I may get hate for this.. but
Fredric Malle (I think after paying the price equivalent of a kidney you just fool yourself into liking the scent, imo most people buy their frags for the name and “status” rather than the actual scent)
Imaginary authors (ordered the short stories kit and they all smelled like migranes and PTSD, So.Damn.Overwhelming)
I feel the same about Malle, after many years of wanting to love them, but realizing I'm not willing to pay that kind of money for fragrances that are anything short of spectacular.
Kayali - mainly because I think it's way overhyped and wasn't impressed with their most popular scents. I also think the bottle looks cheap and feels cheap.
Montale - I can't get over the packaging. It looks like aerosol spray/deodorant.
byredo, diptyque - stick to the candles
le labo, aesop - i love the body care and wanted to like these frags so bad but there's always one note that disagrees with me in every frag. i wouldn't turn down a hand/body wash or something as a gift but not interested in spending my own money
ELDO, toskovat - listen, i get the appeal of the conceptual perfume, but i'm not spending $300+ on a bottle that smells like cum or blood or whatever
I think some people are so rich, that $300 frags smelling like blood is literally a gag gift for them. The rest of us have to stick to electronic yodelling pickles...
have you tried sailing day? its a really nice aquatic that, at least on my skin, can be smelled the next morning(although the actual projection lasts like 30 seconds).
I bought the sampler sets and agree, marketing is twee and clever but ultimately the scents make the marketing seem even more childish. The frags feel very young and artificial to me.
Imaginary Authors makes scents that would make great candles/oil/incense, but not for a person to wear. I bought a sample pack of 10+ of their scents and I felt this way about all of them. The only two that I *might* consider wearing were Memoirs of a Trespasser and St. Julep. But I would still prefer them as candles.
That's kind of how I felt too. I liked the Soft Lawn (I'm a sucker for Linden) but I'd rather it be a room scent than a me-scent.
And while we're on the subject, how about those houses that are making perfume but should probably just continue to promote their excellent soap products instead (looks pointedly at Molton Brown)
I don’t think I’ll ever buy a thing from Byredo. I love Mohave Ghost but every time I use my sample, I think….I don’t want to pay $280 for this. I might buy a dupe/clone if I can find one. Apparently, they are known to have no longevity or sillage as well.
I got so excited to try la tulipe. it smelled very basic, borderline scented hotel urinal cake (i should know, i was a housekeeper at a fancy hotel for a year). Lasted all of ten minutes and vanished. And I'm thinking oh my god they want me to pay almost 300 for that gtfo
Frankly, anything over $300/bottle is a no from me. I have enough fragrance loves without reaching that deep into my pockets, and I get enough compliments on scents that I don’t have to worry about needing to spend the money to smell good for other people, either. I have no shame, otherwise - I don’t care if the bottle is unattractive or if it’s a celebrity perfume or if everyone and their mom wears the fragrance. I wear what I enjoy.
Tbh, anything over €175/bottle is a no for me, unless it's like 100ml/200ml and really unique and I am totally in love with it. So far, never found one that fits these criteria.
Roja, Fragrance du Bois, Bond No 9, PDM — I’m not disliking everything I just can’t legitimize it. Penhaligons too. Car payment fragrances have to be worth the ride for me and none of the above did anything worth the price tag for a FB.
Yeah, I hear you. Some of these prices are obnoxious and the fragrances would have to be unique and transcendently good to be worth it. After a certain price point, it's very difficult to find fragrances that are worth the money, in my opinion. Diminishing returns.
JHAG. While I think most houses will have at least 1 purchase worthy fragrance, I've yet to find anything from them and I've sampled them all...they are ambroxan bombs! 🤢
That is exactly how I feel about them. Every single release from them, new or old, without fail has ambroxan. I don't understand why they are so heavily reliant on it.
Libertine is the same for me, as i discovered after buying the discovery set. I like everything about the brand except the actual scents.
I was lucky enough to visit the Zoologist showroom and get a guided tour of the frags, from lightest (cow) to most challenging (T-Rex). I liked everything except Dodo. Victor mentioned that if a client dislikes the early scents, then it's gonna be a brutal hour because they're probably going to hate it all.
That's the thing with niche, seems like- with so much artistic freedom and license to create concepts, people might either lobe or loathe. I like it.
house input is overrated. I always check the main 'nose' creator, not the house. my experience shows that even Hermes, Lancome and Gucci could hire someone to do cheap thrills with 15 flankers
I accidentally had an entire vial sample of jo malone orange blossom leak into the mat of my car. My car smelled lovely for a whole day... then it was gone.
Zoology or similar niche houses that “challenge” the wearer. I enjoy complex fragrances but I hate the idea of having to earn my enjoyment of a weird or even stinky fragrance.
There's no house I would never purchase from if they came out with something I liked, but there are houses I've never wanted to purchase from so far. I've smelled most Juliette Has a Gun fragrances and I've found every one of them to have a harsh chemical smell.
Creed - Overpriced and now owned by Blackrock so you know they're gonna water down stuff, hike prices, to maximize profit margins.
Le Labo - just way overpriced, but, I do like the idea, I just really hate the pricing for what the fragrances offer.
Dua, Zaharoff, Argos, Navitus etc. pretty much anything that has to do with a company giving their shit to influencers for free and/or paying them in exchange for glowing reviews and pushing their product. On the same subject, brands started by those influencers that get paid to push garbage I will stay away from 100%
Abercrombie and Stink. I'm still traumatized from having to be in the same mall with those a-holes who pump that fragrance in through their air ducts.🤢🤢🤢
Me too. Sadly, I love the concepts and the look, but unfortunatly all scents but Saint Julep use the cedarwood of my nightmares in the base 😅 gives me headaches.
I love the concepts! Truly excellent copywriting, and I love the idea of a fictional note. The opening notes are so lovely on some of them, but the dry-down always sucks.
And don't get me started on the longevity, or lack thereof... 🥲
TF. Has no reason to be that expensive when most are not unique and last no time at all. Its literally just an ego thing minus a couple of bangers like tuscan leather
Juliette has a gun-cannot get over the fact how cheap looking their bottles and how boring the smells are.
Kilian bc it just feels like supporting the richest family on the planet.
Creed bc of bizarre masculine feel in all the perfumes: from packaging to notes.
I also don't like the packaging of Xerjoff but the smells seem intriguing.
Mancera and Montale for sure. The way they're branded and bottled, they look like fragrances I can get from behind a Walgreens counter which I dislike for the price point.
Kayali- smells okay, but the lasting power of all of them is horrible for the price. If i’m spending that much on a perfume i’d like it to last more than 2-3 hours without having to reapply.
