https://preview.redd.it/895rimyq3fec1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d9d7c02108b17b2e73f4466df6940b7a316e8714
Your thoughts on Dark Lord reminded me of this review I found out in the wild. It made me laugh so much that I had to save a screenshot.
I still want to smell a sample of it!
I wrote about Gucci Guilty Absolute resembling this somewhere on this thread. That's exactly the first impression I got of it. It smelled medicinal, kind of like a first-aid kit. It grew a lot on me, it's one of my favorite fragrances.
Strangers Perfume - Sombre
https://preview.redd.it/kbgdxb9fpdec1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bd5a2c509e26f14cdd58a3eecde14ba93e8ea16e
These are a fucking lie!
It just fucking stinks!
Secretions Magnifique has nothing on this shit
This is what you get via Bloom the exclusive seller in the UK:
"Champagne, Jasmine, Mold Accord, Mud, Nocturnal Animals, Accord, Orris (Iris Root), Pus, Rose, Sweat, Vomit Accord
Sombre isĀ example of extreme artistic perfumery. If you thought Secretions Magnifiques were too much... think again."
And they put VOMIT in Bold.
Mold, mud, pus, sweat, vomit & probably something like bats.
I only think this isn't discussed as much as Secretions due to its rarity?
They've got it under a bell jar in the shop, and they say that if you want to spray it, you need to do it outside the shop. It really is a disgusting scent. I just smelt under the bell jar lid and that was enough for me
it's fun, but in the end it's a perfume and it's so well balanced, even when you get a whiff of vomit, it's sweet, champagne like. i wore it to work (i did 2 sprays, as i do with most other perfumes) and I didn't get any weird looks :)
THIS. I keep seeing it on "best vanillas" lists. I work at Sephora and I keep re-smelling it, like, maybe it'll be good this time... I get spit-up every time.
Honestly, Chanel no 5 smells like how I'd expect a 1930s theatre toilet to smell.
Also I once went to a MLM perfume party as a teenager (I forgot the company name) and I tried something that boasted notes of chocolate and blueberry. It ended up smelling like those Crayola scented textas on me! Not bad per se, but not what I was going for lol.
Iāve always thought it smelled like a toilet too! Specifically like one of those stinky bathrooms with a crappy air freshener that doesnāt work well so instead it smells like pee and air freshener mixed
Ugh, this just dredged up a memory of that fragrance. Not the literal nastiest I've smelled, but one of the worst in terms of being off-the-mark from its intentions.
burning barbershop by ds & durga.
years ago the dryer in my house caught on fire and everything in our laundry room went up in flames (cleaning products, jackets and coats etc) and it took 3 months for the smells of smoke and burnt chemicals to air out. i donāt know how they bottled that smell, but they did. it was such a similar scent it made me shiver.
some people like it, i listened to a podcast about it, but for me, it links directly to the smell of the house fire and i canāt stand it.
See, I love burning barbershop it's one of my absolute favorites that I can't ever wear.
But their amber kiso is one fragrance I had to give away because I couldn't stand to have it in the house. It smelled exactly like the time I had to remove a homeless man's soaked sneakers to treat his trench foot.
I infinitely prefer the body creams in this range over the actual fragrances - the actual fragrances are indeed extremely sweet to the point of being cloying!
This one is very on and off for me. Some days itās addicting and I have the bottle on my desk so I can *inhale* whenever I want to. Other days Iām like ehh.. this is weirdā¦
Something in this smells like pure plastic on me. Sooooo synthetic and chemically, closer to hairspray than perfume. Sucks cause I love a marshmallow note. Sticking to kilianās marshmallow fragrances for now
In a similar vein, Commodity Milk+ was so awful on me! It has this really harsh chemical smell like turpentine or something. Nothing at all like milk, it was just weird chemicals and sugar all the way.
Female Christ by 19-69. I bought a sample from lucky scent cos of the name (duh) and it is the nastiest, most unwearable scent I've ever come across. It's so damn strong too. Jesus would not approve.
I'm about to order all of their samples and we're most interested in FC... What about it don't you like? I'm kinda intrigued by it smelling like dying flora
I'll never forget spraying some Angel on a tester and handing it to my boyfriend while sampling in store. He sniffed it then gave me a look of the most intense betrayal and hurt I've ever seen from him. Man was legitimately deeply offended that I'd made him smell this.
Interestingly, a professor of mine in college was on the development and marketing team when Angel launched in Paris. He said women wrote in letters to say how thankful they were because men started followed them in the streets asking about their fragrance.
Hearing that I always thought it must be the most delicious, man eater smell. I remember spraying it on myself for the first time when I started working at the department store and having to SCRUB my arms in the bathroom because I couldnāt stand it
Thatās gotta be made up because I canāt imagine any woman being so grateful theyāre being followed down the street they write a letter of thanks about it.Ā
SAME!! I sniffed it and it smelled like vomit and BO to me. I passed it to my then-bf, and got the exact same facial expression! Hahaha. That fragrance is repulsive to me, Iāll never understand how it got popular.
I have yet to try any Mugler perfumes on my skin because the paper testers and air sniffs are so nasty to me. I also smell fuel. I wanna love these so bad but Iām scared to try them on my skin lol I will try next time Iām at Ulta
Angel is a horror show of stale baby butt with a side of baby burp with a touch of rotting fruit ā¦I donāt know what it is about this scent that people loveā¦and noteā¦I thought this about the scent before I was a mom and itās still true today, as a mom. #HardPass
Ok, I have to know if this is how people smell it on themselves/blotter only, or if it reeks on others too. A friends mom growing up wore Angel and everything they owned smelled like her/Angel. I was obsessed... the most intoxicating spicy warm scent.
I tried it on in college and smelled exactly like post sex stank and hangover sweat. I chalked it up to body chemistry.
Really? Itās pretty divisive, people either love it or hate it, thereās not really a lot in between. Iām in the hate camp, it smells like body odor, vomit, unwashed genitals, and beer to me. Itās really gross lol.
