...Madkat:Addict here.. Since it is extremely rare for me to spend more than $25 on a perfume there aren't many I can sample before hand.Worst: FB "Loulou" - sorry folks this smells like an urinal cake to meBest: mini "Kenzo Jungle / Jungle l'Elephant" - love the fresh spices, totally different from anything else I ownI detest Loulou. I bought it in a moment of insanity when it was first released so I can't even blame a reformulation. What was I thinking? After a couple of wears I thought it was nothing more than fly spray. Luca Turin thinks it is just wonderful. We live and learn….or do we? Twilight zone music

...Coutureguru:Strangely enough my favorite from this man is Green Tea for Elizabeth Arden … and of course Rose Barbare for Guerlain is a masterpiece. I have the full collection of samples from his own house, but find the musk he uses in Narciso's fragrances all too prevalent in his eponymous collection … it's quite laundry-ish … but having said that, a bottle of Absolue Pour le Matin would not go amiss in my collection. I also love what he's done over at Elie Saab … 'le parfum extreme' is truly beautiful!! It really doesn't hurt that M.Kurkdjian is easy on the eyes :) … but as far as his talent goes, that's through the stratosphere!!A great and astute assessment there CG Is he easy on the eye? I'm sure I hadn't noticed (screams with laughter)

...SystemeD:I am stunned that no one has mentioned the house of Balmain yet. Their line of fragrances are always of quality, and always affordable. My favorites:"Jolie Madame""Balmain de Balmain:4910f223ab]Yes! and I would add "Ambre Gris"I am kicking myself for giving away my 100ml bottle of "Balmain de Balmain", which I got online for under $40. I loved the bottle, with that retro looking label on the corner. Classy!Ambre Gris is an absolute steal. There are bottles of Apres L'Ondee to be had (FRA NET) very cheaply. These may be the last people, get one now

...t say I do, Omni. All my little babies are behaving. The oldest is 36 years old...

...Guusje:Spray a good 40 times or so. So all old perfume is gone from the sprayer and the little tube.Then try again: chances are the perfume is fine after that :)I have done this, but not 40 times. I will try again with more abandon and hope that it clears. Thanks a lot

...Triffid:Commiserations! It's always the special ones, isn't it? Never the cheapo bargain bottles you bought on a whim and don't really care for anyway. My own tragedy involves a bottle of Joy pure parfum that I bought duty free on my first overseas trip back in the late eighties. Rather an unconventional choice for a leather-wearing rocker in her twenties but it was love at first sniff and I doled out half a week's wages for it.It was duly stored in its box and eked out in carefully measured drops so it would last. Well, last it did not. Eighteen months later the top notes had turned and I assumed it was no longer wearable. Should have splashed it on when I had the chance!Funny thing is, I kept the little ribbed bottle and pulled it out a couple of years ago. There was still some perfume in it, now dark and viscous. Still smelled bad from the bottle but after I applied it and the top notes had burned off, it was lovely. Probably sells at $20/ml for the vintage parfum these days.I always regretted not buying the EDP spray - I hated having to dab the concentrate on with my fingers. Don't know if that hastened its demise but I've heard that pure parfum can turn more quickly as it contains less alcohol to act as a preservative. Good reason to keep drinking maybe...I still push the wrong buttons. Back to the point…No joy with that one..what a blow. You are right of course, it's the air getting in thats the problem. I did notice that the cap had lifted on the bottle of Alahine and thought nothing of it: I just pushed it down again from where it had blocked the spray nozzle, but this may have been the culprit. Thank your for commiserations and your loss was greater than mine. Joy, what's not to love?

...Yes, the top notes are destroyed but it carries something of itself a bit later on, my Ancient Mariner of a fume, the albatross around the neck.

...My bottle of Alahine has gone off…turned, rotten little worm. Only eighteen months old and kept in a cool dark cupboard. Has anybody got any stories to tell?

