how much has your tastes changed?

how long have u been into frags and did your tastes change drastically?

I have been into fragrances for about 7 years and my taste has drastically changed. Started out with super sweet VS & BBW fragrance mists. My favorite perfumes used to be Love Don't Be Shy Perfume and Bare Vanilla, now it's Musc Ravageur Eau de Parfum and Portrait of a Lady Eau de Parfum 🤣 Crazy how much taste can evolve and change.

I purchased my first perfume when I was 15 yo, in the mid 80’s. After trying the bottles that were in my parents’ house and not finding something that I liked, i purchased Vanderbilt Eau de Toilette in a supermarket. I still remember this powdery-musky scent that brought me so many compliments at school. After Vanderbilt, Intuition Parfum became my signature scent for years and years until it was discontinued. Since then, my taste in fragrance has of course changed over the decades. To change our preferences is a natural development as one gets older and try and test new scents. This leads me to my next argument. I also think my taste has changed due to the introduction of new ingredients and aroma chemicals which allowed me to discover new beautiful fragrances with scent profiles that I never new existed. How could I not like these new gems? On the other hand, some my old favorites have been reformulated (Samsara) or discontinued (Intuition), in this sense I was also “forced” to evolve in my taste. However, you will not catch me crying over these gone beauties. There are so many offerings out there to discover.

thats really reassuring. sometimes i fear my favorites will stop producing and i wont have all the money to buy 1000s as a collector item. but thats probably getting ahead of myself

I only became a fan of fragrances around 2020-2021, when the pandemic hit, however my tastes have changed drastically since the first time I started wearing perfume (around 15-16) to now. Now, I had always liked different scents, but not necessarily perfume scents; I loved incense or laundry detergent that smelled nice, nice shampoo scents, body sprays and all that, but I was never big on perfume.

I initially never liked most women's perfumes because my family always bought me very floral, powdery scents that did not suit me and felt cloying. Then a friend purchased me a woodsy perfume that I absolutely fell in love with. I also purchased a cheap perfume in a cute bottle at a market, which was probably a dupe for Black Opium or something, and that was one of my favourites for a while, too. Then I discovered gourmands and it kind of changed everything for me, and I started be a bit more open to smelling and testing various perfumes in shops. I am still not the biggest fan of powdery scents, but I love florals now and there are even some powdery scents that I like, but they have to be subtle and not too strong in how powdery they are.

Of course out tolerance and likes and dislikes in scents will change regardless, because that is human nature. Much like we won't always enjoy the same notes in every perfume; I love vanilla and jasmine, however there are many vanillas that do not work for me as a perfume because of how powdery they are, and sometimes the jasmine in a perfume cannot save the scent itself thanks to the other notes it has been paired with.

Dear Bunnyshaped, 

When you like perfumes it’s easy to succumb to the FOMO. Get one back-up bottle of your favorite frag and if they do discontinue  it…. Let it go the way of the dinosaurs 🦖 🦕 

I think it's changed a bit since I was a in my latest teens/early 20s. I was very into the goth indie sleaze image so I loved patchouli heavy scents like Angel Eau de Parfum and Let it Rock but now I tend to steer away from heavy patchouli as it can get a bit cloying. Now I'm into all kinds of scents but mostly powdery/vintage florals, warm spicy ambers and clean/lactonic scents.

I've only started wearing perfume, in my 30s, in the last couple of years. I grew up in a fragrance-free household so I'm trying to educate myself and my nose to sort out what I like. Even across that short period of time, I've been surprised by some of the things I thought I would/wouldn't like. And when I retry scents from six months or a year ago I think quite differently about them -which is really helping ward off FOMO!

I've been into fragrances since childhood and I could say perfumes have been my hobby 25+ years now. In my childhood I absolutely loved ambery warm resinous fragrances and fresh florals. During my teenage years I started to enjoy most citrusy and aquatic fragrances. In my 20s I loved both dark woody and super sweet gourmand perfumes. Now in my late 30s I'm mostly gravitating towards aquatic, marine and tropical fruity fragrances. I'd say that my taste has changed that way that instead of being into only one genre of fragrances, I'm now loving so many different genres, and it's also completely random what I might be craving each day, so my taste has become more and more eclectic over the years. 😅 Also it totally depends on the weather/season/situation what I'm wanting to wear. For example certain things that I absolutely love at winter I just can't stand at summer and vice versa. When I was younger I remember my cravings being less seasonal.

