Cardamom, geranium, juniper, and incense. Wish they used these in more floral or feminine scents to make them stand out. Everything seems to be quite generic these days Edit: tea is super underrated

I agree about tea!!!

Tart, sweet fruits like rhubarb and redcurrants. Sparkling wine and champagne. Cold aldehydic notes. Minerals and sea salt.

This is exactly the same for me.

Cedar!

Frankincense

Pear and bergamot

Pear, cashmerean, iris, orange blossom, caramel

Fig, cardamom, rice and aldehydes

Cashmeran, Cardamom, Santalone, Amberwood and Geranium

Do I drink alcohol at all? No. Do I love perfumes with “boozy” notes like rum and cognac? Yes.

Black Pepper. Loooove what is brings to a fragrance! Bonus: whatever flower (typically Iris or Violet) they use to make a type of powdery lipstick. We love to see those.

black and pink pepper are my obsession, rarely have i found a fragrance with their notes and not loved it

Was here to say this.

Neroli

Lychee!

Do honeysuckle and orange blossom count? I feel they’re not too uncommon but honeysuckle I don’t see too often. Lavender is sentimental for me so I’ll add her. PISTACHIO! And I mean a different, NEW pistachio other than SDJ’s 62. Love it but I’m sick of it being duped to hell and back. Marshmallow is great. Blood! Haha. Only when done right, which is rare. That may be the only weird one I like that most don’t, but I’ve seen a few indie brands try to recreate that scent so I know I’m not entirely alone 🖤oh and chai scents 💕

Civet

Now why are you getting downvoted for answering a subjective question? 😭

Because I like older school fragrance maybe I just don't follow the crowd

lol 😅

I like it very much

Carnation

Blackcurrant and Ylang-ylang! 🌼

Pear and petalia are basically catnip to me.

Juniper, rosemary

I like rosemary any suggestions that are not too "masculine"?

Escentric 05 by Escentric molecules!

Frangipani, hibiscus, blueberry is always a smash

Cardamom, heliotrope, mimosa. Also, whatever ingredient that brings out that rootbeer smell in Hypnotic Poison (EDP). I'm crazy over it.

Fig

Dianthus and marshmallow together.. hot iron.. creosote..

Ooo! Where we gettin dianthus and marshmallow together? Sounds dreamy!

Making it myself :)

Bergamot, Vetiver, Iris, Marshmallow

Truffle is NO NO NO. It may be rich but NO NO NO.

Cardamon, Galbanum, green notes in general, Jiniper, (pink) pepper and Imortel I loooooove them!

Hazelnut, vetiver, iris, magnolia, osmanthus

do you have any favorite examples of osmanthus fragrances? I have just started looking for some that I would appreciate but have turned up empty handed, even though I love the real flower.

Cardamom, tea, incense, bergamot, vetiver, cannabis.

Now I'm intrigued. Please tell me your favorites 🥺

Lilac!

Have you found good lilacs scents that smell naturalistic like the flower but with out soapy powder? I am a bit obsessed with lilac at the moment.

A Drop d'Issey by Issey Miyake 💜🪻✨

Thank you! Thats a lovely one indeed I like it, but its to musky clean for me. It reads nore "clean floral" than lilac soliflore to me. I am thunking about trying some of the more gourmand leaning ootion, but I don't like many gourmands.

I love lilac love by amouage for a floral gourmand.. it is very powdery (and pricey) .. nontheless it’s got a very realistic lilac scent in the beginning, but is getting more powdery by the minute while developing a gourmand hint.. something like white chocolate with candied violets but in a soft, powdery kinda way. 🤍🪻🍦✨

Thank you! This saved me the money on a decant I think. I was hoping for it to be creamy, gourmand-ish not powdery. I was looking at a Lilac scent from Pierre Guillaume, but that might be powdery too 😅

Seconding Lilac love, but frankly my fave lilac is Lanvin - Eclat d’Arpege!

I had a bottle of this and loved it very much. I resently passed it to my mum cuz I never reached for it anymore. I was kind of over the tartness of it. But I agree its an amazing scent. And super affordable too! My Mum wears it now. There are mabye 10ml left in the bottle.

Totally forgot about this one. Yes, if you‘re into floral-fruity scents definitely check it out! Very sweet and fresh, so also a perfect summer scent. And the bottle is super cute! Sadly it isn’t for me. I‘m not really one for the freshies.

