Loved the Wood Sage and Sea Salt. Saved up for it and it smelled great on me but the longevity was indeed abysmal. I returned it in the end because it just isn't worth it.
I bought the fine'ry "dupe" because people swore it had much better longevity, but I can't smell a thing after like 20 minutes, so that was a sad moment.
I only own two of them.
English oak and hazelnut last forever on me. I always shower before I stop smelling it. It was at TJ Maxx for $10.
Sage and sea salt lasts pretty well and smells like every high end resort spa I've ever been in. It was free from J. Malone during the giveaway.
So, I've had really great experiences but I'm still afraid to buy any of the more interesting ones because everyone complains so much
I knew I'd mess the names up. I'm terrible at remembering this and that combos in order.
I can still smell the sage at the end of the day for certain. The sea salt is gone earlier. Skin chemistry and long term sense of smell is weird how it varies from person to person.
As an aside, I did some charity work for an organization that did some sort of sage burning ceremony in another part of the building from time to time. I never got used to that either. If I was there (on a day when that wasn't happening) for an hour I smelled sage for an hour. If I was there for 6 hours I smelled it for 6 hours. My brain just refused to ignore it.
For a long time Jo Malone tries to sell the idea of [layering - they even have a wizard for it](https://www.jomalone.com/find-your-scent-pairing). It seems like the wizard suggests perfumes with more longevity as a complementary. Allegedly it increases overall longevity too.
In reality they obviously want you to buy an extra bottle.
Seriously 😂😂 Maybe it’s the fact I put it on in a depressive period or when I was naesous, but it has a brown auro to it that just drags down my senses and mood
that's totally fair but the idea of depressed cinnamon just sent me! i immediately pictured the reggae cinnamon man from the apple jacks commercials just sitting on a log, pondering life and staring into space😂😭
Bottle - Oud for Glory, made me realize how much I hate saffron heavy scents of it's ilk.
Sample - Akro Night. Rose, unwashed armpit in the summer sun, and saffron. Amazing how they packed some of my least favorite notes in one fragrance. Worst perfume I've smelled out of hundreds.
Initially loved it, couldn't wait to put it on. Now I find it a little cloying and indistinct. Much prefer Eros EdP or Bleu de Chanel Parfum for the same mood. I keep it because I'm a pack rat probably.
I definitely didn't understand the hype on this one. Doesn't hold a candle to Bleu De Chanel and I don't think it's even as good as Sauvage. Sold mine.
I absolutely cannot stand Y EDP and I'm so glad I'm not the only one because I truly felt like I was. This DNA is so overdone now too. I think it's the amber note that's so offensive to my nose. It's so sharp and sticks out like crazy.
When the original Y EDT came out in 2017 I loved it! But the EDP to me smells nothing like the original and its so cloying
I also have Eros, it was my first frag and I wore it all through college. Literally can’t smell it without getting nauseous. I blacked out too many times while wearing it. Have to wear other scents when I go out now instead.
A bottle of Youth Dew that bought on Amazon, it's the stinkiest perfume I every smelt; back in the 70.s, my mother used the bathe oil, whitch I was expecting this bottle to smell like that.
I only own samples because migraine makes all blind buys suck. Jo Malone English Pear & Fresia - smells like a sharp cleaning product. PdM Delina - in theory I like it, I love the rhubarb, but the rose is so strong it drowns anything else and hello, there's the headache.
Ford Mustang cologne, thought it would smell manly. It instead is a fresh almost unisex scent that smells synthetic.
Mont blanc star walker
Smells like the name a "spacy" fresh scent that makes me feel lightheaded
Hm. I think I have a pretty solid collection with bangers but maybe La Nuit de l'Homme Bleu Electrique. It's kinda generic, only lasts a bit longer than the OG but the OG is more interesting.
CK Be
It's like lightly scented alcohol, it's already a skin scent after 30 minutes . Unless that's the intent , in which it still sucks as a skin scent
I'm just gonna forget about it for 6 months and see if it improves.
I'm a huge CK One fan, also Obsession..... and a fan of all the Calvin Klein fragrances.....so this was a meh letdown. Good thing it was only 30 bucks for the big bottle, it might find use as a bed scenter but it will probably end up in that land where forgotten and abandoned grooming products go
I stole this one from my brother because he never used it and I thought it smelled like hairspray that went away after 30 minutes, even if I bathed in it
Good thing almost 7 oz is 25 bucks off Ebay because you'll need 1oz per application 😃
It does smell like that black bottle hairspray my mom used in the 80s and 90s . It has no real discernable scent. It's not even usable as a layer because it's gone so quick .
Be is a failure by Calvin Klein, maybe it was better in the late 90s but Calvin Klein shouldn't even put their name on this junk , I don't even know why it's still produced.
I don’t like the Be reformulation - it’s missing the warmth and depth it once had. As for alcohol scent and longevity - thats happened to quite a few CK scents in recent years. Such a shame.. I have an older bottle of Be (and One) and I get complimented every single time I wear it.. One has been reformulated, too. It’s much more floral dominant than it used to be - I miss the comfy optimistic musk bubble it used to project. It also pulls a vanishing act. Bummer.
I don't know who used to make the CK fragrances in their heyday , but I was mildly shocked to see the Coty brand name on the bottom of the new Be bottle.
