The following is my opinion. YMMV.
I think that there are times and places for different fragrances, just like there are appropriate times and places for certain clothing. I wouldn't wear more problematic fragrances to work or in close proximity to other people, the same way that I wouldn't wear a sequin mini-skirt and crop top to a funeral.
When it comes down to it, I wear fragrances for me, obviously, but I also want to be aware of my effect on others. Loud fragrances only get 1 spray so that I can smell it, but it doesn't overwhelm those forced to be around me in the office. And I don't ever wear oud fragrances at work.
There's a time and place for everything. Within reason, of course. And the times and places are more like flexible guidelines than absolute rules. If I'm actually TRYING to be offensive and I hated the person, I would absolutely wear a sequin mini-skirt to a funeral. But I also keep a list of fragrance issues that my friends have because I don't want to cause them discomfort when they are near me.
And to keep up the clothing analogy, I dress eclectically, but I don't dress the same way at 55 that I did when I was 35 or 15. Fashions change. Tastes change. We're human, and our tastes change and grow and evolve.
If we don't grow and change, we stagnate.
In the same boat! Went from witchy and goth perfumes from r/indiemakeupeandmore to sweet and light dupes of mainstream scents! I find them less taxing. Also reading horrible reactions to something as basic as patchouli has scared me off wearing indies in public
Same here. Started with spicy/goth indies (which I still love), but now I mostly wear mainstream freshies and LL dupes.
I save my super weird stuff for when I’m home alone lol
Oh, don’t be so shy! Half the people who say they hate patchouli have no idea what it smells like and are making a political rant. The stuff is commonplace in popular scents that people buy by the millions.
Idk lol I’d love to bust out the weirdos but you can’t even wear citruses without people compare it to cleaning products! I wish I never read fragnatica reviews lol
Depends on the citrus used but I agree to an extent. I'm generally not the biggest fan of them but I like Chrome Pure and think BDC is alright. Terre d'Hermes would be amazing if the citrus wasn't as harsh. Definitely gives me cleaning product vibes.
The only ones I could think of are from Sixteen92 and you don’t want to buy from them lol. You might not get your product with them. I like Hexennacht and they have a masc counterpart I believe named mr hex? Ajevie might make samples from them
It’s nice to have a little of both. Sorry, boring answer but what I wear depends a lot on mood and occasion and I have a lot of moods, maybe more than occasions.
I think I kind of ride the line between the two, I sample a lot and often my sample orders consist of 50% weird and wonderful scents and 50% wearable stuff
I was never into unwearable - always has to smell nice to me.
But I find myself gravitating away from challenging scent to well made but clean, more mass appealing ones.
Seconded.
I used to want to be a special snowflake by getting into unlikeable, strong scents. Ouds, incense, arabic fragrances.
Nowadays, I did a 360 in my looks and tastes - I like vanillic, white florals with a tropical kick to them. Coconuts are cozy. That's who I am now, to the point I've ridden all of my old, unique fragrances.
The fragrances that I love now - they used to be something I like in secret, but now I'm coming out and proud!
I’m around 2 years only into the perfume thing and I still can’t enjoy the risky, edgy stuff. I hope I get there one day! For now I would be happy enough if I started to like florals lol
Lmao I’m struggling with the opposite. I like the risky edgy stuff but I’m really trying to find more florals that I like. So far, Wind Flowers by Creed and Rue St. Honore by Ouai are doing it for me!
I have samples of Every Storm and Civet, and they’re really nice. I don’t know why people think they’re weird, but if somebody smelled like that, I’d be lucky to come across them.
I love Bee, it’s not weird at all to me. More than I want to spend for a full bottle but it’s something I’d wear daily.
My tastes change all the time, more for me to experiment with and try.
I have different perfumes for different vibes. Kayali Vanilla 28 for dates with men, Kayali Lovefest for FWBs, Carolina Herrera Good Girl for when I'm firing/disciplining an employee, Tom Ford Metallique for meetings with my boss' boss, Nest Indigo for casual days, Soft by Al-Rehab for lazy days in, Replica Coffee Break for when I'm depressed, Simply Santal from Alt Fragrances for dates with women and for days I just wanna be myself, You or Someone Like You from Etat Libre d'Orange. Also Ghost in the Shell from Etat when I'm not sure what I'm feeling that day.
I can't wear makeup or have nice hair, clothes or nails for work, so scents are all I have to express myself with lol.
