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Saturday Question: Have You Had a Change of Heart About Any of Your Perfumes Recently?

After a series of “favorite perfume” Saturday Questions, let’s do the opposite.

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

Saturday Question #172:

Have You Had a Change of Heart About Any of Your Perfumes Recently?

We’re not talking about perfumes that never worked for you or those that you never got because you weren’t sure if you cared for them. The question is about perfume that you used to like and still have in your collection but no longer feel attracted to.

A bonus question: Do you plan to keep it?

My Answer

For many years, I don’t remember significantly changing my mind about my perfumes: once I got any into my collection, I would feel attached to it and happily wear it occasionally. But in the last year, something has changed, and I periodically surprise myself with the realization that I don’t enjoy any longer perfume I just put on.

The most recent disappointment was Penhaligon’s Ostara. It has never been my top favorite, but I liked wearing it in Spring. I sprayed it a couple of weeks ago and almost immediately regretted it. It wasn’t awful, but for some reason that day, it felt “off,” and I could barely wait for it to dissipate.

I don’t plan to do anything about Ostara for now: I’ll try it again next year to see if I would like it again. Since it had been discontinued and can’t be repurchased, I don’t want to regret later parting with it on a whim.

 

How about you?

Have You Had a Change of Heart About Any of Your Perfumes Recently?

35 thoughts on “Saturday Question: Have You Had a Change of Heart About Any of Your Perfumes Recently?”

  1. Hmm. It’s happened a few times but only because the perfume was behaving differently at a different temperature, or because I was suddenly smelling a new note I didn’t like (when either my nose or the perfume had gone off). As for a change of heart alone… maybe toward Santal 33 recently. It was one of the first perfumes I smelled and loved when I got into niche perfumery, so it made those positive associations of newness and discovery. Since then, I’ve smelled it on several strangers and acquaintances, and become a bit self conscious about smelling like others, so I’ve been trying to use up my travel spray while staying at home or not in social situations. Not planning to replace it, but also not worried that I won’t be able to if I change my mind in the future.

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    • That’s an interesting aspect! I used to be very “possessive” of my perfumes. But now, with the size of my collection and number of perfumes in the world, I don’t really care who else wears those perfumes that I like. I wouldn’t probably want to “share” with others 3-4 my most favorite perfumes, but I wouldn’t stop wearing them! :)

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  2. Yeah Undina, sadly my CHANEL No 22 across all vintages has started to give me splitting headaches as soon as I spritz. I’ve offloaded most of my stash and kept only vintage EdC, EdT and a modern EdT and parfum in the hopes that this is just a phase.
    Portia x

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      • Hey Brigitte,
        Fortunately it’s a big love of some Aussies too and it flew out of my collection. It was all friends in the perfume circle here.
        If you’d been here in Oz you definitely could have had some.
        Portia xx

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    • I currently have one perfume that is under suspicion for causing cough. I don’t want to believe that, so I keep postponing the next test.
      I’m sorry that happened to one of your favorites: it’s worse than just stop liking something.

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    • Portia, I’m sorry that something you loved is causing you to have headaches. And I love the fact that you whittled your stash down-but kept four versions of it! Just in case. I’d do the same. But I wouldn’t tell anyone :) So I’m smiling gently at the way you chose to deal with this-please don’t ever change :)

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      • Thanks Carole,
        HA! Nice to see someone else with a similar train of action. Pretty sure I’m mostly set in stone by now so very small chance of this kind of change.
        (Having said that, I’m still working against a lot of the early instilled, not welcome stuff that needs weeding out. Process ongoing)
        Portia x

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  4. I have definitely had perfumes go off, but so far haven’t had anything that I adored suddenly not work for me. My collection is a mix of “interesting”, “still making up my mind”, “like a lot in certain circumstances “ and “adore”. The first three are always a risk of being voted off the island when I am tempted to downsize. The last group has stayed pretty constant!

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    • I haven’t had a turn from “love” to “dislike” yet, but on multiple occasions I was slightly upset by not loving (but just liking) perfume I previously was obsessed with.

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    • Well, with how quickly you go through your perfumes with 125 sprays per wear, I’m not surprised that you don’t have enough time to change your mind about them ;-p

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  6. I’ve gone off a few over the years. Most recently it was Guerlain’s Elixir Charnel Gourmand Coquin. That rose and chocolate combo began to make me feel ill, it was too overpowering. Same with Lancome’s Parfait de Roses. Happily, both found new homes quickly and are being loved my someone else.

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  7. Years ago I loved Samsara. A friend wore some on a depressing night out-and now it’s what I remember. Plus the sandalwood changed in it-there was a time it was like an assault on my nose.

    Recently bought a tiny amt of vintage parfum, and it’s what I remember that I loved. I enjoy sniffing it but haven’t worn it yet. I’m a bit afraid of what I might conjure up.

    Conversely I have two deluxe samples I thought I hated – Paula’s Ibiza, by Loewe, and Francis Kurkdjian’s Aqua Universalis cologne forte, and thought I didn’t like either. Well in today’s heat I really like both so I might use up my samples. The Love is 15 ml and the other is 5 ml-quite a nice size for travel, or for experimenting.

    Hope everyone’s weekend is good :)

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  8. Pingback: Is change the catalyst or the result? – Nose Prose

  9. Not recently, dear Undina. There are certain favourites I’ll always have a special place for, even if I don’t wear them as much as I used to. Just seeing them brings a sense of nostalgia.

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  10. Chanel 1957, sadly…its muskiness is just too much now, and I can’t figure out how it ever wasn’t. And I am also never in the mood for Apres L’Ondee either. Every time I do a test sniff, I think: “No, I don’t fancy wearing that today.”

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    • It’s ironic: I am just planning to get to test 1957 again (based on someone’s comments in, I think, the previous SQ), and you’ve already went through liking to disliking it.
      I’m familiar with the feeling when some perfume seems wrong for “now,” and the “another time” never comes.

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  11. Forced change of heart: Clinique Wrappings was IT for me for years, would get a couple of compliments a week on it, it was my Holy Grail of scent. Then they discontinued. Then they reintroduced and I thanked my lucky stars- till I smelled it again. They’d changed its formula. Read years later online that apparently the provenance of one of their key notes had been made illegal and they were forced to concoct in the lab vs obtaining in nature. Love the blog, just came upon it.

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    • Welcome to my blog, Arrigo.

      I sympathize with your disappointment, but I think this is a different situation: reformulations have ruined so many great perfumes, and it’s quite expected not to like changed aroma or a pale copy of what we once liked.

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