I've been into fragrances since I was seven (lol) trying my mother's perfumes. Loved Fidji (1966) Parfum at that age. Later when buying my own fragrances I loved Boucheron (1988) Eau de Parfum and a few, sadly discontinued fragrances like Escada (1990) Eau de Parfum ; L'Eau de Monteil and "Boudoir (Eau de Parfum) | Vivienne Westwood" (I've heard they are bringing that one back, I'm very curious about that reformulation!) and so on.

I think my taste only has changed slightly, I've always hated strong vanilla's and gourmands but there are perfumes I don't like that much anymore like Boucheron and other, more opulent 80's style perfumes. I still - and think will always - love L'Air du Temps Eau de Parfum and Mitsouko Eau de Parfum and many others.

One perfume I never liked is N°5 Eau de Parfum, but I love that one now, provided I use it light handed. Maybe because their latest formulation (of which the bottle is not yet in the database here) is brighter and less 'waxy' to my nose, less remeniscent of Arpège (1993) Eau de Parfum which I hate.

I'm also noticing that every time that I have worn an opulant, lush perfume, I get weary of it and crave something like Infusion d'Iris (2015) Eau de Parfum This didn't happen to me in the past.

I've only been into this hobby for five years now.  Before that I only had one or two colognes at a time.  I find that I'm very open minded and tend to appreciate most everything.  For scents I'll wear I tend to stick to traditional unisex to masculine but I do have a few that most people think lean feminine.  What I wear from day to day highly depends on the season and occasion.

Im very thankful that I have a broad appreciation for fragrances because I like to blind buy deals and usually I like them.  In the past five years there has only been one cologne in a hundred that I disliked enough to trade it off and I have a feeling that if I had kept it, it would have grown on me. 

I’ve been into fragrances since I was about four or five, playing with my grandma’s bottles of Opium and Poison. But I got serious about this hobby around six years ago. I often hear people say that the more they smell and collect, the pickier they become, but for me it’s the opposite. I’ve actually become less picky. My horizons have broadened, and I now enjoy more fragrance families. I used to dislike vintage profiles, now I love them. I couldn’t stand strong rose before, now I seek it out. I like everything, which honestly feels like a bit of a problem. I’ve grown more accepting of weird compositions and scents that once felt unwearable. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing, but it’s definitely overwhelming.

I started my collection and journey as most , by getting a simple mass appealing blue frag, that was Versace pour Homme Dylan Blue Eau de Toilette , but as the years go by i've became more inclined to somewhat less sweet and more old-school like scents or profiles that are a little less common in the mainstream. My 2 latest favourite additions are Antaeus Eau de Toilette and Égoïste Eau de Toilette , 2 amazing fragances for me but they could be considered old timey so to say

I started my fragrance journey as a huge white floral fan and my favorites were the mass-appealing "perfumey" perfumes. And I've changed so much! Nowadays I prefer unisex woody, herbal and earthy scents. 

I was recently thinking about this topic after sorting my entire collection and compared to when I first started exploring / collecting fragrances, I'd say my tastes have changed a lot. it's not that I have come to dislike the fragrances I originally loved; a lot of what I have in my collection are bottles I got many years ago (some of which are 10+ years old!) and I still enjoy them, even if I don't wear them as often. But over the years my tastes have changed and I'm drawn to different categories of fragrances. I used to prefer gourmands and floral patchoulies. Gourmand Coquin was my "grail perfume" back in the day and Miss Dior (2012) Eau de Parfum was a major favorite, (not to mention the many variations of sweet rose perfumes).

Nowadays I still like a bit of sweetness in fragrances, but more so when there are spicy notes to go along with the sweet ones. I've grown bored with the fruity patchoulies and sweet roses I wore so much of. Over the years I started gardening more (herbs, vegetables and some flowers) so I've come to really appreciate fragrances with green and earthy notes. I especially love fragrances that mimic nature/natural environments and fragrances that feature florals realistically. I have some older florals that still hit the spot there, fortunately! Also, I look for incense and resinous notes in fragrances more now. I love burning various incense and having smoky notes in the fragrances I wear.

I think having wider access to samples from online websites (and being more patient by sampling more, in general) has also allowed me to explore so much more, as well. A lot of indie houses offer discovery sets or individual samples, so I've been preferring them more at the moment - not only for the types of scents I've been liking, but also because I enjoy the stories and backgrounds that often accompany them. It makes the experience all the more fun and interesting.

