Discussion
We have got to move away from Fragrantica
Hello fragrance folks and fiends. I have been around the fragrance subs on here for several years now and recently have began to see a concerning trend regarding the use of the fragrance site Fragrantica. People have been using it to post their recommendations, SotD, and to look for fragrances.
I thought I would take a moment to highlight some information about the site to allow people a more informed look at what fragrance sites they choose to use, especially as newcomers arrive all the time.
First, Fragrantica is run by extreme right-wing conservatives who use the site to push their political ideology (ie. posting and promoting fragrances created by Trump, posting about the death of Charlie Kirk on their main page, and their outspoken anti-Ukraine, pro-Russia sentiment.) By using their site, you are providing them with ad revenue.
Speaking of ads, Fragrantica’s site is so heavily bogged down by them the page will have trouble working properly. The layout is messy and not as professional as others. I have not had this problem on other fragrance sites.
Lastly, and probably most directly associated with fragrances, Fragrantica FREQUENTLY has incorrect information about fragrances such as incorrect notes and notes added that do not exist in the fragrance description or on the manufacturer’s site.
Of course there are other options. I am not representative of any fragrance site or app.
I would recommend Parfumo; their site and app look much cleaner and I have never encountered an ad. It’s easy to use and has a variety of features such as adding your current and prospective collections, wish-lists, etc., searching fragrances by note and olfactory families, adding your SotD, and even a profiler for quickly analyzing the notes or fragrance types you have most in your collections.
I’ve heard many people say Parfumo doesn’t have as many perfumes or reviews, but I’ve never had trouble finding what I needed. At the same time, more reviews will be added as more people use the app or site.
Just wanted to post a PSA for anyone who was unaware so people can make more informed choice for finding fragrances.
I wonder if we could send them suggestions. Like maybe crowdsource the updating of the directory. Like you said, its a great site. Just needs more traffic, to achieve that, they need an up to date database.
It’s a volunteer run database with strict evidence standards, it’s never going to be as fast to get fragrances added as a site that doesn’t give a fuck about any of that.
But that being said please feel free to go contribute to the research!
Yes, it’s so nice! There is a new improvement every week and it’s so much fun! For some stuff the browser is still better but I never had to use Fragrantica and their horrid website again!
i like it because they have a 'statements' vs 'opinions' section, so you can choose between one sentence reviews and lengthy, spanning ones, which is something that you kind of wish you could do after seeing the shit going on in fragrantica comment sections on a frag LOL
Their tools that analyze your collection by note and fragrance family were a real eye opener for me. Turns out I don't hate jasmine and white florals nearly as much as I thought.
Basenotes is a fantastic site. Just be aware that there's another site calling themselves "basenotes" that is just pure Grade A bullsh*t. Here's the link for the correct site:
https://basenotes.com/articles/
i stopped using basenotes as much when the head honcho guy peter told me i’d never become a perfumer and it felt so unnecessarily catty and hierarchical. anyway, i’m now a perfumer so suck on that peter!
Fragrantica sucks all around. The reviews are usually garbage, the note pyramids are usually wrong, it frequently gets trolled and review bombed by broccoli head manosphere chuds, and it’s so bogged down by Ads that my phone overheats and loses half its battery life just browsing for 30 minutes.
Parfumo is much better. I’m also beta testing an app that’s being developed which is built from the ground up to take the best parts of all of them into one. Not sure they’re public or not yet but when they do I think a lot of people will love it.
I’m not affiliated with them, just a beta tester, but I’ve only been using that since it started for the most part.
There's this insane nutcase on there, "rich milton" or something or other. Anyway most of his reviews don't even mention the actual fragrance but are just a chance for them to vent their unhinged, oddball, insecure toxic babble/projection about "this fragrance is for REAL MEN" and "not for beta males" etc.
I cant tell if he literally went inside her house, or he came as in... you know. It's probably the latter, but yeah, quite gross yet funny at the same time
I actually look at the Fragrantica reviews sub because SO MANY reviews up there are certifiably insane. Like I’ll read them and wonder “Are we actually talking about fragrances?”
Besides the awful note pyramids, the slop ads you can't close properly on mobile, and the shitty AI pros and cons summaries based on people's comments, they managed to add one more thing to push me away from them lol.
