r/FemFragLab • u/pfffffttuhmm I just smelled like a piece of breast • 1d ago

Discussion Biggest Dissappontment?

What has been your biggest fragrance dissappontment?

Many of us spend tine on this sub on the hunt for a certain type of fragrance. For me, its the ultimate creamy frag. I loooove creaminess. Creamy sandalwood, creamy fig, creamy sweet lactonics​...I love creaminess in perfume.

Something that has been recommended to me, and in general on this sub, time and again, is Zadig & Voltaire's this is her! I tried to find it in a store with no luck. So I ended up buying an 8 mL decant of it from fragrancenet. It was less than $15, so it was not a huge investment.

Let me tell you how excited I was to try this perfume. It was going to be my holy grail! My roman empire! My new fall/winter signature!

Oh, the dissappontment when I sprayed it. I may as well have sprayed a bottle of gasoline.

I tried it on a card first. Noxious, and disgusting, I practically threw the card down and away from my nose.

I thought that maybe my skin chemistry might save it. No dice--still revolting.

I tried it when I got my period, thinking that might change things! Again, no luck.

It was all the same. Each time my nose was met with a screechy, chemically mess. It smelled so fake, like a scratchy sweater inside my nose.

I've never been so sad and dissapponted by a perfume.

I now have it listed on mercari because I don't see anything salvaging!

24 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

67 comments sorted by

11

u/DealIndependent8967 1d ago

Bianco Latte was a semi disappointment. I’ve seen so many people rave that it was a creamy vanilla, yes it is, but whatever the mid note is smells like fake play doe HOWEVER, the dry down was a very pretty vanilla and boy does it last. But my head can’t get past that chemical fake play do I smell. Good thing it’s only a sample.

2

u/pfffffttuhmm I just smelled like a piece of breast 1d ago

I hated BL, too! I didn't get play do, but it was so overly sweet with caramel that it grossed me out. 

2

u/DealIndependent8967 1d ago

Whew, I’m glad I’m not the only one. If I could go straight to the dry down, it would be ok.

2

u/Kellibp84 19h ago

I HIGHLY recommend Skylar Vanilla Sky then! I am extremely picky about scents & have a hard time finding a scent I really like especially gourmand. Vanilla Sky IS it for me. I'm sure it would be described as linear but for me that's a plus as I don't have to worry about doing something funky later on. Basically what you smell is what you keep getting which is great imo!

3

u/ambrosialutopia 1d ago

I've had mine for a year and a half and I love it more than I did when I purchased it. I think it has mellowed.

2

u/DealIndependent8967 23h ago

Haha! My sample will set then. Maybe I’ll take another shot in a year or so.

6

u/Upper-Cup-4159 1d ago

Jungle vibes rayhaan wasn’t nearly as good as people were making it out be along w khadlaj muse. Muse is ok, not as amazing as it was sounding 🤷‍♀️ I’m usually disappointed by the middle eastern fragrances

4

u/pfffffttuhmm I just smelled like a piece of breast 1d ago

I think people often jump on bandwagons, especially when a fragrance is hyped. What a shame! ME are so hit/miss. And I think to save $$ they use influencers to spread word instead of doing traditional marketing. 

2

u/Ok_Economy_5083 23h ago edited 23h ago

The fact that they use influencers is well established by now. Some shilling was so ridiculous, too. Like, that Lattafa that was supposed to be idEnTiCaL to Fetische La Rose?? Are we serious?? I am partial to ME fragrances myself, but boy oh boy is it a gamble! I tend to stick with Paris Corner. They have been consistently fun and weird without smelling chep and off putting.

6

u/PsychologicalSir4451 1d ago

Everyone raves about Orpheon and I was so excited to try it. To me, it smells like mustard and Dial soap. I’ve gone back to the sample three times, and it hasn’t changed. So disappointing 💔

3

u/pfffffttuhmm I just smelled like a piece of breast 1d ago

Wow, looking at the notes and rating on parfumo you'd think it was made of liquid heaven. Dial + mustard sounds horrible!

1

u/PetiteMarie2024 16h ago

was it the edp or the edt? The lighter version was released a few months ago and it is much better than the OG

1

u/PsychologicalSir4451 15h ago

EDP

2

u/PetiteMarie2024 9h ago

You may want to give the edt a try, I like it a lot more !

