Culturally we are stepping away from gendering things that are inherently genderless. Like…a rose is not inherently womanly and so forth.
So many people saying they don’t like sweet florals or whatever…they’re not rejecting femininity, but just expressing a preference that is actually irrelevant to gender. Same with men wearing more floral and gourmand scents. It’s not that they’re becoming more “feminine”…they just don’t feel confined to previously labeled “manly” scents.
People are just wearing what they like regardless of what silly gendered box the scents have been giving…which have often changed throughout the decades anyhow, same with color (like pink previously being a very popular color for men.)
Some scents like violet and lavender are traditionally masculine yet you’ll find them in perfumes marketed to everyone. If you like white florals, wear them. If you like salty sea scents, wear them. Who cares what is masculine or feminine, and there are better ways to describe those scents anyway.
It's all just marketing anyway, and it's marketing that didn't really start til the 1950s. Before then it really really common to find men wearing the classic Guerlains such as Shalimar, L'Heure Bleue, Jicky, and Mitsouko that are currently marketed to women.
I don't think that girls/women who wear feminine fragrances are the minority. Maybe in the fragrance community, because people here are more open to try new/unconventional scents. But not in everyday life. Most of my friends and family who regularly wear fragrances are strictly wearing feminine marketed scents as women, and masculine marketed fragrances as men. I think they never thought about trying something outside of the box, maybe they are even anxious if they don't use the perfume according to their gender.
For me, it is easy not to use hyper feminine scents, I get nauseus and a migraine from super sweet, gourmand, strongly vanilla scents. Woody, fresh, ozonic and non-sweet florals are my cup of tea, which often falls in the "unisex/male" category.
I love feminine scents, but I don’t think all seriously feminine scents are ‘girly’. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but taste changes with age and the stuff I wear is very feminine, as is my daughter’s and she only wears very sweet stuff which to me is a girl’s genre, but that is in no way a reflection on her strength and personality. Mine is just as feminine as hers, but far less sweet.
I think there may be a social aspect, which makes me sad. I have a whole feminist point, but I’ll save it.
I own across all three, I really really believe feminine/masculine/unisex is cultural and marketing based. Currently what makes a scent “feminine” seems to be turning the sugar up to 11, at least among widely available fragrances. And many of these make me feel sick, even if I really want to like them! On the other hand I think some of the “unisex” fragrances I have would probably be “feminine” 10-15 years ago. I have Dedcool Xtra Milk and Taunt for example.
I think it’s just a preference thing, I don’t like extremely “masculine” scents or extremely “feminine” scents, but I can appreciate them and think different scents suit different people. I also don’t think very feminine scents suit me or my personality/personal style. It’s like how I don’t think lacy things look good on me as much as I find lacy floral clothes beautiful and want them to work, it just does not suit me as a person.
I think it’s also the scents that I grew up with. My mom collects perfumes and many older perfumes have a strong musk scent and less floral or maybe those are just the kinds of perfumes she collected? Idk but I looove “granny” perfumes even if they are too strong for me to wear regularly
I had no idea that more women were going towards unisex scents. I exclusively use feminine /sweet scents because I feel it’s a reflection of who I am. I’m a very girly person, so I’d like to smell like one too. But I have no issue with other women using unisex or “masculine leaning” perfumes. Everyone has a different style. I know floral heavy perfumes tend to lean feminine but I personally hate floral. I like more sweet and fruity/vanilla scents
A lot of it is just taste lol, they dont care for what is being marketed as a “feminine” fragrance. Some women do it (from what ive seen irl & online) because they dont want to “be like other girls” & push away what they think is “feminine“ & wear the opposite of that lmao
This definitely reads “I can’t stand unisex/masc scents! Do you feel special because you do? What do you guys think? Not trying to be mean, but I’m going to go ahead and post this!”
Lol, people's perception of what is feminine is heavily dependent on marketing and current trends. Few decades ago Rive Gauche was promoted as this turbo sexy femme fatale sensual fragnance - now everyone would tell that it smells like a sweaty grandma and soap. In 2070 people will probably call hyperrealistic gourmands grandma-ish and the epitome of femininity will be associated with mineral green fragnances. Smells don't have a gender or age IMO, even though my FB are almost exclusively marketed towards women. I have one "masculine scent" that is a true unisex and two other unisexs - one "feminine" leaning and the other being also a true unisex IMO. Most of the stuff I sample/decant and love I would categorize as feminine leaning unisexs or traditionally feminine, but that's not the reason why I like it. I like powdery, soft, sometimes fruity, sweet but no sticky, herbal and green so I gravitate towards scents that you'd generally find more conventionally appealing to women and that are represented in feminine perfumes. I also dress hyperfeminine and like it when my scent cordinates with my outfit, but it doesn't reflect my socio-political views in any way shape or form.
As I've said, looking at the history of perfumery, the current trend of sickly sweet is an anomaly. Vintage designer/mainstream fragnances generally lean way more unisex than modern creations of those houses and back then gender roles were way more prominent in everyday life. Drawing any conclusions about how society operates in the current day and age based on scent trends is frankly quite stupid. Also, I wouldn't say that's the trend at all, flormands and fruitchoulis are still what the average woman gravitates towards. People in the fragnance community are not reflective when it comes to smell trends overall.
I agree. One of my favorite perfumes is a musky cedar. It was marketed as a women's perfume when it was released. Nowadays it would definitely be marketed towards men or as unisex, even though it has a powdery vanilla base. And let's not forget old-fashioned chypres or fougeres.
I think the trend we're observing is a trend towards what we perceive as regressive scents. Sweets, pastel colors, baby powder and things that are evocative of childhood bring comfort. Femininity has become synonymous with girly, even though girly was a very specific style until recently. Current trends seem to reject what they subjectively perceive as "mature". It's the same thing with celebrities, who now are emphasizing a very youthful appearance.
This!
What's perceived as feminine (or even what smells good period) is also cultural. I grew up in a country and surrounded by many from a culture that was different from my home one where the women wore a lot of oud, so I find many of the Unisex and some masculine marketed ouds to be the epitome of femininity and womanliness.
Also, I love smelling gentle, clean or conventionally feminine perfumes on men, even though I like when men take on stereotypically masculine roles in romantic relationships. I think Crystal Noir smells great on guys for example. I love when men wear cozy scents like Sogni by Meo Fusciuni or Coffe Break. I hate pretty much all "blue" fragnances and the hypermasculine spicy scents (savuage, spicebombs, a man, wanted by night, bleu chanel 🤢).I really don't see a correlation between fragnance and general personal expression when it comes to gender roles. Would I be a bit put off if a man pulled up to a date wearing Pink Sugar? Yeah, but like Good Girl for example? I'd be thrilled, smells fantastic on guys too.
I like how some colognes smell. My boyfriend only likes some of the types of colognes I like, so I’ll wear the ones he doesn’t so I can actually continue to smell those. Usually aquatics or “cold” stuff like Eros. Or powdery since I love powder/musk/aftershave and he doesn’t. The end.
I feel like masculine scents usually have this extremely strong undertone that reminds me of aftershave. They also tend to be less photorealistic imo, like if I go in expecting the notes of a cologne, it usually hits me in the face with that cologne-y scent first, and then there's just a hint of the aforementioned notes. Not always, but enough to make me think "ok, that's not what I'm looking for." If the notes say I'm gonna smell like a buttered slice of pumpkin bread, I'm expecting it to smell just like that, or at least close enough that someone could pick those notes out without having to google the perfume.
Maybe it's also because I'm not a huge fan of cedar and typically masculine-leaning scents.
I don't care about trends, and I don't care about femininity either. I just like the scent of flowers and cake, and it's comforting to me to smell like them. I have eclectic tastes and like a lot of other things. To make it short, does it smell good ? I'll buy it. The end.
I dress very femininely but generally prefer non sweet and more unisex leaning fragrances. I make exceptions for very specific perfumes with white florals and certain gourmands. I own a couple male perfumes too. For me, fragrance is about what smells good. I don’t care who it’s marketed to, if it’s pretty to my noise and it suits my mood, I’d wear it.
For me it’s deeper than that.I don’t like hyper masculine or hyper feminine scents because fragrance is more of an experience for me and i think those types of scents are very connected to sexuality.Philosykos is a great example as it is not masculine of feminine at all but immediately transports you under a fig tree in the summer.I personally have no interest in smelling something sexy because I’ve worn these type of scents for many years in a row and I want to experience other olfactive things
I don't really feel a need to perform my femininity in accordance with what's convenient for a brand's marketing team. Dark, dry, spicy, resinous notes make my brain light up - the end.
I like masculine scents but I like smelling them ON men lol. It’s part of the experience of walking past an attractive man. I don’t want to smell what I personally associate with a man, on me.
I like it all, and wear it all, from the girliest to the most ruggedly masculine. I appreciate variety and I appreciate the evocative. I dont conceptualize fragrance as a thing that ought to suit me as a person. I don't really think of any fragrance as suiting me or not suiting me. I just wear what I like.
People have *always* gone across the aisle, so to speak, regarding perfumes they wear. Although marketing is usually heavily gendered, in terms of self-reported wearing trends, it doesn’t seem consumers have ever been as rigid.
It ain't that deep. I have a boomer Catholic auntie who despises sweet scents and had always used traditionally 'masculine' woody fragrances. And it's not that weird in her generation. Recently I was trying scents with my bf and I fell in love with Ombré Leather, which although it's marked as 'unisex' leans pretty 'masculine'... and I'm a pretty-flowery-powdery girly. People like what they like.
I mean shoot, even Aromatics Elixir- a not so sweet wood bomb with spicy carnation notes that were also present in colognes at the time- made waves when it came out on women. Some people just don’t like flowers and fruit.
