How have your tastes evolved since getting into fragrances?

[Pappy]

I got into fragrances around 2004 or so and I think at the time very sweet gourmands and citruses were popular. I was basically just buying what people were telling me was good and then I was pretty happy with just having colognes that got female compliments.

However over the course of 8 or so years I have been searching more and more stuff that I liked personally whether or not it got compliments. I have found that I really like more animalic...raunchy stuff and very gentlemanly fragrances like Pour Monsieur or similar ones.

I'm still exploring.

[Attila]

absolutely
I thought i was citrus/fresh/fruity type of a guy

now I seem to like gourmands/sweets better.

[noirdrakkar]

i used to think drakkar noir and eternity were the two best colognes ever.

[silentrich]

My tastes have changed a lot since I started. I used to hate incense and now I'm rather fond of it. Still am a sucker for a good fresh and clean fragrance with a bunch of citrus up top. Tonka bean has really worn on me and I try to avoid fragrances that are heavy on the note. Getting very picky about what amber's I like. I think the biggest difference now is that I really appreciate fragrances that are a bit lighter. When I first started the only fragrances I enjoyed were the projection beasts. I've learned that less is more through my short time in fragrances.

[L'Homme Blanc Individuel]

I've fallen head over heels for spices.
- L'Air du Desert Marocain & Tom Ford for Men

I've developed a bit of a sweet tooth.
- Hanae Mori, HM

I've gone back to church!
- Gucci Pour Homme (2003)

I've gone to the gas station.
- Fahrenheit

I made time to stop and smell the roses.
- Ungaro III

I realized how much I enjoy the smell of tea.
- Gucci Pour Homme II

I guess I enjoy plum too.
- John Varvatos original and Lucky Number 6

I don't enjoy incense, but apparently I love it in fragrances.
- Zirh Ikon & CdG 2 Man

Years ago, I never would have imagined even wanting to wear any of those. My taste has really expanded, but I've also come to fully appreciate scents that I used to wear years ago.
- Happy For Men & Curve

[Brian_Towers]

I think the most important thing I learned was the art aspect of perfumery, which expanded my perspective in great measure.

[Pappy]

I honestly think I'll come back full circle....or still evolve. Like I've grown to where I like super formal or macho stuff now, but I will probably find a way to like gourmands or summer frags again later on I bet.

[cannotavoidtrite]

It keeps changing the more I sample and getting used to the different notes. The exception being I still dislike aquatics in general.

[weylin]

To me, it's all about the journey. I like trying new and old alike. Odd and off the wall as well as mainstream.

[hednic]

Basically they have remained the same over the years as far as what goes in my collection.

[hedonist222]

I've grown fond of tuberose which I couldn't tolerate.

[Shiny Beast]

The biggest change as I see it is I'm much more tolerant of vetiver frags.

[MrFragranceReview]

I notice and pick out certain individual notes a lot more. I'm more critical overall and like to compare more and more fragrances rather than just settling on purchasing something out of a several.
When reading on an upcoming fragrance I have better judgment on whether I'll like it or not based on the experiences of smelling different notes and knowing which notes I really enjoy to ones I dislike or hate.
I'm open to trying women's fragrances and before where I other's perspective of the fragrance had an impact on how I viewed the fragrance, now I could care less. I sample A LOT and wear what I like most regardless if others love or hate it.
I venture a lot more into niche since overall they make scents with less focus on making it overall likable. Although, I wish designer fragrances followed suit more often since I really hate paying a lot of the prices niche companies are asking.

So my views and tastes changed quite a bit!

[Akahina]

My tastes have changed as I have become more discriminating. And they change with the seasons too. I have rocked some dark and some might say some nasty fragrances all winter. Lately I have sterted my summer rotation. Hoping to find more challenging scents suitable for the warmer months though. Citrusy and dark at the same time...and I have found one that I need to wear more. Montale Aoud Ever. Wore it the first time today and have enjoyed it very much.

Bottom line is that the more I explore the more I like things I would have hated few years ago. Still don't like vetiver except for one...Sycomore.

[sroreilly]

I first liked Citrus, moved to gourmandish stuff. Now I'm into scents with floral elements.

[The Unlucky Rogue]

i started off in the mainstream, ck one was the first frag i was ever given as a gift. when i started buying for myself and seriously collecting, i found myself gravitating towards the niche stuff. its just nice to have some frags that no one else that i know outside of other collectors is going to have.

i also loathed citrus. i was given a few as gifts and said thanks but secretly turned up my nose. recently i got a sample of oranges and lemons say the bells of st. clements. its blown my mind. it smells really natural, unlike the cleaning product smell that most citrus frags remind me of.

[Ken_Russell]

Quite diversely, from the generic youthful scents in my early to mid teens when I started out (though I had a liking for classics too even then) to a more altogether powerhouse, even Old-School fragrance wardrobe in my late teens and early adulthood, to rediscovering (and liking) certain gourmands and recent releases as of lately. And, of course, a totally new and almost entirely unexpected reappraisal of the terms niche, designer etc. and of the divides (existing or not) between them.

[MikeDropIt]

My taste has always been the same, and I can't imagine ever changing them.


I've always been a gourmand/sugary sweet fragrances type of guy.
Vanilla, caramel, tonka, chocolate.


Spices is also something I like to some extend.
Cinnamon, coffee and ginger, primarily.


I've always been into fruity/tropical fragrances as well.
Pineapple, watermelon, melon, mandarin, blood orange, plum.

And I've recently started to enjoy boozy fragrances, particularly the ones with Rum in them.