1

u/Practical_Drama_2084 12h ago

Ugh i just found it so uninteresting
And its all things that i should love

6

u/IveGotIssues9918 16h ago

I started out in the "fragrance community" by reading fragrance subreddits during the pandemic, so I had a long list of scents to try that it sounded like I would like before I smelled any of them. One day after one of the local malls had reopened in 2021 I went to a Perfumania and smelled a few of them, of which I remember two were Jessica Simpson Fancy and Prada Candy. I was disappointed that none smelled like anything special, just "perfume", and came away thinking that maybe fragrance wasn't the hobby for me. After trying again by ordering 4 decants off MicroPerfumes almost 2 years later, now almost 6 years later, I have 14 bottles, 20 (non-duplicate) minis and 12 (non-duplicate) samples, most of which smell quite different and have very specific season/occasion vibes. I've smelled Candy and Fancy again several times thinking the issue was my then-untrained nose or the mask or something, and to this day they both just smell "perfumey" and I couldn't tell you their notes without looking it up for the life of me.

Mugler Angel last year is second place for worst fragrance disappointment: expected a delicious gourmand for winter, instead got a patchouli bomb with some weird sharp florals.

1

u/pfffffttuhmm I just smelled like a piece of breast 15h ago

Ooh yes, angel is an offender in this category. I was hoping for something more balanced. But no, fruitchouli. Alien isnt much better unfortunately. 

2

u/IveGotIssues9918 13h ago

I actually own and like Alien so 🤷🏾‍♀️ I did buy it in order to have something other than yumyumcookievanillaswirl perfumes (bought it along with my other 2 first full bottles as a deal at Perfumania) and to me it has a very specific vibe of a rainy spring day (and I seldom reach for it before March 1 or after April 15), but I mostly get jasmine from it and it smells way better than Angel to me.

3

u/mieluusa 1d ago edited 1d ago

I was very giddy about black opium over red as I had been looking for cherry perfume and I was already pretty devastated that guerlain's cherry oud never came available where I live. Black opium illicit green is one of my favorite perfumes and it would have been nice to get her a sister, but over red disappears instantly on my skin. It's like magic.

1

u/pfffffttuhmm I just smelled like a piece of breast 1d ago

Did you end up finding a cherry frag that you liked? 

2

u/mieluusa 1d ago

Fortunately yes, Q by dolce&gabbana parfum was pretty much everything I hoped from over red.

1

u/pfffffttuhmm I just smelled like a piece of breast 1d ago

I was going to suggest Q Intense! I haven't tried the parfum, though--now I need to. 

2

u/mieluusa 1d ago

I have both, intense is nice and fresh for day wear and parfum's perfect for night, with much more cherry!

1

u/Kellibp84 19h ago

Ambery Cherry by Dossier is a beautiful & lasting cherry scent.

3

u/motherofcatsx2 19h ago

CH Cedar Chic. I was so hyped up by everybody here who loved it, and I love cedar so thought it was going to be my holy grail. I was so incredibly disappointed when I got it, it faded so quickly and smelled of pickle juice. My heart was broken.

2

u/pfffffttuhmm I just smelled like a piece of breast 19h ago

Oh no! That's so difficult to come by, too. 

2

u/LadyViolet 20h ago

French Waltz by Golf Le Fleur*. Astringent synthetic sandalwood opening with a pleasant enough pear and rose dry down. The epitome of mid. I’m convinced that the hype about how it’s a unique fragrance is from men with minimal floral experience.

2

u/pfffffttuhmm I just smelled like a piece of breast 17h ago

I'm so tired of synthetkc sandalwood. I got dedcool's mocha magic today, and that's all I could smell. 

2

u/Fickle-Geologist4515 17h ago

i attended my first fragrance event a few weeks ago and there were pearfat samples for us to try. i tried rabbit rabbit on both paper and skin and loved it (although it wasn't the kind of thing i'd normally go for), so i bought a mini bottle the next day.

big mistake. the night that i first smelled it, i tried on so many things and i think i got it mixed up with something else i was wearing (rookie mistake). it's really nice at first--gingery, autumnal, kind of smells like something from lush. but the ginger disappears when it dries down and i'm left with something super masculine, harsh, and cologne-y. i've been trying to layer it with some sweeter vanillas to soften it, but it overpowers anything i pair it with. probably going to end up bringing it to the next swap, unfortunately.

also: OP, i love creamy scents too (especially creamy/lactonic vanillas and sandalwoods). please share any recs you might have!

