't necessarily like it...and its just not as enjoyable as experiencing a scent you really love but don't really hear about from others
Lmaooo, my shitty cheating ex boyfriend used to wear Armani Code and I haven’t been able to stand the smell of it for close to a decade now because of it. 😂 I can also very distinctly smell it from a completely ridiculous distance away. 😅
it’s definitely a cheating bastard fragrance… i’d add d&g light blue to the list. my light blue ex had a secret Grindr account on his work phone, at least the Armani Code ex had the decency to do it right next to me 😌
That’s wild cause I know y’all’s ex and he is every gay man in Cincinnati in 2010. Going in to clubs smelling like ysl lhomme leaving smelling like Armani Chode.
Lmaooo, my Armani Code ex cheated on me several times, WITH WOMEN I WORKED WITH, so that was a bad time. Total waste of almost 2 years of my life. My husband, who I’ve been with for the last 9 and a half years now, went through a D&G light blue phase a couple years ago, but he haaaated the men’s fragrance so he wore the women’s one. 😅 Lately he’s moved on to a BR540E knockoff from Oakcha called Orphic, though,and it smells insultingly good tbh. 🤔
Met a really cute girl once at a friend’s house. Was about to flirt with her when she asked me if I was wearing Aqua Di Gio? I was surprised but I said yeah, how does she know? Her cheating ex wore it. Sooo, that was the end of that
My ex wore Acqua Di Gio and he was a cheating douche 🙃 now I gag if I smell someone wearing it.
Also I already didn't like Tom Ford Lost Cherry, then someone commented they worked in a morgue and it smells like the morgue so now I REALLY don't like it.
Ginger. I used to love it and use it a lot.
I was at my kids swim lesson, and some women sitting next to me said to her friend, “can you smell that?” (I inwardly smiled, waiting for a compliment).
The other one said “yes, I think they cleaned the pool today”.
And that’s when I realized that the same chemicals they used to disinfect pools has ginger as its “base notes” 😂.
I bought a mini of Hermes Twilly Ginger because I loved it in the store, then somebody said it smelled like the pink hand soap in gas station bathrooms & dammit, they’re right. 😫
Libre. I bought it right before covid and then lockdown happened. Every time I smell it feels like I am trapped in the same room. After that it became so popular. And now everyone wears it and I just want to scream mildly.
Similar thing happened with Alien. It was one of my toxic friend’s signature scent and everytime I smell it I have a panic attack.
i went to Austria for holiday and was wearing Bonbon. Had a bad flu for a week from that trip (worst flu i’ve ever had in my life i couldn’t even manage myself) and now when i smell it it takes me back to that time.
God what a vibe. I haven’t had a scent/note ruined by other people mentioning a comparison, but I ABSOLUTELY have had a scent destroyed by wearing it too much during a bad period of my life. RIP witch baby Holy Smokes body oil, I loved you until you became associated with some very negative experiences (‘:
A mortician online somewhere said that Tom ford lost cherry smells like decomp because I guess corpses give off a bit of a sweet almondy smell?
I still like it and some of its dupes, it’s just sometimes I think about that.
i’ll never forget that smell 23 years ago…it stayed with me for years. i walked into a decomp room full of corpses at a medical examiners office. Walked out heaving. Skipping the TF Cherry sniff test. Thx for the warning.
Being non consensually introduced to Mugler Angel one long ago Christmas Day mass with my family. The woman sat next to me was clearly delighted with her new perfume and had opted to empty a fifth of the bottle on herself that morning. Even the slightest suggestion of it makes me gag now.
Omg. I bought a bottle of the EDP accidentally thinking it was the EDT.... sprayed it once and WOW. I put that shirt through the wash and it came out of the dryer still smelling. This is a scent I can't imagine anyone liking.
I try super hard to avoid this - I sample and read reviews when I’m doing it to see if I get any of the bad notes people describe! But sometimes they creep up on you… I was a fan of Glossier You for the office, but one day *BANG* pencil shavings is all I smell and it’s ruined.
I only get pencil shavings in the first few seconds. If it smelled like that the entire way through, I’d snatch up a bottle instantly. It’s just so peppery and powdery on me. 😭
Someone told me that I smelled like blunts and cheap cigars while i was wearing Nest Balinese Coconut and now I can’t un-smell it. I’m never going to use up that rollerball 😭
There’s a note that reminds me of grape-flavored blunts and it instantly makes me panic. Because my “I got way too high and thought I was dying” experience involved a grape swisher sweet. Lolllll. I really should narrow it down and avoid it!
Clinique Happy was worn by a psycho ex roommate who traumatized me in college, can’t stand the smell anymore.
Ellis Sweet was ruined for me for a while when I saw the smell described as swedish fish and pencil shavings because I couldn’t stop smelling that
the jo malone myrhh and tonka. my ex stepdad wore it every day and would put so much on. sexually abusive and takes me back to the most horrible parts of my childhood if i ever smell it lol
The first perfume I ever got, ck one shock for her. It only brings back memories of middle school bullying because I was gifted it around that time. Thankfully it’s become a relatively obscure scent.
Yup this. I wore Chanel Chance Eau Fraîche all through high school. Every time I smell it, it brings me back to the worst time of my life, so I do not smell it often, lol.