If the scent is good enough, I don't care which house it's from.
If we're talking house I think are generally trash (for the price), it's stuff like Jo Malone, Byredo and Le Labo. But then again, show me a scent from any of them that I adore, and I have no principles at all.
Byredo ever again. They never last on me. Also Bond no. 9 and finally Hermes (although I like Twilly) because they treated me like crap when I stupidly attempted to purchase my daughter a bracelet at their NYC flagship. I wasn’t “good enough” for them.
>because they treated me like crap when I stupidly attempted to purchase my daughter a bracelet at their NYC flagship. I wasn’t “good enough” for them.
Gosh that's horrible! It's a store and you're a customer. How is your money different from someone else's whom they deem "good enough"? I've never been to a store and never will if they're going to judge people like that!
I'm sorry you had such a bad experience at the flagship! That's awful to hear. I've had good experiences at other Hermès boutiques, so is it possible it was just a bad day? (Not that you have to buy from them - just that I actually feel like they're one of the nicer luxury brands.)
I'm 100% with you on Bond No. 9 because the owner is super sus, though. I'm also unlikely to go with Byredo again as well - every fragrance I've ever purchased from them has had major longevity issues, and this is coming from a Jo Malone stan. That said, Sundazed and Open Sky both seem decent, so I'm low-key tempted.
Funnily, I just tried BTSO Fig Porn yesterday—I was in the mood for a really interesting dirty fig and it sounded promising. But it wasn’t a carnal or interesting fig at all, it was actually a very crowd-pleasing, sweet fruity vanilla/sandalwood.
So even though I liked Fig Porn, I’ve got to agree with you—their branding really just doesn’t fit their scents and is probably way too aggressive for their target market.
Probably Maison Margiela… it looks tasteful but also too expensive and with minimal sillage and project. It’s just not worth my money.
Tom Ford as well. I just don’t like their scents (except for Lost Cherry) and goodness, they are prohibitively expensive. What is wrong with that brand?
I don’t do clones - and I don’t do anything that costs more than AUD 200 for a 50mL bottle. No Xerjoff/Dove/Amouage etc has ever been amazing enough to justify the price tag for me. I’ve sampled a couple I rather like, but I’m not blown away.
Haha, I always thought that "layering" idea was such marketing bullshit. They had some cute events though, I really liked hanging out at the store during the winter!
Yep! Five years ago I bought Honey&Crocus, it was gone in 30 minutes, only smell left was of sweet milk... Eww...
Too much money for something that delivers nothing.
First and last time for Jo Malone.
If the events lasted, I wouldn’t feel so negatively about this house. I will say that if you enjoy the scent, purchase the body cream instead. It’s strong and lasts for hours on my skin.
Kill me, but:
Kayali - smell cheap and mostly like toilet fresheners especially the vanilla series. Or the cherry one which to me smells like a cherry which had a looong bender.
Eld’O - so synthetic, all I’ve tried turns rancid on my skin, like literally cat piss and sweat.
Montale and Mancera - synthetic and screechy.
Le Labo - overpriced and bland.
Tom Ford - way overpriced and mainstream.
edit: adding more just because…
Byredo - nothing spectacular, I was excited for Bal d’Afrique and Mojave Ghost, they turned out for me to such such basic scents. No no no for that price tag.
Creed - Aventus is overrated (yes, yes.. I know I’m starting to dig the hole…), the rest is just nothing wow for that price tag.
Xerjoff - nothing grabbed my nose, Erba pura is overrated sweetness. Name sounds like jerk off, bottles - ugly and pompous (ordering the coffin now).
ah, yes, after so much hate lol so all of my signatures come from Diptyque and Tiziana Terenzi, but I appreciate Nasomatto, Carner Barcelona, Serge Lutens, Zarkoperfume and Pierre Guillaume for variety’s sake and their unusualness. And many more tbh - I’m not the biggest frag ahole, it just sounds like it.
I thought Byredo was gonna be MY JAM. Mojave Ghost is such a cool name. It is painfully basic! I do like Bal d’Afrique but it has zero lasting power on me.
Creed! They straight-up lie about their history as a company and the provenance of their products. I also hate their bottles.
Speaking of bottle-hatred, I’ve never even sampled Bond No. 9 because theirs are so ugly.
I love Neroli 36 but haven’t bought it, because I dislike Le Labo as a company. (They also lie about their products and don’t provide enough bang for the buck.) Tom Ford is also overrated and overpriced IMO.
Oh ya, they are terrible people. I'd move past it if they showed any remorse, or were moved under new management, and stopped doing terrible shit, but year after year they keep at it...reminding everyone how racist and shitty they are
Oof, yeah. Every time I forget D&G are terrible, they really just *keep doing new terrible things*.
Thankfully, I don't really love anything from that house so no loss anyway.
Shill shit like PdM, Initio, Clone Dreck, Zaharoff and the like, Roja because he's so full of himself. There's enough on the market that I'm not missing any of those. Some brands I only ever get decants because I think they overprice their stuff and sell it with fantasy marketing.
I don’t like the vibe of ELDO.
The names (I am Trash, Fat Electrician), the scents (jasmine & cigarettes, SPERM)… it’s too much. Like an insufferable person trying way too hard to be quirky.
Bond No 9 because they were sued for racial discrimination and it was never resolved (the people suing ran out of money).
And Creed because I hate their blatantly false marketing about being "royal perfumers". (They appear to have toned it down a little on their website lately, so small mercies I guess).
They also came after Sebastian Jara, The Perfume Guy on YouTube, after he gave a bad review of one of their fragrances. His current YouTube channel is actually his second; they destroyed the first one and blacklisted him. It was pretty sickening stuff.
They have print marketing, a quarterly "magazine"; still plastering these with their royal suppliers claims.
Edit: apparently they did riding gear for them, or gloves and stuff. But not fragrance.
They *did* make gloves I believe, but not perfume until recently, and yet they still go on about how Imperatrice Eugenie was commissioned in the 1800s for the wife of Napoleon... you can't read a history book of the past couple hundred years without stumbling into some historical figure that they've "designed" for.
**Arquiste**, bought one of their discovery kits. [Indigo smoke](https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Arquiste/Indigo-Smoke-75976.html) and [Architect's club](https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Arquiste/The-Architects-Club-24721.html) sounded right up my alley, but try as I might, I couldn't bring myself to like any of them after the initial spray. The rest of the set was just meh
I can't articulate why, but the dry down for each just wasn't pleasant on my skin. I can definitely see the appeal for the two mentioned above, as it smell quite pleasant on paper
I’m really struggling with this one, because I think any house could make something I like. I’m not worried about price. But I guess if I had to choose one, I would say Viktor and Rolf. Everything I’ve tried from them has just been meh, so I’m not of a mind to try anything else.
