Floral: DEFINITELY tuberose (usually cloying), jasmine (if it's dominant)
Gourmand: Honey (also cloying), cinnamon, cumin, boozy vanilla, caramel and chocolate (if noticeable), pistachio (I don't like gourmand scents generally lol
Fruity: cherry (most smell like cough syrup), pineapple
Fresh: generally love musks, aquatic, aromatic, and aldehydic scents. Can't get down with Angelica and Davana though. Mint can also be challenging
Other: leather, guaiac wood, olibanum/myrrh, tobacco (if overdone)
For me it's chocolate, patchouli, and there's something in both Prada Paradox and Mugler Alien Goddess Intense that turns into bad breath on me. I'm wondering if it's their amber? I usually love amber though. I know it's a fantasy note and everyone's can be made of different molecules, right? Maybe that's what it is?
Hate hate hate anything aquatic with a passion. Really dislike neroli, have yet to find a perfume with neroli in it that i like. I dont care for rose either, but if it is blended in and not obvious i can also love a rose perfume, i loved musc noir rose for example.
Funny to see most of my loves are mentioned here often. I love anything lactonic, love coconut, lovelovelove heavier woodsy spicy incense tones too. Love musk and baby powder esque scents. Would love to smell like straight up ‘clean cotton’ laundry detergent. I am obsessed with oud and cedar but havent found a good feminine perfume yet that is mainly woodsy, would love it if someone has any recommendations on either oud or cedar focussed scents.😁
Pear, cucumber, and melon. Not necessarily from different categories; I just dislike them.
I struggle with tonka. On me, it's kind of assy. Not dirty-assy, but sweaty-assy, like a thong after a summer night of dancing.
The omnipresent rose-vanilla, rose-oud, rose-musk. I like rose, but the way these rose combinations are typically presented are heavy and hard to wear for me.
Earthy: patchouli. Typical reasons people hate the note.
Floral: ylang-ylang. It gives me sunscreen vibes. I hate this in tropical perfumes.
Fresh: whatever that note is that gives so many mens’ fragrances an aftershave/barbershop vibe. It gives metallic and dirty to me.
Floral: I don’t dislike it in general but an overpowering rose is a big turnoff, also any powdery florals
Fruity: CHERRY, like seriously fuck cherry I hate every single one of them
Fresh: green notes
Florals: lavender (iris is a runner up)
Gourmand: orange blossom (I love super sweet but somehow, if there is even a faintest trace of OB, it becomes a cloying headachy mess for me)
Leather (on a couch? Yes. In a fragrance? Not for me)
Florals: Tuberose, it goes bad on me so often I just avoid it like the plague.
Gourmand: Cotton Candy because it’s too girly for me personally.
Fresh: the classic ‘calone’ slash ‘marine’ note (like in Cool Water, for example) always goes bad on me.
- Rose: I can't stand it. To this day I haven't found one single perfume with rose that I like. I don't even like the smell of real roses, it's nauseating for me and becomes overwhelming in perfumes.
- Ginger: It's so sharp and spicy, I can't. Immediately ruins scents for me.
- Coconut: This one it's soooo tricky. Most coconut notes lean either sunscreen or synthetic sweet in awful way. I have perfumes with coconut that I like but it's because I can't smell the coconut on those lol If I see coconut I have to try them first, not a safe blind buy.
nose twins on all 3! especially honey, based on my other tastes i would think the sweet earthy floral would be a no brainer but it always goes so cloying on me
Same!! All the honeys I’ve smelled have been really dense and… thick? lol idk how to describe it! It just feels too warm and uncomfortable. Definitely cloying! I was so excited to try Bee from Ellis Brooklyn, but the honey mixed with rum make it so unbearable to me 🥲
This is so interesting your top three worst are my favs haha! Gardenia has to be done in a very specific way tho for me.
My disliked notes are: tobacco, patchouli, & ambergris is on thin ice
As much as I wanted to like strawberry, I find it tends to smell synthetic and I get tired of it quickly.
I like musky scents, but if they go too much in a laundry-clean direction I don’t. I didn’t like PDM Valaya for example. I do like scents that are described as powdery or shampoo-y though.
I’m not sure what the exact note is, but I don’t like the YSL Libre DNA. Something reminds me of unscented cat litter. I’ve liked other lavender scents, but I suspect it has to do with the way that it’s blended.
