[HN Gopher] Perfume reviews
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Perfume reviews
Author : surprisetalk
Score : 91 points
Date : 2025-07-17 00:16 UTC (22 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (gwern.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (gwern.net)
| hhh wrote:
| Perfume is an amazing avenue to express oneself, and has the
| perfect website with a perfect design to do so in Fragrantica.
| Superb website
| tpm wrote:
| Sadly it got too popular and now the ratings and reviews are
| often brigaded and every one of the list of most popular
| perfumes is pretty bad. Still useful as a reference, of course,
| but the ratings must be taken with a spoonful of salt.
| ConanRus wrote:
| oh well, someone discovered niche perfume lol
| Clamchop wrote:
| Perfumery is much maligned and misunderstood. It is, ultimately,
| an art form, a kind of human expression like music or painting,
| that is rarely appreciated as such. Many would happily see it
| banned, knowing nothing about it other than that some people wear
| too much. That'd be like banning music because your neighbor's TV
| is too loud.
|
| Lucky Scent (mentioned in this article) has a boutique in LA. If
| you're nearby, you can go in and sample to your heart's content.
| Perfume boutiques are unfortunately rare but most large cities
| will have something and they're accessible and inviting in my
| experience. There really is a _lot_ more out there than what a
| Sephora or Macy's will ever show you.
|
| Nice article. He correctly notes that vocabulary for describing
| odors is limited for most so reviews and descriptions trend quite
| "purple" and abstract. There is a vocabulary, though, but it'd
| take some time spent with some books and a perfume organ to make
| progress on that front.
| cyberax wrote:
| Scent is a unique sense, it is not decomposable.
|
| Taste is just a combination of 5 basic tastes, vision is a
| combination of 3 primary colors, etc.
| viraptor wrote:
| There is a huge number of olfactory sensory cell types, but
| it's all still decomposable. Smell is not unique here.
| function_seven wrote:
| While (human) vision is 3 colors, reviews of visual arts
| obviously can't just describe the colors of the thing. It
| also has shape, depth, style, etc.
|
| Food reviewers don't note the levels of salt, sour, etc. They
| describe flavors and textures and parings.
|
| But also, I don't buy that taste is just the composition of 5
| components. This sounds like a reference to that diagram of
| the tongue we've all seen. It's as complex as scent is.
| There's no way you can define the taste of cinnamon by
| specifying some sort of 5-tuple.
| kulahan wrote:
| I believe he is correct. The misunderstanding is from the
| old chart that showed certain tastes were only detected by
| certain parts of the tongue.
|
| It's still true that we can only taste salty, sweet, sour,
| bitter, and umami. All other flavor complexities come from
| scent simultaneously giving us information. It's why
| everything tastes so boring when you have a head cold.
| BurningFrog wrote:
| Scent _is_ part of the taste experience, despite being
| produced in the nose.
|
| Food also has a universe of possible consistencies.
| brokencode wrote:
| Scent is decomposable. There are many different scent
| receptors, but finite.
|
| Hearing is quite similar in that there are numerous different
| length hairs in the ear drum that can sense different
| frequencies of sound.
| nick__m wrote:
| I belong to the ban perfume group. I am allergic to most of
| them, it feels like someone is hitting me from inside my
| sinuses. And it is not because someone wears to much or smell
| to intensely either. Sometimes I barely smell it but it feels
| equally violently bad.
|
| I wish I knew what is so irritating in so many perfume so I
| could militate to have that substance banned instead of being
| in the no perfume militia!
| ujkhsjkdhf234 wrote:
| Do you get this feeling from scented soaps as well? If not, I
| wonder if you having a reaction to the alcohol in perfume.
| nick__m wrote:
| Most of them but not all of them. Dove and even Irish
| spring us ok (not that it smell great) however my wife had
| to throw away many fancier soaps she received from a
| cosmetics sampler subscription.
|
| Essential Oils like fir needles, black spruce, orange,
| rosemary... don't affect me, I even like them (but I find
| lavender repulsive but it's not hurtful).
|
| And I don't feel like going to an allergy specialist for
| something as superficial as this is a good use of my time
| since my coworker, friends and family are not into perfume.
| viraptor wrote:
| You can go to an allergy specialist to not only identify what
| exactly affects you, but likely also try to reverse the
| problem.
| o11c wrote:
| "Reverse the problem" is severely overstated. Admittedly it
| can be useful for people with potentially-fatal allergies,
| but otherwise it's often the equivalent of building scar
| tissue.
| AnimalMuppet wrote:
| My wife and at least one of my children are sensitive to
| perfume. They get headaches, at a minimum.
|
| A bit east of Elkhart Indiana, there's a place that claims to
| sell "natural perfume". Does anyone who is perfume-sensitive
| have any experience with that? Is it possible that the
| chemicals used in "non natural perfume" are at the root of
| the sensitivity? (I haven't dared to test it on my wife, so
| I'd be interested in any reports.)