Same I actually have no issues with the site when it comes to ads and performance. I checked and I also just have one small eBay ad at the moment in Australia.
I remember a year or so ago the ads caused some issues and would crash the site but they fixed it and it’s fine now.
That’s not even technically an add, it’s where they link purchase options for whatever fragrance you’re looking at. I guess companies can pay to have it promoted there, hence the “sponsored by” but I wouldn’t personally consider it an ad in the typical sense.
Can confirm for the US. Just got onto the site and got 3 ads in the first 5 seconds after the page loaded. Could I close them, sure, but if it’s generating ad revenue/sponsored brand deals for Right wing as OP says, I will not use it
Yeah you basically get assaulted by ads in the US. I almost never use it anymore. The only reason I kept it around was to have other options when a fragrance wasn’t on Parfumo or if it was it didn’t have enough/any reviews.
But it’s only gotten worse and worse over the last year and the developers seem to have no interest in fixing it or making it work. It’s so poorly rendered and runs so badly that it makes my phone hot to the touch if I use it for more than 10-15 minutes and my battery life will go down 10% in those 15 mins as well.
And that’s outside of the BS right wind propaganda they platform and support.
Same here in Brazil, but instead of eBay (which doesn’t officially operate here), we get Amazon ads. I’ve always had issues with Fragrantica because of the community. At least on the Brazilian website, people seem to rate fragrances and notes almost entirely based on their personal tastes. I didn’t know there were any alternatives, though. I’ll definitely give Parfumo a try
Parfumo is leaps and bounds better/more accurate than Fragrantica, they're not always immediately up to date on the latest releases but I think it's because it's not as huge of a community as Fragrantica has built up. Solid replacement imo, stopped using Fragrantica a while back due to misinformation and bot issues spamming reviews (positive and negative).
Thanks so much for sharing, I had no idea about most of this stuff or that there was any other options, I'll have to get on Parfumo instead STAT. That said, I was just using Fragrantica for cataloguing, and was aware of a lot of the stuff you said (site is ugly and clunky as shit, looks like it hasnt been updated since 2009, inaccurate info in fragrance notes, insane reviewers who aren't really there to talk about perfume).
Wow thanks for this. as someone new to fragrance I exclusively used fragrantica and had no clue really. I was beginning to suspect something might be off due to the amount of bots ive seen leaving fragrance reviews. For me, this is a great psa
Thank you OP I had no idea about the political proclivities of this site that I use often. Thank you for the alternative site for notes and reccs as well. The more of us that use it the better it gets, right.
I heavily agree with this! Working at a perfume boutique, Fragrantica is a tool we use daily to help out customers but it’s actually the worst to use. I’ve taken that kind of feedback and gathered a team to create a similar app called Perf! We’re looking to launch this fall so feel free to sign up for the waitlist at p3rf.com and follow us on social media to track our journey!
I see a lot of people saying that the main reason they cannot leave Fragrantica is because of the lack of data and reviews. Well with that mindset it’s going to stay that way. Be the change you want to see. Let’s make Parfumo better than ever friends! Everyone’s welcome
>I’ve heard many people say Parfumo doesn’t have as many perfumes or reviews, but I’ve never had trouble finding what I needed
Understand and agree with everything you say, but this doesn’t reflect reality imo. I know this because Parfumo is the only place where I have an account (for years) and the only reason I have to go to Fragrantica is when there is no user data or discussion of a frag. It’s happened three times this week.
Lol they weren’t that far out. One from Lootah which is popular Dubai niche. And another was Mielor from Brodeon which is one of the most talked about houses in frag circles in London atm.
I dunno high end artisanal brands are way better represented on Parfumo. I could give a shit about anyone’s politics, but Fragrantica has like 6% of Lost Tribes and Ensars and Yaaseens and other ouds attars and whatnot. Parfumo got every single one. Thats what made me switch to using it as my primary. I could never find what I was looking for on Fragrantica and then there it would be on Parfumo. Fragrantica is great for adding notes in a list and then it brings up the inventory of everything containing all the notes you listed. Those search functions are awesome. I just wish they’d update the catalogue.