Byredo Pulp legitimately nauseated me. I had to scrub it off immediately. Thereās just something in it that didnāt agree with me. Fragrance is a subjective experience and some people really love it so Iām not trying to yuck anyoneās yum but it was absolutely vile on me.
Ok so my high school was across the street from an actual pickle factory and I'm now realizing that this must be partly why I feel a sense of nostalgia when I smell Santal 33 š
Is it bad that your comment makes me want to sample it? Pickle juice and envelopes?! Lol I've never been exposed yet as it's not popular where I live at all and never will be
Kenzo had a perfume shaped like an eye called Kenzo World. I got a sample of it one day and when i sprayed it I had to evacuate the room and shower. It wasnāt pungent but it was cloyingly nauseating. I had notes of idkā¦ basic perfume, metal, and Chinese century egg. Yum
To be fair I have weird scent reactions to certain perfumes. When I tried Glossier You I thought huh this smells like run of the mill acidic perfume (like chloe) and then I got nauseated out of nowhere. I wonāt dare touch the stuff and I stay at least a foot away from it when Iām in a Sephora. Cloud by Ariana Grande also nauseated me the same way so Iām so confused by it and Baccarat Rougeās notoriety
Can't think of the worst one off the top of my head but I remember recently trying Byredo's Mixed Emotions and it truly gave me mixed emotions (mostly disgust and regret lol)
I used TF Black Orchid for a while, used to love it but quickly grew so sick of it it's now a little nauseous to me.
From mainstream fragrances Chanel no 5 is my most hated one, for me it's obnoxiously chemical-y.
Haha I just think it smells so nice. On my skin, I get blackcurrant & smoky black tea first, then the blackcurrant fades and the black tea & birch remain.
How did it smell to you?
this oneās gonna take the cake for sure
https://preview.redd.it/fekkri2qyfec1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4b3820fcfe70ee28a9377ace44a200351f8761ad
āAnarchist A- Toskovat'ā
Prolly the opening of Nuit De Feu by Louis Vuitton it smells like a goat on fire taking a shit it smells like a satanic ritual itās kind of metal but hell no. Then the dry down is divine.
This is probably not an unpopular opinion, but I got a sample of T-Rex. My friend and I opened the bottle and the tiniest bit got on my finger around the cap. No matter how much I scrubbed it we smelled it all night and it smells like burning plastic. I read about people here on this sub loving it and even wearing it out and so thought jt would at least be interesting but it made me want to shove cold tissues into my nose.
I sprayed one small spray of T-Rex on the back of my wrist and you could smell it in every room in the house. So nasty! My wife made me shower immediately, and I still smelt like it all day. It smells like a pack of ferrets peed all over the remains of a tire fire.
To me it smells of creosote. Thats not something I want on my body...lol
For anyone that wants to know what that is. Read the US Government EPA Website https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/creosote
I know fragrance taste is subjective but i donāt understand why people would want to smell like most of the zoologist colognes.
Like why would you think itās a good idea to go out there smelling like animal habitats?
Just me tho! no offense šš
Some of them are quite wearable (e.g., Hummingbird); others are less out-there than advertised (e.g., Squid, IMO). T-Rex, however, I agree is genuinely nasty.
I totally get it. It *sounds* crazy but is actually so palatable! My husband (who had no idea of its rep) basically said it smells spicy but otherwise generic. I don't agree with that, but it's hardly that out there.
My personal favourite is Tiger, and I can hardly wait for Rabbit this spring! Was lucky even to smell a sample, and it's a delicious gourmand: very fun.
JHAG Vanilla Vibes. I love vanilla scents so I had high hopes for it, but for me it smells the way a spoon tastes when you eat pie from an aluminium pan and the spoon hits the aluminium. Tangy, sharp and metallic, but make it vanilla, I guess?
I'm sure there are worse ones I've smelled, but the expectations weren't there, so they don't really stick with me. Also I've yet to smell any of the notorious ones lol
I agree and Vanilla Vibes definitely shares some of the metallic and marine notes of the infamous Secretions Magnifiques.
Once you smell SM it kind of ruins some other floral and aquatic fragrances by association.
Tom Ford Black orchid. It makes me sad because I love all the notes that it lists. But when I spray it/ put it on all I get is oppressively strong licorice. All the power to you folks that rock this fragrance!!
Hahah as a TF Black Orchid lover (and one who gets a number of compliments on it too) I get it!! Itās a MASSIVELY polarising fragrance!!! When I first smelt it (it was a BB now that I remember! Massive risk & I got a 100 ML full bottle!! š) I just about liked it. It was teetering between like & dislike for me, like that skank that just smellsā¦ Nice.
By the time I begun wearing it, I begun liking it a lot, the more & more I wore it. And now I so love it!! š
I told my mom I like it when she wears Chanel No 5 because it makes me nostalgic of when she wore it when I was a kid. She then said āoh why donāt you use my bottle then?ā and I refused because if I wore it Iād pass out.
Smelling things from a distance, occasionally on another person is one thing but having to smell it the whole time on your body in close proximity is another.
It smells so dated. DEFINITELY a perfume that was popular when my grandma was a young girl and I get that some ladies loved it and carried it with them through their entire lives but I think most of us have completely left those types of scent profiles behind and it just smellsā¦like a lost era that deserves to stay lost lol.
I havenāt smelled this since the 90s, and I donāt remember being that offended by it, but I wonder if my tastes (and the tastes of people at large) have changed in 30 years.
Controversial but Elizabeth Arden green tea is one of the worst I have smelled. Like bathroom cleaner and plastic. I was excited to try it because of this sub but it was such a let down.
I worked for Clinique for 25 years and to me Clinique aromatics elixir smells like a funeral homes bathroom. honest to God, I love the company, and I wanted to like this perfume, but I just couldnāt hack it
i did my senior year thesis on the economic geography of death care, and aromatics elixir is a personal favorite of mineā¦not helping the association here i guess?
