Your 5 Biggest Disappointments Ever

[KMF]

1) Creed BdP
2) Creed Orange Spice
3) Guerlain Vetiver
4) Habit Rouge
5) Basala
6) Geir Ness
7) Rochas Lui
8) Body Kouros

[adonis]

Guerlain Vetiver - Dental cement

Himalaya - Bottom of an old lady's purse

Unforgivable - Exactly

CDG 2 - Liquid Smoke

Geir - This one saddens me as it has so much potential, but the sweetness is too...uh..sweet

[MFJ]

Not a problem. We all have strong opinions about the fragrances we like and want to defend them. Now I hope no one has anything negative to say about Kouros....

You're the bouncer for "Club Kouros". Officially!

imma fan too

[Bigsly]

I'm disappointed that I used to enjoy certain frags but now they nauseate me. I disliked Tauer's LADM from the first sampling, so I can't say I was hugely disappointed, though from the reviews I thought it would be great. Mostly, it's the lavender frags, or gourmand frags that have a strong lavender note, that became nauseating to me after initially enjoying them. Specifically, Montana red box, Witness (to a lesser degree), Rochas Man, Animale Animale for men, Chinatown, New Haarlem, etc. I'm still not sure about Horizon, because the lavender seems to be "tamed" somewhat by the marine notes, but it's not my kind of frag, so if I wear it once every two months it might be acceptable.

[decillisjl]

George W Bush
Adam Lambert
The new Star Wars movies
Nikon D50 Camera
the new facebook

oh wait we were talking about fragrance disappointment

1. Himalaya... there should be no "Him" in there... smells like nursing home and deodorant
2. Guerlain Vetiver... why do you hate me so much Coriander?
3. Live Jazz... see above
4. Creed "new" Tabarome... ginger shavings over vomit and rotting vegetables
5. CSP Aqua Motu... keep trying to love it... it keeps trying to make me nauseous

[killer_deep]

In reverse order:

5. Dior Homme - as others have said, cosmetics counter smell
4. Egoiste - way too sweet, way too feminine
3. Terre d'Hermes - overripe/musty oranges that never leave
2. Rive Gauche - just not how I want to smell... too spicy and less sweet than I expected. I really wanted to fall in love with this one!


And most of all...

Mugler Cologne/Paul Smith Story - I have no idea of what it is, but absolutely nausea inducing. Shocking for "safe" scents that are remarkably popular.

Just to be positive, I'll list the five I've been most surprised and impressed with:

1. Guerlain Vetiver - classy, fresh, versatile. Amazing, amazing stuff.
2. Versace the Dreamer - the opening is not bad. Its actually good. The drydown is the stuff of legends.
3. Azzaro pour homme - I am a nerdy, skinny academic. A macho cologne usually doesn't fit me but man this stuff is great.
4. Guerlain Habit Rouge - must be the guerlinade. Or my psychology old brain. I love classic old scents.
5. Dior Eau Savage - see #1 and #4.

S

[Loud_One]

Knize - Ten
Chanel - Antaeus
M7
Incense Rose
Sexual

[Bigsly]

Why would anyone be disappointed about Kouros after reading the BN reviews?

[nortelnetwork]

lagerfeld classic
burberry brit
paco rabanne pour homme
arabie
i coloniali aromatic fragrance of guajaco wood
m7

i disagree...lagerfeld is awesome!!!

[rogalal]

5. All the non-aoud Montales. All of them have just been terrible on me. Old lady powder or way too sweet, or both.

4. Lalique Encre Noir. Not bad, just disappointing. Yes, it's a good scent but write-ups here had me expecting some sort of holy grail singing forth from the heavens. I sprayed it and thought "Oh. It's just vetiver."

3. Happy For Men by Clinique. Yeah, I know it's just a cheapie, but it smelled so fresh and good on the strip at the store. On me, fake fake fake and gross.

2. Diptyque L'Ombre dans L'Eau. Smelled INCREDIBLE on a friend, but nothing but artificial grapefruit on me that just kept getting sweeter and sweeter until it was nasty.

1. Tam Dao, also by Diptyque. Tried with glee after reading the multiple glowing reviews here, it got killed by its hidden civet. Like cinnamon vanilla coffee cake smeared on a dirty baby with a full diaper.