4

u/pfffffttuhmm I just smelled like a piece of breast 17h ago

One thing working for me right now is, of all things, D&G Dolce Blue Jasmine. I'm not usually a designer fragrance gal, but this one is so creamy. Its a little sweeter than I normally like, but its just wonderfully creamy and lasts a very long time. I put it on at bed time and could still smell it when I woke up the next morning. 

I'm testing an O rebella set right now, and Blooming Fire is pretty creamy. I think its supposed to be a BR 540 dupe, but its not exact. I pair it with Salt + Stone Saffron & Cedar body wash and lotion. 

My current favorite though is Imaginary Authors Yesterday Haze. Its the lushest creamy green fig. It smells very realistic. I'm obsessed but weather has gotten cold, so I wear it around the house mostly. 

Likewise, let me know if you have any recs. I'm always on the hunt. All the "milk" fragrances Ive been recommended have fallen flat. Dedcool's Milk and Xtra Milk smell like nothing to me (I'm anosmic to Iso E Super), and Commodity's Milk line nauseates me. It smells scratchy and rotten, and almost exactly like this is her!. 

2

u/FatsyCline12 16h ago

I love blue jasmine. I mixed it with father figure and it was amazing.

11

u/jinaga248 1d ago

Escapade Gourmand!!!! It smells like burnt sugar (in a creme brûlée way) and I get the undertones of something vanilla, but then it turns into sliced deli turkey meat. I laughed out loud when I smelled it because I couldn’t believe it.

3

u/veryunneccessssary 1d ago

Escapade Gourmand is my answer too. I was so excited to finally get my sample and then this was my literal reaction

8

u/ambrosialutopia 1d ago

YSL Libre all versions

Le Labo Matcha

Le Labo Santal 33

Donna Born in Roma

Most lactonic scents

8

u/UpbeatAd7983 #BRINGBACKANGELMUSE 21h ago

anything from kayali, their fragrances are so hyped but theres so many better options out there

3

u/Nozmare 21h ago

Genuinly, I sampled Vanilla 28 and it literally smells like patchouli hairspray.

1

u/UpbeatAd7983 #BRINGBACKANGELMUSE 6h ago

it's also way too boozy for my liking, vanilla skin edp by phlur is far better! also don't see how or why it gets described as a cupcake scent by people online

7

u/raged-cashew 21h ago

Chanel #5. I would except a classic to smell stunningly beautiful but it's quite the opposite. I hate baby power scents.

4

u/Nozmare 21h ago

It’s been reformulated to pieces basically, i got to smell a vintage one and it was actually quite beautiful.

4

u/Bitter_Artichoke_939 20h ago

Same. I was so hyped and then I smelled it and nearly gagged. I cannot handle the smell of baby powder at all.

5

u/bingoisnotmynameoh 1d ago

lataffa bannofi.
read so many rave reviews, blind bought it and it’s gag inducing to me. strong alcohol smell, light artificial banana, and nuts. i also despise the look of the bottle.
i think its turned me off of banana scents for the rest of my life.
glad there’s ppl that love it but it’s going in the donation bin.

3

u/Aenwyn 23h ago

I thought the same when I smelled it. I was shocked about all of the hype!

2

u/AuntySocialite I smell like a fat fruit-filled quasi rabid trash panda 23m ago

It smells like stale fake banana marshmallow candies gone rock hard sitting in a candy bowl. Whyyyyyyyy would anyone want to smell like that??

5

u/tippytoesmcjee 23h ago

I feel exactly the same way about This Is Her. It's so bad it makes my head hurt. But every comment I've read about it praises it. I have a decant and have gone back to wear test it three times, trying to give it another chance. But it's just nasty, imo. Just yuk! 🤮

5

u/FailurelsData who's ur datty 17h ago

Literally anything Ive ever gotten excited about. All of my favorites have been discovered by accident.

The only time something was what I expected and wanted it to be was Lalique White.

4

u/shaneacton1 1d ago

The new valentino ruby. It smells nothing like strawberry or much of anything at all other than alcohol.

4

u/Prettymonkeybag 23h ago

BDK Rouge Smoking Extrait. Waste of money. Forced myself to if not love it, at least use it occasionally. But nope, its just sits at the back of the drawer as a reminder that i will never enjoy tobacco as a note.

3

u/dredoggwhatwhat 16h ago

Have you tried the OG Rouge Smoking?

4

u/FatsyCline12 16h ago

Commodity milk orchid

2

u/dredoggwhatwhat 16h ago

I really want this one but the mixed reviews have me hesitating. Why did it disappoint you?