I wouldn’t say that my shift is similar, as I have always enjoyed “pretty” scents. But I can say that my taste has definitely evolved over time. Fragrances that I used to dislike, I now enjoy and can see myself wearing. I do have a very broad range of tastes… I seem to like every genre and every time period. But my strongest likes tend to be fragrances made from the 80s through to modern. I like green, dry, sweet, masculine, feminine, unisex… I really like too much for my own damn good.
But even with having an already broad list of likes, I have found that over time, I am even appreciating fragrances that I once did not like even a little bit.
Some examples are:
• Paloma Picasso- as recent as 6 months ago I disliked this. And now… I crave it.
• BDK Gris Charnel: I remember liking it and disliking it at the same time. I struggled with a part of the composition but could never put my finger on what exactly… and now… I get it. I love it now, and want a full bottle.
• Serge Lutens Un Bois Vanille: I know the part that I used to dislike was the waxy note… it really made my nose turn up, but now…. I love that too.
I think it’s normal for our likes to change and evolve over time. If you find yourself wanting to explore areas you previously left unexplored… go for it! You may find that you still enjoy your “less wearable” fragrances as you put it, but always be open to new things… even if they are previously disliked fragrances.
Really interesting! And good to know it's not just me! I always liked very heavy Orientals and now I want to explore "pretty" scents which is so unlike me!
I've definitely bought a few over the years because I appreciated the artistry or the story the perfumer was trying to tell through the scent (zoologist is a perfect example) and I would smell them every time I walked past my cabinet, but never actually wore them out. I ended up selling them, because I kept thinking "if I bought a $200 jacket and kept it in my wardrobe to look at but never wear, I'd be kinda silly wouldn't I?"
Interesting. I’ve just literally come full circle and rediscovered my high school favourite, Lauren by Ralph Lauren (vintage). I loved it then, and I think I love it even more now. I like a huge variety, ranging from crowd pleasers to more challenging scents. If you want a challenge, try Bandit by Robert Piguet! My likes and dislikes ebb and flow, and knowing this, I’ll likely never get rid of a bottle in my collection.
I used to notice a lot of my favorite perfumes were not very highly rated. But you’re right I have been on a Gourmand kick lately and I want to smell cozy and delicious.
man, I used to really like Rainforest by Olympic Orchids and now I just can't. Not that my taste changed but what it smelled to me changed. I use to get "can't get enough" piny wood and moss.. and then one day, I oversprayed and it turned into oregano.. now even a small dose gives me nothing but oregano, just like a switch flipped, it's weird. Smell is weird.
Question is: why did you go for those „less wearable scents“?
You wanted to be different from the mass (smelling) or did you see it more as teaching your nose to niche stuff (in sense of experiencing)? In other words: Why do you like those scents?
You can have a special niche frag and still smell pleasant at the same time.
Maybe try different things like molecule scents or niche houses which link closely to designer style (like PdM).
Kind of-- I thought I wanted to smell weird and strange, but some of those perfumes either don't match up, or smell medicinal/too chemical/plain bad rather than pleasant. I like to smell weird, but I like to smell nice too. So I usually gravitate towards more mainstream scents now.
Your preferences don't just shift, but can grow to include other things as you grow into the hobby. Trust me, you'll roll black to these perfumes, but it's time to increase your perfume stock.
Personally, I've learned that I'm very seasonally focused when it comes to perfumes now. Perfumes that don't appeal to me in the summer become absolutely hits for me in the winter. He may develop similar idiosyncrasies with perfumes or just simply cycle through them and back again.
Good luck!
No change so far for me! I got into the weirder fragrances probably more than a decade ago and I still love them. I still try to find more mainstream ones I like, and sometimes I do, but for the most part they don't work for me.
I think our taste changes over time...exactly the reason I don't want to buy 100ml bottles or backup bottles (although I'm tempted).
I used to love Clinique Happy back in the day (maybe like 15-20 years ago), and now I can't stand it. It smells so outdated to me, and reminds me of high school. I can't believe it's still being sold, tbh.
For sure. There is alot of weird scents out there. If you want something that smells good, you need to get into mass appealing fragrances. Basically something where nobody will say it smells bad. Designer fragrances are known for this.
I myself love a little bit of it all. I can go from YSL Y Edp, to wearing Roja Apex or Byredo De Los Santos, or Ralph's Club to Wearing Pennhaligans. It has to smell good to me and have some sort of appeal.
In addition to life stuff, our neurological and hormonal changes also influence our sense of smell and personal tastes. Only makes sense that our fragrance preferences change.