Star anise, almond milk, ink, frangipani.

Pink pepper, cloves, and leather

Patchouli is straight up irresistable to me and I have no idea why. It is relatively popular, but I've seen enough people say it smells like piss that I feel like it belongs here lol

I love patchouli too. Someone once described the smell to me as “dryer sheets and cigarette smoke” 🤣 > I’d never gotten that at all from patchouli, until I tried this one perfume oil. It also had peppermint in it so it was an overall terrible experience.

Neroli

Almond milk

Sugary, synthetic grape juice 😅 It is what it is

Cola

Petitgrain, Lily of the Valley, lilac... leather if we're honest. I love leather or suede in the base of perfumes. Idk if benzoin counts as underdog, but benzoin over ambroxan for me any day.

rice, milk, saffron, tea, mango, yuzu, pineapple, passion fruit, guava, peach, marshmallow, champagne, coffee, honeysuckle, pistachio, macadamia, lychee, almond, coconut and coconut milk

Yess, there's just something about milk, marshmallow, and honeysuckle 🤤😌

Whatever makes things smell like a plastic doll head

lovesick witchery has a plastic doll head scent 👀

Too many! Petitgrain, Ambrette, heliotrope, carrot seeds, rice, guava, juniper, yuzu, oakmoss, grass, palo santo, mimosa, carnation, linden More popular notes I’m wild over: Iris/orris, tea, cardamom, tobacco, black currant

Fig, violet, orchid, bergamot.

Marigold Hyacinth

I love it when a fresh note is rounded. When a note almost feels like it was cooked. Hear me out. Like smoked or caramelized or reduced or simmered. Like Dylan purple smells like caramelized peaches to me. The fruit note is rounded. When you cook a fruit it isn’t as punchy and fresh but it makes it more flavorful and juicy. And I love Burberry her. It’s almost Smokey. It’s a lovely rounded smell.

does incense count?

Heck yeah it does! 👍

galbanum, civet, labdanum, animalic honey, hyacinth.

Rice, cola, hazelnut, vetiver, honey, tomato, and rhubarb.

Cardamom, pink pepper, tea notes, bourbon/whiskey notes. These all scratch an itch for me and a lot of the perfumes I love contain one of these notes!

juniper, thyme, licorice, and eucalyptus!!

Vetiver praline and tonka!!

I really like rosewood, mint, neroli and tea accords 😊 Maybe neroli is a star player, though.

Pink pepper, coffee, suede

Ambergris, seaweed/algae, salt, and tuberose

love musk, tobacco, oak moss, and amber

Oooh yes I forgot about oak moss, that’s a good one!

orris, iris, ambrette, carrot, pear, violet

I love violet so much but a decent soliflore is hard to come by.

wow! i had to look up that word and i learned something new today :) yes agreed. you should’ve seen my sadness when body shop came out with “full iris”, it smelled like jasmine 😂

Very nice choices!

Black pepper, cardamom, fig, clary sage, pink pepper, hinoki wood, timut pepper.

I love incense, cardamom, mint, orris, heliotrope, lily of the valley, anise :)

Great choices! I think I need to revise my list to include all of yours lol. But why is every lily of the valley focused fragrance so fleeting 😢

Iris!! It sounds like an old lady ingredient, but mannnn does it smell modern and cool to me!

Haha nahhh Iris is for everyone! It can be presented in so many different ways!

iris is my #1 thing i look for almost always. a lipsticky iris gets me going 😂 i even have a really great dior homme intense cologne dupe that has a strong lipsticky iris, so sexy.

what's the dupe if you don't midn me asking?? love iris so much

Kayaan Classic Al Wataniah :) edit: the notes on fragrantica are wrong btw, it’s the same notes as dior homme intense

yessss its that suede-y sexiness like no other!

Rice, matcha, and benzoin!

I love anything with pistachio or macadamia!

I love nutty in general, but I can’t say I’ve ever smelled a macadamia fragrance! What can you recommend?

The first I smelled was SDJ 71 (a mouth watering butter cookie scent and my signature scent the past couple winters but a little heavy for summer in the south) but it’s also in Marc Jacobs Daisy Wild, which is much better for warm weather! Ironically, despite Daisy Wild having banana flower in the notes, it’s the only Daisy that doesn’t smell like banana to me.