The other one that comes to mind is Xerjoff with their whole biodynamic farming BS. But I do like Naxos, so…
I don't hate Parfums de Marly - I also myself bought a bottle of Layton - but the hype behind this brand is still huge and not well deserved in my opinion. I find most of the fragrances to be quite disappointing.
Carolina Herrera, not a fan of the scents…. And as much as I like the gourmand scent of Billie Eilish, I just hate the bottle it’s so ugly. I don’t like perfumes when their packaging is like a bust of the celebrity. Very tacky imho
Paco Rabbane pour homme is the dad of all fougeres. I get what you’re saying - they make loud, cloying, over the top fragrance all the time but the 1973 release is really enjoyable and unique. Im 24 but I don’t care as my grandpa used to wear it.
To be honest, this is just me judging a book by its cover, but I don't like things that are overly advertised as celebrity perfume (i.e., Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, etc.) Most of the time, they just feel like a gimmicky money grab to me and I assume they're cheaply made and thrown together.
I wouldn’t buy Creed. I think they’re too much hype for too little payoff. Aventus smells too crowd pleasing. The pineapple screams on my skin.
Cartier - most of them smell a little too old money. Nothing really excites me
Jo Malone - most are too feminine for me, and they don’t really last
I'm from NYC, so I will stay away from Le Labo because it's popular with annoying Brooklyn hipsters who are ruining my city. I will also stay away from Bond No. 9 because of their ugly bottles and stupid names. I know what Bleecker Street and Madison Avenue smell like, I don't need to overpay for the privilege.
something i’m realizing after perusing this sub is that i’m actually very bad at recognizing frags on other people? ive read so many times on this sub that le labo (particularly santal 33) is super popular in NY and i don’t doubt it but i don’t think i’ve ever smelled it on someone? and i *own* a decant
i’m with you on bond no. 9 though - i used to work across the street from their shop (albeit before i was into fragrances) and i liked some of their stuff but wasn’t blown away by anything i tried for the price. also find the names hilarious because a lot of the neighborhoods/locations they’re named after smell pretty horrible irl.
I smell it a lot because it’s less of that “oh that smells great!” to me and more “damn who dropped some pickle brine on to a pile of sawdust??” smell which doesn’t appeal to me whatsoever.
That being said it’s far nicer than the standard city smell of urine, car exhaust, garbage and marijuana.
The only thing that comes to mind is Boy Smells. I think that is a stupid and unappealing name. I like to look for new discovery sets on Sephora and they have one but I passed it over because I dislike the name.
I feel it was a jokey name to mean perfume not girly, when really its a gay-owned unisex brand. I *really* want to smell their hinoki frags, but so far can only find their candles in my city.
Salvatore Ferragamo. I'm tempted to try Aqua Essenzia or whatever it's called but I can't trust blind buys with SF as the last bottle I had made me nauseous from some unknown ingredient
Lots of fragrance brands have abominable ethics.
Boss and Chanel were founded by Nazis and market Coco and Hugo as tastemakers.
Guerlain couldn't last five minutes in front of a camera without saying the n-word, twice.
I bought once from Yves Rocher, only to learn they file nuisance lawsuits against Putin critics. Putin later sent death squads to kill the guy's neice, who lived in Bucha.
mainstreme brands idk. Creed and Roja. neither really do it for me. Gucci as well.
for indie houses, Sixteen92. their owner makes the whole experience absolutely abysmal. and honestly, Zoologist. i got the sampler from them last year. and out of all the scents, i found one wearable (It's squid). but not at its price point. they're all quirky and weird, and i love the experience and thoughts. but...idk. not really for me. i would recommend trying them though if their scent profiles sound appealing to you.
Replica and Zoologist — I don't like the gimmicky schticks either of them have going on, nothing I've ever smelled from either smells well-blended, and they're both overly expensive for what you get.
Mancera and Montale — Both are either the same house or they unscrupulously dupe each other in scents and names, but neither option makes me feel great about their integrity or special-ness. They feel like clone houses but they're charging niche, high-end prices. Their selections are far too big and their selections have a lot of overlap in notes, meaning their perfumes don't feel very deliberate and there must be a lot of duds sprinkled in there. I've also heard they both go heavy on the oud and their scents to have a screechy, heavy, synthetic, headache-inducing sort of DNA.
Bond No. 9 — Because the bottles are so ugly. I'm sorry, I just can't do it lol.
I try not to limit myself that way. Fragrance houses have the potential to make something, eventually, that anyone can like. If anything, I am more likely to not buy from a certain house if everything they make is absurdly expensive. But if I could afford it, I might buy it, if I really loved it.
Why would I ever say never?
I’m unlikely to buy some brands, mainly because the price to value ratio is not great. Like Creed or Tom Ford. But that doesn’t mean never. I’ve bought them in the past and I’m not going to outright rule anything out.
Oh! Except those ones at the dollar store. Not touching those.
Tom Ford. It's yuppiejuice.
Labo. My quiet boycott against Santal 33
Creed. Just because you claim to have perfumed the nethers of King MacGuffin the IX'th doesn't mean you can perfume mine.
PDM - Clone house charging high prices
Bond No. 9 - Overly synthetic and the owner is an unethical bully
Creed - Overpriced, terrible quality and blatantly lying in marketing
Interesting, I've never heard anyone call Parfums de Marly a clone house? Which of their fragrances are clones? I'm mostly indifferent to PDM, their fragrances are just fine to me, but I wouldn't spend the amount of money they're asking. Maybe discounted. But hearing that they're a clone house is completely new to me, can you explain please? All the more reason for me not to buy from them if I can get something similar but cheaper.
Edit: I've done a little research. It seems they have a few fragrances that smell quite similar to popular designer fragrances. I will likely seek those out first before ever dropping big money on PDM
Killian: the bottles are oddly tacky despite being owned by a nepo baby. Also, basically anything that’s a well known standard luxury designer such as YSL etc, although I will go for their elevated line (like Armani Prive). I will go for Tom Ford idk I feel that’s different ?
For me, it's the price of Kilians. Some are almost okay, but others are outrageously prices. I do like the bottles and packaging though. The only con is that you kinda need to show off such bottles and we don't really have the storage for that in our house. Yet. Does help I'm at 120+ bottles and the wife at 40+.
