It’s quite a usual poll when people are asked to suggest favorite scents that they would love to smell in perfume form: realistic flowers (especially those that cannot be steam distilled or processed by other traditional methods), first rain drops, a unicorn tears – we all dreamed about one of those at some point. But today we’re talking about aromas that you think are great but not as perfume notes.
Saturday Question #59:
Which of Your Favorite Aromas You Do Not Want Bottled?
There must be dozens of scents that you find pleasing and enjoy every time you smell them but which not necessarily would work as perfumes. What are those?
My Answer
Let’s start with an obvious candidate: meat. I love the smell of fried meat (though as I get older I eat it less and less often), and I think it’s great… but even the idea of having in perfume any part of the aroma that I enjoy from the plate makes me shiver.
But if to think about some more traditional scents, I can offer an inoffensive and widely used in cosmetics (and in perfumery as well) aroma: a cucumber. As much as I like it on its own and as a part of my meal, for perfumes it’s a deal breaker for me (I’m thinking of you, En Passant).
And the last one that I know is my personal nemesis while many people love it is a peach. While I love eating peaches and enjoy their scent, especially fresh from a tree and warmed up by the sun, there’s just a few perfumes where peach doesn’t bother me, but for the most of them I can’t stand that note. But I would love-love-love to have a bowl of ripe peaches on my table: they smell amazing!
Undina's Looking Glass 
I cook often using cumin, but that’s a note that is often a deal-breaker for me. I agree with you on meat – I like smoky in small doses but once it veers into meaty territory I’m out. I agree a little with you on peach, too. Overload of peach is too much for me (ironically I wore Hiram Green Shangri La yesterday as a Favorite, and it definitely has peach. So it’s the combination of notes that puts me off, apparently.) My last challenging note is cedar. Love walking into a cedar closet. Too much cedar or wrong combo and I hate it in perfume:
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Cumin… I don’t use it in cooking, but I know that I can eat it, but I can almost never wear it.
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Tough question….will have to think on it.
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Garlic! I adore the smell of garlic cooking, but I do NOT want to smell like it myself or be around someone else who smells of it!
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Good one!! I wholeheartedly agree!
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Yes!!! :)
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100%
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Pear – nothing more right than a juicy one cut in quarters, nothing more wrong than a whopping big pear note in a perfume, as in an Armani scent whose name escapes me. I am pretty ambivalent about melon in scent, as well. Issey Miyake, here’s looking at you!
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I agree on melon: I do enjoy it from the fruit stand, I like though don’t love it in food, and I absolutely do not tolerate it in perfumes.
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Curry, I love eating it, but I don’t like spicy perfumes, although I like a cumin note.
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I’ll agree with you: I like eating curry, but after I’m done, I can’t tolerate the smell from my fingers, so I have to wash it off completely.
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Too tough, I actually can’t think of a smell that I like IRL that I wouldn’t like as a perfume. Yes, like strawberries and coffee often don’t translate well into perfume, but that’s not quite the same I feel. Would I want to see it don’t in a perfume to perfection? Yes please.
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I wonder: is it because you’re more accepting when it comes to perfumes or more finicky in your RL smells preferences? :)
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Hey Undina,
I have a few. Totally agree with OH about garlic and you about cooking meat.
I love the smell of a Big Mac at McDonald’s but clearly it won’t work for fine fragrance.
Coffee is another one. I drink a lot of coffee from instant to Turkish but have never found a coffee note in a fragrance that I’ve loved. It always misses somewhere.
Drying dog fresh in from a walk in the rain and towel dried. That smell as they start to warm up again in the apartment is so lovely. I definitely do not want to smell it in perfumery though.
Portia xx
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I also love the smell of coffee but not in my perfumes. And not because it’s not done right: it’s just not something I want to smell of.
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I agree with Old Herbaceous and many others. I love the smell of garlic “blooming’ in a saute pan, but I do not want to wear it! I also love the scent of cumin seeds when heated up for cooking but that scent never translates to anything good on my skin in the perfume world.
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Agree on garlic. And cumin… One of my worst enemies in perfumes.
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I’d have to agree with most here: cooking smells. Dessert smells in perfume are OK for me if they are not too sweet or strong on vanilla, but I probably wouldn’t reach for them, except for the occasional chocolate scent (but now that The Body Shop Amorito is gone, I can’t think of a good example).
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Mugler’s Taste of Fragrance flanker of Angel had a believable chocolate note. Jo Malone also had a limited edition – something like Orange Chocolate. I didn’t like it (too sweet), but it was a good chocolate rendition. :)
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Great question!
I like the smell of Vicks Vaporub, but not in my perfumes. I was also going to say fried foods but that’s repeating some of the earlier comments.
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I love Vicks!!! But yeah, I wouldn’t want to wear it when I’m well :)
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