I’ve always leaned into gourmands, and still love them to this day.

I’ve been into fragrance since middle school, when I used to douse myself in Lucky You for Women Eau de Toilette. Although I didn’t track what I wore back then, I know I went through sooo many BBW gourmands before inevitably gifting them to friends to try as well, just so I had an excuse to go try something new.

In 2014, the year I graduated high school, my dad gifted me a bottle of YSL Black Opium, which was my gateway to florals.

These days I’m really enjoying Angham Eau de Parfum and Angels' Share Eau de Parfum, some slightly more elevated and mature gourmands. Though I am trying to branch out and try other fragrances. I bought my first milky/laconic fragrance this year and have been testing more fragrances with citrus and woody notes.

I strongly agree with you and have the same experience. The more I try and the more I learn about perfume, the more I like. There is no reason, to me, that we can’t make room for 800 vanilla perfumes. I like them all.

I’m also someone who used to think I hated floral perfumes, but then I realized that all of my gateway perfumes were sweet florals, usually freesia, jasmine, and orange blossom.

Now I find myself enjoying lavender, rose, and lily in perfumes as well.

I think also as I’ve gotten older my palette has developed. I have a decant of Nosferatu Eau de Parfum, which isn’t a perfume I would have thought I’d enjoy, but I find myself really loving it these days and it’s so green and mossy and floral, but without all of the sweetness that I usually reach for.

Learning more about perfume and becoming more obsessed with it has made me less picky about what I wear and has made me enjoy so many other scent profiles I used to dislike. One could say I’ve become less snobbish.

Fragrances I used to hate I still hate Coco Mademoiselle Eau de Parfum #Chanel N5

However I used to douse myself with La Petite Robe Noire (2012) Eau de Parfum as a teenager. Had the full bottle in my bag. But I think it was the perfect fragrance for me back then. I always wore a petite robe noire (black dress) and my skin liked it.

I can’t wear it now. It makes me sick !

I love the same music I used to love as a teenager (and I think that’s the case for a lot of people), however my taste in some fragrances and people have changed so much.

I just tested a fragrance that I used to wear in 2021, and I hate it now.

That's an interesting question!

The first thing I think would be that I used to like and look for fairly simple fragrances, things with a fairly linear progression and an emphasis on realism: Acqua di Sale, Jasmin Angélique, Sycomore (2016) Eau de Parfum, Baccarat Rouge 540 Eau de Parfum...
While nowadays, after having tried a great deal of things, I value a fragrance that evolves from start to finish, something unusual and something modern/daring, even at the cost of some realism or some mass appeal.

And then, when I started getting into fragrances I was very much against the idea of sweet scents, perhaps partly out of principle, but I've recently realized that I'm minding sweetness less and less, and I've found a number of sweeter fragrances that I've enjoyed quite a bit, starting from Fat Electrician and all the way to Opium (2009) Eau de Parfum.

A downside of this is that I've not been enjoying some fragrances I used to really like as much, but at least I'm enjoying the exploration a lot.

My fragrance tastes journey has been a fun one. I started out buying the more inexpensive ones without the awareness of the concept of what a "dupe" or "inspired twist" was. Then I started to get more involved into it as a hobby of exploring different scents. I wanted to find community but unfortunately started to dip my toes a little too into the "save money and buy yourself a REAL fragrance" crowd, yk the typical classist bs that exists in the fragrance community. After that I started to feel self conscious about my hobby and couldn't understand really why, so I started investing in samples for investing in large purchases. And then I realized... I personally don't really enjoy spending lots of money on a fragrance lol. I will have my one or two I have dropped serious coin on, but I realized the hobby for me is being able to explore all scents and do so within my very frugal way of being. I vowed to never discount the amount of joy my Al Rehab perfume oils bring me ever again... So, with where my tastes are now, conceptually, I am kinda back where I started, but with a more refined understanding of the fragrance profiles I enjoy! Before I was always on a hunt for a "perfect vanilla" and overtime I have realized I don't really care for vanilla fragrances on me. I like roses, but am now VERY picky about them since they come in so many varieties. I love a good musk, iris, sandalwood note. I also realize that I like my fragrance to have a hint of "earthiness" to it. Not even like straight up dirt persay but I like them to have a little bit of grit to them to round them out. Something green, something ozonic, if that makes any sense. I also very very rarely buy full bottles now and much rather use my money to explore samples from different houses now that I have that more consistent understanding of what I indentify with. Also allows me to not break bank, which I again realize now is an essential component that needs to be present for me to feel fulfilled in the hobby now. 

