Question:
trying a new thread here. what notes are the most confusing to your nose? do they ruin what would normally be delightful? can you not get a good feel for them? inquiring minds wanna know...

mine is - what's the deal with carnation? this seems to be in everything. almost without fail, if i don't like something, it has carnation. even stuff that i do like has carnation, and i wish it didn't! what does carnation even SMELL like? people describe it as spicy, but...how? is it old-fashioned? and then if you have a real carnation, it smells like nothing. or is the supermarket version of carnation not the same one used in perfumery.

so...tell me yours!

Answer:
Mine is not a note, it's a fragrance.
What's the deal with Angel?
I love gourmands and adore orientals. I can do heavy vanilla and tolerates patchouli well. I find chocolate notes interesting, sweet is good and powder is lovely. But I can't see what's so great with Angel or how it has won such a following? On me it's a blurry mess even if I apply it very lightly. Like an orchestra of untuned instruments. I would really like to, at least appreciate Angel. Can somebody help me understand my reaction?

Answer:
What's the deal with MUSK! For the longest time I couldn't smell it, now God help me if a perfume has even a drop, because it's the ONLY thing I'll be able to smell. Some lovely scents have been ruined for me because the musk base makes me queasy...Sanguine, Eau de Mure, Carnal Flower, En Passant, A la Nuit

Answer:
I'll go first, then respond. For me it's tea notes. I for the life of me cannot pick out a tea note in any of my fragrances but I'm told it's there. I like a cup of green tea now and again, but I'm just not smellin' it.
As for carnation, I have some of the absolute. Apparently the carnations we've got at the local keyfood are bred for looks, not smell. The real deal smelly carnations have a clove like note to them as well as the white waxy floral note expected. I don't think most fragrances contain real carnation absolute as it's prohibitively expensive, think thousands of dollars/kilogram. Likely they contain some chemically reconstituted approximation containing waxy white flower/clove notes. Hope that helped.
Angel, I dunno. I don't wear it, I don't hate it, and I don't love it. I'm certain it's innovative in its use of gourmand notes, but innovation isn't enough for those kind of sales. I guess it's just sexy to a lot of people...I'm just not one of them.

Answer:
Originally Posted by quinpus trying a new thread here. what notes are the most confusing to your nose? do they ruin what would normally be delightful? can you not get a good feel for them? inquiring minds wanna know...

mine is - what's the deal with carnation? this seems to be in everything. almost without fail, if i don't like something, it has carnation. even stuff that i do like has carnation, and i wish it didn't! what does carnation even SMELL like? people describe it as spicy, but...how? is it old-fashioned? and then if you have a real carnation, it smells like nothing. or is the supermarket version of carnation not the same one used in perfumery.

so...tell me yours!
The carnations in my garden smell divine! Clove-like.
As for notes I know will be foul on me: apple and pear, now I like those fruits and I like how they smell, but the chemicals or essences or whatever they use to make them just won't worlk on me.

Answer:
Mine is leather. Several women here swoon for a great leather accord....I'm always thinking-- eh??? eww. uh uh.

Answer:
Neroli, it just seems to get stronger and stronger on me as the day goes on. I am really convinced it is trying to strangle me.
Orangeblossom I like and can wear, as they both come from the same tree that is weird.
Vetiver I can only wear if well blended into a fragrance as one of the base notes. I love vetiver when it first hits my skin but then it morphs into bog body or swamp thing.

Answer:
Originally Posted by donna255 Vetiver I can only wear if well blended into a fragrance as one of the base notes. I love vetiver when it first hits my skin but then it morphs into bog body or swamp thing.
Vetiver can be very murky, and makes me visualize Willa Harper's (Shelley Winters) body underwater, her hair wavering in Night of the Hunter...
But I do love vetiver, it took some time and testing to fall for it, though.
Not so lucky with violets. Love their smell but not on my skin.

Answer:
My nose is not sophisticated enough to pick up many individual notes, alas. I'm trying to get atuned to them as time goes by. There are obvious ones like orange blossom or verbena, but others which elude me even when I'm told they are there.
I'm currently struggling to find out what is the common denominator in the scents which have really put me off, like Madam Rochas and an over-application of lovely La Perla. I wonder if it is the type of sandalwood in the basenotes. There is something which, on my skin, smells like a stale ashtray, even in some renowned fragrances.

Answer:
I'm right up there with Tinker. I always thought I hated musk but I've discovered it's not all musks (I can wear Poison and Hypnotic Poison, for instance), but certain musks - white musk in particular. It makes me retch!
Sesta - there is something in certain scents that smells terrible on me, too. I'm not sure what it is though it could be a certain aldehyde. It smells somewhere between soap, cleaning agents and sweaty knickers. Yuck.