I used to like Halloween. Even though we stopped dressing up and having parties with friends for those years that didn’t fall on a weekend, I would usually do some decorations and wear some Halloween-related pieces to the office. Last year was the first one when we didn’t decorate our house either inside or outside, and we didn’t have any candies ready for rare even at better times flocks of costumed children. This year, even though the restrictions are less severe than they were in 2020, and Halloween falls on Sunday, I don’t plan to do anything. I feel somewhat burnt out. But if not to count these last two years, I think that Halloween is a nice tradition, so I’ll use this post to make at least a slight nod to the occasion.
Saturday Question #88:
What is the Spookiest Perfume You’ve Ever Tried?
Are there any perfumes that scare you, be that being too loud, striking you as extremely unpleasant or just causing an uncontrolled shiver down your spine for any reason?
When was the last time you’ve experienced it? Do you think you’ll ever try it again?
My Answer
Oriza L. Legrand Chypre Mousse, hands down, is the worst offender: it was so unpleasant on my skin, that I still shudder just from the thought of it. I think that probably about the half of my current readers (I mean, those who participate in these weekly posts) haven’t been around when I did a post about it (The Royal Nonesuch of Perfume), and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to them because I think it would resonate with many – not specifically about this perfume, since I know that many people still like it, but in general, the way it feels sometimes when we try something highly praised by everybody and find ourselves hating it.
I sent my decant off into the world about 4 years and hope to never experience it again. If the whole perfume industry collapses, and that perfume would be the last bottle of perfume in the World, I would not try it again in a hope to change my mind because I still remember how hard it was to scrub it off.
How about you?
What is the Spookiest Perfume You’ve Ever Tried?
Undina's Looking Glass 
When it comes to perfume nothing scares me.
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And Secretions Magnifique is my friend…I’ve been told it smells great on me.
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From what I heard about your skin, perfumes should be scared of you ;)
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Hahaha!! This is true!! I’m the 32 sprayer perfumista.
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Echo your feelings about Halloween – I do like the tradition, but feel too jaded these days to participate, other than hang a pumpkin and autumn leaf wreath on the front door (we won’t get Trick or Treat visitors any way as we live on a tiny hidden way with just two other houses).
My spookiest perfume is Etro’s Messe de Minuit. Don’t know if it is the power of suggestion inspired by its name, but it really does smell like the crypt of an old church and I swear I smell human decay …. never want to wear it again.
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I love decorations but this year I just can’t get into the mood. I’ll try to muster some and decorate at least for Thanksgiving.
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Papillon Anubis and Salome. Just something witchy about them. If the two Anubis is my favourite. But tomorrow I’ve decided on Magie Noire, it has a very similar vibe.
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*Of
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And yet again I didn’t read the question properly🙈 None of these perfumes offend me in the slightest, on the contrary I really like them. They just have that dark and mysterious thing going on. There are a few that are just ick on my skin but I’ve mentioned that on occasion before so I won’t labour the point.
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Lol!! I thought I misread the question based on how you answered it. Salome is great but I have only worn it at home.
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You can never go by how I answer a question🙈 I don’t always read the full question before I jump in with my two big feet.
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Ahahaha!! This is why I love you.
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(My own reply seems to disappear; take 2)
I wasn’t surprised even by your initial answer because the first two perfumes you mentioned didn’t work for me. They weren’t completely awful, but not for me.
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I’ve told this story before Undina.
Jin is wholeheartedly cool with my perfume addiction. Never grumbles about the cost and rarely about the time spent on it.
Only once has he really put his foot down. I had bought the early Slumberhouse perfumes and loved their deep and dark magics. I often wear favourites to bed so I can better understand the story as I fall asleep. Often dreaming up stories or analogies that become my posts about them.
Sadly, EVERY TIME I wore a Slumberhouse to bed Jin would sit bolt upright about an hour or so after I’d arrive and be quaking in terror from a very realistic nightmare. It was so visceral and pronounced and happened with the three or four I owned repeatedly.
In the end he told me to get them out of the house and I moved those lovely, and now incredibly collectible, perfumes on.
True story.
Portia xx
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Wow, that’s unbelievable. Poor Jin! The power of scent …
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Yeah, it was a big deal at the time.
We still bring it up sometimes at dinners. Good story.
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I realize that it wasn’t funny back when it was happening (poor Jin!), but it’s a great story now :)
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Yes, it was very unnerving but also yes, good story now.
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One year, my new Boadicea Complex arrived in the mail the day of a Halloween party that I was going to as a witch on a blind date. I sprayed the hell out of myself not knowing the power of it. I smelled all night like I was having sex with Satan and all the minions of Hell. I loved it. I got the guy, unfortunately, and got rid of him six months later. I still have the perfume and wear it when I need to feel powerful and brave.
