Saturday Question: Have you ever loathed a fragrance so much that you threw it in the trash?

/ AustralianPerfumeJunkies

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Portia

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Hello Fellow Fumies,

At APJ we have a Saturday Question. Everyone gets to chime in with an answer, chat with other responders and it’s a fun event each week. Taking sides never means taking offence and everyone keeps it respectful and light, even though we can sometimes trawl the depths.

The idea is you’ll see it on the weekend or chime in through the week. Hopefully you will come back regularly and see if anyone has responded to your comment and you can reply to them. The aim is to generate real conversation and connection even though we are scattered around the globe.

 

Over 100 responses I will draw a Secret Scent Sample Pack (from my collection)

Saturday Question: Have you ever loathed a fragrance so much that you threw it in the trash?

This question came up a few months ago on one of the FaceBook pages and it made me laugh so much. Some of the stories were humdingers. Please don’t take offence if one of your favourites is mentioned, this is all a bit of silliness. Let’s try to stay fun and respectful.

Ever bought a scent at the discounters on the net, from a sales doc, been given it or from eBay and it has been so utterly loathsome that rather than pass it on to anyone else you’d prefer it went to landfill?

My Answer:

I bought a bottle of either Elie Saab Resort Collection or L’Eau Couture from a sales doc. I can’t remember what it was and it only got spritzed twice. There was something definitely wrong with it. I think it may have been a fake because it was putrid. I could smell pretty white flowers at first but it was later overlaid with this awful, headache inducing plastic smell and something else I cannot name and have never smelled before or after. Ghastly is the best adjective I have.

It went in the bin so fast and without remorse. So awful I wouldn’t even have given it to goodwill. GAK! Even the memory of it makes me twitch.

My Saturday Question to you is:

Have you ever loathed a fragrance so much that you threw it in the trash?

67 thoughts on “Saturday Question: Have you ever loathed a fragrance so much that you threw it in the trash?”

  1. Angel. Ugh. Ghastly stuff. Yuk. I thought my sample was “off”. Tried another batch, a tester. Nopes. Binned.

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  2. I have had a few! Similar to Jyotsna with Angel; I purchased the perfume and body lotion from a SA at Nordstrom many years ago with great expectations after she insisted it was the best ever. After wearing a few times, I couldn’t stand the smell of myself, nauseating. In the trash! (that was pre-knowledge of swaps, selling, or just giving away).
    I have had a few ebay mishaps in my early attempts at purchasing perfume (I have learned a lot over the years!). Once a fake Chanel No 5, it smelled like Pine Sol cleaner! And a bottle of Joy that had turned really bad. In the trash!

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  3. Crap samples I get from hell knows where. Especially Esxence. I mean if I think it is good, but not for me – then I might give it away. But if I think it is bad, I’ll bin it. Do not believe I have ever chucked a bottle.

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  5. I forced myself to keep a sample of Angel around in case someday it doesn’t smell like nasty on my skin, but honestly – so awful. I used to toss samples but now I keep them for NST freebiemeets. I’m pretty sure I tossed a bottle of Lancôme Attraction years ago – before I realized that there would be someone out there who might want it. I don’t even remember why I didn’t like it.

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  7. The bottle with the quickest U turn in my house was Clinique Happy. Not quite in the bin but donated to charity. Many samples have been binned but never any bottles.

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  8. Not putrid, but I had a bottle that I’d kept for a few years and when I opened it it was turned. I couldn’t bear to wear it, so every time I cleaned the bathroom I poured some in the toilet (the bottle wasn’t a spray). It was the fanciest bathroom freshener ever –.

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  9. I think I threw away a bottle of Bennetton Tribu because the bottle was so hideous and the scent mediocre (this was long before the internet era). The most recent horror was SL Serge Noire. One sniff and I put the sample back in the baggie and walked it straight outside to the bin. Pure armpit BO.