| sharphall wrote:
| It's unlikely "natural" has anything to do with it.
| Compounds that occur naturally are often synthesized, but
| it's the same molecule as found in nature. (example:
| vanillin) There are some scent molecules that are totally
| new and not found in nature outside of our production, but
| "naturally occurring" is a broad category that can include
| all sort of things individuals are likely to be sensitive
| to even after removing all the "natural" chemicals that are
| actual poison.
| o11c wrote:
| Cyanide is probably a better example.
| zdragnar wrote:
| Plenty of essential oils (what tends to be used in these)
| are aggressively irritating unless diluted to people
| without allergies. Even when diluted, I am allergic to
| some, and my wife is allergic to others, though we get
| different symptoms than "unnatural" perfumes.
|
| Instead of migraines, it's closer to hay fever type
| allergies.
| jsbg wrote:
| > And it is not because someone wears to much or smell to
| intensely either. Sometimes I barely smell it but it feels
| equally violently bad.
|
| I don't understand how this is distinguishable from random
| smells going about life, like traffic, fresh rain, flowers,
| cooking, grass, etc.
| kulahan wrote:
| It isn't, but it seems less necessary, so it's easier to
| single it out
| o11c wrote:
| For me at least, most of the other debilitating chemicals
| appear in predictable and semi-avoidable contexts.
|
| Traffic chemicals appear strongest on busy motorways with
| stagnant air, where people outside of cars don't spend much
| time.
|
| Flower chemicals can cause problems but usually dissipate
| within 10 feet or so.
|
| Fresh rain primarily _eliminates_ free-floating chemical
| attacks and does not cause one itself.
|
| Cooking is self-regulating because the person actively
| triggering the chemical emission is exposed much more
| strongly than people elsewhere even in the same room.
|
| Grass can only be crudely avoided or mitigated during the
| seasons where it's problematic. (Thank God for COVID
| bringing awareness that masks make it physically easier to
| breathe.)
|
| But perfume? You never know when you'll run across a person
| who chooses to be a targeted, walking violation of the
| Hague Convention. There's no way to mitigate this other
| than avoiding people entirely (which some people do choose
| to do, but which has negative side effects).
|
| That said, in recent years I find the perfume from cleaning
| supplies or laundry supplies to be more problematic than
| the perfume from people.
| nick__m wrote:
| I completely agree with everything you said with emphasis
| on your last three paragraphs.
| michaelcampbell wrote:
| VOC's?
| mk_stjames wrote:
| Sometimes this website feels like Adderall is somehow being
| directly rendered into Source Serif type, displayed through the
| browser.
| ctoth wrote:
| Modafinil, not Adderall.
| altairprime wrote:
| Ah, modafinil. Best sleep I've ever had in my entire life.
| ericmay wrote:
| One of the coolest perfumes I've come across is Relique d'Amour
| by Oriza Legrand https://www.orizaparfums.com/en/eaux-de-
| parfums/20-relique-d...
|
| Here's the description: The abandoned chapel of a
| Cistercian abbey. Cold stonewalls, covered in Moss.
| The scent of waxen wood, of the tabernacle and ornate pews.
| The linseed oil of the unfinished painting. Myrrh and
| Frankincense still linger in the air, When a peppery
| whiff catches you, unawares: That of white lilies,
| still fresh and yet so spicy. The subtle scent of
| golden pollen mingles with that of solemn green leaves.
| A beam of light breaks through the stained glass windows
| illuminating this olfactory tumult of feelings, shifting from
| humility to jubilation. A divine call.
|
| When I visited the site in Paris, which was a lovely experience,
| we did sample this perfume among others and were quite impressed.
| Something weird happened in America, maybe the Axe Body Spray
| takeover, where at least those with a working class upbringing
| thumbed our noses at such frivolous things but now I have come to
| appreciate fragrance a bit more.
|
| Funny enough, we actually randomly had dinner with the founder of
| a perfume shop who was visiting Paris with his wife and it was
| fascinating to learn a bit about the industry.
| eej71 wrote:
| Interesting! Good to see they have a sampler pack one can buy
| for a reasonable [1] price.
|
| https://www.orizaparfums.com/en/ultimateproduct/170/coffret-...
|
| [1] reasonable within the context of their prices... YMMV.
| ericmay wrote:
| If you purchase I'll be curious about your thoughts. I have
| no affiliation with the shop.
| jfengel wrote:
| Huh. Sounds like a pleasant smell, but not something I'd want
| as a perfume.
|
| The way I see it, perfumes should replace your scent. They
| should complement it. They should go together like wine and
| food.
|
| Axe Body Spray covers your natural scent -- the entire
| marketing is "You smell bad so you should smell like something
| else". That's how we've marketed fragrance in the US since
| forever. Somebody finally figured out that we could sell it to
| boys as well as to adult women.
| ericmay wrote:
| Yes for this specific perfume, that was my impression as
| well. Not something I'd want to wear, but fascinating and
| accurate nonetheless.
