Changing tastes

Looking through my collection, there are perfumes that I loved when I bought them, but just don't do anything for me today.. Does everyone experience this? 

First I thought that the appreciation was a lasting thing, but now it seems more temporary with me. 

For example, almost any Aoud that I liked in the past I don't wear anymore. Now I'm thinking I might as well get rid of them.

Oh yes! I think ones taste can change through experiencing more, different perfumes. Your sense of smell will evolve, but can also change due to hormonal changes etc. There are only few perfumes that I keep loving (and will love forever I'm sure), but there are many I don't like anymore and like some scents can 'grow on you' they also can 'outgrow''  you. 

Then there are also those (in my case Amuage Interlude) that still smell amazing, but I no longer feel the urge to use them.. Like, I would enjoy it on someone else but not on myself

Yes, I've had the opposite happen as well - hating something initially and then growing to love it. I've noticed that the same fragrance can smell very different on me at different points in time and sometimes I just perceive it differently. My likes and dislikes come and go, it's not a static thing at all. 

This happens to me almost every day actually lol 😂 Yesterday I might have thought "oh I want to wear this fragrance every day" and today I'm thinking "nope I need a long break from this perfume". My fragrance preferences go in periods, sometimes I crave gourmands, sometimes I crave freshies, sometimes all things woody and resinous and so on... In the beginning of my perfume journey I thought my whole taste has changed and I started to sell or swap certain fragrances from my collection - only to buy them back later when I started craving them again.

As I age, I'm drawn more to green, spicy, woody, fougere and chypres. The boyish sweet smells are good but aren't the ones I gravitate towards. 

I have already learned that I shouldn't sell anything if I sometimes feel that I don't enjoy them because after a couple of months I'm totally crazy about them again. Sometimes I can't believe how differently I can experience them. Two great examples are Journey Woman and Venom Incarnat . Both of them are so cloying and unwearable during wintertime and I have wanted to sell them. But during summertime they are so amazing and all that uncomfortable vibe is gone. Not cloying anymore, not utterly synthetic feeling, just a perfection in a bottle. Even Oud Satin Mood Eau de Parfum and Love Don't Be Shy Perfume are unwearable during wintertime. I know, sounds so strange but all my sticky sweet perfumes are my summertime scents and imo they are more beautiful when it's warm.

I am so surprised to find that in the last week or so, as the weather is getting warmer, I'm put off so many of my favorites, even ones I thought could work in the spring and summer. 

I had a period where I was obsessed with Sunflowers Eau de Toilette but now it's been quite a while since I wanted to wear it. I wasn't wearing it super regularly or anything, but I've like, not even wanted it on my tray for so long. I'm holding onto my bottle anyway, just because in my heart I still really like it. hopefully one day...

Yes! Have the same experience here. 

My sense of smell has changed through the years.  I used to wear a lot wood, citrus, sort of green perfumes (such as Etro Pegaso or Hermès Eau Claire des Merveilles) but since a few years find myself loving more warm amber and vanilla scents. 

But also short term, one day could love a perfume and the week after will find it less appealing. This did sort of shock me, but I will just ride it out and check on the scent later again 😆

I didn't used to enjoy ouds, was a sucker for anything gourmand, but now I'm really picky about gourmands and very few make the cut. And I love deeper, darker scents with oud.

I feel you. There is nothing like the experience of first smelling a fragrance and not being able to decode it totally, so it just hits your senses like fireworks, leaves you amazed and excited, and you decide to 100% keep it / make it your signature scent.

After a while, your mind begins to decode it, step by step, removing its magic / uniqueness day by day, leaving you with a fragrance that you feel like you know too much of for you to be excited about it anymore, and decide it's time to move on.

Sometimes I even feel the need to go back to such fragrances, but in the end I remember why I grew tired of them.

Some others I decide to keep, because sometimes I am able to relive this firework sensation out of them, even if not for long.