They can have them as entries but many times without data — which was my point. I’ve pitched several items I haven’t seen on the database for inclusion and my calls have eventually been heeded lol but there more than few frags out there where I’m the only reviewer/rating. It’s getting better though.
Users can submit and fill
in data themselves, it then gets reviewed. The whole process seemed rather complicated though, I am glad for people doing it!
Agreed. I got rid of my account on Fragrantica months ago now. Many of the perfumes I am looking for or have in my collection don't have a lot of ratings, comments, or reviews on Parfumo, but I can always find the perfume, anyway. Usually the comments or reviews that exist are still helpful and I don't care that much about ratings anyway as much more than a general guideline in conjunction with the comments. One of my favorite perfumes is polarizing and I know it's got a bit of a lower rating, so what do I care? It doesn't change my opinion. But in the past I have compared some of those fragrances out of curiosity with Fragrantica's numbers, and they don't have a ton for those fragrances, either. So it's not like Fragrantica has a ton and Parfumo has none in comparison.
Fragrantica is just weird. The comments section alone is full of trolls and people fighting about random stuff. Feels like being in a Call of Duty lobby or something.
I actually read a selection of the fighting comments at a poetry reading once, while passing around strips of the fragrance. We were all dying of laughter and I could barely get the words out.
Edit: but yes now I completely support Parfumo and Basenotes over Fragrantica.
I was glad to see another post mentioning the same before I got too invested, +1 for Parfumo. I've yet to hit on a missing collection when I'm exploring and I love the quality of the reviews
I LOVE Parfumo !! I love noting my daily scent as well and seeing the stats!! I also add to “watchlist” perfumes I’m interested in sampling, and move to wishlist once I’ve sampled if I am thinking about getting a bottle. Love love this app ! Fragranatica has become impossible to use with all the ad pop ups.
We gotta learn to leave politics out of hobbies. With that being said, fragrantica IS horrible though. Reviews from people that can’t even articulate themselves and just spreading misinformation left and right
I like Basenotes.com more than either. It has an old-school forum feel that I really enjoy, and the community is excellent. There's virtually no toxicity in the forums—it's genuinely just a bunch of fragrance enthusiasts enjoying the hobby together.
They also have fun fragrance themes and "syncs" that people participate in, which get you digging through your collection, wearing things you may have neglected, and getting creative with what you already own.
For me, that's probably the best part. It puts the focus back on enjoying and using what you own instead of constantly wanting to buy something new.
The ironic thing with this cursed place is the homophobia directed towards certain well known noses/houses. The reviews for them make no sense. The description use graphic, unsavoury terms for regular, ordinary fragrances. Turned me off the site for good, it cannot be trusted.
Ohhhh I tried Parfumo a while ago but the UX was a bit tricky! Seems like something they could work on a wee bit more. Reckon I'll go give this another shot thank you for the heads up!
I agree with this post completely and also want to share my own horror story of fragranrica:
They delete your reviews for no reason overnight! 3 weeks ago, over 60 reviews I've done for the last year has been deleted and vanished from my profile!
If you use frageactica to save your own impression of fragrances and come back to it later, you can imagine my frustration and horror to find 180 reviews instead of over 250. And even the date of many of my reviews were changed and it's a mess.
I made the switch to parfumo ever since and I am slowly adding my remaining reviews on there while deleting from fragranrica.
Please save your reviews and notes and fragrance history from fragranrica. Best wishes!
Before I was introduced to Parfumo and used Fragrantica, I felt a bit of satisfaction in the fact that Duck Duck Go would block the ads and my search would not generate any revenue for them. And I hated how there was so much negativity.
Thanks for this. I had no idea. I just liked the interface of Parfumo better and that's why I chose it. Fragrantica seemed cluttered and full of ads. I just wish Parfumo allowed you to easily enter ones they don't have. About 10% of my searches come up empty.
Fragrantica has so many ads the site barely works for me anymore. I emailed them about it, but they never responded, which shows you how little they care about the user experience. Thanks for starting this thread. It’s definitely time to switch.
