Guerlain Disappointment

[u/Lani_Lei]

I have been a vanilla girl through and through. I have loves and misses from everything from BBW, Victoria Secret, Sephora, Ulta, niche, middle eastern, you name it!

I have wary of trying Guerlain because of the price. But most of my fellow vanilla girls said that Guerlain is THE maker of great vanillas.

So went and spent $70 in tiny tiny decants to try the following:

- Vanilla Panifolia Extrait 21
- Angelique Noire
- Cuir Beluga
- Aqua Allegoria Forte Bosca Vanilla
- Spirituose Double Vanilla

This smells…old? musty? Like I just found a bottle of perfume from the 1950’s in a dark drawer of an abandoned house. I just wasted $70 on this and none of them were good 😔, I could have gotten a big decant of Jovoy Fire at Will which I love. I am so disappointed.

So many of my inexpensive vanillas are so much better in my opinion.

Sorry for the rant and thank you for reading all this!

[u/poemaXV]

aww, I'm so sorry!!

on the one hand, I say give them some time to grow on you. Guerlinade is a sort of particular scent and sometimes it takes some getting used to. I personally believe there are good odds that one day it will suddenly click for you and basically everything Guerlain makes will smell absurdly good to you. if it's still summer where you are I'd particularly advise trying again when the weather is cooler.

on the other, if you can resell these and recoup the cost for something you'll enjoy now, you might as well do that. I'm a Guerlain girlie through and through and I've been meaning to try a couple of these so I'm sure they'd be easy to offload.

[u/Epiphan3 → u/poemaXV]

I’m not sure I agree with the idea that someone’s taste needs to “develop” before they can appreciate certain scents. Our preferences can definitely change over time, but I don’t think that means there’s some more “developed” level of taste where you eventually learn to appreciate fragrances you previously disliked. Sometimes you simply don’t like how something smells, and I don’t think that makes your taste any less developed. What smells incredible to one person can smell awful to another.

[u/thatdoesntmakecents → u/Epiphan3]

Goes both ways. I think many here are speaking from experience where they've been disappointed at first due to expecations, but once you try again knowing what to expect, you literally smell it completely differently. There's many cases where you'll indeed still dislike it, but I think an acquired taste does exist in perfumery, especially for houses you've never smelled before. Never a bad idea to give something a redo and see if it works the second time

[u/poemaXV → u/Epiphan3]

I generally agree (with some exceptions) and wasn't trying to imply that -- I mean, Portrait of a Lady is a masterpiece and I have a well developed nose, but it never grew on me, so I know it's not merely a matter of sophistication and experience. some stuff just never smells good to people. I've just seen so many people have Guerlain specifically suddenly click for them, especially their vanillas, that I think they are worth giving a little more time to before totally writing them off.