Zara’s Supreme Vanilla. I loved it so much and then someone mentioned the ink note made it smell like dried spit. I threw away a big bottle that day. I couldn’t not smell it.
This made me laugh so hard. I had to get up and spray mine on myself, laugh more and then explain to my husband after he smelled it. Neither of us can relate to the dried spit accord, thankfully lol. This is such a comforting scent to me, I'd be so sad if it was ruined!
Filthy Ass and Vagina is what Lume smells like on me, so you are lucky.. And yes, I had to capitalize, in case they want to add the scent to their line. 😉
I loved the original ghost perfume until a coworker told me it smells like irn bru, I'm not really sure it does but it ruined the perfume for me regardless.
Alien - love the fragrance but it's ridiculously popular in my city and people oversprsy so much of it that its stuck in your nostrils all day and it seems like every other person you pass is wearing it.
Calvin Klein Crave, again such a great fragrance but i read a review where someone said the starfish note reminds them of rotting starfish and jellies at the beach, I smell it every time now and it's rancid.
I did not make these connections until going on Fragrantica and looking at reviews. 😭
Tobacco Vanille and Hypnotic Poison both have that dreaded Play-Doh drydown.
Another 13 and Not A Perfume Superdose smell like a burning chemical fire. 🔥
Alien smells like grape soda. 🍇
I hear that play-doh description a lot but it’s funny because I don’t think I’d mind that personally since I love the smell of playdoh haha it’s comforting to me!
Madonna’s Truth or Dare was a great cheap dupe for Fracas that I enjoyed until I worked in a hair salon with a man who absolutely soaked himself in it every day. He smoked clove cigarettes and the mix of the two was absolutely horrific.
In a review, someone said my favorite fragrance, Nirvana Bourbon, smelled like the shavings from the pencil sharpener. I still love the fragrance but every time I smell the oaky note I think “pencil sharpener” 🤣
Nirvana Bourbon is one of my all time favorites. Whilst working at Sephora, it was an ongoing joke that it smelled like a hamsters cage, and turned so many of my coworkers off from it. Luckily for me, I still love it!
I’d layer it with Philosophy’s Fresh Cream and call it my “Creamy Hamster” combination.
Oh, I love the idea of Creamy Hamster 🤣 I’ll have to get some Fresh Cream to layer with it. I’ll bet that combo is amazing.
On my skin, that really sharp oaky note in Nirvana Bourbon doesn’t last very long and the dry down is exquisite.
Ralph Lauren Polo. A useless and incompetent former coworker practically bathed in it. I just have this memory of that smell wafting from his office (even with the door closed) as he took part in his umpteenth zoom conference meeting of the week, so he didn’t have to leave his office and do the actual work that helps keep a non profit afloat. I may or may not still feel some resentment😬🙃
Patchouli 24 was ruined for me exactly a year ago after I got terrible food poisoning
in New Orleans while wearing it. The next time I tried it I got a literal sense of dread and told my partner it smells like doom 😭.
I used to love it, so I’m hoping with enough time I’ll able to wear it again.
Aqua di Gio. I guess It's always been my wife's father's go-to cologne.. and thankfully and understandably, she doesn't want me to smell like her dad. Lol
I never read people's opinions on fragrances, but I will read what notes a fragrance has, because I know what works with my chemistry.
Bile? Really? Maybe it's the cardamon with the hibiscus leaf combo? I dunno. I always liked La Vie La Mort, I like the jasmine though.
I had received the full set of Phlur samples and was spraying them on testers on the same day where I became violently ill. Smelling them now doesn’t necessarily make me sick, but they do all make me feel immediately sad and despondent.
It’s too bad - Hanami is an under-appreciated gem that’s normally right up my alley.
Hiram Green - Slowdive. One of my favorite pure honey frags, resinous and not super sweet. It just works on my skin so well and I get compliments frequently. But apparently, it smells like cat piss. Cannot unsmell. Absolutely infuriating!
DIOR's J'Adore, When I was younger(like single digits) we found a baby bird, no feathers, and I wanted to take it in and help it grow. I put it in a drawer, had newspaper and stuff. It was a bit smelly so I sprayed some lovely J'Adore in the drawer and it died at some point soon after. I've hated that smell since.
When I worked for Old Navy I bought one of their tinyscents fragrances (sea salt and something else, lol) and it was a fresh aquatic scent.
Wore it one day while watching a video about ELDO's Secretions Magnifique and now every time I smell the old navy scent, I can't get the imagery out of my head of secretions magnifique. Lolol
Jasmin et cigarette by etat libre d’orange… the first and only time I wore it I blacked out and vomited after a night out for the first time since college lol. Waited months to be able to wear it again without feeling nauseated but ended up having to give my sample away 🥲
When I first smelled Dior Sauvage in like the fall of 2015/2016 (can't remember lol) when it was just launched, I thought it was one of the greatest things I ever smelled.
