We have all been there; “when perfume goes wrong”. It seems I have had a few incidents of late so I thought I would get this off my chest and share in my misfortune…
I THINK I’M ALLERGIC TO CUIR DE LANCOME
I’m not a fan of leather fragrances, but sometimes I get sucked into they hype and think that I might change my mind when I read on Fragrantica and through other reviews about how fantastic and wonderful a perfume is. Case in point, Cuir de Lancome. There it was on eBay, a new bottle with a great price…I couldn’t resist the blind buy. So I get the package a couple of days later. The package was shipped quickly, the box and bottle are perfect; actually the bottle is classically pretty, and then…
I spray some on the back of my hand and I note a nice light suede, it’s very subtle as it’s mixed with a subdued citrus. After a few minutes out comes birch tar and then the back of my tongue starts to hurt and feels like it’s getting slightly larger and I’m salivating from the back and sides of my tongue. It was so odd and so uncomfortable and then it became more metallic and all I could smell was metal, birch tar and some weird floral. It was like steel, very sharp and grey so I thought I would layer some Givenchy Ysatis on top which helped. But after a while it crept out from under the bottom again and starting making my tongue salivate and hurt again.
I can’t write a review on this as I know that something physically weird is happening between me and the fragrance. We just weren’t meant to be friends. So here’s what others are saying so you might get a better picture of the beauty of Cuir de Lancome that others can see that I can’t. And if you reside in the US and want a bottle at a good price, send me an email!
Cuir de Lancome notes from Fragrantica: Top notes are mandarin orange, saffron and bergamot; middle notes are patchouli, hawthorn, jasmine and ylang-ylang; base notes are orris root, birch and styrax.
Cuir de Lancome Reviews: Olfactoria’s Travels, That Smell, Muse in Wooden Shoes
80’S OVERKILL – HALSTON COUTURE
For the past few months I have been on a vintage chypre hunt. I actually have done very well with some of my buys including vintage Miss Dior, Givenchy III and Y by Yves Saint Laurent. I recently found a bottle of Halston Couture at an incredible price and its an EdP which is pretty hard to find. I’m sure it was a great price because the bottle is tarnished and the box is a bit beat up, but the juice seems to be just fine.
Unfortunately, this powerhouse of a fragrance beats you over the head with an overpowering deep patchouli and mossy cloud that just one spritz can put a hole in the ozone layer. I envision big hair 1980s college girls in crew neck sweaters stinking up campuses all around the US. I will try this again in the winter and maybe it will be a better fit, but I have the feeling that won’t make much of a difference. It’s so loud that it’s headache inducing.
Halston Couture notes from Fragrantica: Top notes are bergamot and lemon; middle notes are patchouli, jasmine and rose; base notes are amber and oakmoss.
FREDDIE FROM SMELLYTHOUGHTS IS MY FRIEND, BUT WE TYPICALLY AREN’T FRAGRANCE TWINS
The other day Freddie of Smellythoughts posted a review of a couple of En Voyage Perfumes fragrances; Nectars des Iles and Vents Ardents. A few months ago I purchased Zelda from En Voyage and I love it. It’s perfect for hot summer days when you want to feel like a Southern Belle. So after he posted his review, it made me think that I may have received some samples of those two fragrances with my Zelda purchase. Sure enough, they were hidden in my large stash of unopened samples. Since Freddie loved these two fragrances so much, I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to see how I felt about them too.
I was always told that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. This is why I am not going to do a review, but just state the following: Vents Ardents smells to me like a tchotchke shop on a California boardwalk where one can find driftwood clocks and home-made fudge. Nectars Des Iles smells like a flower that has been stuck in a Salt Water Taffy shop for a very long time.
I’ll let you be the judge if I didn’t say something nice. If you want to feel the love, please check out Freddie’s fabulous reviews of Nectars des Iles and Vents Aredents at Smellythoughts!
I think that’s enough missteps for one day. As I was writing this, a new bottle showed up on my doorstep from the mailman…this looks promising!
August 29, 2013 at 1:44 pm
Sorry about your bad reaction to Cuir de Lancome. I haven’t met a perfume that would give me some bad physical reaction unless I count an immediate headache upon smelling CdG2
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August 29, 2013 at 4:27 pm
Lucas – that reaction was so weird. I sprayed some on my hubby to see if he had the same reaction and he didn’t. Just my chemistry which apparently is messed up!!! 🙂
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August 29, 2013 at 4:28 pm
I hope this is your 1: 1000000 situation
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August 29, 2013 at 2:23 pm
Aw Houndy ❤ Sorry to hear about your misshaps. And sorry to hear the Envoyage fragrances didn't work for you. As I said in my review, Nectars Des Iles doesn't work on my skin, but Vents Ardents is an absolute masterpiece, even if it's not to my usual taste I'll still end up with a bottle, like a piece of conceptual art that isn't quite to your taste but you can't help but admire it greatly. At least your successful finds counterbalance these!