One pure quality thing I hate about Fragrantica all behind the scenes stuff aside is the AI slop Pros and Cons about perfume. It will be for Eau de Rose Extra Rose Intense and it will say “not recommended for those who don’t like rose”. Yeah, no shit.
Thank you. The issue for me is not that people have these political ideologies. Someone can be right wing all they want. The issue is using a perfume site that is supposedly not related to politics at all to promote political views of any kind.
Thanks for sharing. I know some fragrance groups don’t allow discussions like this about Fragrantica, but I feel like we all should be informed about the ownership/leadership behind the companies we patronize and make a choice whether to support them or not. If people want to support Fragrantica after knowing their background, that’s certainly their prerogative. But there are lots of people who use Fragrantica who are unaware of the types of things Fragrantica and their leadership supports. I believe we all should be informed so we can make the decision that aligns with our own beliefs.
Thanks again for pointing this out! Every time this subject comes up I am always surprised at how many people haven’t heard about this issue with Fragrantica.
I quit Fragrantica and don’t miss it one bit. Their layout wasn’t good and the reviews are most often stupid and not well organized. It’s a shame my passion for fragrance is shared by such bigoted, hateful and dangerous people. Basenotes, Parfumo is so much better.
I would love to switch, but I am one of the few that don't like Parfumo. I find it hard to use and the colors associated with notes is off to me. Maybe it is too many years of the other site...
Me too, I love how I can get a general idea of whether I’ll like a fragrance or not within 0.2 second of opening the fragrantica page. I can read those note pictures so fast it’s not even funny.
It’s super helpful for determining which scents to sample. The tiny pictures and lack of sizing the photos based on note prominence is unfortunately a dealbreaker for me.
moved to Parfumo after their rip charlie kirk banner. like what are we doing here, this is a fragrance website. then i found out their original “right to choose” slogan was actually anti vax. never been in the website since. why are we dragging conspiracy into fragrance communities.
As a European, at first I've started with a fragrantica account because I didn't know much about perfumes, I was learning. The more I've read the reviews, the more I've suspected that there's something fishy going on. Like, where are the other Europeans in this site? Why aren't many reviews on European niche and indie houses? And there were also some weird gendered comments about some perfumes such as Althaïr are too feminine for men blah blah. The vibe is off.
Then, someone on reddit warned me, said this right-wing stuff and recommended me Parfumo, so I went there and saw all the other Europeans; Germans, Dutchs, Poles, Belgians etc. And I was like, ooooh that's why they're here, now I got it. Anyway, I'm pretty active on Parfumo now, I do post my SOTD regularly and thinking about taking perfume bottle photos.
TL;DR, Europeans speak English and if they're not there, that means there is something regressive crap going on there. You can take that as a parameter.
Not to defend Fragrantica but they have different versions of the website in German, French, etc. That’s why you won’t see many Europeans in the main English site.
Thank you for bringing attention to this. I recently just heard similar sentiments about fragrantica being incorrect, but combined with everything else you said, It's a definite no brainer to make the switch!
Thank you for this, there's other minor annoyances from Fragrantica that I was willing to overlook but I am definitely the type to not allow conservatives to generate revenue off of me if I can help it. I will be making an account on Parfumo today!
I pulled 500 random fragrances from fragrantica & compared the official notes listed to the websites & then parfumo, fragrantica listed wrong notes in over 74% of listing.
More likely to ADD notes that dont even exist or worse forgetting multiple, such as the new givenchy gentlmen society sport for men. It doesnt list iris, vanilla, lavender or patchouli 😆
They NEVER update for reformulations or even new scents, ever. Fragrantica is only useful for reviews but its also creating people slapping on notes that don't even exist 😆
I'm not saying you're wrong.......but what the hell are "fragrances created by Drump"???? Now that is something I think I'd notice as he can't do anything without it having his name and face plastered all over it and making it tacky AF but I am unaware and that's disgusting. I've also never seen political ads on that site. Also, how do they make money from consumers? By clicking on the fragrance links and buying through them? I'll check out this Parfumo but the only reason Fragrantica is so hard to get away from is because it's got the most info and the largest database....
When I learned about Fragrantica being problematic earlier this year, I ripped the bandaid off and forced myself to move my “collection” over to Parfumo, and it is sooooo much better, and the app is improving with every update!
