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Horrific Top Note - What is it?

post #1 of 9
12/16/07 at 4:02pm
Thread Starter 
There's an absolutely horrendous smell to me in the Top Note of Royal Copenhagen, Zizanie, Tabac, Stetson and Jockey Club. It's downright offensive. It smells like a combination of cow droppings and skunk secretion. What the hell is it? Musk????

I drove a little ways today to Pour le Bain in Whittier, CA to check out Jockey Club by Caswell-Massey. I was mortified when I sprayed it on my arm and got hit with that sh*t smell. I was so nauseated by it that I left without buying it.

Half way home I checked my arm again and suddenly Jockey Club smelled terrific! The top note was gone and left behind was a nice powdery/wood scent. Of course, it was too late to turn around.

If anyone can tell me what that top note is, I'd appreciate it. Is this "scent" something that people actually like? Is it a necessary ingredient in order to make the dry-down smell so good (in Jockey Club's case at least)?

If it completely disappears from Royal Copenhagen, Zisanie, Tabac and Stetson, I may have to give them another try too.

Now I have to go back to Whittier!
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post #2 of 9
12/16/07 at 4:40pm
I always assumed the stink in Tabac was due to the citrus and lavender - BTW I am commenting on the EDT
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post #3 of 9
12/16/07 at 5:36pm
I have never found this scent you write of in any of these colognes so - I can't comment here.
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post #4 of 9
12/16/07 at 6:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by atrac View Post

There's an absolutely horrendous smell to me in the Top Note of Royal Copenhagen, Zizanie, Tabac, Stetson and Jockey Club. It's downright offensive. It smells like a combination of cow droppings and skunk secretion. What the hell is it? Musk????

I drove a little ways today to Pour le Bain in Whittier, CA to check out Jockey Club by Caswell-Massey. I was mortified when I sprayed it on my arm and got hit with that sh*t smell. I was so nauseated by it that I left without buying it.

Half way home I checked my arm again and suddenly Jockey Club smelled terrific! The top note was gone and left behind was a nice powdery/wood scent. Of course, it was too late to turn around.

If anyone can tell me what that top note is, I'd appreciate it. Is this "scent" something that people actually like? Is it a necessary ingredient in order to make the dry-down smell so good (in Jockey Club's case at least)?

If it completely disappears from Royal Copenhagen, Zisanie, Tabac and Stetson, I may have to give them another try too.

Now I have to go back to Whittier!

I use or have used Royal Copenhagen, Zizanie and Stetson and have never smelled any offensive note in any of them.
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post #5 of 9
12/16/07 at 6:30pm
I don't find a bad top note(s) in these scents either but what is interesting to me is that (aside from Tabac which I have never sampled,) these are all very "powdery" scents.

I don't really know if this could just be a coincidence or that you might find something offensive in anything of this genre?
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post #6 of 9
12/16/07 at 7:02pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by marcuccio88 View Post

I always assumed the stink in Tabac was due to the citrus and lavender - BTW I am commenting on the EDT

You know, I think this is it. As I think about it I do think citrus and lavender don't go well together.

To quote foetidus in his Basenotes review of Royal Copenhagen:
I was prepared for the powder but I wasn’t prepared for the disagreeably sharp, unpleasant off-note that was immediately apparent in the fragrance. It’s hard to pick out the offending culprit because there are so many notes listed in the accord, but I would guess it has something to do with the mixture of pineapple and anise and lavender. Once it settles down to the mid and base notes, the offending note disappears, but even without the offending note, the scent seems generic and linear. It certainly isn’t complex. No, if I want powder I’ll stick to Lagerfeld Classic or Helmut Lang. Royal Copenhagen is just too off-putting.

It's really starting to make sense to me because there are certain lavenders that smell "off" to me and some citrus smells (like tangerine) remind me of body odor. I won't even go into what mushrooms smell like to me. :P I must have an odd sense of smell.

I do love powdery scents so I am really going to have to give these guys a better shot and just brace myself until the dry-down occurs.

At least it is not musk!
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post #7 of 9
12/16/07 at 7:24pm
I could say exactly, but my guess would be that some of the citrus notes got oxidised and/or some kind of bad interaction with lavender.
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post #8 of 9
12/16/07 at 9:41pm
Anise + lavender can do it .. sometimes lavender can be quite medicinal.
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post #9 of 9
12/17/07 at 7:34pm
Thread Starter 
I've already now purchased Royal Copenhagen and Jockey Club. Both indeed have the note, but now that I know what it is, I focus on its details and I'm "getting over it" quite quickly. The dry-down for each make it quite tolerable.
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