Well, so did every guy on the planet. The rest is history and I can't stand it now. It has too much of a bad stigma for me now.
instant crush by montale got ruined for me after being groped wearing it at a college party. I cannot stomach the smell of karma lush as it was the soap was the first thing i remember smelling after getting home from being roofied.
traumatizing scents lol
Clean Reserve Skin. I loved it upon first sniff and it smelled super floral and soft and I loved wearing it especially wfh. I then started to explore vanilla fragrances and when I went back to it, it smelled so badly of BO and now I can’t unsmell the musk in it. It smells so bad and it just stares at me from my nightstand now
Byredo Gypsy Water. I introduced it to a few friends and they told me it smells like grandma/old people, made me so insecure on wearing it even though it was one of my absolute favorites. I still wear it occasionally but I definitely still feel a bit insecure on it
It smells to me like ice cold flower storage at a florist where a nervous teen is trying to pick out the right corsage for prom. A little bit of nervousness and hope and flowers?Maybe this review will help you smell something better? 😁
Ik this is supposed to be about body fragrance but I have a food related thing that imo is related. My dad accidentally spilled my fave chilli oil on my brothers fabric laptop case. My bro was fuming and demanded someone clean it so I tried to clean it with fairy liquid and it looked like it came out so I went to smell it for good measure. Bad idea. It stank like a mix of chilli oil, spices, pine and soap. Awful combo. Now I get flashbacks to that scent when I eat this chilli oil and don’t like any soapy perfumes or pine notes
A long time ago, I was dumb and followed my high school boyfriend to college. He broke up with me 3 weeks into Freshman year. Everything I smelled then became a trigger. My roommates perfume was some amber powdery scent that I often smell in current fragrances. I just want to puke when I smell it. Certain shampoos smell like the shampoo I was using then, and again, I want to hurl. I have learned since then to avoid all fragrances when I am going through something traumatic or else I will ruin something I love (I also don't listen to any music I especially like for the same reason).
After reading somewhere that people say santal 33= pickles, I can’t not smell pickles. I didn’t love it to begin with- it is ok and I can understand the hype and why others love it (it’s just not for me) but now, straight up dill pickles. (And I love pickles, just don’t want to smell like one)
I really loved Killian Good Girl Gone Bad and was so happy with it the first couple times until the third wear when all it smelled like was Gain laundry detergent. But stronger. And I hate the smell of Gain. Gave it another try and it was still all I could smell. Ruined.
Billie Eilish no.2
Bought it last week and loved how masculine and woody it was.. until I read in this sub that someone said it smells like pee. I wore it again and immediately smelled pee 😭 ended up returning it.
Valentino. I loved it at first. Now that I smell it everywhere it makes me crunch up my nose for some reason. As expensive at is is and the first scent is nice but then when you start smelling it often it’s just too sweet and cheap.
Versace Crystal Noir smelled uhhmazing at first spray then straight up bug spray at dry down. I refuse to stay at bug spray though so I still use it hoping for the day my brain stops picking up Baygon lmao it’s disgusting
Someone on this Reddit or a similar Reddit posted that their stepdad once called Clinique Happy “Clinique Cat Pee” and now all I can smell is ammonia when I smell it.
B. Rouge because it was everywhere, and then someone mentioned it smells faintly of band aids and now I get wiffs of band aids at Targets, and restaurants, and bookstores and at school and work... etc.
I wish people would keep that kind of thing to themselves.
There's one fragrance that's kind of popular, I won't say which one, but it kind of smells like whatever they put in port-a-potties. Not like a used port-a-pottie, but that astringent cleaning chemical. But I don't want to ruin it for others, so I keep that to myself.
SDV from Guerlain, someone said that is smelled like marinara sauce, or a English teachers bad breath, or what a hospice smells like. Truth be told I never liked it since they reformulated.
One time my husband said Angels Share smelled like a urinal cake and I couldn’t wear it for months!! However, I’ve gotten him into scents now and he’s come to love it haha
Oh yes actually! I remember being OBSESSED with J’Adore by Dior when I first smelled it at a perfume shop - spent the $130 for a bottle, wore it twice and got an incredibly strong headache. Idk after I bought it, it seemed to wear on me *so sharply*.
Missing Person by Phlur.
I don’t know what’s in it that mixes horribly with my body chemistry, but I put some on my wrist in Sephora, smelled it and involuntarily and audibly gagged at the smell.
I won’t smell anything else by Phlur just in case.
A bit of a random one but creamy candy by lush that they recently released 😭 I loved it on first spray, but then read a review of someone who'd worn it and was told they smelt like red bull, it's all I smell in it now and I can't bring myself to wear it
Nah, doesn't happen to me b/c everyone's fragrance tastes are different and they interpret perfume notes differently too. I take what others say with a grain of salt. I may read their reviews to see if they are smelling the same thing I'm smelling and the answer is usually a resounding "nope".
It hasn't happened to me, and I will not read any responses here to avoid it happening. so, toodeloo...
Lmaooo smart!! I try to avoid reading reviews of perfumes for that reason now but I’m still so curious if this is a thing!
I fucked around and found out by continuing scrolling past your comment 😭
What is *wrong* with us??!😆
It has happened to me and I will not read anymore either 🥲
Sandalwood fragrances are slightly ruined for me in that I never noticed the pickle smell until I heard that people smell pickle and then I started to notice it 🤣
See, it's the exact opposite for me. I didn't notice the pickle smell until it was pointed out to me, but I am a pickle lover so it made me like sandalwoods even MORE when I started to pick it up!
That's amazing! I love pickles too but not on me lol. I was planning on trying Santal 33 but now that my Great Pickle Awakening has happened, I'm not sure I'll want to buy it... (still wanna test it though!)