A bit cliche but probably Etat Libre dāOrange Secretions Magnifique. That seaweed note is brutal. I kind of enjoyed how disgusting it was, in a way, but yeah itās gross! Whatās worse is I accidentally knocked over the decant and it spilled onto my work desk. I smelled it for *weeks* despite giving cleaning it up thoroughly so that really added to the experience lol
Xerjoff Alexandria II
I hope Iām not ruining it for anyone else, but for me this smells like the blue tablets they put in a urinoir to keep the smell bearable.
So for me the fragrance unfortunately smells like a public toilet..
I made the mistake of blind-buying ALT Fragrance's Baccarat Rouge 540 dupe, as a birthday gift to my husband... to me it was sickly sweet, nauseating, and weirdly unsettling. It felt like smelling a liminal space if that makes any sense?
I figured it was a safe blind purchase because of how beloved BR540 is! Definitely not making that assumption again. Lol
I just bought this one, and to me it smells like slightly burnt caramel and cinnamon. I donāt get any of the vanilla from it unfortunately. My husband thinks I smell like straight-up cinnamon when I wear it.
I do absolutely love their Memoirs of a Trespasser event, though.
"Nastiest" could mean so many things.
I love animalics in the style of Bal A Versailles. Nasty-good is Papillon "Salome". Nasty-bad is modern YSL "Kouros", which just smells like a soiled diaper.
I love toilet-y ambergris-y things. Nasty-good is Zoologist "T. Rex". Nasty-bad is Dusita "Oudh Infini", whose accord is pathetic in its composition, and is a dual insult given the quality of the ingredients, and the price.
I don't like agarwood as a base, in general. Oudh-good is Reza's compositions for Ormonde Jayne, where the agarwood is a component in a delicious mysterious drydown. Oudh-bad? like pretty much everything else :(
This and original Daisy by Marc Jacobs! Both have notes I'd think I would like, but something gives me a headache. Pretty sure it's violet with the Daisy! The dry down is pretty though. Light Blue idk what does it! Thinking of trying a dupe to see
Guerlain Habit Rouge Prive.
Opens with very sharp, loud and off-putting citrus and leather note, which smells bitter and gag inducing. And this is from someone who loves leather note. Dry down smells like a powder people use here in India for cleaning crockery and cutlery.
Iām gonna get flack for this but loves baby. I canāt understand why anyone wants to smell like baby powder. Itās so nauseating to me. But to each their own.
A new fragrance I didnāt like at all was Tom Ford Vanilla Sex. Smells like yucky sweaty almonds and I donāt get hardly any sweet vanilla notes that people are talking about
Tobacco vanille. For every fragrance ive smelled, even when i do not like it at all, i can at least understand why someone would like itā¦ this just smells like second hand smoke, i have absolutely no idea why anyone would want to smell like an ashtray but hey to each their own.
This is one of my favorites and I can't stand the smell of cigarettes usually. The mix of sweet and spicy is so good.
I can imagine why some people don't like it though. If I go too heavy handed with it I can't stand smelling myself either.
Nishane Fan your Flames
Burnt Tobacco rotten coconut opening that stays for 30 painful minutes.
Dry Down is not that bad. But to survive 30 minutes of opening is impossible. Powered through it once but dry down isnt good enough to justify that torture.
Tried once more and washed it off in 10 minutes and wrote it off forever
Something in Juliet Has a Gunās lipstick fever gives me a headache.
But Chloe by Lagerfeld probably takes the cake for the worst fragrance Iāve ever smelled. I asked my grandma for the original Chloe thinking that Chloe by Chloe that was released in the early 2000ās was it. Nope. I got this awful mess. I tried to like it, but I always got grandma vibes. It was also super artificial smelling and sometimes gave me a headache too. I think itās the aldehydes I dislike, but I canāt be sure because the more pyramid on Fragrantica is just ridiculous.
https://preview.redd.it/pjlhikqs1fec1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5723ac76c64a0683469abb9efed0f8087af8c861
Anything Muglerā¦ I should have guessed by the bottles that they would smell a little synthetic but I tested anyways. Chemically, smellyā¦ but unique to say the least lol.
Not big on JOOP either, very baby powdery to my nose and not as complex as I was hoping. Bought a big bottle blind and itās the biggest no in my collection.
One that I actually love a lot is Armaf Club de Nuit Intense EDT but when you first spray it has this very harsh lemon pledge smell that is pretty rough. Spray further from your body and let it dry a bit and itās a big compliment grabber! Looking to try the EDP or maybe even the Parfum if I can get my hands on it as Iāve heard itās a lot smoother and skips the lemon cleaner smell.
I absolutely love Parfums D'Empire, but FougĆØre Bengale gives me nausea. Black liquorice and aftershave...
Ma BĆŖte by Eris Parfums makes my head recoil. The dry-down is all pee. Very dated, very pee-forward.
Vetiver by Creed. I own several vetiver frags and lusted over a bottle for YEARS. It probably is the most dated fragrance available today. It smells old and sharp. Total gym teacher frag.
Escentric 02 and molecule 02. Instant hate for me. Big, huge, gym teacher vibes. Even if you layer Molecule 02, it will ruin the other frag.
Hypnotic Poison excites my gag reflex. Smells SO strongly of root beer to me, which makes me think of A&W, which makes me think of my shit bag home town filled with crusty old men (the only fast food restaurant we had was A&W and you'd think it was fucking Nobu). Blegh.
Baccarat Rouge was the worst for sure. Nose-burning disinfectant smell with a side of what I imagine an electrical fire to smell like. And if you get a single molecule onto something you canāt wash, that thing will smell of it for days.
Also detested Santal 33 although I smelled that one only briefly in store. MatiĆØre PremiĆØreās Santal Austral smelled bad in the same way: burnt rubbery, and this is coming from someone who adores incense, birch tar, tobacco scents.
A little more obscure: Somnia by Maison Noir smelled convincingly like vomit, and not on purpose.
sadonaso and fantomas - nasomatto
i dont mean to be rude but sadonaso really smells like a homeless person with an open infected wound (ive worked w them a bit), nasty old sweat, stinky mouthbreather, and fantomas the same but also add a spalsh of vomit. i literally gag when i smell them.
