"Best" Fragrance "Worst" Fragrance - YMMV?

jakespoppy · Feb 3, 2011

The recent thread asking us what fragrance an older guy should wear when interested in women in a younger age bracket made me think "Can we really determine what fragrances women in a certain age bracket will like?". Especially since we seem to have such a hard time agreeing on what we like ourselves. Unless we think women's tastes are much simpler than men's, which I don't believe is the case?

I then remembered another couple of recent threads, one asking "what should a man's fragrance library consist of", and the other asked for the "worst cologne you've ever tried". So out of curiosity, I checked to see if there might even be any "cross-overs" in these two groups, the "Must Have" fragrances, and the "Worst" fragrances, to test the extent of YMMV in this small sampling, and found that:

53 fragrances were identified by 75 gents in the "Must Have" category (some were duplicates)
12 of those 53 were also listed in the "Worst" category by 25 gents (again, some by more than one)
4 of those in the "Must Have" category were identified as "Worst" by 3, 4 or 5 people

Remember, these two posts were not related to each other in any way, or made at the same time. And 23% of the "Must Have" frags were also in the "Worst" frags list!

The informal surveys were not looking for average fragrances that you expect some will like and some won't. These were looking for the Best of the Best, and the Worst of the Worst. And 23% of the "Best" were also on the "Worst" list! And this is among us here, who I think have a higher level of interest in fragrances than the average person. That seems like pretty extreme "YMMV" to me!

What does all this mean? To me, it just means that it's difficult, if not impossible, to put fragrances in these kind of categories with much certainty that this will represent the likes or dislikes of a specific target audience, whether it's a group of people (ie. a demographic), or an individual person. It's one of the reasons I like hearing as many people as possible describe what a fragrance smells like to them, because the more descriptions I get the more likely I am to see trends of consistency. If 7 out of 10 people say they smell a lot of sandalwood in a fragrance, I will be fairly comfortable that I will recognize sandalwood in it. It's also a reason why I'm not as interested in whether someone likes a fragrance or not. Even if 7 out of 10 like it, there's still a good chance that I won't. Or vice-versa.

For me, this complexity of personal preferences (YMMV) is a big part of what makes fragrances so interesting. I like giving and receiving recommendations, but we should realize the final answer of what is liked or not will always come down to personal preference, and YMMV.

The Knize · Feb 3, 2011

Great post! Excellent analysis. Great data mining.

I have another couple of theories to add! First of all, I do not think many frags get released without a lot of test groups going over them first after a whole bunch of experts have. Read Chandler Burr's book on the year Sarah Jessica Parker release her scent. For any scent ever released, someone must like it! And I find myself liking virtually everthing I try and I see that as a fault of mine. Althought lately I find myself being more picky. But the things I do not "like" are ones I generally feel neutral about. I fiind it hard to actively dislike anything. If it does not appeal to me it is more because the scent seems too commonplace, or lacks reasonably tenacity, or just smells pretty much like something else I like better. Or the scent seems like nothing special but costs a lot. Or seems very misnames. Or, I suppose seems too sweet.

(I guess a category of scents I actually do not like are gourmonds. Maybe I do hate some of those. Mugler Angel may be one I just to not get. On the other hand I used to hate Versace Dreamer. I think I actually tossed the bottle. I wish I had it back!)

I also find myself drawn to what I think of as difficult scents often with animalic notes. Scents that boldy go into areas of scent that might not seem appealing at all in theory. Some of these scents I would not wear but I admire from afar so to speak. It amazes me that some of the e scents are popular at all. I adore K10 for instance and that is one I do wear. But it amazes me that it is as popular as it is. Bulgari Black is another one along those lines. I wonder at the popularity of Mazzolari Lui.

I could see lots of folks picking these for the worst scents they have ever tried, even though I think they are among my very favorite scents. I can see how some folks would hate Yatagan.

But I sure know what you mean, jp, about sense of smell and taste being all over the map.

gaj90027 · Feb 3, 2011

Great posts guys - interesting indeed.

jakespoppy said:
...If 7 out of 10 people say they smell a lot of sandalwood in a fragrance, I will be fairly comfortable that I will recognize sandalwood in it. It's also a reason why I'm not as interested in whether someone likes a fragrance or not. Even if 7 out of 10 like it, there's still a good chance that I won't. Or vice-versa.

For me, this complexity of personal preferences (YMMV) is a big part of what makes fragrances so interesting. I like giving and receiving recommendations, but we should realize the final answer of what is liked or not will always come down to personal preference, and YMMV.

I agree completely, and this is exactly how I try to interpret reviews in order to make a decision as to wether I even want to bother sampling a specific scent or not.

The Knize said:
Great post! Excellent analysis. Great data mining.

...But the things I do not "like" are ones I generally feel neutral about. I fiind it hard to actively dislike anything. If it does not appeal to me it is more because the scent seems too commonplace, or lacks reasonably tenacity, or just smells pretty much like something else I like better. Or the scent seems like nothing special but costs a lot. Or seems very misnames. Or, I suppose seems too sweet.

