Your Perfume Hot Takes

Let's hear it people. Drop down your hottest perfume takes. And also, let's try to do it in a civilized manner without starting a civil war around here

I'll start:

The opening of a fragrance barely matters. It can be a 10/10 opening or a 3/10; doesn't matter, given it will be pretty much gone in 10 minutes at most. The dry down is more important.

I don’t know exactly what a hot take means so I hope I’m not talking 💩 but to continue on the topic of openings and drydowns, I want a fragrance to captivate me completely. So both the opening and the drydown need to be top.

Reason I say this is my recent experience with Risvelium . I hated the first couple of hours but it got so much better after that. But I won’t buy into it. I get it, it’s art and all that but I’ll put my money somewhere else.

Generally, a hot take is an opinion or commentary about pretty much any subject that is provocative, bold, and most importantly, contrarian. For example, "pineapple on pizza is the best combination". Mostly, hot takes are just to get people talking, although in most cases it leads to heated arguments and debates

I dont think its a hot of a statement outside the usual influencer/tiktok/reddit/etc bubbles of content, but I really really tried to get Y Eau de Parfum and couldnt, for me its overall quality is really bad compared to the other YSL offerings i have tried like Kouros Eau de Toilette or Babycat which I consider great.

Oh and people care too much about longevity, just reapply or time it better 😅

Ah maybe I have a hot take: please bring back masuline and feminine perfumes. I’m getting pretty tired of everything being unisex nowadays.

I agree, there are perfumes that are so clearly masculine or feminine its unrealistic that the other gender would wear it. If youre a fraghead (which the majority of the population aren't) I dont think it matters. But for the majority perfumes should be labelled more masculine/ feminine leaning

My hot take is....

I'm tired of niche influencers/ reviewers b*tching on designer fragrances. I love niche, but there are solid designer perfumes
out there that have bad reviews simply because of snobbery, or because they're not 'unique' enough.

I like Tyrannosaurus Rex but I'm allowed to like Sogno in rosso too 😭

See, and my hot take is that I'm wondering what world people live in that fragrances aren't labelled masculine/feminine... in the niche spaces things are unisex, but most of the mass-market is very distinctly segregated!

My other hot take is I don't believe like 80% of the marketing with fragrances that are like "this was extracted from a Siberian deer on the full moon by a virgin with a silver knife, blended with 500-year-old oud, and it's yours for only $600!" I mean, maybe it's just sour grapes on my part lol.

100%

Popular stuff is often popular for a reason! It might be less flamboyant but it's sometimes really well-constructed.

Oh but I have so many...

1) Citrus for sumer, resins for winter. I hate that we collectively decided that's the norm, when most resinous perfumes need heat to function properly. Sure, keep the gourmands away, but something like Interlude Man smells much better when your skin is all hot and sweaty.

2) Your fragrance doesn't need to macerate, maturate, oxidate, fumigate, calculate or masturbate. No, it won't smell better or last any longer. It's just a mediocre or bad product that you grew used to in order to cope with your purchase.

3) While I agree that perfume is unisex at its heart and you can wear whatever you want, unisex-favored compositions and marketing are killing creativity. Everything is inoffensive, relies on the same base of amberwood, musk, vanilla. It almost feels like a perfumer can't release something that's truly floral or traditionally masculine, in fear of losing out on customers.

4) To follow up on @kittea 's point, I think perfumers should be obliged to provide sources of rare ingredients if they're going to use them and charge a fat premium for them. Yes, I'm talking about everyone listing "oud" when it contains none, or musk derived from an extinct unicorn. I think niche and indie space has gotten too pretentious, lacking quality to back up ridiculous prices.

@Wusubi yeah, the "no resins in summer" thing really doesn't make sense when you consider the Middle East!

Ooh, I have another one too. I hate it when people call something "photorealistic". I don't know why. It just bugs me. (I'm not judging anyone who says it, I get why people do, it's just a pet peeve).

i think people who say that a fragrance is terrible but wont go into detail on how or why should just like, not write reviews 🥸 this is much more of a problem on fragrantica than here tho 

Here's my hot take:

The most popular fragrance from a house does not mean it's the best fragrance from the house nor does it mean you'll like it.

Aventus is Creed's most popular fragrance HOWEVER many would argue Royal Oud is the best from the house.

I don't know if this is a hot take but....

Too many people worry way too much about "longevity" and "sillage" versus how good the scent actually is. 

Like are you really going to trade a 9/10 scent because it only gets you 6 hours of longevity and sillage but grab a 6/10 scent because the stuff will last 9 hours on you? I know there are limits, but far too many posts on social media ask for recommendations strictly based on how long the scent lasts. I get there is a minimum acceptable length of time and sometimes there are exceptions, but almost everything will be somewhat acceptable. 

The problem with designer perfumes nowadays is that all smell the same. Some brand creates a popular dna and next everybody tries to capitalize on that making a lot of variations. 

What does best mean? Does it have the best smell? Does it have the best performance? Is it wearable in every situation? Is it a combination of all these, or more?

IMO I don't think we can talk in absolute terms about perfumes. How can you call a fragrance which is way behind in popularity best of the house. For example what makes Royal Oud better than Green Irish Tweed ?

