Really trying with Creeds

No need to love Creeds, it may just not be your style of perfume, but before you write off the house, try to get whiffs of these:

Orange Spice
Baie de Genievre
Selection Verte (for summer)
Epicea
Bois de Cedrat (wonderful citrus)
Vintage Tabarome (though you will probably find it too formal, it out-formals BdP)

I wish Creed would do something along the lines of BdP again, and I can understand how you may have found it difficult to wear. I see it as one of my favorites - if not my #1 favorite, but I can't wear it all the time. I've said my requirements are cold weather and formal attire/special occasions.

Nice thing about the Creed Millesimes is that you'll notice parallels from SMW in GIT, Green Valley, Himalaya, etc.

Definitely take your time to wear them - sample over a span of months (and seasons!) and I bet you'll find another gem.

If you are into Guerlains and want something similar/as heavy, you are barking up the wrong house. You need to shift focus to Serge Lutens.

Chergui
Arabie
Fumerie Turque
Fleurs d'oranger
Douce Amere
Chypre Rouge
Daim Blond
Miel de Bois

IMHO creeds are nice but their logevity really turn me off
enough so that I dont like them much

Thanks, but I am just one of many here at basenotes.

Further notes on the Lutens recommendations: while many in the list are composed of heavy ingredients, they lack the "dynamicism" of classic Guerlain orientals. They have a uniquely Lutenisian spicy-sweet character which you may find appealing. I would also add Tubeurose Criminalle and A la Nuit to the list as recommended florals.

BTW, the only Guerlain-like Creeds that I can think of are Jasmin Impeatrice Eugenie (jasmin-sandalwood), Vanisia (vanilla-sandalwood) and Love in Black (violet-iris-cedar). You may also want to try Irisia (green chypre, iris) and Royal Delight (mandarin, rose, leather). Creed have a good floral catalog: Fleurs de Bulgarie (roses + musk) , Fantasia de Fleurs (rose + ambergris) and Jasmal (green jasmin) are worth a try.

I am sometimes in the mood for Original Vetiver, but other than that, none of the Creeds I've tried appeal to me. You are not alone.

IMHO, the eaux line, as well as the private collection could make a difference and have some hidden gems waiting in line, still to be discovered.

This may come out more flip than I intend, but...

Why is it necessary to try to like their fragrances? If you don't like one of them enough to buy a bottle, so what? It's not like you have to have a bottle or - an appreciation of Creed (or any other house) - in order to be considered a true fragophile. I'm not certain why the house would matter at all - and I extend that to all houses. If you don't like any of the Guerlains or L'artisans, no big deal - and no shame. Of course, if you do find a house that has lots that you love, then more power to you (for instance, our dearly departed friend who found a love of all things Knize).

My apologies, Texican, if I'm pushing this thread beyond what you intended. I am interested in getting you perspective on this, though.

I agree, Ken_Russell. That's what helped save Creed for me. I think people who are new to fragrance simply perform "due diligence" when they investigate this rather massive line, early in their conversion to aficionado. Not knowing where to start, they follow the beaten path to GIT and the other highly prominent scents. With Creeds being rather different from most designer scents, some people (like me) simply wonder "where's the beef?" Coming back later, the Eaux captured my fancy. Eventually, I came to appreciate even GIT, although my favorites still tend toward the Eaux.


BTW - I love the new Melnikov version of Bender!



I think this is an important question to ask ourselves at every point in the game. On the one hand, I can tell you that some houses didn't appeal to me right away, but they did later. I think we all wish that we could feel the same love that others do, especially when we see people rave about some scent or some house. But you're right in that it's not necessary - or maybe even harmful - to spend time trying to "force" a scent or a house when it's just not working. Sometimes I think the frustration leads to disrespect for a house, a scent, or a class of fragrances.

Still, it's always useful to give a scent or a house a second, third, or even Nth chance. Too many hate frags turned to love frags when I eventually figured out that their bergamot brains beat calone cleavage.

Ahh - this makes much more sense compared to the "I gotta get a Creed" threads. It's more like doing due diligence and giving them a proper chance - trying to understand what the fuss is about. Perfectly reasonable.


Absolutely. And of course, the opposite can happen too. I'm glad I didn't run out and buy a bottle of Duc Vervins after smelling it the first time - I don't understand what I smelled it in now. Oh well - there's plenty of other frags out there to fall in love with.


Thanks for the thoughtful answers, gentlemen!

Have to agree well put.

Creed doesn't interest me at all. I'd love to try BdP but, there's no spark.

I got a whole heap of creed testers in the post a while ago and I've pretty much tried them all. When I started using them I found myself saying "you have to like this, It's Creed" but then I realised I dont have to like it because there are other houses out there offering great frags and most at a lesser price tag than Creed. I wore Himalaya yesterday from a sample and to be honest I liked the top notes but it burned out on me way too quick and the middle/heart notes just reminded me of department store woody/semi-aquatic frags.

I might be on my own here but I really don't have time for SMW as any time I smell it I cant help but think of ck1. I've tried them side by side and the SMW is heads above ck1 but the similarities are there. I also tried the original vetiver which is nice but I don't do greens that well and If I had to I'd go for Guerlain Vetiver anyway.

I may be following the mainstream however in the fact that I really like Creed MI and GIT and I find that they last ages on me and I can be smelling the basenotes 12 hours later so out of the samples I had, they were the ones for me. I bought a bottle of MI but still haven't committed to anything else yet as there are so many different Creeds to try I just dont have time to try them when there are frags like Knize Ten, anything by Serge Lutens, EDP etc etc etc to try.

As said before, please dont feel that you have to buy because of the name and please, just because of the name, do not feel that you HAVE to like everything.