Technologically, I’m on the arrière garde. I don’t have a cell phone, my car is nearly 26 years old, and if I want to watch TV I have to fool around with a digital converter box. Facebook holds no appeal for me. Food just doesn’t taste as good from a microwave, so I don’t have one. Or a hair dryer or dishwasher. Besides my laptop — a workhorse MacBook Pro — and weekly posts on Now Smell This, I might as well set myself up as an exhibit at the Smithsonian entitled, “Life in 1994.”
For the most part, I wouldn’t have it any other way. But don’t even think about taking away my internet.
With Steve Jobs’ death and the arrival of my iPad, I’ve been pondering how the internet has changed the world for perfume enthusiasts. Ten years isn’t that long, really. But ten years ago I was an unanchored perfume lover at sea, buffeted by the conflicting information offered by sales associates and the slim, misleading perfume descriptions in magazines. If a sales associate waved his hand over the perfume counter and said, “Everything here is made of natural ingredients,” I believed him. Perfumers? Who were they? Didn’t Coco Chanel and Estée Lauder create their own perfumes?
Fragrance-wise, the internet opened up a whole new world. I first stumbled over perfume on the web when I read about Frédéric Malle in a magazine and looked up one of his fragrances online. I found the Editions de Parfums website and took its questionnaire to find out which of its perfumes would suit me. On a trip to Paris a few months later, I bought a bottle of Noir Epices. If it weren’t for the internet, I never would have found the boutique to begin with.
Later, about the time I (maybe foolishly) decided Noir Epices wasn’t for me, I found Makeupalley and learned about swapping. I listed the bottle and negotiated a trade with a sweet woman in Texas. At the time, with some embarrassment I told a friend I was doing this really weird thing and sending perfume to someone I didn’t even know. I sure got over that fast. If it weren’t for the internet and swapping, I wouldn’t have smelled 99% of the fragrances I’ve smelled.
Then, of course, the internet opened the door to perfume blogs. Somehow through Makeupalley (I was too shy to join the fragrance boards, but I did drop in to read from time to time) I heard about Now Smell This. Back then, you could count perfume blogs on one hand. Through the blogs, my knowledge of perfume grew exponentially. Instead of smelling, say, Chanel Cuir de Russie and pondering its heart — could that be iris? — I could read what others had experienced and gain a whole new perspective.
I read Now Smell This every day, and when Robin posted a request for new writers, I replied right away. Besides boosting my knowledge of perfume, now the internet gave me the chance to meet a fabulous community of perfumistas everywhere from rural Kentucky to Beijing. Perfume lovers are some of the kindest, smartest people in my world now.
Besides what the internet has done for me personally, I think about how it's helped smaller perfume houses. Could niche perfumes even survive without the internet? I know I would never have heard of Parfum d’Empire, Tauer Perfumes, Etat Libre d’Orange, Aftelier, Mona di Orio and so many more if not for the web. Now, people like me can read about a perfume we can’t buy locally, then buy or swap for a sample, and purchase it online if it’s love. We're not stuck solely with the offerings at the mall.
All this talk about the internet is inspiring. Who knows? I might go wild and think about a car with power steering for my next vehicle. Or even set up a twitter account.
What is your internet perfume story? How did you find Now Smell This?
Note: top image is The almighty mouse by lastquest at flickr; some rights reserved.
Angela
I am so grateful that you found me!
I am deeply grateful to the internet because it has allowed me to do my business in way that is very creative and meaningful for me and allows me to get to know the people who buy my perfumes. I have loved being able to have a real connection with my customers.
Sincerely
Mandy Aftel
Although I selfishly focused here mostly on what the internet has done for perfume enthusiasts, I can’t even imagine how helpful it is to a non-industrial perfume like you. Getting to know customers, getting the word out about a new fragrance, marketing–everything must be so much easier now than it would have been 10 years ago.
I read about Miss Dior in InStyle magazine seven years ago. I sampled it in a Berlin perfume shop soon after, and I just fell in love with it. I went through two bottles during my five months in Berlin. I had never experienced a chypre before. All the women in my family wore heavy orientals or white florals. I wanted to find out more about Miss Dior, so I googled it, found Basenotes, and the rest is history! I was amazed to discover that it had been created in 1947, yet I loved it so much nearly 60 years later. I still have a fondness for green scents: I don’t wear the current formulation of Miss Dior, but I have moved on to Chanel No 19 EdT and Estee Lauder Aliage.
I also found the Frederic Malle questionnaire. The company sent me samples of En passant and L’eau d’Hiver, and now (years later, after I tried everything else under the sun) L’eau d’Hiver is my signature scent. Yes, after seven years, I finally have a signature!
Taking to Miss Dior right awy–you must have been born to love perfume. It took me a while to appreciate Miss Dior (now I crave it, of course.)
The Frederic Malle site recommended Parfum de Therese and Noir Epices for me. I should take the test again and see what it would say now!
What a fun article, Angela. Though I am spoiled with my dish washer, laptop, air conditioning and would be lost without my MP3 player.
My first fragrance discovery as my perfume passion blossomed was a discovery of reviews of TM’s Angel on Makeup Alley. I was looking up prices for what would have been some of my earliest online perfume purchases. Among the online retailers was a link to read reviews on MUA. When I clicked that link, my life as a perfume and beauty junkie changed forever.
I wish I could remember the first review I read on Now Smell This after lurking for the first two or three years. I know it was back in 2005 and might have been one of the he said/she said articles, and it was right around when I discovered all my earliest perfume loves and spent time here and on MUA reading info and opinions about them. The only reason I’m not more active on the boards is because most of them don’t play nice with my speech software, but I’ve drafted Mr. Ab. Scent from time to time to help me navigate questions that can’t be answered elsewhere i.e. “best dupes for SDV or Hello Sugar” or “how can I find CCB Paris Annam” among others. 😉 Even if I can’t find the answers, we get sidetracked elsewhere and I’m sure I could spend hours there so perhaps it is a good thing I haven’t found a way to do so yet on my own. lol
I only started swapping a couple years ago despite creating a MUA profile some years back, and still remember when my first online perfume purchases and swaps arrived in the mail. It was so exciting. And, I tip my hat to all the lovely ladies on Ebay whose gone but not forgotten decant sales stores introduced me to so many frags I would have never discovered locally back before Ebay was forced to drop the banhammer on such practices.
It is amazing that not only can one read as much as they can find about fragrance history, the history behind houses and the talented noses who create perfumes whenever they wish, but like Angela mentioned, there’s the discovery of all these wonderful perfumers working on a smaller and more personal scale or in places I’ll likely never visit in person but I can spend a bit, wait some weeks and then own/wear their creations. And swapping has also introduced me to some really wonderful ladies and gentlemen from practically all over the globe or just a couple hours away, some of whom have become great friends and truly represent the best of the perfume loving community.
The advancements of technology in my lifetime alone are fascinating, and I look forward to what all the technological and organic discoveries will allow perfumers to explore and how it will enrich the perfume community.