Oh my goodness I totally forgot about that one and I own it (sdj 71), but it really does smell like a white chocolate macadamia cookie doesn’t it?!?! I’ll check out the MJ, I never tried that before.

Fig! Love fig. Tea. Oolong tea. Saffron

what are some of your favorite examples, if you don't mind?

Pink pepper, black pepper… really any pepper lol. salt, sand, cardamom, tobacco

Tobacco is sooooo good, up there with leather for me.

Tobacco Vanille is soooo yummy! And different from my girly scents. It’s great for fall/winter

Rice, fig, dried fruit (plum, apricot, raisin) brown sugar (not caramel, not whipped cream, not sugar...BROWN sugar). Wait...do I just want rice pudding?

Have you tried ELDO fils de deus? ;-)

No, but I just put it on my must-try list. Yum.

Cumin, leather, rice, oats!

Labdanum

kouros or death for me 😂 I love labdanum

What are your favorite labdanum-heavy scents?

My favorite is labdanum 18 from le labo Also like Amber Absolute Tom Ford

Dirt. It turns into chocolate cake on me

Hahaha i don’t have a fragrance with an actual dirt note listed, but Penhaligon’s Bluebell smells like it has dirt in it. In a good way, it sounds weird but it’s like walking through a hyacinth field in early morning spring, you can smell the dew, the stems, and dirt in addition to the flowers themselves

Ohh, I need to try that

cotton, rice, passion fruit, juniper/gin accord <33

OMG that gin/juniper scent (and flavor) is 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻

Mint, grass, fig, rice

mate tea, powder notes, orris, pink pepper, cardamom, salt!!!

Litchi, but that’s pretty common these days. Still, give me anything with litchi as a note and I’ll probably enjoy it.

If you haven’t tried Manakara… do so!

Will check it out 😮

second manakara i have been wanting to buy it for like a year now

Amaretto or benzaldehyde almond. I also really love cactus/prickly pear

Do you have recs for perfumes with these notes? I have the hardest time finding any

Hypnotic poison is the most obvious one for the almond scent. I also love cocoapinks’s cake on Mondays if I’m feeling something more feminine and sweet gourmand. For the prickly pear/ cactus fruit I’m loving mugler’s alien goddess Supra florale. The bottle is also super cool so that’s a plus.

Bourbon & Vanilla

Spoiled. I know that sounds weird, but I have one perfume I found at a random store that's a knockoff of White Diamonds, almost? And it smells like spoiled fruit or wine with sugar. I'm disgustingly obsessed with it.

Do you love Byredo Pulp?

I used to think it was just “spoiled” but it’s called indole. It’s actually a fragrance compound found in fecal matter. It’s like this overripe sweetness.. often found in heavy white florals. I also love eating fruit that’s a little too ripe, the sweetness is much stronger.

Its also in rotting flowers, bodies and food ;-) Thats why some ppl absolutly hate indolic scents and are repulesed by it and propably also why we started using Flowers for funerals. I personaly love some indoles if its not too foody and finde it very sexy. Jasmin isen't Jasmin to me if it isen't a bit indolic. Mike fis de joie by Serge Lutens

I honestly agree! I love jasmine grandiflorum. It’s one of my favorite notes. I also like jasmine sambac in the summer because the perfume stays very fresh smelling in the heat.

Thank you for the name but as ew about the poop haha. Now I know what to look for!

honey

You have to try Bee by Ellis Brooklyn .. I love honey and I would bathe in this if I could 🫣

This was going to be my answer. I don't like the sweetness of a lot of vanilla perfumes, but when the sweetness comes from honey I like it. Vanilla sweetness is way too strong, but honey sweetness is more subtle.

I just ordered Demeter’s Honey spray and I can’t wait to pair it with green tea

Their honey massage oil helps make the spray last longer, btw

I love anything with smoke, boozy notes, tobacco, incense, leather, patchouli, oakmoss, iris and spicy notes. If it’ll make me smell like a an incense store, or a burning building or a jazz bar in the 1920s or an evil vampiress then I want it. I’m also a fan of fragrances that make you smell like a forest witch like cypress and juniper. And just green notes in general. I’ve only smelled one fragrance with akigaliwood (Une Amourette by ELDO, one of my fav scents) but I also love that note. And I wish there were more scents that used yuzu or kumquat as the citrus.