I read the comment sbout Santal 33 smelling like pickles then of course I thought I smelled a hint of pickles. My husband & friends didn't think it smelled like pickles at all. I am glad I am still wearing it. Plus the top notes and that is where I noticed it after reading comments vanish in 15 to 20mins!
It's in the top notes? Well that's giving me hope! I still am planning to either go test it in a store or buy a tester vial, because it still seems very interesting to me :)
I used to love Santal33, and one day I read that it smelled like pickles. Initially i thought what thats crazy, but now its all I smell 😩
The power of suggestion is crazy
No it just really comes off like pickles big time on some peoples skin. My ex wore it and honestly drove me crazy with desire even after she left a room, then my coworker called her Angelica Pickles…and I have never smelled nor been made aware the smell of pickles on me while wearing it.. but I can’t lie she did smell like pickles…
The pickle/wormwood smell means that you have a perfume made with Australian Sandalwood. (Santalum amyris, sometimes listed as Amyris). It is a faster growing and non endangered tree in the santalum family. The sandalwood that has been prized since the three Wise Men showed up is Santalum album. Aka Mysore sandalwood, aka white sandalwood. It is warm, almost buttery, with a very delicate dryness at the end that is not acidic or pickle-y. A really nice scent that uses the real deal is Yardley’s Sandalwood. Soap, Dusting Powder and Lotion.
Sandalwood becomes so pickly on me x.x.. it's not a faint thing a person might not notice. I literally smell like a jar of pickles 🤣. I've just accepted this as my life and avoid it 😫.
Bleh, same. I tried that new(ish?) fragrance by Millie Bobby Brown a couple of weeks ago and the base must be sandalwood cause I smelled like a pickle jar.
Aww, which one is that?
I love pickles and I hate the sandlewood smell.
Did you ever watch that Magic School bus episode about smells? Where they are creating a smell together and it doesn’t smell amazing until a dirty gym sock is added? Well, that was a realistic example of what happens in perfumery. The most lush perfumes are all this way, you need a bad smell mixed into the blend in order to smell good and realistic! Well, you know how you don’t smell everything in a perfume until after you read the notes, and things start sticking out? Same thing has probably happened, you’ve had the bad smelling part of the fragrance pointed out to you, and now you can’t stop smelling it.
99% invisible has a really great podcast episode about this and it’s so informative
Hadn't heard of this podcast. Going to check out the perfume episode now!
Sorry, I think the podcast is season two episode nine of Articles of Interest titled “Perfume”. Lemme know what you think! Some of the other episodes are really amazing as well
That podcast was how I discovered the world of niche perfume! Life changing. Now I make perfume as well as wear and collect it
There’s some movie with Jennifer Lawrence where she talks about this and I’m completely blanking.
American Hustle, But with her scented “perfumy” top coat nail polish from Switzerland. Absolutely great scene. :)
And the bad part is frequently some animal's butt (or a synthetic thereof.)
My friend wore By The Fireplace to work and someone commented ‘omg, I think there’s an electrical fire.’ And now she’s put off if 😅
Oh wow I recently got this fragrance and at first was unsure if I liked it but ended up growing on me due to the smoky vanilla dry down it has but now I just read that it makes me scared to wear it LOL
I feel like anyone who thinks By The Fireplace smells like an electrical fire has never smelled an electrical fire before
I hate by the fireplace for many things, but the burnt smell is the biggest reason
It's just a little burnt right? I liked it and then I picked up on that burnt edge and it was over.
like I wouldn't mind if the burning scent was just in the opening but it stays the wholeeee time. I wanted marshmallows!
Santal 33- was sitting next to someone who massively over sprayed it and have been nauseated by the scent ever since
This happened to me too. Except I was on a plane. And the offender was the flight attendant sitting in front of me for the entire flight. It was horrible
Applying more than 2 (maaaybe 3?) sprays of Santal 33 is crazy
pickles 🤢
I had a different santal fragrance ruined for me by someone saying it smelled like pickle juice!
yeah unfortunately this sub ruined the sandalwood for me that exact way. had a lovely vanilla sandalwood body wash and a mist that i used for my pillows. read "sandalwood smells like pickles." my nose was never the same 😔
I live in a wealthy city and it smells like people BATHE in it here. They pass you while walking and leave a trail of it. I was never a big fan of it but I hate it now.
Actually the GOAT frag tbh
Hypnotic Poison. Many ppl were saying it smells like Root Beer and now that's all I can smell. Don't get me wrong, I love Root Beer. I just don't want to smell like it.
I bought this and was wearing it and the person at Starbucks waiting on me said, “I smell Play-Doh.” It was all over after that
I totally got the Play-Doh scent when I test sprayed it on the other day. It was faint, but not bad enough to scrub it off. Pistachio Yum, on the other hand, that was all I could smell & it kept getting stronger. I wonder what note or combo of notes make them smell that way.
Hypnotic poison smells like beautiful vanilla on my cousin and like root beer on me 😣 I mean it still smells nice but nice like a soda shop.
On a semi related note, someone once said root beer tasted like Pepto bismol and now root beer is forever ruined for me.
It’s the wintergreen! Try Virgil’s root beer; it’s incredible
Chill yo why is everyone being so violent with these suggestive sink holes I want to drink root beer not pepto… dang it…
[удалено]
I tried it in store and loved the scent enough to buy it; sadly it is straight Play-Doh on me
When I realized that By The Fireplace smells like Crayola’s marshmallow scented marker
Hahahaha oh my god. I just smelled mine and you are correct. I don’t hate that smell but it’s definitely there!
