What's that stinky smell?

Some fragrances, especially many of the Creeds, at drydown have a horrible smell, almost like sewage and this is very obnoxious to my sensibilities. Obviously, I need to identiy that component so I can avoid it in future purchases. However, when I copmpare ingredients, I don't see anything common that might explain the smell.

A couple of the MOST offensive are Royal English Leather and Royal Water. In fact, I tried a very small sample of Royal Water four days ago and the smell is still very noticable even after continuous scrubbing and soaking in vinegar.

Does anyone know what this ingredient might be?

Thanks for your advice.

Thanks all. IMO this is an unfortunate situation. I love many of the Creed fragrances but cannot wear them because of this horrible smell at the base. I can still smell the base of the sample of Royal Water I applied six days ago - from three feet away. I have scrubbed and scrubbed and can't totally elimiinate it.

I wonder if Creed has received this feedback and what their response is. Probably ignored complaints as long as they are selling. Personally, I would purchase many more Creed fragrances if not for this stinky smell.

The moral of this story is that, when buying a new fragrance, you should apply to the skin then wait for the base...



Update: Over the past two years I've purchased over 100 fragrance samples. It's time to clean out all those I don't like but I decided to give each sample one more shot before giving it away. First up was Bois du Portugal. What a fantastic scent - until about 5-6 hours later. Then that horrible stinky smell comes out. Horrible! After scrubbing and scrubbing without being able to get the stink off, I got some relief by applyihng vinegar. Should have learned my lesson already!!

The situation with the Creed stink is really unfortunate. I LOVE many of their offerings (Royal English Leather, Bois du Portugal for example), but can't deal with the stink.

Can someone explain the necessity for including ambergris? If it's turning off customers, isn't there something else they can use?