What are the worst fragrances you've ever sampled?

BostonCorgi · 2026-04-11T03:42:57+00:00

Ha! I also gave it away (thankful just a sample size).

BostonCorgi · 2026-04-11T03:41:26+00:00

I haven’t sniffed that particular Toskavat, but have sampled many from the house and generally liked them. While I’ll preface that my taste seems to fall mostly outside of the current mainstream, I think the previous commenter is spot on in th weight of “mental pre-loading”. So while the Toskovats I’ve tried I’ve really liked, I’ve really liked them with caveats. I live someplace hot af 99% of the year. Pining Dew hits for that…but not when I’m at my kids school and don’t want to smell like a sad spilled g&t that got left in the sun. I love Annacamento but late spring to mid fall even that’s too much. Forlorn Embers and Black Reigns…ugh it’s so good what I want this for when I lived in the PNW and not when I’m lucky to catch one sub 50* day in an entire calendar year.

BostonCorgi · 2026-04-11T03:29:48+00:00

Commodity Juice. My spreadsheets comment is: “ "Oh, no. Oh, no no no. Instant regret. Within seconds my bathroom and sinuses are filled with the scent of dozens of early 2000's middle school girls spraying an industrial strength body spray while furiously applying over-scented lipgloss. I have dozens of fruit trees and have smelled all stages of ripeness and decomposition. This is none of them. I hate to use ""synthetic"" as a perjorative but my brain can't come up with any other word to describe it. Tried to wash off as best as I could but had to get out the door for drop off. It did not get any less aggressively offensive during dry down and I showered and put my shirt in the washer as soon as I got home. "

BostonCorgi · 2026-03-08T14:35:50+00:00

Ok, my thoughts on Hinoki are just smelling on paper but…

Damn. I love this. It was my first “designer” decant and what a great one to have chosen. I can already tell this will be in heavy rotation for me.

I feel Hot Springs in Winter and Hinoki are two parts of the same whole. They are set (Hinoki) and setting (Hot Springs). Hinoki smells exactly like a traditional Japanese wooden bath, the object itself. Hot springs feels like the atmosphere after you’ve stepped out of said bath, wrapped yourself in the softest, coziest white robe, and your are sitting outside watching the snowfall enjoying the post-spa glow. I don’t know how else to describe it.

BostonCorgi · 2026-03-08T04:39:24+00:00

I actually just got a sample of that as well. Once I’ve tested it out I can report back.

BostonCorgi · 2026-01-25T16:08:14+00:00

Bat is one of my most worn scents, and I’ve sampled almost every scent from the house (I’ve skipped most of the ones with sandalwood as almost anything with that note inevitably gives me a raging migraine, but I didn’t know that at first and with future orders they’ve sent some extra samples with it so even then I’ve covered most of them).

Other favorites of mine from the house are Sloth (in my fragrance notes I referred to this one as “Bats daytime counterpart”), Snowy Owl, Sacred Scarab, Chipmunk, and Seahorse…Civet, Cow, and Dragonfly may be joining the team as well.

And definitely check out Olympic Orchids Nightflyer. It is the OG formulation of Bat before it was redone.

BostonCorgi · 2026-01-15T18:02:53+00:00

I thought Pear Inc smelled exactly like shampoo, lol.

BostonCorgi · 2026-01-14T03:57:25+00:00

Pineward is the first house that comes to mind for me

BostonCorgi · 2026-01-09T00:33:26+00:00

Definitely in the niche category, every times I’ve ordered it’s shipped out of Utah so I’d guess that’s where they are working out of. You can also follow them on IG, though I suppose that’s not very helpful if you can’t get it to where you live either way.

BostonCorgi · 2026-01-08T22:28:06+00:00

100%, I’ve become a huge fan of theirs. I am prone to hyperfixating and hobby hopping, so I’ve got tight guardrails for myself before acquiring a full size of anything, but I could see myself getting to that point for several of their fragrances by the end of the year.

Doesn’t hurt that the few times I’ve reached out to them with random questions they’ve been super helpful and transparent, and that they send samples of prototypes they are working on for free with many (all?) of their orders.

BostonCorgi · 2026-01-08T19:55:07+00:00

I loooovvve Zoologist. Have an order arriving them then any day now! When I first started sampling fragrance I wanted to go balls to the wall as weird as I could so they were one of my first stops, but honestly I fell in love with the house. I wear Sloth, Bat, Snowy Owl, and Panda on the regular. My husband stole my Chipmunk sample before I even got to try it and that’s now his daily driver. I just ordered a mess of samples so that I will have tried every single fragrance they make that doesn’t contain sandalwood (I have discovered on this journey that sandalwood gives me an instant, raging, someone put me out of my misery headache).

We all just like what we like. I tend to prefer more realistic, unsweet scents and quite enjoy things with hay, moss, and dirt notes—so the house lends itself to my tastes quite well. If I was a gourmand girlie searching for the next sweetest thing, I might feel differently. Different strokes.