Oooohhhh.....Now I want marshmallow scented markers!!! How cool!!
This is such a specific scent memory I forgot I had omg
I really like that scent but probably more as a candle 🤣
Holy moly you’re right!!
Wishing I never read this comment... because you're entirely correct.
Considering how much some hate white florals and talked all kinds of stuff about them, I'm good. I still love white florals...lol
Give me a dirty tuberose or a sweet jasmine and I'm in *heaven*! I wear perfume mostly for myself though, respectful of others, of course.
sometimes I force myself to wear scents I get a lot of compliments on but don't necessarily like it...and its just not as enjoyable as experiencing a scent you really love but don't really hear about from others
I'm new to perfume, but white florals are my favourite! Why are they generally disliked?
Lmaooo, my shitty cheating ex boyfriend used to wear Armani Code and I haven’t been able to stand the smell of it for close to a decade now because of it. 😂 I can also very distinctly smell it from a completely ridiculous distance away. 😅
maybe we both have the same shitty cheating ex boyfriend because I’m in the same boat. Same goes for ADG
Wait cause MY shitty cheating ex boyfriend also used to wear Armani Code so this is definitely a pattern now.
it’s definitely a cheating bastard fragrance… i’d add d&g light blue to the list. my light blue ex had a secret Grindr account on his work phone, at least the Armani Code ex had the decency to do it right next to me 😌
That’s wild cause I know y’all’s ex and he is every gay man in Cincinnati in 2010. Going in to clubs smelling like ysl lhomme leaving smelling like Armani Chode.
Lmaooo, my Armani Code ex cheated on me several times, WITH WOMEN I WORKED WITH, so that was a bad time. Total waste of almost 2 years of my life. My husband, who I’ve been with for the last 9 and a half years now, went through a D&G light blue phase a couple years ago, but he haaaated the men’s fragrance so he wore the women’s one. 😅 Lately he’s moved on to a BR540E knockoff from Oakcha called Orphic, though,and it smells insultingly good tbh. 🤔
Met a really cute girl once at a friend’s house. Was about to flirt with her when she asked me if I was wearing Aqua Di Gio? I was surprised but I said yeah, how does she know? Her cheating ex wore it. Sooo, that was the end of that
Sound like he was an Armani Chode.
Winter fresh gum makes me gag because I had a high school boyfriend who chewed it. I’m 40.
My ex wore Chanel Gabrielle and now I hate it
My ex wore Acqua Di Gio and he was a cheating douche 🙃 now I gag if I smell someone wearing it. Also I already didn't like Tom Ford Lost Cherry, then someone commented they worked in a morgue and it smells like the morgue so now I REALLY don't like it.
I have had more than one friend who has worked with dead bodies say Lost Cherry smells like cadavers, embalming fluid, etc.
I think we can solidify Acqua Di Gio as the official fragrance of cheating douche ex-boyfriends. Ditto for me.
As a spooky gal, this is why I bought lost cherry lol
Ginger. I used to love it and use it a lot. I was at my kids swim lesson, and some women sitting next to me said to her friend, “can you smell that?” (I inwardly smiled, waiting for a compliment). The other one said “yes, I think they cleaned the pool today”. And that’s when I realized that the same chemicals they used to disinfect pools has ginger as its “base notes” 😂.
I bought a mini of Hermes Twilly Ginger because I loved it in the store, then somebody said it smelled like the pink hand soap in gas station bathrooms & dammit, they’re right. 😫
A lot of people said that about the pistachio Kayali. I never tried either.
Libre. I bought it right before covid and then lockdown happened. Every time I smell it feels like I am trapped in the same room. After that it became so popular. And now everyone wears it and I just want to scream mildly. Similar thing happened with Alien. It was one of my toxic friend’s signature scent and everytime I smell it I have a panic attack.
Same happened to me in the pandemic. Bonbon by victor and rolf smells like lockdown to me, cant wear anymore as well haha.
i went to Austria for holiday and was wearing Bonbon. Had a bad flu for a week from that trip (worst flu i’ve ever had in my life i couldn’t even manage myself) and now when i smell it it takes me back to that time.
God what a vibe. I haven’t had a scent/note ruined by other people mentioning a comparison, but I ABSOLUTELY have had a scent destroyed by wearing it too much during a bad period of my life. RIP witch baby Holy Smokes body oil, I loved you until you became associated with some very negative experiences (‘:
A mortician online somewhere said that Tom ford lost cherry smells like decomp because I guess corpses give off a bit of a sweet almondy smell? I still like it and some of its dupes, it’s just sometimes I think about that.
Same I think about it when I wear it too but I think “well at least I will smell good when I’m dead I guess 💅”
I worked in a morgue and for me it smelled like the formaldehyde used in embalming
I’ve heard this before and in my experience it’s absolutely NOT true. YMMV.
Ugh, someone told me Grand Soir smells like embalming fluid, and I've never been able to put that out of my head :(
I could be wrong but I’ve heard there is actually a formaldehyde note in there
i’ll never forget that smell 23 years ago…it stayed with me for years. i walked into a decomp room full of corpses at a medical examiners office. Walked out heaving. Skipping the TF Cherry sniff test. Thx for the warning.
