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Casual sniff vs Note breakdown

Casual sniff vs Note breakdown 8 years ago
I'd like to address something I believe is a big difference maker in how we perceive fragrances, and my apologies if it has already been discussed. When reading fragrance reviews and information, we see enthusiasts or companies break down the notes and analyze them and how they affect the scent, or how much of each note they get along the journey of experiencing a fragrance. I think that is great for companies and enthusiasts in the community, but may not really represent a real world experience to those who may smell it in passing, or even those who we as fragrance wearers interact with often but who have only a casual sniff.

Vague examples might be old school fragrances- a woman may love the notes in a certain perfume, and it may be beautiful on her skin, but to passerby it might remind them of their grandmother. Nothing wrong with the perfume or the perfumed, but the sniffer has associations with their grandmother and that scent. They don't think it's "flirty" or "sexy" or "happy", they may just think "it's Grandma?"

Same with men's old school frags; the wearer may feel it's "sexy" or "confidant" or "regal", but the casual nose may just smell "old" or it may remind of their father.

It also seems the casual nose attempts to grab a single note, and make an immediate association with that one.

For example, I had a travel size Bentley for Men Intense at work, and a colleague commented "That's nice but smells like vanilla". No spices, no leather, no incense, no wood, no rum. Just vanilla (damn you benzoin!).

Not his fault. He has worked in kitchens for years and that's what he smelled that was most familiar to him. I would posit that most casual noses don't really pick up on nuance, only the most prominent thing that they recognize.

Do you have any such examples? Is there a fragrance you were totally smitten with that has depth and nuance, but someone only perceived one flat note?

Feel free to agree, disagree, discuss, eviscerate, etc.
8 years ago
Yep, I've been testing out Tiziana Terenzi's Casanova. I get bitter orchid, mentholated myrhh, sparkly ambroxan, pink pepper, cedar, and powdery iris.

What do my friends get?

"Smells like feminine powder."

Just the nature of the game. When I write reviews, I write them for fragrance nuts, but I'm not stuck so far up my own ass to actually believe a passing whiff of any fragrance I wear conveys nearly as many notes as I get out of it when I review it. Usually it's the main note or feel that gets across in the air. Fahrenheit? Leather. Fahrenheit Parfum? Vanilla. Havana Vanille? Brownies. Silver Mountain Water? Lemon. Tom Ford Noir? Grandma. Terenzi Arethusa? Shampoo. Encre Noire? Grass. I can go on and on with all these. My coworkers and friends often have a one word summation for anything I wear and while it's not in depth, it's usually correct to an extent.
7 years ago
Even though I buy perfume for my nose and my pleasure -I apply scent very judiciously- it's a disappointment when someone doesn't smell the narrative character of the fragrance as intended by the perfumer or the same way I experience the scent. One of my favorite fragrances is Philosykos by Diptyque. Its narrative is built around a fresh, watery fig leaf accord. Occasionally someone will notice I'm wearing it and say, "Mmm, that's a nice coconut scent!" Well, it just so happens coconut is a building block in the fragrance. If you smell fig leaf and coconut side by side they share some similarities. But it still kills me every time I get that comment!
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