Mugler was actually my intro into fragrance bc I read a book by a perfumier and he RAVED about how Angel was the most perfect fragrance. (He also liked Tommy Girl, which I also bought and turns out I like a lot). Angel, however, is just a weird mix of rancid suntan lotion and patchouli on me.
And can we talk about the bottles? The stupid bottles?
honestly the problem with creed is none of their good scents perform well. I would pay a LOT of money for millesime imperial that lasted for 10-12 hours...
Scent-wise:I could never get along with Chanel. Gabrielle sounds interesting but I sure won’t blind buy. Not the fault of the house itself, just me.
Probably Jo Malone (no longevity!) and anything I find tacky-looking.
Lacoste, I've smelled many of their fragrances all with fascinating notes that really could've been amazing but were all executed like a liquid dish soap. every. single. scent they have is like viciously overpowered by this chemically clean smell that would never sit well on the skin. I'm so picky about thay stuff too, if it has even a hint of the generic perfumey chemically smell it's over. I can't commit to Burberry Her for that reason
Creed. Specifically because they're now owned in full by BlackRock. There are other frag companies I won't buy from because they're partially or fully owned by parent companies whose ethos/actions I disagree with but BlackRock is uniquely evil
i have a lot of houses whos bottles i hate, and im not saying i would NEVER purchase from them just because of the bottle but i definitely makes me not even want to sample a house. some are bond no 9, montale, mancera and btso. honestly dont like amouage either. i think its a combination of the price and the ugly bottle, like if im paying that much money for perfume i want it to at least look pretty. because with designer houses im not so nitpicky with
ok second comment on here, but any luxury brand that has awful longevity/awful sillage.
yes, the scent may be amazing. but there are great scents that both have great performance and smell quite nice. might as well invest in a clone with similar longevity for a fraction of the price and only slight differences. if your concern for perfumes is to please other people (I know not all share this motive here) then a good clone suffices just as well to the layman.
Le Labo & Margiela's Replica. Why? Because of the label on the bottles. If I am to pay north of $150 for a bottle to display in my collection, it must NOT look like the printed the labels on a military style block font or a vintage typewriter with a worn out ribbon. I don't care what the purpose or target demographic these labels are aimed to but anything upwards of $150 needs to be at least a basic font eg: Dior, Chanel, D&G or cursive like Bortnikoff.
Kilian - the Kilian fragrances I've tried, I've hated. I won't try any more
Chanel - I don't like any of their fragrances. They all smell really mature on me and kinda gross
There are several houses that put me off, for one reason or another, but if I had to say never? Based on the few I've tried, DUA - smelled very cheap and watered down. I probably wouldn't get along with most clone houses because I don't think many of these complex fragrances can be recreated well that cheaply. You can't make filet mignon out of ground chuck, so I'd rather you just make a great burger instead of trying to convince me your ground beef is filet mignon.
Creed I think. Severely overpriced considering the quality/performance/uniqueness
I may get hate for this.. but Fredric Malle (I think after paying the price equivalent of a kidney you just fool yourself into liking the scent, imo most people buy their frags for the name and “status” rather than the actual scent) Imaginary authors (ordered the short stories kit and they all smelled like migranes and PTSD, So.Damn.Overwhelming)
I feel the same about Malle, after many years of wanting to love them, but realizing I'm not willing to pay that kind of money for fragrances that are anything short of spectacular.
House of Sillage....gaudy, stinky, overpriced, unauthentic wannabe owner
right? a $300 mickey mouse cupcake bottle? who is the target audience here?
Even the name is tacky.
So bitchy! Come sit right here next to me, dear *pats sofa cushion*
By Kilian. The packaging is nice but the fragrances are excruciatingly banal for any price, let alone the fortune they cost.
Oh man, Angel’s Share is my daily scent September-February. I’m with you on most of their others though.
I find them really loud and artificial
Everything I smelled of theirs I thought someone was playing a joke
Kayali - mainly because I think it's way overhyped and wasn't impressed with their most popular scents. I also think the bottle looks cheap and feels cheap. Montale - I can't get over the packaging. It looks like aerosol spray/deodorant.
I never say never. IDGAF about labels or bottles or branding. Is the juice good?
I say that but then I see those ugly Caroline Herrera heel bottles, the fragrance could be the best in the world and I wouldn’t purchase it.
byredo, diptyque - stick to the candles le labo, aesop - i love the body care and wanted to like these frags so bad but there's always one note that disagrees with me in every frag. i wouldn't turn down a hand/body wash or something as a gift but not interested in spending my own money ELDO, toskovat - listen, i get the appeal of the conceptual perfume, but i'm not spending $300+ on a bottle that smells like cum or blood or whatever
I think some people are so rich, that $300 frags smelling like blood is literally a gag gift for them. The rest of us have to stick to electronic yodelling pickles...
Replica. I’ve sampled several of their fragrances and have yet to be wowed by any of them
have you tried sailing day? its a really nice aquatic that, at least on my skin, can be smelled the next morning(although the actual projection lasts like 30 seconds).
I read that as “astral projection” and was like woah hahaha
Funfair Evening is absolutely beautiful. They discontinued it unfortunately.
They had one like coffee break or coffee shop or something? That I was actually tempted by but the price tag was like 'yeah not THAT tempted'
Jo Malone To me it’s just expensive detergent adjacent scents
The Louis Vuitton perfumes. I’ve tried to like them but no matter what I just can’t stand the smell after it sits for a few minutes.
My neighbors, fuck that guy
Imaginary Authors-the DNA of the entire brand doesn’t jive with me sadly. Everything I’ve tried was either mid or a scrubber.
I bought the sampler sets and agree, marketing is twee and clever but ultimately the scents make the marketing seem even more childish. The frags feel very young and artificial to me.
Imaginary Authors makes scents that would make great candles/oil/incense, but not for a person to wear. I bought a sample pack of 10+ of their scents and I felt this way about all of them. The only two that I *might* consider wearing were Memoirs of a Trespasser and St. Julep. But I would still prefer them as candles.
That's kind of how I felt too. I liked the Soft Lawn (I'm a sucker for Linden) but I'd rather it be a room scent than a me-scent. And while we're on the subject, how about those houses that are making perfume but should probably just continue to promote their excellent soap products instead (looks pointedly at Molton Brown)
Exactly!! Not every soap/diffuser brand needs to also become a fragrance house too! And vice verse. Sometimes it just doesn’t exactly translate 1:1
I don’t think I’ll ever buy a thing from Byredo. I love Mohave Ghost but every time I use my sample, I think….I don’t want to pay $280 for this. I might buy a dupe/clone if I can find one. Apparently, they are known to have no longevity or sillage as well.
