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i've pared down my perfume collection to nine bottles (probably still sounds like a lot but i've been collecting, writing about and sampling perfumes for about a decade now) and i'm so happy with it now.
there's about three or four that I'm really eyeing to add to my collection that i'll get when i have the money to do so but, i'm making an effort to break away from this "collector" mentality of enjoying things and trying to pare things down to the absolute minimum of what means something to me and what i really love. it did take me a while because i wanted to wait a year or so for the seasons to change as tastes can radically change depending on weather/humidity
mainly i'm really disillusioned by how fragrance is talked about on the internet now, most of the community enthusiastic about it often have collections of literally dozens of bottles and those who have the biggest platforms talking about it on spaces like tiktok and instagram seem to have largely got really into it in the past year or two and already have close to a hundred (if not more) bottles. on top of it encouraging shopping addictions i also just find it absurd and unbelievably lame to conflate owning that many things with being more passionate or knowledgeable about something; and i really want what i have to just tell a story of who i am and not just the things i like (as i will never have enough money to own all the things i like, it is a pointless endeavor.) it takes time and patience to figure out your own unique taste in things, and collections developed out of instant gratification and recommendations from influencers are rarely interesting.
the ones here are:
- shalimar parfum initial (guerlain) vanilla citrus patchouli pin-up girl boudoir scent
- tea escape (margiela) mint, mate and sweetened matcha latte
- poivre piquant (l'artisan parfumeur) very dry, minimalist black pepper scent and unsweetened licorice; this is the one i usually wear daily
- la fin du monde (茅tat libre d'orange) buttered popcorn (yes it does really smell like that), sesame, carrot seed and burnt ashes, I also wear this one regularly
- coromandel (chanel) sexiest patchouli scent of all time, also has a lot of white chocolate and frankincense; a horny church perfume
- fils de dieu (茅tat libre d'orange) lime, ginger, rice, coconut and dry spices
- calamity j (juliette has a gun) frankincense and myrrh cinnamon, another horny church scent
- dune (dior)聽my mom wore both of these Dior perfumes growing up and I wear them too, this one is very hard to describe unless you've tried it, but I would describe it as a very androgynous amber-spice, both perfume and cologne, both a masculine barbershop cologne and a warm and sensual ambery women's perfume. It's weird, good weird.
- addict (dior) dry and sultry tonka bean floral vanilla scent with lots of jasmine and blackberry
and the ones i really want to add once i am not so broke are:
- empire des indes (oriza l. legrand) smells exactly like horchata or arroz con leche to me
- l'eau chic (nicolai parfumeur) mint/chamomile/geranium/pepper, i want this for hot summers and humid days
- vanille (mona di orio) most expensive smelling vanilla perfume i've ever tried, full of rum and bitter orange peel, doesn't smell cloying or too sweet at all it just smells like a very dry and burning and resinous bitter bourbon vanilla
- bandit (robert piguet) incredibly old-fashioned and in your face butch/masculine mossy leathery scent, i have to be in a certain mood to wear this one but when I am it feels more like me than anything else. but i am looking for the eau de toilette because i bought a small vial of the parfum and it was more floral and feminine and just not the same
i also have a fragrantica where i write down notes on perfumes and keep track of what i want to try: here is mine, let me know yours if you have one:
i'm also thinking about writing a blog post about how to sample a lot of different types of perfumes on a budget so if that's something anyone would be interested in let me know. i take part in a couple of travelling perfume sample boxes periodically and that allows me to swap perfume samples with other enthusiasts for only the price of shipping, it's definitely the most cost-effective way to sample short of going to a store in person and asking for samples for free.
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鈽攫潗ヰ潗潗氿潗潗︷潗别潗别潗р樉
honestly the realest blog ever i fear
the rampant overconsumption on the internet literally makes me sick, especially seeing as i grew up poor. perfume and cleanliness have always been something i hold in very high regard, but it gets to the point where its just endless greed and i don't see how so many ppl are okay with it?? i have my own little collection (around 10 i'd say) but i cant imagine buying more when i don't even need it. the shit is insane to me.
but n e way, u have nice taste! u should totes write that blog, im sure a good amount of ppl would want to see it!
