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Am I hyper-sensitive to certain notes?

post #1 of 8
10/11/12 at 8:15am
Thread Starter 
After reading about it here and on Turin/Sanchez's book, I decided to buy Body Kouros, only to find I could only smell the coumarin in it, with a very very faint trace of something else - too faint to even imagine what it's supposed to be.
I believed it was a "faulty" bottle or something like that, and just dismissed the thing until, a couple weeks ago, I found a tester in a store and sprayed some on a paper strip: exactly the same overpowering coumarin, with barely a hint of the alleged incense/menthol I was expecting to smell.
I would, again, dimiss this, if it wasn't for patchouli: with the exception of AdP Essenza, every single fragrance I tried that has patchouli, I tend to only smell that note (even if the effect is not as pronounced as in BK) even when there are supposedly stronger notes in the descriptions.

So my question is: is it me, or is it actually like this for everyone and you have to train your nose around these mammoth notes?
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post #2 of 8
10/11/12 at 8:28am
Everybody is hypersensitive to some materials and anosmic or less sensitive to other materials. (For instance, I am hypersensitive to marine and to bilgey notes). Frequent use and familiarity can help tone down a bit perceptions, or help smell around the big note, but only up to a point. Sometimes you do see threads around here where clearly people's perceptions are very different, some are unable to smell some note, others find those notes overpowering.

cacio
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post #3 of 8
10/11/12 at 8:54am
Thread Starter 
Ahhh... I knew about the partial anosmy, I didn't realize the opposite was true as well (in retrospect, it's obvious). Too bad I had to be sensitive to these uber-common notes as opposed to some ultra-expensive, only-ever-used-in-one-composition aromachemical... =)
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post #4 of 8
10/11/12 at 9:16am
My nose tends to focus on certain notes and block out others, at least that's what I think.
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post #5 of 8
10/11/12 at 10:24am
I'm absolutely more sensitive to certain notes, and in particular aroma chemicals, than others. While it makes it more difficult to talk about and compare fragrances, I think it's awesome that everyone gets their own personal experience out of smelling fragrances.

An upside is that it helps one narrow down the vast choices out there when deciding what to try.
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post #6 of 8
10/11/12 at 1:45pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Al Gae View Post

An upside is that it helps one narrow down the vast choices out there when deciding what to try.

Definitely - I'll be a lot more wary when thinking about coumarin- and patchouli-based fragrances, and I definitely won't blind-buy those.
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post #7 of 8
10/11/12 at 2:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hednic View Post

My nose tends to focus on certain notes and block out others, at least that's what I think.

same here
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post #8 of 8
10/12/12 at 7:38pm
I've found I'm pretty sensitive to patchouli, incense. Unless they are VERY toned down or well blended with other things in the frag, I have a hard time with them. Also, for some reason I'm VERY sensitive to whatever note/accord is in many aquatics that are used to create that "saltwater" smell (for example, in Hugh Parsons & Millesime Imperial, that's basically all I can smell and I have to scrub them off it gets so strong).
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