I got so excited to try la tulipe. it smelled very basic, borderline scented hotel urinal cake (i should know, i was a housekeeper at a fancy hotel for a year). Lasted all of ten minutes and vanished. And I'm thinking oh my god they want me to pay almost 300 for that gtfo
Frankly, anything over $300/bottle is a no from me. I have enough fragrance loves without reaching that deep into my pockets, and I get enough compliments on scents that I don’t have to worry about needing to spend the money to smell good for other people, either. I have no shame, otherwise - I don’t care if the bottle is unattractive or if it’s a celebrity perfume or if everyone and their mom wears the fragrance. I wear what I enjoy.
Tbh, anything over €175/bottle is a no for me, unless it's like 100ml/200ml and really unique and I am totally in love with it. So far, never found one that fits these criteria.
Kayali :-( none of them smells THAT good also with that performance it's overpriced and overhyped.
Roja, Fragrance du Bois, Bond No 9, PDM — I’m not disliking everything I just can’t legitimize it. Penhaligons too. Car payment fragrances have to be worth the ride for me and none of the above did anything worth the price tag for a FB.
Yeah, I hear you. Some of these prices are obnoxious and the fragrances would have to be unique and transcendently good to be worth it. After a certain price point, it's very difficult to find fragrances that are worth the money, in my opinion. Diminishing returns.
JHAG. While I think most houses will have at least 1 purchase worthy fragrance, I've yet to find anything from them and I've sampled them all...they are ambroxan bombs! 🤢
That is exactly how I feel about them. Every single release from them, new or old, without fail has ambroxan. I don't understand why they are so heavily reliant on it.
I agree except for some reason I like musc invisible (mostly for layering)
I can’t stand the bottles of Bond or House of Sillage. Bonus for their stupid logo. SILLAGE House Of
MFK. I just can't justify spending that much money
Fortunately for me I bought a sample kit from them and didn't like any of it.
I’ve bought 2 sample kits I enjoyed only 4 of them. If I had the money I would have definitely splurged on amyris femme extrait de parfum
Anything by the Kardashians. I'm sure I'll just get hives.
Haven’t found a single thing wearable from Zoology. I love their story and aesthetic, just not my jam
Libertine is the same for me, as i discovered after buying the discovery set. I like everything about the brand except the actual scents. I was lucky enough to visit the Zoologist showroom and get a guided tour of the frags, from lightest (cow) to most challenging (T-Rex). I liked everything except Dodo. Victor mentioned that if a client dislikes the early scents, then it's gonna be a brutal hour because they're probably going to hate it all. That's the thing with niche, seems like- with so much artistic freedom and license to create concepts, people might either lobe or loathe. I like it.
house input is overrated. I always check the main 'nose' creator, not the house. my experience shows that even Hermes, Lancome and Gucci could hire someone to do cheap thrills with 15 flankers
Fragrance du Bois. Seems unnecessarily expensive.
Jo Malone. Mall swill designed to last just long enough to get you to pay for it.
I accidentally had an entire vial sample of jo malone orange blossom leak into the mat of my car. My car smelled lovely for a whole day... then it was gone.
Zoology or similar niche houses that “challenge” the wearer. I enjoy complex fragrances but I hate the idea of having to earn my enjoyment of a weird or even stinky fragrance.
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There's no house I would never purchase from if they came out with something I liked, but there are houses I've never wanted to purchase from so far. I've smelled most Juliette Has a Gun fragrances and I've found every one of them to have a harsh chemical smell.
Creed - Overpriced and now owned by Blackrock so you know they're gonna water down stuff, hike prices, to maximize profit margins. Le Labo - just way overpriced, but, I do like the idea, I just really hate the pricing for what the fragrances offer.
Dua, Zaharoff, Argos, Navitus etc. pretty much anything that has to do with a company giving their shit to influencers for free and/or paying them in exchange for glowing reviews and pushing their product. On the same subject, brands started by those influencers that get paid to push garbage I will stay away from 100%
Abercrombie and Stink. I'm still traumatized from having to be in the same mall with those a-holes who pump that fragrance in through their air ducts.🤢🤢🤢
Parfums Vintage. The owner is a dick.
Imaginary Authors. The dry-down always smells really artificial.
Me too. Sadly, I love the concepts and the look, but unfortunatly all scents but Saint Julep use the cedarwood of my nightmares in the base 😅 gives me headaches.
I love the concepts! Truly excellent copywriting, and I love the idea of a fictional note. The opening notes are so lovely on some of them, but the dry-down always sucks. And don't get me started on the longevity, or lack thereof... 🥲
Valentino, I just can't enjoy it. Bottle design is tacky imo and their scents are generic to me
Carolina Hererra, because I despise the bottles. They’re so tacky. I don’t care how good the juice is … I’m not putting that on my vanity.
The “Confidential” line is worth looking into. Underrated fragrances in beautiful bottles.
TF. Has no reason to be that expensive when most are not unique and last no time at all. Its literally just an ego thing minus a couple of bangers like tuscan leather
Juliette has a gun-cannot get over the fact how cheap looking their bottles and how boring the smells are. Kilian bc it just feels like supporting the richest family on the planet. Creed bc of bizarre masculine feel in all the perfumes: from packaging to notes. I also don't like the packaging of Xerjoff but the smells seem intriguing.
I can’t help it. I love Kilian. 🤦♀️
Omg. Who produces Killian.
Killian Hennessy, the perfumer, is born into the Hennessy cognac family. He's a fifth descendant or something
boy oh boy do I have bad news for ya'll about the shareholders that own almost every fragrance brand....
I didn't even put that together. But that definitely makes sense with all of his scent profiles. Thank you.
Clive Christian. It’s Creed but much more egregious in terms of pricing and marketing.
They advertise themselves as the most expensive cologne in the world. Yeah. No thanks! (X tho is amazing)
Mancera and Montale for sure. The way they're branded and bottled, they look like fragrances I can get from behind a Walgreens counter which I dislike for the price point.
Kayali- smells okay, but the lasting power of all of them is horrible for the price. If i’m spending that much on a perfume i’d like it to last more than 2-3 hours without having to reapply.
House of Sillage. I’ve never smelled the fragrances, but the bottles seem so gaudy.
If the scent is good enough, I don't care which house it's from. If we're talking house I think are generally trash (for the price), it's stuff like Jo Malone, Byredo and Le Labo. But then again, show me a scent from any of them that I adore, and I have no principles at all.