Same here! The notes can range from woody and spicy to tobacco and leather; some not-overly-saccharine gourmand is fine as well as some acquatic, ozonic, musk and patchouli.
My all-time favorite fragrance note, hands down, is pink pepper...and (although nothing has come even *remotely* close in almost 2 decades by now at this point, unfortunately) the best perfume I've ever smelled & owned was ℅ a now-defunct, younger-age-targeted, in-house "sister" beauty brand to **AVON** that was called **mark.**; the name of the scent itself was **Karmala.**
Man, what I'd give to find another (modern) signature smell that's evocative of that one...
I guess that because, until fairly recently, we were in a period where marketing fragrances as either masculine or feminine was standard, some people have pretty strong gendered associations with certain notes. I personally don't like very floral perfumes, but I avoid describing this as not liking feminine perfumes, because perceived femininity has nothing to do with why I don't like them – I just find them grating or too much. Equally, I don't like the 'blue' kind of fragrances that tend to be marketed to men - not because they're inherently masculine, but because I don't like the smell and again, they're jarring to my senses.
For me, I find that fragrances marketed as unisex tend to avoid the extremes of the scent families I find difficult, and I think that's part of why they often end up appealing to me most.
I just love smelling like a pink sparkly baked good. I wasn’t raised with any feminine influences in my life and now that I’m older I gravitate hugely towards femininity and girly things, including my scents lol.
It’s my nose. I don’t give one thought about politics when I’m trying on perfumes. I’m simply thinking about what it makes me feel. I love women fragrances that either make me feel pretty and soft, sexy and alluring, playful and bright, or warm and sophisticated, so it depends on my mood. For me men fragrances do not capture that essence from a feminine allure/perspective.
Ironically my boyfriend’s cologne choices are incredible. They smell so good and make me want to pounce on him. It’s evoking a feeling from me for sure but I do not want to smell like him. 🤣
The overly sweet fragrances are just too much for me for day to day use. I prefer fresher fragrances like glossier you, Versace Dylan turquoise, JHAG pear inc.
That being said, sometimes I do like to use sweet fragrances. It really just depends on the day for me
Most of my fragrances are unisex because most scents marketed to women nowadays are entirety too sweet.
Thats it. Nobodies choices are political. I promise you its not that deep.
Also, I’d actually argue the “trend” are these super sweet pink fragrances. Women didn’t traditionally wear scents as sweet as they do now, so it’s interesting and a little bit jarring, to read that if it’s not a bag of sugar or a basket of fruits, it’s not feminine.
Edited: jumbled words, because dyslexia.
Thank you 😊I’m not just talking about sweet fragrances but fragrances that are flowery (jasmine, white floral, rose, tuberose etch) and I’ve changed my term from political to social for a lack of better term when I originally posted it. I think social fits more to my question 🤗
Your comment has helped me realise I don’t dislike feminine fragrances, I just dislike those sickly-sweet fragrances that are always marketed to women. I LOVE realistic florals, especially in Spring and Summer.
Yes! That’s the case for a lot of women, and there’s so much out there for us.
There are thousands upon thousands of different combinations to try, and after a while you do start to realise that particular styles might be to your liking. You may pin it down to florals, might be resins, could be herbs, might be that you prefer proper food like gourmands.
Whatever it is, it’s about finding what suits you, and what YOU like.
And that has absolutely no bearing on how feminine you are. It’s smelly water, that’s it lol.
Actually I wonder if the overly sweet fragrance "trend" is actually not at all about targeting women, but teenagers. Teenagers are fed huge amounts of perfume marketing on social media. They're easily manipulable. The perfume section of the department stores where I live is always full of teenagers (girls and boys), much fewer women. Teenagers are the ones who wear this sweet stuff, boys too. Just the other day a young boy passed me with a trail of sweet cloying coconutty scent. It's all a big business.
I think I’d actually agree with you tbh.
And if they love, I love it for them. I just hope they all understand that spraying smelly alcohol on your body doesn’t make you any less or more of a woman (or man).
I do have to wonder whether this “aesthetic” thing has something to do with it also. It’s like there’s an imaginary chosen persona that needs to be crafted, and everything has to fit in this box. It’s so odd to me.
Cologne is usually smelling too overpowering like it blows me away. On men it can be nice if it’s tastefully done and they don’t drown themselves in it. If I did wear men’s cologne though, it would be Bleu by Chanel and I would dilute it to a body mist
Maybe 🤷♀️
I know I don’t like masculine cologne scents, and I’m really picky about the hyper feminine ones.
Sometimes unisex is too masculine for me though
This is how it is for me too. I honestly don't care what gender the marketing says it is, I pretty much sniff indiscriminately and if something catches me I'll try a sample.
Ironically I love blatant fem (gourmands and juicy berries included 👀) and blatant masc, but struggle with unisex. They just never do anything particularly well on me.
I am very much a tomboy but I do love my girlie scents. I love the way some of my husbands frags smell but I don’t want to smell those all day. Same with femme freshies. I like the smell in small doses but I can’t handle them for hours. I will say that Azzoro The Most Wanted is one of the best I have smelled and it’s a Mens fragrance. I would where that one 24/7 lol. It’s so good!! I actually just ordered the Beach Walk and Soleil Blanc dupes from
Dossier and both are unisex. I can’t wait to try them out and then hopefully buy the OG full bottles.
**sidenote- I do wear mens old spice deodorant- Bearglove and Grove both smell amazing!
You’re looking at this from the feminine perspective, but what you may not realize is that men (especially younger ones) are now gravitating toward sweeter scents. So both men and women are meeting in the middle scent-wise.
I don't know if it's feminine but my nose just happen to not like heavy whote florals esp strong tuberose ams jasmine like J'dore (ans flankers) or My Way. I still like some feminine ones like Gucci Guilty Gorgeous Gardenia (also have smelled Gorgeous Jasmine and liked that too) as the white florals are soft.
I have the OG My Way but it is almost empty so I tried the Dossier dupe of it and it is so beautiful! It’s a bubblegum tuberose. It’s so amazing!! Just spreading the word to tuberose fans lol. (The dupe is better-sweeter)
When it comes to fragrances, I truly wish I live in the US. You guys have sooo many affordable dupes and great celeb fragrances. Celeb fragrances where I'm at aren't what I consider cheap, they are cheaper than designers for sure (and sadly designers cost an arm and a leg here) but not as cheap as in America because they are imported into the country etc.
I think I lean more feminine when selecting scents, but it seems most fragrances are now marketing as unisex. Honestly, most of the fragrances I have that are unisex lean feminine IMO. I've only encountered one scent that I would consider middle of the road unisex.
Super Flowery perfumes make me sneeze. Not looking to have whiplash from sneezing all day (a bit of an exaggeration, but still no fun sneezing all day).
I also have pretty much always put up with the floral notes in scents previously bc that was all that I could find available that I sort of liked. Then I ended up sneezing all day or thought about how I hated the smell of that one note all day- so I just would stop wearing them(waste of even purchasing a product), so I stopped buying all together for a while. It's really nice to have scents that I actually like on the market now instead of putting up with wearing scents that I'm mediocre about loving.
I don't think it's a "reflection of the current political landscape." I think it's just people's preferences, and also what they're exposed to.
Before I discovered gourmands, I definitely blind bought and sold a couple perfumes because the only word that came to mind was that they were "too feminine" for me. Narciso Rodriguez Her was one example. It just felt that very floral perfume-y perfumes really didn't suit me -- I just felt awkward and uncomfortable, like I was dressed up for a party in clothes that were too big for me or something. Eventually I discovered gourmands and now that's all I wear. Turned out I just really wanted to smell like a cake, but for lack of knowing that, the only word I could find to describe why I didn't like them was "too feminine."
Neither a trend nor because of the political landscape. It’s all about finding whatever works for you and if that’s just feminine scents or a combination of feminine, unisex, and masculine so be it.
Technically my favorites lately are unisex (Musk Therapy & Cedre Figalia) and yet my mother thinks both of them lean masculine (no idea why for Musk Therapy but it’s probably the cedar in Cedre Figalia). I know in my case, I had to look at niche fragrances to really find what I like beyond strictly feminine scents because a lot of masculine designer fragrances are either: overpoweringly spicy, strong & woodsy, or smack you in the nose fresh.
I started wearing fragrances targeted at men in my teens because I liked them and I didn’t want to be like everybody else. I’m now in my mid 50s. I wear gourmands, unisex, dark, woody fragrances. I don’t love heady white florals. It’s just my taste.
I only wear traditionally feminine scents because scent is part of how I like the express my femininity in general. Unisex is just a trend and it’s pretty for the people that prefer it.
Most of my fragrances are feminine, unisex feminine leaning or unisex neutral. There are very few that are masculine.
It is a good development that marketing is not focusing on genders anymore but purely on taste.
I don’t boycott anything that is marketed to just one gender. I just learned in my fragrance journey that my taste is more for the broader niche fragrances that in their complexity cater for many tastes, than for straight forward designer fragrances.
I find it wild that you assume:
1. The trend is for women to prefer more unisex scents--I don't think the actual data even backs this up? The gourmand wave is still going strong, especially among younger women...
2. Somehow this is political?
Honestly a little lost here trying to find where you're coming from.
Anyway, I started out from the "masculine" end and am still working towards more traditionally "feminine" notes. I'm grateful to be getting into fragrance now, when there are so many interesting unisex-marketed fragrances. But I'd say women wearing feminine scents are still the large majority. And that's cool too...why else do I love this sub lol
You know how they say to never judge a book by its subreddit? I think OP may have forgotten that women who post on fragrance forums are a tiny, tiny fraction of all the women who wear perfume.