Well put! Really the only thing technology hasn’t quite served up yet is the chance to smell through the internet. Until then we’ll have to rely on words.
Wonderful piece, many thanks. I often think about how these issues. It is so empowering now to walk through the fragrance floor, thoroughly informed of the new releases, often knowing more about them than the SAs. As for the fashion magazines, they continue to behave as if the internet perfume community doesn’t exist.
In my part of the world, the amazing change has been the ability to purchase online, often at much reduced prices. The mark up on perfume and cosmetics is very high in Australia – and their are rational reasons for that – but even paying the full US price for something is often a bargain compared to walking into a retail shop here.
And then there’s eBay, and the vintage perfume scene …
I hate my mobile phone. I would take myself off Facebook if I could gather the energy. No dishwasher. 1994 was a good year, I recall …
You’re so right–the internet has definitely given us the ability to find good prices. And to find things that have been discontinued, come to think of it.
The economy sure was better in 1994!
I had just purchased Armani Idole and was really loving it and looked up “Armani Idole Reviews” for whatever reason…and your review on NST was the first hit! After reading that I thought “huh…there must be much better things out there…” which turned out to be very true.
Oh no! I remember giving that one a scathing review. You probably thought I was a real witch. Thanks for continuing to read anyway!
ahaha, no, sometimes brutal honesty is required–it piqued my interest for niche perfumes. Now I smell much better, have a new hobby, and have met some really kind, generous and interesting people. I should thank you!
Oh good!
Wonderful article, Angela! “Life in 1994” — I’m no so far ahead of you (maybe ’98?). I too have a digital converter box, and though I do have a cell phone, I use it so infrequently no one calls me on it. ;(
I think I remember that I found NST through an obsession with Serge Lutens, who I had found out about via the internet in a non-perfume-related article somehow (I believe 2006 was the year I truly discovered perfume blogs and started my crazed sampling). I agree, I won’t let anyone take away my internet — and yet, I am in a continual process of learning to relate to the internet in a non-obsessive, more balanced way.
Since I don’t have a cell phone, I feel like the sober person at the party. I’m the one in the meeting who isn’t fastened on her smart phone, and I’m the one walking down the street and looking at gardens instead of texting.
I’ll take looking at gardens over texting any day!
I admit, too, to trying to peek inside houses when it starts getting dark and living room lights are on but curtains aren’t closed yet….
Are we related? I do this too…
Angela – I’m an interior designer and I *always* do that.
Oh good, I’m not alone in my snoopiness!
So happy to know I’m not the only one who does that.
I love doing this too! My fav was when I lived in Shadyside in Pittsburgh. People were silly with leaving their curtains open.
Yeh have to be careful doing that in my neck of the woods! I looked up one evening when I saw a curtain being swished open–and got a full frontal of a woman in nethin’ else!
I love that so many of us do this, hee hee 🙂
I do this, too. Snoops, unite!
I found Now Smell This when I was searching for Chaos. I fell in love with it ( and the original gorgeous bottle) when it was launched and it is fair to say that the scent haunted me for years. I was a student at the time and decants were in the future so owning some wasnt possible. Then, I can finally justify the purchase an they have only discontinued the darn thing! So, to Google and here I am. And I so so glad to be here! Perfume people are the most generous and inspiring people I have come across- to send a stranger perfume for the joy of sharing that scent without asking for anything in return renews my faith in humankind. Swaps are wonderful and the sheer number of book and film suggestions I have taken from perfumista boards is incredible. It’s corny but these boards feel like ‘home’ in a way because I am understood here in a way that is difficult to find in real life.
And, Angela, I am delighted that you ‘delurked’ those years ago as the online perfume community would be the lesser without you.
Thank you! I know just what you mean about feeling at home with internet perfume people. I hope you found your bottle of Chaos eventually!
I have another book suggestion, too. I’ve been wildly reading 1930s detective novels lately and found author Jonathan Latimer. So far, he’s made references to Shalimar, Caron Sweet Pea, My Sin, and a Russian leather perfume I’d never heard of. His writing unrolls like a screwball noir movie.
Ooh, sounds great! Thank you.
And one in return, not perfume- related though: The Devils Paintbrush by Jake Arnott. It’s an Edwardian historical novel focussing on the purported meeting between Aleister Crowley and a notable Scots soldier who committed suicide after it was alleged that he was a homosexual. The meeting and it’s consequences are imagined and it is a very entertaining read. The author also has a series of crime novels set in 60’s London which I am about to start.
That sounds terrific! I’ve written the author’s name down. Thank you!
I just finished reading “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern. It didn’t sound like my kind of book (a magical circus?), but I enjoyed it. In the acknowledgments, she mentions that BPAL was one of her inspirations!
BPAL is a great match for a magical circus!
Hi Angela: I like your story, and I like your style :-). I too am not that interested in the larger host of technology even though I think technology is great in a general sense. I’m very happy in my tactile, brain using, map reading, dial-up, land line, print film (hello Yashica T4!) short wave radio, analog world. I’ve been a rabbit ears kind of gal since 1997. (Don’t even get me started on digital radio or the evil necessity of my digital tv “antenna”, and the vast disservice of both for public safety and access at large by our current digitally crippled communications systems). Anyway….
For many years in the 90s I was beginning to think that I was stuck in some sort of fragrance doldrums…. the department stores pretty well bored me, a lot of offerings smelled the same, and I figured I would be happy with my Coco Chanel and Bal a Versailles and a handful of others indefinitely. My nose was definitely ready for some change, but I didn’t even know what was out there. I definitely felt like something was missing.
And then while on maternity leave, I became obsessed with wanting a new fragrance. I got a whiff of the No 5 Eau Premier on a magazine fragrance strip right around the time it was pulled before it even came out. I was totally mad that I was robbed of the sensual experience I wanted so much, and I couldn’t buy what I really wanted. I wanted to smell fabulous: fragrance always fits! I was very determined to find some.
By that time I was a hard-core online shopper. I figured No 5 EP had to be *somewhere*. Every time I did a google search for it I got three hits: Makeup alley (what is this??!), The Perfumed Court (what is THIS???!!!), AND the review, by your lovely self, Angela, on NST. And that was that, the floodgates were open. The sky was the limit, my nose knew only the bounds of my wallet. I finally found my place on the world wide webs and a reason to read blogs, and a vast community of fascinating people who will swap with me. The internet put me in fragrant fat city. I can’t keep up and my nose couldn’t be happier. Amen.
We should start issuing Fragrant Fat City passports! What a terrific story. Eau Premiere is a great one to get started on the perfumed web with, too.
I harbor some resentment against the digital world, too, as much as I love my internet. All of these innovations cost more money. Cell phones cost more than landlines. Digital TV means a new flat screen TV (expensive) or cable (way expensive). Even my beloved internet is a monthly cost I never used to have to bear.