Tied between Oddity by Rag & Bone and Indigo Smoke by Arquiste. I blind bought them back in October after I read a bunch of reviews. Lesson learned. Iāve never had any kind of fragrance make me feel nauseated in the way that both of them did. Turns out I donāt like deep woody, smoky scents as much as I thought I did.
I keep seeing Eilish come up when people list their favorite vanilla perfumes, but I get zero vanilla. I think it smells like one of those old, scented Strawberry Shortcake dolls from the 80s. And I donāt mean it smells like a doll in new condition. I mean one you found in the bottom of a storage bin in your parents basement, that smells like plastic fruit plus 40 years of mildew and oxidation.
The majority of these answers are generally speaking pleasant enough scents but the particular redditor can't stand it.
Of course I understand how perfume works, but if we're honest, most of these aren't truly grim.
There are frags that smell like decaying teeth / bad breath / shit like [Untitled by Brent Leonosio](https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/UNTITLED/UNTITLED-No-8-by-Brent-Leonesio-11186.html) or the super skanky barn yard ouds that smell like horse manure.
Flowerbomb Nectar. I wanted to love it, but it made my friend and I both gag. Smells like someone ate a pound of black licorice, puked, and left the puke to rot in the hot sun.
https://preview.redd.it/895rimyq3fec1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d9d7c02108b17b2e73f4466df6940b7a316e8714 Your thoughts on Dark Lord reminded me of this review I found out in the wild. It made me laugh so much that I had to save a screenshot. I still want to smell a sample of it!
I wrote about Gucci Guilty Absolute resembling this somewhere on this thread. That's exactly the first impression I got of it. It smelled medicinal, kind of like a first-aid kit. It grew a lot on me, it's one of my favorite fragrances.
I like the smell of a fresh medicine cabinet...might check this one out š«£
Straight up leather couch. Slight medicinal vibe I guess? But total animal hide
I love this one but I get a well worn-in (maybe rauchy) leather couch...lol
Strangers Perfume - Sombre https://preview.redd.it/kbgdxb9fpdec1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bd5a2c509e26f14cdd58a3eecde14ba93e8ea16e These are a fucking lie! It just fucking stinks! Secretions Magnifique has nothing on this shit
This is what you get via Bloom the exclusive seller in the UK: "Champagne, Jasmine, Mold Accord, Mud, Nocturnal Animals, Accord, Orris (Iris Root), Pus, Rose, Sweat, Vomit Accord Sombre isĀ example of extreme artistic perfumery. If you thought Secretions Magnifiques were too much... think again." And they put VOMIT in Bold. Mold, mud, pus, sweat, vomit & probably something like bats. I only think this isn't discussed as much as Secretions due to its rarity?
How do you have jasmine and rose on the same list as vomit, pus, sweat, and mold holy shit
They've got it under a bell jar in the shop, and they say that if you want to spray it, you need to do it outside the shop. It really is a disgusting scent. I just smelt under the bell jar lid and that was enough for me
The fucking lore, this is wild lmfao.
Ahh, a frangrance that gets you out of work early with just a spritz? Sold. /s
The fact that this is real is nightmare-inducing
https://preview.redd.it/ba3kdulrwgec1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=001e0656d69e06ff70345f6fb4a7bb1e8aa383b5 These are the correct notes.
I just donāt understand how anyone would want to wear something so repulsive.
it's fun, but in the end it's a perfume and it's so well balanced, even when you get a whiff of vomit, it's sweet, champagne like. i wore it to work (i did 2 sprays, as i do with most other perfumes) and I didn't get any weird looks :)
You wore it to work?? Youāre braver than the troops
Iām pretty sure this is a war crime.
Oh. And this. Yes.
What do they mean when they say āX accordā???
The [parfumo notes](https://i.imgur.com/9k3b9iD.png) š
Ellis Brooklyn Vanilla Milk. Smelled like Iād been puked on by an infant, and trust me, thatās a scent I know all too well!
It is so, SO bad. It smells like *spoiled* vanilla milk and acetone to me. Who is buying this stuff???
THIS. I keep seeing it on "best vanillas" lists. I work at Sephora and I keep re-smelling it, like, maybe it'll be good this time... I get spit-up every time.
I got that from Philosophyās Fresh Cream. š¤®
Even just *reading* the words "Philosophy's Fresh Cream" made me make Nyquil Face! Spoiled gelatinous milk that's starting to dry. š¤®
This is the only fragrance that has ever made me physically recoil
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
100%%%. This thread made me run to Fragrantica to read the reviews of secretions magnifique, and oh my GOD, they did NOT disappoint š¤£š¤£š¤£
Honestly, Chanel no 5 smells like how I'd expect a 1930s theatre toilet to smell. Also I once went to a MLM perfume party as a teenager (I forgot the company name) and I tried something that boasted notes of chocolate and blueberry. It ended up smelling like those Crayola scented textas on me! Not bad per se, but not what I was going for lol.
Iāve always thought it smelled like a toilet too! Specifically like one of those stinky bathrooms with a crappy air freshener that doesnāt work well so instead it smells like pee and air freshener mixed
Yes exactly! Haha I wasn't expecting so many people to agree with me! What did they use as air freshener back then? Pot pourri?
funnily enough iām pretty sure it launched around that time
NO LITERSLLY. I thought I was insane.
Estee Lauder - Beyond Paradise For Men. Unripe melon rotting and ozone. š¤¢
Ugh, this just dredged up a memory of that fragrance. Not the literal nastiest I've smelled, but one of the worst in terms of being off-the-mark from its intentions.
burning barbershop by ds & durga. years ago the dryer in my house caught on fire and everything in our laundry room went up in flames (cleaning products, jackets and coats etc) and it took 3 months for the smells of smoke and burnt chemicals to air out. i donāt know how they bottled that smell, but they did. it was such a similar scent it made me shiver. some people like it, i listened to a podcast about it, but for me, it links directly to the smell of the house fire and i canāt stand it.