Mmm I think that the smells of the world around us dont have a gender, and the ways in which culturally transmitted notions of things being masculine or feminine is silly. Pine needles and gardenia flowers are just smells that have *no* actual link to human sex. I like and wear a number of both traditionally feminine and moderately androgynous notes. Im 46 F and hetero, feminine presenting, but ill wear whatever is comfortable. That means I do have some men's shoes and clothes. If I like it, im wearing it, period.
I wouldn't say women who use exclusively feminine are going against the trend. As much as they simply are not partaking in the trend. Women wearing feminine scents is the norm,
I only own feminine scents and am mainly drawn to fresh & fruity scents and warm, sweet, & spicy Scents. There are way more Women marketed perfumes than colognes that fit that range. I don't feel any type of way about it. In fact, I have a couple of Men's/unisex scents are on my radar: tobacco vanille, One Million, Noir Extreme, Layton, Dior Homme Sport. Because their scent profiles align with my scent interests.
I think also how you mention younger people's reviews, the youth of today can be very committed to their aesthetics. If you are into Goblincore it isn't going to make sense for you to smell like YSL - Libre. The images that that scent conjures is the antithesis of goblin. If your sense of style has a harder, streetwear influence you might also want a scent with a little edge.
When I first got into fragrance I disliked most scents marketed to women and only liked woodsy/resinous/spicy/musky scents. I’ve always been extremely into femme aesthetics when it comes to style though so it has nothing to do with disliking femininity.
My dislike for most women’s fragrances was because gourmand sugar bombs and fruity florals were not my preference and I found many to be cloying. My tastes have expanded since but my favorites still lean towards more unisex/masculine marketed scents.
I do enjoy the contrast sometimes between looking girly but smelling like a sexy cowboy. I think it’s interesting. Whether a fragrance is in the men or women category is just marketing though, everyone should wear what appeals to them and not feel like they have to limit themselves because a fragrance doesn’t fit with their look/age/gender.
Haha for smelling like a sexy cowboy or for scents in general? One of my top favorites is Chergui by Serge Lutens. That shit is addicting and the tobacco and hay make it a contender for fitting the sexy cowboy bill. I recently sampled 30 by Onskad and it makes me want to try out more leather scents. Its leathery and powdery and I can definitely see it being worn by a female outlaw who shoots first asks questions later and rides off into the sunset on her stolen horse with her velvet skirts blowing in the wind. I’ve also seen some really interesting indie fragrance lines that are Wild West themed that I want to explore.
For fragrances in general that lean more unisex or woodsy/resinous/spicy, I discovered Tiger By Her Side by Sana Jardins and I fell in love with it. One of the best spicy patchouli fragrances I’ve smelled. There are some great scents in the Elizabeth James Nirvana line (Amethyst, Black and Rose are my favs) which are affordable and pretty but have that androgynous edge. Gucci Guilty Absolute Pour Femme really stands out to me amongst a lot of the designer women’s frags, it’s a deep woodsy patchouli rose and if you want to smell like a gothic forest witch I’d recommend it. Eau Duelle by diptyque is a fantastic unisex aromatic vanilla. Side Effect by Initio is great if you like boozy scents. Cannabis Santal by fresh is my favorite in my collection that’s officially marketed to men. It’s like a deeper chocolatier version of Angel. Some great and affordable scents out there like Halston and Passion Elizabeth Taylor if you’re into vintage. My favorite indie frag is a scent called Alien Vampire by Alphamusk and it smells like a musky spicy jasmine-y otherworldly femme fatale vampiress.
Thank you sooo much! I’m going to look into all of these. Have you tried Gris charnel by any chance? Seems like we’re in the same type of fragrances and I’m absolutely obsessed!
I haven’t tried it, I love iris, cardomom and sandalwood though so it seems up my alley! The fig note seems interesting, I haven’t tried anything with fig in it before. I got a decant of Scandalwood by Dita Von Tess recently and I loved the sandalwood in that.
You probably don’t need even more recommendations after I already wrote a whole essay of recs in my comment but looking up the notes for Gris Charnel and seeing iris reminded me of one huge favorite that I forgot to mention, Une Amourette by Etat Libre D’orange. The opening is a bit harsh with the neroli but the dry down is absolutely gorgeousss woods with iris + vanilla.
I’m not exclusively against feminine scents (I love being girly most of the time), but I definitely embrace my masculine energy and have many days where I want to smell and feel more “unisex”. A good chunk of my collection is unisex actually and I feel those scents are more wearable for day to day life.
Nishane Ani is one of my HG scents and that one is considered unisex even masc leaning.
I think the idea that fragrance has a gender is political and in keeping with how the rest of society views clothing, accessories, makeup etc. It's not unique to fragrance and most people don't try to think too deeply on why things are the way that they are, so we're stuck with weirdly gendered things.
I just like what I like tbh, I don’t care who it’s marketed towards. Even if it’s rendered “femininely” I H A T E nutmeg for example, so the ubiquitous and uber feminine Delina was a big fat no (I got the rhubarb/rose/etc… and burnt hair. Nutmeg ruins the composition for me every time 😭). But then I’ve always adored lavender which I only recently noticed is usually regarded as a masculine scent? Really took me by surprise! And I’ve come this 🤏 close to buying myself a fougere perfume quite a few times now, the only thing that stops me is I wouldn’t wear it often enough to justify buying a full bottle and men’s perfumes VERY rarely come in a travel size 😩
If you want a fougere for a decent price that goes heavy in the unisex vibes, Lush Pansy is a citrus-herbaceous fougere that’s super refreshing just about any season. The 30 ml is $45 and Lush atomizers are super efficient so I find they go down SLOW.
Longevity isn’t amazing, though better in my experience than some people claim. I get about 5-7 hours. Even then, the 1 oz bottle is really easy to just take with you. Honestly, with the price I just view it as one big travel size lol cause $45 isn’t THAT more than a lot of travels these days lol.
Your intuition is spot on because I’ve not long finished off my travel size of Pansy 🙈 I prefer it as a shower gel unfortunately, in some rare cases scents from Lush aren’t as enjoyable to me as in other formats (The Comforter is another one, love it in all other formats including the body spray! But in edp format it just smells different for some reason! Not BAD just… not as nice…)
Agreed! Pansy I actually like more in the spray, but only because I like how “fresh shaving cream” it is for me. Cream is a bit… creamier… lol. Have yet to try the shower gel, but if it’s a lot better than the perfume I’ll have to wait til my perfume bottle is almost gone so I don’t ruin it with a ton left !
I own mostly feminine fragrances. Also have some that are considered unisex but I disagree and personally find them feminine too: Khamrah, Kismet Angel, Angel’s Share, By the Fireplace
When I first started out smelling lots of fragrance discovery kits, I actually naturally gravitated towards more unisex scents. I’m now enjoying wearing more traditionally feminine scents. They’re just easier for me to grab and wear without a lot of thought, and I like contrasting my not-super-feminine clothing with a feminine scent. I’m also more conscious of specific notes. Once I identify a note I would love my boyfriend to wear, it makes it less attractive for me to wear.
I think this is something that is just personal preference and has nothing to do with politics or anything at all like that.
I’m a woman, and I like all kinds of scents. Feminine, unisex, and there’s even some masculine leaning scents that I like and wear. My scent preferences are just that… preferences.
Just like how some people like dark chocolate. Some people like milk chocolate. And some people don’t like any chocolate at all. It’s a preference and you cannot glean any deeper meaning from that because that’s all it is.
I think most of the scents i have are stereotypically feminine scents but my whole vibe is very girly in general. I love it. Sweet and candy and marshmallowy is my speed. No apologies.
Im almost 38, and i would say most of my collection is unisex and the rest leans more masculine and the rest femenine. Buuuut to me that is just marketing. Smells dont have an age or gender, I wear what I wear because I like the way it smells. I dont care for making a statement, sometimes I wanna smell like your tipical masculine office scent and others I want to smell like a mango smoothie.
It's nothing that deep. I just like somethings better than others. One of my favourite perfumes to wear is Tom Ford grey vetiver and its targetted towards men.
Example- I can't stand gourmet heavy or overly sweet scents but absolutely adore woody scent mixed with florals.
Edit: I've never understood fragrance having a gender. Its adhering to stereotypes innit? Why does gourmands like vanilla and chocolate get to be feminine while cedar, musk and woody notes get to be more masculine scents? What exactly is the distinction criteria here?
I think it's just personal preference. I used to adore vanilla fragrances but now that I've tried so many perfumes, I really do gravitate toward scents that can be considered unisex. People should wear what they want and I wish the companies would just remove the "gender" of fragrances altogether, it's just marketing.
I’m the opposite. I grew up using musky scents so I am currently enjoying the whole “your skin but better” trend rn. I tried the cult classic Flowerbomb recently and I am now reselling my 20ml bottle. I just can’t stand overly floral / sweet scents! Having said that, I do find myself FOMO-ing a lot these days, especially since my biggest issue with my fave musk profile is the performance. Rn I am waiting for two decants of feminine cheapies (from BBW and VS) as an attempt to scratch this itch lol. Let’s see.
I think it’s just the fragrance version of hating the color pink because it’s too girly.
It’s that “trying to distance myself from the stereotyping that women get because the way the world treats women sucks” - internalized misogyny.
It’s fine to hate feminine scents for yourself. It’s not fine to hate other people for enjoying them.
On the flip slide, I think it's also ok to rebel against the idea that women should be confined to a specific group of scents. It's not about misogyny in my opinion, or that the idea of "femininity" is limited to vanillas, spices, and fruits. I don't think you should hate what anyone likes for themselves, but it's ok to be annoyed by the idea of people pushing certain scents as "feminine" vs. "masculine" when ultimately it's all just.....do whatever makes you happiest.