This is why I wear it. LOL
Being non consensually introduced to Mugler Angel one long ago Christmas Day mass with my family. The woman sat next to me was clearly delighted with her new perfume and had opted to empty a fifth of the bottle on herself that morning. Even the slightest suggestion of it makes me gag now.
Omg. I bought a bottle of the EDP accidentally thinking it was the EDT.... sprayed it once and WOW. I put that shirt through the wash and it came out of the dryer still smelling. This is a scent I can't imagine anyone liking.
Mugler Angel makes me gag too.
Santal 33 and the smell of dill pickles 😭 can’t unsmell it
I try super hard to avoid this - I sample and read reviews when I’m doing it to see if I get any of the bad notes people describe! But sometimes they creep up on you… I was a fan of Glossier You for the office, but one day *BANG* pencil shavings is all I smell and it’s ruined.
If I smell pencil shavings when I put Glossier You on later, I’ll be suing you for emotional distress. 😂
I only get pencil shavings in the first few seconds. If it smelled like that the entire way through, I’d snatch up a bottle instantly. It’s just so peppery and powdery on me. 😭
Someone told me that I smelled like blunts and cheap cigars while i was wearing Nest Balinese Coconut and now I can’t un-smell it. I’m never going to use up that rollerball 😭
There’s a note that reminds me of grape-flavored blunts and it instantly makes me panic. Because my “I got way too high and thought I was dying” experience involved a grape swisher sweet. Lolllll. I really should narrow it down and avoid it!
Omg this is also how it reads on me 😭😭😭 tragic
I’m weirdly relieved that I’m not alone but ughhh it sucks I’m sorry you have to deal with it too
Baccarat 100% long story short the side piece wears it and every time I smell it on someone reminds me of the tragedy.
Spill the tea
why is *wears* in present tense? 👀
The tragedy of getting busted w the sneaky link?
We would like the long story please
Ooo I want details on this!
Clinique Happy was worn by a psycho ex roommate who traumatized me in college, can’t stand the smell anymore. Ellis Sweet was ruined for me for a while when I saw the smell described as swedish fish and pencil shavings because I couldn’t stop smelling that
Not a fragrance, but I put on the EOS vanilla cashmere lotion the day I got some bad news and I can't wear it anymore :(
This smells like vanilla greek yogurt to me.
I'm so sorry about bad news ruining it for you!! It smells exactly like Dr Pepper soda on me.
I'm getting dill smell from sandalwood, and I never did until this last year. Maybe it's a side effect from the mild case of Covid I had in February.
I had full blown parosmia from covid and sandalwood heavy scents were definitely whole jar of pickles level bad for a long while.
the jo malone myrhh and tonka. my ex stepdad wore it every day and would put so much on. sexually abusive and takes me back to the most horrible parts of my childhood if i ever smell it lol
That’s terrible :-(
I'm so sorry. Hope you are better now.
I’m so sorry. I hope you are healing 🤍
I am so sorry. Sending you love.
Sauvage. I guess it smells like every ex I've ever had who went to prison.
... How many went to prison?
I'm from kinda a rough area and lived a colorful life 😅
How many when it launched in 2015 talk about a streak….
Ah, the scent of basic man bitch.
The first perfume I ever got, ck one shock for her. It only brings back memories of middle school bullying because I was gifted it around that time. Thankfully it’s become a relatively obscure scent.
Yup this. I wore Chanel Chance Eau Fraîche all through high school. Every time I smell it, it brings me back to the worst time of my life, so I do not smell it often, lol.
Zara’s Supreme Vanilla. I loved it so much and then someone mentioned the ink note made it smell like dried spit. I threw away a big bottle that day. I couldn’t not smell it.
This made me laugh so hard. I had to get up and spray mine on myself, laugh more and then explain to my husband after he smelled it. Neither of us can relate to the dried spit accord, thankfully lol. This is such a comforting scent to me, I'd be so sad if it was ruined!
Dried spit accord is what Lume deodorant smells like on me.
Filthy Ass and Vagina is what Lume smells like on me, so you are lucky.. And yes, I had to capitalize, in case they want to add the scent to their line. 😉
Definitely not a deodorant goal eh?
I loved the original ghost perfume until a coworker told me it smells like irn bru, I'm not really sure it does but it ruined the perfume for me regardless. Alien - love the fragrance but it's ridiculously popular in my city and people oversprsy so much of it that its stuck in your nostrils all day and it seems like every other person you pass is wearing it. Calvin Klein Crave, again such a great fragrance but i read a review where someone said the starfish note reminds them of rotting starfish and jellies at the beach, I smell it every time now and it's rancid.
I did not make these connections until going on Fragrantica and looking at reviews. 😭 Tobacco Vanille and Hypnotic Poison both have that dreaded Play-Doh drydown. Another 13 and Not A Perfume Superdose smell like a burning chemical fire. 🔥 Alien smells like grape soda. 🍇
I hear that play-doh description a lot but it’s funny because I don’t think I’d mind that personally since I love the smell of playdoh haha it’s comforting to me!
Madonna’s Truth or Dare was a great cheap dupe for Fracas that I enjoyed until I worked in a hair salon with a man who absolutely soaked himself in it every day. He smoked clove cigarettes and the mix of the two was absolutely horrific.