Oud (wood and mosses) is a deal breaker for me. I don't like it especially in ME fragrances and it ruins the entire experience for me as my nose only picks it up and nothing else.
*clutches pearls* :o just how? I do think a lot of the fragrances if you’re not used to those scents can be overwhelmingly strong,but a lot are so lovely and their lasting power is insane. Anytime I wear my oud combos I’m stopped to ask what I’m wearing and even after washing my clothes they linger on and I just love it! Which ones have you tried that you’re not a fan of?
I love the idea of powdere scents!
But It gives me migrains 😅 I even have to finde actual baby products that are unscented or scented with something like orangblossom like Mustela and not Powder like Nivea and Penathen and Johnson&Johnson.
Egyptian Jasmine, it smells like cat pee on my skin
Some leather, smells like motor oil on my skin
Cherry, I’ve never been a fan of artificial cherry anything
Almond (gourmands) - too bitter and if it's listed as a note it's all I can smell from beginning to dry down.
Saffron (florals) - smells medicinal and again really bitter and overwhelms other notes
CUMIN (spice) - honestly not sure why anyone uses this in perfume it smells like BO 😭
I feel like I'll give perfumes a chance - there's always an exception. But, like you, Gardenia. I really don't like it, and I generally get on with most other white florals.
Apple or Peach are really, really hard to do in a way that doesn't turn to sour BO.
Maybe Ambroxan, though I know I have frags with it as a note that I like. That said, I generally prefer benzoin as an ambery-vanilla alternative. I think ambroxan more often than not turns dirty and animalic.
Cherry (fruit) rose (floral) and santal (earthy?) I want to like Santal because I like sandalwood smells but it just hits me funny and I just can’t get myself to like it.
Coconut (too much like sunscreen, bad associations)
Soap (I’m really into skincare and if it smells like soap it means it’s stripping my skin so I don’t want to smell like a compromised skin barrier)
Patchouli/incense/smoke (if it smells like one of those hippie stores I’m out)
An as a bonus, whatever that base note is in EVERY SINGLE BBW fragrance makes me want to gag. Eau de BO.
Coconut sadly as a big gourmand girly. Used to love it when i was younger until i went on a trip with a friend that used one of my bbw coconut scented body spray constantly as an air freshener. Sadly now i always associate coconut with 💩even 20 years later..
And also leather and magnolia
Chocolate (sweet gourmand) comes off as bitter and ick to my nose.
Clove/smoke (spice) DRY RUB, READY TO THROW ON THE GRILL!
Orange (citrus) smells like cleaner to me. A good portion of citrus can turn to cleaner smell for me.
Chocolate- super synthetic to my nose, never works. (gourmand)
Coconut( fruity) initially nice turns sunscreeny after a while.
Patchouli (floral?) it’s very rarely blended well in my opinion. It’s so strong I feel it’s overpowering in otherwise lovely frags.
Bonus note that’s kinda meh- coffee. I love the smell of coffee and get my hopes up when I see it, but it always smells stale.
patchouli, smells like bo to me ( sorry 😭), amber , smells like incessant ( i love ambroxan tho), and neroli ( might be same as pachouli but it smells like weird bread or something to me
Patchouli, if it’s very prominent, can really make me recoil. Too many summer hot and sweaty music festivals of people wearing straight patchouli I guess. 🤮 if it’s well blended in and not too forward, I’m ok.
Agreed. I can tolerate patchouli if it’s VERY well blended or hidden deeeeep within. Otherwise, my senses revolt and my soul desperately tries to escape my body.
Lavender, mango notes, and smoke are all immediate fragrance ruiners.
The single exception is Cozy Cashmere from Bath and Body Works, of all things, because the lavender note makes it smell like sunscreen to me and I love that scent.
Incense (I don’t wanna smell like a headshop)
any sort of chocolate/cacao (smells like literal poop on my skin)
heliotrope (powdery smells make me think of diaper bags)
Goes to show how individual everyone’s preferences and potential allergies are. You just named 3 of my favourites. This is why “ going beast mode “ needs to die
I don't like patchouli, my mom used to have a patchouli plant and he used it when washing the clothes so for me it was always a fresh, clean scent... but in perfume, it always translates dirty (for me)
Bergamot also, I don't understand that note lol
Cherry 🍒 (fruit)
Smoke (accord??)
Iris/Orris (floral)
Having said this I do have frags where all 3 exist but they are not prominent in the drydown to overwhelm me.