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    • I blind bought a bottle of Serge Noire. It literally smelled like fish on me. I sold it on eBay for more than I paid for it. I shuddered when I sniffed it. Smelled great in the bottle but not on skin. Fancy Nights also made me shudder. Sold that, too, at a loss since it is almost free. Just covered shipping because I couldn’t stand to throw something out I knew that other people liked. Raised not to be wasteful. Shudder. And, when I smell White Linen in the air I shudder.

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      • @Gina I had a bottle of Fancy Nights too. Usually I either pass an unwanted bottle along, or even place it on a nearby park bench, but it was so horrible I gently place it in the trash*, as to decrease the chances of my ever smelling it again.

        *so as to make sure it didn’t break and make the trash bin smell worse

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  10. The only full bottle that I have disliked the most was Donna Karan Be Delicious. It was armpit odor and cat urine smell that I was not able to scrub it off after I sprayed on it lavishly. It was a blind buy and the reviews were so positive that I never thought it was going to be so horrible. It went to a freebiemeet on NST and the person who got it liked it a lot. Glad it found a new home.

    Regarding samples, there were 3 that traumatized me for life: 1. Perris Montecarlo Ambre Gris. Two sprays almost killed me. I choked, became dizzy, nauseous, got a terrifying headache and the smell haunted me for weeks, even though I wrapped the sample and threw it in the garbage immediately. The worst perfume experience so far.
    2. ELDO Secretions Magnifique. I just cannot put in words the horror and anxiety I felt after spraying by accident the whole sample very fast on clothes and skin, just right before attending a work meeting. No way to scrub it off and people at the meeting were uncomfortable. I got a speech from my boss after. As hilarious as it sounds now, it was embarrassing, depressing and disgusting. I still don’t understand how that sample, that I had as a reference, ended up in my office sample bag.
    3. Lalique Le Perfume. The smell got stuck in my throat for hours. The whole thing was overwhelming. To the garbage it went.

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  11. I was slinking forward to admit that I have tossed every Angel sample I’ve ever had, but it seems I’m not the only one. Pretty sure I’ve told the tale of the epic migraine I suffered from my first exposure. For the longest time I thought I hated patchouli because of Angel.
    Youth Dew does the same thing for me. As much as I like the scent it just triggers horrible waves of nausea when on my skin. I binned several samples before I found I could spray blotters and put them under the liner of my leather tote.
    The only other I had to dispose of triple-wrapped in baggies was Olympic Orchids Kyphi. Something about it makes me so anxious and panicky I had to lay down on the floor the first time I sampled it. I tried to keep it for reference or to swap but couldn’t hack it. Weird, because OO scents are usually a hit for me.

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    • Hey there Mikasminion,
      Super interesting stories.
      I loved the first wave of Slumberhouse scents and bought them all. Sadly something in them triggered nightmares for Jin and I had to move them on. So I completely hear you when you say something triggered these emotions.
      Portia xx

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  12. FM Dans Tes Bras. The most awful tomcat’s pi$$ 🤢I would gladly have smashed it against the wall, but that would have spread the stink, so I immediately binned it. Luckily it was only the manufacturer’s 3.5ml sample. The other one was binning by giving away. Chopard Madness, it came in the mail to my workplace so of course I had to dive into it and gave myself a few good squirts. One of my colleagues loved it. An hour later my eyes were burning like mad. Next day she had that bottle. She was thrilled.

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    • I kinda like Dans Tes Bras 🙂 Coincidentally I was checking Chopard Madness reviews yesterday but it did not convince me it is worth blind buy. How is it really? Reviews usually say spicy rose but it is not helpful because they is a long range of spicy. I love Malle POAL but some may describe that as spicy rose, too.

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      • I actually really liked the scent. As I recall it was a bit rosy with a hairspray, peppery vibe. I also got rhubarb from it. I wish it hadn’t reacted so badly.

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      • I just remembered that it reminded me a little of Gucci Rush. Not the same scent but the same diffusiveness.