In the interest of positivity:

Some samples I expected absolutely nothing from that turned out to be great for me:

Chanel Allure Homme (chocolate cherry pipe tobacco - yum!)
Lagerfeld Kapsule Floriental (like a warm weather Tobacco Vanille)
Diptique Eau de Lierre (super-bright green happiness)

[Sokkou]

Chanel Egoiste
Chanel Antaeus
Lalique Encre Noir
Creed Millesime Imperial
Dior Eau Sauvage

[Bigsly]

I too was at least somewhat surprised by Egoiste. I find the blend to be crude and it also has an un-natural quality to it. However, by the time I sampled it, I had experienced similar minor disappointments, and in this case my thought was that this was formulated when there were lower expectations in these areas, especially for a "men's" frag.

[TigerJuice]

Green Irish Tweed: So what's the big fuss?

This thread simply demonstrates how different our skin chemistries and preferences are. The big fuss my friend is Creed Green Irish Tweed is as close to Heaven as I have ever got with a fragrance.

My disappointments:

Creed BdP - A very nauseating Grandfather fragrance. I cannot comprehend the reputation of this one. If you want to smell like your 75 years old, go for it. No modernity whatsoever. An absolute wash off in my book. And by the way, I VERY much prefer the Millesimes, no matter how pedestrian some may think they are.

Creed Himalaya - Beautiful crisp fresh opening and absolutely ZERO longevity thereafter.

Amouage - Virtually every "masterpiece" this house has done. I do still maintain some hopes for Reflection.

Habit Rouge - Simply too heavy and musky for my taste. I simply cannot stand it. I had to put it up for a loss which another gentleman was very happy to acquire. That was indeed a win-win.

Black Aoud - I cannot comprehend why a man would want to go around and absolutely reek like roses and potentially offend everyone within 50 feet of him. I have grown so tired of Montale's Aoud offerings that I have a sample bag of approximately 20 of them, and I just do not see the point of sampling any more of his one trick act.

Serge Lutens - I LOVE Ambre Sultan. I have YET to sample anything else that Sheldrake has done that I would drop the considerable amount required for their extremely disappointing fragrances. Example? The very much anticipated Serge Noire. If I remember correctly, it was supposed to rise from the ashes like a Phoenix and pay eternal homage to night's rich plumage. What rose for me was a Phoenix absolutely stinking like a filthy cigarette ashtray paying eternal homage to an all night party of people with major substance abuse problems. I cannot comprehend why someone would want to go around reeking like cigarettes all day. Last time I checked, cigarette smoking causes over 400,000 very avoidable deaths in the USA each year.

Z-14 - NASCAR Enthusiast Mullet Headed Rat Piss! I returned it to Walreens to park it next to the Tim McGraw Stetson where it belongs.

Schopenhauer said the general rule in life is disappointment. I think he was right. I could go on all night criticizing extremely disappointing fragrances.

If I have criticized some of your favorite fragrances, please accept my apologies in advance.

We are indeed a community of different ladies and gentleman, and very different ladies and gentleman will necessarily have very different preferences about virtually everything, including fragrances.

Best,

TJ

[music_healing]

- Guerlain Vetiver.. it stinks on my skin like toilet cleaner
- Narsisco Rodriguez for Him - another toilet and whitening substance smell on my skin
- Von App TSAR - it smell fecal to me ..
- A Men, been trying to love it, but I cant, it makes me nausea

[adonis]

[B]

Best,

TJ

Heh, I enjoyed your post

[Thrax]

Matt, I'm not sure why I missed this thread 2 years ago but when I saw it in the forum I had to post.

1.Jicky EDP by Guerlain: Jesus, this stuff stinks like shit. This smells like you ground up lavender flowers and force fed them to a baby, had him shit them out and then smeared it on yourself. One thing that made this such a let down is that it had glowing reviews and was generally liked by men and women on the boards. I have yet to be impressed by a Guerlain scent.

2.Gucci Envy: From the notes and reviews this one looks promising. Key word in that scentance is "looks." Sure enough this stuff is pleasant enough but really it just boils down to a powdery vanilla oriental which is much better done in Jaipur EDP.