I think that’s part of my dislike of these wonderful “services” – all those impossible and expensive contracts that actually prevent people from making more choices for themselves. Bundled services are a total scam. I do have a cell phone for business and travel purposes, but I don’t have text turned on, and I pretty much just treat it like a phone. I can’t tell you how much guff I get for not having text. I’m old fashioned – I actually like to talk to people. So, yes, all this tech costs more money and stiff contracts and penalties. I have dial up at home b/c it costs $20 and I can cancel it whenever I want. And I’m at work all the time anyway. My dear hubby has no cell phone and we still manage to communicate. I think people just get so used to paying all this money for stuff they can actually live without that they don’t even think about it anymore. My preference most of the time is to be *disconnected* from the world.
Exactly why facebook doesn’t appeal much to me! Who cares what I have for breakfast? Who needs to know my feelings about sloppy joes? I’m happy to keep that and similar information personal. Sadly, I know I’ve lost touch with people because they’ve limited most of their outreach to facebook, and if you’re not on it, you’re out of luck. Oh well.
I’m not on Facebook either and feel the same way. I’d much rather have a real friend than a “friend” on facebook. If you want to know how I am pick up the phone and call or stop by.
I agonize over facebook too. I’m a professional pariah as well b/c I won’t get all hooked up with a digital second life. I like my first life just fine. It is such the trend, but I’m saying NO as long as I can hold out. I only want to really communicate closely with a handful of people, and I don’t exactly know how to express my finer thoughts in a few blerbs on a “wall”. It’s very silly since I participate on some fragrance blogs, but I’m actually a very private person. And I’m a strict privacy nut b/c of my profession as a librarian. However, I do appreciate how much facebook has helped to change the world with digital revolutions and such. Some people in the world have much more important things to post than what they had for breakfast for sure. Facebook is not for me, but it certainly is for some people.
It’s true–I know some people manage facebook well, and it enriches their lives. I have a lot of privacy concerns about facebook, too. The fact that it owns everything you put on it–photos, whatever–bothers me. And yet I write for this blog every week. But it feels different to me! Go figure.
Hear hear!
Hi Angela!
I found NST from an online article in the New York Times and the rest is history. Down the proverbial rabbit hole I went!
You missed a good Sniff on Saturday! Without NST there would never have been a Sniff to begin with. Now, between NST, facebook, and other blogs, I am friends with some of the nicest people on the planet and can not only engage with them virtually but in real life too!
Forget about the wallet-suck of online shopping though. Gah! One thing I love about my friends and also hate about them is the sheer amount of enabling that occurs. Again, thank goodness fro samples, swaps and splits! The generosity of perfumistas is huge!
Oh yes, another benefit of the internet: sniffas! I love the people I’ve meet through the blog, too. Smart, kind, generous, and interesting. (Even the ones who–big sigh–enable with their kind samples.)
Tama -I hear you about the wallet. But once I got over that big hill of establishing my own collection, it really made swapping much easier. And swapping certainly saves lots of money. It’s one of the great joys of the online fragrance community – all the swaps and splits.
Swapping and decants truly are money savers.
In about 2005-6, I was wanting some perfume. The reason why was specific & too long to go into here, but I wanted – longed for – something new and completely different. It wasn’t long before Allure mag had an article about perfume & perfume blogs, and NST was mentioned. So were some indie perfumers & Serge Lutens, which in my tiny rural town I had never heard of, of course. I started reading NST religiously, discovered that handful of other blogs and eventually found MUA. I’ve always been a perfume lover on a shoestring, and soon found samples pretty expensive. One night, I was lurking on the frag board when I read someone’s comment that she wished she had a bottle of X perfume. Hey, I had a whole bottle of X and didn’t like it, so I contacted the muaer and my swap career began. I would never, ever, have discovered any of the perfumes I have come to love without the internet. I live miles away from even a half decent mall. My friends irl don’t share my interest; without all of you wonderful people, I’d be unscented! The horror!
Love this article, Angela. I have happily lived without a dishwasher & cable tv for many years, but I rely on the internet for everything!
It sounds like you and I would have been in the same boat without the internet–pretty much alone in our enthusiasm for perfume. And isn’t swapping amazing? I was so hesitant the first time I tried it, but I’ve only been burned once or twice for all the swapping I’ve done. It’s pretty great.
It’s so the same for me – I just knew there had to be “good stuff” out there, but I had no idea about such rich resources on the internet. And since 2001 I’ve only lived in semi-rural areas with very small department stores. I was nervous the first few times I swapped, but once I got over that, it became so much fun. I’m always astonished how much perfumistas love to share. I think it’s so we can all talk about what we love and hate.
Perfumistas are so incredibly generous, too. I’m always amazed–and grateful–at the astonishing samples people send.
I haven’t tried swapping or decants yet and I’m glad to hear that others were hesitant their first time out. I need to start because it’s the only way I’m going to be able to smell some of these great scents. This week though I don’t think I’ll be smelling much of anything because I think I’m getting the cold my darling hubby had last week.
It really is a great way to get to smell a lot of new things. I hope your cold clears up soon!
Angela, I just finished a radio interview a few minutes ago, and I spoke at length about how the Internet is responsible for the success of niche perfumeries. I’ve written extensively about this, also. I have collected essential oils and concretes for years – before the Internet – and it was very difficult. When I started my first perfume line in 1991, I used oil as a base because I couldn’t find 190 proof alcohol.
In 2005, when I started naturalperfumer.com (Robin interviewed me about it at that time) it was solely to get as many natural perfumers as possible onto a website where we could be easily found by bloggers and perfumistas so they could buy samples from us. To this day, very few niche perfumers have their creations in stores, and we rely heavily on Internet reviews for sales.
Thanks for this article, it reminds us to be humble and thankful for this wonderful, wonderous modern way to communicate.
PS I don’t have a dishwasher either, I refuse to have the historic cabinets in my kitchen altered 🙂
PPS Facebook is a tool, and can be beneficial to a business. I wouldn’t be on it except for my businesses.
I didn’t even think of how the internet brings together suppliers and perfumers! And, of course, facebook and other social networking are essential if you’re a business owner or sell what you create.
Doing dishes by hand is pretty fast and easy, really, except after big dinner parties. I suppose if you had a lot of children or needed to sanitize bottles of something, a dishwasher would make sense.
Dishwashing is pretty miserable, though, if you have skin allergies and don’t need the irritation and drying effects of soap and water. Rubber gloves? They just channel the drips of water right down to your hand – more irritating than mere immersion!
So true. It feels strange to do dishes with rubber gloves, too, although I guess you could used to it if you had to.
Anya, I’m glad that you mention that facebook is just a tool. So much of technology is just that. I think people wrap too much of their personality up in it – few people would do the same about a hammer or some such. I can’t tell you how many people ask me when the library is gonna close b/c everyone had kindle’s et al these days. I always say look, if someone just gave you an amazing food processor, you wouldn’t go home and throw everything else in your kitchen away. All these things – devices, social networking sites, etc, – are tools that make the right job easier, but they are not necessary for everything.
And I am always very happy when I can go directly to the source via the internet for niche and indie fragrnaces – it is such a joy to buy directly from the creator. It is a special experience to use the internet that certainly has expanded options for the creators and buyers.