Exactly my feelings as well, I really haven't found too many scents that made me actively repulsed but I have found A BUNCH of high end frags that were very "plain jane pleasant" and I almost always immediately dismiss them.

jakespoppy · Feb 3, 2011

Yes, I actually do have a few that I do not like that are very popular with many here. These are ones that, although they are so popular that some are even on the "Must Have" list, I have washed off because they were very unpleasant to me. And they are not "difficult" ones at all. Like you, I really enjoy trying the "difficult" ones, some of them I love and wear, and some of them I might really like, but still not choose to wear. Some of my personal notes that I've written as I've tested fragrances say "I like it, but I don't want to wear it", or "I like it, but I don't want to smell like it". Come to think of it, I would say that I would not have a high level of certainty predicting whether or not I would like a fragrance, or want to wear it, until I smelled it for myself, much less predicting for someone else.

jakespoppy · Feb 3, 2011

gaj90027 said:
...Exactly my feelings as well, I really haven't found too many scents that made me actively repulsed but I have found A BUNCH of high end frags that were very "plain jane pleasant" and I almost always immediately dismiss them.

I agree with you, Garry and Robbie on this. I have been very surprised at the number of high end frags that don't impress me nearly as much as their price tag would suggest they should. And the same for low end frags. In fact, you might notice I posted in the "Scent of the Day" thread, today I'm wearing Norwegian Wood, by Kanon. I picked this up at Ross for $6.99. I passed it by the first time I saw it there, flat dismissed it quickly as I hadn't heard of it and assumed it couldn't be good at that price. Then I read someone's positive comment about Kanon, so decided to give it a try, and was surprised to find it a really nice sandalwood that, to me, has no noticeable synthetic note, might have a hint of some light floral note like lilac that lightens it up in a way that I like, and while it stays pretty close to the skin, I can still smell it on my wrist after 9 hours today. I've learned that price tag also isn't an inidicator of what I will like or won't like.

Archerfire · Feb 3, 2011

Excellent thoughts all around in here! Kudos to you, Randy, for taking the time and even having the idea to make that first post.

My workplace is chockfull of females of various ages and I'm one of only four men in the building. I get to test out loads of samples and the ladies love to smell and give feedback. It's really interesting how their tastes are similar and different.

I keep telling myself that I should keep a journal on which scents are well received and which are universal yucks (at least according to females I work with)! However, I would say that most seem to fall in the middle where some like and some don't. I don't think there really is a predictor one way or the other. Maybe I should begin an experiment and post my findings!

Archerfire · Feb 3, 2011

jakespoppy said:
In fact, you might notice I posted in the "Scent of the Day" thread, today I'm wearing Norwegian Wood, by Kanon. I picked this up at Ross for $6.99. I passed it by the first time I saw it there, flat dismissed it quickly as I hadn't heard of it and assumed it couldn't be good at that price. Then I read someone's positive comment about Kanon, so decided to give it a try, and was surprised to find it a really nice sandalwood that, to me, has no noticeable synthetic note, might have a hint of some light floral note like lilac that lightens it up in a way that I like, and while it stays pretty close to the skin, I can still smell it on my wrist after 9 hours today. I've learned that price tag also isn't an inidicator of what I will like or won't like.

I really like Norwegian Wood, also. It smells great and I get great longevity out of it as well. I also picked it up at Ross and you just can't beat that price! There are quite a few inexpensive frags out there that are well worth having.

jakespoppy · Feb 3, 2011

Archerfire said:
Excellent thoughts all around in here! Kudos to you, Randy, for taking the time and even having the idea to make that first post.

My workplace is chockfull of females of various ages and I'm one of only four men in the building. I get to test out loads of samples and the ladies love to smell and give feedback. It's really interesting how their tastes are similar and different.

I keep telling myself that I should keep a journal on which scents are well received and which are universal yucks (at least according to females I work with)! However, I would say that most seem to fall in the middle where some like and some don't. I don't think there really is a predictor one way or the other. Maybe I should begin an experiment and post my findings!

Thanks, Randy. It would be interesting getting that kind of feedback every day. Yes, you should keep some kind of record, if you're interested in that type of info.

The Norwegian Wood reminds me that it would be interesting to do "blind" tests to see how often we can guess which frags are expensive and which ones are inexpensive.

Aaron01 · Feb 3, 2011

To me, scents are like women. They're all nice in their own way, but some I don't like, others are just okay, then there are the ones that I like and then there are the ones that I like too much. I always seem to get into some sort of trouble with the latter :lol:

But sometimes the ones that other people like are ones I don't like and so on, and then there are the ones that nobody likes :lol:

... It's all so subjective.

jakespoppy · Feb 3, 2011

Aaron01 said:
To me, scents are like women. They're all nice in their own way, but some I don't like, others are just okay, then there are the ones that I like and then there are the ones that I like too much. I always seem to get into some sort of trouble with the latter But sometimes the ones that other people like are ones I don't like and so on, and then there are the ones that nobody likes ... It's all so subjective.