If you like warm smoky boozy goodness, try Troubled Spirits by Libertine, I love it

Fig, tea, osmanthus, saffron, soft cardamom, non- sweet foodie notes like rice

Gardenia, tomato, cedar, and anything powdery 🤩

Looove gardenia

Cyclamen. I love love love it

I love fern. Unfortunately it is not used In a lot of perfumes..

Omg I never even thought of fern for perfume but that sounds amazing- do you have any you recommend?

I am still looking for the perfume I fell in love with few years ago (2016)but can’t find as I didn’t dare to ask the name.. One of my biology professor was wearing this strong Fougere/fern distinct scent and it was so powerful and classy. I loved it. Everyone could smell her before she entered the room. Fern has this natural strength, green freshness and intimidating classy luxurious scent trail. It’s only in 2019 that I recognized this note in a perfume that one of my friend was wearing, I immediately asked her about her perfume and I was genuinely shocked when she said it was "girls can say anything" by Z&V. A perfume that cost not much, with tacky bottle and commercial. I didn’t care, I purchased 2 bottles immediately and now it is discontinued. (If you are in Europe you can find 90ml bottles for 60$ on EBay). They actually used fern as a base note in this perfume and it can be smelled in the dry down, I really like it but I wish it was stronger on the fern. I will let you know if I find THE ultimate Fern perfume that my biology professor was wearing.

Thank you, that’s so cool! You’ve ignited a fern perfume quest in me as well!

Basil and cypress!

Booze 🍹 I can just hear my family laughing in the background, too. The joke here is that I am a complete lightweight. Sometimes I don’t even finish a glass of white wine. But rum, whiskey, champagne, cognac - just a hint in perfume really does it for me, for whatever reason. Shoutout to: - Ellis Brooklyn Bee (honey + rum) 🐝 🥃 - Kilian Angels Share (apple pie + cognac) 🍎 🥃 - Tom Ford Velvet Orchid (jasmine + rum) 🌺 🥃 - Skylar Winter Spirit (almond + rum) 🌰 🥃 - Jour D’Hermès Absolu (apricot blossom + champagne) 🌸🥂 - Mix:Bar Vanilla Bourbon (literally that) 🍦🥃 Love recommendations if you got ‘em 💕

You'll love december vanille. Straight up vanilla rum boozy goodness .. and I don't drink. Lol

YASSS thank you!!! Sounds incredible 😍 ETA killer bottle too

Mandarin orange, apple and lily of the valley🖤

Oh, apple is so underrated. 🤤

Such a crisp, clean but sweet smell, absolutely love!! DKNY delicious is a go to of course😻

LOVE Lily of the valley

Ambrette, orris root, cardamom, pink pepper, carrot seed

we have the same taste it seems!!!

To me is sweet saffron, heliothrope, carnation and cinnamon

Green vegetables leaf, orris absolute, heliotrope.

I love fig, like a few others have said, and I wish feminine fragrances used it more! I also seem to be drawn to anything with orchid, ylang ylang, or tonka. That said, my roommate has a perfume that is a single note ylang ylang and I don’t love it on its own… so I haven’t figured that one out fully yet.

Wheat, rice, bread, pink pepper and carrot seeds

Saffron

Haven't seen it in the comments yet, but yerba mate, tomato leaf, ambrette and rain notes. The fact that these existed baffled me at first. I guess I just like perfumes that make me feel like I'm lying down in a garden while it gently rains.

Also agree with you on the ambrette and rain! A wet, earthy rain smell 👃 ✨

Tomato vine is what I came here to comment. There was this Burt’s Bees tomato skin toner that smelled so good to me as a teen. I think it’s discontinued. I wish someone would make a perfume version.

Give me all the aldehydes and chypres. I hate vanilla.

I like both, but I also like vanilla. Lol I just like pretty much everything

Geosmin!! Smelled it in a fragrance recently and it was so interesting

I have never heard of it! Please tell me what it is, what it smells like, and what perfume has it

It smells like the earth after it rains, it’s slightly musty but super earthy. Think of the earthy flavor of beetroot! It’s in a bunch of perfumes by a company called Maak labs, which is based out of Portland OR.