So true. I feel like that’s especially true for natural perfumery, where it seems fans can connect directly with the perfumers.
Angela – what a fantastic article. This will strike a chord in all of us here. It was by sheer luck that stumbled upon NST, I think about 3 years ago, when I looked up a review for a new perfume I saw an ad for. This was my first, and still most favorite, perfume blog. I love this magical world of perfumes and my beloved perfumista friends. It has enriched my life, and I really mean that. If it wasn’t for the internet, I never would have met some of the kindest, smartest, funniest and most generous folk imaginable, not to mention smelly – and I’m so grateful.
I’m with you 100%! This blog and everyone I’ve met and everything I’ve learned through it has opened a lot of doors.
I can’t begin to tell you how much the internet has meant to me in my terms of fragrance. I am just a budding perfumista. Only just beginning to explore at the age of 35. I never really thought perfume was “my thing” as I didn’t seem to encounter many offerings that appealed to me in the mainstream market. Now that I’ve been introduced to, and have been going crazy sampling, many niche and indie scents I’m discovering that I have an insatiable passion for fragrance and I just hadn’t been looking in the right places. I have also met so many incredible people in the fragrance community and truly believe they are a special soul!
Isn’t it fun? It’s so wonderful to start to use your nose and explore what that’s all about. Perfume people are terrific, too.
PP – I love your screen name! It gave me a nice chuckle this a.m. as it (unfortunately) describes my complexion!
That makes two of us!
Well we could very nearly be twins as regards technology. I do own a cellphone ( not a smartphone though) and rarely use it. I loathe both dishwashers and microwaves. And I do not own a MacBook Pro but an iMac.
I do love the internet though, especially for perfume.
I found my way to NST when I was looking for a good deal on Cristalle Chanel. I read Robin’s very humorous review of it and was hooked. It was like the little door opening on an enchanted garden. It has been a great pleasure discovering all these new fragrances and the stories behind them.
I wonder how many of us found NST because we were bargain hunting? I bet a bunch of us did.
Doing dishes by hand means I get to use all sorts of beautiful old dishes without worrying about wrecking them in a dishwasher. I’m sure I’ll break down and get a cell phone eventually, but for right now I’m fine with the old fashioned way.
Lovely post! I think I would be lost without NST and the other blogs that let me know I am not alone in my obsessions…I mean hobby. As I became more conversant with the internet, I started to look up scents I’d heard about or tried, and that’s how I found y’all. And I’m incredibly grateful to have been able to do so!
I’m so glad you found us, too!
Searching for information about my mother’s favourite Nahema I googled it and found my way to NST. I have worn perfume for more than 35 years and it was great to join in the online conversation. On learning about reformulations I wish I still had every single bottle I ever bought! I am now the proud owner of Nahema EDP which is a great way of remembering my mother.
That really is a wonderful way to remember her. You make me want to get up and get a spray of Nahema right now.
I found this place in perhaps 2006? I knew I was way more interested in perfume than others, but I try to keep that perversion to myself.;) I wish I could remember under what circumstances I came to NST but never commented because I didn’t have access to anything other than department stores and never understood the references to serge lutens and the like. Plus I was an unemployed student so no money for samples. Still I read the reviews anyway and longed for the day I could try the magical elixirs mentioned here. Now that that is possible I’ve been going back through old reviews to see the references that used to not make sense and now I get more out of those reviews.
I think I’m somewhat younger than the average poster here. In 1994 I was in second grade and I’ve never been the type to look at the past with romantic eyes so I gladly make use of my microwave, smartphone and dishwasher. I’m using said smartphone now to make this comment. 🙂
I hope you’ve tried lots of Serge Lutens and so many other delicious fragrances by now!
YellowLantern, I just love your striking avatar!
Thank you!
I discovered there was such a thing as a blog, and a perfume blog at that, the day I googled Luca Turin to find out whether there was a new edition to his French-language guide. There wasn’t, but I found his blog, and pretty soon started clicking on the signatures of some of the people who left comments, which led me to Victoria of Bois de Jasmin and to Octavian of 1000fragrances…
I remember leaving my first comment on BdJ, which was I think about Cuir Mauresque and Habanita, or maybe Carnal Flower? Still all loves of mine…
Which reminds me of another outcome of perfume blogs: the Tania-Luca romance. Mind you, I don’t know any details, but I do remember the warm comments back and forth on Luca’s old blog.
I discovered NST 3 or 4 years ago. I’ve always worn fragrance, but just department store stuff. I read an article in some magazine with L&T and they mentioned several perfumes I had never heard of – they raved about Missoni. I had never heard of it, my Nordstrom didn’t have it, so I started looking on ebay and online for it. I think that must be how I found NST. I remember how I was so confused at first with all the acronyms and companies I had never heard of. And people talking about buying samples and swapping? I remember finding Luckyscent and TPC for samples and MUA for swapping, and all the other blogs I spend so much time on. Perfumistas are the best – so generous and smart and funny! I’ve gotten book recommendations and recipes here too!
And I’m with you about technology (I still have a flip phone), but I must disagree about the dishwasher! I never had one growing up and that was one of the only chores I had to do as a kid so I hate it! Me and my husband eat most of our meals at home, but have a tiny kitchen so there is no room for one. Every day I lament our lack of a dishwasher when I see the pile of dishes waiting to be done!
I remember being bewildered by all the acronyms, too. Holy grail? I had no idea was that was, for example.
I hope you get your dishwasher soon!
I love how everyone is sharing their stories about how they got to NST : D It seems like a lot of us were looking for the same things, and have found them all here. I only arrived here about a year ago myself, when I was looking to learn more about perfume in general. I’d never really worn fragrance, because I didn’t know how to articulate what I wanted, which turns out is not what most other people want! NST has helped me really begin to understand my relationship to fragrance, and I don’t think I can ever go back now.
As to technology… I’m a child of the information age, so I grew up on the internet, so its hard for me to remember a world before wikipedia and smartphones (though I don’t actually OWN a smartphone!) Also, 90% of my food comes from the microwave or restaurants, and I HAVE to have a dishwasher for the remaining 10% of the time or my kitchen gets disgusting, haha.
Alas, I still remember ditto machines, card catalogs, and slide projectors. And, really, it wasn’t all that long ago!
What I miss the most are the old tape answering machines. I loved having all those messages from friends, family, romantic situations, all jumbled up as they got taped over in different order as the tape flipped around. Those tapes were such a collage of relationships. I was very sad when my tape machine died and I got a very pathetic digital answering machine. Now I am compulsive about saving my favorite messages on my cell phone voice mail. It is silly and a real pain when I have to keep resaving them. But some of those messages are very special.
Oh yes. Those little Barbie-sized cassette tapes, and how the answering machine would play both your message and the message left aloud.
I still have slides I use in my classes! Every school I’ve worked in I’ve had to go dig out the old slide projector–usually just after a library assistant has told me they don’t have one! I like the old whirr and click of slide projector (and it has all my pictures from Madagascar, so what else can I do?!).