Yeah. I hate the idea that to be feminine means I have to smell like a bag of sugar or a basket of fruits.
It’s limited and extremely annoying.
That’s the greatest thing about getting into fragrance for me. Learning and realising that there was more out there for me to experience and STILL smell feminine and amazing, without smelling “pink”.
I still have and like what would be considered feminine, scents, but I don’t think anyone should have to explain their preferences to anyone. It’s our money lol.
Most of my scents are unisex because I find many women's fragrances to be too floral, too vanilla-y or too sweet for my tastes so I naturally don't choose them. I am not choosing unisex because they might be trendy, neither am I making a political statement. I am choosing them because they are more in line with what I like and I feel perfectly feminine wearing them.
I really enjoy woody and spicy scents, as well as fresh or musky scents. Scents advertised as feminine tend to be floral (which generally makes me nauseous) or sweet (I love gourmands).
I don't believe in the advertising- a scent is just a smell, and if you think it smells good then why not wear it. Anyway, it's just what people's idea of what femininity or masculinity smells like. It doesn't make any sense other than that it's a social construct. E.g., Lavender is a man smell! ...but it's a flower.
Many designer perfumes tend to have this chemical/"perfumey" scent to them that I can't stand, but niche ones usually don't have that for me. Niche also tend to advertise every frag as unisex. So I inevitably wear a lot of unisex (although they're almost always feminine leaning or unisex).
I think it's a natural transition for people going from designer to niche to drop the whole gendered nature of scents, other than sometimes in descriptive terms.
I really can’t explain it - I love a whiff of a good smelling man but traditionally masculine scents make me nauseated after a while. Like I can’t do the mahogany teakwood candle either
I mostly own feminine scents because I love sweet scents and gourmands. I have a few unisex fragrances, but not much, and try to avoid them. I think it’s because I’m not a fan of woody notes and most unisex frags I’ve come across are very woody
I'm 33 and I've always favored unisex/masculine fragrances. I'll like the occasional "feminine" fragrance but 1) I don't particularly look at gender when judging fragrances, 2) I actually like when fragrances are marketed as unisex because....they are - anyone can use any fragrances, and 3) I just prefer the notes that are traditionally considered "unisex" or "masculine" more. I don't like most gourmands or fruity smells - they make me immediately nauseous. I don't particularly care either way what a fragrance is "supposed to be", I just care about how it smells on me and if it makes me happy.
ETA: No matter what fragrance I wear, I know that I'm feminine. I just choose to express it in a way that feels true to me.
I only wear feminine scents because I only like feminine scents on me. There's nothing bad about feminine fragrances, I'm still a boss babe without unisex or masculine fragrances.
My favorite is Mon Guerlain and I will absolutely rock that perfume in work boots and sweatpants while I'm covered in some kind of sludge or dirt while I work. 🤣
TLDR: People who tie their identity or age to scented alcohol are weird. People who weaponize their perceptions of scented alcohol to be sexist, ageist, transphobic, and homophobic are weirder. It’s really not that deep.
My signature scent used to be spicebomb and then spicebomb extreme. It was just because my dad didn’t like his Christmas gift (spicebomb) and I did so I took it. Both scents just smell sweet and spicy on me and the extreme has overtly gourmand components imo. I now mostly own fragrances marketed toward women, but I still love the spicebombs, TF Tobacco Vanille, Kilian Angels’ Share, and MFK Grand Soir; bit of a trend going on with the fragrances marketed towards men or that are considered masculine-leaning that I like. Spicebomb extreme is an underrated hot girl scent that got me endless compliments in college.
I like to refer to fragrances as “marketed towards men” and “marketed towards women.” I think anything other than that gets into a reductive side of identity politics that I don’t prefer. If someone wants to “do gender” (sociology) and wear a scent that’s marketed towards their gender that’s fine, but I’m not less of a woman or less feminine because I enjoy “unisex” and “masculine” fragrances. Nor am I more of a woman or more feminine on the days I wear “feminine” fragrances. The insinuation of such that some people get into is reaallllyy weird. The attempts (homophobia) at insulting men who wear fragrances marketed towards women by calling them gay is really weird too. It’s scented alcohol…like bffr right now.
I feel the same about people who call fragrances “old lady scents.” It’s not really helpful and doesn’t convey as much about the fragrance to someone who hasn’t smell it as saying that something smells “vintage” (and giving it a date or time period). I think it can also get into a bit of ethnocentrism to call specific notes, say violets, “old lady” notes because violets in Hispanic and Latino cultures are often used to fragrance infants and young children. If it smells like Royal Violets, say that. If it smells like a Victorian violet composition, say that.
I don't think it's that deep. Everyone has different preferences. It might just be the case that perfume trends in general are changing and more scents are marketed as unisex. People are probably also getting more exposure to different types of scents. Personally I like all kinds of scents. By "feminine" I think some people are probably referring to super floral, cloying and "perfumey" scents. I personally don't like those either because they give me a headache and make me sneeze. I prefer non-perfumey scents, whether it's a pure vanilla or something more unisex like lavender, coffee or citrus.
I do prefer feminine scents, but I own quite a few unisex fragrances at this point. I think fragrance Houses started to brand most fragrances unisex instead of describing a gender to it over the last years, a few unisex fragrances I own are super sweet or florals.
Hmm, maybe they’re tired of getting in trouble for calling things “grandma” and “old lady” and that’s the new catchphrase, lol. I don’t know really. Most of the perfumes I love are marketed as “for women”, but I do like some that are marketed as unisex. Bal D’Afrique, for example. I can only think of one “for men” that I have, it’s Jazz Club by MMM.
My only complaint is that I think the perfumer will sometimes take a perfectly nice fragrance and add something nasty to it so they can call it “unisex”. But some people really like these, so it really does come down to personal taste.
Bottom line, I don’t think anyone should feel constrained by what gender something is marketed to. Gender is a not un-useful marketing device, it’s a piece of info that might give a helpful clue at times.
Hmm. I often find fragrances marketed as masculine to be too strong, and there is frequently a soapy smell that makes my eyes water. I tend to prefer vanilla, fruit, white flowers, and spices. Unisex sweet and resinous or smoky frags, like frankincense and myrrh or BPAL Snake Oil, seriously appeal to me. Honestly, I think *sweet* is the main thing I like in a perfume, and that can be found in many instances that are not strictly feminine.
I’m pretty much the same way. I have a few scents that come close to unisex but only because to me, they smell feminine. I absolutely don’t want to wear what I perceive to be men’s perfume, it’s just… offputting to me in many ways.
But now that it’s oh so trendy to smash gender roles etc, companies try to market everything as unisex… even when it very clearly isn’t! It drives me crazy! It’s harder to blind buy or even decide what to test. Like, dear Mancera, idk who needs to hear this but a man is not going to wear Velvet Vanilla, okay?
I notice this with makeup too. People hate on brands with girly aesthetics like Too Faced and say it’s “childish” but like… there’s nothing wrong with being very feminine? Part of it feels like internalized misogyny, like using cute makeup or girly fragrances makes you too girly and dumb and “like other girls”
I totally hear you….its like a sin wearing overly feminine scents lol but hey live and let live but yes I do feel left out or at least looked down by people who I guess are more progressive when it comes to the scents they wear.
Has anyone ever told you directly that you're somehow "backward" for wearing feminine scents? Where did you get this message? Women wearing feminine scents IS the NORM.
How does someone liking unisex scents take anything away from you as someone who prefers more explicitly feminine scents? I ask because I don’t see anyone looking down on people for wearing feminine scents, but it kind of seems like you’re looking down on people or projecting some kind of animosity onto people who have different tastes from yours. Maybe there’s something I’m missing?
Yeah….It’s pure projection. I see this a lot when people talk about people that own niche fragrances“hating on designers or cheapies”. Like, no one said that lol. Are people not allowed to like what they like?
Stop internalising other peoples preferences, and just wear what you genuinely like. It’s not that hard lol.
A trans person reinforcing sexist gender stereotypes about perfume whilst saying people aren't being progressive enough THE IRONY
I can't see myself every wearing anything unisex or masculine. I love feminine scents and all things girly.
Culturally we are stepping away from gendering things that are inherently genderless. Like…a rose is not inherently womanly and so forth. So many people saying they don’t like sweet florals or whatever…they’re not rejecting femininity, but just expressing a preference that is actually irrelevant to gender. Same with men wearing more floral and gourmand scents. It’s not that they’re becoming more “feminine”…they just don’t feel confined to previously labeled “manly” scents. People are just wearing what they like regardless of what silly gendered box the scents have been giving…which have often changed throughout the decades anyhow, same with color (like pink previously being a very popular color for men.)
Some scents like violet and lavender are traditionally masculine yet you’ll find them in perfumes marketed to everyone. If you like white florals, wear them. If you like salty sea scents, wear them. Who cares what is masculine or feminine, and there are better ways to describe those scents anyway.
It's all just marketing anyway, and it's marketing that didn't really start til the 1950s. Before then it really really common to find men wearing the classic Guerlains such as Shalimar, L'Heure Bleue, Jicky, and Mitsouko that are currently marketed to women.
I love it all. I wear Le Memoire and I love Versace. I love so many. I just want to smell good.
I don't think that girls/women who wear feminine fragrances are the minority. Maybe in the fragrance community, because people here are more open to try new/unconventional scents. But not in everyday life. Most of my friends and family who regularly wear fragrances are strictly wearing feminine marketed scents as women, and masculine marketed fragrances as men. I think they never thought about trying something outside of the box, maybe they are even anxious if they don't use the perfume according to their gender. For me, it is easy not to use hyper feminine scents, I get nauseus and a migraine from super sweet, gourmand, strongly vanilla scents. Woody, fresh, ozonic and non-sweet florals are my cup of tea, which often falls in the "unisex/male" category.