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There should be some lesson from this story but I can’t pinpoint it :) It’s great though that it didn’t turn you off perfume you enjoyed.
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I can’t think of anything off the top of my head that so offended me that I would swear it off completely to the point i would never wear it even if it was the last perfume on earth. I’ve had samples of perfumes that I have tried once and determined weren’t for me and have tossed out the sample or passed them on. I do miss you leading the charge at your former job (where I am still at) and rounding us all up to celebrate Halloween with costume contests and a potluck lunch. We kept the tradition on as best we could but still wasn’t the same without you and certainly with COVID in 2020 and 2021 there has been no in-person gathering at the office. We’re still working from home indefinitely.
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I was just looking through the pumpkins we carved back in the “spider farm” :) Those were good events, I enjoyed everything we did. I’m not sure when anything like that would be coming back into our lives. I’m also working from home for the foreseeable future. And then we’ll see.
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I can’t really think of any fragrances that I find spooky in the manner described. I have a weird aversion to yuzu as a note, after a bad experience with Burberry Brit Sheer. I do have some spooky samples from niche houses Solstice Scents and Sixteen92, which cultivate a witchy vibe. Probably the scariest scents I own are the Come Hell or High Water collection by Beaufort London. The creepiest perfume bottles by far, in my view, are those Map of the Heart bottles that are shaped like an anatomically correct heart — I shudder when I see photos of them!
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I have exactly the same reaction to those heart bottles. Just hideous.
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I know, right? Of all the lovely shapes imaginable, why those? Ugh.
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Oh yes, can’t bear those anatomical heart bottles! I have had hideous scrubbers but no spooky perfumes.
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The heart bottles are awful. What have been your worst scrubbers?
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How interesting! Yuzu is one of my favorite notes! (Another post about it is coming soon :) ).
I’m not sure I know what bottles you refer to, but I won’t be looking for them – just in case I also feel strong about them :)
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Map of the Heart bottles? Ugh. I can’t stand them either.
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The only perfume I’ve tried that truly scared me, and made me wish I could remove my arm, was…. Hermes Citron Noir. I thought the bottle was beautiful, and asked for a sample. Tried it at home thinking it would be similar to Agar Ebene, which I love-omg it was beyond awful on me. I hated it and scrubbed and scrubbed-I could still smell it. My apologies if it’s someone’s favourite-it just did not suit me at all.
Portia your story about Jin is incredible :)
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Hey Carole,
Yeah, I know. There must be something in all of the early Slumberhouse perfumes that really did a number on him. Maybe a traumatic memory rekindled? Who knows.
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I didn’t like Citron Noir: I was annoyed by how cheap and artificial it smelled – and Hermès isn’t a budget brand, to say the least.
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Spooky as in scary? I don’t own any of those types of scents. Oud generally smells very scary on my skin, however, so I try to stay far away from it.
Ghost in the Shell smells a bit eerie, but in a very good way ❤️
Happy Halloween 🎃 to all.
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Well… I definitely didn’t mean the “own” part :) – just unfortunate incidents.
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I once tried an oud perfumes whose name I don’t remember, maybe oud imperiale or something like this. It was so dark and gothic that I could only imagine wearing in at night while having a severe bout of depression…
But I really like Chypre Mousse, I think it’s perfume art
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Since there are so many people who like Chypre Mousse, I assume that my brain interprets some combination of notes differently from what you smell, because otherwise I don’t know how to explain that visceral reaction.
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I think my spookiest is your nemesis Chypre Mousse but the only difference is I love it 😹.
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I know! :) See my response to Tanja above; I can’t think of any other explanation!
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I had to rack my brain for this one, although I know the feeling of disliking something popular. I finally remembered a perfume that totally repulsed me in the store – UNUM But Not Today. Thankfully I don’t recall the smell (supposed to be metallic and animalic) but it can stay far away.
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From your description, I’m fine not knowing that perfume :)
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For me it would be SL Tubereuse Criminelle (good spooky) and Caron Narcisse Noir (scarily bad). But I bet I could come up with lots more examples presently!
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Almost any tuberose spooks me :)
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Oh no! I love tuberose but it IS hard to get into a scent without smelling like insect repellant. My parents’ garden had the most stunning fragrant blooms. TC was my first Lutens.
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Vero Onda EdP literally smelt like the cellar at the Amityville Horror House with a side of the Exorcist green expulsion.
Mouldy, damp, stagnant, slimy, rotting, just all round putrid.
Of course the internet scentoverse was raving about it, but well, I’m a simple scent lover & want to smell good.
I have no problem having my intellect stretched by a fragrance but who wants to smell like they have gangrene?
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