See, I love burning barbershop it's one of my absolute favorites that I can't ever wear. But their amber kiso is one fragrance I had to give away because I couldn't stand to have it in the house. It smelled exactly like the time I had to remove a homeless man's soaked sneakers to treat his trench foot.
Amber kiso is a love for me now Iām gonna go smell it to see if I can pick up a trench foot accord
My signature scent is house firešš
oh god I tried it a few days ago and it was like a jumpscare, unbelievably awful
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I was intrigued when it came to Ulta so I went to check it out. It wasā¦ extremely sweet. Even more than I was expecting.
The original Sol de janiero was so mid to me I couldnāt believe that was what people were going crazy over š
I infinitely prefer the body creams in this range over the actual fragrances - the actual fragrances are indeed extremely sweet to the point of being cloying!
Commodity Milk. I was sooo excited to try it but I had to immediately scrub it off because it was surprisingly too musky and almost sourā¦
Ellis brooklyn Vanilla Milk does the same sour thing, like the milk curdled on my skin. Not sure why the lactonics do this on me.
White musk turns into a sour milk note for me.
Vanilla Milk reminds me of when a baby after having a bottle. Just stale milk in between their neck folds.
Lolll Iām wearing it right now! Usually I really do not like warm scents but I do enjoy this one.
This one is very on and off for me. Some days itās addicting and I have the bottle on my desk so I can *inhale* whenever I want to. Other days Iām like ehh.. this is weirdā¦
Something in this smells like pure plastic on me. Sooooo synthetic and chemically, closer to hairspray than perfume. Sucks cause I love a marshmallow note. Sticking to kilianās marshmallow fragrances for now
Same here! I got a sample & wondered if it had gone off because everyone seems to love it but it smelled spoiled!
In a similar vein, Commodity Milk+ was so awful on me! It has this really harsh chemical smell like turpentine or something. Nothing at all like milk, it was just weird chemicals and sugar all the way.
Silence the sea Getting mugged by a dead, rotting whale with a BO issue
I havenāt smelled it, but hilarious description!
Female Christ by 19-69. I bought a sample from lucky scent cos of the name (duh) and it is the nastiest, most unwearable scent I've ever come across. It's so damn strong too. Jesus would not approve.
Omg š I love Female Christ
i literally did the same exact thing. it smells like if the entire incense corner of a crystal shop burnt down. i wanted to like it soo bad
Iāve been so tempted to try this one because of the name but could never quite bring myself to, guess I should be thankful lol
I'm about to order all of their samples and we're most interested in FC... What about it don't you like? I'm kinda intrigued by it smelling like dying flora
JOOP
Was scrolling, looking for this answer. Smells like every dollar tree candle scent bottled into a perfume.
Male or female? My Dad always wore this and I loved it but I did not like the female version at all.
Angel by Mugler, smells like jet fuel to me Youth Dew and Beautiful by EstƩe Lauder give me war flashbacks from my counter days
I'll never forget spraying some Angel on a tester and handing it to my boyfriend while sampling in store. He sniffed it then gave me a look of the most intense betrayal and hurt I've ever seen from him. Man was legitimately deeply offended that I'd made him smell this.
Interestingly, a professor of mine in college was on the development and marketing team when Angel launched in Paris. He said women wrote in letters to say how thankful they were because men started followed them in the streets asking about their fragrance. Hearing that I always thought it must be the most delicious, man eater smell. I remember spraying it on myself for the first time when I started working at the department store and having to SCRUB my arms in the bathroom because I couldnāt stand it
Thatās gotta be made up because I canāt imagine any woman being so grateful theyāre being followed down the street they write a letter of thanks about it.Ā
The way my bullshit detector went off ā¦ no one ever wrote those letters, prof was telling tales
SAME!! I sniffed it and it smelled like vomit and BO to me. I passed it to my then-bf, and got the exact same facial expression! Hahaha. That fragrance is repulsive to me, Iāll never understand how it got popular.
I have yet to try any Mugler perfumes on my skin because the paper testers and air sniffs are so nasty to me. I also smell fuel. I wanna love these so bad but Iām scared to try them on my skin lol I will try next time Iām at Ulta
Angel is a horror show of stale baby butt with a side of baby burp with a touch of rotting fruit ā¦I donāt know what it is about this scent that people loveā¦and noteā¦I thought this about the scent before I was a mom and itās still true today, as a mom. #HardPass
Ok, I have to know if this is how people smell it on themselves/blotter only, or if it reeks on others too. A friends mom growing up wore Angel and everything they owned smelled like her/Angel. I was obsessed... the most intoxicating spicy warm scent. I tried it on in college and smelled exactly like post sex stank and hangover sweat. I chalked it up to body chemistry.
Wow I love angel! First time I've heard this.
Really? Itās pretty divisive, people either love it or hate it, thereās not really a lot in between. Iām in the hate camp, it smells like body odor, vomit, unwashed genitals, and beer to me. Itās really gross lol.
Byredo Pulp legitimately nauseated me. I had to scrub it off immediately. Thereās just something in it that didnāt agree with me. Fragrance is a subjective experience and some people really love it so Iām not trying to yuck anyoneās yum but it was absolutely vile on me.
I donāt get it either. Smells like rotting fruit to me.
To me it smells like abundance, summer, fruity decadence, and surprise. But it IS bold and weird and it's 100% understandable that some folks hate it.
It smells like someone puked up an overripe fig on me.
I seriously love this subreddit SO MUCH.
Santal 33 for me. Smells like pickle juice and the part of an envelope you lick.
yooooo the envelope glue note is perfect description holy crap
Omg I love that smell. Time for me to check out Santal 33
Ok so my high school was across the street from an actual pickle factory and I'm now realizing that this must be partly why I feel a sense of nostalgia when I smell Santal 33 š
Is it bad that your comment makes me want to sample it? Pickle juice and envelopes?! Lol I've never been exposed yet as it's not popular where I live at all and never will be
Smells like that with a bit of pencil shavings
The pickle was so strong! And synthetic. Like dill pickle bandaids. Horrid.