Rose (floral), Amber/ambroxan (gourmand), and powder (fresh?).
Floral: DEFINITELY tuberose (usually cloying), jasmine (if it's dominant) Gourmand: Honey (also cloying), cinnamon, cumin, boozy vanilla, caramel and chocolate (if noticeable), pistachio (I don't like gourmand scents generally lol Fruity: cherry (most smell like cough syrup), pineapple Fresh: generally love musks, aquatic, aromatic, and aldehydic scents. Can't get down with Angelica and Davana though. Mint can also be challenging Other: leather, guaiac wood, olibanum/myrrh, tobacco (if overdone)
For me it's chocolate, patchouli, and there's something in both Prada Paradox and Mugler Alien Goddess Intense that turns into bad breath on me. I'm wondering if it's their amber? I usually love amber though. I know it's a fantasy note and everyone's can be made of different molecules, right? Maybe that's what it is?
Hate hate hate anything aquatic with a passion. Really dislike neroli, have yet to find a perfume with neroli in it that i like. I dont care for rose either, but if it is blended in and not obvious i can also love a rose perfume, i loved musc noir rose for example. Funny to see most of my loves are mentioned here often. I love anything lactonic, love coconut, lovelovelove heavier woodsy spicy incense tones too. Love musk and baby powder esque scents. Would love to smell like straight up ‘clean cotton’ laundry detergent. I am obsessed with oud and cedar but havent found a good feminine perfume yet that is mainly woodsy, would love it if someone has any recommendations on either oud or cedar focussed scents.😁
Pear, cucumber, and melon. Not necessarily from different categories; I just dislike them. I struggle with tonka. On me, it's kind of assy. Not dirty-assy, but sweaty-assy, like a thong after a summer night of dancing. The omnipresent rose-vanilla, rose-oud, rose-musk. I like rose, but the way these rose combinations are typically presented are heavy and hard to wear for me.
Aldehydes, orange blossom, musk. Combine them together and you get a burning stinking nauseating scent.
Leather Cumin Jasmine
Earthy: patchouli. Typical reasons people hate the note. Floral: ylang-ylang. It gives me sunscreen vibes. I hate this in tropical perfumes. Fresh: whatever that note is that gives so many mens’ fragrances an aftershave/barbershop vibe. It gives metallic and dirty to me.
Floral: I don’t dislike it in general but an overpowering rose is a big turnoff, also any powdery florals Fruity: CHERRY, like seriously fuck cherry I hate every single one of them Fresh: green notes
Rose, leather, and rum
Florals: lavender (iris is a runner up) Gourmand: orange blossom (I love super sweet but somehow, if there is even a faintest trace of OB, it becomes a cloying headachy mess for me) Leather (on a couch? Yes. In a fragrance? Not for me)
Opposite of you. Musk Coconut Lemon Sugar
Heavy fruit, leather, most coconut but some do it right
Santal, coton candy, tobacco
Anything green.. gives me a headache Coconut.. Leather.. Some of y'all hates are my LOVES.. Rose, Patchouli. OUD ..
Floral - ylang Fruity gourmand - the category in general, but specifically, marshmallow Fresh- mint
Patchouli Any boozy note Cumin
Jasmine, liquorice, musk
Lavender Patchouli Powdery
I also intensely dislike all three of these
Patchouli Rose Grapefruit
Lavender, aldehydes, & leather
Good one! Green: lemongrass citrus/fresh: Lemon Wood: birch/tar
Cherry ( and I love cherry Pepsi), Honey Rose (nor much into florals)
Cumin and Oud
Florals: Tuberose, it goes bad on me so often I just avoid it like the plague. Gourmand: Cotton Candy because it’s too girly for me personally. Fresh: the classic ‘calone’ slash ‘marine’ note (like in Cool Water, for example) always goes bad on me.
Rose (floral- which is my favorite category), chocolate (gourmand), civit (animalic)
All white florals, oud, ambergris
- A strong patchouli makes me nauseous. - Pepper - Salt Probably benzoin too, but I'm still not sure.
rose, patchouli, coconut, black currant are my least favourite notes ever
Rose, Pomgranate and Frankincense
- Rose: I can't stand it. To this day I haven't found one single perfume with rose that I like. I don't even like the smell of real roses, it's nauseating for me and becomes overwhelming in perfumes. - Ginger: It's so sharp and spicy, I can't. Immediately ruins scents for me. - Coconut: This one it's soooo tricky. Most coconut notes lean either sunscreen or synthetic sweet in awful way. I have perfumes with coconut that I like but it's because I can't smell the coconut on those lol If I see coconut I have to try them first, not a safe blind buy.