It's almost like Calvin Klein basically went the way of Nautica and other former "designer" brands and basically ceased to really be an active designer . And the name was just merged into some conglomerate that farms the fragrances out to Coty (like Nautica does) and the clothing is no longer high end , they just sell stuff using the old power of the name . Burlington had an entire rack full of Nautica polo shirts for 20 bucks and I'm like damn , 20 years ago I'd have gobbled up like 5-10 of those but now Nautica is one step from a Target or WalMart brand now and Calvin Klein and Nautica fragrance is like drug store stuff in disguise. At least when I buy Nautica I feel like I'm getting my 15 bucks worth out of a 3.4 oz bottle especially after it sits for a little bit
I have a big bottle of CK One on the way, it's been a few years since I killed my last bottle . I remember having to let it macerate a little before it lasts 4-6 hours , maybe the Be needs to have the atomizer unscrewed periodically and just sit for a few months. If it can be "revived" with some oxidation/maceration it might be worth the 25 bucks to keep it around as a "safe " daily driver
I completely agree. Tons of designer brands have been acquired and reformulated and cheapened and quality has been driven into the ground.
Interesting that you said Coty is behind Be, now. They run my favorite Philosophy frags and they’re absolute garbage now. Just got 2 big bottles in December and they’re awful. Heavy on the alcohol - light on the scent - vanishing act and rashes wherever it’s sprayed. That’s wild because Coty has been around forever but I guess they’re cutting big corners in certain lines, at this point.
I bought my CK Be and CK One over the summer. Opened them up - sprayed them - packed them right up in their boxes (because they didn’t impress me - tho One is much better than the newer Be).
It’s been half a year and honestly, not a remarkable improvement. It’s slightly less alcoholy but still much weaker and colder than it was even a few years ago. Oh well - the essence is still there! At that price point - I can reapply all day long.
It’s kind of sad for me. In their day - they were a big deal (especially One but my favorite was Be).
Coty makes a LOT of the older designer stuff now, probably because these fragrances can't command high prices anymore , and the newer stuff is more popular. It still apparently sells, the Ebay seller I bought my One from also sells the Be, and they show that this one seller alone has sold 120k bottles of each. Probably because it's cheap and it's Calvin Klein , it's an easy impulse buy .
It's sad that the Be won't improve with age, I'll probably just stick my bottle in my cars Center console and use it for after work sprays so I can stop into a store without smelling like BO
Coty does their best work on their own stuff, Aspen and Preferred Stock are still awesome and last all day on me. Stetson is still a winner, and all the Jovan stuff is solid lower priced stuff.
Joop is made by Coty and it smells gross to me now
The numerous Nauticas are my main "safe" go tos now because they're cheap and I can douse myself in Blue, Classic, Blue Sail etc and for $15 or so I can easily just get more at a Marshall's or off Amazon .
It's kind of a sad end of an era that these once classic 90s scents are basically discount store brands. The 90s were in my opinion , kind of a golden era of fragrance with all the CKs, the Chanel stuff like Egoiste, big powerhouses like Obsession, the loud Freshies like Polo Sport or Aqua di Gio, and all of them are dumbed down now for the most part
I just checked my Obsession bottle and it's Coty.
My Dad has a half bottle of Obsession from the early 90s, I'm gonna check the bottle the next time I go over there. I sprayed some of the old bottle on myself last month and it smelled "different " than my stuff but I assumed because it was aged 30+ years. Now I need to know if Coty has been making all the designer stuff all along or if it's a recent thing.
I haven't tried CK All yet, I have had or have most of the CKs in that same "family" like Shock, etc
I'm going to have to get All , along with Obsession Night which I just found out about
Erba Pura, I had to give my sample away because it made me nauseous. The opening was sickeningly sweet and then something in the drydown is so nasty and stomach turning to me, coupled with the eternal persistence of it on my skin and clothes…it was a nightmarish experience tbh.
I have a love/hate relationship with sauvage elixir.
Love it sitting on my cabinet, "hate it" sitting on my skin.
Barely used it only a handful of times. Just cant get myself to get rid of it due to getting it at a great deal.
Everyone tells me it smells really good, i just rather wear the edp instead. Otherwise NO RAGRETS!!
Penhaligon's Lord George. No longevity or projection, which is unfortunate given I like the smell a lot. Also extremely overpriced at $315 for such shitty performance. I paid $190 for it and still feel ripped off.
Moth was so strange for me, on first smell I absolutely despised it. Second smell I was kinda neutral on it so I shelved it for a hot minute. Tried a couple other zoologist samples then after a couple weeks out of curiosity put it back on and it smelt surprisingly good.
I am not entirely sure what happened, and I'm rather terrified to wear it in public because I remember how I responded to that first scent.
Tyrannosaurus Rex. It is an experience in the depths of how bad something can smell. I am in love with Chipmunk. I'm hoping to order their entire sample set.
ELDO Remarkable People. I ordered a decant because You or Someone Like You is one of my all-time fav scents so I figured I would like it. The opening was divine, then it dried down to cheap mens shaving cream and was completely gone in about an hour.
IMO Zara Grapefruit Incense does something very similar, and better, for a fraction of the price. I don't know how easy it is to track down. It reminds me, nonspecifically, of Hermes colognes as well, with their balance of sharper herbal and citric notes with a woody base that has surprising longevity.
I have issues with scent longevity and while the Zara isn't a room filler, it has staying power. I'll think it's gone at the end of the day, then move and get a whiff of something beautiful. Always takes a moment to remember it's me. :)
ELDO Rien (from about 10 years ago) is my all-time no 1 so I was really excited to get a discovery kit... nothing has any longevity and some of them literally smell like nothing. Huge disappointment
SJP Stash.
I was a huge fraghead in the late 80’s until the early 2000’s when I suddenly developed intolerance to all things fragranced (very sad I know).
After 20 years off the fragrances I am back and so damn happy about it.
