Worlds Weirdest and Most Bizarre Perfumes
With the rage of celebrity fragrance past its peak, manufacturers have been seeking other novel methods of marketing perfumes in their pursuit to promote new scents. Now smell this, and hold onto your delicate olfactory senses and tender noses, as we dive into the weird and wacky aromatic world of peculiar perfumes.
Photo Andrew Mason
Flame, a body spray for men produced by the famous fast-food chain Burger King was launched earlier this week, and being sold at a New York restaurant and online at their appropriately named website, firemeetsdesire.com.
Touted as a gift idea for the meat-loving man who has everything — barbecue-scented cologne — Flame is being promoted as “the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat.”
Photo Stop Down
Photo Andrew Eick
Sniffing out an opportunity in the marketplace, a manufacturer in Egypt developed a men’s fragrance which was designed to smell like cigarettes, while the Stilton Cheesemakers’ Association in the UK commissioned a women’s scent to promote its famous cheese. Presented in a glass bottle with a marbled appearance similar to that of blue cheese, the company claims the scent is wearable and doesn’t smell quite as bad as a block of cheese, but mimics its earthy aroma.
Photo Gaetan Lee
Weird Scents provides free samples of their unique (to say the least) novelty scented unisex colognes in fragrances such as Grease Monkey, Money, Burning Rubber, and Boiled Crawfish which are in testing stages.
They claim the scents aren’t just for people, but can be used on objects to imbue the item with a long lasting fragrant scent to make them smell good — or bad, depending upon your perspective. The catch? You’re asked to tell them what exactly you think about them once you’ve tested them out.
L’Artisan Parfumeur has Dzing! designed to smell of the circus — the aroma of the great cats, the sawdust in the ring and the leather whip, but critics have claimed this is false, stating that it smells like a new fur coat that has been rubbed with a very creamy mint toothpaste. Not gel. Paste.
Bored with the usual ways in which you can use your DNA – cellular repair or forensic identification? My DNA has a scent just for you — you do the usual buccal swab DNA collection at home, send it in, and get an exclusive fragrance created for you.
Blotter stripes used for designing perfume. Photo Ayala Sender
Photo Shabbir Siraj
Perfume seller by the Mecca-Medina mosque, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.
Photo Koshyk
Demeter Fragrance carries a plethora of bizarre and oddball scents including Black Pepper (we already know what happens when one accidentally inhales a healthy dose of this spice) and Play-Doh for ”Those fresh-from-the-can, full-of-potenial, childhood memories.” The wide range weird of fragrances offered also include:
Clean Windows
You know how it smells right after you have finished cleaning glass and it’s squeaky clean? Well, it’s like that moment captured in a bottle.
Dirt
Made to smell exactly like the dirt from the fields around the Pennsylvania family farm.
Dust
Based upon the more typical fine bits of fabric or dirt that give off a familiar and ‘comfortable’ odor.
Earthworm
Said to be a deeper, darker, richer version of Dirt, reflecting not the worm itself, but where it lives, deep in moist soil, on the floor of a forest covered with decomposing leaves.
Photo P Kirsch
Photo SuperFantastic
Photo Okaggi
Fireplace
Capturing a small part of this tradition with the wonderful, cozy comforting scent of the fireplace on a cold winter’s eve, it smells exactly like your sweater after sitting for hours in front of a wood fire.
Fresh Hay
The smell of fresh cut hay on a hot summer day.
Funeral Home
Demeter describes it as smelling like a funeral — a blend of classic white flowers: lilies, carnations, gladiolus, chrysanthemums with stems and leaves, with a hint of mahogany and oriental carpet.
Holy Water
When Demeter came out with their Holy Water scent, New York Magazine wrote that Madonna had been approached to do a scent with this name, which was apparently too sacrilegious even for her. The designer describes their controversial scent as providing good memories of church — the porcelain font, ozone scented water, and oak scented pew.
Laundromat
In celebration of the anniversary of the invention of the first Laundromat in Fort Worth, Texas, Demeter says their version of Laundromat cologne is the cleanest scent they know.
Photo P R
Lobster
Not for the faint of heart and probably their most obtuse fragrance, the cologne is a combination of the sea, sweet meat, and a hint of drawn butter.
Mildew
Inspired by the mildewy smell of first turning air conditioners in spring.
Paint
Apparently just as the name implies, the smell of drying paint.
Paperback Books
Like a dusty old copy of a novel, your home can always smell like your favorite first edition classic book — this scent is sweet and just a touch musty.
Photo Gregg O’Connell
Photo Bradley P Johnson
Pipe Tobacco
A rich, deep, moist, and pungent fragrance, with touches of both sweetness and spice — everything you could ask for from a fine tobacco accord. In reminiscence of dear old dad, the designer also has Whiskey Tobacco cologne.
Poison Ivy
Demeter thought it was high time Poison Ivy gave people something better than a rash, so they decided to capture the great, fresh smell of Poison Ivy without the itching and scratching.
Swimming Pool
Swimming Pool is the lingering memory of the pool water on the skin, to savor the Summer, anywhere, anytime.
Stable
Fresh Hay, muck, and sweet animal sweat — that’s as real as it gets.
Vinyl
The smell of vinyl seats from 1970’s, or a sort of PVC jacket from the same era. The company notes that because they don’t chill and filter their fragrances, the cologne will have flakes or precipitate in it, a natural byproduct of mixing this unnatural fragrance oil into an alcohol base.