3. Spirit of the Tiger by Heeley: I love the Heeley scents. Period. They may be a bit overpriced but they all have excellent longevity and sillage on me. Spirit of the Tiger just smells like you raided a spice rack and busted all the worse smelling bottles and tried to clean up the mess with a light citrusy cleaner. Also zero longevity.

4.Sables by Annick Goutal: First off, I love sweet scents. All the scents that everyone bitches about being "sickly sweet" I love. That being said, the people that bitch about stuff being "sickly sweet" needs to try Sables. This stuff smells like maple syrup with bacon and whole wheat pancakes. Sounds like a good breakfast, dont it? Unfortunatley it dosent make a good scent at all. This stuff goes on and feels 4 times thicker than any Lutens made. So, all you "sweet" haters, try this and I believe your bar for "too sweet" will be reset.

5.CDG original EDP: CDG lover here. Most of their scents are fairly approachable, even if they take a little getting used to at first. The original EDP is where I draw the line. All I can say is this stuff smells like medicine. Not medicinal, but pure medicine. You know when you get prescribed a horrible pill that you have too take to get rid of your foot fungus, bad breath, clap, or herpes? Well rest assured that when you open up the pill bottle and smell whats inside, you know what CDG's original EDP smells like.

[mtgprox05]

Ok, took me some time to think of these but here goes:

Royal Aoud- Smells like a doctor's office. Not the same medicinal smell as most aouds, it smells like rubber doctor's gloves and not much else.

Geir- Talk about potential being wasted. This is the definition of "cologne-y", massive headache inducer and just too sweet.

The entire Cereus Line- How, I wanted to love one of these, the bottles look great, the concept of a higher end designer scent appealed to me, but boy are these boring and strangely synthetic.

Vetiver Extraordinaire- Just so mediocre. CdG Vettiveru is similar and a fraction of the cost.

Amouage Reflection and Silver Man- Both had high hopes for, both are boring. Reflection is way too powdery and sweet, and Silver Man is just quiet and boring.

[zliang]

- Von App TSAR - it smell fecal to me ..

Perhaps you should "throw it away" to me then. : )

[ausamamira]

Unforgivable
kouros
obsession
narciso-rodriguez
Dior Homme
A* Men

[Jock_With_Scents]

Brooklyn - Bond No. 9
Tom Ford for Men
Sycomore - Chanel
Guerlain - Vetiver
Malle - Entire Line

[Mudassir]

Aramis Life - didn't expect this type of a generic fragrance from Aramis
Guerlain Vetiver (current) - I had experienced the vintage EDC/EDTs before this, and those are vastly different (and better) scents.
Serge Lutens Muscs Kublai Khan - is that what you call dirty!
Amouage Arcus - drug-store generic scent

[mtgprox05]

Amouage Arcus - drug-store generic scent

How could I forget that one! What a dissapointment for me, it smelled so generic and fruity.

[shermanirving]

I'm surprise at the hostility towards some fragrances... everyone has their own taste but not liking a scent isn't the same as it being 'sh!t'. For example Jicky has been around 120 years so it obviously appeals to a lot of people. I can grasp not liking it but you've got to respect it.

Anyway, some disappointment (but not necessarily dislikes) of mine :

Dans tes Bra - interesting concept but I don't want to smell like this

Oud 27 - I was hoping for something bold like Patchouli 24

Bond 9 Brooklyn - great bottle average scent

La Myhrre - too medicinal for me

Cristalle Eau Verte - pleasant enough but not special enough to carry the name 'cristalle' (or Chanel)

[mcjra]

Dolce & Gabanna Light Blue Pour Homme - This one has been mentioned alot, I bought it, wore it for a few weeks, but when somebody asked me if I was wearing AdG, I gave it to my dad right away. Nothing against AdG, but I don't like smelling like everyone else.

Versace Man - I had bought Versace Man Eau Fraiche before getting the original version. Love the Eau Fraiche, the original was a let down. Not at all what I expected...I was wanting a sexy tobacco scent, I got an unbalanced, "rough" scent. It just seems like it's missing an element.

Givenchy Very Irresistible Fresh Attitude - I bought this at the beginning of my fragrance hobby, the more I wore it, the worse it smelled. Chocolate and mint? I've never liked that combination in candy, I definately don't like it as a fragrance. Nothing against mint and chocolate in fragrance, I actually enjoy both, but the combination of the two...no thank you.