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  13. I dont throw in trash but rather try to sell quick. I did recently send a bottle I got for free to a person who bought something from me. The free item was supposed to mimic a particular smell though it did anything but that. It was not even good enough to be a room spray.
    There are two perfumes that I immediately come to mind that I would never ever wear if no other perfumes are left in the world though I keep them for fun reasons. One is mini of ELDO secretions magnifique and other is a clone perfume supposed to mimic the smell of cheeseball and it does. The second was a promotional item, like the ones that have been released by Burger King to mimic smell of big whopper and so on.

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    • I am the oddball because I love Secretions Magnifiques…. it’s the smell of my childhood…. The Atlantic ocean….seaweed, marine,cold water with a touch of cream. My kids say it smells great on my skin.

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      • hahahah Portia. I think Burger King may run such a promotion again in the future so do try to enter the draw if it happens in Australia, too. The past promotions were free giveaways in case you were one of the winners in the draws.

        Brigitte, I can imagine why it might remind some of ocean since it has salty vibe and of course, skin chemistry can turn a bad perfume on one person’s skin into a good perfume on another person’s skin.

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  14. Two actually… first was the first Black Opium. Ugh. Real gagfest on me. Next was La Vie Est (not so) Belle, felt like stepping into a vat of burned synthetic caramel. Ah well… can’t win ‘em all! xoxo

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  15. Headache material perfumes that I have passed on are:
    Aromatics Eixir’; Coco Mademoiselle; Amarige & Youth Dew

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  16. Anything with a super strong citrus opening, so pretty much all but 2 of the Juicy couture flankers including the original. I can’t stand them with the exception of majestic woods and the sucree one that comes in cupcake packaging. And pretty much everything I’ve ordered from Avon with the exception of Luck for her which is gorgeous and Midnight fantasy (bottle glows in the dark) . Mark by Avon (geared for the younger crowd) has some ok perfumes but nothing out of this world. Green tea by Elizabeth Arden it just didn’t sit well on my skin. Very sour. I tossed it.

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  17. Encens Flamboyant is a blind buy bottle, i would long to sell or swap. Something annoys me, maybe its the fir tree note. I like incense, but not this one.
    So if someone in Europe is interested….?

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  18. Yep, a whole batch of samples I had ordered went into the bin after just one sniff. If I was a surfer or scuba diver I would have kept them as shark repellent.

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  19. I can’t remember what it was but some sort of barnyard oud smelling sample that was free with a bottle purchase went straight in the bin. Usually though I’d prefer to pass anything I don’t like on to someone who might enjoy it.

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      • See? And this is why I don’t throw out any perfumes! I keep tabs of what friends and family like and then just pass them along…. sometimes even things I like myself….I have a hard time saying no when someone I care about is swooning over a certain scent.

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        • and speaking of which…I CANNOT get my Iris Nobile back from Middle Marzipan…she left it at university and isn’t bringing it home…even for me to make a measly decant-LOL! That’s OK. I have plenty of other perfumes to play with.

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  20. Hi! Now that you mention it, I remember that I actually threw two bottles in the trash: “Philosykos” by Diptyque and “Laetitia” by Rancé. The first one was extremely dry, like I was smelling hay and there was no humidity in the air. With the second one, it felt like I was sitting next to a dumpster filled with uncollected garbage.
    These happened when I was just delving into the perfume world . You won’t see me throwing perfumes in the bin in the future even if I don’t like them.

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  21. Sadly, Joy by Jean Patou. Althouhgh, in it’s defense, it wasn’t a vintage version so the reformulation probably doesn’t hold a shadow to the original. I bought it on a whim because it was on sale and I had never smelled it. Most expensive failed blind buy ever. Smells like an old English Rose air freshener spray my mother used to buy in the 80’s, which made me gag back then.

    This, did not invoke “joy” in me! 😦 …although silver lining, I do think the bottle is beautiful.

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  22. Lagerfeld, the classic men’s one. I was about 16 or 17, bought it and wore it for a few months. One day, I got tired of it and threw half a bottle in the bin. I think I was dense enough to have worn it on a stinking hot day, and probably over sprayed big time.

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