| lelandfe wrote:
| (you probably meant should _not_ replace your scent)
| throwmeaway222 wrote:
| I can't stand perfume, it makes my skin crawl. Literally when
| someone is dowsed in the stuff, you can feel the wave of
| exploding microparticles in mini chemical reactions as they walk
| passed you. In my "unpopular opinion" perfumes should be banned.
| spapas82 wrote:
| I used to try and buy a lot of perfumes some years ago.
| Unfortunately I concluded that it isn't really worth it since
| beyond some classics (Fahrenheit , terre d Hermes, declaration,
| narcisso for him, dior home, ysl m7, armani code, zv this is him,
| ck eternity, chanel egoiste platinum and of course aventus) there
| aren't many truly unique scents. Most perfumes try to copy
| another existing, mass appealing one.
|
| Also male perfume nowadays is either too weak or too sweet (or
| too expensive if you go the niche route). So either I'll wear a
| perfume that will smell for 30 minutes and nobody will notice or
| I'll bite the bullet and wear a club perfume that will suffocate
| people (and not even smell good).
| tpm wrote:
| Yeah the sweetness is a real issue but there are a lot of niche
| fragrances that don't follow these trends. And it's still
| possible to find powerfull stuff too, doesn't have to be that
| expensive.
|
| There is lots of interesting brands that don't go for mass
| appeal, for example Pineward.
| te_chris wrote:
| +1 for Terre de Hermes and Dior Homme parfum
| bboygravity wrote:
| Maybe try a Montale? Pretty sure that doesn't smell even
| remotely close to anything you mentioned there and definitely
| also not sweet at all.
| moomoo11 wrote:
| Nice. I found my signature scents over a period of a few years.
|
| Costco has some nice deals on high end perfumes, like Roja or Tom
| Ford.
|
| There are also local perfumeries which can be interesting.
| qingcharles wrote:
| The problem with sampling when you're out-and-about is that you
| get nose-blindness, even if you use the coffee shakers they
| give you to clear your head.
|
| I don't know if it's still a good route, but I used to be able
| to buy sacks of random perfume sampler bottles from eBay
| sellers for peanuts and then I could try a couple every day and
| note down which ones I liked or not.
| moomoo11 wrote:
| I like oud and deeper scents. To me they're more intimate.
|
| Plus I've found it's a power move when I smell good in a room
| of people who have no aura.
|
| Humans are animals/automatons after all, and it's a neat
| hack.
| Graziano_M wrote:
| Initio - Oud for Greatness (which happens to be listed on
| gwern's page) is my favourite oud fragrance.
| porridgeraisin wrote:
| I like instances of any fragrance really, as long as it doesn't
| "project". Basically, if someone comes close they catch it but
| otherwise it doesn't throw the smell very far. Examples:
| khus,sandalwood,some lemongrass perfumes, and iris.
| tmp10423288442 wrote:
| @gwern, did you mess up your inflation calculation here?
|
| > I couldn't get all the ones Nguyen highlighted from LuckyScent
| and some sampler packs were sold out, but I settled for 39
| samples total on 8 February 2021. (Which cost $153 [2021; $190 in
| 2025], so amortizing to $3.90 [2011; $6.03 in 2025] each.) At
| that point I felt I had gone a bit overboard, so I didn't do an
| additional order from CB I Hate Perfume, which Nguyen praises for
| doing the most interesting 'abstract' perfumes, to pick up ones
| that LuckyScent didn't have in stock.
| layman51 wrote:
| This must have been like 15 years ago, but I vaguely remember
| someone making a perfume that smelled like the scent you get when
| you open up the box of a new iPhone or MacBook.
|
| It's a distinct smell and I'm not really sure if it's purely from
| the electronics or if it comes from the papers inside the box
| too.
| Scene_Cast2 wrote:
| Oh, perfumes are a great hobby. If you're in SF or LA, definitely
| hit up one of the boutique perfume shops (Scent Bar and Ministry
| of Scent).
|
| There are also bunch of sellers who package samples (aka
| "decants" - buy a 100mL, split it into smaller bottles). I found
| that 1-2mL is plenty to get an idea. I've had great experience
| with LuckyScent (mentioned in the article), Surrender to Chance,
| as well as random reddit swaps and highly rated Ebay sellers.
|
| The perfume scene is super wide and diverse, and I found that
| although there are general trends, it's hard to even know all the
| popular brands, and everyone's nose is unique. Skip stuff like
| Aventus and Sauvage and buy some discovery sets (surrender to
| chance puts together some good ones).
|
| There is definitely a spectrum between "wearable crowd-pleaser"
| and "avant-garde storytelling" - Afrika-Olifan comes to mind -
| love it for the creativity and execution, but it would be rude to
| go outside wearing it. There's also some storytelling - Black
| March, for example, starts off with grassy fresh earth after a
| rain, then turns into flowers.
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