Photo Old Sarge
Photo Travis Hornung
Perfume Making Factoids
The art of making perfumes began in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt and was further refined by the Romans and Persians. Although perfume and perfumery also existed in India, much of its fragrances are incense based.
The world’s first recorded chemist is considered to be a woman named Tapputi, a perfume maker who was mentioned in a cuneiform tablet from the second millennium BC in Mesopotamia. She distilled flowers, oil, and calamus with other aromatics, then filtered and put them back in the still several times.
Recently, archaeologists have uncovered what are believed to be the world’s oldest perfumes in Pyrgos, Cyprus discovered in an ancient perfumery, dating back more than 4,000 years. At least 60 stills, mixing bowls, funnels and perfume bottles were found in the 43,000 square foot (4,000 sq. meter) factory. In ancient times people used herbs and spices, like almond, coriander, myrtle, conifer resin, bergamot, as well as flowers.
Related stories:
Science of the Smell Factor
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All I can say is, “What where they thinking?”
Some people should never be in marketing again after products like that.
Tom – StandOutBlogger.com’s last blog post..SMART Goal Setting For 2009
I just about Dropped when I heard last week that White Diamonds by Liz Taylor has Sold over $1 BILLION Dollars in Perfume!! I’m in the Wrong Biz!!
Merry Christmas + Happy New Year + All da Best to U + Yers in 2009!!!
BillyWarhol’s last blog post..Hand poetry Al Purdy
Deborah, have you ever smell the Durian before? If you did, then you’ll probably vomit on the spot!
wilson’s last blog post..A Fast Recap Of WillYouMind For 2008!
haha some of those people get payed alot to come up with these ideas, haha some of them are truly laughable.
Yech! Who on earth would want to walk around with the equivalent of a hamburger under each armpit – the mind boggles
I could come up with a couple ‘killer’ aromas(?) – the dragon lily of southern Europe and most of the South African Stapelias. But, please ladies, keep to the Ylang-ylang and other delightful, clean perfumes!
Wilson, yes, the durian pong is pretty powerful but get past that aura and the flesh is sooooooo sweet.
Thanks Deborah – another great one to add to your collection.
What? No goat smell? Someone should seriously make a goat smelling cologne perfume. Lol. Wow if that happened then I would laugh.
Paul’s last blog post..9 Yr. Old Boy Squares Off With Tila Tequila
Where’s the ‘mould’ and ’sweaty testicles’ perfumes? They’re missing out on a lot of sales!! =P
-Aidan.
AidanKay’s last blog post..Easy Online Auto Insurance
Hey, what about the Burger King fragrance? That was crazy! Yet someone wants to smell like a Burger. Whopper to be exact.
very interesting and scary at the same time
Rapidshare King’s last blog post..Wendy and Lucy 2008
Love this post, great job. I’ve added this to SoLinkable, hope you don’t mind (and I hope it brings a little bit of added traffic)
SoLinkable’s last blog post..New Technology Transforms Cheap Wine into ‘Vintage’ Quality in Minutes
So. Weird. I swear, the Burger King one….what the heck are they thinking????
Very interesting, But I hate perfumes (omitting).
Well, Billy, it certainly hasn’t hurt their marketing campaign by using Liz Taylor, but I had no idea they had made such a phenomenal sum of money from the product. Even simple spicy-scented perfumes send me reeling with a migraine within minutes, so I could never work in the industry myself
Thanks, wishing you Merry Christmas and a great new year to you and yours as well
No WIlson, I haven’t, but by the sounds of it, I’m pretty thankful that I haven’t
Hahaha, I haven’t a clue as to who would every want to smell like a burger, Robin
I think it’s more of a marketing ploy to build buzz more than anything. Thanks, glad you enjoyed it 
There isn’t anything that could surprise me after researching this, Paul
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it enough to want to share it
I can’t think of a single reason other than marketing, Jennifer
There was a new aftershave which hit the media just after publishing this story that touts having the smell of a football changing room called, “Scent of Success,” created from a blend of grass, sweat, boot leather and heat spray, made by Sports Interactive.
Considering that it’s an aftershave, I didn’t update this story with it, but felt it was a crazy enough mention for the comments
yes i have no bananas i have no bananas today
Um… being allergic to almost every perfume out there, I just can’t see why WANTING to smell like a laundromat would be appealing.
We always need to wear a perfume when we go out, so we thought it might be a good idea to give some perfume reviews.Thanks for the post..
Meendaal’s last blog post..San Jose, California
Seriously why do we call all these smells perfumes…aint perfumes meant to smell GOOD? Great blog…just stumbled upon…very cool
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http://www.wikiplugs.com/story.php?title=worlds-most-weird-and-bizarre-perfumes
thanks
That is unbelievable that perfumes with those scents would be made. Do people actually want to smell like dust?
nice smell.i can smell from my monitor,hihi
DVD Phillips’s last blog post..1080p DVD Player
The smell of fresh cut hay on a hot summer day.manufacturers have been seeking other novel methods of marketing perfumes in their pursuit to promote new scents.
Marketing is a great thing.
Sometimes there are such marketing steps, that You wonder – who is it possible!
Interesting article!
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Did you know Omani Frankincense (yep one of the 3 gifts – and a key ingredient in any self respecting oriental fragrance) can be chewed and eaten. A sure way to have a great smelling stomach
Can anyone recommend a moisturizer that works for any skin type? I would be interested because lotions always felt heavy and caused breakouts for me I need something that doesn’t cause any blemishes and leaves my skin feeling and looking great.
yes i have no bananas i have no bananas today
Hehhehheh
Funny.
Thanx.
All good pics.