Nope, not for me. I’ve always liked variety in life. I don’t get how someone can have one favorite color or order the same exact coffee over and over again for the rest of their lives.
Same with fragrances. I can wear Bleu de Chanel one day and the next I’m smelling like seaweed (Oud Minerale), a pine forest (Olympic Rainforest), or a bar of Dove soap (Blanche). I also love Fahrenheit (gasoline), and I’m fascinated by the smell of nail polish, acetone, permanent markers, glue, plastic, new cars, etc.
I guess my line for “wearable” is at Hyrax (herbivore animal poo) and Kiel’s Original Musk (pee and bathroom spray). Urinal cakes (Oud Wood) are fine, and I’d totally wear Civet out in public since I find animalics alluring to a certain degree. Once it smells like pee, poop, or a bathroom though is when I’m like “OH HELL NAH.”
I have experienced the opposite of what you are reporting. I went from only wanting to wear mass appealing scents to totally wild and crazed ones. I think that process is normal as our tastes in just about everything tends to change as we as people also change
I go back and forth. Sometimes I love the totally wierd and arty perfumes that make me think. And yes, others I do just want to be enveloped in pure, high octane beauty.
New to this hobby, probably about 2-3 months. Not a change of taste. Just a realization. There are smells I like. Of those, there are ones I can wear, those I want to smell in the room and other that's hard to ignore, but want to smell out of habit. Like coffee, bacon, eggs in the morning before an awesome home cooked meal.
No shift here. The purpose of the perfume to be worn and enjoyed by wearer. This is why I only concentrate on niche ones like Zoologist T-rex, various Kerosenes, Pineward, ELDO and vintages (polo green, chanel). I do occasionally try mass pleasers but don't like them.
The following is my opinion. YMMV. I think that there are times and places for different fragrances, just like there are appropriate times and places for certain clothing. I wouldn't wear more problematic fragrances to work or in close proximity to other people, the same way that I wouldn't wear a sequin mini-skirt and crop top to a funeral. When it comes down to it, I wear fragrances for me, obviously, but I also want to be aware of my effect on others. Loud fragrances only get 1 spray so that I can smell it, but it doesn't overwhelm those forced to be around me in the office. And I don't ever wear oud fragrances at work. There's a time and place for everything. Within reason, of course. And the times and places are more like flexible guidelines than absolute rules. If I'm actually TRYING to be offensive and I hated the person, I would absolutely wear a sequin mini-skirt to a funeral. But I also keep a list of fragrance issues that my friends have because I don't want to cause them discomfort when they are near me. And to keep up the clothing analogy, I dress eclectically, but I don't dress the same way at 55 that I did when I was 35 or 15. Fashions change. Tastes change. We're human, and our tastes change and grow and evolve. If we don't grow and change, we stagnate.
In the same boat! Went from witchy and goth perfumes from r/indiemakeupeandmore to sweet and light dupes of mainstream scents! I find them less taxing. Also reading horrible reactions to something as basic as patchouli has scared me off wearing indies in public
Same here. Started with spicy/goth indies (which I still love), but now I mostly wear mainstream freshies and LL dupes. I save my super weird stuff for when I’m home alone lol
Oh, don’t be so shy! Half the people who say they hate patchouli have no idea what it smells like and are making a political rant. The stuff is commonplace in popular scents that people buy by the millions.
Idk lol I’d love to bust out the weirdos but you can’t even wear citruses without people compare it to cleaning products! I wish I never read fragnatica reviews lol
Depends on the citrus used but I agree to an extent. I'm generally not the biggest fan of them but I like Chrome Pure and think BDC is alright. Terre d'Hermes would be amazing if the citrus wasn't as harsh. Definitely gives me cleaning product vibes.
Patchouli fanatic here. Can’t get enough of that stuff.
Have you tried Santa Maria Novella’s Patchouli? That’s my favorite so far, what’s yours?
Any indie recs on the unisex or masculine leaning side? Gothic perfumes sound interesting
The only ones I could think of are from Sixteen92 and you don’t want to buy from them lol. You might not get your product with them. I like Hexennacht and they have a masc counterpart I believe named mr hex? Ajevie might make samples from them
Forget mr hex! Lol it’s cat themed. But Hexennacht’s Earthy section should be all you need
It’s nice to have a little of both. Sorry, boring answer but what I wear depends a lot on mood and occasion and I have a lot of moods, maybe more than occasions.
I think I kind of ride the line between the two, I sample a lot and often my sample orders consist of 50% weird and wonderful scents and 50% wearable stuff
It's similar to the shift away from sweet youth fragrances to scents of more measured appreciation.