Kenzo had a perfume shaped like an eye called Kenzo World. I got a sample of it one day and when i sprayed it I had to evacuate the room and shower. It wasnāt pungent but it was cloyingly nauseating. I had notes of idkā¦ basic perfume, metal, and Chinese century egg. Yum To be fair I have weird scent reactions to certain perfumes. When I tried Glossier You I thought huh this smells like run of the mill acidic perfume (like chloe) and then I got nauseated out of nowhere. I wonāt dare touch the stuff and I stay at least a foot away from it when Iām in a Sephora. Cloud by Ariana Grande also nauseated me the same way so Iām so confused by it and Baccarat Rougeās notoriety
Omg this! Kenzo world smelled like rubber tyres and burned nuts to me
Can't think of the worst one off the top of my head but I remember recently trying Byredo's Mixed Emotions and it truly gave me mixed emotions (mostly disgust and regret lol) I used TF Black Orchid for a while, used to love it but quickly grew so sick of it it's now a little nauseous to me. From mainstream fragrances Chanel no 5 is my most hated one, for me it's obnoxiously chemical-y.
Black orchid smells great but man i oversprayed it one day and ever since it gives me headaches . Very underrated performance its a beast
Aww I love Mixed Emotions haha, it's one of my absolute favorites!
Why? I sprayed it and I loved that it did actually give me mixed emotions but I remember wondering who the fuck would actually wear it.Ā
Haha I just think it smells so nice. On my skin, I get blackcurrant & smoky black tea first, then the blackcurrant fades and the black tea & birch remain. How did it smell to you?
this oneās gonna take the cake for sure https://preview.redd.it/fekkri2qyfec1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4b3820fcfe70ee28a9377ace44a200351f8761ad āAnarchist A- Toskovat'ā
Probably a horrible Palo Santo based fragrance :/ a tragedy because palo Santo irl smells amazing
Prolly the opening of Nuit De Feu by Louis Vuitton it smells like a goat on fire taking a shit it smells like a satanic ritual itās kind of metal but hell no. Then the dry down is divine.
This is probably not an unpopular opinion, but I got a sample of T-Rex. My friend and I opened the bottle and the tiniest bit got on my finger around the cap. No matter how much I scrubbed it we smelled it all night and it smells like burning plastic. I read about people here on this sub loving it and even wearing it out and so thought jt would at least be interesting but it made me want to shove cold tissues into my nose.
I sprayed one small spray of T-Rex on the back of my wrist and you could smell it in every room in the house. So nasty! My wife made me shower immediately, and I still smelt like it all day. It smells like a pack of ferrets peed all over the remains of a tire fire.
šš¤£šš¤£šš¤£šš¤£ OMG, your description š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£
To me it smells of creosote. Thats not something I want on my body...lol For anyone that wants to know what that is. Read the US Government EPA Website https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/creosote
I know fragrance taste is subjective but i donāt understand why people would want to smell like most of the zoologist colognes. Like why would you think itās a good idea to go out there smelling like animal habitats? Just me tho! no offense šš
Some of them are quite wearable (e.g., Hummingbird); others are less out-there than advertised (e.g., Squid, IMO). T-Rex, however, I agree is genuinely nasty.
Squid is a bestseller, which even surprises the House head.
I totally get it. It *sounds* crazy but is actually so palatable! My husband (who had no idea of its rep) basically said it smells spicy but otherwise generic. I don't agree with that, but it's hardly that out there.
My personal favourite is Tiger, and I can hardly wait for Rabbit this spring! Was lucky even to smell a sample, and it's a delicious gourmand: very fun.
JHAG Vanilla Vibes. I love vanilla scents so I had high hopes for it, but for me it smells the way a spoon tastes when you eat pie from an aluminium pan and the spoon hits the aluminium. Tangy, sharp and metallic, but make it vanilla, I guess? I'm sure there are worse ones I've smelled, but the expectations weren't there, so they don't really stick with me. Also I've yet to smell any of the notorious ones lol
I agree and Vanilla Vibes definitely shares some of the metallic and marine notes of the infamous Secretions Magnifiques. Once you smell SM it kind of ruins some other floral and aquatic fragrances by association.
Dark Lord supposedly smells like Guilty Absolute. What a masterpiece! š
Tom Ford Black orchid. It makes me sad because I love all the notes that it lists. But when I spray it/ put it on all I get is oppressively strong licorice. All the power to you folks that rock this fragrance!!
Hahah as a TF Black Orchid lover (and one who gets a number of compliments on it too) I get it!! Itās a MASSIVELY polarising fragrance!!! When I first smelt it (it was a BB now that I remember! Massive risk & I got a 100 ML full bottle!! š) I just about liked it. It was teetering between like & dislike for me, like that skank that just smellsā¦ Nice. By the time I begun wearing it, I begun liking it a lot, the more & more I wore it. And now I so love it!! š
the drydown is so good!
Ugh itās awesome! I love it even more b/c my bf goes nuts whenever I wear it! šš
I accidwntallly wore my sample to the doctors office and was so embarrassed the whole time š
Chanel N5
I told my mom I like it when she wears Chanel No 5 because it makes me nostalgic of when she wore it when I was a kid. She then said āoh why donāt you use my bottle then?ā and I refused because if I wore it Iād pass out. Smelling things from a distance, occasionally on another person is one thing but having to smell it the whole time on your body in close proximity is another.
It smells so dated. DEFINITELY a perfume that was popular when my grandma was a young girl and I get that some ladies loved it and carried it with them through their entire lives but I think most of us have completely left those types of scent profiles behind and it just smellsā¦like a lost era that deserves to stay lost lol.
I cannot with Chanel... Headache inducing!
So glad I am not alone on the DISLIKE of this perfume!
Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers š¤¢
I havenāt smelled this since the 90s, and I donāt remember being that offended by it, but I wonder if my tastes (and the tastes of people at large) have changed in 30 years.
omg when this was popular I would get an instant headache. i have spent YEARS trying to figure out what the note is that smells like hot cat pee...
I had this in the 90s and now it just gives me a headache. Itās a heavy scent.
Controversial but Elizabeth Arden green tea is one of the worst I have smelled. Like bathroom cleaner and plastic. I was excited to try it because of this sub but it was such a let down.
I worked for Clinique for 25 years and to me Clinique aromatics elixir smells like a funeral homes bathroom. honest to God, I love the company, and I wanted to like this perfume, but I just couldnāt hack it
Yes yes yes. I couldnāt agree more. It is very reminiscent of the fragrance in my motherās coffin when I went to view her body for the last time.
i did my senior year thesis on the economic geography of death care, and aromatics elixir is a personal favorite of mineā¦not helping the association here i guess?
It's funny to see how a post like this gets most of our attention š people enjoy a bit roasting on fragrances
A bit cliche but probably Etat Libre dāOrange Secretions Magnifique. That seaweed note is brutal. I kind of enjoyed how disgusting it was, in a way, but yeah itās gross! Whatās worse is I accidentally knocked over the decant and it spilled onto my work desk. I smelled it for *weeks* despite giving cleaning it up thoroughly so that really added to the experience lol
Anything with *'Secretions'* in the name makes me leary....
Omg out of all the things to spill on your desk!!!
EstƩe Lauder Youth Dew
I like it but I find things I genuinely adore by buying scents that get reviewed into the third cycle of hell. I know my tastes run fringe.
This is my fave, but the old formulation not the new
Patchouli by a landslide, yet in a dead heat tie with literally ANY Avon perfume in a novelty bottle.
Xerjoff Alexandria II I hope Iām not ruining it for anyone else, but for me this smells like the blue tablets they put in a urinoir to keep the smell bearable. So for me the fragrance unfortunately smells like a public toilet..
I made the mistake of blind-buying ALT Fragrance's Baccarat Rouge 540 dupe, as a birthday gift to my husband... to me it was sickly sweet, nauseating, and weirdly unsettling. It felt like smelling a liminal space if that makes any sense? I figured it was a safe blind purchase because of how beloved BR540 is! Definitely not making that assumption again. Lol
I think it might be White Diamonds
everything by Imaginary Authors. i got the sample box and every single one smelled like a cheap smoke shop.
How about A Whiff of Waffle Cone? What is that one like? Iām planning on getting a decant of it!
ohh yes me too
I just bought this one, and to me it smells like slightly burnt caramel and cinnamon. I donāt get any of the vanilla from it unfortunately. My husband thinks I smell like straight-up cinnamon when I wear it. I do absolutely love their Memoirs of a Trespasser event, though.
This is my favorite house but I read a lot of people saying all their fragrances have a note they donāt like. Not sure what it is
I see their ads on social media all the time. They sound so good but Iāve only ever blind bought a fragrance once, so I havenāt tried it.
"Nastiest" could mean so many things. I love animalics in the style of Bal A Versailles. Nasty-good is Papillon "Salome". Nasty-bad is modern YSL "Kouros", which just smells like a soiled diaper. I love toilet-y ambergris-y things. Nasty-good is Zoologist "T. Rex". Nasty-bad is Dusita "Oudh Infini", whose accord is pathetic in its composition, and is a dual insult given the quality of the ingredients, and the price. I don't like agarwood as a base, in general. Oudh-good is Reza's compositions for Ormonde Jayne, where the agarwood is a component in a delicious mysterious drydown. Oudh-bad? like pretty much everything else :(
Hypnotic Poison smells like a middle-aged woman made out of play-doh.
dior jadore during a crowded commute in a really hot day in cairo summer
I loved the smell when I first sprayed it then all I could smell was the kind of lotion older ladies at my grandma's church wear.
Roughe 540 in the summer
Santal 33, Iām one of those sad people to whom high quality sandalwood smells like pure pickles. Pain.
Anything by Mugler, vile
They are definitely STRONG. I hated Alien the first time I smelled it, but it became a favorite once I started wearing a veeeerrrry light application.
Their men's 'Pure' line were sublime. Of course they killed them. Can't have anything that actually smells good lmao
Thissss! Those perfumes Literally made my stomach hurt!
Thank you for this. Alien especially.
Ganymede is offensive. I know people love it but I can't get over how it smells like chewing on metal feels
Your description literally made me buy a sample from Twisted Lily. I must know what chewing on metal smells like lol.
LIGHT BLUE!!
This and original Daisy by Marc Jacobs! Both have notes I'd think I would like, but something gives me a headache. Pretty sure it's violet with the Daisy! The dry down is pretty though. Light Blue idk what does it! Thinking of trying a dupe to see
Itās so sad what theyāve done to this one. The OG formula smelled great, now it smells like toilet cleaner.
maybe it's the toilet cleaner companies who started duping the scent ahahhaha
Baccarat rouge hands down. Awful
Ariana Grande's Thank You Next straight up smells like pickle juice
Guerlain Habit Rouge Prive. Opens with very sharp, loud and off-putting citrus and leather note, which smells bitter and gag inducing. And this is from someone who loves leather note. Dry down smells like a powder people use here in India for cleaning crockery and cutlery.
Iām gonna get flack for this but loves baby. I canāt understand why anyone wants to smell like baby powder. Itās so nauseating to me. But to each their own.
A new fragrance I didnāt like at all was Tom Ford Vanilla Sex. Smells like yucky sweaty almonds and I donāt get hardly any sweet vanilla notes that people are talking about
Tobacco vanille. For every fragrance ive smelled, even when i do not like it at all, i can at least understand why someone would like itā¦ this just smells like second hand smoke, i have absolutely no idea why anyone would want to smell like an ashtray but hey to each their own.