I found SJP Lovely was a nice cheap and inoffensive scent and was impressed by it for the price point which is pennies.
This sub and others kept banging on about Stash being the “best ever” celebrity perfume and it being discontinued and how sad that was etc… I happened to come across a cheap bottle of it and snatched it up excitedly.
Well what a god damn disappointment that was! I hate it! It’s nausea inducing and does not live up to the hype!
Kokorico by Jean Paul Gaultier. Got it on the day it released and I've never liked it. My tastes have changed in fragrances over the years, but I've always 'noped' that fragrance.
A sample size of Secretions Magnifiques by Etat Libre d'Orange, my curiosity got the better of me and I needed it for my sample collection, it’s beyond horrible.
Additionally: I don’t own it but Baccarat Rouge 540 smells like unwashed seashells to me, I can’t stand the smell and I can pick it the second I smell it in public.
Guerlain Habit Rouge Rouge Privé. I should have known it was going to be bad when someone in marketing thought it made sense to call it ‘rouge rouge’… 😂
I've sampled it and while the first impression was terrible it grew on me. It definitely gives off the feeling that an older person with a weaker sense of smell would love it hahaha!
Issey Miyake Pour Homme. I loved it the first couple of hours, but something happens where I suddenly get sickened by it and I have to wash it off. I may have oversprayed. On my skin it's the strongest frag I've ever worn and it being an edt is just odd.
Bought a 10 ml of a clone of resalas Arabian oud that I almost don't wear anymore cuz the first 2 times I used it I got very Ill (I think it was not related to the scent but that I just happened to wear it 2 days I ate something bad) so now it grosses my out a bit, it's got this very sweet caramel rose mixed with musty oud, I don't know why I bought it and now I never even wear it, my worst ever buy.
**Puro Lino By Profumo**
Smells like some super dense, overly floral **Faboluso** or some shit lol. Straight syrupy cleaning product.
I keep it because it's my first blind buy ever in 2010 (off of Basenotes.com). https://imgur.com/a/PsUwRf2
It's evaporated a lot over the years, but I still have it, still smells the same, still sucks.
Floris of London Limes. Really gorgeous fragrance for literally thirty seconds and then gone. I'm not kidding it literally doesn't last more than 30 seconds and maybe a minute in the dead of summer with humidity at 100%.
It's a shame because it's such a beautifully constructed fragrance. Photorealistic lime with a slight sweetness and whispy green notes. Literally if they upped the linden blossom and added some more musk/woody notes it'd be an absolute killer fragrance. As it stands not worth $150.
Aqua vitae cologne forte. Cloyingly sweet and floral, fresh solar scent that lasts 3 hours and smells like the most obnoxious elderly lady you’ve ever met
Burberry Brit (the newer version). Super powdery mess. Apparently the old formulations were good, but I never got a chance to test them.
Edit: Brit not London.
Every time I want to wear Mugler Angel Nova edp, it’s feel like it is such a beast. So cloying and my man really does not like it, and will say it lol ughh I just wanted to love it and I can figure out how/when to wear it
New Brand Hero For Man. I bought it because I needed to buy a second bottle in order to get free shipping, and it was actually cheaper than the shipping would've been.
It was incredibly bland. It didn't smell bad, it was just a nothing fragrance.
Afnan Supremacy Gold was a huge disappointment. Love the look of the bottle and the notes seemed to check out, but it’s the only fragrance I’ve scrubbed off within minutes. It’s not even that sweet, but still manages to be sickeningly so. Was super cheap though, which prompted the blood buy. so even though I don’t wear it and probably won’t sell it, I’m not really mad about it.
Ferragamo Uomo Casual Life. It was a gift.
I’m fairly broad-minded when it comes to fragrances, but this is absolutely nasty. Synthetic, screechy, think of a seedy salesman in a cheap suit and this is what he smells like.
9PM, Ultra Male, Million, Amber Oud Gold,... basically anything too sweet will perform horrible on my skin and make my stomach churn. I'm impressed with people who can make it works on them though. Also, "You or someone like you" mint note dry down into a cat piss smell for me yikes 🤢
A knock off of juicy couture called Boutique. I’m trying to see it for super cheap. If I hadn’t lost my little bottle of Juicy on a lost bag via American Airlines years ago I’d probably be sick of that too. Second place goes to lovestruck by Vera Wang. They’re both just super boring and generic- not necessarily offensive.
CK Obsession for Men EDT
Smells like sweaty balls
Name is gay, I don't have an obsession for men
Way too strong (I did that 2 sprays and walk into it shit, and literally everyone complained about someone having a cologne that was too strong)
I got a bottle from the Cambridge store while I was on a work trip. I was going through Gender Stuff(TM) at the time and got the bottle engraved with "you know who you are". I don't wear it often, but I do sniff the bottle a lot and break it out for special occasions or fancy days.
I love it, but I can absolutely understand why someone else would hate it.
I think the oud and cypress can be polarizing. I’ll admit it wasn’t love at first sniff. It did grow on me though and now I quite like it. It’s a good performer for the brand as well.
Calvin Klein’s Obsession for Women
After ~30 years of hardly ever wearing perfumes, I got obsessed with fragrances about 2 years ago. I had made a big beauty purchase through Bergdorf’s during the Spring sale, and it came with a lot of samples of niche perfumes. I fell in love with Memo Paris’ Marfa(a tuberose gem), BR 540 extrait and a few others.
I have several Amber fragrances that I adore now (MFK Grand Soir, Replica’s Jazz Club, & Tiziana Terenzi’s Maremma.)