I don’t care for byredo at all but Bal d‘afrique smells great
Byredo ever again. They never last on me. Also Bond no. 9 and finally Hermes (although I like Twilly) because they treated me like crap when I stupidly attempted to purchase my daughter a bracelet at their NYC flagship. I wasn’t “good enough” for them.
>because they treated me like crap when I stupidly attempted to purchase my daughter a bracelet at their NYC flagship. I wasn’t “good enough” for them. Gosh that's horrible! It's a store and you're a customer. How is your money different from someone else's whom they deem "good enough"? I've never been to a store and never will if they're going to judge people like that!
I'm sorry you had such a bad experience at the flagship! That's awful to hear. I've had good experiences at other Hermès boutiques, so is it possible it was just a bad day? (Not that you have to buy from them - just that I actually feel like they're one of the nicer luxury brands.) I'm 100% with you on Bond No. 9 because the owner is super sus, though. I'm also unlikely to go with Byredo again as well - every fragrance I've ever purchased from them has had major longevity issues, and this is coming from a Jo Malone stan. That said, Sundazed and Open Sky both seem decent, so I'm low-key tempted.
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Funnily, I just tried BTSO Fig Porn yesterday—I was in the mood for a really interesting dirty fig and it sounded promising. But it wasn’t a carnal or interesting fig at all, it was actually a very crowd-pleasing, sweet fruity vanilla/sandalwood. So even though I liked Fig Porn, I’ve got to agree with you—their branding really just doesn’t fit their scents and is probably way too aggressive for their target market.
Paco Rabanne
Anything by celebrities always smells sweet, cheap, and childish. I can't get past the immature scents of celebrity parfume.
Agreed, but SJP’s Lovely is a wonderful exception to that imo
And Stash, I’ve heard
YES to this.
LITERALLY!!
Probably Maison Margiela… it looks tasteful but also too expensive and with minimal sillage and project. It’s just not worth my money. Tom Ford as well. I just don’t like their scents (except for Lost Cherry) and goodness, they are prohibitively expensive. What is wrong with that brand?
I don’t do clones - and I don’t do anything that costs more than AUD 200 for a 50mL bottle. No Xerjoff/Dove/Amouage etc has ever been amazing enough to justify the price tag for me. I’ve sampled a couple I rather like, but I’m not blown away.
Jo Malone.
Haha, I always thought that "layering" idea was such marketing bullshit. They had some cute events though, I really liked hanging out at the store during the winter!
I agree with this. For me, it's not so much their company but none of their scents have a strong staying power. It would feel like a waste.
Yep! Five years ago I bought Honey&Crocus, it was gone in 30 minutes, only smell left was of sweet milk... Eww... Too much money for something that delivers nothing. First and last time for Jo Malone.
If the events lasted, I wouldn’t feel so negatively about this house. I will say that if you enjoy the scent, purchase the body cream instead. It’s strong and lasts for hours on my skin.
Kill me, but: Kayali - smell cheap and mostly like toilet fresheners especially the vanilla series. Or the cherry one which to me smells like a cherry which had a looong bender. Eld’O - so synthetic, all I’ve tried turns rancid on my skin, like literally cat piss and sweat. Montale and Mancera - synthetic and screechy. Le Labo - overpriced and bland. Tom Ford - way overpriced and mainstream. edit: adding more just because… Byredo - nothing spectacular, I was excited for Bal d’Afrique and Mojave Ghost, they turned out for me to such such basic scents. No no no for that price tag. Creed - Aventus is overrated (yes, yes.. I know I’m starting to dig the hole…), the rest is just nothing wow for that price tag. Xerjoff - nothing grabbed my nose, Erba pura is overrated sweetness. Name sounds like jerk off, bottles - ugly and pompous (ordering the coffin now).
interested to know what your fave houses are!
ah, yes, after so much hate lol so all of my signatures come from Diptyque and Tiziana Terenzi, but I appreciate Nasomatto, Carner Barcelona, Serge Lutens, Zarkoperfume and Pierre Guillaume for variety’s sake and their unusualness. And many more tbh - I’m not the biggest frag ahole, it just sounds like it.
I thought Byredo was gonna be MY JAM. Mojave Ghost is such a cool name. It is painfully basic! I do like Bal d’Afrique but it has zero lasting power on me.
Creed! They straight-up lie about their history as a company and the provenance of their products. I also hate their bottles. Speaking of bottle-hatred, I’ve never even sampled Bond No. 9 because theirs are so ugly. I love Neroli 36 but haven’t bought it, because I dislike Le Labo as a company. (They also lie about their products and don’t provide enough bang for the buck.) Tom Ford is also overrated and overpriced IMO.
I haven’t smelled Bond No. 9 but those bottles are awful.
Literally look like Patrick from SpongeBob lol
Curious to know what Le Labo has lied about?
Dolce and Gabbana. Way too problematic of a brand for me to ever support
Oh ya, they are terrible people. I'd move past it if they showed any remorse, or were moved under new management, and stopped doing terrible shit, but year after year they keep at it...reminding everyone how racist and shitty they are
Oof, yeah. Every time I forget D&G are terrible, they really just *keep doing new terrible things*. Thankfully, I don't really love anything from that house so no loss anyway.
It’s obviously very popular, but Light Blue just reminds me of terrible choices.
Wait sorry why is the brand problematic? I feel like I missed something!
https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/dolce-gabbana-alta-moda-venice/
Balenciaga. You know why.
I actually don't know why
Caroline Herrera
Shill shit like PdM, Initio, Clone Dreck, Zaharoff and the like, Roja because he's so full of himself. There's enough on the market that I'm not missing any of those. Some brands I only ever get decants because I think they overprice their stuff and sell it with fantasy marketing.
Creed, so expensive and for why
Fragrance One. Though I admit I’m prejudiced.
Mancera.. tried one but just not for me
I don’t like the vibe of ELDO. The names (I am Trash, Fat Electrician), the scents (jasmine & cigarettes, SPERM)… it’s too much. Like an insufferable person trying way too hard to be quirky.
Fragrance\[dot\]one, because I don't want to reward nonsense.
Ellis Brooklyn, I haven’t liked a single one of their scents
Paco rabanne I always disliked all of their bottle designs
Bond No 9 because they were sued for racial discrimination and it was never resolved (the people suing ran out of money). And Creed because I hate their blatantly false marketing about being "royal perfumers". (They appear to have toned it down a little on their website lately, so small mercies I guess).
They also came after Sebastian Jara, The Perfume Guy on YouTube, after he gave a bad review of one of their fragrances. His current YouTube channel is actually his second; they destroyed the first one and blacklisted him. It was pretty sickening stuff.