Yeah, but you have to admit that most citrus fragrances smell OK in the summer even if you abuse the sprayer while resinous ones don't. For example just the other day while waiting for the bus I smelled someone wearing something like La Vie est Belle L'Eau de Parfum in 35 °C and it was really obnoxious. And I wasn't even 2 meters close to the person.

I have to go with this one too: People care too damn much about longevity! 👴👴🏻👴🏿

I like clones/dupes. Clones are good. They deserve to exist. They're a lifeline for people who can’t (or won’t) drop hundreds on a bottle of perfume. They resurrect discontinued scents. And sometimes, a fragrance is so stupidly expensive, I don’t even want to waste money on a sample. I’ll just buy a clone to get the idea. Why spend $40 on a 2ml decant when a $25 dupe gives me the gist?

I have no moral qualms about clone houses “stealing” from perfumers. Let’s not pretend the big brands are saints. If Francis Kurkdjian can essentially recreate By the Fireplace and sell it as Bois Talisman for Dior at triple the price of Margiela, then clone houses can copy others’ work too — fair game. Dominique Ropion, for instance, often clones his own work. Babycat, Vanagloria, and Infinite Sky are basically three variations on the same amber-vanilla theme, just wearing different luxury price tags. Is it really about creativity, or is it about commercial strategy? In the end, it’s all about what sells.

And no, I don’t think clones are inferior by default. Some are equal, some are better. There, I said it. Of course, not all clones are great. Some are atrocious. Muddy, synthetic, headache-inducing disasters. But guess what? Some designer and niche launches aren’t any better. A lot of the hate towards clones comes from perfume snobbery. This weird placebo-glamour effect. The moment something comes from a niche brand in a fancy bottle, it’s automatically “superior”? Please. It’s like watching the Emperor strut around naked, convinced he’s the best dressed, wrapped in his own narcissistic delusions.

Second hot take: I don’t care if a perfume brand uses AI-generated art for their packaging, bottles, or labels. I’m not going to boycott them because they didn’t hire a “real” human artist. Not every brand has the budget for high-priced illustrators charging luxury rates for moody brushstrokes. And honestly, if you're panicking that AI might take your job — maybe the problem isn’t AI. Maybe you're just a really good salesman, not necessarily an irreplaceable creative force. In this capitalist circus, it’s survival of the slickest. This is the same art world where a few strokes of a crusty brush on a canvas can sell for $30 million. That’s not art. That’s money laundering with a gallery wall. So, don’t point fingers at small indie perfume brands just trying to stay afloat. Let them use AI. Let them cut corners if they need to. Perfume is already a luxury. Not every visual needs to be hand-painted by a tortured soul with a tragic backstory. 

@Diana1983 “Unisex” perfumes tend to just smell masculine to me, I don’t like it either. 95% of perfumes I have are from the 1980s/1990s (a few from the 70s) so I don’t have to suffer this haha. I remember CK One being the first unisex perfume in the mid 90s, I hated it. I am a man but I only wear mature female perfumes, I want them to be made for woman (have down since 1996 when I was just 14 years old, I did it before it was cool haha) 

My perfume hot take: I truly can't understand why people are caring so much what other people think of their fragrance or how their fragrance is "labeled". Why would anyone care if their fragrance is a "compliment getter" or "masculine leaning" or "niche"? What does it matter? And why would anyone reluctantly "use up" a perfume that they don't even like? In my opinion, life is too short for such things. Everyone should be only caring what they enjoy to wear and what makes them feel good and spray those things on every day. A true fraghead just wears what they love despite other people's opinions or classifications or the brand or whatever. The smell should be all that matters, nothing else.

Okay, here are mine:

* I am fed up with people complaining about reformulations due to IFRA regulation. These reformulations are done for a good cause like environment, health etc. And especially on the F****-site people are really 'snobbish' like "Oh you should get the vintage one, that one was so much better, this is just a shadow of it's former self...." Blablabla. These people spoil the fun for people loving their perfume even after reformulation or for them not being able to spent a lot of money on vintages etc. Please stop it!

* I really hate it when people match a perfume to some sort of personality. Like "This could be worn by a bossy lady" or "This would fit a peronality like .....(some celeb)". Not to mention the 'old lady' comments.

* Comparing every aldehydic scent to N°5 Eau de Parfum It really makes no sense at all in most cases.

Completely agree with this. Yes there are certain significant reformulations but no need to be snobbish about it. Not all reformulations are significant or bad. It's for health and environmental reasons like you said, so it's a good thing after all. I'm also annoyed of people who are saying "modern perfumery is just total crap and ruined, all good perfumes were released before year 2020 and nowadays everything just smells the same and there's nothing interesting new out there". That's not true at all, and talk like that is just spoiling all the fun also.

I agree @Lempi, although I must admit that I'm missing some variety lately, it's often based on vanilla and rose or gourmand now as far as I can see, although I ofcourse haven't smelled everything 'new'. But I realize that is a matter of taste and that there will be an other 'trend' hereafter that I may like, but that others may hate...Would be great if perfumers wouldn't just follow 'trends' but kept making a variety of scents. But could be I'm just missing out on a lot but I find myself being a bit tired of 'sniffing' new perfumes, due to the feeling that many smell alike. But could be I just smelled the 'wrong' ones (for me that is ) And ofcourse my opinion should not spoil the fun for others, it is just a matter of personal preferences Like you said: opinions from others shouldn't matter, wear what you enjoy !!!