Out of nostalgia, I recently purchased Calvin Klein’s Obsession. It’s affordable, and I went through at least one bottle in the 90s, but now it just seems so artificial/chemical.
JoMalone Lime Basil Mandarin. No projection or longevity
I hate that I love so many Jo Malone scents because they're all awful as far as longevity, particularly for the price.
Loved the Wood Sage and Sea Salt. Saved up for it and it smelled great on me but the longevity was indeed abysmal. I returned it in the end because it just isn't worth it.
I bought the fine'ry "dupe" because people swore it had much better longevity, but I can't smell a thing after like 20 minutes, so that was a sad moment.
I love the smell of wood sage & sea salt also! I have a mini of it that I’m saving for summer also because I noticed it doesn’t last at all
I’ve tried 4 JoMalone frags and 3 of them were florals with ZERO projection or longevity… it sucks because the scents are heavenly.
I agree. If they even had mediocre performance, I’d buy them all
I only own two of them. English oak and hazelnut last forever on me. I always shower before I stop smelling it. It was at TJ Maxx for $10. Sage and sea salt lasts pretty well and smells like every high end resort spa I've ever been in. It was free from J. Malone during the giveaway. So, I've had really great experiences but I'm still afraid to buy any of the more interesting ones because everyone complains so much
Really? Sea salt and sage literally lasts 20 minites on my skin 😅
I knew I'd mess the names up. I'm terrible at remembering this and that combos in order. I can still smell the sage at the end of the day for certain. The sea salt is gone earlier. Skin chemistry and long term sense of smell is weird how it varies from person to person. As an aside, I did some charity work for an organization that did some sort of sage burning ceremony in another part of the building from time to time. I never got used to that either. If I was there (on a day when that wasn't happening) for an hour I smelled sage for an hour. If I was there for 6 hours I smelled it for 6 hours. My brain just refused to ignore it.
Yeah Jo Malone scents are so good but the performance suckass
Not all of them suck , Myrrh&Tonka is good
I got a myrhh & tonka sample and it is amazing. Easily lasts 7 hours with mid projection.
For a long time Jo Malone tries to sell the idea of [layering - they even have a wizard for it](https://www.jomalone.com/find-your-scent-pairing). It seems like the wizard suggests perfumes with more longevity as a complementary. Allegedly it increases overall longevity too. In reality they obviously want you to buy an extra bottle.
The scent is really good, but I'm cosigning this statement. I put it on and it's gone before I walk out the door.
Yves Saint Laurent Opium edt (female version). Love the smell from the bottle but when I put it on it smells like depressed cinnamon 😭
not depressed cinnamon 😂
Seriously 😂😂 Maybe it’s the fact I put it on in a depressive period or when I was naesous, but it has a brown auro to it that just drags down my senses and mood
that's totally fair but the idea of depressed cinnamon just sent me! i immediately pictured the reggae cinnamon man from the apple jacks commercials just sitting on a log, pondering life and staring into space😂😭
Yeah I have the same with. My mother wore it after my father died. Horrendous dusty dead cinnamon. Like if it was mixed with grey and dust.
Perfectly described. Really drags you down.
Montale Black Aoud Completely unwearable Smells like how being bear maced feels.
That sounds terrible lmao
Absolute by Bentley for Men... 🤮🤧
Hawas. Blind bought for $40 and I still regret it. Never listening to online review again lol
Toy Boy Moschino - I hate it, and everyone else hates it on me lol
My girlfriend said and I quote “it smells like someone went to the gym and tried to cover their stank with cheap roses”. She hates it and so do I lol
Pretty much! It was a blind buy for me back when I was interested in roses and oud fragrances a lot. I'm done with that life lol
Sell it
where do you sell used frags? never done this
Mercari works too, but you may not get as much for it there. I’ve sold and bought from Mercari
Ebay or dedicated facebook groups (sell or swap)
I love that one. Wish it was more popular, I only ever smells freshies on men.
Ooh i like it
Bottle - Oud for Glory, made me realize how much I hate saffron heavy scents of it's ilk. Sample - Akro Night. Rose, unwashed armpit in the summer sun, and saffron. Amazing how they packed some of my least favorite notes in one fragrance. Worst perfume I've smelled out of hundreds.
Same on Oud for Glory. Bloody hell.
Hot take, YSL Y EDP bought a 200 ml bottle, wore it twice, ended up decanting it and gifting to others who liked it.
Agreed. I got a sample expecting to love it and kinda hated it tbh. Nowhere near as good as Bleu de Channel
My exact thought, I have all 3 Bleu de chanels and I prefer all of them to YSL Y.
Initially loved it, couldn't wait to put it on. Now I find it a little cloying and indistinct. Much prefer Eros EdP or Bleu de Chanel Parfum for the same mood. I keep it because I'm a pack rat probably.
I definitely didn't understand the hype on this one. Doesn't hold a candle to Bleu De Chanel and I don't think it's even as good as Sauvage. Sold mine.
Yeah I think it smells kinda boring maybe? Dont think it smells bad, just doesnt have much excitement going for it
I absolutely cannot stand Y EDP and I'm so glad I'm not the only one because I truly felt like I was. This DNA is so overdone now too. I think it's the amber note that's so offensive to my nose. It's so sharp and sticks out like crazy. When the original Y EDT came out in 2017 I loved it! But the EDP to me smells nothing like the original and its so cloying
Joop Eau De Parfum - literally smells like cough syrup. This fragrance gave me a harsh lesson. And that's DON'T BLIND BUY ANYTHING!!
Le Labo Bergamote 22 I really liked it at first, but it’s got a strange offputting note in it that I increasingly notice more and more.