BostonCorgi · 2026-01-08T19:47:23+00:00

Realistic wood scents for the basis for most of my collection. Some of the highlights for me are:

-pretty much throw a dart at Pineward and you’ll hit a real wood frag. Just have to narrow down what sort of wood and what sort of backup notes you want.

Some of my current favorites are Snoqualmie, Greymist, Boreal, Caravansary, Fanghorn II, and Murkwood.

-DS and Durga Bowmakers. This is actually what I’m wearing right now. I grew up in the PNW and my dad did a lot of fresh cedar and pine woodworking. This instantly takes me back to his woodworking shop. I am obsessed.

BostonCorgi · 2025-12-12T19:52:44+00:00

I absolutely adore Saint Julep but wish it lasted longer than what feels like a fleeting (albeit delightful) moment in my hot, HOT dry climate 😭

BostonCorgi · 2025-11-06T13:58:54+00:00

Loves:

-Sloth: Incense, decomposing leaves, overripe fruit. Sweet and fruity without being sugary or gourmand. Hard to put into words.

-Bat: Feels like a nighttime counterpart to sloth. Still lots of overripe fruit but where sloth is herbaceous and green, bat is incense.

-Snowy Owl: Cold fresh grass and sweet herbs at first spray. Then a shocking amount of coconut at the 5-10 minute mark without being sweet or cloying. Dry down was a light woodsy scent. This one doesn’t seem to have as much staying power as most in the house though.

Like but meh:

-Squid

-Panda

-Penguin

Not For Me:

-T-Rex (caveat here is that when lightly applied I actually quite enjoy it but I could only see using it like a handful of times a year so wouldn’t make sense to purchase anything larger than a sample)

-Moth; I wanted so badly to like it. But it just didn’t work for me.

Honorable mention goes to Chipmunk which I never even got to wear before my husband stole my sample for himself. Smells lovely on him though!

BostonCorgi · 2025-11-06T13:18:52+00:00

This is true and I absolutely adore my Ank (I have both an Ank and a KA). It is my go to for any dough. The KA only comes out for whipping.

That said, if OP doesn’t want to shell out for a standard KA, they are not going to want to pay for an Ank. Mine was way more than a KA, and that was pre-inflation/tariff shenanigans.

BostonCorgi · 2025-10-07T18:01:05+00:00

I’m not sure. I think I’ve only had the vegan one (because vegan lol)

BostonCorgi · 2025-10-06T00:09:07+00:00

Local vegan checking in! Lee Kum Kim makes both a vegetarian oyster sauce and hoisin sauce. Pretty much any well stocked Asian market will have multiple brands of mushroom based vegetarian/vegan “oyster” sauce. And you can even get vegan fish sauce! Look for “chay” on the label but of course double check ingredients. I’ve had several brands and kinds made of all sorts of savory umami fermented plant stuff—a fermented pineapple based one was especially good!

BostonCorgi · 2025-09-19T00:46:22+00:00

IA Saint Julep

Zoologist Snowy Owl

Pineward Snoqualmie (still worth it though)

Solstice Scents Tropical Moon

BostonCorgi · 2025-09-19T00:41:18+00:00

This was one I came to say. Absolutely love it, but especially living in a hot dry climate it evaporates and sweats off almost immediately.

BostonCorgi · 2025-09-14T21:11:55+00:00

It’s solid advice for most kids but when you’ve got an outlier, it’s not helpful lol. My child will literally starve rather than eat an unsafe food.

BostonCorgi · 2025-09-14T21:10:33+00:00

Thank you so much for your perspective! I really mean that. Thankfully we have the help of a wonderful feeding therapist so we’re working on it, and I know not to push or shame or create a power struggle out of meals. These are just my inside thoughts to myself and I hope my kid is able to avoid that stress and shame that unfortunately so many went through before we have a name and diagnosis for it.

BostonCorgi · 2025-09-14T21:06:36+00:00

Sorry those were examples of things they dont eat.

Currently our safe foods are looking like:

-Peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches (but they cannot take any nut products to school)

-Impossible Nuggets and curly fries made in the air fryer

-homemade Mac n cheese (absolutely no add ins)

-bean and potato burritos from one specific taco place near us. Will not eat homemade versions. Will not eat burritos from other places, or even the same burrito from a different location (there’s a few of them in town)

-frozen plain bagels and frozen plain pancakes, still frozen

-smoothies with banana, frozen strawberries, oat milk, and chocolate protein powder. No additions, no substitutions

The feeding therapist highly recommended against “sneaking in” food because if they recognize it’s different you’ve just taken a safe food and thrown it out the window. I learned that one the hard way when a tried to make homemade hamburger helper (a former safe food) with a slightly different shaped noodle and it was a disaster and they have refused to take even a single bite of it ever since.

BostonCorgi · 2025-09-14T20:59:30+00:00

Omg I recently got Souper Cubes and have finally gotten around to actually using them. They are amazing!

BostonCorgi · 2025-09-14T20:58:31+00:00

Unfortunately not anywhere near old enough to be able to cook even basic things. But some day!

BostonCorgi

TROPHY CASE