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Recognizing Other's Fragrances

post #1 of 19
7/20/10 at 7:14pm
Thread Starter 
I was sure I had read a thread about this, but couldn't find this exact subject on a search. Anyway, in my day-to-day I rarely encounter anyone wearing fragrance at all much less one I recognize.

However, on vacation, in a much more "touristy" location with a much more diverse population I was excited to recognize a few: Dolce & Gabbana Pour Homme twice, YSL's L'homme (which I recently started wearing some myself), and of course AdG.

How about you, how often do you encounter someone wearing a fragrance you can identify?
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post #2 of 19
7/20/10 at 7:24pm
I rarely smell men wearing cologne these days. (Especially since I'm not going to count the body sprays in the locker room.) I could always pick out my former officemate's Platinum Egoiste, but it's his signature scent. Maybe I'll pick out a few more in the fall when all of the students return to school...
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post #3 of 19
7/20/10 at 7:51pm
Last Friday there was a guy shopping at Macy's who was very clearly wearing Tobacco Vanille, but really that's the only thing I've recognized in the last year except for a ton of A&F Fierce.
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post #4 of 19
7/20/10 at 7:56pm
An old guy was wearing WAY too much Aramis in the store the other day, which pissed me off because I've been wearing it--albeit at a much more appropriate volume--since I was 16. I'm 35 now. Guys like him are the ones who give Aramis a bad name.

A guy I work with wears craploads of Polo Blue, which I've always loved. He has kind of turned me off to it.
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post #5 of 19
7/20/10 at 8:06pm
Not very often, but every once in a while. Airports are good places, sometimes. Bulgari Black is very distinctive - I've picked it up several times. D&G the one For Men.

And my FAVORITE spot...

An "otaku" in full cosplay mode wearing A*Men Pure Coffee! I don't even remember what he was dressed as - just that he smelled great!
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post #6 of 19
7/20/10 at 8:20pm
Thread Starter 
I do have a few in my day to day, now that I think about it. My VP at work wears original Polo quite often, but that one is easy. One of my female coworkers (who is also a good friend) wears a lot of Chanel. Mostly Allure (which I had to ask), but I did recognize Chance on her the other day. Then there is this fragrance I've been smelling around the office a lot. I have no idea still who it is (a male). I've been on a mission to identify it. I knew I had smelled it before and should know what it was. It took me a lot longer to identify it than it should have as Chrome. I guess because Chrome unfortunately doesn't work on me like that.
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post #7 of 19
7/20/10 at 8:38pm
There are always a few very popular and distinctive frags I'll spot periodically.

What I run into constantly in Los Angeles is Le Male. It seems to be the "go to" for young men heading to clubs or bars. Also notice L'Eau de Issey more than I like since I like that one.

My boss wears Terre D'Hermes. A co-worker wear Floris 89 (but only cuz I told him about it).

Angel for women I can't run into enough. If I smell it in a crowd, I can always locate who's wearing it.
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post #8 of 19
7/20/10 at 8:55pm
Probably the occasional Dior Homme on my daily train commutes, and just last week, Hypnotic Poison. Most of the time I smell nothing or something too generic that I'd rather not smell at all... I have a feeling the local Sephora must be suffering, lol.
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post #9 of 19
7/22/10 at 8:24am
If they are wearing something that I especially like, but the bulk of it, all the currently popular and ubiquitous ones have become elevator perfume to me, my nose just tunes them out.
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post #10 of 19
7/22/10 at 6:18pm
All my immediate friends and colleagues do wear fragrances, thanks to me! hehehe Our obsession is contagious you know!
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post #11 of 19
7/22/10 at 11:01pm
I don't normally smell fragrances on folks, unless they are wearing a lot. Most of the time I just get a faint whiff of some basenotes here and there. Fortunately, there are a few older people in my apartment building who load up when they go out. The other day I smelled Polo lingering in the hallway. One lady frequently wears Feminite du Bois, or a knock-off of it, which fills the halls for a good half-hour after she leaves. She also wears something that I know is L'Artisan, but I can't settle on which one. The one guy is a junky like us, wears something different every time, mostly masculine classics, but the occasional newer niche. Wouldn't surprise me if he is a BNer. I was standing near another older gentleman in a men's clothing store the other day and he was doused in something that smelled like Le Male. Then there are some kids that hang out on the street in town. They overapply something that smells like orange sherbet. I'm assuming some Axe product. I can smell it from over a block away. When it comes to fragrance wearing, it seems volume balance is tough to achieve.
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post #12 of 19
7/22/10 at 11:56pm
There are quite a few best-sellers and classics I spot regularly in the streets and public transportation system of Paris. Angel and Shalimar are the most ubiquitous -- at least a dozen times daily, and that's when I'm paying attention. Light Blue and Chanel Allure seem to be going strong. N°5 pops up at least a couple of times a day, more if I'm on the bus (the elderly ladies tend to prefer the bus to the metro and they loooooove their N°5).
On the male side, I get JPG Le Mâle quite often. Guerlain Vétiver, Caron Pour un Homme and Eau Sauvage are still mainstays with the 45 + suits. I pick up Déclaration and Terre d'Hermès pretty often too on the minus 45s.