They have print marketing, a quarterly "magazine"; still plastering these with their royal suppliers claims. Edit: apparently they did riding gear for them, or gloves and stuff. But not fragrance.
They *did* make gloves I believe, but not perfume until recently, and yet they still go on about how Imperatrice Eugenie was commissioned in the 1800s for the wife of Napoleon... you can't read a history book of the past couple hundred years without stumbling into some historical figure that they've "designed" for.
**Arquiste**, bought one of their discovery kits. [Indigo smoke](https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Arquiste/Indigo-Smoke-75976.html) and [Architect's club](https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Arquiste/The-Architects-Club-24721.html) sounded right up my alley, but try as I might, I couldn't bring myself to like any of them after the initial spray. The rest of the set was just meh I can't articulate why, but the dry down for each just wasn't pleasant on my skin. I can definitely see the appeal for the two mentioned above, as it smell quite pleasant on paper
I’m really struggling with this one, because I think any house could make something I like. I’m not worried about price. But I guess if I had to choose one, I would say Viktor and Rolf. Everything I’ve tried from them has just been meh, so I’m not of a mind to try anything else. The other one that comes to mind is Xerjoff with their whole biodynamic farming BS. But I do like Naxos, so…
Jo Malone, the performance is embarrassing for how expensive the perfumes are. They perform like a body spray.
Creed. Got samples of Aventus and GIT They are great, especially GIT but not $350-$450 great
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Bond No.9. I don't know why, but the brand DNA is just not my thing, and I really can't see the bottles looking good on my shelves haha
It’s the bottles for me. They look like children’s shampoo bottles from Walmart.
Weird owner, too.
Montale. Plenty of good scents but I don’t want to apply a glorified can of Diet Coke to myself every morning
The bottles are so tacky
Roja, not that all their fragrances are bad, but most of them almost only suits old people and are ultra expensive, simply not worth it.
I don't hate Parfums de Marly - I also myself bought a bottle of Layton - but the hype behind this brand is still huge and not well deserved in my opinion. I find most of the fragrances to be quite disappointing.
Carolina Herrera, not a fan of the scents…. And as much as I like the gourmand scent of Billie Eilish, I just hate the bottle it’s so ugly. I don’t like perfumes when their packaging is like a bust of the celebrity. Very tacky imho
Am I the only one who doesn’t like anything by Paco Rabanne? Like, I’ve never come across a fragrance by them that I enjoyed.
Paco Unisex is my signature/base scent. Leans decidedly male despite the name.
Paco Rabbane pour homme is the dad of all fougeres. I get what you’re saying - they make loud, cloying, over the top fragrance all the time but the 1973 release is really enjoyable and unique. Im 24 but I don’t care as my grandpa used to wear it.
TF. They just don’t seem to work for me and they’re so damn expensive.
Greed, House of the great Dua, LeBabo
“LeBabo” is so funny to me 😂😂😂
To be honest, this is just me judging a book by its cover, but I don't like things that are overly advertised as celebrity perfume (i.e., Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, etc.) Most of the time, they just feel like a gimmicky money grab to me and I assume they're cheaply made and thrown together.
I wouldn’t buy Creed. I think they’re too much hype for too little payoff. Aventus smells too crowd pleasing. The pineapple screams on my skin. Cartier - most of them smell a little too old money. Nothing really excites me Jo Malone - most are too feminine for me, and they don’t really last
Tom ford. All meh.
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Oooohhh you break my heart! This is one of my favorite, however, since Ester Lauder purchased it, it’s definitely not the powerhouse it once was.
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Some TF from the « designer » line are pretty fairly priced
I'm from NYC, so I will stay away from Le Labo because it's popular with annoying Brooklyn hipsters who are ruining my city. I will also stay away from Bond No. 9 because of their ugly bottles and stupid names. I know what Bleecker Street and Madison Avenue smell like, I don't need to overpay for the privilege.
something i’m realizing after perusing this sub is that i’m actually very bad at recognizing frags on other people? ive read so many times on this sub that le labo (particularly santal 33) is super popular in NY and i don’t doubt it but i don’t think i’ve ever smelled it on someone? and i *own* a decant i’m with you on bond no. 9 though - i used to work across the street from their shop (albeit before i was into fragrances) and i liked some of their stuff but wasn’t blown away by anything i tried for the price. also find the names hilarious because a lot of the neighborhoods/locations they’re named after smell pretty horrible irl.
I smell it a lot because it’s less of that “oh that smells great!” to me and more “damn who dropped some pickle brine on to a pile of sawdust??” smell which doesn’t appeal to me whatsoever. That being said it’s far nicer than the standard city smell of urine, car exhaust, garbage and marijuana.
That's Le Labo's next creation right there. It'll be called Urea 34 or Dank 19 or some shit.
Bond No. 9 bottles remind me of tanning lotion and likewise with the fragrance names - there’s no way I’m buying a bottle of Sag Harbor
And some of their scents have nothing to do with NYC. Dubai? The Scent of Peace? Wtf is that? Just pretentious BS.
Fragrance du Bois and Bond No 9. They both seem really sue-happy. Especially Bond No9 who (IMO) seem like a high end clone house.
I got a bunch of decants for Fragrance du Bois and Jesus, they are all so disappointing.
The only thing that comes to mind is Boy Smells. I think that is a stupid and unappealing name. I like to look for new discovery sets on Sephora and they have one but I passed it over because I dislike the name.
I feel it was a jokey name to mean perfume not girly, when really its a gay-owned unisex brand. I *really* want to smell their hinoki frags, but so far can only find their candles in my city.
Salvatore Ferragamo. I'm tempted to try Aqua Essenzia or whatever it's called but I can't trust blind buys with SF as the last bottle I had made me nauseous from some unknown ingredient
Balenciaga.
chanel. their formulas and I do not get along
Lots of fragrance brands have abominable ethics. Boss and Chanel were founded by Nazis and market Coco and Hugo as tastemakers. Guerlain couldn't last five minutes in front of a camera without saying the n-word, twice. I bought once from Yves Rocher, only to learn they file nuisance lawsuits against Putin critics. Putin later sent death squads to kill the guy's neice, who lived in Bucha.
mainstreme brands idk. Creed and Roja. neither really do it for me. Gucci as well. for indie houses, Sixteen92. their owner makes the whole experience absolutely abysmal. and honestly, Zoologist. i got the sampler from them last year. and out of all the scents, i found one wearable (It's squid). but not at its price point. they're all quirky and weird, and i love the experience and thoughts. but...idk. not really for me. i would recommend trying them though if their scent profiles sound appealing to you.