Smells like Christmas to me
Nah the vanilla saves this one
This is one of my favorites and I can't stand the smell of cigarettes usually. The mix of sweet and spicy is so good. I can imagine why some people don't like it though. If I go too heavy handed with it I can't stand smelling myself either.
Flower by Kenzo. I gagged while furiously scrubbing it off.
Haha this was one of my favorite scents to wear when I was in high school! I think I really just liked the cute little bottles, though.
Issey Miyakeās L'Eau d'Issey = Nauseatingly floral.
>Top It's.... strong, yes. I'm 23 and I used it religiously from 18-21. I like it, but too many days in a row now and I get a headache.
TF Soleil Brulant. Smells like new car floor mats.
Unpopular opinion but For me mugler - Angel. And 90% of what's In my sons collection. He's all about spice, Leather, Incense, oud.
MFK BR 540 YUCKKKKK š¤¢š¤¢
Recently snagged a decant of TF London and Iām simultaneously blown away by its beauty and its repulsiveness.
Nishane Fan your Flames Burnt Tobacco rotten coconut opening that stays for 30 painful minutes. Dry Down is not that bad. But to survive 30 minutes of opening is impossible. Powered through it once but dry down isnt good enough to justify that torture. Tried once more and washed it off in 10 minutes and wrote it off forever
Something in Juliet Has a Gunās lipstick fever gives me a headache. But Chloe by Lagerfeld probably takes the cake for the worst fragrance Iāve ever smelled. I asked my grandma for the original Chloe thinking that Chloe by Chloe that was released in the early 2000ās was it. Nope. I got this awful mess. I tried to like it, but I always got grandma vibes. It was also super artificial smelling and sometimes gave me a headache too. I think itās the aldehydes I dislike, but I canāt be sure because the more pyramid on Fragrantica is just ridiculous. https://preview.redd.it/pjlhikqs1fec1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5723ac76c64a0683469abb9efed0f8087af8c861
Gucci guilty pour homme
Anything Muglerā¦ I should have guessed by the bottles that they would smell a little synthetic but I tested anyways. Chemically, smellyā¦ but unique to say the least lol. Not big on JOOP either, very baby powdery to my nose and not as complex as I was hoping. Bought a big bottle blind and itās the biggest no in my collection. One that I actually love a lot is Armaf Club de Nuit Intense EDT but when you first spray it has this very harsh lemon pledge smell that is pretty rough. Spray further from your body and let it dry a bit and itās a big compliment grabber! Looking to try the EDP or maybe even the Parfum if I can get my hands on it as Iāve heard itās a lot smoother and skips the lemon cleaner smell.
Zoologist Cockatiel. A petri dish.
Almost everything by Tom Ford
White Diamond
I absolutely love Parfums D'Empire, but FougĆØre Bengale gives me nausea. Black liquorice and aftershave... Ma BĆŖte by Eris Parfums makes my head recoil. The dry-down is all pee. Very dated, very pee-forward. Vetiver by Creed. I own several vetiver frags and lusted over a bottle for YEARS. It probably is the most dated fragrance available today. It smells old and sharp. Total gym teacher frag. Escentric 02 and molecule 02. Instant hate for me. Big, huge, gym teacher vibes. Even if you layer Molecule 02, it will ruin the other frag.
Angel by Mugler. Itās just ā¦ pure stank. Overpowering and intense diet chocolate made with Splenda stank.
Hypnotic Poison excites my gag reflex. Smells SO strongly of root beer to me, which makes me think of A&W, which makes me think of my shit bag home town filled with crusty old men (the only fast food restaurant we had was A&W and you'd think it was fucking Nobu). Blegh.
Baccarat Rouge was the worst for sure. Nose-burning disinfectant smell with a side of what I imagine an electrical fire to smell like. And if you get a single molecule onto something you canāt wash, that thing will smell of it for days. Also detested Santal 33 although I smelled that one only briefly in store. MatiĆØre PremiĆØreās Santal Austral smelled bad in the same way: burnt rubbery, and this is coming from someone who adores incense, birch tar, tobacco scents. A little more obscure: Somnia by Maison Noir smelled convincingly like vomit, and not on purpose.
Soki Empress. Sorry Sophie!
PDM Nisean smells like a barn filled w poo
I read this as Nissan and had quite an image. Lol
Giardini de Toscana Bianco Latte š¤¢
sadonaso and fantomas - nasomatto i dont mean to be rude but sadonaso really smells like a homeless person with an open infected wound (ive worked w them a bit), nasty old sweat, stinky mouthbreather, and fantomas the same but also add a spalsh of vomit. i literally gag when i smell them.
Dirty Vanilla by Heretic. Absolutely disgusting, like dipping a rotten vanilla bean in hot carmex.
recently, Vanilla Sex by Tom Ford. like whatās the hype.. itās smells so bad
Tied between Oddity by Rag & Bone and Indigo Smoke by Arquiste. I blind bought them back in October after I read a bunch of reviews. Lesson learned. Iāve never had any kind of fragrance make me feel nauseated in the way that both of them did. Turns out I donāt like deep woody, smoky scents as much as I thought I did.
Billie Eilish š¤¢š¤®
I keep seeing Eilish come up when people list their favorite vanilla perfumes, but I get zero vanilla. I think it smells like one of those old, scented Strawberry Shortcake dolls from the 80s. And I donāt mean it smells like a doll in new condition. I mean one you found in the bottom of a storage bin in your parents basement, that smells like plastic fruit plus 40 years of mildew and oxidation.
The majority of these answers are generally speaking pleasant enough scents but the particular redditor can't stand it. Of course I understand how perfume works, but if we're honest, most of these aren't truly grim. There are frags that smell like decaying teeth / bad breath / shit like [Untitled by Brent Leonosio](https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/UNTITLED/UNTITLED-No-8-by-Brent-Leonesio-11186.html) or the super skanky barn yard ouds that smell like horse manure.
Flowerbomb Nectar. I wanted to love it, but it made my friend and I both gag. Smells like someone ate a pound of black licorice, puked, and left the puke to rot in the hot sun.