I've been into fragrance since childhood. My mother and grandmothers always wore perfume, regardless of what they were doing. My mother and her mother had seasonal collections, my other grandmother always wore White Linen Eau de Parfum (And still does! She turned 90 two weeks ago.) They would give me all their samples and minis and bottles they'd grown tired of. I loved Calèche Eau de Toilette and Cabotine Eau de Toilette . I wore The Body Shop's tea rose oil in middle school. It smelled like my grandmother's rose-scented rosary beads, and my mom told me I smelled like an old lady, but I didn't care!

My first "real" perfume that I picked out myself was Sun Moon Stars Eau de Toilette .

Then I got into the aquatic florals. Tommy Girl was the main one, but I wore a couple others as well.

Out of high school, I was into powdery florals for awhile. Anna Sui , Flower by Kenzo Eau de Parfum , Love, Chloé , Paris Eau de Toilette .

Rediscovered my love of roses. (L'Ombre dans L'Eau Eau de Toilette and Eau Capitale Eau de Parfum are still among my favorites and frequently in rotation.)

Then I was all about Rush , Prada (2004) , Elixir des Merveilles , Series 3: Incense - Avignon , Black Comme des Garçons

Briefly got into galbanum. N°19 Poudré , N°19 Parfum , 24 Papyrus de Ciane , Dryad

Had a citrus and tea phase. Acqua Viva , Aqua Allegoria Bergamote Calabria , Colonia Eau de Cologne , Green Tea Eau Parfumée , Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert Eau de Cologne , Eau Parfumée au Thé Bleu , Aqua Celestia Forte

Then came my fougere phase. Knize Two Toilet Water , Frank No. 1 (2014) , Pour Un Homme de Caron (1934) Eau de Toilette , English Fern Eau de Toilette , Absolue de Mousse

Now I have 400+ samples and decants from all the profiles and all the groups (because I get FOMO and I have to smell All The Things), but what I've seemed to be reaching for the most are clean irises (nothing too powdery or lipsticky), woods, and chypres.

i haven't seriously been into fragrance/perfume for very long (about 1~2 years) but as early as middle school, i have been a huge fan of coconut and other tropical scents. one of the first body sprays i had that i loved and used a lot was the bath&body works coconut calypso. from then it's a bit of a blur, i remember when i was 15-16 i bought myself two holister juice house fragrances, and was gifted other various tropical fruity scents. when i turned 17, i was gifted a bottle of lust for sun by jhag and had propelled my love for sunny, summery scents. 

when i was 18, i bought my first big name fragrance with my own money, and that happened to be the iconic angel by mugler. it's a very polarizing scent for most but for me it was perfect, and still is. i've been a fan of sweet dessert fragrances before then, but angel made me want to indulge more in the scent group (i also had a huge obsession with wanting to collect more mugler fragrances, and i still do! fruity fair and iced star are on my list to hunt and buy).

throughout the past year, i've still been indulging in vanilla and otherwise delicious perfumes. i (19) have recently bought myself by the fireplace by maison margiela, which was a bit of a bold move considering i've never worn anything that has any smokiness, but i would like to try more 🙂. on the topic of wanting to try new things, powdery notes like iris or orris have been on my mind.

for most of my life ive also been a huge fan of fruity scents, but mainly leaning towards tropical fruits. recently i have been in love with apple as a scent and have been wanting to get a crisp apple fragrance. 

i'm still trying to learn what i love and don't, and am slowly curating the right collection for me 😸

Infusion d'Iris (2015) Eau de Parfum really did change my taste. Lately I hardly can appreciate anything else. I'm trying, really, but nothing works. So my only wish is to find something just like it, but with stronger projection. On the other hand: the almost secretive vibe of this fragrance is maybe it's quality.

Maybe I'm stunted and immature.

My taste has always been extremely broad, and continues to be. I love everything from cheap vanillas up to vintage classic florals. I like most niche things, and I also think most designer things are quite passable. My very favorite fragrances have no set theme, and strike most people as incongruous/random. 

I've just always kind of been this way. I've also been criticized over it ("Your wardrobe is all over the place!"). But it's just perfume ultimately 🙃 Whatever.