Montale Soleil de Capri - While it is a more natural smelling Light Blue (women's scent), it wasn't really much of an improvement. I'll stick with Light Blue.

John Varvatos - So many ingredients, so many smells, makes for a very uninteresting sweet fragrance. It doesn't really evolve on my skin either. I was expecting this to be a multifaceted, complex fragrance, all I get is sweet, sweet, sweet. Nothing against sweet frags, but there are so many more interesting fragrances in this area.

[SirSlarty]

Terre d' Hermes
Ricve Gauche
Dior Homme
M7
Mugler Cologne

all the Creed, Bond and more "popular" niche lines.

When I first came to Basenotes, stuff like those were highly praised in every thread. And then I tried them. I expected such wonderful bliss but they were all just another cologne.

Now the following are ones I've read the marketing for or note and have been disappointed.

Dunhill London
Dunhill Black
Canali Style
Cerruti pour Homme

Since these I've decided to never blind buy (again) and read marketing descriptions and to sample first.

[SlimPickins]

I rarely agree with Mr. Turin, but I am completely in his corner when he wrote,
"Probably the worst masculine in production today, a combination of, it seems, only two armour -piercing notes that happen to be the most unpleasant in perfumery, marine and woody amber: plague and cholera at once."

Can someone please describe the hatred for this fragrance? All I ever see are outright slams with nothing to back it up. OK, I get it, it's another aquatic. But it's NOT bad. After Bulgari Aqua, Aqua Marine and Azzaro Chrome it's the only other aquatic I found worthy of a purchase. The woods and incense in the dry down really make it for me and makes it unique compared to others in the field. It's longevity is decent and strength is great for something labeled "light".

Was there some sort of hype machine that got everyone's hopes up, only to bash them on the ground as another aquatic was revealed? What more could you ask of a fragrance called LIGHT BLUE.

I thank the perfume gods that it has no similarity to the female version that smells of crushed up lemon pez and rubbing alcohol. Why anyone would want to smell like that is beyond me, especially a man.

The only thing I can think of is that this was one of the first fragrances I bought as I got into this wonderful scene. I actually bought shortly before discovering this site. So my nose wasn't inundated with "me too" aquatics left and right for years before hand. I wonder if it was one of the first few if it would be so disliked.

[boston]

Here we go:

5. Brit for Men- Smelled great on my ex-boyfriend, but when I tried it at Macy's it smelled like rancid lemons on my skin.

I think you mistakenly sampled a bottle of Burberry Weekend aka "Weekend in Hell".

[petruccijc]

Polo Modern Reserve - Mediocre, at best, and a pale shadow of the original. I also found it to have below average sillage and longevity. Oh I had such high expectations.................

[lovethescents]

tvlampboy----"L'ANTIMATIERE BY LES NEZ
There's minimalist and then there's minimalist, ya know? For that kind of money, I ought to be able to at least smell the stuff!
Sometimes I think that the perfumers who created this stuff are laughing at all the critics trying to analyze the glorified grain alcohol that they (the perfumers themselves) marketed as an expensive fragrance."

So beautifully put! I thought it was just me! I smelled absolutely nothing!

Great topic. My recent (because ever is too hard to recall) disappointments are:

CdG Stephen Jones
FM Une fleur de cassis
FM Musc Ravageur
Goutal Matin d'Orage
Guerlain Shalimar

[Markymark]

Wow...Chergui keeps coming up. Now i'm not so much in a hurry to try it.

Oscar Pour Lui- one of the most vile, sickening things my poor nose has had the misfortune to smell. Dracula's cough syrup.

Trussardi L' Uomo- Probably the second-most-vile. Rotten green tomatoes.

Funny as hell with the Dracula comment. I used to wear Pour Lui back in the day and I swear it was a gazillion times better than today's vile concoction. And L' Uomo, I believe this is the one that smells like dirty wet dog. WTF is up with that? Seriously, wet stinky dog. I don't get it.

Lanvin Oxygen makes me gag. Whatever that prominent note that is present makes me sick and I've smelled that note in several other frags from the past few years, let's hope it's a fad. Lanvin Homme on the other hand is stellar.

Pinnaud Lilac Vegetal smells like a dump. Otherwise I tend to think Pinnaud frags are excellent.