Reviews of Samsara (1989)
by Guerlain

After reading the many thumbs up reviews for Samsara I got a sample and at first I thought, pleasant, though not very strong scent. I really picked up only a powderiness to it and thought well maybe it needs to develop and after an hour it still smelled only 'pleasant', I could only tell it was still there if I sniffed my wrists where I'd applied it.

So I thought well this one just doesn't do a lot for me and I probably wouldn't buy more, then after a few hours I suddenly began to smell an awful musty odor. I'd been doing some dishes and thought it was probably time to change to a new sponge but when I smelled the sponge it wasn't musty at all, it was the Samsara!

I scrubbed my wrist and tried some other dusting powder on top of where it had been but I'm still sitting here smelling old nasty musty sponge smells!

I don't want to offend anyone who loves Samsara but this fragrance is by far the worst I have ever smelled. I am sure some women smell good with it but I haven't met one yet. I think the jasmine note is overpowering. In my opinion, there is nothing subtle about the entire composition. I like many of Guerlain's classics but I hate Samsara with a passion. Some perfumes are heady, this one is headachy. Nasty.

I wanted to love this perfume, I really did. Unfortunately it doesn't love me. This fragrance makes me physically ill. Unfortunately all tuberose perfumes give me dizzy spells and so alas this is one I will never be able to wear.

Luckily there are at least a dozen good orientals I can think of to take its place.

If you are like me and cannot tolerate tuberose, you might want to avoid this fragrance. All I get from this one is the telltale skunked-out gardenia/tuberose from this and none of the deep oriental beauty the others get.

When i got a mini collection box ,with some Guerlains, last christmas I was eager to try Samsara.The topnotes in Samsara are rather green and woody to my nose.Nice opening,I thought.This note soon developes to a rather strong jasmine smell with a touch of roses.I really like jasmine and roses,so thought this was promising.However,after about half an hour after applying ,it started to smell really fruity and very strong of Ylang-ylang.This note started to bother me,but I ignored it, only to find out that the scent only got sweeter and sweeter.I don't hate ylang-ylang,not vanilla either,but the combination of these notes was not good on my skin.Unfortunately the scent got sickening sweet.I've tried Samsara later ,to make sure it was just me being silly that day.But no,unfortunately I can't wear this scent, even though I do like the notes listed. Seems that sweet scents has a tendency to get REALLY sweet on my skin, espesially with the combination of tonka bean, vanilla and ylang-ylang.