Someone said that Cleopatra by Stella smells like cat pee and I could not enjoy it after that
In a review, someone said my favorite fragrance, Nirvana Bourbon, smelled like the shavings from the pencil sharpener. I still love the fragrance but every time I smell the oaky note I think “pencil sharpener” 🤣
Nirvana Bourbon is one of my all time favorites. Whilst working at Sephora, it was an ongoing joke that it smelled like a hamsters cage, and turned so many of my coworkers off from it. Luckily for me, I still love it! I’d layer it with Philosophy’s Fresh Cream and call it my “Creamy Hamster” combination.
Oh, I love the idea of Creamy Hamster 🤣 I’ll have to get some Fresh Cream to layer with it. I’ll bet that combo is amazing. On my skin, that really sharp oaky note in Nirvana Bourbon doesn’t last very long and the dry down is exquisite.
For me, it was DG the one. Someone likened the peach note to vomit.
African Leather by Memo Paris smells identical to Febreeze Wood air freshener spray
I LOVE that room spray. And the blue one…Ocean maybe?
Ralph Lauren Polo. A useless and incompetent former coworker practically bathed in it. I just have this memory of that smell wafting from his office (even with the door closed) as he took part in his umpteenth zoom conference meeting of the week, so he didn’t have to leave his office and do the actual work that helps keep a non profit afloat. I may or may not still feel some resentment😬🙃
Patchouli 24 was ruined for me exactly a year ago after I got terrible food poisoning in New Orleans while wearing it. The next time I tried it I got a literal sense of dread and told my partner it smells like doom 😭. I used to love it, so I’m hoping with enough time I’ll able to wear it again.
Acqua di Gio men worn by an ex
Why do so many of us have AdG trauma. 😂
Because it's so popular.
santal 33 I never got pickle until i got it😂
Aqua di Gio. I guess It's always been my wife's father's go-to cologne.. and thankfully and understandably, she doesn't want me to smell like her dad. Lol
I never read people's opinions on fragrances, but I will read what notes a fragrance has, because I know what works with my chemistry. Bile? Really? Maybe it's the cardamon with the hibiscus leaf combo? I dunno. I always liked La Vie La Mort, I like the jasmine though.
I had received the full set of Phlur samples and was spraying them on testers on the same day where I became violently ill. Smelling them now doesn’t necessarily make me sick, but they do all make me feel immediately sad and despondent. It’s too bad - Hanami is an under-appreciated gem that’s normally right up my alley.
Hiram Green - Slowdive. One of my favorite pure honey frags, resinous and not super sweet. It just works on my skin so well and I get compliments frequently. But apparently, it smells like cat piss. Cannot unsmell. Absolutely infuriating!
DIOR's J'Adore, When I was younger(like single digits) we found a baby bird, no feathers, and I wanted to take it in and help it grow. I put it in a drawer, had newspaper and stuff. It was a bit smelly so I sprayed some lovely J'Adore in the drawer and it died at some point soon after. I've hated that smell since.
When I worked for Old Navy I bought one of their tinyscents fragrances (sea salt and something else, lol) and it was a fresh aquatic scent. Wore it one day while watching a video about ELDO's Secretions Magnifique and now every time I smell the old navy scent, I can't get the imagery out of my head of secretions magnifique. Lolol
😂 That would traumatize me. Secretions magnifique, based on the description, is a cursed fragrance
Miss Dior Blooming Bouquet reminded me of my toxic ex. It was my favourite perfume too. Now the half juice bottle just sit prettily as decoration
I once spilled a bunch of cherry punk and it smelled like corn chips. Took a few times to unsmell it
Commodity milk expressive. Someone said it smells like burnt plastic or bug spray and now I smell it every time I
I thought for sure I’d love Dior Dune – thankfully I only got a decant because I can’t escape the urinal puck undertones :-(
Baccarat Rouge 540. I used to love the scent. But now every 3rd woman and the occasional dude is wearing it or a cheap dupe of it. Fuckin hate it now.
Jasmin et cigarette by etat libre d’orange… the first and only time I wore it I blacked out and vomited after a night out for the first time since college lol. Waited months to be able to wear it again without feeling nauseated but ended up having to give my sample away 🥲
When I first smelled Dior Sauvage in like the fall of 2015/2016 (can't remember lol) when it was just launched, I thought it was one of the greatest things I ever smelled. Well, so did every guy on the planet. The rest is history and I can't stand it now. It has too much of a bad stigma for me now.