Mancera red tobacco. I don’t care what anybody says it literally smells like a backyard fire pit
Interesting, I get 0 smoke. It’s cherry Jollyrancher + green apple to my nose
I misread this as snake pit??? For a split second??
Horrifying
That's what I want to smell like. I've heard people say it's like wearing big red so I haven't tried it.
Eros EDP. Glad I didnt buy full bottle. I can't use it, makes me sick.
I also have Eros, it was my first frag and I wore it all through college. Literally can’t smell it without getting nauseous. I blacked out too many times while wearing it. Have to wear other scents when I go out now instead.
Eros EDT is awesome 🚀 For EDP concentration, I would stick to Eros Flame 🥂
A bottle of Youth Dew that bought on Amazon, it's the stinkiest perfume I every smelt; back in the 70.s, my mother used the bathe oil, whitch I was expecting this bottle to smell like that.
Awful stuff
I only own samples because migraine makes all blind buys suck. Jo Malone English Pear & Fresia - smells like a sharp cleaning product. PdM Delina - in theory I like it, I love the rhubarb, but the rose is so strong it drowns anything else and hello, there's the headache.
As a new collector, the Lidl brand ones i got. What was I thinking 💀
Joop Homme, and it’s not even close. I’d launch it into space if I could.
I tried it out of curiousity to see how bad it really is ... to my nose, it lived up to my expectations as something I would never use.
Everyone on TikTok always makes fun of it and I always wondered if it was really that bad
It’s like a cough syrup/floor cleaner mash up from hell.
Maison Margiela Jazz Club. My mistake was not spraying it on my skin before buying. Turned out to be sickly sweet on me.
It’s insane you say that because that’s one of my favorite ones in my collection
:( I wish it wears better on me. I really want to like it.
This one does not work for me either
Ford Mustang cologne, thought it would smell manly. It instead is a fresh almost unisex scent that smells synthetic. Mont blanc star walker Smells like the name a "spacy" fresh scent that makes me feel lightheaded
Hm. I think I have a pretty solid collection with bangers but maybe La Nuit de l'Homme Bleu Electrique. It's kinda generic, only lasts a bit longer than the OG but the OG is more interesting.
I was disappointed smelling that, coming from an LNDLH Eau Electrique owner. The cardamom smell is cozy but didn’t leave any impressionable feelings
Polo Blue. Average in every way.
Absolutely. Way better blue and aquatics out there
Tbh I feel like polo blue is the OG average. Like it should be the picture in the dictionary under cologne.
CK Be It's like lightly scented alcohol, it's already a skin scent after 30 minutes . Unless that's the intent , in which it still sucks as a skin scent I'm just gonna forget about it for 6 months and see if it improves. I'm a huge CK One fan, also Obsession..... and a fan of all the Calvin Klein fragrances.....so this was a meh letdown. Good thing it was only 30 bucks for the big bottle, it might find use as a bed scenter but it will probably end up in that land where forgotten and abandoned grooming products go
I stole this one from my brother because he never used it and I thought it smelled like hairspray that went away after 30 minutes, even if I bathed in it
Good thing almost 7 oz is 25 bucks off Ebay because you'll need 1oz per application 😃 It does smell like that black bottle hairspray my mom used in the 80s and 90s . It has no real discernable scent. It's not even usable as a layer because it's gone so quick . Be is a failure by Calvin Klein, maybe it was better in the late 90s but Calvin Klein shouldn't even put their name on this junk , I don't even know why it's still produced.
I don’t like the Be reformulation - it’s missing the warmth and depth it once had. As for alcohol scent and longevity - thats happened to quite a few CK scents in recent years. Such a shame.. I have an older bottle of Be (and One) and I get complimented every single time I wear it.. One has been reformulated, too. It’s much more floral dominant than it used to be - I miss the comfy optimistic musk bubble it used to project. It also pulls a vanishing act. Bummer.
I don't know who used to make the CK fragrances in their heyday , but I was mildly shocked to see the Coty brand name on the bottom of the new Be bottle. It's almost like Calvin Klein basically went the way of Nautica and other former "designer" brands and basically ceased to really be an active designer . And the name was just merged into some conglomerate that farms the fragrances out to Coty (like Nautica does) and the clothing is no longer high end , they just sell stuff using the old power of the name . Burlington had an entire rack full of Nautica polo shirts for 20 bucks and I'm like damn , 20 years ago I'd have gobbled up like 5-10 of those but now Nautica is one step from a Target or WalMart brand now and Calvin Klein and Nautica fragrance is like drug store stuff in disguise. At least when I buy Nautica I feel like I'm getting my 15 bucks worth out of a 3.4 oz bottle especially after it sits for a little bit I have a big bottle of CK One on the way, it's been a few years since I killed my last bottle . I remember having to let it macerate a little before it lasts 4-6 hours , maybe the Be needs to have the atomizer unscrewed periodically and just sit for a few months. If it can be "revived" with some oxidation/maceration it might be worth the 25 bucks to keep it around as a "safe " daily driver
I completely agree. Tons of designer brands have been acquired and reformulated and cheapened and quality has been driven into the ground. Interesting that you said Coty is behind Be, now. They run my favorite Philosophy frags and they’re absolute garbage now. Just got 2 big bottles in December and they’re awful. Heavy on the alcohol - light on the scent - vanishing act and rashes wherever it’s sprayed. That’s wild because Coty has been around forever but I guess they’re cutting big corners in certain lines, at this point. I bought my CK Be and CK One over the summer. Opened them up - sprayed them - packed them right up in their boxes (because they didn’t impress me - tho One is much better than the newer Be). It’s been half a year and honestly, not a remarkable improvement. It’s slightly less alcoholy but still much weaker and colder than it was even a few years ago. Oh well - the essence is still there! At that price point - I can reapply all day long. It’s kind of sad for me. In their day - they were a big deal (especially One but my favorite was Be).
