Rediscovering a fragrance you thought you didn't like

They have a type of dismissal that takes less than 10 seconds. A spray, a frown, and a cap exchanged. The bottle is placed at the back of the row and stands there for a year or two, perhaps longer, with the soft, quiet dust of a verdict you no longer truly believe you fashioned fairly.

What you were smelling might have been the day

Fragrance does not land in a vacuum. It lands on skin which has the cortisol levels, hormonal ups and downs, what you ate the night before, the exact humidity and temperature of a Tuesday in February, and you were slightly irritated already before picking it up. When the smell receptors get overrun by other fragrances, olfactory fatigue can taint an entire opening with a grey, uninteresting scent. What you registered as "too sharp" or "too nothing" may have been your nose already running on empty.

Oriental, a rough top note of a labdanum-heavy blend, can sound abrasive at 9am in a cold office. At 8pm, when the skin is still warm from a shower, the same fragrance makes those edges melt into something resinous and enveloping. It's not a trick, it's chemistry and circumstance.

The skin factor nobody talks about enough

The pH of the skin changes significantly throughout the day, during a menstrual cycle, during a period of stress, and with changes in diet. This is not magic; it's proven biochemistry. A perfume centered on musks and skin-close base notes will be especially affected by these changes: it will feel like it's one with you or it will be on top of you, and the difference will be like the difference between belonging and trespassing.

If you were first turned off by a scent when you first smelt it, you might want to reflect on your skin that day. Some aldehydic, or white-floral, fragrances may shift to anti-septic on higher-pH skin, and warm, powdery a week later on the same wrist. You weren't wrong to notice. It may have been a hasty conclusion.

The method: deliberate second chances

When a scent that you've rejected comes back, it demands a certain kind of focus and receptivity, one that is not as critical as it was before. Pick a quiet morning or Sunday afternoon when you can afford to be lazy. Don't use quite as much as the first time. Please not to sniff your wrist—allow it to mature in the air around you for an hour before any action is taken.

Observe if it alters. If a perfume is opening thin and then getting fuller after 40 minutes, it's telling you about the structure, not the quality. Older style chypres and those based on natural oakmoss or civet are more demanding and need body heat and time to bridge the gap between "chemical" and "coherent. Patience isn't a virtue here, it's a technique.

When the verdict actually stands

Reconciliation is not the outcome of all reconsiderations. But, like some worn-out clothes that aren't quite right, some perfumes don't work when they are used in the right quantities and at the right time — and that's valuable information. If you have a dislike or aversion to a particular olfactory (smell) family, then it's likely that that is the preference, not the error. It's not about liking everything, it's about knowing why you don't.

The better finding is the scent that caught your fancy on the second go round, the one that is a late-night fragrance that you would associate with a day at the races, but is more of a night wear perfume, or the one that you've worn in the summertime that you thought was perfect for the summer, but it's actually a winter skin scent. Those revelations are worth more than any new purchase because they came from what you already have.