There really is something dreamy about those slide projectors. I swear half the time I stick the slides in upside down, but that’s part of the charm, too. Madagascar! That sounds pretty exciting.
I can’t even remember how I found NST (approximately 4 years ago), but it’s part of my daily on-line life. Because of NST I learned about lines I never would have been aware of (though I think my bank account would be better off if I never heard of Serge Lutens, JAR or Mr. Malle, sigh), the wonders of decants and reading a lot of wonderful perfume information, reviews and opinions from everyone here.
Angela, thank-you so very much for creating such a special place – I am very grateful.
My bank account would be so much better off with the internet, too! Thank goodness for decants. At least that’s saved me somewhat.
Bravo Angela! Think of all those people missing the garden while their heads are down texting…
I’ve always had an interest in fragrance, but it really did feel like “jumping down the rabbit hole” when I discovered perfumistahood via the internet. I was on maternity leave and getting tired of reading news sites while my son nursed/slept. And voila, I developed into a perfumista more or less along the same lines as others commenting. I must add that reading good blogs is a pleasure in itself. Fragrance may have therapeutic properties, but reading about it is almost as pleasurable (sure beats the daily news!)
As for my Smartphone, it’s waaay smarter than me…
It sounds like you developed enviable technique to be able to nurse and read blogs at the same time. The little guy must have been taking in some perfume info with his dinner.
Great topic, Angela! I discovered NST *because* of a garden. One late winter, three (four?) years ago, I ran across a Daphne odora in full bloom at a local winery, which put me into a full swoon. I began an internet search for perfumes that might approximate that wonderful scent, and found NST, Basenotes, and a few other sites. Did I find what I was looking for? Well, not exactly. But it brought me to all of you, and for that I’m ever grateful!
Daphne smells so wonderful–around here, it’s the first sign that spring is not far off. Come to think of it, I’m not sure I’ve heard of a fragrance with Daphne as a note.
I did find three, I think, but reached the conclusion that the smell of fresh-blooming Daphne odora probably can’t be bottled. I did end up buying a bottle of Cielo, by Napa Valley Perfume, which lists daphne as a note. It’s quite pretty, and I do catch a hint of the real thing in it!
Thanks for the recommendation!
BTW, I love Facebook for connecting with friends (especially perfume friends!) and family, but I heartily dislike cell phones. I have one (it’s not smart), but it pretty much stays in the car and gets used maybe three times a week. People seem to be so busy texting and checking their phones that they miss the gardens, the birds, the people watching (the peeping? ha ha) – all the things that might otherwise float their boats. The other thing I don’t like is the way our culture seems to have nurtured an expectation that people will be instantly available to one another. I consider e-mail, answering machines, and Facebook (used properly), to be much more civilized than the instant communication that cell phone culture seems to demand. Sorry for the long rant. Over and out. 🙂
Oh gosh, you’re preaching to the choir here. I suppose, though, if an iphone fell into my lap I’d probably end up as bad as the worst of them, looking everything up, texting while someone else is talking, etc. But since I don’t have one, I can be all self righteous about how I don’t need constant contact with everyone whose number I have.
As a longtime Apple fan, I admit to harboring a secret hankering for an iPhone. I just don’t think I want to pay that additional monthly fee for the data service. Not for my lifestyle at this time, anyway.
That’s just it–the fee. Too much money right now for something I can live without.
I often wonder how people even notice each other when they walk around. I remember those cute (and sometimes sad, yes) ads “I Saw You” in the college and weekly papers. X in a blue jacket at the corner of street or on the train, your smile made my day, etc etc. Does anyone ever look up and see that kind of smile anymore?
Last year I went on a long rant about the lack of these connections at the grocery store! I emailed all my friends and family to complain that I was the only one left who seemed to be looking up and around at the store rather than plugged into a machine. . . seems like a real loss.
At least we can talk to the grocers! I’ve made real friends at the cheese counter. Every one else must have their grocery list on their androids.
I remember reading a letter to an advice columnist once about someone who saw a beautiful woman pass his office every day. He was entranced and put an ad in craigslist “missed connections” but no one answered. He didn’t know what to do. The columnist chastised him, saying, “Hey! You have a real live woman walking by your office every day and you put a lousy ad in craigslist?”
No hairdryer? It’s the one thing on your list I’d be lost without. 😉
Back when I was working full-time, I was getting ready to go on vacation when my boss told me to leave my cell phone number, so they could call me if they needed me. “No.” “No? What do you mean, no?” “I got my cell phone for my convenience, no anyone else’s. I’ve covered everything I can think of, and if something else comes up, I have great faith in your ability to figure it out.” And he did. I believe that technology should be a tool that works for us, not something that controls us 24/7.
And the internet has certainly worked to fuel my interest in perfume. As with so many people here, I stumbled into NST when researching a perfume (it probably was Diorella). Which brought me to The Perfumed Court, MUA, Luckyscent, and Beautyhabit, bottle splitting, etc. I’ve learned about perfumes and perfumers I could not possibly have ever known about pre-internet. It must be a boon, to indie perfumers (SSS, Ava Luxe, DSH) who would otherwise be limited to one geographic location in which to sell their products. And of course, it’s allowed me to enjoy the thoughtful, funny, and intelligent things that bloggers and comments have had to say. I’ve enjoyed it immensely.
Your boss sure had some nerve to ask for your cell phone number while you’re on vacation! Good for you for politely declining.
He was actually a great boss. When I came back from vacation, he said, “I see your point” and after that, whenever he went on vacation he’d tell people not to call him and used my line about having faith in their ability to handle whatever came up.
He was an Old Spice man, just to keep this perfume-related. 🙂
A good boss, a quick learner, and he smelled pretty good, too!
I truly don’t remember how I found this blog but oh my, am I ever glad I did! It’s so nice to find people who like perfume as much as I do. Plus I’ve learned so much . My only wish is that I made enough money to buy everything on the wish list that this site has caused me to create. I love reading the reviews and the comments too. Everyone on here is fabulous. It’s one of those rare sites I an go to where I know I’ll always have something interesting to read or have a little laugh about something. It’s rough on the wallet but keep up the good work. I’d much rather sit here with my iPad than watch tv. I’m not totally against technology but a lot of it I could do without .
I’m so glad you enjoy the site! I do, too. I rarely watch tv anymore–in fact, it’s been months–but that’s mostly because it’s in the basement and I don’t feel like dealing with the digital converter box. But I do love reading and catching up on the blogs.
The internet is directly responsible for my perfumania.
In late 2007, just after failing to reach 50,000 words in my first attempt at NaNoWriMo, utterly sick of the one-bottle-at-a-time method and fascinated by my sister’s swoon over her “new perfume love,” Coco Mlle, I googled “perfume review.” That brought me straight here. I don’t remember which fragrance review I read first. But within a few days, I had delurked (to comment on what carrot flower might smell like), and within two months, I’d placed my first order at The Perfumed Court, for some Chanel classics – Bois des Iles, No. 22, No. 19, and Cristalle edt. I found my mother’s childhood friend in the drydown of Cristalle, and Bois des Iles was so lovely and gentle, and No. 19 was not “pretty,” but SO compelling…
Down the rabbit hole I went.