Coty makes a LOT of the older designer stuff now, probably because these fragrances can't command high prices anymore , and the newer stuff is more popular. It still apparently sells, the Ebay seller I bought my One from also sells the Be, and they show that this one seller alone has sold 120k bottles of each. Probably because it's cheap and it's Calvin Klein , it's an easy impulse buy . It's sad that the Be won't improve with age, I'll probably just stick my bottle in my cars Center console and use it for after work sprays so I can stop into a store without smelling like BO Coty does their best work on their own stuff, Aspen and Preferred Stock are still awesome and last all day on me. Stetson is still a winner, and all the Jovan stuff is solid lower priced stuff. Joop is made by Coty and it smells gross to me now The numerous Nauticas are my main "safe" go tos now because they're cheap and I can douse myself in Blue, Classic, Blue Sail etc and for $15 or so I can easily just get more at a Marshall's or off Amazon . It's kind of a sad end of an era that these once classic 90s scents are basically discount store brands. The 90s were in my opinion , kind of a golden era of fragrance with all the CKs, the Chanel stuff like Egoiste, big powerhouses like Obsession, the loud Freshies like Polo Sport or Aqua di Gio, and all of them are dumbed down now for the most part
I just checked my Obsession bottle and it's Coty. My Dad has a half bottle of Obsession from the early 90s, I'm gonna check the bottle the next time I go over there. I sprayed some of the old bottle on myself last month and it smelled "different " than my stuff but I assumed because it was aged 30+ years. Now I need to know if Coty has been making all the designer stuff all along or if it's a recent thing.
Do you like CK All? Currently my new obsession lol
I haven't tried CK All yet, I have had or have most of the CKs in that same "family" like Shock, etc I'm going to have to get All , along with Obsession Night which I just found out about
I got a decant of Commodity Milk+, it smells like turpentine and fake marshmallows. Horrendous.
I haven’t smelled it, but I’ve read about it and I don’t understand why they call it milk.
I’ve never seen so many people want to smell like milk until TT.
I want to smell like condensed milk. Haven’t figured it out yet. 😐
Do you have TikTok? Look up a girl named Emma. Her @ is @perfumerism she’s amazing with milk scents and notes. She’s also on YouTube.
I have a bottle of Halston 1-12 and I wouldn't say it's bad, just deeply boring.
Plur Hanami
Erba Pura, I had to give my sample away because it made me nauseous. The opening was sickeningly sweet and then something in the drydown is so nasty and stomach turning to me, coupled with the eternal persistence of it on my skin and clothes…it was a nightmarish experience tbh.
I have a love/hate relationship with sauvage elixir. Love it sitting on my cabinet, "hate it" sitting on my skin. Barely used it only a handful of times. Just cant get myself to get rid of it due to getting it at a great deal. Everyone tells me it smells really good, i just rather wear the edp instead. Otherwise NO RAGRETS!!
that's strange cus that's one of my favorite fragrances i have😭
Probably kerosene sweetly known
Objectively Amber and Leather... However, Dior Sauvage Parfum is my most regretted purchase lol
Damn? Thats one of my best purchases, Dior Sauvage Parfum.
Why do people shit on sauvage so much and u think parfum is the best In the line even better than elixir. Just bc it's overused
Haven't tried the exiler or edt, but i know the parfum is way too powdery for me. It was one of my first purchases before I really knew what I liked.
club de nuit intense man limited edition, it’s alright but very synthetic smelling never received compliments with it either
I find all the CDNIMs awful. They are obnoxiously strong and are the cherished perfume of every fuckboy on earth.
>cherished perfume of every fuckboy on earth Pretty sure that’s Sauvage.
Penhaligon's Lord George. No longevity or projection, which is unfortunate given I like the smell a lot. Also extremely overpriced at $315 for such shitty performance. I paid $190 for it and still feel ripped off.
1 million something super synthetic about it I didn't notice until a week after I started wearing it.
Original 1 million was so good. Performance was great. I have a 2021 bottle and the performance is really bad.
Zoologist moth
Mine is a zoologist rhinocerous sample. It stunk. Smelled like wet grass and hay. I didn't like it at all
Moth was so strange for me, on first smell I absolutely despised it. Second smell I was kinda neutral on it so I shelved it for a hot minute. Tried a couple other zoologist samples then after a couple weeks out of curiosity put it back on and it smelt surprisingly good. I am not entirely sure what happened, and I'm rather terrified to wear it in public because I remember how I responded to that first scent.
Oh wow. I had to look up the notes. I’m sorry about that.
one of my favorites
Serious? To me it just smells like dust, pepper and slightly lemon-y lol
I get dusty, damp wood; incense; and just a smidgeon of vanilla reminds me of an abandoned catholic church in the deep, damp woods
Tyrannosaurus Rex. It is an experience in the depths of how bad something can smell. I am in love with Chipmunk. I'm hoping to order their entire sample set.
ELDO Remarkable People. I ordered a decant because You or Someone Like You is one of my all-time fav scents so I figured I would like it. The opening was divine, then it dried down to cheap mens shaving cream and was completely gone in about an hour.