Thank you so much for writing this, it's beautifully written. Would love to know what's in your collection too. All for normal people having normal collections and using them like it's an actual part of their life.
by diana; ; Report
haha thank u
馃挒 most of my stuff is from bath n bodyworks since its the only thing i can afford currently. i'll branch out soon when I settle into my job but that's for future me to think abt!
they itch my brain juuust right. smelling nice makes me feel nice, and im not burning off any one else's nostrils. win-win!
my fav scents i have rn are viva vanilla, into the night, and jolly gingerbread village. the first one has this deep, musky richness that i rlly like and the second just itches that scratch i have. the third is nice and cinnamon-y. the other bath n bodyworks scents i have are snowflakes & cashmere, warm vanilla sugar and getaway soiree. ive got one from victoria's secret but i cant remember the name right now, and my last is the pink sugar body spray. shoulda got the one with a higher concentration of actual perfume oil but oh welllll. i ran out of one of my fav scents, choco musk, but i think i'll replace it with another arab perfume i smelled at the mall. god it smelled so good
as u can see im a fan of vanillas and gourmands
by 鈽攫潗ヰ潗潗氿潗潗︷潗别潗别潗р樉; ; Report
laney
yay another perfume friend !! huge fan of the juliette has a gun and a recent convert to the dior addict line although my allegiances lie with rosy glow... much to think about.
how are you feeling about the margiela?
I just tried the new Dior Addict glow perfumes a few weeks ago! My favorite is the orangey one that smells kind of citrus-y. And I know there's a purple one that has a very old-fashioned powdery scent too, it smells like violets. But it's like a very candied powdery violet scent. Love love looooove the original Dior Addict, really beautiful mix of jasmine and bourbon vanilla.
And I really like the Replica perfume! Though sadly it's discontinued. It was called Tea Escape. It was a very minty, herbal matcha latte scent. It was warm and comforting and kinda herbal and fresh at the same time. It was very unique. Then they replaced it with one called Matcha Meditation, which was nice too but kind of different, more white floral and not as herbal, and they discontinued that too. They discontinue too many scents! They cycle in and out so many. My favorite ones they've done are Tea Escape and Lipstick On, which was a beautiful retro vintage cosmetic smell, it really smelled like an old fashioned '90s department store tube of lipstick. But with lots of vanilla and iris. It was so sophisticated. But I sold my bottle when I was low on money :( def recommend any of the older Replica scents they're amazing!! The newer ones are mostly nice too but tend to be less true to the concept of replicating a time or idea and usually more just like crowd pleasing perfumes, for a while they were really quirky and very weird for designer perfumes when they first came out
by diana; ; Report
Miguel
This is such an incredible post, both due to your amazing sensibilty for scents and due to your approach to creating and curating a collection. I also think that a fundamentally interesting aspect of any collection is how the objects that make it got there, rather than how many there are (collecting is not just accumulating, right?.) I think that the fact that you have been paring down your collection rather than enlargening it is really cool.
I myself have been trying to create a collection of fragrant plants for a while! The big problem for me is that, living in Europe a few plants whose fragrances I'd like to add are impossible to grow here. I guess that's not an issue with bottled fragrances, which somehow expands the limits of their enjoyment. In particular I'd like to add the smell of mahogany flowers (tiny little yellow things, that create a carpet around the trees), which to me is the smell of my grandmother's house a good many years ago... but I digress.
I meant to ask, are you perhaps familiar with the brand 'Granado'? It is a Brazilian perfume house, which sort of specializes in old scents from the time of their founding, in 1870. I am looking forward to purchasing one of their violet eaus de cologne someday, as my current scent collection just consists of a cedar eau de cologne that I got from them years ago, and a musky, peppery, leathery cologne from L'Occitane (more adequate for night events, I think; the kind of which I'm never in attendance at), and the olive oil soap I make, which leaves me smelling kind of olive-y after a shower. If you don't know them already, maybe you'd like some of their stuff, perhaps!