Fragrance appalling to wearers (4-5)

I believe the answer is:

rose-water

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'fragrance' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?

'appalling to wearers' is the wordplay.
'appalling' indicates anagramming the letters (an appalling spelling of the letters).
'to'+'wearers'='towearers'
'towearers' anagrammed gives 'ROSE-WATER'.

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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