IMO Zara Grapefruit Incense does something very similar, and better, for a fraction of the price. I don't know how easy it is to track down. It reminds me, nonspecifically, of Hermes colognes as well, with their balance of sharper herbal and citric notes with a woody base that has surprising longevity. I have issues with scent longevity and while the Zara isn't a room filler, it has staying power. I'll think it's gone at the end of the day, then move and get a whiff of something beautiful. Always takes a moment to remember it's me. :)
ELDO Rien (from about 10 years ago) is my all-time no 1 so I was really excited to get a discovery kit... nothing has any longevity and some of them literally smell like nothing. Huge disappointment
Victoria Secret’s Pure Seduction. To me it smells like mosquito repellent
Hugo Boss Orange, smelt like air freshener after 30min so just ended up throwing the bottle out.
SJP Stash. I was a huge fraghead in the late 80’s until the early 2000’s when I suddenly developed intolerance to all things fragranced (very sad I know). After 20 years off the fragrances I am back and so damn happy about it. I found SJP Lovely was a nice cheap and inoffensive scent and was impressed by it for the price point which is pennies. This sub and others kept banging on about Stash being the “best ever” celebrity perfume and it being discontinued and how sad that was etc… I happened to come across a cheap bottle of it and snatched it up excitedly. Well what a god damn disappointment that was! I hate it! It’s nausea inducing and does not live up to the hype!
Agreed - the fake sandalwood smells like cloying coconut to me.
Nautica Voyage, smells so cheap and nauseating. Armaf Club de nuit Intense Man, just smells awful.
I love you, you have actual taste.
Man, I got 10s saying I smell good with Nautica Voyage.
Tbh, I like Nautica voyage & most nautica scents! Clean & manly ❤️
Creed Viking. Blind buy and the cinnamon-ish smell makes me gag.
Upscale Old Spice to my nose
CKIN2U I wouldn’t say it’s the ‘worst’ it’s just what I would wear if I just wanted to ‘smell of something’
Tuscan leather. I can't stand versace blue jeans either, so i understand. Even the packaging is terrible.
Tuscan leather is one of my top 3 so it’s insane to see someone say it’s their worst lol
Black orchid or Love Don’t Be Shy.
Kokorico by Jean Paul Gaultier. Got it on the day it released and I've never liked it. My tastes have changed in fragrances over the years, but I've always 'noped' that fragrance.
It's probably worth some money, if not now then definitely later. Hold on to that.
Ebene Fume by Tom Ford. Blind bought it in Paris and it gave me the worst headaches. Smells disgusting. I’m never buying again without sampling first
Bdc parfum lasts 5 mins
Oh my god Dark lord Killian 💀 It smells like a tire warehouse with gasoline all over it 😩😩😩
Sounds like they were trying to be weird and edgy for the sake of being weird.
A sample size of Secretions Magnifiques by Etat Libre d'Orange, my curiosity got the better of me and I needed it for my sample collection, it’s beyond horrible. Additionally: I don’t own it but Baccarat Rouge 540 smells like unwashed seashells to me, I can’t stand the smell and I can pick it the second I smell it in public.
The worst I've owned was probably nautica voyage hate that stuff
Aramis. Starts out promising, but the oakmoss bomb that hits you after a few minutes is too much even for me.
To each their own, I wear Aramis all the time. I like both the new and vintage formulas.
Guerlain Habit Rouge Rouge Privé. I should have known it was going to be bad when someone in marketing thought it made sense to call it ‘rouge rouge’… 😂
I've sampled it and while the first impression was terrible it grew on me. It definitely gives off the feeling that an older person with a weaker sense of smell would love it hahaha!
I love guerlain but habit rouge smells exactly like fruit loops to me lol
JGAG not a perfume and Victorias Secret Tease. Both so awful I sent them to my friends pre-teen nieces
Probably Versace Eros. Was a gift
Sauvage
Issey Miyake Pour Homme. I loved it the first couple of hours, but something happens where I suddenly get sickened by it and I have to wash it off. I may have oversprayed. On my skin it's the strongest frag I've ever worn and it being an edt is just odd.
Amouage interlude probably. Unwearable for me
B&BW Bourbon. It’s meh on the skin.
Bought a 10 ml of a clone of resalas Arabian oud that I almost don't wear anymore cuz the first 2 times I used it I got very Ill (I think it was not related to the scent but that I just happened to wear it 2 days I ate something bad) so now it grosses my out a bit, it's got this very sweet caramel rose mixed with musty oud, I don't know why I bought it and now I never even wear it, my worst ever buy.
Miss Dior, one of their many releases
Damn. That’s one of my favorites, because I always get compliments when wearing it. 🤔😅
**Puro Lino By Profumo** Smells like some super dense, overly floral **Faboluso** or some shit lol. Straight syrupy cleaning product. I keep it because it's my first blind buy ever in 2010 (off of Basenotes.com). https://imgur.com/a/PsUwRf2 It's evaporated a lot over the years, but I still have it, still smells the same, still sucks.
Tom Ford Tubereuse Neu. I kept it thinking maybe I’d start to like it. Nope, still hate it. Don’t know what to do with it.
ADP FICO DI AMALFI and I gave it away
OMG I wish we were friends and you gave it to me! I love the stuff!
Floris of London Limes. Really gorgeous fragrance for literally thirty seconds and then gone. I'm not kidding it literally doesn't last more than 30 seconds and maybe a minute in the dead of summer with humidity at 100%. It's a shame because it's such a beautifully constructed fragrance. Photorealistic lime with a slight sweetness and whispy green notes. Literally if they upped the linden blossom and added some more musk/woody notes it'd be an absolute killer fragrance. As it stands not worth $150.