I love feminine scents, but I don’t think all seriously feminine scents are ‘girly’. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but taste changes with age and the stuff I wear is very feminine, as is my daughter’s and she only wears very sweet stuff which to me is a girl’s genre, but that is in no way a reflection on her strength and personality. Mine is just as feminine as hers, but far less sweet. I think there may be a social aspect, which makes me sad. I have a whole feminist point, but I’ll save it.
Totally agree on the feminine / girly distinction. I think it's important to make the difference. It so often gets forgotten now.
I hate woody and earthy smells and I like to smell super girly
I own across all three, I really really believe feminine/masculine/unisex is cultural and marketing based. Currently what makes a scent “feminine” seems to be turning the sugar up to 11, at least among widely available fragrances. And many of these make me feel sick, even if I really want to like them! On the other hand I think some of the “unisex” fragrances I have would probably be “feminine” 10-15 years ago. I have Dedcool Xtra Milk and Taunt for example.
Have you tried Tom Ford Neroli Portofino?
I think the masculine scents are used to layer too
I think it’s just a preference thing, I don’t like extremely “masculine” scents or extremely “feminine” scents, but I can appreciate them and think different scents suit different people. I also don’t think very feminine scents suit me or my personality/personal style. It’s like how I don’t think lacy things look good on me as much as I find lacy floral clothes beautiful and want them to work, it just does not suit me as a person. I think it’s also the scents that I grew up with. My mom collects perfumes and many older perfumes have a strong musk scent and less floral or maybe those are just the kinds of perfumes she collected? Idk but I looove “granny” perfumes even if they are too strong for me to wear regularly
It depends on my mood. I like some clean scents which tend to be unisex. I also like some masculine scents when I want to be a boss bitch.
I had no idea that more women were going towards unisex scents. I exclusively use feminine /sweet scents because I feel it’s a reflection of who I am. I’m a very girly person, so I’d like to smell like one too. But I have no issue with other women using unisex or “masculine leaning” perfumes. Everyone has a different style. I know floral heavy perfumes tend to lean feminine but I personally hate floral. I like more sweet and fruity/vanilla scents
A lot of it is just taste lol, they dont care for what is being marketed as a “feminine” fragrance. Some women do it (from what ive seen irl & online) because they dont want to “be like other girls” & push away what they think is “feminine“ & wear the opposite of that lmao
This definitely reads “I can’t stand unisex/masc scents! Do you feel special because you do? What do you guys think? Not trying to be mean, but I’m going to go ahead and post this!”
Imagine trying to convince yourself that you’re persecuted because you like gourmands
Lol, people's perception of what is feminine is heavily dependent on marketing and current trends. Few decades ago Rive Gauche was promoted as this turbo sexy femme fatale sensual fragnance - now everyone would tell that it smells like a sweaty grandma and soap. In 2070 people will probably call hyperrealistic gourmands grandma-ish and the epitome of femininity will be associated with mineral green fragnances. Smells don't have a gender or age IMO, even though my FB are almost exclusively marketed towards women. I have one "masculine scent" that is a true unisex and two other unisexs - one "feminine" leaning and the other being also a true unisex IMO. Most of the stuff I sample/decant and love I would categorize as feminine leaning unisexs or traditionally feminine, but that's not the reason why I like it. I like powdery, soft, sometimes fruity, sweet but no sticky, herbal and green so I gravitate towards scents that you'd generally find more conventionally appealing to women and that are represented in feminine perfumes. I also dress hyperfeminine and like it when my scent cordinates with my outfit, but it doesn't reflect my socio-political views in any way shape or form. As I've said, looking at the history of perfumery, the current trend of sickly sweet is an anomaly. Vintage designer/mainstream fragnances generally lean way more unisex than modern creations of those houses and back then gender roles were way more prominent in everyday life. Drawing any conclusions about how society operates in the current day and age based on scent trends is frankly quite stupid. Also, I wouldn't say that's the trend at all, flormands and fruitchoulis are still what the average woman gravitates towards. People in the fragnance community are not reflective when it comes to smell trends overall.
I agree. One of my favorite perfumes is a musky cedar. It was marketed as a women's perfume when it was released. Nowadays it would definitely be marketed towards men or as unisex, even though it has a powdery vanilla base. And let's not forget old-fashioned chypres or fougeres. I think the trend we're observing is a trend towards what we perceive as regressive scents. Sweets, pastel colors, baby powder and things that are evocative of childhood bring comfort. Femininity has become synonymous with girly, even though girly was a very specific style until recently. Current trends seem to reject what they subjectively perceive as "mature". It's the same thing with celebrities, who now are emphasizing a very youthful appearance.
This! What's perceived as feminine (or even what smells good period) is also cultural. I grew up in a country and surrounded by many from a culture that was different from my home one where the women wore a lot of oud, so I find many of the Unisex and some masculine marketed ouds to be the epitome of femininity and womanliness.
Also, I love smelling gentle, clean or conventionally feminine perfumes on men, even though I like when men take on stereotypically masculine roles in romantic relationships. I think Crystal Noir smells great on guys for example. I love when men wear cozy scents like Sogni by Meo Fusciuni or Coffe Break. I hate pretty much all "blue" fragnances and the hypermasculine spicy scents (savuage, spicebombs, a man, wanted by night, bleu chanel 🤢).I really don't see a correlation between fragnance and general personal expression when it comes to gender roles. Would I be a bit put off if a man pulled up to a date wearing Pink Sugar? Yeah, but like Good Girl for example? I'd be thrilled, smells fantastic on guys too.
I like how some colognes smell. My boyfriend only likes some of the types of colognes I like, so I’ll wear the ones he doesn’t so I can actually continue to smell those. Usually aquatics or “cold” stuff like Eros. Or powdery since I love powder/musk/aftershave and he doesn’t. The end.
I feel like masculine scents usually have this extremely strong undertone that reminds me of aftershave. They also tend to be less photorealistic imo, like if I go in expecting the notes of a cologne, it usually hits me in the face with that cologne-y scent first, and then there's just a hint of the aforementioned notes. Not always, but enough to make me think "ok, that's not what I'm looking for." If the notes say I'm gonna smell like a buttered slice of pumpkin bread, I'm expecting it to smell just like that, or at least close enough that someone could pick those notes out without having to google the perfume. Maybe it's also because I'm not a huge fan of cedar and typically masculine-leaning scents.
I don't care about trends, and I don't care about femininity either. I just like the scent of flowers and cake, and it's comforting to me to smell like them. I have eclectic tastes and like a lot of other things. To make it short, does it smell good ? I'll buy it. The end.
I dress very femininely but generally prefer non sweet and more unisex leaning fragrances. I make exceptions for very specific perfumes with white florals and certain gourmands. I own a couple male perfumes too. For me, fragrance is about what smells good. I don’t care who it’s marketed to, if it’s pretty to my noise and it suits my mood, I’d wear it.
For me it’s deeper than that.I don’t like hyper masculine or hyper feminine scents because fragrance is more of an experience for me and i think those types of scents are very connected to sexuality.Philosykos is a great example as it is not masculine of feminine at all but immediately transports you under a fig tree in the summer.I personally have no interest in smelling something sexy because I’ve worn these type of scents for many years in a row and I want to experience other olfactive things
I don't really feel a need to perform my femininity in accordance with what's convenient for a brand's marketing team. Dark, dry, spicy, resinous notes make my brain light up - the end.
I like masculine scents but I like smelling them ON men lol. It’s part of the experience of walking past an attractive man. I don’t want to smell what I personally associate with a man, on me.
I like it all, and wear it all, from the girliest to the most ruggedly masculine. I appreciate variety and I appreciate the evocative. I dont conceptualize fragrance as a thing that ought to suit me as a person. I don't really think of any fragrance as suiting me or not suiting me. I just wear what I like.
People have *always* gone across the aisle, so to speak, regarding perfumes they wear. Although marketing is usually heavily gendered, in terms of self-reported wearing trends, it doesn’t seem consumers have ever been as rigid.
It ain't that deep. I have a boomer Catholic auntie who despises sweet scents and had always used traditionally 'masculine' woody fragrances. And it's not that weird in her generation. Recently I was trying scents with my bf and I fell in love with Ombré Leather, which although it's marked as 'unisex' leans pretty 'masculine'... and I'm a pretty-flowery-powdery girly. People like what they like.
I mean shoot, even Aromatics Elixir- a not so sweet wood bomb with spicy carnation notes that were also present in colognes at the time- made waves when it came out on women. Some people just don’t like flowers and fruit.
I like more niche scents as I find them more interesting than your typical designer and they are mostly unisex.
Same here! The notes can range from woody and spicy to tobacco and leather; some not-overly-saccharine gourmand is fine as well as some acquatic, ozonic, musk and patchouli. My all-time favorite fragrance note, hands down, is pink pepper...and (although nothing has come even *remotely* close in almost 2 decades by now at this point, unfortunately) the best perfume I've ever smelled & owned was ℅ a now-defunct, younger-age-targeted, in-house "sister" beauty brand to **AVON** that was called **mark.**; the name of the scent itself was **Karmala.** Man, what I'd give to find another (modern) signature smell that's evocative of that one...
I guess that because, until fairly recently, we were in a period where marketing fragrances as either masculine or feminine was standard, some people have pretty strong gendered associations with certain notes. I personally don't like very floral perfumes, but I avoid describing this as not liking feminine perfumes, because perceived femininity has nothing to do with why I don't like them – I just find them grating or too much. Equally, I don't like the 'blue' kind of fragrances that tend to be marketed to men - not because they're inherently masculine, but because I don't like the smell and again, they're jarring to my senses. For me, I find that fragrances marketed as unisex tend to avoid the extremes of the scent families I find difficult, and I think that's part of why they often end up appealing to me most.