[hunguy74]

from designer to niche
from great but usual to weird, challenging ones (black afgano)
from fresh to gourmands
from mass to unique
from bottles to decants/samples
still not liking a*men original

- - - Updated - - -

sounds interesting. could you list your favourites?

My taste has always been the same, and I can't imagine ever changing them.


I've always been a gourmand/sugary sweet fragrances type of guy.
Vanilla, caramel, tonka, chocolate.


Spices is also something I like to some extend.
Cinnamon, coffee and ginger, primarily.


I've always been into fruity/tropical fragrances as well.
Pineapple, watermelon, melon, mandarin, blood orange, plum.

And I've recently started to enjoy boozy fragrances, particularly the ones with Rum in them.

[drseid]

I don't think my actual tastes have really changed much over the years. One thing that has changed is my tolerance level for trying new fragrances. At one time I avoided entire houses based on either one bad experience or fear of an expected bad experience. I have learned along the way that way of thinking was a mistake and have found a lot of my favorites in houses and categories I expected to dislike...

[martinijo]

I've realised that all the old school original formulations are much better than the dross that gets put out now, apart from Dior Homme and a few notable exceptions (at least in the designer world)

[ToughCool]

Honestly...no. I've been here going on 5 years now and being here has actually opened my eyes to much more BUT my tastes stayed pretty much the same. There was a year or 2 where I went sample crazy and used to post my reviews in long threads here. What I realized were the multitude of niche brands just weren't me. They were some great scents, some different scents but to me they were very "formalized" and unwearable in my normal environment and that is really what I always look for...something for me. So while the journey has been great, my tastes haven't changed. I may think a Creed is great but will I buy it..probably not because I'm pretty simple about what I like for home, work and being out and about. This place just opened my eyes to whats out there and gave me a better platform understanding it.

[Rüssel]

I've embraced vanilla's hairy chest.

[Renato]

Definitely.
Grant used to have a fragrance selector for a couple of years after I joined, which gave examples of different scents in different categories.
It had some categories I really didn't like at first smell of each of the suggested scents, but I perservered and grew to like them all. One can do the same thing with the Leffingwell/ H&R Chart, and check out scents across the categories. Else, if one just goes by nose, many people will just wind up with scents in a few categories.
Regards,
Renato

[Sea Roses]

Loved many scents up to a teenager when it seems I became *stuck* and liked either the citrus or florals (mainly rose, iris and magnolia). That stuck around for some years and remember liking but not understanding my fathers tastes such as Tsar and wood and incense perfumes. When I started studying abroad I missed so many scents of home and wanted the woody scents, herbal scents and marine scents . I went off to FM Rue Grenelle (sp) to seek out the sampler box (then nine) as my mother suggested. This first sampler box set me off exploring the other notes.

This led to wearing scents meant for the men......but not so much the tobacco notes until TF.

Still tended to gravitate (habit perhaps) back to the citrus and the rose.......but then started to experiment with other notes which I appreciated more, especially the oriental notes.

Have almost given up on finding the aquatic scent......and will never get the *rubber* notes.

[rynegne]

Initially, I started with standard designer fragrances like Hugo Boss Bottled, ADG, etc. Most of which I still enjoy. Over time I have tried more niche fragrances and stumbled upon some awesome fragrances and houses I really enjoy.

[DanielPlainview]

My taste remains exacty the same (I know what I like and don´t like and this will never change), but my knowledge of the universe of fragrances increased. Before discovering basenotes, I had never known about dark fragrances, oud, strong orientals or florals for men. My knowledge was limited to the fragrances I had already owned.

[comfortablynumbbg]

My frag journey and nose development below:

Amateur nose (Armani Code is king)
More refined nose (DHI is God, pure malt opening is best thin ever omg omg omg must spend crazy amount of money to buy up everything)
Mega sweet tooth phase
Brief snob phase..brief I said
Broke ass bum but with many frags and huge repertoire
Niche is awesome, f*** designer
Too powerful perfumes screwed up my nose (i think somewhat permanently it skews my perspective on loudness and longevity)
Withdrawal
Niche ain't all that
Lost my love for Pure Malt...kind of hate it now
Mega sweet tooth phase over with
Got back to preferring designer smells
On threshold of selling most of my stuff, only keeping main players

[Beano1551]

Fragrances that I used to love:
Back to black
Vetiver Tonka
Ambre narguille
Le male
La nuit de l'homme
Black afgano
Leather oud
Nasomatto duro

Now my favorites are:
DHI
Tobacco Vanille
Creed Millesime imperial
Xerjoff uden
Xerjoff richwood
Bois D'argent
FRAPIN 1270
FRAPIN l'huminaste

I don't love the very sweet gourmands or the deep dark fragrances anymore.

[pebe]

My taste is unchanged (chypres, preferably green chypres and eau de colognes for summer) but my knowledge has broadened and thus the number of fragrances I own and happily wear.

When I started using fragrances, minis had been easily available and I bought them to figure out if I really like the scent. My first full bottles had been Diors Eau Savage (still love it) and Armani by Armani (unfortunately discontinued). There have been some other well composed chypres as well. Several years later Eau Savage had been the only surviving fragrance and I tried and bought some new ones that seemed ok but finally lacked the quality of my first frags. I was disappointed and I did not use them.

Looking back with todays knowledge I was trying to replace my early chypres without knowing what I was looking for and thus not able to describe it properly to a sales assistant to get some help.

Today I visit shops to sample the chypres I might want to buy and try other scents because I am curious. And I prefer the older versions of a fragrance if I can get them.