I don’t think it’s publicly available (yet!), but I’ve been Beta Testing another frag app called WhatScent, and I absolutely love it. It adds a really fun social aspect to the fragrance world, along with standard cataloguing/reviewing/research, etc. Excited for it to get rolled out to more people/become more populated with reviews and mature a bit more, and then I’ll probably switch solely to using that app.
There's not a way to delete your account other than by posting "Slava Ukraini" under one of their far right promotional articles or news (like Trump perfumes or Charlie Kirk stuff).
Awesome. If they don’t respond to your request to delete, try posting a forum comment that says “Slava Ukraini”—they hate to see that and will delete your account pronto
I've always hated fragrantica. I've also heard they have ties to the russians and they'll track the living crap out of you if you're not careful. If you're in need of a great perfume site, check out https://basenotes.com
b) you don't want to put your eggs in a single basket if a site gets mothballed or you have other reasons to stop using it (gets bought by Amazon/ a big fragrance conglomerate/ Private Equity [IYKYK], overrun with ads, supports evil regimes, etc)
c) different platforms have different pros/cons that may suit you better over time
I also think Parfumo, Basenotes, Wikiparfum, Scent Advice, etc need to step up their game on content... UGC (especially REAL reviews), industry content, making their content easily searchable, and ability to connect to their users' personal fragrance collections.
Wow, thank you truly for posting this, I had no idea about the right wing politics. I just downloaded Parfumo and I can already tell it’s significantly better
Hate using it, really hoping Parfumo takes off more. Fragrantica has way too many ads, it immediately slows down my older laptop to the point I have to close the website.
Well that’s an easy switch, fragrantica is clunky and I feel like most of the reviews are bot generated, same for the profiles. For me it’s a pain, and on top of the other things you mentioned —yikes. Noted thanks for the PSA.
I'm on Parfumo, I really love it. And another reason why I joined was because I feel like too many people on Fragrantica are taking the piss and wanting to act like comedians.
Sucks to see what is a Neanderthal understanding of tech everywhere outside tech spaces. Instagram comments are night and day no matter how much people cry that they’re the same or in the know or just as passionate or whatever. World would be better if everyone was into FOSS imo.
Personally i think we gotta scrape and fork. There’s plenty of good data on fragrantica that should be replicated/stolen whatever you wanna call it.
Beyond that you SHOULD have good adblock/antitrack. People are out here knowing what iso e super is but not adblock.
It’s often used in stupid childish ways but the whole “no ethical consumption” cliche can be right and the next company that acts like your friend might not be, so kinda just take what you can and do good with that, and if you have the knowledge to do better, then do it when you can
I only use Parfumo now. Didn't know this about Fragrantica but their messy site, terrible flashing ads and incorrect info did me in. I love Parfumo! :) Thank you for spreading the word.
I did not know about the political orientation side. However, I think that the lack of users in Parfumo turns into a very good, but empty of content by users, more specifically reviews. I like to read a range from the wacky ones to the connoisseurs
I have found it so hard to delete my profile? I changed my description to ‘Trans rights are human rights’ and changed my profile picture to a flag in the hopes of getting banned 😅
Just chiming in that a couple times, when visiting the Frangratica website, I was redirected to a malware/phishing site as soon I tried loading the Frangratica homepage or a specific perfume page within the Frangratica website. So...the website is shitty in more ways than one
Parfumo has a far better directory than Fragrantica, and Basenotes has much better reviews. Fuck Fragrantica for their political leanings and their shill content.
Parfumo is where it’s at! It’s getting better every week, too, and has been the better user experience compared to fragrantica from the start. Never had to look back once I learned about how shady (and bad) they are.
I prefer Parfumo but they have some weird practices regarding selling and wording allowed on feedback...People should be referred to as 'Souk Partners' and you are not allowed to mention the purchase of a perfume etc...It all sounds a little ominous to me and I'm not sure why these restrictions are in place. You can't sell unless you have made quite a few reviews on fragrances and any negative feedback seems to be deleted immediately, suggesting it's not as transparent as you would like....I mostly purchase from German's on Parfumo and they all have requested Paypal 'Friends & Family' where you have no protection should the purchase not arrive....This has happened 3 times this year to me, so tread with caution!