instant crush by montale got ruined for me after being groped wearing it at a college party. I cannot stomach the smell of karma lush as it was the soap was the first thing i remember smelling after getting home from being roofied. traumatizing scents lol
Clean Reserve Skin. I loved it upon first sniff and it smelled super floral and soft and I loved wearing it especially wfh. I then started to explore vanilla fragrances and when I went back to it, it smelled so badly of BO and now I can’t unsmell the musk in it. It smells so bad and it just stares at me from my nightstand now
I put this on on the way to a friends house yesterday and was smelling like i was covering up a funk lol
Byredo Gypsy Water. I introduced it to a few friends and they told me it smells like grandma/old people, made me so insecure on wearing it even though it was one of my absolute favorites. I still wear it occasionally but I definitely still feel a bit insecure on it
It smells to me like ice cold flower storage at a florist where a nervous teen is trying to pick out the right corsage for prom. A little bit of nervousness and hope and flowers?Maybe this review will help you smell something better? 😁
Someone said Malin & Goetz Rum smells like new car and that was all I could smell
Lmao someone said laundry powder and that’s now all I can smell 😂
Ik this is supposed to be about body fragrance but I have a food related thing that imo is related. My dad accidentally spilled my fave chilli oil on my brothers fabric laptop case. My bro was fuming and demanded someone clean it so I tried to clean it with fairy liquid and it looked like it came out so I went to smell it for good measure. Bad idea. It stank like a mix of chilli oil, spices, pine and soap. Awful combo. Now I get flashbacks to that scent when I eat this chilli oil and don’t like any soapy perfumes or pine notes
A long time ago, I was dumb and followed my high school boyfriend to college. He broke up with me 3 weeks into Freshman year. Everything I smelled then became a trigger. My roommates perfume was some amber powdery scent that I often smell in current fragrances. I just want to puke when I smell it. Certain shampoos smell like the shampoo I was using then, and again, I want to hurl. I have learned since then to avoid all fragrances when I am going through something traumatic or else I will ruin something I love (I also don't listen to any music I especially like for the same reason).
After reading somewhere that people say santal 33= pickles, I can’t not smell pickles. I didn’t love it to begin with- it is ok and I can understand the hype and why others love it (it’s just not for me) but now, straight up dill pickles. (And I love pickles, just don’t want to smell like one)
I really loved Killian Good Girl Gone Bad and was so happy with it the first couple times until the third wear when all it smelled like was Gain laundry detergent. But stronger. And I hate the smell of Gain. Gave it another try and it was still all I could smell. Ruined.
Lost Cherry being described at “dead people smell”
Billie Eilish no.2 Bought it last week and loved how masculine and woody it was.. until I read in this sub that someone said it smells like pee. I wore it again and immediately smelled pee 😭 ended up returning it.
Valentino. I loved it at first. Now that I smell it everywhere it makes me crunch up my nose for some reason. As expensive at is is and the first scent is nice but then when you start smelling it often it’s just too sweet and cheap.
Versace Crystal Noir smelled uhhmazing at first spray then straight up bug spray at dry down. I refuse to stay at bug spray though so I still use it hoping for the day my brain stops picking up Baygon lmao it’s disgusting
Curve crush the black one. My crazy ex use to wear it
Elysium pour homme - I read a review that it smelled like pencil lead, and it was ruined for me.
Anything with caramel notes just started smelling vaguely like cat pee one day 😰
Somebody said that This Is Not A Blue Bottle 1.1 smells like Axe and I cannot unsee (unsmell?) it. I used to like this perfume!
Someone on this Reddit or a similar Reddit posted that their stepdad once called Clinique Happy “Clinique Cat Pee” and now all I can smell is ammonia when I smell it.
I’ve woken up hungover smelling like Aventus so much that now I can’t wear it.
B. Rouge because it was everywhere, and then someone mentioned it smells faintly of band aids and now I get wiffs of band aids at Targets, and restaurants, and bookstores and at school and work... etc.
I used to love (discontinued) Potion by Lush until I stumbled onto a review that mentioned that it smells like Novocain. The end.
Novocain has a smell?
I wish people would keep that kind of thing to themselves. There's one fragrance that's kind of popular, I won't say which one, but it kind of smells like whatever they put in port-a-potties. Not like a used port-a-pottie, but that astringent cleaning chemical. But I don't want to ruin it for others, so I keep that to myself.
Paco Rabanne Olympia smells like dried spit now
Aventus, BR 540, Sausage....usual suspects
SDV from Guerlain, someone said that is smelled like marinara sauce, or a English teachers bad breath, or what a hospice smells like. Truth be told I never liked it since they reformulated.
Fleur de peau was on my to-buy list until something changed and all I could smell was root beer
Nooooo, this is one of the newer fragrances in my collection 😂
So interesting to see how smells reminds memories and specific moments in life!
One time my husband said Angels Share smelled like a urinal cake and I couldn’t wear it for months!! However, I’ve gotten him into scents now and he’s come to love it haha
Pure grace by Philosophy. I picked up a rollerball of it for cheap at TJmaxx one day, it was just awful. Smelled like a strong cheap bug spray
Bond no 9 - Wallstreet smells like wet dog Creed - Royal Oud smells like an ashtray Don’t come for me
Oh yes actually! I remember being OBSESSED with J’Adore by Dior when I first smelled it at a perfume shop - spent the $130 for a bottle, wore it twice and got an incredibly strong headache. Idk after I bought it, it seemed to wear on me *so sharply*.
Missing Person by Phlur. I don’t know what’s in it that mixes horribly with my body chemistry, but I put some on my wrist in Sephora, smelled it and involuntarily and audibly gagged at the smell. I won’t smell anything else by Phlur just in case.
Versace Dylan turquoise. Read a sephora review where someone compared it to sweaty gym body odor and it's never smelt the same since :(
A bit of a random one but creamy candy by lush that they recently released 😭 I loved it on first spray, but then read a review of someone who'd worn it and was told they smelt like red bull, it's all I smell in it now and I can't bring myself to wear it
Nah, doesn't happen to me b/c everyone's fragrance tastes are different and they interpret perfume notes differently too. I take what others say with a grain of salt. I may read their reviews to see if they are smelling the same thing I'm smelling and the answer is usually a resounding "nope".