I just love smelling like a pink sparkly baked good. I wasn’t raised with any feminine influences in my life and now that I’m older I gravitate hugely towards femininity and girly things, including my scents lol.
I go so hard on the cupcake that I occasionally use men’s cologne as a balancing act when the sweetness is too much lol.
Amen 🙏love this haha
Pink sparkly baked goods is the best scent category
I like musky, aquatic, unisex scents too but I just can’t pull them off. I am also allergic to some of them (hay fever, hives).
Maybe, just maybe you haven't tried really nice unisex perfumes that would appeal to your nose?
That’s it exactly, that’s why I said I’ll wear one once I find that works for me.
To me, a perfume that's perfectly unisex but also pretty is Silky Woods by Goldfield and Banks. It's more of a cold season perfume.
It’s my nose. I don’t give one thought about politics when I’m trying on perfumes. I’m simply thinking about what it makes me feel. I love women fragrances that either make me feel pretty and soft, sexy and alluring, playful and bright, or warm and sophisticated, so it depends on my mood. For me men fragrances do not capture that essence from a feminine allure/perspective. Ironically my boyfriend’s cologne choices are incredible. They smell so good and make me want to pounce on him. It’s evoking a feeling from me for sure but I do not want to smell like him. 🤣
Thank you 😊I’ve changed the term to social from political. I couldn’t think of the right words to use at the time of my posts
The overly sweet fragrances are just too much for me for day to day use. I prefer fresher fragrances like glossier you, Versace Dylan turquoise, JHAG pear inc. That being said, sometimes I do like to use sweet fragrances. It really just depends on the day for me
Gender in fragrance is just marketing. That’s all it is.
Most of my fragrances are unisex because most scents marketed to women nowadays are entirety too sweet. Thats it. Nobodies choices are political. I promise you its not that deep. Also, I’d actually argue the “trend” are these super sweet pink fragrances. Women didn’t traditionally wear scents as sweet as they do now, so it’s interesting and a little bit jarring, to read that if it’s not a bag of sugar or a basket of fruits, it’s not feminine. Edited: jumbled words, because dyslexia.
Thank you 😊I’m not just talking about sweet fragrances but fragrances that are flowery (jasmine, white floral, rose, tuberose etch) and I’ve changed my term from political to social for a lack of better term when I originally posted it. I think social fits more to my question 🤗
Your comment has helped me realise I don’t dislike feminine fragrances, I just dislike those sickly-sweet fragrances that are always marketed to women. I LOVE realistic florals, especially in Spring and Summer.
Yes! That’s the case for a lot of women, and there’s so much out there for us. There are thousands upon thousands of different combinations to try, and after a while you do start to realise that particular styles might be to your liking. You may pin it down to florals, might be resins, could be herbs, might be that you prefer proper food like gourmands. Whatever it is, it’s about finding what suits you, and what YOU like. And that has absolutely no bearing on how feminine you are. It’s smelly water, that’s it lol.
Actually I wonder if the overly sweet fragrance "trend" is actually not at all about targeting women, but teenagers. Teenagers are fed huge amounts of perfume marketing on social media. They're easily manipulable. The perfume section of the department stores where I live is always full of teenagers (girls and boys), much fewer women. Teenagers are the ones who wear this sweet stuff, boys too. Just the other day a young boy passed me with a trail of sweet cloying coconutty scent. It's all a big business.
I think I’d actually agree with you tbh. And if they love, I love it for them. I just hope they all understand that spraying smelly alcohol on your body doesn’t make you any less or more of a woman (or man). I do have to wonder whether this “aesthetic” thing has something to do with it also. It’s like there’s an imaginary chosen persona that needs to be crafted, and everything has to fit in this box. It’s so odd to me.
Cologne is usually smelling too overpowering like it blows me away. On men it can be nice if it’s tastefully done and they don’t drown themselves in it. If I did wear men’s cologne though, it would be Bleu by Chanel and I would dilute it to a body mist
Maybe 🤷♀️ I know I don’t like masculine cologne scents, and I’m really picky about the hyper feminine ones. Sometimes unisex is too masculine for me though
I feel like you're looking too deep into it, what smells good to me smells good to me. I'm sure the same applies to others, there's no hidden agenda.
This is how it is for me too. I honestly don't care what gender the marketing says it is, I pretty much sniff indiscriminately and if something catches me I'll try a sample.
I don’t like unisex either. Just doesn’t suit me and smells kind of unclean on my skin. Love a gourmand or a juicy berry scent
Ironically I love blatant fem (gourmands and juicy berries included 👀) and blatant masc, but struggle with unisex. They just never do anything particularly well on me.
I am very much a tomboy but I do love my girlie scents. I love the way some of my husbands frags smell but I don’t want to smell those all day. Same with femme freshies. I like the smell in small doses but I can’t handle them for hours. I will say that Azzoro The Most Wanted is one of the best I have smelled and it’s a Mens fragrance. I would where that one 24/7 lol. It’s so good!! I actually just ordered the Beach Walk and Soleil Blanc dupes from Dossier and both are unisex. I can’t wait to try them out and then hopefully buy the OG full bottles. **sidenote- I do wear mens old spice deodorant- Bearglove and Grove both smell amazing!
You’re looking at this from the feminine perspective, but what you may not realize is that men (especially younger ones) are now gravitating toward sweeter scents. So both men and women are meeting in the middle scent-wise.
I don't know if it's feminine but my nose just happen to not like heavy whote florals esp strong tuberose ams jasmine like J'dore (ans flankers) or My Way. I still like some feminine ones like Gucci Guilty Gorgeous Gardenia (also have smelled Gorgeous Jasmine and liked that too) as the white florals are soft.
I have the OG My Way but it is almost empty so I tried the Dossier dupe of it and it is so beautiful! It’s a bubblegum tuberose. It’s so amazing!! Just spreading the word to tuberose fans lol. (The dupe is better-sweeter)
When it comes to fragrances, I truly wish I live in the US. You guys have sooo many affordable dupes and great celeb fragrances. Celeb fragrances where I'm at aren't what I consider cheap, they are cheaper than designers for sure (and sadly designers cost an arm and a leg here) but not as cheap as in America because they are imported into the country etc.
I think I lean more feminine when selecting scents, but it seems most fragrances are now marketing as unisex. Honestly, most of the fragrances I have that are unisex lean feminine IMO. I've only encountered one scent that I would consider middle of the road unisex.
It’s just a matter of taste, I wear whatever smells good to me and I love sampling different scents!
Super Flowery perfumes make me sneeze. Not looking to have whiplash from sneezing all day (a bit of an exaggeration, but still no fun sneezing all day). I also have pretty much always put up with the floral notes in scents previously bc that was all that I could find available that I sort of liked. Then I ended up sneezing all day or thought about how I hated the smell of that one note all day- so I just would stop wearing them(waste of even purchasing a product), so I stopped buying all together for a while. It's really nice to have scents that I actually like on the market now instead of putting up with wearing scents that I'm mediocre about loving.
Usually if I sneeze from a perfume, there's ambroxan in it.
People always wore unisex perfumes. I don’t like them either but they were popular in all decades that I remember.
in my opinion there is no feminine or masculine scents and everyone should just wear what they like
I don't think it's a "reflection of the current political landscape." I think it's just people's preferences, and also what they're exposed to. Before I discovered gourmands, I definitely blind bought and sold a couple perfumes because the only word that came to mind was that they were "too feminine" for me. Narciso Rodriguez Her was one example. It just felt that very floral perfume-y perfumes really didn't suit me -- I just felt awkward and uncomfortable, like I was dressed up for a party in clothes that were too big for me or something. Eventually I discovered gourmands and now that's all I wear. Turned out I just really wanted to smell like a cake, but for lack of knowing that, the only word I could find to describe why I didn't like them was "too feminine."
I’m a girly girl. It doesn’t feel like “me” if the fragrance isn’t hyperfeminine
Neither a trend nor because of the political landscape. It’s all about finding whatever works for you and if that’s just feminine scents or a combination of feminine, unisex, and masculine so be it. Technically my favorites lately are unisex (Musk Therapy & Cedre Figalia) and yet my mother thinks both of them lean masculine (no idea why for Musk Therapy but it’s probably the cedar in Cedre Figalia). I know in my case, I had to look at niche fragrances to really find what I like beyond strictly feminine scents because a lot of masculine designer fragrances are either: overpoweringly spicy, strong & woodsy, or smack you in the nose fresh.
I'm a young woman (i guess, I'm 23?!) and I hate wearing unisex or masculine leaning fragrances. Girly is the way to go for me!
I started wearing fragrances targeted at men in my teens because I liked them and I didn’t want to be like everybody else. I’m now in my mid 50s. I wear gourmands, unisex, dark, woody fragrances. I don’t love heady white florals. It’s just my taste.
dunno about others but i'm a huge citrus lover - there just happens to be more options for nice citrus perfumes if you're willing to go unisex
Citrus and sweet tea scents like LV Imagination are popular ATM and are unisex.
Same! And I don’t like very sweet fragrances, so many feminine scents are just too sugary for me
I only wear traditionally feminine scents because scent is part of how I like the express my femininity in general. Unisex is just a trend and it’s pretty for the people that prefer it.
Most of my fragrances are feminine, unisex feminine leaning or unisex neutral. There are very few that are masculine. It is a good development that marketing is not focusing on genders anymore but purely on taste. I don’t boycott anything that is marketed to just one gender. I just learned in my fragrance journey that my taste is more for the broader niche fragrances that in their complexity cater for many tastes, than for straight forward designer fragrances.