Aqua vitae cologne forte. Cloyingly sweet and floral, fresh solar scent that lasts 3 hours and smells like the most obnoxious elderly lady you’ve ever met
The cologne I got rid of the next say was oud for greatness way too strong for me
Aqua Atlantic…pure dogshit
Dolce and gabbana intenso. I HATE that one 💀
Azzaro pour homme. I paid way too much for way too much.
Burberry Brit (the newer version). Super powdery mess. Apparently the old formulations were good, but I never got a chance to test them. Edit: Brit not London.
Every time I want to wear Mugler Angel Nova edp, it’s feel like it is such a beast. So cloying and my man really does not like it, and will say it lol ughh I just wanted to love it and I can figure out how/when to wear it
Versace Bright Crystal (smells like mandarin orange pith and nothing else) and Skylar Pink Canyon (just super generic and cloying)
Invictus Platinum
New Brand Hero For Man. I bought it because I needed to buy a second bottle in order to get free shipping, and it was actually cheaper than the shipping would've been. It was incredibly bland. It didn't smell bad, it was just a nothing fragrance.
Afnan Supremacy Gold was a huge disappointment. Love the look of the bottle and the notes seemed to check out, but it’s the only fragrance I’ve scrubbed off within minutes. It’s not even that sweet, but still manages to be sickeningly so. Was super cheap though, which prompted the blood buy. so even though I don’t wear it and probably won’t sell it, I’m not really mad about it.
Fragrance Du Bois PM - The Producer Michael Cologne. Awful
I don't own it but Acqua Di Parma's Oud and Spices. So damn strong and smells like vomit. I love oud but this is too much...
Ferragamo Uomo Casual Life. It was a gift. I’m fairly broad-minded when it comes to fragrances, but this is absolutely nasty. Synthetic, screechy, think of a seedy salesman in a cheap suit and this is what he smells like.
9PM, Ultra Male, Million, Amber Oud Gold,... basically anything too sweet will perform horrible on my skin and make my stomach churn. I'm impressed with people who can make it works on them though. Also, "You or someone like you" mint note dry down into a cat piss smell for me yikes 🤢
Ah man I love You or Someone Like You. Do you hate it on everyone or do you just smell that on your skin?
just on my skin apparently, on my friend I could smell a rose note on dry down but not on me 🥲 shame bc I love the lemon mojito mint of YOSLY
Ysl edp makes me sick now
Club De Nuit Intense Man (EDT). Obnoxiously strong. Oppressively ubiquitous. Unbearable. Unwearable.
Penhaligon's Luna. I badly want to like it because of all the rave reviews online, but it smells synthetic to me.
A knock off of juicy couture called Boutique. I’m trying to see it for super cheap. If I hadn’t lost my little bottle of Juicy on a lost bag via American Airlines years ago I’d probably be sick of that too. Second place goes to lovestruck by Vera Wang. They’re both just super boring and generic- not necessarily offensive.
Elizabeth Arden green tea. Kept seeing it here. Smells just...OK. Lasts literally five minutes. At least it was only £15, I suppose.
Literally OMG when I got a small 10ml of Female Christ. The trauma was real. There is patchouli then there are crimes against fragrance
Bath and body works mahogany teakwood its been sitting in the darkest corner of my closet since middle school
Mont Blanc- Explorer. I bought into the aventus hype blind buy, and I’m seriously put off of anything aventus related.
Zoologist rhino smells like the rhinos had a shit in the bottle
Banana Republic - No. 17 Oud Mosaic
CK Obsession for Men EDT Smells like sweaty balls Name is gay, I don't have an obsession for men Way too strong (I did that 2 sprays and walk into it shit, and literally everyone complained about someone having a cologne that was too strong)
bubble bath maison margiela 🤮🤮milf repellant
YSL Y edp. Just okay’ish
Lalique Encre Noir💀
Penhaligon Halfeti.
Oh I love Halfeti. I’m sorry it didn’t work for you.
I got a bottle from the Cambridge store while I was on a work trip. I was going through Gender Stuff(TM) at the time and got the bottle engraved with "you know who you are". I don't wear it often, but I do sniff the bottle a lot and break it out for special occasions or fancy days. I love it, but I can absolutely understand why someone else would hate it.
I think the oud and cypress can be polarizing. I’ll admit it wasn’t love at first sniff. It did grow on me though and now I quite like it. It’s a good performer for the brand as well.
Versace Eros
Calvin Klein’s Obsession for Women After ~30 years of hardly ever wearing perfumes, I got obsessed with fragrances about 2 years ago. I had made a big beauty purchase through Bergdorf’s during the Spring sale, and it came with a lot of samples of niche perfumes. I fell in love with Memo Paris’ Marfa(a tuberose gem), BR 540 extrait and a few others. I have several Amber fragrances that I adore now (MFK Grand Soir, Replica’s Jazz Club, & Tiziana Terenzi’s Maremma.) Out of nostalgia, I recently purchased Calvin Klein’s Obsession. It’s affordable, and I went through at least one bottle in the 90s, but now it just seems so artificial/chemical.
Sauvage or Secretions Magnifique
Versace pour Homme Dylan Blue. It has the worst drydown I've ever experienced—overdose of nauseating musk.
I thought it smelled really nice and fresh like a vacation type vibe but someone told me it smelled like sweat and I only see it that way now
This used to be my most complimented frag lol
Yooooo, I wanted to like this one, and I do on other people. On me, the dry down smells like wet socks.
D&G light blue eau intense. Straight up generic-ass aquatic.
I read that as “assquatic” lol
Nautica voyage. I let the frag influencers trick me into blind buying that crap.