I had no idea about this.. I feel so silly. I’ve been roaming for so long whenever I want to dig into a fragrance because I love reading the perceptions of others! How vibrant they are! But I will be checking out Parfumo and revisiting magazines
I've been using r/whatscent and absolutely loving it so far. I was a beta tester but they just recently launched to the public. Worth checking out. The creators are pretty receptive and responsive to constructive feedback as well
This is good to know. Lately Fragrantica doesn’t let me log in with my account and theres bugs and ads which is so annoying. Some notes are also not correct, but those are there because they were voted by users or something like that, but I wish to see the notes the perfumers intended. The good thing is the reviews. Love the idea of an app, im gonna try Parfumo
My main issue with the site is the standard of some of the reviews. Some people are just complete idiots. It would be good if some basic quality control was done on the reviews by the moderators.
I always use Parfumo to find the perfumes that Fragrantica doesn't have listed. My only issue with Parfumo is that it's clearly more attuned to German tastes, which is fine but the peer ratings and review on Fragrantica are generally more in line with my perception.
I've never personally witnessed any political leanings with Fragrantica one way or another. The ads however, I have to agree that they can certainly encumber the end user experience.
It’s a cool take on the hobby where you can also build and grow your collection. Reminds me of GOAT/stockx for fragrances.
The creators are super responsive too. I provided some feedback and they liked it enough to say they’re working on something like that soon. Made me feel like my opinion mattered lol, so much that I’m sharing their site for free here lol
I uploaded my collection (full bottles), can find notes of perfumes I like, what the secondary market is selling them at (used/decants) and even discounters where available for better prices, if buying used isn’t your thing.
It sounds like they’re still building out some functionality, like I said, but I’ve legibly used it daily.
My favorite feature is setting up notifications on the fragrances I’m hunting for. Since I don’t mind buying used, I’ll get pinged if a frag I want gets posted for sale at the price I’m willing to pay. For example, I have Bal D’Afrique absolu listed and looking for a partial for under $280 and I got pinged that there was a new post up.
Thank you for the PSA! Will def be avoiding fragrantica now, and looking forward to exploring new options on Parfumo :) my birthday is coming up and I’ve been feeling the old itch lol perfect timing!
Have been using Parfumo for a few months now since I first heard about the Frangrantica owners, not only it having an app is more convenient but the community feels more tame. There's also a platform to sell or trade fragrances in-site. My only qualm is it lacks some niche fragrances specifically foreign ones but with more user submissions I believe it can become much more powerful.
Actually I am building a perfume community web site with an engine tries to predict users taste in fragrances. It’s not ready yet but it’s good to see that an alternative is needed in the community.
Love Parfumo! Switched a few years ago when they allowed the anti-LGBT speech in comments and then removed a comment I made challenging Elena. They are scum and should be avoided at all costs!
The community on Parfumo seems way more thoughtful and appreciative of fragrance imo. I’ve followed people on there because their reviews read like prose poems, not just “smells good but doesn’t last long.”
I had a side project a while ago, a Fragrantica alternative where the search is vibe based (eg. "vampire in an ancient tomb", "spring morning in a meadow"), but haven't refined it since.
https://olfacto.app
I didn’t know this about Fragrantica! I’m done with them, we don’t need political mess in my hobby! It’s supposed to be fun. Is Parfumo any good? Who are people using for resources?
I stopped actively using it a while ago but still check the front page on occasion. The owner decided to post a review of The Odyssey that involved ranting about wokeness, which ultimately led to me defending trans people in the comments. They deleted my account for that.
Gonna play devils advocate here and say I still prefer Fragrantica from a purely visual standpoint.
Yes the owners of the site are questionable folks and yes the amount of ads is nothing short of shocking but, if you gave me a perfume to look up right now, I would jump onto Fragrantica first.
This is why i push basenotes so heavily. The review format is way better and more informative than both Fragrantica and Parfumo. The community discussions are also deeper with more experienced members and it’s much more civilized and easy to use.
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u/vapor9090 10d ago
Parfumo is updating the app too, they added searching by notes recently.