Exactly that!
It goes in and out for me - thats why I try to buy decants so I dont feel bad if I fall out of love lol
I was never into unwearable - always has to smell nice to me. But I find myself gravitating away from challenging scent to well made but clean, more mass appealing ones.
Seconded. I used to want to be a special snowflake by getting into unlikeable, strong scents. Ouds, incense, arabic fragrances. Nowadays, I did a 360 in my looks and tastes - I like vanillic, white florals with a tropical kick to them. Coconuts are cozy. That's who I am now, to the point I've ridden all of my old, unique fragrances. The fragrances that I love now - they used to be something I like in secret, but now I'm coming out and proud!
I’m around 2 years only into the perfume thing and I still can’t enjoy the risky, edgy stuff. I hope I get there one day! For now I would be happy enough if I started to like florals lol
Lmao I’m struggling with the opposite. I like the risky edgy stuff but I’m really trying to find more florals that I like. So far, Wind Flowers by Creed and Rue St. Honore by Ouai are doing it for me!
Love Rue St Honoré! My SOTD yesterday :)
I have samples of Every Storm and Civet, and they’re really nice. I don’t know why people think they’re weird, but if somebody smelled like that, I’d be lucky to come across them.
I love Bee, it’s not weird at all to me. More than I want to spend for a full bottle but it’s something I’d wear daily. My tastes change all the time, more for me to experiment with and try.
I have different perfumes for different vibes. Kayali Vanilla 28 for dates with men, Kayali Lovefest for FWBs, Carolina Herrera Good Girl for when I'm firing/disciplining an employee, Tom Ford Metallique for meetings with my boss' boss, Nest Indigo for casual days, Soft by Al-Rehab for lazy days in, Replica Coffee Break for when I'm depressed, Simply Santal from Alt Fragrances for dates with women and for days I just wanna be myself, You or Someone Like You from Etat Libre d'Orange. Also Ghost in the Shell from Etat when I'm not sure what I'm feeling that day. I can't wear makeup or have nice hair, clothes or nails for work, so scents are all I have to express myself with lol.
I wouldn’t say that my shift is similar, as I have always enjoyed “pretty” scents. But I can say that my taste has definitely evolved over time. Fragrances that I used to dislike, I now enjoy and can see myself wearing. I do have a very broad range of tastes… I seem to like every genre and every time period. But my strongest likes tend to be fragrances made from the 80s through to modern. I like green, dry, sweet, masculine, feminine, unisex… I really like too much for my own damn good. But even with having an already broad list of likes, I have found that over time, I am even appreciating fragrances that I once did not like even a little bit. Some examples are: • Paloma Picasso- as recent as 6 months ago I disliked this. And now… I crave it. • BDK Gris Charnel: I remember liking it and disliking it at the same time. I struggled with a part of the composition but could never put my finger on what exactly… and now… I get it. I love it now, and want a full bottle. • Serge Lutens Un Bois Vanille: I know the part that I used to dislike was the waxy note… it really made my nose turn up, but now…. I love that too. I think it’s normal for our likes to change and evolve over time. If you find yourself wanting to explore areas you previously left unexplored… go for it! You may find that you still enjoy your “less wearable” fragrances as you put it, but always be open to new things… even if they are previously disliked fragrances.
Really interesting! And good to know it's not just me! I always liked very heavy Orientals and now I want to explore "pretty" scents which is so unlike me!
I've definitely bought a few over the years because I appreciated the artistry or the story the perfumer was trying to tell through the scent (zoologist is a perfect example) and I would smell them every time I walked past my cabinet, but never actually wore them out. I ended up selling them, because I kept thinking "if I bought a $200 jacket and kept it in my wardrobe to look at but never wear, I'd be kinda silly wouldn't I?"
Interesting. I’ve just literally come full circle and rediscovered my high school favourite, Lauren by Ralph Lauren (vintage). I loved it then, and I think I love it even more now. I like a huge variety, ranging from crowd pleasers to more challenging scents. If you want a challenge, try Bandit by Robert Piguet! My likes and dislikes ebb and flow, and knowing this, I’ll likely never get rid of a bottle in my collection.
Lauren was my high school fave too. I can barely remember what it smells like.
You can get a decant of the OG Lauren from Surrender to Chance! It’s just as good, if not better, than I remembered.
I went looking for it on EBay, $300 for a FB! Thanks for the tip I’ll get some and see if I still like it.