I reached 51K words in my 2008 NaNoWriMo attempt. By 2009 I was blogging – about perfume and life in general – and taking my writing seriously. I honestly do believe that the reawakening of the senses that came along with my interest in perfume had a lot to do with my awareness that I couldn’t be happy without writing.
Thank goodness for eBay, which has allowed me to buy things I couldn’t afford at retail, and which has allowed me to FIND things that I can’t source locally. It’s allowed me to experience the glory of 1950s No. 5 parfum and of 1970s Emeraude parfum de toilette, not to mention any number of discontinued-and-wonderful fragrances.
Thank goodness for the smiles and friendships and swappage available via Fragrantica and the fume blogs. I love you guys.
Thank goodness for my microwave. My family would probably starve without it – things are busy enough around here that I cook every other night or so, making enough for the next night’s meal (unless I’ve cooked something fried/crispy or delicate, I find that a good high-end microwave does a creditable job of reheating, especially compared to the days of reheating things on/in the stove!). Thank goodness, too, for my dishwasher. This past weekend, with all five people home and birthday party guests on Sunday, I ran the full DW three times. If it were just me in the house, or just me and The CEO, we’d be fine without the DW.
Thank goodness for cell phones – my daughter and I both have those cheapie prepaid ones, and they allow us to keep up with the family schedules. The CEO, who’s frequently out of landline range when he’s working on the farm, really can’t get by without his cell.
We’ve got one TV (with converter box), no smartphones, no iPads, no Kindle, no wi-fi, and vehicles ranging in age from 1998 to 2007 that we intend to “drive into the ground.” There’s a balance we each have to find with our technology, I think! I’m sure that life circumstances play a big part in the tech conveniences that we choose – or don’t choose. Thank goodness that applying perfume is still a physical, low-tech experience, and that sensing it is definitely real, not virtual!
Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? What an accomplishment! I’m in awe. I’d love to hear more about your writing.
I think if I had (1) a family to wash up after; and (2) even the tiniest bit of room for a dishwasher or microwave I might be singing a different tune. No, the Love Shack is way too tiny for all that, so I make necessity a virtue.
Oh, yes. Necessity should be a virtue!
I love my clothesline, for that matter.
I’m a clothesline user, too! I put out two loads on Saturday, though, and they took almost 7 hours to dry. I think the weather is forcing me in until spring again.
No dishwasher? That would be a nightmare for me. Let me elaborate-in 1998 I was living in a rental house that technically had a dishwasher, but it was a piece of junk that didn’t work very well. The glasses would come out with a white film on them. The landlord refused to repair or replace it, so I started washing everything by hand, until one day a glass broke while I was washing it, and sliced my hand open. It took two hours to stop the bleeding, and I still have a scar on my right thumb. After that, I absolutely refused to wash glasses by hand ever again. Better filmy glasses than severed blood vessels.
I am ambivalent about technology–it is certainly useful, but I seldom have the money to buy it until the technology is matured and the price has dropped to realistic levels. I also want technology to serve me, not vice versa, and I only acquire it if I perceive that it will be of some benefit to me, not just because “everybody” has one. I have a cell phone, but it is NOT a “smart” phone, just a cell phone, and I don’t have text messaging, nor do I perceive a need for it. I mostly use my cell phone when we travel, as I refuse to pay the ridiculous fees for using the phone in a hotel room. I also like the feeling of reassurance that if I had an emergency while traveling, I would be able to get help, not just sit by the side of the road hoping for the best. Besides, pay phones are almost impossible to come by these days. Also, my husband and I each have occasion to go out of town without the other, and the one who goes takes the cell phone so we can talk to each other during the week. The last time he had to call me collect (because he has no cell phone and I had not lent him mine) I almost fainted when I saw the bill, and of course it is completely out of the question for us not to speak to each other for a week. When we are both home, the cell phone sits in the bottom of my purse turned off.
I tend to feel guilty about spending money for something new when the old one still works, no matter how outdated or ugly it is. When something does need replacing, though, I get the best I can afford, and I don’t necessarily cry over the old one. I replaced my 1977 model harvest gold stove in my kitchen last year when it mercifully died. I now have a beautiful, stainless steel, smooth top stove that works so much better than the old one, and is so much easier to clean, that I wonder how I stood that ugly old relic for so long. I also love my new 40″ flat screen TV, which incidentally cost about the same number of dollars as the 27″ tube TV I acquired in 1993. And let’s not forget the satellite radio in my “new” car (a 2007 model I bought a few months ago)–I don’t think I could ever go back to commercial radio. It is well worth the $12 a month I am paying to be able to hear MUSIC on the radio, instead of endless commercials and chattering DJs.
I first heard of NST from reading P:TG in about 2008, but didn’t get to actually check it out until I got my first computer–and home internet access–in March of 2010. I finally decided that the advantages of owning a computer outweighed the costs of buying and maintaining one. I appreciate being able to pay all my bills online and not worrying about getting hit with late fees because the post office was slow. I also appreciate being able to visit sites such as NST, without worrying that I might be violating company policy.
It sounds like we share the same philosophy of using something until it wears out. I inherited a pickup truck from my brother, and the darn thing simply won’t quit! (Not that I want it to.) Until then, the glories of power steering and a functional radio (among other things) will have to wait.
I love it that you and your husband share a cell phone! Very nice. I had a harvest gold fridge for a long time until it pooped out, thankfully. I had grown to love it, though, in its golden glory. But my newer white Whirlpool is tons more efficient.
The house I rented before I bought my condo had a pale yellow oven from the late ’50’s! It worked fine.
Pale yellow! Such a sweet color for a place pies come out of.
I love those 50’s pastels.
And a matching yellow enamel sink!
I always thought it would be fun to have one of those 1940s mint green bathrooms.
This funny thing called Google…
One day, while trying to avoid work on a huge assignment, I decided to look up 2 of my Holy Grails, Chanel’s Bois Noir and Didier Calco’s Héros (also called Uomo) after being told by many SA that these 2 just did not exist.
One thing led to another and NST come into my life.
From the internet I also discovered Discount sites and the possibility of getting my hands on things that I could never find at my local mall.
My wallet would have prefered that I had never discovered the internet as a perfume searching/shopping method, but oh well!
While I have not yet been able to get my hands on a bottle of Bois Noir (to replace the one that I foolishly gave away) or a bottle of Didier Calvo’s Heros, at least I know that these 2 do/did exist and that one day, with luck and money, I might get lucky.
I feel that there is not more frustrating shopping experience than to be told by a salesperson that there is “no such thing” as the thing you are looking for–even though you owned it in the past. It is fine to say “we don’t carry that” or even “I never heard of that”, but don’t tell me that the thing I am looking for doesn’t exist, when I know perfectly well that it does. I have had this same experience in nurseries. I was looking for some dwarf plumbago (ceratostigma plumbaginoides) and was told “there is no such thing” and that I didn’t know what I was talking about, even though I had some of it growing outside my breakfast room window for several years.