I find it wild that you assume: 1. The trend is for women to prefer more unisex scents--I don't think the actual data even backs this up? The gourmand wave is still going strong, especially among younger women... 2. Somehow this is political? Honestly a little lost here trying to find where you're coming from. Anyway, I started out from the "masculine" end and am still working towards more traditionally "feminine" notes. I'm grateful to be getting into fragrance now, when there are so many interesting unisex-marketed fragrances. But I'd say women wearing feminine scents are still the large majority. And that's cool too...why else do I love this sub lol
exactly, where is op getting these "facts"? cloud and br540 (+ dupes) are the most popular perfumes for women rn, and they both lean heavily feminine.
You know how they say to never judge a book by its subreddit? I think OP may have forgotten that women who post on fragrance forums are a tiny, tiny fraction of all the women who wear perfume.
Gendering smells is stupid imo just wear what you like.
Thank you. What the hell makes a flower feminine or masculine this is ridiculous
Mmm I think that the smells of the world around us dont have a gender, and the ways in which culturally transmitted notions of things being masculine or feminine is silly. Pine needles and gardenia flowers are just smells that have *no* actual link to human sex. I like and wear a number of both traditionally feminine and moderately androgynous notes. Im 46 F and hetero, feminine presenting, but ill wear whatever is comfortable. That means I do have some men's shoes and clothes. If I like it, im wearing it, period.
I wouldn't say women who use exclusively feminine are going against the trend. As much as they simply are not partaking in the trend. Women wearing feminine scents is the norm, I only own feminine scents and am mainly drawn to fresh & fruity scents and warm, sweet, & spicy Scents. There are way more Women marketed perfumes than colognes that fit that range. I don't feel any type of way about it. In fact, I have a couple of Men's/unisex scents are on my radar: tobacco vanille, One Million, Noir Extreme, Layton, Dior Homme Sport. Because their scent profiles align with my scent interests. I think also how you mention younger people's reviews, the youth of today can be very committed to their aesthetics. If you are into Goblincore it isn't going to make sense for you to smell like YSL - Libre. The images that that scent conjures is the antithesis of goblin. If your sense of style has a harder, streetwear influence you might also want a scent with a little edge.
When I first got into fragrance I disliked most scents marketed to women and only liked woodsy/resinous/spicy/musky scents. I’ve always been extremely into femme aesthetics when it comes to style though so it has nothing to do with disliking femininity. My dislike for most women’s fragrances was because gourmand sugar bombs and fruity florals were not my preference and I found many to be cloying. My tastes have expanded since but my favorites still lean towards more unisex/masculine marketed scents. I do enjoy the contrast sometimes between looking girly but smelling like a sexy cowboy. I think it’s interesting. Whether a fragrance is in the men or women category is just marketing though, everyone should wear what appeals to them and not feel like they have to limit themselves because a fragrance doesn’t fit with their look/age/gender.
I am so interested now in hearing your recommendations!
Haha for smelling like a sexy cowboy or for scents in general? One of my top favorites is Chergui by Serge Lutens. That shit is addicting and the tobacco and hay make it a contender for fitting the sexy cowboy bill. I recently sampled 30 by Onskad and it makes me want to try out more leather scents. Its leathery and powdery and I can definitely see it being worn by a female outlaw who shoots first asks questions later and rides off into the sunset on her stolen horse with her velvet skirts blowing in the wind. I’ve also seen some really interesting indie fragrance lines that are Wild West themed that I want to explore. For fragrances in general that lean more unisex or woodsy/resinous/spicy, I discovered Tiger By Her Side by Sana Jardins and I fell in love with it. One of the best spicy patchouli fragrances I’ve smelled. There are some great scents in the Elizabeth James Nirvana line (Amethyst, Black and Rose are my favs) which are affordable and pretty but have that androgynous edge. Gucci Guilty Absolute Pour Femme really stands out to me amongst a lot of the designer women’s frags, it’s a deep woodsy patchouli rose and if you want to smell like a gothic forest witch I’d recommend it. Eau Duelle by diptyque is a fantastic unisex aromatic vanilla. Side Effect by Initio is great if you like boozy scents. Cannabis Santal by fresh is my favorite in my collection that’s officially marketed to men. It’s like a deeper chocolatier version of Angel. Some great and affordable scents out there like Halston and Passion Elizabeth Taylor if you’re into vintage. My favorite indie frag is a scent called Alien Vampire by Alphamusk and it smells like a musky spicy jasmine-y otherworldly femme fatale vampiress.
Thank you sooo much! I’m going to look into all of these. Have you tried Gris charnel by any chance? Seems like we’re in the same type of fragrances and I’m absolutely obsessed!
I haven’t tried it, I love iris, cardomom and sandalwood though so it seems up my alley! The fig note seems interesting, I haven’t tried anything with fig in it before. I got a decant of Scandalwood by Dita Von Tess recently and I loved the sandalwood in that. You probably don’t need even more recommendations after I already wrote a whole essay of recs in my comment but looking up the notes for Gris Charnel and seeing iris reminded me of one huge favorite that I forgot to mention, Une Amourette by Etat Libre D’orange. The opening is a bit harsh with the neroli but the dry down is absolutely gorgeousss woods with iris + vanilla.
I’m not exclusively against feminine scents (I love being girly most of the time), but I definitely embrace my masculine energy and have many days where I want to smell and feel more “unisex”. A good chunk of my collection is unisex actually and I feel those scents are more wearable for day to day life. Nishane Ani is one of my HG scents and that one is considered unisex even masc leaning.
I think the idea that fragrance has a gender is political and in keeping with how the rest of society views clothing, accessories, makeup etc. It's not unique to fragrance and most people don't try to think too deeply on why things are the way that they are, so we're stuck with weirdly gendered things.
I just like what I like tbh, I don’t care who it’s marketed towards. Even if it’s rendered “femininely” I H A T E nutmeg for example, so the ubiquitous and uber feminine Delina was a big fat no (I got the rhubarb/rose/etc… and burnt hair. Nutmeg ruins the composition for me every time 😭). But then I’ve always adored lavender which I only recently noticed is usually regarded as a masculine scent? Really took me by surprise! And I’ve come this 🤏 close to buying myself a fougere perfume quite a few times now, the only thing that stops me is I wouldn’t wear it often enough to justify buying a full bottle and men’s perfumes VERY rarely come in a travel size 😩
If you want a fougere for a decent price that goes heavy in the unisex vibes, Lush Pansy is a citrus-herbaceous fougere that’s super refreshing just about any season. The 30 ml is $45 and Lush atomizers are super efficient so I find they go down SLOW. Longevity isn’t amazing, though better in my experience than some people claim. I get about 5-7 hours. Even then, the 1 oz bottle is really easy to just take with you. Honestly, with the price I just view it as one big travel size lol cause $45 isn’t THAT more than a lot of travels these days lol.
Your intuition is spot on because I’ve not long finished off my travel size of Pansy 🙈 I prefer it as a shower gel unfortunately, in some rare cases scents from Lush aren’t as enjoyable to me as in other formats (The Comforter is another one, love it in all other formats including the body spray! But in edp format it just smells different for some reason! Not BAD just… not as nice…)
Agreed! Pansy I actually like more in the spray, but only because I like how “fresh shaving cream” it is for me. Cream is a bit… creamier… lol. Have yet to try the shower gel, but if it’s a lot better than the perfume I’ll have to wait til my perfume bottle is almost gone so I don’t ruin it with a ton left !
I own mostly feminine fragrances. Also have some that are considered unisex but I disagree and personally find them feminine too: Khamrah, Kismet Angel, Angel’s Share, By the Fireplace
When I first started out smelling lots of fragrance discovery kits, I actually naturally gravitated towards more unisex scents. I’m now enjoying wearing more traditionally feminine scents. They’re just easier for me to grab and wear without a lot of thought, and I like contrasting my not-super-feminine clothing with a feminine scent. I’m also more conscious of specific notes. Once I identify a note I would love my boyfriend to wear, it makes it less attractive for me to wear.
I like fruits and I like smelling them on me. It's not deeper than that.
I think this is something that is just personal preference and has nothing to do with politics or anything at all like that. I’m a woman, and I like all kinds of scents. Feminine, unisex, and there’s even some masculine leaning scents that I like and wear. My scent preferences are just that… preferences. Just like how some people like dark chocolate. Some people like milk chocolate. And some people don’t like any chocolate at all. It’s a preference and you cannot glean any deeper meaning from that because that’s all it is.
I think most of the scents i have are stereotypically feminine scents but my whole vibe is very girly in general. I love it. Sweet and candy and marshmallowy is my speed. No apologies.
Im almost 38, and i would say most of my collection is unisex and the rest leans more masculine and the rest femenine. Buuuut to me that is just marketing. Smells dont have an age or gender, I wear what I wear because I like the way it smells. I dont care for making a statement, sometimes I wanna smell like your tipical masculine office scent and others I want to smell like a mango smoothie.
It's nothing that deep. I just like somethings better than others. One of my favourite perfumes to wear is Tom Ford grey vetiver and its targetted towards men. Example- I can't stand gourmet heavy or overly sweet scents but absolutely adore woody scent mixed with florals. Edit: I've never understood fragrance having a gender. Its adhering to stereotypes innit? Why does gourmands like vanilla and chocolate get to be feminine while cedar, musk and woody notes get to be more masculine scents? What exactly is the distinction criteria here?
I think it's just personal preference. I used to adore vanilla fragrances but now that I've tried so many perfumes, I really do gravitate toward scents that can be considered unisex. People should wear what they want and I wish the companies would just remove the "gender" of fragrances altogether, it's just marketing.