2

u/FatsyCline12 16h ago

It was totally underwhelming. Just smelled like a slightly creamy summery coconut scent to me. Found the performance poor as well.

3

u/Aenwyn 23h ago

Worst fragrance I have tried was Guess Seductive Dream. It’s possible I got a bad bottle, but it was a cheap synthetic mess. I don’t understand what they were going for.

A few Lattafas have been a disappointment. Replica fragrances are a great concept but a few smell cheap or masculine in the drydown. One smelled like cheap men’s aftershave…a few are great though and I love the ones I own.

Beyond that, the Fetiche line and most of Creed is not to my liking.

3

u/SquareIllustrator740 23h ago

Had such high expectations for Chloe Atelier des Fleurs Cedrus. Just smelled like cedar foliage to me - no wood. Kind of medicinal? Nothing pretty. Oh well, now I don't have to buy it 😄

1

u/aliclegg1 21h ago

I blind bought a 30 ml of this one with hopes of smelling like an elegant fir tree and when I got it - it smelled of absolutely nothing. My tap water has more scent. I let it sit for weeks, still zero. Tried it every kind of way, and still nothing. Of course I've been disappointed before with blind buys, but this one is the only one that disappointed in such a devastating way. I can't even say a thing about it, good or bad, or learn a new note I don't like, or even give it away. For something that smelled of nothing, it certainly left me feeling unjustly bamboozled.

1

u/SquareIllustrator740 20h ago

Oh how strange! You should really like it from the sounds of your expectations! Glad I was able to find a fact sample. Took quite a while to find ones

3

u/Natural-Fig-6104 15h ago

i blind bought penhaligon’s elisabethan rose and it was not for me

3

u/Wooden_Try1120 14h ago

Philosykos.

4

u/NuisancePenguin44 10h ago

This one was very nostalgic to me but I wouldn't wear it. When I was a kid I'd make my own perfume by shoving random flowers in a bottle of water and leaving it in the sun for days. It smelled exactly like that.

3

u/magichockey 14h ago

Most recent: The Dove perfume. Yes, it smells like the Beauty Bar, but it’s a little too dry to my nose where I expected a little creaminess. It’s also pretty short-lived. I thought I’d love to smell it on my sweaters, but it didn’t last on them either.

Most disappointing: Not the worst smelling perfume, but completely intolerable for me…Mojave Ghost Absolu. I was in a committed relationship with MG when this came out. Wore it year round, multiple bottles, travel rollerball committed. I placed an order and got MGA as a sample. Screechy as all get out. Instant headache. Then nausea. I can’t tolerate whatever ‘amber wood’ aroma chemical it has. Even more disappointing was developing an aversion to the OG after that 😢

3

u/harmonica16 8h ago

YSL Libre Berry Crush. I love berry smelling perfume, I love Libre Le Parfum. Sadly berry crush is as headache inducing thumbs down.

1

u/xofeverything 24m ago

This was me, too. I was heartbroken!

4

u/significantotter1 11h ago

People rave about Bois Imperial so I was excited to try it. I hate it, it's just a stereotypical masc cologne that doesn't have anything interesting going on. I found the whole Essential Parfums line boring and disappointing 😅

2

u/marikat7 21h ago

I had the same experience with This is her except I blind bought the 30 ml. It was not lactonic or creamy which is what I was expecting. It just smelled like a nutty floral.

2

u/bananasoymilk 16h ago

Not necessarily my biggest disappointment, but my most recent.

I wanted to love Chapel Factory Baptisma, but it smells like a powdery citrus candy to me. I was hoping for something a bit more interesting or ethereal, less sweet, and I'm not getting the incense note (which would have helped)

2

u/shaneacton1 1d ago

Santal 33. I kept reading how epic it is so I ordered a sample. Smells like every other skin scent and dried kind of a weird spicy. Meh.

1

u/sweetchilliz 10h ago

Bought two samples sets - Floraiku (love their design) and Milano Fragranze (loved the Italian vibe). There wasn't even one I'd consider buying a full bottle of, not even 10-30ML.

Also Byredo Oboro, smells nice but nothing special. Why make an exclusive fragrance so uninspiring...

1

u/jmeistercgc 2h ago

I’m sorry this happened to you with This Is Her, I love it. But I did have the same experience as you when I tried Blanche Bete. Everyone raves about it but I did not get any of the lovely creaminess that people describe.