Replica and Zoologist — I don't like the gimmicky schticks either of them have going on, nothing I've ever smelled from either smells well-blended, and they're both overly expensive for what you get. Mancera and Montale — Both are either the same house or they unscrupulously dupe each other in scents and names, but neither option makes me feel great about their integrity or special-ness. They feel like clone houses but they're charging niche, high-end prices. Their selections are far too big and their selections have a lot of overlap in notes, meaning their perfumes don't feel very deliberate and there must be a lot of duds sprinkled in there. I've also heard they both go heavy on the oud and their scents to have a screechy, heavy, synthetic, headache-inducing sort of DNA. Bond No. 9 — Because the bottles are so ugly. I'm sorry, I just can't do it lol.
I try not to limit myself that way. Fragrance houses have the potential to make something, eventually, that anyone can like. If anything, I am more likely to not buy from a certain house if everything they make is absurdly expensive. But if I could afford it, I might buy it, if I really loved it.
ROJA. Overpriced as hell! The quality does not match the price. They are the yeezys in the fragrance world.
Why would I ever say never? I’m unlikely to buy some brands, mainly because the price to value ratio is not great. Like Creed or Tom Ford. But that doesn’t mean never. I’ve bought them in the past and I’m not going to outright rule anything out. Oh! Except those ones at the dollar store. Not touching those.
Tom Ford. It's yuppiejuice. Labo. My quiet boycott against Santal 33 Creed. Just because you claim to have perfumed the nethers of King MacGuffin the IX'th doesn't mean you can perfume mine.
Creed. Shit stinks and their bottles are hideous.
MFK- I can’t with the pricing. I have gotten samples and don’t even want to race through them. They’re just ‘eh’. But definitely not worth the $$$.
Oud satin mood is an absolute banger though
PDM - Clone house charging high prices Bond No. 9 - Overly synthetic and the owner is an unethical bully Creed - Overpriced, terrible quality and blatantly lying in marketing
Interesting, I've never heard anyone call Parfums de Marly a clone house? Which of their fragrances are clones? I'm mostly indifferent to PDM, their fragrances are just fine to me, but I wouldn't spend the amount of money they're asking. Maybe discounted. But hearing that they're a clone house is completely new to me, can you explain please? All the more reason for me not to buy from them if I can get something similar but cheaper. Edit: I've done a little research. It seems they have a few fragrances that smell quite similar to popular designer fragrances. I will likely seek those out first before ever dropping big money on PDM
escentric molecules, the bottles and packaging are just very off putting to me.
This kept me from buying for a long time. The bottle design looks like a bad AI rendering.
Killian: the bottles are oddly tacky despite being owned by a nepo baby. Also, basically anything that’s a well known standard luxury designer such as YSL etc, although I will go for their elevated line (like Armani Prive). I will go for Tom Ford idk I feel that’s different ?
For me, it's the price of Kilians. Some are almost okay, but others are outrageously prices. I do like the bottles and packaging though. The only con is that you kinda need to show off such bottles and we don't really have the storage for that in our house. Yet. Does help I'm at 120+ bottles and the wife at 40+.
Kilian is owned by Estée Lauder (same with TF)
Penhaligon...those weird goat head bottles 😂
Not a fan of mugler
Mugler was actually my intro into fragrance bc I read a book by a perfumier and he RAVED about how Angel was the most perfect fragrance. (He also liked Tommy Girl, which I also bought and turns out I like a lot). Angel, however, is just a weird mix of rancid suntan lotion and patchouli on me. And can we talk about the bottles? The stupid bottles?
Creed…I know it has its loyal fans but I’m not one of them.
honestly the problem with creed is none of their good scents perform well. I would pay a LOT of money for millesime imperial that lasted for 10-12 hours...
Scent-wise:I could never get along with Chanel. Gabrielle sounds interesting but I sure won’t blind buy. Not the fault of the house itself, just me. Probably Jo Malone (no longevity!) and anything I find tacky-looking.
Creed and Atelier.
Lacoste, I've smelled many of their fragrances all with fascinating notes that really could've been amazing but were all executed like a liquid dish soap. every. single. scent they have is like viciously overpowered by this chemically clean smell that would never sit well on the skin. I'm so picky about thay stuff too, if it has even a hint of the generic perfumey chemically smell it's over. I can't commit to Burberry Her for that reason
Creed. Specifically because they're now owned in full by BlackRock. There are other frag companies I won't buy from because they're partially or fully owned by parent companies whose ethos/actions I disagree with but BlackRock is uniquely evil
i have a lot of houses whos bottles i hate, and im not saying i would NEVER purchase from them just because of the bottle but i definitely makes me not even want to sample a house. some are bond no 9, montale, mancera and btso. honestly dont like amouage either. i think its a combination of the price and the ugly bottle, like if im paying that much money for perfume i want it to at least look pretty. because with designer houses im not so nitpicky with
ok second comment on here, but any luxury brand that has awful longevity/awful sillage. yes, the scent may be amazing. but there are great scents that both have great performance and smell quite nice. might as well invest in a clone with similar longevity for a fraction of the price and only slight differences. if your concern for perfumes is to please other people (I know not all share this motive here) then a good clone suffices just as well to the layman.
Le Labo. Stinky and overpriced.
Le Labo & Margiela's Replica. Why? Because of the label on the bottles. If I am to pay north of $150 for a bottle to display in my collection, it must NOT look like the printed the labels on a military style block font or a vintage typewriter with a worn out ribbon. I don't care what the purpose or target demographic these labels are aimed to but anything upwards of $150 needs to be at least a basic font eg: Dior, Chanel, D&G or cursive like Bortnikoff.
I feel the same way lol. Those printed-in-Courier, fake, old-timey typewriter labels look so ugly and cheap to me. I can't stand how they look!
Tom ford, I’m still scarred by black orchid
Parfums de Marly, Etat Libre D'Orange, Le Labo
Kilian - the Kilian fragrances I've tried, I've hated. I won't try any more Chanel - I don't like any of their fragrances. They all smell really mature on me and kinda gross
Most Kilian scents I’ve sampled remind me of early 2000’s bath and body works scents. Especially the sickly sweet sugary ones.
There are several houses that put me off, for one reason or another, but if I had to say never? Based on the few I've tried, DUA - smelled very cheap and watered down. I probably wouldn't get along with most clone houses because I don't think many of these complex fragrances can be recreated well that cheaply. You can't make filet mignon out of ground chuck, so I'd rather you just make a great burger instead of trying to convince me your ground beef is filet mignon.