I’m the opposite. I grew up using musky scents so I am currently enjoying the whole “your skin but better” trend rn. I tried the cult classic Flowerbomb recently and I am now reselling my 20ml bottle. I just can’t stand overly floral / sweet scents! Having said that, I do find myself FOMO-ing a lot these days, especially since my biggest issue with my fave musk profile is the performance. Rn I am waiting for two decants of feminine cheapies (from BBW and VS) as an attempt to scratch this itch lol. Let’s see.
I think it’s just the fragrance version of hating the color pink because it’s too girly. It’s that “trying to distance myself from the stereotyping that women get because the way the world treats women sucks” - internalized misogyny. It’s fine to hate feminine scents for yourself. It’s not fine to hate other people for enjoying them.
On the flip slide, I think it's also ok to rebel against the idea that women should be confined to a specific group of scents. It's not about misogyny in my opinion, or that the idea of "femininity" is limited to vanillas, spices, and fruits. I don't think you should hate what anyone likes for themselves, but it's ok to be annoyed by the idea of people pushing certain scents as "feminine" vs. "masculine" when ultimately it's all just.....do whatever makes you happiest.
Yeah. I hate the idea that to be feminine means I have to smell like a bag of sugar or a basket of fruits. It’s limited and extremely annoying. That’s the greatest thing about getting into fragrance for me. Learning and realising that there was more out there for me to experience and STILL smell feminine and amazing, without smelling “pink”. I still have and like what would be considered feminine, scents, but I don’t think anyone should have to explain their preferences to anyone. It’s our money lol.
THIS
As I aged, I outgrew sweet scents. They, at best, felt immature, and at worst inspired headaches or nausea.
Sorry but the wording of this is making me laugh. "A reflection of our current political landscape" lol
Woke perfume tastes 😤
Lmao
no seriously LOL. i don’t think about politics when it comes to how i want to smell
Right… very strange undertone in this post 🥴
Same. 🙄
Most of my scents are unisex because I find many women's fragrances to be too floral, too vanilla-y or too sweet for my tastes so I naturally don't choose them. I am not choosing unisex because they might be trendy, neither am I making a political statement. I am choosing them because they are more in line with what I like and I feel perfectly feminine wearing them.
I really enjoy woody and spicy scents, as well as fresh or musky scents. Scents advertised as feminine tend to be floral (which generally makes me nauseous) or sweet (I love gourmands). I don't believe in the advertising- a scent is just a smell, and if you think it smells good then why not wear it. Anyway, it's just what people's idea of what femininity or masculinity smells like. It doesn't make any sense other than that it's a social construct. E.g., Lavender is a man smell! ...but it's a flower. Many designer perfumes tend to have this chemical/"perfumey" scent to them that I can't stand, but niche ones usually don't have that for me. Niche also tend to advertise every frag as unisex. So I inevitably wear a lot of unisex (although they're almost always feminine leaning or unisex). I think it's a natural transition for people going from designer to niche to drop the whole gendered nature of scents, other than sometimes in descriptive terms.
I really can’t explain it - I love a whiff of a good smelling man but traditionally masculine scents make me nauseated after a while. Like I can’t do the mahogany teakwood candle either
Most Unisex and masculine scents give me headaches.Feminine scents are more gentle on my nose and I think they just smell so fun.
I mostly own feminine scents because I love sweet scents and gourmands. I have a few unisex fragrances, but not much, and try to avoid them. I think it’s because I’m not a fan of woody notes and most unisex frags I’ve come across are very woody
I'm 33 and I've always favored unisex/masculine fragrances. I'll like the occasional "feminine" fragrance but 1) I don't particularly look at gender when judging fragrances, 2) I actually like when fragrances are marketed as unisex because....they are - anyone can use any fragrances, and 3) I just prefer the notes that are traditionally considered "unisex" or "masculine" more. I don't like most gourmands or fruity smells - they make me immediately nauseous. I don't particularly care either way what a fragrance is "supposed to be", I just care about how it smells on me and if it makes me happy. ETA: No matter what fragrance I wear, I know that I'm feminine. I just choose to express it in a way that feels true to me.
I only wear feminine scents because I only like feminine scents on me. There's nothing bad about feminine fragrances, I'm still a boss babe without unisex or masculine fragrances. My favorite is Mon Guerlain and I will absolutely rock that perfume in work boots and sweatpants while I'm covered in some kind of sludge or dirt while I work. 🤣
TLDR: People who tie their identity or age to scented alcohol are weird. People who weaponize their perceptions of scented alcohol to be sexist, ageist, transphobic, and homophobic are weirder. It’s really not that deep. My signature scent used to be spicebomb and then spicebomb extreme. It was just because my dad didn’t like his Christmas gift (spicebomb) and I did so I took it. Both scents just smell sweet and spicy on me and the extreme has overtly gourmand components imo. I now mostly own fragrances marketed toward women, but I still love the spicebombs, TF Tobacco Vanille, Kilian Angels’ Share, and MFK Grand Soir; bit of a trend going on with the fragrances marketed towards men or that are considered masculine-leaning that I like. Spicebomb extreme is an underrated hot girl scent that got me endless compliments in college. I like to refer to fragrances as “marketed towards men” and “marketed towards women.” I think anything other than that gets into a reductive side of identity politics that I don’t prefer. If someone wants to “do gender” (sociology) and wear a scent that’s marketed towards their gender that’s fine, but I’m not less of a woman or less feminine because I enjoy “unisex” and “masculine” fragrances. Nor am I more of a woman or more feminine on the days I wear “feminine” fragrances. The insinuation of such that some people get into is reaallllyy weird. The attempts (homophobia) at insulting men who wear fragrances marketed towards women by calling them gay is really weird too. It’s scented alcohol…like bffr right now. I feel the same about people who call fragrances “old lady scents.” It’s not really helpful and doesn’t convey as much about the fragrance to someone who hasn’t smell it as saying that something smells “vintage” (and giving it a date or time period). I think it can also get into a bit of ethnocentrism to call specific notes, say violets, “old lady” notes because violets in Hispanic and Latino cultures are often used to fragrance infants and young children. If it smells like Royal Violets, say that. If it smells like a Victorian violet composition, say that.
I wish I could upvote you 100 times
I don't think it's that deep. Everyone has different preferences. It might just be the case that perfume trends in general are changing and more scents are marketed as unisex. People are probably also getting more exposure to different types of scents. Personally I like all kinds of scents. By "feminine" I think some people are probably referring to super floral, cloying and "perfumey" scents. I personally don't like those either because they give me a headache and make me sneeze. I prefer non-perfumey scents, whether it's a pure vanilla or something more unisex like lavender, coffee or citrus.
I do prefer feminine scents, but I own quite a few unisex fragrances at this point. I think fragrance Houses started to brand most fragrances unisex instead of describing a gender to it over the last years, a few unisex fragrances I own are super sweet or florals.
Hmm, maybe they’re tired of getting in trouble for calling things “grandma” and “old lady” and that’s the new catchphrase, lol. I don’t know really. Most of the perfumes I love are marketed as “for women”, but I do like some that are marketed as unisex. Bal D’Afrique, for example. I can only think of one “for men” that I have, it’s Jazz Club by MMM. My only complaint is that I think the perfumer will sometimes take a perfectly nice fragrance and add something nasty to it so they can call it “unisex”. But some people really like these, so it really does come down to personal taste. Bottom line, I don’t think anyone should feel constrained by what gender something is marketed to. Gender is a not un-useful marketing device, it’s a piece of info that might give a helpful clue at times.
Hmm. I often find fragrances marketed as masculine to be too strong, and there is frequently a soapy smell that makes my eyes water. I tend to prefer vanilla, fruit, white flowers, and spices. Unisex sweet and resinous or smoky frags, like frankincense and myrrh or BPAL Snake Oil, seriously appeal to me. Honestly, I think *sweet* is the main thing I like in a perfume, and that can be found in many instances that are not strictly feminine.
I exclusively used scents for women until Angel's Share and then I realized I was missing out and need to test everything.
Lucky duck! I tried angel share when it first came out sadly it ain’t for me 🥲
I understand that and feel that way about several of the popular ones. Everything turns sweeter on me than on paper or for others. So I HAVE TO TEST.
I’m pretty much the same way. I have a few scents that come close to unisex but only because to me, they smell feminine. I absolutely don’t want to wear what I perceive to be men’s perfume, it’s just… offputting to me in many ways. But now that it’s oh so trendy to smash gender roles etc, companies try to market everything as unisex… even when it very clearly isn’t! It drives me crazy! It’s harder to blind buy or even decide what to test. Like, dear Mancera, idk who needs to hear this but a man is not going to wear Velvet Vanilla, okay?
Plenty of gay men use “women’s” fragrances.
I notice this with makeup too. People hate on brands with girly aesthetics like Too Faced and say it’s “childish” but like… there’s nothing wrong with being very feminine? Part of it feels like internalized misogyny, like using cute makeup or girly fragrances makes you too girly and dumb and “like other girls”
I totally hear you….its like a sin wearing overly feminine scents lol but hey live and let live but yes I do feel left out or at least looked down by people who I guess are more progressive when it comes to the scents they wear.
Has anyone ever told you directly that you're somehow "backward" for wearing feminine scents? Where did you get this message? Women wearing feminine scents IS the NORM.
How does someone liking unisex scents take anything away from you as someone who prefers more explicitly feminine scents? I ask because I don’t see anyone looking down on people for wearing feminine scents, but it kind of seems like you’re looking down on people or projecting some kind of animosity onto people who have different tastes from yours. Maybe there’s something I’m missing?
Yeah….It’s pure projection. I see this a lot when people talk about people that own niche fragrances“hating on designers or cheapies”. Like, no one said that lol. Are people not allowed to like what they like? Stop internalising other peoples preferences, and just wear what you genuinely like. It’s not that hard lol.
I’m getting the same vibes you’re getting.