I have been testing perfumes whenever I go to a store, hoping to find one I want to buy but no luck. Most are jsut not good, and Britney’s Spear’s one is godawful!
Recommend me one. I don’t want too fruity or candy like, something subtle.
what do you like? Spicy? Flowery? Sweet?
I like Angel, Samsara, Angel or Demon and I also like DKNY’s Delicious and Coco Chanel’s Mademoiselle…
I tend to NOT like the really flowery ones. Samsara is strong, nice for an evening out dancing…
A lot of perfumes sold in drugstores and the more common department stores have a lot in common; they’re syrupy-sweet or they’re a chypre type perfume, which is what most people complain about being “too perfumey”.
I recommend that you go to a perfume decanting website, like The Perfumed Court, and start ordering “note” collections that sound interesting to you (smoke? leather? salt? citrus?). You’ll get some harder-to-find perfumes including a lot of indie perfumes. You’re bound to stumble onto something you love.
A good friend of mine is a perfumer with her own line. She’s been written up in a bunch of magazines and has a lot of celebrity clientele. Plus she’s a wonderful person! You can order samples of her scents cheaply from her website.
If you’re in the L.A. area, she also does what she calls “Fragrance Journeys”, where you go to her and she will create your own unique custom perfume for you based on your tastes.
I don’t know how subtle it is, but my favorite is Cool Water. It makes me think of rain. Nice and fresh. Back in the 80’s, you could buy a scent called Rain, but I haven’t been able to find it for a long time.
I collect miniature perfumes (for the cool bottles) and fell in love with Pavlova. It smells like Ivory soap – nice and clean. Haven’t been able to find that one either.
I got a free sample of Burberry Brit once. I’m not much of a perfume wearer but I really liked it. It’s since run out but I’m contemplating actually buying it again.
Easy to find and surprisingly good and subtle for a light floral: Glow from JLo, the basic version. Seriously. I read a good review of it in a magazine, tried it, and liked it. My inlaws are big into hugging hello/goodbye, and so many of the women said they loved my perfume and asked what it was.
I’ve loved and used Cacharel’s Anais Anais for about 20 years.
Also Salvador Dali Dali.
And one more: Clinique Happy. I’ve never bought the perfume but adore the skin cream.
I like florals, not too strong or sweet, with a spicy undertone. Both of these are classic, sexy scents.
Go classic.
Chanel No 5
Guaranteed to never go out of style.
I recommend J’Adore Dior to everyone. It’s a near-perfect scent that’s not overpowering, not syrupy, not floral. Just. . . classy and sexy. It seems to smell great on everyone too!
+1. My absolute favorite scent for any woman.
i really like the burberry brit sheer in the pink bottle. it’s nice and light. same for DKNY be delicious as mentioned upthread.
i seriously have more perfume than i will ever use in my life. i have a full bottle of clinique happy heart than i will probably never open. it came in a double pack with another full sized bottle and i’ve kept that one going for years. i have at least another ten bottles, not to mention that millions of sample sized ones i have…
Moved Cafe Society --> IMHO, she says with a sniff.
I liked Calgon’s green tea body spray. (Haven’t seen it in the stores recently, though.) Also, check out men’s colognes. They tend to be more woodsy or spice-scented than floral or candy-like.