My sad goodbyes (for ever):

1 - La Nuit de L'Homme Le Parfum

2 - The One for Men Eau de Parfum

3 - Club de Nuit Intense Man Eau de Toilette

My see you laters (and we saw each other after, many times, but only for a while, but probably many more times in the future):

1 - Le Mâle Le Parfum

2 - Bvlgari Man In Black Parfum

3 - Le Mâle Elixir

Very much agree. When I was much younger I was obsessed with J'adore Eau de Parfum and 212 Sexy but I find it so hard to go back to them anymore. This week I bought Naked Forest which is the farthest from anything I've ever had before. It's a unisex niche chypre-fougere and I adore it. I had never tried any other fragrance in the world like it so I knew I had to add it to my collection.

This is wise advice - to hang onto your perfumes and revisit them in a bit before selling too hastily, because you never know how you'll feel about them a little down the road (and then potentially needing to buy them back again)! 😅

I just experienced this with Om Eau de Toilette. Bought a bottle of the reformulation a couple years ago, and was on the fence about it. Forgot I had it until re-organizing my collection recently - and now that I've revisited it with new eyes, I'm obsessed!! So glad I didn't let it go before then, whew lol 🙏😂

@Gourmandgrl Sounds very familiar to me 😂 Back in the days when I did a lot of swapping, I learned that before publishing my swaplist I will re-visit all the fragrances on the list once more in order to make sure I won't need them in the future - and many times some of them eventually ended up on the list of my absolute top favourites instead 😆 This "decluttering" trend doesn't suit me at all as I have noticed that most decluttered ones I end up buying back anyway lol. It might also depend on the weather - some fragrances feel absolutely awful in heat and are super gorgeous when the weather is cold or vice versa. I admit I have judged too many fragrances prematurely when it has been just a wrong season or weather for them.

Another excellent tip from you @Lempi 👏 I try to do the same thing (revisiting fragrances one more time before purging), love that some of these end up on your top favorites instead (good thing you checked before swapping 😂)! And so true about differing feelings between weather/seasons!

Before I was into collecting fragrances my go-to fragrances used to be The One for Men Eau de Parfum, Le Mâle Eau de Toilette and 1 Million Eau de Toilette. They smelled good to me at the time and wasn't that much into other stuff. People liked them, I loved them and they did their job.

As I grew into the fragrance game I did not longer care for these as the world opened up more. I still have The One for Men Eau de Parfum in my collection but I tend not reach for it as much as I did before. (It also does not help that it's longevity is piss poor)

One I'd highlight for myself is L'Homme Idéal Eau de Parfum which I absolutely adored when I first bought it, smelled very unique to me and I thought I'd love it for all time, but present day: it just does not do it for me anymore. When I smell it now I think it is an okay fragrance, but I wouldn't rebuy it, not even on a high discount.

I may have spoiled myself a bit, I think I would've kept loving it if I didn't put my nose on new things. Which may also end up going from "Amazing" to "meh, why did I buy it".

I tend to think that with time as I grew up Ive been able to discern what I really like (notes,profiles,etc).

The first ones I bought were Polo Black Eau de Toilette and Big Pony Collection - 1 . And I loved them, my bottles of them are almost empty, but I really didnt try anything else or engage in forums or videos. Then I bought Versace pour Homme Dylan Blue Eau de Toilette in a duty free, and I was like "this smells better than the other 2 I got", but I couldt put my finger on why, I just knew.

Later on, 1 or 2 ish years after, I bought L'Eau d'Issey pour Homme Eau de Toilette and oh boy, that opened the door for me for the whole fragance forums, videos, discussions, comparisons ecosystem. This scent in particular was so good and I wanted to understand what I was smelling not just that it smelled good.

Fast forward to today I have a much bigger collection, and I think every scent of my collection has a place, theres nothing redundant. I dont wear Polo Black Eau de Toilette or Big Pony Collection - 1 as much if any, as they seem a little underwhelming for me as of now, but I do asocciate them with a lot of the best memories I have.

I get bored easily and have bought 100ml bottles then a few months later sold them. I only buy 50ml bottles now and am really picky! 

This is my experience also. I regret a lot of things I swapped away, back when I didn't know about reformulations and discontinuations. 

Also, what I used to turn my nose up at twenty years ago, I now adore as an "old lady"!  Give me vintage any day of the week.