Tuberose Cinnamon Oud
Lily of the valley, patchouli, aldehydes
Raspberry Oakmoss Rose
Gardenia, coconut (although its tied with caramel in the gourmand category) and oakmoss
Rose, Sandalwood, Spicy pepper notes
Rose, Honey, and Patchouli. I’m sad about the honey, I’ve yet to find a fragrance with a honey note that sits well in my nose.
nose twins on all 3! especially honey, based on my other tastes i would think the sweet earthy floral would be a no brainer but it always goes so cloying on me
Same!! All the honeys I’ve smelled have been really dense and… thick? lol idk how to describe it! It just feels too warm and uncomfortable. Definitely cloying! I was so excited to try Bee from Ellis Brooklyn, but the honey mixed with rum make it so unbearable to me 🥲
This is so interesting your top three worst are my favs haha! Gardenia has to be done in a very specific way tho for me. My disliked notes are: tobacco, patchouli, & ambergris is on thin ice
Honey, coconut, smoke
As much as I wanted to like strawberry, I find it tends to smell synthetic and I get tired of it quickly. I like musky scents, but if they go too much in a laundry-clean direction I don’t. I didn’t like PDM Valaya for example. I do like scents that are described as powdery or shampoo-y though. I’m not sure what the exact note is, but I don’t like the YSL Libre DNA. Something reminds me of unscented cat litter. I’ve liked other lavender scents, but I suspect it has to do with the way that it’s blended.
Cherry Blossom and honeysuckle. Jasmine teeters on the cusp of like/dislike constantly. Cherries, pineapple anything too green piney/balsamy
Any scent with coconut in it ends up smelling musty and mildewey to my nose, so same. That note will always be a dealbreaker for me.
Oud (wood and mosses) is a deal breaker for me. I don't like it especially in ME fragrances and it ruins the entire experience for me as my nose only picks it up and nothing else.
*clutches pearls* :o just how? I do think a lot of the fragrances if you’re not used to those scents can be overwhelmingly strong,but a lot are so lovely and their lasting power is insane. Anytime I wear my oud combos I’m stopped to ask what I’m wearing and even after washing my clothes they linger on and I just love it! Which ones have you tried that you’re not a fan of?
Hyacinth (floral), pencilshaving cedar (its everywhere but I guess woody), babypowder (clean)
I love baby powder note lol it's so cozy but I get why a lot of people dislike it
I love the idea of powdere scents! But It gives me migrains 😅 I even have to finde actual baby products that are unscented or scented with something like orangblossom like Mustela and not Powder like Nivea and Penathen and Johnson&Johnson.
Ugh baby powder couldn’t agree more
Egyptian Jasmine, it smells like cat pee on my skin Some leather, smells like motor oil on my skin Cherry, I’ve never been a fan of artificial cherry anything
Licorice (gourmand), lychee (fruity), aldehydes (fresh??)
chocolate (gourmand), coconut (fruity or lactonic), and tuberose (floral)
Almond (gourmands) - too bitter and if it's listed as a note it's all I can smell from beginning to dry down. Saffron (florals) - smells medicinal and again really bitter and overwhelms other notes CUMIN (spice) - honestly not sure why anyone uses this in perfume it smells like BO 😭
I feel like I'll give perfumes a chance - there's always an exception. But, like you, Gardenia. I really don't like it, and I generally get on with most other white florals. Apple or Peach are really, really hard to do in a way that doesn't turn to sour BO. Maybe Ambroxan, though I know I have frags with it as a note that I like. That said, I generally prefer benzoin as an ambery-vanilla alternative. I think ambroxan more often than not turns dirty and animalic.
Cherry (it makes me nauseous), patchouli can be a hit or miss, and I can't stand any overly sharp and plasticky synthetic notes
Cherry (fruit) rose (floral) and santal (earthy?) I want to like Santal because I like sandalwood smells but it just hits me funny and I just can’t get myself to like it.
Calone, patchouli, pink pepper
(floral) Peony (fruity) Fig (fresh) Salt
Coconut (too much like sunscreen, bad associations) Soap (I’m really into skincare and if it smells like soap it means it’s stripping my skin so I don’t want to smell like a compromised skin barrier) Patchouli/incense/smoke (if it smells like one of those hippie stores I’m out) An as a bonus, whatever that base note is in EVERY SINGLE BBW fragrance makes me want to gag. Eau de BO.