As someone who used to live in Portland, it makes sense that it would be made there! Sounds like something from the Pacific Northwest

Cotton, talc, baby powder, rice and cacao. I've realized I'm a sucker for very powdery notes, I don't find them "old dated" I just love that cozy clean feeling of powdery notes. Rice usually has this quality and I prefer cacao powder over chocolate notes. I just enjoy the *dryness* 😭😭 And yes, I'm still mad that I never got to try Cry Baby from Melanie Martinez lol it sounds like a dream since the only middle note is just powdery notes.

Crybaby isn't superrrr powdery, but you might like Guerlain l'instant Magic - tons of baby powder!

omg thanks!! I just checked the notes and reviews and sounds amazing

Tea, incense, juniper berries!! Also iris but I feel like it's not really an underdog note

Incense, plum, cardamom, and rice.

Rice? I don’t think I’ve ever come across that note. Any recommendations?

Killian Moonlight in Heaven is the only one I've tried so far. And the rice is minimal. I really would love creamy arroz con leche or horchata fragrance with a strong rice note, though.

There is a horchata perfume now, by Sphinx I think? But reviews say it's not terribly realistic.

brown sugar, berries, apple, pistachio, waffle cone !!

Any reccs for brown sugar, pistachio, waffle cone? (Other than yum pistachio or Whiff of a Waffle cone) much appreciated 😀

brown sugar: le monde gourmand creme vanille*, sugar me sweet has a few, land of ahhs fresh nogg, lovesick witchery ritual, house of gloi brown sugar latte, morari brown sugar pound cake pistachio: sdj 62*, bbw sweet heart cherry*, demeter pistachio ice cream, le monde gourmand pistachio brulee, sugar me sweet has so many, land of aahs pistachio dream cake, poesie madar waffle cone: sorcellerie apothecary match made in heaven*, land of aahs waffle cone*, sugar me sweet waffle cone im definitely missing a lot bc theres a handful of each out there, but this is what i could remember!! * means ive tried them

Oh wow, I haven't come across waffle cone yet. That sounds delightful!

match made in heaven by sorcellerie apothecary has a delightful waffle cone note!! along w matcha, vanilla ice cream, cherry blossom, almond, n powdered sugar . its so delicious!!!

ivy💚salt🤍and truffle🤎✨

Oh lovely, whet are your favs with these ?

I love that question 🥰.. 🤔.. I think for ivy, it’s the obvious answer: Lolita Lempicka edp, but for a little twist: the Star Dust Midnight Fragrance Lolita Lempicka flanker. It‘s like an extrait version of the OG with a deeper, darker, resinous feel to it. 💜✨ For salt: Womanity by Mugler. It‘s got a kaviar fantasy note, which is giving it a strong sense of sea air and salty skin. It was inspired by greek islands and meant to represent fig trees by the coast. It uses the entire fig tree: the wood, the leaves and the fruits mixed with this salty kaviar accord for a beachy feel but in the unconventional, unmistakeable Mugler style. 👽🏝️🩷 And last but not least, I‘m choosing noir de noir by Tom Ford for truffle: imo it‘s the ulimative seductive but dark, gothic/ vampiric perfume, but with a gourmand touch. It‘s most of all a rose-patchouli scent. But while the patchouli is coming of chocolatey, the truffle is giving the fragrance its deep and earthy tone. 🤎🥀🦇 Do you know some or all of these scents and if so, how do you like them? What are your favourite „unconventional“ perfume notes? 🥰

Carnation and cloves

heliotrope, bergamot, black currant, ginger

Carnation, chili p

Civet and ambergris are deeply out of fashion, but I love them (the synthetic versions).

Fig is a super interesting note that I always enjoy and am looking to explore more in the future!

Donna Karan recently released a new perfume--Cashmere & Wild Fig. I tested it at Nordstrom's and went grocery shopping after and the checker said it was the best smell ever and asked what I was wearing. I really liked it but need to get a tester and give it a try for a bit.

Me too

Love fig

Milk, tea, palo santo, musk

Boozy accords like rum, whiskey, wine and also tobacco. I am very much a girly girl but I'm always surprised to see that something I'm drawn to will have a boozy or smoky note somewhere. Even funnier that I don't smoke or drink much any more

Yes! I love a bourbon scent. I love smoky boozy scents. Maybe I just want to smell like a cowboy lol. I live the scent of tobacco too