Scents From Hell - The Most Beautific Perfumes

I ordered a sample of Sonnet XVII hoping to love it... the Neruda poem, the cool little indie house, but no. It made me choke and my eyes stream with tears, and not the joyful kind. Fastest scrub ever, mad dash for the soap and water kinda bad. The tiny bit that lingered was beautiful a few hours later but I'd never be able to tolerate that ghastly opening again in order to enjoy the base notes. :/

"Opium"
"Tabu"
"Youth Dew"

Skanky, dirty, sluts with a smoker's cough.

Fascinating, but too badass for most people to wear with ease.

"loulou" gets my vote, in extreme cold weather I can put a tiny spritz on my feet.. and enjoy it after the first hour or so, enough to make me remember why I keep her, but else it is the most horrific, nausea inducing, bug spray & urinal cake mix on me.

"youth dew" is okay if I apply a dot or two with a q-tip, again in cold weather.. I did an actual spritz on me last week when a skunk sprayed in our back yard and the smell was strong in my entire house, youth dew was actually strong enough that I could not smell the skunk!!

Chypre Mousse falls into this category for me.

Reviews of Euphorisme D'Opium are tempting. I haven't worn it since the original hit the scene but it was grand in that baroque way

"Dahn Oudh Al Shams" by Ajmal. This is 'real' oud not the westernised imitation of which I am a fan. The sample was passed around from Apicius to Scarletting to me. This one was a total scrubber. I don't mind animalic, barnyard, fresh manure or petrochemical type smells but this was like straight up faecal matter. It didn't seem so bad the first time I tried, more barnyard medicinal, but I had a bad cold and applied only a whisper.

Nice to see that my sample is till being passed around

Sorry, Apicius! I know these ouds are quite special and I did try to be fair in assessing. I may have overapplied (one big spray) and it was all too much. Mr Triffid would not come near me. Thankyou for the opportunity though.

I had heard so many good things about Habanita and Cabochard that I eagerly got hold of a couple of bottles. I can still smell them to this day, I'm sure they burnt my nose hairs away!

Secretions Magnifique is disgusting. I just tried it again today and I just can't do it. Rank! It does smell like what it's named for I guess, but who wants to sniff that. Create it maybe, but sniff it?????

Alien is also a scrubber. Why?

Oh and one that I have a totally love/hate relationship with is "Encre Noire" by Lalique. I had a sample and fell in love. I bought the full bottle and now I just can't wear it. It is such a creamy/metallic smell to my nose that just makes my stomach feel a little ill. I feel bad because I loved it to start with, I don't know what happened.

I also tried the ladies version but it was so boring to be honest that I can't wear it either! I really, really wanted to wear them!

This seems to be a polarising fragrance. I just love it. I wear it, Mr Triffid wears it and the 19 year old Triffid son wears it. To me it's all spicy vetiver woodsiness but a sample I sent to another Parfumo member, who thought she'd love it, resulted in a verdict of 'bandaids'. I'm wondering if it's a reaction to that perfume's hefty concentration of ISO E Super?

For me it is also unwearable - however, some of the flankers are really good.