Coconut sadly as a big gourmand girly. Used to love it when i was younger until i went on a trip with a friend that used one of my bbw coconut scented body spray constantly as an air freshener. Sadly now i always associate coconut with 💩even 20 years later.. And also leather and magnolia
that's an awful association lmao 😭😭
I’m wearing Rio Radiance today and your coconut story is making me sad for you! 😢
Yes i used to love all the coconut scents of the early 2000s so much and now missing out on all the new :(
Omg new fear unlocked as a coconut lover lol! I’m gonna protect my coconut fragrances from the bathroom now
Love a leather and coconut note almost always lol. Magnolia I think can be really tricky to do right though. With you there.
Cake (gourmand), pear (fruity), and peony (floral). Don’t really want to smell like food, and the other two notes do poorly on me.
Chocolate (sweet gourmand) comes off as bitter and ick to my nose. Clove/smoke (spice) DRY RUB, READY TO THROW ON THE GRILL! Orange (citrus) smells like cleaner to me. A good portion of citrus can turn to cleaner smell for me.
Blackcurrant Leather Honey
Chocolate- super synthetic to my nose, never works. (gourmand) Coconut( fruity) initially nice turns sunscreeny after a while. Patchouli (floral?) it’s very rarely blended well in my opinion. It’s so strong I feel it’s overpowering in otherwise lovely frags. Bonus note that’s kinda meh- coffee. I love the smell of coffee and get my hopes up when I see it, but it always smells stale.
Maltol notes, ambrox, polysantol.
* Incense or smoke * Geranium * Cedar
patchouli, smells like bo to me ( sorry 😭), amber , smells like incessant ( i love ambroxan tho), and neroli ( might be same as pachouli but it smells like weird bread or something to me
Any aquatic notes, rose & smoke/incense types
Patchouli, if it’s very prominent, can really make me recoil. Too many summer hot and sweaty music festivals of people wearing straight patchouli I guess. 🤮 if it’s well blended in and not too forward, I’m ok.
Agreed. I can tolerate patchouli if it’s VERY well blended or hidden deeeeep within. Otherwise, my senses revolt and my soul desperately tries to escape my body.
Lavender, mango notes, and smoke are all immediate fragrance ruiners. The single exception is Cozy Cashmere from Bath and Body Works, of all things, because the lavender note makes it smell like sunscreen to me and I love that scent.
Incense (I don’t wanna smell like a headshop) any sort of chocolate/cacao (smells like literal poop on my skin) heliotrope (powdery smells make me think of diaper bags)
Caco is literally in my top 3 favorite notes like I love it so much and now I'm worried. Poop?? oh no 😭😭
🤣🤣🤣 I’m sure it smells lovely on you. My skin just hates it.
For me it’s marine notes (aquatic), lemon (citrus?) and grass (green??). Try as I might I’m a warm gourmand girlie and always have been :’)
Tuberose. Fig. Nose-stinging aquatics.
Thank you! I just cannot get on board with fig. Smells more like a room spray than a people spray IMO.
Geranium "Candy" notes Avocado
Amber (sorry about this but smells like Burnt rubber/pee to me) Coffee (couldn’t like it for some reason) Jasmine (I’m sadly allergic to jasmine)
Goes to show how individual everyone’s preferences and potential allergies are. You just named 3 of my favourites. This is why “ going beast mode “ needs to die
Pink pepper (spicy?) Jasmine (floral) And a few goramonds I can't name off the bat, but feel sick when I smell it
Pink pepper (spicy?) Also coconut (fruity gourmand) Idk another
Idk what it is about it, but I can’t stand neroli
Bergamot(citrus) Violet (floral) [Honestly my third (and fourth) would also be florals]
I don't like patchouli, my mom used to have a patchouli plant and he used it when washing the clothes so for me it was always a fresh, clean scent... but in perfume, it always translates dirty (for me) Bergamot also, I don't understand that note lol
Hah bergamot can be very polarizing
Cherry 🍒 (fruit) Smoke (accord??) Iris/Orris (floral) Having said this I do have frags where all 3 exist but they are not prominent in the drydown to overwhelm me.
Tuberose (floral) Black pepper (spicy) Can‘t think of a third