And then there's the generic "crowd of young guys" smell, all super-diffusive woody synthetics. Could be Axe (Lynx), could be One Million... Hard to tell, but it wafts in a radius of several meters, as Robyogi says above.
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post #13 of 19
7/23/10 at 1:39am
Happens from time to time, but I think the most interesting ones are people on which I must ponder if they are wearing something cumin heavy fragrance or not.

Just couple days back when I was looking through at my local flea market I pumped into this young woman...She was tidy, very personable looking with her artistic outcome, and to my nose she smelled excactly like McQueen`s Kingdom or perhaps even L`Autre.

I was very tempted to ask her this, but I thought it could very well lead into a awkward situation.
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post #14 of 19
7/23/10 at 1:55am
Hypnotic Poison on the ladies (very sexy if applied sparingly, unfortunately it's applied heavily)
JPG Le Male (StylinLA knows)
Hey, is someone eating watermelon? Nope, it's ADG on the guy at the bus stop.
And the out of the ordinary - Tam Dao at Target
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post #15 of 19
7/23/10 at 1:58am
On men: Le Mâle and Fleur du Mâle, more often than I'd like, the sillage is often huge and obnoxious. (Like I'm one to talk.)
Cool Water and various other raspy marine fougéres, also more often than I'd like, Guerlain Vétiver yesterday on the bus, which was lovely, Dior Homme, met a guy in the street once who wore Bois d'Encens, which made me happy for days, talked opera with a gay couple on the subway once, one of whom wore a CdG Incense. Lots of aquatics that I can't tell apart. An acquaintance wears Chanel Egoïste, hooray!

On women: Pink Sugar, which tends to fill entire buildings and makes me alternately giggly and nauseous. Angel and offspring, of course, too often in inappropriate amounts and settings, Light Blue, SJP Lovely, Miss Dior Chérie, plenty of fruit candy and cupcake-smelling things in the subway, lots of Clean, Fresh and similar laundry detergent fragrances. Rarely the older classics. I must pay more attention to what old ladies are wearing.
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post #16 of 19
7/23/10 at 2:04am
I smell stuff on guys rarely, 1 guy at work who wears Le Male, my mate wears B Men, i could have sworn another mate was wearing Le Male a while back, but it turned out to be 212 Sexy Men! (Anybody notice similarities between them or should i shut up now? =P)
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post #17 of 19
7/23/10 at 5:51am
I rarely smell cologne on Men.....If I do smell anything, it is something main stream.....I have never smelled a Niche Scent in public that I'm familiar with.....never!!!
Gary
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post #18 of 19
7/23/10 at 6:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by adonis View Post

And the out of the ordinary - Tam Dao at Target

LOL

Yeah, excellent taste crops up where you least expect it. I smelled the most awesome scent yet at my workplace just yesterday. I assumed it was a lady who had passed through the corridor and was long gone. I picked up my pace to catch it before it was gone, and it got stronger. But as I passed a member of the night-crew janitorial staff, I realized it was him. It was a really solid frag, possibly a masculine but not macho, a bit old school, but great stuff. Couldn't identify it. I may ask him next time.
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post #19 of 19
7/23/10 at 6:27am
On women, I only recognized so far a few very classic Dior, YSL, Chanel and Guerlain frags

As far as men are concerned, I can only tell which fragrance a guy in my work-related or everyday-life environment wears, if he chooses to put on something like ADG, several Kenzos or Hugo, but I could never recognize something more intricate, uncommon or exclusive, than that
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