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August 29, 2013 at 4:28 pm
Thankfully I have more successful finds. Sometimes I feel like I am too quick to judge, but naw…
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August 29, 2013 at 4:10 pm
Oh dear! Not a good day of sniffing. I love the way you described Vents Ardents. It’s a good thing I was not eating or drinking when I read that. I would have choked laughing. Sorry to hear that Cuir makes you physically ill. Perhaps you could try dabbing on the Halston? Sometimes that makes those big 80’s scents a bit more wearable.
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August 29, 2013 at 4:29 pm
I’m glad that I could make you laugh…Vent Ardents is bordering on Yankee Candle Company territory, but not quite so bad. Great idea on the Halston, I really think that’s the way to go. Too bad I don’t have any hair to make “big” to go with it.
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August 29, 2013 at 5:30 pm
One of these days I’m going to send you a few tea lights or votives because I know how much you love them. 😉
I had huge hair then. It was fabulous.
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August 29, 2013 at 5:39 pm
Actually, I had kind of big hair in the early 80s until it decided that it didn’t care for the 90s all that much and decided to run away.
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August 29, 2013 at 4:28 pm
Sending you the e-mail 😉
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August 29, 2013 at 5:19 pm
Dearest Hound
How very sad. Cuir is actually amongst my very, very favourite perfumes, my two bottles treasured and used with great restraint as it is discontinued again.
unfortunately though, when the skin says no, there’s just no arguing with it. The dermis wins every time.
I hope this missteps prove a brief foray off the path to perfumes paradise.
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
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August 29, 2013 at 8:23 pm
Mr. Dandy – I didn’t realize that it was discontinued “again”…hmmmm, maybe I need to hang on to it as its value may rise. In any case I don’t plan on doing anymore spritzing. My tongue just can’t take all that abuse. 🙂
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August 29, 2013 at 8:16 pm
Well they can’t all be zingers! What are you going to do with at bottle of Cuir de Lancome? Ebay? I come and go about leathers and tend to find them fascinating in December.
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August 29, 2013 at 8:25 pm
I have it listed at Facebook Fragrance Friends so we’ll see if I get a bite. Otherwise, it will probably go to a good home via eBay! I’m with you.. leathers hold my interest for about 2 weeks in the winter. I should have known better than to make a buy!
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August 29, 2013 at 8:38 pm
I see your review at Facebook Frag Friends but no listing. Or is that it. Oh I am so slow tonight.
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August 29, 2013 at 8:47 pm
I have a file.. Scented Hounds bottles for sale…it’s under Files 🙂 I’m slow all of the time, don’t worry about it!
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August 30, 2013 at 2:47 am
How unlucky!
I have a sample of this one, and have been asking every Lancôme associate if they have a bottle left. No luck thus far.
Too bad I am in Canada.
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August 30, 2013 at 5:20 am
I think we all run across a fragrance that doesn’t work for them for whatever reason, but this was just extreme. No worries. I did manage to sell the bottle so that’s a good thing. Check on eBay, there are a lot of bottles for sale there. Good luck and thanks for stopping by!
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August 30, 2013 at 7:35 am
I love smell of leather in perfumes and so. And I bought this one too. To me it is very light, soft kind of leather perfume. I’m sorry for you and your allergy.
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August 30, 2013 at 5:21 pm
Thanks my dear. No worries, I’l just move on to the next fragrance 🙂
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September 3, 2013 at 8:06 pm
Dear Scented Hound,
About two weeks ago I also ordered Cuir de Lancome from ebay with a great price of 49.50. When I sprayed it, I first got a blast of something chemical, then very slight leather and citrus and in five minutes it was gone. I could not smell anything. I sprayed my wrist several times, still nothing. Your review makes me wonder if I bought the bottle from the same seller, and if the perfume is fake or diluted. It smells nothing like the awesome fragrance I read about on so many blogs.
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September 3, 2013 at 8:33 pm
Laperuza – You received a better price than me…but to be honest, like you I wondered if I had received a bad bottle, fake, etc. Especially when I opened it up and the top was very loose fitting. I then went online and I found some posts where people said that it was a flaw with the bottle and that to correct the issue, you had to pull the ring out of the cap and then reattach. If I hadn’t read that, then I would never have thought it might be real. Did you have the cap issue problem?
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September 3, 2013 at 8:34 pm
Oh… and mine didn’t disappear to all. It projected big time!
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September 3, 2013 at 8:42 pm
Yes, the top was very loose fitting, but I read about this issue, so it was not a concern. The juice was very weird though. I think there might be a bad batch of Cuir de Lancome floating around. I might try to order another bottle from a more trusted perfume retailer.
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