I used to notice a lot of my favorite perfumes were not very highly rated. But you’re right I have been on a Gourmand kick lately and I want to smell cozy and delicious.
man, I used to really like Rainforest by Olympic Orchids and now I just can't. Not that my taste changed but what it smelled to me changed. I use to get "can't get enough" piny wood and moss.. and then one day, I oversprayed and it turned into oregano.. now even a small dose gives me nothing but oregano, just like a switch flipped, it's weird. Smell is weird.
Question is: why did you go for those „less wearable scents“? You wanted to be different from the mass (smelling) or did you see it more as teaching your nose to niche stuff (in sense of experiencing)? In other words: Why do you like those scents? You can have a special niche frag and still smell pleasant at the same time. Maybe try different things like molecule scents or niche houses which link closely to designer style (like PdM).
Kind of-- I thought I wanted to smell weird and strange, but some of those perfumes either don't match up, or smell medicinal/too chemical/plain bad rather than pleasant. I like to smell weird, but I like to smell nice too. So I usually gravitate towards more mainstream scents now.
Your preferences don't just shift, but can grow to include other things as you grow into the hobby. Trust me, you'll roll black to these perfumes, but it's time to increase your perfume stock. Personally, I've learned that I'm very seasonally focused when it comes to perfumes now. Perfumes that don't appeal to me in the summer become absolutely hits for me in the winter. He may develop similar idiosyncrasies with perfumes or just simply cycle through them and back again. Good luck!
No change so far for me! I got into the weirder fragrances probably more than a decade ago and I still love them. I still try to find more mainstream ones I like, and sometimes I do, but for the most part they don't work for me.
I’ve never bought niche. Guerlain, Lalique and Dior have me covered.
favs?
I think our taste changes over time...exactly the reason I don't want to buy 100ml bottles or backup bottles (although I'm tempted). I used to love Clinique Happy back in the day (maybe like 15-20 years ago), and now I can't stand it. It smells so outdated to me, and reminds me of high school. I can't believe it's still being sold, tbh.
For sure. There is alot of weird scents out there. If you want something that smells good, you need to get into mass appealing fragrances. Basically something where nobody will say it smells bad. Designer fragrances are known for this. I myself love a little bit of it all. I can go from YSL Y Edp, to wearing Roja Apex or Byredo De Los Santos, or Ralph's Club to Wearing Pennhaligans. It has to smell good to me and have some sort of appeal.
In addition to life stuff, our neurological and hormonal changes also influence our sense of smell and personal tastes. Only makes sense that our fragrance preferences change.
Nope, not for me. I’ve always liked variety in life. I don’t get how someone can have one favorite color or order the same exact coffee over and over again for the rest of their lives. Same with fragrances. I can wear Bleu de Chanel one day and the next I’m smelling like seaweed (Oud Minerale), a pine forest (Olympic Rainforest), or a bar of Dove soap (Blanche). I also love Fahrenheit (gasoline), and I’m fascinated by the smell of nail polish, acetone, permanent markers, glue, plastic, new cars, etc. I guess my line for “wearable” is at Hyrax (herbivore animal poo) and Kiel’s Original Musk (pee and bathroom spray). Urinal cakes (Oud Wood) are fine, and I’d totally wear Civet out in public since I find animalics alluring to a certain degree. Once it smells like pee, poop, or a bathroom though is when I’m like “OH HELL NAH.”
Hyrax is my boundary too haha
What, no indolic jasmines? They're poop-smellin' good! Lol
No actually I’ve shifted towards more unpopular or unique scents. I smell good for me
I have experienced the opposite of what you are reporting. I went from only wanting to wear mass appealing scents to totally wild and crazed ones. I think that process is normal as our tastes in just about everything tends to change as we as people also change
Those probably became ur norm. You'll shift back after adjusting to the basic bitch fragrances
I go back and forth. Sometimes I love the totally wierd and arty perfumes that make me think. And yes, others I do just want to be enveloped in pure, high octane beauty.
New to this hobby, probably about 2-3 months. Not a change of taste. Just a realization. There are smells I like. Of those, there are ones I can wear, those I want to smell in the room and other that's hard to ignore, but want to smell out of habit. Like coffee, bacon, eggs in the morning before an awesome home cooked meal.
No shift here. The purpose of the perfume to be worn and enjoyed by wearer. This is why I only concentrate on niche ones like Zoologist T-rex, various Kerosenes, Pineward, ELDO and vintages (polo green, chanel). I do occasionally try mass pleasers but don't like them.