Gosh, it’s so hard to remain polite in situations like that.
Okay, I need you to elaborate on the concept of a breakfast room. It sounds incredibly quaint and charming.
Well, it’s not really a separate room, just an area at the end of the kitchen for a small table and chairs. My mother always referred to this same area in her house as the breakfast room (there is a regular dining room as well, with a large formal dining set). Mine has a bay window, and I had planted dwarf plumbago in the ground next to the window. It did quite well until the large shrubs in the same area crowded it out. I was looking for some more to plant in another area where I needed a ground cover, but I have not been able to find it again in any of our nurseries.
Hang in there! That bottle of Bois Noir may surface yet! In any case, I’m glad you found us.
Boy am I ever lovin’ this post and all of your responses! My teal rotary phone, answering-machine-not-voice-mail, no TV but yes to a dishwasher lifestyle is really feeling the love! And I wouldn’t even know there was such a thing as a perfumista without NST!
The internet and I have a tentative truce, but I retain the right to ditch it as a time-wasting, community-alienation machine at any time! (But in the mean time, sure happy to make connections with all the good folk here!)
Oh, the rotary phone. I have a pink princess phone on back up, and I do miss it’s trilling ring. But I also love being able to take my cordless handset to the kitchen to cook while I chat. (And to think how on the cutting edge I was when I got that cordless phone….)
Without the internet, we would not have the ebay time machine, and I would not not have in my closet the same bottle of Shalimar that my mother bought me in high school, or perfumes from the Belle Epoque and roaring 20s, or others discontinued long before I ever heard of them.
Yes! It really is a wonderful way to bring those old fragrances back to us.
NST was my introduction to perfume blogs as well, and I stumbled upon it after Googling CK Be, which I’d just purchased on a whim at a drugstore. I knew nothing about perfumes, houses, noses, notes, anything – my only previous perfume loves were Lacoste Essential and Armani Code, and I knew them through my rare trips to the fragrance counter at department stores. Perfume simply wasn’t on my radar before 2009 – didn’t know, didn’t care – but once I found NST and started clicking around…down the rabbit hole I went. MUA and Perfume Posse followed, my eBay account has never been more active, and I can name notes, perfumers and houses at the drop of a hat (and to the glazed expressions of my non-perfumista friends). My wallet has suffered, but my life seems richer. And if nothing else, my perfume enthusiasm has helped me be a better, more intuitive cook – cooking is one of my true passions, and being able to “feel” what a dish needs by picking apart its individual flavors and “notes” has improved my output tenfold.
I know just what you mean about cooking. My wine tasting has become more keen, too. As long as I can talk about perfume notes, that is.
I’m a relatively recently perfumista hatchling, and my obsession was ignited primarily by this blog. I’ve been reading books on perfumery, but NST is where I’m getting my education.
One of the biggest draws for me is the writing. I love the way people write about fragrance, and I love the way fragrances can mean so much.
Years ago I wore hippie-esque perfume oils, and later I explored department store offerings like Dioressence, Magie Noire, Dune, Shalimar, and . . . Mitsouko. After I lost my first husband I quit wearing perfume, and I’ve only recently brought it back into my life. Perfumery is so sophisticated now.
Thanks, Angela for the writing you do for NST. You’ve opened windows for me.
I’m so glad you’re here! It sounds like you have naturally marvelous taste. Dioressence, Magie Noire, Dune, and Shalimar are all divine, and who knows what wonderful perfumes yet lie in store?
Wonderful post! Hah, I found NSTperfume searching for reviews, I’m not shure, if it were about New Haarlem, Hermès or Comme des Garçons perfumes. I’m somehow like you: I don’t have Facebook (I don’t want to create another viciousness) , but when I habituate to a new technology I don’t want to leave it anymore. If it wasn’t the net I would never develop my viciousness right before perfumes: music. I wouldn’t know tenth part of the bands I know; some albuns just aren’t in the market anymore… And I wouldn’t have money to buy all those albuns… and some artists, like many perfumes, we just need some musics- in perfume’s case: some mL’s. About perfumes, well, where I live is impossible to find niche perfumery (and i have to thank Daisy for the good grace), then I’m studing the theory and later I will do the practical lessons…
The internet and swapping have made smelling niche fragrances so much easier! It makes it easy to get carried away…
Angela I admire you, you prove we don’t need technology to get by.
I personally think all these new smartphones and things and iPads are pointless. they don’t make your life any better, they’re just selling it to make the world’s weight in cash.
although I’m not a gadget geek, I can’t get by without my mobile phone, facebook keeps me intouch with people who I don’t talk to in person anymore (quite sad really) from school. and I don’t know how I survived with tv before we had Sky+hd.
but a hairdryer will save you so much time drying your hair. so that is a good investment. plus I use Toni + Guy heat protection spray with it and it gets my hair dry quicker than with just the hairdryer!
and if you do get twitter, let me know and I’ll follow you 🙂
and I agree with you about the dishwasher and microwave. we hardly ever use ours. I don’t like eating food from the microwave, I like everything cooked and fresh. I’m going on for 19 now and I still can’t cook, or drive! so I do desperatley need to learn to cook.
Cooking is so fun! I love it. It doesn’t have to be complicated at all–a simple basket of cherry tomatoes, a clove of garlic, and some spaghetti make a wonderful dinner.
My hair is curly and tends to be dry, which is why I’ve avoided the hair dryer. It sounds like heat protection spray would be good for me.
I can do bacon sandwhiches and that’s about it haha. my problem is time keeping, like remembering how long to keep the stuff in the pan for. and my parents buy Ragu bolognese sauce :/ not as nice as natural tomatoes.
ah right, sounds like you don’t really need a hairdryer then 🙂 they are purely to save you time. it’s the products that help you style your hair, not the hairdryer. if I dry my hair with just the hairdryer it takes ages and I can’t style it. but with Toni+Guy heat defence(nothing else works) my hair drys 3 times as fast and also allows me to style my hair. crazy, but a miracle product !
but heat defence spray is always an investment, even if you don’t use hot tools to style you hair ! they also should protect against environmental elements. plus the Toni+Guy smells absolutley gorgeous, I wish they’d put that into a perfume.
oh I forgot, I can’t live without my mini GHD’s either, I have wavy hair and use them to straighten my fringe. and I love my iPod, it’s not a hi-tech Touch. I have the 5th gen nano in red, which I love because it has radio, something the Touch does not have. mine is on the blink atm, it wakes up on its own when I turn it off :/ and even sometimes starts playing music on its own. but recently it’s being well behaved 🙂
I have an ipod, too. I listen to it mostly when I walk to the dog.
Bacon sandwiches–yum!
I think it is interesting how many of us perfumistas eschew *most* technology! I drive an 12 year old Jeep, only get the three local network channels on my television, and have a 7 year old cell phone only because my boss gave it to me. She’s the only one with the number (If I’m not home, I really don’t want to talk on the phone!) and she will be highly irritated that I left it home on the charger today (I never think about the thing!). No microwave, iPad, iPod, either! As you know, I do love my new Kindle. 🙂
I think I may be the only one commenting who discovered NST and the internet perfume community by accident! I wasn’t looking up a perfume (had no idea one even could!), but was searching for a gift shop in NC for my boss. She mispronounced the name (it was Bellagio) and I Googled Bellodgia. Everyone knows what popped up. I was truly surprised, but very happy.
