As I keep digging myself into a giant, fragrant black hole (hey! keep your mind out of the gutter!), I find that notes I was sure I disliked are really notes that require more specific sourcing and judicious blending to work for me. These include vanilla and amber notes, too many of which are cloying but some of which are tasteful and artful. (Compare mainstream “Werther’s caramel” ambers to those from AbdesSalaam or Teone Reinthal.) I say, “I don’t like white florals,” but really, I what I mean is, fewer white floral-centric fragrances will appeal to me than, say, leathers or tobaccos. A note like cumin can be sexy or skunky, depending on how sweaty you like your sex (and how old you want that sweat to be). “Oud” in western perfumery is rarely real oud; and, whether real or synthetic, so varied as to want for a more nuanced response than a categorical yea or nay. I can’t abide Rania J’s barnyard ouds, but I could practically live on AbdesSalaam’s Oud Caravan (whichever one).
Your mileage may vary as to the parameters for any note family and what falls within/beyond them. But, I wouldn’t be too quick to judge a note as bad when, in what you’ve experienced, it may simply have been badly played.