...Apres L'Ondee. Eau du Sud (3rd) L'Heure Bleu(first FBI)

...SystemeD:I am stunned that no one has mentioned the house of Balmain yet. Their line of fragrances are always of quality, and always affordable. My favorites:"Jolie Madame""Balmain de Balmain"And my favorite vintage:"Vent Vert" -- the original one by Germaine Cellier. I have not tried the reformulations (1991 Calice Becker, 1999 Nathalie Feisthauer), so I cannot speak to those.The new Ivoire can be found at the discounters very cheaply. It carries the watermark of old Ivoire but has been reinterpreted by Michel Almairac and Jacques Fiori. I think it's gorgeous, bottle and all. One couldn't go wrong with all those mentioned. I am very pleased to see that Foustie mentions Cabochard in its reformulated state; I was put off by a Bois de Jasmin review, but now I have to try it again!

...I have toyed with buying one of these but with Apres L'Ondee likely to be discontinued I bought it instead at a very good price on Fragrancenet. I read somewhere that Guerlain was trying to recapture something of Apres L'Ondee's ethereal appeal with the AA series.

...Tessa:Grey Flannel is not expensive and it is a warm, well rounded, persistent eau de toilette whose notes I have discovered in more expensive brands. Mackie by Bob Mackie. A well achieved oriental, strong and with good sillage, in good taste and elegant, less expensive than Van Cleff and Arpels, Lancome etc.L'Or des Scynthes by Novaya Zarya. A $15 bottle for a marvelous, extremely powerful perfume.Grey Flannel is great value, the sharp violet is well treated

...Cheapy cheapy cheep cheep. A little bird named Sherapop told me about Molinard II. There are other votes for Vanille Marine and Patchouli. I wish I had seen these before I ordered Fancy Nights. The $ damage was negligible but I don't like it much and wish I had known about the Molinards. I bought a bottle of Y (YSL) and consider that to be the classiest discounted perfume. Cant do much better than Y.

...Omni:Who remembers the scene from A Fish called Wanda where Archie employs every Russian non sequitur in rapturous verse to arouse the wonderful Wanda? I...

...... in a terrible state of weakness, a bottle of Apres L'Ondee. That's it for the next few months

...If the restrictions are going to be that bad then I guess I've got enough for my life time anyway. I think I will sniff the new releases at the best counter I can find and grumble 'In my day we had real perfume' in the most curmudgeonly tone possible

...Epimedes:For me, I would say five or six hours easily. Even more when sprayed on a fabric, less when it's very hot outside. It hovers close to the skin after the first half an hour, but never disappears, I can smell it distinctly.I have this too. I'm on my second bottle. It's very similar to Tuscan Soul by Ferragamo but with more lasting power than the latter and with a better basenotes. When I bought Eau de Jade it was at the discounters. Far too spensy for me now.

...Triffid:Mr Triffid doesn't bother to learn the names at all, instead referring to "the red box", "the blue box", "that oud one" etc. Marketing is totally lost on him!Correct pronunciation of French perfume names can be an issue for me. In our early teens, my older sister was given a bottle of Anais Anais by a boyfriend and was very precious about it - I was forbidden to even touch the bottle. I thought it was hilarious that she should be given a perfume that sounded like 'Anus Anus'. "Wouldn't want to touch it anyway!" was my response to my now doubtful and distraught sibling.Caught between an Irish Mother, a Father from London and a Kiwi upbringing I can mutilate French perfume names. To the rescue:http://fragnameoftheday.blogspot.co.nzBela contributes to Bois de Jasmin and now has over 1020 perfume names in sound bites so that we can get it right…attempt to get it right

...I'd like to think that I'm name neutral. :wink: I looked past the kitschy little name "Fancy Nights" didn't I?But I do admit that single word names that sound exotic or literary are attractive to me. Some examples:"Theorema""Coromandel""Samsara""Shalimar""Chergui:c1abfa731b]I have a bottle of FN coming with some Arpege. Fully shipped to the bottom of the world for $40 US. I love the computer age

...Who remembers the scene from A Fish called Wanda where Archie employs every Russian non sequitur in rapturous verse to arouse the wonderful Wanda? I think Dulcemio is on to something