It was kismet that brought you to perfume! Even if getting hold of some perfumes requires high-tech resources, enjoying perfume is squarely low tech.
Rapp – I’m very glad you ended up here by accident!
Aww… thanks, Ann! You, as well as the others, are so great!
I too stumbled across this wonderful site by accident.
I was looking through Google images at Viktor & Rolf eau mega when it first launched. and clicked on one image, and it was the one used in the review on NST. so I had a look through the site and thought WOW! this has reviews of every perfume I can think of ! then I signed up and became a member 🙂
Hurray! I’m so glad you signed up. Maybe someday we can eat bacon sandwiches together (oh, and smell some perfume).
Rapp, I have a new Kindle too! It’s great!
I have had a cell phone for years and just recently converted to an iPhone. I would give up my land line before my cell phone. I also have a microwave, a couple of iPod (one for working out and one for my dock system) an over 5-year old computer (which I would like to replace with a Mac but can’t afford to at the moment). My dishwasher has been broken for over 6 months (one of my sons can fix anything–or at least let me know if it is fixable, but he hasn’t found his way over to my house yet to look out it); I don’t use a hairdryer because I have wavy hair that I let dry naturally. I have been a perfumista (long before I ever heard the coined word) since I was 20 years old (I am now a granmother–so I’ve been wearing perfume for many years). I cannot for the life of me remember which perfume I was trying to look up on the internet, but it is of no matter because when I did “Now Smell This” popped up and I immediately opened up the site, and have been hooked ever since. Even though because I work 9 hours every day, I don’t have much time to contribute, but I always try to at least skim over each day’s postings. I do remember I found NST right after I got my “new” computer which is now way over 5 years old–before that I had a hand-me-down iMac which was very limited. I am so grateful for NST. It’s too bad it wasn’t around years ago when I had more funds to explore more perfumes. But I try to make do with samples and treat myself to full bottles now and then. It would be great to meet the writers of NST and also some of the particpants, however, I know we are much too spread out for that to happen. I will be content just reading what everyone has to say. Thank you all!
It’s so nice to hear from a long-time reader! We need to get that son over to fix your dishwasher stat. It sounds like you work too many hours to be fooling around with washing dishes by hand.
No hair dryer or dishwasher? Heck, that isn’t life in 1994, it’s life in 1944! But while I couldn’t do without either of those, I don’t care about the rest of the “everybody has to have it” garbage. The internet, though: that’s been a boon for all sorts of special-interest communities. (Yes, some of those may be vicious lunatics – but we know they’re a minority!)
Yeah, 1944 probably is more accurate, to tell the truth. Except for the internet!
Wonderful article Angela, I started my hobby about 20 years ago, while in college and only fully started enjoying it through the discovery of online networks and blogs such as NST and basenotes. I’ve learned so much from researching and reading everyone’s comments-I learn something new every day! And the friends I’ve met through NST and SF Swaps are such wonderful folks.
I enjoy the perks of technology, but it’s a convenience. I don’t have a hairdryer (or a brush), I rarely use my microwave, I have a dishwasher, but I find washing dishes by hand relaxing. I love my ipod and mac book pro, but I don’t have a text plan on my cell phone. I drive a 30 year old Mercedes diesel, and don’t have cable tv. I’m a fan of using and repairing something until it drops dead and can’t be revived.
Technology is a helpful convenience that makes my every day life easier, but one thing I discovered last year while visiting my uncle’s farm in upstate NY, I loved the peaceful & restful sound of nothing at all in the background.
We could be sisters! I don’t have a brush, either (it would be hair disaster), and if I could get my hands on a 30-year-old Mercedes diesel, I’d have one. You uncle’s farm sounds divinely peaceful.
Hey Angela, If I brushed out my hair, I’d look like Roseanne Roseannadanna from SNL-not a good look for me! And you’d love my uncle’s farm, lots of deer, birds and farm animals galore. Last time I went I saw a one week old calf-he was adorable.
I’d go up there every year if I could!
Every once in a while for a joke I brush out my hair. It’s awful.
A week-old calf! So nice.
Thank you for mentioning the LT/TS romance that started on his blog. I had thought of that, too. Now we have all their fabulous books—their spawn!
I was thumbing through the cosmetic industry magazine and found the Fragrance Foundation on-line perfume-selling course. Their graduates’ newsletter listed some blogs and I found this one which is still my number one favourite.
Our Frigidaire stove was given to my Mom when I was born 61 years ago. Most of it still works and is of beautiful quality. We never use the dishwasher. We had a cell phone but gave it up because it lost its program twice. We don’t miss it. We have four TV’s, two computers and six phones. We subscribe to only the lowest number of cable channels. We have an answering machine with one tiny tape.
I don’t drive, cook, listen to music or participate in twittering or Facebook.
Who ever said retirement was boring? There’s so much to do in the home and garden that I don’t need to jog or go to exercise classes (although there are some who might argue that!). Then there’s my perfume obsession that requires my dusting, photographing, cataloguing and rearranging my vast collection of bottles. When can I ever sew, paint the walls or make jewellery? As we age, time becomes a spiral, not a straight line, and this is very difficult to explain to the young.
You’re right, and, yeah, you have to experience it to know.
You don’t need to go to the gym! It sounds like you get plenty of exercise as it is. I envy your stove, too. My stove is a mid-1950s GE Mainliner–back in the days when appliances had names like cars.
I love your concept of time as a spiral. I’ll be thinking about that.
@Celestia, a friend of mine has a fully-restored O’Keefe & Merritt stove, in cherry red with white knobs. It’s gorgeous! I love vintage stoves.
I have no idea how I stumbled upon NST, which I find a little sad (is my memory failing me already? Egads). But I’m a happier, richer (in the perfume-sense) person because of it. And I have you all to thank!
You are wise not to get involved with Facebook. The privacy – or lackthereof – is a major concern of mine, and I’ve been trying to wean myself off it. Twitter, on the other hand, is fabulous. I come across so many interesting links to great articles, discover new books to read, which teas to buy, etc. I follow a handful of people from disparate fields: book publishing, perfume, fashion, a celebrity here and there (i.e. Conan and Ricky Gervais – who are awesome), favorite coffee shops, tea enthusiasts, authors….the list goes on. I read somewhere that Facebook is full of people you know personally, but can’t really stand, whereas Twitter is full of people you haven’t actually met, but who you love/admire. So there you go. Go, Twitter! 🙂
You nailed one of my big concerns with facebook–privacy. (Plus, aesthetically, the site is kind of ugly, which doesn’t help.) You’ve inspired me to sign up for twitter, though! I have the day off today. This afternoon I’ll have to figure it all out. Then I’ll sign up to follow you!