Stepping Away from Fragrantica · Brotherhood Of Scent

Stepping Away from Fragrantica

And no shade to anyone who still uses it, of course.

I’m just personally going to stop using it. It’s been a tremendously helpful site that I used for a while, ever since a friend recommended it to me, and I’m glad i had it at all, i would never have mastered and memorized so many formulas and notes without it, but as of now, i’m going to be deleting my account and switching to something new.

The main reasons stem from a few things, the main one being that I feel like a huge portion of the community is quite toxic, and another really kind of… unserious if you understand what i mean?

There’s nothing wrong with humor and fun, perfume enthusiasts shouldn’t be a bunch of snobby stiffs 😭, but it feels like there’s more trolling and juvenile internet humor that’s taking it over.

Also i don’t think the note breakdowns are all that accurate. They’re not off the walls wrong, but because the notes are voted by community and put in, without any real verification on accuracy, it can end up risking misinformation or getting the wrong thing, which I call the Wikipedia risk. If you want a good example of this, go to the note breakdown for Club de Nuit Bling. Enough said.

Another reason as to why I’m not using this, and I say this carefully, and you’ll see why… is because of their stances.

Now, I have no issue with people having their own political beliefs, including ones I might not align with, or ones that I do. Everyone does, we all have our own agreements and disagreements, and it’s fine.

But Fragrantica, as well as their admins and users have been getting a bit politically outspoken, and those statements are mixing into the community on there.

Not even just that, they’ve began to block or filter out opinions they don’t like or agree with. Now while I don’t entirely like the idea of just unchecked political opinions being strewn about, on either side, if you’re going to start suppressing one side of opinions, do so to the other side. Politics do not belong in a hobby like this. Period.

I’m sure those of you on other forms of social media know what happens after that. Echo chambers, toxicity, and so on and so forth. They unfortunately don’t have the immaculate no-asshole policy that this community has.

Let this be said, everyone is allowed to their own beliefs. But as our friends have said before on previous posts (such as the one questioning if we should continue the term “oriental” in fragrance), politics and hobbies like these should stay apart. The reason we turn to these hobbies are often as a way to escape with the daily bs we all deal with in things such as politics.

The minute they mix, some might agree some not with me, it starts to feel tainted, and one other thing just can’t stay away from this horrendous grip, and sure enough, it might start to feel like you can’t even enjoy THAT anymore without it reminding you of some statement you saw being made.

Now that being said, I’m not saying Fragrantica is turning into Reddit or X at all. The opinions expressed are not in any way some insane extremist views that turn masses into raving lunatics, and they aren’t super common or as widespread as they would be in other platforms.

But the fact that these opinions are allowed to be expressed at all, in a space meant to many of us, to be free from it, is concerning to me, and speaking as someone whose seen this before, is never the step in the right direction.

As I’ve said before, everyone is allowed to have their own beliefs. No one should ever be shamed or put down for their beliefs, and everyone should respect one another. But there is most certainly a time and a place for it. And I think a lot of you can agree. We don’t want to deal with it. We have hobbies such as this just to take a break from all of it.

So now asking, what do we use now? Well, I personally have switched to this app called “Parfumo”. It’s sleek, nice looking, and has, in my own personal experience, a more serious and passionate community, with less juvenile, immature humor, and of course, a politics free space.

On top of that, the note breakdowns are much, much more accurate, less cluttered, and more straight-to-the-point. There’s always a consistent, perpetual list of new releases, so if you want to stay up to date on them, it’s perfect for that.

It also has a much more accurate rating scale than fragrantica, and a more detailed one. While it is vote based as well, as stated before, the community here is more serious, so you’ll get a more accurate and truthful review for scales on things such as sillage, longevity, scent quality, and a new feature which is bottle design and quality/presentation. It also has an excellent “similar fragrances” list, as well as a voted list for best fragrances to layer with that specific one.

Along with that, it actually makes wearing fragrances a little bit game-like, and tracks down your most worn fragrances, gives you recommendations based on your preferences for new bottles to test. And if you can’t decide what to wear that day? It has a random pick feature that decides for you.

The app also has this helpful built in feature called the “assistant”, which helps pick out a fragrance for you based on the season, time of day, and formality/occasion. Now in my opinion, this part isn’t the strongest feature, nor the most accurate or precise for recommendations, however, I think it will likely be developed further, as this app is still a little bit newer.

Anyways, to conclude the Ted talk here, let’s discuss this. What do you guys think? Will you continue using Fragrantica or switch to another? What for? And what will you switch to if the chance given?

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Stepping Away from Fragrantica